September 27, 2019

This was my first trip to Indonesia.  My journey to Bali was not a sketching trip, nor was it a teaching trip.  I did not travel solo as is my custom.  This was a spiritual journey, a journey to the land of a million temples.  As a young girl of six or...

When I end up at a grocery store without my cloth bag, I request paper rather than plastic so that I can make good use of the bag that I wouldn't have needed if I'd had my cloth bag with me.

When I returned to Mike's apartment, I made a sketchbook out of the bags.  Having never made...

This morning I added to  Week 6 of Creating Dala Art an example of creating a Dala, from beginning to end, along with the thoughts that were running through my head as I made choices of design, colors, values and patterns.

The added lesson includes 27 illustrated steps! 

When I...

While wandering through MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Arts) in the Arts District of Los Angeles I came upon a video monitor looping a piece by Mungo Thomson. The 34 minute video was titled The American Desert (for Chuck Jones). The odd coloring and the strength of the landscape design caught...

Yesterday, I walked a mile and a half to the nearest branch of Bank of America. I needed a break from the challenge of simplifying how to visualize and layer veils of warm and cool colors onto a drawing or painting.  Eventually, I'll create an entire online course on the power of...

There's nothing like back to back spiritual retreats to focus and enhance my perspective on life, where I'm headed, and where I've been.

Add to the pot a couple of weeks of spacey conversation with my aerospace engineer son. Spice the pot with the time crunch to complete Weeks Nine and Ten...

On New Year's Eve I declared 2018 to be the Year of Influence.  Each week I would choose a new artist, past or present, to influence most of my daily sketches for that entire week. It was a remarkable experience that expanded my horizons in unexpected ways.  In another couple of years,...

I'm thrilled to be returning to Spain in December.  The last time I was there was in 2004 with my daughter, Nicole.  Of my three children, Nicole was the only one I hadn't had travel adventures with and I wanted to build a stronger bond before she left the nest.  It turns out that...

Frequently I hear the following laments:

"I want to sketch more, but I don't know what to sketch."

"I want to sketch more but I can't seem to find inspiring subjects."

"I want to sketch more but I never go anywhere."

My response might be:

"Sketch whatever is in front of you. It doesn't have to be...

Being the mother of identical twin daughters, soon to be 35 years old, I am very aware that people learn in different ways.  Alexis (a poet) learned 2 dimensionally.  Nicole (a film maker) learns 3 dimensionally.  Their intelligence is absolutely equal ... they simply learn...