There are a lot of changes coming in. As many of you know I have been working in three areas with my art. Illumination, Illustration, and Art licensing. That will all continue this year and become more focused. I have chosen a great mentor for the art licensing and am looking forward to start working with her and will share more on that later.

I have a very involved and specific portfolio to finish for a particular agent- would love to be brought on board that group. I am also very very very excited to fulfill a deep passion of mine which is Illumination. I have several things ready to go after the early phase of experimenting with some techniques and organic mediums.

While my art is working and being fueled by a modest increase in business I have found that my work spiritually is also picking up in pace. Creativity is flourishing abundantly again- I am so in love with life again, so I am not surprised. However, as things are evolving and growing I can no longer keep them all mixed together.

Things need their own space.

Shortly into the new year I will be announcing a new home for the art aspect of this blog. All the old posts will remain here, but I will cease publishing my art here. Because so many of you find me through my work with alphabets, symbols, and esoteric philosophy- that will be the focus here. It also fits with the title best.

The design will change completely and the current design will carry to the new address. I will transfer only the art articles over.

This is just a summary and I will post more information shortly before the move is final. I also wanted to thank everyone for all your kind words and emails. That kind of connectivity really fuels my creativity.

I don’t know if I will post again before the calendar new year. In case I don’t I want to wish you all well in the new year! Many of you have been visiting from all over the world for over a year now- or so google tells me. May you all be blessed abundantly with the deepest peace, the most compassionate love, and my your lives my forged in the fires of inspiration!

Those who know me understand I often wake in the middle of the night with my mind racing with fresh inspiration. I sketch, write ideas, verses, and just try to fall back asleep. I also work a lot at the end of the day. Partly because I have time for stillness and no interruptions. All the ideas I have had being busy with more mundane things, such as the joy that is laundry, now can be processed and given attention.

I am to some point naturally nocturnal. I like to say I am just attuned to the moon. Some of the work habits I have that produce wonderful results also have me working odd times that are not conducive to working at the studio. I get more done at home for some reason. So I have decided to move my studio to a room downstairs.

Hopefully I will avoid the frustrations of having some supplies spread between two locations, not to mention my reference books. The bottom line is I have spent the last three years working in a few directions. As it has happened before I feel like I am working in different directions and then Eureka they all meet up and the clarity and path ahead is so strong! This recently happened. All the different things I have been playing with and experimenting with, all the subject areas I have been working in- All met up!

WHEW! I was not wasting time being indecisive, I was on some level subconsciously mastering separate areas to end up at this point. Good thing I didn’t judge and second guess but just kept rolling along.

Now I have to really buckle down and lay out details. In order to do all this I must, must, MUST balance out everything so there is no conflict.

The most exciting thing is the advice I am getting and the BIG project I am working on. I want to talk about it, I want to share it, I want to share more of the work I am doing. I just can’t. Not all the writing, not all the art, not the completed stuff. AGGGH! It is so hard. But sharing it on the net means publishing it. I can’t publish a great deal of it!! It is going to test me.

Balance is tricky- time, space, solitude…. all so needed in the right amounts!

This is a sampling of the custom celtic knotwork illustration that I am working on for my main website.  It is just one step. I will be placing my gallery there and will have originals for sale there. Then once it is all done I will have to get the main site for the merchandise ready.

I have had ideas bouncing around for a while and finally they all cemented into a cohesive vision! What was most exciting is the collaboration that is coming out of it. You can see above the various parts are interlinkable in many pattern possibilities. Someone I went to college with has decided that my patterns would make good clip art or fonts- So we are working out the details. For this reason, I can not show all the other segments created for this particular pattern set. Just these that are illustrated thus for my site.

Tomorrow you will see more of the custom Celtic Knotwork that is being used. I am so excited to share it. I seem to have phases with my various genre and feel it has been a tad too long since I have designed any. I hope you enjoy!

Finally! Finally! Finally!

I have been debating FOREVER about what kind of slide show or such to use for my galleries. Debating endlessly on style presentation vs function etc. 

I have been really kicking my arse here and there feeling as if I should be moving faster with it all. But as is often the case- I was wrong and all that negative pushing of myself useless. Because things were coming together unconsciously, growing and now I can birth it all out. LOL

I am sooo excited now to start the celtic knotwork that is to be used in the frames for the slide show controls! The really yummy part is that I finally know how I want to design my main site! All efforts combining beautifully!

