Monday, May 26, 2008

Daily Art- Ego Death



‘Ego Death’
18″ x 24″
oils
sides painted black no frame needed

To see more/or to buy this work Click HERE

***
As I search for meaning in my humble life I have fallen into several pits that threaten to trap me in a tar like form of living.
The biggest Beast by far is my own Ego.
Meditation on the subject of how to have
Less Suffering and Torment
in my everyday living has led me to come to understand the important role that Ego plays in the discomfort of living at 100%.
If I am truly giving 100+% to my life and work, then I must learn to push aside the Ego.
Creating room inside my soul for the beauty of success and failure.
I must create a space where judgement and fear do not live. I must make room for my true self; make room for the lightness of being.
That is what this work is about.
Making room for the beauty of living a whole life with a whole heart.
This is a work of manifestation; of the life I am leading and the life I am leaving behind.
Here is the quote that inspired the work,
***
“If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It’s very important to be aware of them every time they come up.”
~Deepak Chopra
***
This work is done in five colors: Ivory black, french ultramarine, titanium white, Payne’s gray and brilliant turquoise. I look forward to releasing this emotion and lesson into the world.
Live Bold and Free today.
***
Honor those who fought and died for that freedom.
Thank you to my (best Grampa in the world) Grandfather for fighting in World War 2, and then again in Korea. Thank you to all the Vet’s from Vietnam.
Thank you to all the Vet’s from the First Gulf War.
Thank you to all our fighting Men and Woman
Struggling to stay alive in the war we are not having right now, may each of you come home safe to your loved ones soon. Thank you for your commitment still today.
Thank you for my freedom to say and pray as I see fit.
Thank you for your service. I hope every person takes a moment in their day today to think and remember our fallen Heroes and Heroins.
Thank you, from one American to another, one Human to another,
I humbly say Thank you.

With A Whole Heart,

Heather
www.badkittyartstudio.com

Friday, May 23, 2008

Daily Art- Surrender from the choir series

surrender close up

Close up Surrender
Close up
Sorry for the small thumbnails! Please click on images to enlarge them!
‘Surrender’ From the choir series #8
24″ X 36″
oils
ready to hang, needs no frame
Gallery wrapped/back stapled
***
Here are the two quotes for this work.
(it’s a big work, it needed more words before
it would shape up and fly right):
***
Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us.
Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.
Henri Frederic Amiel (1821 - 1881)
***
Everything is on its way to becoming something else, and therefore, nothing can be held onto. If you see this clearly, if you consider and examine this deeply and fully, then letting go is the only thing left to do. How can you hold on? What is there to hold onto? So the art of spiritual surrender is really the art of not knowing. Then it doesn’t make any difference at all whether you are walking down the street or eating lunch or responding to your email or making love or sitting alone on your couch. This is the first and last time you will ever be doing this. If you truly understand that, it changes everything.

***
Good Friday all!
I have been so crazy busy this last week. I do have a new work that is coming along. I hope to finish it this loooong weekend, so maybe I can show it to you all by early next week. It’s supposed to be nice weather here in the Bluegrass, so we will be gardening, playing with the kids, and taking siestas on the back porch.
I hope everyone has a great Holiday weekend, be safe!
Heather
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If not mine then I know some really talented, amazing artists, they are over in my blogroll…to the right…check them out
and see what stirs your soul today.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

This is my 965th post! Daily Art- Dreaming Summer

“Dreaming Summer” by Heather Brown Truman
Full painting
“Dreaming Summer” by Heather Brown Truman
Close up
“Dreaming Summer” by Heather Brown Truman
Close up
“Dreaming Summer” by Heather Brown Truman
Close up
“Dreaming Summer” by Heather Brown Truman

“Dreaming Summer” from the Choir Series #10

18″ x 24″

Original Oil Painting

Finished Sides, ready to hang

To see more/Buy this Art Work Click Here

International buyers are always welcome, please email me HERE for a free shipping quote to anywhere in the world.

