21.... on a way artsy day

i taught sunday school this morning .... an art journaling class .....
i painted with all three kids this afternoon ..... a poster contest for school on the golden rule .......
then i SQUEEZED in number 21 in my art a day challenge ...... these four pictures are the process ....
1 ... a glazed and tissued background over papers
2.....added green letters to the bluish background
3....added a heart
4 ....wrote happy thing on the heart .....

here it is larger, easier to see and read ......

....ok....i'm coming back in for an edit ..... it still isn't big enough to get the idea ... you really MUST double click on it!!

it is larger than the other long paintings i've been doing ..... from where i am sitting now, it is on my staircase and it looks quite big and dramatic ..... bold .....
tomorrow is a monday ....you know what that means, right? nothing on the calendar except art .... well, not entirely true, i have a couple must-do errands .... but i suspect i'll get in three or four hours in my art room ....rah!!!

20 is a little weird, i think ....

ok... is this too weird? .... i have been working hard at this art business lately ... trying to get a line on who i want to be as an artist ... and how to get there ... so i look at a lot of other artists' stuff online and follow links and blah, blah ...... and i came across an artist, robert genn... a canadian guy .... who has a HUGE website/blog and sends out twice a week pep talks if you sign up for them ..... so.... this is a clip from his last email.......:

A sort of "Jenny Craig Success Course of
the Arts." Mine's free. Here it is:

Find a sanctuary where you can comfortably work.
Dedicate at least two hours a day to your art.
Have more than enough equipment and supplies.
Set short- and long-term goals and keep track of progress.
Think of your work as exercise, not championship play.
Explore series development and exhaust personal themes.
Work alone with the benefit of books and perhaps tapes.
Replace passive consumption with creative production.
Use your own intuition and master your technology.
Feel the joy of personal, self-generated sweat.
Fall in love with your own working processes.
Be forever on the lookout for the advent of style.
Try to be your own person and claim your rights.
Don't bother setting yourself up for rejection.
Don't swing too wildly and damage the well-being of others.
Don't jump into the ring until you're feeling fit.

....he said explore series development and exhaust personal themes ... those of you who are regular readers are probably exhausted with me as i exhaust personal themes!!! .... so this blue bird of happiness collage might be a stray .....an exercise, not championship play! .... or it could grow on me ..... i think i could add a worm to the left lobe of the heart for that bird to be hunting for ... but it kinda grosses me out to think about a worm in the heart ..... not that i'm a literalist or anything with my blue bird of happiness tromping about in rain boots ...... andy holds me to a VERY high standard ... my degree is in art history and i can talk the art talk ..... so he quizzes me on meanings and nuance in my art ..... and this foolish bird had us both stymied .....

anyway, this peculiarly tall bird is my 20th piece in 20 days ..... if i am full of doubt and self loathing after number 21, i'll stop this game of art every day ..... or i'll at least quit posting it!!

here is a background i have ready to work on tomorrow .....

... i think i'll put some light green, lime green or light blue letters on it ..... and then a foreground ....i've no idea what i'll do with the foreground ...but i'm pretty sure it will NOT be a bird with rainboots ...... though, never say never .....




and one more bit of happy, artsy blogginess ..... julia painted this last night ........ it is a sprite .... a woodland elf ..... a red headed cutie pie with big ole' ears!! .... i'm actually really proud of how her background turned out .... just gorgeous!!





and her girlfriend who spent the night, grace, painted these two paintings .... i think they are both her dog chloe .... though i could be wrong, they might be pretzel .... and now that i look at it, i think it is pretzel ...... either way, grace was very excited and happy with the whole artistic process .....

maybe i should stick with being an art facilitator/teacher ..... and quit putting birds in boots .....

19

... i had the most fabulous, art filled day with a dozen girlfriends ..... some came early and brought breakfasty stuff ... some came late and brought lunch .... all spent some time in the basement painting and gluing and making and doing ...... we painted and decoupaged about a dozen wooden boxes .... about half are finished and the other half, nearly so ..... we also did two canvases, both done now .... one i just finished moments ago .... none of them look like "my art" .... they were artsy crafty and fun to do .... but i can't count any of them as "MINE" .... so.... this afternoon, after everyone left, i finished up this small key to my heart collage..... to call piece 19 for the 19th day in a row of art ..... and then.... even after doing art LITERALLY all day long .... my twins each have a kid spending the night tonight ... and what have i been doing with the girls? ....painting of course .... julia's pal is really into drawing and i talked her through a painting ...and it turned out groovy, fab..... so now, at 10 o'clock ...i've just washed my brushes .... and left the kids in the basement ....wonder what time i'll be getting to bed?

