What is inspiring me today

Travel Photography by

Steve Underwood

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Check this site out, it has some of the most beautiful images from around the world that I have ever seen. I am soaking up these images, they inspire the wonder-lust and feed my soul this morning.

Enjoy!

Have a great day,

Heather

PS: Please scroll down a post or two and

vote for my art in the Saatchi Showdown (or just hit the link from here!)

Thank you. :)

www.badkittyartstudio.com

My art in the Showdown

Big Red Tree

36" X 48" x 2"

Oils

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Well I have entered this work into the Saatchi Gallery Showdown and I would love it if you would stop by and vote for me if you would...please. :)

The link is below.

Have a great day,

Heather

Oh, btw...thanks!

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=27033

The degree to which you accept your limitations determines the degree to which you find you're unlimited. ~Unknown

Bad Kitty Art Studio

News Flash!

I AM PAINTING TODAY!

the flood gates are re-open!

woot!

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Thanks for ripping my heart out.

After the initial pain of removal subdued,

I noticed that it got a chance to breathe new air.

Now that I took it back and placed it back in,

it works better than ever.

-- ahhhhh

~Luther Lotz

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Your unrest is the last cramp in your legs

as you climb this mountain.

Rest awhile, if you like.

But do not return to your old house.

It is not your home any longer.

~ Shyamananda

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"I believed in belief, for its own shining sake.

To believe in the face of utter hopelessness, every article of evidence to the contrary, to ignore apparent catastrophe-what other choice was there?

We do it every day, I realized.

We are so much stronger than we imagine, and belief is one of the most valiant and long-lived human characteristics.

To believe, when all along we humans know that nothing can cure the briefness of this life,

that there is no remedy for our basic mortality,

that is a form of bravery."

"To continue believing in yourself, believing in the doctors, believing in the treatment, believing in whatever I chose to believe in, that was the most important thing, I decided. It had to be."

"Without belief, we would be left with nothing but an overwhelming doom, every single day.

And it will beat you.

I didn't fully see, until the cancer, how we fight every day against the creeping negatives of the world,

how we struggle daily against the slow lapping of cynicism.

Dispiritedness and disappointment, these are the real perils of life, not some sudden illness or cataclysmic millennium doomsday.

I knew now why people fear cancer:

because it is a slow and inevitable death,

it is the very definition of cynicism and loss of spirit...

So, I believed.

Cancer taught me a plan for more purposeful living, and that in turn taught me how to train and to win more purposefully.

It taught me that pain has a reason, and that sometimes the experience of losing things-whether health or a car or an old sense of self-has its own value in the scheme of life.

Pain and loss are great enhancers."

~Lance Armstrong

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Thank you for ripping my heart out.

Your unrest is the last cramp in your legs

as you climb this mountain.

I believed in belief,

for it's own shinning sake.

Pain and loss are

great enhancers.

That is all.

Keep the faith,

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com/

It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.~Deming

BAD! Kitty Art Studio

More quotes that represent my current state of mind.

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We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, or the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choiceless-ness, we do choose how we shall live: courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or adrift. We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about.

~Joseph Epstein

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And yet, within her anxiety, secured there like a gemstone, she carries the cool and curious power of occasionally being able to see the world vividly. Clarity bursts upon her a spray of little stars. She understands this, and thinks of it as one of the tricks of consciousness; there is something almost luxurious about it.. The narrative maze opens and permits her to pass through. She may be crowded out of her own life -- she knows this for a fact and has always know it -- but she possesses, as a compensatory gift, the startling ability to draft alternative versions.

~Carol Shields

Source: The Stone Diaries

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It's been a long, a long time coming But I know a change is gonna come.

~Sam Cooke

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So many thoughts these last couple of days...brain over load. I feel like there is a crack forming under my feet...and I am just sitting and watching it grow.

I have no fear of it...it's just change...yes, it's change once again, an old friend.

I know that this break in the flow of art is important to see through.

