Making art changes your brain. Changing your brain changes your life. Painting, like meditation, can relax your mind. When your mind rests, new ideas and insights arise, and you become more aware of your inner and outer world. With this awareness, you can cut through the bombardment of imagery we face daily, and truly SEE the world more clearly.

When my car was ready, I took the Likelike Hwy to Sunshine Arts Gallery. About halfway over the mountains, I saw a two-foot tall animal on the shoulder of the road with its back to me. It was light brown, had two small pointy ears, and was standing up straight (erect). I didn’t know what it was. Imagine my surprise when, as I passed it (at 50 mph), I looked into the rear view mirror to see a small “kangaroo”!

Telescopic painting is a painting technique I caught myself doing the other day. To paint telescopically means that instead of watching the paint brush, your eye is watching the part of the painting where you wanted your brush to go. I was painting the horizon line on my Star Struck Mermaid and instead of watching myself paint the line; I was watching the line an inch or so ahead of my brush.

Two professional oil painters recently told me that they are afraid of painting with watercolor. They said that it is too unpredictable and unforgiving. I have heard this before.

In fact, I used to believe that too.

I recently participated in a grueling 3-day tradeshow. It was an experience I am not likely to replicate, but there were a few bright spots.

On the third day, Keanu (hubby) surprised me by purchasing a 10-minute Ho’opono Healing Massage for me. I don’t think of myself as a “massage person”. I don’t have many aches/pains, and honestly feel a bit guilty about receiving massage because I don’t like giving them.

I had been standing on concrete for three days and when asked where my pain was I said my feet and maybe my lower back (I really didn’t have much pain, but they asked).

When I lay down on the table, my right foot cramped, so I asked the masseuse to pull on my toes to make it stop. He proceeded to really DIG into the soles of my feet.

I’m a bit of a bookworm; reading is one of my passions. I read journals, memoirs, novels, how-to books, self-help books, children’s’ books, cookbooks, etc. You get the picture. Recently a friend of mine recommended “The Painter” by Peter Heller, so I got it out of the library (love libraries!). It is a wonderfully well-written story about a painter; and I feel compelled to share a few of my favorite passages with you.

Would you like to know a story behind this painting?  Tumbling Pineapples was started after I had made a quick stop at the Dole Pineapple Plantation on the North Shore of O`ahu.

Keep Your Eye on the PrizeWhen I began to return to my artistic roots, I started with drawing. I used colored pencils to describe my inner world, and that of others (with their permission).

The New Year has begun and so have weekly sessions of life drawing. Drawing a live model is one of the most energizing ways to invigorate a drawing practice.

This one came to me in the comics one Sunday last month. It's one of Chad Carpenter's Tundra Comics.

The idea of going out on a limb was never before so clear as when I saw these Palm trees growing on the lawn of a home in Honolulu.

1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships...