I am far more self-conscious about writing than I am about showing my artwork, but here goes ... Here are three lyrical-type poems I've written over the years ... I know, I know, poetry, but really I see it as another way to make imagery, just in minds and not physically on paper or canvas ...




Mateus - Swedish design and genuine Portuguese craftsmanship. What I love is this company's gallery ... their images, their table designs and their botanical inspired tableware amaze me ... Here are some of my favourites from their collection ...

I woke up to this beautiful peony sitting on my bedside table and I wanted to remember it ... so I made multiple scans of this beautiful flower ...


and added the scans all together ...


and I came up with this ...


I love peonies ...

Inspiration: all sorts of pretty things

I was recently reading flower magazine and came across this painter Gee Gee Collins. I really like her floral paintings, her loose brush strokes and drips of paint are my kind of thing. Here is one of her paintings ...

(pink and white floral)

I love this jewelry ... Nest Pretty Things by Tamar

(Little Friends Earrings by Tamar)

(Prudence Necklace by Tamra)

Here is a great link to guides for Handmade weddings on Etsy ... Everything from vegan punk style weddings, to vintage-inspired place settings and crafting an eco-friendly wedding.

The Land of Nod have adorable children's furniture, toys, etc. Like these ABC cards by artist Julie Morstad.

And these are adorable, fancy font wallpaper letters ...

And this toy... "And Your Bird Can Sing?"

Inspiration: old photographs, family and memories

I had another portrait session this evening, this time with lovely lady Kate ... She brought with her family snapshots ... These old photographs capture a fleeting moment in time, of loved ones young and vital, but now passed ... and so are these portraits of Kate a symbol of vanitas, capturing herself young and full of vitality, but at the same time remembering generations of her family in a dreamy type state amongst her portrait.

Inspiration: nature and tattoo

I have started another series of portraits, more specifically portraits of women in my life. Today I had the privilege to scan my good friend Kelly ... Showing is her back tattoo and foliage (including tiny green tomatoes) reflecting the meaning of her tattoo "There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth" ... I also included a few extra scans that I think turned out beautifully ...





You can see this portrait is fabricated in the same manner as my vanitas series - scans (whole and parts) pieced together to form a portrait. However, my vanitas series was personal. And this go around, I would like the portraits to reflect personal stories of each individual woman. The portraits will feature face, hands, etc. and objects relating to her life's stories, memories, etc. Think of these items as a still-life making up a moment or defining who these women are.

Quite possibly, I can do a sitting a week, so please email me or message me if you are interested. I plan to have a showing once completed, so portraits will be made public, but you will of course get a copy of your portrait.

Inspiration: palimpsest.

Here are some paintings I started working on yesterday evening. The paintings are in antique frames. I plan to paint layer upon layer, leaving traces of the previous layers, so they show through. This is the first layer, I'm just showing my work in progress ...

Inspiration: seeing things a little differently...

How a circle composition may look better than a square composition ... Here are some images I have worked on over the last little while, and inspired by Marco Suarez, I decided to change the frame from square to circle to see how it would alter the composition ... I like it.





Knack Studios make incredible furniture, they refurbish old pieces by dramatically resurfacing furniture and adding unique hardware ... Here are some samples of their work ...

{via Design *Sponge}

Here is another furniture refurbishing project done by sticks and bricks. They sanded an old table down, hammered in 'the summer day' poem by Mary Oliver, rubbed black paint in and gave it a coat of furniture wax ... The finished table is shown below.

{via Design *Sponge}

Tied Up Memories make wonderful and eclectic pieces. She describes her style as romantic, shabby and vintage ... one is shown below.

The style reminds me of these old brooch bouquets by Fantasy Floral Designs. Some of their brooch bouquets ...

{via sweet jessie}

But it's hard to beat real flowers, especially when they are this stunning ...

{via Style Me Pretty}

Inspiration: My very favourite ee cumming's poem:

you shall above all things be glad and young
For if you're young, whatever life you wear

it will become you; and if you are glad
whatever's living will yourself become.
Girlboys may nothing more than boygirls need:
i can entirely her only love

whose any mystery makes every man's
flesh put space on; and his mind take off time

that you should ever think, may god forbid
and (in his mercy) your true lover spare:
for that way knowledge lies, the foetal grave
called progress, and negation's dead undoom.

I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance

I have loved this poem for over a decade. Who doesn't love his poetry, it's so romantic! For me, this poem represents staying young at heart and keeping one true love at heart. It's about doing one thing very well, including love and not fumbling around, ruining things or making people a little less shiny or happy ... it's about remaining true to yourself and to your love.

I love this poem so much - it represents me and my true love ...

(Tattoo by Trevor at Bushido) (Photo taken by Blaire Marie)

I am reading this book: Maps to Anywhere by Bernard Cooper. I am pleasantly surprised by this book of short essays, his work lyrical and poetic, written as though he is painting imagery, not merely describing ... He is an art historian and his short works are autobiographical, but obviously influenced by his art background.

