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

"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

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

.... poetry snippets, snatches, and notions

4-17-09
ALL I WANT IS MY VIOLET KIMONO

Wrap me in a violet silk kimono backed with
my deep blood-orange-red creativity chop coiling
‘round my spine, feeding me
steady energetic streams of light. Today
I am a warrior.


ALL I WANT IS THE BLUE HOUSE

A breath catches in my throat
when I see you are available--your blue
shingles, white trim and open windows beckon me, call
to my soul to fill you with
people
and
art
and creative energy. Be
Mine! Be real in my life, manifest
materially in my life now. I
see the paintings on your walls, feel
the candle light warmth and hear
laughter spilling from your open door on a summer night. I gaze out the attic window to the ocean on a blustery
winter's morning--
happily planning our next celebration.

4-16-09
PURPLE

purple passion
keep me sane in a black and white world
a flash of luxury amid mundane chores

jacaranda trees drop your lilac petals
trickle down and fill my heart
keep me awash in art

violet night enfold me in warm darkness
keep me cloaked in deepest velvet

As we sleepwalk through the charcoal landscape
keep one eye open on the bruised horizon