21.... on a way artsy day

i taught sunday school this morning .... an art journaling class .....
i painted with all three kids this afternoon ..... a poster contest for school on the golden rule .......
then i SQUEEZED in number 21 in my art a day challenge ...... these four pictures are the process ....
1 ... a glazed and tissued background over papers
2.....added green letters to the bluish background
3....added a heart
4 ....wrote happy thing on the heart .....

here it is larger, easier to see and read ......

....ok....i'm coming back in for an edit ..... it still isn't big enough to get the idea ... you really MUST double click on it!!

it is larger than the other long paintings i've been doing ..... from where i am sitting now, it is on my staircase and it looks quite big and dramatic ..... bold .....
tomorrow is a monday ....you know what that means, right? nothing on the calendar except art .... well, not entirely true, i have a couple must-do errands .... but i suspect i'll get in three or four hours in my art room ....rah!!!

20 is a little weird, i think ....

ok... is this too weird? .... i have been working hard at this art business lately ... trying to get a line on who i want to be as an artist ... and how to get there ... so i look at a lot of other artists' stuff online and follow links and blah, blah ...... and i came across an artist, robert genn... a canadian guy .... who has a HUGE website/blog and sends out twice a week pep talks if you sign up for them ..... so.... this is a clip from his last email.......:

A sort of "Jenny Craig Success Course of
the Arts." Mine's free. Here it is:

Find a sanctuary where you can comfortably work.
Dedicate at least two hours a day to your art.
Have more than enough equipment and supplies.
Set short- and long-term goals and keep track of progress.
Think of your work as exercise, not championship play.
Explore series development and exhaust personal themes.
Work alone with the benefit of books and perhaps tapes.
Replace passive consumption with creative production.
Use your own intuition and master your technology.
Feel the joy of personal, self-generated sweat.
Fall in love with your own working processes.
Be forever on the lookout for the advent of style.
Try to be your own person and claim your rights.
Don't bother setting yourself up for rejection.
Don't swing too wildly and damage the well-being of others.
Don't jump into the ring until you're feeling fit.

....he said explore series development and exhaust personal themes ... those of you who are regular readers are probably exhausted with me as i exhaust personal themes!!! .... so this blue bird of happiness collage might be a stray .....an exercise, not championship play! .... or it could grow on me ..... i think i could add a worm to the left lobe of the heart for that bird to be hunting for ... but it kinda grosses me out to think about a worm in the heart ..... not that i'm a literalist or anything with my blue bird of happiness tromping about in rain boots ...... andy holds me to a VERY high standard ... my degree is in art history and i can talk the art talk ..... so he quizzes me on meanings and nuance in my art ..... and this foolish bird had us both stymied .....

anyway, this peculiarly tall bird is my 20th piece in 20 days ..... if i am full of doubt and self loathing after number 21, i'll stop this game of art every day ..... or i'll at least quit posting it!!

here is a background i have ready to work on tomorrow .....

... i think i'll put some light green, lime green or light blue letters on it ..... and then a foreground ....i've no idea what i'll do with the foreground ...but i'm pretty sure it will NOT be a bird with rainboots ...... though, never say never .....




and one more bit of happy, artsy blogginess ..... julia painted this last night ........ it is a sprite .... a woodland elf ..... a red headed cutie pie with big ole' ears!! .... i'm actually really proud of how her background turned out .... just gorgeous!!





and her girlfriend who spent the night, grace, painted these two paintings .... i think they are both her dog chloe .... though i could be wrong, they might be pretzel .... and now that i look at it, i think it is pretzel ...... either way, grace was very excited and happy with the whole artistic process .....

maybe i should stick with being an art facilitator/teacher ..... and quit putting birds in boots .....

19

... i had the most fabulous, art filled day with a dozen girlfriends ..... some came early and brought breakfasty stuff ... some came late and brought lunch .... all spent some time in the basement painting and gluing and making and doing ...... we painted and decoupaged about a dozen wooden boxes .... about half are finished and the other half, nearly so ..... we also did two canvases, both done now .... one i just finished moments ago .... none of them look like "my art" .... they were artsy crafty and fun to do .... but i can't count any of them as "MINE" .... so.... this afternoon, after everyone left, i finished up this small key to my heart collage..... to call piece 19 for the 19th day in a row of art ..... and then.... even after doing art LITERALLY all day long .... my twins each have a kid spending the night tonight ... and what have i been doing with the girls? ....painting of course .... julia's pal is really into drawing and i talked her through a painting ...and it turned out groovy, fab..... so now, at 10 o'clock ...i've just washed my brushes .... and left the kids in the basement ....wonder what time i'll be getting to bed?

