Pink living

OK, so I can't get pink out of my system, my pink week (month?) continues! This is all from the same house in London, I am swooning over the dreamy touches. That neon mixed in with the plants, all of the wood and stone detailing, and that light!
I wish we were having more light here in Brooklyn but I can't complain as these days of rain give me an excuse to work away in the studio.
Touches of pink are working their way into all three paintings that I have been in process this week. I have been thinking about how to share more of my working process here...more of that to come next week...
as I have a feeling that the next few days will be fully occupied with Halloween fun! Pink princess costumes anyone?!

{all images via shoot factory}

Conquest

Huge thanks to Joline over at her blog Black Mustard for including my painting Conquest as one of her Top 12 Art Prints and Paintings on Etsy! I am absolutely transfixed by her other choices, I love how they all have to do with tendrils of plants and hair...growing things. There is something about the piece directly bellow Conquest, the bearded man becoming a butterfly, that is drawing me in. I'm headed to go check out all of these artist's Etsy shops right now.

I'm starting to feel that perhaps everyone one on my list will be getting art this Christmas.

Papernstitch

Borealis

Starting today I am a featured artist over at Papernstitch, if you have not visited before do pop on over and have a look. It is such a well curated treasure trove of talent, I'm so happy to be a part of it.

To celebrate I am adding this new painting to my Etsy shop this morning. My favorite things about this painting are the atmosphere and those wasps dancing around the pink orb...I think they are onto something.

pink

Lately, I've been loving pink.

Can you tell?

glow

Oh the glow of the candles on our nighttime visit to the Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze , it was magical! We marveled at the installations, it's hard to believe that they are all done with hand carved pumpkins.
A few of my favorites were....

a bee hive with bees buzzing all around...

a field of sunflowers...

a huge ship sailing on an ocean with fish swimming beneath...

in a coral reef.

We were so proud of our friend Mike, the creator of the whole festival. His story is so inspiring. He is an artist, a printmaker, struggling for years to figure out how to balance his creative life and still support his family. He began carving pumpkins the way he carved his intricate wood-block prints and five years ago he thought up this jack o' lantern festival. The historical estate that he works for thought that it might be a good money maker, and it just took off. Now it is a huge event attended by over 100,000 people, and the biggest money maker of the year for his employer (who as you can imagine, loves Mike).
On our drive home I kept thinking about how Mike is an example of someone staying true to himself and still being able to carve out a niche that perfectly fits his skill. He built it, and they came! I think that we all need to hear about more stories like his.

an invitation

After enlightenment, the laundry.
~Zen proverb

This past week has felt a lot like this wise quote to me. The highs of enlightenment tempered by the mundane of doing laundry and keeping house. It seemed that each time I was close, oh so close, to have a good chunk of productive studio time, then I'd see a pile of clothes that needed folding, a dishwasher that needed to be emptied, toys to be picked up...you get the idea.
This has been one of the struggles that I have faced ever since I moved my studio into our home. It is so lovely to be able to run upstairs and jump into painting at a moments notice, but too often those moments are infringed upon by all of the obligations that call to me in my living space.
I have also been struggling to balance the business side of my art with the creative side, I know that all of us struggle with that. It is so exciting to have my hand in multiple pots, but then a few days this week were spent running around from a studio visit with an interested buyer, to replenishing the prints that had sold at Swallow (the gallery that carries my work here in Brooklyn), to sending prints for Etsy orders. I am not complaining about this abundance of opportunities to get my art out to the public, I only wish that my ability to successfully balance this part with my creative life would catch-up!
I was so inspired by this post over at Studio Enrouge yesterday. I felt a call to respond to Karla's ideas about this blogging world as an extended group studio space. I loved how she compared it to grad school, since I had a similar experience when I was at Parson's for my MFA. The studios there were like a rat maze of separate spaces, all opening upon a large common area where we would convene to talk and critique each other's work. I can't tell you how many times I'd walk into that space frustrated with a piece and walk back to my studio with a new direction or a fresh perspective.
Now when I have a creative block I go to your blogs, I visit your Etsy shops and websites, these are places that inspire me deeply and just like Karla says in her post....I would love to know more about process and working style of each artist that I know online. What a way to think of this community!
And so with that I'd like to extend an invitation to you, please, come into my studio. It's not very big anymore, but it's just the right size for what I'm working on these days. Don't be shy about sharing your mind. All ideas are welcome. All ideas are appreciated.
Come in.

the great blaze

Tomorrow evening, with much excitement, we will be attending the Great Jack O' Lantern Blaze, a fantastic event in which Van Cortland Manor, an old farm in Croton, NY, is transformed with over 4000 hand carved pumpkins that are all lit up at dusk.
The creator and creative director of the blaze is one of Frank's oldest childhood friends, Michael Natiello, who has received much acclaim for the blaze and has developed quite a rapport with Martha Stewart after being featured on her show for 2 years as an expert pumpkin carver. Martha even invited him over to her private Halloween party on her estate...but that's another story.
In previous years we have had a special daytime behind the scenes tour as Van Cortland Manor gets ready for the blaze. This year, since the kids are a little older, will be our first year visiting the blaze after dark. I can't wait to see the dramatic effect of thousands of pumpkins glowing in the twilight, and I am just looking for an excuse to go for hot chocolate after wards. Pumpkins and sugar and magical evenings out in the woods, oh my!