18.... and a bit on 19

... this is my 18th piece in 18 days ..... i'm very happy to be so prolific .... it feels nice to work hard and have something to show for it ....... this background was a gorgeous, juicy, deep, multi layered extravaganza .... i'm not sure even where or how it started to get to this richness... that means, if i needed to duplicate it, i couldn't!!! ..... i chose to make a tall, pink house ....and it has lots of yellow flowers in the yard .... a joyful, little house if ever i saw one ...... well worth a double click on the picture to get a nice close up of the rich loveliness .....

and tomorrow, day 19 .... and the piece that i am working on is NOT working out ...ack .... can i show you something ugly ...or, really, it isn't ugly ...it is dumb .....but, i'll work on it ....or do something else all together ..... i guess we'll see, huh?

17, tennis, and girlfriends.......not in that order .....

let's just get right down to the true confession that will start this post ..... i'm not really certain if i've ever confessed this next bit on my blog before ... here goes .... i HATE being in the kitchen .... i don't like cooking... i tolerate baking (unless it is christmas cookies with my mom and then i LOVE it) ..... and truly .... i just don't care about food that much ..... i like food.... i like to eat great food ..... but i don't like it enough to want to make it ..... what did e make for dinner? reservations....not really .... i actually cook dinner for my family 5 or 6 days out of seven ....the other night or two andy cooks or we go out...... but i would be happy with a bagel for breakfast every morning for the rest of my life.... a sandwich (turkey with cheddar and good tomoatos) for lunch into eternity .... and pizza and a salad for dinner .... now, i know that's not healthy....nor is it how i live .... but, i can imagine it..... cooking would be neglibible! .....throw in some grapes, watermelons and bananas, and i'd be set .... so ..... based on this knowledge .... you can see how far i will go to avoid anything kitcheny....

i have a home tennis match tomorrow ... first one .... we have five doubles teams playing .... i'm playing line three with best pal, dana ...... the funny thing is that a year ago we were just taking lessons and we'd see these teams having parties at their matches ..... with table cloths and flowers and all manner of fanciness ... all next to the tennis courts ... and it looked so goofy-funny-crazy .... we will NEVER be like that ... so, lesson learned, never say never ... cause yep, we are doing it ..... the last three thursdays we've been away and the home team has had food and drinks and whatnot ...... and tomorrow it is our turn ..... so the captain sent out an email .... sign up for the food you will bring .... and the first thing that crossed my mind was that i wanted to bring the sodas and water....ha ...no cooking .... but no..... she signed up for that ......what's that leave me? ..... so i volunteered for the table cloth, the paper goods, and ....ta dum! ... the centerpiece .... which, if i do say so myself is an outstanding display of tennis craftiness!!! ........ i have a vase in the middle of my ball hopper .... pretty coolio, eh? .... i did that for my tennis girlfriends.......

then..... i am having a social for my women's group on friday .....that's more girlfriends........and lunch ..... i, of course, am in charge of paper goods and drinks.... but even better than that.....for the "event" portion of the social ..... i am having a dozen women arts and crafting in my basement studio!!! certainly that validates my "i don't want to feed you" stance ...i won't feed you but, here, use all my art supplies ....... thank heavens for potlucks!!!

hopefully on friday i will remember to take pics for you and show you the fabulousness that my women's group creates on friday .....

...in the meanwhile .... here is number 17 .... the 17th new piece of art that i shall show you on this the 17th day in a row of hard core art creating ...... i actually had a bit of time in my studio today ..... so i could potentially get WAY ahead on this creating thing .... coolio, huh? anyway ... this was a juicy square background that i had other plans for ...... i actually wrote on the back of it that i wanted to put a blue pear on it ... oh well .... i'm on a heart and home kick! ....so heart and home it is ...... and if someone buys it and reads the back, they'll just have to understand that my artistic process can be a bit on the flakey side ......

come back tomorrow..... 18 is already waiting .... and 19 is SO close to done!!! .... tra la la ......

16, my fireplace, and a confession

.... these three pics are the progression of this painting over the course of about a week ..... and now it is hanging in my family room...and will for about a month until i take it to a show ..... then who knows?

my pal, allison, was over to day to hang in the art studio....we painted .... acatually, i'm fairly paint covered, but i think she mostly just collaged .... did the glue thing ..... we were talking about this particular piece of art ... she liked it .... and i don't know if we were talking about pricing it or doing more like it ...... but she thought it would be expensive cause of the THICK canvas box that the heart is on ....

........but no, allison, that is not a canvas ... it is just a box.... a real and true and actual box ... that i got a battery in at the mac store ... and when i got the box i LOVED it ....not just because it was the SO needed battery, but also because it was a tight, stiff, compact, heavy duty, fold in on itself with lots of tuckage BOX .... it wasn't a box, it was a BOX ..... so i taped it up and gessod the dickens out of it .......


this was at the beginning of the summer .....so...it went like this
may: fell in love with a box
june: taped the box with about 30 yards of tight tape
july: 487 coats of gesso
august: dictionary paper and paint it yellow
september: oh, i'll mount it on a canvas and make it something ......
and if you read yesterday's post, you know i'm on a heart art kick ..... so.... a heart it would be and here it is .......

