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Currently, I am collaborating with an artist friend and kindred Sister of the Moon, Tere Bingham. She has been salvaging the canvases of some of my “failed paintings” and recycling them into fresh, new works of art by sculpting onto canvas and then handing them off to me to paint and embellish. The whole joint venture is picking up momentum and taking on a life of it’s own. I could not imagine that I could have this much fun with collaborated art projects. The unpainted pieces are beautiful when they arrive at my studio, presented to me with a sculpted idea of the finished piece. These are all mixed media on canvas and appear to be emerging from the canvas and coming to life. Here are a few of the new pieces that we have created so far.

“And here in my isolation I can grow stronger. Poetry seems to come of itself, without effort, and I need only let myself dream a little while painting to suggest it.” ~ (Paul Gauguin)

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I am often called a recluse, a hermit,  an agoraphobic, depressed and/or a loner. I have been accused of avoiding or running away from my problems or escaping and hiding from the world. This is all humorous to me for several reasons. Most of all being that I have felt this was something that I needed to defend or explain. On more than one occasion, I’ve questioned why my desire for solitude is stronger than my desire to engage outside of my “queendom”. The answer is simple.

My creative fire has been burning full force again. Last night I painted until the morning hours on a few fun things and baked a cake in between the paint drying times. It was so cool to look at the clock when I pulled the two 8″ rounds out of the oven and see that it was exactly twelve o’clock midnight. In that moment it became a “magical cake”! My black cat sat on the kitchen floor watching me bake, so that really added to the “good witch” feel of the whole experience. I finished reading my friend, Kathy Cano- Murillo’s latest craft novel, “Waking Up In The Land Of Glitter” and was inspired to create and bake. I even went outside for a little moonlight garden watering.

It could not have been nearly as rewarding if someone else was in the scene. It was just me, my quiet animal friends, plants, and my own thoughts. I heart those moments the most of all.

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“Of course, when one is faced with a canvas, one is no longer alone, and the sense of solitude diminishes. This can be an agreeable passage of time. In fact, solitude then becomes a kind of companion.” ~ (Pierre Alechinsky)

I LOVE visiting my sister’s little urban farm. Every visit is like a trip completely out of the city, although we could not be any closer to the heart of downtown Phoenix. This day I came home with eighteen fresh, organic eggs and three, healthy zucchinis. I make sure to bring my camera every time because her gardens and outdoor spaces are constantly changing within each season. Gracie is demonstrating the weather with her wading pool as a prop. The summer heat is back! Gracie is a rescue dog, as well as two others who live here, Jake and  Oliver. Jake helps to collect the eggs and round up the chickens back into their pen after a day of roaming free. He is very helpful! He is also the kind of dog that brings in the paper and helps to carry in  groceries. He is hilarious. They are all living happily ever after together and they all help to create this beautiful, urban farm lifestyle. Generally, I leave feeling inspired and motivated. They recently have been zoned for business and have been included in the expansion of the downtown Phoenix Arts district, so time will be the only thing between what is now and future possibilities. However, what is now is very, very nice. Definitely, a “PEACE” of Heaven on earth.

This is a mailbox that I painted years ago. Our old one was tired and peeling after years and years of use, so we finally replaced it. I have a small stash of mailboxes that I painted a long time ago so it required little effort to replace the old one that was painted in clouds. I am a fan of letter writing and snail mail and I wanted to cast a simple spell to attract “GOOD NEWS” only! I haven’t seen our mail lady since we changed it out, so I don’t know what she thinks, but I am hoping that it brightens her day, if only for a moment, when she is making her rounds. This one matches the address number sign that I painted months ago, so we are getting all decked out on the home front with bright colors and happy signs!

The “Ring Bell Wildly” sign has been hanging by our mailbox and front gate for many years. Next to it there is a chicken bell that is minus it’s string and clapper thanks to some Jehovah’s Witnesses. Apparently, they took the sign literally. I heard it ringing wildly one day and came out to find this woman with the clapper in her hand, hanging by the string! It was pretty funny. They have never come back since then, I guess we are scratched off the witness route! I see the small groups of them walking up and down the street, going door to door and passing out their Watch Tower papers, I find it funny that they never bother with our house anymore!

The Living On The Earth Celebration at The Arizona Biltmore, put together by Phoenix, Body, Mind & Soul magazine last Saturday, could not have been more beautiful. The day was perfect. The room was filled with beautiful healers and artists of ranging in a wide spectrum of diverse talents. It was simply divine. We were blessed with a performance by Alicia Bay Laurel , as well as, some great speakers and the most gorgeous Hawaiian music played and sung by the sweetest couple (I apologize that I cannot remember their names but, I think their last name is Nap). The patio was filled with booths consisting of palm readers, herbs, healers, gardeners, music, natural bath and body products and tarot readers, just to name a few. We were served a fabulous lunch and finished that off with a small, sugar free, delicious desert treat from Chef Rachel. We shared a table with Dr. Jeanine Austin~ who I have admired and been connected with on line for many years. It was so wonderful to FINALLY meet in person.

