i'm very fortunate to, at almost age 45, to have my mother and grandmother still with me, and to also have a daughter and granddaughter ... it doesn't get much better than that ...

did you know ... that when a woman is pregnant with a female fetus, that fetus has all the eggs she will ever make in her lifetime? ... so, at some point, we were all eggs inside our mother, who was a fetus inside her mother ... like russian nesting dolls ...

is it just me who thinks that's awesomely cool? ..

the continuity of life is what i seem to be thinking about this mother's day ... i had a good day with my kids and grandkids and i hope you had a wonderful day too ...

Mothers and daughters
Were daughters and mothers
Not so long ago.
We give and take
And take and give
Along time's endless row.

Love is passed
And love received
To be passed on again:
A precious heirloom
Twice, twice blessed,
A spiritual cardigan.

I'll put it on
And treasure it,
The me I have received,
And when the roles
Reverse again,
I'll have what I most need.

So may our love
Go on and on,
A hundred thousand years;
Mothers and daughters,
Daughters and mothers,
Through joys and other tears.

xoxo

The Art Cooperative ...

The Art Cooperative

all this stuff with the ning groups has finally inspired me to really make one myself ...

one that will be a true cooperative ... where everyone is an equal member ... where no one is leader, no one is guru, no one is follower ~ we're all leaders, we're all gurus, we're all followers ... a place to be teacher AND student ... and where it's not about following or emulating one person or idea or style, but is about discovering for ourselves who we really are and then sharing that with others in our own unique ways ...

my vision is a place where people can come to learn and create in whatever way they feel is right for them ... where they're respected and nurtured and supported in whatever their creative path is ... to create relevant and active groups (i've always wanted to actually finish the artist's way!) ... to teach if you have something to teach, and to learn from fellow members ...

i may be teaching some classes ... portraits, figures and landscapes are what i do best ... what about you? ... do you have something to share, too? ... i'll definitely be inviting some people to have some classes ... art, writing, poetry, journaling, real goddess study, whatever there is an interest for ... and you can set up your own class as well ... we ALL have something to teach and we ALL have something to learn ...

i just now set it up so it's totally bare ... i haven't even put a pic on my own profile ... and while i've started this, i'm also a member like everyone else ... and i'd like YOU to be involved in creating it with me, right from the very beginning ... i think that together we can create great things ...

so, if you wish, please join us at ...

The Art Cooperative

more narrative self portrait ...

more from marie's clay self portrait class ... i think i'll experiment with different clays including kiln fired clay ... this is just terra cotta oven bake clay, which turned out a lot better than i expected once it was baked ... working on finishing it now with paints and things ...

xoxo

life is good ...

life is pretty darn good ...

It's true that we don't know what
we've got until we lose it, but it's also
true that we don't know what we've been missing
until it arrives.

what if ... you could make a difference?

what if ... this was your home?


what if ... this was your city?

what if ... this was your child?

what if ... these were your neighbor's children?




what if ... this was your granddaughter?
what if ...
you could make a difference?

these are children who live in darfur ... darfur is an african country bordering chad ... in a nutshell, lots of political stuff and war and so on has happened there in the last years ... and as always, the women, children and elderly are the most affected ... and now almost three million people are displaced and vulnerable ... many are starving ...

and it just got worse for the people who live there ...
the humanitarian organizations have been kicked out ... so, the situation there is even more precarious ...

here's the thing ... your voice counts for more than you may realize ... every phone call to a government office or official is assumed to reflect the feelings of 10,000 people ... so, when you act, you have the power of a small town behind you ...

what you can do ...

go to www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

this is an e-mail form ... it takes about two minutes to fill it out and send

or call the White House comment line at 202-456-1111

this also takes about 2 minutes to leave a comment

or, do both (less than 5 minutes of your time)

your message can be as simple as "help the people in darfur" ... or, you can ask that your elected officials:

1. Make a concerted effort to get the needed amount of aid back into Darfur for the displaced civilians.
   
   
2. Complete the Sudan policy review in order to move forward with a comprehensive and coherent policy on Darfur.
   
   
3. Ensure that Special Envoy Gration has the support he needs from the State Department.
   
   
4. Bolster UNAMID in all ways possible.
   
   
5. Bring other key players in the international community into the foreground, especially Europe (including Russia), in order to further discussions about a no-fly zone, increased sanctions, and enforcing the arms embargo.

