Birch trees colouring page. Free download.

I have created a downloadable colouring page for you:)

Find it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwPD5M9h51TxN25XMDMwRGhaZFE/view?usp=sharing

Happy Monday!

Ten.

You. From the moment your fluttering heart began beating inside my body, you captivated me--heart and soul--entirely.

It's been TEN years with you and Its has been a really wonderful journey to watch you become the human you are, and see the space you are carving out in this world. 

I love everything about you. Everything. I love the way you say "I love you" repeatedly when anyone you love has to leave. I love the way you tease the dog because that's the way you two roll. I love the way you create entire worlds from your imagination on paper, or from cardboard or in The garden with stones and leaves. I love the way you fought with me as a two year old each time I tried to buckle you into your car seat because you despised being confined. I love everything. Everything about you--the easy stuff and the hard stuff-- it's all you. 

You're a lover. The care you have for others runs deep to your core. I love that about you.  You're a fighter. You will not be told to sit or stay if that is not what you feel like doing. You won't be held down. I love that about you. 

Ten years is a decent amount of time to be on Earth. You've learned so much and you've grown up so fast. I want to bottle you up right now so that this moment can somehow last forever because right now you are on a cusp of moving into a new story of who you are and yet you are still living the story of a young sweet innocent girl who loves life. 

I want you to know my darling that you have made me a better person. You've taught me many lessons in mothering that I didn't know I needed to learn. You've taught me patience and you've taught me about stamina. You've shown me that family is the most important thing in the world and that sticking it out is worth everything. 

I want you to know that I admire you for your tenacity, humour and courage.

You're not afraid to speak out. You're not afraid to wear mismatched socks or sing in front of others or be kind to those people that get left behind. I admire these things and so much more. 

Everything about You is wonderful and valuable and this world sparkles with more hope and love because of you. 

Thank you sweet one for being here, for being our girl, and for being You. 

Xo- mama. 

Challenge to expand.

On December 31, 2013 I decided that I would give myself the challenge to phase alcohol consumption out of my life. I knew I had to set the challenge for at least one year to make it worthwhile. And I had to do it on my own. I didn't ask my husband to join me ( although he did 6 months later) because I wanted the journey to be mine. 

My relationship to alcohol isn't dependent. There isn't any severe destruction tendencies. There was just a sense that alcohol held me back in life. It felt like a crutch that society allows us to use to numb out and stay small. It felt like poison even in small amounts. 

Over the year I travelled through several mental hardships that normally would have been temporarily bandaged by alcohol. Without alcohol I had to face everything life threw at me with a clear mind and an open heart. 

It was beautiful. And continues to be amazing. Fifteen months later I am still alcohol free and my spiritual life has expanded so wonderfully that I am more fulfilled than I ever was with alcohol. 

This challenge taught me many things and one of the very important things it gave me was the knowing that when I set myself a challenge with clear motives and clear parameters, I tend to open up and do very well at accomplishing my goal. I seem to override the ego mind and access my higher self where all possibilities are at my finger tips. 

As of today I am beginning a new journey into challenging myself. Over the next few months, I am going to create & complete 100 pieces of tiny art. 

Now this may seem frivolous compared to quitting alcohol but in many ways it is just as worthy to the expansion of my soul and opening of my heart. 

I tend to hide. I tend to want to hold my art close to me-- maybe to keep me safe from criticism; safe from being seen. And this keeps me closed. This keeps my ego in charge and lets fear hold the reins. 

Because I'm setting a challenge to complete this many pieces I know I will see it through. My tendecy to complete a goal and prove my stamina is usually quite strong and so far I've been nothing but excited about creating new work. 

The challenge was created by artist and blogger Kellee Conrad who set up a private Facebook group to create community around it. I will be sharing there as well as on my own FB page and on my blog. 

There are some rules to the challenge such as keep the pieces small, uniform in size and create a theme using the same basic subject matter and materials for each piece. I'm not very good at following rules when it comes to creativity because I feel they inhibit me but I am going to make the pieces small and I will likely be using primarily acrylic paint as my medium. I may only work on art board or card board but that could change. I plan to do several mini series on a particular subject but I won't do every piece around one subject only. I plan to sell the pieces for affordable prices. I plan to exhibit them as well. 

I'm super pumped for this challenge  because I feel it is going to help me break out of my protective zone if only because I will have so many pieces of art that I will have no choice but to send them out into the world to bring joy to others. 

