Here Comes the Sun!

I started this painting in mid-winter and it languished until spring...at the time I wasn't sure why I didn't feel like finishing it. But now I see it is about the return of the sun---SPRING!---one of my favorite seasons.

painted with gouache, prisma colored pencils and ink....

this piece also honors all beings...and various areas of our Mother Earth...

The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in Her heaven -
All's right with the world!
~Robert Browning


(April is National Poetry Month..so I will be posting fave poetry here all month.)

New ART and the Hat WINNER!!!!

I have been ill and so I am remiss in holding the drawing for a HAT hand knit by me. Feeling much better now and so pulled a name out of the hat ;-) and the WINNER IS: ROSEMARY! thanks you Rosemary for your kind comment here, I hope you enjoy the hat!

I wanted the share with folks one of two painting I created for my Grandson's room---when he turned 2 last August I painted two painting for his room. Well, technically, these are more drawings than paintings--since they are created with pen and ink and prisma colored pencils.


One is already framed and hung up and I am shipping this one off this week (why that is so delayed is another whole story...suffice it to say that I suffer from STARTITIS when it comes to projects...not from "end-it-is"). Each painting contains a surprise in the randomness of the alphabet....(hint: what is my Grandson's name?). These were really fun to create.

here is a close up of the little birdie in the tree....

I am currently working on a few more children's designs....zoo animals and so on...so check back.

Postcard Sketches

Here are a couple of small sketches I did recently---I like to doodle on to postcards, then I can send them to someone...

these two will probably go to a friend who is recovering from an illness...I like the idea of sending my art out into the world for free...and who knows where it ends up?  maybe it graces someone's fridge for awhile? or it is used as a bookmark? once sent out into the wide world, the art then has a life of its own....

"I am an artist who, for forty years
Has stood at the lake edge
Throwing stones in the lake,
Sometimes, very faintly,
I hear a splash."  ---Maxwell Bates

D is for DOODLE!

Yep--all my life I have been a "Doodler"---here area few---frequently my doodles grow into larger pieces of art or textile designs....doodling for me is a way of daydreaming....


I believe that doodleing is important to one's mental health....whether you do it with a pen or on a guitar...or with cooking...in fact just daydreaming is a form of doodling...and the more you doodle (or daydream)--the more your creativity will flow.

"A" plus!

In an effort to add some needed structure to my blog---and to spur me on to post more often, I am now going with a theme: the alphabet

so today is brought to you by the letter A

A is for ART!!!! and ARTIST and ARTISTIC and ARTFUL


Today's thought : "I don't really know why I draw (or paint); it is just what I do....."

whoooo?

owl |oul|
noun
a nocturnal bird of prey with large forward-facing eyes surrounded by facial disks, a hooked beak, and typically a loud call. •

In early Indian folklore, Owls personify wisdom and helpfulness, and have powers of prophecy. This thread recurs in Aesop's fables and in Greek myths and beliefs.

One of the earliest human drawings dating back to the early Paleolithic period was of a family of Snowy Owls (Nyctea scandiaca) painted on a cave wall in France ......

Sketchbook Swap page #2

With a nod to the Gee Bend Quilts.....

Sketchbook Swap : 1 year

For about a year now I have been participating in a SKETCHBOOK SWAP with 12 other folks ---all set up via the net. We have been passing our sketchbooks around once a month for over 12 months--next month I will finally get mine back---with sketches by 11 other artists in it! We are located all over the US--both East coast, West coast, plus the Midwest. Besides being fun---and always interesting to see others sketches in each sketchbook---this has kept me drawing with some regularity, and I have made some new online friends. The little sketch above (in Jody's sketchbook) is titled SPRING.

Quote for the DAY:
"-on Leonardo da Vinci...
It is often said that Leonardo drew so well because he knew about things; it is truer to say that he knew about things because he drew so well. " ---Kenneth Clark

1001 Journals: Traveling Journal No. 3326

My long time mostly online friend Carla (we met online eons ago when the internet was still a new phenomenon) invited me to participate in this "traveling journal"---over the years Carla and I have done some great mail art projects together--so I guess I seemed a perfect candidate for this. Here are my two doodles for the sketchbook....

a very doodly heart--doodled while watching a romantic funny movie...on graph paper--I love to doodle around on graph paper....


and here comes the sun....and spring....

Simple Things : Happiness and Gratitude

Today a friend on Facebook pointed me toward a website about HAPPINESS--- Happier.com, and the website posed a question for me that I have been considering : what makes a good day for me? can I even answer this question? I can tell you what an ideal good day is...but how often do I pay atention to my good days? (how often do you?)

I know that when I have a bad day--or a horrible day--I pay attention to that---I may even tell someone : "I had a very bad day today"--but how often do I call a friend and say, "I had a very good day today?"

How come we tend to pay more attention to the negative in our lives and just take the positive for granted? I have been trying to perpetuate a new habit in my life : acknowledging all the good that comes my way every day. I no longer want to dwell on the negative aspects of my life---and to do this I am deliberately cultivating the habit of daily gratitude. So, I try to spend some time every day to make a written list of everything I am grateful for in my life. If I miss a day--I do not chastise myself, I just remind myself to do this every day. I believe that cultivating daily gratitude will make me eventually happier, healthier, more joyful and relaxed.

Part of all this, is also learning to enjoy and savor the day-to-day events and simple things in my life, and be grateful for them, aslo...and to this end, I also try to create a drawing (again everyday!) of some "simple thing" in my life that I am grateful for....hence the black and white drawing here.

