Shut down

It's been a sad summer. Two of my favorite people died.  Two very good folks who make me
smile just to think of their voices.

I shut down for awhile. Went inside. Then I saw this cloth Jude Hill made. It woke me up.

I can't explain why but it opened me up. Took my camera outside and caught the
sunflowers in various stages of opening, following, closing and dropping their heads.  Nature
again leading me back to balance. Someone making art that opens another from grief.

 Getting back up a little wiser to how important others are-before it's too late to tell them.

At my friend, Laura's funeral looking around at the greying heads of our contemporaries. Of
my community, where I live, people she linked and laughed with and cared about.

Walt's smiling face next to his wife in a photo.  Real good folks. I'm so happy to have them
in my life. I'll hold their laughter and voices in my heart forever. And I'm going to go outside
and open up a little more.

Patience

After 13 years our peony bushes have bloomed! I had read they were persnickity about depth,
soil, water, etc but had no idea how long they would take. Kind of like those long dry spells when
my hands forget how to make. I'm in the middle of one of these long spells with time and opportunity
but no momentum. Wish I could just follow steps a, b and c to get back in the groove.

I was in the sun room last week when a female titmouse slammed into the window. I went out
to see if I could help and she was lying on her side grasping a small rock. Her mate was nearby
and making a crisis type of sound. So, I picked her up and sat with her at the table, gently stroking
her back and speaking soothing words, hoping to will her back. Her mouth was open and eyes not
blinking, perky little head tuft back. Her mate and I waited until she blinked, closed her mouth
and put up her tuft before flying away. I can't describe how happy this made me!

Being unable to work is kind of like being stunned or in a daze.  When I'm in it I feel I'm wasting
time when I could be making. I just want to get back into that place where my hands know what's
next. I guess it's like flying or blooming...beyond words or instructions.

What the...?

This showed up on the security camera today. I think it's a female cardinal looking for nesting
places (the camera looks like a tree with a hole in it). Very strange image.

More, please?

This cardinal has been walking on the long window sill occasionally bumping the window this
dreary morning. I could swear he's asking for the feeder to be filled!

This weekend's work

This is one of the mixed media I'm working on now using old photos and Lynne Hoppe's
tutorial as well as several other books. I was telling a new friend this morning that for each of
these old photo folks I put a copy of  the photo, info on the back, etc, into a sketchbook. Then I
'visit' these people as I add layers of expression, listening to stories that come to me. Some
cultures prohibit photos of people as it 'captures the spirit'. I believe it does.

 I recommend the Pitt artist pen (marker with a nice pointed tip that makes organic lines).
I found the more 'perfect' (zig, for example) markers' line doesn't work as well with my other
 random marks.

Here are some of the finished Kami/Santos with local bird friends perching on them. Lynne's
techniques were a great resource in the glazing/layering of expression on these guys. The
ugly guy holding the earth in the middle is Uranus, Gaia's consort. She's much taller but
headless in this photo.

There she is top left, next to the Mariposa (butterfly) Madonna. Gosh, the surfaces could use
some matting down even tho I used matte acrylic. Today's to do list....

The great liberation

For about 30 years I've hoarded collected vintage photos. My life was semi nomadic for several
years, settling into a small apt above my craft shop in 1994. I learned to collect small things if
anything at all. Buttons, old photos, lace, etc. Treasures I could move in my car. Lately I wonder
at all the shifting of stuff I must do just to keep the floor clean. It's like being chained to the earth
by boxes of stuff. So....

Opie and I are going thru all of the boxes of photos and saving about 1% of them for drawings.
The rest I'm sending out to friends who'd like them and selling lots on Etsy. If you're interested,
I'll be listing them in the next week or so a few lots at a time.  I'd really like them to fly off to
new homes.

I have a very small box filled with the photos to draw and paint. These folks have lived long
enough in boxes. They still have stories to tell. And I'm left with this precious box of stories.

Kami coming to life

I found Lynne Hoppe's tutorial on painting faces which inspired me to finish these figures.
Out here in the country I feel the spirit of this place. Kind of like Kami in Japan - spirits
of nature.