Open Studio On Sundays

Verdant green lush June brings frog songs from the back pond: I've named my pond frog "Puck". All day, and most of the night, Puck has something to say: Puck. Puck! No matter the time Puck inserts his loud "Puck!" remarks, I find myself smiling over that silly frog's vocal appreciation of his kingdom; just glad to know he is there. June also brings open studio Sundays: I'll hang the "Open Studio" palette sign out and be glad to see you if you happen by: sit a spell in the front porch rockers if you like, and feel time slow down, watch the hummingbirds flit, the blue hydrangeas in bloom. Saluda restaurants will be open during summer season, so the culinary offerings are delightful down on Main Street. Come by, and see my new sculptures and paintings; some in progress. Anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you... ~ David Whyte

New Work: Bird Paintings

"May our heart's garden of awakening bloom with hundreds of flowers.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh ~ ...With open studio weekend behind me, things are slowly returning to normal around the art house. Paintings moved here and there, a resettling in to a more comfortable pace. Several new paintings are in progress; both landscapes and the haloed bird series. New sculptures are also in the making: the early stages of unfired clay drying: one project I've got in mind is digging a fire pit in the back yard. I wonder if I have to get a burn permit for THAT??? Spring is slowly making her way to a soft mountain summer, the garden roses have been in full flush, and now the hydrangeas are singing into bloom.

New Work: The Landscape

"You are standing at the edge of the woods at twilight when something begins to sing, like a waterfall" ~ excerpt from Mary Oliver's poem "You Are Standing At The Edge of the Woods" This painting is a larger piece I've worked on and off with for the past year...letting it sit awhile, then returning. With open studios coming up this weekend, I had hoped to finish it, but realize it's impossible to do everything! Let alone mow, clean, rearrange, and get the house ready for the public. Still, I took a picture of it, and really love the ethereal feel, something that has stayed in the piece all along. Looks very simple, but there are delicate layers upon layers.

New Work: The Haloed Bird Series

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." ~ Carl Jung With the open studio event coming up this weekend, I'm finishing up a number of new works, including three new bird paintings from the haloed bird series I began several years ago. This one, "She Dreams of Flight" is 30" x 30" on linen, and is almost finished. Since the picture was made, I've added more detail, removed some, and let the colors flow.

The Landscape

This painting is one of a pair just completed. Other paintings, all large works on linen, just returned home from the Theatre Art Galleries High Point exhibit: it's nice to enjoy them all together once again. Hauling such large work is a task! Luckily, artist friends Bill and Anne Jameson of Saluda gave them a ride home--nothing like other artists to help out!

During May, I'll be on the Art Trek Tryon 2012 open studio tour on May 5 and 6 with about 35 other area artists: work from all artists will be on display at the Upstairs Artspace as well, until May 19. Please plan on enjoying this fun-filled weekend of art, artists, and studios! You'll also be able to see my sculpture and paintings at the Tryon Fine Arts Center garden/art event. Several gardens will be on tour as well as an indoor/outdoor art display at TFAC. A most lovely event and a fund-raiser to support a worthy arts organization.

New Work: Sculpture In Progress

“She followed slowly, taking a long time,
As though there were some obstacles in the way;
And yet: as though, once it was overcome,
She would be beyond all walking, and would fly."
~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Spring runs through veins of life, blue skies overhead, chartreuse grass spangled with violets. Vivid azaleas flare color wheels while butterflies and bees flit in the breeze. Life goes on. Here, every day I work on new art: a lot of sculpture lately, as well as painting. Open studio tour will be early this year: and I have only a million things to do. I'm hopeful it will be a success. Lately, it's been a tough few weeks, literally a few tough years, but my decision to make art full-time has remained resolute and unbroken. I keep thinking about Icarus of Greek myth: daring to fly--too close to the sun. I have dared to fly: or thought I could. Hope lives deep in an artist's heart--for we don't do it for the love of money, fame or fortune: not the true artists. We do it for our soul, to speak truths. It's not an easy path, and I wouldn't chose another.

