a bit of this and that.....

Work in the studio is all experimental right now. I've finished enough work to meet deadlines so now I can mess around with some ideas I've wanted to try. Not ready to post any of it yet, but soon. This post is just a bit of this and a bit of that.

Jim and I put up our little artificial tree a week ago to see if all the lights were going to work. They did! Big smiles here. Still no decorations on it, but we plug it in every night anyway and just enjoy all those little white lights.

We are almost to the shortest day of the year. For the last few years I've decided to embrace this time of year and enjoy these long dark nights. It has made a huge difference. Sitting by the fire at night with a book or my laptop has become a part of the day I look forward to.

Yesterday I hung some work at the Northwinds Showcase Gallery in Port Townsend for the month of December. I am renting space there. This is a trial to see if it is something I want to continue on a regular basis. If you are local, check it out. They are open Thursdays thru Mondays from 12noon to 5pm. Below is a poor photo,alas, of one of the little ones.


Winter Horizon - 8x8 - mixed media on canvas




Here is a photo of the whole wall. The first painting on the wall is one of my favorite pieces for 2009. It's very subtle for me.

I'm loving all the holiday lights and decorations as I make my way through my daily errands.

I love tucking into a favorite coffee house for a cup of french roast with cream and listening to the holiday shoppers as they fuel up to head out into the very cold outdoors.

We have had a full moon shinning in our bedroom skylight for about a week now. It just thrills me when it comes up over our back woods. I took a little video of it last weekend. The clouds were coming in fast and soon it just disappeared. Here is the little video.





Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

uh oh.......

Oops! Well, things happen. Below is a painting I finished a couple of years ago. I really liked this piece. I was doing alot of assemblage and collage work at the time. The angel was a book cover, lots of collage and bees wax. Well, somehow this painting ended up under my wax table and when I was working on some pieces this summer, wax melted all over it. I tried to recover the painting, but it just got worse the more I fiddled with it. Alas. I ripped the book cover off and set the destroyed canvas aside. A couple of days before the Thanksgiving holiday, I grabbed the canvas and started a new piece.


The photo below is what I ended up with before my son's family got here last week. We holidayed for three full days. So much fun. Well anyway, I went back into my workspace this afternoon and finished it up.


This is the finished painting. I like this one too.
I believe the angel is still there, just in a different form. I've titled this 'Day Armor'. I'm obviously back to work and on my way over to your place to see what's been happening.

inner connection..............

I haven't done a progression in awhile, so I thought this would be an interesting one. The painting below I finished about two months ago. It's a mixed media piece on paper. Bees wax, oil, oil pastel. It never really did it for me. At the time I knew I would come back to it. It sat on my, "not doing it for me" stack until a couple of weeks ago.

I picked it up and wiped as much off as possible. Then I took my iron and ironed it into oblivion. The picture below is what it looked like when I made my first new marks on it.

I worked on it for a couple of days and got this. This does it for me. This feels genuine and attached to the inside of me. That's what it has to be for me to be finished. I find it interesting that the same colors and some of the old structure ended up on the finished piece. The difference is that I went deeper

I hope you all had a wonderful creative weekend - I did! Have a great week everyone.

hook ups.......

This post could go on for two full pages! BUT! I promise! I will do only the Reader's Digest version - This trip was a time to hook up with bloggy friends and what amazing hookups! I don't have to tell most of you out there that blogland can be an incredible place to meet people from all over the world and I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to actually meet some of my favorites. First pic is of my bestest, Lisa, in Central Park right across from the hotel we stayed in. We had three days of the best weather for November in the city. No heavy coats and in fact I wish I had brought another pair of shoes besides my boots.

