Happy

If you need a little pick me up just watch this video. It's hard not to feel good watching it.
You can watch the whole 24 hours of happy or just the short video too, It's really worth checkin out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM
24hoursofhappy.com/‎

Egrets

I was walking my dog by the pond recently. I had my sketch pad with me, I’ve been drawing dogs as you can see in an older post. I began to draw my dog who was looking at a few ducks. My sketches weren’t working, I was getting a bit frustrated so I began to walk away. Then for some reason I turned around to see where my dog was and when I did I saw a huge egret about 10 feet from me. I had not seen it there at all but it must have been there the whole time. I was all geared up to draw so I began to sketch the egret. I was mesmerized and it felt magical to be able to capture it through my drawing that day. After the egret  took off I thought how I feel some kind of connections to egrets. Years earlier I had seen one and it sparked me to start my blog “Beautiful truths” (http://mybeautifultruths.blogspot.com/). 

Two days after I sketched the egret at the pond I got a request form Cricket magazine to illustrate a poem called “the Secret Egret”. It was about an egret spotted by a busy highway.
Here’s some of my egret and duck sketches. The final piece at the bottom is what I ended up doing for Cricket…kind of an experiment for me.

Thank you egret, one of my many muses.

Martin Luther King project

It was really nice to see the MLK/JFK show last night at FIT. I thought I'd post what I did for that project. I ended up doing two versions. Here's my artist statement:

A desire for equality was something Martin Luther King lived and died by. His work was facilitated through the support of countless people from different races, genders, and ages. Through these marches, single identities joined together to become a powerful force and individuals discovered a new way to see their nation. As I look at photos of the freedom marches and I am astounded by the spirit and strength endured by supporters of the cause. I choose to illustrate the people who marched and the bond that I believed they felt during such a tumultuous time in our nations history. 

dog sketchbook

It's been a while since I've posted on here. I wanted to share some stuff from my sketchbook. I've been collecting all sorts for doggie sketches. I have to say, dogs are some of my best friends.
Some pages have the dogs name on it. Meet Hesh(at the top). He's is one the funniest dogs I ever met. He's a bull dog puppy. When ever the other dogs are playing he begins to play then after a few second he just sits his ass down as if the say "cool, but I'm conserving my energy". What a perfect name too.

Patti Smith's little dose of inspiration

If you need a little pick me up try this. I just love to hear her speak...she really touches upon some real, honest, simple things about being an artist. (Thank you again, Kate B)
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/08/16/patti-smith-advice-to-the-young/

Awesomeness

I had to put this inspiring TED talk on here. Neil Pasricha makes you feel grateful in a beautifly simple way. Here's the TED talk and blog.
http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_pasricha_the_3_a_s_of_awesome.html
http://1000awesomethings.com/

Letter to Dick, 11/6/1945

Over the years I've become quite fascinated with old letters and receipts. I woke up this morning with the idea to collage with some of these papers. As I was looking through some folders (on my computer) I found this letter. For that moment, as I was reading it, I had to shut off my music so I could get the full effect of what was there. As you can see(below), it's a correspondence and a list of movies a woman named Loraine typed out for her partner/spouse. I love the typos and the sincere voice I can hear when I read it. I love the insight into the time period, and who women were back then, in 1945. It leaves me with questions too. Why the records? What was she doing? Who is Dick?
Old letters are sort of window into a world we can only imagine. It's like watching a movie or finding a piece of a puzzle. The day to day details are all clues to to single life that was lived,  reminding us of the tiny details that make up our own struggles day to day. One letter is a fragment of a few minutes, the short amount of time it takes to write a thought. But it's sad to know that letter writing is a lost art. Of coarse, I love the convenience of email but I still think it's a important to hold on to these precious pieces of art as sort of "written snapshot" of who we are and the lives we lived.

(Sorry these are so small...I couldn't figure out how to get them bigger...you have to click on them to read them)