New Work: The Landscape

This is a new landscape entitled "Esto Perpetua: Sunset II", it's one of a pair I've just framed up today to take to Skyuka Fine Art gallery. I donate a portion of my sales from the "Esto Perpetua" series to our local land trust: Saluda Community Land Trust. Little things can make a huge difference!

New Work: Sculpture In Progress

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. ~ Dogen

This piece is fired terra cotta, with multiple paint layers and distressed finishes. He sat untouched for several months, until today when I picked him up, got the brush out, and started applying acrylic paints like glazes. I like this guy!

The Landscape

This is a commissioned oil painting that has gone to its new home in Charlotte, NC. Last Christmas, the client had spotted a smaller painting that appealed to him and asked if I'd do a piece for him...with warm golden colors. Otherwise, he had no huge demands, and didn't hover. Of course, during the process, I kept him updated: and was grateful and happy to be allowed to do my thing! I love it when people trust me: and let the flow happen. It's a matter of trust on both sides, I think. Besides, I love knowing the people who have my work--while sometimes I never know, there is a connection and an appreciation of when I do meet them or know something about them, and vice versa. A personal feel, perhaps. Art brings us together!

New Work: The Landscape

"Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wildflowers will come up where you are." ~Rumi

This painting is still on the easel, unfinished! Now the first of March, it's time to put up a celebration of spring ahead painting. Winter hasn't yet left town, but the doves are building a nest close by: and I'm enjoying hearing the rustle of wings, and their soft talk back and forth to one another. Bluebirds will be building their nests soon. Sunshine-filled daffodils are blooming here, and their tender whispers of fragrance lifts my spirits. Always. Life goes on, here in my small town, here in my old house, here in my heart. Every day, I get up and feel grateful for one more day. Another day to make art and create: you won't find me spending hours at the malls or local bars: it seems like time gets shorter and more precious in how to spend it: so I choose carefully. You'll probably find me outside on the back deck if the weather is good: painting or working on a new sculpture. There's nothing I'd rather be doing.

The Landscape: New Work

This is an oil landscape on board, in progress--will be shipping it to Patricia Carlisle Fine Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico after I get the drill out and attach a plein air frame. At this point, my intuition is telling me to quit: so I've buffed a thin layer of cold wax over it, and will let it sit. In putting pieces in a visible spot, they speak more to me about when 'done'. Like life, I just go with the flow, and the art takes me where it wants to go--I'm just a conduit, a messenger.

"If you catch a fragrance of the unseen,
like that, you will not be able
to be contained.
You will be out in empty sky.

Any beauty the world has, any desire,
will easily be yours.

As you live deeper in the heart,
the mirror gets clearer and cleaner." ~ Rumi

The Landscape: In Red

Winter brings the month of February, the month of red, warmth, and inner thought. This is a red landscape painting that's going to Skyuka Fine Art Gallery today: it'll be available there during the "Showing Off Saluda" exhibit that runs through March. While many of my latest landscapes are becoming more and more 'tender' and ethereal, this one is definitely passionate and sensual, yet retains an ethereal feel. There are always two sides to the coin of art!

The morning wind spreads its fresh smell.
"We must get up and take that in,
that wind that lets us live.
Breathe, before it's gone." ~ Rumi

New Work: The Landscape

“Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.” ~ Rumi

This is a new landscape I've worked on and finished up yesterday: ready to be framed and shipped to Patricia Carlisle Fine Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Last month, when heading to Florida, I stuffed a number of small boards and canvases in my art supply bag--then worked on getting pieces started one balmy soft afternoon spent near the blue sea, the white sands, the soft cypress trees whispering overhead. When I returned home to North Carolina, the pieces all had a similar feel and spirit, as if they'd captured the thoughts of that peaceful afternoon. A kind soul recently brightened my day with a note that my art and musings had made a difference in their day: making a donation through my paypal account for art supplies, etc. Sometimes unexpected gifts transcend and inspire. It's a reminder that I'm not alone, nor are any of us in this world, that goodness and love do prevail. Indeed.