... so, by now faithful reader, you know that as i make fresh art, i put it over my fireplace for a bit ....mostly to see who in my family notices it right away ... and who has to be nudge into noticing (and commenting) ...... but i've been on SUCH a productive role lately that everyone just looks automatically .... this is what my mantle looks like at the moment ..... the newest heart box piece is in the family room on the wall opposite this ....... and i have LOADS of small painting that run along down my staircase, resting on the bit of a ledge ..... so i'm all over arted and over decorated and i LOVE that ..... my family room is even more groovy and colorful than usual ......

so... who read the title of this post? or do you just skip ahead and start looking at pics and reading .... that's what i do ... i even do that with books ... i can read a whole book and not be sure of the title when asked .... like my current book ...nope, don't know what it's called ... but i do love it ..... uh oh ....i digress .... who read the post title ..confessions ... here is my confession ..... or my ethics question ..... i have said to myself, and aloud to you too actually, that i am going to do a piece of art a day for as long as i can ...... so what happens if i do two in a day .... can i save it up and show it to you tomorrow .......so today is day 16, and this is my 16th piece of art .... that heart box up there .... so ..... just, hypothetically of course, say i finished TWO pieces today ..... do i have to show it to you ? or can i save it for tomorrow? somehow it seems like it would be messy if i said, art 16 and 17 on day 16? no grace in that ........ easier just to say 16 ..... and save 17 for tomorrow ? and if perchance i don't have the opportunity to art tomorrow, i can still keep my HIGHLY self motivating game going and carry on with 18 the next day.......

ok, ok ...not so hypothetical ... i did finish another piece today ..... and i really, really, really want to show it to you .... but, for the sake of this little head game i'm playing by myself .....i am NOT going to show you until tomorrow ...... so that i can go on and on and even if i get ahead, i am allowing myself to have a hard day that has no art in it ..... and .... even better ..... i acutally finished three pieces today ....yippee zippy hooray ...how's that for groovy tooviness? so i can be two days ahead ..... rah rah sis koooooom bah ......

allison and i discussed the "ethics" of me not blogging about getting ahead .... and decided to go ahead and tell you about it ... so now you'll really want to come back for tomorrow's painting.... it's way groovy cool and made me happy .....
and allison, i did do the outlining like you suggested and it looks sharp!! yippeeeeeeeee .... and julia likes it even better than yesterday's painting! high praise from my favorite critic ......

done....number 15

this painting is called "gladness and singleness of heart" ..... the background has been blogged about before ..... the foreground was a brand new idea today ...... i think i can point to two things that influenced it .....

1..... i recently went to lola's gallery .... kristy, there, had the collages that she normally carries, and also had still all the ones that she had left from folk fest ...... she didn't need that many so she picked which ones she wanted to show first .... she sent home mostly flowers ... becuause she has never sold any of my flower pieces ...... which is so interesting to me, cause my flower pieces are what i, personally, sell most often ...... i've sold boatloads of flowers ..... kristy, however, has sold mostly mona lisas and hearts ..... so that's what she kept ... well then.... i say to myself, really maybe i should do more hearts cause i don't have many to sell ..... and i DO have quite a few monas about .......

2..... i am teaching a spiritual journaling class for sunday school ..... i've only done a couple classes so far ..... and was having a bit of a balancing issue between artsiness and substance ..... we are painting (in our church clothes! oh my!), collaging, doodling, writing ....... and this week, yesterday actually ..... i found the right balance .... we had a great class, i think ..... at one point, my pal, melinda, came in and said the room was in a state of zen like calm .... we were all writing furiously about gladness and singleness of heart .... what's it mean in general...what's it mean to you ... how can you manifest it better kind of things .......so.......gladness and singleness of heart ......

and those two things together led to me putting this heart and home on my collage today .....gladness and singleness of heart was what was in my heart ..... selling hearts well is what was in my head! .... so that combo of heart and head .... and saying that reminds me ... next sunday our topic is about being blessed with "memory, reason and skill" ......

i had a great art day ... i got a lot of other things worked on today ..... allison is coming over tomorrow, so that is more, for sure, art time ..... i'm pretty sure that the art i show you tomorrow will have a heart on it ...... hope i don't start boring you ..... let me know when i do!!!

14

ah.... 14th painting in 14 days .... i am feeling fresh and full and fun and fffffff .... i ran out of illiteration ..... i finished this piece at 9pm .... i don't usually art at night ..... but i have been lately ..... anything to get in my one a day! .....

tomorrow is actually a full on art day .... i'm going to school in the morning ....julia has a speaking part at morning chapel .... and i have a couple errands to do .... and some keep up with life things ... but i'm sure i'll get in a couple hours!! ... yippeee .... absolutely looking forward to something BIG .....

hope you had a grand weekend ..... come back on monday night, i'm sure to have some pics to show for my artsy day in my studio ......

