The studio has gone to the dogs.

Winter's chill has crept into our bones, we're craving sun, and every little bit of greenery straining upward for warmth has us hoping spring is just right there.

So there's a bit of growling (and howling and gnashing of teeth) and perhaps a wild look in our eyes.  Is that a speck of saliva by the corner of your mouth?  Oh, it's got you, too, has it?

"We Are All Hard and Soft" - oil on Yupo, 12 x 17.  (click on the image to purchase)


​“The hard things break. The soft things bend. The stubborn ones batter themselves against all that is immovable. The flexible adapt to what is before them. Of course, we are all hard and soft, stubborn and flexible, and so we all break until we learn to bend and are battered until we accept what is before us. ― MARK NEPO, The Book of Awakening

it's an oft repeated theme with Nepo, this ​breaking until we learn to bend.  And with good reason.  Many of us (me! me!) are hard-headed stubborn types.  It takes a lot of repetition for wisdom to get through to the soft insides.  

Perhaps that's what intrigues me about this series of ballgown-bots - they are hard and soft.  Of course, the hard portion is the head.  The thoughts are steadfastly guarded with impenetrable helmets and shatter-proof orbs.  Hard even as the soft whisper of fabric flows around the rest of the body.  Fabric and fashion as a reminder to bend and accept.  Methinks I need a fancy dress. :)

At some point along the journey in this life, I decided life is a musical.

Everywhere there is a soundtrack, a little skip or dance, dramatic arm gestures and unexpected butterflies and moonbeams and thunderclaps, sorrowful ballads and curtains opened and closed.  Ben Caplan's song feels like the gritty musical theme to a wild rumpus in the studio.

This piece, a paint-over of another large character piece, captures a theme that has also persisted through much of my art life - moons and balloons.  Mystery and whimsy.  Who is this suited stranger?

"Soft Impulses" - oil on Yupo, 11.5 x 17 inches. (click on the image to purchase)

"...we can go below our hardened ways to the soft impulses that birth them. Instead of breaking the bone of our stubbornness, we can nourish the marrow of our feeling unheard. Instead of breaking the bone of our fear, we can cleanse the blood of our feeling unsafe. Instead of counting the scars from being hurt in the world, we can find and re-kiss the very spot in our soul where we began to withhold our trust.”― MARK NEPO, The Book of Awakening

Murderbot Month has ended, but still I wander in the land of  robots and cyborgs.  Nepo's words take us beneath the hardened exoskeleton of the artificial beings, down to the organic bits of our core.

Do you count the scars life has given?  Or go head to head with your fears?   Or try to break your own stubbornness? (me, me - I raise my hand - look at all these scars!)  I thought it worked - until it didn't.  I recently learned that it isn't enough - nope nope nope.  We've got to go below all of that; deeper, more vulnerable, more risky.  There's something at the core that wants nourishment, cleansing and kisses.  Go past that toughness, beyond the tenacity, leap over the strength and resilience until you land in the thick of it.

The irony is, you have to be tough to go there.  You need to be resilient to find the soft impulses.  Your strength is required to find, face and love what lies below our hardened ways.​  

So grab your backpack, stuff it full of your badassery, and let's go there.