New Sculpture: Goddess Fragment Series

“The only journey is the one within.” ~ Rilke

The long road of winter led me away from home, hundreds of miles away to warm Florida sunshine and tropical breezes. As ever, I continue to choose the rockier paths, the road divided, and it does make all the difference, to paraphrase Robert Frost! I've turned in notice to the gallery day job, made other changes: and sat at a sidewalk cafe downtown Sarasota, leaves fluttering in sunlight over head, and felt free, open, and that it will all be alright in the grand scheme. Two art shows are coming up, so I've come back to get work ready for those. It dawned on me, during the time I was away, that paintings and sculpture I've been making have become solely an extension of myself: simple and true, a statement. Life is short: make art. Follow your dream; don't be afraid. Spin the wheel, walk into the day.

Art shows opening in February 2012 are: Theatre Art Galleries, High Point NC featuring seven Saluda artists, including me. Also, Skyuka Fine Art in Tryon NC will feature ten Saluda artists as well.

This sculpture is part of the "Goddess Fragment Series" and is fired clay, concrete, barbed wire, mixed finishes mounted on rebar/black walnut base. Collection of Joyce Fox, Sarasota, Florida.

A New Dawning

The new year has come, and with the cold days of winter, new journeys and paths open up. Old doors close, others in the meantime open. All things are changing, and under the snow, crocuses, daffodils and buds yearn to break free. Such a metaphor for life! Winter is a pensive time, a time for thought and understanding that bare branches hold green leaves. This month, I'll be heading for a respite from ice and cold here to warm sunshine in Sarasota, Florida again...thanks to a generous friend who's a supporter of the arts. In driving those many miles betwixt here and there, I'll take time to think about all roads, including those that are metaphysical. As ever, I'll be taking the one less traveled, and that will make all the difference. What's your road ahead?

“When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it is over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.”
~ Mary Oliver

New Work: The Landscape

"Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving." ~ Kahlil Gibran

This is a new landscape in progress from the "Esto Perpetua" series I began several years ago. The paintings keep evolving and transcending...and each one becomes a new love of mine. This one will head to the Southwest to Santa Fe when I get it done to Patricia Carlisle Fine Art, Canyon Road. It's 36 x 36 in a muted soft palette that dances in the evening woods.

The Landscape: New Work

“I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.” ~ Nietzsche

This is one of many new landscapes I've worked on with oil and cold wax finish, either on linen or gessoboard. Some have been sent out to Santa Fe, to the Patricia Carlisle Gallery, and some are being worked on now. Also, I just finished up a bamboo grove: a commissioned painting where the buyer has been willing to let me do my thing, without heavy demands or a forced viewpoint. By going with the flow, and letting the paintbrush find the way, it's become a beautiful piece!

Color & Light

Color and light shine beside one of my new paintings on a late fall afternoon, fleeting summer flowers peek through brilliant maple leaves, the golden painting alongside. For me, color and 'feel' are much of what give a particular piece 'soul', plus that extra touch that is without definition. It just 'is'...

The Landscape: New Work

Do you love this world? Do you cherish your humble and silky life? Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath? ~ Mary Oliver

The Landscape: New Work

'Let choice whisper in your ear and love murmur in your heart. Be ready. Here comes life.' ~ Maya Angelou

More leaves tinged with scarlet, gold, russet hues brush softly through the fall grass; the sky today is impossibly blue...colder weather brings a melancholy, a time of remembering to the heart, as it does every year--the changing of all things is constant. Seasons have their time, as do we. This painting is in progress: a gold gesso ground, with layers of oil paint and Gamblin cold wax. Those falling leaves whisper secrets of the road ahead--a underlying desire to pack up and head to parts unknown, to be a gypsy spirit. Yet, as an artist friend of mine reminds me: it's always good to have a place to hang your hat. And your paint brush!