13

day 13 and i have completed a painting ... this collage started as a tall yellow canvas with large letters ....now? there are glimmers of yellow and letters behind the turquoise loveliness ....... the best thing about flickr is you have to title your pieces .... i called this heartstrings ....... i'm VERY happy with how it turned out ..... three out of the four other people in this house had nice things to say about it too!! ..... i'm raising art critics apparently!!!


these are four canvases i have been working on .... layers of background papers and glazes and thicker acrylics and stenciling or stamping of letters and, on some, tissue ...... the one on the far left should go in between the two previous pics on this post as the in between of the process ........ i also have a fifth canvas this shape that is well under way ..... i have plans for some of these ... but not all... i have faith though that the ideas will come .......


i do not usually have an idea and then get the right canvas and work towards a very specific end goal .... i usually do the first 4 or 5 steps of my "process" ... but on this one, i have a big idea... a plan .... now the trick will be not getting off track and actually following through on my plan .... no guarantees there ..... if it starts not looking like the preconceived notion i'll veer off and do something else ...ya know how that goes?

hope you've had a happy saturday .... sophie's team won their socccer game by a lot to a little ... sophie looked like a good player today .... for the first time this season!! ..... drew had baseball practice ... played at catcher and pitcher ..... the girls went with andy to play golf ..... 9 holes on the par 3 ..... i took drew to buy new cleats ... my sweet little boy wears a men's size nine ..... it is so not cool to cry in the sporting good store about your baby growing up too fast ..... nine? that's humongous feet ...... he's only ten years old?? .....i also have gotten my lesson plans and such all together for the next three sundays worth of journaling classes ...... one day i'll remember to take my camera to that class!! ......

hope your are having a fun and fab weekend ..... go do something artsy ......

12 ... i'm going off long titles and i'm gonna just call this one 12, ok....so read about 12 now

i had a morning full of studio time ..... i worked on five canvases that are 30 inches by 10 .... so long and skinnnnny ...... i worked on giving them text and texture and depth ..... two are gorgeous.... two are fine ....one needs some serious help .... or a coat of gesso to start over!!! regardless, it was a good art filled morning of puttering and working on this and that ..... i probably actually worked on about 10 different pieces ...... BUT .... during my studio time, i did NOT finish a piece ...OH NO .....we can't have that can we? why slow down now? so, tonight after dinner i worked on a small piece, this heart .... did the embroidery and called it a day ..... so, the mostly yellow background heart with turquoise is a six by six and entry number 12 .... yippee!!



this photo is a smidge of a piece i'm doing ...... it'll probably be saturday or sunday's entry into an art a day keeps the doldrums away ........
and my doldrums are definitely away! my sweet husband has been out of town all week and got home today, safe and sound .... and he brought me a GREAT artsy, groovy souvenir ..... i'll snap a pic tomorrow so you'll just have to come back!
happy weekend to you and yours ......

11 and some other stuff.....

two wordly wise vocabulary and spelling tests tomorrow .... spell cultivate ..... two math tests tomorrow ..... and i'm all brushed up on prime numbers, factors and prime factorization (2x2x2x3=24) ..... two essays(i proof read) on inventions that have bettered the world (guide dogs and close captioning for the hearing impaired) ..... and a quick brush up on social studies...... ok, i didn't really do anything for the social studies questions and answers except for sing the star spangled banner about 12 too many times ...... fine mom, i get it that you know who frances scott key is ....... luckily, the first grader and i were like this: ....did you finish your work....yes ...good ..... that's how we were today ..... usually half the first grade math assignments begin like this ....tell someone at home what you learned in math, then with them do ________ ..... that's ok ..... but this real life does get in the way of arting!!! i actually finished today's piece during survivor!!! that's some late art time for me ..... survivor!! it's on! it sure has changed a TON since that first season, oh so long ago .......

this sweet, small heart art is my eleventh entry in my finish a piece every day grand hooooha ....... i'm happy with it .... i have a row now of seven smallish canvases in my family room .... proof of my commitment to get my art groove going .... and going and grooving it is .....



i had four blank white canvases, 10 by 30 inches each .... and today i papered them, glazed them, and added some acylic colorful interest to them ..... and here is one ... the others are loaded onto flickr if you are so inclined as to go and look at them ..... just like i did five ten by ten canvases all backgrounded ...and 6 of the six inch by six inch squares ..... all in one grand effort .....so that i could then finish one a day .... so it shall go with these, i hope ..... soon you'll have four days in a row of long thin creations ..... i wonder what they will be ??

heart art again? ...yup ... hope that's ok .....

i had a meeting this morning ....then i went to pottery late ... and stayed late too ..... dashed home, walked the dog, ate a late lunch, made a few phone calls and the kids came home ..... three spelling tests to help study for ..... weird letter cubes to be built ... that's the new kinesthetic way to teach phonics...... how do you spell mitochondria? what? i didn't have to learn that until eighth grade ...... and all manner of busy, busy, busy ..... and then there was a lull .... a dog patting kind of moment where we're all waiting to see if sophie knows how to spell monday ....she does ..... and in that calm, julia said, hey mom, what art did you do today? .....julia, i haven't done any yet .... i had a meeting and pottery and barely a spare minute for anything ...... and she said ...oh, pottery should count .... but no... i need to have FINISHED pieces ... and i just started pieces ..... she said, quick, you have to do something before we go to sophie's soccer practice .......so, today is not the day that i say i coulnd't finish a piece ...... i did finish one .... it is REMARKABLy similar to the last three that i've done .... but i just said finished pieces ...not spectacularly original pieces every day .... all though .... of the ten now that i've done ..... at least a couple make me awfully happy ...... and the rest will round out a grand art display nicely ......

