Haiku my Heart

Morning Dew calls me

Toes nesting in wet grass

We sip the the Dawn Light.

Inspiration comes from many places and the magical blog Recuerda Mi Corazon touches my heart. I love the form of haiku. It is a doable poem format for we busy bees. In addition to Haiku Friday, Rebecca has created all manner of wondrous delights for the heart. Please visit her and also the other magical haiku poets linked to her blogsite.

Each morning since Spring has visited Middle Earth, I step outside in my pink pajamas and worn out tennis shoes. I visit each little garden I have planted in our backyard: a place for herbs and salads; a place for bright colored Poppies , morning Glories and the sweet scents of Lavender; A magical pot of mint by the gate and three pots of ..even more salad!.

After my little circuit which tells me who needs water and who needs weeding, I step out of those old tennis shoes and into the cool wet grass, bare toes nestling into the soothing dampness. I reach my arms up to the sky and give thanks for the day, for my life, for this space in time. Then I bend down to touch my dear Mother Earth and gather the dew onto my hands to wash my face in Full Moon water.

then, with arms raised again, standing tall, I turn to each of the four directions calling out my gratitudes for my home, my family, the trees and sky. As I return to center I gather all of that wonder and gratitude into my heart space and just breathe, allowing my heart to be filled. The last thing I do is walk to my favorite tree, hung with wind chimes and set each one in motion so I walk to their song back to my house and the new day.

That's my poem.

Habitations

My world is inhabited by many strange creatures. As you may have read previously, a lovely owl friend moved into the eaves of our house and manages the local fauna for us. I kept thinking the owl was a "she" so last week in my Art Journaling class, this was a demonstration that started with the photocopy of an old owl engraving and the lower half of a rather threatening looking model. The original images are well covered with paint and texturing, even a little mono printing to get the feathery effect. I haven't decided if the bird in her hand is being guarded or regarded...as in hmm... are YOU my lunch?????

So in pondering habitations and cohabitations, I thought you might enjoy a tiny peek at one of my favorite rooms. I painted the walls my very own self as anyone can see by the fact that I forgot to tape off the ceiling and there are a few blobs of blue paint wandering around the upper edges. This little corner is where Miss Bunee lives...far away from the owl guardian. she likes to keep me company in my bathroom! You can see the blue I chose was that wonderful Tiffany blue.

I do have my own throne.....um to sit on when I do my make-up and consult Miss B.

I also have LOTS of artwork hanging in my bathroom. I know some folks live in fear of ruining precious art with steam,etc, but I have a large watercolor hanging on one wall and it has lived there for seven years without a smudge or fade. The piece peeking out in back is also a watercolor of mine and YES, that is an Alice in wonderland clock. The Cheshire cat is on the pendulum. I picked it up in antique mall for $7.00. Love it. The other piece is a needlepoint of a Renoir painting done by DH's favorite Auntie.....well, she was my favorite, too.

A bit more news: If you are in the St. Louis area, Rosemary Grove, in Kirkwood is now carrying my artwork.

I will have some joyous news around July 1st.

A demo for Grumbacher at the St. Charles Michaels.

A glass of wine in my hand Friday night at the Collector's choice event at the St. Louis Artists' Guild

Whew.....all that and hubby is still wearing a sling and in need of a chauffeur and mail room assistant

AND

next time I'll see if I can get some shots of my garden and the famous Oregognome!

Flying Lessons

You may have noticed a new badge over there to the right. This will connect you to the wonderful Kelly Rae E-books site. Kelly has written an amazing ebook on the ins and outs of moving your art to a professional level in the area of sales and e-marketing. Kelly declares that her soaring success is mostly due to her blog and website . She advocates using these tools to increase your visibility in the art arena.

Why is her ebook amazing? Because it works. I have had this blog for several years and most of my visitors have been family. I made just a few of the changes Kelly's ebook suggests and tripled my readership in a single posting. WOW. Yes, TRIPLE WOW.

