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This week has been a tough one. It started off pretty good, I got watch my niece and nephew, make a little art, get some feedback on a commission that I'd given up on ever getting. I met a customer at the store that looks like me in about 20+ years. That was pretty cool. She is a bohemian, lived in NY, adamantly refuses being labeled a hippy (yuck), makes sculptural jewelery that you can wear-- sells vintage jewelery. Dresses like me, but shorter and with shorter hair. It was cool meeting her.
But it quickly went downhill from there.
Women's lives are so filled with complexity and hormones and any number of things that we feel we need to take on and "fix" or do. These things have a way of quickly adding up, taking over every other portion of our lives and the next thing we know, we are having to fight off the pile of crap that we have agreed (somehow) to take on.
Don't you wish you could be a two year old again, running around saying "NO!!' no no nononononononoooooooo!!" hee heeee! NO.
no, I won't do that for you. no, I won't apologize. no, I won't do your work for you. no, I won't make dinner. no, I don't want to listen to you. no, I won't wear your shirt. no, I don't have any ideas for you. no, I don't want to plan your weekend for you. no, I don't want to support your endeavors while I let mine wait. no, i don't want to do work that you are not going to pay me for. I don't want to wait in your line, I don't want to bake your cake, I don't want to hear you whine (again), I don't really care to clean up your mistake, either.
Nope. I'm not really sorry for it--soooooo... just no.

I'm posting a recent work that is in a show that closes this evening. This show had the best title, "Curio", and I'm sorry that it is closing because it is the best title for a show that has included my work.
I hope you all can practice your two-year old "no's" I no I will be...

what? what???

I can't believe that it is already July!
I've been super busy sewing with SarahLou these past couple of months. We just participated in our first fashion show. It was so much fun!! It was also extremely stressful. I'm still trying to recover from it, I think. All of that work and worry, for what felt like one minute of show. It felt so professional walking down the runway after our models and waving to the audience while all of the flashbulbs from the photographers went off. But now that 's over and poor SarahLou is still looking for a proper home! Keep checking back for photos or video from the event. I'm looking for anyone who has images from that night. There were a bajillion photographers and videographers, but nobody has surfaced with images from that night. yet.

I've also applied to and heard back from New York Academy of Art regarding attending there for graduate school. I was accepted!! and now I have to come up with the money for attendance. UG! more stress. I'm really excited, though and I hope that I can come up with funds. Living in New York for two years would be so exciting! I've a few ideas regarding different (creative) ways to find money for school including selling everything I have. So if you want to purchase artwork, either existing or future works, let me know. I also have a house full of kitschy stuff which might end up on ebay. FUN!!

I know you're wondering if I've any time to actually paint any more. Well, yes I do and I'm actually working (very slowly) on a new watercolor. Now that the fashion show is over, it should be finished very soon, so keep on the lookout for new artwork in the next couple of weeks!!

Until then, take care. And wish me luck.

night fire

well, hello there.
I've been very, very busy since I last wrote. I spent a week in New York filling my tiny head with art and ideas. Art and I attended our first porfolio review. It was very helpful and very warmly received, thank you for asking.
I don't really have much to say tonight. Just thought I'd post this and share with you all..
Thanks.

Road to Ruin

The full title of this is "The Road to Ruin (is Lined with Motherly Intentions). The drawings from this series starts my series about internal journeys, chiefly about infertility. I stepped away from painting for a long time and went back to drawing. It seemed easier and more natural to draw, more back to basics. The drawings from this time are all graphite, pastel maybe a little bit of gouache. but just a touch.
It felt really good to draw. So much easier than moving paint around--trying to mold it to what I wanted it to do. A lot less planning, too.
An important part of the planning of these images was the frame. I chose an antique frame for each of these to correspond with the artwork. So.. why didn't I post the picture with the piece in the frame? That's a good question.

Suburb

Suburb is a really large drawing, approximately 36" x 42". I"m just guessing at that, because I can't remember off the top of my head. It is charcoal and pastel on Hahnemuhle pastel paper.
This is a favorite of mine from a series of drawings that I did about crows. All of the drawings are all done with charcoal and black pastel and black conte, so they are all dark and moody. I was exploring the parallels between how crows act and how humans act. But this one turned out to be more about how I feel about living in Suburbia.
This drawing now belongs to some really good friends of mine (with great taste) who bought it for their home and hung it in their dining room. It has been featured in a photo shoot of their dining room in the December 2009 issue of Southern Lady magazine.

This beautiful lady is part of a series that I did of women with a birds head. They are all watercolors, or a mix of watercolor, gouche and acrylic. These were so much fun to do and I was surprised at how many people loved them. I only have this one and another with a vulture head that nobody seems to like but me. Even my aunt owns a bird lady. Well, they were fun and I was really playing with colors on skin and feathers.

maps and legends

"Next time I will go to Paris (and leave the boy behind)"

This is another in the Maps series and my favorite. I planned all of the paintings so that when they would hang together in a show, it would look like the model was spinning around in the frame. Painting people is one of my favorite things to do. Although lately I have not been motivated to do so and that has been bothering me.
Oil on Canvas with cold wax medium.
24" x 48"(?)