ah ... mindless joy ....

sometimes cleaning is just a chore .... sometimes, i found out today, it can be a mindless joy .... puttering around .... trash, stash, trash, stash .... all that i have left to clean is either ON my table or under my table in the art room (sigh ... i just lied to you .... i'll try again)...... the only things IN MY STUDIO that i have left to clean and tidy still, are either on my huge table or under my huge table .... so i plowed through it today .... trash, stash, trash, stash .... things either got thrown away or they found a reasonable place to live out their useful lives ... like in drawers and bins and cupboards ... so i tossed TONS ... and sorted tons more .... 

at my pal al's house, she keeps her paint by color ... a bin of red, a bin of blue, tra la la  ..... i, on the other hand, keep a bin of fluid acrylics (yum! my favorite) .... a bin of liquitex tubes, a bin of golden's tubes, a bin of all the other hard body paints ... and a bin of inexpensive craft paints that my kids use ..... or that i use for crafts (as opposed to art .... she boldly proclaims herself an artist of the paint snob variety) .... so ... it works for me .... i actually keep the fave fluids separated into three boxes by colors.... red orange yellow ... green and blue .... all the rest .... and it works for me ... but ... somehow ... i've been at al's a lot lately and i DO like her system .... so i'm giving it a try ... all be it, a modified try, i just can't sully my lovely bottles of fluid acrylics' reputation by making them sit with all those big squished up tubes .... i sorted all my full body (heavy body? did i make these terms up? i'm not sure) ... i sorted my thick paints by color .... what a happy mindless joy to sort and ponder .... i tossed about 10 empty orange tubes ..... apparently i like orange paint so much that i keep the tubes even when empty ...... and ... well .... let's do that picture worth a thousand words thing again.....

i love green .... look at this lovely selection of green paints .... yippee!

blue is a favorite .... and i have a big selection because it includes dark blues, sky blues, turquoise blues .... lots of hue and tint variation .....even some precious sparkling lumiere paints in there ......and then ... there's purple .... eek! ..... clearly i have a purple problem! 

this is my freshly sorted paint ... in bins across the back wall .... that blue is brimming ... the poor purples got stuck in with the browns ......

so here you have it .... the close bin below is red and pink (not many pinks, too girly ... and i don't care to be girly), oranges (note to self, buy orange), yellow (perfect amount, nice assortment of tint and hue and intensity), greens, blues, purple and brown combo, blacks, white and buff (buff as in ivory, not buff as in "whoa, check out that buff full body paint, definitely a gym rat") ......so .... to sum up my day ..... 

-boy.beck.artist and girl.beck.artist are out o' town on a school trip

-i had a three set tennis match 
-i went to little.e.beck.artist's power point presentation (sea dragons, second grade, splendid)

-dashed home for shower and dog walk

-dashed back to school for lunch in the cafeteria (cafeteria food by choice, clearly i'm working on good mommy points)

-off to the studio to fill up garbage bags and ponder the psychology of empty orange paint tube hoarding

-picked up little.e.beck.artist from school, eschewing homework time in favor of pedicures (her toes are orange, mine are blue)

-serious cramming for a spelling test .... vendor should not have an o .... emptying's y is pesky and hard to remember ..... passenger can be sung with a singsongyness that makes it easy .... 

-out to dinner AND ice cream ... just cause the big kids are out of town and we HAD to do something groovy that we could tell them about ... dinner out? on a thursday? and ice cream? on a thursday?  .... i actually had a rootbeer misto ..... splendidly yummy .... 

