Alas I am a day late to get my blog post up because, well, yesterday I spent most of the day drawing and gazing out the studio windows and just thinking. All of a sudden as it drew near 5 p.m. I remembered that I had forgotten to do the blog post but by then it was too late. I had to jump in the shower and get dressed, get Molly out and settled, and then head out. Yesterday was my son-in-law Jeremy’s birthday and Rachel was making a very special dinner for him so I was going there to celebrate with them. By the time I got home at 9:30 it was just too late and I was too tired.
Sunday night I finished working on a very complex Maisie painting that I had been working on since the beginning of February. I had drawn the center of the painting fairly quickly and then it took a month to do the background which is very complex. And as I said last week I did a 3 step process with the painting of the background. I am very pleased with the outcome. I will not be sharing the whole picture here, that will be for Patrons on Patreon, but I will give you a sneak peak, a small portion of the picture, because this is what I am using as the banner for the top of my Patreon page. I get more excited about Patreon by the day. It is going to be a wonderful exciting venture. The name of my Patreon project is “Creating Maisie’s World.” As I said last week it will be about the creation of the art, my process, previews of the art only available on Patreon, podcasts 5 mornings a week, group video meetings, and more. It will be not just about the creation of the art but the journey to create and publish the book and the growing of Maisie’s World into a series of books and more. It will also be, as I said last week, about coming to this work in my 60’s and how we all may find our heart’s work no matter our age or limitations, perceived or real. Here then is my Patreon banner…
Maisie’s message to the world…
Yesterday, then, I started work on a new drawing that is coming from a small sketch I did in my sketchbook. I have been doing nearly daily drawings in my sketchbook to keep Maisie very alive in my life but also to get ideas for the next paintings I will do. I was especially fond of this one. When an idea in the sketchbook comes alive on the page because the message is important and belongs in the book I will expand it as I am with this one. The title of the sketch is: “They Didn’t Know What It Was But They Decided To Keep It.” Maisie’s message to us all is that we must accept and love everyone even if they don’t look like us. No matter what size, shape, color, or where they are from, the only thing that matters is that we meet them with an open heart full of love. And a little secret! The tiny alien being is a little girl named Lola and will become Daisy’s new best friend. Oh and there is so much more… 😀
Amazing changes are happening in my life. I wake up each day excited to see what the day will bring. I am living in an almost constant state of awe and wonder. The weather is beyond beautiful, it already feels like spring but we still may get a late frost so I am not trimming back the perennials for a few weeks. I am making plans to expand my cottage garden and it is all so exciting. Maisie is so alive in me, her world expanding in a thousand directions, so that I have to work hard to stay very focused on the task at hand. I see this first book as the introduction to Maisie, Daisy and their world, and all the little animals and creatures who have found a home with them, and subsequent books will be about specific subject matters related to Maisie and her relationship with the individual characters. One idea, perhaps the book that will follow the first book, may be Wanda’s story, the Rainbow Ex-Showgirl Snail who happens to also be transgender, and elderly. Through this book I will explore, through Maisie, issues about transgender, accepting people’s differences, and Wanda’s aging and dying. Aging, dying, being different in whatever way that might be, and most important of all love, love through it all, love infusing everything. This is loosely how I see the next book after the first and how I will handle the other characters. With a house full of assorted beings who have become family members, Petunia the mentally challenged flamingo, Trudy Louise the orphaned kitten, and more, there are stories to tell, oh there are so many stories.
For now I am working on the art for the book and the creation of my Patreon community, daily life here with Molly and my other animal companions, and the garden’s development. There is so much coming and I am just over the moon excited about it all.
I hope this post finds you well dear friends. I am so excited to share the work as it develops with you on Patreon, and some bits here on the blog, and especially excited about the 10 minute podcasts each morning, just to talk to you, share my thoughts and my life, and encourage you to follow your dreams. It is time for us all my loves, and oh what a world is possible for all of us.
Until next week take care dear ones. I’ll see you again soon!
what wondrous happenings. wow! i love the idea about future books starring the different wee creatures Maisie has adopted! you have your work cut out for you!
I’m eager to see how the Patreon Page develops and hope you get lots of sign-ups, dearheart. You have earned a devoted following.
Looking out MY study window, camellias galore, sunshine, and lots of weeds waiting for me to proliferate. Oh well! Nature is fecund.
xoxo
ka
Ah Dear Ka, wondrous happenings indeed. And while yes, I do have visions of the work to come I am in no way wanting or needing to rush any of it. It is the work I will do for the rest of my life, however long that might be, and I look forward to it all unfolding, and blossoming in its own good time, but yes, exciting too!
I believe in the Patreon model and I believe in my work, I am looking forward to beginning the journey but that, too, is a slow process. I work on it each day a little.
And ah, yes, the weeds! They are surely there. Everyday when I am out back with Molly I pull weeds as she ambles around, and I go out front to get the mail or whatever and I pull weeds then. It is just a constant always happening part of gardening. I don’t, as I know you don’t, use poisons or anything to control them, but I’ve come to see it as a pleasurable activity and simply part of the whole. Some people get crazy over weeds and just spray spray spray which of course I find a horror. I have concentrated on planting a pollinator garden, my joy is not just the flowers but the birds, bees, other insects, tiny frogs, and other visitors. I can’t imagine spraying!
Nature is fecund indeed, and so are we dear one… 🙂
M. xoxox
So happy for you, Maitri. I will join your Patreon site because I trust your talent and your instinct. No matter what, I am d’accord with you. Hugs, Memarge.
Oh thank you Marge honey, you are so dear. Please pray for me that it goes well! I believe it was meant to be! 🙂