Day 4. Beauty
“Welcome, Beauty” 6×6, oil on canvas, framed. It feels a little early in the month for this kind of thing, but, no matter, today I took my palette knife to what seemed to be a perfectly fine painting and scratched off everything I could, thinking this one would just end up in the discard pile. […]
Day 3. Audacity
“Audacity” 4×4, oil on canvas, framed. My husband pointed out to me recently (several times actually) that I do not bring the same kind of carefree boldness to sharing my writing as I do to sharing my paintings. That there’s hesitancy there. As much as I wish he weren’t, he is right. I tell people […]
Day 2. Routine
“Carry Me” 8×8, oil on canvas, framed. Before January began I knew that routine, ritual, would be my path to discovery. That I would get up at the same time, start my practice the same way– uncover the unknown in the painfully familiar. I am still dumbfounded by the attack yesterday on the city in […]
Day 1. Wonder
“Invitation to Wonder” 6×6, oil on canvas, framed. Back in November I took a look around my studio space and realized that the chaos I’d been working in was making me, each day, less and less inclined to want to be there. My supplies were thrown on random shelves; I had a box in the […]
How to Have a Successful 31 in 31
“To begin, begin” -William Wordsworth What is 31 in 31? 31 in 31 is taking on one creative, self-expressive or self-nurturing pursuit once a day for the entire month of January and sharing that pursuit in a supportive online community. Artists, poets, writers, musicians, doodlers, yogis, photographers, knitters, and daily walk takers have all found […]
Remember You are Dust
One of the first things I remember learning as a child was the concept of patterns. Teachers seemed to be impressed when you could identify one– circle, circle, star, square; circle, circle, star, square. When I was older, they used the same concept but in the service of math; on standardized tests we’d have to […]
July 2024, New Work Preview!
After kicking off 2024 with a (mostly) small painting a day in my annual 31 in 31 practice, I was ready to think BIG. I wanted to spend more time with my paintings working with patterns in layers that needed the ones beneath them to amount to anything. In January I was the hare– panting, […]
Day 31. If you want to go far…
“If You Want to go Far” 24×30 inches, oil on canvas I started this month with a bike, and I knew I wanted to end with one too. Only this time there’s not just one, but several. All month I’ve been thinking about the African proverb that says “If you want to go fast, […]
Day 30. Reteach a thing its loveliness.
“The Bud Stands for All Things” 24×24 inches, oil on paper I discovered this poem last week by Galway Kinnell and immediately started planning a painting in my head. Originally, I had intended for this to be my day 31 offering, the finale to this month’s work, but I have another idea for the month’s […]