18.... and a bit on 19

... this is my 18th piece in 18 days ..... i'm very happy to be so prolific .... it feels nice to work hard and have something to show for it ....... this background was a gorgeous, juicy, deep, multi layered extravaganza .... i'm not sure even where or how it started to get to this richness... that means, if i needed to duplicate it, i couldn't!!! ..... i chose to make a tall, pink house ....and it has lots of yellow flowers in the yard .... a joyful, little house if ever i saw one ...... well worth a double click on the picture to get a nice close up of the rich loveliness .....

and tomorrow, day 19 .... and the piece that i am working on is NOT working out ...ack .... can i show you something ugly ...or, really, it isn't ugly ...it is dumb .....but, i'll work on it ....or do something else all together ..... i guess we'll see, huh?

17, tennis, and girlfriends.......not in that order .....

let's just get right down to the true confession that will start this post ..... i'm not really certain if i've ever confessed this next bit on my blog before ... here goes .... i HATE being in the kitchen .... i don't like cooking... i tolerate baking (unless it is christmas cookies with my mom and then i LOVE it) ..... and truly .... i just don't care about food that much ..... i like food.... i like to eat great food ..... but i don't like it enough to want to make it ..... what did e make for dinner? reservations....not really .... i actually cook dinner for my family 5 or 6 days out of seven ....the other night or two andy cooks or we go out...... but i would be happy with a bagel for breakfast every morning for the rest of my life.... a sandwich (turkey with cheddar and good tomoatos) for lunch into eternity .... and pizza and a salad for dinner .... now, i know that's not healthy....nor is it how i live .... but, i can imagine it..... cooking would be neglibible! .....throw in some grapes, watermelons and bananas, and i'd be set .... so ..... based on this knowledge .... you can see how far i will go to avoid anything kitcheny....

i have a home tennis match tomorrow ... first one .... we have five doubles teams playing .... i'm playing line three with best pal, dana ...... the funny thing is that a year ago we were just taking lessons and we'd see these teams having parties at their matches ..... with table cloths and flowers and all manner of fanciness ... all next to the tennis courts ... and it looked so goofy-funny-crazy .... we will NEVER be like that ... so, lesson learned, never say never ... cause yep, we are doing it ..... the last three thursdays we've been away and the home team has had food and drinks and whatnot ...... and tomorrow it is our turn ..... so the captain sent out an email .... sign up for the food you will bring .... and the first thing that crossed my mind was that i wanted to bring the sodas and water....ha ...no cooking .... but no..... she signed up for that ......what's that leave me? ..... so i volunteered for the table cloth, the paper goods, and ....ta dum! ... the centerpiece .... which, if i do say so myself is an outstanding display of tennis craftiness!!! ........ i have a vase in the middle of my ball hopper .... pretty coolio, eh? .... i did that for my tennis girlfriends.......

then..... i am having a social for my women's group on friday .....that's more girlfriends........and lunch ..... i, of course, am in charge of paper goods and drinks.... but even better than that.....for the "event" portion of the social ..... i am having a dozen women arts and crafting in my basement studio!!! certainly that validates my "i don't want to feed you" stance ...i won't feed you but, here, use all my art supplies ....... thank heavens for potlucks!!!

hopefully on friday i will remember to take pics for you and show you the fabulousness that my women's group creates on friday .....

...in the meanwhile .... here is number 17 .... the 17th new piece of art that i shall show you on this the 17th day in a row of hard core art creating ...... i actually had a bit of time in my studio today ..... so i could potentially get WAY ahead on this creating thing .... coolio, huh? anyway ... this was a juicy square background that i had other plans for ...... i actually wrote on the back of it that i wanted to put a blue pear on it ... oh well .... i'm on a heart and home kick! ....so heart and home it is ...... and if someone buys it and reads the back, they'll just have to understand that my artistic process can be a bit on the flakey side ......

come back tomorrow..... 18 is already waiting .... and 19 is SO close to done!!! .... tra la la ......

