sports injury

i'm reduced to all lower case after breaking my wrist while ice skating on christmas eve. 2 things to be grateful for: it's my left wrist, so i can still draw, and it really is a "sports injury", which is way cooler than just falling down the stairs. what an enormous treat it was to come into the kitchen christmas morning and find zoe and nicky making breakfast! wearing antlers! husband jim made the entire christmas dinner (with a little direction from me on the veggies) and i realized how ... superflous i am. in a good way. now that i know how resourceful and capable and generous my dear little nuclear family is, i happily relinquish the key to the holiday cabinet.

isn't the best christmas gift always the intangible, the sublime, the epiphany?

Gypsy waiting

This is our dog, Gypsy, waiting impatiently for the light to change, all a-quiver and alert with the usual one ear up one ear down. Waiting is really hard when you have ideas and the energy to follow them-- and have to wait because of all the other stuff on list and calendar. My solution is to always have a painting on the easel and an image on the mac- something in progress that's all mine. A few minutes thinking about nothing except "does this acid yellow work with this periwinkle blue?" puts a smile on my face. Better than chocolate.

Bird Hair Day

What a week. I was invited to appear on our local Fox News Rising tv show. This was really nice publicity for my new book, THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS IN NORTH CAROLINA, and for the book signing event at Barnes & Noble Morrison last Saturday. I was a little distracted, wondering if I should rush out and get a haircut, but decided that even if it was a "bad hair day", viewers would barely have their sleepy eyes open at that hour and wouldn't notice.

The Restless Chair

She is waiting. Waiting in a green chair. Waiting for what? Is the book not interesting? Is someone late? Is the light too bright, too cold? I don't know. But I do like the black shape against the green shape against the red background.

India

Most of this month I'm working on new portfolio pieces, taking advantage of some good creative energy that came my way via my August Skirt! Magazine cover. It's a virtuous cycle: you create something, it gets a bit of notice, which gives you more ideas, from which you create something new, and on it goes. This week, India is on my mind- all the rich color and pattern. Since I can't go right now, I'm arm chair traveling, looking at photos from those who have traveled there. Have you ever noticed how vibrant and varied the colors are, in clothing and objects, in some of the hardest places to live? I think it's a basic human drive to make something beautiful out of whatever is at hand. Color nourishes the soul.

The bio-illogical clock tick tocks loudly! Strong men turn and flee at the dreaded sound!

New images around the theme of "family noise". More on the way....

Bliss

This is how I would always like to feel: calm, centered, focused, blissfully detached from all the noise and distraction in life. Just breathing in and breathing out. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

My new book!

It didn't take long for something else to happen- a big box full of my new book arrived this week! This is the eleventh children's book I've illustrated, and the FIRST I've authored, so yes, it's something to "chirp" about! After researching all the terrific places cousins Abby and Mike could go over Christmas vacation here in my home state, I feel like a NC tour guide. This book will be out in bookstores in early October. Book signings coming up- Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Nice Shoes

This seems as good a reason as any to begin my little "hey, world, it's me, doing some stuff here" blog. Last week I discovered that I was on the cover of Skirt Magazine. This is a painting from awhile ago, which they found on the Laughing Stock website. I was, of course, delighted, and I can definitely see how a great skirt calls for some "nice shoes"!

More another time, when something else happens to me.