***

Here is the quote that helped the work along:

I paint not by sight but by faith. Faith gives you sight.

~Amos Ferguson

***

This work took some time to tell me when she was ready to be finished. Small details is all she asked for and that’s what I gave her. The textures in the background and the green foreground are subtle, but vital to the energy of the work. Her wings are stilling themselves from her flight so are slightly blurred. Her gown brings the fiery reds and deep oranges of the “anything is possible” of an Indian Summer. She smells of fresh cut grass, sunshine on the lavender fields and the earthy dust of opportunity.

She reminds me that this is not the time to trap myself within virtue. I do not need to be caught on the treadmill of doing what is “right”, I must release my expectations of what I am learning, and allow the growth to happen. Transition isn’t supposed to feel good, or none of us would ever make it through it at all. I am what I am, I am doing what I need to be doing, and the Universe will provide the necessary synchronicities to happen as I continue my act of spiritual faith in myself and the greater power of the Original Creator, faith that I can channel that creative energy, faith that I can use it for good in my life and in every life I may touch, or know; faith in the love for every living thing. I accept what I am asking for, I will work hard, remain true to myself and look no gift horse in the mouth.

So be it.

May your day be filed with turquoise possibilities and golden opportunities.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Daily Art- New Work- City Lights

Oil painting by Heather BRown Truman

Full Painting

By Heather Brown Truman

Detail (click to enlarge)

by Heather Brown Truman

Detail

oil painting by Heather Brown Truman

Detail (click to enlarge)

oil painting by Heather Brown Truman

‘City Lights’

18″x 24″

Oils

Ready to hang, needs no frame, finished sides

$185.00 + 25.00 Shipping anywhere inside the USA

To Purchase This Art Work Click Here

International buyers, please contact me HERE for a free shipping quote to anywhere in the world.

***

Here is the quote that goes with the work:

“This is the fairest picture on our planet, the most enchanting to look upon, the most satisfying to the eye and spirit. To see the sun sink down, drowned in his pink and purple and golden floods, and overwhelm Florence with tides of color that make all the sharp lines dim and faint and turn the solid city to a city of dreams, is a sight to stir the coldest nature, and make a sympathetic one drunk with ecstasy.”


Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
***
City Lights was inspired by the car and brake lights on a wet rainy night, driving through downtown Portland. everything was hazy and bright and dripping. The sunset was amazing in all the low clouds and smog, turning everything into flashes of weird other world colors. Neon running down in an alien world. And everyone was rushing, trying to run between rain that drizzles in blowing sheets and then pours like a monsoon once an hour. Darkness that turns life like in splatters of reflective color. Crossing the bridges into the suburbs of our home I looked back and saw the outline of the buildings retreating, melting into the blanket of speckled night.

I hope you enjoy, it’s my first ever city scene. Now I do city scape’s too! *Grins* It’s all about doing something I’ve never done before right now. I am in another experimental phase…I might even try to paint a horse, just in time for the Derby.
***
Update** This Did not/Has Not happened as of yet!! *double snap* I can’t seem to do what I ought to do ever. KY people have been asking me for more than a year to paint horses, or if not that then they ask, if I paint horses. I just can’t seem to do it, send help, I think it’s a disease. I seem to have a deadly case of “don’t tell me what I ought to do”
What the heck, I guess I’ve lived with it this far, forget the help, just send money. :)

Have a wonderful day all. Happy Wednesday.
Heather
Support living artists
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PS! I Sold another Fairy World the other day, Patience is now gone to live in her new home! Yippeee!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Daily art- Thrive from the Choir Series

“thrive” by Heather Brown Truman

Full Painting

“thrive” by Heather Brown Truman

“thrive” by Heather Brown Truman

“thrive” by Heather Brown Truman

“thrive” by Heather Brown Truman

Click on images to enlarge

“Thrive” from the Choir Series #12

24″ x 36″

oils

Back Stapled/ready to hang with finished sides

$285.00 + 45.00 (shipping is expensive on this painting because it’s over-sized to ship, this is large wall art) Shipping to anywhere inside the USA

To Purchase this work Click HERE

***

Here are the quotes that inspired the work:

THRIVE:

“In a perfect world perhaps we would all see more clearly. But this is not a perfect world, and it is enough to hope that each of us will share our talents, and find the balance between greed and benevolence that will allow us to live and thrive and help the world around us grow.”

