It's been a while since I posted. Sorry about that. But now I am back in action and hoping to be more consistent. In the midst of this summer humidity, as heat waves ripple above the pavement and the air sticks to your skin, I created a cool portrait of a winter sky. Life is full of contrasts, night and day, summer and winter, childhood and adulthood, happiness and grief. It all adds up to a full life well lived. It's what we aspire to and what art and poetry bring to me. Even as the body resists the journey to the desk and the pen, inspiration blooms like a mauve and purple dawn and lines of haiku ripple through the heart like heat waves. Share in the joy. 

Be Free

BE FREE--that's what we all want isn't it? Free to be who we are at our very core. Free to blog or not as we wish. But if I'm to have a blog and store up some devoted readers I need to be more present here. This particular piece is mixed media using acrylics and patterned paper. The process is simple and rewarding with lots of depth. I adhere scraps of patterned paper to a canvas board--in this case a small 5X7 size. Then I brayer several layers of coordinating acrylic paint to create my background. I used paper and paint to create the bouquet and alphabet stamps for the words. Then I just add details to make the piece come alive.

It's a creative way to drag myself out of a slump and perhaps a jumpstart into more regular blogging.

At present I am creating a watercolor book of illustrated haiku that I've written over the years. Some of those pages will surely find their way to this blog. Enjoy.

Would love to see your comments and your artwork and poetry too.

I still find that art and writing are permanently entangled deep in the creativity cells of my brain. Hard to decide each time I sit at my desk which path to travel down. But a new art supply is a sure way to make art the priority--even if I do have to include words in the final product. My newest purchase is a set of 40 Caran D'Ache Neocolor II Watercolor Crayons. These thick waxy rods of luscious color are a joy to work with and quite versatile. You can draw or scribble on watercolor paper and then brush with water to create rich color on the page. You can dip a wet brush to the end of the crayon and then paint. But my favorite way to use these crayons is to create backgrounds for my poetry. I scribble all over the page with several colors and then rub over the page with a baby wipe. Whatever is on those wipes probably shouldn't be placed on a baby's tender skin, but on water color paper coated with the colors from the crayons, I achieve rich vibrant color for backgrounds or to color in drawings.

Give it a try and let me know how it comes out. Would love to see the works you create.

I know, it has been a long while since I posted, but writing for me takes many avenues and recently it has been down the path of fiction. I had a short story published which was a nice reward for years of writing time and energy. It is also an incentive to continue on that path for a while. But at the heart and soul of who I am lies poetry. Reading poems, writing poems and reading about poets. Add that to the goal of incorporating my own poems into my art work and Renee becomes a very busy lady.

But this blog is important to me and so are my readers so I will forge ahead. I am interested in hearing from those of you who write haiku, or haibun or create haiga. I'd like to form a little online group to share our practice.

As spring unfolds and becomes summer I will be more consistent here and hope to find more readers to befriend.

Most people are familiar with haiku, the three line, seventeen syllable Japanese poem that captures a seasonal nature image so sharply it pierces the heart. But another form of Japanese poetry, the tanka, is intriguing me. It is essentially a three line haiku with two more seven syllable lines at the end, making it a five line poem. What I love about it is that those last two lines allow me to add a personal thought connected to the nature image. It expands the heartbeat I can write inside of. And it lends itself so well to illustration and art making it a great form for this new experiment of mine.

National Poetry Month

Okay, so I know it isn't the end of summer, but this is one of my favorite paintings and one of the first I created as a way to join my art and my writing. April is National Poetry Month and I am committed to writing at least a poem a day for this month. I am also challenging myself to finally start submitting poems again for publication. I challenge you to choose a poetry anthology and read a poem a day for this month. Maybe it will become a habit. For those of you who do write poetry, make this the month you amp up your writing output and send out some of your favorites.

I continue to work at weaving my poems into art and am moving toward making the lines of poetry a part of the art piece as opposed to just an attachment to a background or description of an image. The play of paint and poetry intrigues me as I wander deeper into my new creative world.

I'd love to see your comments and perhaps some examples of your own art and poetry.

Happy writing!

After a few days visit with my sons, daughter-in-law and granddaughter I am home and happy, albeit exhausted. Back to work today and wishing I had more time to write and paint. But each day is a gift and I must wrap it in my thoughts and plans and move on until that glorious moment when time is mine. I am trying out some new things--such as focus on poetry and possibly a memoir compiled of poems, haiku, haibun and art. A new approach to the complex challenge of writing a raw and difficult story. But even as gray clouds spread across the sky, crocus are sprouting and creamy yellow forsythia blossoms are dotting bare brown branches along the fence line. As spring approaches I lift my shoulders to the sun and allow the lightness inside me to fill with hope for the future.