Nostalgic Southern California Map

SOLD- Thank you Nina!
This map panel is 11.5 x 10 inches and depicts a bicycle resting behind a palm tree. The map used in the background and frame charts areas of the state my husband and I just explored. As a souvenir, the map, with its visual nostalgia, charts days and moments of memory. Look deep into the sky and you may read the words, "Wake Up".

ATC for every tenth subscriber

Sometimes you wonder where you are going. This here's a work of art for Theresa!
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Baby pictures

Baby in nest- acrylic and paper collage on canvas 11.5 x 15.5 inches unframed and yours for $100.
Baby has stars in his eyes- SOLD

Woody on California Map

This is a common scene from Santa Cruz to Encinitas. Acrylic on map panel, 10 x 11.5 inches.

Child with suitcase

PAINTED OVER...
Painted on map of California coast with words weaving into the paint. 13 x 8 inches
Though I don't often paint figures, like I have the last few days, the idea of a little girl with suitcase appealed to me. It is the child within who is searching for her place. She looks out to the horizon and finds a map with promises and questions. She stands alone with her stuffed animal and her bags. For the first ten years of my life, my parents moved us around the world. A special suitcase of my own kept my most prized treasures. I had a taste for caviar and loved sweet smelling soaps, and I was fortunate to receive them often as farewell gifts. My sisters know I was pretty prideful of my hoard of Lavender soaps. Then one transatlantic (?) flight my bag disappeared. It has never returned. So...Now I don't practice hoarding luxuries. Instead, I revel in consumption as soon as possible.

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Sign up for my email subscriptions and have a chance at winning a free ATC (artist trading card). Subscribing means that you are notified whenever I post a new work on the blog, which enables you to preview the work before it gets published on dailypainters.com. It's easy to do, and also easy to undo at anytime. I will mail an original, 2.5 x3 inch work of art to every tenth subscriber. The ATC will be an original that you can frame, regift, or trade in the ATC and the eBay world. It's gonna be a lot of work, but I get energised by connecting to people across the web and the world. Look for your name announced on the blog to make the exchange!


This one goes to Krisse! Thank you!

Tourist Couple on San Francisco Map panel with poem

8 x 13
This is another map panel painting. Initially on a San Francisco Bay area map there are details of Joshua Tree, and the Sequoia National Forest, in the background. The Man's shirt collar has hints of the King's Beach area and the Womans blouse has maps further away- such as the lake Tahoe area and additionally features words from a poem by Maya Angelou:
When we come
we must confess
we are possible
we are miracule
the true wonders
of this world
That is when
and only when
We come to it.

The closeness of the couple combined with the distance symbolized by the maps really makes me ponder where we come from and what we have to offer each other.

Glass of Water on Death Valley map panel

I am working on a series of maps now (and again)- small...8 x 10 I definitely see this as HALF FULL. What about you?
A good friend sent me this: here is a link to the Harlem Valley times article from 4/17/08 about the map unveiling in Poughkeepsie.
http://www.zwire.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=1703&dept_id=71557&newsid=19493428

Comforts of Home while on the Road

SOLD
10 x 11.5 inches. This is painted on a panel that was wrapped with a map of California. In particular the San Diego to Carlsbad area. You can see Interstate 5. It was inspired by last week's visit. I like the idea of containing a birdhouse in a suitcase...perhaps because they contradict each other- a home-base for a flighty being nestled in a container that is meant for transport. Throw in a variety of feathers and some tea cups for comfort and you cover the bases! This work would be perfect to decorate any moving home, such as an RV?!
A local newspaper last week described my work as "emotional maps"- I like that!

HOME

Home...with the boys and papa Frank again...And the dog, the chickens, the goldfish, and apparently, a mouse family too. It's hard to unpack. I just want to curl up in bed to recover. Why is it we are all so busy in this life? It seems like only on "vacations" we get to listen to the muse and respond to the day with an open heart. I am attempting to resist the list making that's so vital to managing the family, my life, my career. But swift passing thoughts remind me of things I put off until I returned.
So here I am! Tomorrow's painting will be all lists, I am sure.