~Kent Nerburn Source: Letters to My Son: A Father’s Wisdom on Manhood, Life, and Love, Page: 40

Survive:

Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. . . . The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.


Frank Herbert (1920 - 1986)
Source: Dune

***

Survival. Thriving.
That’s what we all really want, right?
In this life, this reality, it’s about more than just surviving. We all want to survive, but then to Thrive as well. Free people are given to bouts of wanting to be all they can be. We all want a reason to keep doing what we do. We work to survive, and if are lucky we get to even like or love what we do that makes this thing called money. I know I do. I enjoy my work. It’s like therapy that I get paid to do. When I make sales that is…we have a joke round here, we don’t call art money Income, we call it If-come.
This work is about working out the logistics of a life that is bigger than I am. In a world that is bigger than I am. With problems that are bigger than I am. In finding the ways to feed and keep my family surviving, and the hope alive (for ourselves and our kids) that someday that will include thriving in a money way too.
I think we are thriving, as a family. We love being together, I mean it sucks ass that Mate Man lost his job and we are freaking out about every little thing all the time. (*news update, Mate Man did NOT get the Job we were hoping he would, and we are still looking*)
Truth be told, we are better when we are altogether, not because of co-dependency but because of faith and trust. I can count on him, the same goes for him. No matter what, I can count on him. It’s a nice feeling. It’s what reminds me that I am already doing more than just surviving this world, so are my kids, we are all thriving, because we found and make love happen. Because this family unit, the place where you can always go, and everyone is glad you are there. Where you can royally screw the pooch, and people will still love you through it all. That’s a miracle for people like us, people who came from what we came from. Real, Lasting, true Love in our lives is more than what we ever asked for, for many years more than either of us thought we deserved…the rest of this reality is logistics.
When I told Mate Man that I wanted to stop being a popular garden designer and become a full time artist, you know what he said? That sounds good babe, how do we make that happen for you? Never was there ever even a hint that it would not be possible for me to do what I wanted/needed to do. That’s love. When he said he wanted/needed to get out of Portland, that he wanted to try and find a simpler life, that he really just wants to be a organic farmer, and be at home when his kids come through the door, and feed us from his own hard work, that he had found (farming) and lost his passion (our farm), that he hated working in the professional world, that he hates compromising himself and his values for the sake of money…there was never any hesitation from me to him about that…it was OK babe, I understand your need, how can we make that happen? We are still working on that for him, for his dream to come true, but it will, because we are tough to beat as a team, we are unstoppable. (*news update, we have gone ahead with dream building and have started an Urban Organic garden, the lesson here was: bloom where you are planted! Mate man is happier with his garden well under way and we have even harvested three times from the salad greens beds!)
We have cultured a life where, Unconditional Love and support for the people we are in the moment and the next moment and the next, is always available. That’s what this work is about. No, we have never had it made, or had it easy, but we have always thrived together. We have always survived (sometimes better than others for sure but we are still standing so that counts for something).
I find I can still thrive in/under such conditions.
It’s nice.
I am no longer so small.
The world no longer so large.
I am still small,
the world still large.
I still Thrive.
What makes you thrive?
When the world is looming, when the pressure is on, when the thumb screws are been turned, what makes you go beyond mere survival and thrive?
Here’s to the thriving,
Heather
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PS. What’s that? You can’t afford my works right now in your life? I do offer no interest Art-Lay-A-Way, you CAN afford my work. And if you take a look around I’m one of the very, very few self representing artists that offer such a service. (Actually I’m the only one I know of) Check it out, now everyone can afford original fine art!

