A lot of parents will do anything for their children, except let them be themselves

~Banksy

I am into the final hours of preparation for my show, with all my work going to the gallery on Thursday. The kids are off school on Spring Break this week, so thankfully my parents offered to spend time with them and help me in anyway they could.

That is what my parents have always done....
encouraged and supported me in anyway they could,
to be who I am, and to do what I needed to do.

Yesterday, my Dad spent hours with me at the studio putting wires on my paintings, giving me some feedback on my paintings, talking about art and my career as an artist. It was probably one of the best afternoons of my life.

Here I was, in my own studio, with my dad, prepping for my FIRST solo show. My mom was only a couple blocks away, hanging out with my 3 kids at my house. All I could think was, "I am so grateful they are here to be a part of this excitement with me." 2 years ago my Dad had a double lung transplant and without it, he probably wouldn't be alive right now, and if he was alive, he certainly wouldn't have been well enough to be helping me prepare for my show.

They have listened respectfully, to all my philosophies of life, even as those ideas changed many times over the years, they encouraged and helped me forge a caricature career, they excitedly were there for the first grandchild and are still an enormous presence in all my children's lives and lastly and most importantly, I know they love me for who I really am,
completely.

Almost every time I draw caricatures someone says
"you are so lucky you can draw".
You know what?
That is not luck. That was hard work.

Luck,

was getting the remarkable parents that I have.

I just received the poster for my show. I can't tell you how exciting it is for me.
Events just look so official when you put them on a poster.

The show will contain 12 gallery stretched paintings, 10 altered art journals openly displayed on the walls and over one hundred of my filled art and written journals strung overhead.

Artist Statement

This is my life.
These are my words.
These are my thoughts.
This is what is inside of me.
These are all the colours I feel.
These are the images that speak to me.
These are the layers and textures I crave to touch.
These are the bits and splatters that I wake up to each day.
These are the books and the canvases that I have mopped up my life with.

This is who I am.

Making the decision to have a child—it is momentous.
It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around
outside your body."
~Elizabeth StoneHappy 14th birthday Ryllan

I am so excited to see what memories you and I
will gather together in Spain.

I love you.

Detox Day 2

I bought this cereal with the catchy title, specifically for this detox, and I have to say I really like it. Its filled with organic chia, hulled hemp hearts, organic buckwheat, organic cranberries, apple bits and cinnamon.

You only only use 2 Tbsp (added to 4 Tbsp of soy, hemp or rice milk) in a serving which isn't a lot, but works as a PERFECT addition to the 24 ounces of fresh juice that I am drinking for breakfast and takes the hunger edge off completely. That 2 Tbsp contains 23% of your daily fibre value, 13% of your Iron, and 8% of your protein. Its quite expensive (I think about $12) but the taste is really nice and this one bag will most likely last me the entire detox.

I am not going to write out everything I consumed today because a lot of it was similar to yesterday. A few different things like gluten free bread and cucumbers with black bean dip, lentil soup and avocado.

Still feeling good, moments of pure exhaustion and some major hunger pangs today, purely because ran out of snacks for myself while doing a lot of kid stuff this afternoon.

I know that I will begin to crave some "heavier" proteins soon, and definitely some wine but its only for 19 more days.

Detox Day 1

I feel surprisingly good. Thought for sure I would get a headache but never did. Tried to take it easy, really listen to my mind and body and do whatever I felt like doing. So I wrote and painted. Felt exhausted in the mid afternoon at the studio, so curled up in my green chair for a small snooze. Also felt exhausted and mentally foggy after dinner but after I laid down again for about a half hour and it went away.

What I consumed today

Morning

• Moroccan mint tea- (3 cups)
• Juice- kale, spinach, romaine lettuce, broccoli stems, cucumber, carrot, celery, green apple, beet (About 24 ounces)

Afternoon

• Romaine lettuce salad with tomatoes and vegan Ranch dressing
• brown rice bun with roasted red pepper hummus
• banana
• red gala apple
• Juice- kale, spinach, romaine lettuce, cucumber, carrot, celery, green apple, beet (about 16 ounces)

Evening

• brown rice bowl smothered with lightly steamed broccoli and cauliflower and Thai sesame dressing
• organic greens salad with vegan dressing-garlic and sun dried tomato
• Juice-green apple, orange, and pineapple (8 ounces)
• glass of sparkling mineral water
  

*Also about 4-5 glasses of water throughout the day.

And going to bed by 10:30!

Life is short.

Live like you mean it.

"Living simply is not about living in poverty or self-inflicted deprivation. It's about living an examined life where one has determined what is truly important and enough … and then just let go of all the rest. "
— Duane Elgin

By last December, I was really burnt out.

Years of working REALLY hard had worn me down....

caricature gigs,

commissions and magazine layout work,

teaching classes and workshops,

pursuing my painting and creative pursuits,

all the responsibilities of life with 3 young children,

taking care of a house (and all the things that go along with that),

having a commercial studio space to also maintain and pay for

......all on VERY little sleep (average of 4-5 hours per night)

Unhealthy coping habits had become the norm.

By December 2010, I knew I wanted to make some changes.

So I decided that I was going to make 2011,

the year that I began to completely realign and

reorganize my life again

for a purpose.

These are the things I have done so far this year towards this:

• I completely de-cluttered and simplified our home, our life and my studio.
• I stepped back from all my art for a bit and thought about what parts of it excited me and what parts drained me. I am still in the process of redefining the areas in my art career that I want to expand, in alignment with the art I produce purely for income.
• I analysed my "time" habits and saw where hours were leaking out. I then figured out the boundaries I would need to make to get the full use of my time aimed towards what I really wanted.
• I devised a new daily pattern that invested my time in my dreams FIRST in the day, instead of later.

Then a couple of weeks ago,

I stumbled upon Kris Carr and her crazy sexy life story

in a magazine article and something about her intriqued me.

I love to be intriqued by people,

because they always have something to teach me.

So I looked more at her website crazysexylife.com

and her amazing cancer healing story.

The things that struck me the most though,

was that nothing I read about how she got healthy was new to me.

It was about juicing and whole foods and living with less stress etc,

things I had read about for the past 20 years.

The thing that struck me this time,

was that I felt like I finally knew what I needed to do.

In your late 40's you know that physical health and vibrancy has a lot to do with your eating habits and your lifestyle and I was aware that although I wasn't feeling negative results from the way I was living yet, it was probably only a matter of time.

So today to start with,

I begin her 21 day detox and

I guess we'll see where this takes me.....

Choosing a painting to be the one "image" of a show

is as difficult as choosing a favorite child.
I bond with each one differently for very specific reasons
but love them all intensely the same.

This is the painting I have chosen to represent my upcoming solo show.
It is called The Secret of the Singing Heart.
(which is the text from a book page on the treasure box
that is hanging from the painting.)

A close second was this painting called The Blue Chair...
Honestly though, many of them were a close second.