Illustration

Pastels have been a lot of fun for me lately. I wondered what impact they'd had in the history of art. I never had a huge interest in history as a high school student. Maybe it was because it was so much about dates, and I'm not a numbers person. But when stories enliven the tales of the past it's so much more interesting to study. The history of art as a whole seems almost overwhelming, so occasionally now I just look into small portions at a time. As of late I've been working in pastels quite … [Read more...] about The Permenance of Pastels

Where are the Wores? That's a question that is addressed in Griff Stecyk's off the cuff article about Theodore Wores. One of Theodore Wores' paintings, The Lei-Maker, is considered the Mona Lisa of Hawaii. My rendition of this work is done in colored pens, pencil and marker. I was inspired to do this piece because I was once a Lei-Maker myself. I did not do it professionally, only seasonally, and only in my front yard. There was a large Catalpa tree in the yard of the farm house I grew up in. … [Read more...] about Where are the Wores?

A lucky find at a book sale, I acquired the book Arctic Spirit by Ingo Hessel. It is a book of Inuit art from the Albrecht Collection at the Heard Museum. I was overwhelmed by the beauty and simplicity of the many sculpted pieces presented. Powerful pieces with a feeling of solidity and yet some full of motion. This contrast is kind of hard to describe. So much could be told within some of the simplest carvings. I guess emotion, or maybe a feeling of presence with the piece would be the best … [Read more...] about Dancing Bears

Working on character development is like making new friends. You spend time getting to know more about them and what makes them tick. What are their interests? What makes them laugh, cry? Of course there's very often the influence of physical appearance that determines whether one is drawn to a character or not. Author Tom Pawlik makes mention of the appearance factor in his conversation on The 9 Ingredients of Character Development. In his clever acrostic: CHARACTER he notes that Appearance: … [Read more...] about Character Development

An exceptional challenge put out by Vivian Kirkfield inspires writers to really work on trimming down their words when expressing their ideas. The challenge was to write a story for children 12 and under using only 50 words. It was indeed a challenge to give a beginning, middle and end that would evoke emotion and vision. I often walk or sit in my gardens when I look for inspiration. That's why when I had the opportunity to photograph my children and nieces and nephews for graduation pictures I … [Read more...] about #50 Precious Words