Daily Art- New Work- Fear Not

Close up the words read: I am not afraid, I was born for this.

Full painting

‘Fear Not’
18″ x 24″ x 2″ (thick)
Oils
To see more of this work please Click HERE (this link will become active as soon as the web page is completed)
***
Here is the quote that inspired the work:
“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
~Audre Lorde
***
‘Fear not’ started after I read this quote, and while not thinking about anything in particular, I sketched this lovely queen. She is ready for battle with her crown of spikes, and over her head are the last words she spoke to herself and the people in her charge before commencing to the good fight. “I am not afraid, I was born for this.” What is she fighting? Why is she wearing this strange crown of silver? Is she marshaling her forces for battle or is she fighting unknown forces within herself? I guess that will be left up to the person who wants to live with her. She had a face in the original drawing, but as we added the oil color ( I say we because I felt her come to life as the color went on the canvas, she worked with me and together we completed this work) as I continued to lay in the background and the color, I sensed she was another painting in my people without a face works. I like the facelessness of these paintings, they allow the people in them to be and become whomever and whatever is needed or seen by the viewer. They allow a resting point in the work for the eye. They allow the symbolism to come to the forefront. I see the attitude and full expression of each person I paint in the tilt of the chin. I want to leave no other trace of myself, except for the exceptional quality of that one line, the chin, to tell you everything about what is going on inside each of their worlds. I will continue to paint in this fashion; the faceless people, because I am compelled to learn why and what is behind basic human nature. I feel that the facelessness of these works allows them to be anything and everything for everyone. They are not ambiguous; they are full of expression and stories to tell. They do not envoke fear, they instead speak to what is common in all humans, under the skin, under the upbringing or nationality, our pasts and our fears. They represent the best of being a human being, that under it all and because of it all; we are one, we are human, and that one small fact could unite the globe in love not fear and war. I guess they are my deepest wish for every human being alive and yet to be born, that we all be free to become what we are meant to be. And that what we become will be valued not shunned, that we are all important so our education as a valuable soul would be the most important element to our growth; that the pretty and the rich, the haves and the have nots will cease to exist. Of course this is all pure fantasy in this reality, but if no one is willing to dream the dream anymore, I welcome the task. I will dream the dream, and I will speak of it often. Freedom for all human kind is my mantra. It is my cause. I will stand on the battlefield, I will wear the crown, I will speak of love, truth, valor, honor and beauty until the day that I pass from this earth. Because of one simple fact; I am not afraid, I was born for this.
***
I finished this work just before leaving for a vacation in the woods by the green lake. I spent the entire vacation thinking and not creating anything at all. I spent the entire vacation laughing, eating, swimming, taking pictures, playing with my family, and enjoying being alive. I come back to this world feeling lighter and ready to get back to work on my life’s mission. I left my stress and fear in the branches of the living oak trees. I tossed my weariness to the bluegills that swam at the lakes edge. I brought back the serenity of green water so warm and clear and yet so cold and dark that you will never see the bottom. I brought back birdsong, insect melodies, and cool breezes off the lake on the hottest of summer days. I brought back myself, the part of me that wans to run from the stress of trying to make it in this world. I came back with a real sense of what “making it” means, looks like and feels to me. I am back inside my skin, comfortable and happy. I spent a little more than a week praying in my church, my church being the temple of Mother Nature. I feel better, a little more relaxed (because I can never really fully relax) and more fearless than ever.
Bring it Universe, I am ready for the next step, wherever that may take me.
***
I hope everyone has been well and good in my absence.
Have a great day one and all.
Heather
http://www.badkittyartstudio.com
buy some art today from a living artist

PS> I have started new art auctions! Check them out at Ebay and at Overstock

Daily Art- Ego Death

‘Ego Death’

18″ x 24″

oils

sides painted black no frame needed

To see more/or to buy this work Click HERE

***

As I search for meaning in my humble life I have fallen into several pits that threaten to trap me in a tar like form of living.

The biggest Beast by far is my own Ego.

Meditation on the subject of how to have

Less Suffering and Torment

in my everyday living has led me to come to understand the important role that Ego plays in the discomfort of living at 100%.

If I am truly giving 100+% to my life and work, then I must learn to push aside the Ego.

Creating room inside my soul for the beauty of success and failure.

I must create a space where judgement and fear do not live. I must make room for my true self; make room for the lightness of being.

That is what this work is about.

Making room for the beauty of living a whole life with a whole heart.

This is a work of manifestation; of the life I am leading and the life I am leaving behind.

Here is the quote that inspired the work,

***

“If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It’s very important to be aware of them every time they come up.”

~Deepak Chopra

***

This work is done in five colors: Ivory black, french ultramarine, titanium white, Payne’s gray and brilliant turquoise. I look forward to releasing this emotion and lesson into the world.

