And It Snowed

So yesterday afternoon and throughout the night, our first snow of the season continued.  Now being somewhat obsessed with the beauty of the white flakes that fall from the sky (well at least until March, when it's so old..) I feel moved to continue blogging today in homage and celebration of all things snow.  I may even have to apologize in advance for the possibility that I might take pictures of every snow storm we have this year and blog about them here.  That is how much I love snow.  Blame it on me living in a place where snow did not exist for close to a decade.  Believe me, you take it for granted until it is never around and then it becomes an obsession, much like (I hear) those who deprive themselves of food often are obsessed with cookbooks.  I love the snow, I revel in snow, here are some quotes about snow!


“Is it snowing where you are? All the world that I see from my tower is draped in white and the flakes are coming down as big as pop-corns. It's late afternoon - the sun is just setting (a cold yellow colour) behind some colder violet hills, and I am up in my window seat using the last light to write to you.”
― Jean Webster, Daddy Long Legs


“I love snow for the same reason I love Christmas: It brings people together while time stands still. Cozy couples lazily meandered the streets and children trudged sleds and chased snowballs. No one seemed to be in a rush to experience anything other than the glory of the day, with each other, whenever and however it happened."
― Rachel Cohn, Dash & Lily's Book of Dares


“Snow flurries began to fall and they swirled around people's legs like house cats. It was magical, this snow globe world.”
― Sarah Addison Allen, The Sugar Queen


“With luck, it might even snow for us.”
― Haruki Murakami, After Dark


“Snow falling soundlessly in the middle of the night will always fill my heart with sweet clarity”
― Novala Takemoto, Missin' (Novel)


“I love you because no two snowflakes are alike, and it is possible, if you stand tippy-toe, to walk between the raindrops. ”
― Nikki Giovanni


“Every Autumn now my thoughts return to snow. Snow is something I identify myself with. Like my father, I am a snow person.”
― Charlie English


Snow can be a symbol of transition, of a plateau or place we all hibernate cozily (hopefully with a fireplace and indoors looking out at the snow) before new changes can take place.  It can represent the end of an era before a new beginning.  It is also a symbol of purity, of blocked (frozen) intuition or emotions that can soon melt and be freed.  Snow also represents connection with divinity as the snowflakes fall from the sky to Earth with each flake containing two parts...a nucleus and water vapor attached and falling together from the heavens.

Here is an interesting link about the meaning of snow as it pertains to dreams:  http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art37347.asp

And I hope it returns again soon, the snow, and that everyone will be safe in it....and enjoy every second of it with every fiber of their being(s)!

Sam watching a bird eat while Figaro sleeps next to him as it snowed outside yesterday.  There is something marvelous about being cozy inside with cats watching the snow fall.

More snowy pictures from yesterday

And the snow continued into the night, even more determinedly

The snowy clubhouse and parking lot from our balcony

My recent snowy blue painting with two lovebirds

https://www.etsy.com/listing/113247672/large-original-painting-once-upon-a-blue

Snowy Thursday Ponderings

It snowed today! And of course it is already melting. But it's the first, official, glorious hint of snow we have had so far this season. I managed to capture a picture or two of the remaining snow before the sun melted it all into liquidy goodness this morning. It was kind of a heavenly gloomy experience looking out through the blinds into the gray morning and seeing the fluffy snowflakes falling again like a long lost friend.


Speaking of friends, my friend Angela K., a fellow artist, found this quote that I fell in love with today and had to share in my blog:


"Artists are some of the most driven courageous people on the face of the earth. They deal with more day-to-day rejection than most people do in a lifetime. Everyday, artists face the financial challenge of living a freelance lifestyle, the disrespect of people who think they should get real jobs, and their own fear that they'll never work again. Everyday, they have to ignore the possibility that the vision they have dedicated their lives to is a pipe dream. With every role, they stretch themselves, emotionally and physically, risking criticism and judgement. With every passing year, many of them watch as the other people their age achieve the predictable milestones of normal life - the car, the family, the house, the nest egg. Why? Because artists are willing to give their entire lives to a moment - to that line, that laugh, that gesture, or that interpretation that will stir the audience's soul. Artists are beings who have tasted life's nectar in that crystal moment when they poured out their creative spirit and touched another's heart. In that instant, they were as close to magic, God, and perfection as anyone could ever be. And in their own hearts, they know that to dedicate oneself to that moment is worth a thousand lifetimes."

By: David Ackert



I agree with every word of it. It is all true. And I could not have said it better myself.


