Kiwi

Trees and Dreams

Speed Trees (another fast painting)
Before the first seed broke open the rosebed of Being,
An inner lark soared through your meadows,
Heading towards Home.
~Bibi Hayati

Invitation to the 30 mins painting exercise

Sebastien Gallego from The Jumbled Drawer
Has offered an invitation to join the 30 minutes painting exercise.
This is my first try... I suck, but I tried *giggle*

For a lovely holiday treat visit:
Merisi's Vienna For Beginners
If you have time be sure and look
in the archives as the window
shopping is the best!!!!!!!!

Pumpkinhead II

Pumpkin Head goes home...

I love those antique paper pumpkin
heads, but I can't tell if they are
supposed to look scary or scared.
He might be both!
He might be just lost.

This is what I've played around with today... fun!
Computers that you can paint with...
Best invention, ever!!!!

No one was certain how fat little Toady Crackbone,
the class clown and shortest kid in school, became
The Most Honorable Theodore Crackbone,
High Judge of Arcturus. The only thing that was
completely clear, was that no one was laughing now.

When in a difficult and dangerous region,
do not weary of the journey;
should you do so,
turn back half-way.

Not all the smoke of Autumn
comes from burning leaves.

Love of monsters runs in the family...
Third grandson out for a walk with the pets.

This time of year
demands a monster.
Doesn't it?
Definitely!
Monster provided.
End of story.
Until next time....

Life is Like....

...sorry Forrest, your mamma told you wrong. Life is not like a box of chocolates. Life is more like a box of pastels. Not a nice, pretty, new box either but a mixed, reused-box of broken, blunted colors. There's lots to choose from in that box, there's some truly gorgeous colors under the grey dust of many yesterdays, but you'll have to be able to see past the grime to find the heart-color of every stick. Some of those sticks are dark to the core, but with them, with that very darkness, you can make the lighter and more joyous colors rise above and shine their brightest.

There will come a time when no matter how much you dig through the box, the right color won't be found ready-made for your use... that is when you will have to take a risk. You'll either have to mix your own or change how you think, and just like which sticks of colors you decide to use, it is your choice how to proceed. You can seek advise from those who have painted before, or you can just strike out on your own and learn from your own experience.

Every day you're given that jumbled box of pigments and a piece of paper to explore; whether it's pristine and new, or a page of work left unfinished and incomplete from a previous day. It is of little consequence which you choose, just that you do choose, and do the work. You learn and create with every stroke.

Remember this though, Forrest; to paint and paint well, you are going to have to get your hands dirty. Don't worry, it's just part of the process.

On a small scrap of paper....
Remembering the owls
I've seen this summer.

A Portrait of a Queen

"that memory or dream thing I do
that for me comes nearer reality than
my objective kind of work"
- Georgia O'Keeffe

(click on pencil drawing to see %100)

Monster Musing
(click for larger view)
Monsters have taught me to let go of that which I hold too dear. That which I try to save, only traps me into a well known web. To get beyond attachment is the only freedom. Monsters have taught me there are no choices, only alternatives. Alternatives all lead to the same place, the framework of experience is the only difference.
Monsters have taught me the power of fear. The pain of fear is greater than that which is feared. To run is to be hunted and haunted, to stand and fight is to be respected... to stand and not fight is self control.
Monsters have taught me to see the world with eyes that question everything. Monsters have taught me not to have expectations. Beliefs are not facts, just viewpoints, not truth. Truths are harder to achieve than beliefs. People believe what they want to believe. Monsters have taught me to look and look again, hopefully, unflinching.
What have you learned from monsters?

UNDER THE SEA
Try to hold fast to the living thing which
destroys as it goes, but remains sweet.
~St. Mawr

This is a detail of what
I'm working on today.
Click on the pic below
for a larger view if you
wish.........

Dawn

SHELLS AND SPOTS

SEED AND STONES

JAZZ
Fingers at the speed of sound.

I'm bad.
I just wanted to
do my own "thang"
this week....

I'm bad.

Hope springs eternal....
...gone but not forgotten,
Hellcat and Anonymous.

There comes an age when one old monster is worth six
new fiends......

From my sketchbook

I like to draw rocks....



...and play with them in the computer.

Why have I lured you here?

It's SIMPLE...

I want to wish you a very.....

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!

(You are awesome!)

Three Little Chairs
Fairy chairs with pumpkins and real stuffed pillow cats.
The chairs are four and a half inches high, made from maple
and oak. They are trimed with tiny dried natural flowers.
The pillows are replicas of ones made in the 1800's. They
are hand stitched painted cotton with cotton batting stuffing.
The pumpkins are hand made and painted.
Click to see a bigger pic.


I was tagged by Oncle Johann's

Four Jobs I've had:
Fashion illustrator
Animator for video Company
On/air 3D graphics for TV Graphic designer

Four Movies I watch over and over:
Blade Runner
The Name of the Rose
Serenity
LOTR

Four Places I've lived:
Here
There
Back here again:)))

Four TV shows I love to watch:
The Discovery Channel.
I would have watched Firefly
but I didn't discover it until
it had already been cancelled.

Four Places I've been on vacation:
Every state in the west
except Alaska and Hawaii
New York state
Mexico
Florida

Four Favorite foods:
Lasagna
Breaded Shrimp
Chocolate...duh!!!
My daughter's chicken
and dumplings (not mine!))

Four Places I'd like to visit:
Italy
New Zealand
Ireland
Pyramids
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry to have been gone for
awhile... I LOVE my new job
at the newspaper, but I didn't
have time to blog for awhile.
Next week should be
better.
Thank you to everyone who
sent me emails! You are such
awesome people!!!

Moon Rider

New Years Eve doesn't bring the end of the old year, there is this gap, this space that is January. It is a stumbling, leaves-of-days raking month. Earthy molds swallow time. Grey, smoking mists choke damp layers of memory. None of it is right and all of it is true.

Overwhelmed love for all, is this how God exists? Such love, there is no speaking, only another day manifested in the gift; this now, in a world.

I can't move forward, not yet. I'm not so much frozen as clogged, it frightens me more than falling.

ROLLING CROSSROADS

A footprint in the sea.

What is said, can define what is not said.

What is known, forms the shell

of the unknown.

What is seen, can hold

the ghost of the past.

Sugar and Spice... and everything nice,

that's what little girls are made of.