Holy cow, boys and girls! I just got blindsided by the last couple of months. Which is great, because it means I’ve been busy. But, it also means I’ve fallen off the blog wagon. Among all the busy craziness, I came to the realization that I seriously needed a week to focus on some art and music projects. Well, this week is that week! I’m hoping I can start up that illustration contest again and continue the rest of the entries. I realized a new one every week was a bit ambitious when I have a lot of client work going on. And of course, I do have a life outside of work. I like to spend time with my husband, friends and family from time to time.

That said, I’m getting back on the horse to give you more of your requested art! I’ll work on another one this week among the other projects I have plans for. Expect a new one every couple of weeks or so.

I’ll be back with more art and more news later. Don’t forget, if you want more frequent, but short updates, like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter! Plus, if you like me on Facebook now, when I reach 350 likes, I’ll be picking another random winner of a free matted art print. How can you say no to that?

Thanks everyone! See you real soon.

Today, I picked our winner from the Illustration Topic Series! I used a random number generator to help me randomly pick someone to win the art print. And the winner is…. *drumroll*

Lisa Joy Merrill! Congratulations Lisa! Lisa had picked the topic “Empowered Women”, which was illustrated two weeks ago here.

Lisa will receive a 9″x12″ matted art print of her choice from these images:

• Midnight Moon Garden
• Mother Winter
• The Raven’s Message
• Drowning in Ether
• The Light of the Moon Mother
• The Circle of the Earth Mother

Keep looking back here on the blog for the continued illustration of the rest of the submitted topics. And watch out… I might have another contest for you to participate in too! Thank you to all my participants. I’m looking forward to drawing, painting and illustrating more from your ideas!

"Belle On Her Towels" - Graphite Sketch

My second participant, Marie Lisewski of Laurel Mountain Gift Baskets suggested I illustrate “pets”. I love pets! I love animals in general. Some of my fondest memories in my childhood were spending time with my dog, Belle. We got Belle when I was twelve years old. She had a good, long life and lived to the ripe age of sixteen. Belle was there through the biggest changes of my life. After my parents moved to Arizona, Belle went with them, so I didn’t see her as much after that. But, I got to see her one last time on my own wedding day. She really was there for the biggest changes of my life.

My parents wanted a portrait of Belle painted for them. This drawing is a preliminary sketch for a painting, soon to come. Don’t worry, I’ll post the painting when it’s done too!

When I picture Belle in a doggy heaven, if one exists, I imagine her all cozied up on a pile of towels and bathmats. She had this strange habit of dragging towels and bathmats out from the bathroom to the living room so she could snuggle with them. (Click the drawing to see it larger.)

I think a lot of people have some of their fondest memories with their pets. They are a part of the family, companions and friends. They love you unconditionally and ease the soul. I’m looking forward to the day when I have a dog of my own again. For now, we have some very cute fish, but I do miss the company of a furry friend.

When I do get a dog, I plan to adopt a dog from a shelter or rescue. I encourage everyone to do the same. There are many dogs, cats and even rabbits, goats and other barnyard animals all in need of good homes. Before you go to a pet store or a breeder, consider adopting a pet who needs rescuing. There are a lot of wonderful shelters and rescue groups out there who have many animals in need of loving forever homes. Here are some resources:

PetFinder.com – This is a wonderful website with a geographic search for pets all over the country. Different shelters and rescues list their available pets here, which makes it easy for people to find a pet they’ll love.

ASPCA.org – The ASPCA is a national organization that works to save animals from bad situations and place them in good homes. There are many local chapters. You can go to their website to find your local shelter and view the pets they currently have.

HumaneSociety.org – The Humane Society, like the ASPCA, also takes care of placing animals in need in good homes. There are many local branches, so look for yours to adopt!

CASanctuary.org – The Catskill Animal Sanctuary is a special place dedicated to saving the lives of farm animals. The animals live the rest of their lives happily at the sanctuary or are adopted out to good homes looking for barnyard pets. I hope to get goats from them some day!

DPVHS.org – The Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society is a local Western MA branch of the Humane Society. They work very hard in this area to put rescued pets into good homes. If you live in Western MA or surrounding areas, I highly recommend checking them out for your next pet.

Of course, there are many organizations out there that help out pets, but these are a few to get you started. Even if you can’t adopt a pet right now, consider donating to local organizations that help animals. Most of them operate on donations and adoption fees alone and don’t have a large budget. Help keep them running by donating money, pet food or pet supplies. The furry friends will thank you!

Hi Everyone! This is just a note to let you know I’m extending the deadline to get your topics in to me for the illustration contest. You now have until November 13th, this upcoming Sunday! Go to the original post HERE and leave a comment with a topic you’d like to see me illustrate. When you do, you’ll be entered in a random drawing to receive a matted art print of your choice from selected work.

