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Three words to describe your personality?

Sensitive, Dreamy and Quietly Confident.

Three words to describe your art?

Delicate, Feminine and Gestural.

What hour of the day do you feel most creative?

In the morning and early evening.

What inspires your work? Current Obsessions?

I'm currently obsessed with Arctic animals, such as penguins and narwhals after watching the breathtakingly beautiful Frozen Planet.  I'm spoiled with an endless choice of galleries and exhibitions in London, so I can always pop in anytime for inspiration. The Gerhard Richter exhibit at the Tate Modern was very inspiring. I also love certain blogs and Style.com.

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/gerhardrichter/default.shtm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mfl7n

Who is your Muse?

My mother and stepfather are very inspiring people to me.

Favorite Music to play when working on a new piece?

I'm an avid radio listener, I love BBC Radio 4 (spoken word) and BBC Radio 6 for Music.

Which image featured on Muse & the Moon do you feel most sentimental about?

I'm a Piscean and a dreamer. My mermaid drawing is a little piece of me.

Words of wisdom to share with aspiring artists?

To never give up on yourself, to self promote well and keep drawing.

How would you like to leave your mark in the art world?

That's very difficult to say, some of my original artwork is now archived in the Victoria and Albert Museum which is a great honor. It will be there for a long time and I hope it inspires people.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/

If you could have one wish granted in 2012, what would be?

Oh gosh, to have my own shop/gallery/studio with a swimming pool, that would be wonderful. And of course world peace and an end to corporate greed.

To read Erin Petson's Bio, click below:

http://www.museandthemoon.com/pages/erin-petson

To purchase Erin Petson's work, click below:

http://www.museandthemoon.com/collections/erin-petson

Three words to describe your personality?

Determined, Curious and a Dreamer.

Three words to describe your art?

Reveals my heart.

What hour of the day do you feel most creative?

I'm a night owl.

What inspires your work? Current Obsessions?

Emotions that I can't express verbally. Those that strive for justice and human rights. Environmental degradation.  My hope for the future.

Favorite music to play when working on a new piece?

Little Dragon, Mark de Clive-Lowe and Hector Lavoe.

Who is your muse?

I have a bunch of  women artist crushes. Those that have set the bar so high, they keep me busy just trying to catch up.  Women like Noni Olabisi, Judy Baca and Juana Alicia. Their message and content are profound. 

Which art piece featured on Muse & the Moon do you feel most sentimental about?

Collateral Damage.  It was the start of my nomad shell girl character.  I named it Collateral Damage because I was listening to a reporter who was glossing over the words collateral damage.  It saddened me to hear how impersonal the term sounded.  We're talking about people, not just collateral.  This character is so much about that and has also become so much about displacement.  And after living in Colombia, South America; the second largest internally displaced country after Sudan... I continued to build upon this character. 

Words of Wisdom to share with aspiring artists?

Mister Cartoon told me once, "Nothing can replace hardwork." I think of that often.

http://mistercartoon.com/news.html

How would you like to leave your mark in the art world?

It's hard to measure impact on others. I guess I would like to create art that is genuine, made with love and carries a message.

If you could have one wish granted in 2012, what would it be?

For the fear paradigm to shift. For the U.S. population to remember the power we hold. For the end of corporate rule and true democracy to be achieved.

To read Erin Yoshi's Bio, click below:

http://www.museandthemoon.com/pages/erin-yoshi

To purchase Erin Yoshi's artwork, click below:

http://www.museandthemoon.com/collections/erin-yoshi

I think a lot about the circle of life. It’s a daily thought, not something that just pops in my head around the New Year.  I’ve always had issues surrounding the ticking clock. Even as a child, I questioned my existence on this planet. I was always rushing ahead; ready to jump to the next best thing, in hopes that I would figure out the meaning of life.  But as I get older, I’m trying to train my mind to live in the present, not get stuck in the past and not skip ahead to the unknown. But simply stay with the now. The bigger question I ask myself today is, does my path have a purpose? And will I run out of time and not have the chance to fully complete my journey?

