mystery solved .....

so ... a mystery we have ..... 

a secret parcel on my porch .... 

what is it ..... what are they ...... 

so ... roberta said aliens....

suze said contact lenses for hexopolis....

mary ..... couldn't even guess .....

darla..... no, they are not car parts .......

kelly..... wanted it to be aliens, but was easily swayed by darla's car part theory ..... with her own twist: alien car parts .....

heidi was worried about me hurting myself with them ..... not to worry, dearie, if i tried to cut myself with them, they'd break, i would be injury free, though out some lovely conversation pieces ....

3rd: wanted to agree with everyone else .... including just being clueless with mary ..... 

and ....

drum roll please...................

smart donna knew exactly what they were .... cool parts from an old printer .... you actually removed and replaced them to change the font ..... i've never heard of them or seen anything like them before ....

but when my friend, melinda, was cleaning her attic ... she saw "weird round things with letters" and thought ..."hmmm seems like something e needs!" ...... 

ah ...mystery solved .... no aliens .... although donna, i adored x-files in its day ..... mmmmmulder..... 

so ..... this one is a courier print ...with fragile plastic pokes coming off the center ..... what will it be? my guess is a flower ...but only time will tell ..... one small.beck.artist thinks they should be wheels on a car ...... 

now.... look at this pic ....... it is actually just a pic-let .... a photo.... a photo-let .... a glimpse ... a glimpse-let ..... 

ok ... i just tried on all those word choices and couldn't pick which to go with ..... i'm not going to choose ..... so just look .......
it's got some orange going on ..... quite mysterious, huh? i was actually not even going to show you this bit .... the sniblet doesn't really do justice, i think ..... (eep! i hope!) ...... but i've been teasing about it for far tooooo long .... so .... a glimpse ...HA ...that's the word i wanted .... 

and one last quick thing... american idol ... i hope brooke puts out an album ... i don't think she's the best singer or performer or personality ....but, she's always been my favorite ..... she's kinda carly simon-ish.... i'll buy her album .....and .... for the record ....last week i said it to my kids, this week i'll announce it to the world .... the american idol finals are going to be an all david event ....what do you think? 

tuesday today

here is a mystery .... you have this whole blog reading to think about it .... this gray rectangular object was on my front porch this evening when we got home from our little league evening .... 

what is it?? 

do you know? 

why was it on my front porch? 

what is inside it? 

who left it there? 

gotta love a good mystery.......


now, for the real blog bits: 

for all the artsy fun that i had yesterday, today was a bit of an artsy chore .... and i have the blisters to prove it!  i put eye hooks on 25 canvases ..... i still have more to eye hook ... and then i need to wire them all ..... and then i need to check for signatures and writing on the back ..... and then after i have all that done, i'll be ready for my show ..... in fact, i got an email today that a friend had gotten her invitation in the email .... yoinks! (for those of you not paying attention: i have my first solo show at lola's gallery in just over two weeks....eep!) .... but .... i've got things under control .... lots of art to choose from to hang in the show .... all is nearly ready to go ....and will be with just a couple more mornings of chores ....i had a revelation this morning .... over the last two years, i've been trying to be "professional" ...to do this art thing as my "job" .... to try to make a real go at it .... not to just paint now and then when i'm feeling it ... but to really work it .... i try to do art more than 20 hours a week .... i figure it's a part time job .... i usually do more than 20 hours a week .... which averages out with my slacker summertime ...... so, this morning, i got a pile ... no really, a PILE of completed canvases and started working on them ..... with the tv on ..... i was putting in the eye hooks .... which sounds easier than it is ..... and in my head was fretting that i wasn't going to get much art in today .... oh... wait ... this IS the job of art .....so if art is going to be my job ... this art chore counts as me working on my job .... which is good news .... cause i did work hard today ....but it's also bad news ... cause the job isn't perfect ..... it's got the drudge side to it!  wait... does that make it a real job now? that i have a love bit and a don't-love-so-much bit too ? 

here is a stack of canvases: 

but the important bit of this photo? that golden fluid acrylic raw umber ... i go through this paint faster than any other ... which is extraordinary if you look through my portfolio and realize how UN brown most of my work is ...... but i use it as a coating over most of my paintings to give them an even tone and make them a little less bright ... and most of my art is still way bright ..... i've been to two art stores to pick this up ...and? ......none ... empty shelf space .... so finally i ordered this jumbo bottle online ..... which i should have just done in the first place, of course ..... hey allison? if you are reading this? i don't need you to pick up raw umber for me ... i have a long lasting supply ..... 

and then, i'm sure you are wondering about my two el grande sized canvases that i've been working on .... i worked on the orange one today .. it is nearly done .... but not done enough to show you a pic yet .... hope that's ok .... i imagine tomorrow or thursday, i'll show you .... and the green one ...not nearly done .... but if thinking about it counts as work, then i worked on it today too ..... 

