"Night Owl" - Tangle #4 and a Whole New Series in the Works!!! =0)

"Night Owl" - Tangle #04    2.5" x 3.5"      Graphite, Colored Pencil and Ink on Acrylic Paper (ACEO)

$25 - Email me if Interested

This little Owl stole my heart as soon as he made his appearance. And I knew that I immediately wanted to make a series of woodland creatures in this style, so as of now I am currently working on work #02 in the series, a playful little bear cub, who's trying so hard to climb over a tree that's a mite bit taller than he is. As for this Owl though, he's got a wild side - a little bit of mischeviousness to him that I just adore. It's as if as soon as the sun sets his playful side comes out and little mousies beware!

I hope you are having fun being your own little playful selves as well! And oh how I'm loving this newfound LOVE for pen and ink - I think it rather suits me, especially when color is involved. =0) I'd love to know what you think or what woodland animals you would like to see from me next. And thanks for not giving up on me - you have no idea what that means to this weary soul - it's like the elixir of LOVE and LIFE and JOY all mixed up into one sweet tonic, and I thank you heartily for that. Have a wonderful day, my friends, and stay inspired! You have no idea how much you have helped keep me inspired yourselves!

"Broken Hearted" - Tangle #02

"Broken Hearted"  - Tangle #02     2.75" x 2.75"     Ink and Graphite on Illustration Board

Already I'm starting to get the hang of this Zentangle® thing. On Day #01, I noticed that I made FAR too many teeny, tiny spaces with all my lines, which, had I been working on a larger scale, would have made for an absolutely fantastic and interesting piece. However, when it's the size of a mere ACEO, yeah, not so much... So for Tangle #02 I decided to create larger spaces to work within, to allow myself enough area to really get in there and create some fabulous patterns and you know what? I liked it - A LOT! It was so much more fun this way to create each individual space, as they each really had the chance to be able to get developed instead of just barely getting started before having to move on to a new beat because the lines had already changed. So I guess I already learned something new, and it's only just the beginning... I can't wait to see where this takes me in the future!

Totally Tangled Over Here and Loving It!

"Burnt To A Crisp" - Tangle #01     3.5" x 5"     Ink & Graphite on Acrylic Paper (ACEO)

The last two weeks have been nothing short of a nightmare. Thank God before that He gave me grace sufficient to get me through what was to come! Before these last two weeks I had the most wonderful, love-filled birthday party of my life (YA-HOOO - I'M OFFICIALLY 30 YEARS OLD!!! I'M SO EXCITED!)  =D  where I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people who not only just showed up to shower their affections and care on me, but who took time out of their own hectic schedules to spend time celebrating a very special day with me. My 30th birthday is something I've been happily awaiting for quite some time now, and it meant so much more to me to be able to spend it with so many people who I hold so dear and close to my heart. It was nothing short of miraculous and terribly humbling at the same time, to be quite honest! After having been literally holed up in my own home in what feels like an iron-clad cage for almost 2 years now, save for my hundreds of Drs. visits and an occassional visit to Costco, Target or the $ Store in my wheelchair,  it was actually a bit overwhelming. My senses aren't really quite used to being around so many people in such a small space anymore, which to be totally honest I was NOT expecting such a great turnout, though I was HUGELY BLESSED by it (I mean, come on, how amazing is that? I was so overcome by emotions that I had planned to thank everyone for coming and instead totally retreated inside myself instead out of sheer shock), and I kept getting asked if I was alright, so I'm fairly positive that the emotion showed loud and clear on my face, like a poor little deer caught in the headlights. But the LOVE I felt in our house shook the walls for me, and it was a birthday I will NEVER forget, at least, not until dementia sets in which is hopefully a ways away. Now, now, I am just 30, mind you!  =0)

What's been so interesting to me is that I've been looking forward to turning 30 for so long, and now that I have, apparently NOW'S the time that everything possible that I thought couldn't possibly get any worse has skyrocketed to new dimensions of horrible that I never even fathomed were possible. Family life has been treacherous for everyone over here, apparently because I've changed so much and I'm no longer who I used to be, and we aren't sure if it's the anti-seizure meds or not (which I'm so praying it's not because they are what's giving me the ability to play with my boys and interact with them and without those I'll go back to being in a virtual untouchable coma, my body wracked with pain, my heart wracked with sobs, it's just awful to think of having to go back there. It's like choosing paralysis over time to laugh and play and enjoy your children. Which would you pick?

