The Spiral in the Sky

Happy New Year and last painting of 2011.

2012-01-01T11:08:00.000-08:00

I spent New Year's Eve day trying to finish my Psyche. I started her a few weeks back, and I felt like she needed to be done before 2012. So I barely got her finished before it was time to start ringing in the New Year. So here she is:

"Psyche's Abandonment"

24x36 acrylic on canvas

$600.00

I think this painting sums up my 2011 in some ways. It was a year that on some levels seemed uneventful. I often felt like I was just going through the motions this year, and have often felt very unconnected to my spiritual self. I almost felt like my psyche (or soul) had abandoned me. But as 2012 approached and as I was working on this painting a new light is being birthed in me. I can not really described it, but I know there is something re-awakening in me that has been hibernating for awhile.

I am excited for the New Year and the direction that I want to take my art in. I am being drawn to a lot of Christian/Gnostic imagery right now and I plan to mix it up with Pagan myth like I did in this Psyche painting. I have some big plans for paintings, and yet I am going to have less time to paint. I am now working at a Law office part time to make some extra money. I am not happy about the loss of painting time, and yet I feel that making some steady money will take some pressure off of me with my art. I do think when you are a professional artist it is easy to fall into a trap of "painting what you think will sell". I look forward to creating out of a space of love instead out of space of survival issues this year.

I hope you all find that Creative space of love this year. Happy 2012!

Christmas original painting Give-Away

2011-12-10T12:20:00.000-08:00

I have decided to give this painting away for Christmas!!!!!!

This is a 12 inch by 12 inch acrylic painting on a cradled wood panel that I painted earlier this year. All you have to do is go to my Facebook fan page and press Like if you haven't yet. Then go to the post with this pic of the painting and comment. Your comment needs to be a short poem describing who this lady is. Tell me her story in a poetic fashion. I will pick my favorite on Sunday Dec. 18th and ship it to the winner free of charge. I will even ship her Internationally!
I can't wait to see what you come up with!

The Birch Tree Spirit

2011-11-13T10:31:00.000-08:00

The Birch Tree Spirit

12x16 acrylic on panel

I was originally inspired to do a Birch tree spirit after reading the book called "Celtic Tree Mysteries, Secrets of the Ogham" by Steve Blamires. Blamires discussed in depth how the ancient Celts saw trees on physical, mental, and spiritual planes. In Celtic shamanism trees are worked with much like animal spirit guides are in Native American shamanism. Each tree has a spirit and a message for us and can be our allies in the Otherworld.

Birch is the first tree in the Ogham, and the one that I am most drawn to right now. Birch trees can grow in places that other trees can not. Infact, the Birch tree is often the colonizer of new forests. It's leaves are light and it's bark peels off easily and falls to the ground. It feeds and fertilizes the soil around it so that other life can grow. It helps other trees such as Oak and Beech to grow in places they would not otherwise. But eventually the other trees grow taller than the Birch depriving it of light and killing it off. Therefore the Birch is a tree of new beginnings, and a tree that sacrifices itself for the benefit of others.

Birch is a wonderful tree to work with when you are starting something new or change is upon you. Meditating on it's self-sacrificing character is very healing, for the Birch is also regenerating and has life-giving properties. She is a true goddess tree and we can learn a lot from this silvery lady of the woods.

Reflecting on how far I have come

2011-10-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning out my basement studio space last night and came across some old drawings from 3 to 4 years ago. I did not start posting my work online until late 2008. I have only felt like a "professional artist" in the last 2 years or so. Before then I just fooled around with soft pastels. I use to do spirit drawings for people and that was really how I began drawing people.
I came across a pastel drawing I did of White Buffalo Calf Woman in early 2008. I was so struck with how rudimentary it seemed to me now. I always loved to draw, and I always felt like I had some inkling of talent in me. But now I really understand that talent in art is simply discipline in some ways. When you work out everyday you eventually get a very toned body. Art is the same way. Sometimes it takes years to get very toned, but it takes doing it everyday.
For the last three years I have been painting or drawing something almost constantly. I think I am finally starting to get some art muscle, although I am sure I will look back 3 years from now and think my current work is rudimentary (I hope so).
I wanted to post this picture of White Buffalo Calf woman for those that have just started drawing, or for those that don't think their art is very good. Hang in there and practice everyday, you will get better. Really all it takes is wanting it, and as I am sure most of you artists will agree....wanting it more than almost anything else.

and here is what all my faeries use to look like :

Gwragedd Annwn

2011-10-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

Gwragedd Annwn

14x18 in. acrylic and ink on panel

2011

Available

See her at the Forgotten Goddess show at the Rico Adair Gallery in L.A. on Nov. 18th.

LA show Nov.18th and Big SALE

2011-10-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

If you haven't noticed yet, I started a big Half Off Sale on my website of older works. The sale started on Oct.11th and runs until Oct. 18th. There are currently only about 4 paintings left that are on sale, so go check it out at www.moonspiralart.com
The main reason I decided to have a sale right now is I am trying to raise money to go to LA on Nov.18th. Many of my works will be in an exhibition to launch the Forgotten Goddess company. I am really excited about this for multiple reasons. For one, it will be my first time to show in LA and my very first trip to California (can you believe it....I don't get out much). I am also really excited about being there to help launch the Forgotten Goddess. I think many of us have dreamed of a company like this, one that empowers women and sells beautiful goddess art and other products along with inspiring others to create. I am so happy to be involved with this company. Russelle Marcato Westbrook and Jenni Ogden Klein are two amazing women with a visionary plan, and I am very grateful they found me and have supported me and my work the way they have.

So, I am going to be at the opening of the Forgotten Goddess exhibition on Nov.18th at the Rico Adair Gallery in Studio City (I guess that is in North Hollywood). I know some of you that read my blog and follow me are from California, I would be overjoyed to see some of you at the show.
Thank you to all of you who bought paintings this week and helped me to make this trip a reality.

Mary, Queen of Sorrows

2011-10-06T08:13:00.000-07:00

I decided to do a Mother Mary recently mainly because of the influence of my new friend and amazing artist Russelle Marcato Westbrook. She is doing a whole series of exploring Mary and the opposites of dark and light within us all.
In the Bible, Mary was still a teenager when she was called upon to bear the Son of Man. She became a mother in innocence, and lost her son in the height of his greatness. She knew his fate, and had to bear the sorrow. Mary is the one goddess that has been allowed in Christianity. She stands for compassion, nurturing, acceptance and love. I think her archetype deeply effects women, especially mothers.
I am writing this right now as I am struggling with my son. He is in 3rd grade and he is beginning to hate school. He daydreams a lot and doesn't know how to handle his emotions very well. He is a typical boy in our society. Boys are getting more and more lost everyday. I think the Mary archetype has a lot to do with mothers and their sons. We are losing our sons to war and violence, and we are suppose to just grin and bear it. We are suppose to be strong and just let our sons go, at least this seems to be the underlying message from our society. But I think it is time for Mary to wake up.
I thought I would show you a few of the work in progress pics of Mary so you can see exactly how she evolved. Sometimes I change them and play with them a lot before they are finished.

"Mary, Queen of Sorrows"

16x20 acrylic and ink on panel

2011

Leanan Sidhe

2011-09-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

Leanan Sidhe

16x20 acrylic, ink, gold leaf paint on Gessobord panel

$350.00

Struggling with Perfectionism and my latest work

2011-08-30T07:44:00.000-07:00

Perfectionism can kill art. It killed one of my pieces I started last week. I had a beautiful drawing, but then I started painting. I was trying some techniques that I saw another artist do. I was trying to be that artist I suppose, and got aggravated that I wasn't...and ruined the piece. I realize that I don't need to be another artist, but sometimes perfectionism, or the ego, creeps in...and kills art.
So I started on another one. This time I found the perfect face somewhere on the Internet. She is my perfect model, my perfect symbol of beauty. I wanted to draw her and it had to be exactly like her. Well I started drawing, and lil' miss perfectionist came right back in. "It doesn't look like her", "You can't get the lips right", "that left eye isn't right". I erased and erased, and finally decided that I had a pretty close representation, even though it was not perfect. Here is the beginning drawing:

The lips were driving me batty at this stage....and that left eye still. But I started to slap on some paint. I am experimenting with a more neutral background than my norm. Here she is with the first bit of paint:

Starting to come to life, but I was still very displeased. She doesn't look enough like my model. I was fretting a lot about the lips at this point. Now I am looking at them here and suddenly they look great to me. I changed them a bit though, and here is where she is now (I think I might try to take the lips back to where they were above though).:

Sorry the pic is a little grainy, it was taken last night. Anyway, this little gal is a Leanan Sidhe. These are faerie women that are believed to attach themselves to artists. Irish folklore says they are beautiful dark muses that both provide inspiration and suck the life from their host. Many artists are driven mad and die young because of their relationship with a Leanan Sidhe.
I think this is in a way a metaphor for the artistic inspiration itself. It comes in and you fall in love with it like it is a beautiful lover. But often, the ego mind sets in and you think the artistic inspiration is all you and from you, or your mind. Eventually the inspiration wanes, and the artist can be driven mad when they can no longer find it anymore.
Then there is the perfectionism. Driven by your mind, or ego, to create the perfect work of art, you can drive yourself mad. I am laughing at myself here. This little Leanan Sidhe is truly doing her job on me. But I am starting to get that you can create your idea of perfect beauty, and it doesn't have to be perfect. Although, if you are doing it in a state of joy instead of anxiety....it will in no way be imperfect.
I was inspired to write about artistic perfectionism after my gifted artist friend Steph Granshaw posted a work of Audrey Kawasaki's today on her Facebook page. Audrey of course is a very gifted artist and fairly famous. Her work always seems like sheer perfection, but the first thing I noticed about this work was that the right eye was way too far over to the right. Now maybe most people that do not constantly paint faces wouldn't notice this. But I sit and stared at it and thought about how much it would have drove me crazy and that I would have had to fix it. But Audrey left it, and it is still perfect. Here is the painting, go have a look and marvel at her other work if you haven't before.
Hope you are all walking the path of non-perfectionism today........

Upcoming Events

2011-08-22T13:44:00.000-07:00

I had a great time at the Woodland Arts Fair this past weekend. It was a little too hot, but at least it didn't rain. Now on to September events.

September 10th:
I will be displaying my art at Open Heat Yoga studio which is located in the Unitarian Church in Lexington. They will be having a day of free yoga, free henna and food. I will be be there with my art and will be drawing names for free prints. The fun starts around 10 am, hope to see you there!

