I am truly inspired...

I had the pleasure of spending a day in a home that had beautiful paintings on the walls.  I studied them all day.
One I especially enjoyed was seascape impressionism in oil.  I admired the brushstrokes, the painting was done with a bristle flat, as far as I could tell.  Passages of color, expertly laid down.  Kudos, to the late painter, Alfred Wands. I will try to find a photo of that painting and if I do I will put it up.

Love Never Faileth....One year later

Today is the one year anniversary of my Mike standing beside me and marrying me last November 19th, 2009. Every day I love him more than the day before, every day he looks more like he did 40 years ago, to me. I love that! I still don't know why God kept us apart four decades before we reunited, except, speaking for myself, I had a lot to learn. It is as important in life to learn what you do not want, and what you will not stand for, as it is to comprehend the true desires of your heart and what you will fight for, even unto death. Mike and I had to grow up and we most certainly needed to heal from many emotional scars we already had when we met long ago and fell in love.
I have my prince, my lover, my sweetheart, my champion. I have the companion I thought I could never have in life. With him, I feel like my lonely days are over, in what time the two of us have together. I did okay alone for such a long time, in fact I had become quite set in my determination to remain that way. That was not the plan my Creator had for me. I feel enchanted, as if when Mike and I walk down the street, we are a miracle. We feel miraculous! I have talked about the possible reasons why we are so fortunate, and know that if we had listened to the negativity of some people instead of following our own passionate hearts, we would not be together today. Here is where I must thank those people who really care about me and about Mike, and who supported us and celebrated our opportunity to be together again. We were led to this day, shown a future that can be happier than any past ever was.... I am so glad that we are impetuous, that we plunged ahead with courage and a great deal of faith. Faith we felt strongly, because to have many years pass and then reunite and feel the same love, more even, than we did in our youth, and to feel like we had been apart weeks not decades, to have years of struggling without each other melt away.... it gives you a sureness in your heart. Relief in knowing there was a Masterplan for us, after all.
Seeing us together, my daughter and son laughingly said to each other that now they know what had been wrong with me all those years....half my brain was missing! And it's true, it does seem like Mike and I share a brain. (Which reminds me of our saying around here, that " Two half-wits, make a whole"). I'm grateful my family gets to see me this way. It is a gift to see your parent truly happy and in love.

UPDATE ABOUT ARTISTS UNITED FOR ANIMAL RESCUE (AUAR)

The group I founded, AUAR, is the sister group to the website www.petloverspromise.com and we are setting up individual pages for each artist there. My goal is to move the AUAR info to PLP, and be able to remove my website activity from the homestead site.

AUAR will be continuing to fund raise for animal charities both from the list on PLP and at each artist's discretion. If it is via eBay listings, and for a PLP/AUAR charity, then the acronym of AUAR and the charity's "hope code" will be in the title of the listing. These are listings for charities we have permission letters from. If we do not have the letter and the charity is hooked up with eBay's Giving Works program, then the Hope Code does not need to be in the title line, but AUAR does! If you as an artist do not put AUAR in your title line, you are not holding an AUAR supporting auction or listing.

AUAR requests that members show some indication of interest in supporting animal rescue via AUAR. If members do not respond to emails etc from me a couple times, they will be removed from membership. If we have an opportunity to have a serious exhibit for one of our charities, and members who are requested to participate, do not wish to do so, they have that option. I am hoping that a certain Sedona gallery may offer such an exhibit to us, and Actors and Others for Animals, one of our charities, is keeping this in mind as well, for possibly a California gallery. Stephanie, dear Stephanie, with AAO, is staying in touch with me about it. Any gallery exhibit of this type will have art selected for inclusion by me and the gallery director and will have to be very professionally presented (framed) or on gallery-wrap canvas and really good photography provided. We probably would go in together with both AAO and the gallery on putting a show display ad in Southwest Art magazine or another superior art related publication that covers the Sedona and California art scene. Cost per participating artist should be fairly minimal for such an ad.

