The Wind and The Raven Apothecary

01/25/2026

What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?

I love to draw, paint and create my thoughts as imagery.

These drawings emerged the way many of my sketches do—without a plan. I was deep in thought, and the thoughts seemed to summon the figures rather than the figures illustrating the thoughts.

What appeared were beings half-familiar, half-other: dressed in the manners of a bygone century, meeting one another in wintered and spring landscapes, pausing mid-conversation, mid-recognition.

I’m interested less in what they are than what they’re doing. Their posture. Their distance. Their hands. The fact that they face one another as equals, not as predator and prey, not as spectacle—but as witnesses.

To me, these images live somewhere between fable and memory. Between civilization and instinct. Between what we are taught to wear and what we are born knowing.

I’m curious what you see here.
What do these figures feel like to you?
What story do you think they’re inside of—or outside of?
And what do they stir in you that you didn’t expect?

When I created these, I didn’t feel whimsy first. I felt restraint.

These are not animals pretending to be people.
They are instincts wearing etiquette.

The raven-headed woman feels like memory and voice—the keeper of stories, grief, and intelligence that notices everything. Ravens don’t waste words. Neither does she. Her hands are folded, contained, deliberate. She knows more than she’s saying.

The fox feels like social fluency—adaptation, charm, survival through wit rather than force. He is alert, slightly amused, but not unkind. There’s a carefulness to him, as though he knows the cost of being misread.

What moved me most is that no one is dominating the scene.

They meet eye-to-eye.
They stand in snow—stillness, quiet, a holding breath.
And in the final image, when they hold hands, it doesn’t read as romance to me first. It reads as alliance.

A treaty between wild truth and civilized mask.

If I had to name the underlying current, I’d say this series is about:

the negotiation between instinct and social survival

the tenderness required to let the “other” be seen

and the deep longing to be recognized without being reduced

There’s also something profoundly non-modern here in the best way—like a folktale that refuses a moral and instead offers a question.

And maybe that question is:
What parts of ourselves are we willing to meet, if we let them dress how they wish?

What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time? I love to draw, paint and create my thoughts as imagery. These drawings emerged the way many of my sketches do—without a plan. I was deep in thoug…

01/21/2026

"Man's attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself. [We are] challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves."
~Rachel Carson

01/21/2026

01/15/2026

How trying different mediums and revisiting abandoned projects can elevate your work:

I have always been good as a sketch artist. My challenge has always been adding color and making the portraits look appealing and aesthetic.

My post is about perseverance and how as artists no matter what our age and how long we've been at it we MUST keep at it every day —learning improving and evolving.

Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't be good at creative expression.

There are NO RULES in artistry.

Following the Medium: How Charcoal and Cray-Pas Changed My Painting Voice Like many discoveries in art, this one didn’t arrive all at once—it unfolded in stages, each one asking me to listen a litt…

01/12/2026

Realizing my gifts as a visual creator and professional artist…
For many years, this WordPress space has been my spiritual diary—a place where I wrote my way through darkness, asked hard questions, and traced the long arc from grief toward healing. Those words mattered deeply. Writing quite literally saved me. It helped me make sense of loss, identity, ancestry, and the quiet work of becoming whole again.
But so did painting save me.
And happily journeys evolve.
Lately, my soul’s musings no longer arrive only as sentences. They arrive as color, texture, line, and image. What once needed to be spoken now asks to be seen.
So today, I’m gently reshaping this page—from a chronicle of inner survival into a living outlet for my creative endeavors. This space will now hold my visual art, mixed-media explorations, paintings, sketches, and the stories that rise from them. The same devotion is here—just expressed through a different language.
As a writer, telling my journey from darkness to healing was essential. As an artist, I now find that my thriving continues through the act of making. My hands have taken up with paintbrushes over where once only a pen was held, but the work feels just as sacred.
To those of you who have subscribed, followed, read, and walked beside me through the years: thank you. I am deeply grateful for every soul who has witnessed my path from professional author to aspiring painter. I promise to continue sharing content that is thoughtful, engaging, and true—whether it arrives as an image, a reflection, or a quiet moment of beauty.
And so, to answer the question:
What’s my dream job?
It’s this.
To live as a creator.To tell stories—sometimes with words, sometimes without.To make art that speaks where language falls short.To keep learning, risking, and becoming.
Thank you for being here as this next chapter unfolds. The hearth is still warm—only the fire has changed its shape.
With gratitude,Ivy

*self portrait made with watercolor, ink and Cray pass.

