lately art ....

i am SO blogging behind in posting my art .... i could post every day for a week and not be caught up .... what's up with that .... when i have time to blog, no time to paint ... now that i've done a fair bit of painting, i'm having trouble getting in the bloggage ... so it goes ... my good habits of old have been lost apparently .... 

so .... here are two big ones ... literally (sustantial size) and figuratively (important to me) .....

this first one is a painting i did for friends at church .... our church is opening a new outreach center (food pantry, clothing closet, emergency assistance funds) .... and they are naming it after our retiring priest .... derwent has been our primary voice for increased outreach ... help more ... do more .... be more .... so it just made sense to name the center after him .... he didn't know it was going to be until he was presented with this painting naming the suthers center .... 

this painting is 24 inches square (i think) ..... and is on a vintage map of the southeast u.s..... can you make out georgia there? the words i've written around it are the story of st. martin .... that's who our church is named for .... and he was and outreach/help more kind of saint ....

then i have this piece ... also large .... 24 by 30 (i think)......

i did the orange painting and the peace sign ..... then took it into the seventh grade and they wrote peaceful things on it .... then i took it home and filled the peace sign with joyful doodads ... here's a closeup of the peace sign filled up ....

so ... that's your double dose of groovy for the day .... i finished some other paintings this week .... but you'll have to come back for those ... i've not taken pics of them yet ... and i like nice days for outside pics ... and it doesn't look like this weekend will have any of that! 

what have you been up to lately? anything creative? groovy? cool? fun?

everything but the kitchen sink ... or ... in this case ... just the kitchen sink ....

do you have a favorite blog? 

do you have a bunch of blogs you love? 

do you have a couple you follow well and then others that you follow as time allows?

do you remember discovering the blogging world?

do you remember your first favorite?

how long ago was that? 

well ... 

i ask all of that because 600ish blog posts ago ... threeish years ago, i was starting out as a blogger ... and spent countless hours cruising other blogs .... trying to figure it all out ... and ... that's AND ... i found darla at bayside to moutainside .... she seemed just like me ... she did art most days and blogged about it in a matter of fact way ... aren't i pretty matter o' fact? i like matter o' fact .... i don't like ranty blogs or cussy blogs or live like me blogs or tutorial do this blogs .... plus, darla is a big reader ... like me .... and i like reading about what she was reading .... so ... darla was the west coast bloggy artsy version of east coast bloggy artsy me .... (uh oh, what if darla reads this and says WHAT? that e and i are NOTHING alike... eek!) 

so ... anyway .... today on darla's blog i read this ..... and she had a lovely kitchen sink quote that she has framed by her kitchen sink .... and i wanted it .... so ... i went and got a notecard and wrote it out to put by my sink ... so that i can remember to be contemplative and constant ....

and ... because sweet darla had a kitchen sink picture ... i thought i should too ... plus i had just emptied and filled the dishwasher so their weren't even any breakfast dishes in the way .... just one glass in the sink .....(and yes, i did all this blog picture taking and planning this morning before an overly busy day ... and am now finally sitting with enough time to blog at 10 o'clock pm ..)

can you recognize all that good stuff up above? 

on the far left is a doodle calendar and some good color pencils ... the yellow is missing .... that calendar is my girls biggest new happy of the new year ... there are prompts for each day .... i think i've colored ONE .... they've done the rest so far ... 

and below here is a pic of a notecard i have up ... i grabbed the words off a pal's facebook page ... they just seemed simple and perfect .... i might should do a painting of it one day ....something along the lines of how to live a good life:
and here below, on purple, is the quote i got off darla's blog this morning ... it is flanked by some pachysandra rooting in a tiny antique pitcher that was my grandmother's ... and a dishsoap with an asparagus rubber band on it ( i could do a full blog on how i love asparagus rubber bands ..... my kids think that love is why we eat so much asparagus ) .... a button that is my disposal switch (wow, how cool is that newfangledness!) ......and a candle and another candle and some burt's bees lotion and some cinnamon in a shaker (because it is HIGHLY used and when i put it away no one seems to be able to find it but me) .... and hand soap ... and a dora cup .... the dora cup is what we use to put water in the dog bowl ... it's the perfect size for that job... and my pitiful holding on to little.e.beck.artist's babyness .... and some christmas cactus rooting gift from that same little.e.beck.artist ......

and then  a bit down from that it says ... today i wish you a day of ordinary miracles .... 'cause i want to remember to notice the ordinary miracles ....like my children's doodles .... and asparagus rubber bands .... and magic disposal buttons .... and cinnamon on your waffles .... and kitchen sinks that are ready for the next meal's big ole' pile of dishes ......and that meal's conversations about how your day was .....

so .... what's your kitchen sink like? got any ordinary miracles sitting around? 

... and no, no art today .... hopefully tomorrow, though, right?

a holiday is for painting .....

