Because the store where I have been working is closing, I am now free to paint again.
To remind myself that I do love painting, this morning I stopped to look at some of my art work which hangs in my home. I took photos too.

The painting above hangs in our "spare" bedroom. I painted in in the 1980's as an exercise to learn watercolor. The original is a painting by Winslow Homer, "The New Novel". I love this one, because he is a watercolor genius and because the subject is so wonderful. Escaping into a book of fiction!

This painting is also a watercolor painted in the 1990's, when I was developing my own looser and joyful style ( though I didn't realize at the time that this style development was occurring)! At first I was disappointed in my struggle to capture the reality of the iris. Now, I love this with the multiple 'almost-out-of-focus' iris. Being near-sighted,with astigmatism, I think this is how I often see things....so in a way it IS my reality.

There is no reason to want to be an artist except that there is no way to deny what we are...the time to paint is today! [Except that I still have to go to work, do laundry and pack for the weekend trip to Minnesota to visit a lovely couple....son Andrew and "our" Mary! Perhaps I need to carry a small sketch book and graphite pencil...YES!]

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Wednesday evening note: I just pulled a newly-finished quilt from the dryer! This one was made mostly at work during the last year and a half, as a sample for the classes I taught.

Now back to packing for the trip tomorrow!

Home for lunch...just a moment to share this.
Collage in process.....art clipped from recent magazines tossed against a printed graphic from a generous on-line collage artist, Green Paper !

I search through magazines for images which speak to me and then use them in my art journals.

This double page is from my journal last week when I learned, for sure, that the store I work in is closing. I use the journals to help work through the process of change and challenge. I am looking forward to some free time to blog, visit blogs and do my art.

I have to take it one day at a time and now must get back to the store to help with inventory!

Something to "crow" about???????

These 2 pages from my current art/life journal show a whimsical, all about ME, couple of pages (photos from 30 years ago and current advertisement)

background art work featuring my

"Native American Birth Totem......"

which I learned about from a link on Julie Marie's post...

(visit Celtic Woman)

I am a member of the Butterfly clan, Air chief, Wind is West.

My totem animal is the Crow (or Raven). The totem is to be a guide and teacher.

[These birds have been showing up, for some time now, in my art work as on this journal page....]

Characteristics of the crow are Peaceful, Intelligent, Idealistic, Charming, Romantic and Tricky. The plant associated with this totem is Ivy.

I also had researched my Celtic tree sign a couple of months ago....and it was Ivy, too. ["Ivy": You have great taste and probably keep up with trends...the reason you are the one everyone goes to when picking out an outfit or decorating. You are also fiercely loyal to those you love and very protective of them.]Then I learned that Ivy has specific subdivisions and I am a Maple [ Maple, Independence of Mind, no ordinary person, full imagination and originality, shy and reserved, ambitious , proud, self-respect, hungers for new experiences, sometimes nervous, many complexes, good memory, learns easily, wants to impress!].....so maybe I should paint a Maple tree with ivy growing on it, and a crow in its branches!LOL.

Another crow:

I was reading "Dropping Ashes on the Buddha", a book loaned to me by my son, at bedtime last night....there appeared this poem on the page, (written by Seung Sahn after seeing a man walking up a mountain and some crows flying out of a tree)

"The road at the bottom of Won Gak Mountain

is not the present road.

The man climbing with his backpack

is not a man of the past.

Tok, tok, tok,---his footsteps

transfix past and present.

Crows out of a tree.

Caw, caw, caw."

[To a Zen master, all things are One, all experience is an illusion, and things are always changing. So why do we want to define and label ourselves????.... I guess because it is fun! I am having fun being a "crow" and an "ivy".] BTW this handcarved Korean doll could be the man in the poem?