New Painting, Let me Come and be Still in Your Silence

24" x 48"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

"The trees in the storm don't try to stand up straight and tall and erect. They allow themselves to bend and be blown with the wind. They understand the power of letting go. Those trees and those branches that try too hard to stand up strong and straight are the ones that break." ~Julia Butterfly Hill

Try as I might, no matter what I am working on, I always return to my tree paintings. Their symbolism, the strength and frailty and giving they portray, is synonymous with how I see myself.  

(Detail)

New Painting, "My Kingdom Awaits"

24" x 48" 

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

This painting will be featured in my upcoming Art Show next month. 

Prints of this original painting are available on Etsy. 

"I’m coming home
I’m coming home
tell the world I’m coming home
Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday
I know my kingdom awaits and they’ve forgiven my mistakes
I’m coming home, I’m coming home
tell the World I’m coming

Back where I belong
I’ve never felt so strong 
feeling like there’s nothing that I can’t try
and if you feel me put your hands high "  -Diddy/Gray/Cole



Finished up a new piece.  Who's to say hip hop music can't inspire?  I love the energy this song gave me while playing in the studio. 


The soft bright colors reflect the Spring Fever that has taken over our household.  I always imagine myself walking through these forests I paint, and in the midst of getting lost in this one I couldn't help but think of  the beauty that awaits when we truly arrive home...wherever that may be, maybe for some it's literal and for others it's only a feeling, a metaphor. When we truly realize our full potential, our dharma, our abundant life, and the sacredness of each present moment we can see that it's all so beautiful, even the sad parts. 

New Painting, "Stand Calmly"

36" x 36" x 1.5"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

"Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. there is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." -Leonard Cohen

This piece is 36" x 36, a little on the large side of normal for me. Sometimes working bigger is so intimidating for me, yet then when I finally suck it up and get to work on a large canvas I am usually pretty happy with the results.  I think it's the journey to the finished product that can be long, arduous and keep me up at night that scares me.  It's hard to believe the painting above started out as the painting below a few weeks ago....

but I just wasn't feeling it.  I would go out into the studio after leaving it alone for a while and hope to look at it with a different perspective, with a new appreciation, but every time I laid eyes upon it I was  overwhelmingly aware that it was not where it needed to be.  It was screaming at me to evolve.  Which was frustrating because at one point , the point it was at in the pic, I thought it was nearly done. As my mom (who is also an artist not to mention my biggest sounding board) says, "It's only paint, you can always paint over it if you want to change it"....that's what I did. 


And if I hadn't put all the blues and browns underneath the trees that manifested themselves yet again on my canvas, there would never be the subtle layers of color, the rich texture of unintended but beautiful shapes, the carved lines that give the finished piece depth, and substance, and "me-ness"...

Another reminder that it's all about the journey.  The twists, turns, doubts, discoveries, uncertainty .... that's how the light gets in.

A Poem for Wednesday: XLV by e.e. cummings

"Snow Falling on Birches"

8" x 8" x 1.5"

Acrylic and Mixed on Canvas

This painting is currently on display at Buli's Cafe on Oak Lawn Ave. and is available for purchase.

New Painting, "Spaces in Our Togetherness"

24" x 28" x 1.5"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

“But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.”

 Kahlil Gibran

After I finished this painting, I tried to make some sense of it and figure out where it came from within me. Sometimes I know before I paint, and sometimes, as in the case of this one, it only becomes obvious afterwards. 

Anyone who follows my work can see that birch trees are one of my favorite subjects. They simultaneously convey a strength and frailty that I find fascinating. I looked at the painting above and realized that there are five trees in this one. "Why did I just paint 5 this time?", I asked myself. Then I realized that there are 5 people in my family and discovered upon reflection that this painting was inspired subconsciously by them. My husband and my three children are my whole world. However, without the spaces in our togetherness, without my time to myself, often spent in the studio, to nourish my spirit and my soul, I am not fully me. These spaces in our togetherness make us whole, make us strong, as much as anything else.

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, email me for details.

Collective Subconscious

20" x 52"
(3 Canvases, 16" x 20" each)
Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

The Swiss pshychoanalyist Carl Jung suggested that we all share a reservoir of memories--the collective unconsciousness--which consists of common images or archetypes, expressed as kind or wicked people, good or evil spirits, images in nature, etc.  These are derived from the long experience of the human race, passed down in an unconscious mode from our ancestors.  Thus we may all share the same images within our dreams or nightmares.

