Tree Bird Sky Peace, Shelley Rugg, 2018, acrylic on wood box, detail view So much to be learned in this life, if we are able and willing to be open to the learning. Learning can feel hard. That is why so many of us are resistant to it. Yet with learning comes an expanded version of you. And that expanded version of you becomes ever more capable of the learning. And the growth is exponential. One of the things I am enjoying learning about right now is my intuition, and how to

Ah...moving. And the challenge of trying to fit square pegs into round holes! I suppose it is an apt metaphor for my life in transition. Transition from caregiver to free spirit. What once was a perfect fit has made way for a new way of being. That said, what I am really talking about here is change. And we all know that change is a constant variable. Unavoidable. Yet most of us will, kicking and screaming, try to avoid it, at all costs. But sometimes, change is set into moti

When someone you live with dies, your life changes dramatically. No doubt there are the tears that well up when you least expect it. There's the love that was aimed repeatedly and directly at you on a daily basis that is now a memory to cherish. And there is relief... For my father, there was relief from not knowing what the heck happened to his life. How did he go from someone with an iron-clad memory to someone who can't remember what happened only moments before? How did h

October in the studio is all about getting back into the practice of being a studio artist. This can feel a tad uncomfortable, but it is in the discomfort that surprises emerge in the work. It is in the practice of showing up in the studio, that the work begins to develop and take on a life of its own. In preparing for Point Reyes Open Studios, I am painting lots of beautiful faces of people who believe that they can make a difference by putting themselves out on a limb...by