New Painting, " I Can Hear You Singing to me in My Sleep"

I Can Hear You Singing to Me in My Sleep

11" x 14"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

Available here

All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there. You are so weak. Give up to grace. The ocean takes care of each wave until it gets to shore. - Rumi

(detail)

There is something about this one that really captures my state of mind at the moment. A definite longing for the sea has come over me as Dallas descends into the lazy hazy days of summer.  My whole life has drawn me to the ocean, something at once that is at once calm and tranquil, tumultuous, vast and knowing, mysterious and deep.  Something that is a part of myself that I have yet to find...thinking of the sea reminds me that every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

I think we all could stand to use more SAT words.

The blogosphere is incredible. I was lucky enough to have my artwork found by someone across the world in Noosa, Australia, who used my painting, "Your Voice Was Smooth; Like Water Running Over Rocks" to illustrate her word of the week, "Mellifluous.  Thanks, Felicity, for sharing my artwork on your lovely blog and also for expanding my vocabulary.

"Mellifluous

[adj.]  flowing, like honey.

Sweet or smooth, generally used to describe a person's voice, tone or writing style.

From the latin mellifluus ["flowing like honey"], from mel [honey] + fluo [flow].

Today's word is one of my favourite, not only for the musicality as I say it out loud, but also because I love what it describes.  The artwork I've chosen to illustrate this word is by Gina Marie Dunn and is titled 'Your Voice was Smooth; Like Water Running Over Rocks' which evokes dulcet and mellifluous tones in my mind."

This painting is 24" x 36" x 1.5". This is one of my favorite sizes to work with. It is available for purchase, contact me for details. 

New Painting, "Transformation"

 Transformation

24" x 36"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

I am fascinated with the journey of the lotus flower. It starts as a small plant down at the bottom of a pond's mud and muck. It slowly grows up towards the water's surface, continually moving towards the light. Once it reaches the surface of the water the lotus begins to blossom and turn into a beautiful flower.

The lotus flower has become a symbol for awakening to the spiritual reality of life. As the lotus flower grows up from the mud into a object of great beauty, people also grow and change into something more beautiful (hopefully!). To me this symbol represents the struggle of life at its most basic form and the reminder that the journey is precious and beautiful.

This painting will be on display in January at Starbuck's in the West Village. Contact me for more details or purchase information.

(detail)

"Best of the First Year"

 "Sometimes I Feel Like I'm Falling in the Ocean"

24" x 24" x 1.5"

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

My painting was chosen "Best of the First Year" by Austin-based art magazine, W5RAn.  W5RAn is an indie online magazine displaying  content that covers all areas of art and design and I was excited to have "Sometimes I Feel Like I'm Falling in the Ocean" chosen among the thousands of pieces of art that they feature as a standout. The original is still available for sale on my Etsy site and is currently at my home studio. Private appointments are available if you want to see it in person.

The Glass Coin

I'm stoked that my painting, "Your Voice Was Smooth; Like Water Running Over Rocks" was chosen as the October cover art for Ontario-based Literary Zine, The Glass Coin.  The Glass Coin is a split-themed open zine that explores both sides of an idea...examples are "Heroes and Villains", "Eureka! and Oops!", and October's theme was "Oil and Watercolor".  

"Your Voice Was Smooth; Like Water Running Over Rocks"

24" x 36" x 1.5"

Oil and Mixed on Canvas

The irony lies in the fact that I used both of these seemingly unfriendly media in the painting that was chosen, and then some. I often work in collage, ink, acrylics, oils and watercolor in the same piece.  Maybe that makes me indecisive and a bit schizophrenic, or the other part of me believes that's my way of just trying to make everything get along in a sort of peaceful harmony that can be achieved only when the composition feels finished.


By the way, this piece is on display at The Blues Jean Bar in Snider Plaza and available for purchase. Message me for more details.

Local Artist Spotlight

What a treat to open my mail this afternoon and see one of my paintings staring back at me in postcard-formation. Thanks to Brandon Stewart for featuring my painting, "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea", in his monthly Local Artist Spotlight.  Brandon is a Dallas-area Realtor in Ebby's White Rock/Lake Highlands office who has carved a niche in the local community by promoting the arts.

A Poem For Wednesday: Postscript

Poetry is like breathing. It happens all the time. Poetry is life. Poetry celebrates life. It is life as seen through the prism of another's thoughts, of their process of thinking. Poetry doesn't give answers. It asks questions but the answers are elusive. But in the poetry, in these questions, these perspectives, we find ways of coping, ways of venting, ways of release from all the vicissitudes that life presents us with.

