Apparition

I love to find the balance between chaos and refinement. I love splattering paint, and scribbling onto a canvas.. and then I love looking deeper, and peering close. 

I love finding little details to expound upon. I like blurring my eyes and seeing where images come out. I love watching faces emerge from out of nowhere and I like to ask my canvas, "Who wants to come out."

Sometimes I even leave a painting background for several days until I see something emerge from textures and colors. 

I have found that I usually paint women. I'm not entirely sure why. In fact, I was discussing this over tea the other day! Why do women painting other women?

To me, woman are beautiful and they hold a sense of mystery about them. When I paint, I like to convey emotion and spark thoughts. What better way to personify emotion, then to add a face.

The intuitive side of a woman is the side of mystery. The High Priestess of The Tarot represents the mysterious and secretive side of Woman. She holds the keys to greater understanding, and divine mystery. She is secretive, spiritual and mysterious. This is the type of woman I like to paint. 


This painting is called "Apparition" because she appeared like a spirit.This is one of the first "restricted color scheme paintings that I've tried in a while. I chose to keep the colors pink, and yellow, with slight variations of black and darker brown. I feel like the restricted pallet sets a mood and a tone.

I finished painting the background and couldn't decide what I wanted to use in the foreground. I was experimenting with intuitive painting as well as some new water soluble pastels. I started to notice some facial features within the brush strokes of the background.

So, I took my pastels and started drawing! The water soluble pastels turn into paint when you bring water over them. Kind of like a mix between acrylic and watercolor. I had so much fun drawing, then blending with water.

I kept kicking myself for not having bought these sooner! Especially since they were in my amazon card for four years! 

"Apparition"

16x20 mixed media Original

8x10 high Quality Prints

Beyond Thankful

Today I am beyond thankful. 

Yesterday I posted a link to my newsletter and my inbox has been overwhelmed with new subscribers ever since! I haven't even had a chance to write the first letter! 

So, those who signed up for my newsletter... this above painting was created for you. 

I woke up with an extreme sense of gratitude and thankfulness in my heart.. 

Thank you to those who have signed up! 

If you want to sign up, there is a link under my header, or you can go here. 

The newsletter has been stirring in my mind for a few months now... but I never got around to doing it.

One day during my Tarot Class, I noticed tons of spelling errors in my handouts that I gave to people.. Someone in class suggested I just email an error free copy to the people in the class.. and that I should also include the Lunar Forecast I do. And we spoke of a newsletter going out each week.

So, I went home and did it! 

The weekly Newsletter is called Tree Talk. 

Each newsletter will include a Lunar Forecast and some Tarot Tips from class. I will also include some rituals for the current moon phase, and a few other tidbits from classes.. On top of all that I will also post art news, book releases and artistic announcements, events and upcoming classes. 

The newsletters will be fairly short, and won't repeat too much from the blog.. my plan for this newsletter is to help bridge the gap between my online shop and blog, and my local classes and artwork. Inside each newsletter I will also include coupons and discounts to my shop. 

If you are interested in sponsoring the newsletter  email me! I'd love to chat with you about getting an ad in each newsletter. You could even include discounts or coupon codes for your shop. 

I've also listed a few new originals and prints in the shop. 

Prints                  Original

Prints                       Original

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Elation and Creating From The Source

Happy Full Moon friends,
So much has already happened in this Lunar phase. A shedding. Yes. I've been teaching Moon Classes at Sacred City. While I've been moon charting for over a year now, teaching the class has left me way more in tune with the moon than I ever thought. This Full Moon has given me vivid and prophetic dreams. I wake up with this warmth in my heart, and this knot in my throat.. Tears come easy to my eyes. I recently felt the need to watch the movie I AM, in which they described this emotion as "elation." That term in of itself made my eyes well up. For a long time I thought this "crying" thing made me broken. It made me feel that my emotion were unstable.. because  I would cry at the simplest things. I would see the beautiful fall trees.. and cry. I would see something touching, and tear up. For a long time this swell of emotions I would get made me feel ashamed. It made me feel "scary." I cried so easily, but how could I explain that these were not tears of sadness, but tears of feeling the heart.
After watching the documentary I AM, when they spoke of the feeling of elation, I felt whole again. Not broken. Because I feel. A spectrum of joy so overpowering it brings tears to my eyes.

