Deus

Deus - acrylic and charcoal on masonite - 48" x 48"

As I sit in my studio I wind it down, morphing into 'Artist's Time' which requires no clock.

I listen to the birds flying and my dog breathing, as everything flows in and out of my body and I let my worries... a snake! Suddenly a large snake appears outside my open door and I am afraid! What if it's a rattlesnake?! It isn't. I take this Rosy Boa as a sign that I am going deeper today and that I am on track, alive in my veins.

I ask myself, "What is your purpose here on earth?"

And then I paint.

Laguna Beach ~ Flowers

It's all coming together now ~ life, work, art.

Deus (definition) - n. God. [Middle English, from Latin.]

Musical Ambiance: Erasure & Bjork.

Lux Vivens

In Process - acrylic on masonite - 48" x 48"

It's the New Moon in Aries this week, very powerful.

Aries is the pioneer, the warrior and the baby too.

I am planting seeds of intention, my hands are dirty, covered in soil and primer, but this time I'll have help. Getting sidetracked is not an option.

Each brushstroke a prayer. When beginning a painting it helps to start with forms that one falls in love with.

Musical Ambiance: "Lux Vivens" by Jocelyn Montgomery with David Lynch.

In Her Clutches

acrylic, pastel and charcoal on masonite - 48" x 48"

Astrology takes over. Within her clutches (they feel very Saturnine as well as Uranian) I lose my sense of self, boundaries dissolve, my head fills with mythologies, depth psychology, Jungian archetypes. It's hard for me to feel when astrology is my focus.

Musical Ambiance: Propaganda & Pat Proud.

Desert Soul

So much to do, sometimes a list can be overwhelming!

Art-making quiets and focuses the mind onto the present until all else drifts away - kinda like meditation, a simplification, like water for a parched desert soul.

I stare at my canvas, this time it's made of tempered masonite. I've primed it three times with house primer on the smooth side and once on the rough side, to prevent warping.

It is a large square 48" x 48" and it's presence is firm and solid compared to the wispy, delicate yet surprisingly strong surface of silk that I've been painting on for the last three months. My husband bought one large sheet of masonite 8' long and cut it in two for me.

The day is grey, the rain is coming and my feet are cold - there is something wrong with the heater.

I've been reading Artillery Magazine - the Sex Issue and in particular one article, "Art With Benefits" by Josh Herman and am thinking about this quote from Jilda "To me, art must evoke something within us - be it joy, sadness, reverence or lust. An object which fails to do that is merely pretty." And although my work is abstract I feel it is also emotionally charged and sexually symbolic. I'm not painting sex per se, nothing so literal. But instead passion, emotion - intimate emotion.

This is a journey into my own expression of intimacy - a poetically abstract journey, minus the depiction of flesh - save that for the pornographers.

This masonite surface is so slick, hard, shiny, like new ice - not sure how to navigate this world yet.

The following day: Suddenly I feel happy.

I think I like this masonite surface.

"It's a long, long, lonely ride to find the perfect lover for your lover."

From the song "The Taxi Ride" by Jane Siberry

Musical Ambiance: The Speckless Sky ~ Jane Siberry

Into the Fire

Going beyond the figure, beyond realism, beyond...into emotion, expression, feeling, no boundaries, although the canvas does capture but a small square of time. The brushstrokes raw, evident, fighting.

This painting heaves and thrusts...I close my hands, my eyes, overwhelmed, yet waiting...is it done yet?

I paint with my glass off, my vision most likely strange to those of you used to crystal clarity. I prefer this world of soft edges, undulating, mysterious, the details not so important.

I have built a small fire to keep me warm, through paint.

I can go no further.