September 16th:
I will be participating in the Artist Trading Card event put on by the Lexington Art League and Citizens Create. Over 50 artists will be trading cards at the Mayor's office during the Gallery Hop. If you are doing the hop make sure to come by and check out the fun.

October 1st:
I will be vending at the Wee Folk Fairy Festival in Covington, KY. It is from noon to 5p.m. This is a really fun family event. So put on your fairy wings and come and join in on the fun.

Woodland Arts Fair and a beautiful video.

2011-08-18T05:18:00.000-07:00

Lexington's biggest arts fair is this weekend. I have been a busy bee getting ready to set up my booth. I will be in the Woodland Christian Church's lawn this weekend. The fair runs Saturday 10 am until 6 p.m. and Sunday 11am until 5pm.
I am running a little promotion of sorts, the first 12 people to come up to me at the fair and say they heard about this on Facebook, or here on my blog, will get a free postcard print and maybe some other goodies too. So definately make sure you come by and say hello this weekend.
Last night I saw this video for the first time and just thought it was beautiful. I think it was pretty viral at one point so you might have already seen it, but it is worth another watch. Lately it seems the news has been littered with things that bad men are doing. Sometimes when I hear too much I begin to get afraid of men. I begin to think that the world is not getting any better, that men are not learning to love. I needed to see this video. I need to watch it everytime I hear too much about the bad men and to remember that there are many men that are trying to be the change, to honor love, and to restore the divine masculine.

Finished "Dakini"

2011-08-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

Dakini

14x18 acrylic, ink, gold leaf paint

on gessoed hardboard panel

Dakinis in bikinis...

2011-08-08T09:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, not really dakinis in bikinis. I just thought that would be fun to say. Sorry I haven't wrote much in ye olde blog lately. I usually fall into a pattern in the summer where I turn into a virtual hermit in between all the trips. Needless to say this summer has been busy with the kids and trips, but I have managed to get some painting in here and there.
My latest obsession has been with the idea of dakinis (sometimes in bikinis I suppose).
A dakini is a tantric deity described as a female embodiment of enlightened energy. In the Tibetan language, dakini is rendered khandroma which means 'she who traverses the sky' or 'she who moves in space'. Sometimes the term is translated poetically as 'sky dancer' or 'sky walker'.
A dakini comes in many forms and in some ways is related to angels or thought of as bird women of sorts. In many parts of Tibet vultures are considered physical representations of dakinis. Vultures have been revered by many ancient cultures as they are able to transmute negative energies and disease from the physical plane.
It is believed that all women are dakinis, but most do not ever realize this. I like that dakinis are not always pure and perfectly nice, sometimes they are scary and mean too. They are similar to the Valkyries of Norse myth.
I feel that dakinis are muses. I once read where the amazing visionary artist Andrew Gonzales said that he felt like all the women he painted were his dakinis. I really understand this, because as I paint each one of my ladies I form this mystical connection with them. They are me in part, they are my muse, and they are dakinis.
Obviously two of my favorite subjects are birds and women, so I am planning to do a whole series of dakinis I think. Here is some progress pics of my first dakini....

I am working on the feathers around her eyes now and really loving them. Be prepared for lots of feathered masks in the future. I am also giving her some wings, but not really sure how I am going to make those look yet. I hope to have her completed soon. I am hoping to have her done and framed for the upcoming Woodland Arts fair. I will have a booth that weekend in the lawn of Woodland Christian Church, hope to see you there!

The Ever changing Persephone

2011-06-24T07:18:00.000-07:00

I showed a sketch of my "Persephone's Folly" on my Facebook fan page a couple of days ago. I started painting on her yesterday, and noticed she changed a lot. That often happens when I start painting on them, their faces change and morph on me. I was a little sad at first because there was something in the face of the sketch that I really liked. But now I am realizing there is no way to control Persephone, she is a force that can never be defined or fully understood.
Sketch with some background color added:

Beginnings of skin tone added, she changed already:

Where she is now:

Luckily I don't have to write a novel here telling you all about Persephone. We all know her story, and yet none of us really knows if she ate all those pomegrante seeds on purpose or if she was a victim (I don't think she was a victim).
One thing I am trying to bring through in this painting is the tree of life. In a lot of old paintings a snake is wrapped around a tree to signify it as the tree of life. I have a snake wrapped around Persephone and vegetation in her hair along with the look of her hair to hint to her being the tree. She represents the Underworld, the subconscious, the tree of life that connects to both the Underworld and the Upperworld.
She is also holding the fruit like a tree bearing fruit. I am also paying homage to one of my favorite painters and my favorite Persephone painting. Dante Gabriel Rossetti's "Proserpine":

Demeter and bees

2011-06-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

I finally finished Demeter this week.

I lost my inspiration to work on her about three-fourths of the way through. I have been struck with that a lot lately...lack of inspiration. In fact I have been feeling very disenchanted about everything of late. I have been way too focused on the physical. Sometimes we get too wrapped up in being validated and we translate validation into how much money we are making. Like many artists, it's often feast or famine around here and mostly leaning towards the famine. It is very easy to fall into the "what's the use" thought pattern, and when you do it is very hard to find inspiration.

So that's where I was a little over a week ago. I was walking around in my backyard barefoot playing with my daughter when I stepped on a honeybee. He stung me twice on the right foot and it hurt like all get out. I got most of the stinger out, but I guess missed a small part of it. A couple of days later my foot swelled up. That little bee sting caused me a lot of trouble.

After I realized I still had some stinger left and got it out, it suddenly dawned on me that that little bee might have been sent to wake me up. I was led right to an article on the internet about the magicalness of bees. Rudolf Steiner believed that bees were sent to Earth from Venus. Venus holds the energy of the heart chakra for our solar system. Bees form their honeycomb in the patterns of hexagrams which are connected to the heiros gamos or Star of David; also a symbol for the heart chakra.

Bees are all about love and bliss. They are our example of unity consciousness and what working together for the higher good can do....produce the sweetest of life's nectar. The biggest message that came through to me was that for a bee "THEIR WORK IS THEIR BLISS". Every time they gather nectar from a flower they are in complete ecstasy. Wow, that is what I have been missing focusing too much on my validation. I paint because it is blissful. I paint because I love to paint and to create. My focus should never be about if the paintings will sell, but about how much ecstasy I will receive from each brushstroke.

Also as I was reading about bees I came across the fact that Demeter's priestesses were called bees. Wow....very serendipitous! So I finished Demeter and included a little honeybee on her shoulder. She is dreaming of a better world, a more love centered world. She is the consciousness of the Queen Bee and she is asking for some worker bees to help create this world she is dreaming of. But the honeybees are disappearing and the world seems to be losing hope...too many of us are thinking "What's the use..."
It's time to wake up and follow our bliss.

I feel magical again, and the world is reflecting that to me. One of my magical friends Julia Inglis posted a blog about bees the other day and I noticed it last night. I wrote her to share how wonderful I thought it was that we were synchronized. She wrote a lovely blog about the Winter Solstice (she is in Australia) that has a lot to do with what I just shared. I think there is a big message to many of us to just follow our bliss right now.

I am gestating a Persephone right now. She is going to bring me a lot of bliss....

Demeter's Dream, new WIP

2011-06-03T07:31:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is about this time of year, but my creative spark always seems to get extinguished. I guess all I feel like doing is hanging out at the pool with the kids and drinking a beer on the patio. Ahhhh summertime :)

I finished the Cosmic Clown, but was still not completely satisfied with her. I need to take a good photo of her, but just haven't yet. I think I forced her when I just was not in the mood to paint. So I took a couple of weeks off. Then a commission came in, and I needed to get back into the swing of things. I hate to start a commission when I am in a creative slump or it ends up being forced too. This coming commission is one where I really need to connect in a heartfelt way so I decided to try a new piece to warm me up. I think it worked, I am feeling the spark light up again.

So I thought I would show you more of the whole progression of this one. She is one of those pieces that I changed a lot as I went along. Here is what I have done so far on her:

I still have a lot of details to work out on her, but I will probably start that commission now. Got to do it while I am on a creative roll :). These days I seem to need to grab it while it lasts. The kids have their last day of school today, so things are going to be different around here for awhile. Trying to paint with them around can be interesting at best with them chanting "I'm bored, there's nothing to do" in the background. I end up painting a lot into the wee hours of the night during the summer, which is okay since I don't have to get up at 6 a.m. to get them to school.

When I do finally get "Demeter's Dream" done I will write a little more about her for you. Until then, happy summer (or winter if you are in Australia).

The Cosmic Clown, a slow work in progress

2011-05-19T06:49:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I take a break from painting for a week or so, it is so hard to get back into it. I am not an artist that can just constantly paint and churn out work. I can't seem to just paint to be painting. I have to really be inspired and in my creative zone it seems. Then there is the perfectionist in me that thinks every work needs to be even better than the last one. This gets me into trouble a lot, as it is right now.
I started a new painting last week. I had no real plan with it. Honestly, I had been staring at the amazing work of Nashville artist Danielle Duer and those crazy little inky designs she does. I wanted to play around with some ink and tiny little brushes, and that's about it.
I didn't use a reference model. I usually find some pic of a fashion model and base my girl roughly off of her, but this time I made her up. I just wanted to see what happened. Well, I could not get something I liked. I gessoed and gessoed over her face. I got frustrated over and over with the way she was looking, and yet nothing I did seem to make it better. She kept seeming too masculine and not "pretty enough". This made me really think about what my real goal for the piece really was. Why do I need them to be pretty?
Once I started to think about that the whole idea for the painting came to light, and maybe ideas for future ones too. I got to thinking about expectations laid upon us, and about how we are eternally acting out these expectations. We are truly always acting, even when we are being the most real. The Internet is where we really do our best acting and Facebook seems to be our greatest stage. We present ourselves in a certain way by what we choose to show others.
So I realized this painting is frustrating me because she is reflecting me in so many ways right now. She came completely out of my subconscious and I guess this is what my subconscious wants to express in the now. I want to do a series of paintings that touch upon our many roles. Especially as women, we are expected to play so many roles...nurturer, listener, healer, warrior, provider, maid, sex kitten, the list goes on and on.
I am starting with the Cosmic Clown. In college when I was studying Western Native American cultures I was always struck by the idea of the Sacred Clown. This idea was so very important to cultures like the Lakota and the Hopi. These clowns exposed hypocrisy and arrogance before these behaviors got out of hand. Thus Sacred Clowns were considered spiritual leaders in their tribes, because they helped keep the balance in the community.
So my Cosmic Clown is a Sacred Clown, but maybe a wounded one. One that knows how important her role still is, but also knows that no one seems to care anymore about the part.
I am working really slow on her. It is not a big painting or particularly detailed, I am just having so much trouble finding the energy to finish her. I keep thinking I am going to put her on the unfinished shelf, but for some reason I don't. I know it is still because she is not perfect in my mind. Why can't I get over that expectation? Oh, those nasty expectations.......

