Artist & Creative Wellness Coach

Acrylics & collage ephemera.  January 2015

After all the holiday celebrations, I took a moment to just sit outside in the sun.  My doctor recommended I get more vitamin D, so that's just what I did!  I took a moment to really enjoy the sunshine and the beautiful snow on the ground.  I contemplated why I love snow so much.  This is what I found;  I love how calming snow is to me.  When things get overwhelming for me, I can rest in the comfort of snow.  Snow simplifies and purifies everything.  It grounds me to reveal in it's beauty. 

Acrylics & water soluble pencil.  January 2015.

Our good friend, Reggie, asked me to paint a portrait of his son for his wife's birthday.  I was thrilled for the opportunity!  The past year, I've been working on my portrait rendering skills and I've been happy with my progress so far.  So, I felt confident going into this project.  

Let me tell you, it was a humbling challenge for me!  For some reason, I could not get the portrait to where it was looking like Malik!!!  I spent a lot of time trying tweak the painting.  Lesson: sometimes you'll have it easy and sometimes not!  Just keep on going.

Acrylics & Collage Ephemera.  February 2015.

I had a lot of fun implementing objects into this painting.

Acrylics.  April 2015.

As the years move away from the last time I saw Morgan, Parker and Wiley, it is harder to imagine what they would look like now if they were alive.  What I can do is be aware of their presence in other objects and paint what I feel.  Happy Birthday, Morgan.  I love you so much.  His birthday is March 5th.  I finished this painting a week afterwards and just now getting around to posting.

Acrylics & collage ephemera.  March 2015

Here is another painting I finished in March called "Evolving".  At first glance, it just looks like layers of different colors.  There is a story behind this:

Red layer represents my earlier life with Wiley, Morgan and Parker. Red had always been my favorite color.  Some of the collaged papers are of Wiley's aviation maps, Morgan's drawing of a race car and Parker's practice of writing "U"s.  When I would tell Morgan and Parker, "I love you", they would reply, "You!"

Black layer represents the devastating lose of Wiley, Morgan and Parker.  I etched in a heartbeat that stops along the way.

White layer represents a very deep period of grieving where all I knew of myself died along with my family.

Blue layer represents meeting Steve, the love of my life.  He brought color back to my life and feeling (hence the texture).

Purple layer represents where I am now in my life.  My past life and present life creates a new color for me, purple.  Dragonflies have always been special to me.  They symbolize change and self realization.  The dragonfly has the different colored chapters in my life on its wings.  The kanji symbol is for "evolve". 

Even though my painting looks simplistic to the unknowing eye, it has very deep meaning expressing more with colors, shapes and textures than words could ever convey.

Since I love collage so much, I've been reading up on important "collagists" in art history.  Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) work caught my eye.  He would take everyday ephemara and make them into beautiful collages, a new medium at the time.  Schwitters is also credited for his pioneering contribution to installation art and found object artwork.

I took text from magazines and created my own collage reflecting modern day type and advertising.

Acrylics & collage ephemera.  April 2015

I love to etch into a painting to create a story within a painting.  It's like unearthing something that wants to come to the surface.

This piece represents about choosing to be free of chaos/drama by observing it from your place of serenity.  

Acrylic ink & paints.  April 2015

Playing with acrylic inks in an intuitive way, these crazy looking jellyfish appeared!  I am kind of fascinated with these translucent alien beings.  They are such interesting creatures.  Painting loosely like this is so out of my comfort zone, yet it was very meditative to paint.  It's actually my artistic goal this year to paint more intuitively.  Let's see where it takes me!

Acrylics.   May 2015.

I've been reading up on what wabi-sabi is:  it is a Japanese term that means finding beauty in the imperfect and weathered nature.  So to apply the wabi-sabi to my art, I wanted to use colors I see in nature and use a certain kind of intuition.  

While wondering what my next painting would be next, poppies kept coming to mind.  I vividly remember  the beautiful poppy fields in Spain.   There is something about poppies I just love.  With a photo for reference and keeping the wabi-sabi style in mind, this is what came of it.  I like how loose I was able to paint this way.

Acrylics & Collage Ephemera.  May 2015.

Frida is one of my favorite artists.  I love how she expresses so much emotion in her work.  This Frida has an asian influence-I wonder where that came from?

Diarama Ephemera.  May 2015.

I have an affinity for the dias de los meuertos celebration.  I love the fact that Mexicans celebrate the deceased in a festive, rejoicing way.  Thinking of Wiley, Morgan and Parker being part of this big party in the afterlife gives me a feeling of peace and happiness for them.

For my sister,  Val's birthday, I made her a dias de los muertos birthday diorama!  Val loves to make dioramas, so I thought I'd try my hand at it for her.

Oils & Cold Wax.  May 2015.

I have discovered a new medium - cold wax!  I've always been interested in doing encaustics but haven't just because you need good ventilation.  With cold wax, it's not necessary because you are not heating up pigment with the wax.

So, I'm loving experimenting with this awesome discovery!

Cold Wax & Oils. May 2015.

Experimenting with layers, my favorite!  The Kanji stands for "serenity".

Acrylics.  June 2015.

Abstract gone wild!

Oils & Cold Wax.  June 2015.

Loving the abstratness of the oils and cold wax.

Oils & Cold Wax.  June 2015.

Photography.  July 2015.

Who doesn't love to take pictures?  This one I had to make into prints.  I just used my iPhone with no filters and it came out beautiful!

Acrylics.  August 2015.

Two of my favorite things:  poppies and hummingbirds.  

Oils & Cold Wax.  July 2015.

Loving all the colors and layers I can play with in this painting.

Oils & Cold Wax.  August 2015.

Painting somewhere in between realistic and abstract.

Oils & Cold Wax.  August 2015.

Inspired by the ruins we saw in Mesa Verde this summer.

Acrylics.  September 2015.

Miroku is the Buddha of the Future.  The Kanji symbol is for "serenity".