I am forever grateful to my best friend in college. Carol taught me to keep a journal. I’d never done it before and it seemed like a really cool thing to do.

Keeping a journal started out unevenly. I’d keep it for a few days a week and then drop it for a few days or weeks.

Eventually, I realized that when I kept it up, I felt better. Keeping a journal has helped me maintain a more balanced outlook on life and has kept me focused on my goals.

I’ve used several different kinds of journals over the years. The most important criteria for me is that they be blank. No lines please! This allows me to have space to sketch in them as well as write.

Ten years ago, I learned a valuable add-on tool to keeping a journal from coach Christine Kane — that of doing a Weekly Summit.

In addition to writing in my journal six to seven days a week (three pages minimum per Julia Cameron’s “The Artists Way”), I take 15-20 minutes once a week to annotate the previous week.

I record my “Ta-Dah’s” (accomplishments), my “Not-Done’s”, my “AHA’s”, and my “To-Do’s” for the week ahead.

Jotting down my “AHA’s” is by far my favorite part.

You’d think that the fact that I’ve had “AHA’s” every week would be excitement enough that I’d remember them. Alas, no, they’re easily lost in the week’s haste to move on.

Lately, I’ve started to note the date of my “AHA” in case I want to revisit that date in my journal. Maybe there’s more there to be mined.

Please try these tools. They aren’t technically magical, and the results can be magical!

Life goes by SO quickly.

Reviewing my weeks helps me to become a slightly better person, artist, human being, one-little-word-at-a-time.

This morning I received an even better idea, one I haven’t quite fleshed out yet. I will keep an “Imagination or Vision Journal”. It will hold all my wishes, hopes, and dreams.

This feels WAY more fun than my regular journal.
And I suspect both are important to keep.

Do you have any rituals to help you “keep yourself on track”? If so, please share them with me!

I believe in life-long learning and in living a good, long life! Together we can keep this party going and headed toward better and better lives for all of u

Sometimes I get lost — not physically lost, I live on an island for goodness sake! I get emotionally lost.

Does that sound weird? It feels weird. How old do I have to be before I always remember “who I am” — on the inside?

I know I’m lost when I forget how to have fun, or what makes me feel good about myself and about life in general.

I get lost when I over-think or over-work or over-worry about anything.

Worry is a product of trying to control life. Control is tricky. It can be a verb or a noun, sometimes it’s “good” and sometimes “not so good”.

Self-control might be the only kind of control we actually have, and that’s not even always true.

We might like to think we can control outcomes. We can’t, not really.

Hopefully, we know we can’t control others! Although that doesn’t stop people from trying!

All we can hope to control is our response or reaction to the world around us.

My antidote to getting lost is to look for the ever-present magic and mystery in life and to share it with others. These are some of the talismans I keep to remind me that all of life is magical.

Forgetting that magic and mystery ARE ever-present is fatal to my well-being, and, I suspect, to that of others.

I find the magic and mystery in life when I remember to look!

Last week, when I felt lost, I asked IWS what to paint. She suggested I paint the energy of “Beauty, Magic, Mystery, and Joy”.

I gathered all the magical objects I’ve been saving — the kinds of things that evoke questions or are beautiful in and of themselves (at least to me).

Then I closed my eyes and waited to see what my mind’s eye suggested.

This involves getting out of the way and trusting that whatever comes to mind is the “right” thing to paint.

My “Hide-N-Seek” painting process is perfect for this magical task and the painting was begun.

“Beauty, Magic, Mystery, and Joy” has been evolving for the past two weeks.

I remind myself often to “only paint what I know to paint”. This means I take my time to “Stop, Look, and Listen” to my painting between brushstrokes.

Part of painting magic and mystery is to not “over explain.”

That way the viewer can find their own levels of mystery and magic within the painting.

Once you find your magic and mystery in my paintings, please email me to tell me what you’ve found: patrice@artofaloha.com

October is “Adopt-a-Pet” month. It’s the perfect time to order an original watercolor Pet Portrait. Today I’m sharing one of my recent Hawaiian-style Pet Portraits. They're also available in the true colors of your pet.

I live in an apartment that doesn’t allow pets, but Keanu and I both love animals. About two years ago, we heard a tiny mew coming from a drainage ditch behind our house.

It took a few weeks for us to find the kitten living there and calling to his mom

I like to start the portraits by painting the eyes, nose, and mouth.
If I can get that right, the rest is sure to follow suit.

Alas, we found the kitten too late to save him, but we caught and spayed his mom.

“Mommie Cat” remains our feral cat today. I suspect she once belonged to a student in the neighborhood who either couldn’t find her when it was time to move or couldn’t take her along.

Mommie doesn’t want us to touch her, but she expects, and receives, food and water whenever she asks.

“Mommie” has a boyfriend, “Tom," who’s part of the package deal. We haven’t been able to capture him, but I suspect his “tom-catting days” are numbered. He’s a beautiful, but a scrawny specimen of a once handsome cat.

Our pets carry within them seeds of love and sprinkle them freely on our days.

It’s been said that domesticated dogs, unlike wolves from whom they’re descended, remain puppies their whole lives. They never fully mature into full-grown, “I can take care of myself” animals.

The play behavior exhibited by all baby animals turns into much-needed survival skills by wild animals.

Our pets rely on us for their care, allowing them to remain young at heart.

Our pets keep us young at heart with the ever-present love they convey in a myriad of ways.

“Puppy-dog” eyes are eyes filled with love — and sometimes a question. When we respond with approval, a “smile” engulfs the entire countenance of our pet.

The love our pets bestow upon us and stir within us, far outweighs the cost of food, shelter, and medical attention we provide.

If you’re able, go to your nearest pet shelter and take a new pet/friend home with you. Or volunteer your time to walk a dog, or foster some tiny kittens or puppies too young to be adopted.

ONCE you find the “love-of-your-life-pet” remember that when you order one of my pet portraits, whether a realistic one or Hawaiian-style one, $25 goes directly to the Humane Society.

My last blog post spoke of Angels and a virgin space for wingspread. It seems "wings" are a current theme for me.

My friend Kim, in Saskatchewan, recently rescued a crow she found in the road. It had been shot and the rehab center shared the X-ray with her. She shared it with me and I’m sharing it with you.

As soon as I saw it I was struck by how much it resembled a woman’s body. I saw it as my next painting.

This might sound like a detour, but please read on. My astrological chart is primarily air and water, with just a little bit of fire and earth.

Big deal, so what? I didn’t know the specifics of my chart until I was in my 40s and my life up to then was working just fine.

It still is, except now I wonder if I “need” some earth and fire in my life for balance.

Since finding out my natal chart, I’ve thought of myself as a bit lop-sided or broken, unbalanced. Like I need to be grounded in reality or just plain more grounded.

What if it’s possible that my birth chart is perfect just as it is and all that air and water give me a different perspective on life — at least in my life?

What if it’s possible that I’m fine just the way I am?

What if the work I’m “meant to do” calls for someone with my characteristics?

This painting celebrates wings. Wings of imagination, of creativity, of flights of fancy, and free association. Wings of Freedom itself. 

How about you? Do you feel your wings sprouting?

"Growing Wings" will make her way to my Figurative Portfolio soon.