Hoot! Hoot! And the Winner Is...!!!

First off, THANK YOU, fellow tweeters, for RTing like pros! Your love for the owl necklace made my heart glad! :-)

Without further ado, the winner is lifeonprint!!!
lifeonprint, please convo me through Etsy with your address; and I'll give you the details when your necklace will be finished and on its way!

And for the rest of you sweet followers (and, I'm assuming, owl lovers!), my Black Friday/Cyber Monday special is extended to you early! 20% off of ANY JEWELRY piece in my shop!!! Please convo me if you're interested, and I'll mark down the listing and reserve it for you!!!

Much hugs and hoots to you all! Oh, would you stay and look around a bit? I love visitors!

Letting Go...

Let go.

That was a really hard sentence to write. I think I'll write it again for good measure!

Let go.

I've decided that there is an area in my artistic life that I need to let go. And let go with intention. Sometimes things happen and things are pulled from you. That is not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about purposefully walking away from things that no longer feed you. For me, that is portrait work.

I can't tell you how many gummy smiles I've drawn of adorable, chubby babies. Or touching portraits drawn to commemorate a life cut too short. Or sweet, furry portraits of the family pooch. I'll miss the stories. I'll also miss watching my wildly supportive hubby hawking my wares in stores in lovably weird Austin and LA.

So why am I letting portrait work go? Well, empathetic reader, I'm just no longer in that head space. It is such a gear shift to draw again that it takes from me instead of giving. I'm letting go. For the record, I am thrilled that my last portraits are for sweet friends and their equally sweet babies...what a way to go!



















So here are my "Kick-to-the-Curb" boots! Every artista should have a fab pair of boots. :-) (Flowy skirt, favorite jeans--you name it--they make everything look "cha-ching"!) I think I'm going to don these boots every time I need to purposefully walk away from something. So how about you? What areas in your artistic life maybe need a trim? All I can say is that when you make up your mind, you will be walking on dangerous yet lovely ground.

Let go.

Nurturing Whimsy...

I wanted to share with you the burgeoning artistic talent known simply as "Boog." She has recently been introduced to the world of crayons; and except for a brief moment when I thought she was going to permanently maim "Mr. Blue," she has been in Crayola-colored bliss!

We are proudly displaying her first work.

Please note the free-form scribbles and the lovely tear here and there. Future collage artist? Hmmm. . .

I have been struck lately by the newness of things for Boog. A new song to hum along with or to dance to (she's a mean dancer, folks!). The first time seeing the color "Violet Red." And my responsibility to her becomes a tad more clear. It is part of my job and privilege to nurture her whimsy. Her passion. Her joy. Whatever it may be. And though it's terrifying (I truly don't know what I'm doing!), it's also amazing!!!


I just read in a magazine that we are most in tune with our whimsy, our passions, when we are 10-14 years old. While I don't know how true this is (and I'm not quite sure you can draw super clear parallels in the manner of, "Well, I was a connoisseur of the mud pie, dahling, so, of course, I would have my own bakery!"), it is an interesting window into who we were and are. And, perhaps, a way to bring back that "newness" again. For me, it was dancing and singing and the start of musical theater. And drawing, of course! What was your whimsy? Who were you at 10 years old?

This painting was a custom piece that I did a while ago with the theme of being rooted in love, but its message has changed for me. It seems to speak of being rooted in our passions--what we love. I hope it speaks to you, too . . .

Here is Boog on Halloween. She was a dancer. Oh, excuse me, a modern dancer. Preferably in the "Twila Tharp" or "Martha Graham" veins. :-) She was a whirling dervish and so excited.

In case you're wondering, the "D" on the wall is an old marquee letter from an opera/movie house from the early 1900's. Fab!