Bye Bye Little Blog

This is my belated farewell to this blog.
Please do take a peek at my work on my Facebook page if you have a chance.

I adored having this place to share. I envision another sweet little place to journal online in the future.
For now, its creation time... If I'm quiet for a bit- it's because I'm painting up a storm.

Love + more LoVe,
Lizzie Mara

Summertime 2010 . . . . . . Art & Love

Summertime is my favorite. I almost like it as much as color, giggles, the sea, whispering, + you.


This summer flew by in a FLASH. My four-year-old, Julio, renamed himself Lightning Bolt and gave me the name Mommy Lightning Bolt. And it fits. We are all moving and changing so fast.

Summer 2010 delivered so many moments that added to my new work in such a powerful way... For the curious: new motifs in my allegorical work: wind (power + change), asphalt (paths), berries (blessings), circles (metaphors + signs + visions)...


This is how we spent our superspeedysummer2010............ traveling America!


Nebraska!

Iowa!

Minnesota!

Los Angeles, California!

Vail, Colorado!

South Dakota!

Wyoming!

Montana!

Seattle, Washington!




Bainbridge Island, Washington!

Friday Harbor, Washington!

Orcas  Island, Washington!

Portland, Oregon!

California!

Las Vegas, Nevada!

Amazing Utah!

Back to school in Colorful Colorado!

Join Me + my Swim Girls at Grand Salon!

15th + Wazee in LoDo- Denver, Colorado 

May 1st, 2010 6 pm - 9pm 

bubbly . bites .  treats


it's almost time.... my swim girls are ready for their opening party. but, am i? yes. yes, i am. that angst that was following me from show to show is gone today. bye bye, angst! i know my work is exactly what it is meant to be right now + i am brave + ready to share it!

here's the deal- yesterday i came home.
home.
i came home from one of the most bizarre + thoughtful moments of my life.
my husband and i went on a retreat. it was a several thousand dollar investment + a 4 day excursion into the depths of our souls. it was like having 2 years worth of therapy in 4 consecutive 13 hour days.
i had been searching for the answer to these questions over the last few years... who am i, who are you +, where is home?
after scouring my soul- these are my answers: I AM ME. you are YOU! MAGICAL WITH COLOR. BEAUTIFUL + CONFIDENT, INSPIRING + DESERVING. VULNERABLE + BRILLIANT. MY HOME IS ME + ALL THE PEOPLE + THINGS THAT FILL MY HEART WITH JOY. it's a treat to finally know.

i can't wait to share the "WHO ARE YOU" show with my audience this saturday, may 1st, 2010 at grand salon in denver. the timing is perfect. the stars of the show are my swim girls--- as i first found my "identity" as a swimmer. what is funny (to me) about this is that all the while i was a competitive swimmer- i really wished i was a synchronized swimmer! seriously. it's one of my unfulfilled dreams. anyway.... all those hours in the water became what i thought was my life, my identity. when i was injured, burnt-out, +, enticed by the cross-country running trails at age 16, i was torn. so torn between what i was + who i was about to become. 16 years old + having my 1st identity crisis. well.... here is an image that sums up what i was going through.... a little girl with a choice- and a platform to take a leap.

i found this image online..... i've been looking for vintage swim caps.... sigh. somethings never change. i like what i like. and i know what i like. and i want what i want. so there it is.
a little lizzie sidebar: don't you just LOVE the www?!!!!! dude, i found other people who are freaks for swim caps online. this universe + our technology is so freaking cool.

here is my favorite piece of this show.... (funny that it's one of the few pieces that does not have a swim girl!) this image is so fuzzy........ my amazing friend Paddy O. shot a still of it for me- so when i get that from her- i'll share it. k? there are some sweet details in it that might get missed with this iPhone shot.
anyway..............
it's called home. she's 30" x 30" mixed media on canvas. click that last link. do it. go ahead. just do it.

i started painting this darling in 2007. it was fall. it was called found. this is what it used to look like then. (see right)
i love it now that it's called home.......... funny how some things can take so long to figure out!


Ahh Home. Let me go home.
Home is wherever I'm with you.
Ahh Home. Let me go ho-oh-ome.
Home is wherever I'm with you.

La, la, la, la, take me home.
Daddy, I'm coming home.

~Edwarde Sharpe + the Magnetic Zeros



p.s. I hear the beach calling. My little wish is that you could come see my work on May 1st.

Art Art Art, I Want You

I share part of my brain with this one special friend. She is a HUGE part of who I am and she sent me this link today. It's GREAT. Click it. Really. It's just a quick little film about ART. And, Oh, the song.... thank you Tanya Davis for putting this piece out there. This line in the song by Andrea Dorfman, tugs at me: "My heart is trying hard to follow you, but I can't always tell if I ought to."

Above is a picture from "Spring Break"... Or what I like to call Spring Renewal. Renewal is my word of the day today. I plan to go to some tide pools to paint & meditate about this later today.... Renewal keeps coming up for me- and is a BIG part of the "Who Are You" show.
Here's one quick peek at me painting one of my favorite pieces from this series last week.... look at the look on Lu's face while she waits for me to help her with her homework. I think she's enjoying this "renewal" as much as I am. Except for one thing- I actually LOVE my work and bring it with me wherever I go.

This is an iphone shot of what that piece looked like on Friday.
 Can you see the sparkle in her eye?






I smell toast & sun screen. Funny. I wonder where the toast smell is coming from- is it in my mind?








Art Art Art, I Want You.
Yes, I dare.................................

Tomte Show Ends Friday!

Some of these pieces are still available at Tomte Modern Craft on Platt Street in Denver through this coming Friday. Pop in if you can!

