Our Christmas Day walk...

Walking Home from Oak-Head

There is something
about the snow-laden sky
in winter
in the late afternoon

that brings to the heart elation
and the lovely meaninglessness
of time.
Whenever I get home - whenever -

somebody loves me there.
Meanwhile
I stand in the same dark peace
as any pine tree,

or wander on slowly
like the still unhurried wind,
waiting,
as for a gift,

for the snow to begin
which it does
at first casually,
then, irrepressibly.

Wherever else I live -
in music, in words,
in the fires of the heart,
I abide just as deeply

in this nameless, indivisible place,
this world,
which is falling apart now,
which is white and wild,

which is faithful beyond all our expressions of faith,
our deepest prayers.
Don't worry, sooner or later I'll be home.
Red-cheeked from the roused wind,

I'll stand in the doorway
stamping my boots and slapping my hands,
my shoulders
covered with stars.

~ Mary Oliver ~

to my Kieran...photo by Mark Dobbelsteyn

having you in my life makes me the luckiest mom in the world.

Happy 8th birthday my sweet boy.

I love you all the way to Pluto...
(and back).
~Mom

Some more of my favourite live drawings from one of my gigs...

I wish you sunshine on your path
and storms to season your journey.
I wish you peace in the world in which you live...
More I cannot wish you except perhaps love to make all the rest worthwhile.

~Robert A. Ward

Painting drip people has been consuming a lot of my energy lately
...on altered books, birch panels and clipboards.

Tonight, sitting here,
I realized how much those random splotches
(where the paint used to be)
are like our lives....
in that the defining shape and length of our life
happens totally at random,
without our choice or control.

I guess all we can do is colour in
the space and time that we are given,
as individually and courageously
as we can.

More live drawing
Thanks to Jan Barton for being my wonderful assistant, driving companion
and photographer last night in Redwater...

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle
or the mirror that reflects it.

Edith Wharton (1862 - 1937)

Once again I drew at the magnificent La Chance Party at "100" on Sunday
and enjoyed every minute...

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900 - 1944)

My perfect space...

I have been working in my studio for about 5 months now and I LOVE it. Right across the street is the school that my children attend—out my front window you can see the school, the park, the playground and our community hall. My kids come for lunch at the studio and sit at the front counter, watching the world of our neighborhood go by. We play their favourite hip hop music, eat lunch, talk about the morning at school and watch for the kids who stay for lunch, to come out to the playground to play. Now that we have snow (TONS of snow), we have been tobogganing at the hill on the playground and soon will be skating at the community hall and then rushing back to the studio for hot chocolate.

When I tell people who come for classes at my studio about how I only live a block and a half away from the studio and that my kids go to school across the street, they inevitably say "Wow that is so perfect"....and you know what...it really is!

Having the studio has allowed my "roles" in life, as a mother and an artist, to finally begin to compliment instead of struggle against each other.

Timeless As we look deeply within,
we understand our perfect balance.
There is no fear of the cycle of birth, life and death.
For when you stand in the present moment,
you are timeless.
~Rodney Yee

That is what marriage really means:
helping one another to reach the full status of being persons,
responsible and autonomous beings who
do not run away from life.

~Paul Tournier

Happy Anniversary Mark!

Of all the great things in my life
(and there are many)
meeting you 18 years ago today,
and then marrying you 16 years ago today,
tops the list.

You are the most amazing man I have ever known.
and I love you deeply.

My hands caught in an act of love...

photo by Jeremy Schindel

I love drawing people. When I draw,

my whole body smiles.

Wine and Cartoon Portraits...
every year Che hires me to draw at his Christmas customer appreciation evening at Baseline Wine and Spirits, in Sherwood Park.
Its a wonderful and enjoyable drawing event every year.
Here are some pics...

These two dripped into the studio last night...

Reaching for...

I am impressed by the amount of definitions attributed to the word "reach". How wonderful that a simple 5 letter word can adapt itself to millions of sentences, each with its own flavor of the word.
My favorites:

• To make an excessive effort, as in drawing a conclusion or making a joke
• To have extension in space or time: a coat that reaches to the knee; a career that reached over several decades.
• To succeed in getting in contact with or communicating with: They reached us by phone. Our newsletter reaches a specialized readership.
• An expanse: a reach of prairie; the lower reaches of the food chain.
• To try to grasp or touch something: reached for a book.

