“No matter what comes along, we’re always standing at the center of the world in the middle of sacred space. Everything that comes into that circle and exists with us there has come to teach us what we need to know.” – PEMA CHODRON – This quote was from my inspirational reading today. It moved me to paint as meditation. I thought of all the relationships and circumstances that exist within my world, both happy and sad, easy and complicated, up close and far away. I drew a circle and intuitively dropped colors into my drawing for each of them, letting them touch and move and blend. Then I added…

This painting is a marker of a recent birthday resolution. It is my intention to meditate daily, one of several habits I wish to re-ignite to tend this aging body and mind. From years of previous practice, my own experience of meditation feels like a golden bubble in which a profound calm and deep inner awareness are able to shine through, the foundation on which other healthy habits can be re-initiated as well. I look forward to reading this post a year from now, with 365 days of formal practice back in place. How will my life have changed?

It is Inktober… a social media art gathering in which a designated list of prompts is established for each day of the month. I know I won’t do this daily, but here are my first three days worth. There is no rule against sharing something you have already painted/drawn for the prompt, thank goodness, otherwise I would already be down to 1/3 participation! DAY 1: DREAM – This was one of my first paintings when I began my art journey back in 2021. I had the idea in mind as an illustration for a book of poetry I keep promising myself I will publish. (Another story for another time.) But for…

I love October. Not just because its my birthday month, though that definitely plays a factor! I love autumn’s beautiful colors and the way the light starts to make everything golden. In all honesty, that doesn’t usually happen in Southern California until November. But we are having an unusually early autumn this year. We had two rains in August (unheard of) and a surprising number of cool, gray days in September. No fall foliage yet, but the light is right and the air is crisp! So I have been painting as invocation.