XOXO-

Lizzie

Tomte. It's the Swedish word for gnome.

Having my art show in a shop named for a sweet creature of my childhood imaginary play was  sweetness indeed. Such sweetness, that one of my real live childhood friends walked through the doors & we had a mini-reunion right there at the opening. I wish I had a pic of the 2 of us to share.
Ah, love. That love that wraps you up when you reconnect with old friends is so energetic. Thank you, Becky, for coming to play! It's amazing how a simple visit can make your heart can feel like it will just burst with LOVE. AND- Thank you, Tomte, for hosting me and my works about energy & luck, juju & good magical vibes. Yum.

(Sidebar).... When I was little & spent my summers on Bainbridge Island in Washington, I spent hours searching for gnomes. I was so sure they were lucky & would trust me to be their friend. It seemed to me that they lived in this patch of blackberry, since the thorns would protect them from adults.... or in the Scotch Broom (Cytisus Scoparius). (Something in me is drawn to all things Scotch... hmmmmmmm.)
I loved the way you could hear the seed pods as they would pop open in the August sun- and
sometimes I would be sure those sounds were really gnomes- skip-hopping from one branch to another without my seeing them. I'm sure those hours spent in their realm are what gave me the juju I have today....

I'm behind in documenting this show- so I'll share pics when I have them. It's super colorful. This one
image is from "ribbon day". The pieces simply poured out of me this month. I love it when that happens.


As for juju- (that energetic idea that I had been painting my little heart out about) it somehow did not completely follow me to Tomte (for my very first First Friday opening of my life as an artist- incert sad face). Instead, on the night of the opening, I had the experience of such illness that can only be described as my body using it's very loudest yelling voice & give me the slow down & take care of me message. I've been getting one of those messages every year for a while. And good gravy, this March, 2010, it was a big old message. Luckily I made it through the opening on only what can be described as the bliss that an artist has- seeing your work suspended on a wall with nice bright lights shining on it can give you, & after that promptly made it to the ER (With the help of my wonderful friend and neighbor who happens to be an ER doc to boot. I got the hook up, friends. There's that juju!).  It was a mellow sickness when I look at the big picture. It all began one week after a sweet little fiber cleanse, I had an abscess in my left tonsil. And that my friends, as I should know from keeping Louise Hay's book- You Can Heal Your Life in my bedside drawer, is my body reminding me that I had something to say. Something big. Big and festering and OLD.
Ew. Seriously. Ew.

I'm not much of a girl for confrontation, but in this instance, my body was confronting ME. So I'm listening. Listening close. 12 days of being ill and 12 days of liquid... ending with a weekend at the ER and a lovely gong bath!!!!!! YUMMY (the later, clearly)!!!! OMG, gong baths are so my kinda thing. Gary Fishman and his healing stones and his transcending vibrations are powerful in the most amazing way. Are you with me? L.O.V.E. Thank you sweet T for inspiring me to go!

I feel light and free. AND, it gave me inspiration for my new series- opening at Grand in April. It's all about this question: "Who are you?"... really. Not just in the Alice in Wonderland way, (which I can barely contain myself to keep from dropping everything to go see.... thank you, Tim! ---for the distraction, the inspiration, the color, & of course the WONDER... sigh.) but also in the way of exploring yourself. Exploring your limits, your lifestyle, your passion, your love, your way... and then considering who each person we meet is. And asking, "Who are you?" & then wondering this: "Is it you?".

SO. The work I'm flushing out (I smile as I type that phrase: "flushing out")... is all about this (see image):

I stumbled upon these cupcakes while reading a fun blog online. They are made by Laurel Avenue Bakery... click that last link to venture to their Bake Lab & see the other artful goodies this darling bakery creates. It was just days after this question became my inspiration & on the day I volunteered to make a class art project in my daughter's 1st grade class all about the same yumminess (photo to follow). All this cupcake business makes me remember a sweet little short animated piece a special friend shared once. Don't you love how connected we all are? I do. It makes me feel whole.

My canvases for this next Who are You show are big big big. Like some are 5' x 5' big, Yo. So, I moved some of the studio back out of the laundry room to prime & sketch this morning. Instead of cooking up cupcakes & cookies in the kitchen today, I was busy cooking up these:

Someone is asking the Universe for a studio. Someone is in need. That someone's amazing Universe is working on a different list first, though. Someone has gratitude. Lots.
Merci.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this song (click her name to enjoy it): You Make Me Happy by Lindsey Ray. It makes my heart soar.
Here are the lyrics:

It's the heart on your sleeve never making me wonder
It's the bond that we tie up and over and under
You're the sun and the rain and my grass is always green
With a kiss on my cheek, always letting me know I'm the birds and the bees
I'm the apple in your eye
I know that you know that I know you're all I need

And just when I thought it couldn't get any better
There you go and do it all again
Hope this feeling never ends

'Cause you
You make me happy
You
You make me happy

It's the sound of your voice at the end of the phone line
A tickle in my toes just to know that you're all mine
Like an ice cream sundae with a cherry on the top
It's the look in your eyes when I'm wearing your t-shirt
Your cute little smile after a long day of hard work
And I know that you know that I can't give you up

And just when I thought it couldn't get any better
There you go and do it all again
Hope this feeling never ends

'Cause you
You make me happy
You
You make me happy

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better
There you go and do it all again
Hope this feeling never ends

You
You make me happy
You
You make me happy
You
You make me happy
You
You make me happy


Happy March.
~Lizzie

March 5th, 2010... a show about luck + energy, good vibes + magic

Come see my new show at Tomte Modern Craft.

Friday, March 5th, 6-9pm.