Any artist in AUAR who wants to do an original that a charity can sell "tickets" for and publicize on websites is encouraged to do so. Everyone is struggling very hard right now in this economy. The charities, and the artists. Many animals are losing their homes due to foreclosures and owners not being able to feed their animals. We may not be able to do a lot, but we can do something, and think about what it costs to feed a few animals for even a day. Every dollar helps. Do you want to do something special for your favorite of the AUAR charities? Let them, and me, know. Thanks.

CONTACTING OPA MEMBER, LEE MITCHELSON

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR OPA MEMBER ARTIST LEE MITCHELSON?

Please visit the new website, http://www.petloverspromise.com/ or write to info@petloverspromise.com to
As an alternative, visit www.oilpaintersofamerica.com Lee Mitchelson

EMAIL THE ARTIST: leemitchelson@gmail.com

MY EYES AND HOW THEY HAVE RULE MY WORLD

A long time of experimentation with eye health as it applies to every moment of my life, not just as an artist. People, if your eyes are giving you fits, more so after computer work, don't accept it as normal. Go get tested at an opthalmologist office for dry-eye. I didn't. I suffered along with that for 1.5 years, and by the time I knew what was wrong, I had corneal scarring already. Then the experimenting began. Punctal duct plugging. Five attempts. Plugs falling out. Plugs getting infected. Blepharitis. Two cauterizations, weeks of healing, end result: Very good. Top ducts, not bottom. And the two bottom ducts, have smaller plugs that not only do not bother me but have not fallen out. Yet. I use Systane Ultra (NOT regular) drops. I will be using Thera tears night time liquid gel or ointment. I wake up uncomfortable. I have found that using even my pillow, when I am face down, back and forth over the area above my upper lids, below my brows, gently, stimulates my tear ducts and increases production. This is new info I am glad to know. I still have to wash my eyes carefully with T-gel shampoo every day. Just rinse well with splashing. Now, if I can get the right prescription glasses (close focus at 12-14" for artwork instead of the conventional distance) I think I will be doing pretty well. Then as soon as I can, I will do cataracts, if better glasses do not do enough to help me. All in all, this has been a four year long experience with still being able to paint. For the patience this has required of my friends, family and art collectors waiting for what they need and deserve, I beg forgiveness and express my endless gratitude. I am about to be able to go back to work in my life's work as a painter. And, for survival, I am using my licensed/certified status to enable doing home health care, I have just been hired by an agency for the first time -- I always worked private-pay in that field til now. I am not doing medical care, though. I need a break. And I welcome the support of an agency. It is Comfort Keepers, and I have to say, I am very very impressed with them! What a great company and the overall vibe of the people is just superior. Everyone I am dealing with there is delightful. I recommend them highly for an in home personal care agency.

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR OPA MEMBER ARTIST LEE MITCHELSON?

Please visit the new website, http://www.petloverspromise.com/ or write to info@petloverspromise.com to contact Lee.
As an alternative, visit www.oilpaintersofamerica.com , Lee Mitchelson

LOVE NEVER FAILETH

In September of 1967 when I was a very young woman with a little baby boy, I met a guy and fell in love.

We rode around Hollywood and up Topanga to the Inn of the 7th Ray and lots of places - on a Midnight Blue-pearl Harley panhead chopper, painted by the one and only Von Dutch himself. We were so reckless. I struggled with knowing I had to change things, a mom cannot be careless with her own life and with her child's future.

We had our jobs, we had four or so various places we lived, we hitchhiked up the coast, we had our horses -- my Gala from my childhood, his Appaloosa, Dolly. We lived and loved and fought and cried and then life just tore us right apart.

On the last day with him, as I drove away I felt a tingling sensation pulling out of my forehead, like something was physically being removed from me. It was some time before I came to know that the sensation was caused by seperating two people who are linked in ways beyond simple human understanding.

For forty years I have felt like a she-wolf howling across a frozen lake for her lost mate. Not a day goes by when I have not thought of him. Not one relationship or romance I have not compared to ours; Not one man's sex appeal I did not measure by how much I still wanted him. I reached out once. To let him know I had not forgotten. There was nothing back. I decided, I love someone who now feels nothing, I really should let this go. But I didn't.

