Hearty Cottonwoods

When first asked to create this art heart, even before it was delivered to the house, all of my thoughts went to constructing a painting for the heart in my brain. Several ideas were sketched in a sketch pad, but it wasn't until I started drawing on the actual heart that the realization hit me that most of my sketches wouldn't translate well to the three dimensionality of this heart shape. Since this was to be created for a particular person in the Circle of Red Society, I e-mailed her and asked some basic questions to defibrillate the creative process.


Based on her answers, this heart combines her love of the wide open skies of West Texas and the cottonwood tree.....the cottonwood because it so hardy and the bark has great character.


This BIG art heart gets picked up this afternoon to be on display for the American Heart Association Go Red for Women reception Thursday evening. Tomorrows private event is at one of my favorite restaurants of all time. I'm so excited....and a little nervous....


After the art heart paintings were finished, I found this poem on the internet. The cottonwood has indeed grown into my heart.

Cottonwood Summer
by Jack Peachum

“You may have your mighty oaks—
Go on– listen to your whispering pines,
Tend your pretty flowers—
For I’ll outlast them all—
I can grow anywhere, any time—
Give me an inch of your ground,
And I will bury you!
I ask nothing of you, neither food nor water,
I thrive in the drought and I rest in the cold—
Next year I’ll be stronger,
My roots going deeper,
And some night I’ll creep into your room,
Plant myself over you, cover you up,
Bind you to the sheets—
My branches will grow out of your heart.”