I've been participating...

...in a Facebook round robin in support of women artists for the last week.  It involved sharing one's artwork, one piece a day, and passing the baton to a different female artist daily.  Somehow, my shared artwork morphed into a series of seven different heart/love-themed works.

I believe this was all brought on due to the visit last week with my new granddaughter.  Just in case you didn't see last week's post, here's a photo of my son with his new cherub.  I think he's smitten (and likely exhausted as well)!

Because love is in the air, I thought I'd share some of my heart-themed pieces here as well.  Over the years I seem to have created dozens of them.

Somehow the repeated heart theme in my journals, cards and paintings reminds me of  the truth about humanity.  I suspect they will be making regular appearances for quite some time.

I'd be delighted to hear what your recurring creative themes are - circles, flowers, hearts, geometric shapes?  Do tell in the comments below, and feel free to share some urls!

In a different city...

... and visiting a new granddaughter, Chloe,

I'm using the change of venue and circumstance to do some inner work around how I view things.  And that of course means that I'm doing some outer work as well with my camera.

I'm taking the opportunity to look at things in a different way, and the change is most interesting.  Macro shots turn decorative objects into something else entirely.

and looking in a different direction or shooting from a new angle can be bemusing.

I wonder, when we come to the other side of all this pandemic and strife, whether the change in viewpoint will give us an appreciation for life, a sense of empathy and love for all living things, along with gratitude for all that this world has to offer.  Here's hoping...  

All is bright...

...in the studio this week, albeit somewhat scrambled.

While working intermittently on the fabric spiral background,

I've gotten distracted by a screamingly bright pattern-in-process on canvas,

With some of the leftover black paint from that, I stenciled some tag blanks

which led to a yen for gel printing.

One can hardly gel print without wanting to audition some of those papers in a journal,

and one journal just naturally leads to another, doesn't it?

Being obsessed with colour play is obviously the life to live, don't you think? 

What about you - what's going on in your studio?

As we watch...

what is going on in the United States right now, I am reminded that learning to love others is an ongoing process, not only in the US, but around the world.  We are none of us free of the tyranny of racism, judgement, intolerance and injustice.

It seems to me that we could all pay attention to those traits in ourselves,

and if we'd

we could

The more we practice love, the more we understand that we are all one

 and that

How do you practice love - in your artwork, in your life?  Do you have some tips for eradicating racism, judgement, intolerance and injustice?  I'd love to hear about them in the comments below.