Art Of Tracy Verdugo Blog

   Today I am writing, working on this book that I have become quite attached to.  The book I am hoping will be called Paint Mojo .... and hoping I can convince my wonderful publishers North Light that this is the best title :) and suddenly these words spill out and I know I need to share them with you.  Maybe they will be in my book, maybe they are words just for this moment.  I hope they speak some truth for you today.  I hope you KNOW how awesome you really are! I hope you know what a wondrous soul you are and how much the world needs YOU to know that .... ♥♥♥ Somewhere way down deep inside of you there is a gem, which holds all the wisdom you have ever, or will ever, need. It may be dusty and it may take some time to shine it but its essence is untainted. Open your senses and you will start to see a glimmer from the corner of your eye. Slow it down and you will open up the breathin...

  Hello lovely friends and family! Thank you sooooooo much for hanging in there with me during my thirty days of blog lovin'! Only two days to go and I feel like I'm finally finding my rhythm.  I guess I've always been a late bloomer! One of the things that I've been struggling with this month (big time) is the feeling of not being a capable enough (insert spectacular, extraordinary, breathtaking) writer with an impending deadline looming for the first 3 chapters of my book I just realised I'm holding my breath while I'm writing about it. That's how uptight I've been! So today two things happened.....   one was that I came across the following quote that just hit me "Bam!!" as if Anais Nin wrote it just for me and sent in a time travel capsule for me to see,  right when I needed it.  Then I posted it on Facebook and lots of other people resonated with it too.... and I realised once more how alike...

Happy Sunday everyone!  Just back from a lovely walk along the beach with mi amor and ready to continue where I left off on Fridays blog telling you all about my (ahem) diverse and colourful career path that has led me perfectly to this moment..... So if you remember...... we left off with me as Ranger Tracy with a slightly offensive fruit bat named Stinky hanging from my arm..... (see here if you missed it) Just as my career with National Parks amped up, and it seemed I was about to be offered a regular stint on TV, Marco and I made the huge decision to sell our property and take off overseas for a couple of years before settling down to have children... Always the entrepeneur, and with my creative spark beginning to rear its head, I had begun to dabble in creating dried flower arrangements using native Australian flora. A few large orders had seen me sprawled out on our loungeroom floor with baskets, florists foam, dried flowers and seed pods spread from one...

Beautiful full moon tonight sweet friends!  Image credit: Santana Verdugo Hanging low as it came in over the Bay and I'm not feeling too crazy from it... more like a sense of deep gratitude for all that is...  Image credit: Dave Kemp I'm making pies tonight in my very nifty pie maker in which I place rounds of pastry, top them with whatever toppings take my fancy, put a lid on it and  hey presto!! pies in 5 minutes!! cooking up some vegies and gravy and adding in the leftover shredded Mexican chicken I cooked in the slow cooker a couple of days ago for tacos.... So......  just a quick post tonight and I know some of you are waiting with bated breath to hear my next instalment of my very crooked career path...can I ask you to wait just a little longer..lets see what tomorrow brings! I'm diligently working towards my first book deadline~chapters 1-3 ( I still have to pinch myself that I actually have a "book deal...

Beautiful friends ♥ Thank you so much for being with me so far along this ride of everyday blogging. Thank you for being with me in the ordinary moments the sad ones the tired and grumpy ones and the grateful, wondrous ones.... for being so wonderful I have a gift for all of you today. It started as a gift for myself a reminder that there is no need to compare myself to others a reminder that my voice is unique and valuable I mean geez that's what I've been writing about these past few months in the first chapters of my book. Funny isn't it... how the universe does that... how when I begin to reach out to tell others what I feel in my heart it throws it all right back at me to see where I sit with it all.... really, truly... so here is my gift to us all Lets not forget it and shine our light so bright Here is the link below for your own free downloadable Tracy Verdugo print to hang in your creative space as an ever...

Hello beautiful friends...hope your weekend is filled with good things as ours comes to an end here in Australia .... I have to be honest I don't really feel like blogging right now but the deal is I just have to show up right? every day for thirty days and see what comes? You see I started the day off on a weird note heading over to support a fellow artist on FB by liking her page and finding a painting there obviously...um..."inspired" by one of mine. It reminded me of the stories I have heard about fashion designers where smaller labels attend the big runways shows (NOT saying I'm a big runway show!) and blatantly steal designs, changing three small things; a collar, a button, a hemline....and in the changing of three things apparently it becomes a "new" design, legally! and to tell you the truth I don't know how I feel about it except it made me feel a bit "icky" I've always been a thousand shades of gre...

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more. ~George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage too often I forget that right outside my door is the medicine to soothe my overwhelm, infuse my spirit with a feeling of absolute freedom and connect me to my muse. it really isn't even that I forget...i just get caught up in a cycle of DOINGNESS until I STOP and reevaluate and remember the need for BEINGNESS... This morning I took a long, lovely walk on the beach, alone. My purpose was not to exercise but just to wander, to feel the sand beneath my feet and WONDER. I noticed the marks made by the little pippies (clams) like some ancient script willing us to remember our connection and the way the clouds filled the sky in ripples. and how the water split the sand in tiny rivulets I noticed the tiny pi...

Big message from the Universe to me at the end of this amazing year.... SLOW DOWN!!!! Have been flat out on my back or on my side dealing with lower back spasms which my chiro says are a result of a twisted sacrum... ok, ok I get the hint...so I've been a little bit (understatement!) in overdrive, so I've been playing the role of Superwoman all year, trying to be the best mum, wife, artist, teacher I can be, studying full time and setting a standard of Distinction or High Distinction for my results, setting the wheels in motion for an EXTRAORDINARY 2012!! So for now I'm getting the message, chilling out, actually watched a whole movie in bed today and bawled my eyes out for the whole second half.. if you havent seen The Notebook you should so watch it... absolutely beautiful and just the right thing for me to see today and to contemplate the biggest most real,truly important thing in life...LOVE ♥♥♥ I'm also counting down the last 20 hours till the inc...

“I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things... I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.” Leo Buscaglia A while back I got serious, not in a good way...way too serious. I forgot how to play. Small children, tantrums, sleepless nights, financial worries, health scares, struggling businesses, too much responsibility and an inability to ask for help sent me on a downwards spiral. I spent the early years of our daughters lives (now 13 and 17) rushing from one task to another, forgetting to breathe deeply, mostly forgetting to savour the small moments. A bout with melanoma and a baby with severe asthma made me plunge even more deeply into a frenzied pattern of work and denial, eventually leading to a breakdown (breakthrough:)) at the age of 33. I spent months suffering from debilitating panic attacks and finally made the decision to walk away from the business that was slowly swallowing me up. I had been running on automatic, with clenched jaw and shallo...