Live Bold and Free today.

***

Honor those who fought and died for that freedom.

Thank you to my (best Grampa in the world) Grandfather for fighting in World War 2, and then again in Korea. Thank you to all the Vet’s from Vietnam.

Thank you to all the Vet’s from the First Gulf War.

Thank you to all our fighting Men and Woman

Struggling to stay alive in the war we are not having right now, may each of you come home safe to your loved ones soon. Thank you for your commitment still today.

Thank you for my freedom to say and pray as I see fit.

Thank you for your service. I hope every person takes a moment in their day today to think and remember our fallen Heroes and Heroins.

Thank you, from one American to another, one Human to another,

I humbly say Thank you.

With A Whole Heart,

Heather

www.badkittyartstudio.com

Daily Art- Surrender from the choir series

Close up

Sorry for the small thumbnails! Please click on images to enlarge them!

‘Surrender’ From the choir series #8

24″ X 36″

oils

ready to hang, needs no frame

Gallery wrapped/back stapled

To see more about this work please click Here

***

Here are the two quotes for this work.

(it’s a big work, it needed more words before

it would shape up and fly right):
***
Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us.
Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.Henri Frederic Amiel (1821 - 1881)
***
Everything is on its way to becoming something else, and therefore, nothing can be held onto. If you see this clearly, if you consider and examine this deeply and fully, then letting go is the only thing left to do. How can you hold on? What is there to hold onto? So the art of spiritual surrender is really the art of not knowing. Then it doesn’t make any difference at all whether you are walking down the street or eating lunch or responding to your email or making love or sitting alone on your couch. This is the first and last time you will ever be doing this. If you truly understand that, it changes everything.

Scott Morrison

***

Good Friday all!

I have been so crazy busy this last week. I do have a new work that is coming along. I hope to finish it this loooong weekend, so maybe I can show it to you all by early next week. It’s supposed to be nice weather here in the Bluegrass, so we will be gardening, playing with the kids, and taking siestas on the back porch.

I hope everyone has a great Holiday weekend, be safe!

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Support Living artists

Go buy some art today

If not mine then I know some really talented, amazing artists, they are over in my blogroll…to the right…check them out

and see what stirs your soul today.

This is my 965th post! Daily Art- Dreaming Summer

Full painting

Close up

Close up

Close up

“Dreaming Summer” from the Choir Series #10

18″ x 24″

Original Oil Painting

Finished Sides, ready to hang

To see more/Buy this Art Work Click Here

International buyers are always welcome, please email me HERE for a free shipping quote to anywhere in the world.

***

Here is the quote that helped the work along:

I paint not by sight but by faith. Faith gives you sight.

~Amos Ferguson

***

This work took some time to tell me when she was ready to be finished. Small details is all she asked for and that’s what I gave her. The textures in the background and the green foreground are subtle, but vital to the energy of the work. Her wings are stilling themselves from her flight so are slightly blurred. Her gown brings the fiery reds and deep oranges of the “anything is possible” of an Indian Summer. She smells of fresh cut grass, sunshine on the lavender fields and the earthy dust of opportunity.

She reminds me that this is not the time to trap myself within virtue. I do not need to be caught on the treadmill of doing what is “right”, I must release my expectations of what I am learning, and allow the growth to happen. Transition isn’t supposed to feel good, or none of us would ever make it through it at all. I am what I am, I am doing what I need to be doing, and the Universe will provide the necessary synchronicities to happen as I continue my act of spiritual faith in myself and the greater power of the Original Creator, faith that I can channel that creative energy, faith that I can use it for good in my life and in every life I may touch, or know; faith in the love for every living thing. I accept what I am asking for, I will work hard, remain true to myself and look no gift horse in the mouth.

So be it.

May your day be filed with turquoise possibilities and golden opportunities.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

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Daily Art- New Work- City Lights

Full Painting

Detail (click to enlarge)

Detail

Detail (click to enlarge)

‘City Lights’

18″x 24″

Oils

Ready to hang, needs no frame, finished sides

$185.00 + 25.00 Shipping anywhere inside the USA

To Purchase This Art Work Click Here

International buyers, please contact me HERE for a free shipping quote to anywhere in the world.

***

Here is the quote that goes with the work:

“This is the fairest picture on our planet, the most enchanting to look upon, the most satisfying to the eye and spirit. To see the sun sink down, drowned in his pink and purple and golden floods, and overwhelm Florence with tides of color that make all the sharp lines dim and faint and turn the solid city to a city of dreams, is a sight to stir the coldest nature, and make a sympathetic one drunk with ecstasy.”

