This Holiday Season is most assuredly a time for reflection. 2020, the year of  pandemic and isolation, has nonetheless been a productive year for me: in mid-June, I embarked on a 6-month self-challenge to create a small drawing everyday.

While not a huge stretch for many artists, I felt a need to refocus, prioritize production and commit to solidifying my artistic voice. These past months have given me much more than I could've anticipated: not only a body of work, several series and numerous springboards for future projects, but a deep sense of confidence and insight.

I've selected a few pieces from this journey, and look forward to sharing additional selections as this collection grows (279 and counting!).

Sending out prayers of love and health to you, and my fervent wish for a creative and healthy 2021.

"Up From the Depths"

"Flying"

"Watching and Waiting"

"Tree Dancer"

"Ancestors"

"United- Our Fingers Crossed"

Starfield

This Moment

3AM anxieties give way to morning sunshine 

and the plaintive mewing of my feline companions.

Friday has dawned amid

challenges,

frustration, 

and fear

Yet,

I am suffused by a touch of grace:

hot soup for breakfast,

a window sill of sprouting lettuce leaves straining toward the light,

and my love, softly snoring in the next room.

I am fueled by and filled with 

Gratitude.

-SRasfeld

050120

Artwork for challenging times.....

Sending out a wish of hope, calm and health to all.

Simple Pleasures (collage card) - March 2020

Where In The World (acrylic/canvas) - April 2020

Happy summer! I've been dragging my feet on this, but I have two new coloring books I am prepping.  I've included a free coloring page (plus one of my colored versions) for your  enjoyment.

My take on "Interior Monolog":

Monday morning inspiration

I've been reading some very inspiring books on painting and creativity.  I recommend these three for starters:

1. ) Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist by Carol Marine

2.) Celebrate Your Creative Self: More than 25 exercises to unleash the artist within  by Mary Todd Beam

3.) The Creative Artist by Nita Leland

And, as always, I recommend subscribing to the Weekly Bob Blasts from painter Robert Burridge at his webpage:  www.robertburridge.com/

Have a great week!

Inner Outer Mandala (S. Rasfeld archives)

Catnip for Twinkletoes

Unverified factoids float through the air,

electric breadcrumbs illuminating a chimera of titillation and desire.

Voracious need and insatiable curiosity 

feed on

doppelgängers of smoke and mirrors, built

a pixel here,

a pixel there and 

breach the threshold of consciousness

while infiltrating the world mind.

see me

hear me 

watch me

touch me

know me 

But 

don't look too hard behind that curtain;

don't dig for the gristle, blood and bone.

Just come now:

gather around, chickadees --

I will tell you the BEST stories 

and all you have to do 

is sleep.

"It may seem that you have no external validation for your art, but you must persist in presenting it to the world. Above all, you must know that it is your job to make the work. As a creative person, you must show up, focus, work, make more work, and present it to the world in order to be truly balanced and whole." 
- Laura Cater-Woods, MFA 
"Balancing Acts: Walking the Tightrope Between Your Creative Path and Daily Life," from Inspiring Creativity

http://www.amazon.com/Inspiring-Creativity-Anthology-Practical-Successful/dp/0976737108

At Cross-Purposes

Brittle bones may splinter and crack in crisis.  

Some mend with time 

yet hairline fractures remain below the surface.

Secrets and lies have eaten through the natural bonds between us and only a thin veneer of civility covers the gulf separating our two hearts.

Tightly held by guilt and obligation,  I close my eyes--- struggling to hold onto compassion while preserving my own self-respect.

With simple sweetness and a light touch
   your smile warms my doubtful heart.
I am a restless soul wandering through a maze of my own making
  and yet you hold me tightly against the dark.
I can only strive to be a comfort in the night for you in return.

www.staceyrasfeld.com

022813

Sunlight slips through the hourglass, each grain

a moment, a single hope, a half-forgttoen dream, a buried shame, a biting regret.

Tiny crystals spin ever downward: white lies

told to spare someone’s feelings, invitations delcined,

phone calls and emails unanswered.

Each small transgression dropped upon another,

A slowly built fortess of silence and isolation.

A simple joy


Tea with milk is comforting, like a warm blanket on a chilly night, whereas
a café latte is a slap-shot of energy.
The distilled leaves are light and thirst quenching, while
roasted beans eat like oatmeal or dark chocolate.
Sipping,
eyes closed,
I am transported to slow afternoons in cafes when time was my friend, and

I fill with gratitude for this tiny pleasure.

Miss Miso



Meditating on catnip



Regarding tonight's menu

Sleep, perchance to dream...



