And another "Talented Tuesday" is upon us - it was already a total success. For this week, I was inspired to draw an album cover from a new favorite band I found on Spotify called "In Hearts Wake". Their music has helped me immensely through the tough changes between my mother's passing, and other personal events. One of their songs "Wildflower" hits close to home and makes me think of my beautiful mom. My best friend.

Today is a very trying day. Today marks one month since my mother passed away. It's hard to get used to this new "norm", but I still hold on to her strength and courage that she so bravely possessed all these years.

I'm very spiritual. My mom was, too. Our family has a thing about feathers and hummingbirds. Before my mom passed away, she told us that hummingbirds would be one of her signs. The morning after she passed, my aunt, sis and I were sitting on our backyard patio set drinking tea/coffee. A hummingbird swooped around us and perched on a tree right next to us. It sat there for one-two minutes, staring at us. It was a very emotional and captivating experience. Truly beautiful.

Today, I woke up very depressed. My mom had been heavy on my mind for the past few days. I went to go eat at Jorge's, a mexican food restaurant. As I was walking on the sidewalk (and being oblivious to everything) I all of a sudden look down. My eyes immediately saw a big, bright and beautiful white feather. It has to be half a foot long, and was all by its little lonesome, smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk in front of Jorge's. I smiled big, got chills, and thought of my mom. I never find white feathers like this. I felt so lucky.

Thanks to my wonderful cousins, Heather and her wife Nataly, I have joined them in Talented Tuesdays where we devote to part of our day to becoming creative. I did a quick sketch. I need to dedicate more time in the art world because for a couple years now, I've been dry out of ideas or any motivation to create anything. Here is what I have chosen to do:

Did some random sketches tonight which took about 30 minutes for all four. Just playing around and not really caring about mistakes and what not. The material I used for this was Natural Vine Charcoal.





My favorite out of the four is the one of my family's and my dog, Eddie, who recently had to be put to sleep three and a half weeks ago. I have a different drawing I've been working on of him that will have its own post with a memorial of Eddie.

Today has been a wonderful Labor Day. I woke up at 4am being thankfully interrupted by thunder and rain. I was instantly happy and soothed. I fell back asleep and woke up again at 8 smelling the after affects of rain from the asphalt and the mud, all being carried by the wind and into my room. Today I had to paint. I lit two candles that both smelled of bamboo mist/coconut, and I just went for it.



I am the worst at being a perfectionist when it comes to hanging things up on the wall. ;) Moving on, these three paintings I did were quick, fun and easy little warm ups. I haven't been the best at keeping up with making art in a long, long while, so messing around with my oil paints was a great warming up experience.



The first painting I did this morning is an abstract mess with colors, and in the middle is of a girl holding tightly to her man during the storm. Every individual has their moment where they can be at their lowest, but having that one person they can lean on and love always makes a difference.



The next piece I quickly slapped on blues, greens, reds and yellows to create a fast wave. Not a favorite, but still had fun painting this. I wanted to add texture to this painting.



Lastly, I've wanted to practice quickly painting the human body in an abstract, somewhat shadowing yet beautiful form. This, I'd have to say is my favorite out of the three just because I was most happy with the way it turned out, especially in such a fast pace. My goal in my next paintings is to get more detailed and concentrated with my work, but I'm pretty happy with what I've done today. Happy Labor Day!