.... valentine's day .....

will you be my valentine?

check one:

___ yes

___no

___maybe

___ask again next year

i hope that you have someone to love on valentine's day ... and i hope you remember to tell them and show them how much you adore them .... and i hope they remember to do the same!

little.e.beck.artist made me a bouquet of pipe cleaner flowers for valentine's day .... as well as cards for all of us with very dear pictures ... in all, i think i got five different valentine's from her ... once she got to making them, she was having so much fun that she just kept going .... 

girl.beck.artist painted for me ..... the quote on there says .... smile. it is the key that fits the lock of everybody's heart .... i didn't know that quote ... and i especially love that she knew i love quotes and found this one just for me, just for today .... she gave everyone else chocolate bars ..... i'd have been ok with that too ... but this was better ....boy.beck.artist made me a card on the computer ... he says he loves me ... i'll keep it forever ...

and what did mr.e.beck.artist make me? well... he made me happy .... like he always does .. but this time with flowers and a small boxed gift ... 

and what did i make everyone? ... i made them all fat and happy with chocolate fondu .... we dipped in angel food cake, pound cake, strawberries, red apples, green apples, cheez its, and marshmallows .... the marshmallows were a late decision and came to the table after this picture .... we didn't eat all of the fondu or strawberries (or angel food cake) ... so now there are chocolate covered strawberries in the fridge to enjoy tomorrow ... guarantee that's what the two girls will ask for, for breakfast ... i'll say yes .... but pretend to be astonished that they'd ask for such decadence ....

i gave them all valentine surprises too .... 

and ... for the record ... i think valentine's day should always be on a sunday .....

i might go so far as to say that i love valentine's day best .... very low expectations .... with grand happy results ... no fretting about it before hand like christmas gifts and shopping ... no worry it's going to rain out the fireworks like 4th of july ... plus the fourth of july is such a sweaty holiday ... and thanksgiving ... well ... that's a good one ... but too much cooking for my preferences .... and easter ... well ... easter might be as good as valentine's now that i think of it ... i'll tell you in a month or two ..

but ......valentine's ..... i just love it .....happy valentine's day to you and yours ... 

 

....art today ....

.....here are  three more paintings i finished this week .... just slow to get pics of them posted ... these now, as well as twenty odd others, are packed up and ready to go be in the trinity show ... drop off was yesterday and today ... but the snow switched it up ... so that tomorrow is an option too ... the option i have chosen .... 

this is 12 inches square ... words that i've painted before .... 

and here's a 12 by 12 companion piece .... different words .... that i got from a pal, susie ... 

and here are the same words .... but on a larger, much oranger, canvas ..... i do love these words .. i have them on a card taped up near my sink ... do you have favorite words ....favorite words that i should put on a canvas?

 i believe i am getting a painting tomorrow for valentine's day ... i'm very excited about it ... 

how 'bout you? any valentine's happies coming your way? .... 

paint, paint, paint, paint, paint .....

..... whew ... in the last two or so weeks, i have finished 13 paintings ... some are quite small ... six inch square ... and some are quite large ....one at 36 square and two are 30 inch square ..... some are repetitive ... cause i'm building up for a show ... and doing multiples of things that historically sell well is just easy (and smart, i hope) ..... so ... 

here .......

this one below, i think i might make a series ... with favorite quotes ... or i might not ... i was really excited at the prospect whilst doing it (love whilst, good word) ... but am less enthusiastic now ... but that might just be because it is bed time after a very long day ....

this following one is becoming a staple ... i've sold a bunch with the house rules ... and owe a commissioned one .. that i've started ... but keep getting sidetracked and not finishing ... oops ... not a good business practice  ... but soon finished ... (just in case you are reading, miss l on the west coast) ....

and this last one .... well, i adore it .... i hope it doesn't sell at the show this week ... and then i will bring it home and make it mine forever ..... i have just the spot for it ... but i think i'll give it a chance to go out into the world ... just in case someone else is meant to own it .... 

if you would like to go to my flickr site and see all of the new ones click here and you'll get to a pear ... and on the right margin you click to the red branch one ... and then keep clicking thirteen times over to see them all ... if i'm telling you the right way , then this'll work if you are doing it the day i uploaded them or next year even ......  fingers crossed on that, huh?

so ... that's the story, morning glory .... painting, painting, painting .... 

what's your story?

are you ready for valentine's day?

i have done no preparation for valentine's day .... i don't even know what preparation i need to do! ... i did buy chocolate for a pal .... but nothing for anyone in my very own family .. but little.e.beck.artist is all ready for her friday-at-school-valentine-fest .....

she had papers in pinks and lavender and white ... and cut them to be squares ... square because she is about origami right now .... and origami is all about square paper ....

