Shadowy, mysterious, and layered
Shadowy, mysterious, and layered
My Past Life As a Daisy, the weekly studio report, and this week's energy.
I like to imagine a past life of mine, in which I was a pink daisy, grounded in a big field of flowers.
There were other daisies around, of course, and there were also other kinds of flowers. All of us enjoyed the wind in our petals, the sun on our faces, the rain, and the earth. It was a simple magical life.
Past lives are so much fun to look at! We all have so many more of them than we might imagine. Flowers speak to us all, they have a language and they bring many gifts. The ‘Flower Party’ series is a reminder to me that beauty is everywhere, it’s not difficult to see it if we would only look.
There are currently 5 completed pieces in the ‘Flower Party’ series, with several more near completion. Those shall be posted soon!
‘My Past Life As a Daisy, acrylic on paper, 9.5” x 13”, unframed.
$175.00 for this original painting, shipping to US locations included.
Purchase ‘My Past Life As a Daisy’ at my online shop.
Shadowy, mysterious, and layered
‘Subtle’ may not be the word I’m looking for, and hiding is also not my first choice here.
The word ‘shadowy’ came to mind while working on the ‘Flower Party’ series of paintings. These paintings appear at first as simplicity itself, ‘Invitation To a Flower Party’ is the flattest and least layered, or is it? As you look deeper at this piece, you can see the many layers upon layers it’s composed of, some of them transparent and leading to the next. This first flower painting was an experiment, but it turned something on for me and next thing I knew I was off to the next flower painting, and several more after that one.
One tool I use as an artist is writing a story of the painting I’m working on. As I wrote each flower painting’s story, a theme emerged for this series. As Joan Didion said, 'I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.' - and for me this is also true as an artist.
Each of the flower paintings has a story about self acceptance, shining brightly, and having whatever experience they are having right now. If I hadn’t written these down, I might not have known it the same way. Nobody has to compete to shine, nobody is invalidated about who they are. There is space for every single one.
I made all of these paintings and wrote their descriptions before I saw the movie ‘Barbie’, which I did yesterday. A similar theme occurs in Barbie Land: all the Barbies are shiny and happy, and nobody has to compete to be seen. Its opposite energy, which we have all experienced every day of our lives, is reflected in the Real World that Barbie finds herself unwillingly visiting: she has to leave Barbie Land, and learn how to survive in a world full of toxic patriarchal energy that doesn’t respect her.
The ‘Flower Party’ series is not about Barbie, but it is about being real within oneself, not to prove anything or be accepted by others, but to have the experience one wants to have.
If you want to read the descriptions of the ‘Flower Party’ paintings, as well as all the rest, short descriptive stories are included with every painting in my shop.
New and ongoing: the Weekly Art Studio Report on my YouTube channel!
I post short videos of my paintings on my YouTube channel, and just started my weekly studio video, which is a peek at what’s happening on my work table. If you’re on YouTube, please subscribe to be notified of new videos!
I post my psychic videos on this channel too. There’s a lot more coming, and my video skills are getting better, I promise. :)
Inspiration for Being Yourself
See Barbie! It’s totally worth it.
Barbie is well written, and perfectly cast, designed, and directed. The fact that so many people are totally losing their s**t over it (many without having seen it lol) just adds to my own enjoyment. My husband and I both enjoyed it, and so did everyone else in the movie theater. Truly fun, not really a kid’s movie but safe for kids too.
The opening scene is brilliant, and worth the price of admission all by itself.
Julia Cameron’s ‘Write For Life’ is wonderful.
I read Cameron’s ‘The Artist’s Way’ not long after it was published in 1992, and loved it. I wrote my daily morning pages, for years. In fact, I just picked them up again, they are such a great tool to help me find some answers for myself. I recently started reading ‘Write For Life’, published earlier this year, and really love it. Highly recommended and truly healing!
This quote! America Ferrera’s character ‘Gloria’ in Barbie:
‘It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don't think you're good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we're always doing it wrong.
You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin. You have to have money, but you can't ask for money because that's crass. You have to be a boss, but you can't be mean. You have to lead, but you can't squash other people's ideas. You're supposed to love being a mother, but don't talk about your kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman but also always be looking out for other people. You have to answer for men's bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you're accused of complaining. You're supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you're supposed to be a part of the sisterhood.
But always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged. So find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful. You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line.
It's too hard! It's too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out in fact that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also everything is your fault.
I'm just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don't even know.’