Do you ever dream of trees, forests or a quiet sky?  Sometimes I dream of things over and over again, only to process these dreams through a painting and then find the image in my head is gone.

Sunshower

12" x 12" x 1.5"

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

This is a new painting, part of my 'Four Seasons' series. I am always taken by a spot of rain when it's still sunny outside, and that little natural phenomenon has happened several times these past two weeks. I tried to use colors that capture this exact time of year, when summer is finally all around us.

I'm not a huge movie person, but one of my favorite films of all time is 1998's "Great Expectations" with Gwenyth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke. I watched that at a pivotal time in my life and I feel it heavily influenced my psyche and my artwork. The song, "Sunshower", by Chris Cornell, is featured on that soundtrack and is hauntingly beautiful, much like everything else in that film...

I hear you laughing

And my soul is saved

Crawl like ivy

Up my spine

Through my nerves

And into my eyes

Cuts like anguish

Or recollections

Of better days gone by

But it's all right

When you're all in pain

And you feel the rain come down

Oh, it's all right

When you find your way

Then you see it disappear

Oh, it's all right

Though your garden's gray

I know all your graces

Someday will flower

In the sweet sun shower

Eyes like oceans

So far away

A feather trail

To a better way

Worried mornings turn

Into days

Then into worried nights

But it's all right

Oh, in a sweet sun shower

It's all right

All you'll be you are today

A Poem for Wednesday

Night Cometh
16" x 20"
Acrylic and Mixed on Canvas
This painting is available on my Etsy site:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/37201051/night-cometh-original-painting

If You Forget Me
by Pablo Neruda

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.

A Poem for Wednesday

A Season's Awakening
16" x 16" x 1.5"
Acrylic andMixed Media on Canvas
Fine Art Giclee Print of this painting is available on my Etsy site:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/38363016/a-seasons-awakening

There is another sky
by Emily Dickinson

There is another sky,
Ever serene and fair,
And there is another sunshine,
Though it be darkness there;
Never mind faded forests, Austin,
Never mind silent fields -
Here is a little forest,
Whose leaf is ever green;
Here is a brighter garden,
Where not a frost has been;
In its unfading flowers
I hear the bright bee hum:
Prithee, my brother,
Into my garden come!

Miles to Go

12" x 12"
Acrylic andMixed Media on Canvas
SOLD

This piece was commissioned by a client who wanted something similar to my painting, "Before I Sleep" (shown below), but needed a smaller size to fit her decor.


The painting above was inspired by one of my favorite lines from poet Robert Frost:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
Miles to go before I sleep

So I thought it was only fitting to pull the title of the new commissioned piece, "Miles to Go" from the same poem.

A Poem for Wednesday

Into the Dark
12" x 12"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas
This painting is available on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32935416


The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (an excerpt)
by. T.S. Eliot

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all.
That is not it, at all.”

And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
“That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.”

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

Etsy Front Page News!

11" x 14"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Gallery-Wrapped Canvas

Birch trees are fascinating to me. They convey a simultaneous strength and frailty that I can really identify with. It was delightful to wake up this morning and discover that my little birch tree painting above was featured on the front page of Etsy. This is the second time in two months one of my paintings has been featured--what an honor! I am so grateful for the exposure.

"A tree uses what comes its way to nurture itself. By sinking its roots deeply into the earth, by accepting the rain that flows towards it, by reaching out to the sun, the tree perfects its character and becomes great. ... Absorb, absorb, absorb. That is the secret of the tree." ~~Deng Ming-Dao ( Everyday Tao, 1996)

Fort Worth Contemporary Art Center Works on Paper Show

River of the Dawn
10' x 10"
Watercolor and Mixed Media on Paper

Connected Disconnect
7" x 14"
Watercolor and Mixed Media on Paper


To all Fort Worth friends, come see these paintings and three others this Friday night (and the whole month of December)
"9 x 12 Works on Paper Show"
A group show featuring original works on paper for $100 each.

The Fort Worth Community Arts Center will be hosting this show for the third year in a row, and its success and scope grows every year as patrons and art collectors discover this treasure-trove of small art.
This year’s exhibit features artwork from most of the United States and several other countries.

