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Showing posts from September, 2013

About Face

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They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Artists, however, continue learning and growing  until the cows come home. If your ducks are always in row, well, life gets a bit stale. Goofy metaphors aside, I do believe in ditching my creative comfort zone often enough to keep things exciting. And I certainly did just that last weekend!  The ever-fabulous Jane Powell hosted the Drawn to Paint workshop at  Random Arts . You may not think Misty Mawn was the instructor based on my favorite piece (one of the exercises was collage painting - my fave - and I did get a bit carried away), but I do like this guy. Is there any experience more fulfilling than being in the company of talented, funny women who, being fellow creatives, just get it - very few explanations needed?! Not for me. I do wish I could travel more often but given the chronic illness that wipes me out, and my family, it's just not a reality.  If you haven't been in the company o

Thoughts on Friendship

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Invisible Illness (Awareness) Week  has begun! In keeping with the theme, another of my choices is to be my best possible self. And that includes reaching out, sharing, caring, helping when I can... all qualities of being a good friend. There's an old saying, to make a friend you first have to be one. True, but. Sometimes those of us with chronic illness get overlooked, passed by as though not being able to  able make the party means we don't need to get an invitation.  The text I used in this piece of art, called Thoughts on Friendship, is an excerpt from a friendship 'manifesto' I wrote several years ago, after experiencing what I call being tossed from the merry-go-round. When life as I knew it ended and, unlike those with visible injuries and acute illnesses (especially cancer - God forbid), the carousel kept right on turning without me. Don't get me wrong, my family has always been really supportive and I do have good friends. But there were a coup

I Choose To

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The theme of this year's National Chronic Invisible Illness Week is "I Choose To" and one of my choices is to always be emerging from the cocoon, seeking the new and extraordinary, finding and using wings that had been dormant, not settling for a life spent crawling. Well, not all the time. I wake up and wait to see how I'm going to feel for the day and more often than not it's so-so, meaning, no errands, social events or major chores. So, I choose to go to the studio, put on my headphones and blast my fight songs - Rage Against the Machine, Led Zeppelin, Three Days' Grace, Rolling Stones, Tool, well, you get the idea. And then I  gesso a page,  prepare for takeoff... I most always start out with a layer of texture - paper, trim, stuff that will give my page depth. By then I usually have a photograph in mind and I choose a color palette. Hopefully with one or two colors I haven't used recently. That's when I reach high altitude. Paint o

Joyride

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Heading to Saluda tomorrow - one my most favorite home away from homes! The workshop will be fun and amazing (and surprising, I hope, considering I don't do faces:) and I so look forward to the company of other artists, along with the fabulous Jane Powell , proprietress of all things cool, funky, creative and unusual! This piece is another in the series of watercolor pages I've done incorporating my photos - the options are proving to be endless, thankfully! Can't wait to try some new techniques - always a treat. Stay tuned for Invisible Illness Week !! Until then, what's on your table?

you think you've seen it before

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We've been to our place on the lake a hundred times (well, not exactly, but close). I love the familiarity of watching the birds chat at the feeder when it rains and the squirrels aren't draining the food. The way the gravel in the driveway pinches when I take the three steps to the garage to get a cold water, the fawn leaping out of my way when I take the 4-wheeler out for an early morning cruise, and the comforting smallness of the cabin.  Our love for the lake isn't about speeding across the open water for miles, it's about relaxing, exploring and for some of us, fishing. And for me, the only and best exercise possible for anyone suffering from chronic illness -  swimming. A way to work my muscles against the resistance of the water and restore a bit of strength to my aching limbs.  So, we go to the same cove most of the time. If we're early enough there's privacy and it's stunningly beautiful. I never tir