Author: Connie Karleta Sales

Paper echoes the vulnerability and resilience of the human soul. Artist, poet, educator, public speaker and thriver! Smiles and unpaved roads are the way I roll :D paint much love, always, C
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Her Eyes Healed Her Ears Whole

Oh, yes,
over the hills,
through the woods.
My favorite
my safest
place to be.
CKS

Camping and being out in the landscape is one of my favorite things to do and go.

I miss it. I don’t count myself out from being able to return to camping, it is just a not now activity.

But, I live in a rural place and I am surrounded by beauty, so it is kind of like camping all the time.

This little mountain landscape is about being able to quiet the restless negative self thoughts by sitting and melding into the place before me, and allowing it to bring me into the present, being in the moment.

paint much love, always,
CKS
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

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Celebrate Life

i dare to love the life
i live.
messy and unkempt.

i dare to love what I do not know
and breathe this 
dirty path.

my sandals rest beside  
my feet.
for she is Holy;
this ground so solid
between my toes.

i dare to walk by
candlelight, and
love what I do
not know.

breathe this dirty path.
messy and unkempt.
breathe this dirty path.

sandals resting;
beside my dirty feet.
CKS

thank you to everyone for your continued support and encouragement

We have decided to keep the Celebrate Life Sale going until the end of the year! Enjoy!

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Celebrate Life

enjoy this sale as it continues until the end of 2023

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We Rise Together

stretching and
reaching
we stand
together

lifting and reaching
breaking our bend
carrying each soul
together

uplift our spirits.
protect us through,
healing spirit.
together

shield and preserve
cushions of shelter
guard us, defend us
together.
CKS

paint much love, always,
CKS
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

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Grand Wash Cliffs

Storms of afternoon color
Paint across your face.
Desert beauty
Time study
Love in the likeness
of grace.
CKS

L642

Grand Wash Cliffs
Meadview, Arizona
Family
Back side of the Grand Canyon

The Grand Wash Cliffs exit the Grand Canyon, where the Colorado River enters Lake Mead. They are the southwestern perimeter, of the Colorado Plateau (source, Wikipedia).  And, I love them!  The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is particular beautiful and less traveled.  The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is what I would call the traditional access; with far more population and tourists visiting.

According to the National Park Website this land has been continually inhabited for at least 12,000 years. 

Afternoons are particularly romantic.  The sun casts dazzling light across the cliffs and inch by inch, brilliant colors illuminate before you.  Moments filled with energetic stillness of awe and desire.

Here I catch a storm rolling in with light splash-dazing the rock-cliff.  This tiny painting is hardly larger than a postage stamp.  Holding it in your hand, it radiates the grace and peace of place.  Dirt beneath your feet, Joshua Trees to your left and to your right; wide sky blanketing above.

paint much love, always,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

*Grand Wash Cliffs, Meadview, Arizona, 3/4″ x 1″, ink, pigment, charcoal, graphite, paper, ©CKS

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Slender Wisp

Billowy slenders wisp toward the sun;
fingerlings of sky, teach me;
of my frosted thoughts
notions of vision-dreamer unattained;
frustration’s mark,
cold and dark
am I.

Winter slenders,
depth filled strength
flexing in whisper’s breath;
tickling the sun,
filtering through frozen mist;
living, you are.

Teach me,
in the marrow of your alive,
resting in your stillness
my exhaustions caressed;
revived into the gasping
waters; soaking me whole.
CKS

paint much love always,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

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Heal Me Open

Rise through darkness;
Sun glittering amid her trees.
Awake. Alive.
Revisiting the feeling of being.
CKS

What does it take to rise out of the darkness? What does it even look like? How do we do it? How do we cope? How do we keep moving forward?

Ethereal layers of thin, temporary places. Each giving us support and adding that little bit of stability and security in times of chaos and unknown.

This is a constant theme in my meditations, prayers, and reflections. I use my art to help me find those thin layers creating a life more stable.

I am excited these 2 paintings from my on going Heal Me Open portrait series are included in the group show “Out of Darkness into the Light” at dk Gallery in Marietta, GA the month of October.

If you are in the area I hope you stop by and see the show.

paint much love, always,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

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Heavy or Not

lay down your burdens
lighten with the sky
dawn a new day
no matter what
they say.
CKS

not gonna lie, its been a rough road lately. still not feeling all that well.

a lot of resting and sleeping, more resting, more sleeping. . . and being frustrated and a bit lost. allowing depression to grasp at me. allowing fear to have a little taste of me too.

I recently found my old ipod and it has my favorite Yoga Nidra practice on it. I had allowed this practice to fall off. It is back in my life.

It feels good. It helps. It helps ease my soul. and my mantra or Sankalpa (short positive statement of intention) is:

I give myself permission to accept my body just as it is.