16, my fireplace, and a confession

.... these three pics are the progression of this painting over the course of about a week ..... and now it is hanging in my family room...and will for about a month until i take it to a show ..... then who knows?

my pal, allison, was over to day to hang in the art studio....we painted .... acatually, i'm fairly paint covered, but i think she mostly just collaged .... did the glue thing ..... we were talking about this particular piece of art ... she liked it .... and i don't know if we were talking about pricing it or doing more like it ...... but she thought it would be expensive cause of the THICK canvas box that the heart is on ....

........but no, allison, that is not a canvas ... it is just a box.... a real and true and actual box ... that i got a battery in at the mac store ... and when i got the box i LOVED it ....not just because it was the SO needed battery, but also because it was a tight, stiff, compact, heavy duty, fold in on itself with lots of tuckage BOX .... it wasn't a box, it was a BOX ..... so i taped it up and gessod the dickens out of it .......


this was at the beginning of the summer .....so...it went like this
may: fell in love with a box
june: taped the box with about 30 yards of tight tape
july: 487 coats of gesso
august: dictionary paper and paint it yellow
september: oh, i'll mount it on a canvas and make it something ......
and if you read yesterday's post, you know i'm on a heart art kick ..... so.... a heart it would be and here it is .......

... so, by now faithful reader, you know that as i make fresh art, i put it over my fireplace for a bit ....mostly to see who in my family notices it right away ... and who has to be nudge into noticing (and commenting) ...... but i've been on SUCH a productive role lately that everyone just looks automatically .... this is what my mantle looks like at the moment ..... the newest heart box piece is in the family room on the wall opposite this ....... and i have LOADS of small painting that run along down my staircase, resting on the bit of a ledge ..... so i'm all over arted and over decorated and i LOVE that ..... my family room is even more groovy and colorful than usual ......

so... who read the title of this post? or do you just skip ahead and start looking at pics and reading .... that's what i do ... i even do that with books ... i can read a whole book and not be sure of the title when asked .... like my current book ...nope, don't know what it's called ... but i do love it ..... uh oh ....i digress .... who read the post title ..confessions ... here is my confession ..... or my ethics question ..... i have said to myself, and aloud to you too actually, that i am going to do a piece of art a day for as long as i can ...... so what happens if i do two in a day .... can i save it up and show it to you tomorrow .......so today is day 16, and this is my 16th piece of art .... that heart box up there .... so ..... just, hypothetically of course, say i finished TWO pieces today ..... do i have to show it to you ? or can i save it for tomorrow? somehow it seems like it would be messy if i said, art 16 and 17 on day 16? no grace in that ........ easier just to say 16 ..... and save 17 for tomorrow ? and if perchance i don't have the opportunity to art tomorrow, i can still keep my HIGHLY self motivating game going and carry on with 18 the next day.......

ok, ok ...not so hypothetical ... i did finish another piece today ..... and i really, really, really want to show it to you .... but, for the sake of this little head game i'm playing by myself .....i am NOT going to show you until tomorrow ...... so that i can go on and on and even if i get ahead, i am allowing myself to have a hard day that has no art in it ..... and .... even better ..... i acutally finished three pieces today ....yippee zippy hooray ...how's that for groovy tooviness? so i can be two days ahead ..... rah rah sis koooooom bah ......

allison and i discussed the "ethics" of me not blogging about getting ahead .... and decided to go ahead and tell you about it ... so now you'll really want to come back for tomorrow's painting.... it's way groovy cool and made me happy .....
and allison, i did do the outlining like you suggested and it looks sharp!! yippeeeeeeeee .... and julia likes it even better than yesterday's painting! high praise from my favorite critic ......

done....number 15

this painting is called "gladness and singleness of heart" ..... the background has been blogged about before ..... the foreground was a brand new idea today ...... i think i can point to two things that influenced it .....

1..... i recently went to lola's gallery .... kristy, there, had the collages that she normally carries, and also had still all the ones that she had left from folk fest ...... she didn't need that many so she picked which ones she wanted to show first .... she sent home mostly flowers ... becuause she has never sold any of my flower pieces ...... which is so interesting to me, cause my flower pieces are what i, personally, sell most often ...... i've sold boatloads of flowers ..... kristy, however, has sold mostly mona lisas and hearts ..... so that's what she kept ... well then.... i say to myself, really maybe i should do more hearts cause i don't have many to sell ..... and i DO have quite a few monas about .......