New wip and a rant

2011-04-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted much this month. I have been real busy painting and getting ready for this coming weekend's showing and next weekend's juried art show. I promised you a rant in the title so here goes....
People who complain about art costing too much have no idea the amount of work that goes into being an artist. I think most people think artists just happily paint for a few hours everyday and that is it. We also collectively have this idea that to earn lots of money we must be working extremely hard at something we hate.
I wish that all I had to do was paint, but that alone would still take up a big chunk of my time. Each painting I do takes me anywhere from 12 to 40 hours to complete, depending on size and difficulty. This is usually spread out over many days, painting anywhere from 3 to 6 hours a day. Once a painting is complete I have to varnish, wire, and sometimes frame. Varnishing alone can take me hours to do, as I seem to have bad luck with it and often have to go repaint things I messed up with the varnish. I do all my own framing and this is by no means easy or quickly done.
The other time consuming aspect of being an artist is the copying of your work, or taking photographs, scanning, etc. I spend a lot of time photographing my pieces. I have to do it outside on a good weather day. This can be challenging at best. Then I have to edit all my pieces in Photoshop to make them as close to the real work as possible to post online. All of this can take me anywhere from 3 to 5 hours to do, on just one piece of art. Next you spend time uploading art to all of your websites where you sell prints, Etsy, Red Bubble, etc. This can often take up an afternoon.
Next you have making prints, packaging prints, shipping prints, making other things to sell like pendants (this takes up lots of time). So if you add all this up we are going over 40 hours of work a week.
Pricing your art is one of the hardest parts of being an artist. What is it's value? That is a hard question. We certainly do not get paid for our time. Just to make a nice round $10 bucks an hour we would have to sell a $400 painting a week, every week. Then there is the obscure question of how good is it. We all have seen artwork that sells for thousands that we wouldn't pay $10 for, and ones that sell for $100 that seem to be worth a lot more.
My pricing is random and somewhat based on how much I am attached to the work, and the size of the piece. I am usually flexible though, and willing to hear offers of course.
Okay, that is about it for my rant, although I haven't even mentioned the high cost of art supplies. Most of you reading this are artists too, so I am probably preaching to the choir. But many of my friends that are not artists, even my own husband, have no idea what I do all day. Somehow I have to fit in cleaning the house, grocery shopping, and taking care of my kids and myself in all of this. Oh, and I left out the self-promotion on the internet time....like this blog....there is another few hours a day, just trying to get your work out there and seen (advertising).
Okay, on to my current work in progress. I have been experimenting with different surfaces. This one is small because it is a sample that I got from Raymar of one of their polyflax cotton canvas panels. It is a very nice surface that I will definately try again. It is also what sparked my rant, because it is only 9x12 inches, but I have already put about 12 hours into painting it and am still not totally done. Just because it is smaller than many of my other works does not mean it is worth less. I am also really loving it, it has changed a lot already from this pic I am posting now.

May Events and new wip

2011-04-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy. busy Spring. My kids were just on Spring Break and it seems I haven't gotten much done in the way of painting, which has me fearing Summer break. I have been hard at work getting ready for May though. I am going to be doing a few fairs starting in May. The first one is May 1st at Seventh Street Gifts in Newport, Ky. I will be the featured artist that day during their Spring Sundaze event. There will be live music provided by Poke, a herbal workshop, food, and readings. It takes place from 1-5 pm and you can read more about it at the website here.
The next weekend, May 7th-8th, I will have a booth at Mayfest in Lexington. This will be my first official juried art fair. I am pretty excited, but also a little stressed. Anyone who has done a juried art fair will know there is a lot of stuff you need to have to do it. For instance, most require you have a white canopy tent which are not cheap. Then there is the structures to hold your art. The cost is starting to add up, so I will be attempting to do many more of these fairs in the future to justify my expenses :).
Thanks to my good friend Barbara Glatzeder I will have a whole bunch of pretty cameo art pendants to sell at Mayfest. I am hopeless when it comes to making these kind of things, so she volunteered to put them together for me and ship them to me all the way from Germany. I have been hard at work now putting together the chains and cords for them and the ones that are finished are turning out so beautifully. Mayfest is over Mother's Day weekend, so I am hoping these will be bought for some lucky mamas.

The next weekend in May will be the opening of a group show I will a have a piece in called "Gods and Goddesses" in Richmond, VA. It will be at an awesome little place called C'est Le Vin Wine and Art Gallery starting May 13th and running to June 5th. The show will have work from 6 women artists and 6 men artists representing gods and goddesses from around the world. My Lilith will be there, along with work by some other amazing artists like Helene Ruiz and Lynnette Shelley. If you live close to Richmond try to make it out for this amazing exhibit.

Lastly, I wanted to share some other big news. I recently signed on with Kats Magical Patches to license my work on fabric blocks. These are fabric patches that you can sew on quilts, handbags, throw pillows, or just about anything your heart desires. This is a new company, but she has already signed on over 60 amazing fantasy artists. Next month she will be having a little contest amongst the artists on her Facebook fan page. The fans will like their favorite image and one lucky fan will win a fabric block of the winning design. Go and become a fan now to participate next month here.

And here is a little preview of the piece I am working on for this little contest. It is Titania, the Faery Queen.

Magdalene and the red egg

2011-03-15T07:43:00.000-07:00

This morning I am thinking of Mary Magdalene. She comes to me at different moments in my life and when she does her presence is amazing and for me, life changing. I have been mainly drawn to the Celtic myth for so many years now. I have by no means covered all that I want to paint there, and yet these Gnostic yearnings come to me now and then and distract me away from the Holy Isles.
I have painted Mary before, but only her face.

I do love the emotion I captured in her face. I always imagined it as a young Mary Magdalene meeting Yeshua for the first time. But now I am being pulled to paint a larger work of her. I am channeling many thoughts about the work right now and I almost feel like I need to write them down before I lose them. Sometimes I get triggered like this and have strong impulses to create a new work but can't do it immediately and then I lose that space I was in and the thoughts that were flowing. So I thought I would share one piece with you, in an effort to preserve this energy for later.
It starts with Mary and the red egg. Often in Eastern Orthodox icons Mary is painted holding a blood red egg. There are a couple of legends that surround this egg, one being that after Jesus died Mary went to the Roman Caesar to tell him about the poor treatment of Jesus by the Romans and that Jesus had risen. Mary was sitting at dinner and holding an egg in her hand and Caesar responded that Jesus could no more have risen than that egg could turn blood red. Of course the egg immediately turned blood red. Another story is similar but has Mary pulling off the same miracle in front of a group of Russians she was telling the tale of Jesus' resurrection to and when the egg went red it marked "The Way" being brought to Russia.
There are many symbols associated with Mary and what intrigues me is their connection to the chakras and the ascension, or the mastery of death. I am starting with the red egg as I feel it is a strong symbol for the root chakra. The egg is the creative potential that we hold at our root. Red is the color of blood, of creation, of the Earth. Out of the blackness of the womb the egg and the blood create life. We connect with the creative energies of the Earth through our root chakras. All possibilities lie in this energy. By raising this energy up through the chakras to the sacred marriage chamber of the heart (the place where the goddess meets the bridegroom) we transmute the energy into Love, and from there we can conquer death. We raise it into consciousness at the third eye, where mind, body, and soul align into one. We take the hidden potential that lay in the egg and bring it into the light of consciousness.
I feel that in this uncertain time that we are in now, connecting with our red egg is more important than ever. We need to be bathed in those creative energies everyday to be able to create the new reality that is called for. Once a symbol is unlocked in your consciousness you begin to see it everywhere, and suddenly it makes more sense what it is speaking to you. Here is another old work of mine called Bindi:

The root chakra is the way to the third eye. The root is the primal mother Earth goddess creative force. You have to tap that before you can evolve into the higher realms of consciousness. Many, many people are stuck in their root because they ignore the goddess. This only leads to survival issues and greed. They ignore their own creative potential. The way to change the world begins at the root. This seems more apparent than ever as we sit here fearing for the people of Japan as they are dealing with nuclear meltdowns. We all know that nuclear weapns are the ultimate result of greed, destruction, and fear; and maybe now we know that nuclear power is not so safe an energy source after all. Then there is Japan's flag, setting there showing us the way to release the fear and "the way" to ascension is through the root. The red dot on the flag is called the rising sun (son). It is time to raise the red egg.

Oh, and I just thought of another red dot...the site I put my artwork on Red Bubble. It is full of creative people working with their red egg energy.

The Phoenix Keeper finished

2011-03-12T09:58:00.000-08:00

I finally finished up the Phoenix Keeper today and I thought I would write a bit about the symbolism of the Phoenix, but first here is what she looks like finished.

The Phoenix has appeared in myth in cultures spanning the globe, from Egypt to Japan to Native American lore. It is always associated with the sun and usually immortality and rebirth. This legendary bird was believed to die in its self-made flames periodically then rise again out of its own ashes (some say after three days and therefore often connected with Christ in Christianity). Linked to the worship of the fiery sun and sun gods such as Mexico's Quetzalcoatl, it was named "a god of Phoenecia" by the Phoenician. To alchemists, it symbolized the the destruction and creation of new forms of matter along the way to the ultimate goal: the philosopher's stone.
But I wanted to show the connection of the Phoenix with the Divine Feminine. Often the Phoenix, because it is connected to the Sun, is connected to the Sun gods and the masculine. Once again, this is a goddess symbol that has been stolen or rather hidden. The Phoenix is truly a symbol of the Divine Feminine that is returning now from the ashes. Those ashes are of all the women that were burned as witches when the Patriarchy tried to stamp out the goddess once and for all. But now many of those "witches" have returned and are bringing the Goddess back out of the ashes.

It is interesting that just recently it was all over Facebook about the news of the 13th astrological sign and that everyone's astrology sign had changed. Well, astrologers have known about this for centuries. The Phoenix is the 13th sign, 13 is the number of the goddess. We are just now becoming aware of her resurrection and rebirth.

