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Last Saturday a small circle of  five close friends gathered at my house for a shrine party. We cut and glued well into the early morning hours. I just happened to have a stack of cigar boxes and bunches of bobbles, beads, and other ornamental objects laying around. My friends showed up with armfuls of shrine goodies and we laid everything out to share. We had to stop and munch out in between the glue drying times. We had quite the party food spread! It was a wonderful night spent together in a state of creativity. Each shrine served as a small manifestation box. Much like the vision boards that are commonly made to help manifest our desires and deepest wishes. It will be interesting to see what happens in the days and months that follow, as I am thinking that sometimes we really don’t fully realize what messages we are sending out into the Universe with our language and visual creations. Intuition guides us when we are not aware. I find that a lot in my own art creation processes. Everything comes together like a symphony in the end.

~ May we all shrine on ~

Moving right along on this art journey, joining together with Tere. She works a lot faster than I do. My focus is not like it used to be. Maybe I have too many irons in the fire. It’s all good, though. I am trying to master the skill of multi tasking. Ha! Thank goodness I am the only one who will be grading myself on this big test! The art just keeps coming and there is nothing like being locked away in the studio, unplugged from the phone and doorbell, painting the days and nights away. Summer in this Arizona valley is comparable to the winter season in other parts of the country. A time to be indoors and hibernate until the triple digits fade away. So, back to the easel and iced tea.

~ Peace, Love, and Summer Dove ~

These are three of the most recent in collaboration pieces that I wrote about in an earlier post. I have teamed up with another local artist, Tere Bingham, and am painting over her sculpted art on canvas. She places her mixed media, sculpted art onto canvas and hands it over to me and I finish each piece with paint and, sometimes, embellishments. We work separately in our own studios, so it is always a bit of a surprise when we present our individual creation to each other. We will be having two shows this fall to showcase our latest, Sisters of the Moon series. It is and has been a blessed experience. I look forward to more wonderful, creative adventures with Tere and will keep you up to date on our latest projects!

~ Peace, Love, Dove ~

The steady buzz of locust fills the air during the daytime hours, then turn to cricket songs as the sun goes down. If we are lucky, the sky puts on a display of billowy, late afternoon monsoon clouds that change from yellows to oranges, to pinks and reds, shades of blue and every color in between. It is summertime in the southwest. By nightfall we are prepared for rain. Often we are let down, but lately the summer monsoon season has not been a disappointment. I am madly in love with the rain. The smell, the feel, the sound, the motion…. all of it. This is the perfect setting in which to slow down and break out the creativity. I have been painting and illustrating and enjoying every minute of this summer season. At the end of the hot days when it does not rain I find locust skins attached to the trees in my backyard and clinging onto the edge of the patio concrete floor. A sure sign of where we are in the cycle of seasons.

Thank you, Mother Nature.

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.~