big flowers... it's your life ...

i finished and delivered my commissioned painting today .... it looks like the small ones that i've been posting ... but it is 30 inches square ... it was very well received and made me feel all warm and mushy inside ... rah for that ....

here's a link to the song that i was asked to use ... just the chorus is written through the grass ....but i attached the full lyrics to the back in case years from now someone is wondering what the song was ....

tomorrow is my kids' last day of school ... yay me! i'm as thrilled as they are .... what's your favorite thing about summer? my favorite thing is more time with my kids ... coinciding with fewer commitments.....

happy happy joy joy!

be present ....

one of my great joys as a collage artist is the people who "get" me ... i have more than my fair share of friends and family who give me their extra bits that they think/know i'd like to use in my art ....i get road atlases and world atlases and maps of kansas from 1962 and french horn music and monopoly boards and bottle caps and dress patterns... and it all makes me happy ... i like that someone can give me what they don't want/need/love anymore and know that i DO want it ....because i am so rich in goodies i can get double, triple, happy creative and use some of it as wrapping paper .. so map art inside, and map outside .... groovy huh .... i wrapped about ten gifts tonight while we watched american idol ... every single one, i showed the closest kid: LOOK, don't you just love this? ....

the tenth time i said it, one voice piped up: i'd like it better if the present was for me ...

ha!

gotta love presents, huh?

two paintings and it is almost summer...

i finished two six inchers today ... and worked (hard! i worked hard!) to get my big commission done ... but it's not done ... but it is absolutely getting done ... whew ....

these two new are similar to other recent pieces ... i've gifted and sold a couple so i'm restocking ....

my big kids have one more exam ... then a day of goofing off, like signing year books and emptying lockers ... then a half day with the honors assembly ... and then SUMMERtime .... we're all ready for summer ... and no homework and sleeping late .... and for me? summertime means children in my art studio... which is perfect ... i always want company!

how 'bout you? what's summer look like at your house ....

lollypop flowers .....

spring has sprung and if i'm not mistaken, i need to quit saying that because summer is minutes away....

have you noticed your grass? mine is beautiful ... the dog and i played in it for a good bit today .... that dog gives me countless reasons to notice the small things ... like the grass ... so when it was time to take pics of the art i finished today, it was nice to appreciate the grass ....

i always take tight pics of my art and crop out the extraneous ... but i like the look of them in the grass ....
here are close ups .... of the lollypop flowers ...and my little bump people

if you want to read more about these five pics ... or get a better look at them ... click over to my flickr site .....

i got a great start on a 30 inch square commissioned piece today ... i hope to finish it tomorrow ... in the morning if it rains or in the afternoon while my kids are studying for finals ..... it is meant to be a graduation gift that the buyer is giving to her child .....

do you have anyone important graduating this season? lots of my friends do ..... graduation is definitely a changing of seasons, huh?

don't forget to notice your green grass ....

paint, paint, paint....

i had a very productive, paint-filled day ....

i finished a 12 inch square piece ... a graduation gift ......

i started eight small canvases ... got the backgrounds painted and glazed ... all six inch squares ....

please notice that i have been cleaning up after myself as i go along, these days .... yes, yes, that's clean... really ....

and i painted green and green and green and green on all sorts of papers ....

i've always had jenkins green in my golden's fluid acrylic stash ... but i never knew i loved it until today ... i love it ... love it ... jenkin's green ... rah for that ...

and i took photos ... and i actually, same day, got them onto my computer, onto flickr and onto my blog .... not to mention, i had a to do list with nine things on it today ... and i ticked off every single one ... i usually make a list and then don't do the things on it ... in my head thinking, at least i have this list to remind me to do them tomorrow ... or the next day ... ha ... any other procrastinators out there?

it's an orange thing ....

that's me in front of a stingray .... a car at the high museum's current big deal exhibit .... that's me in the cute orange skirt .... it was after hours ... i was at a party .... cool, huh?
and these are my patent leather orange sandals and my patent leather orange watering can purse ......
and these are curly orange ribbons on six inch canvases that i wrapped up in maps for various gift giving purposes today ..... i actually wrapped a fourth, but it had pink and green ribbon so it didn't make the picture ....

so i've had some orange karma going on .... how 'bout you? what's your color du jour?

and ... tra la la ... didja notice i fixed my t? my T ... the key tey? ... i used a tiny dry paintbrush and dusted and decrumbed my laptop's keyboard ..... terrific, huh .... my c is sticking now though ... i'm thinking i still need a laptop check up or tune up or something, something ....