We live in a society that celebrates birth but pushes death aside. It’s something we don’t talk about, have difficulty dealing with and therefore we are left with so many fears surrounding our inevitable fate.  And yet death plays an equally important role in each of our lives. It’s the one thing in life that we can’t escape. And the tragedy or perhaps beauty of it all, is that we don’t know how or when we will die? It’s beyond our control. Unless a person chooses to die. But regardless of how someone’s life comes to end, there is still a sense of loss, emptiness, stillness, as if time has stopped.

I can’t help but wonder why some lives end too soon, children especially or some people have to endure extreme suffering surrounding their death.  It all seems so unfair, tragic and sad: illness, accidents of any kind, murders, overdoses, terrorist attacks, the repercussions of war or on the opposite end of the spectrum, the power in which mother nature can swallow many lives in a second, in the form of an earthquake, hurricane, drought or tsunami. And yet this is the circle of life. We don’t get to completely choose our fate and we don’t always get that second chance to say goodbye or say those three precious words, I love you.

I guess the only insight I can provide to such a heavy topic is that there is light in darkness. There’s no shame in feeling a multitude of emotions during challenging times: Crying, sadness and even anger need to be released.  It’s ok to grieve. And in time, laughter and joy will replace the tears. And as cliché as it sounds, it is important to take time to smell the roses. Enjoy every moment in life (whether big or small) and try to love with an open heart.

I understand that it’s human nature to fear death, and it’s an uncomfortable topic to discuss, but I really think we might all benefit from talking about it every now and then. This way when death does coming knocking on our door or the door of a loved one, we can simply let go and ride the wave of life to the very end.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have experienced loss of any kind.

 Words of wisdom to share with aspiring artists?

I’ve always loved making collages. I guess for me it’s a way to visually express myself.  I enjoy the process.  Picking out the images, deciding how and where they should be placed, figuring out the color scheme. I just put on my favorite music and let inspiration take over. It’s totally therapeutic.  Just like capturing a moment in a photograph, I can look back on certain collages and know how I was feeling at the time.

Because I’ve always loved art, but didn’t always have the money to purchase a painting, collages were and are a way for me to still have art on my walls. I pick up free or inexpensive postcards or posters in my travels, I clip interesting images from magazines, I tear off the inspirational quotes on Yogi tea bags and I buy books by my favorite artists and rip them apart.

Sure, things might not look as pretty as a neatly framed image, but it suits me just fine.

I wanted to share a few of my collages and perhaps it will inspire you to create your own collage or mood/inspiration board.

Some of the artists featured in my collages: Tansy Myer, Candy bird, Chiho Aoshima, Camilla d’errico, Kime Buzzeli, Aya Takano. I apologize for not having every Artist name-no copyright intended.

And for those of you that might have some extra money to spend on an art print, I suggest you browse the art gallery at www.museandthemoon.com.  Prices range from $20 on up. So there’s something for everyone’s budget. And who knows, you might just discover your new favorite artist!

My friend’s mother has organized a holiday event in Pittsburgh the last 11 years for families impacted with HIV. Every year is challenging for families, but this year particularly so due to the economy we are all facing.  This year they have 80 children, many of whom are being raised by grandparents on a low fixed income.  Sometimes these families are forced to make a choice between shelter and food or clothes and school essentials.

How can you help:

The best and simplest way you can help is by making a donation of a gift card. Many of the kids are in their teens, so cards to Target, BestBuy and Walmart are three good options. You can have the cards sent directly to the following address:

The Partnership for Minority HIV/AIDS Prevention(PMHAP)

C/O Sabira Busra

201 South Highland Avenue

Pittsburg, PA 15206

I stumbled upon a great new website that's about empowering, educating and uniting young girls from all around the world. 

http://10x10act.org/

Please take time to check out their website.  Be sure to browse the Take Action section, which gives links to other organizations that support the same cause.

On a personal note.

I think the Spice Girls were right.  Sometimes we just need a little Girl Power. Even as adult women.  Somewhere along the way, things shift in girls. Fear, self doubt, and insecurity slowly creep inside our brain causing us to hate our bodies, make bad relationship choices or not believe in our dreams and ambitions. The lucky few never experience this, but some women have a heart of glass. 

Negativity is a hard habit to break. But the heart can be healed. 

