"Hum" 12" x 12" oil on canvas.

I had the pleasure of meeting McKenna a couple of months ago, as she is dating a dear dear friend of mine, Gabe. She is a very positive, and beautiful person both inside and out. I had the chance to talk and get to know her, while she agreed to be my model for me. As she was visiting us only for a couple of days, the painting is based on photo references. The painting is really about that quiet peace that she exudes, a barely percieved hum of contentment. I had changed the coloring of the walls from a warm to a cool, as I was enjoying the contrast of her warm skin, with the coolness in the walls and floor. I loved her awquard feet! Something so charming and to me added a little something differnt to such a simple pose. It reminded me of a young girl in many ways.

I had a blast starting this painting, while giving a live demo to the Paradaise Valley Art League. Such a wonderful and warm group of artists! It was such a pleasure to have been invited up there for the demo.

Life Cycles

"McKenna" - 7"x5" oil on canvas board- Sarah Hessinger


I am exploring what it is to be female thru my artwork. In some ways even when the work has nothing to do with me as the subject matter, it is autobiographical. I am moving more outward of myself recently, and have taken an interest in having other female models besides myself in my art work. The ideas of motherhood, the mysteries of it, as of yet unexperienced by me, are pulling me, and I have hopes to have the opportunity to paint a friend of mine in her late days of pregnancy. Being pregnant is something that scares me, but the actual birth process I know I would thrive in. These stages of the life cycle, and how we move thru our lives is such a beautiful and fully abundannt and fertile process. I have some very wise and dear artist friends, who reminds me gently how when they were in their early 30s the energy, and the scrambleing and differnt set of focus on career, and how their focus in their late 40s to 60s is more relaxed. I get the sense as I am figureing out even the pattern and flow of what it is to be a working artist, the flow and ebb of what they are talking about with the life cycle.

One artist that I admire extremely, is Heather Horton
Her work I found echoed what I was exploring alot in my own work. She has this beautiful way of space and silence talking quietly around her figures. If you get a chance to please check out her art work, I think you will find it beautiful and deep in meaning.

Moving forward

"Still"- oil on canvas

I am in the midst of a most amazing time in my life. For the past some 12-15 years, I have been longing for a certain kind of environment, in fact my whole self has yearned for it almost on a daily basis. Most recently, and quite unexpectantly I have had my dream set before me. My family has been given the opportunity to go live on a 100 acre horse farm, surrounded by on three sides, National forest, and managing a bed and breakfast in an old 1800s Victorian farm house. I will be surrounded by acres of land, open and wild. This is something that the art side of me longs for so strongly, that it in someways precedes my love and need of creating art. To live in this environment so fully would feed something in me that has been hungry for so long.

It is an amazing journey, in this endeavor we are all learning to have faith and to trust that it will all fall in to place the way it is supposed to. There have been so many small miracles and open doors for going there, despite the economic hardships that logically we will be faced with. The idea of those hardships, and the illogicalness of it to alot of people, are not enough against this all powerful pull that I feel towards this place. It feels right, to the core of my soul.

What a beautiful scary time to be living though, to know this is where I am supposed to be for now, and not have all of the answers figured out, and to just close my eyes and fall back in to it, knowing that there will be arms to catch me. It is an intense practice in the art of faith and being open to the abundance of life. I am excitedly looking forward to the change in seasons, the new sites, and smells of a different earth. I will be moving from the open skies and subtle yet rich colors of the desert, to the almost claustrophobic rich and vivid landscapes of the forests.
I am excited to see where this takes my art and in what direction.
I am enjoying this small winding path I have found...

Gesture drawings

These are some gesture drawings that I did in a class with at the University I attended, some years ago.

Some are longer, but most are 5 seconds - 10 seconds- 20 seconds . on large newsprint.

I found these exercises extremely useful in learning to draw, and even know accessing that state of seeing when I am creating and drawing.

One thing that my professor said while teaching us, during this extensive 6 hour long classes, was to draw these gesture drawings as if the person or object were falling out of the top of a building, and you had mere seconds to capture its essence as it fell towards earth.. It made for a very focused and very hectic, but also great drawing sessions with him. We would use whole pads of large newsprint in one day, our arms so exhausted, I found myself using both hands to draw the figure as fast as possible in the 10-20 seconds allowed. So much fun :D

whispering into the well

"Surface Tension"

When I try to think of the ways that I find inspiration from, I have to go to a place of wordless movements, and quiet droplets. It is an elusive connection to my deeper self that I try to bridge the gap with in my self. It is a mediation.

Music often time guides that other self, that deeper quiet self of no words, of pure expression, and movement to the surface. Pulling it gently out of the dark depths of which I stand cautiously looking down, into the immense dark swirling waters. Music coaxes delicately that side of me, so elusive to respond and stir and make its languid way to the surface.

Staring down, listening, I catch out of the corner of my eye its forms and quiet nature moving under the dark waters. I feel whispers and droplets of its movements and intent, sliding along my skin. I collect those drops, carry them undisturbed carefully with me, and attempt to create what it was, what I felt, and what I heard, as that elusive form once again slides quietly away in to the dark depth of my self.

two halves

"Duality"- oil on canvas

I saw this lecture online the other day, where this man had this breakthru within himself. He came to be able to access both sides of his deeper self, at the same time. It was a very intense video, where you could see the most intimate and vulnerable moments to this man, as he sat in front of a crowd. He had some feelings of not being worthy, and hence didn't succeed in life. It was the most interesting transformation of a human to watch as he slowly began to accept and forgive himself for being human...with all of his mistakes, and stumbles on his path.

I'm thinking of the subconscious and the conscious selves. When they are not working as a whole, there is strife, discontent, and confusion. My work has always been about a question for me. It can be a question with a known answer, or not, but it requires the creation of a painting, to give it shaky wobbly legs, then I lean back and watch as it makes its unsteady way in to reality, stumbling past others, creating a multitude of different reactions. Hopefully if it is a True depiction, it will be strong enough to stir emotions, be it positive or negative, is irrelative on some levels to me, for growth thru peace, and growth thru chaos, is still growth, just different plants as the end result.