Oils and Oil Pastels

26" x 49 1/2", framed canvas

All I Wanted To Do Was Shave My Legs

When I was a teenager and all the other girls started shaving their legs my mother wouldn't let me. So, I began to sneak around and shave my legs under the sheets at night.It was worth the risk to me to be on with my journey as a young woman. Need I say more about this "self portrait"?

2 panels, 36" x 48" each, framed canvas

Scatter Joy   Sold

Strangely enough I painted these two when housebound with a week of snow. In need of some color I decided to paint an environment that supported liveliness and joy.

31" x 41", framed canvas

Tree Of Life

From the first mark I made on this canvas I knew what I wanted to name it. Why? Maybe its about how easy it is to pick the low hanging fruit of fear, negativity, and projection into the future. We have to make an effort to go higher to pick Hope, Cheerfulness and Happiness. Rumi said, "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."    

30" x 40", unframed canvas

Blue Skies

"As I contemplate the blue of the sky I am not set over against it... I do not possess it...I abandon myself to it and plunge into this mystery, it thinks itself in me."Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Running through fields on a windy day is one of the most glorious things one can do. The power of that wind blowing everything around is strong and benevolent at the same time,at least that is how I experience it.I hoped to capture that feeling in this painting.

23" x 30 1/2", unframed paper

Flight Patterns of Butterflies

One day standing outside in the backyard I watched a visiting butterfly as it meandered through the air in front of me. How mesmerizing it was to follow her invisible patterns with my eyes. To do so felt like a meditation made visual rather than with thoughts or words.

49" x 61", framed canvas

The Moral Significance Of Wonder

This oil is my response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Having spent a part of every summer for the last 33 years on Mobile Bay, a large piece of my heart is there.

48" x 72", unframed canvas

Dreamwork

"What if you slept and what if in your sleep you dreamed and what if in your dream you went to Heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower and what if when you woke you had the flower in your hand. Ah, what then?" When I read this quote from Coleridge it reminded me of a zen koan, an intriguing idea impossible to figure out but delightful to try. I find dreamlike figures of flowers, trees and birds all present in this painting. As I would hope to find them in Heaven.