Dear Friends, 

This Valentine's Day, I invite you to ignore all the commercial marketing of the season and select a truly personal gift--an original painting--that expresses your genuine affection. I have started early this year creating a series of artwork which especially fits this occasion, paintings that come straight from the heart and illustrate love in its purest, most organic sense.

These paintings are created using acrylic and mixed media, and each one has a particular love story, song or sentiment which inspired it. Paintings are highly textured, containing multiple layers of handwritten love letters, parchment paper and mixed media collage. They are fully wired and painted on all sides so there is no need to frame. 

 


I am also able to create custom commission works featuring any personal handwritten notes, love letters, or lyrics to special songs that you would like to present to your loved one in a truly unique way, as long as you place your order to me by January 31. 

I have several in stock, please email me or visit my website to see more pictures.

Sizes range from 8" x 8" to 11" x 14". My hope is for these paintings to be affordable gifts, so they are priced between $95 and $195. Original 8" x 10" or 10" x 10" love-themed giclee prints are also available online here. 

For more details or to purchase, please contact me at utopiapkwyarts@yahoo.com. Thank you for looking!

New Painting, "I Was Made to Love You"

16" x 20"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

Available, email utopiapkwyarts@yahoo.com for details

This life in our physical bodies is precious and fleeting. I have never felt whole until I became a wife and a mother. Having my beautiful family has taught me that my reason here on Earth is for them.  I was literally created to love them.  I tell my children this every day in the hopes that one day it will sink in, and maybe one distant day they will repeat those words to their own children.

So often the questions, "Why are we here?", "What does this life mean?" float through my head when I'm meditating. One thing I have come to realize is that life is about giving, about loving, and through this giving we receive everything we need.

Let your life be about giving--give of your virtue, give of your spirit, give of your heart.

Lil Ol' Me at the Dallas Flea!

Save the Date, 3/13, for The Dallas Flea! The Flea is an upscale indoor flea market packed full of fashion, food, furniture, and artwork from local creatives and companies. Sanctuary Sanctorum Home Decor will be there, featuring my paintings. This is an honor because vendors have to be invited to participate, and I'm thrilled they have selected my artwork to be a part of their presence at the event.

Life on Mars

11" x 14"
Oil on Canvas

This painting represents something very far away from where I am now...I wanted to use it as an escape for a little while. Listening to Counting Crows in the studio is one of my favorite things to do. I can always draw inspiration from Adam Duritz's haunting voice and introspective lyrics.

"Recovering The Satellites" by Counting Crows
Gonna get back to basics
Guess I'll start it up again
I'm falling' from the ceiling
You're falling from the sky now and then
Maybe you were shot down in pieces
Maybe I slipped in between
But we were gonna be the wildest people they ever hoped to see
Just you and me

So why'd you come home to this sleepless town
It's a lifetime commitment
Recovering the satellites
All anybody really wants to know is...
When you gonna come down

She sees shooting stars and comet tails
She's got heaven in her eyes
She says I don't need to be an angel
But I'm nothing if I'm not this high

But we only stay in orbit
For a moment of time
And then you're everybody's satellite
I wish that you were mine
So why'd you come home to this angels town
It's a lifetime decision
Recovering the satellites
Everybody really knows for sure...
That you're gonna come down

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

Release

18.5" x 17.5"

Oil and Mixed Media on Wood Panel

I found two wood panels in the studio and thought this painting was a nice compliment to the one on wood I posted yesterday. I usually work on canvas, so these were a fun experiment. The cellular images represent looking at your feelings under a microscope, examining them, and working through the magnitude of what you find. Releasing your feelings, letting them go, is more beneficial than harboring things inside. For me, art is my release.

"Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at this moment."

Eckhart Tolle

Evolution

18.5" x 17.5"

Oil and Mixed Media on Wood Panel

"In the broadest sense, evolution is merely change, and so is all-pervasive."

- Douglas J. Futuyma in Evolutionary Biology

Evolution generally refers to any process of change over time. Humans, like all living organisms, undergo this change. Our thoughts, our behaviors and emotions, our styles and our preferences are subject to this phenomenon. In this painting I wanted to express my own personal evolution, the gradual processing which I have changed into a different, more complex, and hopefully better form.

I will be featuring this painting among several other new works at FG Gallery in Arlington for the "Sixties" show this Saturday night. Come out for a great opening party, fun music and lots of interesting art!