more information is at

http://www.theirc.org/media/www/where-is-darfur.html
and
http://www.miafarrow.org/
and
http://fastdarfur.org/


you can also twitter and blog and facebook and send this information to your email contacts ... feel free to copy this blog post as well

and, there is always the option of fasting in solidarity with the people of darfur (and anywhere else in the world) ... but fasting isn't necessary ... calling and writing is ...

there is no "they," ya know ... it's always been just "us" ... and if there's a child on the other side of the world who is dying it impacts every single one of "us" ...

and "we" can make a difference for "us" ...

photos used with permission

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead

copyright stuff ... or, much ado about nothing

there has been some talk about “copyright infringement” relating to art lately ... which is an interesting subject in itself ... but it's also something that can unnecessarily divide people ...

i’ve never been accused of copying someone else’s style … i’m not sure if that’s good or bad, but for the most part I think my work is unique/weird enough that it’s never been an issue ... and probably for the same reason, i’ve never really run across anyone who was trying to emulate my style ... but it wouldn’t have mattered if I had ... because ...

here’s the thing ...

... no one can copyright or trademark a subject or even a style ...

if someone copies someone's style, including my own, i can think you're unoriginal and uninspired ... but I can’t come after you with an attorney screaming copyright infringement ... actually, i can get an attorney to come after you with a cease and desist letter, but it’s meaningless and wouldn’t hold up in court ...

so what is copyright infringement? ... & what is copyright? ... each individual art work anyone creates is automatically protected by copyright law from the moment of its creation, regardless of whether it's ever registered ... there’s implied protection … this applies to music, and writing as well ... it’s easier to defend a copyright if it has been registered officially, but the protection still exists even if it’s not registered ... so, every painting anyone does, and exact copies, are covered by that copyright protection ...

(btw, if you sell an original painting to someone, you still retain the copyright to that work and the right to make and sell copies… and you keep that right until you expressly assign it to someone else ... in part or in whole)

here’s what i can’t do ... i can't take someone’s paintings and copy their image files and send them to the printer and then sell those as prints ... i can’t take pieces of their image files and try to sell them ~ that's absolutely copyright infringement ... but, if i wanted to, i could look at their work and then paint something inspired by it, or even something that was pretty much the same (excluding a direct forgery) ... that's NOT any kind of copyright infringement ...

i also can’t paint something and claim it was painted by someone else and try to profit from that ...

as for faces, which i really don’t include much in my paintings unless it’s specifically a portrait ... there is a very narrow set of measurements and dimensions that we will look at and recognize as human ... so there are only so many ways one can make a human face ... even if it’s stylized ... no one can copyright eyes or faces or a technique or whatever ... you can copyright a painting of lips, for example, but copyright protection only applies to that one painting of lips ... it doesn’t extend to all paintings of lips you may make ... (although each painting of lips, or whatever subject, has its own copyright protection as an individual work) ... and it can’t prevent anyone else from making a painting of lips ...

aside from actual copyright law, i personally believe there is something about truly original art that comes from a person’s own heart and experience that will make it something special ... there’s a certain deadness to work that someone has simply copied ... even if it’s almost exactly the same, it’s just not the same ...

the important part is missing ...

it’s a corpse, the soul isn’t there ... as well, work can be very, very similar and still be an authentic and original and alive expression ...

here’s my opinion and unsolicited advice, don't worry about copyright ... yours or that of anyone else (as long as you're not stealing the actual image and trying to sell it) ...i worked in publishing for years (mostly written work and photography, not visual arts so much), and the only people i ever heard seriously worrying about copyright were very new ... with a little experience, they calmed down about the whole thing ...

paint what you want to paint ... paint because you have something to say ~ and we all have something to say … tell me YOUR story with your art … because no one is going to do it exactly the same way ... and YOUR right to paint (or draw or write or ) whatever you want is also protected ...

xoxo

playing for change ...

i love this ... there seems to be an increasing desire to connect to the larger world ... to let the the illusion of our separateness fall by the way side ...

http://playingforchange.com - From the award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", comes the first of many "songs around the world" being released independently. Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe.

here's looking at you, miss nolly posh

all the cool kids are doing it ... how about you? ... show me your peepers :)

xoxo