Wandering H.E.A.R.T…

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Children, empty nest, empty nester, happy mother's day, kids, love, mom, mommies, moms, mother, mother's love, mothering, mothers

“Wandering Heart”

New Art – Mixed Media Typography

A Mother’s Love

Sharon Cummings

2015

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This has never been more true than it is for me now.  As my daughter explores the world on her own, living away from the nest, I find my heart lurking in the shadows.  It is amazing how much more a text means!  Or when she “stops by”. 🙂  Here’s to all of the moms whose babies have spread their wings!

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I’ve Got Your B.A.C.K…

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africa, african, african theme, animal, animal prints, animals, anniversary, baby, birthday, child, Children, colorful, colorful giraffe, cute, engagement, friend, friends, friendship, fun, gentle, gift, giraffe, giraffes, hide, inspirational, love, loving, maternal, mom, mother, mothering, nature, nursery, play, romance, romantic, safari, sharon cummings, sister, sisters, skin, skins, soft, spots, sweet, tender, wedding, wild animal, zoo, zoo animal, zoo animals

“I’ve Got Your Back”

New Mixed Media Art

Sharon Cummings

2014

Whose got your back?  In my lifetime, I’ve heard the words many times, but have learned that only a precious few have actually meant it.  I can count on my fingers the friends and family that have truly been there for me through thick and thin.  Today I solute them and am thankful that I only have ONE back. 😉

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N.E.V.E.R. Give Up!

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africa, african, african theme, animal, animal prints, animals, art, giraffe, giraffes, hide, inspirational, maternal, mom, mother, mothering, nature, safari, sharon cummings, skin, wild animal, zoo, zoo animal, zoo animals

I remember this piece very well.  I almost threw it away.  I spent many hours using Pantone markers and Prismacolor colored pencils getting the details of their fur just right.  I wanted the eyes to have expression and depth.  I was pleased with it’s progress until I tried to create a background.  For some reason the grass and trees weren’t coming out the way I envisioned. They seemed too bright and did not look as good as the animals.  I was crushed!  Then I thought I could save it by making the background solid black.  You can still see some of the black around the mane.  But that didn’t work either.  Finally in a last ditch effort to save all of my hard work, I got my x-acto knife and started the grueling task of cutting the giraffes out.  I had to be so careful.

In the end, I decided to make a separate black border and mounted it that way to present to my teacher for grading.  I got an A and it was selected for the annual school art show.  As a result of it’s exhibition, I sold my very first print in 1993!

Incurable R.O.M.A.N.T.I.C.?

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best, best friend, best friends, big, big flower, big flowers, blue, blue and red, blue and red flowers, bright flower, bright flowers, buy, buy abstract flowers, buy flower print, buy flower prints, buy poppy prints, buy red poppies, buy red poppy prints, floral, flower, flowers, friend, friends, gift, love, lovers, mom, mother, mother's day, poppies, poppy, print, prints, red, red floral, red flower, red flowers, red poppies, red poppy, romance, romantic, sister, valentines day

New Art Work.

“Incurable Romantic”

By Sharon Cummings.

Acrylic on Yupo.

2014

(original for sale by request.)

Happy Mother’s Day Anyway….

Tags

happy mother's day, healing the inner child, holiday, inner child, losing a child, losing your mother, may 11, mom, mommies, mommy, moms, mother, mother's day, mothers, politically correct

 

Althea and Mommy Circa 1999.

No Mom?  No kids?  No worries….

In this day of politically correct language, it is hard not to offend someone at any given holiday.  Mother’s day is no exception.  If you say “Happy Mother’s Day” to someone who has lost their Mom or child, they may be hurt.  If you say it to someone who has no children and never wanted them, they might be indignant.  If you say it to someone too young, too old, too whatever, there is a risk.

Due to the complexity and differences of a mother’s social, cultural, and religious definitions and roles, it is difficult to designate a globally acceptable definition for the term.  So I am saying “Happy Mother’s Day” to ALL women regardless of your biological Mother status.  Why?  Because we women are all “Mothers”….each and every one of us.  Whether you nurture yourself, a partner, care for an animal or just support a friend, in my heart I see you as a beautiful “Mother”.  

My biological Mother is still living but absent from my life.  But that does not mean that I cannot celebrate this day fully with my own child.  In my life, I am my own example of what being a good Mom is…I am always grateful to have broken the chain of abuse that has riddled my family. Being a Mother has both humbled and elated me. I am more patient, compassionate and loving for having had a daughter. To me being a Mom = Better Person.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you MOMS out there!!

