Road Trip ~ Forest

Come with me

to the enchanted forest.

Trust the magic in the air;

it is real.

Take it with you wherever you go,

for the magic you feel and want

is yours

if you simply

believe.

~Melody Beattie

Corralitos, California

There is something about a forest that is so magical to me. When my friend said she would be meeting with horse people on the trip but that I could take her car and go off exploring ... I was excited to see what beautiful and perhaps enchanted places I could find.

I popped in an old Bach cassette tape I have saved for many years (you never know when a road trip/cassette player convergence will come up!) I used to listen to it on my old sony walkman in the airport and it still worked! I swear it was like a gift from the heavens. The baroque violin concertos played into the spring air as I drove and drove the windy road through the redwoods. I pulled over again and again. I'd get out of the car and listen to the creek and watch the light come through the trees, breathe in ... and take pictures.

Yep, I found beautiful places ... and maybe a little enchanted too.

Road Trip ~ Santa Cruz

I hadn't been to Santa Cruz in at least ten years. I used to go up with my friend Caroline to "Shakespeare Santa Cruz," the amazing Shakespeare festival they put on at the beautiful UC Santa Cruz campus. Some of my favorite productions of Shakespeare have been outside in "The Glen." Nothing like seeing A Midsummer Night's Dream among redwood trees. Truly magical.

I love a road trip. I find them difficult to pass up. You never know what adventure will be in store! My friend Rachel and I left last Sunday night around 8pm and made it in 5 hours. (This is a feat, by the way. Rachel was on fire!) I had gone to the health food store for snacks like vegan apricot fruit cakes, spicy pumpkin seeds and rice cakes. I know it sounds a bit like eating chalk but I knew if I didn't have something healthy to munch on I would find myself gorging on bbq chips and soda. (Don't be too impressed. On the way home there were Lays potato chips, chocolate brownies, cream soda and fritos.)

We completely lucked out on the weather. As you can see, it was gorgeous. The clouds decided to come only a couple of hours before we headed out of town. The whole purpose of the trip was actually so Rachel could meet a horse lady, but more on that later.

Change your perspective

and enjoy the adventure.

Let the child in you come out to play.

~Melody Beattie

Yoga surfer ...

Near the campus of UC Santa Cruz ...

As I said, I love a road trip! My all time favorite was going across country in a moving truck from Los Angeles to Massachusetts with my friend Dawn. It was five of the best days of my life. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard or sang so loud.

Do you have a favorite road trip?

Age is a Number

I'm back! I was on a road trip up through Central California (in and around Santa Cruz.) I forgot to mention I was leaving because I left right after my grandmother's 88th birthday party!

At 88 my Grandma is still gorgeous and an inspiration. She is still creating art, writing, singing at parties and events, and traveling with her 93 year old boyfriend Monte. In fact, she is tough to make a plan with because they are always off on some adventure! (And the last to leave a party!) Whenever anyone says to me that perhaps life has passed them by and it might be too late for love or adventure, I have a perfect example to prove that it's never too late to fall in love with life.

The first picture is from last December at my faculty art show. She walked in and there was a gasp. She was all aglow in her red cape and leopard print hat, looking like a million bucks.

"Who is that?!" I heard a voice from behind me say.

"My grandmother," I said smiling,

Beverly at 87

I'm not interested in age.

People who tell me their age are silly.

You're as old as you feel.

~Elizabeth Arden

People like you and I,

though mortal of course like everyone else,

do not grow old no matter how long we live...

[We] never cease to stand like curious children

before the great mystery into which we were born.

~Albert Einstein

letter to Otto Juliusburger

Lots of road trip photos to come ...

Inspiring Little Women

I substitute teach art classes at a great little art school in L.A. called The Wizard of Art. It's a family run business and they have welcomed me in with open arms. I am just blessed all over the place! Anyway, their daughter Malaika, who is an amazing artist, teaches that figure drawing class I always go on and on about.

What I haven't talked about, are the amazing kids who take classes at the school.

Here are just a few.

Owl by Zola

age 13

Iris by Katie

Age 12

Mountains of China

Maggie

Age 13

Peacock by Nina

Age 8

I am trying to get Nina to do a trade so I can have the peacock! Amazing right?

I love these girls. Awesome personalities, funny, creative and just good people. These are just a few of many.

I am forever inspired and seeing things in a new way.

"The pursuit of truth and beauty

is a sphere of activity in which

we are permitted to remain children all our lives."

Albert Einstein

Blessings

Never gotten an award in my life except an honorable mention in 3rd grade for poster design promoting the four food groups. Think carrots and celery with legs. I still have the ribbon in a box somewhere. It has fruit on it. Wish I could show you the art but alas ...

Anyway, yesterday I got two awards from two of my favorite bloggers! So sweet!

I know a lot of you don't except awards and if I accidently link you and you don't, no worries, at least others might click on the link and get to see how awesome you are! ;)

Because there are 2 I am going to break the rules a little and do half the links, I hope that's OK!

Blessing and light,

Lucinda

I have been given a "Sunshine award", Heather at Sicilia Through Images. (Which is one of my all time favorites, and if you haven't been to her blog go and check out her beautiful world! Amazing images. Thank you so much Heather!

The rules for accepting this award are:
1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
2. Pass the award to 12 bloggers.
3. Link to the nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person whom you received this award.

So, here are 6 of my faves that definitely add some Sunshine to my day! Definitely check them out and you will see what I mean. Sunshine and creative inspiration.

1. Erin's Art and Gardens

2. Creative Structures

3. Art Spark Theatre

4. Farmlass

5. Dispatch from L.A.

6. Gooseflesh

And Penny from beautiful PK-Studios Blog picked me for the Beautiful Blogger Award.