here's a funny thing .... when you ask sophie to spell monday .... she says m o n d a y ... you then say AND .... and she says and don't forget the cap lock .... ???? ..... that's what she says to prove she remembers to capitalize monday ..... how twenty first century is she? ....

this heart art is finished off with embroidery floss ... and i had a good stew over what color to use .... i was going all matchy, hearty and it wasn't doing it for me ..... so i went with big contrast ..... i think turquoise and red are perfectly fab together ...... note to self: more turquoise and red combo ......

and pottery ..... i am nearly out of ceramic flat bits to add to my canvases ..... so i made more .... i made a larger sized disk so that i can make a bigger bouquet on a three square foot canvas .... i haven't done that before .... then i also made small balls that i flattened ..... so they'd glue easily ..... so those'll be more buds .... or bottle cap equivalents ..... if you know what i mean .....

tomorrow is like today .... very busy while the kids are at school..... tests to help study for and homework to supervise afterwards ..... not sure what the art outlook is!!! stay tuned ......

once upon a time there was a mom who had a sitter but instead of leaving when the sitter came she just went right on blogging ..... why...not sure....

yippee, zippy, hooray .... i finished this out today with black fluff and a key hole escutcheon .... now that's an SAT word ..... don't go checking my spelling though .... escutcheon means little fancy metal bit around the key hole .... or....i THINK that's what it means ...... anyway ..... this is my ninth finished piece in nine days .... i'm cranking and feel good about my art accomplishments ...... i'd love to stop and chat and tell you what all i did today ...BUT .... the babysitter just got here ..... cause andy is in switzerland (milan tomorrow....paris the next day!!!) ....but this is my art blog not my woe-is-me-can-i-whine-a-bit blog ..... i'm thinking you wouldn't be so likely to come read it for that ..... and the sitter is here (can't call him a BABY sitter since i have no babies ....oh....i could whine there too .... no.... i won't .... deep breaths ...... ) the sitter is here so that i can go to back to school night and hear just how woefully ill prepared for fifth grade i am ...even though the twins seem to be doing fine with it!!! .... luckily first grade is a breeze for me ..... and sophie seems to be doing fine with it .... when she isn't fretting over just how much work they are making her do ..... anyway..... art blog, art blog.... i must keep saying that ......i have POTTERY class tomorrow ... that's a fab thing, eh? ..... i'll at least make something flat and fab to glue to a canvas ... might even make something worthwhile enough to give as a christmas gift ..... we'll see ..... ok .... have i mentioned the sitter is HERE ... no doubt wondering why i am still here too .... haven't budged since he got here ... but i did get this whole nonsensical blog out .... whew .... i'll be charming and enlightening in tomorrow's blog ...... promise .....

late edition.... p.s.....NUTSO ....somehow i'm a day off .... i was thinking TOMORROW was the 18th but it is TODAY ....so ... happy birthday to my sweet brother david ..... i sent him this link so that he could take a walk down memory lane ...... those of you who push it, that was a HUGE part of our childhood ..... kinda funny to think about it now .....

eight is great .....

...day 8 .... and this is my 8th finished piece .... it is TINY at 6 inches square .... i haven't done something this petite in YEARS .... really! years!! ..... i've been on a bigger is better kick for a good long time now ..... six inches hardly gives you space to do anything!! ..... but i did it .... and i'll have five more soon ...maybe over the course of the next five days ..... i didn't mean for this challenge to get me making smaller stuff ... but time wise, smaller sure is faster!! ...... plus, since i am prepping for a show in LESS than two months now, it makes sense to make some smaller ...since smaller is definitively less expensive (in my booth, anyway) ..... and not everyone is willing or able to afford a larger canvas .... so.... contrary to all previous mantras (bigger is better) .... i shall now be chanting "small is lovely too" .... so there you go .... i did work on one three foot square canvas today .... RED, red, RED .....though it is days away from being done .... i'm sure i'll have another tiny piece for tomorrow, day nine in my quest for completed canvases ........

i loaded a bunch of pics to flickr with this heart ..... this one, and this too are interesting glimpses into my studio, my life, my quirks ...... if you slide the mouse over them i've made lots of little notes to read ......

happy monday ....have a great week .....

have a heart!

