My energy is back & I am all over the map- I have 4 color swatches painted 1 foot by 1 foot on my family room wall- it’s spring & time for a color change. I look at all the books, paintings etc. that have to be moved and wonder hmmm..maybe I’ll just live with big color swatches on the wall- its not the painting part- it is the prep- moving stuff, taping off all of the wood etc. that is sooo time consuming!! But by putting the color on the wall I have kind of forced myself into committing to a paint job! I work best under pressure- even if it is only from myself!

I have 3 projects going in the studio- one an assemblage about HOME- home as that place where one is loved, safe, warm- sheltered from the storm; the other a painting about dispelling fear and then a piece about memories which has taken me back on a trip through time. I don’t usually spend much time thinking about the past- in fact I have a little sign above my desk at home that says “Don’t Look Back”. Past is past, no regrets etc. I’ve always felt that looking back pretty much brings up sadness- of kids grown up, grandparents dead, places and friends left behind…but my art piece has to do with really wonderful memories of an annual gathering that we used to do with family and friends & it has been fun to relive them- though a little sad too.

When I was in Hawaii I bought a pendant of a Tree of Life- it made me think that it would be cool to make some pendants from my art images and photos I’ve taken of my folk art collection- I just finished making a bunch that I am selling for $15.00. I have engraved words on the back like dream, love, hope, wisdom, beauty, grace etc.:

and medals too- I love all the ribbons & objects that hang off of military uniforms or those old track medals on ribbons that you can find in flea markets- I thought it would be fun to fool around with making medals for women. I have written affirmations on the back like:”All is Well” etc. :

This is one of my favorites- the woman is from a photo I took of a colonial painting- she looks strong and has a knowing little smile on her face. There is a metal crown piece hanging down that represents inner strength. On the back it says “Life takes care of me in miraculous ways.”

So… though I am a bit over whelmed with all the “To Do”s” I am also really happy that I am back “in” life rather then hanging out on the fringes- thank god for thyroid meds- life does take care of me in miraculous ways!!

Tuesday I went to Denver with my Mom & 2 friends to see the Chinese embroidery collection of Pat Dalton. Pat has been taking small groups of people to see & experience the beauty of the textiles & culture of ethnic China for over 30 years. I met Pat at an exhibit of ethnic Chinese textiles at the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pat’s enthusiasm and in depth knowledge of these labor intensive, amazing techniques was a joy to experience!! Pat will be leading a couple of tours this year and she says they are the last she will do- so if you are interested check it out!

I visited thinking my primary interest would be the Miao & Dong traditional embroideries:

but came away completely intrigued by the double mirror embroideries on silk- for example this woman is beautifully embroidered on almost transparent silk & then on the backside she looks exactly the same! It is magical- how do they do that!!!?My favorite though, was the back of a woman holding a hand mirror with her reflection in it and on the backside it was the front of the woman with the back side of the mirror visible- wow!!!!

Here is a red crowned crane that had some relief to it:

and it’s reflection in the mirror so you can see the backside:

This is a landscape “painting” that has been embroidered:

And beautiful figures on a Chinese screen made out of a variety of stones with painted details:

I am influenced in my own art work by the “folk” embroideries (the colors, simple shapes etc.):

and “folk” paintings.

I love these beautiful traditional crafts from around the world- it is sad that in so many places the quality is getting poorer or disappearing for economic reasons – the crafts women & men are either having to quit the tradition to get better paid jobs or changing their traditional work into items that tourists will buy- making it quicker and therefore cheaper. I hope that things will turn around, so that people all over the world gain an appreciation for these crafts- embroideries, metal work, carved wood etc. – similar to what has happened for Native Americans here in the United States. The Native American Arts & Crafts in Santa Fe are beautiful and generate a good income for the arts & crafts makers- as it should! This is one way I always justify my buying of traditional crafts when I travel- I am helping to support an economy I believe in!!

A proverb is a short, generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed and memorizable form and which is handed down from generation to generation.

I have always loved & used proverbs- maybe that is a southern thing? There are a couple of my paintings on my website that are about proverbs: “Water Under the Bridge” and “She Made Her Bed, Now She is Lying On It”, “bloom Where You Are Planted” etc.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago at an American Cancer Art Auction, Joe bought me a wonderful “outsider art” painting called “Anteater” by R.A. Miller. I love it’s simplicity- in fact, a woman standing next to me at the auction said “Oh! I love kindergartner art too!!” after I exclaimed how much I liked it.