The Divine Feminine is essentially our connection to our souls. For some reason, as human beings developed their minds, most lost their connection to their soul (I say most, because a few spiritual movements taught how to develop the mind without losing that connection like the Taoist). Also as we developed our minds we lost our connection to nature. The Goddess is connected to our primordial nature. She is always connected to animals, birds, plants, and the oldest of symbols the serpents and dragons. The serpent represents our reptilian brain that acts on instinctual impulses. As we developed our minds the prevailing thought became that this was a part of us that needed to be conquered, the dragon that needed to be defeated. With the goddess the snake is often showed as a companion and protector. To have the serpent as guardian rather than adversary means that what was blind and unconscious and in its primordial state in us has been raised to consciousness.

The Phoenix in myth is often a blend of a bird and a serpent, thus making it the perfect symbol of the balance between spirit and matter. Birds have long been associated with the goddess as they are a symbol of the spirit and are messengers of the Otherworld. The Phoenix is a messenger bird of the goddess, and is returning to help us remember our true connection to our soul and to the soul of the Earth. We are now being reborn into a new consciousness that is one human beings have never experience before. We have developed our minds and can now use our spirit to raise what was unconscious to the light of consciousness.

I painted my Phoenix white to represent the purity of the soul (and I was influenced by the Phoenix in the Harry Potter movies, big fan :). I gave her some peacock like feathers to represent the third eye opening. Also my Keeper has 6 roses. Six is the number of Venus and the roses can be connected to love and the heart chakra among so many other associations.

The Phoenix Keeper...getting closer.

2011-03-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

I am getting so close to being done with her. I am having a great time with this one. I really love the colors. I am a sucker for green/red or turquoise/rose together. Here is what I have right now. When she is all done I plan to write a whole bunch about the Phoenix and it's ancient symbolism, I am sure you will be waiting with bated breathe ;).

Facebook Art Auction March 13th-19th

2011-03-07T05:39:00.000-08:00

I have a lot of works that I am ready to let go of. I have decided to try a little experiment, a little Spring cleaning art auction on Facebook. I have picked some of my older works, mostly ones from 2009, that I still have. Most of them are soft pastel on paper. Pastels are hard to store because you need to frame them as soon as possible. Some of them I have framed, but many are just stored in plastic sleeves. They need homes. Most of them I will probably not ever submit to shows. My current style is also beginning to change a little from these. So my point is, I would rather see them go to good homes then live in my basement forever, and I am willing to let go of them for a shockingly low price.
Here is a little snippet of some of the works that will be in the auction:

If you want to be a part of the fun you will have to first join my Facebook fan page HERE . Then on March13th you can comment on the piece with your bid. You can go to my Facebook page now and look at the album entitled "Dirt Cheap Spring Cleaning Art Auction" to check out the low starting bid prices. All works have an opening bid of less than $100, some as low as $15.

The Spirals in the sky

2011-03-03T05:42:00.000-08:00

Because I have that neat little flag counter doo-hickey on my site it lets me know how people end up on my blog. I have noticed a few people that end up here were searching for something about spirals in the sky. Ironically, when I named my blog I was just trying to think of something connected to MoonSpiral, which is my user name on most sites. I also sign all my paintings with the symbol of the crescent moon and a spiral. When I first started doing this I honestly was doing it just because I thought it looked cool, and until just now when I went searching for spirals in the sky, I had no idea this was an actual phenomena.
Evidently for the last couple of years people in Norway, Russia, and Australia have noticed these spirally lights in the sky at night. Here is a nice pic of one of the Aussie spirals:

Pretty cool, huh? Of course there is talk of UFOs and the overly-rationals saying they are being caused by rockets or test missiles. Hum, I wonder.
I have been thinking a lot about the Pisces energy today. Mainly because today there are 5 celestial bodies in Pisces and the New Moon tomorrow will be in Pisces. Then the biggy comes next month when Neptune, the ruling planet of Pisces, moves into Pisces. It has not been in Pisces since the 1960's. We can look forward to false institutions and belief systems being broken down, and a vibe of peace and love returning. Maybe if these spirals are connected to UFOs Neptune will help the truth come out, and maybe if they are missiles...Neptune will help us stop firing them on our fellow humans.
Peace and Love to all my brothers and sisters,
Tammy

One finished, one wip

2011-02-27T06:55:00.000-08:00

Finally I think my muse has returned. I think she was hibernating most of the winter. I wasn't able to finish Ishtar. I got 3/4's the way done and decided I didn't really like the composition. I am silly that way sometimes. I will throw her on the half done pile and maybe come back to her 6 months from now. I just had this idea, it would be a fun collaboration with another artist to each send the other one of their half dones and see how someone else finishes it off. Anyhoo....
I wanted to paint a girl in a cocoon. That is how I am feeling right now, like I am about to sprout wings but for now I have to be patient in my cocoon. I finished her in about 3 days last week (she is small 11in. x 14 in.). My problem is that my camera is very old and crapping out on me. Everytime I try to take pictures in the larger settings it puts all these vibration looking lines into the work. Luckily my in-laws are giving me a "new" hand me down camera. It's only about 5 years old and still will be a major upgrade from the one I have now. I won't get this fabulous new camera for 4 more days, so I won't be able to take a good pic of her until then. I have a hard time not showing you all my work the minute it is complete so here is a teaser shot:

When I first decided I was going to learn to paint it was because I had decided at the time I would never be able to afford original art and if I wanted some on my walls I would have to do it myself. The point is I am completely addicted to original art. Since being on Red Bubble I have made many connections with other artist and have aquired some orginals through trade. Someday I will post a blog with pics of my "collection".
So my latest aquisition is by the amazing fantasy/faerie artist from Australia Kim Turner. I gave her a painting for her "Ariadne". I just love this painting so much, and seeing it in person is even more amazing than imaginable. I love staring at her painting strokes up close. I can't explain it, but it is like you feel the love she put into it. I think that is the power of true art. I told my husband I got tears in my eyes when I first opened it out of the box and he said "now you know what your art has the power to do for people."
Well, needless to say I was beyond inspired after getting her work. Last night I had to start another painting. I stayed up way too late and started this work I am going to call "The Phoenix Keeper". I am pretty sure it won't end up in the half done pile.

Sneak peek at Ishtar

2011-02-17T06:12:00.000-08:00

Sorry I have been incommunicado for the last few weeks. Last week I got the worst cold I have had in a long time with a fever. Then it turned into a lovely sinus infection that I still can't completely shake. I haven't felt like painting or doing much of anything. I have read about other artists that get depressed when they have a long term illness. I somewhat understand now. When you are too sick to create it really starts to weigh on you.

I know there is more to me being sick right now than meets the eye. It has been an all around rough start to 2011 for me on the creative front. I have been questioning if I really have the energy for this or not. Wondering if I should just go get a desk job. A lot of this is just coming from the Winter Blues. January has been a rough month here in Kentucky. But I do think this illness had given me some time to ask myself what it is that I really want. The one thing I do know is it is no fun to not be able to create.

I have had a couple ideas for serpent goddesses in my head for weeks now. All this sinus pressure makes it really hard to lean over a painting, but I finally started on an Ishtar. I have been thinking a lot about the primal goddess/dragon energy. So many primal goddesses are connected to dragons, and dragons represent both spirit as they are part bird or have wings, and matter in their serpent form. Here is a little sneak peek at what I have so far on my Ishtar:

First sketch, Lady of the Forest

2011-01-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

This is the first rough sketch of my "Lady of the Forest" for this month's Enchanted Visions Project. I have about 2 weeks to finish her and I am still trying to finish up a commissioned piece, so I am attempting to work on 2 things at once. Usually I like to start one thing and work on it until it is done, so we will see how this goes.
I might give her some wings when I get to painting on her, not sure yet. I feel like the composition needs something else, but I may change my mind once I start adding the paint. I might add some other animal in front of her on her left, maybe a deer peeking behind a tree. I also can't decide right now if her hair shall be black, red, or white. Any opinions?

Enchanted Visions Project

2011-01-10T05:24:00.000-08:00

I am going to start participating in the Enchanted Visions project. If you have never heard of it, it was started by two famous faerie artists Jessica Galbreth and Amy Brown. Each month they decide on a theme and all particpating artists create a piece of fantasy art around that theme. You can checkout past themes and work here http://www.coriander-shea.com/enchanted-visions-project.html.

I think one of the hardest parts of being an emerging artist is defining your work. I am a Libra and am plagued with indecisiveness. One minute I want to do all Pop Surrealism, the next be a Fantasy Artist. I think my strong point lies somewhere in between these two. Anyway, I think the EV project will force me to do some more fantasy work which I have been wanting to do more of. Though I love them, I just don't know if I could do nothing but faeries....we will see.

Thinking of Red-winged Blackbirds

2011-01-06T07:46:00.000-08:00

I often look at the world as one big tarot deck, meaning everything that happens is a symbol for something more. I especially feel this way when something happens that is on the news and effects more people than just me. I have been thinking a lot about these blackbirds that fell from the sky on New Year's Eve over Arkansas. What is the deeper meaning of this?

I am connected to Arkansas as it was the place of my birth. I was born in a small town called Mountainburg in the Ozark mountains of Northern Arkansas. Arkansas is a state that gets overlooked a lot. If it wasn't for Bill and Hillary being from there, many people would have never have even heard of it. It is a beautiful place with one of the most beautiful rivers in the world running through it, The Buffalo river. It also has some magical properties right in the heart of it. It has these incredible healing hot springs and produces a large amount of diamonds and quartz crystals all in the same area. I always felt magic when I walked outside of Hot Springs, Arkansas and would find hundreds of quartz crystals and amethyst lying naturally all over the ground. Let's just say that there is quite a lot of faerie energy there.

Then there is the fact that these blackbirds were red-winged blackbirds. I think these birds are very magical. When I was working on my painting 'The Seer" a couple of years ago I remember reading a lot about red-winged blackbirds. Here is a quote from Ted Andrew's "Animal Speak" about red-winged blackbirds:

"This bird has a red path on its wings, with a dash of yellow as well. These colors connect this bird to the level known as Binah in the Qabalistic Tree of Life. This is the level associated with the Dark Mother and the primal feminine energies. This bird has ties to all of the creative forces of nature." pg. 119 "Animal Speak" by Ted Andrews.

I have mentioned before, as I am fascinated by these three colors, that red, black, and white (yellow in the Native American tradition) are always associated with the Dark Mother, and the Faerie realm in Celtic lore. Red-winged balckbirds are indeed a very special bird and messenger from the Otherworld.

So what is the message we should be getting from thousands of them falling lifeless from the sky? Well it certainly does seem ominous at first. Certainly blackbirds have been thought to be a bearer of bad omens for centuries.

