Catching up and finally back to art…

It’s been an interesting past few months… I’ve done some traveling to Tangle U in Florida plus additional time to explore and visit Norm’s mom, a family vacation at an amazing ranch in Arizona, and Southern Utah while my dad had surgery. We also moved our youngest daughter to a new place to live while at college, and dealt with a scary health situation that my husband had. Norm is still recovering, and hopefully he will be completely healed soon. 

Needless to say, besides the Tangle U portion (WHICH WAS AWESOME) of my traveling, I haven’t had a lot of time to create. The past couple of weeks I’ve been starting to steal bits of time here and there and it. feels. so. good! Here are some photos from some of these adventures… (I promise there is art in this post... just scroll quickly past these photos!)

Lovely location of this year's Tangle U

We enjoyed staying here!

A beautiful sunset to welcome us

Wonderful dinner out in Naples... Stone Crab!!!

Alligators near the road in the Everglades. HUGE!!

Lovely time together with relatives.

Celebrating Norm's birthday and enjoying dim sum.

Seeing a Perfect Circle at the Hollywood Bowl.

Family vacation in Arizona

We had such a wonderful time together!

Leila bravely holding the DEAD rattlesnake!

Cami and roommates

They're so much fun to be around!

Weekend in Santa Barbara. Celebrate Leila's birthday and see Boston at the Santa Barbara Bowl.

I love the scenery of my hometown. Southern Utah.

Lovely morning walk with my mom.

Another walk to see the petroglyphs...

They always leave me in awe...

More than a thousand years old. 

My furry son, Clark, turns 7.

Norm's poor leg... Blood infection/cellulitis. Definitely. not. fun. 

You made it! Now time for the art!

Last week I had the opportunity to perform my civic duty and wait ALL day at the courthouse to see if I would be called as a juror. I was prepared… I brought my sketchbook and pens/pencils. It was a lovely day! Uninterrupted art time is a pretty rare commodity! I played with Eni Oken’s technique for twisted ropes for the first time. I LOVED it! Twisty ropes are so organic. I enjoyed adding some mooka weaving in and out of it.

This week’s diva challenge #324 by guest blogger, Jessica Davies, is “Tangled Hearts.” I decided to explore the twisted ropes a bit more with a very loose heart shape and some additional mooka vines. I thought about my journey as I worked on this tile… about how your heart guides you in the direction you should take, yet many times you have distractions or pretty shiny things that mislead you towards a path that may direct you away from the truth of your heart. This is my “hearts journey," a reminder to focus on my path and stay true to my self/heart.

"Hearts Journey" Diva Challenge 324

My Inner Light girl has been patiently waiting for me to finish her for months. I was stuck for awhile as I considered how I could express/paint her inner glow and show her values/goals/mantras. I think I was a little afraid of finishing it and it not being what I had visualized in my mind. I finally forced myself past that barrier and started gluing the dimensional pieces down and added additional layers of color/shading/details… and then it happened… I had that moment when I looked at it and said… it’s done. Here she is preparing for her photo shoot in my lightbox. 

It’s wonderful to be back in this space, inspired by so many, and creating art.

Hikes, Surgery, & ART

It's been a tricky year so far for me. I have had lots of distractions and some challenges. One (okay two) of my challenges have been my feet. Over the past couple of years I have been in more and more pain that for the most part I: a) blamed on my shoes b) thought would get better by themselves c) tried to ignore. The denial had to come to an end and finally did when I realized during a vinyasa class that I was unable to be on my toes without excruciating pain... And there are a LOT of postures that rely on toes in vinyasa yoga. Luckily it prompted me to make an appointment with a podiatrist. 


My appointment was scheduled the week after a trip to visit my family in Southern Utah. Whenever I'm home I have to hike. The desert landscape calls to me and soothes my heart and soul. I'm very happy I didn't go to the podiatrist prior to this trip... I would never have been allowed to do the 5 hour hike. Although it hurt, I was so happy to be hiking in such a beautiful area again. I feel so lucky to have been able to grow up here! Here's a few photos of our hike a couple miles from my parent's home...

We drove about 40 minutes to get to this location (This was the 5 hour hike!) Here are the photos from that hike...

By the time I was done with the hiking I definitely knew that reasons a-b-c were not flying anymore! I returned home and went to the doctor. Here are the X-Ray's...

Bone on bone in toe joint. Ouch! 

Bone spurs on big toe joint. Ouch!

Bone on bone in big toe joint on left foot too. Ouch!

More spurs on big toe on left foot. Ouch!

OUCH! Time to schedule surgery to remove the bone spurs, and shorten the metatarsal leading from the big toe and screw it back together so that there isn't as much pressure pushing into that joint. Right foot scheduled for July 6th, and left foot will be fixed 3 months later (early October) when the right foot is strong enough to be my main foot. 

I'm happy that the first surgery is over and now that I've had several weeks of recovery I can get back into my studio for little snippets of time once again. This brings me to the art part of this post! YAY! 

Prior to surgery I signed up to take an art course called Ever After. Click here to view more details about the course. (It started early July but you can still sign up and not lose a step. You can download all course materials to work at your own pace.)

I LOVE fairy tales and I liked that this course studied fairy tales using different artist/styles plus you had the option of working on discovering your own style throughout the course.  (I signed up for both modules because I was very interested in the self discovery portion of the workshop as well.) I knew that the assignments would be waiting for me and would inspire me to get back in the studio. I started the first project this week. The first fairy tale study is, The Little Mermaid. Here's my initial sketch in my notebook...

I then drew my sketch onto watercolor paper and started the first layers of watercolor for the skin and began the detail of the eyes. Definitely a work in progress. I'm enjoying every moment. It feels great to create again. 

I'm looking forward to drawing and painting when I can and I am forgiving myself for being absent for so long. I am grateful that art always waits patiently for me to return. I am excited to share more zentangle and art of all forms as I continue healing, creating, and exploring. 

Day 99 : 04-08-12

Day 99 : 04-08-12, a photo by ha! designs on Flickr.

ANIMAL!!!! (One of my favorite muppets!)

Our last day/night in Southern Utah, I noticed Animal on my brother's car as we said our goodbyes... He graciously posed for me.

Day 98 : 04-07-12

Day 98 : 04-07-12, a photo by ha! designs on Flickr.

An absolutely gorgeous day to hike (and pose!) in Zion's National Park...

We had an absolutely amazing day today! Leila hiked Angel's Landing (SCARY!) with her Uncle Todd, and the rest of us hiked Emerald Pools and Weeping Rock. Our timing to meet back up together couldn't have been better!