I did still ride a chopper or two with other people, a few times. Big bikes are like a fever that has no cure. But I was restless, unsatisfied, it felt all wrong. It was too painful. Bikes without him? Such emptiness.
Follow along through the years. Two marraiges, but neither my mate. Two wonderful offspring, beautiful grandchildren too. I still look like me, pretty much. But how did I get to be this age?
I prayed, meditated, for answers at night. Why did I have to be alone? I hoped for some answer besides the one I always suspected. I was alone because I only wanted him, and alone was better than that peculiar loneliness of being with the wrong person, someone who does not even understand who you are. That is the worst loneliness of all.
Sometimes I would hear his voice in my head. A certain resonance to it, unlike any other voice in the world. I would remember his laugh, and my face would burn with how it made me feel. How could I be filled with so much emotion for someone, and not have them feel waves of it hitting them....even if they didn't know where it came from. Love like a drumbeat inside me, the heat.... so sweet.
I used to go to Orphans of the Wild, Gordon Meredith's place. I went for the wolves--- it was always about the wolves. My first experience with unconditional love was from a wolf. You don't forget that. Her name was Tammy, and she was a little silver-white slip of a thing -- my angel without wings. And there was one, a huge black male, named Shadow. He was tame enough to have lost his fear of humans, and so, the natural fear of men the wild ones have, in his case, had changed to lethal aggression. He would attack a man, anyone but Gordy, intending serious harm or even to kill. But not women.
He would fix his golden eyes on me, affectionately, and he would walk towards me slowly, like every step mattered. He actually moved more like a big cat, when he did that. Every time I went there and I visited with Shadow and watched him walk towards me, just that way, I thought of my beloved. One day when I was leaving, I climbed in my ancient VW bus, Ely, and got ready to roll down a hill and pop the clutch to start the old boy. But, rising from bass through alto to soprano, was a harmony of mourning. Swelling up from the wolves, beseeching me: Don't go. I laid my head on the steering wheel and I cried. I cried because in my whole life I don't know that I had ever felt such an honor bestowed upon me. It was my moment of worthiness. Don't go, don't go, baby please don't go..... a song from my time with him, began to run through my mind.

Last month after trying for 20 years to remember the last name of someone, it suddenly came to me, like getting hit in the head with a brick. I sat bolt upright, saying it outloud. I hurried to the computer and started looking for her. Within forty five minutes I had found contact information and I wrote. I asked if she was the Mimi who had a sister Jan... Mom, Lorraine.... and I said she might remember me with a different name, and my white horse I had. She wrote back, very soon. It was so exciting, I really had wanted to know how her life had gone, was she ok...all those things. And oh yes she did remember me. It was wonderful to talk to her. Even though she is a relative of my lost love, I wanted only to know how she was, because I had cared about her. And now she wanted to call me her unofficial 'Auntie', and that was fine with me.
I would make no attempt to reconnect with him. As far as I could tell, his past stayed well back where it started, he had moved on.

I have been using Facebook more. I check in. I click on my messages, dawdle a little, then leave. I did it that day, and in my messages, was one that started out, "I can't believe it", and it was from him.
Things have moved very quickly, how could they not, when I have heard him say he looked for me but had my new name spelled wrong and my high school wrong, and had never found me, that he wrote me a thank you note for what I had sent him once, but what happened to it? I never got it... and that every single day for forty years he had thought of me and still loved me as he has loved no one else.

First I had to get past the unfairness of why so much time had to pass with us both lonely for each other. How could this be? It made no sense to me. Then the sensation of living in a dream set in.... no this could not be reality.... I am the only person in the world who could carry a torch for 40 years. Aren't I? But no, it is not a dream. I will tell you what I think. God heard my prayers, and tasted the salt of my tears. I believe the universe, made by God, rewards the pure of heart. Once, a long time ago, maybe 1977, I had a vision after meditating. I was walking across a grassy high plateau, with Jesus. I know that it was Him, it was like seeing someone I knew. I could even smell the light, incense-like scent of his garments, earthy and pleasant. We communicated mind to mind; We didn't speak outloud. I had been asking to understand the "why" of something, and he came to answer me. As He showed me symbolically, while placing some stones, what the missing piece was that kept things from falling into place -- I heard the words, "This, then...is what we will do". The impact of the "we" was not lost on me. Off in the distance, was a city with exquisite golden domes. I never have forgotten the lesson learned in that experience. And now, as I have prayed and meditated again for answers, I have received reassurance.