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

***

City Lights was inspired by the car and brake lights on a wet rainy night, driving through downtown Portland. everything was hazy and bright and dripping. The sunset was amazing in all the low clouds and smog, turning everything into flashes of weird other world colors. Neon running down in an alien world. And everyone was rushing, trying to run between rain that drizzles in blowing sheets and then pours like a monsoon once an hour. Darkness that turns life like in splatters of reflective color. Crossing the bridges into the suburbs of our home I looked back and saw the outline of the buildings retreating, melting into the blanket of speckled night.

I hope you enjoy, it’s my first ever city scene. Now I do city scape’s too! *Grins* It’s all about doing something I’ve never done before right now. I am in another experimental phase…I might even try to paint a horse, just in time for the Derby.

***

Update** This Did not/Has Not happened as of yet!! *double snap* I can’t seem to do what I ought to do ever. KY people have been asking me for more than a year to paint horses, or if not that then they ask, if I paint horses. I just can’t seem to do it, send help, I think it’s a disease. I seem to have a deadly case of “don’t tell me what I ought to do”

What the heck, I guess I’ve lived with it this far, forget the help, just send money.

Have a wonderful day all. Happy Wednesday.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Support living artists

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PS! I Sold another Fairy World the other day, Patience is now gone to live in her new home! Yippeee!

Daily art- Thrive from the Choir Series

Full Painting

Click on images to enlarge

“Thrive” from the Choir Series #12

24″ x 36″

oils

Back Stapled/ready to hang with finished sides

$285.00 + 45.00 (shipping is expensive on this painting because it’s over-sized to ship, this is large wall art) Shipping to anywhere inside the USA

To Purchase this work Click HERE

***

Here are the quotes that inspired the work:

THRIVE:

“In a perfect world perhaps we would all see more clearly. But this is not a perfect world, and it is enough to hope that each of us will share our talents, and find the balance between greed and benevolence that will allow us to live and thrive and help the world around us grow.”

~Kent Nerburn Source: Letters to My Son: A Father’s Wisdom on Manhood, Life, and Love, Page: 40

Survive:

Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. . . . The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.

Frank Herbert (1920 - 1986)

Source: Dune

***

Survival. Thriving.

That’s what we all really want, right?

In this life, this reality, it’s about more than just surviving. We all want to survive, but then to Thrive as well. Free people are given to bouts of wanting to be all they can be. We all want a reason to keep doing what we do. We work to survive, and if are lucky we get to even like or love what we do that makes this thing called money. I know I do. I enjoy my work. It’s like therapy that I get paid to do. When I make sales that is…we have a joke round here, we don’t call art money Income, we call it If-come.

This work is about working out the logistics of a life that is bigger than I am. In a world that is bigger than I am. With problems that are bigger than I am. In finding the ways to feed and keep my family surviving, and the hope alive (for ourselves and our kids) that someday that will include thriving in a money way too.

I think we are thriving, as a family. We love being together, I mean it sucks ass that Mate Man lost his job and we are freaking out about every little thing all the time. (*news update, Mate Man did NOT get the Job we were hoping he would, and we are still looking*)

Truth be told, we are better when we are altogether, not because of co-dependency but because of faith and trust. I can count on him, the same goes for him. No matter what, I can count on him. It’s a nice feeling. It’s what reminds me that I am already doing more than just surviving this world, so are my kids, we are all thriving, because we found and make love happen. Because this family unit, the place where you can always go, and everyone is glad you are there. Where you can royally screw the pooch, and people will still love you through it all. That’s a miracle for people like us, people who came from what we came from. Real, Lasting, true Love in our lives is more than what we ever asked for, for many years more than either of us thought we deserved…the rest of this reality is logistics.

When I told Mate Man that I wanted to stop being a popular garden designer and become a full time artist, you know what he said? That sounds good babe, how do we make that happen for you? Never was there ever even a hint that it would not be possible for me to do what I wanted/needed to do. That’s love. When he said he wanted/needed to get out of Portland, that he wanted to try and find a simpler life, that he really just wants to be a organic farmer, and be at home when his kids come through the door, and feed us from his own hard work, that he had found (farming) and lost his passion (our farm), that he hated working in the professional world, that he hates compromising himself and his values for the sake of money…there was never any hesitation from me to him about that…it was OK babe, I understand your need, how can we make that happen? We are still working on that for him, for his dream to come true, but it will, because we are tough to beat as a team, we are unstoppable. (*news update, we have gone ahead with dream building and have started an Urban Organic garden, the lesson here was: bloom where you are planted! Mate man is happier with his garden well under way and we have even harvested three times from the salad greens beds!)

We have cultured a life where, Unconditional Love and support for the people we are in the moment and the next moment and the next, is always available. That’s what this work is about. No, we have never had it made, or had it easy, but we have always thrived together. We have always survived (sometimes better than others for sure but we are still standing so that counts for something).