-tra la la ... lovely full day ..... 

what happiness did you have today?

a bit of this and a bit of that all held together with some stream of consciousness while all astonishingly unedited .....

why don't you go look HERE at a piece of my art ..... it is my journal entry to "do not leave unattended" .... i passed it on to cathy when i finished .....cathy is a cool artsy writer girl who was up for the challenge ..... and while you are at it ... you should go ahead and explore creative construction .... it is a groovy coolio artsy writers and artists site ... kind of a happy support group for creative mom types .....who are trying to not lose the creative artsiness amidst diapers and sippy cups, soccer practices and piano lessons, spelling tests and laundry piles ......

and finally .... same artsy creative writer cathy gave me a mom blogger award .... why don't you go read about it here .... i'm not so good at direction following ... so i might not answer the questions and pass it on .... but it was nice of cool cathy ....

i did in fact have artsy creative time today ... i had pottery class this morning (after the contractor meeting .. (drywall! trim! floors! ... who knew it could be so exciting!) ..... at pottery, i did something i hadn't done in years .... am i an old lady just because i can say i've been taking pottery classes for twenty or thirty years? ... that sounds ghastly to me ... i should be way better at pottery for all the time i've put into it .... i digress .... where was i ? ..... contractor ... drywall .... pottery .... oh ... new thing that i did years ago .... i'll start a fresh paragraph ... too late, but you should have skipped this paragraph!

as you know, i've been working on cleaning out my pit ...er ... my studio .... and it is going really well .... tons to the trash ...tons to goodwill ....and a treasure trove of loveliness that i'd forgotten about ... like ... glass beads ... gorgeous glass beads from my jewelry making days ... and then my purse making days .... and then my sewing beads onto my canvases days (should i do that again? probably?...) .... but ... those glass beads will look splendid (such an under used word ...splendid ... say it aloud ... great word .... full of consonanty blendy important wordiness) .. those glass beads will look just splendid squashed into clay .... well .. not exactly squashed ... but gently smashed into a platter or bowl or tray or plate of wet clay..... so today i did two slab rolled platters ...one round, one squarish (-ish because the corners are rounded ... so not way square, but nearly so, hence, square-ish) ..... so ... two platters with turquoise and blue glass beads ..... the glass beads should melt into shiny loveliness and look grand with clear glaze ..... if i were a perfectionist (which clearly i am not, reference my grammar, my drawers, my cooking skills, or my stream of consciousness writing) but if i were a perfectionist i would have used white clay so that the beady color would sparkle...glow ... show up better... but i had a couple pounds of gray speck to use ... so i did ... next wednesday i'll buy a new bag of clay and get white ..... and take in even more popping beads ..... popping in color, not popping as in exploding in the kiln ... um ... i hope ....

so that's my story, morning glory ..... i believe i will spend time in my studio tomorrow... or maybe allison's if i don't have tennis in the morning ..... what artsiness have you been up to lately?

10 pics ... picture's worth a thousand words ... so ... this is 10k words PLUS .... ok?

apparently i've fallen into the blog once a week group ... oops .... what happened to the post a day days? well ... they have fallen by the wayside with the painting a day days .... or 30 in a month ... or 100 in a year .... but ... there is a glimmer of hope ... in less than two months (fingers crossed) i'll be back in my real house ... and out of the big bad brown rental house .... and once i'm back in the real house i'll just be a stairway away from my art studio ... oh ... and the water will be on in the studio .... for now, i import water in a big bottle .... water's off for construction reasons ... 

but ... i spent two work filled hours in my studio today .... making it messier on m way to making it clean and lovely and ready for me to paint and paint and paint .... 

so ... we'll start with the messy views ... this pic is taken from the far corner of my studio back towards the door .... not that you can see the door .... it's to the left of that wet paint sign ... see that?

here is the right side of my studio ... the built in cabinets .... i've emptied and refilled all those drawers and cupboards .....

at first, i was so good ... i had trash bags that i filled and took right to the dumpster ... and i have dozens of bags for goodwill ... but then i kind of got bogged down .. i quit being quite as decisive ... and started piling the "i don't know" things on the table ... good thing the table is six feet square!

here's some emptying of surfaces .....

oh .. these pics are prior to me collaging my backsplash ... how'd they get on this roll?


look here ... at this pic  on the way bottom left ? see that? an empty corner! i removed, cleaned, swept and got all the way to baseboards! this is the left wall,opposite the sink and the built ins... ....this is of the back wall ... overlooking a table that is gradually emptying off .... 
and this is the left wall ... that just a few pics ago was an empty corner .... these wire drawers were on the back wall and have been emptied, sorted, cleared and moved to the left wall .....

...and this is the back wall ... where those wire drawers used to be ....

so... i'm getting there .... i have a couple drawers that were just TOO frightening .. and i made no effort to tidy them .... and i have a big batch of scrapbooking stuff that i don't really use anymore, but wasn't willing to part with (at least til i finish little.e.beck.artist's baby book ... she's only eight ... so i have time, right?

and the table is still piled pretty high .... and then? i still two more sections of the room ... neither should be too hard ... but neither will be too easy til the rest of the house is done and i can move some of it out into the spaces where it belongs ... 

i haven't painted in more than a week ... and don't have a paint plan in my immediate future ... maybe friday? hope so!

check out 3b ..... or ... art interrupted ......

ap⋅pen⋅dix

    [uh-pen-diks]  Show IPA

–noun, plural -dix⋅es, -di⋅ces   [-duh-seez]  Show IPA .

1.	supplementary material at the end of a book, article, document, or other text, usually of an explanatory, statistical, or bibliographic nature.

2.	an appendage.

3.	Anatomy. a. a process or projection. b. vermiform appendix....a narrow, blind tube protruding from the cecum, having no known useful function, in humans being 3 to 4 in. (8 to 10 cm) long and situated in the lower right-hand part of the abdomen.

4.	Aeronautics. the short tube at the bottom of a balloon bag, by which the intake and release of buoyant gas is controlled.

so ... boy.beck.artists's appendix was taken out this weekend .... i'm on my way back to the hospital to spend the night with him ... all art plans for the week have been postponed .... so the promised parakeet painting is on hold .... sorry about that! 

tell me something cheery ... or send me a link to something fun (like your blog) .... i've got quite a bit of sitting around time on my hands .... and the hospital has free wi fi .... 

yes ... a painting and a grand plan ....

yes, i wish were doing a better job keeping up with my blog right now .... i am absolutely letting the busy parts of my life interfere with my artistic life .... and really, i'm a balanced person usually cause i do lots of things that are good for me ... i take care of me .... not so much lately ... too busy .... i'm kind of treading water instead of doing laps , playing water polo (or marco polo), or participating in a gorgeous synchronized swim .... yikes! not sure where that metaphor came from ... we'll just stick with, i'm treading water .... but today, i took a detour to the shallow end ... the restful end, the i'm not about to drown in a to do list end .... i went to allison's and painted the day away .... 

i worked on three canvases ... one barely, one a bit ... and one a ton ... here's the one i worked on the most .... 

i've cut out bunches of parakeets to put on that branch .... i just ran out of time today .... and actually left it at allison's house ... and am going back NEXT friday .... hopefully i can finish it then ... before the parakeet joy has left my art soul .....

but mostly what i did with allison all day was talk ... talk and talk and talk and talk and talk ... 

we talked about our plans for studio cleaning ... we talked about our plans for painting ... we talked about what our next big thing is ... and ... eek! we didn't have a next big thing ... so we made one ... i said let's do a show together ... and she said YES ... and then we sorta figured it out .. made a plan ... got a glimmer of an idea ....called our favorite gallery and said, oh no, july is MUCH too soon, oh yes, next year is fine .....  so ... my next big thing? a two man show with my pal, al ... at lola's gallery ... opening night is april 15th, 2010 ... mark your calendar .. well .. .unless you are like me and your calendar doesn't go that far yet ... 

so ... i got all artsy energized today ... i've been kind of artsy hum drum ho hum lately ... but by the time i left allison's house i was kinda giddy ... plans plans plans ... i'm making plans ... 

i also think i'm going to paint a fork .... if i write it down here, i might remember to do it .... 

if i haven't painted a fork by june, will someone please remind me that i wanted to!?

so? you ? any grand plans? 