and the mystery:

study the photo.....  go on .... keep looking.... yup...it's like a folder .... with six spots inside for .... for ..... um..... round thingies .... that are like .... stereo dials ....or .... well .... i don't know.... 

the mystery is completely unresolved ....i have absolutely NO clue what those things are .... nor what there original use was ... 

which leaves us with:

a) they were dropped on my porch by aliens

b)they are from a groovy friend who imagines me putting them in some groovy artsy something or other ..... 

any guesses? what they are, what they were, what they will be? 

whew....

my wee dog was SO sick this weekend .... 

but this morning she went on anti-inflammatories and is MUCH better ...no more crying ...and finally eating again .... whew! i know you were probably wondering! ha ....whaddaya mean you don't spend your time waiting for dog updates? 

anyhooooo .... i need to catch you up on some artsy fun .....

do you remember when i wrote this exuberant post about happinesss? ..... FINALLY another blogger has done her own list .... 3rd eye muse did  .... and it is a great one .... a couple of things on her list really spoke to me ... positively and negatively! ha ... go read her list and the comments to see what i mean .... leave a comment for her with your favorites from her list ..... everyone adores a comment ..... 

and.... to catch up even more ... i got a gifty in the mail .... this cute and sassy pin .... it really does look like it should be mine, doesn't it? 

mice and moonbeams is a crafty, groovy blog by donna .... and donna made a bunch of pins ... free for the asking ... so, of course, i asked! .... i got it quite a bit ago and am just now getting to the thank you bloggage ...thank you donna ..... i so appreciate your generosity and this sweet pin ..... 

.....and here's some art ..... it's tiny ..... six inches square ....happy, optimistic, green, mappy.....

... recently when i met the owners of SAW gallery they were telling me that they like small art .... so it can be fit into a suitcase ... and i, large art girl, thought that made sense .... financially small makes sense ... more people can afford small .... space wise, small makes sense ....even if your house is full and done, you have room for one tiny little artsy loveliness still ..... and then, if you are travelling, and happen into a gallery, certainly a small piece of art is easier to call a souvenir and fit in your suitcase ... so ..... small art it is .....well.. for today ..... 

and here is another newly completed piece .... also six inches square ... 
do you know about chartpak pens? i used one that smells like nail polish remover to do the image transfer of that nest word ...... 
i love that blue that is running through the nest there .... i think it is yarn ...or floss ...or someone's unravelled sweater maybe .... nice that the bird could find it and make use of it .....

and .... all that small art chat? just blather ... cause i worked HARD on two HUGE paintings today ..... 

i think there are currently about eight regular readers .... (wait, i'll name my regulars: heidi, allison, jeannie, sandy, m , darla, vallen, donna, lynn ... ok , that's nine .... speak up if you are on this list and you don't consider yourself a regular ....or if you want me to know you as a regular, that'd be groovy too .... i have about 20 people i don't know lurking and gawking every day ... that sounds mean .... i have shy quiet folks looking at my art too......... maybe i'll have party favors for the regulars one day soon ! ..... but, wow, i digress ..... )

back to where i was ....

i think there are currently eight or nine VERY regular readers and comment leavers .... and this is to you .... ya know the HUMONGO orange canvas i keep blathering about ... saying how big it is....or how ugly it is ....or how hard it's been ? (if you are a regular, you know what i'm talking about!) i worked on it today for a LONG time .... i worked hard .... really hard .... actually i worked on it saturday, sunday AND today .... and it is looking SO promising ..... i think you'll like it .... 

and ...ya know the big gorgeous green canvas that i'm always going on about ....it is too pretty to paint anything more on it? well ... i painted more on it....it now has ...eep! ... a horizon line .... not a dramatic difference .... until you know that i've taken a map of south carolina and working on the rather large bovine focal point ..... whew ..... i'm scared to glue it on ... but i think i'm feeling brave .... we'll see .....

these are the artsy moments of my life .... a pin, a tiny house, a teeny nest, orange humongo-tude, moo green ..... gosh, and it is JUST monday .... who knows what this week will bring? 

do you have any grand plans for the week that brings us may, my favorite month? 

saturday

little.e.beck.artist/soccer girl scored three goals today .... i was the substitute coach ...yippee.... 

we had icees at boy.beck.artist's baseball game ..... 

mr.e.beck.artist took two girl.beck.artists to the father/daughter dance tonight.... 

e.beck.artist had boy.beck.artist home alone..... we painted, watched a movie, played video games, ate ice cream.....

it was a full and happy day ..... 

here's a happy painting that SHOULD be named saturday ..... but on the back i named it happy home with a bingo tree ..... i'm going to start naming my happy home paintings after days of the week, i think ..... 

what happiness did you find in your saturday? 

how do you build your house?

happy artsy days ..... i seem to be having them every day .... recently someone emailed me and said " i wish my days were as idyllic as yours sound"  ..... well ..... here's my truth .... i concentrate on the happy and breeze over the less idyllic bits .... 