I find I can still thrive in/under such conditions.

It’s nice.

I am no longer so small.

The world no longer so large.

I am still small,

the world still large.

I still Thrive.

What makes you thrive?

When the world is looming, when the pressure is on, when the thumb screws are been turned, what makes you go beyond mere survival and thrive?

Here’s to the thriving,

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

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PS. What’s that? You can’t afford my works right now in your life? I do offer no interest Art-Lay-A-Way, you CAN afford my work. And if you take a look around I’m one of the very, very few self representing artists that offer such a service. (Actually I’m the only one I know of) Check it out, now everyone can afford original fine art!

Daily Art- New Work- Behold! Modern Man

Behold! Modern Man

24″ x 60″ (including the tail)
Canvas itself is 24″ x 30″
Finished sides, needs no frame
oils, mixed media (lots & lots)

Behold! Modern Man is a multi-mixed media event.
A work of art it is, but it is also an event unto itself.
It’s a work that you must see in person, you need to touch it, you need to
see the shadow the kite tail makes against your wall, you need to see how
the prayer flags move in the slightest stirring of air currents, you need to
know what they have written upon their frail surfaces.

Honestly I have found things that over the weeks as I have worked this
message in a bottle out of my head, that I don’t remember putting in.
It all done in, flash moments, work came together.

I found the vintage toy paper flag at a tag sale years ago.
Folded and mostly intact.
Aged, used, saved and loved.

The vintage, real not copies, ration stamps from the world war years came
next, they too had been saved, stored, kept and horded; themselves still a
symbol of some faceless person, of their fear for and love of those in their
care.

The clay project rejects came out of a box a few weeks back, I remember
when I was packing them, why are you taking up limited room for rejects?
Because I am a lover of rejected things. Simple.
Now their use is clear, of course they were headed to the bluegrass in a
brown cardboard box; their truths to be told here in this event. Proud they
are not the side show; the freak tent; they are sculptures of symbolic
meaning, sacred totems, not rejects, no not at all.

Toys, I love small plastic or otherwise toys.
Pocket stuff.
I collect it every where I go.
Mementos of lives lived.

****
To Read more about the work, and see more pictures of this work including lots of close ups, then CLICK HERE.

Have a great day!

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Support Living Artists

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Daily Art- New Work- Woman Work

‘Woman Work’

18″ x 24″

oils and mixed media

There is a link at the bottom of this post to see more detail pictures.

Here is the quote for this work:

“Don’t shut yourself up in a band box because you are a woman, but
understand what is going on, and educate yourself to take part in the
world’s work, for it all affects you and yours.”
~Louisa May Alcott (1832 - 188
***
Woman Work is a little doodle I have been playing with for a few weeks. I’d
stop by every once in a while, between loads of laundry, working my day job,
tending to life, creating in the studio and comfort giving; give it a little tweak
here, and a little sparkle there. It’s either the worst mixed media work I have
ever done or it’s just busy like my life and maybe I’m not always so
comfortable with that fact.
Probably the later of the two.
It’s got a little of everything I had on or near the work table at the time on it.
Flat backed glass marbles of clear, light blue, dark blue and ruddy ruby red.
There are mirrors both round and square. There is super fine glitter, *Gasp!
Glitter in fine art, yes it’s true and there is a Santa Clause* I used a blue
crystal glitter in the blue areas and in the red a fine red gold. I have got a
bucket of paint pens on the table so they got used willy-nilly.
The images are all forms of the ancient expressions for goddess or woman
*creator/giver of life*. I made template a while back to carve some stamps
with and never got around to carving the stamps…so the template got
thrown around too. Work/Life is messy sometimes, and bright and hopeful
other times; and sometimes those moments are right next to each other.
Today, I decided I could not fit or add another thing to it, so I know it’s done.
That simple.
That complex.
That’s Woman Work for ya.
I hope you enjoyed and have a great day.

To Purchase/see more pictures Click Here.

Happy Friday everyone!

Heather

Daily Art- Memories

Click on Image to enlarge

***

‘Memories’

18″ X 24″

Oils and mixed media

Finished sides, ready to hang

$125.00 + 30.00 shipping to any where inside the USA

(special blog price)

BUY This Art Now With PayPal

International and Outside the USA buyers please email me HERE for a free shipping quote.

Email me HERE for Purchase.

***

This work has real leaves and the imprints of those leaves,

it makes it hard to tell what is real and what is an impression…

This work has tiny round mirrors to catch your image in,

shadows of fast moving water in the winter,

puddles played in on cloudy spring days and

the golden bronze colored memories of youth. (and of summertime, when it’s hot!)

***

Here is the quote that inspired the work:

My house says to me, “do not leave me, for here dwells your past.” And the road says to me, “Come and follow me, for I am your future.” And I say to both my house and the road, “I have no past, nor have I a future. If I stay here, there is a going in my staying; and if I go there is a staying in my going. Only love and death change all things.”