.... i am SO happy i decided to challenge myself to a finished piece every day for as long as possible .... this is my seventh piece in seven days and is a monument to stolen minutes!!! ......

today, after teaching my ART JOURNALS class at sunday school (ineffable joys was the topic today!) .... and after picking up the kids from a birthday party ..... before we went to baseball ..... in the FIFTEEN MINUTES between birthday and baseball .... while my kids were changing out of swim suits.... while STILL wearing my backpack purse EVEN .... i whipped out a paintbrush ....but wait, i'm getting ahead of myself ......

i had done a heap of backgrounds a while back ..... this is the last of the ten by tens ....... so, i was ready .... and i had planned on one more flower for it ... but didn't have the time!!! .... so i went with faster .... and without even putting my pursed down... i used my burnt sienna glaze on the BRIGHT background to mark out a heart ...... so you can still see the papers and the letter stenciling and whatnot ... but outside the heart is darker, drabber .... inside the heart is bright and lovely .... get it? then i needed a stronger delineation so i fuzzed it up ..... i used pink fibers and sewed them around the line of the heart .... i'd considered doodling it but went with fiber for the fun and fast factor .... and the keys .... i was actually not working on the finishing touches in my studio .... i was doing it in the family room while dinner was cooking ...... and julia was at my elbow and giving me advice ....i had four keys to add on .... but she didn't like one of them ..... she understood the key to my heart thing ...... and said i had three kids, so three keys would work well .....

i finished this at about 8.30 .... so no chance of taking the photo outside in natural indirect sunlight (do y'all do that?) .... the colors might not be too true ... but close!!!! and it's posted .... and i'm still on track with my challenge .... hooray .... and i do think that the need for speed freed me up to do something that i wouldn't have normally done, perhaps .......

if you put the word pear in this particular spot on the scrabble board are you effectively blocking future triple word scores?

hooray .... i finished a piece this morning .... pear, double word, 12 points! ..... andy and the twins were golfing ..... and i got it done before they came home .... all before sophie's soccer game! .... i used a burnt sienna glaze on the game board to age it ..... so the lines weren't glaringly white, actually ...... i was just going to do that at the bottom half to make a horizon line/table top ..... but i liked how it looked so much that i did the whole board and then added the blue-ness at the bottom of the game board for the horizon line ...... the blue-ness goes well with the double letter score square...... the pear is made of vintage dictionary ..... the brown background canvas also has a layer of dictionary pages ..... i usually make pears out of maps ... but it seemed reasonable that a scrabbley pear should be made out of a dictionary just to keep that whole letter thing going on ...... right?

.... and ... the grandest thing of all about being an artist? having fresh art whenever you want! ..... and when this was done? before the glue was even dry? popped it up in the family room ....redecorated all together .... took all the mantel pieces down and started fresh ...well, the monkeys are same old, same old ... but the rest is fresh ... there is actually another three foot canvas BEHIND the pears ..... so i can switch the look out on a whim now ......

....and ....if you are keeping track .... this is day six of "post a NEW piece of art for as many days in a row as possible" self challenge ......PNPAFAMDIRAP challenge ......

teensy tiny turtle time ..... may many marbles manifest machiavellian mania .....ferociously fabuloso flowers

..... today's painting is "turtle flowers" ....fifth piece in five days for those of you keeping track of the new painting post each day ........ i love this little vintage turtle card ..... and when i saw the coloring of the turtle it made me think of some marbles i have ... so.... i dug out those marbles and they were perfect ..... kind of orange, greeny, yellow stripedy ...... just like that turtles neck ....(this would be the right spot to have an e6000 shout out to heidi!!) ...... this background was one of the multitude i did a while back ...... just ready and waiting for a day when i didn't have time to do a whole piece .....

i'm not positive that i'll be finishing a piece tomorrow ..... is that bad that my big self challenge might be broken on day six? ... i guess as long as i have backgrounds pre-done, i have a chance ......but, i am going to a soccer game and a baseball game tomorrow ..... not to mention just all the usual weekend life stuff .... but .... i PLAN to do a piece ..... i actually have a grand plan ..... we'll just have to wait and see how my execution of the grand plan goes ...... here's a clue ....pear for twelve points ......

tra la la .... have a fab. weekend .... hope you find time for something artsy!

yesterday was a jack painting .... so today's king and queen flowers seem a likely follow up ....

here's where i planned out what this painting would become .... i was purging the studio and found this background that i must have started well over a year ago .... and decided to go ahead and use it .... usually my backgrounds are just backgrounds, but this one even had a horizon line .... i repainted the green ground ....it was too minty ..... i made it a bit more greeeeeeeeeeeeen ...... the top half had a red mesh over the background .... apparently i had big ideas for this piece and then abandoned it all together ..... but ... the red mesh made me decide to go with reddish bottle caps and bingo call numbers that are red painted wood bits ..... i had tried the cards mounted on red, but that was tooooo red .... and on black it seems to "go' with the cards better .... and makes a grand focal point .... the far, far, far background of this is maps .... from some long ago road trip, i imagine! ......

yes, this is my fourth day in a row of posting a new painting ..... rah .... five pieces in five days, not bad .... and this one is even a healthy size at 12 by 16 inches ......