my best pal, al, was over today ... we painted and it was lovely .... we talked and talked and talked .... we talk a lot about art and our families ... but i do believe we could solve all of the problems of the world if we stocked up ahead of time on enough paint, canvases, diet coke and wheat thins  ..... 

this painting that i finished today is one of those idyllic ones ... just like life can be .... you build your life, your home, your family on love ... on that giant metaphorical heart ..... and you do your best for those you love ..... and it is a joyful happy home ... but just like any other house, a crayon went through the drier causing the laundry crisis, the dog went to the vet for her shots and has been pitifully mopey all day, one crucial ballet slipper is missing (why isn't the right shoe with the left?) , no one remembered to run the dishwasher, yesterday's folded laundry is still not put away, homework, chores, work, bills, juggling the demands of life, and yes you have to take a bath even if you think you aren't dirty .... but .... even with all that .... it can still be a happy home ..... it still is a happy home .... and the artist who lives inside, concentrates on the happy stuff .... and glosses over the mopey dog stuff .... cause tomorrow, probably, the dog will feel better, the crayoned laundry will be but a memory, and there will be a cleat (not a ballet slipper) that is missing...... tra la la ... and so we trundle on ..... 

have a happy weekend .... what wonderful thing are you going to do with the people who fill your heart?  .... maybe you are just going to do laundry with them ? or maybe you have something more exotic planned? 

2 is 48

this painting is titled 2 .... it is named two.... but is the 48th painting of the year .....

"2"

"two"

two birds, two friends .... it takes twooooooooo .....

two, two, two mints in one

anyway ... getting a little carried away on the stream of consciousness TWO ..... 

this tiny painting was done for my favorite flickr group: DPG ... the deadline painting group, each month you are meant to paint a new painting on the topic of the month ... this month, you'd THINK the topic was two ... but it's not ... the topic is friends ... so.... these birds are friends, i suppose .... and actually ... it was going to be a nest painting (cause i'm just in a nest painting mood apparently) ...  but at the last minute i got to thinking about dpg and the topic at hand ... and there ya go ...... 2 ... two .... too... to .... deux, dos, one plus one ... two is the smallest and first prime number and the only even one, ya know..... 

what's your favorite number ....

47

i completed my 47th canvas of 2008 today .... and it wasn't orange .... oh no! 

i feel like i've been working on this infamous humongo orange canvas for ages ... i know i keep mentioning it here ... but it is not moving along smoothly! 

i letter stenciled it today with .... whaddaya know? .... with orange letters ... so i've got an orange on orange thing going ...but it is slow going ... and no where near being completed ...or even photo worthy ...... i'm not sure why my art is so dithering right now ...

 .....but dither on i will .... 

...and even while dithering i finished a 20 inch canvas ... these two photos are details of the piece...

the background has been around for weeks .... i have kept adding to it....until today when i finished it .... during my art day with pal allison ..... the funny thing is that it started out being a branch ready for a nest ... but then i tipped it and the branch became a tree ... and the nest was looking weird and small and incosequential .... so i hung some hearts on the tree instead .... you can read a bit more about it here ....

and questions arise.....

are my backgrounds trending towards more simplified?

why do none of my trees have leaves? 

is turquoise my new favorite color? 

will the orange canvas ever get finished? 

oh ... that last question made me think of something ... i have a HUGE (even bigger than the orange) green canvas.... i think it is four feet by two or three feet ... and it is green and luscious ... and every time allison sees it she says...OH! work on this one ... and i don't .... if you click on the link there to it, that's the beginning of it... it is further along now, with letter stencils .... but i looked at flickr...and i originally loaded it there in april 2007! .... it is more that a year ago that i started it....yoinks .... let's open up the dialogue now about procrastination!

what are you procrastinating away? 

some days are just kind of rambling days ....

oh heavens!

sometimes it is hard to keep this an art blog!!  

particularly when the art is not easily forthcoming!!!

particularly when the weather is so pretty that you just want to play outside ..... and not be in a windowless basement art studio ..... (if this weren't an art blog, i would tell you about the brisk, cool, long dog walk this morning, the two and a half hours of tennis in perfect sunshine, the two mile procrastination walk through the neighborhood, or the one mile evening walk/scooter

 with my kids ..... but it's an art blog, not an exercise blog)

particularly when i have announced to the world that i'm working on a big ole' orange canvas .... and the orange is completely not working for me .... (art blog, not a complaining blog)

particularly when ..... well ... groceries, laundry, weekend detritus spread in a layer throughout the house .... (say it with me, art blog, not housekeeping blog)

but .... on to the business at hand .... i have the artist's equivalent of writer's block .... which means the whole painty thing just isn't happening ....

what do i do when the painty things aren't jiving? 

-sort buttons

-clean icky brushes in alcohol to try and revive them

-paint papers

-sort papers

-do five minute intervals on the treadmill between art chores

-play with the dog

-rummage through boxes of groovy collage ephemera (i've done NO chunky art lately ....)