The first hook up was with Jo Horswill from Australia. She was here to visit family in NY and I took full advantage of her visit to fly to the east coast. Another blogger, Kate Strickland, from Canada, also took advantage of Jo's time here and drove down for a few days in the city to make the one-on-one connection. We met at MOMA (another whole post), actually recognized each other, grabbed a table in the cafe and went non-stop for over an hour. We cruised MOMA and then had a final light meal together, Lis and I stepped into the elevator, the door closed, and it was over. I had looked so forward to this meeting and as all things in life, it was, of course, way too short. I have no doubt that Jo and I will hook up again for a longer period of time in the future and, if I teach a class this summer in Canada, that Kate and I will be able to connect again.
This is a pic of Jo (left) myself, and Kate. Both of these women are amazing artists and you can visit their blogs to check out their work - Jo at My Story and Kate at Art Vein Vessel. Then that evening we met Daryl from Out and About in NYC. Daryl is a homegrown New Yorker and shares the city through her camera on her blog. She is the wonderful person who sent me the oil paints last spring AND NO!, DON'T WORRY!, I won't cover how that changed the direction of my art AGAIN!!!! We had a wonderful dinner, talk was non-stop, we walked down Columbus Ave. back to our hotel and her neighborhood, hugged good bye and it was over. However?!, I will see Daryl again in about 9 or 10 months when I go back to NY. We will have much more time (thank god!) and I'm so looking forward to it! Check out her fun blog and her amazing photos of the city!
Me and Daryl posing outside a famous cupcake place, whose name I don't remember, but I had just eaten the best little cupcake and that is, yes, the wrapper in my hand! The next day Lis and I went down to the lower East side to meet up with a young woman who is attending NYU. She is the daughter of a dear friend of Lis's and she took us shopping at the thrift stores in the area! OMG! (another post). Then that night our last hookup was with Lyn Rochelle on the Upper East side. Her blog Two Ghosts has made me laugh for the past year. We went to Lyn's apartment and again, talk nonstop, wine, chocolate cake, looking at her art, hugs good bye and BAM, we were back in a cab on our way back to our hotel. Lyn is an amazing artist, writer, and deeply felt spiritual person.
Myself and Lyn in her apartment. There is so much more I could share about this whole experience and what an amazing time it was for me. These are people who became friends in a way that I couldn't have dreamed about a couple of years ago. I will see all of them again. Every time I looked at one of them, I would say, "I can't believe I'm actually talking to you!"

CORRECTION: Lis is sitting in the Park at the Museum of Natural History - thanks Daryl xxo

checking out........

I'll be checking out of blogland for a bit - leaving for NY to hook up with some very cool people that I've had the good pleasure of meeting in cyberspace, plus shopping and checking out art and shopping! Lis and I traveling light, but a bit heavy on the return trip! I wanted to leave you with the window display at Delucca we did for the holidays - this window has become quite the buzz in our town. Three of us, Halie, Lisa and myself, collaborate each month or so and put up something fun! and wild! and, little did we know, but controversial! Apparently when we don't dress the mannequin, or garb her in less then modest apparel, certain persons in town, get a bit tight jawed and complain! What we didn't know is that people actually look forward to the next display. When we are changing it out, people stop and watch, including small tots and teens! I can never get really good photos of it because there is always so much reflection, but you can get the idea. For the holidays, it's about consumption! Poor mannequin lady is buried under and totally wiped out from consuming. We will be adding things for the next two months including a Christmas tree so that by the time Christmas is finally here, there should be quite the little mountain of stuff. The little TV is plugged in and just shows static and you hear the white noise that goes with it.







Also for those of you local, I have new art hanging at Delucca this month. And a small display at the Northwinds Showcase Gallery and if you are in the Seattle area, stop by Stylus in Belltown and check out the mini show - artists from all over the world. Catch up with all of you next week sometime.

moo

I just got these in the mail today - my new business cards. I am thrilled with how they came out. I thought I would give Moo a try. They are hooked up with flickr and can do many different kinds of print jobs with images from your flickr account. If you are thinking about your next batch of Business Cards, give these guys a try. Their prices are excellent and it took me less them 15 minutes to place this order. I ordered 50 cards using eight different images, which gives me a nice variety. The image is on one side and all the text is on the other side. They have a good variety of options and their turn around time was surprising - I placed my order on October 30th. I just came back from dropping some off at a gallery for gallery walk tonight and people were taking them already. A pretty inexpensive way to get your name out there. As usual, the photo below doesn't do them justice. The colors are much richer. So I'm now a Moo fan and will order some of their bigger cards next week. Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

magic number '20'

As I was getting ready to dash out the door this afternoon, I realized I had scored three times with the number '20'. I am a thrift store shopper and last month Lisa and I went on the hunt. For you locals, these were found at the Bremerton Goodwill. It's more like a treasure hunt then just shopping. Always looking for that great piece! Well Lis scored not once for me, but twice! Check out this 1980's, three buckle biker/rocker watch she found. There is this cool dragon on the watch face, then........

you pop open the little case and the watch appears.....

twist, snap and I have the watch face!
and the three buckles that strap it on....I love this - $20
Then she finds this - a cashmere jacket in near perfect condition made in Italy - $20
This is not a very good picture, but you get the idea.

And then on Sunday, we hit a local thrift shop. We had a blast trying on all kinds of clothes - I didn't find anything I couldn't live without, but I always check out the men's shoes - sometimes I find way cooler shoes or boots then women's and guess what! I found a pair of shoes I couldn't live without. These amazing saddle shoes fit perfectly, and are in remarkable condition - $20

I have a rule when I do this kind of shopping. It has to be something I can't live without and to find three things in two months is really exceptional. I have to say, when I took the watch in to have a new battery put in, the people who own the jewelry store were just ga ga over it and couldn't believe I got it for only, yes, the magic number, $20. Even my 83 year old mother loves the watch and she was ga ga over the shoes too! Happy Wednesday everyone!