kndy’s Neighborhood

Here are some sketches from last week completed whilst watching one son blow straw bubbles in his hot cocoa and the other son dancing to The Cure in his Hulk costume.

Whoa, doggies. So much snow here in Flagstaff. 26" last count. That means loads of shoveling and lots of toasty beverages.

I am considering entering the Mail Me Art competition (http://mailmeart.com/going-postal/submit-mail-art/), so I've been dabbling again in (EEK) acrylics. Been a long time since I've tried that medium. What's interesting is that my hand is applying watercolor techniques with acrylics... and I'm digging it. We'll see what happens. It's all school to me - all the foibles and weird experiments are so much fun, and since I can't be in college right now - THIS is my college. Or, maybe this is my built-in excuse for making a lot of tragic painting mistakes, the ones that I can't even stand to look at. Haha.

 

Here I am. House smells of stir fry and so do my clothes. I'm jonesing for some rice tea. I've had a crazy fixation on hot sauce lately and consumed one two bottles of Tamazula this week all by myself. Not sure why. My little boy was super wild today and I'm not sure why that is either. I'm about to start a sci-fi book called The Child Garden. I hear my little town will be covered in a couple feet of snow tomorrow. Wheeeee! There's a good chance I will be sledding on Tuesday. I wish for more time than I have. I don't hardly ever wish a day will go by fast. Not even the bad ones. Well, maybe the really bad ones.

I've had a lot of characters flitting about upstairs in my mind. Here are just a few.

The one above is for Illustration Friday's topic: Crunchy.  Funny, huh?

Memories and floating and wishing and feeling all sorts of oceanic.

Happy Halloween, everyone! Hope you enjoy the festivity of giddy little ghosts, dragons and fairies at your door. Be sweet and give them a treat.

Here's a treat for you!

"Brother and sister", 15" x 14 1/16", watercolor, India ink and pastel, 140 lb paper.

The sky opens up tonight and down comes our first snow. I see the space of air swirling between the swaths of white. I am not ready for this, I think. Just not yet. Later, okay. The boys tromp around and come inside. Then out again. And back in. The cocoa is made, the real kind like my mom makes. Spaces in the heart open up. I think about when I was seven and my sister and my brother lived in a big white house with stained wallpaper. Think there were pictures of teapots and flowers on that wallpaper. The hubby calls and he will be late. But it's fine because this soup gets better if it cooks longer. I feel ragged. I feel swell. I think about heaven and hell and how it is all so weird to categorize a life after like that. Here I am and I am in love with people and if I don't like someone, well I will eventually because it is my nature to try and try to make it all right, to hope beyond hope, at least inside my heart. And hell doesn't belong to anyone. Nor does heaven. Those are a fool's gambles. More spaces open up in my mind. There's a little Nick Drake on the player now. Before that, The Clash. The soup is too watery, so I mix in some potatoes, flour and water. And butter. I think good thoughts because that all goes in there too with the ingredients. I think of Rakel and how I love her. Darling. And now... there's another space and it is for me to step into. The night opens up and soon I'll be sleeping in it with some dreams, a jumble of me of you of friends from long ago of soup of spiders of kisses of snow of boys of husband of love of....

Forest.

Working with a completely new palette was very exciting. This is a new painting titled "Scape for perseverance". It is 18 1/4" x 17" and created in watercolor, India ink and pastel. The idea of white spaces bumped around in my head for a couple of days, but I didn't know how that would come together. I often don't plan out a painting... unless it is an actual assignment. The spontaneity of allowing color to appear in its time is the stuff of heaven, I think, for many artists. It is for me, anyway.

I'm not a Luddite, nor am I fond of ludditic kinds of extremism... I do embrace the wonders of new invention, technology, new medicine, our generation, right now. I think it is important to be in touch with where the world is heading and not drown in some romantic vision of what was. That being said, to swing to the other extreme would be a travesty also. I like to think about the genetic and evolutionary imprint that shapes life now. There is a collective subconsciousness to respect. How does this new world we live in merge and integrate with an older ancestral, spiritual, cultural, mythological fabric of humanity?

This is a new painting finished today. "I specter you machine", 12 1/4" x 8 1/4", watercolor, India ink and pastel. Also can see this at http://charmagnecoe.com.

I have become inundated with, with... LIFE. Whoaaaaa. Getting used to the preschool schedule and driving back and forth and raising a two and four year old keeps me on my toes. Something so simple and yet so rewarding we do as a family is hiking in our Coconino Forest. It is a treasure to us. I know how fortunate we are to live here when I breathe in the woods.

Nature is where I find a pure form of spirit, god, transcendence, connection. It is also where my boys find themselves and can be wild and yet, I sense that quiet stillness within them. There is where I go to church and am rejuvenated.

Here is some black and white work from my sketchbook. Some from home and some from the road.

Really like this little video for the song, "Until the earth begins to part" by Broken Records. If you're a fan of stop-motion animation like I am, you'll see what I mean. Plus, 4AD as a label is seriously cool.

Take care, y'all.
C