dancing, doodles, and the boogie man... ;-)

And those who were seen dancing

were thought to be insane 

by those who could not hear the music.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

a bit of drawing from last night...
dry pastel on paper.

pastels are messy, but fun.
i love adding white to the tinted paper...

 Then a bit of journaling in cooler colors...

Found the image in a magazine,
painted & wrote the rest.

then a bit of doodling
with micron pens and Sharpies.
(this girls' all over the place!)

Mark Twain was a wise man,

with sage advice.

I also believe our brains need trampling on now & then.

Some of the ways i trample on mine:

- reading books for more than just entertainment

- writing whatever comes to mind without thinking too much about it

- crossword puzzles or sudoku

- doodling or painting with no particular goal in mind

- meditating

- avoiding TV, facebook, twitter - basically, bubble gum for the brain.

- going out in nature & pondering a leaf. (yes, a leaf)

- watching TED talks

- learning what i can and sharing with others

And here's a little creature...

in the name of Halloween

and Illustrated Friday. ;-)

Wishing everyone a great weekend!

xox

art, good music and kind people make me happy

hi peeps.

it's time for faces! :-)

a tiny acrylic and marker on paper (12 x 12 cm)

There's a video at the end of this post.

It's what i was listening to while i painted last night...

the whole CD, not just the one song. :-)

and then there's this woman... 

i love Jane Goodall, and what she's done with her life.

My first ever blog post was a little watercolor of Jane and a friend...

you can see it here.

I was a woman of few words when i first began blogging.

Now i won't shut up. 

(giggle...)

I had a hard time with this one...

i seem to have made her look much older

- something i'm not so sure she would like.

but it is what it is. 
Sometimes there's a likeness,
and sometimes less.

 I certainly tried to give her compassionate eyes.
Whenever i see her on tv, that's always what i notice about her first.
Those peaceful, loving, compassionate eyes.

You can see a lot in a person's eyes.

I then took time to finish this one too -

just added the word and a few magical dots. 

I kinda like it.

I hope you all know how much i appreciate

your kind comments.

The thing that makes me the happiest

is knowing that sometimes,

I may actually inspire someone out there

to make art

or write poetry

or take a walk outside

or listen to music

or bake a cake

or notice the moon

or write a song...

or just be more appreciative of something.

Anything.

That makes me happy.

Because i believe these are the things

that give life meaning -

and there are too many of us out there

waiting until we retire to find meaning in our lives.

hugs to all of you...

xox

hope you like the song

Illustration Friday: OCEAN

Individually, we are one drop.

Together, we are an ocean.

- Ryunosuke Satoro

Illustration Friday:  OCEAN

I did this painting about 4 years ago, for a fundraiser.

It's called: Joel's wave.

It's the one painting I gave away with regret.

Maybe i'll have to paint myself another ocean soon... :-)

Linking this to Illustration Friday.

Check out some of the awesome art there.

i love creative people. xox

mini ghost, abstract flowers and hope

hello folks.

I'm linking this to Illustration Friday... 

word of the week: HAUNT. 

I used cardboard from the Halloween chip box.

Yay!! free cardboard!! ;-)

I had fun making this little guy...

i'm a big chicken when it comes to scary stuff,

so i'll stick with the fun ghosts, thank you very much.

And then a bit of acrylic painting on paper...

It always seems to come alive for me when i add the dots... ;-)

and the black and white...

this photo (above) was taken last night, in my room...

and this one was taken this morning, 
by the window, with natural light...

What a difference, huh?
Colors are so much closer to the real thing.

For those of you who have sent such kind messages of concern
about my mother - thank you.

She is still in the hospital but in good spirits.
It's been an adjustment for everyone, 
so we're taking things one day at a time.

Just like the alcoholics do.  ;-)

It's hard not to worry all the time,
but then i'd be digging my own grave
if i spent every waking hour obsessing about mom
and cancer
and illness
and death...

So rather than go against the tide of what is our current reality,
i remind myself that she is in good hands
and that she is exactly where she needs to be right now.

She is doing well, despite everything,
thanks to her remarkable outlook on life and death.
The first thing she said when i went in to her room the other day was:

"aren't the leaves in the trees beautiful?"

We could all learn something from such a grateful heart,
don't you think?

xox

The sky and Lhasa de Sela

Illustration Friday: SKY

Being surrounded by seagulls here

makes it hard not to include them

in an illustration with a sky theme. :-)

I'll say more tomorrow, but for tonight,

i'll leave you with this beautiful song by the lovely Lhasa de Sela...

La Marée Haute (High Tide)

the girl in the ocean...

hello lovely people...

eyes, eyes, and more eyes. ;-)

a few things on the go this week...

see what happens when i slow down with the blogging?

It's actually hard for me sometimes

not to post ever day. :-)

So here we go!

a painting i began recently - for a friend.

Still at the very early stages.

And this little baby i did last night.

This was so much fun to do.

I had forgotten how much i loved illustrating

I'm not sure whether the little girl is playing in the waves,

floating,

or drowning.

;-)

It's like that feeling

of just keeping our head above the water sometimes.

I bought this nice, thick, smooth white paper

supposedly for dry medium only.

yeah, whatever.

