Life Bleeds into Art

The eight images below are titled message series.
Created in 2013, one year after my final chemo treatment. With optimism and fear battling for my attention, I was trying to hold on to optimism and to let go of fear, and to get back to my self. To stay healthy. To move on. It was a summer of the red-winged black bird, black horse, and white horse. Everywhere I turned, there they were. These images represent a collision of my inner and outer experiences that year.

Goodbye ProSite, Hello Blogger

divus, acrylic on wood, 2015

I'm experimenting with using this blog as my main artist website. 

I built my own sites until a few years ago when it became clear that it was cheaper and faster to cheat and customize a template through ProSite, a professional web presence purchased through Behance. ProSite was great. I quit being my own website designer and demoted myself to content manager -- which left more time for being an artist.

The problem with ProSite is that they no longer allow customers to pay-in-full for the year. That's right. The only payment option is a monthly auto-deduct from your back account. I asked their tech support if they were really willing to lose customers that prefer to pay-in-full for the year, and the answer was yup. Imagine that? They wouldn't allow me to pay for the whole year. So I broke up with them.

Now here I am, at my neglected blog that hasn't been updated in a few years. 

I switched my art domains to point here and hope to spend the next few weeks populating this space with recent work, much of it already shared on my former ProSite and on my facebook page. 

Here is my best recent piece. Combined with energy work and meditation, I faced a demon along the way -- and came out with a personal victory. I see optimism, shattering of perceived reality, and freedom. 

back to the blog

life racing by. getting caught up in...stuff. and more stuff. clutter. getting rid of stuff. making more room for ART. because I need art more than it needs me. and that's ok.

life is now.

life is now mandala, acrylic on canvas, 2015

LOST: Artist

inspiration is everywhere. and yet... I sit here looking at 6 canvases that are primed with base colors and ready for action. ideas -- almost too many -- bottleneck at my minds-eye. I don't know which direction to take.

I feel lost at the starting line. could any of these ideas impact the world? make the world a better place? do they make any difference at all? do they need to? is this just my ego feeling sorry for itself? yes, probably so. what artist has no ego? I don't know. art expresses a perspective; one moment of one story from one angle as it appeared to one person. there is no right or wrong. no good or bad. just what one person believes they see. or maybe what they wish to see. and the question is -- why would anyone else care? does it help anyone get out of bed -- other than the artist? maybe all that matters is that I, the artist, gets to play God. my canvas being a glimpse into a world that I create. of course, there is no ego in that at all. none at all says the sarcastic mind. again, I am lost at the starting line where my heart and mind cannot find common ground. so I sit here with empty canvases, a heart that aches to paint, and a mind that cannot find a satisfying thought.

Deep Soul Diving

inside exit
acrylic, pen, and paper on canvas

This is one in a series of paintings based on sketches I did during cancer treatments -- chemotherapy and surgeries. This one -- titled inside exit -- is from a sketch done while recovering from a chemo infusion, on one of the better days. I was going inward in order to escape the present and look forward to better times.

Art. For art's sake

Now... where were we....

Spiral Lizard, earlier version is shown in the last post, and the final version here. 
Sold to a friend in Wyoming. Makes me happy!



This has been called psychedelic lizard on acid. It was just me needing art for art's sake -- without any deep-soul-diving. 

getting back to art....

It's been a crazy year. I've been blogging a lot about cancer and very little about art.

Here is a recent image completed a few days prior to my last surgery on September 18th. The surgery marked the tenth month in a breast cancer journey. I chose to paint this silly little colorful guy because it has nothing to do with anything serious! I was able to lose myself in the paint and colors. This guy was my pre-surgery art therapy!

Springing forward with hope and new artwork

Spring Forward,

2012, acrylic on canvas, 12x12

I hosted an art gathering yesterday. Invited some artists-girlfriends over for an evening of painting together. It's like having a "gym buddy"-- if someone else shows up, you can't talk yourself out of doing it.

I think this life-affirming piece is a result of the strength and energy and hope I am receiving right now from people in my life who care.

We are all connected.