After painting this one, I had a powerful urge to hop in a boat and row around on a quiet, still, remote lake. After rowing assertively, I wanted to drop my arm over the side and drag it through the calm, refreshing water. Sketching took a ridiculous amount of time to get things right, and the paper in my journal  didn’t accept watercolor well. I suppose I could have easily accomplished this one with colored pencils, but I wanted the watercolor effect because . . . well, it is water. 💧 

  I actually accomplished this one in the time limit that the challenge suggests.  Five minutes! Funky, whimsical, embellished lemon trees - spindly trunks with one huge 🍋 in various shades of yellow acrylic, flanked by brush-stroke grasses and a paint-splattered sky. 

For generations, my family has saved stuff, and I have inherited it all. Boxes and boxes of things - photos, books, slides, movies, lace, clothing, artwork, every letter that has ever been received, postcards, stamps . . . the list goes on forever. In an effort to organize it all and to decide which are keepers and which need a new home, I came across some real treasures.  An original, 1897, signed copy of this book. When I opened the book, pages fragile and brittle, it fell apart, and I was left holding this page. Of course, I couldn’t resist reading the page. Marital indulgence? Witch hazel or raspberry infusion? Wow, life before modern medicine! It felt logical (and even vital) to include a portrait of a woman that my grandma knew. I hope she never experienced vaginal prolapses.  Another treasure. Grandma’s shorthand stenography practice notebook filled with page after page of beautiful, elegant lettering.  Two more items - a postcard addressed to Grandma and an o...

First time participating in the Ugly Art Club challenge. A wonderfully supportive art community that encourages folks to “just make stuff, show up for you, and be present in your artistic journey.” The challenge is, given a one-word prompt, to create a piece of art in five minutes. This crazy short amount of time helps to prevent over-thinking and perfectionism. Being new to mixed-media collage, my first piece took way longer than 5 minutes for me to create, but this one was powerful art therapy to help me process the ravages of climate change. Stormy was a perfect prompt. Historic hurricanes, floods, wildfires, earthquakes . . . we are living in a world beyond the tipping point. The future climate scenarios which I imagined much further into the future are now our present reality.   This all hit home when a 12,000 acre wildfire hit a town where I previously resided in Washington state. Following the progression of the fire, I was stunned to realize that my old house, one that I he...

  Nearly three years have passed since I last wrote a blog post. Setting up this new blog, I never expected to encounter such a seemingly insurmountable obstacle right off the bat. . . naming the blog. Having tried nearly 28 creative names and finding them all unavailable, this was the first one to stick. So, this is it, and here it goes . . .  The arts have always been a part of my life, thanks mostly to my father who insisted that I play the violin in elementary school and encouraged me to always give school projects some sort of artistic flair. I guess a part of that mentorship was due to his background in music and art. As a gifted artist, sculptor, and industrial designer, he was an amazing role model and our house always had a plethora of varied art supplies. My journey towards art, however, has been a delayed one.  Having abandoned my music major in college, I turned to education. The last couple of years of my 35-year career in public education, I discovered jewe...