New Light

New Light, acrylic and mixed media on canvas

I've been busy working on a whole bunch of new originals in the studio. I just finished this one and have added her to my shop, here. 

The glow of early autumn and the delicate nuances of new light were the inspiration for this whimsical mixed media painting. 

The gentle deer bends to nibble on a blade of grass, an unguarded moment, the soft beating of butterfly wings rustle the air.

I have been really enjoying drawing with ink on a few of the paintings in progress and I fell in love with this little doe. The painting just felt like it needed the simplicity of the relationship between the butterflies and the deer, when I work on a painting this simple I feel an internal quiet as well. My soul calms, my spirit rests....and that enters into the painting.
Whisper, or you might startle her.

Sending you calm. Sending you rest.

Walking New York City

Morning light on the Empire State Building

Autumn is my favorite season in New York, often we will have days of beautiful, bright cloudless and sunny weather. I think its a perfect time to talk about some of my favorite things to do it New York.

Perhaps my very favorite thing about living in New York City is the walking. The city is so colorful and the best way to experience it is on foot. I love that I can walk out of my house and walk for blocks that are full of life, people are out, shops are open, I can get my groceries, walk to the park, hop on the subway, and it is all just outside my door.

There have been seasons in my life here in NYC during which I walked all the time. Then, I loved the city for its vastness, the "big" all day walks that I could take. Seven years ago, at this same time of year, I was grieving a miscarriage and the only thing that really soothed me was walking. So, each day I would get up and head out into the city with only a vague plan for the day, something like, "Walk the whole west side of Manhattan.", or , "Walk from the Village to Central Park.", and then I would just see where the day would take me.

My walks have become shorter, and are not often solitary these days, but the other day I had the treat of heading out alone into Manhattan for one of my favorite shorter walks. I took the subway to the corner of 6th Avenue and 34th Street, next to the Empire State Building. Visited one of my favorite shops there, the flagship location of the Swedish chain H&M. Then walked one block over to 5th Avenue and turned downtown, the walk down 5th Avenue is pure New York, heading right past the picturesque Flatiron Building...

Continuing down 5th Avenue, with the beautiful old architecture of the city all around.

Then stopping at my favorite cafe for lunch, The City Bakery. It is on 18th Street, just off of 5th Avenue, and the food is truly amazing, so fresh and flavorful.

You serve your self buffet style, so you get to try a variety of tasty options. My plate that day included baked tofu with Miso sauce, Tuscan Kale, Moroccan Cucumber salad, baked pear, along with their not-to-be missed Pretzel Croissant.

This time I was there alone, but it is also one of my favorite places to go on a "date" with my kids. Across from The City Bakery, on 18th Street, are two other wonderful places to take kids. Books of Wonder and right next door the Cupcake Cafe.
Both are favorites for a family outing.

With these stops in mind a yummy day is practically guaranteed!

Today I'm in the studio, getting ready for the annual Gowanus Artists Open Studio Tour that Frank and I will be participating in this coming Saturday.

We will be showing new paintings, and selling prints of our work in the warehouse studio space that we used to share. All of the details, including our studio address is here.

A little eye candy for you this morning too, my work was just included in this pretty Etsy treasury...

Bloom Where You Are Planted.

xo

Sincerity

I think the same goes for Art! What do you think?

I say, let's all project as much Life and Joy as possible!

Happy Tuesday!

xo

A small ceremony

Lighting a candle at our evening meal is a tradition that we have embraced recently as a way of taking notice and marking the rhythm of our day. This is a tradition that I've tried to start before, but now the kids have taken the lead and they insist on having a small ceremony for lighting the candle and then turning off all of the lights in the kitchen before we say our blessing and while we eat. 

I've come to believe that this is probably one of the most magical ways to enjoy the bounty of the early autumn harvest!

The calm and quiet that comes over us all with the candle light is another gift. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite parts of the day.
(I am also completely obsessed with the bread salad in the foreground of the first picture, yum!)
I hope that you are finding ways to celebrate this beautiful first weekend of autumn.
xo

Feeling, Holding, Waiting

Feeling, Holding, Waiting; acrylic on canvas

Yesterday was a very productive studio day for me, and I was able to put the finishing touches on a couple of paintings, including this little one that I worked on through out the summer, but it just did not feel resolved until yesterday. The details finally came together, and this post really is about details.