I read this essay last night and it made me wonder if he is referring to Marc Chagall's paintings. Here is an excerpt from the essay:

Saturday Night

Can Mother muster enough thrust to leave the earth in a sudden leap? Does Father need words of encouragement, a rabbit's foot, a running start? Will they rise above our suburb at dusk and see it studded with lights? Wind must play havoc with mother's dress, her stole blown back like a vapour trail. Father's suit, diminishing, dark, will become part of the night. What instinct helps them scout for the house, find the right street, land on their feet? ...

It especially reminded me of Chagall's Au Dessus de la Ville (shown below)

Just showing some work in progress - here are some colour and texture swatches for my book project. I will cut different shapes out of these swatches, like leaves, grass, sky, clouds, tree branches and tree trunks ... and assemble the cut outs to form the illustrations of the book ...


Next, I think I will draw out the outlines for each page and make sure the edges line up ... those images soon to come ...

Hello! This evening, I finished doing a simple sketch/storyboard of my little story: "look up, look down" ??? I haven't really decided on that title yet, but I'll use it for now ... The entire story can be found below with the page breakdown as well ...


I'll tell you a little about the story - it is meant to show the cyclical nature of growth and seasons ... shown in the growth of a tree. This theme is reflected in the design of the book as well. The book is meant to have no beginning or end, the illustrations bleed into the next page, including the last page that starts the story again ... When printing, I don't think I'll print as a typical book with turning pages, instead I think an accordion style is more appropriate, so that the book can bend and circle back on itself.


Here is the story:

1.Look up, way up in the sky
There is the sun that glows and glows

2.Onto a seed that grows and grows
With the warmth of the sun that glows and glows
From way up in the sky

3.This is the tree that's growing and growing
From a little seed that grew and grew
With all that help from the sun's glowing and glowing
From way up in the sky

4.These are the branches, reaching and reaching
Up and up from the tall, tall tree
That has grown and grown from a tiny, little seed

5.These are the leaves, shiny and green
That have sprouted from those branches
Of the tall, maybe tallest, tall tree

6.All that growing and growing takes a lot of energy
The tree has gathered it up all this time
From when it was a small, maybe smallest, small seed
From the glowing, glowing sun way up in the sky

7.Now, raindrops collect in those lofty leaves
And the water drains all the way down
The branches of the biggest tree of trees
The tree needs all this water to grow and grow
and with the warmth from the sun,
The tree is sure to, you know!

8.But after some time, it turns icy and chilly
And those leaves shiver and wither away
They fall one by one from the tree

9.That is still reaching, but empty-handed today
The tallest tree, all bare now, still stands proud
And the sun embarrassed hides behind a gray snow cloud

10.Look down, down on the ground

Those tired withered leaves
All around the tree surround
Like a giant comfy blanket
Keeping the tree's roots warm in the ground

11.And so the tallest tall tree
Through winter stands warm and proud
[Well maybe a little chilled]
Through the chilliest season
Until the sky is once more sun-filled

12.Look up, way up in the sky
There is the sun that glows and glows

13.Onto a new seed that grows and grows
Under the shade of the tallest tall tree
From the branches that reach way up high
Sprouting new leaves in the warm sunny sky

14.That wave and dance

15.Or drain rain down when its gray and cloudy
Down and down the tree
To the newest new tiny seed

I have started painting sheets and sheets of paper with many different colours and textures, which I plan to cutout and assemble into the book's illustrations ... I will show the progression of the book from start to finish ...

Inspiration: Botanical names and illustrations. Here are some maidenhair ferns that I picked on our nature walk. I have scanned them, I like the light and dark effects created by scanning, especially with anything botanical ... Click on image to view ...

Adiantum capillus-veneris (maidenhair fern)

I am reading this book: 100 Flowers and How They Got their Names by Diana Wells. After all, "Weren't names designed to enhance the matter in which they referred? (Bernard Cooper, Maps to Anywhere, 1990, 4) I wish this were true - I am finding that most botanical and family names of flowers are Greek origin with mythological stories to match; which is interesting. Whereas the common names are often named after botanists and not relating to the flower's characteristics or habitat or cultural context; this is not so interesting.

However, the Foxglove's common name, it's meaning and history are not only interesting, but quaint. Wells (1997) writes:

Foxgloves, native to Britain and Europe, have always been considered fairy flowers. There are dozens of fairy names for them, as well as some more sinister ones like the Gaelic ciochan nan cailleachan marblia, or "dead old woman's paps". The name "foxglove" comes from the Old English foxes glofa, and the flowers do look like the fingers of a glove. Foxgloves tend to grow on woody slopes where foxes' burrows are often found. Foxes are wily creatures who may have needed magical gloves when they slunk out of the shadows and spirited away chickens... William Curtis, whose illustration of a foxglove was the frontispiece to Withering's book, compared the flowers to spotted wings of butterflies, which "smile at every attempt of the Painter to do them justice"... (77-78)

(Foxglove -photo courtesy of Old Varieties)