Saturday, January 30, 2010

Snow Day!


"Baby, it's Cold Outside"


It's a magical, snowy day here in the Carolinas. I'm watching from my window as I type. The fire crackles, Natasha & McQueen sleep and Angel has one eye open to the whole scene. I don't think she (or I for that matter) is quite ready to go outside. It's just so perfectly comfy and cozy inside!

I always become a kid again on days like these. I think of those amazing snow days -- staying home from school, making cookies, playing records all day and if I was lucky I could go outside and make snowmen!

I just adore the dreamy silence of snow. I would sometimes sit between old trees just to listen to the wind carrying the snowflakes through the branches. I can still live in that moment if I close my eyes. I didn't care that it was cold. I didn't care that I couldn't feel my nose, toes or fingertips. I was a kid without a care in the world -- I was wild and free just like the snowflakes and the breeze on the snowy Long Island branches.

Nothing can ever make me feel that way again. Isn't it something. Snow. It's so special. Such simplicity yet so full of awe inspiring moments. Ah, the beauty of childhood. It's still alive inside of me... especially on days like these. It's a snow day!

A beautiful Robin bird just sat on my balcony upon the snow it perched. McQueen saw it too and signaled to me with his feline talk. Oh how perfect I should see IT. I was writing to my friend with with whom a name she shares with this feathery creature. See, snow is magical.

I'm off this weekend and I couldn't be happier. I'm home where it's comfy and cozy with my animals and all day to do with it as I please. I think I'll sketch, illustrate, paint and play perhaps I'll even play records all day. I might even go outside and make a snowman. Now that's the perfect snow day.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

My Best Friend & her Four-legged Best Friend

My best friend Carrie is my biggest fan, my soul sister, my voice of reason, my honest critic, my earthly muse -- and, she always says it right (when most people haven't a clue). I didn't have to ponder long on what would be my gift for her this past Christmas. It appeared in my mind's eyes as naturally and effortless as the sun rises each dawn.

Like me, Carrie is an animal-lover and she adores her Mikey with every fiber of her being -- for him she is sensitive, sweet, silly and selfless. I get it, I totally get it. So, as I sat before a bare and naked canvas I had only one notion running through my brain and through my veins -- love! And so became the portrait of Carrie & Mikey based on a photograph she'd sent me some months ago. The photo had moved me to tears (of joy). The image captured a fun, natural, loving moment between beauty and beast. It was Carrie happy and it was Mikey even happier.

That's all I needed.