-work on backgrounds

-write out to do lists

-write out art supply shopping lists (need golden's fluid acrylic raw umber and big soft brushes)

-organize paint bins

-dither and diddle on my computer

 

the good new is, that my new year's resolution of 100 canvases this year is well under way and on target ..... i have no doubt i'll do more than 100 canvases this year .... so feeling a bit like a staller for the last couple days is ok ..... but i'm still puttering along .... the three photos on this post are of backgrounds that i worked on today ... all minimally worked on ... but ... worked on is worked on .... 

the better news is, that the owners of savannah art works, SAW gallery in savannah came by my house on  saturday!! and they liked my art .... they bought a batch of my prints to put in their gallery .... and they took six canvases on commission .... so cross your fingers that i will have a long and happy relationship with SAW ... yippee ..... 

oh ... and can i just say a little bit more about that? it is SOOOOOOO so so so scary to try and get into a gallery ... the ever present, what if they don't like me? is horrifying ..... my pal, al, gave me the contact .... and when i emailed her to say the meeting had been successful, she said :yippee, you are so brave .... smile .... she thinks i'm brave ... she gets it .... i think being an artist is frightening .... my art is really bearing my soul to the world ... ack, what if the world doesn't like the glimpses of my soul????or wonders why my soul is full of bingo cards and dictionary pages? (please don't wonder that!) eep! really, it is just too too too much to psycho analyze much .... i am not very introspective ... i'm pretty much what you see is what you get .... so when i am introspective it sure does make me squirm! ..... anyhoo..... they like me .... and i thought i was proud and happy ... but allison gave me the word i needed ...i'm brave .... 

we also had an interesting talk about confidence .... how can i be so full of confidence in some parts of my life and so full of self doubt in other bits? life sure is tricky, huh? 

so.... brave .... yet momentarily uninspired artistically .... but reveling in spring .... 

how are you?

yippity zippity zappity happity

have you ever said something ....and then wondered if you are the only person to have ever said that exact same sentence? i did today....i actually do it often .... youngest.e.beck.artist said it was cause i'm always saying weird things .... today, to her, i said ..... " i wish feather boas grew like hedges " i'll just let you mull that one over yourself ..... i wouldn't want to overexplain a magical sentence like that ..... i'll just give you one more tidbit ... aforementioned feather boa? hot pink ..... 

...and away from the magical permutations of our language and on to the business at hand: art .... 

this is an art blog afterall .... 

and yesterday i PROMISED orange fabulosity today ..... 

....yet ..... this is what you get ..... 

shoes ... new shoes ... but just shoes ..... my orange shoes ... newest pair of shoes for me ..... 

remember this post? it's an orange thing going on .... in my closet ... in my life ... 

but i meant to have orange art for you ... alas .... i am orange artless ......instead, i'll show you the orange painted papers i'm working with ...... 

do they do anything for you? i'm still working on them ... but apparently not hard enough .... thirty inch square canvas of oranginess is doing nothing for

 my artistic momentum ... so ... bear with me ..... while i don't have art to show you ..... know that i'm working hard on it ..... and i'll show it to you eventually .... 

in the meanwhile ... 

enjoy my fun shoes ..... 

what's your favorite pair of shoes look like? 

today was the most gorgeous spring day!

in lieu of newly finished art, i give you this mosaic recap of art that i have completed lately .... in my quest to do 100 canvases this year as my new year's resolution, i have gotten to 46 ... almost half way .... and only half way through april .... i definitely have some momentum going ..... 

 .... the weather today was perfection ..... in fact .... the whole day was perfection ....until the dog threw up on my shoes (am i allowed to post about dog barf on my ART blog?) ..... my poor little dog was so sick .... and greatly curtailed my art time as i sat in the yard with her so she'd quit throwing up on the rug... the couch..... my shoes ... (oh, she interfered with studio time so dog barf can be on the art blog as an EXCUSE!) ...... and if you want to hear "not much art today" excuses ..... i could tell you about three hours of tennis this morning .... quick, refer back to the title of this post .... it was too pretty to not play tennis .... it was too pretty to not babysit barf dog in the front yard ..... 

but .... i did actually do art .... i worked on oranginess .... lots and lots of oranginess .... at the end of last week i painted papers and papers and papers of orange goodness .... and yesterday i started a thirty by thirty canvas with dictionary papers and orange fluid acrylics ...... here's a bit of a pic .....

 ok .... i admit it .... not fabulous ....yet ... you just wait ...even if you aren't an orange fan, i bet you'll like it ..... so far it looks delicious .... 

and ... because my quotey post yesterday got great response, i'll give you a favorite quote .... 

