Daily Art- Substance Love

Full painting

full painting from an angle so you can see the transparent redness of the water and the wonderful green lotus pads.

Close up on the golden lotus (that’s washed out in this picture) it is really very deep golden yellow, and the fish is a tan-ish color, not yellow

‘Substance Love’

36″ x 24″

oils

ready to hang

$185.00 + 35.00 Shipping to anywhere inside the USA

BUY this Art Work NOW with PayPal HERE

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

***

Here is the quote that is inspiring it:

When oxygen and hydrogen find one another, their joining produces fiery passion. Out of this fire, water is born. Quaint Victorian chemistry gives us an image of one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms in a fixed molecule that bounces around from place to place. The reality of water is not so orderly. The hydrogen atoms are not owned by any particular oxygen atom. Water is a substance very much in love with itself, and the atoms connect in webs and clusters where oxygen shares around the hydrogen atoms freely, a fluid situation indeed. ~Ian D. Anderson

***

The water is the richest red I have ever been able to achieve in a painting, so that pleases me to no freaking end. The pictures are weird because of the light here today. I wanted to capture the two beautiful butterfly koi at the waters edge during a brilliant blazing red summer sunset. The rays of the diminishing sun turning the shallows into a ruby red stream bed for just that moment. The fish were so much fun to paint, and I want to show them at play. The water is really layers of color so it’s see through, you can see the fishes fins and the movement of the water as they swish along. I know water isn’t supposed to be red, but it’s my world and I liked the idea of a red tinted water world for my frolicking fish.

I hope you all have day filled with imagination and the power to do something with it.

Love to all,

Heather McSmiley Pants

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

$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

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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/
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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

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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

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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- Primordial Boogie

Full painting

Detail

Detail

Primordial Boogie

24″ x 18″

oils

back stapled/reday to hang

$185.00 + 25.00 Shipping to 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 are the quote(s) for this work:

BAD! Kitty Disclaimer

***If you offend easily, please, skip over the second quote.***

“There is an ultimate wildness in all this, for the universe, as existence itself, is a terrifying as well as a benign mode of being. If it grants us amazing powers over much of its functioning we must always remember that any arrogance on our part will ultimately be called to account. The beginning of wisdom in any human activity is a certain reverence before the primordial mystery of existence, for the world about us is a fearsome mode of being. We do not judge the universe.”

Thomas Berry

***

“I firmly intend to leave this existence with a full mind, mouth, heart, stomach, pussy, and imagination.”

~Noelle Questing Essence

***

Enough said. I did this one with intention. It’s a lot like the last post (Enhanced Vision) but done in different colors and feelings. I really had a good time, listening to my dance music (booty-shaking, down and dirty music) and painting. It’s a rare day off for me and I didn’t want to think, I just wanted to paint. So I did.

Hope you enjoy,

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

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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

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Daily Art- New Work-Shedding

Full Work

Detail

Detail

Detail

full image

‘Shedding’

18″ x 24″

oils and mixed media

finished sides/ready to hang

$185.00 + 35.00 Shipping anywhere inside the USA.

Buy Now Here With PayPal

Contact me for a free shipping quote to anywhere outside the USA. International buyers Welcome.

***

Shedding one’s skin.

The snake that cannot shed its skin perishes.

So do the spirits who are prevented

from changing their opinions; they cease to be spirit.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)

***

Shedding, this is the second work I have completed this month.

We seem as a family, to be in a constant state of shedding. So many layers of of what we know, peeled back only to find we don’t know, what we don’t know.

The journey in this life so far, has revealed to me that I don’t need to know what is going to happen next. The reality (for many out here) this reality we are living is fractured, broken from the inside as a society. There are so many new people, ideas, and inventions on our horizon, that it’s ok if we don’t know everything. What is not OK is to sell ourselves short as a people. We do not need all the stuff we want. The world holds the new and shiny out in front of us and tells us…”come on over here, spend money you don’t have so you can have this thing. Don’t mind the economic slavery bit, it won’t hurt much, and after a while you will become numb to it all. You will forget that you once cared for your inner self as much as you care of your shiny things.” We as a family have shed the weight of all that shiny stuff. We will no longer want what we don’t need. Simple.

In that vein, we have taken all the money that has been made in the last 45 days with art sales and built an above ground organic garden. We will be growing almost everything we need for the summer. We are also planning to year round garden, so we will be eating fresh through all the seasons, and canning/freezing the rest for the coldest months. We shed our want for an easy life of convenience, and choose to grow our own food. We are even getting some chickens, right here in our urban garden, we will wait no more for what is needed.

Food prices are insane, gas will be at 4.00 a gallon in a month or two and we can not continue to leave our families well being and state of mind in the hands of the unqualified wealthy. I don’t want to buy a tomato for 3.00 a pound, that was trucked in for at least 1500 miles, because I can grow my own. I will not be dependent on this system for things like food, housing, clothing and vehicles. Self suffincency starts now, not when we can afford it. If it dosen’t start now, it may never get started at all.