Today's Quote: " There are two ways to live your life. One is as nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --Albert Einstein

Drawing: "I'll Fly Away"

I guess since I have been in a transitional stage of my life for the past six months, much of my drawings seem to reflect moving or flying....this small (10" x 7") drawing is titled I'll Fly Away

Pen and ink with prisma colored pencils--and soon will be for sale in my Esty shop--Borealis Beads---check out my shop for some affordable original art!

Sketchbook Exchange (again)

Musings on Love and Happiness

Over the years, I have learned that you cannot make someone love you…all you can do is be someone who can be loved….the rest is up to them. I have learned that no matter how much I care, some people just don’t care back. I have learned that no matter how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there had better be something else to take its place. I have learned that relationships cannot be controlled—no matter how hard I try and that love is a gift which I am also not in charge of—no matter what I do.

I believe that our background and circumstances may shape who we are, but we are responsible for who become, and we are responsible for our behavior toward others. I am aware that we are responsible for our lives---and when we accept that responsibility, our lives are much easier. Experience has also taught me that it takes years to build up trust---and only seconds to destroy trust. I have learned that loss is one price I pay for living fully, but that loss can also be a source of personal growth.




Helen Keller once said: “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” Open that new door—and happiness is there---regardless of the circumstances. I have learned that happiness is a process –not a thing—it comes and goes, and this process is ok. I know that a cheerful disposition can beget happiness--- and that if I pay attention I see I am having many moments of happiness every day. I read somewhere that it takes seventeen muscles to smile and forty-three muscles to frown---smiling is a lot less work---plus a friendly smile always makes me feel good.



Right now, I am endeavoring to forgive myself for being human, and then passing this forgiveness on to others. I have learned that forgiving myself involves accepting myself for who I really am, and telling the truth. I now know that whatever happens to me—for me or against me—it is what I do with that experience that makes the experience what it was.

“Last night as I lay sleeping, I dreamt
O, marvelous error---
That there was a beehive here in side my heart
And the golden bees were making white combs
And sweet honey from all my failures”

----Machadi de Assis

Sketchbook Exchange or SWAP

Here are a couple of pages I doodled for my current sketchbook---for the sketchbook exchange--12 sketchbooks making their way around the country to 12 very different artists...each artist sketches about 5-6 pages in each book...so you have over 60 sketches in your book by the time the sketchbook you launched makes its way back to you. This is the 3rd sketchbook I'm now drawing in...counting mine. I like this project with a monthly deadline--because I am forced to sit down and draw (and 5-6 pages takes me awhile)----drawing is always good for my soul.

another doodly journal page

the SKETCHBOOK EXCHANGE

I'm participating in a SKETCHBOOK EXCHANGE--- started by artist Jim Doran ---where all the artists who signed up (13 of us) buy a new sketchbook (like a Moleskin) and draw on the first 7 or so pages then mail it off to the next person on the list---and when you receive someone's sketchbook you draw on the next 7 pages, then mail it on--until you receive your own sketchbook back.....so I will be drawing at least 7 pages in 13 different sketchbooks before we are through.

I realized today as I was drawing in the new sketchbook---how very little drawing I have been doing lately. So, this will be very good, for me since it will force me to draw...

Here is my first page---the entrance to my traveling sketchbook....(---I will be posting pages from these sketchbooks here from time to time..)

Mermaid Dreaming : Creative Every Day

Painted with gouache, pen and ink details, and prismacolor pencils on archival cream colored paper. She's up on my Etsy shop --- so stop by there.

Mermaids have always had a special meaning for me--for many years working on the sea I always "dreamed" I might catch a glimpse of one.....

This Week: Creative Every Day?

My how a week can just fly by! here are some projects I have been working on this week ---all WIPs, none of them finished, but they are getting close.

First--2 drawings, done in pen and ink, with prisma color pencils and some gouache paints (on the mermaid) on archival cream color paper. I intend to put these two small original drawings for sale on my Etsy site when I finish them--so if you like them, do check back, or shoot me an e-mail.


(Please don't take these images and use them anywhere without my permission)

And on the needles, I have about 4 projects (if you count the cotton dish clothes), but here is a hat....
Can you tell I like color and repetitive patterns ?

37 Days Art

Over on her blog 37 Days, Patti Digh sent out an invite to artists to illustrate some of the essays from her blog for her forthcoming book. If you have never read her blog---get right on over there and check it out! she has some of the best thoughtful and poetic essay writing on the web, in my opinion.

I decided to try this challenge (as she termed it) and she sent me this essay titled Just Wave to illustrate. She wanted the illustrations to be ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) in size--and we had to have 37 days and the name of the essay somewhere in the illustration.

I chose to make mine a mixed media piece--with my own drawing and artwork, and lace and sewing on the papers with my sewing machine.

I created the art for this essay, Just Wave, in a "creative frenzy"---I just started selecting images from my stash of papers and old sketches, and added lace and started sewing. I sewed on more layers, cut off parts and sewed more--- the piece basically grew as I made it. I did start with an image in my mind, but only a vague image---which included hands and a house---or the shape of a house. The bird is a photocopy of a small part of another painting I made---and I'm still not sure how the bird relates to this essay, but it fit with the art, so into the piece it went. I worked on this all day without stopping at all--even to eat--until it was done, and I was totally absorbed in the creative process the whole time---"in the zone" is how I think of this state. This is one of the highest pleasures for me--finding that creative zone--completely in the moment, creating one piece of art. So for me, most of the time---art making is more about the process than the end product. I found this essay an inspiration, and so slipped into the zone easily and the piece just formed without much real effort like sometimes happens in the studio--on a very good day.

I created a computer illustration for another of her essays the next day; I created this one totally on the computer and I never quite got into "the creative zone." Upon reflecting on the 2 very different creative processes, I began to wonder if I require working with more tactile materials than a computer to find that zone.