Today, we closed on our new home in Arizona.

Next week, I'll turn 75.

Life is interesting, isn't it?

Just when you think you've settled into a routine and maybe got things figured out, you find out that God has other plans.

It's exciting, a little scary, and I can't wait to get started in a new location, in a new year of my life.

Let me be clear. Besides my faith, the one constant in my life has always been art in one form or another. When I was growing up in Hawaii, I nearly always had a scrap of paper to draw on...I loved to paint...I loved to create just about any kind of art. Over the years, creativity has always been there: I painted, I drew, I made things...I did ceramics, I did complicated cross stitch, I learned to do pen and ink drawings. I made crafty items. I did wood carving. Now, I create acrylic and mixed media art and teach others to find their own creative voices. I love to do art journaling.

I know, it sounds like a lot, and, if I'm being honest, sometimes it amounts to little more that "dabbling" in some new form of artistic expression.

You see, the thing for me has always been the act of CREATING! Sometimes, I get so excited about creating something new, I forget to finish what I was working on in the first place (although I'm much better about completing art than I once was).

That's what I'm passionate about: the act of CREATING. That's what I want to pass on to others. I believe everyone of us has a creative "spark" hidden somewhere; we often have never coaxed it out to see what can happen.

You don't have to be a professional artist; you need to find a creative passion. You have to reach out and TRY to discover it. It involves a sense of adventure, of stepping into the unknown, AND it involves learning to not take every single thing you do so seriously.

Art is FUN! Art is about always trying something NEW! Art is about learning to let go and see where it takes you.

That's my resolve for my new beginning...

to listen to my inner voice and intuition

to stop trying to make every piece of art my next "masterpiece"

to have FUN in the midst of hard work, and simply see what happens.

So, stay tuned: There will be new paintings and mixed media pieces, new videos and so many new ideas. I'm learning something new every day (you're never too old to learn a new thing). There will be new classes and who knows what other adventures await.

Please follow my blog and like and follow me on social media to see what happens next.