~Kahlil Gibran

***

Have a great day!

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com/

Support Living Artists

Buy some Art Today

Daily Art- New Work- City Lights

Full Painting

Detail (click to enlarge)

Detail

Detail (click to enlarge)

‘City Lights’

18″x 24″

Oils

Ready to hang, needs no frame

$155.00 + 25.00 Shipping anywhere inside the USA

Buy This Art Now With PayPal

International buyers, please contact me HERE for a free shipping quote to anywhere in the world.

***

Here is the quote that goes with the work:

“This is the fairest picture on our planet, the most enchanting to look upon, the most satisfying to the eye and spirit. To see the sun sink down, drowned in his pink and purple and golden floods, and overwhelm Florence with tides of color that make all the sharp lines dim and faint and turn the solid city to a city of dreams, is a sight to stir the coldest nature, and make a sympathetic one drunk with ecstasy.”

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

***

City Lights was inspired by the car and brake lights on a wet rainy night, driving through downtown Portland. everything was hazy and bright and dripping. The sunset was amazing in all the low clouds and smog, turning everything into flashes of weird other world colors. Neon running down in an alien world. And everyone was rushing, trying to run between rain that drizzles in blowing sheets and then pours like a monsoon once an hour. Darkness that turns life like in splatters of reflective color. Crossing the bridges into the suburbs of our home I looked back and saw the outline of the buildings retreating, melting into the blanket of speckled night.

I hope you enjoy, it’s my first ever city scene. Now I do city scape’s too. It’s all about doing something I’ve never done before right now. I am in another experimental phase…I might even try to paint a horse, just in time for the Derby. What the heck.

Have a wonderful day all.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Support living artists

buy some art today

Daily Art- Contemplation in Red

Contemplation in red

full painting

(the upper left hand corner of this painting is being washed out by my inept attempts at picture taking, sorry)

close up

‘Contemplation in Red’ from the faces series #3
24″ x 36″
oils
finished sides, no frame needed, ready to hang
$185.00 + 45.00 shipping to anywhere inside the USA (it’s large art so it’s a little more to ship)

BUY This Art Now With PayPal

International/outside the USA, buyers please email me here for purchase or a free shipping quote to anywhere in the world

***

Here is the quote that was the inpsiration for the work:

“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
***
Today I go to work with hope in my corner.
The fever pitch of working means I don’t have a lot to report about.
I see my kids as if they are waking dreams,

floating through the studio with kisses and needs to be met.

I hug my mate as if he were a visitor,

surprising me with his arrival upon my doorstep.

I eat every once in awhile and sleep too little.

I stand under the running water and forget why I am there.

I am tired and my body aches.

Possessed by the effort to work harder,

driving myself to the finish line of something to be proud of.

Waiting for no one, taking no prisoners, allowing no distractions…

the paint flows like wine, and my creative thoughts pile up on themselves like driftwood on the shore.
I just work harder is all…I just don’t stop.
I know that some of these new works are the best I have done to date.
Others… not so much. Such is life.
I have little or no interest in them after they leave my easel…
I do not care what happens to them now…

orphans they are.
I am just glad to be rid of them from my minds eye;
like the feeling of removing a large thorn from under a nail.
The end result is not what I am after.
Living in these moments of being one with the work…

that is what ignites my inner flame…

that is what matters most…

being burned alive in the flame.
Being burned Alive.
Charred bones in the calabash bowl.
I am grateful to work myself hard

and press myself for my best.
Today I work for the knowing.

I work for the joy.
Leaving ego on the side of the road,

with her good buddies fear and doubt.

I told them all to find a ride with someone else…

there’s no room at the inn for you…
Beat it.
Waking in the morning,
the smells of oil paint and sweat are
like honeysuckle on a hot summers day,
sweet and inviting.
Today I work with hope in my corner.
***
I hope you all have a good day…
I am off to the salt mines.
Happily swinging my pick and shovel.
Heather
http://www.badkittyartstudio.com/
Support Living Artists
Buy some Art Today

PS> You must go to Vikki’s blog today and see the amazing painting she has just finished…literally it will blow your mind with it’s awesomeness! Honestly, Just Do It!

Daily Art- New Work- I don't know why...

full painting

detail

background detail

‘I don’t know why she can’t keep her clothes on in the woods’

36″ x 24″

Oils

Finished sides ready to hang

$285.00 + 45.00 shipping to anywhere inside the USA.

Buy this Art Now with PayPal Here

International buyers are always welcome, please email me HERE for a free shipping quote to anywhere in the world.