The Landscape: New Work

'The artist does not see things as they are, but as he is.' ~Alfred Tonnelle

Fall has arrived; summer a blur of warm days. The sun shines today in a high blue sky; the morning mists long gone. Leaves and acorns are beginning to fall, a crescendo of rustle and nature's songs, reminding me that change always comes. Fall tends to make me pensive, thinking. All seasons have their own beauty, their own 'feel'. Again, I'm reminded of the shortness of life, and the continuing drive to make art while here...to stay true to purpose and course. This is one of a number of smaller oil paintings I've worked on lately to get ready to send out into the world. Some have cold wax: all have many layers.

Art: From A Different Point of View

'A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning, as if supported by the rays of the sun, a bird settled on the fire escape, joy in the task of coffee, joy accompanied me as I walked.' ~ Anais Nin

September brings cooler nights here, blue-skied days growing shorter, and a sense of change in the crisp air. Sunny mornings find spider webs sparkling over the boxwoods out front. While sitting in the front porch swing, surrounded by late summer petunias, trailing geraniums, and lush ferns, I watch all of nature with my cup of hot fresh coffee in hand. No hurry, only the soft whisper of the swing, a sense of peace, of realizing that all things change: that this moment is beautiful, to be enjoyed in the present.

These days find me creating art from a different point of view, you could say. The eyes have been having issues, causing blurry vision (this will be fixed at the end of the month!) So, instead of feeling sorry for myself, I've found a chance to see things a bit differently. Hey, Matisse and Monet did the same when their vision worsened. Here is one of two new portraits of my neighbor, Joni. To make a long story short, she'd had a portrait done by someone who used a projector and painted her 'literally'. It was her, yet lifeless. Could I do something, she begged. So, I took her out on my front porch and snapped pictures...the wheels in my head turning (of course!). So here is one of the resulting paintings from that moment.

**If you're interested in having a "AS I SEE YOU" portrait: I'll fix you one up. I can work from your favorite photo OR take one of you if you're local. Just inquire...

New Work: The Landscape

Hints of fall color blue-sky August afternoons; mornings grow a little cooler, a welcome respite after the merciless heat of summer. I've been moving things around after the Open Studio tour, trying to get back to 'normal' (if such a thing can exist!). The dining room has been undergoing some transitions, too: curtains pulled down, sculptures rearranged, and a gas stove added for those frozen days of winter ahead. While pulling curtains down, I found Jungian symbolism in letting more light in, a clearer view. Changes.

New Work: The Landscape

'When you possess light within, you see it externally.' ~ Anaïs Nin

This is a small painting I worked on recently, with gold gesso subtly shining through layers of rich color. It evokes Monet and spring, and something about this piece touches my spirit, the spring that still blooms in my heart, despite the odds. The touch of indigo blue? A trace of green? The hint of water, of willow? Perhaps defining things are not as important as just knowing.

New Work: The Landscape

This small landscape hung in my study for the past year; I'd look at it and think about doing something else to it a number of times. Finally I took it down before the open studio weekend, added touches in fresh rich oil hues, then framed it in a plein air frame. With a few brush strokes, it transformed into a piece I loved. It sold, to someone else who loved it too! Thank you, K....and I hope to hear how you're enjoying the piece, when you come to a resting phase on your journeys. Ah, when a piece finds the 'right' home, I feel good about it! Sometimes paintings find the right person, and vice versa.

New Work: The Landscape

Here's a new painting I just completed for the open studio event, along with several larger pieces with the same color fields. As I was working on the first one, I applied paint directly to the canvas, then added a bit of this, a bit of that. Luscious effects happened. I like this! By going with the flow, so to speak, I found that something happened: my mind was free, I wasn't worried about the finished piece, and magic happened. These are deceptively simple, yet I have found over the years that less says more. Sometimes there's too much information going on in our lives, and it's time to take a step back to simple and beautiful.