Nest of California colors

This little 4 x 6 inch painting and drawing can be turned which ever way---I turned it as I worked it...so you can see mountain ridges on one end and swirling palms in the center....
Oh...how to summarize a trip where we flew 2400 miles west (and then, again, back)- drove 400 miles south of LA along the beaches and then 800 miles north into the mountains. We are exhausted and stiff and on tender speaking terms- (at the moment). I am happy to be home- though not as vibrant and colorful as California- New York has it's budding willows, and the Forsythia is in bloom...it looks hopeful.

California colors

4 x 6 inches pencil and paint on paper. We stayed last night at the Venice Beach Inn and walked this morning along the beach up to the Santa Monica Pier. It's windy, and there is great people watching- but when I sit to draw/paint- my eyes go to the sky. I will miss the palm trees. We head home tonight.

Two Travelors in California

Small watercolor, pencil and collage on paper map, roughly 7 x 7 inches
We are covering a lot of ground- from encinitas to Santa cruz in a day! Now---having fun with my younger sister- there is only time for little sketches- Under brother-in-law Al's tutelage, Ricky attempts to surf Cowell's Bay. Later we hike Redwood forests, dine on Brazillian fare, and In the car headed to Los Angeles, I make another painting, very small (4 x 6) of Paso Robles- the furry hills of the Central Valley were visually too enticing to not capture.

Postcards: nest in Carlsbad

This is just a small drawing/painting (4 x 6 inches)
Having a great time...old friends- Fred!, new friends- Marta, Holly and Bill
I am taking lots of pictures- I can't seem to paint- we move too quickly, and there is always something distracting to check out. In Carlsbad there were flower fields in the height of their bloom, and then antique shops, and public art mosaics along the coastline, and then there is my husband- my sweet, easily distracted husband- with his stories and his insight.
I hope to PAINT when I get home. I miss the studio...the kids, my folks.

Nesting in Encinitas

THIS LIVES ON AS A FRAGMENT IN ISLAND BED, 2/7/2011
View of Moonlight Bay- watercolor and ink, 5 x 7 inches

Southern California

a small 4 x 6 inch watercolor
We couldn't have asked for better weather.
I can't help but focus on the sky, as there is so much dreaming going on.

TWO SHIPS

TWO SHIPS HAS SOLD

We made it out of the nest and across the country. With fresh eyes, Rick and I are enjoying the coast of California. Like two ships side by side, we travel really well together. I have my guidebooks and lists, he has his skill meeting people at the drop of the hat. We are both sincerely ecstatic about the fresh Mexican cuisine, the lush foliage, constant sunshine and sound of song birds. He's at a gym right now and I am on the rooftop balcony of our tiny hotel working on a watercolor. In an hour or so we will meet to rent bikes for a trip down the shore and down town.
5 x 7 each, acrylic and pencil on paper.

Basket case

In a great mood- trying to get packed to go out of town...this is a little pen and ink and umber paint study.
6 x 4 inches

The unveiling

It really happened! And so many friends showed up- my womenartist@work group, my neighbors, the arts council, and even out of town friends via train commute! Pictured here- I unveil the mural with with county Executive Bill Steinhouse, The current Mayor of Poughkeepsie, and the President of the Arts Council. Dad took the pictures- thank you. My family showed up too. They are the best.

Life is a whirlwind or a road

This is a collage and painting with maps, words...inspired by a nest at the corner of route 22.
I am trying to BE STILL- to find the center of the whirlwind, or pause at a scenic overlook so l can send out the taxes, pack my suitcases, choose what to wear to the unveiling, return phone calls....BUT I only have a couple hours, and a programs committee meeting, until I am off to NYC with a student to hang his art show late into the night, followed by an early morning trust meeting, followed by lunch with my uncles, followed by train up the Hudson and Map unveiling event at the Poughkeepsie train station(5-7pm), followed by my early flight to California...
Must pack art supplies! I think I will paint everyday- but I may not post them as regular for the next week. Just gotta go a few brief miles... Thank you for being here-this blog helps me "check in".