Here is the quote for this work:

“Be naked in the splendor of the truth of who you are.”
~ Gangaji ~

***

This work is a self portrait. I have this strange need to be naked when ever I step into the woods. I can’t explain it, well not really, but as you know dear reader what comes next is my attempt to do just that.

I consider the earth and her woods, oceans, and other natural places to be my own personal church, or chapel. My idea is that my Universe, My God would want me clothed in what I came with…my beautiful skin. We do a lot of hiking and woods walking wherever we live. It is not uncommon to come across me hiking in the woods with nothing on but my walking shorts, my shoes and my backpack…if it’s a populated trail (lots of people) I’ll find a trail that is less traveled, find a couple of non-irritating leaves, place them over my boobs, hold them in place with my backpack straps…and hike away. If I can find a little out-of-the-way place near moving water…I will be naked in two seconds flat. My kids and Mate Man have learned that I have no pride or shame about being naked outdoors. Yes, we have encountered people along the paths we have walked, that were not as comfortable with my nakedness as I am…but that’s not my problem to control or change. Now don’t get me wrong…I’m not pubic hair nude walking around for every kid or person in the world to see…but I’m a lot more naked than most. Once you get over the way you look to others, being in your own skin ain’t bad at all. I love the feel of wind and sun on bear skin that spends most of it’s life under clothes. I love the feel of water on my bare bum…what can I say, I’m a nature girl.

These days I don’t get to do as much out in nature time as I would like. I have not been naked in the woods in too many years. It’s getting to me, I tell you…it’s getting to me. So, I painted naked woods time. I painted the rich color of green, it comes in hundreds of hues out in the woods, and I used my favorites…all of them. I painted the way mountain water, spring cold and fresh feels; to me it feels blue, no matter the color or clarity of the water, so my favorites in the cool blues are represented too. The hair…yes, I have had fire engine red hair, this seems to be one of my more subtle burgundy/violet moments. I have naturally very light brown hair…yawn, boring. I wear it deep and purple/burgundy now a days, it soots me. In sunlight, it has a warm crimson effect, so I am punk rock in the bright light of day, that too soots me.

She is suspended in what I call the eye game. When I was a kid, I learned that I could play a game with defocussing my eyes. So, where ever I was I could let the world go soft, fuzzy around the edges and mostly made of blocks of colors and light dark spaces. I did this so often as a kid, that I do it reflexively today. I do it all the time. I can maintain complete attention to whatever is going on around me, but I tend to reduce visual imagery down to tone, texture, light, dark, mid tones, and base color values. I know that as a child this way of seeing the world was my escape hatch. It has saved my bacon many times; it means I like to distance myself from my reality. Looked at in the text book way, the educated/doctor way…this is not a good thing. This is something that makes me weird and probably in need of medication. In reality…I just see more than most people know is even available.

I see the “weave” of this life. I know how flimsy it really is. I can see the veil…I can also see through it. Yeah, I can see by re- reading what I just wrote, this truth about myself, how others could react in really negative ways. I learned to keep my eye-game to myself, early on and not tell people about all the wondrous things that are right here…right here next to us, it’s the veil they want…I have learned to give this world the veil. Yup, there it is…I see it clearly too! Ok, I’m normal, I’m just like everyone else. For the longest time, I wanted to make sure nobody knew I was different. I hear stuff, I see stuff that other people don’t. But, I am not crazy or delusional. Yeah, I know…it’s a little much to swallow, plain fact is that it’s also true.

This work is homage to what I live with; the gray matter that I will spend this life with. It is homage to how I see things and myself. I am everything and I am small too. In my world, green is alive and dancing with the blue air and water. Magic is afoot. Being naked is a good thing. The world embraces my individualism and rewards my willingness to see and share that vision with you, the world at large. This is me world, naked in the woods. Loving every minute of it.

I hope your day is colorful and full of joy.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Support living artists

Buy some art today

PS> I have not been doing art auctions for the past couple of weeks, because funds were so tight. I started a new batch of art auctions yesterday! No reserves and low opening bids…Come on, Check them out!

Click HERE to see this weeks BAD! Kitty Art Specials!

***

Daily Art- Wall Sculpture- Core

‘Core’

24″ X 30 X 2″

Thick Gallery wrapped canvas

Oils & Sculpted plaster

***

‘Core’ AKA: “A River Runs Through my Core”

This is the quote that guided the creation overall:

***

What I dream is an art of balance, of purity and serenity,

devoid of troubling and depressing subject matter…

a shooting, calming influence on the mind,

something like a good armchair which provides

relaxation from physical fatigue.

~ Henry Matisse

***

This is a rich work, the colors are deep and the tone is vibrant.

I used plaster and while it was still wet I laid in the deep leather red colors,

let it dry and then laid them in again.

The vibrant blues in the center

were inspired by my frequent walks on

the river banks and oceans of the Great Pacific NW.

