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 ....

whew!

yesterday was my first post in a while ... and it was about art funk ... i got many supportive comments and emails ..... but wait! i'm not in a funk ... i just HAVE art funk .... i'm not down or blue or sad or funkified .... i'm just too busy to make the time to paint .... i'm just too wrapped up in the other bits of my life to do a good job of keeping up with art ... let alone an art blog! ... but .... it's been about a month ... and i'm ready to move intentionally away from the funk ... not necessarily painting canvases ... but redoing my art studio ... ok? so no more "poor e" stuff ... i'm great .... happy and busy and busy and busy and happy ... so ... no worries .. just more messes and fewer canvases! .... 

so here are some pics .... the before pics .... don't hold your breath for afters ... these things take time ... and trash bags .... 

this is the long shot into the main room .... it doesn't look too bad to me .. just super full and cluttered .... kinda like my wee brain .... full and cluttered ....

and here's the same space off to the right ....
and below is the way right .... the cabinets ... the very full cabinets ..... 

and then back around to the sink and the scrawny full bulletin board ....

some bits make me happy ... like my clear containers full of little joys ....


i actually love this shot ... it's happy stuff to me ... but way cluttered ... i'm gonna work on it ...

and here's a big problem .... drawers and drawers and drawers full of stuff i don't want, need, love or use anymore ... now i just need to be brave enough to purge these drawers ... and fill them with good stuff .....

here are my painted papers in tidy files:

here are the papers that have exploded out of their files ....

and here's my own little landfill in the corner ... i've not been in those three drawers to the right in YEARS .... i'm being very brave to confess my mess! 
so, today, in my studio, i took pics and threw away an entire trash bag of stuff ... and started a pile to donate .... not bad ..... more tomorrow, i hope! 

and you? do you have spring cleaning in your future?

the dreaded funk

so .... i'm in a funk ... an art funk ... march just hasn't been the art month i was hoping for .... 

i've worked on figuring out my art funk ... diagnosing the art funk illness, as it were ..... the symptoms? not doing art, not even really wanting to try to do art, not even wanting to go to the art studio and putter ..... i believe the causes for the symptoms are myriad .... 

here's a laundry list of art funk causes:

1...i live in a rental house (it's brown, very, very brown)

2...my studio is a mile away in my real house (reno, quite a mess, though looking better all the time)

3...my studio doesn't have running water (small symptom, i've been using the sink with a bucket of water, but still a hassle)

4....i've been traveling quite a bit ... not a bad thing, but not conducive to grand art days...

5... for the last 12 weeks i've been arting at allison's, but i haven't been there since the first week of march .... 

6 ... life not being free and easy and forgiving ... i.e... i'm overscheduling myself! .... costumes for the middle school play, tennis (practice, matches, captain, league scorekeeper), teaching sunday school, three children/three sports,   i've taken up running (worked my way up to four miles and hated it so much i'm back to two or three mile runs, har!) .... 

... all of this art funk is compounded by the calendar on my fridge where i color in the days that i do something artsy .... march is PALTRY and pitiful .... 

so ... once the art funk is diagnosed ... embrace it .... eat cookies, go running, play tennis (played with my best pal today and we LOST, 6-7, 6-7... that's TWO tie breakers we lost ... ack!), create a full set of cutlery costumes for your son,  the fork, and his friends (beauty and the beast, my sixth grade boy, the fork, is dancing with his arms around an eight grade girl ... i think she's a napkin ... maybe a plate?) ... so ... embrace the funk .... live the full and busy life and be unartful ... 

then.... defunkify .... make a plan ... and my plan is to BEAUTIFY my studio .... tra la la ... there ... i said it ... i've announced it to the world ... or at least to the four of you who are still reading my blog after this slow art funk march month .... 

i got this way cool groovy mag in the mail today .... it makes me happy ... i have the last two editions of it out on my coffee table as well ... and i have my plan .... clean and purge that art studio pit ... beautify ..... if you can't make art, at least make your art space groovy til the funk feeling is gone! 

so, tomorrow .... off to my reno house with the waterless studio ..... and i shall take pictures of the mess ... and what is a plan without the dreaded before pics? and i will take trash bags and a goodwill bag and my paper recycle bin and i even know which part i'm going to start with ... tra la la ..... and i'll start ... i won't get far .... cause i have a busy day of all the other stuff that fills my overfull life ... but i'll start ... and if i'm lucky, i won't get the cleaning done enough, cause i'll start painting ..... cross your fingers ....

it's raining, it's pouring ....

rainy days aren't too bad if you have the right raincoat ..... 

i am completely and totally artistically discombobulated .... i didn't plan it, but clearly march is turning into a sabbatical from all artistic endeavors .... but i have to get my self back in gear eventually ... don't i? 

what do you do to get things back on track when you're off track ..... when you don't even know where the track went? 

marine biologist for a day ....

i have foresaken art for a quick stint in marine biology (and sunscreen 101, rum punch for lightweights, and salsa dancing with reluctant husbands) .... but it is back to art tomorrow .... or the next day, i suppose .... 

art and life... long distance

eep!

i set a new year's resolution ... to keep track of art days ... in order to make sure i commited myself to regular art days ... with lots of creating .... so far in march? i think i'm at four ... just four ... pitiful! ... and it doesn't leave me much artsiness to blog to you about ... alas .... life interupts the studio time .... 

in fact ... i've had moments of art joy ... like when i visited this spot .... 

you: no you didn't!

me: yes i did! 

really .... i was there .... it was fabulous ... but it made it hard to get to my studio that week!

why construction is like art ....