Her book is highly readable. I took notes as I read, highlighting the ones I knew I could use the fastest and easiest. The results , when applied were so positive, I decided I needed to share just how wonderfully open and sharing Kelly has been in her writing. I think most people who have achieved her level of success like to sit back on their laurels and close out other artists. Believe me, I know about this one. Kelly has shared what she has learned on her journey without holding anything back. On top of that, she has interviewed other artists and bloggers who have achieved success and gotten them to share their experiences.

The book comes in three parts that you can purchase one at a time or you can go for the whole Shebang and buy all three at once. they download to your computer so you have them forever. This is a good thing as you will certainly want to go back and check them out again and again.

Thank you, Kelly for your open heart and wisdom.

Dear Hearts that read my blog, click on that badge and get a chance to read a few tickler pages for free. this is an investment in the future of any artists ready to take the next step in sharing their own art.

Feel free to leave a comment on your opinions or if you have any questions.

Dream Dancer

In my dreams, I dance. I am so not a dancer in real life. Balance, stretching, grace are all things I strive for. I love to learn new things. I love to learn to DO new things. Keeping balance in my life..well..I guess I am just like everyone else, doing the very best that i can and trying to do it with some amount of grace.

This image is from one of my newer art journals. It's created on an old book, discarded by the local library on ballet. My sister and I took ballet lessons when we were kids at Miss Billie's School of Dance. Miss Billie had been a genuine Ziegfeld girl in her prime. I remember loving the romance of dancing, but my adolescent body just wasn't coordinated enough and after a year or so, I wandered off to my brushes and watercolors.

Now as a mature grown up kind of person I can go back into my heart of hearts and create images that honor the great admiration of I had and still have for the art of the dance. The words say "Do something strange and extravagant" and so I pick up crayons to add color and add fluttery things, dreamy things. Now there is magic. I may never be able to execute a perfect en pointe, but I create images that speak to that perfection. Then carry my dreams forward in a strange and extravagant way.

What dances did you dance as a child? Horseback riding? surfing? music ? How do you honor those things in your life these days?I am off to make dinner for my recovering DH. He requested linguine with clam sauce. I laughed when he asked because I really can make it in my sleep as it was a household staple when I was growing up and probably one of the first things I learned to cook! I even have fresh oregano growing in my tiny garden. There is an oregognome guarding it...truly..I'll post photos at another time!



I am off to make dinner for my recovering DH. He requested linguine with clam sauce. I laughed when he asked because I really can make it in my sleep as it was a household staple when I was growing up and probably one of the first things I learned to cook! I even have fresh oregano growing in my tiny garden. There is an oregognome guarding it...truly..I'll post photos at another time!

A Sense of Wonder !

I have been in love just black and white recently: charcoal ,Stabilo or just gel pens. I think it's part of a search for simplicity in the midst of everyday details that tend to distract and stress. I have been working on cleaning up, simplifying and caring for a few areas in my life. More yoga, less running; more veggies, less frozen food; more organization, less chaos. Chaos seems to arrive all by itself in regular doses. It is focusing on what really feeds your soul that seems to make life a blessing. I will be posting more on this as I am doing a lot of journal work on discovering just what it is that does really feed my soul. I have gotten to this tender age by rushing about madly, nursing a sick parent, raising a child, getting an education, moving all over the country without taking the time to ask myself what I am really all about.

Resources have been falling into my hands on all kinds of levels and I plan on sharing those, too. Living a creative life calls for taking in and receiving at least as much as one puts out. Deciding on just what does the feeding, then following through and actually doing it is what makes life worth living.

So I am working on Imagining the rest of this wild and wonderful life:  It's the balancing of the everyday wonders and the magic carpet of the imagination that makes my heart beat a little faster these days.