I am looking for something, I am getting ready to grow and change again.

I am simmering...comfortably for the moment. Content to see how it happens, this metamorphosis, this growth...this simple change.

What will my interior landscape

look like when I can see it again clearly?

What views, what heights or depths will the work flow from then?

It's intriguing to be sure...

I'll keep you posted.

I hope you day is infused with

energy and light.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com/

Being a human is quite the ride. I'm keeping my knees flexed these days.

BAD! Kitty Art Studio

Quotes that reflect what's on my mind:

The world has a way of giving what is demanded of it. If you are frightened and look for failure and poverty, you will get them, no matter how hard you may try to succeed. Lack of faith in yourself, in what life will do for you, cuts you off from the good things of the world. Expect victory and you make victory. Nowhere is this truer than in business life, where bravery and faith bring both material and spiritual rewards.

~Dr. Preston Bradley

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Positive thinking by itself does not work. Your embodied vision, partnered with vibrant and energetic thinking, and balanced with active listening - will clear the path for your Miracles.

~Sumner Davenport

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If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

~Vincent Van Gogh

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If you want to something you've never had, you're going to have to try something you've never done.

Nuff Said.

Have a grand day,

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com/

If you keep doing things like you've always done them, what you'll get is what you've already got.

BAD! Kitty Art Studio

Quote for today:

There is a glorious pattern for every man's life, an individual, perfect patter. No two people are alike . . . No two leaves are alike-no two snowstorms-no two sets of fingerprints. No two lives are alike, yet each life holds a divine pattern of unfoldment, a great and holy destiny, rich in achievement and honor. As you live true to the pattern of yourself, that deep, inner self, you will unfold as perfect, as joyous, as naturally beautiful as the tree will reach its full measure of fulfillment. No one can keep you from reaching your highest destiny if you will follow your own true pattern of life. No one can live your life for you, for only you hold the key to your own pattern of sublime, glorious, complete fulfillment. Such is the destiny written in the soul of every man and woman who comes to earth. None are without it, that completely individual highway of full expression and glorious achievement.

~Analee Skarin

I am so busy today...

So just have a good one.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com/

The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul. ~Emerson

BAD! Kitty Art Studio

Quote for the day...and a front line report.

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I want to do the right thing, but often I don't know just what the right thing is. Every day I know I have come short of what I would like to have done. Yet as the years pass and I see the very world itself, with its oceans and mountains and plains, as something unfinished, a peculiar little satisfaction hunts out the corners of my heart. Sunsets and evening shadows find me regretful at task's undone, but sleep and the dawn and the air of the morning touch me with freshening hopes. Strange things blow in through my window on the wings of the night wind and I don't worry about my destiny.

~ Carl Sandburg

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Today the world is the victim of propaganda because people are not intellectually competent. More than anything the United States needs effective citizens competent to do their own thinking.

~Dr. William Mather Lewis

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How queer everything is today! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, "Who in the world am I?" Ah, that's the great puzzle!

~ Lewis Carroll

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Just another magic Monday.

I have been working on many things...not many of them art though.

We took the boys bowling yesterday. It was great fun...even if my arthritis is worse today in my painting hand...whatever...my boys were laughing, playing, and really just happy for no reason other than we were together and having fun.

Then we went and played in the arcade there...I'm better at bowling than video games, which isn't saying much.

Fun stuff lemme tell you. :)

They make the world go round for me...all my boys.

I am experiencing a lull in creative juice. I am still not buying any new canvas until I have finished these unfinished works...but I don't really want to finish them...I put them on the easel and then they just sit there...mocking me.

AAaiiieee!

I have been working so much in the day job (intuitive life coaching)...that most days I just don't have any get up and go left at the end of the work day. With the boys being home from school, the day job... keeping up with the house, food preparations (OMG those boys do nothing but eat these days)

and remaining hopeful about the work I am doing for marketing...it's wearing me out I tell you.

