A house is not a home

Without love.

Design

Working on new card designs.

Wedding for a friend

My beautiful friend Jenny found her soul mate.  I painted this to make cards for her.

Jim

I miss you so much dear brother-in-law.  It's hard to believe you have been gone almost a year.  As a friend said the other day who lost another parent, I hope there are enough angels in heaven now.  I am pretty sure there are but I guess there's always room for the rest of us.

Abstact

Second illustration

Done for the weekend.

First illustration

Working on some magazine illustrations.

Grateful

My nephew is an amazing hockey player so I wanted to create this image of him in action.  I am so proud of all my nieces and nephews - all wonderful, and all talented.  I feel like they are my own children with a special twist.  Much to be grateful for in this new year.

Post Holidays

I just finished Steve Jobs' biography by Walter Issacson and found it to be outstanding and poignant. 

My favorite quote...

"Maybe it's 'cos I want to believe in an afterlife," he recalled Mr Jobs saying. "That when you die, it doesn't just all disappear. The wisdom you've accumulated. Somehow it lives on.

"But sometimes I think it's just like an on-off switch. Click and you're gone.

"And that's why I don't like putting on-off switches on Apple devices."

It never hurts to have a little faith.

Some Days

Are just going to be difficult.  Painting always helps.

Creativity defined

From Dictionary.com

cre·a·tiv·i·ty
[kree-ey-tiv-i-tee, kree-uh-]
noun
1.the state or quality of being creative.  The process by which one utilizes creative  ability: Extensive reading stimulated his creativity.

And a big Happy Birthday to my Mom - I miss you so much.

How do you foster creativity?  There is so much material out there and much of it is very good.  I came across an article from The Creativity Portal which listed:

The 7 Stages of
The Creative Process

STAGE 1: INTENTION  (Aspiring)

First Law of Creation: Birth
STAGE 2: INCUBATION (Germinating)

Second Law of Creation: Enchantment

STAGE 3: INVESTIGATION (Exploring)
Third Law of Creation: Revolution
STAGE 4: COMPOSITION (Devising)

Fourth Law of Creation: Involution
STAGE 5: CLARIFICATION (Deepening)

Fifth Law of Creation: Selfhood
STAGE 6: CORRECTION (Revis[ion]ing)

Sixth Law of Creation: Evolution
STAGE 7: COMPLETION

(Finishing & Letting Go)
Seventh Law of Creation: Transformation

Interesting reading for further exploration.

Some you win, some, well ...

I decided to post the successes as well as the failures.  This is one of the less than stellar paintings in the past few days.  I actually learn more from my failures than my successes - something I tell my students all the time.  Life is like that - some days just don't feel like you should even get out of bed, while others are not to be missed.  The key is to continue and persevere in spite of failures.  The wins will come.

Getting Back to It

The fall was filled with mostly digital work, but today I was able to paint.  I started reading "The Creativity Book: A Year's Worth of Inspiration and Guidance" by Eric Maisel.  I tried to attend one of his seminars this past September, but my trip to Germany,  work and my dog's condition prevented me from doing so.  I am at work on a book about creativity for a grant I received, so his books will have to be the next best thing.  The first chapter got 3 paintings out of me today.  My big New Year's resolution though is to fire up the sewing machine and start learning how to art quilt!  Yee-ha - I think!

New Year...New Road

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

This poem marks a new beginning, reinvention, and a multitude of other adjectives that describe a new chapter in my creative life. We all choose the roads that we take in life and I am choosing to take one that is less traveled. I think back on what has occurred and wonder if I would have taken other roads knowing what I know now. I can honestly say that I would not have changed the most important direction my life took, which is the one that led to the birth of my son. He gives my life joy, direction and inspiration.  To celebrate this. my goal for the year is contentment.

"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want."  Philippians 4:12, New International Version