My Poster!!!!

I made this print from one of my favorite watercolors and a passage from the Bible that has truth no matter what your belief system. I do believe what you think about day after day definitely plays into your moods and response to life's day to day monotony and even surprises.

Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely or admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - THINK ON THESE THINGS!!!! 

Philippians 4:8

I look at this print and the words remind me to reset my thinking and the watercolor flowers help me to see beauty and change my perspective for the moment. When I've been churning the negative in my head for hours it is time to look up and choose something different to think about.. even if it starts with,

"I will think about this lovely pink peony... the fact that I had a meal today that I didn't have to worry about obtaining... I then think of my friend who called me today and made me laugh... "
you get where I'm going.

Size of the paper is 13"wide x 19" high with the watercolor in the middle with 1.5 inch border around. ETSY link here.

Local Christmas Art Event

I had a great time setting up for this event here in St. Louis.  Was a great event for a great cause!

2012 Calender

I've put together a beautiful calender for 2012 with twelve of my favorite floral watercolors.  I think this is my favorite one yet.  You can click here, my Etsy shop to purchase or you can always contact me directly here if you prefer.  I hope you like it!!!

 August 2012

Calender Details: Size 8.5" x 5.5", 12 month calender with front and back cover.  $18.00 - which includes shipping!!!

Mrs. Kasper's Roses

Don't tell Mrs. Kasper, but I didn't LOVE this painting when I did it 6 years ago.  But after a computer crash scare, I found it, hidden file within file.  And you know what, I kinda like it now.  We artists can sometimes be the harshest critic of our own work.

Rule #I (established years ago, by the way).  If I hate, don't toss it.  Put it away until my emotions settle and that awful internal critic in me is asleep.  Always get back to it.  Because you'll find with fresh eyes, it's not as bad as you thought.  It never is.  Isn't this true of so many things?

Think on These Things

 

Finally, brothers and sisters, 

whatever is true, 

whatever is noble, 

whatever is right, 

whatever is pure, 

whatever is lovely, 

whatever is admirable

—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—

think about such things. 

-- Philippians 4:8

My head has been in that bad space where every thought turns negative, I'm sour, I'm anxious, I'm not the person I want to be.  Sure there's a whole list of things I wish would change in my life and I think if these "things" change, I will be happier, more positive, more....

But I've lived long enough to know that's not how it goes.  You must start from the inside out.  I must choose where my mind lands and where my thoughts go when life isn't going according to my plans and people don't behave in kindness.  It's so hard.  That's why this verse from the Bible is great, mostly because it's true.  Because what you think really can change your outlook and your person and just maybe your circumstance.

Sometimes it's hard for me to conjure up good thoughts when I'm in the midst of ruminating.  So I created this "Think Good Things" spot that is a visual push for me to get out of my negative mindset.

This little corner in my dining room is a little visual sampler of the Philippians Bible verse.  From there I can turn my thoughts on things that are true, honest, noble, praiseworthy and lovely.

Master Gardener

"Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, growing the flowers and fruits, which he requires,

so may a man tend the garden of his mind,

weeding out all the wrong, useless and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of the right, useful, and pure thoughts. 

By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master gardener of his soul, the director of his life. 

He also reveals, within himself, the laws of thought, and understands, with ever-increasing accuracy,

how the thought-forces and mind-elements operate in the shaping of his character, circumstance, and destiny." 

 – James Allen As A Man Thinketh



Beautiful Garden

A friend called me the other night, in tears and with enough despair and hopeless in her voice that I wanted to cry with her and I did. I have watched my friend suffer from the temper and emotional instability of an extremely ill-equipped manager for the past three years. Her efforts and successes being award her with “you could do better” and there is a constant undertow of threats of being fired. This is a boss that rules with fear and is using the economic downturn to treat her employees with little to no respect. It breaks my heart. She fights the good fight, with head held high most days, but today was one of those days.

I try to help her gain perspective. We recently read and watched The Help together and we were grateful that a bad day at work didn’t mean physical harm like it did for so many African Americans living in the south only 50 years ago. I reminded her that she had more opportunity than most of the world, that she was lucky. She could see she had something to be thankful for… barely. And I felt like such a crummy friend pulling the whole world into her situation. I hate when people do that to me, and I apologized.

All I could do was be sad with her and tell her she really did work for the sickest most damaged woman living in the United States, well, at least in the mid-west. I listened and did so without trying to fix it. I wish I could have fixed it though. Then when she was finished and the tears became just sniffles I told her things I wanted her to hear. And it’s important to wait for the tears to finish, the words of pain to stop spewing and the expletives to disappear before you say anything. No one can hear during that time. It’s like trying to get someone who is puking to eat… sorry to be so growce.

I reminded my friend of who she is and always will be and it went something like this…

You are kind. You make good cookies. You make me laugh everyday. You bring value to my world and anyone who knows you. Basically you have a garden with lots of flowers! All kinds of flowers are in your garden, it is full of color and beauty and there’s no better place.

