Illustration Friday: Hero Jim Henson has long been one of my personal heroes. I used to have a framed picture of him (with Kermit!) hanging on my wall to inspire me. Rather than gush about how creative, talented, and what a visionary he was, I'll include more of his words which ring so true for me:

I believe that we form our own lives, that we create our own reality, and that everything works out for the best. I know I drive some people crazy with what seems to be ridiculous optimism, but it has always worked out for me. I believe in taking a positive attitude toward the world, toward people, and toward my work. I think I'm here for a purpose. I think it's likely that we all are, but I'm only sure about myself. I try to tune myself in to whatever it is that I'm supposed to be, and I try to think of myself as a part of all of us - all mankind and all life... At some point in my life I decided, rightly or wrongly, that there are many situations in this life that I can't do much about - acts of terrorism, feelings of nationalistic prjudice, cold war, etc. So what I should do is concentrate on the situations that my energy can affect. I believe we can ... be an influence for good; that we can help to shape the thoughts of children and aduts in a positive way.

A page from my sketchbook: coffee, pencil, and coloured pencil category | Inspiration, Illustration Friday

So true. "I learned, again and again, the lesson of creativity: the painting I make today, the drawing I do today, the poem I do today, is meant to save my life today." ~ Judy Collins, Singing Lessons, a book I totally and whole-heartedly recommend category | Inspiration

Petey needs surgery. Peter and Angela just went to the Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist. Peter has had fluid in his ears for the past 6 months and it messed up his hearing test from November, so we were advised to get it looked at again by both our pediatrician and the follow-up group. So.... Peter still has fluid in his ears and the doctors think it's affecting his speech because he can't hear properly. So we've decided to go ahead and have the tubes put in his ears. It's a fairly common procedure and you can read all about it here - with pictures! (Note, this article is also about ear infections. Peter's never had an ear infection, but the procedure is the same.) Our date is set for first thing in the morning on July 14th. Surprisingly, I am not nearly as freaked out about this as I was for Sophie. Maybe because we've been through this before and the follow-up will be SO much easier than it was with her. Say a prayer for us - we really hope that this will greatly help Peter's hearing. Then he can get to writing that sonata - Mozart wrote his first at age 3, so we'd better get cracking! ;) category | Family

Illustration Friday: Black and White This is one of the illustrations I did for Spirits Unwrapped, a book of short stories about mummies. This scene is from "The Tenth Hat" - I believe this is the sixth hat, which gives the wearer the power of speech with birds. Yes, all the kinds of birds were named, and yes, I researched them all. (If you're going to do something, you may as well do it right, right?) ps: Trying out something new I saw at Braidwood's site - I've been wanting to tag my posts forever, but didn't think Blogger could handle them, so here goes... category | Illustration Friday

Who's on the Artist's Way mailing list? I'm planning to send out an email tomorrow, and so far I have one email request and a few comments that you're starting TAW - if you want to get a weekly email from me can you let me know for sure? I don't want to spam anyone. And please know that I'd love to hear how you're doing with your journey as well! UPDATE: For some odd reason, the comments form is taking your email but not making it visible. Please re-comment with it in the body, or send me an email. I totally apologize. If I missed anyone this week, I'll send it again next week too. Anyone who's hurting for inspiration, make sure you check out Andrea's super-fantastic idea - I just wrote my letter this afternoon and will be posting it tomorrow.

Illustration Friday: Summer This summer is amazingly super-special to me. In order to understand why, check out the illustration I did of me and the kids in the park, one year ago: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Me: pushing the stroller. Acting like everything's cool, when I'm PPD'ed out the wazoo. Angela in the back, Peter sleeping in the middle, monitors attached with wires to their middles and in the pouch under the stroller (not only did we have to get a stroller for three babies, we had to find one that could hold the monitors). Sophie in the front, non-stop stream of chatter and song. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Back to this summer: Me: really happy, pushing 75 pounds of baby, getting a workout with my pedometer, taking the kids to the playground where we'll play on the swings and run around like crazy and look for the family of baby ducks. Peter in the back, twisted around while still keeping his seatbelt on, popping up and hiding behind the shade and cracking himself up into convulsions of giggles. Angela with her dark curls, looking around at simply everything and hanging out the side like a dog in a car (note the little toes hanging down). Sophie with her sneakers on because she's going to climb all over that playground, seed pods in hand that I don't know what they're called but we call them "itchy balls" because they're prickly, and Sophie must have one for each hand on every walk. Still non-stop stream of chatter and song, only now the twins join in. No monitors. No medicine. 50 pounds more of healthy babies that I am more than happy to push around the park or anywhere else. Babies aside, I feel like this is the first time in THREE WHOLE YEARS that I am finally back to normal. Back in my own skin and able to do the things I long for - and incredibly blessed with healthy, healthy kids.

New: an illustration in art + decor magazine in an article on blogging. You can see the original nice and big here.

#23 on the Big 33 List Finally, finally, finally started up The Artist's Way again. This time, I WILL finish it. I think the morning pages are going to be just the thing to help me focus my creativity, which is all over the place. The one thing I do know is that I want to work more and more away from the computer with less chances to Ctrl+Z. Anyone else want to journey with me?

Illustration Friday: Digital

New painting. Tell me what you think it means and then I'll post later what I think it means.