Surrender-Illustration Friday

Here's my submission for Illustration Friday....surrender.

I suppose this topic is serendipitous because I've felt this way lately...
The feeling of needing to surrender to outside things and let things happen as they will...
Not trying to control things that can't be controlled, taking a deep breathe and letting go...
It's hard and downright scary...
But if you don't let go how will you learn that you have wings....

Haunted by the South....

Lately I've been on a "southern" kick...which I find odd....since, you know, living in the South...
For some reason, I look around and realize I'm in the south...all it's weirdness, kookiness and downright southerness....I'm also struck by a sense of "duality" for lack of a better word. Simply meaning, how the south is a thing unto its own? And how it's finding itself in the 21st century while being firmly rooted in the past.....

And I'm also finding more and more ways "the south" has popped up all around me through other blog posts, books, etc....

But let me say...

Hollywood always gets it wrong....

And I always get mad when somebody in a movie is from "Alabama" and they're a complete idiot...

And the "oh, so southern" eccentricities...think Steel Magnolias, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, etc....how much of this is true...?

Let me just say I've never seen someone do a hoe-down at a wedding i.e. Steel Magnolias...

I have been to a confederate themed wedding where the men carried black powder muskets and shot them over the heads of the wedding party....and it was in a cornfield....

I've been to Birmingham, Montgomery, Savannah, Memphis...all the "southern" places and they all seen pretty normal...

I mean, yeah, you get some random craziness, cows in the middle of the highway, dog's headstones in the backyard, any given Sunday at trade day, passing tent revival's and wondering where they keep the snakes...but it's mostly normal? (Not that handling snakes is normal unless you're from up the road a ways).

What do people think of the south? I'm always intrigued when someone from out of state moves here and finding out how they like our accents, grits and iced tea.

So, I look around, try to be non biased and try to figure out where these people get their info...

Are southerns weird? Are we all eccentric?

Oh, by the way, that's a new painting up there...

Myths...

Have I ever mentioned that I think too much?

Today I remembered one of the very first myths that I read...it was Edith Hamilton's version of Pyramus and Thisbe....

In the story two lovers and neighbors cannot be together because of their parents and the only way they can communicate is through a chink in the wall that separates them. They decide to meet beneath a white berried mulberry tree. Thisbe gets there first and spys a lioness fresh from the kill....Thisbe flees but drops her cape behind. The lioness finds the cape and tears it with her mouth as she wipes her face on it. When Pyramus arrives and finds the bloody cape, fears he has sent his love to her death and hastens his own...

Later when Thisbe returns and finds Pyramus dying she in turn stabs herself with his sword and together they perish...

The white mulberries hanging in the tree above them were forever stained dark red with their blood....

Now, I remembered reading this as I was going through paintings, posting pictures and updating shops... Check out prints here

A recurring thing I paint is a tree rooted in a heart....

A part of me wonders if this painting is not in some way...a regurgitation of this myth after being embedded in my brain...

I love myths and mythology, I love the way they shape us and tell us about our selves, our loves and our fears....

Myths can bend, twist, and change their faces and give us universal truths about humans...

I try to explore this with my art....reinventing myth or at least giving certain paintings a old, traveled look to them...which is what I think a myth would look like if it had a face...old, traveled, slightly weary and slightly impish....with a certain twinkle in her eye...

What myths do remember or do you feel have shaped you?

New Paintings

Here are a few new things I finished yesterday.

Why is it that as soon as you decide...all right, that's it, I'm done...things start happening. Is it a weird joke that the universe plays....stringing you along or is it something else....

I don't know but it's frustrating sometimes. Maybe it's the reminder that things can and will happen...you just have to continue having faith and trust that something good will happen....maybe instead of the universe stringing you along...it's a pat on the back saying, "You can do it. Don't give up. Look see."

But having faith/trust/belief is hard...so hard...especially when it gets to the point of nearly hitting bottom....and someone somewhere throws you a rope....

I'm speaking of course about trying to make a living doing what I love, selling books, selling art, etc. But I believe this type of thing spans across many things....

What are your thoughts?

A bit of info for you!

As soon as my blog reaches 100 followers, I'll be doing a free giveaway! Probably have a few things available and let the winner pick. I've never done this sort of thing before and it will be interesting to see how it will work....so spread the word and send people this way!

Also check out my facebook page! Click here!

Haunted by Ophelia...

Haunted by Ophelia...

Ophelia pops up in my sketches from time to time...she has for years. There's something intriguing about her. Here she was surrounded like people acting a fool (literally) and she gave in too it.

That's the thing about crazy...it can take you with it.

Without going into to much detail, suffice it to say that I've been around crazy my whole life...and it's easy to fall into that trap....it's easy to stay there, stay crazy, and just be with it.

But...I tried to follow the road less traveled (by my crazymakers) and got out...I'll admit...it's been hard...the isolation from people I love because I can't be around them very long without getting certain Ophelia-esque tendencies....the struggle of the feeling of having to go it alone....the nagging thought that I might be next in a long line of crazy....

But...you have to fight it....do the hard thing (which is often the right thing) and get up and get over it....Let Ophelia go.....just let her float away....because if you're honest....nobody really cared about Ophelia...she just was...then wasn't there...innocence corrupted by crazy

Has she haunted you?

