Creatively Thinking

  Featured image: Boating In the vast expanse of life—your life—you have embraced all those challenges that have presented themselves to you. You have cradled, embraced, and protected your life because you believe your life is precious, and you believe you are able to go into these challenges, to experience them, and to be stronger because you have decided to take them on. You realize you are but a droplet in the boundless sea, but you have survived changes before, and you have freed yourself by releasing your burdens and are living unconditionally with love. And love will give you the strength you need.

Featured image: Springtime Breeze “Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” — Henry Ward Beecher 

  Featured image: Canna Lily Listening to nature’s melody, feeling the rhythms of life, observing spring’s growth, and connecting with both heaven and earth, we attune ourselves to both heaven and earth and open the doors to the unrestrained power and energy it brings us, where we can ride its flow and weave ourselves into its tapestry of creation.

  Featured image: Sacred Places Do you ever wonder, where did that thought come from? I don’t, because I say to myself, boy, I’m glad that thought is here. It came at just the right time. I was afraid I was heading down the path of linear thinking, and that is not the path—that just isn’t me. For me, well, I don’t have a name for it, but it is my inner spirit, and it always helps me and is there for me no matter what. And most important, it listens to me. Recently I have been on the path of imagination. Many urge me to take the path of logic and not the path of creative energy, but for me that path really doesn’t seem to work. I continually run into roadblocks, but I continue to try to knock them down. Has anyone ever done that—taken a path of logic when you should have taken the one of your creative thoughts? Have you come to the point where you no longer want to work with that thought? I have, and it is very hard to move away from it. It is hard to. Has anyone ever done that to o...

  Featured image: I Come to the Garden Alone “ Sweet sweet holy as the day begins ”  ~CEA

  Featured image: Kissed by the Sun watching the light move and change flooding the woods emerging day

  Featured image: Going for a Ride (3-D Sculpture) “Art is a personal creation by an individual. It brings something into existence that did not exist before, and it would not have existed except for the unique contributions of the individual who created it.” — Ayn Rand

  Featured image: Straight From the Heart I  cherish life I  cherish love I  come to bring peace to be and love to the world and to you love of life to this little part of the world then  I  will be happy I   come so you can reclaim your personal  connection with the earth and with your spirit I  come so that you can deepen your connection  to benefit yourself a nd to others. So you can  pass it on.

  Featured image: First Robin Have you seen your first robin yet? I saw mine a couple of weeks ago. So exciting, because for me that means that spring is just around the corner. But wait—what is this? Snow yet again. Oh dear, all those wonderful birds coming back. I know that they know how to stay warm when they get caught in a snowstorm, but humans, once they shed their winter coats, there is no turning back. At the same time I saw my first robin, I saw a human walking into the grocery store in shorts and flip-flops. There was no way he was going back to a winter coat. No way. And he wasn’t the only one. Gosh, he has to be cold—and he does not have whatever those birds have to keep them warm. Silly people. I had my hat on, boots, lined pants, a sweater, and a winter coat, and I was still cold. Happy spring.

  I’m honored to share that my work, Wolf—Don’t Fence Me In , has been accepted into Collage Artists of America’s Freedom Reframed exhibition . I’m deeply grateful to juror Shannon Currie-Holmes and to Collage Artists of America for including this piece in a show that centers on freedom, perspective, and the many ways we reframe our experiences. For as long as I can remember, my work has circled around the real, the imagined, and freedom , so it feels especially meaningful to have this piece included in an exhibition built around those ideas. Wolf—Don’t Fence Me In speaks to something I return to again and again in my work—the longing for freedom, the untamed spirit, and the quiet strength of what refuses to be contained. Nature has always been my greatest teacher, and the wolf, like the bird, carries a presence that is both symbolic and deeply felt. It reminds us of instinct, endurance, and the wild inner life that remains intact despite the fences we encounter. The exhibitio...

  Featured image: Intersections I Continuing Monday’s question about imitation and originality, I’ve realized that it’s difficult to talk about origins. Instead, I think about creation. I create from what already exists—from tangible things around me. I don’t invent from nothing. The challenge, then, is not the object itself, but how I use it: how I arrange it, combine it, and mark it with my own ideas. That is where originality lives. Some works merely imitate. They copy. What we are really searching for is the idea. As I begin new work, I feel this tension strongly. I look at where art is going and where I want to go, and I return to one simple desire: I want my work to be free. If it imitates, it isn’t free. If my mark imitates, it isn’t free. I will feel it. I will know. Be ready for the new work. Look for it.

  Featured image: Intersections II How does an artist find inspiration?   Do ideas simply appear in an aha moment? For me, those moments are rare. Most of my inspiration comes from looking—really looking, really seeing. We miss more than we realize. Have you ever walked the same path twice and noticed something new the second time? Or looked at someone and questioned whether their eyes were blue or green? We often see things without fully realizing that we’ve seen them. This way of seeing shapes my work. People frequently ask about the black-and-white bars that appear throughout it. There isn’t a simple answer. They come from my history—from an exhibition I once guided as a museum docent, featuring objects from an African tribe adorned entirely in black-and-white patterns. After seeing that work, I found myself drawn to those patterns as well. Was I copying them? That question comes up often in art, especially around copyright. I recently read about a photographer wrestling wi...

  Featured image: Rotating Earth “Touch the earth and plant your heart into what comforts you.”   CEA

  Featured image: Charting Pathways Commit to the less  trodden path infuse yourself  with uncertainty Exist beyond your  perceptions  and  limits  because there are no limits and there is no  lack Why??????  it is imagined  created Exist beyond  perceptions  and  limits exist beyond the  well-worn  path Commit to the less  trodden path explore  renew  yourself

Featured image: Travelers II measuring imagine the artist, she  wondering, wonder  wandering traveling along fields of wonderful rivers of tears skies of silver mountains of dreams the artist, she measuring imagine creates the journey measuring imagine

  Featured image: Rainbows in My Studio As I sit, I can feel stillness and quietness surround me. The sun appears above the garage roof, and when I look back again to my blank white page, I see rainbows dancing across it. Such a small thing, such a beautiful thing. Such a precious gift, reminding me of the divine and the glorious wonder of simply being in the sun this morning with a cup of coffee, blue sky, and rainbows. I take a deep breath and begin the day.

  Featured image: Sunrise In The Morning At The Lake First sip of coffee, and I look out at the morning beginning. The sun has moved and is rising now at the other end of the garage roof. Days are longer now—yea. Mornings come sooner. The first rocks are showing in the rock flower garden. Those smaller birds are returning that left during the really cold spell we had. Pretty soon flocks of finches will return, and the feeders will quickly empty, and I will have to fill them more often. So many things to look forward to. The sun is the best part, though—especially when it hides behind the Queenie tree and its glorious rays peek through its branches.

  Featured image: Along the Edge III Lately I have been weaving. Weavings of color symbolize a creative flow of life. The edges of the woods … well … well … they are like a fence, and I find a need to move beyond the edge into the center. The center … for the center invites discovery, and yes, protection and hiding places.

  Featured image:  Sacred Place - Cairn Gracefully do not resist change flow gracefully with it  welcome it within  it offers possibility, growth development of authentic self the way to create self the very sacred self be patient

Featured image: Sweet Blooms A stream of endless Moments Unique Energies Fills us with the Sacred flow That grounds Us ………fully In the here And now to our Present moment Of the   ….divine within ….and of simply Being….. living