On another note, I was recently attempting to watch A Course in Miracles, the Movie...twice. At times I find the perspectives a bit difficult to wrap my own perception of reality around. I do see how some of them are useful in life though...very useful actually. My favorite quote from the movie is about forgiveness. It talks about how people hold onto resentment toward another person and choose not to forgive them, thinking this somehow hurts the person they are choosing not to forgive:


"Not forgiving someone is like setting yourself on fire and hoping the other person dies of smoke inhalation."
LOL, this is so true. This quote is just awesome. Don't hold grudges people, you're only hurting yourselves. The person you are angry at isn't sitting there feeling your every resentful stab just because you are thinking it. I guarantee they are probably doing yoga, or sculpting something or perhaps even contemplating the meaning of life. The only one you are harming with your inner venom is yourself. When you find yourself thinking an angry thought why not go for a jog instead? Certainly we could all afford to lose a few and live more healthfully in this day and age. Don't just sit there stewing or plotting some likely unfulfilling revenge.. Forgive them and take your life back, take your happiness in living and existing back. Forgive, move forward with your lives, and prosper!


And lastly here are some randomized quotes I found today that made me either think, feel, or feel some type of something or other. Since I am a quotaholic.


"Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power." -Henry George (1839 - 1897)


I love this quote. It reminds me of that common feeling we each have on occasion that we are only one person and what can we possibly accomplish in the world. Honestly? We can each accomplish a lot in the world with the power of one. With the ripple effect and concept of paying it forward, we can change the world and make it much better even as an 'army' of one. This quote empowers me...empowers me to be more self aware of my actions and thoughts and why I do or think them.


It empowers me to remember that no matter what my circumstances have been, are, or will be I can always choose to be kind, even in the face of unkindness. I can share that kindness with others and remind them that kindness exists and is always present. And people, when shown kindness tend to show it to others in turn. I can choose love over hate, to create something beautiful and inspiring instead of something that tears others down, I can choose to embrace who I really am and love that person no matter what anyone else's opinion may happen to be. The truth is, what others think is none of our business. And honestly in my experience, worrying about such trivial concerns is pretty unproductive in general. So essentially what this quote means to me in a nutshell is...go forward, embrace each day, think for yourself, and influence the world in your own unique way whether it be a gentle whisper or a lion's roar. Realize your power as an individual.


"Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning." -John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801 - 1890)


Sieze the day, Carpe Diem, follow that voice inside that pulls you to do something, follow your enthusiasm. Make every moment precious and celebrate it. Inspire others and in doing that find your own inspiration for being. Fear not death, but living without truly being alive.


And with that I will close, leaving you with some pictures of stuff and things that somehow relate to my recent life. Have a beautiful, prosperous day!

My new orchid plant that I opted to get instead of another Halloween costume I will wear once a year

First snow of the season with lightly dusted car and roofs

My new snowstorm painting! 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/112875076/large-original-abstract-impasto-painting 

Rainy Friday Thoughts

Here are some quotes that spoke to me on this rainy, chilly Autumn day:

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."  -Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbably, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable."  -Christopher Reeve, From speech at Democratic National Convention, August 1996

"You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don't know what was in the newspapers that morning...a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be."  -Joseph Campbell (1904 - 1987)


I have been waiting for a day like this for some time now.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy sunshine...to the max.  It is empowering and gets me moving and being productive.  But there is something to be said for a gray rainy day, with it's somber yet beautiful contrast to sunshine.  Especially one with Autumn's early chill in the air.  That day is today.

What will I be doing today?  Painting, of course.  And listing some of my new abstract paintings.  I am kind of in love with abstract art at the moment, but unable to commit to it as textured pieces and surreal landscapes still call to me too.  Today, after I list some new pieces I will be going out with my husband to grab some more paint, stopping at IKEA to couch hunt, and hopefully painting late into the evening, possibly with a little gaming happening too.

For some fun and randomly interesting stuff, here is my Online Elemental Forces of Creation Oracle Reading for today.  I love this site and go here often.    It is free and does a 3 card reading for you that I find enjoyable and helpful.  My 3 cards today were:

Fire:  Energized

Juiced with your inner firepower you are vibrantly alive and run an abundance of life force energy.  When you follow your passion and find ways to engage yourself, you energetically engage life.  How can fire assist you to become energized and enlivened?

Water:  Nourishment

Water is an essential nutrient for sustaining life.  The land, plants, and people wither and die when they go too long without water.  One of the best ways to nourish yourself and others with water and the emotional realm is by feeling appreciation.  The rich energy of true appreciation is an uplifting gift to the soul.  Drinking lots of good water is especially nourishing to the physical body.  In what ways does water want you to nourish yourself or others?