I often went to the waters edge in those days,

and screamed until my throat felt raw, releasing fears and tensions that would build up inside.

I always started out with my terrific Tarzan yell, warm ups for the deep throat screams that I would later do till I cried.

I do a mean Tarzan, let me tell you, it can be heard for miles.

I learned through this exercise

that inside myself there was a river,

so deep and so wide that I may never reach the sides or see the bottom. Sometimes I can isolate myself,

stand on my little island in the middle of myself,

and feel really alone, but like in this work,

if I draw a circle around that island inside,

I can find peace and protection,

without living there;

living a new life, one that is not-all-alone.

I enjoyed working on this piece,

it was a freeing experience to let it go and stand outside myself.

Learning to instead welcome the person I am today,

embracing what I know, and the lessons yet to be learned.

Finding my ‘core” person and loving her…warts and all. It’s not an easy practice, learning to give myself the same level of acceptance that I willing give to other people. Learning that I deserve to treat myself as kindly as I do those that I love. Accepting that my way of loving, those who mean the most to me, my way of loving isn’t easy. My way of loving is sometimes hard, exacting, demanding; a swift moving stream, currents deep and unimaginably strong…it’s undeniable. My love can tell you no, and speak the hard words of truth that are needed at times. My love can hold you, comfort you, embrace you as you are, my love is dependable and eternal. If I would go to any extreme for those that I love in this world, then why did it take so long to learn how to learn to love my real self?

Because she had to be rescued from the waters of this reality, drug to the shore of hesitancies, and pummeled back into life and given permission to sit on the beach forever, or get back in the water…and have enough faith to know that she can now swim.

I own my past.

I own my present.

I own what the future holds.

I own only myself.

I own nothing.

I own everything.

I am the river,

the waters of life itself

run trough my veins, my core.

Now, the beauty is…I know how to swim.

***

This is a large work, on a extra thick canvas

with painted finished sides, it needs no framing.

The colors are so terrific, (if I do say so myself *grins*)

that the last time I was at a show with it,

the owner of the gallery was in process of opening

a small art deli and coffee shop,

and she asked to use this work for

the color inspiration and design for the new space.

I of course said sure, and we worked together to

re-create the pattern in the room including the walls, floor, and ceiling.

I looked great and felt wonderful to know that I had inspired,

with my work something so cool and embracing for people to re-charge and feed themselves.

Plaster painting is something I am passionate about,

I love to create wall sculptures and

combine the results with my painting skills.

This is not just a painting, it is also wall sculpture.

I hope you enjoy.

Have a wonderful day,

Heather

***

PS> I have not been doing art auctions for the past couple of weeks, because funds were so tight. I started a new batch of art auctions yesterday! No reserves and low opening bids…Come on, Check them out!

Click HERE to see this weeks BAD! Kitty Art Specials!

***

The fine print:

‘Core’

24″ x 30″ X 2″ (it’s big, big)

Plaster and oils on canvas

(it’s really not as heavy as it looks)

Finished sides, ready to hang

$255.00 + 45.00 shipping to anywhere inside the USA

BUY this Art Now With PayPal

Please contact me HERE for purchase or a free shipping quote to anywhere in the world.

***

www.badkittyartstudio.com

Support living artists

buy some art today

Daily Art- New Work- Feed Me

“Feed Me”

Full painting

Close up detail

Detail

Full painting

“Feed Me”

24″ x 36″

oils

finished sides, this one is a side stapled canvas, but it’s been painted out so that you can not see them at all.

Ready to hang

Here is the poem that inspired the work:

***

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,

and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief.

I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.

For a time
I rest in the grace of the world,

and am free.

Wendell Berry (1934 -)

***

I have been working on this one for the last couple of days. My hands have really been giving me fits with this cold wet weather (which the worst for arthritis sufferers) but I felt the urge to return to the studio anyway. So, I stuck the fattest handled brush I have into my claw like hand and painted.

I’m really happy with the way this turned out. The texture looks like mosaic papers, and the colors flutter in the light…like the fuzzy little chicks are fluffing themselves out. I like the movement.

It is representative of how I am feeling right now too, of course. I am literally asking for the Universe to Feed Me any opportunity that it sees fit to throw down in front of me. I’m not asking for a hand out in this world…but I’ll gladly take a hand up kinda opportunity if it came my way.

I am willing and able to learn and capable of active listening. Try me.

With spring upon us and the birds outside my window singing more than ever…I thought these birds could represent my willingness to sing for my supper, and take with gratitude what may come my way.

I am willing to work.

Nothing that happens in this life must ever be able to derail my growth. I have worked too hard and been through too many tar-pits to let something as base as money stand in the way of what I am building here. This art, these works…they are my living legacy, my story, proof that I was here and I contributed to this thing called life and humanity.

