"Wonderfully Made Eve" by artist Peggy Pilapil Lasa & "A Symphony of Seasons" by poet & author Connie Arnold

I have been very fortunate this year to win two giveaways.  

The first is an amazing piece of art by Peggy Pilapil Lasa.  "Wonderfully Made Eve" is full of light.  Eve is so lovely and indeed wonderfully made.  Her face is serene, joyful, and thoughtful all at once.  Also, I am very much a fan of flowers and the Birds of Paradise are beautiful as well.

To see more of Peggy's inspiring art, please visit her blog at http://peggyapl.blogspot.com/.

The second is this wonderful cd of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" from poet and author Connie Arnold.  Connie has written four books of poetry.  The most recent is "A Symphony of Seasons" celebrating music and the cycle of the seasons.  A fitting match between the Vivaldi cd and the poetry!

Here is one of her poems:

Every day there's a song

to be sung,

A song for peace and

an end to strife,

And for the joy and

beauty of life.

We each can have a song

to sing,

A song in winter and also

in spring,

A song for summer and

autumn days,

And for the Creator,

songs of praise.

To see more of her writings, please visit http://conniearnold.blogspot.com/.

I am thankful to both Peggy and Connie for their wonderful gifts, both in what they have given to me, and in the beauty of their works.

I am also inpsired by their generousity and I am linking this with Inspire Me Monday and Magical Monday Meme.

A Pretty Good Year, a brown bunny rabbit image and some additional ones...

I've been going through old image files looking for images that I've done in the past to add as additional content.  Sadly most of my paintings were photographed at resolutions too low to make them usable as prints.  However, I did come across a number of scanned images from 2003 that I felt met the bill!  This bunny image titled Gentle was one of them.

This week I have this print as well as my Aphrodite/Venus "Ocean Born," a cat "Waiting for You," a Latina fairy "Lace Wings," and a yellow and red tulip titled simply "Tulip" available on eBay here.

Wordless Wednesday: Athena Minerva sculpture by Joseph Nollekens from the J. Paul Getty Museum

This marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Athena, titled as the Roman goddess Minerva, is by English artist Joseph Nollekens.  I took the photo on one of my visits to the J. Paul Getty Museum.  While I've yet to do a painting inspired by her, I have done a couple of Greek goddess inspired paintings and intend to do some more when I have the opportunity.

To see more Wordless Wednesday links, please visit here, here, and here.

Frida Kahlo's portrait of Dorothy Hale & writer Myra Bairstow's lecture Dreams, Dramas and Revelations...

In conjunction with In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States, LACMA offered a lecture by writer Myra Bairstow on Frida's painting El suicidio de Dorothy Hale (The Suicide of Dorothy Hale).

In 1938 actress and art dealer Dorothy Hale plunged sixteen stories to her death from her apartment in Central Park South.  Ruled a suicide, playwright and editor of Vanity Fair Clare Boothe Luce commissioned Frida Kahlo to paint a portrait of Dorothy Hale as a gift for her mother.  

Intrigued by the painting, playwright Myra Bairstow embarked on a ten year journey of research that led her very far from the story told by Clare Boothe Luce to a Frida Kahlo biographer.  Apparently, Clare could not have been in touch with Dorothy's mother as she was long deceased.  Also it seems that Harry Hopkins, advisor to President Roosevelt and ex boyfriend of Dorothy's, seems to have been involved in covering up details after she died.  To learn more about what she found, please visit http://www.dorothyhale.com.

When Clare received the painting she had commissioned of Dorothy, she put it into storage for almost thirty years, eventually donating it anonymously to the Phoenix Art Museum.  She also had her name taken out of the writing Frida had put in the bottom of the painting as well as had painted over an angel that was in the top right corner.

Created in oil on masonite with the frame painted, the painting is not much larger than eleven by fourteen inches, but it is extremely powerful.  I think Frida was very brave and did not flinch from following her artistic vision, even when painting a commission that I think Clare expected to be very different.  This painting is only one of many works at the In Wonderland exhibit that I intend to share, but I felt it merited its own post.

I think Frida is very inspiring, so I am sharing this at Inspire Me Monday.  Oh, in case you're wondering, that last image is of an altar to Dorothy Hale created by one of her family members in a Louis Vitton suitcase and that tiny little form to the left of it is the author Myra Bairstow.

Wordless Wednesday: A yellow daffodil narcissus flower from Descanso Gardens...