After all that is my truest reason to make art. To create joy, spread joy and become joy. Stay tuned for the first tiny art piece to show up later today. 

Hang in there.

Oh wow, this week was intense.

But hey--it's moving on out, and today?  Today is a new day.  Hip hip hooray!

The other night when we sat in the dark with the candles flickering away, soft and magical-like, I drew this baby bear illustration.  It was inspired by the hardness of the week, the pain I knew some people close-to-home were feeling, the fear of learning to let go and the need to keep hanging on.

It was inspired by the apple tree I saw, apples just barely hanging on, limbs shaking them loose, encouraging them to let go!
I was inspired by my drive home in the windstorm, praying for all the souls in the night, hoping everyone was safe and warm and tucked into someone's arms, hoping that we all just had someone to hang on to.

Hey, you know, it's a tough world.  It's a scary world.  But it's also a colourful world full of interesting characters who are imperfect, and who make mistakes.  It's a world that has dark bits mixed in with the beautiful bits.  It's a world where we get to get up each day and make it new!  Try again!  Start over.

Everyday we get to make a bad yesterday into an awesome TODAY!  We do!  We get this same opportunity over and over, which seems like a lot, but guess what?  We actually have a limited time.

So HANG IN THERE, friends, and go make your world a colourful, beautiful, fulfilling and loving place to be.
I believe in you.

Today, it's a...

Hey out there!  To all my fellow Vancouver Islanders, specifically my Cowichan peeps...hoping you are all safe and warm and WITH POWER! Woah, what a wind storm we had!
Crazy town.
My daughter is home from school today because her school is still without power.  Those lucky little rats get a FIVE DAY weekend due to the Rembrance Day holiday next week.

Anyway, due to the wind storm, I did not post my art share yesterday.  My internet was out, my phone was dead and, well, there's just something sacred and awesome about having NO POWER AND NO DISTRACTIONS.
Hanging out with your family in candlelight with nothing but conversation to occupy you is a pretty special thing, so I decided to put it off and take a moment to remember.

That just means that you lucky rats get a DOUBLE SHOT of art, which I would always say is an awesome way to recover from a scary storm.  Whew (phew?)
That's cool, yo.

Here we are with DOUBLE SHOT #1:

QUOTE BY RUMI

I created this piece by hand-lettering the words with a marker in my sketch book.  I then scanned them into Photoshop and made them white.  The background is a cropped photo of a painting I am working on.  The colours didn't come through exact but I like them all the same.  In Photoshop I played with the brightness and contrast as well as the levels to achieve a cohesive light to the background.  Then I pasted the letters onto the background layer and added a few illustrations of feathers that I did in black ink (turned white).

I like it.  I think the painted background adds depth and I love the poet Rumi.  His words written so long ago are still succinctly relevant today.

DOUBLE SHOT #2:

This is a second version of the same.  Instead with this piece, I left the feathers out and used a differently coloured part of the same painting as the background.  Basically though, the creative process was the same.  I like this one too.  It feels more mysterious and a bit more relevant to the words.

What do you think?  #1 OR #2?

I find it interesting that this was the art I planned to share on a day that we got spun into a fury by a highly intense windstorm.  Actually, this week feels like it's been a five day long whirlwind of crazy.  That crunchy Taurus moon has created some interesting tension and pushed stuff to the surface, casting doubt and confusion to the cosmos, leaving it to float around like feathers in the wind.  Whoa.
I'm learning in these moments, these crunchy-hard-confusion moments to brace myself with calm, to root my feet firmly to what I hold sacred and to grip hard to the truth of what I know to be right. And so I stay grounded while I spin, scattering stars like dust.

Sometimes, anyway.

Hey, you know what?  Last night while my family and I hunkered down, my girl and I spent time drawing by candlelight.  I think as a little bonus to the DOUBLE SHOT, I will post that piece as well later on.  We'll see how much I can accomplish today between kid-at-home and work-out-of-home and house chores.  We'll see.

Stay warm.  Stay safe.  Do good.  Spread joy.
Peace.

Waiting in the wings. Art share no.2

Oh, hello Wedesday:)

Here is art share no.2 (I know, that title is so intriguing!!). I call this piece "Waiting in the Wings". It's an acrylic painting done on art board (Masonite) and I love it. 

This piece signifies a first for me. It's a painting that was guided mostly by my intuition instead of a photograph. I did use a few reference photos to draw the basic owl but from there I used previous experience with painting owls to guide me. 