Open Studio Tour: 2011

Mark your calendar! Art Trek 2011 open studio event arrives July 30-31 at artist studios all over the area! I'll be one of them again! The fabulous preview party will be held at Upstairs Artspace, Tryon, NC featuring all artists and a corresponding gallery show on display for two weeks. Open studios will be July 30, 10-5. Then July 31 from 12-5. It's a great time to get in the car and visit lots of artists, ranging from painters, clay artists and potters, a luthier, wood-turners and more! I'll have both painting AND sculpture. Plus, as a special treat, will have note cards featuring four different bird paintings, and a moon hare note card, too. Here's a new piece I'll be putting in the gallery show along with others--it started out as an abstraction of a computer circuit board, then evolved to an orchid painting with gold gesso background and many layers of finishes.

New Sculpture: The Goddess Fragment Series

This is my latest sculpture: it's almost completed, with the exception of applying English wax on the wood--that'll give a soft sheen and velvety texture to the finish. Today, I put the pedestals together, after drilling my finger just 'a little', but it's all in the name of ART! Luckily, I still have ALL ten fingers. At some point, I must get more handy with the tools. The figure is fired clay, with acrylic washes. Using spalted-maple base, I drilled through as far as I could, then configured another hole on the bottom...therefore meeting in the middle...the rod could then be inserted into the bottom piece as well. No engineer around here: only artistic brain, means this is always a big puzzle to me. However, it worked, and so far, I like the new piece. The base is finished with genuine milk paint, wiped down carefully to show the grain of the maple. Thank you, Packard Woodworks, for your generous support of my art, for wood supplies and more! In this world, there are good people who believe in us struggling artists, and make sure we have materials to work with. Bless 'em. Bless 'em.

New Sculpture: The Goddess Fragment Series

From my new goddess fragment series, this piece is finished as of today. Mounted on steel rod in spalted-wood maple base, the clay figure is finished with multiple layers of acrylic washes, then paste wax. Rusted wire detail on back. Next goal is to build these larger, as I teach myself more. One thing that I will work on is making copies of pieces: my first attempt with a silicone mold support technique failed...the mold process is extremely complicated for my simple mind! There must be an easier way. Like life, it's often a rocky road. Learning, failing, and trying again is all part of the journey. To make self feel better, I did smash the failed experiment with a hammer--after I'd spent untold time chiseling it off the silicone encasing the original sculpture beneath!

**This piece won First Place, Tryon Painters & Sculptors Member Show, Peoples' Choice, Sculpture Category. Thanks to all who voted for her!

Open Studio Tour: In The Life of an Artist

These photographs are by dear friend and wonderful photographer Elaine Pearsons, from last summer's open studio event with Art Trek. Over 40 artists were on the tour, and it was one of the hottest weekends of the year. Yet, people came out, enjoyed art and visited! I'll be doing it all over again this summer; although my little helper Pooh won't be with me this summer. That silly Shar-Pei boy greeted each and every person who came through the door, and he will be missed by his adoring public! Thank you, Elaine, for sharing your photographs: they capture an essence that is both magical and a Faulkner-esque Southern Gothic feeling!

New Sculpture

This is a new sculpture, fired clay with barbed wire and found wire, acrylic washes, paste wax finish. She'll be mounted on metal post to antique wood pedestal. This figure was loosely built by the Bruno Lucchesi coil method. Ever symbolic, the rusted barbed wire wings symbolize flight, spiritual growth, a sense of yearning. As ever, I find pure magic in the metaphysical.

"Inside myself is a place where I live all alone, and that's where I renew my springs that never dry up." ~Pearl Buck

New Work: The Landscape

'The song of the brush.'
~Chinese saying

Landscape

'Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.' ~ Buddha

Art Exhibit: Upstairs Artspace

"Something To Crow About" and "New Waves" will be on exhibit through May 28 at the Upstairs Artspace, a contemporary, non-profit art gallery downtown Tryon, NC. That's my sculpture "Crow Angel" in the window, composed of barbed wire, concrete, steel mesh, and other elements with fired clay crows. Enjoy the show if you're in the area! There are many notable artists in both exhibits; truly something for everyone.