"I love being married.  It is so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life." Anon 

i actually cut it out of our newspaper, mounted it on paper, and taped it forever onto my fridge .... long ago, when i read it to mr.e.beck.artist he said .... wait a minute .... does that mean i annoy you....or does it mean you are annoying me on purpose?! .... um .... yes......

and .... before i leave ... some other bloggers have been leaving interesting comments for me .....

so.....a shout out to aj ..... for posting  a favorite art .... a painting her son had done and she framed ..... 

and a shout to sandy who posted about a groovy bracelet she made long ago ..... 

and a shout to heidi who tagged me to do a something or other .... cause she digs me .... and i dig her too .... and i'll do the game and jump through the hoops tomorrow if i don't have art to show ..... but hopefully i'll be showing you something orange ....

so..... any great dog barf advice? or funny quotes ...... or exclamations about how spring has sprung ...... happy day to you ... come back tomorrow with orange anticipation ..... 

 

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend. ~Henry David Thoreau

ah..... i have grand intentions .... 

...but intentions are different than deeds, actions, events, blog posts ..... 

i frequently, in my blog wandering, happen across some clever soul who has a stirring quote to go with each post ... something pithy about art or humanity ....or even the weather ..... 

not me .... i LOVE quotes .... i write them down whenever i have a good one .... i have a groovy journal that i made from scratch, quilt cover, sewn in papers (what is that called again? ) .... i have an ungroovy journal of quotes .... dollar store lined blank book sort ..... and, because i work on a mac that has a program called sticky notes, i have a computer screen FULL of quotes that i have dragged off of one site or another ... but ... i just have these quotes that spoke to me (and frequently i'll look at one and wonder how on earth did that ever speak to me?)randomly in my life ...no organization really....no way to find the one i need....

 ..... so .... when i wanted a friend quote, to tell you succinctly in someone else's passionate prose about my happy day spent with my pal, al ..... i came up short .... so i googled friend quote .... 

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be.  ~Douglas Pagels .......ok....that's nice .... but who is douglas pagels and how do you pronounce his last name and i don't have time to google him ..... i'm busy googling friend quotes....

Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things.  ~Author Unknown  .... yes, i could use this one, but then i should name some of the million little things ...and that's not the way i was planning on going ..... although, this isn't the way i was planning on going either! 

Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty.  ~Sicilian Proverb ... ok....this might be the one ... cause when allison and i paint with each other we are always saying ...oh, your eyebrow is purple ....or ....wow that's a giant green smudge across your face ..... 

The friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.  ~Elbert Hubbard, The Notebook, 1927 ..... ok ... this works ... but i'm talking about woman not man ... will elbert mind if i change his quote .... and how many elberts do you know? i once had a teddy bear named elbert ...oh wait, that was egbert ... never mind ....

A good friend is cheaper than therapy.  ~Author Unknown ...ok...now ain't that the truth! ...but it's not quite the sentiment i'm looking for here .....

Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait for the answer.  ~Author Unknown ... allison is the best question asker , and listener, ever .... and today she even said, i was trying to think of all the things i needed to tell you and ask you while i was driving over in the car .... and i know she really was ... we hadn't seen each other in a while .....

Constant use will not wear ragged the fabric of friendship.  ~Dorothy Parker ..... this would have worked great a few years ago when al was in more of a mixed media thing and did lots of sewing and beads and fabric ..... 

There are big ships and small ships.  But the best ship of all is friendship.  ~Author Unknown

ok ... that's just corny crazy dumb funny ..... 

A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half-cracked.  ~Author Unknown .... this might be more appropriate than i want to admit ....

A real friend is someone who would feel loss if you jumped on a train, or in front of one.  ~Author Unknown .... how eeyore is that? too pessimistic and horrid ... but i had to include it just for contrast ..... there are some bad quotes floating around out there in cyberspace ....

Love is like the wild-rose briar;
Friendship is like the holly-tree.
The holly is dark when the rose briar blooms,
But which will bloom most constantly?
~Emily Brontë

..... i picked this hoping i would have something bright and intellectual to say about it ... but, i give up .....

It takes a long time to grow an old friend.  ~John Leonard

i'm going with this one .... allison has been a grand friend for ten years ..... when i send my kids down to the basement to get something off the table they say, your side or allison's side? ...... 

and today? what did i do? art with my pal, al .... i finished one small piece, started one humongous and very orange piece ..... and hung out with my cute artsy friend .... rah for that .... 

so, longtime blog readers know that i collect buttons and bottlecaps and maps and keys and nasty old paintbrushes .... and now everyone knows i also collect quotes ..... do you have a favorite quote? obsessive compulsively collect them? or, what do you collect obsessive compulsively? 

the joy of pears .... and bingo flowers...

i am horrible and spoiled ..... 

wanna know why? 

cause it felt like winter today .... and i don't want winter ... i want spring back .... admiring the dogwood blossoms while shivering is just wrong ..... 

i actually tried to work in my basement studio this morning ... and couldn't! it was TOO cold down there ..... brrrrrr .... i also don't like turning on the heat (for a variety of oddball reasons: blechy dry air, blowing hotness, frugal, stubborn) .... and guess what i did ... i turned on the heat when wearing both of my messy art sweatshirts wasn't warm enough ....

so that's it ... you're never going to read my blog again cause i'm horrible and spoiled, right? 

please don't look at my profile and find out where i live and google my weather ....then you'll really know i'm horrible and spoiled .... and perhaps a titch pathetic to boot ..... 

ok .... you're still reading? 

you don't begrudge me my eeyore-ness about the weather?  

ok..... 

i'll be much more tigger, now!

lemme tell you about my grand and glorious art day today....  