There have been some great topics so far and I’m looking forward to continuing the series with even more. Thanks for your participation!

There are still two days left to submit your topic to me (here)! I’ve received a handful of fun and interesting topics from some great people. I hope that a few more of you will join me for a chance to see your topic illustrated and to be entered to win a matted art print!

"Self Portrait of an Empowered Woman" by Victoria K. Chapman (click to enlarge)

The first topic I received was from Lisa Joy Merrill. Lisa asked me to illustrate “Empowered Women”. I had to stop and think about how I could best represent this. Then, during the power outage we had after the freak snow storm, I had a lot of time to think and be away from all this technology. I looked in the mirror by the candlelight in my house. When I saw my reflection, I realized, “I AM an empowered woman”. I decided to paint that candlelit image of me, the empowered woman. Look in the mirror. What do you see?

Click the image to enlarge it.

I started thinking about how lucky I am having grown up in the place and time that I did. I have been born into a country, into a family and into a time period where I was given the opportunity to be an empowered woman from birth. My parents and teachers fostered my creative thinking and education, regardless of my gender. When I turned eighteen, I had the right to vote. As an adult, I own property and I can pursue the profession I want. I went to college and I have been best friends with men who see me as their equal. All this has created the mindset in me that I am just as capable of fulfilling my dreams and living a wonderful life as anybody else, male or female. I am lucky.

Not all women are so lucky. I sometimes take that for granted. There are still places in the world where women don’t have the same opportunities as men. Where men bully women into submission because that’s the way things are. Women can’t seek out education, they can’t vote and they can’t own property. They don’t even have control over their own health. Perhaps as empowered women, we should make it our responsibility to help other women who are not as fortunate as us.

There are a few organizations who make it their goal to help these less empowered women. I encourage you to take a moment to check them out and consider how you can help.

CARE - www.care.org – “We place special focus on working alongside poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty.”

Change.org – womensrights.change.org – Change.org has a whole section of petitions just about women’s rights. Please check them out.

Care2.com – www.care2.com/causes/womens-rights – Care2.com covers a lot of causes, but they have an area just for women’s rights issues. There are a lot of articles and petitions for you to learn more and help.

Greater Good Network – Click for More – The Greater Good Network is a series of websites, such as TheLiteracySite.com and TheHungerSite.com, which are dedicated to helping specific causes. In their shop areas, there are “Gifts that Give More”. One such gift allows you to pay $50-$300 to help liberate girls in western Nepal from indentured servitude. It instead allows them to go to school and be with their families.

Do you know of other causes to help women in need? Post them here!

Hi Everyone! I admit it, my blog has been slow moving. It’s hard to keep up with everything and still have time in the day to sit down and write something. But, there is a new series of blog posts I’m excited about putting together. A weekly illustration project that I want your help with.

Each week, I will write a small piece and create an illustration to go with it, based on a particular topic. I’m looking for YOUR topics to illustrate! It can be anything from current day issues to mythical subjects to fun things like gardening or dancing. Give me a subject. Try to keep it to one word or short phrase.

Now, here’s the fun part! For everyone who submits a topic, you will be entered into a contest. I will randomly draw from the participants to pick a winner. The winner will receive a free matted art print of their choice from my existing work available in print form. I’ll contact the winner to let you know what the choices are and to get your contact info so I can mail it to you.

Ready to come up with some fun topics to be illustrated? Leave your comment on this blog to participate. Ready…set…GO!

Contest ends November 6th, 2011.

Today, while I was driving, really just zoning out, I had a wonderful idea for a new batik design I’d like to experiment with soon. It occurred to me afterward, that I have some of my best ideas or problem solving moments when my mind is just let to wander and be free, because I’m not busy trying to get something accomplished.

In our society we get so caught up in accomplishing things that sometimes we forget to take time out to do nothing. Doing nothing is often seen as a horrible, awful thing. We must always be busy and always productive. I myself am very guilty of this mentality. But, often, we are our own best teachers, if we allow ourselves to be.

I read a book about a year ago by one of my favorite authors, Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. Answers from the Heart is a book where “Thay” as he is called, answers questions from real people seeking advice. In one question, a woman talks about the guilt she feels when she’s not keeping busy, to which he responds:

In our society, we’re inclined to see doing nothing as something negative, even evil. But when we lose ourselves in activities we diminish our quality of being. We do ourselves a disservice. It’s important to preserve ourselves, to maintain our freshness and good humor, our joy and compassion. In Buddhism we cultivate “aimlessness” and in fact in Buddhist tradition the ideal person, an arhat or bodhisattva, is a businessless person- someone with nowhere to go and nothing to do.* People should learn how to just be there, doing nothing. Try to spend a day doing nothing; we call that a “lazy day”. Although for many of us who are used to running around from this to that, a lazy day is actually very hard work! It’s not easy to just be. If you can be happy, relaxed, and smiling when you’re not doing something, you’re quite strong. Doing nothing brings about quality of being, which is very important. So doing nothing is actually something. Please write that down and display it in your home: Doing nothing is something.

