8 year blogiversary 9.29.2022

This week marks my 8 year blogiversary! And here's some advice I found on the interweb for Creatives. I haven't yet found the author. Creatives You're more than what you make. Your productivity does not determine your value. It's okay to do nothing sometimes. Not everything you do has to result in a product. Not …

wordless with pears 9.15.22

grief quote – Vuong 9.2.2022

...grief is, perhaps, the last and final translation of love. Ocean Vuong, from a Fresh Air interview, April, 2022

watercolor portrait 8.18.2022

My youngest child Berit married her sweetheart Brian earlier this month. I gifted them with a watercolor portrait. Brian and Berit, ink and watercolor on 140 lb cold press watercolor paper, 9x12 This is the reference photo. Here's a very early stage of the painting. And me with the finished, framed piece:)

poem – Gill 7.21.2022

Reasons to Live Through the Apocalypse by Nikita Gill Sunrises. People you have still to meet and laugh with. Songsabout love, peace, anger, and revolution. Walks in the woods.The smile you exchange with a stranger when you experiencebeauty accidentally together. Butterflies. Seeing your grandpar-ents again. The moon in all her forms, whether half or full. …

wordless and green 6.30.2022

Flattening watercolor paintings 6.16.2022

When I create a watercolor painting, sometimes the paper buckles and warps, depending how much water I use in the painting. This post shows how I flatten those warped paintings. Here you can see how my small paintings warped. Start with a flat board or surface. I'm using a clean piece of paper, too, because …

grief quote – Weller 6.2.2022

The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and to be stretched large by them. How much sorrow can I hold? That’s how much gratitude I can give. If I carry only grief, I’ll bend toward cynicism and despair. If I have only gratitude, I’ll …

making bisque molds – 5.19.2022

In my small ceramics studio, I use a variety of homemade bisque molds to make some of my ceramic forms. Bisque (also referred to as biscuit) molds are clay forms I fire to about 1915 degrees, or cone 04. I wrote about how I use the bisque molds here. In this post, I'll explain how …

poem – Hoagland 5.5.2022

The Word by - Tony Hoagland Down near the bottom of the crossed-out list of things you have to do today, between "green thread" and "broccoli," you find that you have penciled "sunlight." Resting on the page, the word is beautiful. It touches you as if you had a friend and sunlight were a present …