Reminders of Summer

The last Monarch Butterfly of the summer: 

I will be taking a blogging break for an unknown period of time.  Thank you for all of your support. 

Creating an Atmosphere

"Every person, from morning till evening, is making invisible forms in space by what he says.  He is creating invisible vibrations around him, and so he is creating an atmosphere."
-Hazrat Inayat Khan

May the colorful beauty of nature fill your heart

I am moved by all the colors around me, sunflowers, hummingbirds, sunrise and sunsets, pine trees, butterflys, honeybees.....the colors in this world are amazing.

"I thank you God for this most amazing day"

“I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.”
- ee Cummings

Let's Start Our Days With Kindness

I rescued Raven when she was approximately a year old (perhaps a bit younger) and often wondered what she was like as a puppy.  This painting is one of my tributes to Raven and how I imagine her as a puppy!  She starts my days out with her love and kindness so I titled this painting, "Starting Our Days with Kindness."

Inspired by Flowers

We are continuing to have an amazing array of blooming wildflowers this year.  Gazing at them often brings tears to my eyes.

"Gratefulness is heaven itself." - William Blake

I am grateful to be participating in the creative process....making some bird houses:

a small Luna moth painting:

another bird house:

A wonderful day!

"I am sure there is magic in everything" - Frances H. Burnett

Moths are magical creatures to me and they are appearing in my art!

White Moth, flutter off:
fly back into
my breast now
Quickly, my own soul!

- Wafu-

Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you. - Richard B Sheridan

I picked one rose from my garden today.  Here is a photo of it in front of a painting I am currently working on:

Here are some images I painted inspired by the same rose bush:

Another photo of today's rose:

Love this quote from Abraham Lincoln:
"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses."

Adults are always asking little kids what they want to be when they grow up because they are looking for ideas - Paula Poundstone

I was reminded today of how important play is to the creative process.  I was attempting to quickly water my garden while my helper, Raven, was attempting to steal the hose away from me.  This developed into a silly and yet very fun water game.  When I came inside, soaking wet, dripping my way into my studio I noticed a painting which I had placed on my easel that wasn't working.  The problem with its composition was immediately clear. 

I encourage you to Play Today!

In the Light of Love We are Home

I don't know who originally said, "In the Light of Love We are Home", but I was very moved by those words.   I created this mixed media piece out of my response.  I really do find my home to be where I love, and since I could truly love anywhere, my home could thus be anywhere.  However I am not that loving...yet!

Our Life is a Faint Tracing on the Surface of Mystery - Annie Dillard

I have learned that no matter how I feel what counts is that I continue to draw and paint.  There are ALWAYS reasons I can come up with not to do this.  All those reasons are just mind chatter that really amount to nothing.  If I do not paint then I will be one more painter who doesn't paint and must bear the grief of an unlived life within me.

When you are quiet

There is a place you can go

where you are quiet,

a place of water and the light

on the water. Trees are there,

leaves, and the light

on leaves moved by air.

Birds, singing, move

among leaves, in leaf shadow.

After many years you have come

to no thought of these,

but they are themselves

your thoughts. There seems to be

little to say, less and less.

Here they are. Here you are.

Here as though gone.

None of us stays, but in the hush

where each leaf in the speech

of leaves is sufficient syllable

the passing light finds out

surpassing freedom of its way.

 

~ Wendell Berry

Happy Valentines Day

Wishing you a heart filled day

where your intention is on

the giving of love,

rather than upon what you are given!

Dreams that came to us in childhood

A thoughtful quote by Nigerian writer, Ben Okri ......

"We plan our lives according to a dream that came to us in our childhood, and we find that life alters our plans. And yet, at the end, from a rare height, we also see that our dream was our fate. It's just that providence had other ideas as to how we would get there. Destiny plans a different route, or turns the dream around, as if it were a riddle, and fulfills the dream in ways we couldn't have expected."

Lightly

"Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Even though you're feeling deeply, lightly let things happen, and lightly cope with them on tiptoes and with no luggage, completely unencumbered". - Aldous Huxley

I found this poem to be very inspiring today.

Wishing you all a peaceful and light filled New Year

Happy Light In Everybody - AdiDa Samraj

May all humans become aware of the immense negative consequences of any kind of warfare.  May war become completely unacceptable to all humans everywhere. 

May we settle our differences with tolerance.

May all humans feel their heart connection to all life and become unwilling to hurt or destroy any non-humans.

May we all celebrate the Light in Everybody, Everything, Everywhere.

All art requires courage. ~Anne Tucker

I watched a wonderful video today about three female artists: http://www.folkstreams.net/pub/FilmPage.php?title=37

All three women in this video understand a lot about art and how it flows through them.  They are all accomplished artists.  They also each express some of the struggles being a woman and an artist embody.  They all understand beauty and the value of beauty in their lives.  They understand the ceremony of art, the communication and heartstream of art.  They are sister artists who have never met and yet are part of a single woven tapestry of art in the world. 

"I am not interested in art as a means of making a living, but I am interested in art as a means of living a life." Robert Henri

The object of painting a picture is not to make a picture--however unreasonable this may sound.  The picture, if a picture results, is a by-product and may be useful, valuable, interesting as a sign of what has past.  The object, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence.  In such moments activity is inevitable, and whether this activity is with brush, pen, chisel, or tongue, its result is but a by-product of the state, a trance, a footprint of this state.
These results, however crude, become dear to the artist who made them because they are records of states of being which he has enjoyed and which he would regain.  They are likewise interesting to others because they are to some extent readable and reveal the possibilities of greater existence.

by Chief Seattle, "We did not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves."

This painting was inspired by visiting the beautiful island of Kauai.  As lucky as I was to be able to see the incredible sea turtles, fish, coral reefs, and stunning views, will future generations see any of this? 
We must be a voice for the voiceless. 
For the sea turtles caught in nets, for the fish swimming in polluted water, for future generations not born yet.
Whatever your art form, and be assured you have one, use your art to speak for the voiceless:
Sing the beauty of bird songs and wake up  muffled ears,
Write of the strength of trees and stir human thoughts to greatness,
Paint the colors of ocean fish and move the eye to see,
Sew with the gift of cotton, silk, and linen and show hands how to share,
Pray for all the voiceless and move the heart to love
We are all one, all connected,
May we all care.