*In that quote, Thich Nhat Hanh references another book of his called Nothing to Do, Nowhere to Go.

The point is, always staying busy can actually be harmful to ourselves and our minds. Taking time out to relax the mind and body is healthy. We give ourselves time to recharge, to become mindful again and present in this moment. It clears our heads of all the junk it collects all the time when we’re always running around at full speed.

If you’re anything like me, when you do take some time to not be busy doing something, your mind will suddenly come alive. I’m not even really thinking purposefully. Ideas just come to me in a flash. It’s like when I give my mind a moment to rest, it rewards me for being kind to it by providing me with some new inspiration.

So, don’t scold yourself when you have a “lazy day”. Embrace it and know that your mind will thank you. You may just have a brilliant idea land in your lap when you’re lazing around.

PS – while I linked the books to Amazon.com, I do encourage you to ask your local bookshop if they carry it or will order it for you. Support local businesses and keep it in the community!

I think as artists, one thing that continually comes back to haunt us is a lack of inspiration. It’s easy to get dragged down by the drone of every day life. Money, bills, chores, lack of sleep, always running, running, running to keep up with it all. It is a drain on the body, the mind and the creative spirit inside of us.

Sometimes, even just taking a short walk outside to be with nature is a good boost for creative inspiration. Other times, we need something more directly related to creativity to keep us motivated. Workbooks, videos, workshops and classes. Whatever you find that helps you stay inspired, go with it!

Recently and in the past, some things that have helped me stay inspired in my creativity are videos and workbooks, such as TED Talks and The Artists Way. I know we are always busy, but taking out 20 minutes of your time to gain some inspiration will help you stay more motivated and productive. Go outside, take a walk for 20 minutes. Then, watch an inspiring talk or read an inspiring book for another 10 or 20 minutes every day.

Here are two videos I enjoyed from TED Talks by two authors, Elizabeth Gilbert and Amy Tan, specifically talking about creativity and the creative process. Enjoy!

I hope those of you in the U.S. who are celebrating the day of our country’s independence are having a wonderful day with friends and family! My husband and I are spending a day together being ill with a cold. At least we’re doing it together, right?

I was just using a technique for relieving sinus pressure that my mom taught and I thought it might be a nice thing to share. Okay, it’s not about art or anything like that, but it’s useful and good for helping you feel better if you have a cold like me!

What you’ll need is a hot pack (say, like one of my herbal eye pillows that you can put in the microwave) and an ice pack. If you don’t want to get a fancy herbal eye pillow like the ones I make, that’s okay too. You can use a damp towel instead. Soak the hand towel until it is wet and ring out so it is moist, but not dripping. If you’re using an herbal eye pillow, you can mist it lightly with some water to give it more of a moist feel, which is great of sinuses.

1. Heat up your eye pillow or hand towel in the microwave for 30 seconds or so (depending on your microwave’s power).
2. Make sure the hot pack is warm, but not so warm it will burn your face. Then, put it over your face, especially around your eyes and nose for about 2-3 minutes.
3. Immediately after taking the hot pack off, switch to the ice pack. Hold the ice back on your eyes/nose/face for about 30 seconds to a minute.
4. Heat up your hot pack again and repeat.
5. Repeat the alternating of hot and cold packs 3 times.

You’ll feel more relaxed and some of that sinus pressure will be relieved. If you’re not sick like me, enjoy the day and have a fun and safe holiday!

This spring we were fortunate to have witnessed the raising of an American robin family for the third time since living in our house. Each time they’ve built a nest up in the corner of our covered porch which gives me a front row seat from the window in my kitchen. Yesterday, the last baby took off from the nest. The lone straggler spent a lot of time debating and preparing before taking the leap into first flight. I was able to capture this moment on my camera (pictured below).

It got me thinking about all the times in life when we need to take a leap and have faith that what we’re trying to do will work out. I thought of the time when I was a child and I was so afraid to put my head under the water when I was learning to swim. Finally, after deliberating like the little bird, I took the leap of faith and did it. And I was fine and began to enjoy it!

Being an artist is a lot like being that little bird who takes their first leap of faith into flight. As artists, we are often seen as taking more risks by choosing our career, which is so frequently seen as unstable and reckless. But, by choosing the take that leap into the life of an artist, we also open ourselves up to possibilities and creative freedom that we might not find in another life. It takes courage and persistence, just like a little bird learning to fly. Many artists though, are born naturally to the part, just as a bird is born with wings. There are always the foxes and cats to look out for, but if you keep your nest in the air, you’ll also keep yourself safe and ready to leap into a new flight every day.