What a fine line there is in being patient with oneself. Work and Play feed each other! I clearly need to play more so I can get more work done- REALLY!

What can I say I am so excited to finally have the last piece of this puzzle. Wow how things are starting to roll for me. 

I wish everyone, everyone I know intimately, everyone I have barely gotten to know, everyone I have yet to meet, everyone I have only known online, everyone I have ever known, I wish everyone much inspiration and joy! May we all live passionately every day! Cheers!

Here is my second ACEO there are kind of fun to do, makes me want to get ACEO cards from some of my friends. I would love a polymer clay one from my friend KC. You should see the eggs she makes! Two more tulips left and I move on to Daffodils. Then something more mythical.

I am adding new things and moving things around a bit. I have some more development to do. The Stores links are fully functional, but needing layout still. The galleries section will be a major effort because I am still developing the size of image I want to display and make available for free Internet use, as well as the terms of such.

It should be done by May 1st, but the gods know I often bite off a lot of work and delay myself with too many projects. It will all serve as good practice for my main portfolio site, and retail site. Slow but steady and it is good!

Spent a little of yesterday and today designing and tweeking an image to coordinate my twitter profile to my blog. There are some good tutorials out there. I found that the 1280 px width to be the best for constructing the template and for presentation when uploaded. This also keeps the file size on the faster upload side.

One tip I would share is taking a screen shot of your profile page and then enlarging it with constrained preportions to fit behind what your designing. This will allow you to see exactly where to place images and/or guidelines.

I used photoshop, but powerpoint and many other programs will work very easily.

Today, I gathered up a few supplies to finish some work at home. I have a few more small items to finish painting for the new site design. Then I have to do the graphic work. It is horribly frustrating , and I hate the corny “under construction” sign. However, I am content to celebrate each step forward. 

Sorry, I am behind schedule. My mothers health issues with her brain tumors and other family challenges have taken alot of my energy and time lately. All is well and smoothing out. (the tumors are not cancerous, but causing blindness) It is not hereditary, but rather connected to hormone therapy. So I am relieved.

So here I am in studio at my work table, the only thing not in the picture is the bowl of chocolates and coffee. It is as authentically me as it gets. My lil’ sprite daughter was having a load of fun rumaging through my supply drawers, as we took them. Thanks for the support and nudging. I love every scrap of it! Soon, trust me soon! (see said sprite below ;D )

For the few of you that have sent in emails about concerns over my being copied, I do appreciate the concerns. But I do not believe in or engage in competition as it is believed to exist. If said artist wanted to “copy” me, my genre, etc- that is their choice. It is not my art that is being possibly copied, rather just the genre of the series, it is fine. I do thank you for your concerns equally,and appreciate the intent to protect my efforts and work.

In history and today artist frequently “fed off” each other, for inspiration, to learn. Many famous artist were friends with other artists and often overlapped in style and genre thereby creating movements and periods in art history.

My concepts, goals, and plans, both artistic and business are well documented in journals and more, and there is nothing to worry over. I have more inspiration and series jotted and planned than my lifetime may be able to finish!.  Besides, they are also inspiring to me.

I rather like the idea of having a comrad that I can share so much of my interest and passion with. My husband gets so tired of it at times. Someday we will meet over a warm cup of tea and have a good laugh I hope, easy enough as the artist is a few miles away here in Ohio. After all we may be so alike we are tuned into the same ether. This happened often through out history with artists, scientist, and inventors alike!

This is a preview of some of the knotwork I am doing, as a part of my celtic series. It is an edited version of the banner above, and soon to be raven knotwork design of the banner on the new design for the blog. hopefully I will have that done soon. yes it well still have that eccentric old book feel, but with more color and a little more artist style.

I have been studying pigments and colors from the ancient manuscripts and worked many of those elements into the patterns. There are certain specific yellow pigment from the isles I am hoping to track down and play with soon. particularly the faux gold pigments.

I hope you enjoy the raven knotwork, this celtic piece will soon be available in prints with one of the Morrigan prophecies in both Irish and English. I can’t wait to start working on the spirals and triskeles!