February Moon Paintings

February Moon Paintings

The full Moon at the beginning of February found me feeling all the energies of all three of these symbols: the groundhog, the owl and the heron. Hibernating a bit, living beneath the surface, I still found myself also peering above the rim of daily life seeking balance and stability—and seeking wisdom. By new moon, I find myself stepping off the edge, I guess! Into the unknown I go!

I’m enjoying learning about the Moon and it’s cycles in the yearlong Moonshine class I’m taking with Effy Wild, creating Moon paintings each month (goauche on watercolor paper) for the new and full moons.

I have a lot to learn still about the Moon, and one good source I recommend is Moonology by Yasmin Boland. You might want to check it out. I appreciate how Boland explains that physically, the moon travels around the earth, the earth travels around the sun and it’s consistent change in shape from a sliver in the sky to a full circle to a sliver again is caused by the changing angles between the three—which I think we all understand.

What I find interesting is that

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How to live in the world with a little more grace

How to live in the world with a little more grace

Without looking up the definition, I would say that grace is a noun that names a quality of being—and like other abstract ideas such as love or kindness or confusion, that quality is of being, a verb.

So the way I see it, to give grace is to first see the possibility of what is good, beautiful and true in others or ourselves (or any living being), and then to reflect it, magnify it, bring it into the world. Another word for that is creativity.

And usually involves humor.

You might be wondering at this point what in the heck I’m talking about! Well, this week Seth Godin shared the work of a person who just blew me away, honestly, so much so that I had to capture him in my sketchbook. His name is Ben Zanders, renowned Conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and I’d like to share with you what was shared with me—

First, his TED Talk is not to be missed! Seriously, watch it right now! You won’t be sorry:

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January Moon Paintings

January Moon Paintings

As I mentioned earlier this month, I am replacing my 2022 year-long project with a flurry of creative projects this year—including a couple of different online classes and programs. One of those programs is Effy Wild’s Moonshine 2023 program—and these are my first two moon paintings!

The full moon was January 6th and I had barely begun the program for the full moon so this painting was entirely off the cuff. Simply a figure traveling by the light of the full moon

A few weeks later for the new moon on January 21st, I began

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