Latest Work

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For the last few weeks I have been working on a painting using a new type of canvas (to me) made of Belgian linen. It is incredibly smooth, and the paint glides on and blends beautifully. So I chose a palette and began to see what emerged. Two nights ago, I dreamt that I was pregnant. Most of the time I don’t recall dreams, so when I do, it has import. This dream felt so real. When I awoke, I was holding my stomach the way I did when I carried my daughter, feeling it taut and firm with life.

I finished the painting today. Sometimes when I paint I have an idea. Other times, as with this one, I start without an idea and work intuitively, without thinking and analyzing. Then I step back and see what I see.

This painting reflects a deep, intuitive exploration of the divine feminine within me and the earth. It makes me think of molten earth, the core of our existence. I also see a womb with an embryo, and an ovary, and the blood that makes the ground from which we arise.

I have gone through menopause in the past year, and now I am a crone. But while my physical body cannot create a human life anymore, I have graduated to creating life on a larger scale.

I want to thank my father for his recent gift that enabled me to purchase larger canvases!

praise her from whom all being flows / 24" x 36" acrylic on linen canvas

Praise Her From Whom All Being Flows / 24″ x 36″ acrylic paint on linen canvas

The Kind of Mystery

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“This old Chippewa I know – he’s about seventy-five years old – said to me, “Did you know that there are people who don’t know that every tree is different from every other tree?” This amazed him. Or don’t know that a nation has a soul as well as a history, or that the ground has ghosts that stay in one area. All this is true, but why are people incapable of ascribing to the natural world the kind of mystery that they think they are somehow deserving of but have never reached?”

– Jim Harrison
the hammock papers

via WhiskeyRiver

Santa Revelations

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We knew this day would come. We didn’t think it would be Christmas Eve. Bean began articulating suspicions a year ago. This year her friend in class has been arguing for weeks that Santa isn’t real. So, she began asking pointed questions. But she would ask the question and immediately follow with a rationale for why it couldn’t be us, before I could answer. Knowing it was coming, I cribbed this letter from someone else. Today she told her dad, “Please tell me, I really have to know.” So the letter was given, and we talked after. There can be a relief in knowing, even though there is sadness. (Possibly more for me than her!) Bean took it all in stride, with a maturity that I see evolving.

However, she says she still believes in the Easter Bunny (because she has the proof of a letter from him) and Tooth Fairy (because what parent would want to handle a bloody tooth, and keep them?), and that dragons are real.

Baby steps.

santa revelations

Sources:
No Longer Believing in Santa

Mom Tells Son the Meaning of Santa

The Feel of the World

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“Sensations, from the beginning, involve a sort of doing. This means that, in an important sense, it is your doing self that brings your core self into being. You are responsible at the very deepest level for what it feels like to be you. But then, for your next trick, well, how about spreading some of that soul dust onto the things around you? Remember, too, that it is your mind that projects phenomenal qualities onto external objects. If you only knew it, you yourself are responsible for the feel of the world.”

– Nicholas Humphrey
Soul Dust: The Magic of Consciousness

Meet Skittles

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skittles the christmas spider

Skittles the Christmas Spider

And now, the Legend of the Christmas Spider

On Christmas eve, a long time ago, a gentle mother was busily cleaning the house for the most wonderful day of the year… Christmas day, the day on which the little Christ child came to bless the house. Not a speck of dust was left. Even the spiders had been banished from their cozy corner on the ceiling. They had fled to the farthest corner of the attic.

The Christmas tree was beautifully decorated. The poor spiders were frantic, for they could not see the tree, nor be present for the little Christ child’s visit. Then the oldest and wisest spider suggested that perhaps they could wait until everyone went to bed and then get a closer look.

When the house was dark and silent, the spiders crept out of their hiding place. When they neared the Christmas tree, they were delighted with the beauty of it. The spiders crept all over the tree, up and down, over the branches and twigs and saw every one of the pretty things.

The spiders loved the Christmas tree. All night long they danced in the branches, leaving them covered with spider webs. In the morning, when the little Christ child came to bless the house, he was dismayed! He loved the little spiders for they were God’s creatures, but he knew the mother, who had worked so hard to make everything perfect, would not be pleased when she saw what the spiders had done.

With love in his heart and a smile on his lips, the little Christ child reached out and gently touched the spider webs. The spider webs started to sparkle and shine! They had all turned into sparkling, shimmering silver and gold.

According to legend, ever since this happened, people have hung tinsel on their Christmas trees. It has also become a custom to include a spider among the decorations on the Christmas tree.

Indivisible: Resisting Trump

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This is making the rounds.

Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda

We wrote this guide because we believe that the coming years will see an unprecedented movement of Americans rising up across the country to protect our values and our neighbors. Our goal is to provide practical understanding of how your MoCs think, and how you can demonstrate to them the depth and power of the opposition to Donald Trump and Republican congressional overreach. This is not a panacea, nor is it intended to stand alone. We strongly urge you to marry the strategy in this guide with a broader commitment to creating a more just society, building local power, and addressing systemic injustice and racism.

Born of Water

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If you see only a square, click the image to see the entire painting.

Aphrodite's Birthplace / 12" x 36" canvas with acrylic $35/$50/$80

Aphrodite’s Birthplace / 12″ x 36″ canvas with acrylic

There are two Aphrodites. In one version, she is born of Zeus and Dione, and is known as Aphrodite Urania. This goddess was considered more spiritual, more celestial or heavenly, or pure. The other goddess is Aphrodite Pandemos (of the people). She was associated with sensual pleasure of the body. She was born when Cronus cut off Uranus’s genitals and threw them into the sea, and she arose from the sea foam (aphros). She was also worshipped as a being uniting all the inhabitants of a country into one social or political body.