then she origami'd them right up into little pockets ....
... one of the keys to origami is to have sharp folds .....
once the pockets were made, she put a small hershey's bar inside ....
and then stickered up her origami envelopes .....
two special teachers are getting full on heart shaped chocolate boxes ..... for the traditionalist ... both of them are ALSO getting origami valentine's .... now that's love!
and then two more teachers are getting full sized hershey's ... that are conveniently wrapped up in the leftover paper from that first origami step of making the paper a square .... 

so there you have it ... valentine's is in the air..... do you have plans?

in the art groove....

i have not been in a big art grooooooove in a while .... it really takes a focus ... a choice ... a decision .... and, though i spend a good amount of time each week in the pursuit of art .... it hasn't been highly focused lately .... life gets in the way .... sometimes i choose walk the dog over art .... not a bad choice for me or the dog ... but not a great choice for artistic output, huh ..... and a year or two ago, i regularly turned down invitations (tennis? lunch? tennis AND lunch?) because i needed studio time ... i'm sorry, i can't do that i have studio time scheduled ... but not lately ... i've been doing the lull .... in part, i can blame the economy ... whey you aren't selling as much, you certainly don't need to paint as much .... but ... i have a show coming up ... and on my inventory i put some UNFINISHED pieces .... nothing like a little pressure to get your butt in gear ... yesterday, i started NO new pieces .... but i finished four .... 

three of the pieces are thematically "been there done that" .... but still a joy to do ... jut painting is a joy ... and it only becomes a chore when i paint myself into a corner .... painting something i don't like and i don't know how to fix ....

three of the paintings are game boards mounted on canvases ....  again, new paintings of favorite themes (when i say that, you can just go, uh huh, those are the ones that sell well, right?)

the fourth painting is a quote and a little soul ... and i think i'll do more along these lines ... i collect quotes like some people collect stamps .... and i like the looks of the fellow ... and i believe i can put small canvases in to the series... i'll be trying that soon .... 

now let's talk about the photo quality! they were taken with my iphone .... inside .... and professionally speaking, they are weak, weak, weak efforts of capturing the art in photo ... darn it all ... but, in my defense, it has rained and rained and rained and rained ..... when i take pics of my art, i need it to be a bright sunshine day, and i take the pic on my front porch ...in indirect sunlight so there is no flash, no shadow, true color .... so ... real pics once the weather cooperates .... until then, just a dim and blurry glimpse ..... 

my saturday is full of grand saturday busy stuff ... my sunday is not overscheduled though, so i might have time to get in some painting with the girls in the early afternoon ....if not, monday for sure ... well ... monday for sure unless someone calls for a lunch date, huh? 

yesterday, pictureless ... today, pictureful ....

hooray for sunny days ... rain yesterday, rain tomorrow, but hooray for today .... 

i went to pottery and had a very productive time ... one of the kilns was broken so i didn't pick up and glaze as much as i planned ... but that just means i had time to start more pieces ....
i made four pieces .... the two above are slab rolled platters, white clay, with blue swirly underglaze ....
the picture above is a white clay bowl that i lightly underglazed in blue ... and then swirled in black .... 
and then this last one is a picture of my work space ... if you go over to flickr right here you can roll your mouse over the picture and read all sorts of notes and commentary .... 

i do love wednesdays ..... how 'bout you?

zing, zip, zebra, zap, zoo, zealous

tra la la .... 

i've been art busy ... 

i had two deadlines that loomed large .... one was an inventory for a show coming up ... and one was a submission for a book .... both are emailed and ticked off my list .... whew .... 

now, i have to get to painting a bit more zealously (everyone, use that word in the next 24 hours ... it's a good one ) ... i need to get painting more zealously so that some of the pieces ON the inventory that aren't quite done will be truly and actually done ... then, i need to paint the sides, add the hardware, make sure they are all signed, and then deliver them .... whew .... it's this busy, non painting  bit of being an artist that i'm not so enthused about (enthused, not a good word choice ... don't use it) .... in a dream (that i don't actually have) i am a famous artist with sweet minions who long to paint the canvas edges, hardware my pieces, make sure they are all signed and stamped, and figure out how to upload art pics that are too many gigs because they know what the difference is between a mega,  a giga,  a byte and a bit .... and what to do when you are meant to send a jpg and it isn't .... 

whew .... 

tomorrow i have pottery and i'm quite excited about the pieces i've been making this quarter ... i think i'll bring home a couple finished pieces, glaze a couple, and start fresh with a couple more .... anyone need some pottery? i've been giving it away as birthday gifts lately .... 

tra la la ....  do something artsy soon ... and don't forget to do it zealously .... am i even using it correctly? oh ... do it with zeal ... that's better ....i guess i just like z words .....and you?

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 .....