How do you feel about your body? Do you accept yourself? Do you struggle with judging yourself? I wish for us all to find peace in acceptance.

paint much love, always,
CKS
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

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Celebrate Life Sale Still Happening

Heavy or Not

Heavy or Not

lay down your burdens
lighten with the sky
dawn a new day
no matter what
they say.
CKS

$40.00
Shop now
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Immaculate Charcoal

unsullied, i am
in impurities.

unclean, i am
in perfections.

unfurled my chaste
i gather my temperance
on the paste-chalk lines
of charcoal.

sullied is
clean is

pure, breathe air
of imperfection’s delight
i temper my haste
in paper-sand-dust.
CKS

from Brave House Secrets

love in a time of turbulence
repetitive contemplation
active listening

We must act according to our integrity.  How do we find such things?  Where do we find where we belong within the context of belief, integrity, and action?

Practice.

“Repetition strengthens and confirms” a friend once said.  Indeed.  True words.

Practice.

Never give up.  Repetition; teaches us into action.  Actions us into where our teaching needs attention.

Practice, teaching us to listen.

Paint much love,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

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Within the Emptiness

Holy Darkness
River of unbroken rigidity.
Resonate the overcast softness;
Mitigate my distress.
CKS

L123

Plains in the middle
of nowhere;
I simply stopped;
to paint my words.

Always armed with supplies, I always enjoy simply driving out on the back roads and finding what I find.  Sometimes, like here, I simply am struck by the simplicity perfectly explaining my thought process.

This is in the middle of nowhere.  I cannot remember what state, or location.  I do remember firing up my little personal stove, making a cup of coffee, and a cup of soup.  I put on my finger-less gloves and settled in the absorption of the moment.

A vast plain with one lone tree in the distance, seemed perfectly content, so I asked it why and how.

paint much love, always,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

*Within the Emptiness, 1″ x 3.5″ ink, graphite, pastel, paper, ©CKS

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Updates and Celebrate Life Sale

Look into my eyes
Deep in the you
of me, of us.
CKS

Due to my health I had to close my studio early for the June Toe River Arts Studio Tour where I was having the Celebrate Life Sale and was to continue the sale online after the tour.

I had a flare of the NMO. Along with Rituxan, I had 5 days of IV Steroids with an oral taper. I continue to struggle. Fatigue is an issue and my arms are still weaker than they were. I am better despite the struggles. My breathing is not the same since the flare either.

I am taking care of things one at a time. I have not been in the studio. I tried to be there a couple of short visits, mainly to print a few digital paintings to make sure my printer was still happy. I will admit it was exhausting.

Treatment changes to hopefully help keep my health more stable is moving Rituxan from 4 months to every 3 months. I must admit it is a little unsettling. I started at every 6 months and when that was not okay, I moved to every 4 months and for quite awhile was stable until i wasn’t. What happens if Rituxan completely fails? I don’t have a complete answer. I don’t have access to the new NMO approved drugs because I am not antibody positive.

What we are adding is pulse dosing with IV Steroids. This means once a month I will have 3 days of IV Steroids. Steroids do usually make me feel better. Steroids come with there own side effects I don’t like. It is a matter of weighing benefit vs. side effects.

pulmonology, we are doing testing, and depending on the outcome, we might be adding daytime oxygen in addition to my ventilator.

I am working to get back in the studio and hopeful to be there soon.

We are getting more and more pieces up on the CLFStudio Shop for the CELEBRATE LIFE SALE!!! Going on Now! Finally getting back to what we started during the studio tour.

We are working hard to get works up day in day out and they are deeply discounted. I turned 50 this year and I did not know if I would even make it to 50, so this is a great time to celebrate.

So please share far and wide. I would really appreciate it. and I hope you enjoy, and maybe find that perfect piece for yourself or someone you love.

Thank you so much for your continued encouragement and support!

paint much love, always,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

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Tomorrow Sun

Falling far too fast
blue is my mouth’s most beloved
be, am i undone?
CKS

(from, Pace e Bene, Peace be with You, a work in progress)

This portrait fills with the ache and comfort of rain on a sunny day. When my body tires and drags under the lead coating my limbs.

A digital painting, she is layered within before reaching her final view.

There is always a tomorrow, a window to fly through, worry to be undone.

paint much love, always,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

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Aspen Love

Memento of two;
lovers’ whispers;
gentle delighting.
CKS

L145

Aspen grove
Intimate moment
Spring Morning

I believe this tiny painting is the foreshadow of great love.

Aspens grow in colonies from a single seed.  Often they are seen as evidence of ancient woodlands, because their root systems can live for thousands of years.  Another beautiful fact; Aspen colonies are able to survive forest fires, because their root systems are below the heat of the fires.

Caught in awe one day walking among Aspens in Idaho, I felt the weight of the many as the morning light danced across these two trees; catching their kiss in conversation, they allowed me in, and so I danced too.

Here I was feeling family; generational love; grounded through life’s heat in the good and the difficult.

paint much love, always,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

*Aspen Love, 2″ x 1 1/4″, ink, acrylic, pastel, graphite, charcoal, cotton, ©CKS

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