Doorway

Moods

"These killer, crazy-making moods emerge from a changing female body and the mind reacts". I don't know if you can see the big, hunched figure on the right edge of this painting...Its blob body has just a bump for a head and two arms that are holding a black object - maybe a heavy stone? Maybe it's a gift? And this figure is being projected out of a pale, white figure on the other page. 

I painted this on a day when my moods were swinging and it helped so much to steady everything, to calm, to understand. I am not my moods. My moods emerge. The mind reacts. Take care of this changing female body and keep an eye on the mind!

It fascinates me that the background below is what I started with. The first thing I saw was this hunched figure that turns up in my work from time to time, usually representing difficult emotions. It's only a piece of waxed paper randomly glued to the page, but it suggested a shape to me that is connected (for me) to a recurrent theme, and everything else just flowed from there. Like my husband says: "Painting is magic".

The Path

the future is a mystery. put one foot in front of the other and hope for something to illuminate the path ahead.

Breathe

This is a single-page painting instead of a two-page spread, the first page of a brand new journal. Looking forward from the first month in a brand new year or the first page of a new book, it's exciting to think of what will follow. The text in this painting advises: "Relax your wrist and arm. Breathe." I found the phrase in a book of drawing exercises, but it's great advice to follow at the beginning of just about anything.

To my eye, the figure in this painting is facing a doorway, perhaps about to go through. The doorway or arch is an image that paints itself into my paintings - it has been popping up from time to time since last year, usually with a figure nearby. I don't know what is on the other side of the door! But I know that if I relax and breathe and try not to control the painting too much, the images will begin to give me little hints, maybe about when it's time to move forward and walk through.

9" X 12" acrylics, collage, hand-carved stamps, pitt artist pen

Diamond Heart

The book page scrap on this page says: "...my friend said our hearts are like diamonds because they have the capacity to express divine light which is love..." From Ann Lamott's book Plan B

Will is Reading

Willy is reading about evolution and brain science and telling me about altruistic reciprocity and neuroplasticity and about how his spirituality is changing and moving in new directions.

See Differently

The artist's eye...is not an elite eye that exists in only a few chosen people. Rather, it is a powerful potential that exists within the heart and mind of every person. Your artist's eye is activated when you give up your need to label and judge things harshly. Soften your eyes. Open your heart. Then you will begin to see things differently. 
- Heather C. Williams, Drawing as a Sacred Activity