shall ye break into blossom

This summer I have participated with a group that provides free art making opportunities to support inclusive environments for artists with and without disabilities. I cannot express how much fun I have been having. Super grateful for the amazing facilitators and the City of Austin for funding the program. Here's what I created in today's session.

So this is the corner of a room. The back wall is the chaos that is always the wallpaper of my mind these days. The flowers and painting are from my business cards. The bit of music is from an antique choral book I have. The rest is cut up paper I have from my scrapbooking days.

"shall ye break into blossom"

Mixed Media

7"x5" on wood

My original paintings are available in my online gallery.

Let me know if you're interested in prints of my paintings.

  I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

Live Life in Full Bloom

Live your life in full bloom, my friends.

"Live Life in Full Bloom"

7"x5"

Prints available on request.

(Printed image will be slightly cropped for printing purposes.) 

All works are copyrighted and all rights are reserved by the artist.

My original paintings are available in my online gallery.

Prints of many of my paintings are available in my Etsy shop. 

Let me know if you're interested in prints of my paintings.

  I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment.

Their Watchful Eyes

"There's beauty all around our paths,

if but our watchful eyes can trace it midst

familiar things, and through their lowly guise."

-Felicia Hemans

"Their Watchful Eyes"    7"x5"

All works are copyrighted and all rights are reserved by the artist.
 

My original paintings are available in my online gallery.

Prints of many of my paintings are available in my Etsy shop. 

Let me know if you're interested in prints of my paintings.

  I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment.

Tiny Dancer

"Everything in the universe has a rhythm,

everything dances."

-Maya Angelou

"Tiny Dancer"
7"x5"

Please come visit me and my art during the East Austin Studio Tour!

All works are copyrighted and all rights are reserved by the artist.
 

My original paintings are available in my online gallery.

Prints of many of my paintings are available in my Etsy shop. 

Let me know if you're interested in prints of my paintings.

  I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment.

Where flowers bloom so does hope...

A little Lady Bird Johnson wildflower love.

 Click here to view my gallery 

Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment.

This painting is part of a year-long online art class (instructor Angela Kennedy).

Overflowing with Happiness

Here's the fourth in my series of sweet little potted plants. Love creating these!

This painting is part of a year-long online art class (instructor Martha Lever).

Click here to view my gallery 

Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment.

Filled with Joy

Here's the third in my series of sweet little potted plants. So much fun!

This painting is part of a year-long online art class (instructor Martha Lever).

Click here to view my gallery 

Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment.

Embracing the Sunshine

Here's the second in my series of sweet little potted plants. These are pure bliss to create.

This painting is part of a year-long online art class (instructor Martha Lever).

Click here to view my gallery 

Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment.

Blissful Blue

When I first started painting in 2011 I fell in love with watercolor and ink. I'd endlessly draw pictures with ink and then color them in with watercolor, pretty much creating my own coloring books. And sometimes I'd get a wild hair and do the watercolor first and then the ink. Such fun! I switched to mostly acrylic and mixed media about a year ago and have loved where it's taken me, too.

Last weekend I went down memory lane. I pulled out all of my old paintings (the ones that I hadn't given away or sold), took photos of them, and began posting them on facebook offering them for $2 or under. Spring cleaning!!! (Here's the link if you're interested in seeing them and possibly purchasing.) Seeing them reignited my love of watercolor and ink...so when the year long class I've been taking introduced the new lesson on Monday and it was a watercolor and ink project...well, AWESOME!

Here's the first of several I painted. More to come.


This painting is part of a year-long online art class (instructor Martha Lever).

Click here to view my gallery 

Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

Please click the links below to share my blog.

I'd love to hear from you...feel free to leave me a comment.

Blissful Creation

This painting marks the completion of a fourth year of creating a painting every single day. That's 1,461 paintings in 1,461 days! Whew! Thank you to everyone who has joined me on an incredible journey that has changed my life for the better in so, so many ways!

And as I enter my fifth year as an artist I'm going to make some changes. In the year ahead I want to focus on improving and trying new things. I want to take more art classes, I want to spread beyond paints to other media, I want to take on more commissions, I want to create videos, and so many more things. My blog and Facebook/Daily Paintworks/Twitter/Google+/Pinterest postings will change. I'll still be posting on my blog daily, but I won't be pushing to complete a painting of the day. I'll be taking on bigger and more detailed work that will likely take me more than a day to complete. (This has actually been the case for a while and I have been making myself a tad crazy...in a good way...creating extra paintings so I could still maintain my painting a day pace as the big painting I worked on took multiple days). So I'm going to give myself the wiggle room deadline wise and take you along with me through the process of creating my paintings. I'll continue to post my completed paintings as I have in the past.

This makes me feel both excited and vulnerable. Now everyone will know that all of my paintings go through an "ugly" phase (or phases, more accurately) before I consider them done. And actually, I never do consider them finished, but they all do come to a reasonable place to stop. I'm super excited to share this process!

So thank you for joining me on my fifth year of blissful creating!

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Just Outside the Door

It's where our chickens have taken up residency. It took them about three months to come up with a group plan, but they seem to have realized that if they hover outside our back door to our deck, look terrifically cute, one of the humans who resides here is likely to go outside with something for them to eat.