Spirit:  Desire

Spirit brings you to your next level of growth and development through your desires.  Your desires are the pulsation of spirit through you.  You need to learn to listen to your inner voice around your desires, and not the calling of the outer world.  Sometimes your desires are different than what the outer world says you are supposed to desire.  Each of us has unique expression, therefore unique desires.  The simple act of listening to your individual desires takes courage, and often bringing the desire into being takes you to your next level of personal development.  How is spirit calling you through your desires?  Are you listening deeply to your unique calling?

Check out this site if you want your 3 cards today (free, no spam, no signing up for anything):  http://naturalrhythms.org/2.0/wp-contentuploads201112/



On another random note, I love white dogs!  I hope to own one someday so I can jog in the snow with it (and hopefully it won't get lost in the snow).

Have a beautiful Friday, all.

Grateful Life

Today is another gorgeous Fall day.  The weather is pretty much what I would call 'ideal'.  Probably a little on the cold side for many, but it feels nice to bundle up a bit and feel a chill after summer.  Before diving into painting today (and for the record I'm hoping to attempt a rainy palette knife painting and some more abstract pour paintings soon), I decided to do a blog since it's been a while and I'm feeling the blogging today.

Here are a few random quotes I am loving today:

"Life is an adventure in forgiveness."  -Norman Cousins

"Everyone has his burden; what counts is how you carry it."  -Joe Brown and David Brown

"People are all over the world telling their one dramatic story and how their life has turned into getting over this one event.  Now their lives are more about the past than their future."  -Chuck Palahniuk (1962-), Invisible Monsters, 1999

So far it has been a beautiful Autumn.  That Autumny feeling has set into the air and things seem magical.  I am enjoying being an artist every day.  I saw a quote from someone recently that was to the effect of "every day I wake up and am thrilled to be an artist".  I could not agree more.  It is a never ending journey of learning new techniques for me, trying new things, figuring out how to best express images in my head that day.  Should I use texture to bring out the petals?  Which colors am I feeling for the piece.  Should I do it on one canvas or 3?  It is the journey of learning new techniques for me that makes art so exciting.

Since it is a good practice to do (actually every day if one can), I am going to blog my list of things I am grateful for in life today here.  I highly recommend doing this to lift your spirits if you are down or just as a best practice for general happiness and a healthier life.  It is great to do every day, if possible as it puts you in a state of productive thought.

Things I am grateful for in my life today:

1.  My husband, a wonderful companion in all ways, who is the epitome of beauty inside and out

2.  Our home, which reminds me of an artist's loft (I like to pretend it actually is), and is spacious and clean with a view of the snowy mountains

3.  My cats, who love unconditionally and follow me everywhere.  Fluffy balls of goodness, they are.

4.  My art, which is always with me in my mind and heart no matter where I go, which gives me a source of expression and joy that doesn't compare to much else

5.  My parents, whom I have grown closer to over the years, who make me laugh so much and allow me to be completely myself with them and love me for it

6.  My husband's amazing family, who are warm and inviting and have become truly my second family.  Who I love spending time with

7.  My friends, who are beyond fun to hang out with.  They are incredible people that fill my hours with laughter, joy, and sharing, who I cannot get enough of.

8.  My plants, whom I adore.  I water, fertilize and love them, and they in turn reward me with green vibrancy and occasional blooms that reflect the essence of life itself.

9.  Feeling free because my credit card debt has been fully paid off for almost 2 years now and has not revisited

10.  Finding out my credit score is awesome!

11. And lastly, today I am grateful for maturity.  I am grateful for growing up because it allows me to make better choices in life.  To seek peace instead of battles, kindness instead of selfishness, reflection instead of anger.  It is this type of thinking that leads me more and more to a place of calmness, happiness, and serenity in my life.

Here are some recent paintings I have finished, and my Etsy site is here, should you want to visit:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/PaintedRainGallery  I hope everyone has a beautiful Autumn!!

Red Autumn

White Blossoms on Plum Gold

We Could Have Danced All Night

The Jade Tree

Lavender Serenity

Red Winter

Blue Serenity

Two Trees

Art is My Solace

Today, while painting (of course) my mind wandered to what art is to me.  This came to mind:  "Art is my solace."

See, I discovered art some time ago when I was going through a lot of changes as a person.  It was that time we all go through, hopefully for a lifetime since it should all be a journey, where we are figuring out who we really are and who we hope to become more and more each day.  At that point in my life I was starting to outgrow things.  I was in a relationship that no longer served me.  I felt stuck in a life cocoon I was terrified of busting out of, but knew if I stayed in it I would surely suffocate.  It was the scariest fear I have ever faced head on (besides my freeway car accident a year ago which was similarly terrifying in some senses).  I absolutely did not know how I was going to survive all the changes in my life, but with some encouragement and a feeling of "what's the worst that can happen?" I did face them.  And art held my hand the whole way.