.... that only happened after my fingers thawed out ..... 

i had one more small square canvas, backgrounded with a dictionary page and some raw umber wash ..... if you've been paying attention, the last three finished canvases were the same ....six by six, dictionaried, and raw umbered ..... this is the final one: 

i've named it the joy of pears .... it's a love story .... i've done loads of pears over the years ...but lately in particular ..... these are the smallest pears i've done .... i'm quite happy with them ....  particularly in the context of these four small umber ones all together that i've just finished .... they are all kind of metaphorically similar .... different stages in relationships ....click here to see them all together.... i can't get the mosaic  photo to load..... did you look?  can you see that metaphorical similarity? the oldest.daughter.beck.artist thinks i need to go back to FUN .... after listening to me expound on metaphors in art .... who knew she'd be pining away for my mona lisa days? 

and here, finally .... is the commissioned piece that i've known about for a long time ... and working on bit by bit .... slow and steady ..... it is 30 inches square .... the person buying it had seen an 18 inch bingo flower and loved it ... but she wanted it bigger .... and bingo flowers are some of my all time faves to make .... so this was nice to do ..... 

so that's my art day .... two finished pieces ... tra la la .... that is 45 completed canvases for the year ..... i'm thrilled with that! 

my funny thing? i'm planning on art all day tomorrow .... i usually save tuesdays for art, art and only art .... and yet? i'm working on nothing now ...all my loose art ends are tied up.... i have no plan ..... what should i make? ah .... and so the process begins all over again ....hmmmmmmmm ..... 

any suggestions? 

sunday reminiscing.....

so .... i taught an artsy class today .... 

but .... i did no art in my studio today ....

i had loads of time for art.... but kind of puttered around instead .... i was actually kind of being domestic ...not my usual state .... at all .... 

as i was doing extra tidying in my kitchen, i was dusting this corner: 

dog biscuits, plate of apples, bananas, empty huge mason jar that last had jelly beans in it .... and a platter ... that i made ..... i threw that on a pottery wheel....with white clay .... and then used groovy underglazes to make this folkarty scene .... of my family ..... i made it a LONG time ago ..... and i love it ..... it's maybe one of my favorite things i've ever made for myself .... making things for yourself is different than making something not for yourself ..... it's harder! ..... so...... i was dusting it .... and read the back .... i don't think i'd read the back in years:

OH! i said to myself ... i made this while i was pregnant with littlest.e.beck.artist.......more than 7 years ago ....i think i gave it to mr.e.beck.artist for christmas before the littlest one was born........ it has withstood the test of time so far ... i still love it .... it makes me miss the pottery wheel....... 

ok, artsy bloggy people..... show me something that you made a long time ago.... and tell me if you still love it! 

happy saturday!

hey!

i did art today!

not only that... but i did art with my entire family in the basement studio WITH me .... 

and i still did art ....

mr.e.beck.artist was working on the computer ...on our taxes...oh my!

sweet.boy.beck.artist was working on writing a school project .... and wanted to be by my side for my fine editing skills......

j.beck.artist was painting a journal for a school project

tiny.beck.artist was painting a fairy on a canvas .... and being obsessive compulsive about washing paint brushes ...no, honey, that's nine year old paint in those bristles, i'm sure it won't come out ... no, not even with alcohol ...... 

and i worked on my commission piece ...that is coming right along ....  

even the dog hung out with us .... and the basement is NOT that big .... it was a six of us all over each other kind of thing ... happy, happy, happy ...... busy, busy, busy.....

and that doesn't even include the parts of today that were rained out soccer games that weren't called soon enough,  me teaching a class this morning, lunch with lovely relatives, and me cooking a big ole dinner (pork tenderloin, sauteed parmesan zucchini, steamed asparagus, rice pilaf, strawberries....and j.beck.artist made choc.chip cookies for dessert.....oh, and have i mentioned lately that i'm not much of a cook ..... i was today!)

oh no! a picture free blog!

the tragedy of it ..... 

instead i'll give you the links of some blogs i've been digging lately.....

they aren't all artists and art blogs .... most are artsy .... some are just fun ...... 

try these: 

happy shack

mice and moonbeams

3rd eye muse

darla

heidi

i am bossy

jeannie

it is what it is

all norah's art

vallen

very mary

yogurt

hope you are having a happy weekend .....

42 and 43

i've just finished two more canvases ....

numbers forty two and forty three for the year .... 

i'm kind of in a happy rut .... exploring themes i've been doing in excess ...

