Well hidee!

I have been crazy busy! I went out of town over the weekend to do a little tattooing and a little visiting. We got home last night at 8 pm, when I looked at the calendar and realized that I have a commissioned painting due Friday.
Now I'm grabbing my supplies and loading up the car; I teach private art lessons on Wednesdays. Today we are working in charcoal and doing a still life.

Owl of Dreaming

There's this book that I use all the time, about Earth-based spirituality and family, with a story in it about an owl who brings dreams.
She brings the dreams you need. The ones that will point you in a direction. Her wings are "soft, and furred with dark" and she delivers the dreams "gripped gently in her mother beak".
So here she is.

Happy Week

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases from being shared.
-- Buddha.

This week is Random Act of Kindness Week! I challenge you to do at least one random act every day. It doesn't have to be huge; you can open the door for a stranger, make sure the wild animals in your yard have water, send a greeting card in the mail to a loved one. It's the little things that can turn someone's whole day around.

In art news, I am in the process of finding a printer to convert my drawings and paintings into greeting cards and posters which I will sell locally, and eventually on Etsy.

What's going on in your neck of the woods?

Hello, Friday.

Friday! We meet again. This week was a blur. We made a bird feeder...that's up on The Pagan Village.

This weekend? I don't know what's going on. My to-do list is as long as my arm, but today I will be painting and getting together photos of women of courage for Fiona's girl scout meeting on Monday.

I'm thinking Amelia Erhart, Sally Ride, Sandra Day O'Connor, Michele Obama, Juliette Gordon Lowe, Martha Washington, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Clara Barton...

Who would you include on that list?

In the studio

It occurred to me last week that I'm not sharing a whole lot of the stuff that I'm working on. The site is called Kara Paints, but was surprisingly lacking in painted material.
This week I am working on an owl painting. Here's the rough sketch that I'm using as a jumping off point:

Rapunzel

I did this one a few months ago. It's been over at the gallery and I just got her back home.
It's Rapunzel, in her urban tower, with her books and a view of the sky. As for her need to be rescued? That's up to your interpretation.

DO SOMETHING

We are what we repeatedly do
--Aristotle

What do you do? When you're not busy surviving? When you have moments of uninterrupted time?
Do you read? Bake? Make soap? Knit? Do you compose operettas?
Please don't tell me you do NOTHING.

Life is full of amazing things to do, places to explore, and people to meet. Stop doing nothing and go do SOMETHING.

Take pictures, make a map, play with Legos, plan a trip, visit a new restaurant. The world is out there, waiting for you: go and meet her!

Quiet day

It's quiet around here. Today, we lost our cat Lunchbox to multiple organ failure. She had been a part of our lives for a long time, and she was wonderful with the kids. We're going to spend the weekend saying our goodbyes and I'll see you again on Monday.