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, … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

The OTHER OTTER

I birthed my younger son at home. Labor had started at 10 pm, but I went to bed anyway, exhausted from canning tomatoes all day. I awoke with a bang at 3 am, though, and somehow, as daddy went to … Continue reading

SAM: Likes Shiny Things

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 stroke of incredible good fortune for myself, and out-of- the-blue evidence of amazing community solidarity … Continue reading

SYLVESTER: Hiss

Lately I’ve been really struggling with sleep imbalance. It’s so strange – I can sleep 2 or 3 hours, but then my legs get all jumpy and I have to get up. Then within an hour or three, my eyes … Continue reading

SELBY’S Favorite Game (Not Really)

Recently I watched one of those ‘cute’ animal videos where a seal was bouncing a ball around and playing catch with its trainer in one of those sea life shows. I wanted to relf. Seals belong OUTside. They are cute, … Continue reading

COMPUTER WOES

Have you ever felt like there was a mean mad genie inside your computer who just does not want you to get a single thing to work? I swear, there are days it would be better to go back to … Continue reading

DAWN WAVE

Sometimes, before the sun is up all the way, the wind skittles across the glassy-smooth surface of the ocean, and it looks like a pinky-blue streaked mirror. The swells come rolling in, incessant, constant, hypnotic. Every so often, the current … Continue reading

WING and WING

I grew up on a small harbor right off Long Island Sound. We used to go down to the little beach near our house and watch the 12-meter racing boats cruise into the harbor on their practice days. So exciting … Continue reading

JOURNEY

I think I have mentioned that, for 35 years, I carried in the back of my mind, continual, persistent, destructive thoughts of offing myself. Wondering, how can I do it – pills? A gun? A knife? Drive over a cliff? … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading