painting over paintings and the no peeking jar .... and how they go together ...

here's what i've been thinking about ... painting over an old painting ... or two or three or seven ...

so the question is ... when do you do it ...

did you know that they the mona lisa was painted over something else ... maybe not a finished piece, but at least a misstart .... is miss-start not a real word? ... that was rhetorical ...

on my recent trip to nyc and the picasso exhibit at the met, i saw a slide show (powerpoint?) showing how he'd painted over sections of paintings and what he'd left behind ....

so ... i painted over a painting ... and have it in my head to do more ... if it hasn't sold in a certain amount of time and i don't want it in MY house, what to do? i have one friend who got VERY mad at me last time i painted over a piece ...

opinions? have you done it? do you support me doing it?

and ... in lieu of actual art to show you ... i'll show you one of the joys in my house ....

that jar says: small jar, big fun ... and no peeking ...

back story: we like to go out to eat ... but usually go out to eat without much forethought ... hop in the car, where we going? and then it's a big discussion ... with five of us and five different ideas of where we should be going.... which way we go on our first turn has had us stopped infinitely .... we mostly went to a handful of default restaurants ... same ole' same old .... until, at one of our dinners out, i got a piece of paper and a pen ... and we wrote down EVERY restaurant that we could think of that was a reasonable choice for dinner ... mexican, italian, chinese, pizza ... maybe five different pizza places even ....maybe thirty restaurants total... so we wrote them all down... when we got home, we cut them up, folded them up, and stuck them in that jar (formerly a votive candle) .... now, when we want to go out to dinner all together and don't have a plan, one of the five of us picks it out .... the rule is no peeking, no arguing, no nay saying ... and where we pick is where we go ...

we've been doing it about 6 months i think ... we've maybe gone to 10 of the restaurants... ok, i just had sophie go through the been there jar, we've done it 8 times.... and we still have a lot to go ...

so far it has been great ... tonight we went to elwood's .... a favorite pizza place that we certainly don't go to often enough .... i'm glad the blue jar karma had us go there tonight ....

so there you go ... we had a not great thing, squabbling about where to eat out, and we made it this total joy thing in a little blue glass jar .... so that's kind of like painting over a picture ... trying to make something better .... instead of letting something bug you, you fix it ... right?

what's bugging you? how are you going to fix it?

how many paintings can i paint over before it is excessive?

painted papers ...

here's my paper storage ... i cleaned it up today .... all the painted papers are stored on the clipboards by color ....this is my biggest mess making endeavor any time i am painting ... i pull out the clip boards and take out papers to hold up to the canvas and up against other papers ... and i'm not great about cleaning up after myself ...so a new solution to my slobbiness is this nice wooden box ...that came with a wooden bead set for little kids in it ... but the bead bit is long gone ... but the box was cool so i've kept it and repurposed it multiple times ... for now it is holding snippets ... happy, colorful paper snippets ....
all my little bits of papers that are PERFECT colors but not really big enough for clip boards anymore are going in here ..this way too, when i cut out clouds or houses or flowers that don't work, i can stick them in here and maybe find and use them later ....

and below are six small canvases that are ready to go ... the first two steps are accomplished ... they are papered and they are glazed ...
now they are ready to become whatever it is they are meant to be ...

today i had a meeting in the morning so my exercise class was pre-empted ... so i went to my exercise class at noon ... and that's just wrong ... i am clearly not meant to be a noon time exerciser ... i had trouble getting going and was kinda crabby about the whole thing ... what's up with that? i'm not usually crabby ... even when i'm exercising .... and i came home hot and tired and not really wanting to do art ... but i did it anyway in a few stolen minutes between my have-to-do's .... so that is why i only have backgrounds ... and not some happy finished bit for you ....

maybe tomorrow? i hope to have at least one finished tomorrow ... though it will have to be done during stolen minutes cause the calendar is pretty full....

see ya tomorrow ....

ok ...

last week i sold an 'it will be ok' canvas ... so i've made another one ... i absolutely adore the background on this one... it's from a really great old atlas .... i love that top border ....

i have about two weeks before a show ... i have plenty for it but always like have some fresh new pieces ... and am also thinking some extra canvases in smaller sides might be my best bet for sales .... i have in my head a big canvas that i want to do, but am not sure i can get it done in time ... somehow i've made myself extra busy lately ... good busy .. but busy doing things that aren't painting ...

i have a dozen or so websites that i frequent ... one of them is the happiness project ... i loved this post on "you have to have it to find it" ... like, it's easier to find happiness if you are happy ... it's easier to recognize your joys, if you are looking for them .... it's easier to be commited to regular blogging, if you would just go ahead and blog" ..not to mention ... it's easier to get your sweet self up off the couch and exercise, if you've been exercising .... it's easier to remember to take your vitamin every day, when you take it every day ....

that happiness project website is really great ... it is useful, helpful, pragmatic, researched... really the opposite of this blog .... i have giddy happy posts ... and matter of fact story posts ... and la dee da i painted all day posts .... and let me spout out my stream of consciousness posts ... but the happiness project posts are concise ... and generally spot on ... i love them ... go see ... or read the book ... it too is grand ....

happiness to you ... or ... as the painting says ... it will be ok ... hope you're ok ... i'm off to paint so i have something to blog tomorrow ...

monday blog and a tiny canvas ....

i have a large canvas with these words, hanging in my house where it is easy to see .... right smack in the family room .... i think they are good words ... a friend had a little snippet of paper in her wallet that said them ... she thought i'd like them ... so here, i have a small canvas .. 6by6, cause i'm getting ready for a show and not sure that the economy is supporting large canvases yet ....remember when i ONLY did huge canvases ?... little for me was 20 by 20 .... economic boom times, huh? ... anyway ... i'm working on tiny canvases for a show ... this one is called, what's your house like?

i have the monday blahs at the moment ... i exercised this morning and it felt so blah ... i think it is the mondayness ... if i skipped exercising on monday, would tuesday feel like monday? or is it psychological and i'd just be skipping the monday feeling and tuesday would be fine .... these are the pressing questions ....

so ... i need to shower, write a letter, pack a package, go to the P.O., do an online order ... and then paint .... i've blogged in the morning so the day wouldn't get away from me .... as i work my way back towards regular blog posts ... how'm i doing? i think this is my third or fourth day in a row ... not quite a habit, but getting there ....

i'm working on the blogging habit, a better calendar, a to do list that i actually do, the vitamin habit and the exercise habit ... much greater success with exercising than blogging ... i put little e.beck.artist in charge of my vitamins, so that's getting more routine too! what habits are you working on? you know, you aren't supposed to wait for jan. 1 to start things ... and now, with a new school year, it seems like a good time to start fresh ...

sunday today

this morning after church, the congregation trooped on over to our new outreach center/thrift store/food pantry .... i didn't even pick the wall color, but isn't that yellow perfect? .... this is me.beck.artist, little.e.beck.artist, and girl.beck.artist standing in front of one of the pieces we did collaboratively and donated to the decorating cause ....

and you know i'm a shoe girl, right? look at those cute shoes ... some of my summer faves ... that i'll be tucking away for fall weather soon .... i'll miss them ... summer is my favorite time of year ... are you happy to see fall coming? ...or do you love summer more ? ....

september 11th ...

this morning, september 11th, a saturday, i painted in my pajamas .... not an unusual thing ... but not all together remarkable ... it was low key , relaxed ......

... sept. 11, 2001, it felt like nothing would ever be usual again ... low key and relaxed became foreign .... but today, was just normal ... some good bits, some bad bits .... but normal ....

if everyone lived by the words "be kind" the world sure would be better off... and we could all focus on just having normal days ....

it will be ok ...

i sold a small painting today ... it will be ok ... it always is ... and if it isn't ok now ... it will be ok again soon ... ok?

to blog and to write ...

my writers group just finished ... we met here at my house .... after i put away the cheese and crackers and did the little thingy that sucks all the air out of a not quite finished bottle of wine, i got on the computer ... and checked email ... and went on my mosaic page with my 12 favorite websites to do some net surfing, blog browsing, time wasting .....and midway through reading someone else's blog, thought to myself, OH, i have a blog ... so here i am, next day in the trying to reclaim the good blogger habit .... and all i have to report is that i had a glorious day ... just fabulous ... all day long was doing good things with good people ... that's nice, right?

