Communication

My friend Werner said "art is a communication." I loved the simplicity of that. When i am working on a show and creating piece after piece and lining them up along the wall, a story unfolds. I can feel it,  the images and characters emerge. It's about healing who you are, not about what you know. I am at a place where i just paint. Someone said      "what are those paint blotches on the background of that?" I have no idea, maybe they are paint FIREFLIES. This piece is hanging at Manndible cafe in Mann library, Cornell.

the risk to bloom

            this is a sketch for a large fence i may be painting.
 i wanted  a hopeful  image all winter long.  but everything is really always growing and blooming. today i was absolutely stopped dead in my tracks speechless when i heard news my friend told me. she is now a fresh new seed that just burst through the dirt toward the unknown. i am learning how emotional,  flowers can grow us.

ithaca

this is a sketch painting for an idea. it's the main character, of a painting entitled "ithaca." i think the person might be in the middle of a cloud, so seeing the sun doesn't matter as much, (in my imagination).
what i like about this painting, is it would look good turned in any direction. aha which is a great way to look about life. i am in the midst of practicing unconditional happiness.  it's been about a month now since i started this quest. anytime i am having an unhappy time, i remember my "practice", and that thought alone cracks me up!

window

here is the new version of my painting entitled "door, recreated with a salvaged window. i decided to simplify it, and just having only the character peering out. the title of this piece is - "it began with a window".
the white background is the wall as she is painted on the pane of the glass. i really like this and i am going to start to do more and transform the windows in my nest.
yes folks, i live in a nest. that's how i see it, or should i say feel it?
to view this painting(window) it will be hanging  next saturday at the library, amongst many other artists pieces in a group show about homelessness.

door

this painting, which i call "door" is going to be re-created as a window. i know funny, huh. i am using a recycled window. i also think i am going to make a pair of shutters with the image. she has been looking through the doors, but now she is ready to step in. or she stepped through the doors and is just taking one final look back.
the door painting as shown is from my show currently at Warren Real Estate in Cayuga Heights. the new version with a window will be at the Tompkins county library show curated by Benn Nadelman.
as per request of Petra - i will update my blog more frequently. it was on my list of things to do, so now it is on the top!

heart to heart

my intent every morning,  with coffee of course,  is to have a heart to heart with myself.  each day i read a page from the book of awakening and treat myself by wearing my reading glasses.  my cat monkey almost always attends the ritual.  a marvel it is, to take that time.
so this is the time i need to make valentines for hearts, not minds, and this is the first one.  it is available on my website. sorry i have to make a sales pitch.  you see i still love it, so it is a very good catch.
today the song in my head is nothing could be finer than to be in carolina , do you know that one?  it is quite odd because usually the song in my head is- oh them golden slippers.  a friend of mine always sings- if i only had a brain, if i were her, i would come up with a new song.
i did feel a song rise when i took time to make tofu scramble this morning. i would have it at juna's cafe which is now manndible cafe.  oh dear i must make another sales pitch to see art,  i just changed the show up at manndible, it is a wonderful place to be in winter, really.
what a wonderful thing to just write to world, thank-you. yes, here in upstate ny, it makes it easier than going outside sometimes.  so i need to end this with more heart to heart than brain waves. i know !  i will end it with a quote by anais nin :

and then the day came
when the risk to remain
tight in a bud was
more painful than the
risk to bloom.

humpty and alice

just got back from a wonderland, down south,  in georgia.  my parents and sister reside there and now my son also. we went out to eat in one of my parents favorite restaurants and i was introduced to the waitress, when i said hello and extended my hand, she said "oh no in the south every one hugs", and the waitress hugged me. next morning we went out to breakfast and i was introduced to yet another waitress.................... awkward, didn't know if i was to hug her too.
my family piled into an already crowded elevator and my mom began introducing herself  and her two daughters to everyone in the elevator.. the elevator people all yelled "goodbye joan!" as we got off on our floor.
later that day,  my mom drove me around her town in her red golf cart, gunning it down the hills, close to the edges, then stopped, she said "oh dear i have no idea where we are sugar."
i also got to see the closet my mom goes in when there is a hurricane warning. she sits in there with a towel wrapped around her head, throat losengers , the cat, her pills and a checkbook.
 this is where my art comes from.
by the way, humpty is back on the wall again.