If you haven't checked out her blog, go and enjoy her beautiful creations and photography!

The rules of the Award:
#1 thank the person who gave you the award
#2 share 7 things about yourself..
#3 pass the award along to 15 others.
#4 Contact the bloggers you picked and let them know about the award...

So... On the 7 things about myself ...

1. I love Avocados. I mean, LOVE. I look for any excuse to use them on everything I

can. Except pizza. It's an expensive habit.

2. I'll watch any final episode of a T.V. series, even though I have never before seen

the show. And I will cry as if I had invested years in it.

3. I miss Buffy. It was a really good show.

4. In my parallel life I am a torch singer who lounges across a piano in a red velvet

dress like Michelle Pfeiffer in Fabulous Baker Boys and sings "Summertime."

5. If I could have acted with any actor it would have been in a comedy

with Cary Grant.

6. I LOVE THEME PARTIES! I love going to them, but especially planning them.

(My two favorites were a roaring 20s and a Midsummer Night's Dream party

I threw with my friend Amanda.)

7. I love, love, love a good art exhibit ... spending a day a the Getty Center, or

LACMA or somewhere on my travels... with other people or with my self.

That is a great day.

Seriously Beautiful Bloggers! You will sigh. I'm serious.

1. Spain Daily

2. Sculptress Studio

3. Vienna For Beginners

4. An Apple a Day

5. A Fanciful Twist

6. Venice Daily Photo

Kiss Me, I'm Irish?

Happy St. Patrick's Day

So, I was just reading my sister's blog and apparently we are Irish! I guess she mentioned it in one of the many conversations we had during her passionate love affair with Ancestry.com but there was a lot of information thrown about during those conversations and frankly, at the time I was focusing on the European royalty stuff.

So, new to being Irish, but not so new to a good Irish Lager, I am toasting my ancestors, wishing for a little luck of the Irish and sharing a bit of Yeats with my new friends, near and far.

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

~W.B. Yeats

My parents old house ... I miss it.

and just for fun an Irish toast ...

May your pockets be heavy- Your heart be light,

And may good luck pursue you

Each morning and night.

... More Inspiration & New Pieces

More from the new series. Please feel free to click and enlarge. In person it is much easier to see the layers of paper and media and they feel very light and translucent, almost ethereal. If you missed the previous post, and are interested, it explains the work and what is behind it.

Reflections I Mixed media on paper, vellum and acetate

Please click to enlarge

Detail Reflections I

Be not ashamed woman ...

You are the gates of the body,

and you are the gates of the soul.

~Walt Whitman

Reflections II Mixed media on paper, vellum and acetate

Please click to enlarge

Detail Reflections II

Hope your week is off to a beautiful start!

Inspiration and Miracles

Ovaries are said to symbolically represent creativity, but what if you loose one? What do you imagine as being there in it's place? What is there? What do you fill that space with, metaphorically speaking.

When I was sick last year I started questioning the meaning of what it means to be a woman, what our organs mean and what are we without pieces of ourselves that we aren't even aware we are emotionally attached to? (Until someone says, "It's coming out.") So, I imagined that space. What was there, what happened, and what I choose to put there in my mind's eye. What lies in the layers and layers under the surface? Maybe it won't always be "pretty" but to me, beautiful. That is what I want to choose. It's a process.

As some of you are maybe aware of from previous posts, I had some medical craziness with surgeries, infections and miracles last year. I am doing great now but with one less ovary. I realize how personal this is and debated if and how I should go about sharing. The thing is, that my new art is very much born out of that journey.

Some of you may recognize the figure drawing from a previous post. Many of my figure drawings are now going through a metamorphosis with these layered pieces. They are are very difficult to photograph and get the detail of what the layers look like in person, but here is one of the first.

The Dream 2010 Mixed Media on Paper, Vellum, and Acetate, with Ink, sanguine and white conte

Please click to enlarge

Hope you like the new art,

(I wish you could see it in person!)

I will posting more in the next few days ...

Blessings and light,

And may you all be insured

and your lives filled with miracles

and creativity!

The Oscars

Every year, almost without fail, I watch the Oscars. I might have missed it once in high school and I remember missing it in 1992 when I was in rehearsals for Les Liaisons Dangereuses on stage down in San Diego. (I think it was tech week and the director wouldn't let us leave, but I remember it was the year Silence of the Lambs won for best picture.)

It was always an event in my family. It was one of three nights a year we could eat dinner in front of the T.V. (The other two were when Sound of Music and Wizard of Oz were on!)

I remember in Junior High passing a note on Oscar day to my world geography teacher Mr. Meierding.

It went something like this ...

Dear Mr. Meierding,

I am not sure if you are aware,

but tonight is the 54th Annual

Academy Awards ceremony.

I can't watch until my homework

is done and the movie stars start

walking in around 4 o'clock.

Please help.

I left the origami folded note anonymously on his desk.

I can't remember what else I wrote but at the end of class my teacher announced there would be no homework assignments, as he had been informed that it was Oscar night and decided to let us off the hook. Noone could believe it, except my friend Lisa who smiled at me, knowing it had to be me that had swindled this wonderful turn of events.

For me it's been an odd year for movies. I like them, and in some cases I actually liked them a lot. But alas I was not in love. There are no movies that I will watch over and over until I can quote them to my friends or movies that so moved me they changed my view of the world. I am actually more excited about the documentary category this year! The Cove? Food Inc.? For some rentals I loved, you can check a couple of my quick reviews.

Anyway, whether you watch for the stars, the movies, the fashion or for an excuse to drink champagne ... skip your homework and enjoy Oscar Sunday!

What was your favorite movie this year? Maybe I missed it!