Right now I am pushing myself further into intuitive creativity. I want my work to reflect my voice as clearly as it can and that means I have to rely on stylistic representation as much as possible. I have always been more of a stylized artist than a realistic artist. I love photorealistic art. I think it's amazing! But when I try to make my work look photorealistic I just get frustrated and want to give up. That's not a good thing. When I go with my gut and create in my own style and in the way I feel most guided, I want to soar. It makes me want to jump out of the shadows and fly. 

I called this piece "Waiting in the Wings" because when I look at it that's what I see. And when I look at my progression with art that's what I feel. Like I've been waiting in the wings. Waiting for my wings. Waiting to emerge from the dark into the light. 

Here's to choosing the light, stepping into ourselves and learning to fly. 

It's a PERFECT day to...

SHARE.

It's time.
Time to dive into the heart and the thought and the action behind using one little word to inspire my days and open my heart.
You may remember I wrote about using one word (read it here ) to excavate meaning and push me to goodness in my daily and yearly life.
To me, this idea functions on the belief that we have many, many opportunities to start our lives over in a single day.  To make it better.  To make it good.  To give it a go again with renewed gusto! 
Choosing one word anchors us to our good life.  We all know how simple it is to get stuck in the rut of  negativity and self doubt.  This activity helps keep our eyes on the good.

This past year, in honour of my chosen word light,  I subjected myself to some steep challenges in order to help myself lighten up.  To be light.  Spread light.  Connect to the light in the world and in myself.

I gave up alcohol and coffee (well, to be specific, I gave up caffeine--I still drink decaf coffee and every so often I slip and drink a full pull caffeinated brew).
I thought about giving up dairy--for health and ethical reasons, but that's been hard.
I gave up on ego too.  As best as I could anyway.  I mean, I'm no guru and I don't think I ever will be, but through this process I feel am more connected to my higher self and relying on my intuition and observer self more by using meditation and loving personal (self) talk to help me navigate my life with love and patience.

I have lightened up and it's been a great year.   I feel great.  I feel happy.

Lately I have been pulled to the word share.  You can read a post I wrote about it in the above link.

Usually the one little word phenomenon begins at the beginning of the calendar year.  However, I'm starting mine now, to get my feet wet and feel it out because my personal year is about to start.  I'm a Sagittarius, so in around one month it will be my birthday (yay!) and I thought that getting started on using my new word would be a great way to lead into my new personal year.  After all, this is the time where I should be committing to culminate a plan for my new year's intentions and desires.

So!

In order to make the new word and my desires go hand in hand, I am hereby committing to SHARING a daily piece of art here on this blog as well as on my Facebook page and my instagram profile for the next month.  From today to December 4th, which is one day after my birthday, I will post a piece of artwork that I have created.  The pieces will be a mix of work that I will create this month and stuff I've already made and haven't shared properly.  The pieces will be a mix of all the styles I feel comfortable with: paint, script, ink, illustration, digital design, photography, writing.  Some of the pieces will be for sale and some won't.  Some will go on sale later and some may never be for sale.

The idea behind this challenge is to get out of my own way and keep putting my work (and myself) into the world.   I am forever doing something creative: doodling while on the phone, photographing while on a walk, writing poems in my head, etc.  It is time these things saw the light of day! I need to force myself to quit waiting until something is completely perfect before I share it, because it will never be perfect! But it is all very good and lovely and I must share that with the world.  Plus, it is my goal to be a working artist.  This is how I figure I can get that energy rolling.

I am declaring this challenge publicly in the hopes that someone will take notice and call me out when I slip.  I should be able to manage it as I have created a schedule of what art to share for each day, but I may get busy and forget, so I hope someone will take note if I do and say hey! get back up on that horse lady!

Ok, so, for today, the above graphic is what I have to share.  It is called "A perfect day to love." and it was created with the simple thought that each day we can choose to love or to leave.  We can choose hard (to love) or easy (to leave) but if we choose the path that seems easy, we may have to go back and do it again, so really, any day is the perfect day to choose love.  I think it's a simple and beautiful thought and idea expressed in a simple and beautiful illustration.
It was created by scanning two separate pen drawings I made into my computer and then working them up in Photoshop using the paint bucket, paintbrush and text tool.  This is one of my new favourite ways to create art these days.  I love the simple versatility of illustrations and Photoshop.  They are delicious to me!

Hey, thanks for reading along.  Come back tomorrow for share #2.