Bohemian Spring

The warmth of spring and lush green sings in the veins, and life renews...an ancient pattern: over and over, again and again. Sunny days find me busy doing yard work, pulling vines, more vines, and then MORE vines. Creating: painting, sculpting. Thinking about what's next...excited over what is. Spring serves as a metaphor for internal change, and hope. This season won't last, but reminds us that life is beautiful, and we have the now.

Something To Crow About: New Exhibit

"Something To Crow About" and "New Waves" opens April 15 at the Upstairs Artspace gallery, with a public reception on April 16 from 5-8. I'll be in the crow exhibit with paintings and new sculptures...this is my first public showing of sculpture! Take a peek at "Crow Angel" in the gallery's front window. Downstairs, for "Crow Face", I took a hammer to a full-size fired clay head and gave it a new direction. You'll have to see it--talk about taking art in smashing new directions! Also this month, I'm in "Studio Visit" magazine, page 10. Lots of new ideas are percolating with the advent of spring time...and thanks to a generous donor, I'm getting sculpture and painting supplies this month, too. THANK YOU to all who continue to believe in me and my work!

New Sculpture

Meet "Rotator"...a crow with barbed wire wings/feet; fired clay body. Nest has nutmeg 'eggs'. This piece will be in "Something To Crow About" at the Upstairs Artspace's next exhibit that opens April 15. I'll have crow paintings too. This is a piece I've worked on over the weekend, carefully handling the rusty barbed wire with gloves. Have a little more finish work to do on the piece, but it's close to finished! The great thing about this sculpture is: the clay was GIVEN to me. The barbed wire was GIVEN to me. The nutmeg eggs in the nest came from an exotic island: GIVEN to me. People are so good to me!!! Thank you, generous spirits out there: to those of you who buy my art, to those of you who believe in me and give me materials. THANK YOU.

Spring Ahead

While the silver fog hangs low over town today as rain drips off my front porch roof, I can see hints of tender green budding out, daffodils smiling, and my heart knows spring is coming. It's been a long winter here; month by month I remind myself if I can just make it a little longer through the cold days, spring will come. The heart blooms. There are paintings to be done; any kind of blue sky sunshine-kissed day will find me outside painting. Yard work is a distant side chore! While it needs to be done, somehow I am reminded that my clear purpose in life is to make art, which seems more and more pertinent in the state of events throughout the world. Simple, clear, connected: the thought is direct and pure as a bird call upon the early morning silence. Make art: live. Here is a photo I just took of a Nora Ephron novel amid pink roses...both things I love: delicious books, fresh flowers, vases of brushes in the house.
“What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ~ Mary Oliver

Spring, Cupcake Outfits, Art Thoughts

Did that headline above get your attention? Spring is coming, so on Monday, I dressed up like a cupcake. Full of hope and pink color, eager to be rid of the winter grays and blacks for a while! Perhaps I'm pushing it, but I am living for longer sunlit days that are warm enough to allow me to work with clay and paint outside, with blue skies and birds singing. Maybe a little Bob Marley on the tunes...or something going in the CD player! It's time to think about doing open studio on Saturdays again; if you're interested, call ahead for an appointment. I'll be working steadily on work for an upcoming "Crow" art show at the Upstairs Artspace; opening in April. And tomorrow, I'll deliver two pieces: one sculpture, one oil painting to the Tryon Fine Arts Center for Tryon Painters & Sculptors member show which will open this Sunday with a reception from 5 to 7. Come on by if you're in the WNC area...it's always a good show, and fun to see what other artists are up to.