I loaned several of my paintings to be displayed at the event and it made me feel at home. So nice of them to allow me to participate in this celebration. I made some new friends and connected with some old ones ( as in, people who I have known for awhile now! LOL)

Oh! And I almost forgot…. I won a free,full body,hour massage from Neo Chiro United Infrastructure Restorations ,that I will be collecting on very soon! What a plus! Their slogan is “United We Stand…, Ascended & Awake!” Definitely looking forward to that.

~Celebrating Mother Earth~

Caught in a web of daydreams while spending time hand watering the small piece of earth in my backyard this morning filled my soul with joy and happiness. It is always a magical moment making rainbows with the sun and water. That just never grows old for me. The weather is PERFECT today. Spring is in full force and everything is blooming. I have heard it said that the earth laughs in flowers. The wasps and bees and other flying critters swooped down to drink the water that rested on the blades of grass. Everything is so alive. Everything is so beautiful. Even a short amount of time spent communing with nature sparks enough groovy love vibes to feed and sustain my soul the whole day through.

~Thank you Mother Earth. Thank you sun, air and water.~

There is nothing like a small project to jump start the creative juices. I joined in on an ATC (artist trading card) swap with a VW bus theme. This is the perfect swap for me! Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed and unfortunately, my art suffers from it and too often my art projects get put on the back burner. Shifting my focus to a small art project helps me to center and regain my creative footing. Life is a balancing act these days. So, as I began to print off small bus prints and glue them to cardboard that led to doodling with pen and ink. Which led to making small envelopes to put the card in. And that led to printing up some tiny finger labyrinth designs onto regular 20 lb. paper to make the small envelopes out of.  And that led to making larger envelopes out of misprinted coloring book pages on 110 lb. paper to mail everything in. On those I just put a plain label where the address is written. ~Just the simple fact that I made a small movement in a creative direction was liberating! Now I am moving onto larger projects and the ideas keep coming.

I have some “work” to do and then I will be off to living all of my wildest dreams! Although, my dreams are not really all that wild, I just like the way that sounded!

One thing always leads to another, it is just like the butterfly effect.

Okay…… I set out to make this lamb cake. A neighbor, Dorothy Waddell, used to make us a lamb cake every year for Easter when I was young. And she carried out the tradition for my daughter every year as she was growing up. She passed away quite a few years ago and her husband gave me her lamb cake mold so I could continue with the tradition. I had the cake molds put away and never attempted to make this until this year. I guess that I figured all of the hours watching “Ace of Cakes”, “Cake Boss” and a few other cake bake off television shows would have prepared me. It didn’t seem like it would be that difficult. Well….. it probably wouldn’t have been if I knew what the heck I was doing! Dorothy would place the finished cake, covered with coconut shavings to look like lamb fur, on a plate surrounded by Easter grass and sprinkled colored jelly beans around it. I had this vision of making one to surprise my family with this year and make some extras for my neighbors. Apparently, this was not going to happen. Here is what I got…

The head fell off and half of the cake broke into three pieces. I tried to glue it together with butter cream frosting, to no avail. It just kept becoming more and more of a crumby mess. All of the coconut in the world could not have covered up the mistakes and I didn’t even begin to add jelly beans! Is it just me or does that lamb cake mold look like it is laughing at me? There was no way that this would or could sit upright.

First of all, the cake was too moist, I think that I was supposed to use bundt cake mix. I don’t even care what the mistakes were that I made, actually. I only wish that I would have made a red velvet cake to complete the road kill look of this sad, sacrificial lamb cake.

~ Happy  Easter ~  ( Damn Lamb )

This morning I woke up to a new, adorable light over my kitchen sink. My hubby is a Handyman and is forever surprising me with things around the house. Our kitchen and home is filled with a plethora of hippie funk, or in other words, it is a hodgepodge of cool things that are given to us from the hearts and hands of family, friends and clients.  Years ago I painted a few of our favorite words on the walls above our cabinets. It surrounds our kitchen with wonderful vibes.

About a month ago I was thrilled to find that one of our kitchen doors had been replaced with this plantation shutter, french door.  “When one door closes, another one opens…..”

Although, I drool over fancy estates with stark, crisp spaces I don’t think that I could ever live in a house like that. I am just too much of a bohemian with my recycled, reused, renewed preferences and pieced together lifestyle.

~ HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS ~

Oh, did I mention that I love Arcosanti? Ha! Another day trip with friends last Wednesday proved to be just what I needed to renew and gather inspiration. I have watched this Utopian Community change and grow over the past 30 plus years and it never gets old or dull. I feel so fortunate that it is only a one hour drive from my driveway to theirs. Whenever I need a boost or a getaway, that is where you can find me. Thanks to great friends who are always willing to drive me up there now that I am no longer able to drive (you know, the brain surgeries….. same old, same old story).

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