Thank you so much friends for your response to my interview over at Dana's blog. I see that the question,"How do you get your creative work done when you are responsible for a home and for kids?", deeply resonates with so many of us, and just hearing how we all make it work in our own way is like getting a resounding "Yes" from the universe! Yes, it is possible, look we are doing it and see all of the goodness that is spreading through our making time for the work that we need to make!

In my thinking and journaling about this topic there is something else that I only really touched on in the interview but I think that it needs more attention.
One of my biggest hurdles to getting my work done
 is that it is easier for me to see the interruptions and the care-giving as obstacles, harder for me to remember that these "obstacles" are my life. But sometimes, when my mind and heart have the right focus I see that the interruptions ARE what drives me.
I remember that these things that are happening around me are the art, this is what I am painting about, those bath times, playground times, meal times, story times...they are all adding up to relationships that are so full and rich that they teach me more about love and joy than I could ever learn another way. They are the meat of my life. The heart of everything lies right there, right now.
What if our creative life and our practical life aren't separate?

I am trying not to separate my art and my life, and the integration is hard, and the rewards are boundless.
I just know that I can not put off making my art until everything is perfect, when there are no interruptions, it is too easy to put it off and think that, "I'll get back to this at a better time."
There is no better time.
And so, I do the work to be present in the "now", to notice the details and develop a practice of mindfulness because it is the little things, swirling around me as I work, that hold immense inspiration.

A Catalog and an Interview

The Lovely Clusters fall catalog came out today, oh my goodness, it is full of loveliness! Such talented artists, such gorgeous details.
I'm so excited that my paintings are featured on both the Multicolored page and on the Purple page.

There is such a soft, feminine aesthetic to the catalog that I love, I'm so honored to be included!

I am also absolutely thrilled to share with you that I am featured over at the lovely Dana Barbieri's blog today as part of her Art Biz Mamas interview series in which she asks creative mamas to share their secrets for making their art, while also being responsible for a home and family.

This interview was so rewarding to do, as her questions led me down a mental path that I'm still working my way through in an introspective way. She really helped me to evaluate where I'm going with this online adventure, how being a mother has changed my work, and especially how far I've come, from being a new mama six years ago trying to make sense of my life with kids!
You can check out the interview here, and I'd love to hear what you think. Maybe we can start a dialogue about how others of you make your work while also managing your little ones and your home? Right now, I'm typing this as I am letting the stove heat up to make dinner....so there you go, it is all about doing things where they fit in for me! Enjoy!
xo

Everything is Beautiful

Everything is Beautiful, acrylic and pencil on canvas

Now that we are almost through the first full week, of our first school year, I can truly say that school is exhausting, for all of us! Just getting Jasper to Kindergarten in the mornings dressed and well fed is a whirlwind, but he loves his school so far and I feel blessed knowing that he is excited to be where he is right now.

With the new time that I am having in the studio I have finally been able to focus on the new season ahead. I have lots of exciting things in store, including a huge shop update that I am working on, plans for the holiday shop season (already!) and a fabulous interview that I just finished. I'll post more on that soon!
I also can't wait to try this, creating a font out of your own handwriting, how fun! I'm hoping to work that into some projects for the holiday season as I am teaching myself a little photoshop, really just in baby steps. Other things that I've been loving in the studio lately are this song (the whole album is great!) and this interview.

Frank and I are getting prints and paintings ready for the Gowanus Open Studio tour and, after doing a lot of research, we splurged on a new printer for our art prints! We are loving this new toy, Epson Stylus Photo R1900 Large Format Photo Printer (C11C698201). With the new quality in the prints that I am making, I am also planning to raise the prices in my shop. 

I'll be raising the prices right away but since I love all of you, my lovely blog readers, so much I'm creating a special code....you can still have the old price of $20 on prints by entering "Everything is Beautiful" at checkout. I'll refund the difference to your Paypal account, simple. This code will be good through the rest of September, so please feel free to take advantage of it until October 1st.

We had some wild fall weather yesterday evening as a tornado touched down in our neighborhood of Brooklyn, a very surprising and unusual weather event. We were indoors and watched it all out of our windows, it was something very surreal. There was no damage on our block, but in the surrounding area many trees were taken down from the roots up, crushing lots of cars and breaking shop windows and signs. I am humbled this morning by nature's power.

