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

Milena Jesenska

hello people of the world!

After a week of fun in the sun,

I was in the mood last night for something soft

and monotone

and relatively easy to finish

before going to bed.

:-)

It was 10pm by the time i started painting.

This is Milena Jesenska

a writer from Prague -

who died in Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1944.

Whenever i think of the victims of the Holocaust,

i can't help but wonder what these people

would have become

had they been given the chance to live.

Had they not been murdered.

How would they have changed the world?

I began this painting with my fingers,

thinking i would do the whole thing with my hands.

It's on a crap piece of cardboard i had in my 'stock' pile...

an empty, cut up, clean box of store bought pizza. :-)

I thought it would be cool to paint the lights

and let the cardboard peek through

as the darker color.

But then i quickly realized it would suck with just white,

so i added brown. 

:-)

...just these 2 colors, liquid acrylics.

And here she is, in all her glory,

obviously done rather quickly.

I ended up hiding the cardboard more than i wanted to,

but i love how you can still see it a bit

on her cheek.

...and on her shoulder.

I love that her writing keeps her memory alive.

Thank you all for visiting

and putting up with my rambling...

xoxo