Been Working

We've had a week of snow and freezing temperatures like we haven't seen in years. This will be my excuse for not posting anything in nearly two weeks. Oh, and the Thanksgiving holiday. The night the snow began, I was fortunate to have a house full of women getting nail art done on fingers and toes to celebrate two birthdays. For the first time I had my toenails painted a unusual color for me. Olive green served as the background for tiny copper maple leaves which startle me each night when I strip off the warm wool socks. Anyway, I delivered this painting, entitled Prayer that night:



Since then I've been working on the sketchbook project each day. The format is so small that periodically I have to do something larger to get stretched back out. This is the first layer of something along those lines:



And finally, when I'm working a commission piece, like Prayer was, I always keep paper or a canvas out to experiment with techniques or color prior to applying to the commission. Elements is the outcome of that habit.




A successful outcome. I'm loving the movement as well as the gold foil in it. Ain't it grand when a plan comes together? Always love the occasional happy accident.

Remember, every one of us is an artist in some way or another. What have you created lately?

In Process

Thursday rolled around too quickly this week, so you might want to enjoy some of the finished projects the lovely people created over at...
Here is my offering for the week, an unfinished mixed-media piece entitled Surrender, inspired by my thoughts on the singular incident that radically altered Mary's life between a visit from an angel (that alone would set you on your ear!) and the welcome from her pregnant cousin. It began as a photo of a friend wrapped in a piece of fabric in my living room to get an idea where the folds of Mary's robe might be


With that trusty reference on my computer screen, I loosely painted the placement of Mary. From there I affixed pieces of a crumpled paper bag in the general shape of the robe. What followed was a couple of hours with various sized brushes, some Golden Ultramarine and Titanium White acrylic paint. A lovely afternoon passed, I must admit. Here is the outcome...



And a close up of Mary's face...


The finished painting (soon, I promise) will be the visual half of a visual-verbal collaborative piece slated to hang in the Fireside Room of Hilcrest Chapel in Bellingham, WA in the RU4ME Art Exhibit during the month of December 2010. My co-collaborator is gifted writer, Christin Taylor, who will add her written response to the finished work. I am truly honored to work with this gifted woman and anticipate her response with excitement. If you are up near Bellingham, plan to come see the finished piece.

What are you working on these days?

Never Too Late

What was I thinking?
With my yet-to-be-managed spine challenges and medications tending to assault my balance, I decided now would the perfect time to honor my long postponed passion for ballet. Really. What was I thinking?
Three of my young friends and I petitioned a local ballet school to offer a beginner ballet class for adults. Let me quickly clarify: my "young" friends are the approximate the age of my son. But they kindly included me in this adventure. Ballet rivals pilates and yoga for strengthening the core, when properly done, so how could that be bad, right? And a strong core will definitely help with my spine in the long run. (I use this fact as motivation during my more humiliating moments in class now.)

So after investing far more than can be merely written off (after I quitting from fear of more things than I care to name here) in the leotard, tights and shoes, I crept into the brightly illuminated but cavernously chilly, mirrored room. Did I mention the mirror? A really big one. The music began to play as I clung with an iron grip to the barre along the wall and tried to replicate the graceful movements of Miss Emily, our instructor. That ^*%#^&#* mirror heartlessly exposed each and every minor (okay, major!) deviation from Miss Emily's efforlessly graceful pose. She seemed to have muscles the Creator neglected to give me. That first class was difficult for me both physically and emotionally.

However, I've found myself standing a little taller and using my core more often during normal activities. Today was my third class. The mirror is still huge, but it's a helpful tool to identify where my body isn't in proper position. It also reflects when I do actually reach a graceful pose. No, it does not feed my denial, but as I am willing to accept and embrace myself exactly where I am---in this present moment---I can enjoy the incremental improvements I do see. And applaud them. After all, muscles have memory. Practice builds strength. I only wish I hadn't waited so long to approach the mirror.

Making Messes

Between daily breakfast dates with two of my grandsons (lucky me), a dazzling trip over Stevens Pass




and a much-needed visit to my friend the Graphic Designer for some R&R (thank you, my precious friend), I have been busy.

Oh, perhaps I should qualify that: I've been creating... all kinds of things. (The Professor and the Handsome Ginger have agreed to call it "Making Messes", one fondly and the other, well, not so much.. Here's the current list of Messes: I'm illustrating a poet's book for children. I'm mid-canvas on a painting promised in trade for The Blank Page Writing Workshop which begins next week. Check it out if you're interested in future workshops. I'm in the early stages of a painting I'm calling Surrender that will hang in the RU4ME Show at Hilcrest Chapel during the month of December.

As to future Messes, I've got a couple out there. First, I've decided to participate in this year's The Sketchbook Project with the assigned theme, Make Mine a Double. I plan to begin that next week. I'm also reconsidering teaching some children's art classes. Just the basics of color, sketching and 3-D drawing. I'm working on a realistic time frame and cost structure (doesn't that sound businesslike?) Whatever. Finally, I've got a new commission. This time and organization.

So here are the 2 things I've actually finished lately. One is a family portrait of a different kind. After a photo shoot with the family I chose the images I wanted and enlarged them to the sizes I needed. I then cut the from papers I had painted in colors to specifically compliment their living room (where it was to hang).




I then attached these images to the "canvas" (a hollow core closet door) which I had prepared beforehand.



I need to take a photo of it as it hangs, because it is killer! This time I was truly pleased with the outcome!

Here's the second project and this one I'll post over at Gitzen Girl. It's based on a quote Ann Voskamp posted. "We thought our secrets would save us... but they slowly slay us."



Too true.

What have you created just for the mess of it this week?