Nowhere Fast


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.

Gift Horse

“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



“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.

I Am Willing


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


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

Crystal Clear

I am one of the lucky ones. At age 3 I proclaimed I was going to be an artist when I grew up and I never wavered. I knew the what and the why of my life, but it was after college that I learned I needed to figure out the where and the how. I consider myself a river person. I always felt the pull to flow to the valley of art, but that river has taken many twists and turns to get there. For to combine your deepest longing, your voice, your calling with the aspects of the real world, can be one of the most challenging missions.

I had waited enough tables to figure out that I needed to have a job at something at least partially art related. So I took anything I found that could increase my skills; sign painting, faux finish, massed produced paintings for time shares, cruise ships and flea markets. Anything. I became a scenic artist working for the theme parks in Orlando and then started a company doing large scale murals. The whole time I painted for me, trying to find a way to combine my voice with the seriousness and urgency of “making a living”. I finally starting showing “my” work in restaurants and gift shops and then gratefully in art festivals and galleries. I discovered that some people loved my art as much as I did. My river had made its way over the waterfall into the lake of “I’ve made it.”

My river continues to twist and turn its way through raising my 2 children and has recently slammed against the rocks of a global economic crisis. Things, as always, continue to change. I now show my work in galleries around the southeast and I’m learning the balancing act of having a career that I love and being the mother that I want to be for my children. What I know for sure is that “what I want to be when I grow up” is an ever flowing and changing process- no matter how crystal clear the water may be.

Artist Statement








The majority of my art work can be summarized as drawing and painting on fabric and paper collage. The subjects range from idealized faces and figures of women to landscapes, nature scenes and abstracts.

All the pieces begin with fabric and paper collage arranged, sewn and adhered to wood panels. The collages consist of any of the following; antique cloths, contemporary fabrics, antique dictionary pages, old children’s school books, atlases, architectural plans, wallpaper, tablecloths, napkins, lace, buttons, flowers, leaves and any variety of papers and 2D found objects. Over the collages, the drawings are done in charcoal and the work is painted with acrylics and mediums.

My intention is to weave an autobiographical tapestry invoking and addressing universal issues such as philosophy, spirituality, sexuality, motherhood and self-awareness. Most of the titles come from appropriate words found in the collage.

The joy in this process is the instinctual choices of rendering and harmonizing what I will cover up and what I will leave to be revealed.