art filled day ... still no number fourteen ....

beginning to end, today was art filled ... artful ......art full ..... i will tell you all about my day ... but first look at this and give it a thought.... do you know what they are? what they will be? 

this morning started bright and early with a coffee social at school ... it was the kids' art preview for the school auction .... this weekend is the auction ..... i've been in charge of getting a piece of art from each class .... about 30 classes, pre-k to 8th grade .... there was some hand holding involved, some nagging, some cheerleading .... and all the art is set out at school for everyone to oooooh and aaaaah and think about buying on saturday night ..... i was in charge of four of the classes (even though i just have three kids....how did that happen?) ..... you probably  read about the nativity, on golden pond, and birds on a wire in previous blog posts ... remember? ..... so that was fun ..... seeing other artists moms and shoppy, browsing moms ..... and a couple dads ... 

from there i went to pottery ..... i had in my head that i was going to raku fire some angels .... that's a new thing i'm into .... you might recall i have done some ..... a tall skinny one here .... and a fat one (i don't think she minds me calling her fat) here ..... but ... i got to pottery and no one else had a notion to raku .... and my teacher offered to do a firing JUST for me .... but i thought that was unnecessary ..... so i made two platters ..... slab rolled white clay .... did a large thin rectangle and carved five winter trees into it ..... and a smaller rectangle with three larger winter trees ..... i have high hopes for them .... thinking that when i glaze them that the glaze will pool in the carved out areas and be much darker .... we'll see ..... then i had just a titch of clay left, so i made another angel .... not too fat ,nor very tall ..... one day to be raku fired ....

then i went to stein mart... do you have that store? it might be my favorite store for real clothes shopping ... you know not target or sports authority clothes ..... anyway, i'm not much for shopping ... but i NEEDED bras .... and also maybe wanted a new outfit or something special for saturday night .... no luck on saturday night clothes, i decided to go with my original plan of wearing something already in my closet .....but, success on bras... and i bought a pair of earrings that i'll probably wear saturday night ...... 

then i dashed home ... to the dog and a walk ... (still no lunch, oops!) 

and then a decorator came over .... what? a decorator? well ... not a decorator for me .....but a decorator to look at my art!! i had put my canvases from the basement into the dining room (can't let a decorator into my basement even if the studio is all spick and span tidy .... remember?) ...... so between canvases propped up in my dining room ... and ten or so on my mantle ...and some hanging in my kitchen....leanne took four away ... to a client .... three of them were large .... let's hope her client buys one ..... go ahead, cross your fingers for me ..... 

then i thought about lunch .... and it was three .... and my kids came home .... and i ate leftovers while they started their homework ..... one spelling test to study for .... two language arts tests ... some multiplication problems ..... this and that..... and then i snuck away and got out some glitter paint .... twinkle acrylic ..... 

then we had a dinner problem ... drew asked to make dinner ..... and our pasta parmesan with chicken ended up looking like soup ..... such is life when you say 'sure, honey, of course you can make dinner tonight" ... to a ten year old .... we strained it..... and....  it tasted great ..... probably would have been fine as soup too, actually .... 

andy left for a meeting, the kids went to bathe ... and i snuck off to my studio ..... julia and sophie caught up with me ..... and we had fun going through my doodads .... as i figured out how to make this .....
did you know the white blob thingies at the beginning of the post were going to be angels? 
leftover hardware angels? the halo on the first one and the wings on the second one are smashed bottle caps .... i think i have about ten more of these to finish off .... i left them at pottery to raku or to glaze traditionally .... but i'm liking them plain .... they actually have a coat of twinkle acrylic .... but glazing would really change the color and texture ..well...unless i just glazed it clear or white ...but that's a lot of work for little effect ..... so ... we'll see ..... i'm not sure how i'll finish out those other ten .... who knows? maybe i'll do dozens and dozens of them ....and get a head start on next christmas ..... 

then ... just to finish out my whole day for you .... i read to sophie (she is reading cam jansen chapter books, so i just read her a few pages cause she couldn't bear to stop reading the mystery) ..... and then i watched american idol with the twins .....we don't start watching it until 8.20 or so .... we tivo it and fast forward through the commercials .... and now they are off to bed ..... 