Your Voice Was Smooth; Like Water Running Over Rocks

24" x 36" x 1.5"

Oil and Mixed on Canvas

This painting is currently on display at The Blues Jean Bar in Snider Plaza

Postscript

And some time make the time to drive out west
Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,
In September or October, when the wind
And the light are working off each other
so that the ocean on one side is wild
With foam and glitter, and inland among stones
The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit
By the earthed lightning of a flock of swans,
their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,
Their fully grown headstrong-looking heads
Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.
Useless to think you'll park and capture it
More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,
A hurry through which known and strange things pass
As big soft buffeings come at the car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.


In college I took a course in Irish Literature. It was a course for Lit Majors but I took it anyway. One day my professor said "The finest poet writing in the English language today is Seamus Heaney."  That was the first I heard his name, over 30 years ago. With Heaney, I found a poet who engaged me in a constant conversation. Each poem was a kind of search, an examination of life and at the same time witness to life.

A Poem for Wednesday

Conception

30" x 40"

Oil and Mixed on Canvas

Fine Art Prints of this original painting are available on my Etsy site.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends And before the street begins, And there the grass grows soft and white, And there the sun burns crimson bright, And there the moon-bird rests from his flight To cool in the peppermint wind. Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black And the dark street winds and bends. Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And watch where the chalk-white arrows go To the place where the sidewalk ends. Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go, For the children, they mark, and the children, they know The place where the sidewalk ends. Shel Silverstein

A Poem for Wednesday

The Edge of The Deep Green Sea 16" x 20" Acrylic and Mixed on Canvas Fine Art Prints are available of this original painting, email me for details. Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me. I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea; But we loved with a love that was more than love- I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me. And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me- Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee. But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we- Of many far wiser than we- And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee. For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea.

The Edge of the Deep Green Sea

16" x 20"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

"and so we watch the sun come up
from the edge of the deep green sea
and she listens like her head's on fire
like she wants to believe in me" -The Cure

The tentacles of an octopus first inspired this painting, sort of a reflection of how tied down I feel at times. With the children so young, there are often days when I don't leave the house or even make it out to the studio to paint. (If I don't make it outside for a morning run before the household wakes up then I'm REALLY cranky.) As much as I love all three of my precious babies, it's simply a hard time feeling so occupied with constantly meeting their basic needs.

As I worked on this piece, I noticed this painting slowly started to take on a more abstract look while preserving the feeling of something aquatic. I almost quit working on it because it was frustrating me so much and I hate feeling like I am fighting with my paintings, but then I had a breakthrough on Friday. Friday happened to be a special day as my husband and I were celebrating our fifth anniversary. I like to think that April 2 is a lucky day for me all around, and I'm glad a little luck made its way onto the canvas.

Am feeling very "oceanic" lately...ever since I did the two paintings below I feel like I am stumbling upon a new series inspired by the mysteries of the sea.

Sometimes I Feel Like I'm Falling in the Ocean

24" x 24" x 1.5" (2 Canvases, 12" x 24" each)
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

Am feeling a little overwhelmed by life lately. I painted this as a reminder to myself just to try and relax, even when I feel like I am drowning, as a reminder that if I remain present in this moment anything is manageable. I was trying to come up with the title for this and while on a morning run, the Blue October song, "Into the Ocean" came through on the Ipod and I knew I had found it:

Now floating up and down
I spin colliding into sound.
Like whales beneath me diving down.
I'm sinking to the bottom of my everything.
That freaks me out.
The lighthouse beam has just run out.
I'm cold, as cold, as cold can be...be *sigh*

I wanna swim away but don't know how.
Sometimes it feels just like I'm falling in the ocean.
Let the waves up; take me down.
Let the hurricane set in motion, yea.
Let the rain of what I feel right now come down.
Let the rain come down.

Where is the coast guard?
I keep looking each direction for a spotlight; give me something.
I need something for protection.
Maybe Flotsam jump will do just fine...
The Jetsam sunk I'm left behind.
I'm treading for my life, believe me.
How can I keep up this breathing?
Not knowing how to think I scream aloud, begin to sink.
My legs and arms are broken down
With envy for the solid ground.
I'm reaching for the life within me.
How can one man stop his ending?
I thought of just your face...
Relaxed and floated into space.

I wanna swim away but don't know how.
Sometimes it feels just like I'm falling in the ocean.
Let the waves up; take me down.
Let the hurricane set in motion, yea.
Let the rain of what I feel right now come down.
Let the rain come down.

Now, waking to the sun I calculate what I had done.
Like jumping from the bow, yea, just to prove that I knew how, yea.
Its Midnight's late reminder of the loss of her; the one I love.
My will to quickly end it all
Sat front row in my need to fall.