I am a machine, programmed for love and living.

May these baby birds sing the song of hope I carry forward into eternity and I hope inspire that faith and hope in those who witness them.

***

May your day be blessed with all that you need.

Thanks for being here today.

Heather

the fine print:

“Feed Me”

24″ x 36″

finished sides, ready to hang

oils

$199.00 + shipping

Please Contact me HERE for purchase or for a free shipping quote to anywhere in the world.

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Support Living Artists

Buy Some Art Today

****NEW ART AUCTIONS****

PS> I have not been doing art auctions for the past couple of weeks, because funds were so tight. I started a new batch of art auctions yesterday! No reserves and low opening bids…Come on, Check them out!

Click HERE to see this weeks BAD! Kitty Art Specials!

Daily Art- New Work- Enhanced Vision

Full Painting

detail

detail

detail

“Enhanced Vision’

24″ x 18″

oils

back stapled/finished sides

ready to hang

$185.00 + 25.00 Shipping anywhere inside the USA

BUY Now with PayPal Here

International buyers always welcome, please email me HERE for a free shipping quote to anywhere in the world.

***

Here is the quote for this work:

“Clearly, the shift to a higher form of consciousness could not happen passively. The transformation of consciousness requires not only personal work, but direct and surgically precise engagement with ecological, political, psychological, commercial, technological, and spiritual aspects of reality — as Nietzsche noted, the deed creates the doer, “as an afterthought.” It is inconceivable that a movement to a state of higher consciousness could take place in a subconscious murk. Such a shift could take place in only one way: in the full light of consciousness. To accomplish this would require the complete engagement of our will and our higher cognitive faculties. We would have to decondition ourselves from negative programming, overcoming distractions and self-justifications and egocentric goals — to “abandon abandonment” and “escape escapism,” as I was once told in a dream — in order to act for the greater good. At the moment, it is unclear how much sacrifice will be necessary. As futurist thinker Barbara Marx Hubbard writes in her book, Conscious Evolution:

If the positive innovations connect exponentially before the massive breakdowns reinforce one another, the system can repattern itself to a higher order of consciousness and freedom without the predicted economic, environmental, or social collapse….If the system could go either way, a slight intervention to assist the convergence of the positive can tip the scales of evolution in favor of the enhancement of life on Earth.

If our current civilization were to disintegrate — a possibility that should not seem outlandish, considering the New Orleans flood, peak oil theories, and numerous ecological factors — we might face an apocalyptic passage, forcing us to evolve at high speed. Breakdown and breakthrough may happen simultaneously.”

Daniel Pinchbeck

Source: 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, Page: 244

***

When I am working, this is the kind of thing I see inside my head. Sometimes one of the possibilities steps forward, and I am granted a clear view of the subject and I will paint that out. Sometimes I just see the cloud of possibilities and I paint out that feeling, what ever it may be. When I started this work, I was talking on the phone, doing my job, and I started doodling on a canvas that was nearby. I rarely draw anything out first, a simple sketch is all that is needed most times, and in fact I don’t practice my drawing skills near enough. To make it easier to practice I have taken to doodling on canvas instead of paper first. When I do feel like drawing, it’s an in the moment thing, I can rarely re-produce those drawings with the same intensity or clarity.

Back to this work; I was kicked back at my desk, talking and drawing. When I am working with a client…I use the same interior image as I do when I am setting up a session in studio. I didn’t realize that until I finished this work.

Isn’t that funny? To be using the same interior landscape for two different types of work? Well, maybe it’s just funny that I can go through my life feeling like I am super aware of everything, every emotion and situation with an in the moment attitude, and yet just now find out that this is my blank slate imagery? Eh, who knew?

The colors change as I work with clients, the colors tell me where each person needs light shed, or knots untangled. When I need information from the universe for these people, and for my art work, the images will step out, and revel its truths. Sometimes when I am working for clients, these images turn into the person they are wanting to connect with, in this reality or other levels of energy. I can engage in information sharing with these energies, translating, if you will for the client. When I am working on a painting/creation it happens much the same way, except they rarely turn into people, more often they are symbolic messages from my subconscious back brain. When I can let myself go, and just float inside my head, I watch the changing colors and soft edged images that come up. When I started doodling, my hand drew without my brain engaged or judging and I ended up with my internal magic lava lamp on the canvas.

I thought that was cool beans, so I painted it in the colors of that day. The highest realms of information are deep blues and rich turquoise. Below that, the next layers are done in velvet purples, fading into musty greens. The lowest layers are done in creamy white, high blues and the dusty greens. The background is not white, but a soft off-white with buttery yellow hues.

Happy Friday, have a great weekend.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Support Living Artists
Buy Some Art Today