One of the problems that exacerbated my naïveté was my dad’s panicky behavior around discussing money. As soon as the very word slipped past any of our lips, it was hammered into oblivion: “We don’t talk about money! It’s nobody’s business!” So, we just zipped our lips. And our minds. After I had walked the […]
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Tag: artist
THINK, FEEL, TAKE ACTION, ASSESS, REPEAT
Despite feeling so insulted and so enraged, and so helpless to do anything about what had happened, I also knew I had to, could, and absolutely would, change How Things Were. After I got home from my sailing-across-the-Pacific journey, I spent a good amount of time cogitating about what I wanted next in my life. […]
TALK TALK TALK TALK TALK
I’m not one to fill the space with a lot of talk or jabber — I’m really happy just sitting with someone in a companionable silence — there is something sublime and sweet about just BEing with someone you love. I have a dear friend here who is the most amazing talker.
LEARNING to READ the ENERGY
There was one point where I felt funny, and I looked over to see his face flash this weird face-video of emotions. I couldn’t read it, it went so fast. But I felt alarmed…. Right after George W. Bush the very junior got elected, I left the USA. Bush’s idiocy during and after the event […]
VIOLATED. AGAIN.
I was astonished — I didn’t remember ‘screaming bloody murder’! I said so, and he laughed and said, “Yep, you sure was, and boy was it loud, yeah man!” Huh. The second time I was raped was a far cry from the first. Looking back, I count what happened to me that day as a […]
ELIGHTABETH, So Serioth
Granny made it very clear that she was disowning me because she thought I was a ‘sex maniac.’ Those were her exact words, conveyed with a contorted look of appropriate horror by my father. When I was a little kid, my dad’s mother would come stay with us. Granny. The one whose middle name, Treat, […]
HOW MY DOG FOUND ME AN UNEXPECTED FRIEND
…his voice was deep, gravelly. For some odd reason, I felt like I could totally trust him, so I told him I was just back in town, 54, no place to live, sleeping in my car, yadda yadda. Him nodding, listening, focused, kind. September of 1999 was stifling hot. I had just returned to Santa […]
BEING TRUSTED BY SMALL CRITTERS
When I drew this, I was focusing on the white part so much that it wasn’t until later that I saw the funny blue face. I particularly like this one because it’s so silly (Silly really ought to be my middle name), and so obvious … but not. I bet if I hadn’t said anything, […]
HOW BURT BECAME MY VERY BEST FRIEND
Burt is the kind of friend everyone should have. He holds little babies as if they were the gods’ own precious lights; plays with the toddlers; treats little girls and boys to merry-go-rounds, lots of colorfully illustrated books, pencils, and art supplies; Tonka trucks, small-hand size tools and paints, encyclopedias, roller skates and skis; and […]
WHERE DO THESE IMAGES COME FROM, ANYWAY?
I was surprised by this series of black, blue and white drawings. I’d been working on a whole nother series, and suddenly, these popped into my brain and demanded release. I can’t help it. I just keep seeing all these new beings, and have to draw them, before the inner clamor drives me batty.
THE FIRST TIME I WAS VIOLATED
I went home that day all stirred up inside. I had no idea it was wrong of him to touch me. I had no idea it was what we’d call grooming, now. I just knew…. I was 13 years old the first time I was raped. Not to worry, this will not be a rant […]
PUBLISHED! INSIDE SECRETS: Stories I’ve N
I’m very pleased to say that my latest INSIDE SECRETS book, Volume VII, is now out and on amazon! All about my crazy trip to Italy to learn how to carve marble. You can get it in print here: https://amzn.to/41RZgk1 Along with my tales of adventures, woes, and odd situations, I have included 70+ images, […]
BITTEN BY A SPIDER. OR NOT.
Instead of coming to the surface and breaking out, the itchy-burny-hurty toxins spread out into the rest of my instep and into my head…. A month ago, I was bitten by a spider. Or something. I don’t know, because I never even saw the thing – I was sleeping. It got me seven times – […]
MY BODY KNEW WHAT TO DO, EVEN WHEN I DIDN...
