artist

Good Fortune Be With You

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Good Fortune Be With You is a continuation on the theme of Raising the World. Both of these pieces are being considered for placement at the South Lake Hospital in Clermont, Florida and I wanted to include inspirational words and ideas to inspire the patients, their families and the staff that help these people. I want these two pieces to be about healing.
Once again, I am using phrases in the work to complement the contemplative nature of the piece. The words on it are small, giving the person in front of the painting a visual experience both near and far from the piece. Since the painting is 5’ x 4’ and my camera can not catch these words clearly, I am using this format (for you web viewers) to dictate the words. Small cards and scraps read;
“Good Fortune Be With You”
“How Foolish I was to travel without”
“X Gratitude
X Joy
X Love”
“Laugh everyday with Joy”
“Live everyday with Curiosity”
“Love everyday with Passion”
“Be everything you dream to be”
“Make the most of your life”
“Dance like no one is watching”
Good Fortune Be With You is 5’ x 4’ charcoal, acrylic, fabric and paper collage on 4 wood panels.

Good Fortune Be With You

Raising the World

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I wish I could write as comfortably as I can draw. Since I believe that practice is what makes you better I continue to blog about my work and have started using more words in the paintings. I borrow and edit quotes, phrases and lyrics from words that inspire me. I can only express my gratitude to these authors by saying that I stand on the shoulders of giants.
My new painting Raising the World has these phrases collaged onto them;
“The most beautiful action in the world is to love- Bertha Von Suttner”, “Remind Me of what I Love” and a Baking Powder Ad that reads, “Best on Earth-A Gift with Each Can-Miles Baking Powder-Raising the World.” I just love the ad with the can raising the Earth. Using these words gave me a moment of clarity. Love and art are the baking powder of our world! You could say that our basic needs, food, shelter, safety, security, constitute the main ingredients in our lives. Art and self actualization and above all else, LOVE, help us ‘rise’ to the occasion of our best lives and become more of ourselves.
Raising the World is 5’ x 4’ charcoal, acrylic, fabric and paper collage on 4 wood panels.

Raising The World

Just the Same

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Sometimes when I paint a piece, the inspiration comes from the music I’m listening to when I’m working. Just the Same was painted while listening to KT Tunstall’s album, Eye to the Telescope, over and over. Many of the songs lyrics are a part of this painting. They helped me create a composite story and face. The song that resonated most true for me and during the making of this piece was the song Universe & U. I really believe that the people in our lives are there to teach us about ourselves. Thank you, Ms Tunstall, for putting to music, the story of friendship.
"Universe & U" by KT Tunstall

A fire burns
Water comes
You cool me down
When I'm cold inside
You are warm and bright
You know you are so good for me
With your child's eyes
You are more than you seem
You see into space
I see in your face
The places you've been
The things you have learned
They sit with you so beautifully

You know there's no need to hide away
You know I tell the truth
We are just the same
I can feel everything you do
Hear everything you say
Even when you're miles away
Cause I am me, the universe and you

Just like stars burning bright
Making holes in the night
We are building bridges

You know

When you're on your own
I'll send you a sign
Just so you know
I am me, the universe and you

Just The Same

Nowhere Fast

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I wanted to do a piece about the ridiculousness of listening to your own thoughts. I mean really. When I am aware enough to acknowledge the differences between the ego and the spirit the way Eckart Tolle observed when he had the thought “I can’t live with myself anymore”, I find my ego is pretty clever at letting the negativity, the doubt, the frustration and the anger creep back in. Luckily, my spirit knows enough to keep bringing me back to the present moment. I know that “Your judgments about others become YOUR prescription for how to live.-Byron Katie.” And I know that “only when you dwell in the awareness in your relationships, can you rid your ego of the wanting.-Eckart Tolle” I am learning everyday that “Once you see the ego for what it is, it becomes much easier to remain non-reactive toward it. You don’t take it personally anymore.-more fabulous Tolle” Like the woman on the left, I am ready to turn this ship around in any direction it needs to go. I am ready to go along for the ride.

Nowhere Fast

Gift Horse

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“Looking a gift horse in the mouth” is one of those expressions that always made me laugh, so I googled it. Turns out, horses used to be evaluated by their age and their age was determined by their teeth, specifically, how ‘long in the tooth’ they were. I find it ironic that this has evolved to become an expression for “being grateful for what you get.” Is it essential or prudent for us to determine a value on the things given to us? Is it necessary to determine a worth on the things that are ‘gifts’? Is this level of evaluation actually being ungrateful? Maybe we should stop looking our gift horses in the mouth and instead start looking them in the eye and just saying “thank you”.


Gift Horse

Piecing It Together

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“Piecing It Together” originated from a photo of my grandmother Helen and her sister, Julie, working on a puzzle. On the back of the photo, in my grandmother’s handwriting, she wrote “1943 and still at it”. The image and the quote got me thinking about how we spend are lives doing just that; piecing it together and figuring it out. The silhouetted bird represents the things we do and think that hold us back and prevent us from seeing the complete picture. The irony of it all is that the key to piecing together the big picture is usually hiding right in front of us in plain sight. This 4' x 6' painting is charcoal, acrylics, fabric and paper collage on 6 wood panels.

Piecing It Together

I Am Willing

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If being what you already are is step one, then the next move in my mind was to get rid of what was not me. Willing came about after painting over 2 unsuccessful past paintings and letting the flow take me in a new direction. My last piece, Be What You Already Are, was so tight and controlled, so the pendulum swung in the direction of messy. It was a joyous experience. I didn't think. Just painted. The letters for 'I Am Willing' can be found in small scrabble letters (giving me a 16 point sentence) and the face grew out of the work that now lives beneath the paint. We are both surrendering and smiling.


Willing

First Day of School

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Well sort of... Nate started school today. Nick started 2 weeks ago, so I had a jump start on my first new work of the school year. The collage and drawing were done this weekend, and I painted today. It came flying out of me like a cork from a champagne bottle. I'm back.

The painting is called 'Be What You Already Are' which is a quote from Eckhart Tolle. The piece is about shedding the ego, youthful expectations and the roles we play, and uncovering the true spirit that resides underneath. Finding yourself. Again. And Again. And Again. I took the mask of Mom off for a whole 3 hours today. And the spirit of Mom underneath is still smiling.


Be What You Already Are