I have been continuing to go through my sketchbook and
repurposing my blind contour garden sketches.
It’s funny how something you did so long ago can be pertinent and useful
today. This particular sketch had a
strong suggestion of landscape in its foundation. As I developed it and worked into it with oil
pastels I began to focus on remembering vacations in Wisconsin. There are incredible geographic land
formations in Wisconsin and I am attracted to the powerful forces of Mother
Nature that created them. I thought
quite heavily about the Driftless regions of Wisconsin and the Kettle Moraines
as I worked on this drawing. It was a
respite from life to work on this and it took quite a bit of time, working during
multiple sessions. I call this “The
Driftless,” named after the driftless region in Wisconsin. It stands as a reminder of the power of
Mother Earth to continuously transform and impact our world.
While teaching painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute, I was always drawn to the Codex Borgia . Sadly, seldom did I actually find ways of incorporating that gorgeous, ancient, illustrated manuscript into my lesson plans. I would just go through the book of images and savor them on my own. Now I understand why it was calling out to me. It is the tool of healers, diviners and scribes--it contains prophesies. It is going to take a while, still, but some day I will understand the lessons it seeks to teach me. Now in "Mama Nature's Spiritual Guide to Weight-loss" as I write, I am finding my book is being fleshed out by Aztec and Mayan deities. They just showed up and wanted in. I find myself questioning their appearance and loving it all at the same time. Pictured above is Aztec Goddess, Xochiquetzal, pronounced Sho-chi-ket-sal. Her name is in the language Nahuatl. The first part Xochitl (flower or to flower) and the second Quetzal (bird of splendid fe...

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