Newly Commissioned Piece, "Between the Stillness and the Movement"

16" x 20"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

Private Collection of Erina Alvarado

"You tell me to stand still but I am not walking," he shouted, "whereas you who are walking say you are still. How is it that you are standing still but I am not?"

The Buddha turned round, "My legs move but my mind is still," he said. "Your legs are still but your mind moves all the time in a fire of anger, hatred, and feverish desire. Therefore, I am still but you are not." 

- Majjhima Nikaya

Fine art giclee prints of this and my other original works are available here on my Etsy site.

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, "Searching all of MY Days"

16" x 20"
Acrylic and Mixed on Canvas
Available

The minute I heard my first love story,

I started looking for you, not knowing

how blind that was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere,

they're in each other all along.

Rumi

There are so many things I could say about this painting. The act of searching, or always looking, has been a double edged sword for me.  Part of me feels like there is something in me that has been "searching all of my days". My restless spirit, my "monkey mind", is a part of my personality that fuels my ambition, my desire to create and moreover be successful. However, it is also this anticipation, this always looking ahead, that often keeps me from being fully present in the moment and enjoying my life as it is. I am working on staying present and realizing the gifts of my life, my beautiful family, the time with my precious children that are changing every day.  

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. 

A Poem for Wednesday: Variation on the Word Sleep

"Lead Me to the Truth"

16" x 20"

This painting is available on Etsy.

Variation On the Word Sleep
Margaret Atwood 

I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head

and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.

A Poem for Wednesday: The Road Not Taken

Solitary Pine

10" x 12"

Watercolor on Paper

This painting is available on my Etsy site.

The Road Not Taken 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

by Robert Frost

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.

See My Light; Love My Dark

12" x 16" 1.5"
Acrylic and Mixed on Canvas

“There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion” -Carl Jung

The most terrifying thing is to accept yourself completely. I created this piece with the sentiment that nobody is perfect, everyone is flawed in some way.  When you truly learn how to love someone, you love them as a whole person.  You love the dark and the light.

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

Autumn Rapture
Acrylic and Mixed Media
A fine art print of this original painting is available on my Etsy site:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/35928489/autumn-rapture-12-x-12-fine-art-giclee


After a While
by Veronica Shoftsall

After a while you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul.

And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning and company doesn't mean security.

And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't promises.

And you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and your eyes ahead, with the grace of an adult, not the grief of a child.

And you learn to build all your roads on today because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans, and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight. .

After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much.

So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to leave you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure;
You really are strong, you really do have worth.
And you learn, and you learn
With every goodbye you learn.

Solitary Pine

10" x 11 3.4"
Watercolor on Paper

"God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools." ~John Muir

One of the fun things about moving (and there really aren't many) is finding hidden treasures from the past. As I packed and unpacked boxes, I came across this lovely watercolor from years ago. I was struck by the fact that when I painted this, I was searching for my artistic voice. Now looking back, it's clear that my voice was present long before I had discovered it...nature's earthy, organic essence have simply always been a part of my paintings.

Another thing I found in a dusty box from the attic are my old journals from high school and college. I have always been a writer, and am looking forward to delving into these relics to see the growth that has occurred over the years. It's almost like having a meeting with my past self...strange. I'm quite certain these words and works from my past will fuel my current creative fire for quite some time.

By the way, this painting is for sale on Etsy if you want to check it out.

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)

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)