Friday, May 16, 2008

Daily Art- New Work - Her Story

“Her Story”

24″ x 30″

Oils/Oil paint pens


Here is the Quote that goes

with this work:

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through
experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened,
ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
~Helen Keller
***
This work has been in progress for more than a year, finished
on 5/16/08.
***

Her Story
: Well it’s all of our stories isn’t it? Our personal travels,
experiences, lessons, baggage some say. I say it’s my story and it only can
run
and or ruin my life if I give it power too. I have a story, just as you do. My
story has heroes, risks, lessons, devils, dragons, mountains and roads.

It’s mine.
It maybe the only thing I get to take with me as they say, my story.
I leave it open, I leave a ace of spades for a bookmark; my Moments, are
now
, the desire is not to shed my past, but to incorporate it into the whole
picture.

I get to write the ending though.
I get to write the ending.

I am what I am because of every single thought, experience, choice made,
choices not made, love had, love lost. I am what I am because of my story.

I have no shame.
We have all suffered, it’s the suffering I feared.

I no longer Fear.
The opposite of Fear is not Courage,
It is Love.

Living in the moment,

I can accept every line on my aging
face as testament to the many thousand
battlefields, and miles over come
to be here today.
As I am.

We all have a story.
We all have a terminal illness.
It’s called Birth.
I’m living like it’s my last ten seconds.

Balls to the Wall.
Strap it on.
All out.
Full steam ahead.

A good friend recently commented that my work
made her think that I was a person that did what she wanted to do,
regardless, and screamed at people to “Be Happy!”

[with my work, not literally]
.
I think she is right,

I am doing those things,
and I would add only one thing,
to hone not to destroy her sentiment,
“Be Happy Right
Here & Now!”
For it’s all we may have in the end; living without regrets,
don’t miss it.
I don’t want to dismiss, I want to embrace.
I want personal freedom.

I release my resistance.

This is my Story.
Well, One of them.

Where is your story taking you?
***
Thank you for reading, have a great day.
Heather

To purchase this work:

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com/herstory.html

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Daily Art- New Work- Behold! Modern Man

Mixed Media by Heather BRown Truman

mixed media by Herather Brown Truman

Behold! Modern Man

24″ x 60″ (including the tail)
Canvas itself is 24″ x 30″
Finished sides, needs no frame
oils, mixed media (lots & lots)

Behold! Modern Man is a multi-mixed media event.
A work of art it is, but it is also an event unto itself.
It’s a work that you must see in person, you need to touch it, you need to
see the shadow the kite tail makes against your wall, you need to see how
the prayer flags move in the slightest stirring of air currents, you need to
know what they have written upon their frail surfaces.

Honestly I have found things that over the weeks as I have worked this
message in a bottle out of my head, that I don’t remember putting in.
It all done in, flash moments, work came together.

I found the vintage toy paper flag at a tag sale years ago.
Folded and mostly intact.
Aged, used, saved and loved.

The vintage, real not copies, ration stamps from the world war years came
next, they too had been saved, stored, kept and horded; themselves still a
symbol of some faceless person, of their fear for and love of those in their
care.

The clay project rejects came out of a box a few weeks back, I remember
when I was packing them, why are you taking up limited room for rejects?
Because I am a lover of rejected things. Simple.
Now their use is clear, of course they were headed to the bluegrass in a
brown cardboard box; their truths to be told here in this event. Proud they
are not the side show; the freak tent; they are sculptures of symbolic
meaning, sacred totems, not rejects, no not at all.

Toys, I love small plastic or otherwise toys.
Pocket stuff.
I collect it every where I go.
Mementos of lives lived.

****
To Read more about the work, and see more pictures of this work including lots of close ups, then CLICK HERE.

Have a great day!

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

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