This start of the new year has seemed much more significant than previous years. I guess the reason is because I turned fifty and am looking at the passage of time in a much different way. Most of my art journaling and projects so far in 2011 have centered around ‘keeping track’ of things. I view them as …
Auld Lang Syne
Reflecting on the past year and marching head on into the next, the words and haunting melody of Auld Lang Syne play through my mind over and over as I write. As a child, I would see family members and friends link arms and sing the song at New Years’ celebrations and I always thought it poignant that amidst the …
Fallow???
I created my “C-R-E-A-T-E” banner, now I need to get back in my studio and actually create something! Blasted creativity block! I’m at a standstill and finding it difficult to break out of it. I’m surrounded by boxes of beautiful beads and trinkets; ephemera and paint; paper and glitter–it’s everywhere, but I can’t seem to get past the distractions and let …
My House Restored
I will protect my soul.
Brave Girls Camp
I am brave. I can face the unthinkable and come out okay on the other side. I am loved. I am special. I am phenomenal. I can be told I can’t accomplish anything and then I can do it anyway and succeed. I am empowered. These are some of the lessons I learned this past week at the remarkable retreat I …
Vice or Addiction????
Oil painting is officially an addiction for me. So does that make it one of my vices? Either way, I don’t care and I can’t stop! I sit in my studio and go into a trance-like state, then before I know it, 6 or 8 hours have gone by! I start painting when my son leaves for school and the …
Obsessing Over Oils
I’m obsessed with oil paints! I’ve avoided them so many years–always sticking with the safer acrylics–but the moment I squeezed out my first oil palette, I was spellbound by the pigment oozing from the tube and the intensity of the colors. I instantly loved the smell of the paint and linseed (strange, I know) and how the vibrant color was …
A Dream Deferred . . .
I came upon the poem by Langston Hughes today. I don’t think I have heard it since high school but this evening, I realize what he meant when he describes unfulfilled goals, “Does it dry uplike a raisin in the sun?Or fester like a sore–And then run?Does it stink like rotten meat?Or crust and sugar over–like a syrupy sweet? Maybe …
Rocky Mountain Christmas
Cozied up in our Colorado home watching the lights twinkle on the tree with the snow-covered mountains as a backdrop out the window. Yo Yo Ma’s haunting yet lovely cello playing and sipping cocoa with a pile of marshmallows. . . and still, no Christmas spirit. Where has it gone? I long for those years when my children were small …
Starfish
One more star tonight . . . the song has been running through my mind all day–reminding me I’m not alone and my friend is still out there. I found a starfish on the beach last month. I knew it wasn’t going to make it because he was so far from the water’s edge. Sorry little guy, but I wanted …