Art had become for me more than just a hobby or pastime.  My discovery that I could actually do it...draw and paint with some measure of success and gratification...was at first as amazing to me as it was to everyone else.  Who knew?  I sure didn't.  Not through high school or even college.  It wasn't until shortly after that I picked up a paintbrush and just kind of started to go with it.  After that I wished more than anything I had studied art all through high school and college but I'm also kind of a big believer that we figure things out when we're supposed to...everything in its time.

So I found art.  This discovery was like opening a whole new world for me, to sound cliche.  *Cue singing of Aladin and Jasmine here*  But that's seriously what it was like for me.  The Heavens opened and I found a joy I hadn't really known at this point in life.  For more cliches, it was the best of times and the worst of times.  I had found my 'it', the thing in the world that could make me the happiest.  At the same time I was stuck in a lifestyle in which I was feeling terribly stagnant and unhappy.  Every time I picked up a pencil or paint brush I grew a little braver though.  Art became like a bridge for me.  As I learned new techniques and tried new subjects in drawing and painting I became a little braver and stronger in myself and learned a little more about who I was.  Eventually I busted out of that cocoon like a bad habit and spread my wings fully, even with fear making the very core of me tremble.  The feeling reminds me of this Anais Nin quote:

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."  -Anais Nin

Since then I have found a life I never imagined possible.  It might seem mundane to some.  I do spend a lot of time inside, painting, but with the windows open as much as possible so I can breathe the outdoors.  Every day is filled with new images in my mind that I seek to capture on canvas, new techniques I am aching to try.  And on those days when I feel kind of down or not as alive as I would like, I force myself to pick up my paintbrush anyway.  And art enfolds me in its wings and somehow makes everything better again.  Art my joy, my solace, my comfort, my friend...is always there for me, rain or shine.

Here is a recent interview I did for the Living Awesomely blog in which I talk about art, love, and life a little more:  http://living-awesomely.com/amber-elizabeth-on-love-and-art/

And a few recent paintings I've been working on:

Blue Morpho Crescendo

Dancing With Sunbeams

Winter's Reflection

I Love You in Red

Beautiful World

This quote came to mind today out of the blue.  I think it's applicable to everyone's life.  We live in a gorgeous world...surrounded by beauty in every direction.  Yet we focus on the small things in life a lot.  We make up problems out of boredom or w/e.  Maybe it is all very uncomplicated in reality:

"How beautiful is our world!  Why focus on anything petty when we could live in absolute wonder."
-Amber Elizabeth Graff

New Year and Tsunami Dreams

Last night I had another tsunami dream.  I think this is the 3rd one I've had in about 3 months.  This one was incredible.  I was on a high floor of an ornate looking building.  Felt like it might have been more of a scholarly building but hotel is possible.  I was looking out of the huge windows of the main room part down over the ocean.  Out of nowhere a gigantic wave came over the glass window I was looking through and the roof part of the building (for some reason I knew it was the top floor).  I was the closest person to the window and was so afraid at expecting the windows to shatter with the force of water that all I could do was immediately drop to the floor and lay there in fear.  Amazingly the wave receded.  Everything went back to normal as if nothing would happen.  I heard someone nearby remark that the wave was about 76 feet high.  There were even smaller windows that were open down the hall and still no water got in.  It was a pretty incredible dream.

My dream a month or so ago was around the time I went to Hawaii.  I thought it was a warning or something.  I dreamt I was in a condo type of building by the seafront, where I lived in the dream.  The ocean came out of nowhere and swallowed up the parking lot and surrounded the building.  I tried to get my car to safety but the ocean caught up and the car was swirling in the water.  I somehow got out and swam back to the building, getting to safety.  Then as quickly as it came the ocean receded and became normal again.  All the water that had circled the building was now back where it should be.  The strange thing was that of all the tenants in the building I was the only one who seemed to notice the ocean had come there at all.  They were going about their daily life like nothing happened.

After I woke up today I thought "well okay what is this all about...why do I keep having vivid tsumani dreams?" so I Googled it.  I found out a lot of people are actually having tsunami dreams and felt a lot less alone after visiting this incredible blog:  http://sonael.wordpress.com/2006/07/23/tsunami-dreams/#comment-5434  It turns out from reading here that tsunami dreams can actually be a symbol of some sort of awakening or positive change.

I like to think of it as an awakening for the world that so many people are having tsunami dreams.  I am probably idealistic, but it would be fantastic if people around the world really were being swept with a wave of change where they would practice more love in their daily lives and acceptance, judging others less and letting people just 'be' who they are with open hearts.  I think the initial terror of the waves is kind of like the initial terror of 'change' which many people are afraid of and initially resistant to.  Once they accept/embrace the changes within themselves things can become better.  We can all hope for this anyway.