Soul Food and Eye Candy

I’m going to be brief here… Do you ever just want a quick art lift? I work, work, work, which I love, but without creative nourishment I have learned-in not so pretty ways- I can run low on whatever that good stuff is that draws me to the easel each day.

I know that wandering around outside or in my head helps, especially in my tiny corner of garden Heaven by the studio.  This year in late spring, I noticed a small bunny munching on my flowers in such a soft adorable way, that I wasn’t too annoyed by the destruction. Soon after a second slightly larger though equally furry sibling appeared from under the same hedge of unruly forsythia bushes appeared. Without warning Bigger Baby Bunny decided to hop, pop and roll his little sister. Dazed but still chewing on my stolen greenery, she righted herself and shook her teensy bunny ears. That was delicious to watch.

The next day, three junior house wrens too small to chirp bailed out of my window boxes when I tried to freshen the wilted pansies surrounding their borrow nest with fresh summer blooms. I had wathced the pale speckled eggs hatch through my window and checked progress regularly. The triplet’s were impossibly stuffed into such a small space it never occurred to me they were big enough to fly yet. It took a good half hour of coaxing, chasing and scooping to gather them up and convince them and their frantic mother that all was well again.

Those outdoor days are so refreshing. But it does rain at times, or is too cold or I am just simply too worn out to get out. I need to be fed something that will fill up what I used up living my artist life. So for all those weary, I have compiled a list of books for the artist-adventurer in need of a quick soulful snack or a bountiful restorative meal. Books with glorious photographs or bearing pearls of wisdom. The list has some of my top picks to open, gaze upon or even read.

Click here to my Toolbox and you find said list. I have a PDF too if you would like to print it off and head to the bookstore with a crisp white piece of paper in your hand. Happy flipping pages. Oh, and a nap might be good too.