The Ranch (Watercolor, 8"x10")

The Ranch

8" x 10"

Watercolor/Ink

Available

Morning Vibes (watercolor 8"x10")

Morning Vibes

8" x 10"

Watercolors/ Ink

Available

Sunflowers in Sunlight (Original Art)

           

'Sunflowers in Sunlight'
20" x 40"
Acrylic, Oils 
Available

This painting of Sunflowers in Sunlight was created thinking about the seasons of life.  Our paths can be gloriously messy, just like sunflowers.  Yet if we grow, as sunflowers do, with our faces turned to the light, there is a great deal of grace and beauty to be found.

Sparrows in the Rain (Original Art)

Sparrows in the Rain

16" x 40"

Sold

This original abstract painting was done with paints in deep and bright blues, yellows and a touch of red to hint at the flowers in the grass.  It was done on a on a 16" x 40" x 1.5" canvas using Gesso, Varnish, Gloss Gel, Acrylic, Oils and Alcohol. 

Finding out I was expecting our unexpected second child this painting was born from an internal cleansing rain.  Uncertain and a fear apprehensive, her light felt as strong as sparrows, who are small, but powerful birds.  I found reassurance knowing her arrival was a symbol of joy, simplicity and friendship.  

The work has been sealed to help protect against fading. Edges are painted, see photos. Comes ready to hang with a sawtooth hook.

Where there is Love, there is Life

Two years ago, beloved family and friends gathered to throw my husband and I our baby shower.  There was laughter and food and oodles of sweet and generous gifts.

I remember my uneasiness, an uneasy uncertainty as I was surrounded by so many veterans and recognizing , truly recognizing, this quiet pact among women, was this a club I don't know about? What was this tenderness, watchful kind chagrin I saw in all of their eyes?

It felt like I was looking into a room that each woman had and held as their own.  

I was thirty six years old and I had had plenty of time to define many aspects of my self identity.  I thought I saw me quite well and I was comfortable, generally, in my own skin.

There were moments I had questioned some of my assumptions.  Go back another two years and welcome to the weeks first following after I stopped taking birth control....  

I started sleeping better than I had slept since I was seventeen... I got off sleeping pills, stopped having my monthly recurring yeast infections, my skin glowed, lost seven pounds and my libido took off.  I was energized, motivated and voluntarily reduced my caffeine....

I felt like I needed to reintroduce myself to myself;  'Hi, I'm Emily.  I don't have neurotic thoughts at bed time -I just go to sleep, my skin is behaving like it should in my thirties and not in my mid-teens and my body is relaxed and in-sync with itself...'

Well sort of.

A drawback I would late find out later was that nearly twenty years on birth control had high jacked my reproductive system.  In order to conceive I was going to have to do a bunch of humiliating reproductive tests and not fun drugs to jump start my system.

Quick interjection: I am grateful birth control was and is an option for me. Emotionally, mentally, I needed time to discover, to live and be me.  I wish I had understood there were possible implications after taking it for so long - at least for me. My path through (relatively brief ) infertility was difficult and emotionally for me.

And last: birth control needs new research.  There is tons of new research for dudes in their fifties to get it up better.  Ladies -Birth control options have changed very little in over twenty years! 

Back to the baby shower...

At the end of my baby shower, my sister in law presented me with a glass jar. Stuffed to the brim were small notes written on pretty paper, each rolled up and tied with gold ribbon.  At the very bottom of the jar were thoughtful self pamper gifts that ranged from a home made clay mask to a smaller glass jar of a lavender foot soak and a range of chocolates.

This dear creature explained she had written to each mother in my family, and extended family, and sent a piece of the decorative paper.  She had asked each to write their advice, something they wish they knew or perhaps just a simple thought about what motherhood, what parenthood, meant to them.

I felt welcomed, in that moment, to every one of them.  I was humbled and grateful. 

Life would get busy fast though and I didn't actually open them until at about two months postpartum.  It was a cold and lonely and exhausted November morning when I read each one.