The neighborhood women were complaining that I was ‘out flaunting’ myself, and their men were spying on me all day! After the big hurricane of ’82, my kids and I decided to move to a bigger place down the road in Kekaha, a wisp of a town on Kauai, in Hawaii. Most of the folks […]
DON’T LET LIFE BLOCK YOU - EVEN HURRICA
On a dark mid-November day in 1982, the boisterous, heavy-breathing Hurricane Iwa* swept in and wreaked havoc upon the island of Kauai, in Hawaii. (*pronounced EE-vah) I was a studio potter and stone caver. My kids and I lived in one of the plantation houses in the tiny, sugar-plantation town of Kekaha, way out on […]
The POWER of A PINCH and A TWIST
On a sunny late afternoon in NYC, I was on my way home from art school. Exhausted. We’d had a full day at the easel, standing on concrete floors, the instructors particularly nasty all day. As if our not knowing what they were talking about was our fault, somehow, and they were taking it out […]
THE REAL POWER
Last night, I happened upon a new show on Amazon prime called The Power. In it, young girls are discovering they have a new, odd sensation in their bodies — little courses of electricity that travel down their arms and make zippy jumping lines of lightning, that jump finger tip to finger tip. Sparks ignite upon anger […]
ROSIE PEARL
When I was in my twenties, I lived with my then-hubby and our two small boys, way out in the country in northern California. One day as we were driving home from a trip to Eureka selling our pots, I spotted a really sad looking horse in a pasture by the side of the road. […]
SUCH A BAD DRIVER!
After I left Italy, I went back to Hawaii, living there for about a year. More on that later. I then moved near San Francisco for a few months, until my friend Melissa invited me to come to New Mexico, to stay with her and help her renovate her house. So I packed up everything […]
STONE CARVER, Part 6
Our first day! On a hot day in June, 1989, our carving group, comprised of five students all from the US, stood poised before the hunks of stone we’d selected, waiting for us on our sturdy, well-worn, waist-high carving tables. They had been set up for us in a well-shaded summer courtyard outside of a […]
STONE CARVER, Part V
Just by looking at people’s feet, I could always pretty much dependably tell who was American and who was European (or other nationality) before I even met them. Whereas we bumpkin Yanks almost always wore some brand of tennis shoes, flip-flops, or sneakers, Europeans mostly wore fine leather shoes or leather sandals (with socks!). But […]
STONE CARVER, Part IV
Upon buying my tickets to go carve marble in Italy, I also bought a language system called Sybervision so I could study Italian. It was the easiest language system I’ve ever used. By the time I landed in Rome, I could ask where’s the city center, what street is my hotel on, where to eat, […]
STONE CARVER, Part III
I loved hanging out with the master carvers. They were there from before-god-gets-up early until 5pm, when they promptly took off their newspaper hats and scuttled home. They were incredibly skilled, and so fast! They spent most of their time carving replicas of famous works, like the David, and on enormous commissioned pieces and public […]
STONE CARVER, Part II
The Quarry In 1989, I was thrilled to be invited to go carve marble in a weeks-long workshop in Lucca, Italy, under the instruction of a bona fide marble-carving maestro, Professore Roberto Bertola. I was excited because up until that point, I had only carved the softer stones like soapstone and softer varieties of alabaster. […]
STONE CARVER, Part I
I’m a self-taught stone carver. I had been a studio potter for 15 years when, in late 1981, my car was struck right behind my driver seat by a guy running a red light through an intersection as I attempted to cross. My car did a 180 into a parked car, which slammed into my […]
GIVE IT UP!
Since my parents took me sailing almost before I could walk, being able to sail is like being able to breathe. It’s more than second nature — maybe more like a second set of senses. I can tell right away if someone is a sailor — there’s just something about them — the way they […]
MAKE ART, NOT WORRY!
I was stunned when the first lockdown was announced. Like most, my first thought was, “I can’t go OUT?” But then I realized – I hardly go out anyway! I’m an old fart, so I don’t walk well, and I’m deaf as a post with failing hearing aids, so interactions are difficult to start with. […]
SHE’S NOT THERE!
You’re writing a book! That’s great! You’re going to help people, entertain them, introduce them to something new and/or innovative, or even change the world with your ideas. Let’s say you’re a therapist or health or emotions specialist, and you want to help a person get past unwanted memories of trauma. You’ve gone to school, […]
THE ANCIENTS
When T and I moved into the little one-BR house on Maui near the beach, no one thought to mention it had been built over an ancient Hawaiian burial ground. It had been covered up in the late 1800s to make room for a white-man’s housing development, rows of little plantation houses for the cane-field […]
UNDER THE ORDERLY NIGHT SKIES
We finally got to Huntington Beach, and stayed with T’s mom for a couple weeks. After our snowy misery back east, the good weather seemed just this side of paradise. T got to bliss out surfing every day, while I filled drawing pads and played in the sand. But soon it was obvious we were […]