7 ... or z .... darn iz ....

i've been doing a good amoun of paining laely .... ok ... no leer ha comes afer s....darn!

how can i have misplaced such a grand icon of grand necessity .... so i used synonyms replacing words holding my missing icon of alphab.

i will now pu7 a 7 in ins7ead of 7he 7 .... shoo7.....

so ... here .... i've been doing a good amoun7 of pain7ing la7ely .... 7he 2 7ha7 iwan7 2 show you are reminiscen7 of 7his one, an all 7ime fave of mine .... and 7his ... a newer one ....

so here's the firs7 new one .... i migh7 be gif7ing i7 7his week ....bu7 i love i7 so i migh7 keep i7 7o see if i7 sells and is wor7h making more of ... or i'll gif7 i7 ....
and here .... a second new collage ... (searching for synonyms is preferable compared 7o a seven ...) .... a second new collage which is being given away as a remembrance for a gradua7ion gif7.....
i have one more i need zoo make for a graduazion gifz .....

i had more zoo say ... buz, i'm having compuzer issues, huh? iz is zoo diszraczing zoo zype zhis ... is iz zoo diszraczing zo read zoo?

one, two, three

one .... i have a stat tracker on my blog ... but i usually kind of ignore it ... but since i've gotten back into full on bloggage, i've been watching more, to see if anyone is reading ... you are .... that's good ... the interesting thing is that my weekday stats are about triple my saturday and sunday stats ... so people are spending their weekends, happily i think, not at the computer .... but during the work week? catching up on blogs ... so ... if you haven't read yesterday's blog (by my figuring 13 of you have) go see that .... and maybe i won't be a weekend blogger in the future .. but at the moment, i'm behind on what i have to post .... so, this is my second weekend of blog moment of the weekend ...

two ....i did a vast studio clean up, toss, and rearrangement ...but i'm pretty much just a mess ... and already things are in happy disarray .... if you go to my flickr site i have this studio picture with notes all over it ... or maybe you can identify all the joy bits without? .... i spy with my little eye dog treats! .... i spy with my little eye grant woods' dentist! ... ok .. that last one was total art geekage ... if you don't know what i'm talking about, please ask ....

three ... tonight (yes, i'm bragging) i am going to hear this author speak about her oh-my-gosh-it-is-so-fabulous book ..... yippeeee .....

what do you have going on ? give me your one, two, three!

serendipity, sermons, party favors, pencils, presents and jessica simpson .....

i went on a family trip for mother's day weekend ... we went on our church's parish retreat to the mountains of north carolina ... we were at a camp called kanuga .... i first went there as a child ... i've been doing this parish retreat for 13 years ... and i've gone a number of times for art workshops ... i like it there ... it means a lot to me for lots of different reasons ...

i used to be a story teller at my church ... during the children's chapel ... now i just do it occasionally, since my kids have outgrown the children's chapel.... somehow, ten or so years ago, i was asked to do the homily during the parish retreat, since i was a story teller anyway .... after getting over the fact that i'd be speaking to ADULTS and not just children, i was fine .... the trick to a good sermon? party favors .... i specialize in party favor sermons .... in all my homilies, i give away something for you to take home to keep and remember not just the sermon, but the whole weekend of fun .... bells, bandaids, rocks, star stickers .... not high quality party favors, as these things go, but party favors nonetheless...... and i'm pretty sure the reason they keep asking me to do the homily is because of the groovy factor of party favors ....

this year, a couple months ago, i read a small story by the brazilian author paul coelho ..... i had never heard of him, so i read up on him on a variety of websites .. and landed on amazon ... here's what looks to be his most famous book .. anyone read it? know him?

i decided that i could adapt his story for my homily ....

so, we had church in the woods, and this is kinda how my sermon went ....

all through the bible there are metaphors .... help me out here, tell me some metaphors .... (all sermons should have audience participation, huh?) ... i got lots ... the lord is my shepherd ... a rock ... alpha and omega .... the light ... my personal favorite is jesus as a mother hen (luke 13:34) ...

from there my homily segued into YOU are a metaphor too ... in fact, you are a pencil .... i passed out pencils ..... or, i had a bunch of tiny children pass out pencils for me, actually ...(cause little kids shouldn't have to sit still in church for too long ... especially if church is in the woods .... )

then i used this bit from paul coelho to tell them why they were pencils, metaphorically speaking :

there are five important qualities to a pencil:

1...you are capable of great things, but remember there is an invisible hand guiding your steps....