As I unrolled and read the quotes, the scripture versuses, the memory, the kind insights - each hand written, I laughed and cried a bit in relief and joy. 

Parenthood transformed me.  I was a different version of me at the moment of entry.  Upon walking through the door I found out how flawed I was, how small I was, how gorgeous fragile and rare life is. 

Motherhood is strange and beautiful.  I have never doubted myself so deeply, irrevocably trusted my instincts so completely and simultaneously felt so alone and loved.

We are naturally, unexpectedly, delightfully expecting a second child this next January.  When I first suspected, instead of the uncertain mixture of fear and excitement I felt when I suspected our first gorgeous treasured little, this time I felt joy.  

Deep, unwavering, sunlit joy.

Sunflowers in Sunlight (Original Art)

Sunflowers in Sunlight

20" x 40"

#oilpastels #acrylic

I think I will hang this with wire and eye hooks due to its size and weight. I will post it up on Etsy soon. $1000 and if sold locally, I would love to deliver it rather than ship it. 

Watercolor/ Ink Landscapes

The Ranch

 (Sold)

Morning Vibes

 (Sold)

Each 8" x 10" on canvas

Watercolor/ Inks

Sunflower Painting (In Progress)

 

In Progress

20" x 40"

Mixed Media

A simple delicate moment

It was a terrible wind storm and the resulting dust storm had me hiding inside all day.  I'd driven into the garage and as I exited the car I heard a frantic loud 'BUZZZZ!'.  I reopened the garage door so whomever it was stuck could have a chance to get out and then I went indoors to deposit the small human with small delicate lungs before going back out again to check -

"BUZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I love bees.  Prior to living here I had a garden, a little lush garden and I loved my bees.  I never worried about them because I never worried them.  When I was in my very early twenties I lived in a lovely green east coast state and had a dense gorgeous garden loaded with bees.

I miss them.  There are occasionally bees here but mostly snarling wasps.

This was a frantic bee buzz.

I peaked around the board partially blocking the garage window and goodness there was indeed a large lovely yellow, orange and black bee.

I picked up a small piece of paper and whispered softly,  "Let me help you.", and gently offered the paper for a ride.

Disregarding my offer, Bee buzzed up and down the window.  I offered again with the same words.

Repeat four times in total.

The fifth time, Bee turned and studied me, I smiled and whispered, "Let me help you."

Bee slowly, quietly, climbed aboard the paper and continued on to walk onto the back of my hand.

I slowly raised my opposite hand to buffer the rough air to be encountered as I moved this small traveler from behind the board.  I carried this fantastically beautiful relatively tiny creature to the edge of the garage where I lowered my raised hand and the Bee then calmly lifted off.

Such a simply pure and delicate moment.

May 2018 Draper Festival And Adobe

Draper Arts and Crafts
12 May 2018

17 May 2018

Utah Artists & Adobe

What other people think of you is none of your business.

Mountain Path (Original Art)

Mountain Path 

11" x 14" 

Watercolor

Dragon's Breath (Original Art)

Dragon's Breath

20" x 30" x 1.5"

Mixed Media, Abstract Painting

Life, According to my 2am

My 2 am - Introduction to my Five Steps

My blueprint for living is built on five steps.

Step One: Acknowledge
Step Two: Accept
Step Three: Analysis
Step Four: Adjust
Step Five: Act

I know these five steps are built who we humans are, how we are built. Just as my mentors #osha, #michealmeade #raybradbury and others helped me create and verbalize this universal truth, I hope sharing will empower you as well.

Begin (Original Art)

'Begin'

20" x 40" x 1.5"

Abstract Painting, Mixed Media

Something Fishy (Original Art)

Something Fishy

10" x 10" 

on 

12" x 12"

Detail here

Acknowledge and Accept vs. Forgive and Forget -My 2am

I live according to my five steps.  Here I explain the first two steps in context to the saying 'Forgive and Forget'.

Step one is Acknowledgement.
Step two is Acceptance.

