Had to post this

I found this on another blog and had to re post it here. Too good!


Bush is my shepherd;
I dwell in want.
He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.
He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.
He restoreth my fears.
He leadeth me in the paths of
international disgrace for his ego's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the
valley of pollution and war,
I willfind no exit,
for thou art in office
.Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control,
they discomfort me.
Thou preparest an agenda of deception
in the pretence of thy religion.
Thou annointest my head with foreign oil.
My health insurance runneth out.
Surely megalomania and false patriotism
shall follow me all the days of thy term,
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever.
AMEN!

Butterfly Series

Finished four new paintings, actually sketches for future larger paintings, following along
the butterfly path. (See the butterfly blessing blog) Inspired by real butterflies, I gave
them a little abstract twist all my own. I have these four new sketches scheduled for auction
on Ebay. The larger versions will most likely be saved for my next solo show. I need to get
busy planning that show in fact.
I have been having a hard time staying motivated lately. It is the end of summer for Aaron
and the boys, so maybe it's just that lazy end of summer feeling. I hate to always look forward
to the future and not enjoy the present, but I do look forward to school starting up so I can
get more work done. Too many distractions in the house right now!
I'm posting the new paintings, let me know what you think.

Butterfly Blessing #1

Butterfly Blessing #2


Butterfly Blessing #3


Butterfly Blessing #4

What to write?

It's funny how hard a time I'm having coming up with blog ideas. I usually write in my journal several times a week and I thought blogging would be easy. I find myself coming up with ideas to write about, then I end up wondering if I should reveal so much about myself.
That was the main idea of the blog in the first place, wasn't it? To reveal a bit of myself to people who may be curious to know more. The dilema is how much. All? Why not, right? It is proving to be much harder than I expected. At the same time, I already put my heart and soul out there every time I show a new painting or drawing. Why should words be any harder?
Because I'm not a verbal person, I'm visual.
However, I believe the story behind the art is just as important as the art itself. The art brings you in at first, but the story keeps you coming back to see what's new. Personally, when I am attracted to a certain artist's work, I like to find out as much as possible about that artist's life. Usually by reading biographies or autobiographies (or blogs!). I feel more connected to the art.
Not that I have an extra exciting story to tell, my life has shaped who I am though, so maybe it is important.

Butterfly blessing

I had a whole blog all typed up and ready to post yesterday and like a dummy I did not think to save it anywhere before I tried to publish it. Of course, I ended up losing the whole thing and now I have to re-type it! That’s ok though, because it’s worth retelling the story.
Yesterday, Aaron and I were out for a hike and we had a cool butterfly encounter. We were taking a break, sitting on a blanket, when I reached for my water and a huge Monarch butterfly flew around my hand for an extended period of time, flew into the trees above us and after I said, “come back little butterfly”, it flew back to me and touched my forehead then flew away. Aaron said it looked like the butterfly blessed me. It was an amazing experience.

Funny enough, I have been thinking about painting butterflies since we have been out hiking and now I have the sign that that is what I should indeed be painting. (As far as I am concerned anyway) I know some may say it’s silly to believe such things, but I do. Of course it's just another of the many things on the list to paint.

People have often asked me how I choose what to paint. Most often the ideas just come to me. I can almost always count on several ideas coming along on a hike. Must be the fresh air and exercise! The problem most of the time is choosing what to paint out of all the ideas. There is not enough time in the day, week, year to paint them all.

Top of the Mountain

Happy Fourth of July to all. Yesterday was a great day. Aaron and I started our day with an 8 mile hike to the top of the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque. It was amazing! We've been hiking the Sandias for five years and this was our first time to finally make it to the top. This was a pretty good accomplishment considering the elevation climb is around 3,000 feet! The view was incredible! You could see for what must have been a hundred miles. Not to mention the great viewpoint of the rock cliffs on the west side of the mountains.
Hiking has to be my second favorite past time. Painting being my first of course! There is no better way, as far as I'm concerned, to clear your mind and inspire new ideas. It's also great exercise. I am now planning to do another whole series of rock paintings. These will be different from the first series because I plan to paint them more abstract this time. I'm thinking Georgia O'Keefe's flowers only with rocks.

Speaking of paintings, I finished the abstract spiral sun series this morning. At least for now. I still may do a couple more. I will post the final painting here soon.

I'm feeling very accomplished after the hike to the top of the mountains yesterday! I look forward to more trips to the top in coming weeks, with some great paintings coming out of it.