I personally think it is a message about urgency and our power to create change. The womb of the Dark mother is where all of life springs from. The creative energy emerges from the darkness into the light. It is she who holds the power of creation. When we work with her we discover our own creative force. We have to accept our darkness before we can transmute it into the light. It is time, now more than ever, for us to get this. We can create great change in the world.

I also think there is a message about understanding our deep connection to nature. Nature speaks volumes to us if we will just listen to her. She is speaking loudly to us now, are you listening?

New pendants

2011-01-05T05:36:00.000-08:00

I can paint and draw, but it seems everything else that is considered crafty I am dismally lacking in any talent. I tried making art pendants with prints of my work, the kind where you glue your print to a glass cabochon and a cameo. I had so much trouble with those. I tried multiple kinds of glues and they all soaked through to the print, no matter what I did to prevent it. I had a couple turn out okay, but gave up on them eventually.

So just the other day I got the idea to start actually painting on little wooden circles and making handpainted pendants. I have made two so far. Although I am enjoying this, my neck is so sore from bending over these and working with tiny brushes. I will have to see how popular they are before I make too many of them. Here is a sneak peak at the two I have done so far.

These are of the Welsh goddesses Arianrhod and Rhiannon. I plan to do goddesses mainly and some more pop surrealistic big eyed girls. They are 1 1/2 inch pendants with layers of glaze to protect the work and a bail glued on the back. Now I have to figure out how much to charge for these. They are pretty detailed and each one takes me awhile to do. I think it is pretty cool to be able to wear an original piece of art.

Coimimeadh comes out of nowhere

2010-12-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

This has been an odd month to say the least. Like everyone else I have been busy getting ready for the Holiday, and then the energy of this month has really been wacky. The mix of Venus in Scorpio making me feel sorry for myself with Mercury Retrograde blocking my abilities to communicate my feelings has been tough. I have been feeling completely uninspired in some ways, and that is where the feeling sorry for myself comes in. I keep trying to start paintings and then getting angry because I can't do what I want to do and trashing them. I started a Rhiannon and I was struggling making her look right.
Sometimes I have trouble when I try to put too much into one painting. Although I would like to do more illustrative scenes, I seem to be better at doing portraiture and keeping the backgrounds simple. When I try to add too much to the scene the work just seems to become a jumbled mess, and this is what happened to Rhiannon. I had to walk away from her, but I had this overwhelming desire to paint something and I was out of canvas. I found one of the faeries I started a couple of months back and didn't finish. At the time she was just a faerie with a sort of Klimt like cloak over her. A couple of months ago I got completely bored with her, and yet suddenly I looked at her and fell in love with her again.
I started working on her again and finished her within a couple of days. I added a barn owl, and then felt like I was looking at my co-walker. In the Faerie Tradition you meditate or journey to the Otherworld or Faerie realm as a sort of Shamanic practice. One of the practices is to meet and work with your co-walker, or Coimimeadh in Gaelic. This co-walker is like your double on the otherside and by working with them you form a sort of symbiotic relationship in which you both grow by bringing the energies of the other's world into your own.

I am actually a little shocked that I was able to bring her forth right now. I think it was because I needed to see her right now, to bring her into the physical. I am feeling my inspiration coming back now. The barn owl is also my spirit animal that I often meet on my journeys to the Otherworld and she appears in many of my paintings.
So I am starting to feel the return of the light, but still Mercury Retrograde bit me yesterday. The ignition switch on my car went out in the YMCA parking lot. Although it is a bad time of the year to deal with car trouble (like there is ever a good time) part of me is laughing.
Hope everyone else is dodging Mercury this time around, Merry Yule!

First doggie portrait

2010-12-12T09:53:00.000-08:00

Well I have my very first doggie portrait almost finished. Still needs a few more layers of paint, but it is almost there. The client loves the color red and said she likes the pop aspects of my work, so I am hoping she will like the dramatic red sky behind her adorable little girl. Here is the original photo and what I have done so far:

I am having trouble with my digital camera, the viewfinder screen has decided to go out on me. This makes it extremely hard to get good shots of my work, so it looks like it is time for a new one. Doesn't it always seem to go like that, you sell a few things and something goes out where you immediately have to spend the money you made. Such is life I guess. Hope everyone is having a stress free Holiday season (is that even possible?).....

Siren's Call Finished.....or not....

2010-12-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

Well I think I have finished with the Siren's call. I am sure every artist feels this way, sometimes I feel like they are never finished. I am a wierd mix of perfectionist and lazy sometimes. I work really hard at each painting, but I always feel like I need to do more. The only way I know I am done is when I get bored with the painting and feel like I can't stand to do anymore with it. It's not that I don't love them, I just think that is my personal in-built mechanism to make me stop painting.
It is cold, slightly snowy and cloudy here today. There is no way I will be able to get a good pic of her today outside. There is a big dilema when you take your own pictures of your work when winter comes. But hopefully I will be posting the final pictures of her soon.
I set up a new newsletter today. I guess that is pretty exciting. I want to do some fun things with it, more than just the ramblings you might read here in my blog. I hope to do some print giveaways, and do some writing about astrology, tarot, and other spiritually directed things. I hope it will be a fun and informative newsletter that people will look forward to getting once a month. You can sign up for it at my website here.
Alright then, I guess that is about it for today....sorry no pics of my Siren yet, but it is coming soon.

New WIP, The Siren's call

2010-11-23T10:46:00.000-08:00

Started a new painting a few days ago, just haven't gotten very far with her yet. This one is going to be similar to The Bridge in many ways. I am thinking about the siren and her haunting call. In myth she calls men and/or sailors to their deaths with her song. Of course mythical beings associated with water are always connected to the feminine consciousness and the subconcious mind. Water is like the void or the womb, where all of creation springs from.
I think that the siren's call is the call that beckons us onto the spiritual path. It calls for us to begin the journey into our subconscious, the journey of unpeeling our issues and facing our egos. The problem comes when we are not quite ready to deal with these issues.
Many people have a constant yearning for something that they can never define. In a sense, that yearning is the siren's call. Many people also choose to try and distinguish that yearning with the proverbial sex, drugs, and rock n' roll. The things that they think will get them closest to union with god/goddess, without having to face their ego. I think this is the destruction that the siren leads most men too, but she can also lead you to the destruction of your ego.
I have included an egret because they are a bird, along with other herons, that are always on the edge of the two worlds (water and land, physical and spiritual). Also there is a loon because they have a haunting call just like the siren. Here is what I have so far:

I have been struggling a lot with the background on this one. It just doesn't want to show itself fully to me yet, but I think it is starting too.

The Hare and The Bridge

2010-11-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

I finished painting The Bridge today and will start posting her places later. First I thought I would write a little about the Hare since I covered the Fox in my last post. The hare is connected to the moon in many cultures (as you can see a hare in the moon). It is also connected to the Faerie realm like the Fox, as it is mainly seen at Dusk and Dawn.
Many moon, hunting, and love and fertility goddesses are also connected to the Hare. The Hare is a very strong symbol of ancient feminine magic and the Otherworld. The hare symbolizes fertility and new life. The goddess herself represents the energy of nature and the ever-turning cycles of birth and rebirth. Therefore it makes perfect sense that the hare is so connected to the goddess as the hare is an animal that is prey to almost every predator, and yet it's hightened fertility allows it to be reborn again and again.
I was born during the year of the Hare in Chinese astrology and that is probably another reason why I am so obsessed with the moon, that and my moon was in Cancer.
Here is a not so great pic of my lil' Hare in "The Bridge":

The Bridge and the Fox

2010-11-08T06:01:00.000-08:00

I made some good progress on "The Bridge" this weekend. I am actually really happy with her so far. I am working on the wee lil' fox in it right now and having the best time. I really need to explore painting more animals. I have been almost obsessed with birds for so long, it is time to open up to more animal energy.
Fox really wanted to be in this painting. I have been seeing foxes all over the place for weeks now. Fox is not really a totem energy I have worked with much before, but it makes so much sense why she is showing up now. I originally placed fox here because she is one of the animals associated with the Faerie realm, because she is seen only at dawn and dusk. These are the times "in between" when the doors to the Faerie realm are open. But fox's connections with camouflage, shapeshifting and invisibility are quite interesting too.
All of these abilities are associated with feminine magic. According to Ted Andrews in his book "Animal Speak", there are 21 species of fox. 21 is The World card in tarot. Andrews states that this reflects that the world is "growing and shapeshifting itself into new patterns that will be beneficial".
Ancient Chinese and Native American lore both tell of beautiful maidens that can shapeshift into a fox and can be the downfall of men that fall in love with them. Again from Andrews: "This is very symbolic of the idea of magic being born within the feminine energies, and that unless a male can recognize the magic of the feminine-in himself or others-and learn to use it to shapeshift his own life, it will ultimately lead to destruction." Well that just about sums up the idea behind most of my paintings, and now I see more clearly why fox wanted to be in this one.
Here is a little peak at my lil' fox friend:

I am going to start painting the hare soon, and will try to post a little about her symbolism when I do.

New WIP and one that will never be

2010-11-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

I usually like to finish any work I start, but lately that hasn't been the case. I use to just be able to crank out work even if I didn't feel overly in love with it as I was working on it. It seems now I have to be completely in love with what I am doing or I lose interest.
I have started two faeries over the past few weeks and have gotten more than halfway done and then got bored. Who knows, maybe someday I will finish them. I also tried to do a self portrait. I have been reading the Harry Potter series to the kids and I am completely jealous of all those wizards and their pet owls. I decided to do a portrait of me with a pet owl (and really long hair). This is as far as I got.

I did it on a scrappy piece of watercolor paper, and when I started to paint on it I suddenly remembered I hate painting on watercolor paper. The paint just dries way too fast and never looks very vibrant to me. There are a few watercolorists that can achieve vibrant color on paper, but it seems I will never be one of them. So it looks like I will never finish my owl and me.
I have started one I think I will finish though. This one will be called "The Bridge". It has to do with becoming a bridge between the worlds. The work includes a fox and hare, two animals that are only seen in the in-between times of Dawn and Dusk and are thought to lead people into the Faerie realm.

Sacred Familiar Interview

2010-10-28T06:21:00.000-07:00

The Sacred Familiar newsletter "Within The Grove" came out today and I am very honored to be featured in it. Julia Inglis does such a wonderful job and puts a lot of hard work into writing this. Please checkout her site at www.sacredfamiliar.com

You can read the entire interview here.