I have been watching the news again...the debates...Colen Powell on Meet the Press...ARGH! Someone send help...I am watching the friggin news! I can't seem to stop myself...I know I can't trust anything that is coming through the boob tube...but I seem to be doing it anyway.

Send help...really...I have started talking back to the TV...that's a good sign that I am loosing my grip...or just becoming OLD. I had a ten minute yelling match with the TV yesterday...I don't think I got my point across. Stupid TV.

Mate Man and I celebrated 12 years together last week. We both love books... so we went to the used bookstore and dropped 40 bucks on new books.

In the past 4 days...I have managed to read three new books...hhhmmm I wonder if that has anything to do with the artwork not getting done?

NAAAhhhh...no way.

So far I have read:

Wild Seed - Octavia Butler (wonderful I loved it!)

Enchantment- Orsen Scott Card (OMG...not my favorite Card book)

and

She's come undone- Wally Lamb (it's OK but not as good as This much I know is true...it's kind of depressing really)

It's so much fun to buy new books...I live to gobble words.

Well...I just wanted to check in with everyone...let you know I am still breathing, kicking the tires...and moving forward while standing still.

Have a great week.

Heather

www.badkittyartstudio.com

The will to do, the soul to dare. ~Sir Walter Scott

BAD! Kitty Art Studio

Quotes for the day

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It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

~Theodore Roosevelt

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Hope is a state of mind, not of the world . . . Either we have hope or we don't; it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, and orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons ... Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather and ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

~Vaclav Havel

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I am the master in my fate; I am the captain of my soul.

~W.E. Henley

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I have not been feeling the call of my blog of late. Life isn't always full of stories to tell and I have been tired a lot of late. I think I am taking a break from the blog for right now...I need to concentrate on my work and myself for a bit...so I may not post as often for a little while. The computer is not getting my work done or meeting my emotional needs at the moment...so I step back and let life happen...enjoy the ride as much as possible and take it as it comes.

These are the quotes that I will be working with today in studio, inspiration for the journey ahead.

I hope that you enjoy them too.

Heather

www.badkittyartstudio.com

Ten things Meme

The Ten Things Meme

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OK I got tagged again for another Meme...I am really going to have to bow out of any of these in the future...otherwise I will have nothing left to say soon!

1. 
   

   I have a glass chin. There is a spot on the underside of the point of my chin that if knocked or bumped will knock me out. KO...lights out. All of my kids at least once has head butted me as a baby and knocked me out.




2. 
   
   I drink a gallon of water a day.




3. 
   
   I have been married twice. The first time at 19, it lasted less than one year. Now to Mate Man...we will celebrate our 12th year married this June the 6th.




4. 
   
   I hate to see bare uncovered windows at night. It freaks me out...entirely.




5. 
   
   When I was a child I really believed I could levitate, and I know I did do it...still to this day.




6. 
   
   I don't like other peoples feet...I don't want them touching me with them...eeewww.




7. 
   
   I am legally blind in my right eye because a small stroke I had delivering baby #2. Funny thing is...I have really poor low-light vision in the left eye and really good low-light vision in the right eye now...I used to have trouble in the dark, now I have night vision in my right eye...I keep things a little on the dark side in my living environment and I can see pretty darn good. After I memorize my surroundings...I can walk in the complete dark and still see the outlines of stuff. It's pretty cool actually.




8. 
   
   I will not eat Pork products at all...but I love the smell of bacon cooking.




9. 
   
   I have a birth mark on my upper right thigh that looks like a pig smoking a cigar.




10. 
    
    I can't watch Fear Factor when they eat the gross stuff, it makes me gag.

OK that's my ten. I will not be tagging anyone, if you want to tag yourself...let us know and we will all go read your ten things.

Have a great Friday everyone...only 8 more hours to Friday Happy Hour...this week it's...

Frozen Fuzzy Navels! WhooHoo!

www.badkittyartstudio.com