stay here

thinking gives off smoke

to prove the existence of fire.

a mystic sits inside the burning.

there are wonderful shapes

in rising smoke

that imagination loves to watch.

but it's a mistake to leave the fire

for that filmy sight.

stay here...

at the flame's core.

-rumi (1207-1273)

reclamation

"icon" (9" x 12" mixed media)

"The real miracle of individuation and reclamation of the Wild Woman is that we all begin the process before we are ready, before we are strong enough, before we know enough; we begin a dialogue with thoughts and feelings that both tickle and thunder within us. We respond before we know how to speak the language, before we know all the answers, and before we know exactly to whom we are speaking."

-Clarissa Pinkola Estes (b. 1945)

just call me rapunzel...

'cause sometimes...a girl just wants to let her hair down!

melting butter moon

that melting butter moon,

o what a charmer -

came tapping on my window

like a lover before dawn.

meet me in the field, he said,

and i, irresistibly drawn,

went out to join him there.

-stacy wills (1/07/2012)

life book 2012 is underway!

life book 2012 is underway and i am thrilled to be taking part in this year-long art journaling course. along with my mandalas and other artwork, i plan to chronicle my progress here. i am thinking of 2012 as my "year of living artistically."

i love exploring new techniques and mediums, and tam (aka willowing) is a very nurturing, encouraging, and supportive teacher.

this is my first painting for the course...still a work in progress...like me!

"...trailing clouds of glory"

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;

the Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,

hath had elsewhere its setting

and cometh from afar;

not in entire forgetfulness,

and not in utter nakedness,

but trailing clouds of glory do we come

from God, who is our home...

-William Wordsworth (1770-1850),

from his poem: Ode on Intimations of Immortality

the day the red sea parted