I Wonder Why You Clap but Not Comment on Medium

I’m almost done with Medium. I’m disgusted. The other day, I posted that it was my birthday. That post got 18 claps. Really? You supposedly read my post, clapped, but didn’t even have the courtesy to wish me a happy … Continue reading

What Do You Do if Someone Steals Your Art?

A fellow artist asked me: You’ve sent a company your images to see if they’d like to carry your line on their products. How do you know they won’t steal your artwork and put it on their products and sell … Continue reading

“Where Do You Get Your Ideas?”

Have you ever wondered where an artist gets ideas from? I’m asked all the time where my designs, illustrations, paintings and sculpture come from. Well, here’s your answer! The simple answer would be, The Dream World. The more complex answer … Continue reading

SILLY KITTY

Kitty comes from the planet Amberocity. They have the most amazing spiral deserts that intersect with ferocious thick carnivorish jungles. My neighbor’s cat, Kitty, is from that planet. She came here because she was scared of the jungle. And she … Continue reading

Teachers: Make Money Selling Your Lessons

Here’s something that surprised me recently – did you know you can sell your lesson plans? You can! And people pay dearly for them! You can also sell your worksheets, class exercises, reading guides, and other helpful educational resources! ARE … Continue reading

What’s Your Destiny? Mine Is Scary.

I’m assuming that I’m going to live to be 100. So I’ve been thinking about what I want to see happen in my life in my last 22 years. On the one hand, most of me just wants to disappear … Continue reading

Got A Recipe for Eating Crow?

Is it better to just let things go? Or risk being criticized or countered or even cancelled, because of making a mistake? In a post I read on medium the other day, the writer said something I thought was incorrect. … Continue reading

Does Your Partner Have the Right to Strike You?

No. Not Ever. I could feel my body start to contract into itself, shrinking, freezing. My head fell, my chin pressing against my chest. I vaguely noticed my feet press down and anchor themselves to the floor. I wondered if … Continue reading

Our Disconnect from the Cycles of Life

We allow little mundane BS things to distract and steal our attention away from what’s important: being with and cherishing the ones we love most, caring for those who need and want our love, attention, and affection. Lately I see … Continue reading

Freezing to Death for 3000 Miles On the Back of a BMW Motorcycle

Semi trucks started edging us sideways, pushing into our lane, trying to run us off the road. Gas stations and roadside restaurants saw us coming, switched their ‘open’ signs to ‘closed’ in their windows and front doors. 1966. I was … Continue reading

How Could You Possibly Forget that Trauma?

In sessions with my clients, I’ve heard them say, “I didn’t even remember that until today! It’s been years since it happened!” I’ve experienced that same forgetting, myself: I was raped several times between the ages of 13 and 19 … Continue reading

HELPING LITTLE TINA STOP HER TANTRUMS

My friend Rachel had two grand-daughters, aged 2 and 4. The two-year-old, Tina, was prone to throwing some mean tantrums. Rachel was concentrating on finishing up a 3-year back-to-college program, and found it difficult to deal with the kids’ high … Continue reading

JAM the LOW FREQUENCIES with the HIGHEST LOVE

How we can drum in a new era of joy, peace, beauty, and love. I guess I’m still an old hippie at heart. I look at what’s going down in the world right now, and remember the 60s, and how … Continue reading

TAKE BACK YOUR POWER!

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick to death of people telling me what I ‘should’ buy or ‘should’ do. Use the Law of Attraction! Do this technique! You should eat green! You should stop eating sugar! Use this … Continue reading

YOU’RE AN AUTHOR. OR NOT.

You wouldn’t have gotten the idea to do what you do, and then the idea to share it with others, and you wouldn’t have been asked to write a book if no one cared, if the Universe hadn’t conspired to … Continue reading

WHY WOMEN ARTISTS FAIL(ed)

I had deeply internalized all those negative, destructive messages and made them into my own beliefs that >I< was a failure, that >I< was the one to blame, and that >I< would ‘never make it’ – I attended an intense … Continue reading

DON’T LET LIFE BLOCK YOU  -  EVEN HURRICANES

On a dark mid-November day in 1982, the boisterous, heavy-breathing Hurricane Iwa* swept in and wreaked havoc upon the island of Kauai, in Hawaii. (*pronounced EE-vah) I was a studio potter and stone caver. My kids and I lived in … Continue reading

THE REAL POWER

Last night, I happened upon a new show on Amazon prime called The Power. In it, young girls are discovering they have a new, odd sensation in their bodies — little courses of electricity that travel down their arms and make zippy … Continue reading

SUCH A BAD DRIVER!

After I left Italy, I went back to Hawaii, living there for about a year. More on that later. I then moved near San Francisco for a few months, until my friend Melissa invited me to come to New Mexico, … Continue reading

STONE CARVER, Part 6

Our first day! On a hot day in June, 1989, our carving group, comprised of five students all from the US, stood poised before the hunks of stone we’d selected, waiting for us on our sturdy, well-worn, waist-high carving tables. … Continue reading

STONE CARVER, Part V

Just by looking at people’s feet, I could always pretty much dependably tell who was American and who was European (or other nationality) before I even met them. Whereas we bumpkin Yanks almost always wore some brand of tennis shoes, … Continue reading

STONE CARVER, Part IV

Upon buying my tickets to go carve marble in Italy, I also bought a language system called Sybervision so I could study Italian. It was the easiest language system I’ve ever used. By the time I landed in Rome, I … Continue reading

STONE CARVER, Part III

I loved hanging out with the master carvers. They were there from before-god-gets-up early until 5pm, when they promptly took off their newspaper hats and scuttled home. They were incredibly skilled, and so fast! They spent most of their time … Continue reading

STONE CARVER, Part II

The Quarry In 1989, I was thrilled to be invited to go carve marble in a weeks-long workshop in Lucca, Italy, under the instruction of a bona fide marble-carving maestro, Professore Roberto Bertola. I was excited because up until that … Continue reading

UNDER THE ORDERLY NIGHT SKIES

We finally got to Huntington Beach, and stayed with T’s mom for a couple weeks. After our snowy misery back east, the good weather seemed just this side of paradise. T got to bliss out surfing every day, while I … Continue reading

SEND LOVE, NO MATTER WHAT

This was a hard lesson for me. I grew up in a family that loved to sit around after dinner and make fun of, criticize and totally shred politicians, celebrities and other people in the news. It became second nature … Continue reading

RAMEN YOGA

When I first moved to Hawaii in 1966, I was introduced to a local oriental dish called Saimin. It was a rich chickeny or maybe fishy broth, with thin slices of roast pork, chopped green onions, long, skinny, squiggly, tangled … Continue reading