New stuff

#7, still on a Lammas theme. 

#8 Triforce type design. 

#9, 1up mushroom

#10, Mandalorian mythosaur

#11, Starfleet logo

#13, someone pointed out to me that I have no mermaid designs!

And I'm caught up!

Happy Lammas

It's a pagan festival called Lammas today; the festival of the wheat harvest and high summer. In its honor I did a goddess henna design today. 

I forgot to post here yesterday so here's yesterday's design. 

These are #5 and #6. 

I hope midsummer finds you amid plenty. As for me, rather than drawing this in the morning I am doing it at night, with my window open, listening to the eerie calls of some kind of owl that I'm going to need to identify now. 

And maybe do an owl design tomorrow. 

Cecil - 4/100

I thought I needed to do a lion today in honor of Cecil, the lion who was killed by a trophy hunter this week. 

Rest in peace gallant boy. 

Isis. The Goddess. (3 of 100)

I thought I'd stick with goddesses for a while. Isis is the Egyptian goddess of health, marriage and wisdom. She is not amused that some terrorist creeps have stolen her name. 

Here's a concept: plan your designs ahead so they don't run off the edge of the page. 

Hecate

I'm finding this aspect of motherhood - the letting go, the transition from he needs me to he is an adult - far harder than anything that has gone before. I wrote a poem about it today. 

And in honor of this time, today's henna design (day two) is the symbol of the Crone goddess Hecate. 

The sky cracks 

    In a stroke I am sundered in a way

         only a child can break your heart. 

There is loss

There is grief

There is guilt

  but there is a way forward. 

The goddess knows the way. 

                  I want to hold on, a jealous dragon

                       a mother hen aching to gather her

                             chick to her breast

   but there is a chasm that will not allow it. 

Did I create it?  This distance, did I push...

      No, he wandered

   as he was bound to do

                    and I am still here in this place, 

                        This empty nest, asking

Who am I now?

Who are we?

          If you were a lover I would say,

     "Let's go our separate ways, I cannot take this pain,"

...but you are a part of me Forever, and if I lost that part

   There would be no healing

for me

or for you. 

I was your rock --

No, that's not right. 

            I AM YOUR ROCK. 

    I have not moved, you have, but there is a way to brudge the gulf between us

      trial by fire

  and in my deepest heart echoes

if I let go

if I let go

if I let go...

It is time for the Wheel to turn

time for Mother to become Crone

time to redefine me as you are redefining you

and we define Us, together. 

There is grief at this loss, at the boy who is gone,

But all endings are also beginnings. 

Back To The Muse

I took on too much, and the muse fled. For over a year. She wanted nothing to do with me. Then, at the beginning of the year, she came in flutters and teases. 

While she was gone, I played mostly with photography. I figured, when the time to paint again came, I'd have plenty of my own reference material. And so I do. 

It never ceases to amaze me how just a few hours spent in the company of other artists can spark the creative flame that calls the muse back. This week I had an art date with my son, now converted from an Engineering major to Fine Art and doing an internship in 3D virtual reality modeling, and Karen, our painting teacher who inspired us both so much.  I worked on my years-old painting of my sister-in-law's dog Sam, and Karen was doing an eagle, and Bran was doing an under painting for a dramatic sky with fighter planes (something I've said for years he should do). 

Still a work in progress, but the timing is perfect since Felicia's birthday was this week and we are going to celebrate tomorrow, so hopefully he will be done if not dry. 

I've also been painting pewter gaming miniatures, which is sort of my guilty nerd pleasure, but I really enjoy all the fiddly detail painting. 

These figures are 1" tall. 

And yesterday my project was a logo for our guild in our Savage Worlds RPG (tabletop). Okay, fine, I have more than one guilty nerd pleasure. 

It's almost done. The moon will be red, and it will say Night Owls on the scroll. Which is supposed to be silver but not sure I'll do that. Yeah, it's nerdy as hell but hey, I arted, and I'm pretty proud of it. One of the things I want to work on is new henna designs and honestly, this could be one. And I have some confidence to do more but I definitely need new micron pens. They wear out too fast. 

So yay, I think I'm back!