There comes a time, and it happens at a different age or moment in a women's life, when the "break-up" just feels right.  You learn to detach from the past, fight the criticism, live in the present and like a good friend told me, "bend like a tree in the wind."

And when all else fails, just put on a Spice Girls song and dance your heart away!

"Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith"

-Margaret Shepherd

I have such fond memories of my grammar school band teacher, Mr. Miyata. He was animated, knew how to play almost every instrument, including the harpsichord and was passionate about teaching his students how to read music and appreciate the intricacies behind each instrument. He wouldn't let me play the drums, which frustrated me, but that's another story.

As a kid, I was always drawn to music, in many ways I feel like it saved me. With music, I was able to express a part of myself that I couldn't articulate in conversation. When I attended public grammar school, music and arts education was just an extension of our everyday curriculum. Now it's considered a luxury or not even an option for most students. It shouldn't be that way. I feel it's so important to take a stand for arts education.  We need our future artists, photographers, actors, playwrights, musicians, poets, filmmakers and dancers.

http://www.edutopia.org/arts-music-curriculum-child-development

Below are just a few of the organizations that support this cause or an extension of the cause. If you have a child in school and they don't have free art/music education, it's time to question why and work with your community to figure out how to save arts education in your school district.

http://www.dosomething.org/make-art-save-art

http://www.vh1savethemusic.com/about

http://ps22chorus.blogspot.com/

http://www.psarts.org/

http://muralarts.org/

http://www.casa0101.org/

http://littlekidsrock.org/

http://www.drawbridge.org/

I'm so very proud of a former co-worker, Katie Dellamagiore, and the rest of her production team. For the last four years, they have been pouring their heart and soul into a new documentary called Brooklyn Castle. 

Please take a moment to check out their website: Brooklyncastle.com

About the Film:

Intermediate School 318 in Brooklyn, New York, is housed in a squat concrete building on a dingy inner-city block. The school’s exterior offers little to impress but, in room 319, something extraordinary is happening. Over the last decade, hundreds of Ms. Vicary’s students have learned to play chess, one of the world’s oldest and most complex games; each day, the class fills with kids both well on their way to becoming the next Bobby Fisher and others just learning how to move the pieces. The school has a powerhouse chess team that has won 26 national chess titles — more than any other junior high school in the country. It’s a particularly notable achievement for I.S. 318, a Title I school, where more than 60 percent of students are from homes with incomes well below the federal poverty line.

Brooklyn Castle follows five of the school’s chess team members for one year, and documents their challenges and triumphs both on and off the chessboard. Justus is a prodigiously talented 10-year-old trying to navigate the unfamiliar pressures that come with newfound success and adulation. Eleven year old Patrick struggles with ADHD, and uses chess to improve his concentration. Alexis, 12, already views chess as a means to attain a higher education and support his immigrant family. Rochelle – an ambitious 13-year-old – strives to become the first African-American female to reach the level of chess master. And the team’s emotional and outspoken leader, 12-year-old Pobo, rallies his fellow students against school budget cuts while running for school president. In each of these young teens, we witness the profound ways that learning and playing the beautiful and complex game of chess has imbued the lives of these equally beautiful and complex students at an underfunded urban public school.

This year, I.S. 318′s chess team is the strongest in school history. But as the New York City public school system continues to reel from state and citywide financial crises, I.S. 318′s budget has been cut by more than $1 million. After school programs like chess are often frontline budgetary casualties, despite their proven success in improving students’ development in ways often unattainable in the classroom, especially in high-needs areas.

Coaches John Galvin and Elizabeth Vicary deeply believe that their students have benefitted from playing chess, and they are committed to keeping their program intact and alive. For Justus, Patrick, Alexis, Pobo and Rochelle, chess is more than just a game. It is a theatre of hard work and determination where they negotiate larger conflicts by maneuvering their armies of rooks, knights, pawns, and bishops – and where they can become kings and queens, far beyond the tabletop battlefield.

Please Support the Film:

Brooklyn Castle has launched a second Kickstarter campaign, and they need monetary support so they can fully complete post-production and have the film make a positive impact through their outreach campaign.  Any Donations would be greatly appreciated.