A good man and a good woman want to be together, belong together, and God has placed them where they could create a future. Maybe people don't acknowledge that anyone in the last third of their life should be concerned about creating a future, but that is erroneous thinking. There is always a future. Now, and even later at the portal of life's end, when it becomes purely a spiritual matter. I hope to live it with someone I have adored most of my life, to be able to show him every day how cherished he is. I have waited so long. I am grateful for what has brought him back. The other half of my heart has been returned to me. But I have to wait a little while longer now. The big wheel spins, life always has it's details and struggles. I pray for his discernment in recognizing the motives behind the words of others, for his confidence, his certainty, his courage and perception. I have seen all these qualities in him. Truly he is one of the rarest people I have ever known. He dazzles me and delights me and makes my heart sing.

And so I have one more thing I pray -- that soon he will be able to walk to me, take me in his arms, and stay.

THE ONLY TRUE BIOGRAPHICAL BOOK ABOUT MY FRIEND AND MENTOR, KARL ALBERT

Above - Laguna Beach scene by Karl Albert
"Baby Junipers and wildflowers" by yours truly, with Karl watching over my shoulder in spirit.

Here is my little plein air painting of the two baby junipers out back with the purple flowers the horses won't eat. I painted it because I was thinking about my old friend, plein air painter Karl Albert. Karl has been gone a few years now. Soon before he passed, over the phone from his home in Italy, he gave me permission to form an art group in his honor, giving his blessing to The Albert Society of Artists (TASA). At the time it had three members... Karl, me, and Diane Whittman Punteri. A great start. Maybe this next spring, I will see if there are some Flagstaff plein air painters I can hang out with a bit. I would like to ad a few members to TASA and have a group show somewhere. I will feel Karl there, approving.

I have been thinking about Karl a lot, especially because I read some ignorant biographical information about him that irritated me greatly. Karl and I did plein air paintings together both in Alhambra and some years later in Palm Desert California. In Palm Desert we painted en plein air years later than the wrong biographies state that he quit doing so! What a crock! People, there is one and only one biography about Karl Albert you should pay any attention to, and that is the one being written right now, by his daughter mentioned above, artist Diane Wittman Punteri. I have written to her and she replied that I may contribute something to Karl's story, and I am thankful about that. I learned things from Karl that I think about, literally, every single time I pick up a brush, or go outside and see something that I want to paint. My plein air paintings done with Karl have been tucked away a long time.

Karl Albert was a man who painted alongside his colleagues, Edgar Payne and Sam Hyde Harris. They were of The California Eucalyptus School, as Karl would say. California plein air painters. And Masters of it, they were. Karl painted with Edgar Payne and Sam Hyde Harris. It is Karl's paintings of desert washes and such, that I remember best. Karl had the gift of appreciating the simple, even mundane, objects in nature. The man could paint a dry weed elegantly composed with a few rocks and elevate that scrub to an object of beauty. I see the world the same way, noticing those little beauties here and there, and when I do, I remember Karl.

When you paint outside, in my humble opinion, you have to be really really fast. Try setting your timer for ten minutes and theboth recognizing and going ahead and blocking in your composition and key darks and lights. I live in the very high mountains, our weather changes dramatically in a short time, and for lighting to stay the same longer than 15 minutes is rare. I have taken to making "notes" with paint in those 10 or 15 minutes, and then, they come inside with me. I don't mind the cold so much but coupled with the wind gusts around the peaks... what can I say.... I am not that much of a trouper. The wind aggravates my eye condition too much. Before I start to paint I snap some photos of that critical light and shadow just the way it most affected me when I first saw it. Later I can finish up a painting in my studio from those references. It is easy to get lost. You have to remember why you wanted to capture that scene in the first place. It was an emotional response, as well as visual. That is what your collectors will feel too, if you get it right.