Realizing my gifts as a visual creator and professional artist… For many years, this WordPress space has been my spiritual diary—a place where I wrote my way through darkness, asked hard ques…

01/12/2026

Figure Drawing:

Informally, artists often refer to repetitive exercises as simply “practice” or specific “drills” to build muscle memory and skill.
The goal of this repetitive practice is to develop a deep understanding of the subject so that the artist can draw them accurately and confidently, whether from a reference or from imagination. —Hands and feet are often considered among the most challenging subjects in this field.

The general practice of repetitive drawing of the human form in various positions and specified parts was one of my least favorite homework assignments in my art courses. This sort of practice is “Art” that can quickly become “work” .

Figure Drawing: Informally, artists often refer to repetitive exercises as simply “practice” or specific “drills” to build muscle memory and skill. The goal of this repetiti…

01/12/2026

With great sadness we say “fare-thee-well” to The Greatful Deads 2nd in command Bob Weir.

My husband and I have listened to the Dead since we married 40 years ago; not just because of the sound of the band, but because of the magic the music seemed to weave while we listened to it.

Not long ago Bob gave a interview and explained WHY he believed his (and all music for that matter) was something far more mysterious than just a listening experience.

I and other artists and writers (like Charles de Lint) also feel that otherworldly pull when we sit in front of our type writers, easels, or pick up our chosen musical instruments. So many times when I render a painting of someone or something who comes forth suddenly from my Land of The Imagi-Nation; I feel something joining me in my studio, a presence filled with the emotions and feelings I’m trying to capture on canvas.

-I’ll share Bob Weirs thoughts on this subject below.

Bob Weir has described songs and art as “living creatures” or “characters” from another dimension that visit our world through musicians who act as a medium.
He viewed songs as “living creatures from another dimension” that visit through the artist. The artist’s role, as Weir saw it, is to gain the skill necessary to allow these “characters” to come through and tell their stories. He believed this interaction is mutually beneficial, allowing both the visitors and humans to find a shared experience that goes beyond their physical or ethereal forms.

Weir had also referred to these characters as real beings from another world who visit through musicians who have dedicated their lives to “inviting those creators from other worlds to come and visit our world”. He frequently discussed music’s capacity to go beyond the physical and temporal, fostering a shared, almost spiritual, experience for both performers and listeners. This perspective is part of his larger philosophical view on music’s transcendent power, often explored by the Grateful Dead during improvisation.

With great sadness we say “fare-thee-well” to The Greatful Deads 2nd in command Bob Weir. My husband and I have listened to the Dead since we married 40 years ago; not just because of t…

01/10/2026

The Betweenhouse of Mindful Wellness.

A small door has opened.

My tiny studio—The Betweenhouse—is now open by appointment to those who feel called to step inside.

It is a liminal space, not quite indoors and not quite out. A place where light pauses, where paintings dry slowly, and where an apothecary of memory and dreams lines the shelves.

This space holds my artwork, my handmade Wildcrafts Pnw offerings, and the quiet spells that form when time is honored.

If you have ever longed to bring home something shaped by intention and love, messenger me on my Ivy C. Mulligan account and set up a time to stop in.
—all are welcome here.

12/29/2025

Today, simply notice how you want life to feel.
Where it feels warmer.
Calmer.
More joyful.
More real.

Then place your full attention on what nourishes you,
with the intention of weaving those qualities into this very day.

That isn’t tempting fate.
It isn’t careless.
It’s being human.

And it really is safe to want a life that brings you peace.