HAPPY valentines day

It's one of my favorite holidays...
I created a book about it out of pink tissue and black lace with cut paper plates. What other holiday can you do that with? This is best enjoyed with fresh flowers and chocolates.

Under a bush

Is your heart hidden under a bush? Bring it out! There is a unique dance inside each one of us and we owe it to the universe to share it. I am going to be kind to my heart today. It's so easy to forget how fragile we are... how our hearts and bodies are just containers for star dust.

Mixed media on paper 8 x 10 inches

If you are in Florida... in St. Pete, come to Studio @620 central avenue for reception between 6-9pm tonight. See you there.

Isn't this the time of year we do impulsive things?

I remember seeing the back of Malcom McMullen scooting off on his bicycle after I heard the door bell ring when I was in about 6th grade. At the door my nanny found a giant heart-shaped box of chocolates with a little silver bracelet taped on top. I still have the bracelet with Malcom's name etched onto it. How brave he was!
And dozens (30?) years later I drove my 11 year old son on an icy February morning to deliver roses to an unsuspecting girl. Just outside the door he had cold feet and we both realized the flowers were in danger of freezing before their prime effect was to be had. He flung them at the door- rang the bell- ran to the car- and as his chauffeur, I dutifully sped us away...
Ah! What speeds us on at these moments? Is it love?
Small collage with paint on wood. 3.25 x 6 inches, I call it "...loosing my mind".

Penny dreadfuls

Esther Howland of Worcester Mass is often credited with starting the commercial business of "penny dreadfuls" in 1847. By organizing workshops of women friends to each add their touch, to hand assemble, and mass produce a Victorian card, Howland created a cruel craze of sarcastic and insulting cards. These were seen as a response to the stuffy morality of the Victorian era. In spite of selling her valentines for one penny each, Ester Howland became a very rich woman!
Way to go Esther! She is one of my heroes.

Catharsis, 13 days to V-day

This wooden heart has collage with found text and is painted magenta and blue-green. The heart was a cold bronze model. Some of the words can still be deciphered through the paint, and they read like some contemporary poetry:

imagination
Punishment for the...
injured

we're probably guilty
play date
Howls of protest against the trapper

cheap dates:
economic turmoil, the hard work of finding a new job
Improves...but only bitter...

Passage... to be far worse
is a bad idea

>I won't tell you what I was up to when I made this...but I assure you it was cathartic. Using collage and random poetry as part of searching into your soul can tap into dreams, answers, possibilities yet unseen. Think about doing it! Better yet- don't think, just do it.

If you want, join us in Lakeville February 13th, 1-4 for a group creative studio-to-stove workshop.

14 days to Valentines

Sometimes I can say it with a rooster and a hen.
They (usually) fall out of my paint brush easy and with personality.
This Valentine has been in the works for years. See the postcards I made of it in 2005, the year of the Rooster. The original is made sewn layers of paper... a collage... of two hearts. Of course, there are issues here, and I recently shifted the value range with paint to lend it some extreme passages of light and shade. Still not sure. The chickens don't look committed as of yet... they appear to be waiting for me, or you, or someone to tell them where to go next. Do you see what I mean?

15 days until Valentines day

and there's a range of emotions to it!


Over the years I have seen girlfriends suffer under the weight of their expectations and I have watched my sons freeze up under pressure.
It's my hope that the holiday can be a fun backtrack down the alley of
cheap art supplies and tacky sensibilities. I have learned to avoid focusing on my intimate relationship and instead create gift cards for girlfriends and non expectant/ non-exploitative male friends.

Into the Heart Workshop offered

February 13th 1-4 pm...
We will build min-shrines to our hearts and bake aphrodisiac cookies.
Look deep inside your heart, explore your passionate roots and emotional baggage. We will embrace the spicy the sweet, and the possibly sinister aspects of the season.
Red is a vivid reminder that love is from the heart, even though the heart is easily broken.

Join us for another seasonal studio to stove workshop.
hosted by me and Rosemary Barrett
for more info or to reserve a spot email me at Tillystudio@aol.com

Bad TV

Been married now 24 years! My husband moved out 11 months ago but is not agreeing to the separation. It's what my friend calls, "bad tv". Script goes something like this:
A:How much will you pay me to never see me again?
B:(Sigh)How much do you need?
A:What?
B:What is it you truly want?
A:How about everything you've got?

Steps to forgive

I think I've stopped dissolving. My painting has gone through as many transformations as my flighty horoscope-gemini-mood-moon-calendar! First I was too illustrative, then unbearably dark and shadowy. A frustrated brainless attack left the paintings a surface victim. Now, after today, I find the line and color are resolving themselves. In my own life I am starting to feel less the protagonist in a dramatic short story, not as much in the guilt ridden shadows, and actually, eventually, more substantial and brilliant. It took measures such as confessional tea dates with very patient girlfriends, driving across states to help a bigger cause, spending time rooted with siblings, working the gratitude list, crying salty oceans, and telling myself over and over that I forgive me. I forgive me. I didn't do it perfectly, but I can believe in more joy.

She's starting to get her form back!

For a while she was dissolving... I am so relieved to see her quietly emerge. I think this painting has a brighter future.

bleeding heart and shadow

Tried to take her down into the shadows....

the beginings of a bleeding heart

Swimming upstream

Found this in the archives yesterday and I am amazed at the language. It is a portrait of my husband bones and all. What is even more scary than the sweat rolling off his forehead and the lies emanating from his mouth, are the words: HOPE. Jeeze! They freak me out all hairy in the green sky!

16 x 12 inches acrylic on canvas board. Painted in 2002

Smell the Roses

I made this wood and paint construction while the babysitter held my son. I was desparate to understand what I was going through and needed to make art to get there. This forest features a giant rose and an exhausted mother in her house shaped space. She needs to turn towards the flower and breath deeply. 

Though I loved being a mother it really stripped me down to my skeletal soul. Does falling in love make your vision narrow and yet open your body?

Stormy weather

6 x 6 inches

There has been a bit of a storm going on as I figure out the relationship I now have with the man I married 22 years ago. He has moved away and yet wants me to be his wife. I am exhausted and my heart and head conflict. I can't place any text in this one. It's stormy, to say the least.

WINDOW WITH LAMP

"Wait"
Be still.
The voice of God is in the stillness. The path is still clouded, but soon I will trust the way to be shown.
9 x 9 inches