Your opinons wanted! Okay, frequent readers (and not-so-frequent readers), an overhaul of the gallery is in the works! Although I don't have all my work online, I do have a lot of it up there, and it's all categorized. I'm not left with a lot of room for spontaneity. There are paintings I haven't put up since there was no category for them, and I'd like to feature newer work as well. What I want to do is have a new "best of" gallery, where I can feature about 20 or so favorites. I'll still keep all the old stuff there, in case anyone has a hankering to see and read more. The basic idea is to give a sampling of my work for anyone who wants to either hire me, purchase a print, or use an existing illustration for their publication. This is where you come in! Do you have a favorite illustration? (I-Fridays count too, although you'll have to search the blog for them - yet another thing I'm working on: getting all of them in one place.) If there's something you think should be in the new gallery, please either comment below or send me an email. Thanks! ps ~ to anyone who's ever written me about a print or original work: I'm getting my resources together now and I will be getting back to you shortly. Promise!

Illustration Friday: Daring Sometimes daring to believe, when it goes in the face of everything the world tells you, is breathtakingly courageous. This line is (among other things) from a beautiful song by Fr. Carey Landry. After 9/11, all I could think of was this song, and when I finally heard it, sung by a group of children in a church we were visiting, I completely lost it (as I knew I would.) To the best of my recollection, the lyrics are: I believe in the sun even when it isn't shining I believe in love even when there's no one there And I believe in God I believe in God Even when He is silent I believe in miracles I believe in light I believe there will always be a way I believe that nothing is impossible I believe that nothing is impossible That all things are possible with God I believe in the sun even when it isn't shining I believe in love even when there's no one there And I believe in God I believe in God Even when He is silent Even when He is silent

Illustration Friday: Reinvent Honey, I know all about reinvention. I had to start from scratch when I broke up with a boyfriend of 5 years and had no earthly idea what I was like without him. (Better off, for starters.) I had to readjust when I became a working woman, a wife, and you don't want to know how much reinventing I had to do when God gave me three children in two years. Now I'm reinventing myself yet again, this time as someone who eats much healthier, is way more willing to let the small stuff slide, and who wants to be in shape not (just) to look like a hot mama but to make sure I'm healthy for my family. Oh yes, and a woman who knows she must paint to survive. The funny thing is, that every time I felt like I was starting from the ground up, everything that was truly authentically me stayed just the same. And the things that changed, I either said farewell to or good riddance, because I don't need them anymore. So no matter which personna I happen to be... it's still just little me in there. (Illustration: paint, marker, napkin, paper, notebook paper, catalog page, architect's tape, and that mysterious wrapping paper makes another appearance....)

Holey Moley, I HAVE to go to this. "Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak," at the Jewish Museum. It runs from now until the day before my birthday... I am so inspired by his artwork, and not just because he found twelve things to say about chicken soup with rice. He manages to incorporate so many styles and still look like his own work. His paintings are joyful, sometimes disturbing (ever see Outside Over There?) and I think he paints each picture just for his own enjoyment. Which is ultimately as it should be. : : : : : The NYT article (free subscription) with narrated slideshows: "Sendak in All His Wild Glory" Gallery of images to enlarge

Illustration Friday: Alone I enjoy being alone. I don't equate "alone" with "lonely", since with all the 2-and-under's at my house, alone is something to be savored and enjoyed thoroughly. There's something special about quiet time to enjoy a book that doesn't rhyme or have bunnies in it. (Not that there's anything wrong with that...) I've kept this wrapping paper for ages since I love the pattern. It's a little bit audacious and insouciant, two words I love. ;) I like how you can have little pockets of alone-ness in the midst of all the other busyness surrounding you. Just tune it all out and savor your Alone.

Portrait of the artist as a young girl: sketched quickly while Sophie was intent on doing her own painting and had no idea what I was up to. She looked up midway through and said, "Dat is a picture of Sophie!" The fact that she was looking at it upside down at the time means either that the resemblance is true or that there's not too much else it could be and she's a good guesser.

By the numbers I'm working madly, and I have never felt so creative and yet so bottled up. I have 57 posts I could write, 100 things I want to discuss deeply, at least 9 letters I want to write to people, 15.5 sketches my fingers are itching to draw, not to mention the 302 things I want to clean up and change about my environment. I feel so frustrated at having to plod forward, one project at a time, when I want to fly in 100 directions at once. And yet I'm pouring everything I've got into doing work I'm proud of, right here and now. I'm living every moment fully, whether it's neighing like a wild pony with one baby clinging to my back and the other two chasing me around the coffee table, or discussing organic foods with the manager at the local ShopRite and getting them to order in higher quantites (yes!), or preparing final artwork for one book and getting excited about a new opportunity. I'm trying to say YES to everything I can, and enjoy it.

Illustration Friday: Travel I tend to do most of my traveling in dreams. Apologies for using a previous picture, but I'm almost at the finish of the illustrations for the upcoming "Spirits Unwrapped" and I'm pouring all my energies into that. Sneak peeks to come...

Sophie, the Flower Girl Saturday, in the midst of a torrential downpour, Snowflake and Lucky got married. It was both beautiful and unique, and a wonderful time was had by all. I'm not going to go into detail, since she ought to get to do that herself, but I couldn't keep these pics of Sophie all to myself... Blog of the Day! I'm the blog of the day today at Blog of The Day! Feel free to go say something nice. ;)