Love by Assata Shakur

My art and me in the group exhibit, Pen & Ink, at Mainframe Studios. Unseen Playmate Tulips Unseen Playmate was started from the “bubbles” prompt of a previous Inktober and includes a few lines of the Robert Louis Stevenson poem of the same name. #ink #art #BlueSkyArt #artyear #Inktober #poetry

#mustache A day late with the first prompt of #Inktober When I asked my partner about who had a great mustache he instantly said “Paul von Hindenburg!” I have no idea who this man is, but it is a great mustache. And he needed horns because he’s taking himself far too seriously.

Kitchen 12”x 12” acrylics, gouache, collage, eggshells, regret The kitchen is a heavy place for a woman, well, this woman. Taught traditional gender roles, I spent a large part of my first 40 years trying to perfect kitchen work. Then I freed myself from it all, but the years were already spent.

Details from Lineage, which includes intaglio prints of my aunt and grandmothers’ handwriting (see previous post for full artwork) The red and black ink intentionally bleeds onto the white fabric. #Januarty #red #womenshistories #feministart #assemblage #intaglio #linoprint #textileart #sciart

Camping sketch By the time I took the photo most of the tents had been packed away. Camping is a complex experience, not as restful as the bed at home but crickets and cicadas provide white noise, a screech owl, cooling night air, waking with the sunrise. It’s a good thing to do now and then.

Sun and Shell gouache on vintage book page Completed artwork! Sometimes it’s done faster if I pretend I’m just farting around, it’s not serious art. But when it’s done it’s serious art. #natureart #painting #sun #shell #beach #BlueSkyArt #artyear

Shell sketch in progress. Gouache on vintage book page about the sun. I miss the beach, already feel my vitamin D levels depleting. #natureart #shell #sun #autumn #sketchdaily #gouache #painting

Käthe Kollwitz, Mother with two Children, 1932-1936, sculpture #WomensArt

Headstones in Leon, Iowa. Cemeteries are a beautiful blend of art, nature and humanity. #Cemtember #gravestones #cemetery #headstones #funeraryart #stonecarving

Sarah Ross-Thompson, fine art printmaker based on the West Coast of Scotland #ReframingWomenPrintmakers

“The pages here are moments. They come and dissolve. Never take them too seriously. Much like the states of strangers.” #sketchdaily #landscape #art

𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱 .

Redwoods #wip Acrylics on canvas Very excited for this one! Starting a new work before the previous is complete helps with all the feelings - is it complete, I’ve enjoyed it I don’t want to stop, I could add something else, how will others see it, will it be accepted…

Dying things in the garden Sharpie sketch I got used to not watering this summer, we had so much rain. Now it’s gotten abnormally hot for September and the garden is dying from heat. Poor neglected tomatoes. #sketch #garden #BlueSkyArt #tomatoes #Autumn

Painted for a few hours on the big one yesterday. Don’t know if anyone but me can see where all that time goes, into the details. (And next to impossible to accurately capture in a photo.) #painting #landscape #magicalrealism #BlueSkyArt #nature

Good things I saw today. #Cemetery #spider #bench #caterpillar #Cemtember #photography #nature

Today is the 40th anniversary of the death of Ana Mendieta. www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

Is this how you know it’s good? When even the detail pics are gorgeous? Work in progress. Thinking about names… The working name has been “bench”. Earlier today I thought of “Arrivals/Departures” a play on the airport phrase.

Detail of current work in progress, which is difficult to photograph. The colors of dusk are ethereal, which draws me to paint them. But photos of the real thing don’t capture it well. Then it makes sense that a painting of dusk wouldn’t be captured well either.

Bear Creek, watercolor That was the first part of the day. The story of yesterday is really about Falcon Springs. A nice 1 mile hike to a naturally occurring spring. That was the plan.

Morning in Iowa 9/1/25 #sunrise #agriculture #Iowa #midwest #corn #sky #clouds #BlueSky #photography

Andrew Wyeth, Perpetual Care, 1961

Concept sketch Morning often brings visual concepts, without words, informal. As if my subconscious is still trying to communicate while awake. There is a concept, but when I put it on paper, there are holes in the mental picture.

