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Here is my most recent painting. I so enjoyed the creation of this biophilic and expressive work. I continue to explore the automatistic, spontaneous pulse of the narrative that unfolds when I paint or draw each element. And as well, I seek to combine the spontaneous gestures with my personal reflections on nature and life at large. You can also see this work at my website.
The Verse Of Flora’s Gate, watercolor, ink and pastel, 14 5/8″ x 11 1/4″.
Detail pics:
I’ve joined a group of Arizona artists who meet monthly. We enjoy discussing technique and latest community arts news, planning painting/drawing meetups and collaborate on exhibits. 12 of us will now be presenting our work in The Artery, a gallery run by a local artist collective, through a variety of group and solo shows. For February, we’ve chosen a love-themed group exhibition. Join us this first Friday!
Small Works Love Show
Opening Reception
Friday, February 3rd
6pm – 9pm
623 E. Indian School, Phoenix, AZ
I will be exhibiting Diviners, a watercolor, ink and pastel painting, Say That Again, an ink drawing and giclée limited edition prints.
I have received an invitation to a surrealism group show, Figure So Surreal, in May. This will be a large gathering of surrealists — some whose work I’ve followed for many years. “A journey into the minds of over 3 dozen talented artists as they dance with images of a surrealist world. From Arizona and beyond!”, writes Travis Fields, curator. I’m very excited to be a part. You can visit Facebook to RSVP or learn more. I’ll have more details as the date gets closer.
I am moving to my hometown, Phoenix, AZ! While it’s been a short chapter on the island of Vashon and the PNW, it has been meaningful and altering. I know I will always feel its affects in my life, my family, my art….
These are some of the drawings that span my time here on “The Rock”.
Pluck
Fragment
Extending the Lines
Innate
Tangerine
Thankfulness at Sunset
We Can Feel the Rain in Our Way
In Stead
Mountains and Mesas
The Light Matters
You just never know where life will take you….
I am mostly settled into my new home art studio in Vashon, WA. It is a bright space with just the right amount of room to maneuver several paintings at once in various states of progress. Favorite mementos and pictures are arranged. The scanner is ready for business. Outside my window is a small Japanese Maple that keeps me company in rain or shine… mostly rain these days. It has been at least two months since I’ve been able to really dedicate time to to serious art projects during the transition from Flagstaff. For the last two weeks, I’ve tried to hit the ground running and do feel back in a flow of drawing, painting, writing poetry, correspondence and visiting regional artists and gallery spaces. Here are some samples of my recent creativity. 
The Seeds of Stretch Marks the Body
Diaphanous
Enveloping
Two of many paintings in progress.
In my future are many day-trips to surrounding Seattle and Tacoma. I’ve taken a few already and found myself basking in a botanical garden, playing pinball, eating bacon on a stick, watching salmon jump at Ballard Locks and reading/viewing the thoughtfully curated “Painting Poetry” exhibit at Women Painters of Washington Gallery.
Most of the time, I’m at my house nesting and painting. Vashon is a rare gem of a place — a small island with much to uncover. I am not even close to being used to all the gray weather and rain, but the temperatures are fairly mild and nature is exquisitely unfettered. Just the other day, I was sitting on my deck sketching quietly when suddenly the neighbor’s geese exploded in a hullabaloo of angry honking. A large bald eagle flew over them, then landed in a towering fir tree nearby. Well, no wonder, I thought.
It has been a while since I’ve blogged, but there is good reason… a whirlwind of positive, but surprising events has me relocated on Vashon Island, Washington. The city is a very short ferry-ride away from the vibrant Seattle — just a mere 20 minutes. My head is full of new creative ideas to fill this new chapter in the Pacific Northwest. Though I’ve traveled quite a bit, I’ve never lived anywhere but Arizona. It’s quite a change. I feel a great loss to be leaving my dear community of Flagstaff. The exquisite Senoran desert and the San Francisco peaks will be missed. At times, I know it will be strange to open a window and not feel the warm, arid wind.
Daisy Mountain, AZ
Wukoki Pueblo, AZ
San Francisco Peaks, Hart Prairie, AZ
New River, AZ
I look forward to meeting new creatives, new friends, new nature encounters in this green and oceanic place. I can’t imagine tiring of filling my senses with the verdant flaura and fauna of this region. Yesterday, a large cross orb weaver nearly dropped on my nose while I was getting into the car. I am also interested to find new ways to be a part of community involvement. Wherever one is, there are always people who are in need. It’s important to be a part of positive spirals. I’m already becoming acquainted with some local and cultural traditions. Below are from some recent outings.
Shingle Mill Hike
Shingle Mill Hike
Point Defiance, Tacoma
Ferry to Vashon
Fauntleroy/Vashon Ferry
Near Burma Road, Vashon
Here are some drawings (in situ) from the road trip to my new home.
My Heart Was Meant To Touch Like This
In This Space, All Your Manifestations
The Mojave Desert Again, But This Time
The Keep Feeling
Now, I continue to unpack and organize. I hope to be up and painting by next week. Thanks for reading along!
Serving, blue and sienna ink
Infinite Formations Emerge Through Preclusions, ink drawing
Adaptability. How beautiful. How necessary. How difficult at times. How elemental.
