This heart is a contented growing heart. It’s big and getting bigger and sending out Fibonacci spirals of love into the atmosphere. It represents how anyone’s heart can grow and become bigger (in the metaphorical sense that anyone can feel and show love in bigger ways). Which makes the energy around us feel more loving and easeful and expansive.

Sea turtles don’t mate for life I found this out while doing research for a commission I did a few years ago. My surfer son had just moved his family to Oahu, so I was lucky to spend a month or so there hanging out with his adorable beach babies. There was a whole thing with quarantine for their dog, so we kept our favorite grand dog.until he and I flew to Hawaii together. G joined us later. (At the time my daughter was living on the Big Island, her husband was finishing school in Seattle when they found out they had to move due to a devastating lava situation, it later wiped out their town. So I spent time there helping her pack up a get ready to join her husband.)

I saw a lot of turtles on that trip. Reading up on them, I learned a handful of facts. One of those I-can’t-believe-this-is-my-life moments.

Sea Turtles have friendly relationships with each other. They seem to have many different friendships. This painting is about friendship. Sea turtles are gentle, calm and friendly. They hang out together in small groups, sometimes they will even befriend a human swimming by. I guess they aren’t romantic and unlike penguins, don’t need to pair up. I like the casual friendly calmness of sea turtle friendship, it’s sweet.

This painting is about speaking words with love. Talking through our hearts, as in putting our heart where our words come out. Gentle words inform our environment. I think even plants, flourish when spoken to kindly.

If you know the song Bridge Over Troubled Water, you might remember the third verse. It starts out : “Sail on Silver Girl…”

I did a handful of paintings with the theme of a bridge over troubled water. People can be the metaphorical ‘bridge’ over the ‘troubled water’ of another’s life circumstances. There seems to be a lot of trouble going on out in the world, and whoever is showing up, compassionately trying to help, is often the best answer. There seems to be no fixing things, but the power of helpfulness, is significant.

The Silver girl verse is like a pep talk. Sail on by, you can shine, all your dreams are on their way. Its a beautiful upbeat ending to a most compassionate song.

I love the Elvis Presley version.

I have to title and do a write up about each of the paintings I have on display in the gallery in LaJolla. It’s a bit of an undertaking, but I feel like doing it on my blog might make it more fun.

This first painting is one of a set of two. I had them hanging in my own house because I loved the feeling I would get when I looked at them.

Birds Fly Up

Birds always know when to fly up off the ground or out of the trees or off a fence or wire. Birds instinctively know this. Maybe one starts and then they all follow. I’m not sure how it works but the intrinsic intelligence of nature is always there to teach us how to be free. The doves in these paintings are symbols of peace. They are flying up and away spreading the energy of peace and the feeling of freedom. Birds are good to remind us that we can move our energy up and out whenever we want to.

to be around?

That’s easy.

People who are kind.

Kindness is more of an active state than a personality trait as I see it, so I guess what I mean is, I like to be around people while they are acting kindly.

I’ve seen enough instances where a grumpy someone switches to being kind, often when someone else is kind first. Kindness is contagious. I appreciate this.

I welcome kind people always. Please visit me any time throughout my day or life…

Growing up in Canada, hockey was part of life. My earliest memory is going to a game that my dad played in. I mostly remember being freaked out by the blood and all the men with missing teeth.

I learned to skate as soon as I could walk. My hockey coach grandfather bought all the cousins our first skates. There seemed to always be a hockey game on at any house we visited. We played in driveways, on the street, on frozen ponds. There were little games with slots and tiny players that could only move so far. Everyone I knew had a stick, wrapped lovingly in black electrical tape.

Last night we watched a hockey game.

It was part of a four country series between Sweden, Finland, Canada and the U.S. The game was between Canada and the US.

Now this particular game made me nostalgic for hockey from my childhood. Was it because of the three fights that broke out in the first nine seconds? Maybe, but that was just the first nine seconds.

The rest of the game was fast and serious and every single player on both teams seemed to be very passionate about winning.

At the end, we couldn’t believe it was over. It was like watching playoff hockey, only more intense.

I found out after the game was over, that this was only the beginning of the series. Wow.

I guess they’re saying the fights were staged. Still. It was fun to see no one taking the fighting too seriously, kind of how it was back in the day. Kind of fun to see a good, well balanced contest between two teams playing hard to win.

This series should be an advertisement for the NHL. It was compelling and fun and yeah. Anyone remember old school hockey? There were some watchable games back then. I’m glad we were able to see this one.

Also watchable, very much so…

Oh and about being patriotic? I was feeling pretty Canadian. My brother was watching the same game up in Calgary on a big screen with a whole group of friends. A childhood friend was watching in Las Vegas, while his brother was watching in Sweden, where he now lives.

OK. I admit it, I wanted Canada to win. In overtime, in a dramatic nail biting conclusion.What can I say? I’m Canadian 🤷🇨🇦

For joy. For reasons that are bigger than what I know.

I paint.

Before yoga, before meditation, before I knew about breathing, before I’d ever heard anything about a parasympathetic nervous system,

I painted.

I paint to drop into a feeling of flow.

I paint to feel connected to a better feeling me.

I paint when nothing else makes sense, when life feels overwhelming or off.

For reasons I don’t know how to explain, painting calms me down and gives my brain a rest.

When I can’t figure out the world, or people, or my own little role in all of it, there is this sweet feeling head space that finds me. It’s why I create. It’s kind of how I got caught up in sharing it actually.

I learned that art isn’t everyone’s thing. Music isn’t either. Art gives my one friend anxiety. Even if it’s kind of her thing, anxiety can take the joy out of anything.

We all have our own life to navigate. I learned that I want to pay more attention to when things become unfun. Getting pulled into angst is a perfect lesson and good practice for me to try to stay focused. I spent these weeks trying to help my friend overcome her artists block and have fun putting on that show. How could it not be fun!?

Hmmm. Well…

I once was super busy in my younger life and was weirdly criticized for taking time to do art. My ‘friends’ explained that I should be caring about other things. They reasoned that my priorities were all wrong.

In that moment, I knew.

There are a lot of things about myself that I can’t explain, but this one I know.

Taking care of me, by giving myself time to create, IS right. It IS a priority.

Allowing those connected feelings to be, understanding their importance, painting for the love of painting, even feeling thankful for this crazy gift of peace that comes from simply drawing lines and brushing color.

This is for me.

For my joy. for nothing more than to feel happier in a moment.

For me, taking a peaceful me out into the world, is best.

I’m recommitting to leaving everyone else alone.

For me.

It also has a wood shop. The house is one of a few buildings. There are guest houses. My residence is not too big, but feels very spacious. It’s very minimally furnished and decorated. High ceilings, light wood floors, lots of natural light from plenty of big windows. Good sized closets, easy organization. Open, well stocked, but minimal, easy to clean kitchen. All new or newly renovated. The yard is gardens and checker board tile patios.

My studio is big and open. There is a large table and several easils. The best art supplies, all easy to get to and easy to keep organized. It has a cool garage door.

My studio and dream house (and all the guest houses) are both very comfortable and inviting. Beds, bedding, chairs, couches etc. Comfort, ease and beauty are emphasized.

There are beautiful outdoor spaces to sit and enjoy.

I think I’ll savor it for a little while.

Then tell G casually over supper.