How can you apply these first two steps in your life?

Be Emotionally Aware - My 2 am

I Make These! (Handmade Jewelry)

Three Sisters (Original Art)

Three Sisters

12" x 24"

Details here

Being Flexible

A pretty great day...

Today with Aya

First thing this morning, I had her all gussied up in a cute pony tail and outfit. Wanted to go to the aquarium and see Karl for coffee. It's been a long week inside.

When I realized we were snowed in, we tried on her snowsuit and walked around in the snow for a bit. Then Luna disappeared and gave me a heart attack so I trudged all over the neighborhood with Aya looking for her.

Luna showed up on the doorstep when I got back.

We built stuff and played with puzzles. Then Aya poured her peaches on Luna's back. So I gave them both a spit shine clean up. Same with the floor.

Aya looked like an angel when I cuddled her to sleep (instead of fighting her to go back to sleep if I had tried to put her down) and I held her for forty five minutes. ♥️♥️

When she got up we ate lunch together... Until she threw her eggs at Luna the dog and Charlie the cat and they engaged in gladiator war.

She unloaded the dryer into Charlie's water bowl while I loaded the washer. So I redid the first load.

She took big gulps from my water bottle and spit them all over a horrified sleeping cat. He was so shocked he got doused three times by the time he woke up enough to move.

When putting fresh diapers in the bath room, she hurried and shoved three in the toilet.

I took her by the shoulders and said 'NO. DO NOT PUT DIAPERS IN THE TOILET.'

She studied me seriously, then patted my face gently, leaned in, kissed me on the lips and said "Hi Mommy"

This is exactly my response to her when she has an angry moment.

So... I started laughing and hugged her...

I keep thinking that from her point of view this was a pretty great day.  Snow, a walk in more snow with Mom carrying her and helping yell 'Nnnooonnnnaaaaaa!!'. Then a nap cuddled by Mom, snacks and loads of play time.

Life is always about perspective. ♥️

Life's Distractions

What you cannot do, you must do - Thoughts my 2am

Knitting Needle Engraved Necklace

Forged by Fire

I have a different relationship with three in the morning these days.  I see it now, not as the haunting, the tormentor.

Three in the morning is the stolen hour. The sacred hour.  A time of fire that has forged me into someone new.

How many times have I rocked this beautiful child at three am? Tonight she lays relieved and relaxed in my arms,  breathing easily, safely in my arms at three am.  I think about three mornings when her tummy was tight with bubbles and half her present length.  I remember her unfocused eyes, startled and lonely.

Tonight, the moment I scooped her up, she became peaceful, cuddled in my lap.

It is not his job to believe in me.  It's isn't anyone's really.  I alone hold that responsibility.

Isn't that beautiful, powerful?  My thoughts have been jumbled up for months, years, a paraglider's lines caught in the weeds on a steep hill.... and this aha moment tonight laid them out straight, clean and free.

Here by the light of the humidifier, smudged by my palm and clearer than anything I have ever written before.

Take these words as yours.

Fighting Fish (Original Art)

'Fighting Fish'

18" x 14" on a 12" x 24"

Her (Original Art)

Her

24" x 24" x 1.5"

Moons of Jupiter Necklaces- Miniature Pieces of Art, Each 100% Unique

Handmade, Individually painted miniature pieces of art.  Each sealed behind a one inch glass cameo onto a silver toned bezel and then hung on an 18" nylon cord.

Available or now by contacting me via PM

Burst of Light (Original Art)

‘Burst of Light’

12” x 4” x 3 Mounted to a 18” x 14”

$120.00

(Acrylics, Oils, Airbrush, GAC 800, Palette knives) 

Emily K. Yates - Artist, Designer at A Car Named Katie LLC

Not Invisible (Original Art)

‘Not Invisible’ 

16” x 40” 

$640.00

(Acrylics, Oils, Airbrush, GAC 800, Palette knives) 

Emily K. Yates - Artist, Designer at A Car Named Katie LLC