Last night [or actually at 4:30 a.m.], I still had not gone to sleep, and in my restlessness, I recalled a story that I discovered about 50 years ago–Leaf by Niggle–by J.R.R. Tolkien. You see, I am one of those people who knows that they love everything about Tolkien, but I have never been able…
Tag: Jacki Kellum Watercolor
The Rooster, Who We Have Always Counted Upon to Wake Up the Sun, as Symbol
Last night, I was watching an old movie, and Robert de Niro, as one of the stars, held an egg in his hand and said: “You know, some religions think that the egg is the symbol of the soul, did you know that?” – Angel Heart I immediately thought about a picture book that I admire, First the…
New York Times Article from 1910 Explains the Tradition of Getting New Clothes for Easter
This week, I have been sharing the fact that when I was a child, in the 1950s, not an Easter passed that I did not get a new dress, new white shoes & a matching purse and an Easter bonnet to wear to church. Although I still practiced this tradition for my kids when my…
Give Me That Old-Time Religion. It’s Good Enough for Me!
Several months ago, I began preparing to move into a very old house, and although there are formal features about my place, it is just an old farmhouse. Long before the coronavirus had begun threatening Americans and had begun imposing a slow-down of life upon us, I had begun making plans to move into a…
Home Is Where the Art Is – Jacki Kellum Home and Studios in the Ozark Mountains
On April 1, 2020, I officially began moving to a 125-year-old Arts and Crafts house in the Ozark Mountains. My house is far from luxurious. In fact, I believe that my house was originally an old farmhouse. But the bones of my dwelling have survived the comings and goings for the past century and a…
Learning to Paint and to Write by Intuition
When I am painting and when I am writing, I consider it a great day when something within myself takes over and essentially completes my project for me. This gentle urging is intuition. It is the spark that helped Michelangelo release his sculptures from a piece of rock, and it is my writer’s voice and…
Learn to See with Your Spirit and Not Merely with Your Eyes
I often write about the importance of an artist’s or a writer’s or a thinker’s truly “seeing,” as opposed to merely looking.’ Even flies can look. Looking is nothing more than image recognition Seeing is a deeper thing. It has to do with perceiving and with the imagination and with empathy and feeling. Seeing things as they truly…
Celebrating the Cow that Jumped Over the Moon – How A Children’s Poem Influenced My Adult Art
No doubt, the cow that jumped over the moon has inspired many poets, artists, and illustrators. I cannot begin to name the ways that The Cow Jumped Over the Moon has contributed to the artist and the writer that I still strive to become, and I want to challenge everyone to consider how very marvelous…
Winter Solstice – The Day Before the New Light Begins – Make Friends with the Darkness
It is almost a thing of cup-half-filled or cup-half-emptied, but tonight, as I contemplate that this is the night of Winter Solstice, I acknowledge that this old, Pagan feast day is the shortest night of the year, thus, it is the night of least light. While that might be terribly grim, the Winter Solstice also…
Jacki Kellum Will Be Showing Art and Illustrations at the Lillie Hobbs Fall Festival in the Ozarks – October 4, 5, and 6, 2019
For Jacki Kellum will be enjoying the slightly cooler weather the first weekend of October, as she shows a few of her original paintings and illustrations at the Lillie Hobbs Fall Art & Antique Festival in Omaha, Arkansas, on October 4, 5, and 6 of 2019. Jacki will also have two portfolios displaying the actual…