Permission to play

I want to live an enchanted art life. But real life (RL) interferes. Phone calls must be made. Bills, paid. Business emails, sent. Shit, arranged. I usually let these pile up till I have a conscience attack on a Friday afternoon, but then figure “I’ll do it all first thing Monday morning. Swear.” This past […]

Summer Hyperactivity Disorder

It’s crazy. Every impulse has me dashing from garden to computer to kitchen to copy stand. I always have work-in-progress on every surface, but summer expands the “surfaces” to include all of outdoors. Plus, I’m trying to add variety to our plant-based diet by experimenting with new foods and new recipes. Winter brought long weeks […]

The Library

I’m on Chapter 2 of The Library Book by Susan Orlean, the New Yorker writer of one of my very favorite books The Orchid Thief. She is describing the cataclysmic fire at the Los Angeles Central Library, April 29, 1986. It’s riveting. But of course, she started the book by reviewing her own childhood relationship […]

Curiosity

We admire people of lifelong passion–musicians, scientists, humanitarians, athletes. Nevermind that, up close, single-minded obsessives can be both unhappy and hard to live with. What is your passion? I’ve always had a hard time answering that. My interests have bounced around over my lifetime. I’m a hard worker, but I don’t enjoy the feeling of […]

Flowers, April 19

I went out with an extension tube on my camera lens this morning. The flowers still scarce, I like crouching down for a close-up, letting their color fill my gray-weary eyes.

Bullet journal, not pretty

I’m fascinated by Bullet Journals. From what I gather on YouTube, they gloriously combine calendar, note-taking, reminders, goal reviews, and art journalling in one gorgeous, playing-with-my-new-pens package. This winter, when my digital apps failed to let me lay out a week’s work, I decided to go old-fashioned and use paper. But turning an organizer system […]

Punditry Break

During my walk I listened to a podcast about the occasional need for a break from social media. Social media is not my problem. Politics and so-called punditry is. When the Mueller Report was filed ten days ago, I decided it was time to direct my eyes and ears toward beauty. I do this now […]

The Maltese Buddha

So we heard about the garage-sale Buddha that brought $2.1 million at Sotheby’s. And wouldn’t you know — we have one just like it! I took it off the shelf, found the receipt, dug out the description. Yep, it was definitely the same style. I was struck with gold fever. While Jim wondered what had […]

Reckoning: a humble start

You hear about artists and entertainers “bursting upon the scene” as if they just picked up a brush or a guitar and their genius gushed out. You want to be that person. You walk on stage unrehearsed because you’re confident the magic will happen. Haha. I started doing Spoonflower challenges because, if I want to […]

Good old Lucy

When I fell in love with making videos (circa 2003), I was a one-woman production studio — writer, actor, sound engineer, animator. I committed to telling some stories from a youthful point of view, so I learned how to modify my voice recording to make it sound like I was 12. Lucy was born. She […]