Hope of Spring

Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.
~Theodore Roethke

The day dawns sunny, with promises of spring in the chill February air. Frost sparkles on crushed winter grass, but the dogwood buds turn their hearts to the blue sky above, waiting, like I do. Upon discovering a delicate blue flower out in the snow melt, the first flower of spring ahead, I smiled. Despite the harshness of winter, there is hope of spring ahead, of promises. Warmer days will get me outside to paint new canvases and work with clay in the sunshine. On nice days, I can set up my art out on the back deck, and spend the whole day working. Those are the best of days: simple, in the 'zone'...timeless. Birds singing, the rustle of quiet breeze through tree leaves. Warmth touching the spirit. Art is what saves me, through the hardest of times: it's a form of therapy and my way of giving back to the world. Artists do that; whether they are writers, musicians, poets, visual artists, you name it. There it is: what they create and send forth. May spring find your heart this day, wherever you are.

Moon Hare

This is my first "Moon Hare" painting...I recently completed a similiar commissioned piece; of course, no two paintings will ever be alike. However, I find the Moon Hare to be a spiritual creature, and will work on yet another. February is now here, and I find myself continuing to contemplate the 'road ahead'. Having just returned from a stay in Florida thanks to good friends, I had time to think about where I'm going. The main focus is MAKE ART, despite the economy, and what goes on around me. In order to bring in extra income, I've thought about doing workshops, teaching a class, or finding art patrons--if there is such a thing in America these days. It's a struggle for serious artists, every day. One thing I know is that I'm not alone. Art makes this world a better place; for those of us who make it, it's essential, as much as breathing. Please support us starving artists--there's so many of us out there: musicians, artists of all genres, writers. It's all part of the circle.

The Road Ahead

All we need, really, is a change from a near frigid to a tropical attitude of mind. ~ Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Winter cold pulls her blankets over the land...delicate tracings of snow in the air today. My heart longs for warm sunny skies, colorful blooms, and time to create outside. Sometimes hopes do come true: a generous friend and fellow artist has offered to host me a bit in Sarasota, Florida...so I'm already going around looking for what art supplies to pack for the adventure ahead. Clothing seems much less important! I've already got ideas going for "Florida" work...more women paintings with luscious pinks, corals, peach tones...whatever is around me serves as inspiration.

The Road Ahead: Happy New Year!

The earth has disappeared beneath my feet,
It fled from all my ecstasy,

Now like a singing air creature
I feel the Rose
Keep opening. ~Hafiz

A Happy New Year ahead to all! Doors close, others open. Where will the road ahead lead? It's up to each of us to find the path, no matter how rocky or narrow it may be. For there it is. The road beckons.....

Happy Holidays To All

From me to you, wherever in this world you may be...a blessed and happy holiday season...a warm heart and hearth...and may there be ART in your life. Always!
~ Bonnie

New Work: The Landscape

Thanks to all who made it out for my open studio during the town Christmas stroll! Someone left a pair of eyeglasses in my powder room, so if it was you, let me know. Winter is here; snow today. Art projects get a bit harder in a cold house...but I'll be working on new ideas, dreaming of driving Route 66 in the desert. So, now, it's time to be reflective, to listen to nature's quietness.

“I am a book of snow,
a spacious hand, an open meadow,
a circle that waits,
I belong to the earth and its winter.”
~Pablo Neruda

Open Studio/Art House Dec. 10

Mark your calendar for the evening of December 10; that's the Saluda Hometown Christmas evening when shops are open from 6-8 p.m. One of my favorite Saluda events! This year, I'll have open studio at my "Art House" on Greenville Street-- featuring paintings and new sculptures along with introducing great work by Moonshiner Metalworks/Mike Cowan, and also maybe a surprise guest artist! My neighbor Joni at the Saluda Inn & Wine Cellar will be featuring local artists, writers, and live music from 6-9...and the Oaks Bed & Breakfast will be open too. Plan on visiting us all!

New Work: The Landscape

A small landscape: evocative of remembered summers...and now, winter ahead. Take your pick.
"The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep." ~Paul Strand