The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.
(Excerpt from the poem Tulips by Sylvia Plath )
This rain drenched tulip winters in the garden’s row of spinach and chard.
© 2016, Theresa Mae Funk. All rights reserved.
Tag Archives: Art
Passing Shots of Cheer: Daisy Mayhem
Phototherapy for the Winter Blues
© 2015, Theresa Mae Funk. All rights reserved.
Season’s Greetings from Gnome Man’s Land
Passing Shots: Folsom Lake
Located about twenty five miles northeast of Sacramento is what remains of Folsom Lake.
Walking through the stark landscape of what was once the reservoir’s lake bed saddened me, but also inspired me to spend time this week studying color theory.
What will be the formula that re-creates these shades of blue for my next work on paper?
© 2015, Theresa Mae Funk. All rights reserved.
Poetry for Guitar: The Flightless Birds of the Livermore Yacht Club
In colorful silence on a nameless boathouse wall, flightless birds of the Livermore Yacht Club artfully display their tempered rigid wings. Meanwhile, The Sparrows of Redhook, New York dream of flight in an endless sky, saving their voices for a reverberated cry of freedom.
© 2015, Theresa Mae Funk. All rights reserved.
Make Like a Nike: Just Do It!
I hesitated to post my ten minute doodle today for fear that the haphazard painting event was not “good enough” to share. Then I realized that the fear of criticism or rejection of the work wasn’t the obstacle; it is my sensitivity about being compared to other artists who have had more formal training, or who are making their living full time from their creative endeavors that most often stifles me. Then I remembered a piece of advice that Seth Godin once offered: “The act itself is more important than the output…When you keep the commitment to complete the act, the muse returns.” And she is always welcomed here.
© 2015 Theresa Mae Funk. All rights reserved.
Farm to Fork and the Plate on My Easel: Grandma Moses meets Mother Funk
Sacramento’s Farm-to-Fork Festival is scheduled for September 26th, and I just realized that I will be unable to make it. I had hoped to spend the day tasting my way through the annual festival and establishing connections with the farmers from my region whose lifestyle is the focal point of my artwork. I’m like a modern day Grandma Moses but instead of painting on fire boards, some of my work is done on paper plates.
“Uncle Ed” 6″ x 6″ mixed media on paper. © 2015, Theresa Mae Funk. All rights reserved.
Smell the Jelly
We’ve been enjoying the Seedless Thompsons (also called Sultanas) since the middle part of June but the past few weeks of triple digit heat began to take its toll on the raisin cultivars. I decided to dedicate most of my weekend to the delectable chore of harvesting what remained on the twenty-something-year-old vine that grows in our yard.
A reflective moment under the arbor was an opportune time for a self-portrait.
If our freezer would afford us the space to save twenty-four pounds of grapes, I may not have attempted the arduous process of making jelly. It is trickier than I imagined and despite my good intentions and recipe, did not quite get the formula right. Instead of jelly, we have a concoction that looks like syrup and tastes like honey. Pancakes anyone?
© 2015, Theresa Mae Funk. All rights reserved.
Passing Shot: Up The Creek Without a Palette
“Up the Creek Without a Palette” 16″ x 14″ pencil and watercolor work-in-progress on paper.
I invited my partner to have a look at one of my sketches, and he admitted that he wasn’t quite sure what he was looking at. His reply initially hurt my fragile self-taught artist ego, but I appreciated his honesty, and forgave his lack of shared vision. My former, less confident self might have accepted his comment as absolute truth and hastily abandoned the newborn work but instead, I allowed my intuition to confront and dispel the fear of dreaded rejection that keeps many artists from sharing their work in the first place. The truth of the matter is this: My artistic style is not going to appeal to everyone, and not everyone is going to support my creative endeavors, but that is not going to stop me from bringing my work into the world. There is no other option because at my very core, I am an artist.
© 2015, Theresa Mae Funk. All rights reserved.
THERESA MAE FUNK 