i just did a search through my flickr pics and found the sister paintings to this background .... apparently i started four at the same time .... and this one got left behind ......this monopoly flower painting, this flower field one that i know i sold at marist last year and this one that i think my mom has are all the same sized canvases and have similar background maps...and mesh ....i must have been on a mesh kick? ..... they are related ..... i'm glad this king and queen flowers has finally lived up to its potential ......


and just one more thing ..... one of my oh-so-very-favorite-bloggers, heidi,(heidi's so favorite that she has a link on my tool bar!) posted some sorted buttons and this and thats...... and i ADORE buttons and button sorting ..... in some issue or other of cloth, paper, scissors they asked what you did to relax, or to find your art zen .... and i actually had two of my things published .... one of them was about button sorting ....... so, for heidi.... i took a photo of one of my button collections .... it is actually looking a bit depleted ... i should do some sorting soon .... but actually, i'm too busy creating when i'm in my studio.... who has time for zen?

i have a new plan ... really it might be an old plan .... or it could even be considered no plan at all.....

my plan, you see, is to do more art .... to get myself geared up for this show that i'm doing and that i have nearly no art for .... how can i sell a bunch of paintings if i don't have a bunch of paintings .... so ..... what if i FINISH a painting every day? how long can i do that .... how long can i post a new painting every day ...... well.....let's find out ...... this happy flower painting .... i'm calling it jack's flowers ...... is my third painting in three days ..... and that's with living a hugely full day (i won't bore you with the details...i'll stick with the "it's an art blog" thing ) ...... so ... tomorrow .... day four ...... and i'll have a fresh painting to post .... and .... i plan on working ahead so that saturday and sunday, which are tough days for finishing art, i can post something new .... so how many can i do? i know i can manage five, six, even seven ..... but what about 10? fifteen? 20? ... i actually have no idea how long i can keep up the momentum ...... we shall see!!!

happy editor's note .... or, editor's happy note... added later: i added this to my flickr site before soccer practice ... and now, just after soccer practice, it already it has quite a few comments and a favorite ....... gotta love that happy flickr thing ....... shout out to mary carmen, becorama, and lisa kettell for already telling me they think jack's flowers are groovy toovy ......

when i was a kid, i loved to play monopoly with my brothers and especially liked when i got both utilities.....no fretting about affording houses

i had another happy day in my art room ...... all my planning out of projects on saturday is really working well for me ..... i feel very productive .... and don't spend much time dithering about colors and pieces and papers and things .... cause i did all that dithering on saturday .... and for the most part, i didn't do much mind changing ......

if you want to see the beginnngs of this piece you can look at the bare paper background ...i think this is the bottom left one ..... and the first glazing....i think the far right one..... and then with some stenciled letters ..... it is the one on the right, though it took me a while to figure that out cause it is upside down .... and then, on saturday, it was all planned out and ready for the final work ......so ....that's the process ...... and now it's done .... i wonder if anyone will ever love it enough to buy it? .... or maybe it'll be a gift for someone come christmas time .... or maybe......or maybe i don't know what ...stay tuned ....i know i'll have another new piece to post tomorrow ...... and yes, it'll be more flowers ..... in fact .... i think i will be able to post a new flower canvas every day this week ...... cross your fingers for me!

i win, i win...i won the coolest mom contest ......my mom ROCKS.....

no, no...not ME...i'm not the coolest mom .... i HAVE the coolest mom .....thereby making me the big winner ..... i guess it means my brothers win too ... but really, it's my blog....so i'm the winner, ok?
anyway......
my mom just sent me this email :
Yesterday I was awarded the "art activist of the year- 2006" award by the tampa tribune and the brandon News! With another person with whom I worked to found the GREATER BRANDON ARTS COUNCIL last year. Will send article when it appears in the paper
LOVE, your mom, the activist!

how groovy is my mom? starting art councils and winning prizes and being an activist? .... she rocks!!
...here's her website too ..........


.... and ... this blue bingo-ness is a painting that i finished today ....... you can see the original background here ....and surely you recognize the green paper leaves from the big batch that i painted and posted yesterday..... i'm quite happy with how it turned out ...... even happier that i spent most of my day in my studio ...... tra la la......

gearing up to be a prolific artist and get loads done .....

hooray .... i got a ton of good art stuff done today ...... i started by painting dictionary pages green ..... they're lined up here light to dark ...... i did a ton because i have about 6 backgrounds that are READY to be flowerfied ...... i'm on the brink of having quite a few finished pieces ..... yippeeee!!





i have BUNCHES of canvases that are back- grounds .... ready to become something fabulous .... this one is a back- ground that started with a poster from and english newspaper, of herbs ....... i'm going with a jumbo sized playing card and ceramic disks i made last spring .... i'll use those red papers for borders or berries or some such accent color thing ..... it brings out the red in the jack, you see! ......



this piece is a background that is AT LEAST a year old ... maybe older .... not sure why i never felt the urge to finish it ..... though i suspect it is because it is not my usual size or shape .... it is smallish, and not square ... but .... while working in my studio and prepping for a bunch of foregrounds, i got out all my partial canvases and tried hard to figure out how to finish them ..... so, for this one, i've chosen the king and queen, matted them, picked some bottle caps ..... and we'll see if in the next couple of days if it works out!!



