Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! With 2009 coming to a close, I'd like to give thanks to everyone for your continued friendship and support. I am thankful for each and every one of you, and look forward to continuing sharing my artistic journey with all of you. Thank you. May you all experience a joyful and prosperous 2010! Let's have a great year!

Drawing Dreams Foundation

Girl, by Karen, age 10

I'm pleased to announce that I have been asked to contribute images on behalf of the Drawing Dreams Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Berkeley, CA whose mission is to help provide art supplies to children's hospitals, and other organizations where the need arises.

In appreciation of their support, donors receive notecards featuring art from Drawing Dreams' two online galleries: art by children, as part of the Children Helping Children initiative, and images from professional visual and performing artists, photographers, architects, athletes, scientists, and visionaries from around the world, as part of Artists Helping Children.

I am proud to be a part of this, and invite you to check out all the wonderful art in the galleries! Blackbirds are Gathering has made the headliner on page 2!

Happy Holidays, Friends

One of my favorite holiday traditions when I was a child was being allowed to unwrap one of my gifts on Christmas Eve while watching The Snowman. This beautiful animated classic, along with the entire series of Beatrix Potter tales brought to life on video, were favorites, that, to this day, I still love just as much as I did then. Since I've grown up, the beauty of this film's theme song never fails to make me teary-eyed. I thought I'd share it with you along with some personal photos, in hopes that you, too, will be moved to take a few moments out of your busy holiday schedules to revisit your imagination and walk in the air. :)

Wishing you all a joyous holiday season - Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

"Summer's End"

24" x 18"
acrylic on canvas

Another painting completed a few weeks ago, that speaks of the fragility of all things born from the earth, and the inherent order and cycles that occur in the natural world. I came upon the concept for this in late summer/early fall when everything around us begins to slowly change to give way to a new season. These massive, mammoth sunflowers that grew in the garden and turned their heavy heads to follow the sun all summer long, had bowed, welcoming the autumn. When it was time to prepare the ground for next summer, I set the heavy, freshly cut bunch down and looked at them, finding them to be symbolic of so many things. A moth then peeked at me from behind a petal. This image flashed in my head on the spot. I love when that happens.

It's a natural feeling to want to hold on to things you know you can't preserve forever, and, before turning these majestic flora over to the birds and squirrels to feast on, I felt the need to record their beauty and the power of what they represented to me that day.

"Two Rural Sisters" Diptych

28" x 44"
acrylic on canvas

A recently completed set that I have been working on periodically between other paintings. Lately I'm enjoying working on several pieces at once, just to change up the routine a bit. With these, I intentionally wanted to create two narrative character portraits; a straightforward statement and tribute to both the beauty and harshness of country life. I guess my inherent love for Renaissance art, particularly its portraiture, lurked in my subconcious during the birth of the initial idea, hence why I think I settled on representing the protagonists in a more straight, formal, symmetrical fashion, accompanied by symbols that pertain to them. The strength and resiliency of the human spirit is one of the main themes running throughout this one, in addition to the sheer desire to simply go back and concentrate on the figure as a painting subject.