Miso shared our lives for 19-1/2 years. Her health had begun failing for the past year, and she died in September. One minute, I held her in my arms, the next, she wasn't with us. Everything should stop for just that one moment but Life simply goes on. The frantic drivers blare their horns, crowds sun and run and giggle on the beach, hordes of movie-goers pack theaters and Holiday revelers shoot off fireworks to a New Year: all are oblivious that this small light is gone from our world. The house is terribly quiet and empty now. Sometimes, she saunters into my dreams. Occasionally, I think I see her out of a corner of my eye, padding into the kitchen or curled up in the corner by the heat register. She was a cuddly lap kitty, and filled our home with a special warmth.

... digital day dreaming

During my recent period of enforced idelness, I've spent a bit of time going through my computer files and paintings.  I rediscovered a few pieces I'd forgotten about.

"OM" acrylic/canvas

"Om" came through in a bout of anger and frustration, yet, is now a focal point of relaxation and calm.

"Ornithology" acrylic/canvas

I labored over the piece, "Ornithology," for months in early 2006. I am fascinated with the process of glazing to achieve shading and depth, and how a painting is revealed with each thin, nearly transparent layer.

"Blue Mandala" acrylic/canvas

Circles and circular movement are recurring themes in my work. "Mandala" loosely translated from Sanskrit means "circle" and in some spiritual thought, represents the center and beginning of all creation.

Notes on painting and art

...on process and painting "Touch Wood":

This will always be an action painting to me.  Not in the art history sense, but in the sense of something alive, something that evolved into its current state.

I worked on this piece intermittently for an entire day-- this little 8x10 that was supposed to be an easy  exercise. I watched it grow and change as the day advanced; at one point, it seemed near completion.  The colors were beautiful, all soft-focus and placid-- a very different work.

Then, with one stroke, I destroyed that feeling. I panicked and almost threw the painting in the trash.

But, this tree would not allow me to do so. I had to keep going, to find a new answer. I had to give up my own plans and let the piece dictate each brush stroke.

Despite my flawed technique, this work now speaks to a deep place within me.

Concerning the Spiritual in Art

Touch Wood

Touch wood:

I seek safety -- to be whole, and to heal

Slowly my haven emerges
bright & strong
for one moment of perfect clarity
then
clouds waft in,
staining my inner landscape with fear and doubt

the tree stands
but the horizon grows dark & heavy

the air
a humid blanket of damp foliage
sits atop a still lake reflecting dull silver

one slow breath

the tree stands

i hold on

071110

I feel the echo of you, once solid
now
We move in different dimensions,
circling new priorities

You have joined the ghosts of my past.
I have retreated into a sepia-toned shadow on your hard drive.

Who are we now to each other?

Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow

Kleio

My computer screen hums.
I scan the electric landscape, and out of the corner of my eye I catch a thread,
a shadow of the ghost of my father.
He is shrouded behind the curtain of my mother's heartbreak.
He is there but not there--a name I carry in my heart but elusive.

My father's family--silent, invisible--have never known me nor I them.
Whether by intention or ignorance, it's the same effect:
we are strangers sharing bits of genetic code and DNA.

I try, but have not broken my mother's injunction of secrecy,
frightened by unnamed dark things buried under rocky silence decades old.
I try, but have not escaped the necessary lies she hides behind.
What monstrous truth could still be sharp enough,
still reach deeply enough through the years to shred our current peace?
Can her past really hurt me now?

Inspiring Creativity: An Anthology of Powerful Insights and Practical Ideas to Guide You to Successful Creating

Calliope

eldest daughter and wife of war
sing to me
blind me with lust
fire my spirit

golden throated goddess
whisper to me
free my voice
and open my heart

Over The Top

Over, under, through
The setting sun chases violet clouds across the twilight sky
Spreading out a blanket of stars
As the Earth prepares for sleep with a sigh

Over, under, through
We roll along canyons of concrete
Encased in our metal and glass carapaces...
Seeking comfort and warmth as darkness blankets the landscape

Sleepwalking and blind,
Oblivious to the hum of night,
We eat
We drink
We sit in digital dreams,
Overcome and under a spell of our own making, through the nocturnal mist.

042509
BON VOYAGE

Off you go into the East--
Peace Corps-two-year-stint. Cheers--
toasts and travel-friendly presents at the pub.
we'll keep pictures of smiling faces and beer.
our hopes and dreams and
the-selves-we've-never-been go with you:
off into the East
to teach
to help and
to learn the ways of a wider world.

The Hard Way: Stories of Danger, Survival, and the Soul of Adventure