Maybe some northern Arizona plein air painters will join me in going out and painting a bit, and of course we will have to do what karl and I absolutely required as part of our routine.... bring cookies. Chocolate chip.

"A LEGACY REBORN" THE WOLF PACK TATOO - JACOB BLACK

Taylor Lautner as Jacob...... aren't you beautiful, man-wolf.

MY "VOICE FROM THE PAST" - A PHONE CALL FROM ROBERT VAVRA

Three days ago, Robert Vavra called me. I had not spoken to him since 1988 when I illustrated two books for him. He sounds, of course, wonderful, like no time has passed at all. We talked about his new projects, he asked about my art now, and we talked a bit too about Bill Wheeler, someone we both knew, who has gone to the other side now.

I was glad to get to ask Robert if he thought he would ever consider doing a Pegasus book, because I have painted so many -- but before you think cutesy-poo, I painted most of them with such a sense of reality about them, that their mystical origins seemed rather moot.... horses, real horses.... legends that lived, and live.... winged-equines. I had been working on a kid's book with a very talented writer and doing illustrations for it. I still do that type scene now and again. The concept of a Pegasus foal is tender, and my series working-title was "Still too Young to Fly." I copyrighted that, in fact. Anyway, Robert said no, that the time for books of Unicorns or of Pegasus has passed. He is focusing on a life's masterwork coming out in a couple years which I hope to contribute to, called Remembering Africa. And he has a new book out right now, and also a novel he is writing. I believe he said he has now had 29 books published. Truly the man is a legend.

AND THIS...IS MY FAVORITE THREE-QUARTER VIEW!

Months pass, and I am still painting Rob Pattinson. I have never painted the same subject so many times as I have him. And I enjoyed painting his West Highland White Terrier also, and sent it off to him so it is waiting there when he can go home to the UK.

MY FAVORITE EDWARD PROFILE I HAVE PAINTED..

Here is my newest painting of Edward Cullen, finished today, in honor of Rob Pattinson's MTV Awards evening. Good luck, Rob! I admire excellence in creative people and I see that excellence in your work. I know perfection when I see it, and I saw that in how you portrayed Edward. If you see my painting, I hope you like it. It was respectfully done.

"MALIBU, TOWARDS SUNSET"

This is my oil painting of Malibu beach. I was very excited to find this lovely frame, it is so perfect for it. Yes, once in a while, I do still paint landscapes, usually when I am thinking about Karl Albert my plein air landscape mentor. I miss him.
This has been a great week, as I was accepted to Oil Painters of America, something I have wanted for a very long time.
The Nebraska 200 horse rescue was wonderfully successful, now everyone involved waits to learn how the perpetrator of this heinous crime of starving more than 70 horses to death, will be prosecuted. The court date for Jason Meduna is June 17th I believe.
I going to go paint now, trying to finish a small piece in time to enter it in the OPA western regional exhibit and time is close.

NEBRASKA 200: HORSES NEED HOMES QUICK

Here is my second art auction painting with 50% going to Habitat for Horses for rehoming the Mustangs. If you want to bid on it, please email me at mitchmts@yahoo.com. The bidding will continue til 6 pm May 3, Arizona time. Your quickest way to find out the background on these horses is to google Jason Meduna arrest, and, go to the websites for Habitat for Horses, Humane Society of the United States, lifesavers, Front Range Rescue, etc.

This 8"x 10" oil painting is called "Bottle Baby". It is a foal that was christened, "Drake". His mama didn't make it.

Two hundred (actually the figure is 220 now) equids need homes. Good homes. Most are truly wild horses, not riding horses.

****As an update, Habitat for Horses, The Humane Society of the United States and several smaller rescues (and hundreds of individuals who donated money and effort) have rescued and removed 220 horses from certain death and relocated all of them.

