Artistic Medium of Summer

All stay-at-home mothers are performance artists. Children are our mediums....especially in the everyone-staying-at-home days of summer. School will be starting soon and once again I'll be able to concentrate on my own paintings. In the meantime, I'll be working with my two greatest creations.

Give Back!!

I have created a foundation through https://www.giveback.org/onehundreddays.aspx?refid=37631 called the Imagine Learn Create Foundation (ILC). My foundation's goals are to help promote awareness and raise funds for charities that educate children with the arts. The education of my boys and my continuing growth as an artist are always present in my mind. I am inspired to take action by all the recent cuts in education funding in Florida which have angered and frustrated me. I believe that the education of ALL children is crucial to our future and I believe that the arts can help us all envision and create better lives for us all. Donate if you can! (Its tax deductible!) If you can't, start your own foundation! Give Back!!


Maya

Show Them

I want to

show them it’s ok:

to be a seeker

to be scared

to question

to not have the answers

to rewrite

to start over

Show Them

Good Fortune Be With You

Good Fortune Be With You is a continuation on the theme of Raising the World. Both of these pieces are being considered for placement at the South Lake Hospital in Clermont, Florida and I wanted to include inspirational words and ideas to inspire the patients, their families and the staff that help these people. I want these two pieces to be about healing.

Once again, I am using phrases in the work to complement the contemplative nature of the piece. The words on it are small, giving the person in front of the painting a visual experience both near and far from the piece. Since the painting is 5’ x 4’ and my camera can not catch these words clearly, I am using this format (for you web viewers) to dictate the words. Small cards and scraps read;

“Good Fortune Be With You”

“How Foolish I was to travel without”

“X Gratitude

X Joy

X Love”

“Laugh everyday with Joy”

“Live everyday with Curiosity”

“Love everyday with Passion”

“Be everything you dream to be”

“Make the most of your life”

“Dance like no one is watching”

Good Fortune Be With You is 5’ x 4’ charcoal, acrylic, fabric and paper collage on 4 wood panels.

Good Fortune Be With You

Raising the World

I wish I could write as comfortably as I can draw. Since I believe that practice is what makes you better I continue to blog about my work and have started using more words in the paintings. I borrow and edit quotes, phrases and lyrics from words that inspire me. I can only express my gratitude to these authors by saying that I stand on the shoulders of giants.

My new painting Raising the World has these phrases collaged onto them;

“The most beautiful action in the world is to love- Bertha Von Suttner”, “Remind Me of what I Love” and a Baking Powder Ad that reads, “Best on Earth-A Gift with Each Can-Miles Baking Powder-Raising the World.” I just love the ad with the can raising the Earth. Using these words gave me a moment of clarity. Love and art are the baking powder of our world! You could say that our basic needs, food, shelter, safety, security, constitute the main ingredients in our lives. Art and self actualization and above all else, LOVE, help us ‘rise’ to the occasion of our best lives and become more of ourselves.

Raising the World is 5’ x 4’ charcoal, acrylic, fabric and paper collage on 4 wood panels.

Raising The World

Just the Same

Sometimes when I paint a piece, the inspiration comes from the music I’m listening to when I’m working. Just the Same was painted while listening to KT Tunstall’s album, Eye to the Telescope, over and over. Many of the songs lyrics are a part of this painting. They helped me create a composite story and face. The song that resonated most true for me and during the making of this piece was the song Universe & U. I really believe that the people in our lives are there to teach us about ourselves. Thank you, Ms Tunstall, for putting to music, the story of friendship.

"Universe & U" by KT Tunstall

A fire burns
Water comes
You cool me down
When I'm cold inside
You are warm and bright
You know you are so good for me
With your child's eyes
You are more than you seem
You see into space
I see in your face
The places you've been
The things you have learned
They sit with you so beautifully

You know there's no need to hide away
You know I tell the truth
We are just the same
I can feel everything you do
Hear everything you say
Even when you're miles away
Cause I am me, the universe and you

Just like stars burning bright
Making holes in the night
We are building bridges

You know

When you're on your own
I'll send you a sign
Just so you know
I am me, the universe and you

Just The Same

Nowhere Fast

I wanted to do a piece about the ridiculousness of listening to your own thoughts. I mean really. When I am aware enough to acknowledge the differences between the ego and the spirit the way Eckart Tolle observed when he had the thought “I can’t live with myself anymore”, I find my ego is pretty clever at letting the negativity, the doubt, the frustration and the anger creep back in. Luckily, my spirit knows enough to keep bringing me back to the present moment. I know that “Your judgments about others become YOUR prescription for how to live.-Byron Katie.” And I know that “only when you dwell in the awareness in your relationships, can you rid your ego of the wanting.-Eckart Tolle” I am learning everyday that “Once you see the ego for what it is, it becomes much easier to remain non-reactive toward it. You don’t take it personally anymore.-more fabulous Tolle” Like the woman on the left, I am ready to turn this ship around in any direction it needs to go. I am ready to go along for the ride.

Nowhere Fast