one of those good people was my littlest kid, little.e.beck.artist ... boy.beck.artist and girl.beck.artist are on a middle school retreat ... sleep away .... so i had uninterrupted time with my little one ... and it was grand ... when she got home from school, she made me write a list of the things i wanted to accomplish in the afternoon .. i said nap ... she said, put it on the list ...i put nap, tidy, fold laundry, shower, and FAST grocery.... she added to my list: quiz her in spelling, quiz her in math, play backgammon, and play monopoly deal .... she planned it all out so we'd get it all in ... i was allotted a 40 minute nap FIRST, go to sleep right now, mommy .... so i snoozed while she did the things on her list .... we opened a box of cookies at the grocery store ... i beat her at backgammon ... she probably won't spell rehearsal or orchestra right on her test tomorrow ...

it was nice living the afternoon by her minute to minute list ....

above is a pic of yesterday's quote card where i taped it up by the sink .... it is there between the flying pig and the grow your own scallions .... a couple weeks ago, i was slicing scallions for the yummiest potatoes that i make ... and the bulbs of them were SO rooty ... so i stuck them in some water for the fun of it ... for the science experiment of it ... for the joy of it ... and now i have green onions growing in a cup .... and i trim the top occasionally into a dish when i need some onioniness ....

tonight, my group read aloud the first half of chapter three of all i want ... that's the name of my book i am trying to write ... all i want ... maybe it'll be more real if i tell you what it's called, huh? i wasn't as charged up about this writing group as i have been the others ... maybe i'm just getting used to it now ... that's probably good, right? i got one most excellent notion that i'm going to try and figure in to the book this weekend ...

and soon i need to do some serious painting ... cause i have a show at the end of the month .. and it would behoove me to have some fresh work ... as well as some smaller pieces that can be impulse purchases ....

happiness to you ... look for some joy ... sometimes it's right in between the flying pig and the green onions ....

boggedy, bloggedy, bloggedy, blog ....

i'm trying to be different ... to change ... to grow .. to become what i'm meant to be (not that i know what that is) ... and my blog is suffering for it! how is it that i'm trying to be a writer, and i can't find the energy, time, or subject matter to write on my blog?

come to find out, i am a creature of habit ... i like to think of myself as spontaneous and adventurous and seat of my pants fun .... and i can be those things ... but i'm actually really good at rituals and routines and status quo .... and my rituals, routines and status quo no longer include an evening pause to blog ... for a couple years there, it felt wrong for me to go a day without touching base on my blog ... to write, cause i like writing .... and i wrote about art .. cause i like art ... but i lost that routine .... i've picked up some other routines ... but i need to work on finding this one again ....

so ... as i branch out and grow and change and try to be different ... i need to still blog, or that's what i've decided TODAY ...so blog even if i'm not painting, huh? or i need to work harder on working that painting time back into my busy life so that i have something to show you and blog about ....

here's my quote of the moment ... i'd read it before, but when i saw it today, it struck me as extra perfect:

so i wrote it out and stuck it by the kitchen sink so i'd keep thinking about it .... the most interesting thing about it , to me, is that i have NEVER had anyone in my life that put limitations on me ... my growing up family, my i'm the grown up now family, my friends, peers, colleagues, everyone has always been encouraging .... the only one who ever limits me is me ...

i'm going to go do some work and edit the novel i'm working on .... cross your fingers for me ....

bubbliscious ....

i think the new lights over my kitchen table are a step up from the previous lighting (see the last blog post for that sad story...) ... they are called pop fusion pendants .... groovy name, huh?they seem to be like bubbles ... bright, colorful, happy bubbles ....they remind me a bit of candy too ... you know the candies that are in noisy wrappers with a twist at each end ... the kind that you open up and everyone knows you're sneaking a candy ....

my favorite is the butterscotch candy ..... whaddaya think?

one bare bulb .... and the artsy rationale ....

so ... this is like a rorschach test .... look at a picture ... tell me what it makes you think of ....

what's it mean to you? ....one bare bulb ...

it's not suspended from a wire, so it might not be for a brutal, eye blaring interrogation .... but it could be ... that's what i think of ...

that bulb? that one naked, bare, pitiful bulb is in my house ... it looks like it should be in the garage, right?

or a basement ... come to think of it, i might have one just like this in my basement ... nope... i think it's fluorescent lighting in my basement actually ...

or it looks like it should be in the broom closet ... or the closet that you never go and the spiders have taken over ... thankfully, i don't have that closet in my house ....

but i do have that light bulb .. that bare, pathetic, institutional seeming bulb ... though i don't think they even put these in institutions any more, do they?