Dry, shmy.

I'll paint on toilet paper if i have to
so anything goes.
:-)

 i just knew i would add

acrylics or watercolor to this one.

i've never worked with COPIC markers, 

but i'm guessing they would've worked well

for something like this.

The paper absorbed the liquid acrylics

better than i thought it would

and it was thick enough

not to buckle the paper much at all.

a few colors and added white bubbles,

and there you have it.

i ended up doing her hair with brush markers

and i don't like it so much,

but it's done, so no regrets. 

Next time, i'll know better. 

Forgiven.

:-)

the little curious fish...

caught up in the waves of excitement. ;-)

I wanted her face a little softer than the rest

so i used colored crayons.

The coloring was so smooth on this paper...

i can't wait to do another one.

Maybe i'll do a little series?

Little girls at the beach.

By the way, i'm looking at doing a giveaway soon...

(YAY!!)

I'm not sure how it all works

to make sure it's a legitimate winner

but i'll be letting you know when it all comes together.

i may end up doing something like this illustration

The winner would get an original from moi,

hopefully to be hung on their own wall,

to make them smile when they see it,

and not sold at an auction somewhere in Minnesota

for like a gazillion dollars.

giggle.

A girl can dream, right?

Thank you all so much for visiting and commenting here...

It really makes my heart happy.

xoxo

woman at train station and blue waves...

hi everyone!

I'm linking this to Illustration Friday,

another weekly challenge that encourages art.

The word for this week is: HURRY!

:-)

It's always so inspiring

to see some of the fabulous work there...

(this is mixed media - acrylic on paper, charcoal, micron pens.)

I've made a conscious decision in the past few weeks

to spend less time on the computer,

and more time with art.

I am determined to make a decent living as an artist

if it kills me, dammit. 

:-)

A few posts ago, I wrote about  how i believe

it takes a lot of courage to be an artist. 

It also takes hard work.

It may look easy,

but it's not all sparkles and rainbows.

Besides the naysayers

and the awkward feeling of never fitting in to society,

some things may happen sometimes

that cause us to question

the value of our own work.

In the past few years,

I've sent my work to several magazine publishers,

and have been rejected.

I've sent my paintings to a juried show -

rejected.

I've sent my writings to book publishers -

rejected.

I've sent more paintings to another juried show -

again, rejected.

I've sent paintings to a gallery,

rejected,

just in a more chi chi poo poo kinda way. 

;-)

See where the courage comes in handy?

In addition to courage, it also takes

perseverance

and hard work

and determination

and vision

and confidence

and clarity

and patience.

Yes, above all, patience.

Chocolate and wine don't hurt either.

;-)

I am comforted by the fact

that many successful artists and writers

had their walls plastered with rejection slips

at one time or another.

I am also comforted by the fact

that I know this is where my heart belongs.

I know this is my truth.

This is where my love lies.

And so, i will carry on -

regardless of who likes or doesn't like,

regardless of who approves or not,

regardless of sales,

and i hope that those of you

who are struggling sometimes,

all do the same.

If it means getting yourself a part time job somewhere

to allow yourself to keep creating,

do it.

You'll find a way.

Keep making good work.

Keep sharing it.

Your art needs to be put out in the world...

because that's where it belongs.

Your songs need to be shared

because that's how they become songs...

Don't die with your songs

still in you.

He who has a why to live for

can bear almost any how.

Nietzsche

yellow head and spirit man

hi everyone!

Finally - a night of painting last night.

a few blotches of color...

(purple, blue, beige)

spreading the color and adding a bit of texture

in white and black...

I use anything at hand... in this case,

an old credit card (for the lines)

bubble wrap for the black circles,

and a sponge for the white texture. 

Some added red and detail,

like dots, of course!

 ;-)

Then just for the fun of it,

i flipped the book upside down,

and saw something totally different.

Do you do this sometimes?

It only works with semi abstract paintings, of course

but it's fun to be surprised

by what we find when we look at it

from another angle.

In this case, i saw a giant yellow head

eating a purple germ.

I'm sure a shrink would have a far better description

of what this actually represents, but for now,

let's go with the giant head and purple germ,

shall we?

;-)

So after this fun, colorful little abstract piece,

i still felt like painting, but this time,

something more quiet. 

I bought this book

at a second hand book store

a few weeks ago (for $3)

filled with wonderful black and white photographs

and beautiful stories.

a great title, i thought...

And so i chose this photograph,

taken in India.

Something very spiritual about this.

When i looked at this photo initially,

my first thought was:

I wish i was this spiritual.

There's a big difference

between being spiritual and being religious.

i am not religious.

I had a little piece of left over watercolor paper.

A few lines with Micron pens...

added watercolor, and then (brace yourselves...)

without even thinking about it

i was inspired to add these words -

misspelling and all.

(heroes)

Don't ask me why.

Other than the fact that

I was listening to music at the time (Pink Floyd)

and these are some of the lyrics

in the song "Wish you were here".

I love the lyrics of that song,

i'm just not sure they belong here.

But thanks to Photoshop,

I'll have them removed by the end of the day. 

;-)

Wishing you all a great day

in your little corner of the world.

Make time for the things

and the people

you love.

xoxo