If I could give my own two cents, personally I just think I'm different because I'M DIFFERENT. You don't go through as many trials and tribulations as I have and come out the other side unscathed unless you're a robot or not being honest with yourself. BUT, and this is a BIIIIIGGG BUT, it doesn't mean I can treat other's like garbage or hurt them just because I'm hurting. Right now I feel like an injured mother bear trying desperately to protect her cubs from being taken away from her by angry and yet proud huntsmen. I want to lash out in my anger, and then pull back and protect my injuries, hovering over my boys trying to protect them from any fallout that might negatively affect them later on in life, and especially anything that might hurt their precious little hearts now.

I'm learning the value of keeping my own anger reigned in - I found this AMAZING workbook on Amazon for helping with anger management, and even though I've only done one chapter I can SEE and FEEL the changes taking place inside me, as if God is gently taking out the badly woven strings and re-knitting them so that He can complete the work He started in me so many years ago, and so He can carry it on to completion until the day of His Son, Jesus Christ, returns to this earth to save us all who've been faithful to Him! I am so thankful every day that I serve a God like Him, one who truly knows the meaning of being and having:

PATIENCE, PEACE, HOPE, LONG-SUFFERING, ENDURANCE, TENDERNESS, COMPASSION, UNDERSTANDING, KINDNESS and above all, 

 LOVE!!!

And so you see, with the walls of my life continually crashing in around my shoulders, when I started noticing more and more of my artist friends coming out with these lovely, vibrantly patterned works of art called Zentangle (R), I started to become intrigued. They were simple and yet so complex. I loved how they looked and especially how they feeled and most of all how they MADE me feel. But what finally got me hooked was when the walls collapsed in around us and we were forced to get a nanny (one of THE best decisions we have EVER made!!!). We finally got the boys back at home where they belonged all along - not at anyone else's house, no matter who it was, the best place for my boys is to be with their momma! Especially now that we have a new nanny to help out, (she's the one who got me into Zentangles® without even knowing what it was, quite to her surprise) but she has been a major help to me already. And like I said, as soon as she showed me her own work I just knew I had to give it a shot. After all, it's basically a mix between Henna, doodling, meditation, shading, pattern-working, and whatever else you want to do to make it your own, so it was a dead-ringer for me!!!

I looked it up too, and apparently they've done studies on it and it's been proven to help with anger management, anxiety, stress reduction, creativity, improved memory retention, pain reduction and so much more like even just the simple fact of helping to improve your mood. Gee, I think I could handle that, couldn't you? So not only is this an art form that is done on a miniature scale (ahem... sound like something I might like, right? Lol!), but it's something I can do in a hospital bed or on major bedrest when the real heavy full-bodied or just partial yet temporary paralysis sets in, which is HUGE to me, since it's times like those that I struggle with wanting to do art the most but I can't do anything feasible because it's WAY too involved. So with how small this is coupled with the fact that you also only need to use tiny strokes means I can do this just about anywhere in just about any situation. PRAISE THE LORD!!! I finally found something I can take with me that doesn't take up huge amounts of space and that I can pack on the fly. I'm such a happy camper right now!!!

Unfortunately, with the artistic passion comes the STRONG, rather overbearing and for me quite tormenting emotions, which at times seem like they could just swallow me whole. At least I'm not the only artist to have ever felt this way - I'm pretty sure it's like a right of passage if you want to be a fine artist for some odd reason. It must just be like I said - with great passion comes great torment as well - and either one of them, if left untamed, can swallow you up. My prayer is that God continues to enrich my passions rather than continue my torment, for it surely does get exhausting after a long time,  as many of my overwhelmed friends would agree with. Thank God He's a God who cares! Well, I really should try to at least clean up a little before the boys wake up - and turn up the heater or restart a fire because it's freezing in here today! I hope you have a wonderful vacation day filled with rest and laughter and much joy, and that God blesses you day immeasurably! So long for now!

"Meet Me By the Bridge Tonight" - A Work in Progress and

"Meet Me By the Bridge Tonight"     9" x 12"      Acrylic on Canvas

Oh my goodness, you have no idea how much I have missed you all! I've missed writing, blogging, painting, reading up on all of your own blogs and updates and all the other things that we bloggers have to do to maintain any sort of readership (of which I'm sure my own is practically gone by now!) and that any of us bloggers or non-bloggers alike have to do to just keep ourselves entertained if we aren't incredibly overwhelmed with stuff to do. Anyways, I truly do greatly apologize for my absence and hope there aren't any hurt feelings out there - I know I need to send out some prints and paintings and that I am more than just a bit behind in all this -  but unfortunately such is the life of one in my condition, with Myofascial Pain Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, SRI Joint Problems and more (the list is steadily growing - uh-oh!) - and it's already hard enough to even get out of bed each day let alone try to order and mail out all my free little prizes. But I will get them done one by one, because I'm a girl of my word, even if it may take more time than I had originally hoped for.  But hey, at least they're free, right?! That's gotta help count for something! ;0)

