Soul Humming

Canon de las Ranas

school holiday. very high winds. hiking in peter's canyon, canyon of the frogs. here are photos along with a few quotes from henry david thoreau.

Alas! how little does the memory of these human
inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape!

Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it?

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

All men are children, and of one family.

The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning.

 

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

Could a greater miracle take place than for us
to look through each other's eyes for an instant?

if i were a flower, i'd be this thistle. -ks

Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

Queen of the Beetles

so i've done a new self portrait (10" x 10" on gallery wrapped canvas) to appease the nay-sayers of my last one. i tried to make it more elegant and less old and sallow. ha.

these are fun and coming along pretty quickly. anybody else game to do some self-portrait paintings?

artsy fartsy girl party

this past weekend a bunch of the so cal girls gathered at julie's for an artsy fartsy girl power party.

back row, l to r: sera, beth, jen, audra, tally
front row, l to r: me, ruth, julie, peggy, mary

or maybe it was a great meeting of minds.

or perhaps it was just a good reason for jen to make cocktails with van gogh vodka and kid's fruit punch that tasted like popsicle Big Sticks.

they were very, very good!

is it just me or does it look like mary and i are the same color as julie's cabinets?

several of these sweet girls made lovely gifts for everyone. there were beautiful tags, charms, gift bags and all manner of wonderful (julie is the bestest hostess!). and miss ruth made these adorable lavender filled soft leopard eye masks/sleep pillows. and she added in some treats and quotes. i love my quote (and my cool pillow)!

and then there was art and mischief and laughter and lessons and sharing and an all-around sweet time.

love you girls! it sure was fun! Thank YOU, Julie!!

backlash

well, not really a backlash at all (a girl likes a good headline). instead it was more a flurry of opinion (and some opposition) in the comments and privately regarding the self portrait i painted this week. i think this is all so fun so i wanted to post about it on here.

my friend lorraine had the holler that finally spurred me to holler back. here's what she said...(don't you love this lo? snicker...)

"That's not you...I don't mean that in a bad way, but it is not you. You are vibrant and full of life and energy..you should be laughing, smiling, with lots of color....this is too subdued to be Kelly...at least the Kelly I know. Oh, and you don't have that many wrinkles girlfriend! :0)"

she wasn't the first to email me feeling this way about the painting. and when i showed it to my husband he said, "who is that?"

and i said, slightly indignantly, "it's me."

 

he said, "well you look like a sourpuss.(pause) i thought maybe it was your mom." (sorry mom. he didn't mean it like that. you're so not a sourpuss.)

but that just cracked me up. i thought it was obvious that it was ME. i had to look at it again and again to try to see what i wasn't seeing. what was everyone else seeing that i was missing?

not to be arrogant, but i love this painting of me. it was one of the most fun things i've done in longer than i can remember. i really, really loved making it. i did it in about two hours straight. and trust me, i was very conservative with the wrinkles. i completely skipped the jowls all together (and i gave myself a nicer nose). my friend jen told me i needed to paint a "hot" painting of myself. but that's now how i see myself. so i'll have to think about that angle.

for me, whether i am painting or making jewelry, i want the work to be About Something. i don't like to make something pretty for the sake of making something pretty. that is a fine thing to do but it isn't what interests me. i need to work out what's going on inside myself and i do that through my artwork.

because of this, when it comes to painting, i frequently turn to my own face. it is good practice to paint it as i see it every day. i am familiar with its shapes. it is always a willing model, make-up or not. i never have to wait to paint my own face.

and in painting my own face i get to explore many aspects of my character. i get to paint how i feel not just how i look. not just the light, breezy super silly girl. you know...this girl...the spazzy dancing girl...

i also get to dig deeper to see the rest of me. but it all interests me so i'll explore it all eventually. and i am just so excited that my painting got a rise out of so many. that makes me very happy. thank you all for your comments!

lastly, i obviously don't know what the heck i'm doing with typepad. i had added something to this post. it was a link to a blog spelling test. it was dorky so i ended up taking it off. as i was adding it i had saved this post as a draft thinking the way it had already been done would still be posted. but as i was on here this morning i saw the post was no longer here. and now it looks like all the comments are gone, too! i am supposed to be somewhere in five minutes. and i am sitting here with my hair wet and not nearly ready. but when you see this and it looks as if there is some mysterious controversy swirling, know that there wasn't. it was just me making a mess and not even realizing it.

self-portrait

here's a 10" x 10" self-portrait i did today...

Carole Akins Studio

I had an absolute blast today hanging with my friend, Carole Akins, in her beautiful studio. She invited me up for a super duper artsy fartsy playdate.

I met Carole a while back when I started painting in the art therapy workshops she leads at Hoag Hospital. She is not only a total sweetheart but a Fabulous artist with a love of color and portraits whom I adore.

Well, I adore her And her art. She is currently gearing up for a winter show on Balboa Island. We spent the day talking about painting, artists we admire, and our wonderfully wacky families with a lovely lunch and much painting all mixed in for good measure.

Carole's son was heading out of town for the weekend and stopped by to drop off his awesome little dog, Lenny. He is soooo cute!

I am sure there will be many paintings of Lenny to come from Carole (and maybe me, too) in the future.

I started a new 2' x 2' piece while I was there today...

miles to go before my bird will truly fly but a happy, fun-filled beginning. Thank you, Carole, for such a wonderful day!


In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. - Kahlil Gibran

rewards

"Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality." - Earl Nightingale

what is it?

as people have started to email me to ask if i am mad at them or if something is wrong, i thought i'd very briefly report to answer the unasked questions as well. i'm fine. the last week or so i was not as fine. but i don't like to whine about it (or discuss it unless pressed). at the heart of it all, i am fine. but i was having a bout of extreme forgetfulness, sadness, and, worst of all, numbness. it was as if someone put a big fuzzy bag over my body and i couldn't feel anything. i know it will pass. in the meantime, i forget that i have read your email, then i am sad about it, then i forget that, too. every day is new. :0) laugh about it or cry about it, right? i choose to laugh except when i feel nothing and that is the definitely the worst of all.

but i am slowly feeling more organized with my emotions. i am putting post-it notes on my door and updating every calendar i have in an attempt to overcome and remember.

so if you haven't heard from me, please know it is just that i am dealing over here. in spite of being a highly unorganized girl already, i am currently a highly unorganized girl on cancer meds (with a make-up oncologist visit this morning as i spaced out and missed my last appointment). all things considered, i'm very fine indeed.

and right on cue, it is raining here this morning. which, is good. the landscape is shiny. the flowers are getting a drink and the leaves are having a bath. there was even thunder rumbling a grumbly good morning outside my window. we almost never have thunder here. i know the rest of the country has a very different, and much deserved, feeling for the rain right now. but for me, it is lifting my spirits.

i hope your monday is full of light and that your spirits are lifted by the world around you.

 

"You must enshrine in your hearts the spiritual urge towards light and love, wisdom and bliss!" - Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Ties that Bind Project

This is the Mission Statement from Ties that Bind

"Our mission is simple in concept. Artists united in their creativity to benefit Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Our project: Ties That Bind. A hand made doll created with heart and soul, donning hand embellished men's dress ties and hand born charms. 100% of the profit goes to the OCRF, in support of their mission to help ovarian cancer patients and their loved ones."

This week I sent in three charms for the project. One charm is from me...

and two are from my dear friend, Mija Marie.

Please visit the group site to see more charms, the doll body, and the beautiful ties that are coming in. And, look for the doll to go on sale once completed with all proceeds benefiting the OCRF!

gelatin girl in progress