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Art Heals! I’m excited to be among the first in the nation to make art prescription a reality, and am thrilled to partner with Art Pharmacy to bring arts prescriptions to Massachusetts. This year, I wrote about the Arts on Prescription initiative in two articles for Art New England magazine. The Healing Power of Art, Art New England, March/April 2024. Transforming Health Through the Power of…

“Experimental Nature in Acrylics” by Paul Bailey Published by Batsford, 2023 182 pages / $34.95 In artist Paul Bailey’s recent book, “Experimental Nature in Painting,” he shares his strategies for anchoring experimentation in acrylic painting. As he elucidates in the introduction, his aim is not merely to depict “place” in the landscape but to capture “the temperature, the elements, the…

I art-journaled my way through a second cancer diagnosis and treatments back in 2017 which turned out to be a very meaningful endeavor. This month, Ratio Therapeutics, a radiopharmaceutical company based in Boston, MA will be hosting an exhibit of work by cancer survivors this month and my journal is included. For the past few years I’ve had the idea of writing about the experience and offering…

Up on the Roof

Heard these lyrics while painting this last night. Love when the act of artmaking provides the words and messages I most need. When this old world starts getting me downAnd people are just too much for me to faceI climb way up to the top of the stairsAnd all my cares just drift right into spaceOn the roof, it’s peaceful as can beAnd there the world below can’t bother meLet me tell you now When…

Trees and houses make frequent appearances in my artwork. I especially find doors and windows showing up when I least expect. I like to think of them as openings and welcomings. They’re comforting and one of the things I love most about artmaking.

I Heard It In the Wind Last Night

I heard it in the wind last nightIt sounded like applauseDid you get a round resounding for you Way up hereIt seems like many dim years agoSince I heard that face to faceThough tonight I can feel you here Painting inspired by a tree trunk on a recent walk and lyrics by Joni Mitchell, For the Roses.

Minutes after finishing this painting I was still feeling rather perplexed by it. What is it? Hours later, I still wondered what it had been doing floating around in my head. My hand. My brush strokes. Then as if someone had just selected a song on an old jukebox, the lyrics to David Bowie’s song, Space Oddity started to fill my head. I’ve got to admit, it’s a bit. And, a little…

When You Live Vicariously

A friend was house-sitting near a beach a few weeks ago. It was winter. (It still is.) I’d been in my house for days. If I’d been lucky, I’d been out for a grocery run or two. Or for a quick breeze through express browsing at the library where I could scoop up a few books in 15 minutes or less. My friend sent photos from walks on the beach. I was always in my enclosed porch with the heat…

When doing these digital paintings on my iPad in Procreate I often start with getting settled into my space and listening to music. For this piece, I had sought out a playlist on Spotify of Tuck and Patti’s music. I had re-discovered the duo about a week ago after hearing Eric in The Evening on WGBH play a track of theirs. I hadn’t listened to Tuck and Patti in probably at least ten years ago.…

Recently I’ve had two blog posts on Write Non-Fiction Now, a blog started by Nina Amir.  For me having the opportunity to write articles about non-fiction writing is an extra perk. As I’ve done with so many of the posts I’ve written over the years, I started out with an idea, followed the train of thought through research, and looked then for the information I thought other non-fiction writers…

Nathalie Kalbach’s artwork has appeared in the magazine, Cloth Paper Scissors, and on videos on Artist Network TV.  I’ve been a big fan, and have eagerly been awaiting her new book, Artful Adventures in Mixed Media that focuses on “techniques inspired by observation and experience.” I’ve been thinking about observation a lot lately—the ways in which I’m moved and in awe of cityscapes, the natural…

Instagram: Tips and Strategies to Get the Most Bang for Your Buck

Instagram, the online photo and video sharing and social network platform made its debut in 2010. Purchased by Facebook in April 2012—Instagram is perhaps every developers dream come true. Over the years the platform’s popularity has continued to grow exponetially with milestone additions such as hashtags, filters, profile pages for mobile and Web, expansion of languages, videos, sponsored photos…

Book Review | Besties

What I had hoped to find in Besties by Leah Reena Goren were more generic relatable examples of best friends and value of friendships and relationships across generations. The book is more millennial-based (and perhaps a little too specific in my opinion to Taylor (a girl) or Moses (a cat) then this book is dedicated to.) Every page of the book is illustrated, some more pleasing than others—and…

Book Review: Mindfulness: A Journal

Serendipitously I was dreaming-up something like this for a journal I’d want to keep and lo and behold here it is, in a book form: Mindfulness: A Journal by Catherine Price. I’ve wanted to return to journaling but was hesitant since I felt that if left to my own devices I’d use a journal as a dumping ground for negative thoughts or things I was hoping to sort out.  This book offers a mindfulness…

Book Review: Lessons in Classical Painting

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words. Cliche? Maybe. But even holding the cover of the book, Lessons in Classical Painting: Essential Techniques from Inside the Atelier by Juliette Aristides in your hands, the reader knows that the text they are about to embark upon is a very good stand-in for not studying in a studio and that by learning from a book, this book, they will take a very valuable…