Drumroll please… etsy shop is open for bizness!!!!!!!

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Dear ones, this is kind of a big deal!

My brand spankin’ new etsy shop is up and running! It’s not fully stocked yet and there are probably some technical time bombs ready to explode, but “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” right?? ;)

I believe that nourishing ourselves with truth + beauty makes our lives better. Art isn’t just a pretty picture in a frame: it’s soul food. Rich, decadent, no empty calories.

So, I suggest you…Image!!!!!!

Spare me the blah blah blah about how you need a special occasion to buy a present for yourself — your life is the most special of occasions.

Some of my favorite treats are words of wisdom…

daring to dare4

And pretty prints…bird printAnd art with a story…
 grow print

Head on over to the shiny new shop and take a look around!

So much love and gratitude to you all. For real :)

xoxoxoXO

Sunday — Er, Monday — Studio

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Hello there! Happiest of Mondays to you. This weekend was the least relaxing I’ve had in a while. Whatevs, that’s how it goes sometimes. But I’m proud to say that I squeezed in somewhere around 30 minutes to further develop the layers of this bad boy you might remember from back in January:

ImageImageImageImageI’ve been using the same stash of antique books in my art since I first discovered mixed media in high school. They are constantly revealing new layers of history — and reincarnating themselves in one way or another.

We are all doing this, all the time. Breathing our ancestry into presence, birthing new layers into being.

Sunday Studio

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Happy Sunday! My artmaking this week was characterized by something I’ve been missing as of late: ease. This is not “better” than a state of difficulty: some of the most gratifying creative moments are born of head-banging frustration, and it’s an intrinsic part of the game for all of us. Ease and difficulty are conjoined twins, so you just gotta accept them as a package deal. That said… it was reeeeeeally nice to luxuriate in the promised land of flow, temporarily free from fear and restraint.

photo-2Yeeeeeeeeah. Messes, music, and play. This is my church.

photo-10 photo-4 photo-3photo-9This morning I felt drawn — like magnetically, inescapably drawn, at the expense of other pressing tasks like cleaning my closet — to put some finishing touches on the piece that claimed most of my devotion yesterday. Check it:

photo-6I am quite seriously considering a series that illustrates every lyric to that song.

Well, thanks for indulging in this with me!

So much love.

Chronology of a Do-Over

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You may remember this painting from a couple weeks ago:
painting2I really enjoyed completing this bad boy, but I noticed myself avoiding looking at it. Something was off. The text, while conveying a lovely message, felt cheesy and jarring — aggressive, even. I think there’s a GRE word for this melange of sensations, but it’s been a while. Icky about sums it up.

Despite its pleasing texture, the blue sky also felt like a little too much. Tone it down, girlfriend, my gut was suggesting. So I did something I rarely attempt, out of fear that I’ll mess the whole thing up: painted over it.

IMG_1453

IMG_1457If excess was the problem, the solution was obvious: Simplify, simplify. I started playing around with tones of white:

IMG_1458The white-washing felt good, so I went with it. And here you have the new finished product. Who knows, maybe it’s not really finished this time either ;)

IMG_1462

IMG_1461Yes. This feels better. Art, like life, benefits a great deal from simply following what feels better. Even when that means sacrificing the safety of what you already have. Pick up that trail of breadcrumbs and trust that you’re headed somewhere delicious.

xo