Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. ~Henry Ford There were a few obstacles along the way. Time, distance and injury, among them. (it’s really hard to paint when your dominant arm is in an immobilizing sling) But somehow, despite the obstacles, the goal was accomplished. Canvases […]
Sports players are renowned for their rituals. Baseball players who never wash their hats? Octopus carcasses thrown onto the ice at hockey games? (major yuck & sad!) Nascar drivers who shy away from peanuts in the shell? People are strange. Creative and highly accomplished folk of all sorts have rituals too. Winston Churchill woke at […]
I’ve been to California many times, wandering on pebble and sand beaches with seals and seagulls; reveling in deliciously lush and diverse gardens; marveling at mountain and ocean vistas. I’ve watched the fog roll in and then roll out. The wild places in California are truly a magical. I was pleased and honored to receive […]
Earlier in the fall I received a request. A friend asked me to paint a bluebird surrounded by apple blossoms for her mother, who was undergoing treatment for cancer. There was urgency because her mother was at a pivotal point in her treatments. My own mother loved birds. Many of my childhood hours were spent […]
The holidays were just around the corner. Yikes! What to do for my far flung family and nieces and nephews? I turned to the petroglyph elves. Problem solved! I decided I’d have some fun with little notebooks this year. I started with sturdy little pocket sized notebooks. These aren’t moleskine but they are well made. […]
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. -Kahlil Gibran After my last blog post -too many moons ago- I was immersed completely in the wonderful (but all consuming) Semester in the American Southwest. Fortunately before the autumnal academic roller coaster began, I was lucky enough to spend […]
A few years ago I was invited (as a community leader?) to give a presentation to a regional group of several hundred women. It was quite an honor to be asked. I just re-read my presentation, and thought I would share it here. What I wrote is about life and art and moving forward against […]
It’s all about the light. Light forms my world. It visually defines the shapes of things, tells me the time of day, sets the tone and mood of the hour and gives me cause for celebration and wonder at sunrise and sunset. In art it’s all about light. Whether it’s dance, drama, photography, poetry, painting […]
I used to have a bumper sticker that said “Why be normal?” It’s a question I used to ask myself. But I don’t worry about it anymore. This may be the most abnormal painting I’ve ever done- It started with two long rectangular boards, which I prepared with several sanded coats of gesso. That’s normal. […]
Once, while camping in the desert in Utah, I was surprised by a full lunar eclipse. The night was so bright that I could literally read a book by moonlight. The canyon walls were sandstone-warm, and red even in the semi-darkness. Somehow, despite the fact that we were all quite attuned to such celestial and […]