As you know from previous blogs I have been working on a painting about the sacred feminine called “Pity the Blind” for awhile now. I don’t paint as much in the summer because my “day job” is pretty intense then- so sometimes I have a hard time getting back into the swing of things! While contemplating the simplicity of “Anteater” I thought it might be helpful for me to to paint a simple, fast i.e. no shading, no variety of techniques just a color & form painting to get the juices flowing again. That day I had counseled one of my sons about “putting his best foot forward” at a new job and I thought it would be entertaining to use proverbs again as my inspiration. Viola- the first painting:

A week later a friend said she recently had to “eat crow”:

Then after that,  an incident at work came up that was “the straw that (almost) broke the camel’s back”:

Today was one one of THOSE days at work- I cried- I think for only the 2nd time in 15 years- so yes, I am practicing “Keeping My Chin Up”!!!

Tomorrow I am off for a much needed mini vacation in Santa Fe- I know I will come back rejuvenated and inspired- Wahooooooo!!!

I love to garden & am very blessed to have a home that backs right up to Rocky Mountain National Park. Outside of my studio  I have a little patio that looks at Lumpy Ridge- I love to sit there on summer evenings with a glass of wine & soak in the beauty of nature. I have a few shrines back there.

This is an assemblage I made called “Welcome Home”- that is how i feel here- I am home- I am safe & nurtured in my little nest. Neuroarchitecture- see the last paragraph of this blog if you have missed the definition in any of my previous blogs..

This one is a stone carved piece that my sister got for me at the Santa Fe Flea Market for my Jubilee Birthday. It is  from India & has a spider goddess in it- she is the weaver of beautiful webs -the strands of which represent my connection to my loved ones- when 1 strand shakes it effects us all- to paraphrase my Balinese friend, Panji. (meaning shapes seeing- I think when you know why I chose this figure to put in there then it makes more sense)

Joe & I pulled up at a greenhouse one day & they were having a sale on concrete yard ornaments. I spotted the concrete shell shrine (with Mary missing), the price was right & I said to Joe “Quick, please stand here & guard this so that no one else buys it out from under me!” (one person’s trash, another’s treasure) I am going to alter the figure featured here some day- she represents gratitude for abundance.

My backyard Kuan Lin- the Goddess of Compassion that my Dad got for me.

my prayer wheel- Joe made it for me and I painted it with 4 images that symbolize earth, air, fire and water in addition to gratitude for the abundance in my life, appreciation for the mystery of life and it’s beauty, and seeking balance.

This concrete Spirit House is a gift from a Thai friend- it offers a home to the spirits that were displaced when the house was built.

I come home through the garage door most days- these 2 naked, carved guys on either  side of the door make me smile and my old 1950’s portrait of my family of origin that I have hanging in the garage by the entry door always makes me laugh!!

Quan Yin- she stands as a reminder of compassion & loving kindness at my front entry. I found her 1 magical day in Santa Fe at the flea market:

Neuroarchitecture “The premise is to consider how each feature of the architectural environment influences certain brain processes such as those involved in stress, emotion, and memory,” says Eve Edelstein, PhD, adjunct professor at the New School of Architecture & Design in San Diego and a research consultant to the Academy of Neuroscience for architecture. “Decorating with an original piece of art not only puts your unique fingerprint on your place, it transmits a sense of authenticity and trust”, says David Lewis, PhD, research director of Neuroco, a British neuromarketing company that uses EEGs (which measure electrical activity in the brain) and other techniques to understand consumer behavior.

A friend of mine recently turned me on to one of Somerset Magazine”s latest creations: “Where Women Create”.    I create in the beautiful town of Estes Park, Colorado- here is the view from my front deck:

I have so enjoyed lingering over the pages, inspecting other women artist’s studio spaces- intrigued by the colors, textures, collections, storage solutions and the materials used along with the life styles represented within the pages. The same evening I looked at this magazine, I also perused “Architectural Digest”. Most of the houses/rooms that were featured looked “soul less” to me- clean cut, white , stainless steel, sharp, antiseptic or a multitude of patterns & features that looked very “put together” but impersonal. “Yeah, I think I’ll buy that painting or that object because it matches the couch versus it speaks to my soul” or “I love pink & orange together but this year’s colors are beige & sea green so…”, or “I could never put silly photos of my kids/the people that I love up around the house because I might get judged by guests in my house for my lack of decor taste.”