For the past few nights I've dreamed of spiders. Spiders crawling all over me, in my bed, on the walls.. but I have not been grossed out or afraid because the spiders speak. They are all whispering to me. In fact I've seen spiders in my third eye more this last month than ever before. Spider Medicine speaks of weaving and creating.. but more importantly I feel The Spider Woman near when I dream of these Spiders.
Spider Woman is a metaphor for "She who creates from a central source." She is assosiated with spiders, webs, weaving, creating, and dream catchers. She sits at the center of "The Web" of life, connecting all people, things, places and events. She is the divine feminine, the source of creativity and life. She is the feeling of elation.
During dreaming we are removed from our conscious level to float freely through this web. We learn and experience things outside our realm of physical consciousness.. This is when our subconscious learns lessons for us to "re-learn" later in life.

Today I woke up from a dream with the above image in my mind's eye. Before anything else (except a quick espresso) I sat down and created this. There was no sketch or calculations.. it was created directly from my heart. The way art should be made... from the source.

I sent a quick picture of it to Sterling.. saying "This is the first piece of art that I've created that I actually like." 

Last night I captured this image of the moon. Her reflection was cast on the near by buildings and I felt a swell of emotions again. This time extreme gratitude for the path I'm on, and all of the opportunities along the way. Opportunities to teach, learn, and grow.



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Feel The Rain

Last Friday I finally posted pictures of the finished painting "Feel The Rain." I couldn't be more proud of it. I don't think I've ever been this proud of a painting to be honest. So much of my soul went into this. This is the first real painting for myself that I did since my little painting "hiatus." I used my super high quality professional paint, using different techniques than I've used before. I had to admit to myself... I'm still learning. I am never ever going to be done learning this stuff... so the more I learn, the more proud I will be of myself.
I think you can see the differences in this one vs my past work. I still enjoy my older stuff, but there are differences. The skin tone is more realistic, and I really stuck to a color scheme. As I finished it I said, "Wow... I'm actually proud of this one."
Usually I finish and say "I think I like it, but there are things I would have done differently."
Here are some of the progress shots I posted on Instagram throughout the weeks I worked on her.

I also photographed the painting in a different way than I normally did. I made my entire home a light studio and took the photo on the easel with a white background. I really focused on photographing this one. The details came out amazing. Not a single detail is blurred and the lighting was perfect as there is no "noise" in the dark areas.

I have the original listed in the shop, as well as some prints! This painting is oval, so the prints will be oval too. The prints will be roughly 8x10 on 8.5x11 inch paper, so set in a standard 8.5x11 inch frame it should look like it has a white mat..  Of course you could always get it matted, but I'm not too sure on the matting process. (I did learn it in college, but for some reason that part never stuck, probably because it involves numbers and a little bit of math.) No regrets.

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A Productive Day

So much new has been happening around here. 

Which is why my house is a mess and I haven't done the dishes in days. 

There is also a mountain of laundry all over my room. 

This week's goal is to clean the house. 

It's gonna happen...

because I'm finally getting to my previous goals of listing new things! 

It's been forever. I know.

It feels good to accomplish goals. 

But today is a fun day... 

biggest shop update ever.

because not only am I listing original art and prints,

I'm listing over 15 new necklaces into the shop... 

And not only that.. I now have a fun little stamp line over at 100proofpress!

Sara from 100proofpress contacted me a little bit ago about collaborating for a stamp collection, and it's finally finished and available for sale! The stamps are about 10.00 a piece and hand made from my art.

Check them out here

I also decided to sell the originals to each of those stamps in my shop.

I'm not entirely sure if I will sell prints to them.

But I'll be selling the originals for sure. 

I've decided to price them pretty low too!

Each original will be priced at 35.00.

The ink drawing is done on thick white paper in ink. 

It measures about 7X9 inches.

I'll be adding better photos later today. 

The link to each piece is under the photo. 

"Bird"

"Bone Collector"

Due to a slight problem with the original only prints will be sold of this one.

"Wig"

 

"Love"

"Sugar Skull"

"Twins"

I also have a few other originals for sale.

These ones include India ink for some more shading.

These ones are $55.00 in the shop.

"Dragged Down" 

"Change"

"Queen"

And I've finally listed all those new necklaces I've been talking about and working on for so long! 

Check them out here

Most of them are one of a kind and won't be sold again..

So, get them while you can! 

I've got some art print necklaces, some wood burned, and some hand painted. 

What a wonderful and productive Wednesday... 

Now I can get started on cleaning the house?

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