It turns out I have less daffodil images than I thought I did, but this one caught my eye.  To see more Wordless Wednesday links, please visit here, here, and here.

PierScape Featured Watercolor & Acrylic Artist Jo-Ann Dziubek-MacDonald...

Beginning on Sunday May 6th at 7 p.m. Jo-Ann Dziubek-MacDonald will be the featured visual artist at PierScape's annual celebration of the arts.  This weeklong festival celebrates artists local to Cape Breton Canada.  The exhibit hours will be Monday May 7th to Friday May 11th between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. and Saturday May 12th between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m..

For additional information, please visit http://pierscape.ca/ and to see their article on her, please visit http://pierscape.ca/jo-ann-dziubek-macdonald/.

Jo-Ann resides in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada and while I have not had the pleasure of meeting her in person, I have had the honor of knowing her through her art and her involvement in an online art group we are both members of.

Her art is moving to me on many levels.  She combines lost and found edges with a great delicacy.  Her willingness to let the fluid interplay of water and pigment make their own statement on the page yields soft yet powerful results.  It is said that art is a window into the soul of an artist.  Jo-Ann's art is full of warmth and kindness, her generous nature is shared with every piece.

I have included a small samping of Jo-Ann's lovely art here; however, she may also be found at her website http://www.jdmstudios.com/, blog, facebook, and etsy.

As Jo-Ann is an inspiration to me, I am linking this with Inspire Me Monday.

Wordless Wednesday: Candle Shop at Olvera Street in Los Angeles

When I went to Olvera Street, I was enthralled by this tiny candle shop.  To see more Wordless Wednesday links, please visit here and here.

Tulips in bloom at Descanso Gardens...

I went to Descanso Gardens in La Canada a couple of weeks ago and the tulips were enthralling to me.  I spent all of the time I had there that day looking at and photographing the tulips.  Above are a few of the photographs that I took.  I'm not certain how long tulips are in season, but if you are near by, I recommend visiting!

Also, if you're local, Hans Hemling's Portrait of a Man is on loan at the Norton Simon until April 30th and Wonderland, a show of female surrealist artists featuring Frida Kahlo at LACMA will be closing May 6th.  I intend to write and share photographs from my visits to these exhibits, but this will be after the shows close, so I'm putting that information here in case anyone is interested in attending.

Once again, I am a little late for Inspire Me Monday but these flowers were definitely inspiring to me!  I am also linking this with Inspired Tuesday.

I have also created a new blog and twitter account that I intend to dedicate to my declutter efforts ;).

H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival's "The Whisperer in Darkness" and HPL inspired art by Alex Ledante

Some time ago, I went to the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in San Pedro, CA. One of the outstanding films that I saw was "The Whisperer in Darkness." The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society created a suspenseful rendition of one of Lovecraft's classic tales with a 1930s feel. At the festival, I was able to photograph some miniatures and items related to the film.

In their "Behind the Scenes" page at http://www.cthulhulives.org/whisperer/, you may see some of their in progress photographs of some of the completed miniatures that I have shown below.

An amazing contemporary artist who has been inspired by Lovecraft is Alex Ledante. His most recent HPL inspired piece is this one:

This week, he has some art auctions inspired by Lovecraft here. His website at http://www.ledante.com is full of rich and imaginative pieces. Some of his Lovecraft inspired pieces may be found on his site in his Nightmare Gallery; but in his Portrait Gallery, his Lovecraft inspired Deep One is definitely worth a look. My favorite of his HPL inspired pieces is below, but I invite you to visit his auctions and his website and pick your own personal fave!

Since this is a post fueled by inspiration, I've decided to link it with Inspire Me Monday (I'm a little late) and Inspired Tuesday.

A long absence...

I haven't posted an update in some time. I moved and for a while I did not have internet access at all. Now that I do have it, I'm completely out of the habit of too much more than checking my emails.

I'm very glad about the move, this is a great improvement on my last home. It's farther away from almost everything, but I'm still happy to have moved. However, in moving I've been forced to come to terms with the fact that I own way, way, way too much stuff! I'm afraid I knew that before, but I had more space before.

I'm not set up to paint yet, but that is definitely a priority! Until I get set up, which will likely not be for a while, I expect my posts to be sporadic at best. Although I could surprise myself, I doubt it, but it's possible :). I do hope to be rambling regularly again in the not too distant future...

The photo of the red rose bud above is from my new yard, we have a few rose plants, but it's the only one currently blooming. I think the rest of them think it has been a bit too cold for blooming, but we do have this one rebel bloom...