live love

i have a sign in my kitchen that says "love more, more love" or maybe it says more love, love more ... it's kind of yin yang thing ... they go together ... both create more of the other ... so .... that's where i was coming from when i made this one ... live more to love more and love more to live more ... it's just a tiny canvas ... six inches square ... a nice reminder ...

are you working on living and loving?

... happily ever after ...

what more can you want than to all live happily ever after ... i started this one after a joyful (spectacularly fun) wedding weekend of an old college pal ....

i finally finished this painting during my painting frenzy last week ... the blue background is actually bluer than this, but i did my photo shoot on a rainy day ... so i did it inside on my stove top ... under the bright lights of the hood .... not exactly professional ... but you gotta do what you gotta do ... it would have helped if hadn't procrastinated finishing the paintings and had provided myself more than a few hours window of opportunity for the photo shoot ... so it goes .... instead of being organized, i just have to trust that you'll believe me that the background is a gorgeous turquoise blue ....

here's to happily ever after .....

... happy friday painting ....

i delivered 21 paintings to the trinity show ... feels nice to check that off my list of things to do since it was a long series on the list leading up to delivery .... since valentine's is soon, i did a few heart themed pieces ... this one is a small six by six inches ...

do you do anything for valentine's? i think lots of people skip it .... i like to celebrate it ... and usually make something or get something for mr.e and the three wee e folks .... but i don't have a plan yet ... maybe bake heart shaped cookies in each one's favorite flavor ... i'll think about that ..

what's your plan?

... just be ...

here's another painting i finished up yesterday ... to deliver to the trintiy art show spotlight on art tomorrow ... show opens monday ... big party next friday night ...

this one is 12 inches square ... vintage dictionary pages ... classic notions of what makes a nice person ...

... over metaphored ... and back to painting ....

i've been a bit overwrought, discombobulated, chicken with my head cut off ... treading water to keep up ... and never getting to the good stuff ... oh! oh! i love a good metaphor ... i am trying to snorkel in the most beautiful clear aqua waters off a deserted tropical island ... but i can't get the water out of my snorkel or the sand out of my pants ... and i'm so busy working on getting situated that i miss the seashells and the fish and the coral reefs and that gigantic shark that might come eat me .... ok ... over metaphored ... i have no shark trained on my legs as i try to get sand out of my swim suit ... but i am not doing what i want to do because i seem to have too much of what i need to do ....

but not today... today, i had a busy first thing, but told myself (wrote it down even) that i would be painting by nine thirty ... and i was ... i also told myself that i would stay in my studio until one o'clock....and not get distracted by all the things that are just too distracting for me to say no to ... so ... i mostly stayed downstairs in the studio ... i came up about five times ... the first time to get slippers ..... cold feet were just not doing it for me ... the second time, i raised the thermostat ... still cold ... the third time, to check my calendar cause i'd gotten an important phone call ... the fourth time to refill on caffeine ... and so it goes .... BUT ... each time i came up, i did not check my email/facebook/flickr anything ... i just got back to work as fast as i could ... whew! it has been a LONG LONG LONG time since i've had a nice long block of time in my studio .... and i finished the five hundred forty three zillion paintings that were half done ... or ... actually, i finished eight ... they took anywhere from ten minutes to an hour and a half .... but they are done ... why was i so procrastinating on getting them done? why can't i get myself to do that block of time more often ? why am i doing the things that are supposed to's and should's and skipping all together the LOVE to's???

so ... more love to's for me .... have you been doing what you love?

and just a p.s..... i'm having trouble with my new computer's photos ... i can't grab the edited pics ... so above, uncropped ... just one more thing i need to work on!

turquoise map flowers ...

i finished a four foot by three foot painting yesterday ....

the background is an old, old, old, world map from a national geographic ...

the stems are dictionary ...

the flowers are street maps ....

i have lots of other pictures of the whole process i used to do the painting ... but i'm on a new computer .. and the iphoto is just enough different that it is freaking me out ... i can't figure things out ... it is not as clear cut as my old computer ... well ... maybe it is as clear cut, and i just need someone to explain it to me ..... we'll see .... it took forever to get this one pic up ... which is hard to understand ... since i had no trouble getting the pics up on flickr ... you can see the others over there .... that link will expire the further we get away from today the day of posting ... cause it isn't to the pictures, just to the first page of my flickr site ...

i'm dropping off 18 pieces for a show at the end of the week ... i have other new paintings and such to show you .... so come back soon .... if i spend too long not putting them up, it means my computer is not finding my skills to be satisfactory ....

what have you been working on or working towards lately?

.....happy new 2011 ....

... happy new year, friends out there in blogland .....

i've had an amazing whirlwind in the last few weeks:

-my parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary party before christmas in florida ....

-christmas with both sets of grandparents here at home ....

-family skiing in colorado with our best pals ....

and upcoming:

-mr.e.beck.artist's birthday ... i'll be cooking mexican for that ... just need to work on a present ...

-little.e.beck.artist's birthday... a week away .... eek .... (tip: don't bear children in january)

and now, mr.e.beck.artist has gone back to work, three kids have gone off to school, and i am left with seven (ack, when will i learn to pack lightly?) huge suitcases of dirty laundry/ski gear and a christmas bedecked home to unbedeck .... oh my ....

i've been working hard just to get it all over with so i can get back to my tra la la carefree, artsy ways .... and in between i check my emails, dally on facebook, and now, blog ....

this morning online i saw this quote:

and i love it ... it sounds all new age, seize the moment, follow your blissish .... but it is thoreau ... good old fashion thoreau .....so, i wrote it down, cleared a spot at the sink (moved the santa and the angel to the dining room cleanup staging area, sigh) and hung it right up .... i always like seeing how long it takes my family to notice new quotes .... that's called enoying the little things in life, huh?

so, new years resolutions ... at the moment, mine is to get the christmas gear stowed away in the basement .... once that's done, i'll either feel accomplished, or determine another resolution .... at the moment my studio is not functional, it had a wrapping paper explosion ... but that should get cleaned up with the first resolution .....

how long is it acceptable to have garland and wreaths wrapped around my white picket fence? ... i need to get on that, huh?

happy new year ... i'm off to a slow start .... but that's ok, right?