This dragonfly painting (darner), is from a photo taken in my garden in Florida. The plant it rests on is commonly called horse tail, which is indeed a favorite perch of dragonflies. I took a much needed hiatus this summer and in that time frame made a trip to visit friends and family in Florida. One of my favorite resting places was the faded green bench on the back porch of my best friends home. It faces a view of a lovely garden. To the right of my view lies a trellis covered with twining jasmine- the perch of the dragonfly.

I sat there often watching the dragonfly dance. Off he would circle while doing rounds through the well groomed and loved garden. Back he would come and rest. For whatever reason, it was made clear that my job was to sit and watch. Any time I got up to take pictures he would disappear, maybe he didn’t recognize my face. My friends however had no trouble getting many great close ups of him. This allowed me to do start this painting. Per my own artistic tastes, and the good tastes of KC, I swapped out the trellis for horse tail.

So here I am thinking about perspective, times of work and rest, and how balance feeds the appetite for a creative life. I am calling it the Dragonfly Dance, which I will name this collection I am working on. I love all the ascribed meanings and attributes of dragonflies: dream keeper, stripper of illusion, remover of obstacles in vision and so on.

I have spent the last few months de-cluttering my workspace in every possible way. Largely to take out obstacles for what is usually my most productive time of year. I need a regular “active rest” period. A consistently used time to serve the purpose of reflecting, learning, and circling through the garden of the goals I have set.

It took an amazing amount of photos to study and source from to create the image in my mind., But here he is. I was motivated largely by the BP Oil ‘Spill’ to paint this. I love sea turtles and the beautiful sparkling Emerald Coast of Florida where I grew up.

I have seen so many creatures over the years living along and in the coastal waters. It is an amazing and diverse ecosystem that filled my childhood with so much mystery and awe. Perhaps I can round out this painting into a collection of other Gulf of Mexico animals- we’ll see.

I chose this sea turtle because it is the most endangered and the smallest sea turtle in the world. It’s only home is the Gulf of Mexico and along the United States Atlantic east coast. The only place it nests is in the western side of the Gulf of Mexico. I can only hope that enough Kemp’s Ridley’s make it to shore to nest so that the species survives this horrific man made disaster. From there I have no idea where they are going release the eggs that are successfully collected and incubated.

I am very happy with the beast. Though, I am still slightly uncertain about the wing; but I could change it later. This is one side of a winged lion whose paws are holding a banner. This original knotwork lion is for the top of a manuscript.

Knotwork is a form of meditation for me. I love creating new patterns and filling a huge assortment of shapes and forms with unique knots. It is fun to merge animal forms into knotwork as well, but I think I enjoy this method more.

I feel a tad quartered lately. So many hats I am wearing, when I would really like just to lock myself in my studio and just play with pigments. Things are narrowing down and ultimately I feel like I am building spaces to work in, and would just like to have it all over and done.

The coding on the layout for this site is almost done. Then I have to redesign for the former site and get it ready for some of the writing and instructional work I have been requested to do. That area of my work and writing is so neglected.

I also volunteered for a non profit- but that has been messy. No articles of organization, virtually no organization of information, it is not what I volunteered for- all this chasing information down. Mostly I wish they could validate the non profit organization status so I could finish requirements to allow them to accept donations internationally. None of which mind you I volunteered- so many side tracks- time to reign in my boundaries and let them do their work if they want my help.

The past month has been playing in ink and line. From knotwork to 15th and 16th century woodcuts and illumination styles. I am fond of Holbein- but then that is probably because my macabre side loves and adores skeletons. More on all that later.

Artist Notes

• High quality translucent pigments are a must
• 300lb paper to avoid cockling with so many washed layers
• Pthalo is perfect of transparency and cool watery depth

Literary Sketch

She is known well, unforgiving and hungry, ever lusting to devour the joy of the soul. She lays traps for young children, and is especially fond of fairy children. She leaves her shiny possessions out in the wild. Parents warn their children to never take anything that does not belong to them, for if they do Ciarólca will come for them, take them and devour the joy from their soul till they are no more.

She knows the laws, for if she breaks them the knows the price. She can only exact her vile acts on those who have wronged her, by stealing from her. All that matters to her is that she can devour their souls joy and gain back the appearance of youth. Her appetite comes at a heavy price, for with each soul’s joy she devours she gains more mass upon her back. Eventually her desperate appetite will crush her.

One of my daily character sketches. I am giving her fly wings of some sort, maybe something a tad more intersting than the lacewing fly. I guess I chose fly wings because of the shorly lived nature of young love.

When I sketch I often see things in color- the color they should be painted. I am not sure how odd that is, I suppose I shall have to check in with some other artist friends and find out.

Literary Sketch

She knows the seal peoples coming and going. She watches the battles that brew between a race of the sea and a race of the land. Polution is bearing a heavy toll on the creatures of the sea, as the creatures suffer the magic is turning darker. The gentle selkie are not pleased.

Down in the deeps of the kelp forest she makes her home. She does not tolerate strangers well, so beware of bewitched kelp. To avoid the sting and strangle of the kelp you will want to spen dmuch time eating the plants of the sea so your scent and energy are more aligned to them.

She is also extra wicked in her desiring for shining and light filled objects. To win her welcome and get her to share her knowledge you need to use a large fresh water pearl. The properties of the pearl will also calm her temper and bring out her more noble side.

She is one of the many characters I sketched out visual and literary concepts while I had the snagfu with the twitter mystery. I found it so productive I have begun to do character sketches daily- Really loving it!