Paintings With Soul

Detail (full painting below, please scroll down), "Wabi Sabii" 24" x 48", acrylics on panel, $1499 to the first asking nicely. Please send them directly   to me . I've been working on a couple of surprise commissions, but in between waiting for my clients' feedback I've been working away on this one. And boy do I love her. Wabi Sabi   is essentially the acceptance of brokenness. A celebration of it, in fact, as in Japanese tradition a broken bowl is repaired with a vein of gold. It remains useful and all the more beautiful because of it's cracks. I embraced that idea with my newest selfie, wrapped in my favorite shawl and bearing my own gold repaired cracks. I'm proud to bear scars - they mean I've lived my life without bubble wrap, and that my heart and head have experience I can lean on as I continue to roll with the punches.

In process "Wabi Sabi Selfie," 24" x 48", acrylics on panel. Not currently for sale, but inquiries are always welcome. Please send them directly   to me . This week I have: submitted a grant application entered two big deal to me juried competitions (that I fully expect to be rejected from, but one never knows and if one never asks, one never knows) taught several classes glazed, wrapped and posted 4 paintings to new homes booked 5 new commissions deep cleaned the studio coordinated the return of work from a show in Pennsylvania (which reminds me I've not gotten shipping confirmation yet, so I should follow up with them on Tuesday) marketed/promoted my summer classes and workshops (although I'm realizing I neglected to do so via this blog, so   here is a link ) researched exhibition opportunities through the fall coordinated the transition to online entry for the Thumb Area Art Exhibition read 2 art books ( One Hundred Hands   and   What I...

Detail of Siren #41, "The Day My Heart Exploded," full painting is 24" square, acrylics on panel. Not currently for sale, but inquiries are always welcome. Please send them directly   to me . This painting is a self portrait - while the likeness is not mine the emotional state most definitely is. This morning there was yet another school shooting. I cannot understand why our children are killing each other.  This siren came from my gut. There's others still in there. I imagine they will show up in the coming days. May your children all come home safely tonite.

So yesterday was one of those days. I came into the studio and looked at my new work and was convinced they all were crappy and self indulgent. Poorly drawn, meaningless, wastes of paint. We all have days like these, don't we? I think mine happen when I'm exhausted - they tend to show up after a long stretch of crazy inspired painting. Days - sometimes weeks - strung together of manic production and very little reflection. And that's when her voice shows up. You know the one. She tells you that you know nothing, you are wasting your time, that nobody will every truly understand your paintings because they are muddled, ugly and trite. So when She shows up (I call her Betka after an elementary school teacher I had multiple run-ins with), I let her rant. I write down what she says in my studio journal. I acknowledge her questions. And then I paint right overtop of them. Preferably with something glittery and fancy. And then I return to the easel, pick up my brushes, ...

At top: Dream, Protect, Oasis; top two are 15" x 30", acrylics on gallery wrapped canvases, each $799. Oasis, 24" x 48", acrylics on panel, $1499. Inquiries may come   to me . After painting upwards of 30 sirens featuring girls and young women, I decided to try the same approach to an equine composition. These pieces were SO hard for me, because I found myself subconsciously returning to that whole literality that I was trying to step away from intitialy. The clouds of color are actually pours of paint with various gels, glazes and mediums added to impact their opacity and texture. I go in with my hands, spatulas, rags, ratty brushes, pretty much any sort of tool I can grab, and push the puddles about. Rubbing, scraping, scratching, pouring - it's a fabulous way to spend the day. The end result is difficult to photograph, the paintings themselves have such a palpable space. I invite you all into my studio to see them. Or visit them in an exhibitio...

From left: "The Guardians" and "Stand Tall", both 24" x 48", acrylics on panel, each $1499 plus s&h. Yes pleases and inquiries may come directly   to me   - thank you!  First off, I have been overwhelmed with your love and support during this week's venture through my Derby Experience in 2015 and how it changed my life. Thank you so much for taking the time to reach out and let me know how my paintings and personal journal have impacted you. You inspire me to continue onwards, and I am humbled. These two paintings were the next logical step from   yesterday's Gentle . I had embraced the horse as my spirit animal, so then I borrowed him as a stand in as protector for the world at large. When these two paintings were done (September 2017), there were mass tragedies and acts of terror happening all over the world. It seemed as if we were incapable of taking care of our neighbors, ourselves, and our Mother Earth. Pops of light became bits of h...

"Do not go gentle into that good night," 14" x 18", acrylics on panel, $599 plus s&h. Inquiries may come directly   to me   - thank you! Three years ago I was the official artist of The Kentucky Derby. I was fully aware that this experience, pretty much the pinnacle of my career to date, gave me permission to move on. I already had been trying to re-brand myself - after doing pet portraits for 15 years, 7 years of daily creating inside that, I had long been ready for a change. And I had been suffering from creative burnout for over a year - I desperately needed to mix things up. But I was clueless where to turn. My daily painting practice involved such an intensive focus on producing, and I hadn't built in much time for introspection. That was the first change - to give myself permission to slow down and stop focusing on the painting count and start focusing on the paintings' integrity. Extensive journaling, both visual and written, ...

Champion, 6" x 8", acrylics on panel, depicting American Pharoah, the Kentucky Derby winner the year I was the Derby artist.   Reproductions available here . We are halfway through Kentucky Derby Week. Three years ago I was the official artist of The Kentucky Derby. And for the first time in 37 years, the Derby winner went on to win the Preakness and Belmont, securing a Triple Crown. And I saw the first leg in person from my seats at the wire. My Grandfather and I shared a passion for horse racing. We watched the Derby together every year, sharing stats and guesses during the prep races. When he and Grandma retired they moved to Arkansas where he quickly became a regular at Oaklawn Park. About that same time, he became a fervent supported of the Arkansas Derby winner, something rather uncommon in the late 80s. Our Derby Week consults were initially letters, then phone calls, then Facebook messages. What I wouldn't give to hash over the morning lin...

Black Rose (on left), Dixie Rose (on right), each panel measures 24" x 48", both are acrylics on panel, $1499 each or adopt the two for $2700. Please   contact me   for detail photos as well as shipping information.   I am celebrating Kentucky Derby Week and reliving my stint as the official artist of The Kentucky Derby in 2015. As you might imagine, I had roses on the brain for quite some time afterwards. Ok, I might still have them. One of my earliest introductions to horse racing (other than my Grandfather, who I'll talk about later this week) was Walter Farley's books. First it was   Man O' War,   then   The Black Stallion series . The school librarian actually forbid me to check my favorite books out because no other students got a chance to read them.   These paintings are titled in the same fashion as all things Black Stallion - every horse ever sired by The Black carried the monikor "Black" in their name. I took this idea and applied i...