I've been thinking lately about whether or not I can really do this considering my condition, and for now at least I just really want to focus on getting as much caught up as I can on all my projects this year so that I can get myself and this sweet little business of mine off to a good clean start this year with a nice clean slate! I'd love to not "owe" any prizes to anyone anymore, and I hate having that feeling hanging over my head constantly, especially the guilt. So for those of you who are waiting on prints if you don't mind waiting a little longer that would be absolutely wonderful to me - and don't worry - I have in no way forgotten about you! In fact it's quite the opposite, I think of you all the time, and I feel so bad that I haven't been able to get your prints to you sooner. I'm so sorry if I've frustrating anyone with the wait, but things have been just a bit hectic around here if you can imagine it. Please just try to be patient - or rather, I should say please just try to continue to be patient - you already have been spectacularly patient as it is, and I feel awful asking you to wait even longer, but this is my life and I'm getting hit hard with the realities of my weaknesses and my disabilities left and right right now and it's just not pretty. In fact, it downright hurts. But just so you know, I'm trying to add in a little extra something to anyone who's gifts or prizes are late right now just to try to make it up to you - I know it's not much but it's the best I can do at the moment. I just want everyone to be happy and pleased in the end and at the very least when all's said and done the one thing I need to remind myself of is that I truly AM very sick and these really ARE free prizes, so as long as I get them to you as soon as I possibly can we should be good in the end. But the sooner the better, right?!  =D

And once they're all done, I'll hold my FINAL CONTEST, the one that was supposed to be held in December but had to be postponed for personal reasons. Since I didn't do it in the 12 months time that I had aimed for (oh man, I was sooo, sooo close!), I figured I'd like to do it once all the others were accounted for first, so as not to add extra stress so that it could be perhaps a bigger or better prize in the end that way. Who knows - we'll have to see what happens, but I can't wait for the day to come up with and then announce that one!!!

Speaking on the subject of contests and prizes, the painting above is one of the paintings that was a prize a long while back in February - it was back in the beginning before people other than just my friends read my blog, so of course one of my friends won the prize (go figure, right?! Haha!). =D  Anyways, I had sooo hoped to finish it much earlier in the year for them, but was really surprised by the difficulty of certain aspects of it, especially when it came down to laying down the bridge. I hadn't anticipated the architecture of it to get the better of me, or at least not to that degree, but oh how wrong I had been! It literally took me weeks, perhaps even months, for me to realize that I had painted in the base columns incorrectly, putting them in at an angle exactly similar to the shadows that follow alongside them, which was ALL wrong. You see, in real life they would run parallel to the horizon, not diagonal to it, which was a shocker to me for some reason though it makes perfect sense logically speaking once you really think about it.

Already I feel like I've spent so much time on this piece and yet I still have what feels like so far to go on it -  I mean, if you look, you can see I've only just begun to lay in the cherry blossoms, and they're all floating in mid-air as of yet, so pretty soon they'll be getting some branches to hang from but even then they still have more layers they need to make them look full and complete like a true flower in bloom. This painting has definitely been an adventure for me, and a great learning experience as well - now here's to hoping my friends like my interpretation of what they were wanting and that they can see it with eyes wide open as it still has a ways to go before she'll be done. Haha, I guess it's a "she" after all - funny, I didn't realize I thought of my paintings in that way before but I guess I really do!  =0)

I really have been dying to get back to the easel on this one but I haven't quite been able to get back into painting yet - I don't know if it's purely emotional or if it's because my body just doesn't quite feel good enough yet to really get the job done - I mostly need to lay around and do simple exercises during the day and after seeing my Physical Therapist he reassured me that it wasn't just in my head, which did me a world of good! Apparently, my body is so weak that it can't even truly support the weight of my own head coming even a fraction of an inch off of my pillow (that's how truly bad it is), at least, not without causing itself intense and agonizing pain. That explains A LOT!!! It's always nice to know that you aren't imagining things, that's for sure!  =0)  But I'm so happy to be working with him and I hope and know that in time if I follow his advice he'll get me back on track - he's done it before and he can do it again. As for right now though, even just getting this post up on here feels like a such a huge victory - one that I can hardly describe, but it's just absolutely fulfilling to say the least!