I'm adding prints of this painting Everything is Beautiful (one of my favorites, as I painted it for my boy on his 3rd birthday, almost 3 years ago!) to my shop for the first time today, right here.

The excitement of fall is truly in the air.

xo

For Like Ever

Frank and I are celebrating 8 amazing years of marriage today!
While it feels like we've already known each other forever, there is also a part of me that still can't believe that our beautiful wedding was 8 whole years ago. Time is so mysterious like that.

I originally saw this poster on the September 2006 cover of Domino magazine (one of my all time favorite magazines, I was so sad when it folded!) I immediately fell in love and have longed for it since then, but for years it was sold out everywhere. It has recently been reissued and I finally found it here, and bought it as an anniversary gift for my wonderful husband, who helped me frame it and hang it up in our bedroom where it has been making me happy for the past week!

Frank, I love you and I'm looking forward to being together for like ever.

Welcome to my new studio!

When we returned from our summer travels, about 10 days ago, our kids decided that they wanted to start sharing a bedroom. Jasper has had a small Ikea bunk bed for a while, but since we had three bedrooms (which is unusual for NYC) we had decided to give both Jasper and Carys their own rooms. Then, unprompted, Carys decided that she wanted to start sleeping on the top bunk in Jasper's room so we are just going with it...and they are so cute and excited about bunking together each night.

Sooooooo...... mama decided to jump at the chance to finally have her own studio room! I can hardly believe it but, welcome to my new studio space. I've just completed moving things into Carys's old room so please excuse the mess, the organizing has been slow going.

I've had so many studio spaces over my years in New York, some big, some small, some shared with a bunch of other artists, some for me alone, some in sketchy neighborhoods, in warehouses....oh so many. But I just love love love having my studio in our home, it feels so special, intimate and easy with reminders of the closeness of my family all around.
The only problem really (and it wasn't that much of a problem) was that since space is of the essence here in our house, my studio was crowded into a corner of our bedroom.

It's true, for the past couple of years I have made all of my paintings, and run my shop, out of our bedroom, and truly enjoyed it. That is not to say that it doesn't feel so good to have my own room again, oh yes it does! It feels like such a windfall because I just really didn't expect to have this space so soon.

The timing is so right as I have a few projects on my plate, including my next show at Swallow that I am preparing for in November, the Gowanus artists Open Studio Tour that Frank and I do every year over at the warehouse space that Frank and I used to share, and getting my shop ready for the holiday season (can it really be approaching already?!).
The air is feeling crisper, the days are getting shorter, and I am thrilled to be settling into this new space, trying it on, fluffing my feathers and making some work!

I've got a few paintings that were in the works before all of our August travels that I'm very excited to start sharing once I get myself organized, you can see a few of them floating around on the desk and walls in the above picture.
I definitely feel like I'm getting back into the grove.

Rearranging our shelves

The other day, after dropping Jasper off at Kindergarten for the first time, I came home and started rearranging our book shelves.
Seriously.
I took everything off of each shelf and then put the books back on in color order, sometimes rainbow, sometimes black to white, or blue to yellow, what ever worked for each shelf.

I was completely absorbed with the task, as Carys played beside me. It wasn't until Frank walked through the living room and jokingly said, "Uh oh, Mommy is color coding the books.", that I realized that maybe there was more to my behavior.
Truthfully, arranging the books by color was something that I have always wanted to do, after seeing it in magazines and admiring how it transforms and orders the whole look of the space. I had hoped to do it someday, but the time never seemed right for such a frivolous feeling project.

What I realize now, a few days later, is that I was also doing just what I needed to do that day....to organize my thoughts as well as the books, to keep my mind focused on the beauty of this transition for our boy (instead of the mama sadness in my heart). Our lives are being arranged around this new school schedule, so now the time feels right to rearrange other things as well...it is amazing how that happens. To me this is evidence of how things really do open up at just the right time.
Besides, who really couldn't use a little more beauty on their bookshelves?