Seeing and Seen #BlueSkyArtShow #shiny #rainbow #pride #eye #lgbtia #sculpture

Stills of the video I posted earlier because it seems to be invisible. As an artist and therapist I’m seeing more harm than good coming from artificial intelligence. Even the ways we ask it to help us can corrupt the results we think we’re getting. Find a safe human to get support and wisdom from.

Sunflowers 🌻 Loess Hills, Iowa.

August Kimballton, Iowa #oldhouse #abandoned #rural #photography #artinspo #blackandwhite #art

Skyward view

Rutted Roads stuck path stuck brain stuck thoughts pattern pattern pattern **+#%€&!** NeW pAtTeRn OrIgInAl ThOuGhTs BiRtH nEuRoNs DiScOvEr #BluSkyArtShow #skyline #nature #art #poetry #create #photo #photography #road #inarut #brain #neurons #grow #new #discover #bebrave #fearisthemindkiller

Georgia O'Keeffe, Evening ,1916, watercolour painting #WomensArt

Imagine how we thrive Doodling with watercolors, crayons and calligraphy pen.

Colorado 9”x 12” mixed media collage I started this while waiting for food in a restaurant, using a patterned paper bag. Then the food came and I tucked it into my bag. As the day went on we did and saw other things.

Watching to see what Monday will bring. #nature #photography #fawn #deer #forest #trees

The Flaming Lips give me hope - creativity that lifts and loves 💕 The Armory, MN 8/15/25 #creativity #hope #music #concert #minneapolis #theflaminglips #waynecoyne #color #magic #livemusic

The doorway to the future is through a bakery, and this guy is on the back of the door, telling you to go through it. “Even if there are difficult moments out there, baked goods are available.” The Bakery At the End of the Universe.

While in Mineral Point, WI, I found these awesome fluorescent colored pencils at Mayday Press! Came home and used them on this vintage ephemera. Anyone recognize the children’s book it came from? They also had a pencil that was an eraser, where the lead usually is, so you can erase more precisely!

Serendipity of taking a photo of flowers when a sky panda #bee comes along. This flower is remarkable, grown from a tiny seed, it started with a single blossom. It now has 14 of these bright encouraging blooms! #flower #photography #nature

It was a dark and stormy night! These were all taken this evening, as my partner and I traveled through Wisconsin and Iowa. Thinking of those in the Milwaukee area coping with flooding.

Dinner sketch Playing with forced perspective, then the way I took the photo forced it even more! #sketch #ink #dinner #glasses #wine #perspective #art #BlueSkyArt

Cloudy sky 4”x 8” #watercolor

Good morning #morning #photography #art #travel #lights #calm

The stories we tell matter. I know this not from watching but from memory. I was just a child, held behind barbed wire in a U.S. internment camp, when an atomic bomb obliterated Hiroshima—killing members of my family.

Imagine how we thrive Doodling with watercolors, crayons and calligraphy pen.

My Dia de los Muertos sculpture. Mixed media. The skull is made from wild ceramic clay harvested from my backyard fired to Cone 06. Painted designs made with acryllics. The flower is poly clay. The stem and leaves are copper wire. #ceramics #pottery #mixedmedia #polyclay #wildclay #diadelosmuertos

Tomatoes 9”x 12” watercolor Thinking about the style of Egon Schiele while painting, the textured lanky-ness of his works. Sometimes wrestling with a piece is better than starting over, regardless of the final product. Sketches are for learning, it’s a bonus if the final product is appealing.

Ozzy RIP Ink on paper It’s fascinating to me, who Ozzy was. An artist, an abuser, a loving person, an addict, a survivor. Very rarely are addicts and abusers given the opportunity to show seemingly opposing parts of their personalities to the public.

Connection 9”x12” Colored pencils on paper Sketch for a large painting Yesterday, ironically, on the anniversary of the Iowa six week abortion ban, I had my ovaries and fallopian tubes removed. All went well, I’m home and resting. Feeling the privilege of insurance, days off, bodily autonomy.

Iowa thunderhead cloud The last few weeks have been intensely stormy, with gorgeously huge clouds like this. Thankfully, few tornados, although some flooding and heat advisories. #midwest #weather #storm #clouds #BlueSky

Stills of the video I posted earlier because it seems to be invisible. As an artist and therapist I’m seeing more harm than good coming from artificial intelligence. Even the ways we ask it to help us can corrupt the results we think we’re getting. Find a safe human to get support and wisdom from.