i think building a house is similar to painting a picture .... 

like ... empty lot=blank canvas ... 

is breaking ground a big freak out like the first splat of paint on a white canvas? 

not that my house renovation started with breaking ground ... but it started with kitchen and wall demolition ...... i don't think i do much demolition in my art life .... 

but .... this stairway pic?

something from nothing .... 

dreamed up a stairway-->built it = dream up a painting --> create it

this photo above is from my second floor .... outside my bedroom door ... looking down the stairs that have always been there, looking up the stairs that are going up to the new rooms in the attic ..... this stair way is the hardest part of my renovation to fathom ... it is what my youngest, little.e.beck.artist, absolutely could not wrap her head around ....whadaya mean there are going to be stairs there ... how can there be ... it's just air? and now she's still a little scared to walk up them because there's still just a bit too much air .... "mommy, make sure they build in that part right there so no one can slip through ..... "

and then the attic was a HUGE space of nothing .... so we're making it something .... two bedrooms and a bath for the boy.beck.artist and girl.beck.artist .... they framed it in, moved the hvac out of the way .... put in some dormers for windows and such ....and suddenly we have real space .... in that pic you can see the angle of the old roof line .... and where the dormer sticks out into the world ....

and now i get to fuss about light fixtures and tiles and counter tops and paint colors .... paint colors are a total joy .... i could just dither over paint chips forever .... i can't begin to tell you the conversations i've had about the color orange .... just orange ... days worth of conversations .... 

and .... just in case you are keeping track? i'm blogging about the house reno today because i did not do the journal page that i HAD to do today ..... that i promised to blog today .... oops! ... but my deary friend and i had never won a match as partners ... and we did today .... 6-4, 6-2 ....not that we used to be that horrible, it's just that we don't get partnered together very often ....

  so ... if you can't do art, at least play tennis .... and if you can't blog art, at least blog something .... 

what did you do noteworthy (or blogworthy) today?

to art or not to art ....

well, of course, i did art today ... i just neglected to take pics of it ... 

first thing this morning ... after dropping my kids off at school .... i went to my studio and had a yellow morning .... but not on one of my usual canvases... instead, in a journal .... 

nitty gritty details of that journal can be found here ... it's way a groovy cool thing, that journal .... 

then i went to my pottery class ... which was far more about being with two girlfriends than doing pottery .... i picked up 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 pieces ... really... seven ... and then i threw away 2 ... really 2 .. in the trash ... plop plop .... but then one of those same pals? went to the trash and retrieved them ... absolutely forbade me to throw them away ... har! she told me i HAD to reglaze them .... blech ... i like making things out of wet clay ..... glazing? not so much .... reglazing? not at all ! .... we'll see how long i can ignore those two hideous plates of ceramic hideousness before i just have to throw them away again .... 

and now... a pause from this irregularly scheduled art blog ... with a little hip hooray ... my tennis season starts tomorrow ... and i'm paired with my best pal (even though we don't play that well together cause we just can't stay serious .... we'll work on that this season) .... so ... art in the afternoon tomorrow ... cause i've got to work on that journal .... rah! .... 

ok ... i was done posting and then decided it was a weak effort blog .... hey, e? why aren't you doing art more? why aren't you blogging more? ..... rental house, renovation, sick kids, snow day, spring break packing and planning .... so many interruptions to the artsy life! ... so it goes! 

pictures tomorrow! not of tennis either! some artsy endeavor or other ... just not that hideous plate! 

make anything hideous lately?

art and dog

when i was in seventh grade i took a class called art and man ... i remember very little about it .... and i'm not sure it ever clicked why it was called that ..... but ... it came to mine when i named this blog post art and dog ..... but art and dog also makes me think of the quintessential dogs playing poker picture..... 

anyway .... i painted with allison on friday .... 

i didn't take my camera with me ... so you get a blurry phone shot that i couldn't find through my editing software .... but could find to post here (it's late, i'm dim)

so ... i had my giant tote full of my groovy papers and some stamps and stencils and canvases ... and raw umber (don't leave home without it) ... but i used al's paints and brushes and mediums .... 

and i left it ALL there .... how's that for lucky me? ....tu casa, mi casa ....or your messy studio or mine?  i worked on three canvases while i was there ... and i have about six others that are big and blank ... and i just left them in her studio .... until the next time i have a chance to paint with her .... the dog though? she came home with me .... 

so ... just in case you are keeping track .... i now have two 12 inch square backgrounds ...one brown and green ... one yellow and green ... and then one ginormo canvas that is all golden ..... 

none have long term plans! so we'll just think on that for a bit ....

please go down to two blog posts ago .... and if you haven't posted your artistic interpretation of it yet, please do ... in the next day or so , i'll pick a winner .... 

hope you are having a happy weekend ....

just thursday ....

a couple shout outs today .... 

a shout out to jeannie at knit resolutions .... she sent me books of music to add to my collages ... and some maps too .... she's a friend who knows me well ... thanks j .... 

and a yippee for the very cool website creative construction: life and art .... they are a community of cool, groovy, artsy, writing types .... they have a weekly contest ... and i won this week .... this week's theme was eyes ... and, ironically, my entry was eyeless .... but that was kind of the point ....a mysterious point ... a metaphor, if you will ... if you are an artist or a writer, this might be just the spot you need to visit regularly to fill your creative well ... and discuss all the creative bits of your life .... if nothing else, going there makes me want to write my book ....  

tomorrow is an all day art day .... so undoubtedly i will have fresh pictures of new work ... or at least work in progress ... what's your plan? something good, i hope.....