Back in the Game

"Tree of Life," Ink sketch All wrapped up close together in our little house, we've added a fifth person to our family. My sweet baby is just now old enough for me to steal some time away, to turn my thoughts, for at least a few moments, inward to the world of art. When I look inside and peruse my creative thoughts, I see a very different world. With so much time passed between my last stream of art and today, my life has changed. The birth of a child, the growth of a life, the changing tides of my life to a brighter, stronger place...what images stir within me, waiting to be formed with pen, pastel, paint and paper? It's time for a renewal, to reinvent once again. I find an eager peace in the cycle of my art, that over the past few years I have come to recognize-high times and low times, ever-changing, twisting and turning to the creation of something new. I'm starting slow, with my small bits of time. Searching for what lies within, to see what will surprise me when I use my hands and let my broken, unplanned thoughts take shape. Thanks to a friend and art colleague's recent art, Sunny Carvalho's morning drawings, I'm beginning my renewed journey with "Morning Sketches." Each morning for two weeks I plan to draw whatever comes to the forefront of my mind-no concrete plans, no restrictions-just to see where it leads me. And if this endeavor does not lead me to a new starting place, it still leads me to further exploration of this new, complex and wonderful phase of my life.