Paint Party in the Muse Studio!

I thought I'd share a snapshot of my own personal Paint Party. As you know, I've been making a few minor changes around here, including building a new and improved website. This is photo I took for one of the pages. My new site should be up in running in about a week, so stay tuned!

The Spring of Proserphina

Proserpina 12 X 12 collage and reverse painting on plexiglass.

Proserpina is an ancient goddess whose story is the basis of a myth of Springtime. She's the Roman equivalent of Persephone, and her name comes from proserpere meaning to emerge. You can read more about Proserphina here. I am really, really having fun combining my loves of painting and collage in this new medium. So far I've only done fairly small pieces, but as soon as I can find a source of large sheets of plexiglass, watch out!

for Inspiration Avenue

And Now For Something Different

Brigid's Fire 16" X 20" acrylic and collage on plexiglass

For the last month I've been playing around reverse painting on plexiglass, and I completed this little wild thing just in time for Imbolc over at Inspiration Avenue. According to the ancient Celtic calendar "Imbolc is a celebration of the first signs of spring: the melting of January snows, the first blooms, the heaviness of animals expecting birth. It is a time of awakening, of new life, of new potential. A rebirth of light." It's also the time of Brigid's Feast Day; Brigid or Brighid is a triple goddess: fertility, poetry, and earthly fire, as well as one of the three patron saints of Ireland. You can read more about her here.

Decatur Art Walk

The perfect antidote to a chilly, gray Saturday: a stroll through one of the most walkable neighborhoods in Atlanta


Recently nominated as "The Tastiest Town in the South," Decatur is known for its coffee shops and restaurants. Our first stop was Dancing Goats Coffee Bar




where I had a delicious Chai tea latte.


As you can see, some of my large pieces are hanging out here too.


We strolled down Ponce de Leon Avenue, past my favorite music store


and took a right on Church Street


where we popped into Mingei World Arts to browse



before heading on to see some of the outdoor murals located throughout Decatur.




We ended up back at The Decatur Market and Gallery, where you can find the most unique collection of paintings, pottery, textiles, photograhy, and jewelry created by emerging Atlanta artists and where you can see my art in the front window this month!

Bayou at Buccatuna

5" X 12" acrylic, oil pastel, ink, charcoal, and marker on panel for Paint Party Friday

This little one is the very last from the series of paintings I created this summer after a visit to my childhood stomping grounds in south Mississippi. I still cannot get enough of this gold, magenta, red viloet, and black color combination, although I'm pretty sure I never saw a sunset like this even on Buccatunna Creek. The mystery of those forested wetlands and the dark shallows of the swamps inspired this painting, just the same. Bayou at Buccatunnna is currrently available at Lucas Road Fine Art and Jewelry, and, if you're interested in purchasing it, you can just give my friend Neubern a call (601) 483-0028.

Scenes From the Show

Lucas Road Fine Art and Jewelry, 2211 5th Street, Meridian, MS (601)483-0028

It Is My Nature

.... to change! Just when I think I'm gonna focus on abstract paintings, I take a notion (as my mother would say) to do something entirely different. So, here's a great big landscape I finished during the Christmas holidays.


Lowlands 30 X 40 acrylic, ink, oil crayon, and charcoal for Take a Word

You can see it hanging in my kitchen here:



I might just have to keep this one!

New Year: New Work

Nightshade 36" X 36" acrylic, ink, oil crayon, and charcoal for Paint Party Friday

Available at the Decatur Market and Gallery (404)377-0755

Word to Your Mother

or, to be more precise, MY mother...

Mother's Garden Club 20" X 24" mixed media for Take a Word

You can see some of the papers covered with words in this detail:



This is what I painted for my mother's Christmas present. I photocopied memorabilia from her desk, remnants of programs and bulletins from her mother's garden club days, ticket stubs, invitations, newspaper clippings and collaged those onto the canvas as the base for the background. I then brushed on shades of parchment and linen acrylic paint which I layered with ink, oil pastel, and charcoal. Between the layers I used an acrylic sealer, so I could mix oil and water based media. The vase of flowers came next, and, finally, the lemon. This will hang over the fireplace that she just had built in her newly renovated den. I was still working on it at 11:30 Christmas Eve, but it was dry and ready to gift wrap the next morning. She was really excited about it when she opened it and I was thrilled to have created something that made my mother so happy because she was the one, after all, who bought me my first set of paints when I was five. And I have to hand it to her, she was a pretty good sport about the masterpiece I created on the living room wall with that paint.

You Are Invited

Sky Blue and Lacecap 36" X 36" mixed media

Twenty two pieces ready for the opening of The Art of Memory opening tonight at Lucas Road Gallery -located in my hometown Meridian, MS

for Paint Party Friday

A Season of Light

Luminescence 12" X 12" mixed media for Three Muses

Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, the holiday season should be a time of light and love. I'm not sure how the holidays became such a bone of contention in our country. I grew up in a Christian family, but most Friday nights I went to Temple with my best friend who was Jewish. The vision of her family lighting candles is etched just indelibly on my mind as the memory of walking across the street every year to see the Christmas tree glow from our front window. I was fascinated with the idea of getting a gift every night for eight nights, and she was fascinated with the idea of going Christmas caroling. So I took her with me, and her mother taught me to make latkes. I remember the excitement of being an angel in our school Christmas pageant, and I also remember spinning a dreidel in my own Sunday School class.

When I first became a teacher, I taught my class about different cultural celebrations. We sang the dreidel song and filled shoes with candy; we decorated a Christmas tree, and we made menorahs. We sang Christmas carols, and we danced folk dances, and we lit candles. We celebrated together.

Somehow, it seems that some of the joy and magic of this time of year was lost when we began calling it the "Holiday Pageant" or the "Winter Break." Wouldn't it be wonderful, if children could still celebrate their differences together, if we could remember that this is the very reason our country exists, and we could fill the dark of winter with the light of love and unity that might bring a brighter tomorrow?

New Work for Holiday Happenings

Adagio 12" X 12" mixed media for Paint Party Friday

This is one of my new paintings. Like I told you, this elf has been busy getting ready for these holiday openings.

Lucas Road Arts
"The Art of Memory"
December 16
6-10:00 p.m.
2211 5th Street
Meridian, Mississippi



Decatur Market and Gallery
"Ornate"
December 10
6-10:00 p.m.
4240 Rickenbacker Road
Atlanta, Georgia

I hope you'll join us if you can, but if I don't get to see you in person,
HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!