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!

hated it!

When you run low on supplies and money, but still need to paint, the hunt is on! I had already taken canvases off the walls in the house, dug through all my paper stashes, used every old canvas tucked into corners in my workspace - Yikes! - what's a girl to do?! The next surface was cardboard - it would do - so I started to cut apart boxes and as I was pulling things apart, BAM! I found a painting I HATED that I had pushed into the farthest corner of my studio! LUCKY ME! This is it! Need I say more.


I heated up my bees wax and poured a little pan of melted wax all over the surface of the painting. I then took my iron and ironed. It turned a purply color because the bees wax had a blue oil pastel in it that I didn't realize until I started pouring - it really didn't matter. Then I started working on the surface again, painting, rubbing, scratching. I ended up with the piece below. I thought it was a pretty good save. In fact good enough to upload to flickr. Well, every time I stopped by flickr, there it was. Not finished. Sigh.......



I worked on it again today. This is finished. It feels fully loaded now. Okay, I'm starting on cardboard next. Actually, I've worked on cardboard before and it makes a wonderful collage surface. I did find one last bit of heavy paper today, but that is almost finished.

"Life Interrupted" - mixed media on canvas - 11x16

AND Happy Halloween to everyone! Boo!

funny.....

This was quite the painting! Just when I thought I had it right, I didn't. I should know by now that I should give what I feel is a finished piece, time. Close the door to my workspace and then check it the next day to make sure what I'm seeing/feeling is still the same on a new day. Actually it didn't even take a day to figure out that what I thought was finished still needed tweaking. Here is the beginning stages.


Then it evolved to this. I actually was quite surprised to see the figure appear. Haven't done one in awhile.
Then it went to this. I really felt this was a complete work. I liked many of the elements and so I did my photographing, went in the house and uploaded it to flickr. Once it got to flickr, it starting bugging me. There was something wrong. I played with it awhile online and then realized it was two different paintings. So I took it down, went back to my workspace and ripped it in half.
This image is much stronger on its own.
And I turned the bottom section to a stronger view. I painted two paintings in one.
This is oil on paper. The work was a good reminder to let the work alone for awhile, or that using my computer, I can sometimes find a solution. Happy Tuesday everyone!

lots of stuff........

Much happening here right now! I have been taking every opportunity I have, to paint. We all know life interrupts, so using the time I have, has become a real priority. Just looking at the calendar tells me that no matter what I say, the holidays do take over, AND, I have fabulous news. Many of you are very familiar with Mary Ann Wakeley's gorgeous work. I have been a fan for a long time now. Well, Mary Ann and two partners have opened THEIR OWN GALLERY! The Three Ravens Gallery. Located in the heart of Philadelphia's Main Line, Three Ravens Gallery is a contemporary gallery showcasing international art. Mary Ann invited me to show my work there! I'm thrilled. So needless to say, very busy here right now - Picking up work, shipping work, dropping off new work and another opportunity locally, that I'll talk about later, and then Lisa and I leave for a few days in NY where I will finally get to meet the fabulous Jo Horswill from My Story in Australia, Daryl from on the m104 in NY, and Kate Strickland from Art Vein Vessel in Canada. So as I make my way through all the things that have to be done to get art prepped, I've been working on a piece off and on. This is the progression over about a month. The first pick is the usual canvas used to clean my brushes.

then one day I painted and started to form some shapes......


then it went to this awful pastel thing .........it stayed like that for a long time....

....I hated where it was going so I started to clean my brushes on it again....

then during these final stages, I was spending alot of time at the hospital with my mom - her partner, Jack, was in the final stages of leaving this earth - all his life support had been removed and he was slipping away.....this piece became a way for me to work through some of my emotions and feelings....

here is the final resolve.........

Final Heartbeat - oil on canvas 24x24

My mom is finding her way back - I was able to use my art to work through the situation. I feel so lucky to have this in my life. It's not sad here - life is for the living and that is what we are doing - living! Have the best weekend everyone!

best quote!

Many art blogs have wonderful quotes. I enjoy reading what important artists past and present have used for their inspiration. It's always inspiring, but I've usually forgotten them within a very short time - however, today? I read the best quote ever over at Bridgette Guerzon's beautiful blog Contemplating the Moon. The reason I think it is the best ever is because it felt like it came right out of my head and it speaks about my process better then anything I've read or heard. It is a quote from Robert Motherwell - "I begin a painting with a series of mistakes." OMG! YES! That's it! I begin my work with mistake after mistake after mistake and then I spend the rest of the time resolving those mistakes! That's basically my process. I'm not thinking, I'm not planning, I'm just searching for ways to resolve the mess I've made on the surface. It's very intuitive. I've been working everyday and am loving it immensely. Showing up each day begets more creative energy and more creative ideas. AND, I've done alot of bad work! Right now funds are short, so I've had to scrape up surfaces to work on in my old work. The piece below has been deconstructed once before when I tore off one half of it for another something or other, so I clipped the remainder to my work surface and began painting.


I've just about got the new under painting done in the photo below......

.....and now I've started the work on resolving the mistakes I've made! Ha!

...the paper is a bit warped, but I have a wonderful framing guy who can make things right again, so I don't worry about the rolling surface I'm working on and besides, it may end up back on my scrap pile - who knows....

This was the final resolve. I like where it took me. I learned a great deal on this piece. Hope you all have a wonderful week ahead!

more deconstruction/mixed media

Here is another mixed media collage. This is a deconstruction of a piece I did a few years ago. The original work was a very uninspired piece at best. I pulled it out of its frame and collaged some of the rice paper with sheet music onto the surface of the old painting. Then today I went in and painted for a couple of hours. Some of the rice paper that I had glued down was warped, so I cut pieces of it out, which gave me more depth.

The final piece is below. I don't know yet, but I may add some bees wax to it later. Maybe, maybe not. I'm pleased with this collage work. It feels very good to be deconstructing and collaging again. My minis are drying and I'll be mounting them next week I hope. Happy Thursday to everyone!


mixed media on mat board - 17x18