mental health
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The Arabian Nights, miniature art and studio equipment
This week was … there. Reading Marcus Aurelius helped. So did the oranges, the coffee, the leaves in the yard, the books and art. Talking with my spouse helped too. I kept returning to this quote from Marcus Aurelius so I did this gouache and ink painting. Then I added it to my “for encouragement”…
A Creative Life, art prints, art techniques, artistic inspirations, books, creative thinking, Creativity Chats, fine art, household surrealism, mental health, miniature art, publications – publishing, published art, sketchbook, small things, Sustainable creativity, words and pictures, Writing And Illustrating -

The Professional Dog and our Jolabokaflod festivities
Here below are 3 dogs from The Professional Dog and details about our Jolabokaflod holiday! The text from the book is below each dog portrait. In my last post I shared some of the books we’d ordered that came early for Jolabokaflod. Our house “rule” is that any adulting ceases and we open the book…
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The Professional Dog and Jolabokaflod
Here are this weeks featured Professional Dogs … waiting excitedly for Jolabokaflod! Or… … maybe not. 🤣 Anyway, below are closer views of each dog portrait and below each is the text line in the book. As mentioned in a prior post the Aurora Gallery quickly sold out of my book The Professional Dog and…
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Professional Dogs, a book review by a dog, some cats and Jolabokaflod
Here’s the dogs this week from my book The Professional Dog. A famous dog reviews my book. Some people asked if I have cat artwork… but first the three dogs… Below each enlarged portrait there’s the text from the book. My friend Liz Gauffreau typed up and shared her dog, Mr. Johnson’s, review of The…
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Professional Dog, Gallery exhibits in a pandemic and being Santa’s elf
There are 3 major art gallery exhibits in my life but more on that in a bit. First here are this weeks 3 dogs from The Professional Dog. Here’s a larger image of each dog portrait with the book text beneath. In times past I went in person to local exhibits especially when my work…
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Professional Dogs, puzzles, holiday box and figure ground relationships
I got my Covid19 booster shot and thought of the relationship between individuals and community. That brought jigsaw puzzles to mind. Quite a number of people were getting vaccinated the same time I was and it got me to thinking of how each one of us fit into the local community in some interlocking way.…
A Creative Life, art book review, art gallery, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, books, children’s book, creative thinking, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, fine art, Gifts, illustration, life of the mind, mental health, mundane and magical moments, pet portraits, small things, Sustainable creativity, visual thinking, words and pictures, Writing And Illustratinga creative life, a creative process, Alan Watts, book reviews, books, caplan art designs, community, covid booster, Covid19 Vaccine, creativity, dog portraits, dogs, Edgar Rubin, Emotional health, figure-ground relationships, fine art, Gestalt Shift, holiday box, individual, jigsaw puzzles, Liz Gaffreau, mental health, optical illusions, Rubin Vase, thinking -

Professional dogs, box project, cards, chats, contrasting books and soup
I’m steadily progressing on my children’s book “The Professional Dog”. Here are three art pieces together so you can see how the colors flow from one piece to the next. This project will be both a book an art exhibit. So each piece needs to both work with the others and stand alone. My last post…
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Professional dog, the box project, encouragement, a chat and gnocchi
My childrens book “The Professional Dog” has moved into color! Over the last week I’ve inked more than 12 of the illustrations just so I could see where I was going. Now I’m doing the same testing with colors. I’m using my butterfly palette (a post about that here) – it’s a fun challenge to…
A Creative Life, animals in art, art exhibit, art gallery, art prints, art techniques, artist book, artistic inspirations, books, children’s book, Creativity Chats, Dogs in Art, fine art, greeting cards, illustration, life of the mind, mental health, pet portraits, sketchbook, Sustainable creativity, visual thinking, whimsical art, words and pictures, writing, Writing And Illustrating -

Professional dogs, box project, cards, books, the first chat and some biscuits with gravy
The Professional Dog text for my in-progress childrens book is solid enough that this week I focused on the illustrations. I’ve done about 12 of them in ink and have established a pattern for the artwork that relates to the text. I’m working on bringing the illustrations up to the same semi solid level of…
A Creative Life, art exhibit, art gallery, art techniques, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, books, creative thinking, Creativity Chats, food in art, greeting cards, illustrated poem, illustrated recipe, kitchen art, mental health, poetry, publications – publishing, published art, Sustainable creativity, This Rabbit, words and pictures, Writing And Illustrating3d art, art gallery, Art Licensing, art prints, biscuits and gravy, caplan art designs, children’s books, community, community-care, encouragement, fine art, holiday box project, illustrated recipes, illustrating, illustrations, Kidzstoriesandmore, love and support, mental health, publishing, reading, recipe postcards, self publishing, self-care, writing -

Dragon, the creativity cat and baby blankets
In my last post I talked about how I manage art projects and time. I have an heretical approach and I was asked for more details. Here goes: One of my longtime interests is in how humans think, learn and how to maintain good mental health. I read on the topics often. Here’s a few…
A Creative Life, art techniques, artist book, artistic inspirations, business of art, children’s book, creative thinking, fabric design, Gifts, illustrated recipe, life of the mind, mental health, pattern design, poetry, recipe illustration, sketchbook, surface design, Sustainable creativity, This Rabbit, visual thinking, words and pictures, Writing And Illustratinga creative life, a creative process, art project management, art projects, art studio, art studio habits, artist books, baby blankets, being creative, books, broccoli, business of art, cat, children’s books, creativity, Dr Bobs Emotional Repair Program First Aid Kit, dragon, Emotional health, emotional intelligence, fabric designs, gender neutral, good mental health, happiness, heresy, human minds, lunch, pasta, Sustainable creativity, time management, unorthodox studio methods