....i have some other notions swimming around in my head ... and i'm working on a commission piece .... and i just painted vast amounts of orange papers today ..... so .... there's a large orange canvas in my immediate future, i suppose .... 

i adore orange ..... it's right up thee with green .... and turquoise .... ok.... and yellow .... 

what's your favorite color ... and is it a color you tend to use a lot in your art? in your life? 

let's nest.....

hooray for thursdays .... i had a morning of tennis and an afternoon of painting .... that's pretty close to a perfect day ..... now an afternoon with children, a bit more painting, studying for spelling, and (even as i type) i am getting my hair done my the youngest e.beck.artist ..... lots of squirting and brushing and pulling and poking and (did i say) pulling ..... i'm sure i look gorgeous .... basically, this very moment, i am nesting .... my three little birds are all within arms distance of me ..... have i started painting so many nests because i spend so much time nesting .... or am i more aware of the nesting i do because i've been painting so many nests...... that might be a chicken or the egg question ..... and maybe i should be painting coops ..... 

hope your nest is happy too ..... 

p.s. my two older birds are in the chorus in a play tonight ..... 

p.p.s. you can read more about this  wee nest painting on my flickr site ......

the blues ..... and then not the blues .....

i had a mildly hard day today .... i ended up in a sad, crabby mood ....i let other people's crabbiness really get me down ..... now that doesn't happen too often .....and with a little perspective, even the things making us crabby are such small potatoes in the grand scheme of life .....  so i just puttered around ... stewing .... and well, puttering .... and i got to the pile of mail that stacked up while i was away ... it was sizeable .... and i was procrastinating going through it ..... and TA DUM .... i got a present .... really, a prize ... from very mary ..... all kinds of papery goodness to put in my collages .... look: a very mary design's mary sent me this groovy package .... i won a contest on her fun blog ..... so that's one way to perk up : good mail! .... rah for that ..... 

so i took it down to the art room ... and once there, did some productive puttering .... i'll certainly have something to show you soon ..... 

and then .... after all that puttering my way out of my bad mood? 

i got fab news .... kool krysti at lola's gallery sent me a draft of the invitation for my first solo show..... ooooooohhhhhhhhhhh...... aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh..... and we went back and forth and changed up this and that .... and ta dum .... the blues be gone ... bad mood vanquished ..... sweetness and light and sunshine ..... and things are good .... and the hard things are easier to put in perspective, huh? 

here's my invitation ....i'm not sure if it is the last draft or not .... but it might be ..... 

..... groovy cool, huh? 

big yellow art day...with some raw umber

i finally unpacked my mess in my studio ... away at an art workshop all last week, home since friday, but didn't get to it til today .... it was well organized in the bags and boxes and bins ....so not too hard to put away ..... wish i could say the same about the suitcase that appears to have thrown up on my closet floor ..... and remains there still ..... soon..... i'll do that soon .... maybe .....

once i got my studio back in some semblence of order, i worked on a 30 inch square commission .... 30 inches is a pretty big canvas! i papered it.....

i did a transparent glaze on it .... three different colors of yellow and a bit of raw umber to tone it down ...... 

i stamped it ..... using a green with white to gray it ....and a titch of turquoise to brighten  it...

i also worked on these five canvases .... the larger, 12 by 12 one, was mostly done ...but i used some raw umber on it to tone down some of the brightness..... and the other four are six by six, papered, then raw umbered as well ..... no ideas on what these will be .... i'll just keep adding background texture, depth and color til i have a notion of what they are to become.....

that picture above is a little glimmer of my studio self .... i work on a six foot square table .... piles of paints and mediums in the middle in clementine crates .....there's my diet coke..... arguably my biggest vice ... i ADORE diet coke ... really, i know i like it too much ... and periodically cut back ... but bad habits die hard! ..... you can see my nasty brayer on a red tool box.... that tool box was littleboy.e.beck.artist's when he was tiny .... he carried around his long gone plastic hammer and such ..... cool, happy memory tool box, so i kept it .... i LOVE containers .... more little spots to stuff things .... like that little elecrasol tin .....i bought it solely because of the jetson character .... couldn't wait til the detergent was gone ....in fact, months ago, i shuffled through the shelf at the store to get one of everyone, george, jane, judy, elroy ...... they are way groovy tins that now hold my this and thats .....

so that's my day....my canvases... my junk .... my diet soda ..... what did you do today? 

and what are you going to do tomorrow? i have a nagging suitcase in my closet .... don't know if i'll get to it! .... i have tennis ... can't wait for that .... and some more work on this big ole canvas i'm working on ..... i have a notion to stain some papers for it ..... we'll see if that's still my notion tomorrow .... 

