Art Therapy – Florals

May 26, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Leading up to my mother’s death, I locked myself away in the art room and painted with a fervour. Despite the darkness I was feeling, my paintings came out bright – a testament to her nature, I decided.

Water

May 17, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Watercolour image mine.

Set Fire To The Rain

April 21, 2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

The war in Ukraine continues, and from the comfort of my sunroom, I still do what I can to help. Today, I am waiting on the arrival of our fourth family – two brother-in-laws, whose dream to land in Toronto, find work and lodgings, and then bring over the elder’s wife and child, proved unattainable. […]

What’s New?

March 31, 2023.Reading time 1 minute.

Dabbling with AI to create new images: Created a book nook from my granddaughter’s March Break project. Transforming an ink project into an acrylic painting (no AI involved): Newest addition to my life is an art room! (For Lens-artists photo challenge: new experiences)

Art and Grandchildren

February 26, 2023.Reading time 1 minute.

Family Day weekend – a holiday here in Canada – I invited three of our granddaughters to stay over. My son had visited weeks before and set up an art studio for me, complete with his leftover paints and canvases, so I asked if the little ones would help me organize it. 10 year-old Sloane […]

Sunflowers and smiles

January 23, 2023.Reading time 1 minute.

A local craft shop owner makes votives in yellow and blue with sunflowers on them and all proceeds go to Ukrainians. A BC retailer saw her work online and ordered 100 candles, selling them at $5.00 each. Ryan Reynolds saw the effort and doubled the intake. She sent much of the proceeds to a non-profit […]

Last on the Card for 2022

January 1, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

One last sunset and a year end doodle for Bushboy’s Last on the card challenge.

Life as Art Form

November 2, 2022.Reading time 1 minute.

Art is an act of intentional attention. The poet invites the senses, observes the flow and twist of words, injects emotion and insight. The painter studies colours, the nuance of shadows, looks for focus and textures, creates a tone. The musician listens, attends to harmonies, gathers rhythms and composes. The photographer selects details, alters the […]

Pause for Art

May 13, 2022.Reading time 1 minute.

For the first time in weeks, I took a break to create. The volunteering threatens to be all-consuming, but I am determined to find balance. Weeks ago, when I started this venture, I was hoping to connect one displaced Ukrainian family with a host family in my area. Quickly, the requests poured in and soon […]

Drawing Sunflowers

March 18, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

I find my ability to concentrate is lessened by the heartache of what’s going on in the world, and even here at home. I need a focus to calm and carry me through, so I’ve decided to learn to draw sunflowers. Sunflowers, whose symbolism is now so vividly connected with hope and resilience. Here’s where […]

Discord

Does illness have a voice,and if so; is it melancholy,or dark and dank, divulgingdeepest despair, or revealinga vileness of nature? Discord creeps along my veins,disrupts muscles, systems failingunder the oppression –“Stay strong,” friends counsel,cannot hear the gathering storm,feel the heaviness cloaking me. I am not myself, but then;who am I? Is disease a mutationof the […]

Save Us

Discharge the gun –protection a vesselthrough which our depthsare undefined…adrift Fear is a burrowerwears a false crownbirths losstrusts danger Hearts beg,amid this trigger-readinessfor a guardian – unafraidto court this meaningless Futility unchecked –to study productive optionsunimaginable in the current state of chaos on repeat. (Art my own)

I Am Willow

These bones, they saywill finish me – too brittleto withstand the race But I am Willowrecollection wispymy dance defiant Porous as a sea spongesoaking up each daymettle despite the rattle (Tuesdays I borrow from Twitter @Vjknutson. Image my own.)