Updates and good news

2010-10-25T12:37:00.000-07:00

I always love the energy in October leading up to Samhain. I got married ten years ago on a Friday the 13th (Freyja's day) in October. I have always thought it is one of the most magical times of the year. It has been feeling especially magical for me lately.
Maybe it was the Aries full moon in Scorpio, but I am feeling the energy of the Divine Masculine. It is an energy that says "it is time to go out and make things happen". It is the energy of the Magician card, the uncovering of your personal power so you can manifest your desires in the physical world.
So here is some of the magical things that have happened just in the last week. Firstly, my work is being published right now in a book called "Angels and Goddesses". I should be receiving my copy any day and I am very excited to get it, to see my work alongside about 30 other talented artists and photographers.

Next, I have found a partner to manifest something I have dreamed about for awhile now. It is still in it's preconception phase so I won't say much about it, but it has to do with tarot (hint, hint :).

Then just yesterday I found out that I have been selected to show my artwork at next year's Divina et Femina IV. This is an international conference held in Ottawa, Ontario Canada. The keynote speaker this year will be Z. Budapest. I am over the moon about this. There will be lectures, artists, writers, all about the Divine Feminine. I am a little worried about how I am going to make it there, but it is not until the end of May, so I will try my best to make it happen.

My final great news has to do with a fabulous newsletter that will be highlighting my artwork later this week. It is a newsletter out of Australia called "The Sacred Familiar". It is a remarkable newsletter put out by Julia Inglis and Tony Esta. They run a school for the intuitive arts. I can not say enough about this beautiful newsletter. It is full of good insights, and great art. They have highlighted my talented friend Patricia Ariel a few times also. Please check them out at www.sacredfamiliar.com and sign up for the newsletter.

I hope you are all enjoying the wonders of this time of year. Happy Halloween/Samhain!

WIP "Deirdre of the Sorrows"

2010-10-11T06:05:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I decided to start working on a Deirdre of the Sorrows. Deirdre is one of the most tragic characters of Pre-Christian Irish Myth. Her story comes from the Ulster cycle and has all the makings of a classic fairy tale, except for a very unhappy ending. I originally just wanted to paint a Celtic goddess that was known for her otherworldly beauty and was drawn to Deirdre. Her story is a little bit like Helen of Troy, a beautiful woman that causes the ruin of kings and warriors, but the symbolism of the story is so rich I couldn't resist painting it.
There are many versions of this story, at least 5 plays and 4 books have been written about her, and although the stories vary slightly, the basic theme is the same. So Deirdre is born to a royal storyteller in the court of the king Conchobar. A Druid priest prophesied when she was born that she would be the ruin of the king and the kingdom because of her great beauty. She was almost put to death for this, but the king was so intrigued by her future beauty that he decided to keep her alive and marry her when she grew up. He placed her in foster care hidden away from others.
Here is where the story starts to intrigue me. She lives in a house hidden under the ground (faerie dwelling=sidhe) and is mainly cared for by an old woman named Leabharcham. Leabharcham is the wise crone goddess and/or possibly a high priestess of the old ways. One day Deirdre looks out and sees her foster father slaughtering a young calf during the winter as there is snow on the ground. This in itself is strange because in the old faerie lore you did not slaughter animals after the Blood moon in late October or early November. Any animal or grain harvested after this time belonged to the Fay or the dead ancestors and would harm the living if they partook of it.
So Deirdre looks out at the scene and sees a raven come and start to nibble at the blood on the snow. Most people would see this as some kind of dark omen, but Deirdre sees her future lover and proclaims that she would like to have a lover like that with hair the color of a raven, lips as red as blood, and skin as white as snow. At this point one might be reminded of Snow White, and one should be. The white as snow, red as blood or rubies, and black as the raven is like a code in fairy tales. White, red, and black are the colors of the Dark goddess and of the Faerie realm. I think that Deirdre is claiming her lover to be the goddess, or rather stating her love for the goddess here.
So the symbolism has laid the hints. Deirdre is in the faerie realm. She is between and betwixt the worlds, just like Snow White was when she entered the dark forest and met the gnomes (or dwarfs if you want to call them that). She soon meets this raven haired pale skinned Marilyn Mansion looking lover named Naoise. She runs away with him and lives in some forest in Scotland for awhile and lives blissfully happy there for a moment.
Eventually they have to return to Ireland. In a nutshell, Conchobar succeeds in having Naoise killed, marries Deirdre but she is miserable and kills herself. In one account she knocks her head on a boulder as her carriage is passing it. So what is the meaning of all this tragedy? Like most myth, the meaning is multi-layered, but one meaning seems to come out at me. I think in part, this story is about the old matriarchal Bronze age goddess societies being taken over by the more Patriarchal warrior ones. I think it is trying to warn people that the way of war and Patriarchy is a road only to greed and ruin.
Deirdre is the sovereign goddess in this tale, as at that time a king was still not truly a king unless he was married to the sovereign goddess. She was the living representative of the goddess and the Earth or the land. If we are too greedy with her, if we take advantage of her, she will perish and so will our kingdoms.
Okay, so now on to my painting. It is a lot of pressure to try and paint a face that would cause the downfall of so many men. Hopefully I captured her beauty and otherworldliness here:

You can see the pencil workings of a raven that will be carrying a serpent shaped golden torque. In some accounts of the story Deirdre has a dream right before Naoise is killed of hundreds of ravens flying with bloody torques in their mouths. I think this is a strong symbol for the story as a whole. Gold and white are similar in their symbolic meaning, and I am painting the torque (which was worn around warriors necks) in the oroborus style to again symbolize the goddess.

As always, I hope to have this finished this week....we will see. I am leaving you with a photo of me in the Underworld of Faerie (or better known as Cathedral Caverns in Northern Alabama) surrounded by the energy of gnomes.

Finding Balance and Lilith

2010-09-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have been incommunicado for so long around here. I am coming out of a long period of a creative dry spell that coincided with the dog days of summer. I have felt completely disconnected from my spirit and fully immersed in the physical world and the day to day lately. But as the Autumnal Equinox approached I felt the old magic starting to return. I started to paint again and started to feel the presence of Lilith. I have been working on a Lilith painting for a couple of weeks now. Lilith is a powerful ancient goddess energy. I have been working with snake energy for so long now and they have appeared over and over in my work in the last year. It is so connected with the energy of the Divine Feminine, and is what we as women are constantly working with in this present moment. It is about transmutation, and sometimes I feel like I am working overtime transmuting energies.
Women have been told for so long that they can't be too powerful. Often, as we start to finally reach the potential of our own power, we pull back. We have been taught for thousands of years to pull back. When we pull back sometimes we pull back so far we have a hard time finding that power again. Lilith is a huge symbol for this. She was a very powerful woman. She refused to submit to Adam and stood up to him, she spoke and lived her truth. For this, she was turned into a demonic witch by the Patriarchal forces that were in power.
So within the myth is the symbol of how women still today collectively fear becoming too powerful. Look at women in our world with a lot power like Hillary Clinton, Oprah, Nancy Pelosi and look at how they are portrayed by the media. I just gave a bunch of examples of powerful Liberal leaning women, but look at how Sarah Palin is portrayed in the media, and you realize it doesn't matter what her beliefs or political leanings are, a powerful woman is usually slandered repeatedly. This is what we need to transmute. We need to transmute this fear of being too powerful and the fear of what the world will do to us if we step into our place of power.
Last night during the powerful Aries full moon and Equinox, I sat in a circle with some magical sisters and felt the power of this transmutation. It is very important now more than ever for us to be in community and to draw upon each others strengths to help us reach our own potential. I feel more balanced now and aligned with the current energies.
So here is just a little sneak peek of my Lilith's face. I haven't been taking WIP pics this time. I have been so immersed in her I haven't even stopped to take pics. I have tried to capture her allure, her strength, and yet a look of fear that represents that collective fear of our own power. I still have a lot of fine details to work on, but she is getting closer to complete.

Beyond that I have just been running the kids to and from school. I recently showed at the Kentucky Showcase at Awesome Inc. in Lexington. It opened during the last Gallery Hop in town and here is little pic of me at the reception with two of my pieces.

I just cut off a bunch of hair, it was getting pretty long before. Another sign I am letting go of the old and ready for the new that is yet to come. I hope everyone else is feeling the balance return too.

The Guardians, new WIP

2010-07-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

Well the summer is almost over and I have felt uninspired most of the time. I had to paint a couple of paintings for upcoming themed exhibits. One was for the Tomato Art Festival in East Nashville on August 14th and the other was for a traveling exhibit called "The Womanly Art" that is being put on by the Southern Indiana La Leche League. Although I was very excited to paint both of these, my inspiration was slow to come, and both works took me longer than I had originally planned. Both works are finished now and posted on my redbubble profile.
I have had another work in my mind for weeks now. I had to wait to start her until I was finished with the before mentioned works. That was slightly hard for me. This painting began to permeate my every thought. I think I learned a lesson in patience though. I felt like I let the idea grow for awhile in my womb before I finally got to birth her, and I think the work is better because of this.
The piece is about the shift of consciousness that we are all going through right now. The energy is shifting all around us, whether we realize it or not. This work carries along the themes of "I Feel Fragile Today". The energies are going through us and we feel uncomfortable because we feel we are changing, but we don't really know what is happening to us. In this work I am trying to show that it is our connection to nature that will help guide us through this change.
The Guardians is a large 2x3 foot acrylic on canvas. Here she is in the early sketch phase.

And here is a detail of her face.

Here she is with the face coming to life and a bit of color in the background.

And then I worked her face some more. This is what she looks like right now.

I started painting her yesterday and was up way too late working on her. I am feeling like I am in complete painting bliss with her. I have a lot of detail to do on her that might take me a few weeks and I have a couple of trips coming up to see family. My kids start school again, already, in about 2 weeks. My time to paint is going to really open up then. I feel the Fall will bring lots of creations.

WIP "The Gifting"

2010-05-31T15:09:00.000-07:00

I had this plan to do the three fates of Greek mythology one at a time. I was going to start with Clotho, the fate that holds the distaff and begins the weaving of the fate of each human. I am intrigued by the fates, and other web/weaving goddesses like Ariadne. They are often connected to the stars and spiders. Also the word faerie is derived from the Latin fata, or fate. It has been speculated by many that actual faeries were "people" with the gift of second sight, or the ability to see the future.
I wanted to do my Clotho in a very modern way or another one of my "pop surrealistic" goddesses. I started to work on the pencil sketch on a larger size (for me) 24x36 canvas.