2.... the pencil can gets dull, so it must be sharpened....this is a bit painful, but afterwards it writes better... pain and sorrow can sharpen you and make you a better person......

3.... pencils have an eraser, so we can correct our mistakes....it is important to feel able ...and willing ... to correct our mistakes.....

4..the important part of the pencil is not the wood on the outside, but the graphite on the inside.....what's inside of you is far more important that what we can see on the outside .....

5... pencils leave a mark, so be aware of your actions, because everything you do in life will leave a mark....

again, those are paul coelho's notions, not mine ... but gosh it seems right, huh? the pencils were handed out to help those there to remember the weekend ... and the important ways that they are like a pencil .... the sermon was well received ... we took pictures of our happy selves in the woods .... life is grand ...

and then i came home ....

and when i came home, people magazine came into my email inbox .... and it asked me if i wanted to know what jessica simpson was planning to read this summer ... well, sure ... i'll look at her reading list ... might be good beach reading ... but ... hey!! super-sonic-serendipity.....she says she's going to be reading up on paul coelho this summer .... what!? jessica simpson knows about my cool brazilian philosopher author dude before i do?

and then, that same day, i went to a birthday brunch (for me...yippee!) ... and my gal pal dana gave me the absolute coolest pencils ever for my birthday present ... and she didn't even know about the pencil story serendipitous fabulosity ....

so that's my pencil story .... as i promised yesterday .... how'd i do ? i actually had a grand day of art today ... worked a lot and finished two pieces that i am very happy with ... rah for that ... but i'll blog those tomorrow ... or the next day ... i'm busy tomorrow night, so i might not have time to blog ....

happy weekend to you ... be a good pencil person .....

dreams ....

no art photos to share at the moment .... so i'll just gab about things in my head ... ok?

1. there's a discussion on a facebook friend's page about what you are most scared of .... there were some powerful thought provoking answers ... deep thinkers, they are.....i said bugs ... big bugs ... sadly, i'm not really kidding .... i am scared of big bugs .... if you piled all my "bad" dreams into stacks, 49% of them would be about big bugs on me .... another 49% would be about big bugs on my babies (back when they actually were babies) .... and that other 2% ... well... just other ....

we used to do the family bed thing ... all in ... but you better sleep ... on the rare occassions when the twins weren't in our bed, i'd wake up poor.mr.e.beck.artist and tell him there were bugs on the babies .... not to be mean, but because i'd had a dream about it ....he'd always go check .... leading to number 2:

2. sleep deprivation leads to bad dreams and the inverse, well rested = grand dreams ... for me anyway ....

3. my dreams are usually in color ...some times wrong colors (pink hair, blue trees, green dogs) but still colors ... and i'm a good singer in my dreams (ok, i made that part up, i never sing in my dreams, i guess i'm a bad singer there too) .... but i can sometimes get myself to dream about what i want .... i just try to go to bed thinking about it ... a person, a beach, a party, an old trip, characters in a book .... i have lots of book dreams ....

4. yesterday was my birthday.... i have a lot of really, really, really nice friends ... family too ... but the friends were extra grand yesterday ....

5. one of my very favorite birthday presents was a set of pencils .... i was going to do this big long important pencil blog tonight, but decided i needed to think on it some more .... so you get this , random blogness.... i'll give you the pencil blog post soon though, ok?

so ... tell me something interesting about you ....

hooray for artsy children ....

my family is very good at celebrating ... they learned from a great celebrator ... me! .... i always make a big deal out of birthdays ... setting a fancy table with noise makers and pinwheels and mardi gras necklaces .... there's always a dessert to put candles in (rarely cake at our house ... i just like frosting) ..... and i don't let halloween , valentine's, fourth of july or anything pass without a bit of a to-do ... so mother's day ... i don't do it ... i leave it to them ... i was asked what i wanted ... i said hand made cards or love letters .... and, among other things, that's what i got ... a love note from each kid .... the above portrait was a mother's day gift ....it is done by little.e.beck.artist ... she's nine now .... do you see the little dog in the corner ... that's my favorite bit ... well, that and my son's pink shoes .... she's starting in young with the controversial art!

in memory of a dog ....