..... and this is one of the multitudes of canvases i did one day .... VERY small for me ..... it is 10 by 10 .....about a quarter of the size of my favorite small 18 by 18 ....... but i think with the electric company and some grape flowers, it's going to make it to finished this week as well .....

i also have a three foot square canvas under way ..... it is mostly brown ....except for the scrabble board on it ..... so it isn't much to look at ....yet ..... it is the painting i'm MOST excited to work on tomorrow morning ...... so .... i had a busy weekend of getting ready to finish some pieces ...... i'm thrilled with the progress ......

my pal, al, asked about doing an art show soon .... she'd heard there might be an opening and they'd be looking for last minute booths ..... the good news/bad news is that i really have hardly a bit of art in my house ready to do a show .... that's fab .... it means my work is sold, or on display at lola's ..... so that's good ... the bad is that i've signed up to do the marist show in about two months ....eek ..... so that's why i'm cranking .... and now that i just typed that all out, i wonder if i've already written this out in my blog ..... and i'm being repetitive for you .... if so, that just goes to show how it is weighing on my wee little brain !!

happy week to you ..... be artsy ......

it's a beautiful day and i walked the dog and we got muddy playing in a sprinkler and then i bathed her but now it is time for art ......

i have a GREAT day planned .....
three in the family have gone to play golf....
sophie and i are seconds away from going down to the studio to be artsy .....
so has a noon soccer game ....first of season....rah!
then, i plan on some more art moments in the basement, cause i am certain julia will want some time there with me .....
i might go to the tennis store to get new sneakers....i have shin splints.... woe is me, but i think new shoes will help .....
and then this evening we have a sitter, andy is putting on a tux (can i wear my new groovified skort? maybe not?) .... and we are going to a grand hooooha for the big brothers/big sissters ......
somewhere in there i have to gather together art supplies for my sunday school class ...... how groovy a sunday school class is that?
hope you have grand plans for your day too ......
in the meanwhile .... check this out:
i was at aj's website .... and she has a link to a groovy, cool glue sight where you can click on what you are gluing .... this to that ..... and they recommend the right glue for your job .... i'm into glue .... and found it interesting that neither e6000, nor gorilla glue are on their list, but, e6000 did get a mention in the faq's .....one frequently asked question that made me giggle? how do you glue half marbles onto a bowling ball? ponder that one ........
happy day....go glue something .... tra la la ......

...as you can see, i picked the pink and orange batch of fabrics to fancify my shabby skort .....

..... i've started my project that i told you about yesterday ..... i didn't realize just how many holes this skirt has .... it seems like in the last wash and dry that the fabric started to disintegrate ..... it has boatloads of holes .... it would give swiss cheese a run for the money ..... but .....on i go ..... i think i've done about five large patches .... and blanket stitched some seams and some hem ..... it's nice easy work that i've just been doing on the couch (tonight, the family watched a movie, so i stitched the whole time ......) ..... sophie was watching me stitch and said "mom that is going to be so groovy" ..... she doesn't actually use the word groovy ..... i think she was trying to give me a big complement ...... speaking my language ...... i told her thanks .... she thinks i should sew colors on all my clothes ...... that'd be quirky, huh?

what happens when the grooviest little skort EVER gets so shabby that it is toooooooo horrible to wear?

i have a favorite skort .... and it has so many holes in it that it probably isn't even decent to wear in public ..... especially for someone old enough to be my children's mother ..... so, it has been sitting in my closet, defying me to throw it out, rag bag it (which actually means putting it under the sink in my art room) or give it to goodwill ... not that they'd want it ..if you go see this skirt on flickr you can get a good look at some of the holes .... roll your mouse over the pic for tages....... i finally decided that i missed it enough as a wardrobe staple, that i needed to patch it .... so patch it i will ..... which means i got to dig out my fabric stash ..... i keep all my sewing things in a small set of rolling drawers ... plastic .... stores under my art table ..... lots of notions in there ....and when i moved into these drawers, i pared it down to manageable .... and it still seems a ton ... so i pawed and sorted and thought about what i might want from a re-lovelified skirt ...... picked some color palettes ..... and got nowhere ...... so.... took some pics and now i'm here .....waiting for skort inspiration ......
oh ... wait .....i'm gonna sew? do i realize that in less than two months i am supposed to have a booth at an art fair? and that i have no art to put in that booth? really, none to speak of? mostly not ....now, that's a great thing .... that my art mostly has somewhere to be ... but surely i should be working on canvases not skorts? .... oh well ..... i believe you have to do what the spirit moves you to do .... and i just want to wear this skort again ..... i'm thinking i'll do it up to go with some orange shoes ..... we'll see ....