and i'm thinking about what art i'm going to do tomorrow .... as well as ticking some things off my to do list .... so what's your plan? anything artsy? anything cool on your to do list? 

remind me to tell you about my new to do list ....it's kind of groovy cool .... 

uh oh

boy + barf = no school today

barf boy + no school today = no art

no art + cancellation of art date = grumpy me 

no art + promise of art in yesterdays blog = disappointed you 

barf boy + no school + cancelled art date + no art + promise of art + grumpy me + disappointed you = an apology + behest to come again tomorrow 

sigh

on the bright side .... i watched star wars 3: revenge of the sith today ...... let's hope i don't have to watch episode 4 tomorrow! 

happy weekend this and that.....

here's some fun stuff about my weekend .... 

-friday night i wore my jammies to book club.... my kids thougth that was bizarro.... will everyone be wearing slippers too? .... i was discussion leader for the book eat, love, pray ... very good book ... perfect for book club discussions ..... 

-so brought home the "class mascot" for the weekend ..... a stuffed rabbit named fuzzy .... so we spent the weekend taking pictures of her entertaining the rabbit for a journal ....

-two kids' basketball games yesterday, we always have two games, but we've NEVER won both games ... and we did .... and my kids were high scorers for their teams.... yippee ..... 

-went to a party last night .... and my husband DANCED ... not just danced ... but DANCED ..... i danced so long and late into the night that my knee hurt this morning .... that's a little bit of old age insult!! ..... or maybe i just don't dance frequently enough ....yeah, that's it .... not age related at all .....

-my women's group hosted a brunch at church today .... there were 2 hundred people, or more,  i think .... i was on clean up duty .... which meant i was sent home with some centerpiece flowers.... which is that picture at the top of this blog ..... 

-i watched two episodes of little house on the praire with my girls this afternoon .... 

-julia just said "you wore your slippers all afternoon" .... that's a fun accomplishment .....

-i spent some time, slippered, working in my studio ..... and tomorrow i will MOST certainly have photos of an artistically prolific day ...... 

-tonight, just before kiddo bed time .... we played whoonu? ....one of my favorite games ..... i lost ..... the-husband-who-rarely-plays-games beat all four of us ...... badly ...... then we also played rat a tat cat ..... another great great family game ..... and i came in last .... by SO many points it is a bit ridiculous ... at least my boy beat the husband-who-rarely-plays-games ......

what was a happy bit of your weekend? did you do anything artsy?

little bit of fixing up ....

so, my pal jeannie started a blog.... a knitting blog .... and it got me thinking about my blog .... and doing a bit of a tidy ..... in my previous list of blogs in my margin, i had five .... but, i have about ten that i go to nearly every day ..... and i have about thirty that i really enjoy and wish i went to every day .....so....in my margin, for your surfing pleasure .... i have updated my list of groovy spots to read away an evening ..... 

what's your favorite blog? .... leave me a link and i'll go check it out...... and i bet if you are here reading this, that i go read yours regularly too! 

one left handed shepherd

mary, joseph, baby jesus, three kings, an angel, four shepherds (one is left handed), one donkey, two cows, seven sheep(baaaa, that's a lot of sheep!)...

this is the nativity that i made with my so's first grade class .... we made it ages ago, but i had never taken a picture of it .... it will be up for auction in a week ..... any guesses how much it will go for? 

i'm currently doing the precarious balancing act that is life .... i seem to have a few too many commitments at the moment ... things i am happy to do ... but it all is playing out at once .... and it all ends up taking away from the actual minutes i can spend in my studio working on art .... it is interesting to me that now that i am truly commited to art as "my job" and making myself take the time for it ...that i still have so many things pulling me away .... oh well .... i'll happily take the stolen minutes when i can't find the long luxurious hours ..... i'll try to take pics of what i've been working on ..... 

my pal jeannie sent me a pleading email ..... i missed two blog days!! how could i do such a thing to her?! ha ..... so here ya go jeannie .... and i will try to do better ...... though it is the weekend now .. and art and blogging always are harder on a weekend ..... have a happy one ......

oh ... hours later, back for an addendum: jeannie just started a blog TODAY .... hooray for jeannie .... her first post is HERE .... tell her how good and brave she is for jumping into the blogging pool ......

ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen....and one to grow on .....

  
 things go fast when you are working on tiny canvases ..... 

i spent the day at allison's house .... if you are an artsy type, i HIGHLY recommend having an art pal .....and doing the art thing at each other's houses ..... it really is fabulous .... we talk about all the usual friend stuff .. but we also talk art stuff ... what we paint, why we paint, how we paint..... 

plus.... i started four long thin canvases ... i papered them and lettered them .... 

and .... i finished four teetiny canvases..... 

  

and i worked on one other small canvas .... i went all geometric and covered it in squares and rectangles ..we'll see if that one EVER gets finished ... 

so... i had a hugely art filled day ... in additon to a wildly FULL day of things off my to do list .... 

how's this for tomorrow: three dentist appointments, pottery class, hair cut and highlights, and three more hair cuts .... at least pottery is artsy time ... cause i'm pretty sure that's all the art i'll be getting done!  ..... 

what's your busy thing this week? 

eight...nine.....

my girls joined me in my studio this afternoon .... they painted canvases in my CLEAN studio .....on the other side of my big table ..... ahhhhh ...now i just have to keep it clean ... cause it is really lovely to work in that room when it is tidy ...... both of these canvases are teeeetiny .... they are ones i started earlier in the week .... i prepped and backgrounded 8 six inch square canvases ..... both images i created are further exploration of themes i've already done ..... i'm particularly fond of the little angel below ...... really, i did her because i wanted to make more of that groovy grass ...... 
..... it is 20 degrees here ... so even my normally cold basement seems warm compared to the great outdoors ...... 

how's your weather? how's your artsy life? 

stay warm... go make something ..... 

seven

we had a very exciting day of waiting for the snow.... watching the sleet ... watching the hail ..... then watching the snow .....and then ... finally .... playing in the snow ..... we also had two basketball games ... and ... art time! hooray ... sophie and i painted .... i had the background completed already ... but this afternoon i did this foreground ... an angel in pink dancing across the tops of the blades of grass .... the angel is similar to the one i made yesterday .... but the grass is new ..... i really enjoyed painting it .... the photo doesn't quite show all the colors in that grass ... purple blades ... pink blades .... five different shades of green ..... so there you go .... my seventh entry in the year of 100 canvases .... tra la la .... 

what did you do today? was there snow? 

five and six

two pears ... in love .... cuddling .... leaning in ..... getting ready to kiss .... 

do you know that i LOVE orange? ... it is one of my very favorite colors ... i have an affinity for orange shoes in particular ... the best thing about our snow flurry the other day was that i got to wear my orange boots .... anyway ... for loving orange as much as i do, i sure don't paint with it that much ... touches here and there .. but not entire orange canvases .. this might be my first ... orange background and orange letters .... i love how the chartreuse pears pop on the background .... i not only have a thing for orange, i also have a thing for pears .... on my flickr sight i actually have an entire pear set ...... well ... it's a fruit set .. but it is mostly pears ..... 
i actually had another pear painting in mind as i did this one  .... it is actually much smaller and much brighter than its predecessor ... but still has the same underlying theme of love and adoration ..... that might be TMI on the pears' relationship, huh? 

..... so, today, i wasn't as frantically creative as i was yesterday .... it was more of a puttery, contemplative thing today ... and i finished these two pieces ... chartreuse pears on orange .... and this angel dancing on a heart .... that angel has it going on ... wearing orange tie dyed fanciness .... with a matching halo ..... i'm very happy with how that sweet angel turned out .... my pal, jeannie, recently sent me some music..... a paper element i like to use in my art, but i don't have much of it .... i used the music that she sent me for those teensy wings .... if you are an angel, tiny wings can do just as good a job as big wings .... 

so ... in my contemplative art moments today .... i was wondering what i was doing ... 100 canvases this year? what kind of resolution is that .... WHY do i need 100 canvases? what's the rush ? why so many ....but really .... i think it is going to be ok .... i talked myself out of it ... then i talked myself back into it .... as i made this angel ... ya see.... i really like this piece ... and this angel ... and i would be happy to think about angels for 94 more paintings .... i could explore JUST this theme for the entire year probably ... but.... with so many themes that i like, it is ok to keep exploring them ... to do the themes that i love and keep working them in new directions .... new ways .... so .... here are my entries ... five and six... on my way to 100 canvases this year ..... i think a lot of these next 94 paintings will be familiar ... themes that i've started exploring ... and will continue to explore ... in this journey i'm taking as an artist ..... 

so, more angels or more pears? whadaya think?  

numbers

1/4 .... number of inches of snow in our "winter weather event" .... that was yesterday evening .. this morning there was only a smidge left on our roof .... my children were SO distraught that they didn't get a snow day! 