my pal ashley had her dog for 18 years ... bajan was actually a wedding gift ... making her all the more important to the family .... and now she's in doggie heaven .... running in fields and barking at squirrels .... and, if she's like my dog, eating turkey cold cuts and edamame to her hearts content ...

to make her feel better (everyone loves a present) and to help her remember the happy joy of her dog, i made ashley a little canvas ....

i had a glorious weekend out o' town .... in the mountains ... being happy ... with friends (like ashley) and family ... my mother's day was just exactly right .... hope your weekend and your day were grand, as well ....

pottery happiness ....

oh joy .... i picked up three pieces of pottery today ... and i'm very happy with all of them ....

this is my favorite .... when i paint nests, i use loads of different browns ... but i just had two and a black in underglazes .... if i do this again, i'll mix up some of my own browns ... to get more variety and depth ...

for a view of where this is going to live for a bit, there's a good pic of it on flickr ... you can scroll over the pic and read notes ....

then here is a bigger, lettered platter ... and a smaller lettered platter ....

so which do you like best? which suits your home best? what did you do today?

it's a nest .... or a metaphor ... depending on your perspective ....

rah ... this picture is jetting off to new york today ... does mail jet? or does it truck? or ride the rails? ... well ... for the sake of this conversation, it jets ... a commissioned piece off to a new home .... 10 by 30, vintage papers, juicy acrylics, and one egg from a novel page ....

this little egg is a metaphor for a big idea ... how 'bout you? living any metaphors?

assemblage ... for me, that means lots of glue ...

today, allison (not a dog) and fern (a dog) came to visit me.beck.artist (not a dog) and dixie.beck.artist (a dog) .... the dog portion of the day was just as fun as last time, but the dogs were MUCH better behaved .... much more accepting of doggie differences .... allison was very productive ... and i was a bit of a dallier ... but that's ok ... i worked on five different pieces .... no great focus on any in particular .... except an important one that i finished and have tucked away as a gift .... i'm very happy about it, but that's all i can say for now (hee hee ... all possible gift recipients are wondering if it is for them, huh?) .... i don't think the gift recipient reads the blog much... but i don't want to take any chances .....

yesterday and today were art days that were all about the glue ... remember i recently did this piece? ... it is now hanging up in my art studio .... i loved doing it ... and wanted to fuss with chunky bits of ephemera some more ... so i did this:

it is a single 18 by 18 canvas that i've sorted out into quadrants .... i think it would be a good gift for a family of four ... know anyone like that?

and then .... because it was all about the glue .... i also worked on this piece....i've had it partially done for eons and ages .....

eventually, i'll get to putting it on a canvas like this smallish one, or this green one on a huge canvas with a big ole story .... or this one that i love, and always overpriced when i was trying to sell it .... so i still own it .... alas, this sort of piece is not a big seller (too non traditional, maybe ... or just too odd?) so i'm in no rush to finish it .... anyone want it? i can do it custom for you the rest of the way .....

so that's the blog o' the day .... did you do anything artsy or grand today?

sunshine sunday ....

i got in a bit of painting this afternoon... mostly gluing, actually ... but some painting too ... i'll show you those soon .... and then i spent most of the rest of the day outside ... the forecast for the whole weekend was rain ... but i don't think we got any at all ... and by late afternoon today, it was windy, windy ... and the wind swept away the mugginess and humidity .... it was a glorious, perfect day ... hooray for spring ...

here are some more six inch canvases in my great quotes series ..... i just named it that ... i really call it the word series ....
that one above has five stars ... because that's the number in my family ... but i think you could own it even if you didn't have five people ....
and emily dickinson ... ugh ... which i now see i mispelled!!!!! ack .... here's a link to her biography .... and another to some of her poems ..... i'm partial to the life ones ...

i have artists coming to work in my studio with me tomorrow ... i think i'm making grill cheese for lunch for them... do you have any happy plans for your week?

art blog about art ... how novel ....

art blog here ... and i have art to blog ... three more in a series of six inch squares i am doing ...
i'm using vintage paper backgrounds ... and acrylic fluids for color ... more papers for the collage elements ... most of the papers i just pulled out of my stash of painted papers ... you know, the papers i painted and filed away to use later? well, later is now ....
and then i picked some favorite quotes ....
if you let me know your favorite quote (and it's not too long ... and it speaks to me) i'll put it on a canvas .....

i rearranged my studio today ... making more work space .... and painted quite a bit today .. which is unusual for a saturday ..... what did you do today? and what's your favorite quote?