I struggled with her face a little more than usual. Something about her really bothered me. I decided to give her my bangs for some reason. I almost think she looked too much like me and that was what was bothering me. I erased her face more than a few times and finally decided to just let it go and she would evolve once I started painting.

I sometimes do my sketches with a water soluble graphite pencil that does not need to be fixed before you add the acrylic paint. It ends up just blending away with the paint. For this painting I used regular old graphite and sprayed it with a fixative before I painted. I thought I wanted to leave a lot of the graphite lines showing, but now I am wishing I would have put a light coat of white gesso over it to dim the pencil lines a little; you live and you learn I guess. Here she is with an added hand:

I have drawn a barn owl in the background that I planned to be bringing her the beginning of the thread. I wanted it to be as if she was chosen by nature to have the gift of sight. As I am looking more and more at it though, I am thinking about making the thread that the owl is holding a snake instead. I guess I haven't quite gotten over my snake obsession yet. Here she is with some background color:

I finally started to like her face and her general look. I am not really sure if she is still Clotho, maybe just an ambiguous woman being gifted by the Otherworld. I still feel for some reason there is more of me in her than normal.

This is the last photo I took of her. I have since added a delicate off the shoulder blouse on her. I hardly ever dress my girls so I thought I would play around with some fabric. I need lots of practice with fabric folds. I am excited about this one now, I wasn't at first. Funny how your work can evolve sometimes into more than you expected when the idea was first birthed.

Tiamat-finished

2010-05-13T17:10:00.001-07:00

Well, at least I think I am done with her. I worked and worked on her, and changed elements on it over and over. I think I am fairly happy with how she turned out, but my self critic was out in full force with this one towards the end.

I wanted to go into some of the symbolism and my reasoning on this one. Tiamat is usually drawn as a three headed dragon, but I wanted to do this with my own impressions on the myth, and not rely on what I could read in Wikipedia. In the Sumerian myth the generation of creator gods that Tiamat is a part of is referred to as the "Ancient Ones". I believe that these Ancient Ones might have been another race, maybe like the Elven or an Elder race. A less fanciful idea is that they were a matriarchal people that were overtaken by a more warrior-like Patriarchal people. Again the passage that inspired the piece:
"Know that Tiamat seeks ever to rise to the stars, and when the upper is united with the lower, then a New Age will come to the Earth, and the Serpent shall be made whole again, and the waters will be as One."
I believe that this passage is talking a lot about humans having the ability to walk in both worlds, or uniting the spiritual and the material parts of ourselves. This is what we are all asked to do right now. I personally find it a very hard task. I seem to swing from one world to the next, and can not remain in both at once very often.
The stars represent the spiritual, and the lower world is our lower selves, or material selves. Tiamat seeks to rise to the stars, but is held down because the serpent is not one. I represent the serpent in this painting with a coral snake in an ouroboros style. The ouroboros is a well known symbol of the goddess energy. It's mouth represents it's positive active energy, and it's tail represents it's passive negative energy. When it bites it's own tail it is neutralized, it becomes the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I used a coral snake here because they are venomous. When it reaches it's tail it will be one, and neutralized. The masculine aggressive energy neutralized by the feminine.
There are many myths all over the world of an ancient race of wise people known as Serpents or Dragons. I believe this is why Tiamat was called a Dragon, she was part of these ancient wise people that possibly disappeared when the Patriarchal societies took over. Also, the ley lines that run under the earth are often referred to as Dragons. We must be able to converse with these Dragons under the ground and with the stars above to bring on the New Age. Many of those myths that talk about the ancient wise serpent people talk about them retreating underground, like in the myths of the Tuatha de Danann. So maybe they are or were physical beings that went "underground", or maybe they are the Dragon energy that runs through the arteries of our great Gaia. It is something I ponder a lot.
In the painting behind Tiamat's masculine side is a pair of ducks. Ducks represent an energy that lives in water, on land, and in the sky. They are showing us how to walk in both worlds. On her feminine side there is lost of plants and Earth energy. It is the energy of the Earth that helps us connect to the Feminine energy needed to neutralize our abundance of material energy.
Tiamat has three eyes instead of three heads here I suppose. The third eye of course is an Eastern symbol for obtaining inner vision and wisdom. The mist surrounding her represents the veil that surrounds us all and keeps us from seeing beyond the physical world. She is also rising up out of the ocean, or the unconscious. This is what the goddess has been doing for sometime now, rising out of the depths of our unconscious. Tiamat is one of the most ancient goddesses known. When she has fully risen out of our collective unconscious, a New Age will truly be upon us.

Tiamat WIP

2010-05-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

I was totally struck by a quote from the ancient Sumerian myth and decided to paint Tiamat. She is the creatrix goddess of the Sumerian cylce. She is connected to serpents and dragons and was killed by her own grandson Marduk. Possibly this is another myth symbolizing the matriarchy being destroyed by the patriarchy, but like most ancient myth, the symbolism is multi-layered. Here is the quote that I couldn't get out of my head:
"Know that Tiamat seeks ever to rise to the stars, and when the upper is united with the lower, then a New Age will come to the Earth, and the Serpent shall be made whole again, and the waters will be as One."
I will go more into my interpretation of that when I have completed Tiamat, but for now I will just post my WIP pics. You will get to see how nuerotic I can be with my backgrounds with this progression.

The above image shows my graphite underdrawing. It is just a rough sketch and the painting usually morphs into something a little different looking than the sketch.

Here I have started to give her a little color and decided to go with black hair again.

More color added. I was thinking I wanted a drippy background here, but was really feeling unsatisfied with it. Basically, at this step, I had no idea what to do with the background. I like to paint the women sort of realistic with a lot of detail and make them the main focus. I like my backgrounds to be more abstract, but I never really know exactly how they will turn out. It is a lot of trial and error.

At this stage I decided to forget the drip, and go with a solid dark blue background.

At this stage I added some kind of circle thingys with drips. I am not sure really why except they look kind of cool. I will come up with some esoteric meaning later maybe. I do plan to paint yet another snake around her in an ouroboros style. I guess the circles will reflect that. I am feeling the power of this goddess and having a great time working on her. Hopefully I will have her done and posted by the end of this week.

Quetzalcoatl, WIP

2010-04-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

I started a new painting this weekend and was progressing pretty quickly on her,and then got a cold today. I don't have a lot of energy to paint on her today so I thought I would post a WIP. She is a little bigger than my usual, 24x30, and I think I really like this size!

The first image is of my pencil sketch on the canvas. I do a pretty rough sketch just to know where everything is going to be. I was having a pretty hard time deciding where her back was going and if I should add butterflies or not. I erased a whole bunch at this stage.

Here she is with some color added. I have decided to change the way I had her orientated in the sketch and to get rid of the butterflies for now. I might add some at the end, but now I am thinking some kind of blackbirds flying in the distance added at the end.

Here is what she looks like right now. I have most of the elements painted in, and a whole lot of detailing to do and trying to de-sloppify some sloppy elements. I can be pretty impatient when I first start a painting. I want to get everything on the canvas quickly so I can get an idea of what it will look like. Then I go back and detail and fix my mistakes.
I am pretty happy with her so far. I know I am because I keep staring at her. Sometimes they just really captivate me, and that is when I know I am doing something right.
I am calling her Quetzalcoatl after the Mayan feathered serpent god. I will go into that more when I post the final painting. I am just really enjoying painting snakes lately. I also think the Slyvia Ji influence is even stronger in this work. I am just completely taken with her work. I know this painting has my own touch, but it is highly influenced by her amazing work.
Hopefully I will have this done within a week or two, but right now I think I just need to lay down. I worked at my daughter's preschool two days in a row last week, I am sure that is where I picked up this cold...dang it :)

New work and group show

2010-04-12T09:50:00.000-07:00

I am almost done with a new painting. It really isn't extremely detailed, it just seems I haven't had a lot of time to work on it. I have been highly influenced by the work of Sylvia Ji lately. How can you not be inspired by her work? I think this latest piece shows some of her influence, but with my own touch of course. I should have it posted this week.
This weekend I will have a booth at Buster's bar for the Art in Motion Shakedown. It is Saturday from 7:30 until closing time. I will have one piece of art up for auction. You can read more about it here.
The weekend of May 22nd I have two exciting things to report. I will again be doing tarot readings and spirit guide drawings at the Inner Lights Festival in Lexington. I will also have two pieces, "Jezebel" and "Spirit of the West Wind" in a group show at Gallery 101 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I am very excited as I will be showing with many of my favorite artists from Red Bubble.

Here is the Press Release for the event:
"MASQUERADE": A Multi-Media Arts Event and Masquerade Ball!

Opening reception and "masked gathering"
SATURDAY MAY 22nd, 2010 From 7-10 PM

for those who may want to purchase a mask for this event, there will be a limited amount of masks available for sale at the door

Refreshments

This exhibit will include masks and other art works by artists responding to symbolic and concrete uses of masks related to carnival, ceremonial, spiritual, and other societal appearances of "masking". The exhibition will examine the mask as a wearable work of art, as a means of hiding or changing the identity of a person, as a protective device, literal and metaphoric meanings of"masking" in contemporary culture.

Historically, mask-makers have shown great resourcefulness in selecting and combining a wide array of materials. Artists in this exhibition also incorporate familiar and unexpected materials in their works.

Poetry by Mia Roman-Hernandez

A Special performance by Jean Minuchin from 8:30 pm till 8:45pm
BE SURE TO BE HERE FOR THIS VERY SPECIAL TREAT!!

EXHIBIT WILL INCLUDE WORKS BY THE FOLLOWING FEATURED ARTISTS;

Lily Fernandez, Adam White, Virginia Metayer, Elisabeta Hermann, Helene Ruiz, Sergio Cervantes,Lynnette Shelley, Mia Roman-Hernandez, kUrban, Janet Villasmil, Wahala Temi, Tammy Mae Moon, Patricia Ariel, Melissa Shawn Griffin, Jennifer Geiss, Damien Venditti, Rishona Cann, Judy Polstra, Jim Hammond, Jean Minuchin and Nadya of Dream Pieces and Outrageous Wear

this is a special event curated by Helene Ruiz, founder of The Urban Individualists in collaboration with Adam White, of The Gallery 101..this exhibit ends june 5th, 2010

Fragile, WIP

2010-03-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

This is the latest piece. I am thinking it will be called "Fragile", or "I Feel Fragile Today". The above pic shows her with the graphite sketch and the first touches of color. I am painting her to symbolize what I think a lot of people are feeling right now. We are submersed in a bunch of Pisces energy right now, culminating during the next new moon when many planets including the Sun will be in Pisces. We are all feeling fragile and extra sensitive right now. We are also going through a major transition right now and trying to realign our systems to anchor in this new energy.
The butterflies are a symbol for this transition and they are going through her in a sense without her even realizing it. She is also submersed in water to her waist to symbolize the emotions of Pisces. Here is what she is looking like with a bit more color.