redorangeyellowgreenblue

how do you pick out a paint color for a room? ... match it to a speck in the rug? ... do four shades litghter than the secondary color of your favorite painting? ..... pour through paint colors and pick one that speaks to you? .... pour through decorating magazines and find a good looking room and match the color? .... let someone else decide? .... it seems that i have a limited ability to pick colors .... i only want the ones that i put in my paintings! and that means bright .... eep! 

but! i've picked my colors for most of my newly renovated house .... see these below ... ten is the bottom color .. the most intense .... moving up to 70, least intense, very pale pastel .... 

kitchen? 2014-30... tangy orange ... reference this painting of orange tanginess..... 

family room? 2021-30 ... sunshine ... go see this painting of sunshine yellow joy ... or this one of lovely yellow happiness ...

sun room? 2029-30 .... rosemary green .... go see my green happiness here .....

dining room? same green as my sun room .... one is a the front of the house, one is at the back ... so it will kind of tie the whole house together (or, that's what i tell myself so that i don't have to pick yet another color!)

and library? well ..... living room really ... but we call it the library cause we're just not living room people .... and mostly it's where the books are ... and mostly where the kids do homework .... library? 2055-40 ... bahama blue .... like you can see in this painting of blueness .....

so .... are any of the colors in your house this saturated? or are your colors all subtle or elegant or calm .... i'm neither subtle, nor elegant, nor calm .... so my house shan't be either ..... 

what color is your favorite room in your house?

budgie joy

who knew that parakeets could eat millet that was HOT GLUED onto sticks?
who knew that parakeets were hungry enough to eat millet hot glued onto sticks ALL day long? 
who knew that parakeet nostrils are called cere? (wait? who knew they even had nostrils at the non pointy end of their beak?)
who knew that a room full of parakeets could be so charming, enchanting and joyful?
who knew that i'd have a mad desire to paint birds?

the first step is to admit you have a problem ....

i have a problem .. i admit it .... i treat my brushes just horribly .... in my recent studio cleaning i sorted through ALL my brushes, 90 percent of them needed a good soaking in alcohol ... so i did that ... and i brought them back to my rental house today and rinsed them out .... some feel gooey still ... i think that means they are going to harden back up when they dry out .... and then i'll just toss them ...this array on a dish towel is my attempt at giving them a second chance .... some were down right crusty ... some just had crusty bits .... none felt lovely and soft and new ..... little.e.beck.artist found the whole process fascinating ... and was kind enough to let me know that i had 77 brushes in rehab ..... yoinks! ... doesn't speak well of my clean up skills ....

but look at that...i do have some cleaning skills..... can you tell what i did? .... once i cleaned off my whole counter, i collaged my studio backsplash .... groovy, huh? .. i had it in my mind that i was going to glaze it, paint it, stamp it, too .. but ran out of time .... i had all the kids with me and the whole easter egg thing they were working on was more exciting than what i was meant to be doing .... but, the counter and cupboards are well on their way to the place called super tidy ...although, that's a bit misleading .... look at my truth:

there is tidy in the distance, but the foreground? not so much ... the six foot square table might just collapse from the agony of so much mess .... but, four bags to the dumpster (my house is a work site with a dumpster, after all), four bags to goodwill (sort of... they are still in my trunk), and one giant bin to the rental house's paper recycle bin ..... if you want a play by play on this last pic, you can go see it at my flickr site, where i've put all sorts of notes on it for your reading pleasure ..... 

so far, so good on the cleaning .... well, mostly cleaning, if you count collaging a wall as part of the cleaning process! 

this week, i think i'll paint with allison at least once (oh! i painted there friday, but forgot my canvas in her kitchen ...oops .... so no pics for you yet ....) and i hope to get in three or four short stints at studio cleaning ..... what's your art plan this week?  you could always collage a wall ....

thursday art and joy and glitter hair ....

my day started with rain ... and drying a tennis court with squeeeeegeeeeees and towels and blowers .... and then playing and getting caught by rain at the very end of my match ... so .... we were one set each ... and crossing our fingers that the monsoons will stop and we can play one last set tomorrow .... so ... i tell you that cause my day was eat up with tennis and rain .... until late in the evening .... i dropped my big kids off for their play ... and the little one and i went to the art studio .... and i did some tidying .... i got the middle three shelves cleared off .... didn't quite get all the junk sorted though, cause i got waylayed by eggs...