Here’s to my friend. Your garden is beautiful and no one can change that, not even a crummy boss.

Happily Ever After....

I've been a skeptic of "happily ever after" mostly because it always seemed to be associated with finding prince charming, getting married, THEN you you get "happily ever after."   In just 13 days, I get to marry my prince charming.  But I have to say "happily ever after" began before I even met John.  "Happily ever after" came with each friend I made that I could call a kindred spirit, with the ability to paint when I was exhausted from life, work and mean people, with every day I managed to hope.  I guess that now that I'm engaged and soon to be a Missus, I see "happily ever after" in a different light.  You can choose to live "happily ever after" NOW.   Then you meet the guy....

Difficulties and Grandeur

Hot Days

Pointillism Flowers

These hot days... all I can do is sit still and move as slowly as possible.  I'm taking my time to finish paintings and even slow down enough to try new things. (like the flowers above)  Not too much thinking today, I get hot doing that too.  I wish I had zinnias to paint, but it looks like I fed a rabbit family this year.  I have sowed at least 5 packs of zinnias and might have five starts to show for it.  But don't get me going because thinking about that gets me hot too.

3x3x3

Three Artists - Three Mediums - Three Works

No, we aren't a country music trio, we are a trio of artists.Several months ago Brad Edwards, photographer, Michael Bolton, acrylic artist, and I, watercolor artist got together and decided to do an art show unlike any other we've done.  I mean, come on, if you are like me, I've come to dread art shows.  The ones where you are intimidated by the stark white walls, okay wine and you feel more comfortable standing in front of the plate of cubed cheese than a painting. Yes, you know what I'm talking about it.  And as an artist, if I don't like going to them, why would I want to be a part of one.  So we decided to try something a little less intimidating and a LOT more fun.  Urban Chestnut Brewery is a new micro brewery here in St. Louis.  With an amazing selection of beers and tasting plates to accompany their great brew assortment.  Recently opened and in a fabulously renovated building - it was perfect for what we were trying to do - which was....

• Have Fun
• Make Art more approachable and available
• Show our guests how each artists works and interprets what he/she sees
• Support and express our vision for St. Louis - a city with immense history, beauty and potential who seems to be limping at the moment

So here's how it happened.  Brad took several photos of St. Louis and each of us chose one photo Michael and I painted the three selections using our method and style.  These three would be displayed at the brewery.  Then on the night of the show, we did a live painting and had a silent auction. 

Black and White Flight

This was my favorite painting that I did.  It was quite a departure from my normal more realistic paintings.  There are so many dilapidated buildings in St. Louis.  You can see that many of them where once quite magnificent and I look at them and see beauty and sadness.  I painted this from Brad's black and white image, and it was just too depressing for me to paint the image using greys and blacks.  I saw so many great textures and to me that's what made this interesting.

Relic

 and finally

Make sure you go to Brad's website to see the original images. 

This experience was really wonderful for me as an artist too.  Even though I love painting flowers, I found this to be a challenge I needed -- pushing me toward the abstract and to thinking about meaning and what my work says about the world around me.  I strongly encourage artists to collaborate when possible, it truly is a growing experience and I hope to help bring more of these types of shows to St. Louis. 

Ordinary Days

Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity.

~John Ruskin

I've been working on my garden, planting seeds and hoping and praying that all I plant grows.  I seem to have a great deal of faith when it comes to my garden.  Or, I just enjoy the surprises that spring out of the dirt - or in my case carefully prepared soil. I think the rabbits are enjoying some of these surprises too.  I actually threw a couple of stones at a rabbit hoping she would run off and not nibble on my flowers anymore.  She's eaten my verbena, my marigolds and my lillies.  She didn't budge.  And as my boyfriend said, "Who throws stones at bunny rabbits?" Well, apparently I do when it comes to flowers.  But the bunny didn't budge.  She loves them as much as I do.  I guess I'll have to plant more - some for me and some for the bunny. 

Springing Back

 

Phew, bet you thought spring would never get here.  I'm a little slow getting back to my art and my blog.  My plate has been so full.  I wish I could just take the peas off and hide them underneath the rim of the plate.  (Peas being the not so favorite duties of life.)  But the artist in me that needs color and flowers never really dies, it's just been dormant as I've had to tackle the peas on the plate.  But there have been some great new things as well.  I will share more later...

Hibernating

What a winter.  If I could choose I would hibernate like a bear.  I'm dreaming of my spring flowers and looking through magazines and catalogs.  The painting is one I did after finding a type of flower I've never grown or even painted before. I long for the mornings I can sit out on my back porch and sip coffee.  I even promise not to yell at the squirrels.  Oh spring where are you? But I don't recall any better springs than the ones after long hard winters.  Oh the metaphors...  So for now I try not to let the longing kill the present moment. 

My New Favorite Artist

This little artist is my niece and she LOVES painting.  And I love watching her paint. As you can tell...

Every Child is an Artist.

The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

- Pablo Picasso