Well, I hope you are all doing well and I can't wait to go visit you on your own sites and see what you all have been up to while I've been away. Hopefully there will be more posts on my end and much more frequently too - going that long without a post was sooo not cool and I deeply apologize again, and I mean it. I always hate it when I would follow someone and they would just drop off the grid for months and months at a time, with no explanation ever given. I would check back and they'd put up a single post or maybe two and then off they'd go again, not to be seen for almost a year if at all. That's not what I want for this blog and not what I want you to feel when you come here. So I will try my hardest to work harder for you. It might mean more photography and less painting, or perhaps just more works in progress than paintings completed in a day, especially since we've yet to see any rain and rain is my absolute arch nemesis and my best friend at the same time since we so desperately need it to not go into a drought. I just wish I could find somewhere more permanent that I could stay during the rainy season over here that would be perfect - unfortunately living somewhere outside of the rainy season to stay warm during the storms with my boys is a bit unrealistic - but, oh how awesome that would be! Oh well, I got some really awesome days this winter with all three of my boys that I'll treasure forever, and I'll just have to try harder to be up on here on my blog more often, as much as I can, but in the meantime, I hope and pray you have a wonderful day. Take care and God bless, my friend!

November is NOT over Yet - It's CONTEST TIME!!!

Okay - Here's how it goes! Whomsoever is the very 1st person to post a comment on this blog about either one thing they've been thankful for this year or if they just want to straight up say they want to win the prize get's a free 4"x6" print of "Doe Eyes" matted and ready to be framed to a 5"x7" sized frame (frame not included). So, if you want it, the 1st person to comment HERE ON MY BLOG WINS! There's only one winner so you better respond quickly! Good luck! =0)

Print of "Doe Eyes"     4"x 6" matted to 5"x 7"     Lustre Finish

"Trudging Along" - A Colored Pencil and Conte Pencil Drawing

"Trudging Along"     Colored Pencil and Conte Pencil on Bristol Board

Sorry, I know this isn't the best picture ever, but I'm so incredibly tired and just wanted to get this up here - and in all honesty, it's just a picture off my phone. But If you like this piece and are interested in Purchasing this Original Work of Art, Please feel free to Email Me Via My "About Me" Section on the Right Side Panel. Thanks! And Have a Great Day!

It's been more and more difficult and far more painful than I ever imagined it would be at this point for me to get out my paints and brushes these last few days, or really this entire last month. I keep promising myself that I'll try my hardest to get everything set up so I can work on some projects, but my body just isn't havin' it right now. 

And it's become more than just a little bit frustrating by now - after all it's my best way of blowing off emotional steam,  and since this flare hit last month I've had plenty of steam to fuel a freight car right now. But like I said before, this time I'm choosing to fight this with all I got, and so away go the paints for a small time (I'm still praying and holding out hope that this won't last too long) and out come the drawing tools. 

I've been working with colored pencils, Conte crayons, and oil pastels, not to mention plain old graphite the last few days, and I'm just trying to get in as much practice as possible. I'd actually forgotten how much fun just the practice of drawing and, well, practicing in general, really can be and I'm actually having a blast with this! 

Finally, I'm starting to make some progress here, with God's help. I'm learning how to make the best with what I have, though I have a long road ahead of me before I get that one down. =0)  Rather than just letting myself get depressed with what I can't do right now, I've been praying that God would open my eyes to see the things I CAN do instead, & I have to admit it sure does make a huge impact on your life. Everything seems to be so much happier this way, the days seem brighter and more full of hope, and I feel way less defeated as well . It's way more fun when you can find a way of looking at things as if the glass were half full rather than it always being half empty, or so I seem to be learning this these last few weeks. It's quite a change of pace for me but I'm really enjoying it and I can't wait to see what it leads to! God bless you and have a great day!

October's Contest - Only One Week Long and It's a Fun One!

I'm so excited to announce this month's contest, which will last only one week. It's gonna be a breeze! All I want from you is some cute ideas by October 23rd (it's not much time, so you'll have to think quick!) of what to paint on miniature canvases for a boutique I'm going to be working at (Lord willing of course, given this fibro) on the 2nd of November. They can be themed, seasonal, random, or abstract, but any ideas would help. The person with my favorite idea wins an abstract painting created just for you, with whichever colors or feel to it that you would like. Or rather than an abstract, you may choose the painting below instead. So game on my friends, game on! =0)

"Under the Starry Sky So Blue"     5" x 7"     Acrylic on Museum Quality Claybord