a cute girl with eggs .... she was using sharpies to decorate some painted blown eggs ..... and then when the glitter glue came out, i had to jump in too ... hard to resist glitter glue ....

so we each were glittering an egg, and then i said OH NO .... we're supposed to get back to school NOW to get good seats for the play! ... don't get glittery, there's no water in the sink ... finish up! .... and just as sure as you say hurry, hurrying won't happen ... we had a time figuring out how to get those eggs to dry without our usual skewers, which were moved with the whole entire kitchen 3 months ago ..... finally i figured out pencil tips could precariously balance the eggs..... so there you go! two glittery eggs drying .....

so we took our glittery selves to school and washed up there .... i only have a little glitter in my hair ... how does that always happen ... 

and then ... a new thing for me ... i took some videos of the group scenes in beauty and the beast .... girl.beck.artist is a plate .... boy.beck.artist is a spoon .... the one at the far right ..... if it's just too painful to watch someone else's home video of their goofy kids, it's ok to skip!!

my tomorrow is going to be just like my today .... some tennis, some art time, watching my kids in the play .... perfect!

hope you had a happy day today ... and that tomorrow is more of the same! 

blogging two days in a row .... or is it three now .... seems i might be back on track ....

rah ... i really did work in my studio today .... for what felt like a long time, it seemed like i accomplished not so much ... but here it is: 

i emptied the cabinets above and below the sink ..... threw away about 20 permanently stiff rags for painting .... i kept 2 .. just 2 ..... 

now under the sink, i have a box for rags, a red bin for sponges, cups and buckets for mixing paint, washing up and storing stuff, and paint palettes (that are really just old lids to plastic this and thats) ... prior to today, i didn't even open the right door cause things just tumbled out .... and the left was just a pile of previously mentioned stiff and grody rags .... 

and above the sink, i took out all kinds of little kids stuff... spill proof paint cups, giant bad brushes, washable paints, little kids stamps and sponges and what nots ... and also lots of dried up hard stuff .... that used to be paint and glue and i don't know what! .... and all that's left on those shelves are some sprays and glues and clean up stuff .... 

and then .... over on the counter ... i sorted through EVERY brush ... and ninety percent of them got the old alcohol soak ..... and once they are rinsed, i plan to be brutal about not keeping the ones that don't get clean enough ..... 

then, those shelves to the left, up high .... i started cleaning them off ... i found blown eggs that never got painted ... last year? five years ago? don't know! but that'll be a weekend activity for some of us .... but those shelves didn't get all the way cleaned off .... they kind of bogged me down .... like the red power ranger with a broken leg ... that five or six years ago i SWORE i'd never throw away ..... what do you do with that? i hadn't cleaned those shelves in YEARS ... and finding happy memories totally slows down the cleaning process! 

but soon? those shelves will have magazines and art books .... like they were meant to when i first moved in .... or maybe not ... maybe i'll find something more exciting to put up there .... 

i have tennis tomorrow ... but if it rains? i'm all over that studio cleaning!! .... 

oh.... and just in case you were wondering ? yes, the georgia drought appears to be over ... quick! build an ark! 

and finally .... here's little.e.beck.artist posing as a fork ....

 boy.beck.artist is actually a spoon ... i reported incorrectly previously ..... but, all utensils are wearing GOLD LAME^ (i used to know how to make an accent mark .... how does knowledge just fly out of your head ... my head actually?) .... i digress ... gold lamb-hay pants and shirt ... and then this funky tunic with a utensil in it ... and a little white ruffle deal at the neck .... i saw them dancing today .... and words cannont express how bizarro and heart pounding it felt to see my gold lamb-hay spoon boy twirling an eigth grade napkin girl (he's in sixth grade... gasp ... an older woman!) ......

so what did you do today? tell me you painted ... maybe that'll get me in the mood too ....