39 and 40 for the year

these are the last two paintings that i did last week .... the class was an abstract collage class .... so, the last eight, all done in the class, weren't abstract .... i have trouble with abstract, actually.... so i always put a bit of representational in ...but with these two, i made thick, thick, thick gesso backgrounds and pressed my large alphabet stamp into them ..... so there is VERY thick lettering...raised ....rough..... highly textured .....

so once i got the thick luscious backs, i used a variety of golden's fluid acrylics to play in and out of the texture .... i painted and buffed and painted and roughed and painted some more .... and this is what i got ....with all that lettering they have a resemblance, a thematic thread comparable to my usual art style .... but are more abstract ...though no where near as traditionally abstract as most of the artists in my class......

 i think they are lovely ... but they aren't very "me" ..... whaddaya think? me or no? 

and if you were me and you made something not "me" meaning not "you" would you, being me, put it in your gallery show that's happening in about a month? 

and if you understand that question? you could be me...... how weird is that? 

35,36,37,38,39,40.... and some nice news ....

ah..... joy .... it just feels so nice to have joy ... and i have boatloads of it at the moment ..... so....you gotta love it while you have it to get you through when you don't have it so much ...... so right now .... i'm just flat out happy ..... for all sorts of reasons ......i'm not sure how to tell you all my stuff in a coherent, organized, nice flow kind of way .... so i'm just gonna spit it out ..... ok? 

10

that's the answer to yesterday's question ..... how many canvases did i make last week at art camp? ten ... TEN .... i could shout it from the roof top .... i felt so accomplished ..... i worked hard .... i learned a lot .... they are all over in flickr .... the last ten in my 100 set .... that 100 set is my new year's resolution in action ..... the 100 canvases i'm doing this year are all going there .... and i'm up to 40 .... and i'm only days into the fourth month!! i'm way ahead of schedule, huh? 

so the four on this blog are a pear series .... all done from a cool set of dyed and stained papers i made at the workshop ..... 12 inches square ...i've been doing a lot of these small canvases this year .... it's weird, that's what i've been comfortable with lately ..... especially peculiar since i used to only want to do huge canvases ...... tomorrow? a big canvas ... but..... not by choice, actually .... working on a commissioned piece .... rah for commissions!

so on to the joy bits ..... 

while i was away i got an email from the lovely patti, at this blog ..... she has a book coming out ... life is a verb ..... and a piece of my art is in it ..... as an illustration for one of her essays ... how groovy cool is that, huh?  if you go look at the piece that is going in the book, why don't you read what i wrote about it.... i just read it and really liked it .... it is funny to read something i know i wrote... but to not really remember writing it ..... i'm glad i wrote down some of those feelings cause it is nice to be able to read them since i don't actually recall them ..... maybe that's like the whole joy thing ... when you aren't having and feeling joy, it is hard to remember when you were and what it was like ..... it's a seize the day ...or seize the joy kind of thing, i suppose .....

and the last bit of my joy to write about (i have loads of other joys, but i'm mostly just giving you the art ones for now) is that my pal al sent me an email .... it said, check out this gallery ...you'd be a good fit there .... and whadaya know ... i emailed and now the gallery owner has said, yes, she's interested in carrying my art ..... rah for that!  ..... and serendipitously, i was just talking to some people last week at art camp, talking about how i'm working really hard at this "being an artist" job ....but that it's really easy to get bogged down by things that aren't art ... like marketing and sales and what shows to do and finding appropriate galleries ..... and that i REALLY needed to try harder to find a few more galleries for the art i'm making so that i won't have to do many fairs, since they are a little bit hard on my family (being away on the weekend) ..... so .... while i was having that conversation , allison was doing my hard work for me..... double rah for that .... 

so there's my art joy....

a quick synopsis....

10 canvases completed at kanuga

1 piece of art in a book

1 gallery that looks like it might carry my work ......

so what's your joy? 

31,32,33,34.....

hi honeys .... did anyone out there in blogland miss me whilst i was away? 
i was away at kanuga at an art workshop .... left sunday .... met up with my mom and her best pal, taylor ..... and WOW did i have a fabulous time .....it was non stop art and joy and fun ...... i feel like i was always painting ....or washing paint off my messy self ..... 

this nest series happened after two days of learning different texturing techniques, staining, stamping, printing ..... and generally ideas about making groovy, cool papers ...... we also had a color family lesson that was great for me ..... so all the papers we made were in a color family and went together perfectly ....nice how that worked out! 

the class was an abstract collage class .... and i'm not much of an abstract girl ... so while the rest of the class was doing similar work to mine, theirs turned out as abstract ....i'm the only one who put nests on mine ... and most people didn't have anything representational at all ...... so even though the class i took wasn't quite me, i learned a ton ..... and kind of got refreshed on some things that i knew how to do but hadn't done much of lately ..... PLUS, i got to sit at the table right next to my mom ..... it was perfect ..... 

well.... it wasn't all perfect ... the weather was cold and wet .... not good for drying the 9 kabillion papers and canvases we had painted and spread about ..... 

and guess what? these four paintings? weren't the only ones i finished .... i'll show you the rest next blog...any guesses how many if did? 

happy weekend! 

no more missing me....i'm back in blogland for a good long time ....