ILLUMINATA

Iluminata is a 20x 30 inch acrylic collage with much texture.  Joseph Campbell said that the artist is the one who communicates myth today. As I work I find that more and more something is working through me, and it is only when I let go and swing out far and wide that some message comes through. Often I cannot understand the language, but nevertheless I am excited to be on the path.
After teaching for years and telling my students to let go and let it be, I am finally learning the lesson.
Illuminata is framed in a black floating frame.

Illuminata

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My Mother's Creativity

'When the Ten Thousand Things are seen in their oneness, we return to the origin where we have always been" (Sengtsan


I love this quote and I love the photograph of the bursting milkweed pod from my mother's collection. My mother was an award-winning photographer and I am privileged to have "10,000" of her original slides.  As I have made my way through my own artistic journey, I have come to see that each work of art that we begin and create is made up of so very much of ourselves, our deep inner selves.  If I listen I can hear the piece I am working on talking to me, unfolding its secrets.  I learned long ago that every line we place on a piece of paper is a treasure and as such must be honored and respected. Often there are thousands of brush strokes, or lines in a drawing and we have to proceed slowly to see where they want us to go....to go too quickly is to not hear the song.


I never allowed erasers in my classrooms........

THE TEN THOUSAND THINGS

Escape into Whimsy

Escape into Whimsy

Whimsy is a flight of my imagination and a result of my love affair with paper and paint and just plain playing with my work. Whimsy won me an award and now sits proudly in a gallery. A grown-up version of my Uncommon Cards, Whimsy is made of hand painted and created papers and found objects. It is sort of a painting reconstructed.  Whimsy measures 9 x 20" and is framed in a shadow box.

MY UNCOMMON CARDS

The photos at the side are examples of my new project: Uncommon Cards. These are tiny jeweled masterpieces on card stock  accompanied by an envelope.
They are in two sizes: one is a gift tag size of 3" x 3" and the other regular card size: 4 1/2 " x 5 1/2 inches. They are also suitable for framing as each is an original and cannot be duplicated. These little art pieces have taught me a lot and as I do them it is easy to get lost in them. 

SOLSTICE

There is one of my favorite pieces.  Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge.  This is all imagination.  Once begun it chartered its own course out of my accumulated years of creative struggle.  The piece is acrylic collage under glass, 15 x 15 inches matted and framed.

Sometimes inspiration comes with a scene of peace.....and a memory jogged by a photo I took once just at that right moment....

SEA SINGS A STORM

The painting just below is Sea Sings a Storm. The title is from a haiku poem that I had written and seemed to fit. After many years of painting, my own creative process has brought me here.

Now, I never know where each painting will lead me. Indeed I can never create one again, each is a unique moment in time. There is the deep breath one takes to begin, then the song that plays itself out in the paint. I try to honor each moment, following the water, the color, the line, letting it lead me on. Sometimes there is a mud puddle and sometimes there is a surprise that begs for framing. That is why I love the writings of Dr. Seuss, as you can see I have written one of his quotes twice. Sea Sings a Storm has been sold from a gallery but thanks to the computer I can still let it speak to me.