The Statue of Liberty

In celebration of our boy's first day of Kindergarten we visited the Statue of Liberty yesterday, it was the first time for both Frank and the kids and I had not been out to see her for years, so spirits were high. The ride on the boat from the tip of downtown Manhattan, out to Liberty island was one of the most exciting parts of the journey.

During our everyday lives in Brooklyn we often see the statue from afar out in the NY harbor, we can see her from our super market, from the elevated train on the way into Manhattan, driving on a few of the hilly streets near our home and of course from the bridges. The kids are always excited to catch a glimpse of her, so they were thrilled to be able to finally see her up close.

They seemed surprised by her actual size, so impressive and grand when you are right there. I had made reservations far in advance for us to go inside the pedestal of the statue where they have a museum about the statue's history and actual size casts of her face and feet (fun for the little ones!).

We also had reservations to walk up to the base of the statue at the top of the pedestal, which was a long walk up for kids, equivalent to walking up about 6 or 7 stories in an apartment building, but they did really well. The observation deck was very small even though you could walk all the way around the statue with amazing views of New York all around. Magnificent!

I was pretty freaked out being up so high with just a wall and no guard rail with the kids. You can still walk up to the crown of the statue, which I remember doing as a child, but now there is an age limit on that and it requires a special reservation. The security for the whole statue is very high these days, we had to go through airport style security twice to get in.

One of my favorite things was a small detail that I noticed as we descended, the statue is made of Copper which has oxidized, giving her that amazing turquoise glow...and the copper must be eroding down the base as you can see it running down the edges of the huge stones of the pedestal, so beautiful...

It was good to have our feet back on the ground and the kids loved running around the huge grassy areas that are planted around the island, and of course the boat trip back to Manhattan was another highlight, well worth the trip with all of the late summer tourists.

The details

Since we returned from our trip, life has truly been lived in the details. There has been barely a moment to focus on all of the big thoughts rattling around in my head as we recover from a rough bout with jet lag and jump back into life at full speed.

So, I am taking it slow, trying to focus on one thing at a time.

We've stayed close to home, cleaning and organizing.

We've also spent time celebrating, both my beloved Frank's birthday and the ten year anniversary of the day that we met.

I gave him this dear little ceramic bird, with a special message tucked inside...

and baked him the perfect, yummy, birthday cake. The same cake that I baked last year (I feel a delicious tradition forming), this cake is really chocolate heaven...

We've also celebrated (and mourned a little) as our beautiful boy headed off for his first day of Kindergarten. I was so concerned with those details, making sure that he was ready, reassuring myself that he was excited, not scared. Accepting the sweet surrender that change brings is hard and uncomfortable, but I feel like I am getting better at the surrendering part, just releasing myself into it.

John Darien for Target

John Darien is a fabulous New York decoupage artist who has been making amazing pieces out of antique images for years. Recently, I loved this post over at One Lucky Day, reminding me that the new John Darien line for Target is being released on September 5th! Since that was yesterday, you can count on the fact that I am already planning which pieces I am going to stock up on at such super reasonable prices. I mean really, the trays above are only $12.99 each (can you tell I love the water lilies?), and most of the items are even cheaper than that! Here is another stunner that I have my eye on..

If you are not familiar with his work go right here now and have a little browse around, his website is so inspiring.
Happy Monday! xo

Driving around on the opposite side

I'm really going to miss England. This trip was long enough for us to really become used to being here, especially feeling so at home staying with my wonderful brother and his family. 

 I will especially miss the beauty of the drives. When we visit England I am never comfortable driving on the opposite side of the road (and car) so Frank is the driver and I am the permanent passenger on every road trip.

This gives me lots of time for looking out the window, enjoying the view, appreciating the countryside and of course taking lots of pictures.

I will miss the little towns...

 The vegetation...

Driving around a bend and encountering a 12th century church...

I will miss the country lanes,

and winding roads...

No matter how scary it is when suddenly another car appears coming towards you on one of the many one lane roads (I gasped every time!).

I will also miss the GPS, generously lent by my brother, without which we surely would not have found our way anywhere in England. Everyone uses them here, calling them "sat navs", and seriously with all of these lanes which are hundreds of years old winding every which way I can't imagine what went on here before the GPS.

Rarely have I been so thankful for technology!

I'll see you all on the other side, back in Brooklyn.

Happy Labor Day Weekend to those in the states!

xo