November 2018 Update:

Check out my new paintings!  I moved to Vancouver in the summer and was paid to work on art for a documentary following artists.  I loved painting and talking about it at the same time, and it was interesting to see how my brain was able to do both or not do both.  The below painting I started before an exhibition in Los Angeles in 2010 and I'm so glad I was finally able to finish it.  Since naming paintings is hard for me and it stands out so much as a landscape, I decided to call it "Grief is a landscape" after a quote in a book called "Good Grief."  My mother died shortly after my baby was born and I feel like I'm having to process my whole life since both my parents are gone now.  Painting has always been so therapeutic for me and I loved making this painting and the next one over the course of a couple weeks for this documentary.  This one is also my biggest yet at 60" x 40":

The other paintings I did recently is this painting which I decided to call "Sometimes the heart needs a hug."  The interesting thing is months ago my therapist asked me to do some sketches for her and I did one that I forgot all about.  It was only finding a picture I took of the sketch after doing the painting that I noticed I had that image in my heart and/or mind for a while.  For me my heart has felt squished since my daughter Phoebe was born and my mother died and my family abandoned me in my time of need.  I moved back to Canada to be back in a kind and compassionate country that would provide a great environment for my daughter to grow up in, and it was my more positive husband that suggested the hug reference.  To me it reminded me more of being born with the umbilical cord around my neck and almost dying.  But it's interesting Temple Grandin's "hug machine" is both a constricting device and a comforting one.  In any case, this painting is 30" x 24":