We must use time creatively. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. 

today is mlk day ....my children had the day off and we had some lovely down time .... including quite a bit of painting .... nothing better than having all the kids in the basement studio with me .... 

i worked on a project for a school class to work on ... i did a fair amount of tidying mess that has accumulated over the last month or two .... i helped my kids work on their own canvases .... and i did this piece ... 

the background was done a month or two or three ago .... it's a map on a 10 by 30 canvas .... with a blue glaze on it ... the blue glazing makes me happy ... i usually do darker or less transparent or more turquoise ... but when i picked this one up (again, i did it ages ago) i was really pleased with the coloring and the transparency of it .....  so then it didn't take much for me to do another house rules .... i've sold or gifted a dozen or more of these ..... so i plan to do four or five more for a show that i have next month .... note to self: better get right on that, huh? .... 

so that's my art story for the day .... happy painting on a happy monday .... 

tuesday, i've got tennis practice, a birthday lunch for a pal, and ART in a seventh grade .... 

wednesday, i've got to skip pottery for a tennis match ... 

thursday, i don't think i'll be playing tennis, so i'll get to do art ( i have a commission due sunday...eep! soon! ... i plan to get it done thursday) 

friday .... art with my pal, al .... and maybe finish that commission ... or the other one i have ... eep! i've suddenly got a lot of art on my plate ... how great is that?

it was an orange shoe day ....

each day has a varying degree of goodness .... some days are spectacular ... some days are ho hum ... some days are called monday .... you could even go on to say that months have varying degrees of goodness ... december is exciting and busy ... july is hot and languorous ... (oh, if you're keeping track of such things, i'm certain i've never used languorous in a blog post and i'm stunned that the fairies in my computer didn't underline it in red like they do so many of my word choices ) ... and to me, january is a trying month ... i get the post holiday blues ... i miss the extended family ... i miss the huzzah of christmas and new years and parties and cookie baking ..... i don't like when my kids leave my nest and go back to school (even if it is right across the street).... i don't like the weather (my soul is a warm sunny florida beach girl... not the suburban soccer mom artist that you might see when you look at me) ....  i should , in fact, like january more than i do .... two of my favorite people in the whole entire universe were born in early january and depend on me to supply the candles to make wishes on .... i like that ... but somehow, my baby turning nine (sob,sob) is more bittersweet than anything .... so ... yuck ... january .... 

and here i am, over the initial new year efforts to tidy and organize and start fresh and productive .... and i've just been blah ... blah blah blah .... so ... half the battle with blah is recognizing and meeting it head on .... i've discussed this blah with two or three friends this week ... they are feeling it too ... it's not just me .... so ... the best way to get out of the blahs? just decide to be out of the blahs! .... 

this morning, i woke up and decided to be done with blah ... done ... gone ... no more blah wallow (it will help that mr.e.beck.artist will be back today) .... so, to be a blah free day, it had to be an orange shoe day ... now why didn't i think of this a week ago?  i put on my casual comfortable orange shoes (as opposed to my dressy orange shoes, my orange mary janes, my orange boots, my orange crocs, my orange sneaks, my orange flips ) and off i went to have a non blah day .... 

i did my chores, ran my errands, and went to pottery all while sporting lovely orange feet.... hooray for orange .... and oh .... pottery! ... ah ... pottery .... i'm not sure if it was the orange shoes or the pottery   ... but the blahs seems to be abating .... a lunch date helped too .... 

i made three platters at pottery today ... a deeply textured rectangular casserole, a round slightly textured platter, and this square squiggley doo'd en noir dish ..... all are using a clay called gray speck ... it is gray now ... but after firing it becomes tan and speckledy .... 

so that's my day .... thus far, blah free ... and looking to remain thus ... rah for that .... 

what's your cure for the blahs?

let it snow ....

this bird didn't fly south for winter ..... 

but there's one little speck of sunshine in the yard ....

the dog was NOT happy about the snow ... and found one snowless spot to stay ....
the bird bath isn't fit for bathing in .....
but there are plenty of spots for angels .....
did you get snow where you are?

do you like snow?

do you like a day where you are told to stay home?

me?

yes, yes, and absolutely yes .....

raise your hand if your new year's resolution involved cleaning or organizing....

i'm very particular about my new year's resolutions ... i only make ones that i think will be fun or happy or exciting .... but .... that doesn't mean that i am immune to the lure of the new year's let's all get organized bug .... you know how all the bins and boxes and organizey joys are on sale ... or at least advertised ... and all the mags at the grocery check out have 43 tips to a more organized life ... so ... i'm a bit of a mess ... i am never inclined to put things away ... i use things and leave them on the counter, table, chair, floor .... and then i clean up eventually .... you wouldn't know i'm a mess when you come into my house (well, not usually, i think) ... cause i work hard against my natural nature of natural disorder .... unless ... well, unless you happened to look in my closet or my desk ... or one of my kids' closets or desks .... we're all a titch on the messy side .... 