I LOVE my Stabilo pencil

OK, so what is a Stabilo pencil? It is a water soluble, rich, black pencil that you can smear with your fingers, blend with a wet brush or just draw with. If you use it to draw, say a face, then paint it with acrylics, all sorts of nice shading happens almost magically. These pages are in my art journal that I use to do demonstrations for a class I teach at the St. Louis Artists Guild every Monday morning. I will start a Saturday morning class in June so watch for info on that or check the guild website.

So, the demo last week was on how to do a pop-up page. we use discarded old books as recycled..upcycled (!) art journals. I usually glue two or more pages together to give them some body and then gesso them. In this case I drew a flower with my faithful Stabilo pencil, blended and accented it, then cut off all the excess paper just leaving the center part that I had drawn on. without the weight of the extra paper, the page just pops up! In this case I added a quote from Colette regarding memories of flowers..which is, after all, what a drawing of a flower really is if you think about it.

I had so much fun with one demo, I had to do two! This one I painted the gesso on very thinly so some of the original imagery appears softly in the background. this book is about ballet so there are dancers doing a little flower dance around my popped up poppy.

I really liked the sketchy effect of these drawings. It gives them a nice sense of life and immediacy. Me and my Stabilo are off to play together again today...This time with a bit more color and some collage. Mr. Stabilo, where ever you are: hugs, kisses and please don't ever discontinue these yummy pencils!

A real winner.....

This piece will be one of many amazing art works that will be available at the St. Louis Artist's Guild's Collector's Choice event. The opening party and chance to see all the works is on May 20 and the  bidding is on June 12. The ticket buys you a chance at one of the paintings and a great dinner as well as two great parties. If you are in St. Louis it is worth grabbing a ticket or two! This one was actually inspired by a trio of much smaller pieces I did some time ago. I decided not to part with them....but began a new series, which I am loving! I just finished another one yesterday and have a third background already done. I love these colors and shapes.there is always a sense of mystery about what lies beneath us. I actually worked as an archaeologist back in Texas and the entire concept of these lost secrets right below our everyday lives is enchanting to me. Trees seem to know it all. they are so much older than we are in some places and their very roots are tangled in those ancient mysteries. What tales they could tell, if we could only hear them? Sometimes when I am sitting beneath the trees in my backyard and the wind is just strong enough to set the leaves to whispering...especially in the Spring when a few blossoms can join in the conversation, I think I can here those stories. I try very hard to listen. It helps a great deal if you take off your shoes and wiggle your bare toes into the grass a bit..getting directly into the soil is even better. You can hear everything better and even colors and shapes seem brighter, stronger...even the wind. So these fine whisperings and secrets turn into images in my head and out comes a painting. Who says there is no such thing as alchemy? A recent description of my work that went out on the Internet via Somerset magazine included the fact that I taught Alchemy. YES!!! By gosh, I do and if you don't believe me stop by one of my classes ! The Saturday classes start up this summer and Monday mornings are the same time every week. Alchemy lessons!

So when my love of playing in the dirt and listening for tree songs really takes a hold, I dive in hands first and garden. I just added a new flower bed and enlarged my veggie garden. Last week I planted morning glories, poppies, a real fairy garden (it said so on the package...right from the Missouri Botanical Garden) all edges in a border of fragrant thyme. I thought this one should look good and smell good. I planted an old bird cage and stand right in the middle so the morning glories could climb up and around and make a little sanctuary in the center. Last year I had a toad living under the tomatoes. Every single day my furry friend, Demi would stop by and sniff around for that little toad, but he had his tomato sanctuary, all safe and sound. So new growth inspired the piece above. You can see the bulb with its roots has a story in it, if we look closely enough. We may not be able to understand the particulars, but we can get the idea. Imagination isn't necessarily making stories up. It is being open enough to the stories around you in Earth, Sky and Wind. It is being able to stop all the outside noise in order to hear the inside story. OK, maybe it is taking dirt and turning it into gold..alchemy of nature to alchemy of paint. I love it!!!!