December 4 - 26
Opening Reception: Friday, December 4, 6 - 9 p.m.
Fort Worth Community Arts Center
Fort Worth, TX 76107
817.738.1938

Night Cometh

16" x 20"

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

"I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of stars makes me dream." Vincent Van Gogh

That is one of my favorite quotes of all time because it reminds me that the possibilities are limitless. In the face of vastness, life is what we make of it, and what we create is up to us. So inspiring.

This painting is available at Artisan Style Gallery

(Uptown's newest cultural addition!)

2417 Mahon St.

Dallas, TX, 75201

http://www.artisanstyle.net

Lyrical Forest

7" x 15"

(3 canvases, 5" x 7" each)

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

The words of E.E. Cummings speak volumes to me, especially the poems about love an all of its mysteries. Their directness, their play with the concept of oneness, and their emphasis on the linguistic affirmation of "yes" gives them an unrestrained sincerity. I decided to write one down and tucked it in the background layers of these paintings:

it is so long since my heart has been with yours

shut by our mingling arms through

a darkness where new lights begin and

increase,

since your mind has walked into

mykiss as a stranger

into the streets and colours of a town__

that i have perhaps forgotten

how,always(from

these hurrying crudities

of blood and flesh)Love

coins His most gradual gesture,

and whittles life into eternity

--after which our separating selves become museums

filled with skillfully stuffed memories

I can't decide if these pieces work best together as a unit or separately, so I guess that means they can go both ways. I find the small size charming and plan to make more in this series.

This painting is available at Artisan Style Gallery

(Uptown's newest cultural addition!)

2417 Mahon St.

Dallas, TX, 75201

http://www.artisanstyle.net

Hide and Seek

16" x 20" x 1.5"

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Gallery-Wrapped Canvas

Listening to music can act as a time machine that transports you to where you were when you first heard, or loved, a certain song. I still listen to much of the music I did in my high school art classroom because it was there I met one of the most inspirational people in my life, my teacher for three years, Mr. Walter Linebarger. Wally taught me so much about art, and life, and overcoming obstacles that I am forever grateful. Wonderful music was always playing in the background...Counting Crows, Indigo Girls, Sarah McLachlan...too many to name. In those years I worked under him he truly left footprints on my soul.

I am fortunate enough to still keep in touch with him despite him having moved to Missouri several years ago, and recently asked him what he has been listening to lately. He emailed me a playlist and on it was, "Hide and Seek", by Imogen Heap. I listened to it while I was painting this and felt like he was right next to me again, with his hind softly on my shoulder, guiding me and offering support.

where are we?
what the hell is going on?
the dust has only just begun to form
crop circles in the carpet
sinking feeling

spin me round again
and rub my eyes,
this can't be happening
when busy streets a mess with people
would stop to hold their heads heavy

hide and seek
trains and sewing machines
all those years
they were here first

oily marks appear on walls
where pleasure moments hung before the takeover,
the sweeping insensitivity of this still life

hide and seek
trains and sewing machines (oh, you won't catch me around here)
blood and tears (hearts)
they were here first

Mmmm whatcha say,
Mmm that you only meant well?
well of course you did
Mmmm whatcha say,
Mmmm that it's all for the best?
of course it is
Mmmm whatcha say?
Mmmm that it's just what we need
you decided this
whatcha say?
Mmmm what did she say?

ransom notes keep falling out your mouth
mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut outs
speak no feeling no I don't believe you
you don't care a bit,
you don't care a bit

Into the Dark

12" x 12"

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

Birch trees are fascinating to me. They convey a simultaneous strength and frailty that I can really identify with.

Listened a lot to Death Cab for Cutie's "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" while painting this one, hence the title.

Love of mine
Someday you will die
But I'll be close behind
I'll follow you into the dark
No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of the spark

If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied
Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

You and me
Have seen everything to see
From Bangkok to Calgary
And the soles of your shoes
Are all worn down, the time for sleep is now
But it's nothing to cry about 'cause we'll hold each other soon
In the blackest of rooms

If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied
Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark
And I'll follow you into the dark.

Forest of Dreams

18" x 24"

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

I love the book and movie, "Alice in Wonderland". Even as a little girl, Alice made perfect sense to me. I enjoy watching this movie now through my daughter's eyes and experiencing it in a new way. I was thinking about Alice when I worked on this painting:

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don’t much care where--" said Alice.
"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"--so long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you’re sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
(Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6)