flutters

I am headed to the studio this morning to try and capture the little flutters of inspiration that I feel soaring around inside after our vibrant weekend. Talking with so many people recently in person about their response to my work, I am energized with ideas and directions...definitely ready to make some new work.
Do you know that flutter? It is gentle but persistent, a bit thrilling because I never quite know where it will take me. If all goes well, and I am able to grab onto it's wings, I'll be up in my studio painting my heart out.
Thanks so much to Lori for talking about my art yesterday on her inspiring blog Happiness Through Art!

weekend color

Our weekend was full of life and fun, color and very little rest. We finished off our birthday celebration week with a Rainforest Adventure birthday party (complete with the snake cake that I stayed up into the night perfecting). Then the Brooklyn Gowanus Artists Open Studio tour at which Frank and I sold an amazing amount of prints and paintings (yeah!). Then to top it off we received some joyous news about a baby on the way for my dear brother and his wife. We are feeling tired and absolutely blessed!

open studios

Gowanus rooftops (winter), Francis Sills

This weekend Frank and I will be participating in the Gowanus Artists Open Studio Tour (AGAST), a two day open studio event with about 150 participating artists opening their studios in many converted warehouse buildings throughout the Gowanus area of Brooklyn. We'll be there on Saturday and Sunday, the 17th and 18th, from 1 to 6pm, showing our paintings and selling prints of our work.
This will be the 7th year that we have been involved with this event and it is such fun. It really feels like a huge art party as you walk from studio to studio, each with it's own mood that the art creates in the space, and wine and food flowing in each room. The energy is really exciting and everyone wants to talk about their art and meet people. We have enjoyed taking our kids on the tour, I love for them to be able to run around and see all of the different kinds of art...and they bring their electric kid energy , snacking in each room, playing ball in the long hallways and always making people smile.
If you are in New York come on by!
The painting above is one of Frank's that he'll be showing. Our studio building is towards the back of the painting, right next to the tall metal sign.

five

Five
Sacred season of frog pond,
humming and mommy time
appreciates dandelions threefold
with fistfuls of I-love-you bouquets,
proud salads of tender, hand-picked greens
(despite their bitterness)
and seed fairies blown by the wind.
He digs, snuggles, makes books
(humming all the while),
relentlessly searches for lilacs
to grace the kitchen table.

Budding scientist employs sticks, nets,
stones, and containers as tools
of observation and exploration;
young monk sits straight, cultivating
meditative awareness of an anthill.
He plants peach pits,
stops to smell flowers,
cares for salamanders, frogs, and insects
yet is fearful of bullfrogs and snakes
(who have no place in this pond)

Five dwells in the realm
of imagination and possibility
bonds with the living, breathing world.
He creates fairy houses,
constructs the perfect train track,
names the pair of robins who
frequent our yard,
always enjoys a campfire.

Five is precious like a late autumn day
sunny and warm with clear blue sky
when a new season beckons.
Though winter silences the voices
of crickets, birds, and frogs,
I beg Six
and schoolteachers
to spare the sweet songs
he hums through out the day.

He says, "But I'll always
be like I am, when I'm six and seven
and eight and nine and ten...
and twenty eight and- what comes
after twenty eight?"
Gratefully, I smile
as Five continues counting.

~Susan Meyer; printed in Mothering magazine March/April 2004

Happy Birthday my dear sweet imaginative beautiful, five year old, Jasper!

birthday baking

Birthday week continues here, last night the kids and I baked fresh apple cake, using an old family recipe. This cake looks very unassuming but really it is heaven in the mouth, melty and gooey and appley. Often I will make this for adults at a kid's party or as a dessert for a pot-luck. People always complement it. It is very easy and a good cake to have in your rotation:

Fresh Apple Cake
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup veg. or canola oil
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
3 cups thinly sliced fresh apples (I like to leave the peel on for flavor, so use organic)
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Beat eggs; add sugar, oil, vanilla, cinnamon, soda and salt. Add flour and stir. Add apples and stir. Put into greased and floured 9 x 13 inch pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes

Jasper took the cake to share with his class at Waldorf Playgroup today (even though his birthday is actually tomorrow) where they had a special ceremony to celebrate his birthday. The Waldorf birthday ceremony is so touching, telling the story of the child's soul coming down from heaven and choosing the family that it is born to, then highlights are included from each year of the child's life (I wrote the whole selection of highlights with tears in my eyes).

The group's nature table is so cute I had to include a couple of images. The children bring in little natural treasures and finds to add to the table. I love the moss roofs and feather chimney below!

expecting

"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get~ only with what you are expecting to give~ which is everything."
~Katherine Hepburn

Here I am five years ago last week, expecting to give birth any day. We were full-on renovating our house and this sun filled spot by the kitchen window was one of the only peaceful places to catch a breath. I put on my favorite painting smock and asked Frank to snap a few pictures of me in the sunlight. We finally got to meet Jasper a few days later.
I like to celebrate my children's birthdays in a big way. Around here we talk about their "birthday week", not just a day! With every birthday that they have I feel like I am celebrating my own right of passage into mother hood, so I like to give that ample time to sink into my heart in it's own way.
This evening I will make my grandmother's fresh apple cake for him to share at his playgroup tomorrow. These traditions have taken on so much more meaning and intent to me as a parent. I try to be intentional about creating rituals that will connect my children to their family history, while also helping them to feel my love in warm tangible ways...like baking something homemade in their honor, greeting them with a warm hug and kiss when they come downstairs to start their day, reading good stories to them every night even if I am too tired...there are a thousand ways in which I have given myself to them over and over, often in ways that I could never have expected, and through that I really have gained everything.

waves in the sky

The clouds looked like breaking waves yesterday. If you look closely you can see a faint rainbow in some of the pictures. We lay on the grass and watched for a while. Take some time where you are to lie in the grass and watch the sky, I highly recommend it.