14 .... number of canvases i worked on today .... here's a sampling: 

 

3 to 7 ... the ratio of monkeys to art on my mantle: 

4... the number of canvases i have completed this year ( i'm just counting canvases, not all art projects)  .... so this home on a heart is my fourth of the year ... ALL four have hearts on them ... i hope i'm not overdoing a theme! 

45 .... the horrifying number .... and the answer to the question on my last blog .... i had some good guessers ... 10 ... 20... 30 ... 100! (my kind of gal!)  ... but no, my pal al bought me 45 canvases ... 20 that are 6 by 6 .... 20 that are 12 by 12 .... and 5 that are 30 by 10 ..... they were bargains .... i had to have them! 

1 ... the number of rulers inadvertently glued to my table

2... the number of pencils glued to the table 

756 ... the number of blobby glue mishaps i had in my artistic frenzy

0 .... the number of times i got in my car and went somewhere today .... i didn't NOT leave the house .... i walked the kids to school ... i walked the dog multiple times .... i walked to pick my youngest up from a playdate .... but i never WENT anywhere ..... all day long i worked in my studio ... i was working hard! ... i got a TON accomplished .... i have many, many, many canvases started now ..... all in various stages of completion .... none further than just background ..but some of them have four or five different background layers..... it was a painty, lovely day .....

tell me one of your interesting numbers! 

three ..... is four hearts

first ... it was just a papered canvas with some yellow glazing ........
then...... i squared it off and added some more glazing...orange, blue, green  ........ 
then i finished it out with some hearts ..... i had grand plans of further embellishment ... and had it sitting in the family room waiting ....with my needle and floss all ready to start embellishing ... but i spent a lot of time looking at it and not wanting to change it .... so, i didn't .... allison came over today and helped me decide that it is done .... so ... that's the evolution of number three......
i must have been moaning about my slow start to my artistic new year more than i knew ... because i got some encouraging comments and emails .... jeannie said she knew i could do 100 because they didn't all have to be big ... she gave me permission to crank out some little ones ... so ... i started just that! .... i started eight canvases ... six inches square ..... that'll get me going! 

and here is my happiest happy of the day .... my pal allison called me this morning .... she was due to come over to do art .... but, she was at dick blick ... and dick blick was having a big old art sale ..... she asked if i needed SALE canvases ... oh no, i'm set, i'm fine, got plenty for now ..... ok, they are just SO cheap ... how cheap .... WOW cheap .... so .... she bought some for me ... how many canvases did i ask my dear pal allison to buy for me .... why don't you guess ..... 

how many canvases did allison buy for me? .... and how did you figure your guess? 

two

in my quest for 100 canvases this year .... 

i am on number two ... 

such momentum! ... 

can you stand it? 

and i going too fast for you? 

whew ... 

i think i might need to take a break ......

i'm not used to working at this pace .....

or not .....

at this rate, one a week, i'll be hitting fifty or fifty two .... ack! ... fifty cause i know i won't be completing any at christmas time! 

alas, i need to get it in gear ... but while i look for that momentum, that drive, that quicker clip that i need..... let me tell you about this one... this two, actually..... 

this is a tall skinny canvas with cool papers in the background ..... turquoise and blue glazing ..... dark yellow letter stencils ..... and one iconic heart blowing in the breeze ... suspended from the branch.... waiting for someone to come by and pluck it off .... some people wear their hearts on their sleeves .... some people hang them out in the breeze, free for the taking .... available to all ..... you can read a bit more about it on my flickr site .... 

how 'bout you? are you a heart on your sleeve type? or do you keep it tucked away in your pocket? out in the breeze? tucked in a drawer?