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Build Your Wings on the Way Down

6/21/2021

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Build Your Wings on the Way Down (a work in process)
"Build Your Wings on the Way Down", 11 x 16, W.I.P

“If we listened to our intellect we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go in business because we'd be cynical: "It's gonna go wrong." Or "She's going to hurt me." Or,"I've had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore . . ." Well, that's nonsense. You're going to miss life. You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.” 
― Ray Bradbury
It's like Dorothy clicked her heels together and now we're going home. The malarkey maven and her little dog Wonder Mike are beginning THE BIG SHIFT, from one abode to another.  Or, as my wise friend says, to our new memory receptacle.

This move is a cliff jump.  I'm building wings on the way down.  While all this is happening, I've become fascinated by space helmets...which I think of as bubbles. At first I thought "huh, that's odd.  Why the helmets, Lola?"   And then the universe dropped this Bradbury quote in my laps and the lightbulb flashed inside the helmet, I was blinded for ten minutes, and then I got it.

Cliff jumping, to someone with a spine injury, is terrifying.
So as I metaphorically jump off a cliff, my brain grabs the nearest symbol of head protection (in case I land upside down) and begins to sketch it.  What a delightful place the brain can be!  

There will be a brief hiatus in the blog while the studio is disassembled and reassembled.  Fortunately, the living beings can remain intact throughout the process. :). But on the other side, dear reader, let's have some amazing adventures together! 

Congratulations to Carol E!!!!  You're Wonder Mike's chosen winner in last week's reader giveaway!  A piece of original art is heading your way.   Thank you for participating! xo
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Cemetery Worker

6/17/2021

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"Cemetery Worker" - pen and ink on paper, 16 x 11.  W.I.P.

Well, let me tell you, ants are the dominant insects. They make up as much as a quarter of the biomass of all insects in the world. They are the principal predators. They're the cemetery workers. - E.O. WILSON


And so it begins.

A new project with a loooooooooong lead time, but every good thing requires a first step.  This one demanded an ant.

I have a fondness for ants.  Partly due to E.O. Wilson's study of and appreciation for them, but also because, for most of my life, I have been the proverbial ant. 

Thinking ahead, planning and preparing for and working toward....something, always.
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Cemetery Worker
And my ant-ness has provided many good and steady things over my lifetime.  But it has left me with a shortage of naps in the sunshine (or the rain) wandering about, goofing off and giddiness, daydreaming and meandering.  I wholeheartedly embrace the rebalancing of Lola.  More naps, please.

Now Wonder Mike says I've become waaaaaaaaay too grasshopper-y in my embracing of the opposite end of insect fableness.  And he reminds me there has not been a reader giveaway in a good long while.  So leave a comment below - what is your experience with ant-ness and/or grasshopper-ness?  One lucky reader (to be chosen by Wonder Mike, of course) will receive an original piece of art.  Yahoo!
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Elektra (a sweet repeat)

6/14/2021

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Elektra
"Elektra" mixed media on gallery-wrapped canvas, 30" x 40" x 1.5". Ready to hang .  Available here.

Remember those days as a kid when you would leap into a pile of leaves, gather them in your arms, throw them in the air and watch them fall all around you?  

Remember not worrying about where the leaves would fall?  Not caring that the tidy piles needed raking again because the pure JOY of the falling leaves was worth the raking?

I am seeking the JOY in the falling leaves.

Malarkey-central is in a mild upheaval as artist and studio dog seek a new abode in a real estate market that makes every single step feel like it's on steroids.  The leaves are in the air, the wind has caught them, they swirl and scatter and I watch them dance in the sunlight.  

There will be much raking on the other side of this.
When this painting was created, I wrote:  Elektra means amber, shining, incandescent. And so we are, we humans. Shining and incandescent when sitting firmly in the pocket of our truth, our passion, our joy.  

I hope this day finds you glowing, dear reader.  And you  (yes YOU, you know who you are!) -  maybe turn down the wattage a little?  A person could get a sunburn next to your sparkly shine. :)
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Robert Pricklepin

6/8/2021

4 Comments

 
"Robert Pricklepin" - Mixed media on cradled wood panel. 12" x 12" x .75"  Ready to hang.  Available here and at Artfinder.

Find you and keep filling it up with more you. You don’t have to work to be loved. You just have to be you. May you be more and more you every day.  
​
- Auschwitz survivor, Dr. Edith Eger


This cutie pie nearly made it into the special event this past weekend.  He also nearly finished off the ice cream in the freezer, and nearly was tossed into the washing machine while napping in a pile of dirty clothes.

But he is just being himself, and more and more himself every day.  As I hope you are.  As I am trying to be.  Isn't it funny how challenging being yourself is?

Wonder Mike, for example, is not a fan of Lola being more Lola.  Because that means he has to do things like stay and heal.  Which is the business of being a dog.
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Robert Pricklepin
Sometimes we have to tend to the business of art.

Actually, it should be about 80% of our creative time...with the other 20% actually creating (if you're creating for a living).  So it really helps to get good tips from people who have sorted out some of the glitchy aspects of things, so that 80% isn't spent pulling your hair out and throwing your computer against the wall.

​ I was delighted to get a link to  this post from Thea at The Charmed Studio, which held my hand through the unexpectedly complicated process of adding a lovely photo signature to my email (want to see it?  Email me here.)

While I rush off to save Robert Pricklepin from the Roomba rushing toward him, let me know what your biggest business challenge is in your creative world.  Maybe we can get Thea to help us find the answer. :)
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Be Crumbled

6/4/2021

4 Comments

 
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Be Crumbled
​​"Be Crumbled" - watercolor and gouache on deep cradled aquabord, 16 x 20 x 2.  Sides are birch wood.    Ready to hang.  This is a RESERVE piece for the upcoming special event June 6-7 at Artistic Souls Gallery.


Be crumbled. 
So wild flowers will come up where you are. 
You have been stony for too many years. 
Try something different. 
Surrender.  
 - Rumi
This quote, in its many varied forms, has been tugging at me for a long while now. 

As I soften (crumble, erode, wear away), surrender becomes easier.  Almost (notice I said almost) embraceable.  I welcome the day when the urge to harden and throw up walls will disappear completely.  Stony-ness does not become me.  I'd rather be fodder for wild flowers growing willy-nilly.

​
About the art:  this piece is all about movement and freedom.  Using watercolor and watercolor crayons on deep cradled aquabord, loosely capturing a botanical feel while resisting the urge to overly define.  Coming across the watercolor with white gouache and allowing the underpainting to move.

If you haven't tried aquabord for water media, do give it a go.  It can be easily scrubbed back (unlike watercolor paper) and doesn't buckle.  Plus you can get it on a lovely cradle and ditch the framing.

The surface of this piece has been covered in cold wax and allowed to cure.

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the beauty of cradled aquabord!
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Here's the blue wild, where
tiny dreamers ride beasts, speak
​ birdsong, hold the moon.

(by poet Mary W. Cox)
​


​Art prints available on request
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