...a few months ago ... ok fine ... FOURTEEN MONTHS ago, my family moved back into this house after a glorious six month renovation .... and i CHOSE for this light bulb to be put in my house..... in a closet? in the basement? in the attic? in the garage?

no, it's over my kitchen table .... the kitchen table where i ADORE family dinners ... the kitchen table where i've played hundreds (literally) of games in those fourteen months ..... the kitchen table that, really, our family life revolves around ... the kitchen table where i have had at least a dozen sit down dinner parties in the last fourteen months ... oh my ....

one bare bulb ....

you see, i had a vision for my house .... my kitchen table is in a green sunroom .. not just green .. but GREEN ... my kitchen walls are orange ... with white cabinets ... my family room is yellow ... and not just any yellow, but a yellow that benjamin moore was smart enough to name SUNSHINE yellow ... yes, it is brighter than you can imagine ... nope, brighter than that too ....

all of the area surrounding this bulb is sunshine happy joyful house ...

apparently i ran out of steam ... i found a great green light fixture that i put in the dining room ... and i thought i should have put it over the kitchen table ... cause it's pretty casual ... but i didn't want to shop for a formal dining room light ... i like the green casual one i had gotten ... instead ... i wanted groovy and colorful and fun over my kitchen table ... tall order, that ... and i gave up .... periodically i'd cruise the internet or a store and look for adequately cool light fixtures ... but ... ordinariness prevails ...

not to mention? i'm kind of a status quo girl ... once we moved in, that bare bulb didn't bother me .... i hardly ever noticed it ... it was remarked on at every dinner party ... mr.e.beck.artist has gotten good at talking about it as art ... that bare bulb represents a minimalist simplicity in this house of maximalist unsimplicity, apparently ....it is the lone piece of white and unadorned in a house that is a riot of color ... it is the calm in our colorful chaos .... it was our statement ... or, he liked to say, we ran out of renovation money ... or, the truth, i just ran out of steam ....

.... i'm not a decorator kind of girl ... when it's a chore on my to do list, i can get it done ... but once the moment is gone ... it never crosses my mind ... i would have been the 60s housewife who still had an avocado green fridge 25 years later .... i would have been the 70s housewife who left the orange high pile shag rug in the living room well into the mauve nineties ...(were the nineties mauve, or was that the 80s?) ...

so there you have it ... my bare bulb ... here it is with the far wall ... the one white wall in the house ... bead board and white to display my art ... a perfect backdrop for the bulb ... it's a white on white thing ....

oh my gosh, how pitiful is that? fourteen months of bare bulb .....

the electrician is coming tomorrow ... he's replacing that bare bulb ... i can always get him to come back later if i change my mind and want to go back to simple ....

... catching up with my artsy things: three paintings and picasso

my church is opening up a new outreach center .... food pantry, thrift store, help center .... we named it after a retiring priest and i did this painting for him .... it was a big surprise that he was being honored, let alone that he was having the whole center named for him ....

he took that painting off into retirement, but i was asked to do something in the same vein for the new center .... my girls and i did these three collages, we call the series love your neighbor ... they are big ... each, 30 inches square ... mini me, i mean little.e.beck.artist worked on the one on the right .... it has the story of the good samaritan around it ... girl.beck.artist did the one in the middle, it has the story of st. martin .... and i did the one on the right, with the story of mother teresa ..... each one reflecting on people who helped others ....

i actually finished them a week or so ago .... but i did a OH MY GOSH FABULOUS trip to new york city for just two nights .... there were tons of trip highlights, but i'll tell you the artsy one ... mr.e.beck.artist and i went to the met for some art viewing ... we looked through the whole museum, but i went with the intention of seeing the picasso exhibit ... and ... in fact ... i believe that the picasso exhibit at the met is the single most impressive art exhibit i have ever been to... i adored it ... it was HUGE ... it was fabulous .... i learned so much (and i've read books and books about picasso already) .... i was giddy for how lovely it was ....

it stark contrast was the kandinsky show at the guggenheim ... gosh, i was completely underwhelmed .... i adore kandinsky, but this tiny exhibit was not worth the special trip i made ....i'm not sure i've ever given a negative review on this blog ... hmmm ... i'll think about that ....