I think that, if you sliced open my skin and looked inside it with a Soul Microscope, I’d be a bright soft greeny aquamarine color. Like that soft green near the yellowy-green at the bottom, to the left of center. Color is what I live on. It makes my life rich, even during times when […]
ALL IS LIGHT
There have been times in my life when my entire system went on dizzy-mode. I’d have to stop whatever I was doing, or pull off the road, or stop a conversation I was in, in order to simply not fall down. After a few of them happened, I began to just close my eyes and […]
Dà Huā – BIG FLOWER
I had this idea that I was going to do a pastel of a stunning cactus plant I saw. I had it all drawn out and ready to go, and started applying the pastels…. And discovered that I had bitten off WAY more than I could chew! 16 flowers, 7 cacti bottoms… and the details […]
CURLY
For the last few days I have been a social cactus. I’ve been so irritable I felt like I could bite someone’s head off. Not sure why – seems like a lot of the tension from the last few years has released – but – there it is. So since I believe in transforming nasty […]
MY THOUGHTS OF PEACE FLY FAR BEYOND ME
Recently, I figured out a way to take thoughts of resistance and resentment and cook them up into new dishes of peace and calm. It’s not that hard. You kind of have to be a bit detached in order to do it. It’s like feeling a belly ache, and then watching yourself feel the belly […]
HE WAS ABOUT TO…
I was cruising on Facebook, when I saw that my friend, Bruce, who lives in South Africa, had posted 3 or 4 posts saying stuff like, “…Bruce Maxwell Cross …This is my journey thru an incredible life as I lay down my Cross and look forward to Heaven…….” And another post saying, “…Anxiety Depression and […]
IT’S NOT MY FAULT!
This is dedicated to any frustrated artist… I attended an intense marketing workshop today. It made me cry. It put me right smack dab up against the years of deep conditioning I have fought my entire life. I absolutely loved everything about it. Here’s why: I grew up in the 50s, where it was, “little […]
I WILL KEEP YOU SAFE ALWAYS
When my kids were little, they were friends with a pair of brothers whose mother was insanely over-protective. She used to drive me nuts. I can still hear her shrill shriek, “Don’t climb that wall, you’ll fall off! If you go up that tree, I’m not going to take you to the hospital when you […]
WASABI
It was 1966. I was 21. I was new to California culture, having been brought up back East. I had come west to stay with an aunt and uncle in San Francisco, after I divorced my first husband. I eventually landed in Santa Cruz. Those were the hippy days – lots of pot and acid, […]
RED SINGS the BLUES
In an argument with my son a few days before I left Hawaii to live in California at the end of 2018, he asked me if I had ever had myself checked for mental illness. I was so shaken by the question I had no cogent reply. Looking back on my life, however, I can […]
YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY…
How many times have we heard, “Laughter is the best medicine”? Lots! Right? Well, a neighbor who is constantly bugging me about this little thing or other started in on me today. I had been standing on my little door stoop, enjoying the sun, and wasn’t about to let him wreck my day. I thought […]
COMFORT? Or CANOODLING?
Which would you name it? At first I thought, “Comfort.” But then as I looked at it more, it seemed like “Canoodling” would be a better name. What do you think? I had originally intended it to be totally hot, sizzling, and erotic. But as I drew it out and added color, it became sweeter […]
A TRIPLE WHAMMY
I posted on Facebook a couple days ago that I hadn’t been feeling well. No worries – not The Big V Thing! I got triple-whammied by other completely stupid stuff! First, I must have eaten something off, because I started feeling weak and nauseated. I was about to go to bed and let it wear […]
BAAAAAAAAH!
Today I saw a shorty little video on FB by a gal who has a bunch of farm animals that bonded to her and follow her along like dogs – including turkeys, goats and sheep, and even a deer! Halfway through the video, one of the sheep – thick with a year’s worth of wool […]
MY NEW BOOK!
