New Painting: "Lulu" 48 x 36 inches

I just applied for the 'New York Foundation for the Arts' grant in Book Arts and these are the images I choose

In a world where the political, financial, and artistic climates are explosively volatile, this visual journal seeks to explore man’s relationship to the divine. Biblical concepts, scripts, phrases, and poetry interest me as a means to explore various spiritual teachings. These images are extracts from this journal. The pages are horizontally too large to show two of them together, so I have chosen eight individual ones that best demonstrate the thrust of the work. The physical book is two inches thick, bears a green burlap cover, and is bound with both Japanese-style binding and linen tape. It is one-of-a-kind and all hand made. Animals, beasts, dragons, children, fishes, dancing girls, and burning bridges are some of the images that occur throughout. The sensory overload of mixed media is congruent with the intensity of the times.

brooklyn waterfront arts coalition, Sept.13

I'm going to be in my first official group show in my first official gallery here in NYC!! come to check it out:
[Sept. 13-Oct.26 at the Red Hook Pier]www.bwac.org

Two Postures 36 x 48 inches

Save the Elephants, 48" x 44"

This painting came about this past summer, in the midst of a heat wave and news of yet another wild fire consuming the Californian forests. The volatility of our global environment made me focus on animals and their states of consciousness, reflecting on their knowledge –as it were- of the environment’s decline and the repercussions thereof. One can only imagine their connection to a reality (and a concept) that seems ever further away from our species as progress makes its way: Nature.

Bird Meditations 36" x 48"

Woman and Child, 36" x 24"

journal for sale

new painting: asian family eating

its SNOWING today!!

and, here is a mosaic i just finished:

a selection of prose i find to be beautiful and a thought about valentine's day

PROLOGUE

"I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allen Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me."

-Ralph Ellison


tonight juan and i are having a beautiful valentine's day. he is playing the guitar and whistling. last year i cried on valentine's day for some strange reason having to do with expectations and past valentines days and whatever else. this year we said no gifts and no expectations. he made me dinner and bought me a pillow. there have been no tears nor do i expect any- even though we are to have no expectations. but i think this day is about love ... and commercialism and whatever else, sure. but if we have those we love then we just have a day the same as any other day of the week and just say again, i love you, and that is all.

amen to god and to all his amazing blessings. to wisdom and understanding-- that we continue to grow in this every every day.

the marathon

photos from my drawing marathon.

New Paintings

Click on the Link at the Left to see my paintings on Webshots... They are the new stuff from the summer.

Leonardo Da Vinci

"If a painter wishes to see beauty that enraptures him, he has the power to create it. If he wishes to see things that are grotesque... or are laughable, or are truly pathetic, he is the lord and master of them... Whatever lies in the universe--in essence or imagination--he has first in his mind and then in his hand."

i'm working away, but I CAN'T SEEM TO FINISH ANYTHING.

photos of some progress::
building the canvas/ christy helping-

the painted 5'x5'.
cello player, memaw, and some other random things

moving forward

i think i just finished the cello player. and two days ago Juan and i picked up 6 canvases from Israel Horovitz. Apparently Julian Schnable lived in his neighborhood and when he was moving he threw these canvases out. Israel picked them up, knowing someone could use them. One year later thank God they have been waiting for me- size 4' x 3'. tomorrow i'm going to pick up 5' stretchers and to rearrange my room a little. i bought 3 yards of canvas the other day for $10 a yard because the man at the fabric store said i was pretty. i am having such a beautiful time and things seem to be going perfectly. i'm realizing everyday more and more that this is what i'm meant for.

i met with Karen last week- a homeless woman who called me because she saw my artwork and she's an artist too, she needed someone to talk to and thought she could seek help from a fellow artist. i told her i could bring her some art supplies, but i couldn't offer her my place to say. we arranged for a another day to meet, and she didn't come. i asked the clerks at starbucks if they recognized that an older woman, with large breasts, and slightly unkempt hair had come in that morning- they didn't notice anyone who met that description. Karen called again, but i decided not to meet with her anymore. i would like to help, but i think she needs more help than i can provide. [god protect and provide for her, amen.]

today i am ready to begin my painting

the last two days i was preparing the space:
1. taped paper onto the floor
2. made a curtain for my bookshelf so i won't be distracted with titles and letters and colors.
3. bought house paints: burnt sienna, royal blue
4. and a few more pastels/ rembrant soft

questions on my mind:
1. should i buy violet or mix it myself
2. home depot for plywood or utrecht for canvas and stretchers
3. live models? no> national geographic images on my mind

images on my mind:
1. crying girl from newspaper, with shiite mother in background
2. martha clark with her horse
3. memaw/ today i finally painted over my painting of the old woman in venice- i've painted and repainted this thing too many times. to start over... using the polaroid i have of memaw

thoughts to myself:
1. trust in my ability to combine colors
2. the preparations are over/ relax and let out paint
3. converse with god and all will be revealed.

"the smallest of things"

photos from my play last night... i was a pakistani girl living in iraq, trying to bring my brother inside the house