Creatively Thinking

  Featured image: The Mask I am incredibly honored that my piece, "The Mask," has been awarded an Honorable Mention at the esteemed Philadelphia Watercolor Society 2024 Member Exhibition. This recognition means so much to me as an artist and serves as a testament to the passion and dedication I pour into my work. Thank you to the Philadelphia Watercolor Society for this incredible honor.  

  Featured image: Caves Along the Shore - Lake Superior kayaking arms stretching finally I am free horizon and water meet still kayaking Lake  superior

  Featured image: Back Yard Birds Gosh where to begin?  I played around with this whole piece and everything in it. I think every part of an abstract or semi-abstract work is always experimental, as I rarely have much in mind when I start working. When I began this work last November, I started with a figure, washes, and colors.  I then stepped back and asked myself what the idea behind this work would be. I decided to make birds part of the composition, but how and where to place them became a major struggle.  I tried many ways, sizes, colors and shapes but always painted over them.  If you look closely at the work, you might glimpse the birds I painted over because they just weren’t right. It wasn’t until I put the red bird on the shoulder of the figure that I stopped struggling and felt comfortable with the marks and colors of the bird.  The rest didn’t come easily after that. I tried many birds flying around but that didn’t work for me. I finally settle...

  Featured image: Little Hummer Yea! First Hummer at the feeder today!

  Featured image: Yellow Finch III The finch's yellow  song  touches the  stillness. Masked by a grey sky    metamorphosis  of the sun happens.

  Featured image: A Cloud in the Sky Just a minute ago I looked up Toward the sky, puffy clouds Slowly meandering across the  Gray blue and white sky. I wonder I listen. Eyes closed, I travel Happily to a different place With blue white sky and  Puffy clouds. When I open My eyes, puffy clouds have Moved on to be shared with Another, Minutes spend  Enjoying the clouds.

  Featured image: Wonderful Flying Machine Is it too late to change? Am I working towards that dream I thought I was called to do? But what I am doing is not what I imagined or dreamed. I am wondering, is it too late to change direction?  It is hard, change is, I know.  But I do change – and I make myself vulnerable by putting my new work out there. I have the attitude that change is good, but hard, but imagination is fun and exciting. All the large competition pieces I have been working on this winter are different from other works I have done.  Change is scary. As I work, I think to myself is it worth even entering a competition with this one?  When artists change, they have no one to go to, to talk to about the new pieces. For me, if it gets into a competition, I say to myself well I guess it wasn’t that bad. The thing about being an artist is it's about being intuitive, and listening to what the creative activity wants me to do. It is really what makes a wor...