Our girls are brilliant...and well fed.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Divided

It's funny how people see things in different ways. But maybe it's just my Netflix binge watching that alters my view.

This piece I did with India ink is in a style reminiscent of the early work of artist Marie Laurencin. I think the idea is to have her look sweet, mild, and kind, but all I keep seeing is demon eyes a la "Supernatural". Ah, well, works for me. I like it.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Twisted

Sometimes pure perfection happens.

I was in the laundry room, which just so happens to be a very tiny room, and my little guy showed up. "Twist and Shout" streamed out of his phone...and that precious kid of mine started to do the twist and sing loudly into a vacuum cleaner extension tube "microphone". Well, of course I had to join in! And the two of us twisted and shouted for the duration of that magnificent song.

Hanging in the laundry room has never been more fun!

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Smile and say, "Cheese"

I learned something new, something that I bet you didn't know, but that you might just have to verify on your own.

What I learned is this...It is nearly impossible, well, for me totally impossible, to take a selfie with your tongue out and still look good. I learned this, of course, because I wanted to capture an image of my bruised tongue.

I tried looking surprised - not good.

I tried looking sad - not good.

I even tried looking "normal" - so not good.


So, go for it, you know you want to. Stick that tongue out and snap a pic.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Something New...Something Blue

I love trying new things, I really do, but something I just did for the first time ever is not working out so well for me.

You see, I managed to bite my tongue in what appears to be the absolute, perfect way to bruise it good and plenty. While I've bruised pretty much everything else at one time or another (I tend to walk into things a lot), who knew that it was even possible to bruise a tongue?

Anyway, I'll be distracted by this whole event for a while...I figure my entire sense of reality has undergone a shift.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

A Bit of a Scare

My sweet husband...

Last night I asked him to go with me to the school where I work so I could put a gift on the desk of one of the office ladies whose birthday is today.

The reason I asked him is because, frankly, my school feels super scary at night. It always reminds me of the original "Halloween" movie when they're in the school and the hallways are only lit by the red exit signs. Scare-freakin'-ree!

So what did my sweet husband do? Well, he took every opportunity to freak me out. And I held it together just fine until we had left and I was waiting for him to get in his side of the car and unlock mine...but he didn't do that...he sneaked around to my side and jumped at me.


"Aaaaaaa!"


I think from now on I'll be expecting him to open my door for me.  Good thing he's so freakin' cute.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Tangled with Me

It finally happened.

One of my family members paid the price for scaring me. The thing is, my family loves to scare me.  They do it all the time. Hiding in the closet and jumping out at me...standing in the shower and yelling when I enter the dark bathroom...and standing right behind or beside me just waiting, waiting, to be noticed.

Well, poor Dave did the last of those just a couple nights ago, and I'd like to think he's lived to regret it. You see, it turns out that if someone comes up beside me while I've got my headphones on and I'm watching something scary on Netflix, and they just stand there super close waiting to be noticed, well, when I notice them I scream and start slapping them something silly.

Not my fault. I accept no responsibility. Though I do feel a bit guilty for the red hand print I left on him. But just a little bit.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Keyboard Warp

I love happy accidents. 

My awesome brother somehow managed to have his right hand fingers just one-key-to-the-right off.  (This actually happens to me A;; TJE TO,E! ALL THE TIME!)

Well, lucky me, he was trying to send a message to his bud "Jakub"and, of course four letters in he ended up with "Kali"...and happily, I received a delightful message from my brother. 

And because I am who I am, I keep imagining his right hand doing the "Time Warp".

It's just a jump to the left.

And then a step to the right.

:pve upi Love you, baby brother!  Now put your hands on your hips.... <big sister snicker>

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Peace and Love

Do everyone's kids fight or just mine?

Mind you, their fighting has changed over the years.  When they were younger they fought with the seeming purpose of actually doing each other harm.  These days they seem to fight for fun.  Yes, fun.  At sixteen and nineteen they sweat and giggle their way through battles that take up the entire livingroom and they delight at its conclusion as they show each other battle scars on their bodies and ripped clothing.

Fun...hmmmmmmm...I say, "Peace and love, dudes."

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Crazy Works

I haven't a clue as to why, but I've had the hiccups every day for a while. And I remembered that recently I'd heard of some crazy weird remedy on an NPR show. So since I was driving when this last bout came on, I had the kid look up the known remedies. 


Little guy:  "Try holding your breath."

Me:  "That's what I have been doing. HIC!  It's not working."

Little guy:  "Eat a spoonful of sugar."

Me:  "Nope, that'll make me feel even worse.  HIC!"

Little guy:  "Drink some water and put your fingers in your ears at the same time."

Me:  "HIC!  That's the one I heard about!  You have to help me do that when we get home."

Little guy:  "I'm not going to put my fingers in your ears or help you drink."

Me:  "Gee...HIC!"


So, dejected and on my own at home, I took a big gulp and held the water in my mouth, put my fingers in my ears, and then swallowed.

And it worked!


...yet another fabulous reason why I love NPR.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

 

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!