a painting titled "stay", a cat called penny ellie

(Even without looking at the date of my last post, I knew it had been a good long while since my last writing because it took me ages to remember my blog's passcode. I'm sure this has something to do with FB; it's just so much easier to share and connect there. But I will try to be present here more as well.)

I've been painting lots and writing lots, stitching, filling up the days with creative goodness and I hope your summer was filled with the same. We're homeschooling again. Yay! And there's been a bouncing, loving, one-minute-cuddling-and-the-next-biting, little kitty addition to our family. She has become our shadow and is in fact, curled in my lap as I type this. I'll just share one photograph here, though gracious me, this wee creature is a such a love bug and has me and Olivia reaching for the camera or Ipod several times a day. She was rescued from a construction site by a sweet friend's husband and cared for by them and then a local vet's office until ready for our home. I'm extremely grateful for each of those kind souls. We've had Penelope (though we seem to be calling her Penny Ellie mostly) a month now. Our older cats aren't as taken with her but I'm still hoping that will change.

Earlier this week I took a drive up Bent Mountain to the town of Floyd where I have 21 paintings, some older, some new, for show and sale, at a lovely restaurant called Oddfellas Cantina. I'd love it if you stopped by to see them. I'll post photographs of the new paintings and the story behind them here on the blog over the next few days.

I'll start with "Stay." (It's 16x16. acrylic and graphite and bits of painted book pages--not the best image...this one was so difficult to photograph for some reason) It shares a snippet from the lives of the twins, Oscar and George, two bird-legged boys orphaned at a young age, left at the edge of a circus tent by the mother or father, we don't know which and neither does anyone else. One brother wants to leave this circus by the sea. That's Oscar. You can see he's taken off his star badge and let it fall to the ground. He's holding feathers and all he thinks about is flying far away from there. But George, oh, the poor dear, he's always has a hard time with change. He's tied to the life he's used to and wishes Oscar could just be content. He clings to his brother. Which way will they go? Will they turn back or continue ahead on the pebbled path? Will they go together or alone?

I didn't realize until the day before yesterday when a friend posted a picture on FB of her two boys, one in his beloved and much worn chicken suit, that I must have been inspired by them without even being conscious of it! Aren't our minds and imaginations such wonderful things?

listening to: Van Morrison

reading: The Winter Sea by Suzanna Kearsley