Galactic Mandala

This piece combines two of my foremost interests, science and spirituality. I feel that these cannot be separated from one another, whether you believe that God created this magnificent universe, or you believe that this universe IS God. Either way, they form an indivisible whole; nature in all its forms reveals the divine. We are each sacred parts of the whole, and are dependent upon ALL parts for our survival.

Size: 11" x 11"
Medium: Watercolor and acrylic ink with collage
Price: $175.00 without mat

Matted work

This is an example of one of the transformation pieces when matted. It was photographed on a black background. The piece "floats" on a black archival 100% cotton matboard, topped with an off-white beveled mat.

Handmade Artist's Book

I thought I'd share a few pages of my handmade book, since few people have seen it. The book measures 8 x 12.5 inches and contains 20 pages. All pages are transparent acetate, so the pages beneath can be seen through them, creating a multi-layered effect. The cover is basically a folded "box", also made of acetate, and closed with a shell and gold braided cord. Thanks to Colin for doing a great job on the photos. (Really, I was just teasing about the praying mantis thing.) Also, I just learned something- the photos appear opposite the order in which they were downloaded, so the cover is at the bottom. Oh, well...

Mine's cooler!

This post is just a bit of a joking competition with my son Colin, who called last night and told me he had taken the "coolest" photo of a praying mantis. I said, "NUH-UH, it can't be cooler than mine." It actually did turn its head and look at me- and it appears to be smiling! So here it is- you be the judge. To see Colin's praying mantis, go to

his blog.

Peace

Okay, I couldn't resist putting some vacation pics on here. The ocean gives me a sense of profound peace; I hope looking at these can evoke a bit of that same feeling for you.

Slideshow: Angels and Spirits

My daughter made this slideshow for me of some of my pieces which have related themes or images. My son added the music, and- VOILA! Hey, don't laugh; I uploaded it all by myself! Thanks, Caitlin and Colin; you are awesome.

Summer

It's been an interesting and very busy summer. I really thought that I'd have lots of time to do artwork now that I finally finished my master's degree, but it didn't quite turn out that way. I went on a vacation for the first time in five years, spent time visiting and helping friends out with various projects, and catching up on life in general. It was the best summer I've had in many years. I did indeed work on a few larger pieces (which i will post shortly), but nothing for this 'painting a day' blog. However, doing this blog, or rather, not doing it, has not been a total loss. I learned several things from it, one being that I can't do artwork on command, at least not every day. I thought about giving it up entirely. The art business books I've read said to avoid posting anything personal- in other words, anything not directly related to the artwork posted herein (I like that- "herein"- makes me sound smart, doesn't it?). Well, I learned that it's impossible for me to separate my art from my life. It's also really boring; who wants to read blurbs that I have trouble making up? So I decided to break the rules and just write whatever I want to write. Whether or not this is a bad idea remains to be seen. In fact, I think I'll start by posting pictures from my vacation!