2..... i am teaching a spiritual journaling class for sunday school ..... i've only done a couple classes so far ..... and was having a bit of a balancing issue between artsiness and substance ..... we are painting (in our church clothes! oh my!), collaging, doodling, writing ....... and this week, yesterday actually ..... i found the right balance .... we had a great class, i think ..... at one point, my pal, melinda, came in and said the room was in a state of zen like calm .... we were all writing furiously about gladness and singleness of heart .... what's it mean in general...what's it mean to you ... how can you manifest it better kind of things .......so.......gladness and singleness of heart ......

and those two things together led to me putting this heart and home on my collage today .....gladness and singleness of heart was what was in my heart ..... selling hearts well is what was in my head! .... so that combo of heart and head .... and saying that reminds me ... next sunday our topic is about being blessed with "memory, reason and skill" ......

i had a great art day ... i got a lot of other things worked on today ..... allison is coming over tomorrow, so that is more, for sure, art time ..... i'm pretty sure that the art i show you tomorrow will have a heart on it ...... hope i don't start boring you ..... let me know when i do!!!

14

ah.... 14th painting in 14 days .... i am feeling fresh and full and fun and fffffff .... i ran out of illiteration ..... i finished this piece at 9pm .... i don't usually art at night ..... but i have been lately ..... anything to get in my one a day! .....

tomorrow is actually a full on art day .... i'm going to school in the morning ....julia has a speaking part at morning chapel .... and i have a couple errands to do .... and some keep up with life things ... but i'm sure i'll get in a couple hours!! ... yippeee .... absolutely looking forward to something BIG .....

hope you had a grand weekend ..... come back on monday night, i'm sure to have some pics to show for my artsy day in my studio ......

13

day 13 and i have completed a painting ... this collage started as a tall yellow canvas with large letters ....now? there are glimmers of yellow and letters behind the turquoise loveliness ....... the best thing about flickr is you have to title your pieces .... i called this heartstrings ....... i'm VERY happy with how it turned out ..... three out of the four other people in this house had nice things to say about it too!! ..... i'm raising art critics apparently!!!


these are four canvases i have been working on .... layers of background papers and glazes and thicker acrylics and stenciling or stamping of letters and, on some, tissue ...... the one on the far left should go in between the two previous pics on this post as the in between of the process ........ i also have a fifth canvas this shape that is well under way ..... i have plans for some of these ... but not all... i have faith though that the ideas will come .......


i do not usually have an idea and then get the right canvas and work towards a very specific end goal .... i usually do the first 4 or 5 steps of my "process" ... but on this one, i have a big idea... a plan .... now the trick will be not getting off track and actually following through on my plan .... no guarantees there ..... if it starts not looking like the preconceived notion i'll veer off and do something else ...ya know how that goes?

hope you've had a happy saturday .... sophie's team won their socccer game by a lot to a little ... sophie looked like a good player today .... for the first time this season!! ..... drew had baseball practice ... played at catcher and pitcher ..... the girls went with andy to play golf ..... 9 holes on the par 3 ..... i took drew to buy new cleats ... my sweet little boy wears a men's size nine ..... it is so not cool to cry in the sporting good store about your baby growing up too fast ..... nine? that's humongous feet ...... he's only ten years old?? .....i also have gotten my lesson plans and such all together for the next three sundays worth of journaling classes ...... one day i'll remember to take my camera to that class!! ......

hope your are having a fun and fab weekend ..... go do something artsy ......

12 ... i'm going off long titles and i'm gonna just call this one 12, ok....so read about 12 now

i had a morning full of studio time ..... i worked on five canvases that are 30 inches by 10 .... so long and skinnnnny ...... i worked on giving them text and texture and depth ..... two are gorgeous.... two are fine ....one needs some serious help .... or a coat of gesso to start over!!! regardless, it was a good art filled morning of puttering and working on this and that ..... i probably actually worked on about 10 different pieces ...... BUT .... during my studio time, i did NOT finish a piece ...OH NO .....we can't have that can we? why slow down now? so, tonight after dinner i worked on a small piece, this heart .... did the embroidery and called it a day ..... so, the mostly yellow background heart with turquoise is a six by six and entry number 12 .... yippee!!



this photo is a smidge of a piece i'm doing ...... it'll probably be saturday or sunday's entry into an art a day keeps the doldrums away ........
and my doldrums are definitely away! my sweet husband has been out of town all week and got home today, safe and sound .... and he brought me a GREAT artsy, groovy souvenir ..... i'll snap a pic tomorrow so you'll just have to come back!
happy weekend to you and yours ......

