joyouslybecoming

come take a winter river walk with me

  

to a place i never tire of wandering

 
  

through every season

 

pieces of the river disguised as twirling snowflakes

 

or ice taking a rock heart prisoner

seeing firsthand there is a flow, even under the frozen places

flowing all around the frozen parts, melting them

big enough to hold everything just as it is

 
ever changing patterns and textures

     

my touchstone to the nature of impermanence

the occupier of each shape

every form and space

all sentient beings

and all nonsentient beings

i love watching the changes i see here

it reminds me to open wide, to see every moment with fresh eyes.   

 

 

late night painting and occupied

After weeks of feeling dry as a bone creatively, last night I felt some juiciness again and now find myself wanting to hole up in the studio and do nothing but paint. It's unrealistic but the drive is so strong when it desends on me - there is rarely a half-way when it comes to passion.  

It may look like this site has gone vacant - it's been forever it seems since i posted. But I'm still here and quite occupied, happy, busy, and hopeful that I can get back to some form of regular writing soon. I have weeks laid out ahead of me, full of time and space, room to breathe, paint, and enjoy my life. So many choices I often get overwhelmed, make several starts, and stick with the ones that have deadlines or clammer for my attention. I've been ripping my house apart - it feels outdated and I find myself longing for a home that reflects me in it somewhere, the heart of me. It's going to be a huge project that will take a long time (will it ever be finished?) and I'm hopeful that some of my talented decorating friends will give me tips along the way.

I will be back soon (really) with more. Thanks for coming back, for not giving up on me - I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment, I really do.  xox

Valley Ridge Art Studio Registration

Registration opens Monday, December 7th, 2009, at 9:00 AM CST for all workshops at Valley Ridge Art Studio. I am so happy to to be going back to Kathy and Bill's "little piece of heaven" for my third year in 2010, this time to teach a 3 day workshop entitled "A Big and Tall Book", where students will learn how to create a gorgeous book from scratch using cardboard and a combination of mixed media materials and experimenting with variety of techniques with paint, collage, encaustic, and faux encaustic.

If it sounds tantalizing, you can go here to see samples of a book and read a full description of the workshop. In past years, some workshops have filled within the first 5 minutes of open registration, so it's important to register sooner than later for the workshop(s) you wish to attend. I hope you'll join me there...

a satisfied fullness

i feel so very grateful that today a hardened part of my heart was cracked open wider... with a deepening gratitude for my life, with love and sheer amazement for strangers i encountered along my path today, and an encompassing compassion for us all, human, animal, vegetable and mineral. days like this are rare, sacred, and oh so precious, an answered prayer, an act of grace. my day ended with this most beautiful film, which i highly recommend. 

namaste.

rain, puddles, rivers, and rainbows

i just took a walk outside inbetween cloudbursts, and this is what i saw...trees in the leaves

trees scattered among their leaves

last leaves

a raging river, swollen with raindrops 

 

very close to cresting it's bank in places

while our fingers stay crossed

we scurry back to the house ahead of the cloud burst and after an hour i see this out my studio window

a rainbow, i wanted to share with you.

and this artist i just discovered and am enjoying her newest cd very much, and i love this song about trees and this one.

just for fun - studio photos

I just tidied up the studio and thought it would be a good time to take some photos. See...I've kept it clean and organized for months now and it's so much more pleasant to work when I know where things are. i can't count on my memory so lots of things are labeled. I love my easel (thank you jim!) and use it a lot. The basket on the left is full of journals i work in, on the right is a pile of unfinished/work in progress (it's only the tip of the iceberg too).

Heather, Jeff and family came over on Sunday and she, Jeff, and Walter worked together to wrap me in duck tape - I finally got the dress form made that I've longed for. The old round metal stand in front is where I'm going to mount it. It will be finished by the weeked if all goes according to plan.

It's a funky space but it's big and feels like home. When Walter retires, in the next year or two, he has mentioned he'd like to build me a detached building for my studio, now that would be really nice!

 

 

 

 

okay, that's it for now. later alligator.

a glimpse into my day

off to get a massage, my teeth cleaned, and other errands in town.  (I picked up a package in town with goodies created from my art - thank you, mysterious gift giver, it was a lovely surprise and it arrived on a day when I more than ever appreciated this kind gesture :-)

getting ideas for future art projects...they seem to hit me more than ever when I'm on this stretch of road.

back home again, a walk with the dogs at twilight.

some of the leaves on this black cottonwood are as big as a plate, see...?

the eagles have arrived just in time for the salmon run - i hope they find some.

i love the contrasting colors this time of year, the textures too are so vivid.

trees next to the river

tress.......

somebody's halloween pumkin

our house in the distance

 

this year there are no apples scattered on the ground, they disappear by morning, replaced by huge "piles" - evidence we have a bear roaming the fields. i like that they are still around...

I'm listening to this,  this and  this silly video tickled my funny bone and gave me a good chuckle over a cup of tea this morning.  

watching time pass

watching time pass

I'm feeling inspired to work in a series about time, aging, and the generations before and after me. It's so interesting  to reflect on how each time period in my life find brings me to new issues to explore more deeply, places that all of a sudden I can relate to in a new light. Ever since turning 50, with all the changes of body, mind, and energy entering this age brings, my focus is turned more directly towards the autumn of life, looking closely to see and appreciate the subtleties as well as engage with the obvious. Being a part of the movement and being a watcher of the movement.  Creating in general and painting in particular, has allowed me a voice to sing as well as an ear to listen to my song. I feel grateful.

Registration Now Open for An Artful Journey

Registration opens today at noon Pacific Time for the 3-day workshop I will be teaching at An Artful Journey in Los Gatos, CA, from July 18-22. The workshop is entitled Dream Narratives and during that time we will be exploring a variety of surface design techniques on fabric. These photos show examples of some of them.

 

 

If 3 days of painting and playing on fabric at a beautiful retreat center in the woods outside of Santa Cruz California sounds like something you'd enjoy, I hope you'll sign up and join me there.

a glimpse into my process and a spankin new journal

this is the same large painting, still in progress, but it has now morphed into this.... this fluid process, watching everything change form in the swish of brush loaded with color is what brings me to painting each day with renewed curiosity and enthusiasm. I have no idea how it will end up, when i will know it is finished. (cross your fingers for me that I will know and stop in time, i think i'm getting close).

i spent much of the day putting together a journal, ala teesha moore. If you haven't seen the series of video tutorials she and tracy have put together, you must check them out on her blog. It's like sitting next to her and hearing her thought process as she creates - what could be better? 

Her video demonstrates how to make a 16 page journal out of one piece of 22" x 30" watercolor paper. I wanted more pages so I used 4 pieces of watercolor paper to make mine, 3 signatures of 4/3/4 pages.  I used two different colors of electrical tape for the trim, brown and black, and covered the back with clear packing tape. I learned that tape does not stick to paper that has been painted with clear gesso.  The tape kept coming up at the edges so I resorted to sewing everything down good with a zig zag stitch.

   
I sewed the flaps down on the inside edges so I'll have two places I can still little papers I want to keep loosely in my journal. Today I look forward to making my first entry.  Yay for new journals!