so ... january rolls along and fresh start yada yada .... organize your new year blah blah ... and what do i do? i run out and get a label maker on the first day my kids are back in school ... that'll fix my problems! this is my desk : (OH, this is the after pic! please say you knew that)

my desk is not a desk, it is a cupboard ... because, i've learned,  i can't keep a desk tidy, nor do i even really want to try .... so ... if you call a cupboard a desk, you can just shut the doors and pretend you have that tidy gene .... and a tidy desk....

but, once or twice a year, i clean the desk ... i throw away the school reminders about the something or other that was four months ago .... and i gather the nine hundred and thirty two pencils that have been missing ... i KNOW we have pencils, where did YOU put them?

today was that day ... but ... best ever ... today was THAT day WITH a label maker ... 

oh my gosh, do you have a label maker? what joy! .... my dog is so lucky she didn't get labeled .... everything else did! 

that last little bit on the pen/pencil bin there says : mom, i can not find a pencil, pencils .....

and that one above pays homage to the 23 chapsticks we have .... 

and everyone got in on the label making once the kids got home from school .... the label maker kinda whirrrrrrs when it's printing .... no secret label making .... 
and .... just to try and get on the right track .... here is a painting i did last week ... on a trip ... how cool is that .... i used my sister in law's canvas, brushes, paints, tables .... and painted with all the girls in the house .....
it is 12 inches square and called "sometimes even the bluebird of happiness needs a hand" ... 

it was kind of a fast and free painting ... which makes me like it extra ... 

so ...how 'bout you? been lured into any typical january behaviors? diet, exercise, or the dreaded organize? 

happy new year ..... now make your resoltuion ....

 

 .... lola's gallery in roswell sold two of my paintings in the last week or two ..... this one ... and this one ... both very recent paintings ... and both ones that were new stretches for me in 2009....  so that's kind of exciting and reaffirming coming off a year when i didn't paint as much as the year before ...

in 2009, i painted 23 canvases ... (yikes, that's even fewer than i thought it was!) .... in 2008, i painted more than 140 canvases .... that speaks to the power of the economy in 2008 .... and the loss of a strong art economy in 2009 .... PLUS ... most importantly ... the power of the new year's resolution .... in 2008 i resolved to paint 100 paintings ... and exceeded that by loads ... 

let's do a review .....

in recent memory ....

2005 resolution: clean a closet a month ... easy ... boring .... done successfully .... 

 

2006 resolution: read and journal 100 books ... not easy ... very fun and busy ..... done successfully .... i still love the fact that i read 100 books in a year .... i should do this one again sometime!

2007 resolution: play 500 games and journal them for the year ... great one for my family .... fun ... put some happy perspective on what's important (kids, family time, saying yes when they want me to be with them)

2008 resolution: paint 100 canvases .... great for my art life .... painted more than 140 ... sales were great and it was easy to donate to all the causes that asked for art to be auctioned .... 

2009 resolutionS (bold move, more than one): 1. home, stay calm and happy and on budget for my house reno.... done.... successful, happy, easy to live through, on budget ..... 2. art, explore houses, go for ten paintings .... done, small since i was living away from my art studio for six months and then had a house to move into .... did more than ten house-ish paintings .... 3. life, be a better cook and make my family eat more vegetables ..... done .... not too hard .... 

this last one was actually a great one for us .... serve them spinach ten times and they don't like it much, then serve some weird squash chutney thing alongside the spinach, and they gobble that spinach right up ..... so, we eat way more vegetables ....we eat more fish ... i'm doing better menu planning .... i don't have many evenings of not knowing what we're going to have for dinner ... 

do you make resolutions? most people don't ... cause they think resolutions are hard or futile .... or they make them and break them ... or they make them and they are so hard that they don't tell anyone .... but here i am to tell you, make a resolution that you KNOW you can do ... that is good for you or fun for you .... that is NOT hard ....  make it a priority and a resolution and keep track of what you do ..... that keeping track bit is important .... you don't want to forget that it was your resolution .... go ahead .. make a FUN resolution .... tell me what it is ...

so ... here's my resolution .....

in 2010 i am going to edit that book i wrote in 2009 .... and i am going to send it to 5 agents before year's end .... ok? i was planning on editing it anyway ... but now i have a deadline ... and one more step .... that agent bit .... no guarantee of publishing, but at least i'm heading in the right direction .... 

i don't have a definitive art resolution .... but i need to get my studio back in shape after the holiday chaos that has made a mess .... i need to work towards a show or a festival, and don't have one on my calendar .... but, that should all happen without a resolution .... 

so that's my photo free first blog post of the year ... i resolve to go back to photoful blog posts soon!! 

let me know what your resolutions are ... make them fun and easy!