11 and some other stuff.....

two wordly wise vocabulary and spelling tests tomorrow .... spell cultivate ..... two math tests tomorrow ..... and i'm all brushed up on prime numbers, factors and prime factorization (2x2x2x3=24) ..... two essays(i proof read) on inventions that have bettered the world (guide dogs and close captioning for the hearing impaired) ..... and a quick brush up on social studies...... ok, i didn't really do anything for the social studies questions and answers except for sing the star spangled banner about 12 too many times ...... fine mom, i get it that you know who frances scott key is ....... luckily, the first grader and i were like this: ....did you finish your work....yes ...good ..... that's how we were today ..... usually half the first grade math assignments begin like this ....tell someone at home what you learned in math, then with them do ________ ..... that's ok ..... but this real life does get in the way of arting!!! i actually finished today's piece during survivor!!! that's some late art time for me ..... survivor!! it's on! it sure has changed a TON since that first season, oh so long ago .......

this sweet, small heart art is my eleventh entry in my finish a piece every day grand hooooha ....... i'm happy with it .... i have a row now of seven smallish canvases in my family room .... proof of my commitment to get my art groove going .... and going and grooving it is .....



i had four blank white canvases, 10 by 30 inches each .... and today i papered them, glazed them, and added some acylic colorful interest to them ..... and here is one ... the others are loaded onto flickr if you are so inclined as to go and look at them ..... just like i did five ten by ten canvases all backgrounded ...and 6 of the six inch by six inch squares ..... all in one grand effort .....so that i could then finish one a day .... so it shall go with these, i hope ..... soon you'll have four days in a row of long thin creations ..... i wonder what they will be ??

heart art again? ...yup ... hope that's ok .....

i had a meeting this morning ....then i went to pottery late ... and stayed late too ..... dashed home, walked the dog, ate a late lunch, made a few phone calls and the kids came home ..... three spelling tests to help study for ..... weird letter cubes to be built ... that's the new kinesthetic way to teach phonics...... how do you spell mitochondria? what? i didn't have to learn that until eighth grade ...... and all manner of busy, busy, busy ..... and then there was a lull .... a dog patting kind of moment where we're all waiting to see if sophie knows how to spell monday ....she does ..... and in that calm, julia said, hey mom, what art did you do today? .....julia, i haven't done any yet .... i had a meeting and pottery and barely a spare minute for anything ...... and she said ...oh, pottery should count .... but no... i need to have FINISHED pieces ... and i just started pieces ..... she said, quick, you have to do something before we go to sophie's soccer practice .......so, today is not the day that i say i coulnd't finish a piece ...... i did finish one .... it is REMARKABLy similar to the last three that i've done .... but i just said finished pieces ...not spectacularly original pieces every day .... all though .... of the ten now that i've done ..... at least a couple make me awfully happy ...... and the rest will round out a grand art display nicely ......

here's a funny thing .... when you ask sophie to spell monday .... she says m o n d a y ... you then say AND .... and she says and don't forget the cap lock .... ???? ..... that's what she says to prove she remembers to capitalize monday ..... how twenty first century is she? ....

this heart art is finished off with embroidery floss ... and i had a good stew over what color to use .... i was going all matchy, hearty and it wasn't doing it for me ..... so i went with big contrast ..... i think turquoise and red are perfectly fab together ...... note to self: more turquoise and red combo ......

and pottery ..... i am nearly out of ceramic flat bits to add to my canvases ..... so i made more .... i made a larger sized disk so that i can make a bigger bouquet on a three square foot canvas .... i haven't done that before .... then i also made small balls that i flattened ..... so they'd glue easily ..... so those'll be more buds .... or bottle cap equivalents ..... if you know what i mean .....

tomorrow is like today .... very busy while the kids are at school..... tests to help study for and homework to supervise afterwards ..... not sure what the art outlook is!!! stay tuned ......