Shedding is my homage to the act of letting the world and all it’s noise go. Living in a sustainable way now, and being free of economic slavery. Yes, I got all that from some old dead leaves, tiny mirrors and some oil paint. Pretty groovy huh?

*Grins*

I hope your day is full to the brim with all that you need.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

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Daily Art- New Work- Swingtime

‘Swingtime’

Oils

18″ x 24″

***

“You are the door in the rock that finally swings free when moonlight shines on it. You are the door at the top of the stairs that only appears in dreams. You are the door that sets the prisoner free. You are the carved low door into the Chapel of the Grail. You are the door at the edge of the world. You are the door that opens onto a sea of stars.”

Jeanette Winterson

Source: Lighthousekeeping

***

Well, this is one of the two new works that I have been able to do while this month has raged on it’s path. I mean, it’s been a blur of working my day job 10-12 hours a day 8 days solid with a day off every 9 th day. I’m beat.

This work came about when I read one of Sara’s posts about working with perspective. It sounded good, I wanted to try so I drew out a picture from my childhood memory bank.

When I was knee high, I lived with my grandparents. They had this huge tree in the center of the back yard, and in it my Pa had made a swing for me. The leaves on this tree were huge, and I used to love to swing and hang upside down and watch the light coming trough the leaves…turning every color; like my own personal kaleidescope. As the clear Florida sun beat down, I could watch it turn into rainbows and star bursts of color and not get burned by it. I loved that swing, and my happiest memories of being a little kid are all around my grandparents. They both doted on me and spoiled me rotten. For the longest time I was the first and only grandchild, and I lived with them, so I got a huge amount of their love and attention. It really was great, I admit it. Pancakes every morning and riding around town with Pa every day, he always had candy in the glove compartment, and he’d laugh and say “that’s our little secret, don’t tell Nana!”. Nana was always taking me shopping and teaching me how to be a lady with manners. She made the best chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting in the entire universe. We always had fun, they had time for me, and I loved them so very much. Because I don’t have any pictures of my youth or my people to remeber those good things, I painted my pretty red swing and the kalidescope tree. I painted it the way it felt to be a big eyed heathen child, the darling of my grandparents lives. Bright and sunny, out in the back yard in Tarpon Springs…I was the little girl on the swing, with out a care in the world.

May your day be full and promising.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

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Daily Art- Summers Goddess

“Summers Goddess”

24″ x 36″

oils

Side stapled canvas that has finished (painted) sides

ready to hang

$285.00 + 45.00 shipping to anywhere inside USA

THIS Work is now SOLD! Thank you C. Reed!

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

Here are the Quotes that go with the work:

O Goddess Earth, O all-enduring wide expanses! Salutation to thee. Now I am going to begin cultivation. Be pleased, O virtuous One.

~Ancient Sanskrit Prayer

***

Which is the woman, which the child? The joyous laugh that opens doors, steals sugared moments from the shelf? Or the dreamer mixing metaphors with tears to make a book of self To read aloud in winter’s rooms When summer’s sounds have ceased to bloom?

~Katie Louchheim

The Story: (so, settle in)

This work started out so long ago…

My Birth Mother, she gave me a print, I got to meet her and get to know her briefly in my teens…that would have been almost 19 years ago now. [side note...egads!] This is the image in essence that I have carried with me for all those years. It reminds me of her like nothing else. I rarely hang it in my home spaces anymore…but I have it in storage still to this day.

So, for this painting, one day in late summer last year, I was working with clients, siting on the back porch. I was talking to a client and was absorbed in her issue, the act of problem solving, and I started drawing while I was talking to her.

This image.

It’s not really like the original print, I mean all the elements are there, but I stretched out the original in my minds eye, and the sun’s rays became a sun flower, golden, full of rich promises. The woman became a goddess awakening from the longest slumber, to come fully awake to her reality, life returning only while basking in that sunny promise. Greeting her downy soft white swans and the lotus, just closing for the morning heat, gaze at her, one eyed and knowing. In her bronze mirror she watches as her world defines and colors itself, at her whim, because of her, for her pleasure. A state of grace, her own grace, her rules, her own understanding, the veil lifts….she can allow colors of life to touch her again…so she is painted in gray scale with touches of light yellow, very subtle. She is caught in the act of becoming, awakening, and discovering herself pale and in need of attention. She boldly steps into the lake, pulls an open lotus from the mud and muck, places it against her pale skin and dark unruly hair and admires what is happening to her in the present, the gift of a safe…fully aware moment in time.

I hope you enjoy her.

May your day be full of discovery and adventure.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

support living artists

buy some art today