The Wonder Years….

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aging, anxiety, art, bathroom, bedroom, botanical, botanical prints, bug, bugs, butterflies, butterfly, butterfly garden, butterfly wings, buy, career, change, ecology, face lifts, Family, feminine, for her, for sale, fun, garden, gardens, gift, gifts, growth, happy, healing, insect, insects, joy, joyful, letting go, living room, marriage, mixed media, mom, mother, mother's day, online, paintings, pentas, personal growth, powder room, prints, season, seasons, sharon cummings, skin, spring, summer, uncertainty, wing, wings

 

Are you trying to hold on to your youth?  Your children?  A dysfunctional family?  A job that isn’t right for you?  A marriage that doesn’t work?  That D you got in trigonometry in high school?

So many of us cling tightly to what is familiar or comfortable.  Others bind themselves to the past and allow it to punish them for their entire lives. Change is scary.  Some just cannot picture a life different than the one they currently have.  I have learned that the harder you grasp something, the more it hurts when it slips away from you.  The secret to life is “letting go”.  Also known as acceptance.  This has nothing to do with giving up and everything to do with knowing when it is time to move on.

I had a few years of uncertainty and fear as I moved into middle age.  I was panicked at the thought of my little girl out in the big mean World all by herself. My marriage had a major hiccup one Summer and I was not sure we would make it.  I noticed that I was starting to lose the interest of men when I walked into a room.  My body and face were aging and I did not know how to handle it. I was also very confused about what I wanted to do with my business.  I considered shutting it down and taking a different path by getting back into Holistic Medicine.  I call those years “the worry years”.

Slowly I started to realize that I could not hold onto all of those things that I wanted to remain the same.  More importantly, I did not want to. I discovered it was safe to let go and just celebrate where I was headed.  I was not only physically different, I was also mentally and emotionally transformed.  At 45 I am now excited to watch my daughter leave for college and blossom into her own life.  I will not be keeping her bedroom as a shrine where I can focus on the past.  Instead it will be converted into a sanctuary for yoga and thinking. She will be welcome to visit anytime, but I will use that space for mediation.  I have learned to work “with” my partner instead of “against” him as we weather life’s bumps.  I am less selfish.  I have also decided that I will not be artificially preserving my youthful face.  It’s gone and no amount of face lifting, injecting or sand blasting is going to bring it back.  It’s o.k. to have wrinkles and fine lines.  In fact, if you allow yourself to let go of what society dictates is beautiful, you can actually admire them for what they really are: signs of a life that has endured numerous storms and celebrated many triumphs.

As for my career that is still being pondered.  I have a few new ideas about what direction I would like to move in. But whatever I decide, the process leading up to it will not be fraught with anxiety.  No, these are truly “the wonder years” for me.  The dictionary tells us that “wonder” means:  a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.  And that is exactly where I am.  Bring it on life!

A Sacred Place

Tags

abstract art, art, art collectors, Artist, celebration of life, cherokee, Children, contemporary art, faabest, Family, healer, healing, life, love, Memorial, modern art, mother, mothers, native americans, spirit, spirituality, tribute

I don’t just sell art.  I form relationships with my collectors.  I bring people together, make a house a home or an office a welcoming place.  I create and inspire.

A few years ago one of my collectors contacted me with a very special request.  She said it took her many months to get up the nerve to ask because she thought I would say no.  Her Mom had passed away and she wanted to do something special with her ashes.  She wanted to know if I would be willing to incorporate some of her mother into one of my pieces.  A commission based on “Fire Over Copper Lake”.  I did not hesitate and said yes.

I was soon touched to learn that we shared a Native American ancestry.  Her Mom was a healer in this life and touched many souls.  In my lifetime I have had a spiritual guide named Ama which means water in Cherokee.  The piece I would be creating had to do with a “lake”…or water.  Her mother’s Indian name was “clear water”. Creating this memorial painting felt more than right for me….it felt like a homage to my own spiritual mother as well.  She arrived in a beautiful pouch surrounded by the sweet smell of sage.  I handled her with care and blessed her ashes before I mixed them with the paint.  The piece turned out beautifully….my collector was moved beyond words…and I like to think that a few ashes are here in my studio still and that Ama is with me always…..