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

Angels and Strangers

12" x 24"

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

People have been asking me what the birch trees mean, what they represent. The forests are symbolic of a journey to me--one I have yet to finish. I love painting birch trees because they convey a simultaneous strength and frailty that I can identify with...any given day I experience both of these feelings multiple times. It's important to be strong for those who rely on me, yet at the same time it makes me feel very small to know we are at the mercy of powers much greater than us.

My daughter and son were playing outside as I was finishing this painting, a very intricate little pretend game that I could only hear glimpses of as they ran past the studio laughing and imagining. When I asked my daughter what they were playing, she said "Angels and Strangers". I have never heard her mention this game before, but something about the name struck me and at that moment I knew I had a title for this painting.

In a sense, angels and strangers are in my tree paintings. People we know and love, people who protect us, people we have yet to meet on this journey through life linger in the forests. From the mouths of babes...thanks to my lovely daughter for helping me understand the meaning behind the images I can't get out of my head.

River of the Dawn

9" x 9"

Watercolor and Mixed Media on Paper

This week I have been feeling hopeful. I was inspired by Pablo Neruda's Sonnet 49 for this piece:

It's today: all of yesterday dropped away

among the fingers of the light and the sleeping eyes.
Tomorrow will come on its green footsteps;
no one can stop the river of the dawn.

No one can stop the river of your hands,
your eyes and their sleepiness, my dearest.
You are the trembling of time, which passes
between the vertical light and the darkening sky.

The sky folds its wings over you,
lifting you, carrying you to my arms
with its punctual, mysterious courtesy.
That is why I sing to the day and to the moon,
to the sea, to time, to all the planets,
to your daily voice, to your nocturnal skin.

It's today: all of yesterday dropped away
among the fingers of the light and the sleeping eyes.
Tomorrow will come on its green footsteps;
no one can stop the river of the dawn.

It's today, it's today...

Quiet and Confusion

11" x 14"x 1.5"

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

SOLD

Fine art velvet giclee prints of the orignal are available. Please email me at utopiapkwyarts@yahoo.com for more details.

"You are at once the quiet and confusion of my heart." -Franz Kafka

I found this quote written on a tiny notecard while I was cleaning up the studio yesterday. I had saved it a few years back because I loved the sentiment, but only when I stumbled upon it while working on this painting did I know my intention for it. To me, it illustrates what I am trying to say with this painting: how can something, or someone, be so calming, yet cause so much chaos at the same time?

Three Things

"Three Things"

6" x 12"

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

SOLD

Don't forget, fine art velvet giclee prints of all original paintings are available. Please email me at utopiapkwyarts@yahoo.com for more details.

There is no fear in love… because of faith, hope and love we can live fearlessly. We can reach beyond the fears we have about ourselves and the fears we have about the world. I decided to do a few more paintings in this series because these words are so meaningful to everyone.

As Within, So Without

9" x 12"

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

*This painting will be featured at Kettle Art Gallery's "Creepshow". It's a departure from what I've been painting lately, perhaps Halloween had a bit of an influence.

"As Within... So Without" is a magical phrase. As I deal with bouts of pregnancy-induced insomnia, my thoughts are laden with questions of the future. What will I be doing in a few months? Will my unborn son be healthy? Where is my life taking me? The more I listened to my thoughts the more questions they seemed to bring about. How does anyone achieve inner peace? What is life if we are all playing survival of the fittest with each other? As thoughts kept swirling around in my head I found myself in a place of frenetic energy. It was at that time that I realized that, as I was feeling inside, uncertain, and unsettled. I was bringing about those feelings in grander scale.

I began to repeat this phrase over and over and over until I saw what was beginning to happen. I found myself feeling warm and loved. It was as though I was being cloaked and held by the peacefulness of an angel's wings. I looked within my mind and found that I was being caressed by the lull of the words, As within.... So without...

What do these words mean? Could it be that what I think about becomes my reality? Could it mean that the way I feel inside creates the circumstances that surface without? Could it mean that the way I feel inside brings about my truth as I live it? Is this what I am living right now?

As within....... so without, has become my mantra, one that I repeat most especially when I feel overwhelmed with negative emotions. I have realized that what I am thinking and feeling within begins to show up in my physical realm. I use this phrase to guide me and it begins to allow me to be thankful for everything I am and all that I have. I know that if I am thankful, the universe will begin to give me more situations and circumstances for me to be grateful. This then creates a feeling of blissful peace within my mind.