THE NEBRASKA 200: SAVING HORSE'S LIVES

I will do another post with more information about this evolving story. Right now I want to show a painting that is being auctioned with 50% of the selling price going to Habitat for Horses, the group now in charge of all these horses.... Mustangs, a couple Arabians I believe, a Quarterhorse I hear, and some long ears too! This painting is a 7x5" original oil, called, "Drake". Drake is one of the Nebraska 200. There is a reserve on this art. If the reserve is not met it is will not sell. The bidding starts at $49.00...... please write me to bid, mitchmts@yahoo.com.

BEAUTIFUL BARBARO

This is my oil painting done as tribute to Barbaro. I thought this pose really shows what an honest horse he was. And you can tell by his eyes, that he never knew a harsh hand. That is the face of Trust. What a horse.

MY PAINTING OF RUDOLF MARTIN AS "DRACULA"

It isn't too difficult to imagine why this painting was very enjoyable to do, is it. I hardly need to
say a thing. Mr. Martin's portrayal of Dracula was purely and simply the most sensuous I have ever seen.

MY PAINTING OF "KIGER SOMBRA"

"AS ONE"

True Performance Of Unity

Sombra, a Kiger Mustang captured from the wild, has captured the hearts of horse enthusiasts throughout the world as he is anually showcased at the Kentucky Horse Park for the Kiger Mustang Breed Weekend.
Loyalty and kindness are Kiger Sombra's outstanding virtues.

For years now I have been deeply enamored with the Kiger mustang horses. All politics aside (the primitive dun mustang people with various herd sources can't seem to find a common ground) I am entirely satisfied with the true-to -type Kiger, their beauty, their fine minds, and their exotic primitive markings. I really have two favorite horse breeds in this world, the Kiger and the Tennessee Walker (Plantation Walkers, no built-up feet for showing!) My own Kiger, sired by Kiger Dundee, is everything I could ask for in a horse.

That said, when I was given the opportunity to paint a prime example of the Kiger breed, Kiger Sombra, I was thrilled.

I GET TO PAINT ARTIS, THE SPOONMAN

Wow, what a day yesterday. The universe's organizing power is awesome. First, I found out that my musician nephew, Ira Merrill in Seattle, is moving into Artis the Spoonman's old house. (Here is some Ira: http://home.napster.com/ns/music/album.html?album_id=12436923 Google Ira Merrill, dude is all over the internet! )
My sister Jan sent me a link to an Artis youtube. The rest is already a day's worth of history.
Do you know who Artis the Spoonman is? Remember the Soundgarden song, "Spoonman"? That is about Artis.
Artis played with every major rock band and performer from Zappa to Pearl Jam and Aerosmith an endless number more http://www.artisthespoonman.net/
We have connected on a level of understanding, somehow. And I am very grateful for it.
I spent a long time enjoying a bunch of youtube videos of him. Here are a couple, and one of Soundgarden live, singing Spoonman, it's the best, Chris Cornell is dazzling! Here is the one of Artis with Pearl Jam and Soundgarden http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVELOy4hfSs&feature=related and here is the one of Chris Cornell live Spoonman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TItr8wDWzZI&feature=related and here is a close-up vid of Artis playing the spoons. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3TFkvEmBYM
What matters to me most though is that his heart is open and he wrote me back and now I get to paint him. He is someone who followed his passion in life. There is something so pure about that.

I AM SAYING GOODBYE TO A FRIEND TODAY

Our good dog, Bodie, is going along the road of life and eternity, to wait for us somewhere up ahead. We love you. We will miss you alot. Play in the meadow flowers in your new healthy perfected body with all our beloveds who have gone before you. In a way I envy you because you get to see them and touch them again and I do not. Until we get there, we remain your loving family here on Earth. I will come back here and put your picture, when I choose the right one. Hugs, Bodie-boo. Such a sweet boy, with such a funny bone. I can see him in my mind running the goofy way he did, like Phoebe, in the Friends episode, where Rachael was embarassed to jog with her in the park because she looked like such a spaz when she ran. That's what you are supposed to do though, right? Run like no one is watching. I am trying to learn from Bodie, a pure soul, without guile.