I like observing the Hawaiian volcanic terrains that rise to meet wind and ocean. Black igneous licks and curls in semi-permanent formation from its ongoing relationship with the elements. The hardiness of its crystallized minerals make it stalwart. The memory of this landscape has been, at times, a simple, deep and gratifying meditation. It elicits contentment to ponder endurance in terms of structure and malleability.
More recent ink drawings:
Sake and Surrounding
Pluck
Fibrils Bring to Surface
Unfinished drawing
Preserving Animals
Channels
Please do check out my most recent installment of Honey Wove the Marrow, a column I write for Arcadia Magazine’s Online Sundries. This time around I discuss the intricacies of loss, and the painting, When The Lines Disappear, I Am Not Afraid With You.
By summer’s end, I’ll have completed some new works. Stay posted!
It’s been extremely rewarding to pursue some new palettes this month and attend to several projects. Below are two of four paintings in progress, and I’m beginning another one today… I woke up thinking of rich indigo and filigree-like white lace. I’ll see where the spark takes me.
Having several concurrent paintings in progress affords me the ability to step back from one when I need to but also keep working on others. It’s important for me, and many other visual artists/writers, I’ve heard, to avoid developing myopia. As well, a kind of block can develop when all one’s hopes are tied to a single project — particularly one that is large and inundating. That happened to me several years ago while doing a large commission. At points, I felt completely overwhelmed; when I got to a puzzling element I would fixate on it and become mired. Time ticked away. I’d paint something that didn’t work, paint it over, then over again. Trickles of self-doubt began to form. Hitting the wall, my efforts became forced, which is anathema to my automatistic, spontaneous flow of creativity I need to create work that is truly alive, surprising and authentic. In frustration I found myself breaking away and taking out a sketchbook. I began drawing unrelated projects and it extinguished my anxiety. What emerged were some of my best drawings AND I returned to the large commission feeling rejuvenated, fueled and having fresh eyes. Time-wise too, it was crucial that I met the deadline, and thankfully I did! It was a learning curve.
I’ve since utilized this healthy discovery in creative process and I make sure to explore art in several directions at once. Not to an overwhelming degree, but just enough so that the projects are mutually beneficial as a whole. Each venture is informing the other, whether on a conscious or subconscious level. When a piece falls flat, I don’t trouble over it as much as I used to. Instead, I usually set it aside (I will often resurrect it later) and get to painting or drawing or writing something else. One creation is happily percolating while another creation is reaching a satisfying completion. I read along the way that “art feeds art”. It’s true.
The above painting, Windows Watch Us In, is the focus of my April art column installment, Honey Wove the Marrow, at Arcadia Magazine’s Online Sundries. In it I discuss identity, relating and a bit about fishing with my dad.
Here is a detail from the work in progress for Essential Creatures, an exhibition honoring the pollinators of our world. It will be at West of the Moon Gallery, 14 N. San Francisco St., Flagstaff, AZ 86001. (928) 774-0465. The open reception is April 3rd, 2015, First Friday, 6-9 pm and is ongoing through April.
The above work, Honey Wove the Marrow, was started back in September 2014. I worked on this for a couple of months, but I hit a wall and couldn’t go on with it. So… I let it sit for a while, worked on other projects, then returned to it just last month. What was needed came together after that long, deep breath. I’ve written more about it in my first installment of the eponymous art column, Honey Wove the Marrow, at Arcadia Magazine’s Online Sundries. Included is a story from my childhood.
This week, I’m excited to be featured in an article in Arizona Foothills Magazine Blog. It was very thoughtfully written by Nicole Royse. Thank you! You can visit it here.
I am so, so relieved to be in a routine flow around my new art space. As a creature of habit in my immediate surroundings, change definitely unsettles me. But it is ultimately an invigorating, cathartic experience. My new studio is a shared space with other family activities. Sometimes I find myself creating in conjunction with all manner of commotion buzzing around me. I think again (as I do so often) about childhood with my father as a jeweler. He worked out of our house. He had an intensity of persistence and focus as he built exquisite pieces of fine jewelry in a home studio, and later a converted garage. Life did not stop around him, nor did he expect it to. We were just asked to be respectful. I think about the cacophony of a day, but never felt like I was an intrusive part of his process. In fact, I was sometimes asked to assist him in arranging and stringing beads or other tasks. I loved that purposeful feeling of being at my father’s knee with all those colors, shapes and textures in my hands. I was a part of something that was being made. Many facets of life coexisted together. In some ways, now is very much like my childhood then. Part and parcel.
Dad and me
I recently reread the in-your-face poem (imagine that!) by Charles Bukowski, “Air and Light and Time and Space”, that is an affront to writers who incessantly look for the perfect conditions to evoke their productivity. It gave me pause for thought. Here are some lines:
baby, air and light and time and space
have nothing to do with it
and don’t create anything
except maybe a longer life to find
new excuses
for.
Together Go The Elements, ink drawing
Take care and feel all that is around you.
This is my newest painting. Let Them Fall and Rise as Garnets, 2015, watercolor, ink and pastel, 14″ x 12″.
Details. 
Two paintings, Beloved and The Gift, have been selected for exhibition at Arizona Opera located at 1636 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ. You will be able to view them in the lobby from March 16th – June 5th. This is a wonderful venue featuring some of Arizona’s greatest vocal talents. I’m thrilled!
I am astray for light of you 
