What will our children do in the morning if they do not see us fly? - Rumi

 

These are some pages from one of my art journals.  This is a new approach for me inspired by  

 Matisse who described his paper cut out process as "drawing with scissors" explaining: "Paper cutouts allow me to draw in color, I see it as a simplification. Instead of drawing the contour and putting color into it--one modifying the other--I draw directly in color." 

 I used loose watercolors in the background and then cut out past drawings and glued them on.  This was wonderfully fun! 

 

 

"Creativity takes Courage"  H. Matisse

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. 

"....Because He Loved the Sky...." - Brenda Ueland

A book I go back to over and over again for support and inspiration is called, "If You Want to Write" by Brenda Ueland.  I think the title could be, "If You Want to Create Art of any kind."  I just substitute the word 'write' for 'art' when I read this book.  Here is a passage from this book:
The author writes......
".......the moment I read Van Gogh's letter I knew what art was, and the creative impulse. It is a feeling of love and enthusiasm for something, and in a direct, simple, passionate and true way, you try to show this beauty in things to others, by drawing it. And Van Gogh's little drawing on the cheap note paper was a work of art because he loved the sky and the frail lamppost against it so seriously that he made the drawing with the most exquisite conscientiousness and care. ”
- Brenda Ueland (from If Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit)

Perhaps anytime we do something from a place of love we are contributing 'art' to this fragile home we call earth.

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

Take Your Busy Heart to the Forest

.

Take your busy heart to the art museum and the

chamber of commerce

but take it also to the forest.

The song you heard singing in the leaf when you

were a child

is singing still.

.

~ Mary Oliver

from Swan

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

Nature moves through your veins

"My work is a form of evolved contemplation. If you live in nature for a time, you have almost mystical experiences. You get into a state of lyrical excitement and become part of the things that are happening around you: the grass quivering, the birds singing. On a sunny day there is an extraordinary feeling of energy, as light dazzles, bees buzz, birds dart, lizards slither. Nature moves through your veins in a spiritual way, and then the work of art flows out like birdsong" - John Wolseley

You can Suffer or You Can Love - Adi Da Samraj

"You can suffer or you can love.
You can complain or you can surrender.
You can abuse or you can bless.
It's really just that simple."
~Adi Da Samraj

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."