Reworked a couple things

Today I have been like a lazy cat inthe sun. I reworked details of old work- like the heart in yesterday's in Mortal Moments and the background in Pickled in Brine of Self Pity.

Mortal moments

9 x 9 in collage map, paint and ink
Last night I caught a glimpse of my mortality. I don't want to worry anyone, and really, there is no alarm, we are alright now. But today, the first thing I read is a line in a passage taken from the Bible, "Lord, help me to realise how brief my time on earth will be. Help me to know that I am here but for a moment more."Psalm 39:4 I hope to remember the message. With Life so temporary I think I should learn to worry less about most things. Love more.

Nest sewn with feathers of blue and yellow

SOLD Here is a small work- about 6 1/2 x6inches- paint and thread.

Nest and sneakers

9 x 9 mixed media on paper
Should I stay or should I go?
We are going to California for a week's vacation, and my husband already is making plans to move there! He says his bones can't take another winter in the north east.

El Diablo is dead

SOLD
Found the rooster collapsed on his perch yesterday. Spent this morning cleaning out the pen, replacing the feed. The hens haven't laid an egg in over a week. It's a mystery.
oil on canvas 4 x 4x 2 inches

White nest on green with map feathers

12 x 12 collage, torn paper, paint

Nest scratched together

5 x 7 paint on paper
Thinking of the purpose and meaning in my life- I have to wonder what drives me on a daily basis? Today was a day filled with two committee meetings and dr appointments for my father-in-law. I guess, as I scratch into "my nest", or in other words, peer into the recesses of my world, mix together art, blogs, schools, parents and children, tie up the family in sickness and in health. - I build community.
Do I do it to seek approval? Do I blog for approval? (Honestly, it is nice to find like minded souls across the web) Do I do it to be important? (Oh my!) Do I do what I do in fear of the alternative- a life without connections, a lost sense of placement in the world? (How afraid is anyone of a meaningless life?)
I think I will keep painting nests and looking carefully at how I take care of the family or weave my volunteering commitments in the community. Until I start feeling better, there might not be any eggs!

A Matter of Energy

Here is an egg. 5 x 7 collage and paint on paper
I was wrong- when I wrote earlier that we are all strings of dust, nothing. Reading further (a good thing to do before quoting a book) Einstein proved that a small amount of matter can release a vast amount of energy. "Locked within the smallest particles of matter is a storehouse of energy, more than 1 million times the energy released in a chemical explosion." So really everything is pulsating with energy. I look at a chair... and it now looks fidgiting and vibrating.

Last night I spoke to the Harlem Valley Chamber of Commerce about my Treasure Map which will be unveiled next week in Poughkeepsie. To calm my nerves ( I am fundamentally a shy person) I kept telling myself-" it is not about me. It's about the ways art can benefit a community and transform the energy of a city." Surely, there is energy in a work of art- even if it be static material. I remember the joy of creating it. It swelled out of my paintbrush. My map looks vibrating and lovely. If you have a chance- look for it.

Nest with stamps from France

SOLD
5 x 7 inches, paint and collage on paper
(My uncle, who sent me the packet with the stamps, is on a small sailboat somehwere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, doing one leg of a round-the-world tour)

nest with string theory

My bedside reading is Hyperspace: a Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension written by Michio Kaku. I thought, when I first picked it up, that it would help me with my lists and fitting in extraneous noxious chores- like grocery shopping. It doesn't as of yet. But, I find it a peaceful thought that all matter is created strings of energy. So the dresser is really just an illusion of organized energy, and I am just a miniscule finite bundle of waves. Our limits come through our minds. So all the worrying, all the care, all the tears really don't shake the world, they mean nothing. We are just intellegent dust- which is strings of energy which exist in a finite space in an infinite world, which means nothing.
Collage paper and paint, 7 x 15 inches.