A Sacred Place

Tags

abstract art, art, art collectors, Artist, celebration of life, cherokee, Children, contemporary art, death, faabest, Family, grief, healed, healer, healing, indians, life, love, Memorial, memories, modern art, mother, mothers, native american, native americans, sharon cummings, spirit, spirituality, tribute

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-sharon-cummings.html?tab=artworkgalleries

I don’t just sell art.  I form relationships with my collectors.  I bring people together, make a house a home or an office a welcoming place.  I create and inspire.

A few years ago one of my collectors contacted me with a very special request.  She said it took her many months to get up the nerve to ask because she thought I would say no.  Her Mom had passed away and she wanted to do something special with her ashes.  She wanted to know if I would be willing to incorporate some of her mother into one of my pieces.  A commission based on “Fire Over Copper Lake”.  I did not hesitate and said yes.

I was soon touched to learn that we shared a Native American ancestry.  Her Mom was a healer in this life and touched many souls.  In my lifetime I have had a spiritual guide named Ama which means water in Cherokee.  The piece I would be creating had to do with a “lake”…or water.  Her mother’s Indian name was “clear water”.  Creating this memorial painting felt more than right for me….it felt like a homage to my own spiritual mother as well.  She arrived in a beautiful pouch surrounded by the sweet smell of sage.  I handled her with care and blessed her ashes before I mixed them with the paint.  The piece turned out beautifully….my collector was moved beyond words…and I like to think that a few ashes are here in my studio still and that Ama is with me always…..

Not Just An Artist…

Tags

angels, catholic art, divine, divine mother, divinity, enlightenment, fairies, fairy, feminine, feminine art, goddess, holy, inner mother, life, lifeystyle, love, mary, Maya Telford, meditation, mom, mother, mother mary, peace, religious art, sacred, sacred art, saint, saints, soul, spiritual, spiritual art, spiritual artist, spiritual painter, spirituality, women, women artists, women's issues

 

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-perfected-soul-maya-telford.html

I am not just an artist.  I am many things and one of them is an Art Collector.  I have pieces from all around the world from some amazingly talented people.  Gifts to the planet!  I recently had the great blessing to discover a wonderful creator named Maya Telford out of North Vancouver, BC – Canada.  Her work “speaks to me”…..so much femininity and softness, yet strong and powerful to the soul.  For years I have collected similar works from other artists I have encountered along my journey.  I really do not have anymore shelf or wall space, but some how I manage to “squeeze” a new piece in now and again.  This is my latest collection piece titled “The Perfected Soul” and it really mirrors how I am feeling these days…..what a wonderful adventure I am on and with each day I can feel my soul heading exactly where it belongs.  I always go back to the “mother”, “inner mother” or the “divine mother”.  If you love to be in touch with your spirituality and to connect with others who do too, you will really enjoy checking out her work.  You can see more of Maya Telfords’s work here:

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/maya-telford.html

The B.E.A.S.T.

Tags

alternative medicine, art for sale, aura, beast, beasts, beauty, beauty and the beast, bovine, buy art, cavnas, celestial, chakra, cow, cows, dream, dreamland, dreamscape, earth, eco, enchanted, energy, fairy, fantasy, female, feminine, fire, fractal, fun, goddess, goddesses, guardian, harmony, healing, health, hindu, hippo, hippos, holistic, humor, humorous, indian, kaleidoscope, light, lighthearted, meditation, mirror, mirror image, moose, mother, mother nature, muse, mystic, mystical, mythical creatures, namaste, nature, new age, odd, om, organic, paintings, peace, princess, prints, queen, reiki, sacred, sanskrit, sci-fi, science fiction, shakti, sharon cummings, sleep, sleeping, Sleeping Beauty, spirit, spiritual, squirrel, squirrels, strange, sylph, symbol, symbolic, symbolism, symmetrical, symmetry, the beauty and the beast, tribal, unusual, vibration, vibrational, wall art, wicca, wind, woman, women, yoga, zen

This piece intrigued me from the moment I fused the acrylic images together.  I saw a sleeping moose and a cow with her eyes closed immediately.  But I struggled for a name and I was stuck.  I posted the image on my Facebook fan page to see what others might see in the work.  The response was phenomenal!  So many got involved and had ideas and saw things I never considered.  Ultimately one of my fans saw a beast at the top and a beauty beneath and once I saw those images, that made the title he chose perfect….”Beauty And The Beast”…..so much to see.

See more here:

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/beauty-and-the-beast-abstract-art-by-sharon-cummings-sharon-cummings.html

Also NEW today…..”Mother Nature”:

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/mother-nature-abstract-goddess-art-by-sharon-cummings-sharon-cummings.html