Seems like a tumbling jumble of scattered thoughts are seeping out of me. I feel disjointed and not entirely together, like the whole world is off-kilter and everyone is having a tough time of it. I need to reel it all back in. But in order to that, I need to shout it all out, get it off of me, off my chest, out of my brain, unnecessary data swimming around in there.

So I have a lot of little things going on. I finally made it to Big Bear. It's been on my To-Do list for 19 years, so that's an accomplishment. I drove my little car up that big mountain and had a lovely connection with nature. The highlight was a hike around Bluff Lake Reserve, where the movie Parent Trap (and its remake) were filmed. Awesome nature. Standing still and quiet with no other people or human noises for miles. I was overwhelmed again that we humans are just quick visitors in this great big universe. Indeed.

New work full of details

So the past seeped into my stratosphere as well. I was interviewed for a book about the music scene in Ann Arbor in the 1990's. You may not know that part of my history, but a few friends and I ran a pretty influential little night club that helped put Ann Arbor on the globe as far as touring Sub Pop type bands were concerned. I will let you know when the book appears. I was the very first interviewee so I suppose it may be awhile.

Needless to say, having someone interview you and ask you to go back 30 years into your memory is traumatic for someone like me. It's hard to connect it all together. Well, I can connect it, but I cannot always reconcile it. There is my past, and then my other past, then my present, and all the stuff in between. How can one person have been so many people? OK, I know I sound crazy now, but that is exactly how I feel after this deep dive into my college town days.

Happy customer with Flower Layer and Seth the dog

But the art keeps coming. Now I get it. I must paint to reconcile and connect it all together. Like collaged pieces of paper, I glue my world together. I reel it right back in when I have to - to I can make it through the day. I paint so I can breathe, so I can sleep.

I can say that I delivered 2 large paintings to happy customers in the last month. I love it when someone gets a large piece of Maureen Maki Art inserted into their world. I hope it can rearrange their space and realign their thinking too.

This inspired me as well. It may seem odd that I don't regularly do this - but I just hung up a bunch of my new pieces in my actually house, not just the studio. And it works! They look good and they connect me to that energy and flow. They are powerful.

Someone recently told me "it goes with the processes of change and opposing forces of Life and how to Live it." I love that. I hope that it works for you like that too.

Art in real places - above the TV in this case

Prints of my larger more expensive paintings are working well for my collectors these days. Anything on my site can be made into a print. Let me know if you've been eyeing one of them.

I'll be in a show in Silver Lake in September. I'm heading to Mexico City for my birthday. I'm sure I'll have some photos to share after that. I'm working on getting some pieces into different venues and a nearby art crawl. I'm always on the look out for new audiences and ways to get new eyes on my paintings. And finally, I'm going to experiment with some new printing and will certainly let you know how that all works out.

Reel it in and take care and e mail me here anytime.

Reeling in All Back In