So love, erotic energy, desire arise from a place of chaos and violence. This feels fitting to me in light of the recent presidential election.

The Plan Behind the Safety Pin

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While the idea of wearing a safety pin as a symbol to the marginalized that one is a safe person, it’s more than a symbol. This article provides excellent guidance about the intention behind it and how to act. Such as:

  • Are you willing to help all marginalized groups? You don’t get to pick and choose.
  • Do you have a plan? Who will engage with people, and who will film what’s happening?
  • Do you know how to de-escalate situations?
  • Are you willing to be beaten defending another person?
  • If you have children with you, are you willing to risk their safety?

The author says, “…the safety pin is a good idea but if you are going to wear it, you need to know that it is more than an idea. It is a visible, tangible announcement of your commitment to defend the rights and dignity of your fellow human. If you are not willing to follow that announcement up with action, rethink making the announcement.”

So You Want to Wear a Safety Pin

Grief

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Everything I tried to create this morning went wrong. I couldn’t step into flow. I was agitated and disgusted with election results. A couple of snarky comments on my Facebook feed by two “friends” didn’t help. Their candidate won, and they showed no attempt to understand why I took the loss so deeply. I try to rise above base reactions, but at the end of the day, I decided to “unfriend” them. I took care of my heart.

After I left the failed attempts to make art this morning, I returned in the afternoon. I managed to get a little something made, and it was good to find the flow and lose myself in it.

six little fish / 5" x 7" canvas with acrylic

Six Little Fish / 5″ x 7″ canvas with acrylic

I Cannot Believe

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This is not the United States I thought I lived in. I am ASHAMED of this country.

What I learned on #ElectionNight: Being a racist, bigoted, prejudiced, lying sexual predator is still more acceptable than being a woman.

-Allen Clifton

What’s even more demoralizing is knowing how hard Hillary’s worked and how qualified she is, and yet… And every woman knows this feeling.

-Anne T. Donahue

A perfect ending to the tale that asks how averse is America to being led by a woman who they don’t want to fuck.

-Paula Pell

More Autumn Fun

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In this piece I was experimenting with new materials: gel medium, collage, iridescent paint. I was aiming for a feeling of layering and translucence. It was difficult to create and to photograph! Something didn’t feel right about it, and still doesn’t. But it came through me, and whether I like it or not, someone else might.

late autumn fun

Late Autumn Fun / 10″ x 10″ mixed media on canvas

The National Park Service Rocks

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Some years ago, Bean received a Junior Ranger Night Explorer booklet. I think it was at Bryce Canyon. She didn’t have a chance to complete it during our camping trip, so we brought it home.

A couple of years later, while at Glacier National Park, she completed the booklet. However, they didn’t have any on hand. So I began a search to find someone, someplace at the NPS to help us. I tried a few phone calls and emails to people I was referred to at the NPS directory, but no answer came.

Then one day I read someone’s blog that described getting one at Badlands National Park. So I called the office and spoke to the ranger. She told me to send the booklet to her attention and after review, it would be sent back with the patch. I mailed it off August 17, 2016.

Nothing came. Time passed. Still, nothing. September flew through our lives. We entered October. I gave it up as lost. I figured by now the park has closed for the season, so the earliest we’d ever see anything was in spring, if ever. Today, I came home to this in the mail:

jrranger1

We did a happy dance! Bean opened the envelope:

jrranger2

The booklet and my letter were enclosed. At first we thought that was it. Nothing else was in the envelope. Then the patch slipped out from the pages of the booklet. Happiness!

jrranger3

We give props to the staff at Badlands National Park for helping us!

jrranger4

Almost All Squared

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Two of the last three paintings have been done on 10″ x 10″ canvas. Very different energies. One painting started one way and took an entirely different direction. The other unveiled itself entirely at the beginning. The third painting is tiny, and it too was conceived whole. All are available for purchase.

after the storm / 10" x 10" canvas with acrylic

After the Storm / 10″ x 10″ canvas with acrylic

Available for purchase: $40-$80 (+ shipping if out of area)
Buy It Now

full moon summer twilight / 10" x 10" canvas with acrylic

Full Moon Summer Twilight / 10″ x 10″ canvas with acrylic

Available for purchase: $40-$80 (+ shipping if out of area)
Buy It Now

time to fly / 4" x 5" canvas with acrylic

Time to Fly / 4″ x 5″ canvas with acrylic

Available for purchase: $10-$20 (+ shipping if out of area)
Buy It Now

I Am a Nasty Woman

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Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton “such a nasty woman” in the last debate, and with that, women rose up to embrace what he meant as an insult. In fact, calling her a “nasty woman” is just a shade cleaner and more acceptable than saying what he probably thought: cunt. When men feel viscerally threatened and rendered powerless by a woman they often resort to dismissing her by reducing her to that one body part.

If having agency over her life, speaking up, insisting on the right to take up space and be heard, asserting her rights as an equal, deciding that only she can make decisions about her health and body, and refusing to be defined by men’s expectations makes a woman nasty, then count me in. I am a nasty woman too.

I finished this painting just before the last debate. I called it The Alchemy of Feminine Wisdom. It is available for purchase. Just inquire.

the alchemy of feminine wisdom / 12" x 24" canvas with acrylic

The Alchemy of Feminine Wisdom / 12″ x 24″ canvas with acrylic