babies

my twins are 17 years old today. time flies when you're having fun.

art

i have a wall by my kitchen table that is the only white wall in my entire house .... and i redecorated yesterday ... put up all the art that is available for sale .... it feels fresh now...it's a chore that i'd put off for eons ... but i just got back some pieces from the trinity show ... and rather than have them propped up indefinitely, i got on with it..... i didn't take a picture of the whole wall cause there's a stack of stray stuff off low to the left .... makes me think i need to paint over a couple pieces that have been sitting around too long .... things to do, things to do .... always more art floating in my head. can't keep up!

happy valentine's day, friend.

i love valentine's day. i always have. i hope i always will. i usually give valentines to lots of different people. i don't think of it as so lovey dovey, though there is certainly nothing wrong with that ...i use it more as a simple i love you reminder.... or maybe i just use it to remember how many people i love.... happy valentine's day to you .... go tell someone how great you think they are.... xoxo.e

bucket list joy.

here in the deep south, we are not snow people ... i am even less of a snow person, being a florida girl in my bones .... even long removed from florida, i am so summer and so NOT winter.

and we had an ice storm yesterday ... and a snow fall last night ... and the world outside my window is gorgeous and white and silent .... but i'll just stay inside thanks.

i was looking out the window at the snow and thinking about snow things .... skiing, winter olympics (yay curling), snowmen, pity for my dog who is about as snowy souled as i am ... and i wondered if i had anything snowy on my bucket list ... antarctica ... just antarctica, i think .... so i went to my bucket list ... which is an electronic post it note on my desktop ... and i organized it .... yup, i have snowed in days off and instead of cleaning my closet or kitchen cabinets or my studio like my friends seem to be doing, i cleaned up my bucket list ... i organized it .... by continent mostly ... by to do and done ... and have saved it to a doc and to this blog ... here it is if you want to dream yourself.... 

do you have a bucket list? 

is it overlong like mine? ...seriously, i'm sure i can't get through all of those due to time and financial constraints. but it's fun to dream.

is there something i'm missing? something to add?

mexico.....and primary/secondary colors.....

i just had the most excellent good fortune to do a girlfriend getaway in mexico ... sunshine and swimming pools and flip flops and beaches and sunscreen and a big ole hat .... 

i didn't actually 'need' a vacation like sometimes you feel you do ... but when given the opportunity to go i certainly wasn't going to say no thanks, i'm feeling fresh still ..... and i am NOT a winter person so it was certainly grand to escape to sunshine and 80 degrees .... 

last year i had lots going on and sort of put painting on a back burner .... but in the last two or three months i've tried to revive my art and i think it's working .... as perhaps you've noticed with an increase in blog posts about art ..... but now i'm sure that i've been successful in reconfiguring my art brain because i see art ideas everywhere now ....

so ... in the cancun airport i was inspired by this:

what? e is inspired by the airport food court? no way!

but yes.

there was a sea of perfect chairs. in this picture they look red green and blue ... but really, and i studied them, so i know, but really, they are red leaning towards orangey .... blue leaning towards purpley ... and yellow leaning towards greeny .... so primary colors leaning towards secondary .... and just really lovely .... so is that blue kinda periwinkle? i don't think i ever use that color ... and that green is so subtle ...  i need some greens in my pieces that aren't so bright ... 

so there you go .... airport inspriation .... 

and then here's a bit of airport artsiness that made me laugh ....

gotta love frida selling you some last minute toursist clothes ....

and now i'm back home ... waiting for an ice storm .... i will paint the next couple days unless i have no power .... without power my basement studio is just too cold and too dark ....

warm wishes to you from this winter spot ....

choosing.

love notes.
when's the last time you wrote one?
mine are usually on post it notes.
i have four people in this house that i write them to.
as i prewrite this blog post, in my future there will be a bunch o' post it notes .... by the time this is posted to the blog, those post it love notes will still be, days later, stuck in the spots in bathrooms and by beds where i left them.  i like to think they leave the love notes up for days and weeks and months cause they like them so .... but it could just be easier to leave them there than figure out what to do with them...... it's the thought that counts.

dreaming.

have you been dreaming lately? big dreams? little dreams? or just the usual dreams at night? all those types of dreaming are important...... i think dreaming is kind of like planning .... you just need to follow through.

i'm not partial to rules.... however ....

in my family of five, i'm the not so good at following the rules one ... i argue that ... i do just fine .... i just find rules to me more flexible than some of the others ..... which is good ... since most of them are under the age of 18 and should be following the rules to the letter! ... however ... as rules go? this one is perfect to me. i have these same words hanging in my kitchen. i've been known to point to them to remind someone of something!

pink

i sure don't do many pink paintings. but i adore this one ..... i think i love it because the color mix is so ME .... pink and orange and yellow ... can't get much happier than that.

sun.

"There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others, who, thanks to their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." (Pablo Picasso)

... and then there's me .... my spot is orangey.... but a sun, nonetheless.

this one is a little slice of tennessee. it's reminding you that you are amazing. or maybe it's to give to someone who is amazing.... someone who is amazing and likes purple flowers.

everyone needs words of encouragement, huh?

12 inches square gallery stretched canvas.
vintage dress pattern.
jumbo light blue flower.
do flowers actually come in this particular shade of light blue?
probably not.
oh well.
do your best.
that's always good advice, right?

just some lovey dovey mushy stuff.

12 inches square.
vintage dress patterns.
fields of colors.
simple red poppies.
lovey dovey words.

share your joy. ok?

this is a 12 inch square canvas ... i started it EONS and eons ago and just finished it finally this week .... along with many others .... it is currently at trinity, looking fancy in a show.

be ....

i have done a great many canvases with these words .... they always sell quickly .... i think this might be the biggest, brightest, and happiest version of it i've ever made. in regards to the blog post a couple days, maybe a week ago, about my new swoopy cursive handwriting, this be kind, be careful is an example of the font i invented for myself when i started pursuing art with intention.

so what are you going to be today? kind, careful, happy, helpful and honest? happy is my favorite. i'm probably least good at careful. are there other be's that you would add to the list ?  i sometimes want to add thankful and grateful ... but  wonder if those don't just fit in a subset under happy....

happiness to you and yours!

smile

this is one of the small collages that i have dropped off at trinity school for their gigantic art show .... i make a lot of these every year right before valentine's day .... they always sell well ... the mushier the better. do you celebrate valentine's in some way? i like that some people buy little bits of art for their love ... my kids all have pieces similar to this hanging in their rooms ... so ... it's february. are you making a valentine plan?