Traveling in 3rd Class

Maybe it's living in the South, maybe it's the idea of having fewer choices, opportunities or options (what have you), harder decisions and seemingly less to work with....but the "3rd Class"
or underdog typically holds place near and dear in my heart...

Rising above your circumstances or simply being proud of your origins or maybe even being blatantly snarky about it...there's something endearing about the underdog...something that says, "Even though, you have it all, we're still here...we ain't going any where."

I don't know...maybe it's appropriate thoughts on Martin Luther King day...that the "underdog" will be celebrated, that they'll receive recognition, that people will understand that we're all in it together, no matter where we are....

So...where are you today?

Illustration Friday--Chicken

My submission for Illustration Friday. Woo!

Mixed Media Book

This is a mixed media book that I made awhile back and never posted on here.

One of my goals this year is to get more of my work out there...submitting to magazines, participating in challenges, etc. This will be my first sharing submission to a magazine for mixed media.

This book was created using realllly thin wood, hinged together with gauze medical tape and then each page was created by either painting, stamping or using collage. Since it kinda bows out, blue yarn holds it shut.

What do you guys think? What are your plans for the upcoming year?

I aint' gonna study war no more....

Here is the newest in my series....Can you guess what this series is based on? I've really enjoyed making this and I have a few more in the works. That white skull you see is prep work for the painting. This pictures were also taken in the snowy front yard. Alabama received several inches of snow on Sunday and things are just now slowly beginning to return to normal.

In other artsy news: My friend Sherry has opened a charity Etsy called What Gives. 90% of proceeds will be going to a charity---a different one chosen each month. So, hop on over and check it out. This is a new storefront so it's kind of empty right now, but new items are being added! Can't wait to see what she does!

There's also a new local store that is really cool called That Funky Little Store Downtown. Check out their blog. It has links to their Facebook and Etsy storefronts!

Etsy Treasury!

Throwing out a thank you to lrobinson for including me in the treasury hugs.

There is some awesome work represented go check it out!

Trouble in Mind....

Here's my newest painting in a series of planned paintings. This quote is from a old blues song called "Trouble in Mind" which my husband plays all the time.

Wanna know a not-so-secret secret....I love trains... I love counting cars as I wait for them to pass, I love the spray painted stories from a thousand different cities, I love slightly jumpy, panicky feeling you get if you're close when one goes by...

The place where I live is criss-crossed a thousand times with railroad tracks and everywhere I've lived I've always heard them, whistling and rattling on down the tracks. Nothing sounds better to me than a train whistle. Every time I hear one I stop and listen. I even stopped a class I was teaching once and made the kids just listen.....

Now, I know that "Gonna let that 2:19 train ease my worried mind..." is about suicide, but taken out of context, it can have a much different, almost positive meaning...

You just have to listen...

Another not-so-secret secret...almost all the shoes I have are red....

Illustration Friday Submission

Topic: Deja-Vu

Which to listen to.....

The heart versus mind
It happens all the time
The battle of two wills
Call it what you will
My heart said go
But mind said no

Aisha Ludmilla Pin

Head or heart? Which one do you listen to? Should only one be the deciding factor? Or do you need the head to ground the heart....or contrariwise, let the heart give the head wings.....

We get stuck. Stuck between the two desires...feelings of wanting to do something, needing in your heart to do something contrasted with your head saying...stay a little longer, not now, wait, and on and on.....

The Decision

Oh, wouldn't it be so easy to separate the two....
But then what would we have? And what and how would you choose, head or heart?

All I'm trying to do.....is carry my heart gently.....

“The heart is the only broken instrument that works.”

T. E. Kalem

A somewhat funny, sad sidenote: The hand holding the heart thing I made a few years back is broken....

And these questions are open for discussion, comment, leave experiences, share stories....it helps...

New Directions

This is a painting I did for an artist friend for her studio. This painting is in a lot a ways a new direction for me as well. I find myself moving in new directions and we sometimes need a little help or support as we travel along. I tried to give thought to those fears and challenges with this painting. Probably the first thing you noticed is that the woman symbolizing Painting or Art is blindfolded...I have several reasons for this, but mostly because there should be no judgment in creating art.

I remember as a child and teenager creating art only to destroy it later for not being good enough. If my mom ever caught me she wouldn't let me throw anything away and probably dug some art out of the trash. Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we judge others when they make an effort? Yeah, it might not be the next greatest piece of art, but who cares, it's a creation, a work of heart and love that someone, whether they realize it or not, spent love and effort bringing forth. Why do we try to destroy the beauty in our lives?

A sidenote: I still struggle with accepting my art and the desire to destroy it sometimes. Just last night I worked on a painting (still working on it) and had to fight the urge to throw it outside in the rain....funny thing, my husband Jacob refuses to let me paint over or destroy something I've made...I have a painting that I don't particularly like and want to reuse the canvas but he won't let me...he says he'd rather buy me a new canvas than let me paint over it...

There are other symbols, the hand of Fatima, the lotus, the doorway---all things that symbolize movement, luck, protection and faith. Things we all need to get by some days.

So, when I painted this...I did it with love, with the knowledge that I was painting it for a friend, to bring her happiness and maybe luck. And even though you may not have a painting of mine, I hope and pray the same for you....whoever you are.