Gifts and Practice All in One!

Oliver's mama came home early, so I took advantage of their play time and lettered the names of the rest of the Douglas family members. Here are the kids' name pictures, done with a folded pen and indigo and sprectrum red watercolor:

...and one for my grandbaby, Oliver:

A Baby's Version of Murphy's Law

Yup, when I need the little guy, aka Oliver, to take a long nap, he barely takes only a 45-minute one. Now, if I hadn't wanted to get some art made, he'd have slept 2 hours! What a kiddo!

One of our new friends here, Gillian, from Australia, is celebrating her birthday today - so I wanted to quickly make her a card/gift. I barely got the paints mixed and was still just in warm-up mode, when Oliver woke, so unless I find time later today, her gift will be the warm-up picture. Oh, well, as a mother of three (one of whom she & her husband have nicknamed "Shiva - Lord of Destruction") she will understand.

Back to playing with Oliver...

Verse by Ibn al Arabi

From Sadia Dehlvi's column in THE HINDI, the newspaper of Hyderabad:

Her column was entitled, "Sufi's Light on Divinity", about the Sufi Mystic, Shaykh Muhyddin Ibn al Arabi, aka Shaykh ul Akbar. This verse by Ibn al Arabi (who died in 1240, remembered for his contribution in understanding Divine Love):

"Wonder, A garden among flames!

My heart has become capable of every form:

A pasture for gazelles & a convent for Christian monks,

And a temple for idols, and the pilgrim's Kaaba,

The tables of the Torah and the book of the Koran.

I believe in the religion of Love,

Whatever direction its caravans may take,

For love is my religion and my faith."

I will be emailing Sadia to get permission to reprint her article in its entirety - it really touched my heart. Naturally, I'm wanting to create some art around this verse.