The Little Mermaid

The little mermaid project is now complete. I really enjoyed trying out some new techniques that I hadn't used before. It is so fun to create when inspiration strikes, and you know just what to do to put what's in your head onto the paper. So. very. satisfying. when that happens! The way that her hair and bubbles have a part in telling her story makes me very happy. 

I am having a lot of fun taking this course and am looking forward to studying new techniques and styles with more artists.  (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.) It is WONDERFUL!


Here is my finished mermaid... I tried to take shots from different angles to show how her tail, the bubbles, and the flower in her hair sparkle and shine depending on the light. It wasn't very easy to capture these subtleties with a camera. I wish you could see her in person!  

I so appreciate those who stop by to visit and am always grateful for any comments. Have a wonderful, art filled day! 

X-rays, a Zentangle® Book, & Mermaid Progress

Soooo... My last post I mentioned my foot surgery. One down, one to go. Well... This week I rescheduled an appointment I had with an orthopedic doctor that I had cancelled while dealing with scheduling the first foot surgery. The appointment was to have my hands checked out, specifically the pain I've been experiencing in the thumb area. (I was hoping the pain would go away while I was resting with foot surgery recovery. It didn't.) Basically... it looks like more surgeries are in my future... I have bone on bone in my thumb joint, both hands. Here's the lovely X-Rays. You can see there is no space at the bottom of the third bone... Ouch!

The doctor gave me some braces to wear on my hands during the day to try to help with the pain. We will have to wait to do anything further until I've recovered from the current and upcoming foot surgery. I. Am. A. MESS! I told my husband that it may be time to trade me in for a newer model... I think my warranty has expired. I'm just going to take it all a day at a time. I know it will all be fine.

 I received some very exciting mail yesterday! I received this beautiful book...

...from Beate Winkler. She's a Certified Zentangle Teacher in Germany who has published many wonderful Zentangle® books. I am so pleased and honored that she invited me to submit some art for this book! I am overjoyed to have my art included with so many amazing and talented artists. Several of my pieces are in the book. Here's a little preview of the elegant layout inside...

"Das Grosse Zentangle Kreativbuch" is currently being translated into English, and should be available possibly later this year on Amazon. The projects in the book are beautiful and inspiring. The book is wonderful in every possible way! It is well laid out and pleasing to page through. It includes step outs to tangle patterns as well as lots of lovely Zentangle Inspired Art projects. (Thank you again, Beate, for including my art.)

I introduced my latest project, the little mermaid in my last post. Since that post I have been working on additional face layers and details. (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. It is a WONDERFUL course!) 

I had to get back to my mermaid today (no matter how my hands are feeling)! I was so excited! I was selecting lots of papers to start collaging... I looked for papers that would tell her story... her longing for the items of the earth world. I printed out part of the original fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson so that I could incorporate that also. I have bits of paper with birds, roses, shiny things, etc and then I found some paper with butterflies that almost reminded me of scales!!! I'll use some twinkling H2O watercolors to pick up and enhance the change of colors and luminescence of the paper. This paper is perfect for my little mermaid's TAIL! I also LOVE that the butterflies represent her transformation and longing to be free. I've place the pieces to see how it would look... I LOVE IT! I'll save them to add later after I do some of the other layers of painting. 

Then I began playing with the page of the fairy tale that I had printed out... I chose pieces I wanted to include and immediately thought it would be wonderful to have her story be part of her and lifting her towards the surface... bubbles also float her story towards the surface... This is the start of that process. (I was very particular about the words/phrases that were selected. You can see the part where she is told that she can go to the surface at 15, her handsome boy statue, a kiss each other, little mermaid, sisters, youngest one, the sea, flowers, and never having seen a bird...)

I then started adding some sparkles to her hair with some shiny paper that I had with birds and flowers printed in foil. More earthly things for her in the sea. I placed more scraps. I saw some numbered paper... YAY! It had a '15.' Perfect number for my "horse," as this is the age she is able to travel to the surface. So here she is at this point. 

Now it's time to glue down my pieces and begin adding some color! It felt so good to work on her for a couple of hours today. I'll rest my hands a bit, take some more tylenol, and get out the gel medium! 

As always... I so appreciate those who stop by to visit and am always grateful for any comments. Have a wonderful, art filled day! 

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.