I always need to be reaching for something...

You are a product of your environment.
So choose the environment that will
best develop you toward your objective.
Analyze your life in terms of its environment.
Are the things around you helping you toward success
- or are they holding you back
~Clement Stone

I just LOVE my studio!

Verba volant scripta manent

"spoken words fly. written words remain"
Words...

bursting from within...
caressing her,
filling her,
begging to provide
what life does not.

So many words.

She craved to share them with those
who might understand,
not only what they meant
but more importantly,
why they needed
to be said.

The energy
created in those
secret conversations
fed her artistic soul.

You know, I have been thinking a lot about the word "focus" lately. Since getting back from the ISCA convention in Ohio, my focus has mostly refused to return to work and instead has been wandering around the internet, enjoying the convention afterglow, soaking up distraction like a sponge, in a creative, yet undisciplined and headstrong way.

In art or more specifically in a painting, the focus is the area of the painting with the highest level of contrast or conflict. However in life, we demand our focus to be the area that we select, on any given day, at the whim of our responsibilities. The thing is, sometimes the areas in our life of bright contrast or conflict often have something valuable to teach us when we actually do take the time to really allow our attention to rest there. Sometimes we need to crawl up and snuggle right into that distraction even if its not instantly "profitable" or time "justifiable", because the elements of personal investment and/or career enhancement are not always recognizable in advance.

Now at 45, when I look back at all the things that pulled my attention away from the things I thought I should be focusing on, I realize that allowing myself to be distracted by what moves me is what has gotten me to where I am today.

Feeling alive...There are rules in art.
It takes knowledge and skill
to know what those rules are and why they exist.
It takes mastery to know
when you can break or alter them
without destroying your piece of art.

Life
is exactly the same....

A quick felt pen commission piece...

Mosaic tile mural in my bathroom... (someday)...this is what happens when I procrastinate on getting my computer layout work done.

Look at your feet. You are standing in the sky.
When we think of the sky, we tend to look up, but the sky actually begins at the earth.

~ Diane Ackerman

I was given the Kreativ Blogger award by Belgian artist Jan Baptist.
(Thanks Jan!)

Here is how it works:
Remember the rules for the Kreativ Blogger award is to list 7 things about you
(so we can get to know you a bit better)
and pick 7 deserving artists to pass it along to.

So first... 7 things about me:

1). My arms do not straighten completely.
2). I was the president of my High School in my final year.
3). I wore large metal and wooden braces on my legs 24 hours a day for an entire year when I was 3, and if I hadn't, I would have had one leg significantly longer than the other.
4). I played basketball 3-4 hours a day between the ages of 12-20, and I was a starting player on my college basketball team.
5). I believe anything is possible.
6). My hair is naturally almost black in colour.
7). I love to be around (or talk to) people who know secret things.

Now 7 blogs of people who have inspired me:

1. Michelle Allen
2. Misty Mawn
3. Jason Seiler
4. Kelly Rae Roberts
   
5. Steven Silver
6. Teesha Moore
7. Keri Smith
   

Please check out their sites —absolutely amazing work, thoughts and inspiration.

Ohio

Cleveland airport Sunday night.

What a week! I just arrived home early this morning from Sandusky, Ohio where I attended the annual ISCA (International Society of Caricature Artists) convention. I am exhausted but still vibrating with inspiration of being around such unbelievable talent for the last 7 days. I can't deny that its also about the energy of being around people that you really connect with.

I spent 1o hours in airports and on planes yesterday and since I resolved in Sandusky to start sketching more, I started a new sketchbook...
I already can't wait till next year...

Express your self...

Life is just so much fun.

"We can know nothing about what is outside us if we overlook ourselves," he thinks now. "The universe is the mirror in which we can contemplate only what we have learned to know in ourselves"

~Italo Calvino's Mr. Palomar

Even the fear of death is nothing compared to
the fear of not having lived authentically and fully.

~Frances Moore Lappe,