A few weeks ago, I was approached by a not-so-very-well-known company that prints books, art prints and other arty products. They wanted me to submit a book of images for them to print. The deal was they’d give me $150 off the printing price in exchange for a review. I’m thinking, “Huh? 150 bucks? Who […]
2-YEAR TRUCKABOUT
In the mid-80s, I had been living in Kailua, on Oahu, in Hawaii. I had a nice house, drove a Volvo station wagon, had a simple carving studio, enough to eat…but I was unhappy. And I couldn’t figure out why. So I sold everything I owned except for a few favorite things, sold my car, […]
THE EVOLUTION of A PASTEL PAINTING
I’ve been asked how I do these pastel paintings. I do them in three main stages. First comes the idea, sketched roughly in black ink on a little scrap of paper. Then, I prepare a bigger sheet of paper or art board with a special gesso primer that has marble dust in it, so it’s […]
RASCALLY REINDEER & BUDDIES
Art always makes me feel better. Like somehow, I’m Doing My Life Right. Maybe it’s because I go into a trancey kind of out-there in-there smooth, calm, non-thinking zone state while I’m creating art. Maybe it’s because when I see those bright colors something grabs me deep in my heart, and says ‘life can’t be […]
LEONARD LEOPARD
I’ve been talking about procrastination lately. Mainly because I’ve been doing it, myself. I know, bad me. I couldn’t figure out why until speaking with a friend today. I happened to just blurt out that after this relief money runs out, I’m worried that my life will fall flat, that I won’t be able to […]
REAL SELF-CARE
WHAT DO YOU PUT UP WITH? Last weekend, I got a call from a man I hadn’t heard from in 20+ years. At first I was glad to hear from him. But then – He didn’t ask if it was a good time to talk. He didn’t ask how I was or anything about my […]
RIVER WOLF
Sometimes I get caught by the Shoulds. As you probably know, besides being an avid sculptor and painter, I’ve also been a Peak Performance coach for many years. When covid hit, I put everything on the back burner and hibernated for 2 months. Then this little Voice in my mind popped up, saying, “You should […]
THREE SISTERS of JOY
Fish have always meant happiness to me. Maybe because I spent so much time sitting on the dock near my childhood house, feet swinging over the water, as I caught buckets of bluefish and flounder. Maybe it’s because they are so varied and graceful, and so beautiful. When I lived in Hawaii, seeing them flash […]
THREE ON A TREE
Someone asked me to do this one for her, as a gift for someone’s baby. The mom has three rambunctious kids, so I figured each one needed to have a bear. And of course they are going for the honey comb, right? What else do naughty bears do? (And Rabbit wonders how soon they will […]
SILLY TIGER
Silly Tiger says… “Those minty leaves look so refreshing! And my new pink hairdo feels so divine!” More silliness is required the longer we are in lockdown, yes? Here’s to silliness for your day. Original – pastels on 12″x12″ gessoed board Prints – available in 11″x11 on paper Contact me if you’d like one or […]
SAFE
Testimonials are so cool to get – check this one out for this little happy bears painting I did, “Safe,” for my friend, the terrific Florida scenes painter, Linda Blondheim. “I asked Angela to do a painting for my granddaughter’s nursery. She did a painting in pastels, and even happily made a small adjustment for […]
HONEY BEAR
Who doesn’t like honey! When Honey Bear went to the river today, he found part of a honey comb that had fallen from the Honey Tree! What a score! As the bees buzzed around him trying to get it back, he grabbed it and off he ran! Soon he slowed down and started snacking, not […]
MOON GODDESS
I keep getting these kind of allegorical images in my dreams. They look like they ought to be part of some huge mural somewhere. I like that they have these lines of energy running through them – I’ve never painted that before. I see the lines, but have never depicted them. If you look through […]
MIRROR, MIRROR…
I did a few sketches while I was on the phone with a friend a few days ago. They were all of silly gators having fun one way or another. I liked the idea of this one – “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who’s the prettiest gator of them all….” Yeah, I know – I’m […]
STRANGE PLANET
Recently, as we spoke on the phone, a non-artist friend asked me where I get my ideas from. I told him, from photos I’ve taken, from nature, from words I hear that give me a feeling and an image, from memories, from dreams – Then he asked, what would you see, first thing, if you […]
HAENA BEACH
I lived on the Hawaiian island of Kauai for several years, on the other side of the island from this lovely beach. We used to go there once in a while to picnic. It took us an hour to drive there, but was so worth going. I often wonder what it looks like now, as […]