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Another haiku — a wish to be transported to one of my favorite places (embedded in a collaged art piece)…  

Well, this past weekend, we were in a car accident with the Ghost, Jeff’s long-serving, amazing 4-runner. Hitting a patch of water on I-80 returning from Tahoe in the early hours of Sunday morning, the Ghost hydroplaned, then hit the guardrail in a spin, then continued its spin, hit again with the backside, then slid to a stop in the middle of the freeway. Thankfully, Jeff and I were okay, and walked away from the accident unscathed. The Ghost, however, was not so lucky. It was totalled, having given its front end for our safety. It was a wonderful, faithful car, and a treasured companion on many a road trip, tour, and late night or early morning adventures to Yosemite, Tahoe, and beyond. It will be missed. We love you, Ghost!

Well, I loved the creature theme so much, I’m back on it… 

Well, still writing haikus for the moment…

[  haiku  ]

The days, full enough?

Once my time has come and gone;

Vow now, use them well.

[  haiku  ] 

She has gone, but where;

My older, younger sister;

Into dark or light? 

[  haiku  ]

A new place, perhaps;

We’ll find, after this day’s done;  

Mystery, death solves.  

For some reason, drawing, or anything visual, does not seem to be happening with me on this subject. Tonight, to write seemed to fit… 

[ a haiku ]        

Cold, unfamiliar;

I am terrified of you;  

end that approaches.

Well, this is a little hard to explain, but we moved out of the (unsafe/bad feng-shui) house today, into my happy new apartment. When we originally moved into the house last year, we put “protective” umbrellas in each room. We meant it as kind of a blessing for safety and happiness there. Well, long story short, the house just didn’t work out the way we thought, and now we are very relieved to be moved out. So after the moving was done today, and all the furniture was out, the house stood empty, with just the little umbrellas left in each room. Each one was still stuck in the spot we had put it in a year ago. So we gathered them all up, put them in the fireplace, and had a little ceremony, to say goodbye to this house (and, honestly, good riddance). Burn, baby, burn! Bring on the change :)…     

Last year was a big year of loss, so I thought this would be a good theme to explore. Jeff, my partner in hangman, wanted you to know he solved the puzzle in two missed letters, and that I drew in the hangman after he won. Now that his name is cleared, here is my entry for today…   

Last year was a big year of loss, so I thought this would be a good theme to explore. Jeff, my partner in hangman, wants you to know he solved the puzzle in two missed letters, and that I drew the hangman after he already won. Now that his reputation is cleared… 

Drawn and painted for the boy creature I love.  Happy Valentines Day, all thing-a-dayers!!!

Inspired by yesterday’s bird beginnings, I worked on this animated crow (click to see animated version here: crow.swf ).Also, a bit I liked about crow as symbol: Crow is an omen of change. He lives in the void and has no sense of time, & thus, sees past, present & future simultaneously. Crow merges both light and dark, both inner and outer, & is a symbol of creation & spiritual strength. Crow is messenger calling to us about the creation & magic alive in the world and available to us.  

The plan is to animate this bird, but for the moment, he’s just sitting on his branch silently… 

waiting to be touched by the sun…

Whoo, long day. All I have is this frog…

A snow cat with my friend Katie. A break in our cross country skiing for some art… 

happy creatures large and small;rats, beasts and bunnies.  

Soooo… for the past year, I’ve been living in a house I really don’t like. Read hate. It’s dark, frumpy, bad-feng shui-ey, and there isn’t a single window in ANY room where a neighbor can’t look in. (I don’t know how I missed this when I moved in). Oh yeah, and on the side of the house where the neighbors can see in best (their daughter reports to me when she sees me petting the cat on the couch), those neighbors are the landlords. Did I mention I hate this place? Well, at least their dog doesn’t bark. Not. Make that two dogs — they just got a new puppy. How cute. Turns out it can bark, too. Anyway, last week, I found the perfect new place — a victorian apartment… beautiful, light, with a cozy fireplace, and it’s high up on the 3rd floor where no one can see in. Ahhh, to be able to shower, walk about, and lounge on the couch unsupervised. I will promenade nakedly around it because I can. Oh yeah, and the front room has a gorgeous round turret window. How apropos :). I am moving there in a week. It won’t be a second too soon…  

I hope this is among your morning rituals, too…A sketch in blue, didn’t love the way it turned out, so I took it into Photoshop, and gave it a cutout filter. I was excited by all the color shifts from the original…     

Sometimes, when I can’t get started, or have no idea what to do, I begin by just making marks and lines on the page… This is how I arrived at my portrait of cereal and spoon, another fine morning ritual (usually paired with the news) :)…

Not to overexplain… we’ll just say — a necessary morning ritual. Possibly not my artistic high point in this series, but hey, at least I’m still on theme :)!…