I need to work on a commission now and won't be able to finish her for a few days. That is going to be incredibly hard for me, but she will just have to wait.

My new Pseudo name

2010-02-21T13:35:00.000-08:00

So I have been thinking for awhile that I need a different professional name. I often go by Moon Spiral as a username on many of the artist sites I am on like Red Bubble. This is very symbolic of me and my consiousness, but more like a nickname than what I want to go by professionally. It also has to do with the way I sign my paintings with a moon and a spiral. I love symbols and have always preferred to sign my paintings with a symbol rather than my name.
I am very into numerology and have felt that the vibration of my married name, Tammy Wampler, feels a little off. Nothing against my husband's name, it just does not fit me in a professional sense.
I believe there is a lot of power in your name. For years now I have given professional intuitive readings and I use a person's name to research into their past lives. This is called lexigramming and you wouldn't believe the shocking things you can find in your name.
I think most of my friends would think I am flakey if I told them they have to start calling me a different name now, although most of them probably think I am slightly flakey anyway. I have decided to keep Tammy, but change my last name. I wanted it to have a ring to it that is memorable and a little bit like my style of painting; a little pop surrealish I suppose. So my new "arteest" name is Tammy Mae Moon. The numerology of this full name equals a 2 which vibrates to the moon which is completely my vibration. My moon itself in my natal birth chart is in Cancer(which vibrates to the moon). The vibration of Mae Moon is a 6, which vibrates to Venus. I think the moon and Venus vibration is really the whole vibration of my art itself. It is feminine, intuitive, with a strong focus on beauty(Venus) and the unconscious mind(the moon).
So I am introducing my new self, luckily you can still call me Tammy or Moon.

2010-02-19T13:35:00.000-08:00

I have not been keeping this blog very up to date. I keep forgetting about it; guess I am not the best blogger around. Sometimes I feel like I have so many thoughts in my head it would just take too much time to blog about it. Well anyway, here is the latest completed piece "Jezebel".

I rather like the way she turned out. Jezebel had about the worst treatment of a woman in the Bible and one of the most horiffic deaths. Basically she was flung out of a window and left to be torn apart by wild dogs. Recent archeaological finds have proven that she was a very powerful woman in the ancient world (as it seems that in the Bible the word whore is a code word for "really powerful woman"). Also her name was most likely not Jezebel but this was a corrupted spelling of her real name, I mean who would name their daughter whore of god in the first place. We probably will never know the truth of who Jezebel was as her story was written by her murderers as they were trying to justify their killing of a woman.
I wanted to paint Jezebel in honor of all women who have been born to be the ones that we could blame.
I must have listened to Iron and Wine's Jezebel about a thousand times while I painted this. I really do feel like a painting can take on the vibration of the music you listen to while painting.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghBJhGIcneU

Dragonfly WIP

2010-01-25T07:45:00.000-08:00

This is a very rough sketch to the piece I am currently working on. I am almost done with her now and she looks a little different than this sketch, but this gives you a rough idea as to what she will look like. I am working on refining my style. Being the Libra that I am, my art often reflects my indecisiveness. Sometimes I only want to do highly spiritual, symbolic, and mystical art and other times I just want to paint big eyed girlies. I am noticing that the artists that I am the most drawn to all fall under the catagory of Pop Surrealism. I like the idea of slightly distorting reality, and focussing on our vanity and messed up self-image constructs.
A friend of mine showed me this link It is for a Digital Retouch website that shows before and after shots of all the models. It is amazing how much they do to give us a false view of what beauty is. I guess that is what I want to explore. How beauty can be seen in the absurd and how we can easily distort our vision of beauty.
I think even the big eyed girlies can be spiritual art. With my work it is the eyes that convey the story of each soul I paint. They look back at you and hopefully speak to you. At least that is what I hope they do. Anyway, that is what I am wanting to paint for now. I could change my mind tomorrow.

Showing at Common Grounds

2010-01-11T10:44:00.001-08:00

I have seven paintings being shown at Common Grounds coffeehouse and cafe http://www.commongroundsoflexington.com/ in Lexington, Ky right now. They will be there until March 6th. It is a great little coffee shop with a lot of atmosphere and local traffic, so hopefully it will be a good spot to get some exposure in the area.
It is actually a little hard to not have my babies at home with me. It's funny, how you get use to having them around and then they are gone, you actually miss them. It is a lot like when my son first went to kindergarten all day. It is hard to think of them there without me. I know they are just inanimate objects, but to me I breathed life into them just like I did my real children.
So if you happen to be in Lexington in the next two months please drop by Common Grounds and check on my babies. They are hanging in the backroom on the first floor.

Pearl, complete

2009-12-30T11:28:00.001-08:00

Here is the completed "Pearl", and I guess she is my last completed piece for 2009. I am thinking a lot about how far my art has come along this year. I feel like 2010 will be an even bigger year for me and my art. I plan to do more fairs and hopefully some exhibitions. I am pretty excited for what is to come. I think 2010 will be a year for many to burst with new creative energy. Now, if I could just get the energy to start my new exercise plan.

Happy Solstice and what's going on around here...

2009-12-21T11:19:00.000-08:00

Well I have been extra busy getting ready for the holiday like everyone else. I haven't had a whole lot of time to paint, but am very slowly working on a piece called "Pearl". I started it after reading a little about the life of Mata Hari. I am so intrigued by the women of the early 20th century and this piece is a result of that fascination. Here is a couple of pics of what I have done so far.

The above picture is the rough sketch that I first did in graphite. I have been doing this lately and find that I really like drawing on canvas with graphite. I like being able to draw the piece before I paint it. This next picture is with the first bit of color added.

I am going out of town for Christmas and won't be able to finish her until I get back, which will be pretty hard for me to do. I like to start a piece and go at it until I get it finished.

I have had a pretty good week this week as far as my art goes. Earlier this week my work "The Seer" was featured on the Red Bubble homepage. I have been on Red Bubble for a year now and this is only the third time I have been on the homepage. It doesn't happen a lot, but I am always very excited when it does. Here is what it looked like:

Also, I just found out today that I will be showing at a local coffee shop called Common Grounds starting January 9th for two months. I am really excited about this. I have been a little shy about trying to show my work at locals places. This is my first baby step to breaking out in the local scene, so wish me luck!

I hope you all have a wonderful Winter Solstice today and many blessings for a wonderful holiday season and a fantastic 2010!

The Seer

2009-12-07T09:16:00.000-08:00

A 22x24 acrylic on canvas. This is the second in a small series I am doing on the different levels on the spiritual path. This is the Seer. She has begun the process of connecting to her spiritual gifts. She is now eternally walking "between the worlds". This means she has delved into her subconscious mind and has brought light into the darkness. The subconscious mind is represented by the Underworld here and the color red. There is a thin veil, or mist between the two worlds and the doorway in between seems to be her own mind.

The Peacock feather rests at her third eye. Obviously the peacock feather represents the third eye, but it also carries on the theme of alchemy presented with the Seeker. All of the different metals are represented in the peacock feather and it also looks very much like the core of a crystal. Peacocks are also a symbol for transmutation. At this stage on the path the Seer is a trans muter like the peacock. She is constantly transmuting negative energies around her even if she doesn't realize it. Though the Seer is presented with many gifts and can see into worlds others can not, this is the hardest step along the path. She is constantly tested and always teetering on the edge of self-confidence and doubt. She has to find her center point constantly to stay afloat.

Red-winged blackbirds fly out of the Underworld and all around her. Black and Red along with yellow and white are archetypal colors for Mother Earth and the Underworld of creation. According to Ted Andrews in "Animal Speak" the red-winged blackbird's colors connect it to the level known as Binah on the Qabalistic Tree of Life. This is the level associated with the Dark Mother and the primal feminine energies. In a sense, the Seer is releasing these energies into creation. She is the bridge between the worlds that can help these energies return to the Earth.

The Seeker, finished

2009-11-22T10:28:00.001-08:00

This is the "The Seeker" finished. The seeker represents the beginning step of the initiate as she steps onto the path of ascension. She wears the hermetic symbol the Seal of Light over her third eye region. This symbol alone represents the totality of our initiation into a state of perfection. The circle represents all energy and the ultimate expression of unity in the Cosmos. The square represents the crystallization of energy into definite form and the idea of perfect harmony. The trinity is shown by the triangle. Finally, the inner circle represents eternity.

At a deeper level of initiation however the three geometric solids equate to the alchemical solutions of Mercury, Sulphur and Salt. These represent not only chemicals but the spiritual and invisible principles of Soul, Spirit and Body and the three lights, Stellar Fire, Solar Fire and Lunar Fire. To those in possession of 'the key' this symbol, or cipher, is thought to reveal the 'alchemical' formula for discovering Man's essence and transmuting him in stages into a state of perfection - a reflection of God (definition of hermetic seal from http://cosmiccipher.blogspot.com/2006/10/symbols-ciphers-divine-proportion.html).

She wears this symbol, and yet she has not seen it yet. It guides her from her third eye, but she is not consciously aware of it yet. Behind her is a forest that she seems to have just came out of, and yet behind her is the direction she needs to proceed. The two giant egg shapes represent her own hidden potential. The bird and the feather are representations of gifts from spirit that will help guide her along the path.

She is excited to begin the journey, but she is not quite aware of the gifts she possesses. She is the seeker, much like the fool in tarot. The hermetic seal is also repeated in the way the two trees form a square, along with her own triangular shape, and the circle of her face. In a sense, this potential of transmutation is always with us, and all around us.

I really enjoyed experimenting with this piece. I had so much fun with the drip effect. It is definitely a process of letting go for me and letting it just happen. I am looking forward to working more with this technique.

The Seeker, a Work in Progress

2009-11-19T12:14:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I have decided to set up a blog for the first time. I thought I would make my first posting about the current work in progress. It is an acrylic painting that is 22x28. I am pretty excited about this one. It is almost finished, but I still need to clean up some details on it. I plan to do a whole series of similar paintings that all deal with different aspects of my own spiritual journey. I will write up a longer posting when I am done with it to explain some of the meanings and symbols. I would love to hear any feedback and or suggestions you might have.