I do love a refrigerator filled with photos as you can see here- it is sort of a layered archaeological account of my life and every time I open the door I smile at the memories:

Okay, so I am probably being a bit judgmental here…and I know that when people come into my house they either really like it or think I have terrible decor taste- I hear “your house is ahhh….different, outside of the box, or wow! I love it!” It doesn’t really matter because my house is my home & I put the things in it that I love and make me feel at home- safe & loved!!

Yes, I am a collector of stuff- mostly from my travels but also from the ground ..when I am out walking in the woods-feathers, interesting wood or rocks or even at the Pushkar Camel Fair in India- great Hindi advertisements & rusty metal.

I have told my kids & loved ones several times- “I love my stuff- it represents fond memories for me- but when I am dead & gone, do not feel that you have to keep it – burn it, throw it away, take it to the thrift Store- I certainly won’t care!!!”

Here’s a little tour of some of the rooms- I’ll do my studio & gardens in other blogs.

my entry way stained glass- I used to do stained glass in an earlier incarnation of my life:

the hand collection with mosaic glass

a bookcase

an ancestor house from Thailand

my ancestor shrine

a water puppet from Vietnam

The red collection

some huiples and ikats etc.

My angel suit wall

I am a believer in Neuroarchitecture. What is Neuroarchitecture? Read on…

“The premise is to consider how each feature of the architectural environment influences certain brain processes such as those involved in stress, emotion, and memory,” says Eve Edelstein, PhD, adjunct professor at the New School of Architecture & Design in San Diego and a research consultant to the Academy of Neuroscience for architecture. “Decorating with an original piece of art not only puts your unique fingerprint on your place, it transmits a sense of authenticity and trust”, says David Lewis, PhD, research director of Neuroco, a British neuromarketing company that uses EEGs (which measure electrical activity in the brain) and other techniques to understand consumer behavior.

I hope your home makes YOU smile!!

Traveling is such an eye opener and the influences from my trip to Bali & Borobudor in Java are showing up in my most recent painting which is my biggest painting ever- 35″by 35″! The Tree of Life and bird women idea came from the stone relief carving I saw at Borobudor and the carved wooden bird woman that I picked up in Bali.

I started out with my background color as a lovely pinkish tan color that picks up the color of the woman’s dress in the postcard and developed the tree with Golden Interference blue paint curlicues and a lot of texture- especially in the petals around the eyes.

The postcard I am using has a blind man in it & a woman with an open umbrella walking past him- it is titled “Pity the Blind”. An uncomfortable title in our politically correct times but I do pity the blind that they cannot see the beauty of this world…that is why I started filling in the background with nature shapes- flowers, fruits and animals. You will also see backgrounds completely filled in by shapes of this theme in traditional Balinese paintings.AND in this painting, which is about recognizing the sacred feminine,it is about pitying those that are blind to it’s existence.Right now I am struggling a bit with the painting because the background has become so prominent- I think I will sand it down a bit. I am unsure of how I will paint the bird women or the flower petals- I am in that stage of painting where I am intrigued by the possibilities of problem solving! Stay tuned for furthur developments

I recently posted a blog about the daily life of the Balinese which made me reflect a bit on my own daily life- get up at 7, shower, fix oatmeal with yogurt & fresh fruit which I eat on the way to work. I’m the director of the Craft & Design Center at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. On May 2 &3 we hosted a wonderful work shop taught by Alyson B. Stanfield on “No Excuses Art Marketing”- Here I am with Alyson and Carol McIntyre. Alyson offers free marketing advice with her weekly newsletter. I have an interesting job that involves art- I’m grateful for that!!

Then there is the glamorous part- haha- the Art Openings!!The Dreamland Show in Fort Collins opened the night before the workshop- here I am (notice the hot pink metal embroidered top that I had made from a sari in India- that’s the glamor part ) at the show with Laurie Zuckerman who builds breathtaking altars, has awesome photos of shrines and creates “Memory Jugs”

and Suzy Foy who uses painted papers and mixed media to create colorful 3 dimensional “paintings”

After work and on at least one day off I get to paint or create assemblage- this is my latest painting that I am working on about the sacred feminine. It is heavily influenced by some relief stone carvings I saw at Borobudor and by traditional Balinese painting. The postcard says:”Pity the Blind”- it works on two levels- pity the blind that they are not able to see the beauty of our earth & pity those that are blind to the sacred feminine.

Burning Man is coming up-Labor Day Weekend- so I have started on transforming my bicycle- it has a big clock in the front & is called “Time Flies”

It has 5 sets of wings so far- that I will pull together with antiquing color a la the secrets of Rusty Things taught by Michael deMeng.

