Underpainting. I'm looking at snow and realize the snow is not white, but rich with color. It reflects sky and it displays shadow. Blue or pink, orange or purple, the snow is only sometimes, intermittently, white. And when it is – the white is blinding! Dazzling!

But it's the shadows and reflections that make the snow so interesting and give it form.

I've been using chalk pastels to lay out an underpainting on Strathmore charcoal paper. I must confess the paper I have is ancient paper. I inherited it from my former husband's grandmother in the early 1980's. It was old then, before she passed it down to me! It might have been purchased in the early 1970's. Yes. Well, now you know something about my weakness for accumulating art supplies. I have lived in six different homes in four different states since acquiring those art supplies from John's grandma. Those supplies have traveled with me, dwindling with use, all the way.

I have a (new!) box of Prismacolor pastels and a new tin of denatured alcohol. Laying down a bold underpainting color for sky and foreground with my Prismacolors I fix it to the paper using denatured alcohol and a bristly paint brush. The denatured alcohol dries quickly, sealing the underpainting so I can get right back to creating the local color without the worry of it getting stirred up and bleeding through.

But you know me. There's more to making art than technique. It wasn't long before I started thinking about the metaphor of underpainting. There's the person we see and there's the underpainting that makes that person so interesting. It's the shadow and reflection that gives meaning to a life. It's what makes us what we are. What is the underpainting in your life?

I am having SO MUCH FUN!

Long time no blog. I've been a busy art therapist and artist.

<-- Here's some of what I've been up to:

I have a new painting on exhibit in Austin TX. This juried exhibition is called “New Directions,” and will be displayed September 16-October 25, 2010. My piece chosen to be included in the exhibit is an abstract acrylic painting titled, “Salt Marsh Dawn.” I can't get there to see the show, but I hope you will be able to. My art can be seen in person at the Dragonfly Gallery at Rosedale, 4007 Marathon Blvd., Austin, TX 78756.

I am proud to announce that the book, Visual Journeys: Art of the 21^st Century, is now published and again, I have art included in it. Compiled by The Society of Layerists in Multi-Media, this is the third SLMM book to showcase my art. For this publication I provided a tea with pen and ink piece titled: “Tea Dream Animals.”

Three upcoming events in southeastern Michigan of note:

October 17^th an Art Therapists meeting in Southfield, MI. Join us for peer supervision and art making from 4:30 to 6:00 PM. Contact me for more information.

October 23^rd, Transformation Paper-Making Workshop at Center for Creative Growth. You should attend! Come to 2311 E. Stadium Ste. 216 from 1-3 PM. Open to the public, cost is $45 at the door.

Happily, my private practice is thriving. There is a new art exhibit including art made by some of my art therapy clients. Exhibit runs October 11 through Nov. 19. “The Art of Recovery” is on display in Ann Arbor, MI, at U of M's Taubman Health Sciences Library, 1135 E. Catherine. On Nov. 4 from 6-8 PM you can meet the artists and stay for a hands-on art therapy experience. It's all free – with free parking after 6 PM in the structure across the street from the library (free parking from 5:30 on Nov. 4 for the event.) Sweet.

I hope I see you soon!

time flies

Time flies. It gets away from me. I went to Spokane (well, Cheney,) WA last month to visit my daughter. It was wonderful to see her and her wife and my granddog again. It's impossible to express how much I miss my daughter. She is beautiful and smart and has a big big heart and crazy humor. She works hard and loves deeply. She is creative and quick, with quirky interests (blacksmithing, soil biology) and a memory like a steel trap. She is a wonderful daughter and a wonderful partner to her sweetheart. The world is better for having Elizabeth in it.

It's hard to fathom that it's already more than a month since I was there and I'm just getting back to the blog. Since returning I have been busy with my private practice, my part time gig, and I'm back to making art and writing again. I have a new phone, a new

office with a studio, a garden replete with all the smells, sounds, colors, and textures of summer. ahhhh

The lavender is humming with bees again like a kazoo band, the poppies and the peonies have already faded, delphiniums, campanula, and coreopsis are all abloom. The tomatoes have flowered and begun to set fruit, and the basil is taking hold (better late than never).

Next up: a road trip in July to visit the East Coast branch of our extended family in and around New York. I am so glad to have that to look forward to. As fast as time is moving, it won't be long at all until then. I will see you there.