Joe is getting started on a very BIG project for Burning Man called Vishnu’s Dream- this is just the tippy top!! I’ll help with the painting later on in the project.

And then there is the spring projects for the yard… I had a stand of pine trees at the end of my driveway that were heavily infected with mistletoe- I knew when they were all cut down- (which I had to do because the mistletoe spores burst out of them & infect the surrounding trees)-

there would be a BIG bare spot- the trees weren’t big enough in diameter to chainsaw carve them so I decided to turn them into a “grove” of painted poles.      Joe cut them

I hauled them     and in the fall I’ll paint them

It’s essential to my well being to fit my social life in there somewhere too- Joe, my sons, my friends and family- including my dog, Joy who had 30 stitches 2 weeks ago from a big hunk taken out of her side by a coyote!!

Whew….busy but never bored (and I am NOT having to carry 23 bricks on my head- thank god!- see the blog of: April 12, 2009!!

Part of the creative process is absorbing what one sees & then having it magically reappear in a creative surge… even when what one sees at the time is incredibly boring. Yes, when Joe & I flew to Yogyakarta to see Borobudor (see blog of April 8 ) & Prambanan(a century Hindu Temple with lingam & yoni’s galore- which I will post more about in the near future):

we went on a guided tour of the Sultan’s Palace. Sultan’s Palace…sounds exotic….unfortunately we got a guide with a tic- she repeated everything she said 3 times:”Now over here, Now over here, Now over here…” “We have, we have, we have…” and then she would finish with: “a piece around 100 years old!” then on to the next object AND most of the objects were about as interesting as this oven mitt display:

Upon first glance, that is… then I started getting that creative spark looking at some of these pieces thinking- hmm…look at these interesting badges- I would like to do a Badge Series- off the top of my head- one for going through childbirth….hmmmm

or how about these genealogy trees- the leaves stand for the girls that were born and the fruit/flowers for the boys- hmmmmm….interesting concept

and these portraits- with the elf ears (that are actually the fabric sticking up from the hats they wear) – they look a lot like pieces I’ve seen in Somerset Magazine:

And then there is the beautiful Javenese script on this document:

Art saves lives- not only that of the artist themselves but on occasion those who benefit from the sale of the art. In this case the beautiful- inside & out!, Rebecca Brooks (click here to see photos of some of the shrines) asked a group of artists to make shrines that will be auctioned off to benefit the street children of Oaxaca, Mexico. Education is not free in Mexico as it is in the United States, so the poorest must choose between eating or getting an education. Did any of you see the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”? well, this is a chance to help children like that in Oaxaca and receive a beautiful art piece. Please check out the auction!! There is more information about my shrine & Oaxaca below.Auction starts March 1st.

I got together with a group of artist friends, hosted by the talented Ms. Jill Berry at her studio to make a Day of the Dead Shrine from a cigar box, using found objects, beautiful hand made papers, paint, and glitter- of course. The boxes will be auctioned off by Rebecca Brooks (see the invitation at the bottom of her blog) to benefit the street kids of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Last year during the Day of the Dead, I was lucky enough to be in Oaxaca, Mexico for that magical experience. After dinner one night Joe & I happened upon a reenactment of people dressed up in costumes from all walks of life (a priest, a prostitute, a ballerina, a doctor, a drunk etc.) They rose up out of their graves on the lawn of the Santo Domingo Church with their huge & spooky shadows cast on the old stone walls. It finished- as we all will- with a visit by the grim reaper- all set to classical music with beautiful dancing and crazy fireworks. The Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and relatives who have died. The celebration occurs on the 1st and 2nd of November, in connection with the Catholic holy days of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day which take place on those days. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.

My Cigar Box shrine says: “In order to have a good death, you must exercise every day.”

Remember when I bought the “Lucky Lottery” candle in Madrid, New Mexico? (see my blog of 11-25-2008) I finished the assemblage that I used it in. “Please God Make Me the Winner!” is influenced by Mexican ex-voto paintings and shrines.(notice the painting on black velvet on the bottom of the shrine of the Virgen de Guadalupe) The ironic thing is that I left the “Jackpot” scratch card unscratched and on the glass of the “lucky lottery” candle it says the winning numbers are buried in the wax- so who knows?…maybe this is a million plus dollar shrine! I plan to post my assemblage’s on my website in the very near future- but here are some photos of this one: