Month: November 2012

  • Giving yourself away

    @RoakillSpatula is getting married today. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing him here in xangaland for several years now and have watched this love story evolve, the chronicle of his work to unite his life with his love’s.  It takes a lot of real work to combine two adult households, not to mention the challenges that are magnified by distance between the two.  It makes me think of the way I gave a lot of “myself” away to join my husband in marriage and the creation of a family… the endless compromises that are better left uncounted…  And the rewards that come from truly releasing some of those things that seem so unbearably important.

    Over the last couple days, I’ve encountered several comments in different places wondering what it’s like to give oneself away in art… How can I sell pieces that are “me” in some way? Or, even better, assumptions about my very private internal life gleaned from images of my work. To do what I do for a living, I have to give myself away to strangers frequently… endless unmentionable compromises… Matters of pricing or convenience or detail… Matters of my self image and blunt encounters with bizarre ideas of my internal life and motives…

    But it occurred to me as I spoke with another artist recently that I can no more hold my art close to myself than I can hold all my words inside. Like unspoken words, selfishly hoarded, old pieces of art clog up the pathways of my home and my heart, arresting my progress and miring me in memories and old feelings, no longer useful to me… my own antiquated ideas of self.

    So I paint. Full time.  Like my life depends on it. A self-replenishing inspiration permeates the majority of my days and I must let the colors out.  I was berated for years for painting over art others loved, but they wanted me to store it and keep it safe… I can’t do that. I can’t live with it. I WILL paint over it. So, now I’m pricing stuff low so it can go away more quickly and leave me to paint over something else, less loved or less useful to the people I happen to know at the moment. 

    Just yesterday, I started a serious revision of an old Water Lily painting much to the horror of my husband.
    I didn’t even know he liked the piece…
    But that wouldn’t have stopped me.

  • Thanksgiving

    What is Thanksgiving at my house?  Well, since I moved away from my family, I’ve done less and less for any holiday. I don’t care for the adventure and hassle and no day seems any more special to me than any other. I’m equally happy to be alive just about any old day…
    I was planning to go to a turkey day dinner at the gallery I’ve been showing at, but decided not to bother with it… I just have so much work to do… Commissions to paint, plots to scheme, websites to recode, writing to complete… Of course I pick to do this much work. I don’t like sitting around twiddling my proverbial thumbs. If I can possibly be productive with my time, I prefer that.
    This is the piece I finished today – 10.5″x21″ on wood
    Butterfly Over Stained Glass

  • Tuesday

    Another day in the life…
    I’m trying an apple cobbler experiment. I’ve never eaten apple cobbler before and my mother left me with some green apples so I thought I’d give it a try. I put a dash of cinnamon and a dash of almond extract in it and mixed molasses with the white sugar. We’re out of butter, but it might still be tasty enough… I can at least mash up some of the cooked apples for Seren.
    Seren. Fat enough to roast for Thanksgiving. Bouncing and saying “mama” and “yum yum”.  Standing up in the crib and crawling about some. Feeding herself sometimes too…
    One of the best things these days is she’s getting up earlier. I’ve always preferred to rise before the sun and until the days got shorter, she wanted to stay in bed until almost an hour after sunrise! I’m really glad to be getting up earlier again!

    I was going to go have Thanksgiving dinner at the gallery, but I think I’m going to skip it and get more work done. I have more commissions than I have time right now. I’m also planning to do one more show at the gallery at least and then I’m trying to get into two more locations around town where the market is a bit more upscale. There’ll be plenty of fees to knock my take-home pay back down, but it’s nice to have more professional people to work with.
    The recent art:

    The Runner – commissioned
    Acrylic on Plywood
    About 36″x23″


    As Above, So Below
    Acrylic on Plywood
    About 10.5″x12″
    $85
    (This was a chameleon painting, but no one bought it and I was tired of holding on to it)

    Koi Over Stained Glass
    Acrylic on Canvas
    16″x20″
    $135

    Seren’s really enjoying our time at the easel these days and continuously explores my paint drawers, throwing tubes on the floor which we take breaks from painting to count as I put them back in the drawers.
    She shows me when she finds particularly good tubes and is trying to grab the brush now. It’s almost time to start working with her – collaborating on some pieces.

    I am trying to practice zen parenting. I can’t make things different than they are… but my choices are to either go with the flow and work with what I have or to be miserable struggling with the situation.  Life is exceptionally busy as paintings are selling (and must be painted) fast and she’s getting bigger and stronger every day.

    I’m just glad you can’t see my hair or smell my breath from the other side of the monitor.
    Onward and upward
    *

  • Smoke ‘em if You Got ‘em






    My husband’s fine craftsmanship – black soapstone and bamboo.  Sealed with bees wax.  He’s smoked a pipe longer than I’ve known him and, like me, can’t use anything without thinking of other ways it could be made. These are available for purchase and range from 60$ – 90$. 
    Very durable and highly functional. 

  • This is me being proud of something silly.

    Home alone with 25 pound squirming wild primate baby.
    Tasked with photographing set of pipes my husband made.

    It felt like one of those brain teaser things from middle school.  Neither baby nor box of pipes nor camera could be left unattended outside.

    Baby cannot be left unattended inside or outside at this particular point in time.

    Pipes and camera are attractive to Tiny McGrabHands and semi-fragile.

    It’s cold outside.

    Solution? Baby chair goes out, Baby, camera, and pipes all go out at once. This requires opening the door and closing it with my toes.  Yeah. I’m slick like that. Thankful for all those years of yoga hahaha…

    Baby goes into little chair and I dangle arugula in front of her until she takes the bait.

    Pose and photograph pipes while keeping one eye on baby.

    Carry baby, pipes, and camera back in…

    Again, opening and closing door with toes. In case you were wondering, I am right food dominant. Kind of interesting.

    If you use your foots for hand-like tasks, do you have the same side dominant hand and foot?

    I don’t know if this link will work, but I’m kind of proud of the shots I got while wrangling all that stuff. It may sound simple and silly, but it was kind of stressful and tough to accomplish with little room for error and lots of delicate items.

    Link?

  • On Faith

    I have paintings coming out my ears. The faster they sell, the faster I paint. I have to produce for the next show and the deadline is in less than two weeks and I have three commissioned paintings that are due as soon as I can finish them and I have a couple other commissions that may or may not come through and I have all these damned ideas swirling around in my head trying to come out the ends of my arms and right now just this very moment, there’s a chunk of tiny human laying across my legs sleeping.

    And then I decided to work on that book I started a while back… and I’m due to write this essay on women’s roles in “today’s world” whatever the hell that means… and I have to finish editing/proofing this book of my friend’s and then he invited me to write an editor’s note and I’d be a damned fool not to do that…

    And then I decided that I’d take part in the public art project putting murals up in this alley close to Market Square in Knoxville because I totally don’t have enough to get done already and every 8 month old wants to ride around in a baby sling carrier while her mother paints on some wall with recycling center paint on a chilly day… but it’s a great opportunity to put some stuff up where people will see it all the time and it’s just cool and maybe I can get a photographer to come and play with me while I paint…

    And then there’s the small matter of the web design projects I really ought to do…

    Yeah.
    And here I sit performing my role as baby bed. She just doesn’t like to be away from me very much and I find it pointless and inefficient to try to convince her otherwise.

    Really nice thing happened yesterday. I was carrying a pile of packages to the post office and had this idea that I would strap them to the baby stroller and strap the baby to my chest in the baby carrier and somehow get all the stuff into the building and shipped.
    Sounds ridiculous right? Yeah. It was.  No way were those packages going on that little stroller.  So there I stood in the parking lot with the packages on the ground and the baby in the car seat looking at me like “what the h… I’m supposed to be getting out of this seat now.  What are you doing?” and just then. Out of nowhere, appears this bored guy who was paying enough attention to the world to happen to notice my predicament. He actually carried all my packages in for me and saved me a lot of time and probably a few bruises.
    YAY

    So every time I feel like I’ve gotten myself into some silly pile of unaccomplishable work, something like that happens and reminds me that I’m not in it alone… and everything’s on time.

    Onward and upward
    *

  • VLOG The First

    I know this is all I ever seem to say, but life is insane and amazing. We’re really getting things together at the house – the remodel is making progress and I’m still selling paintings which is always a relief.  Art business can come and go with the weather.  I’m planning another show for First Friday December. I don’t usually show this frequently, but I have an opportunity that is not to be passed up and it is a lot of fun.  It’s also totally unknowable as to how long the little one will be cool with going to work with me like that. 

    Husband and I rearranged a lot of the living space today to make more space for S as she gets more determined to walk about (still with help) and squirm all over the place.

    Also… I can share with you… a bit of video I did for a documentary. I don’t know when it’ll come out and I owe the guy a essay already… but I thought some of you might be amused to see me like… moving around and stuff. Don’t feel like you’ll hurt my feelings if you don’t watch it…
    http://youtu.be/gGi88A2KznA

  • New work – Getting ready for the next show!

     
    Brand new works. Above:
    Primary
    Acrylic on plywood
    17.5″x9.25″
    $125
    I just sold the Elemental piece like this and have another commission similar so I’m getting in the groove and having fun with an old theme…
    And below:
    A landscape that may or may not get painted over at any time.

    Windswept – inspired by Hurricane Sandy I think. Cracked and distressed recycled plywood – about 22″ wide I think – can’t remember the height.

    One of our gallery photographers got this nice shot. Note the live musician on the right.
    I’m having a great time with this gallery and exploring some interesting business adventures at the moment. Editing and proofing some texts… I also have a video clip from a documentary filming I participated in that I’ve been meaning to link to. I’ll do that soon… and you can… dun dun dun… see me in motion!!! Aaaaahhhh lol…
    It’s wonderful and stressful and all that stuff. Someone mentioned the other day that it was nice to see that I do have stress like anyone lol… Yeah – oh yeah I do. I never know when checks will come in and don’t make enough money to totally not care. Everything always works out though and I am actually supporting myself with my work which has been a long time dream. It feels magnificent that I don’t have to go work in some office somewhere and be treated badly by people who don’t really know what they’re doing. It feels wonderful that (sore shoulders aside), I can spend every day playing with my baby and do business. I’m not always as fast or efficient as I’d like to be, but I’m making headway in a difficult field and it’s marvelous.
    Do what you love. Work should not be drudgery and there’s always a way out of misery. The universe doesn’t intend for you to be a slave.
    Onward and upward
    *
  • Fun at the gallery


    First up, a painting I’m trying to get adopted.
    Us
    Acrylic on canvas board
    20″x30″
    $50
    Inspired by my wonderful relationship with my father, @C_L_O_G. He’s embarking on a wonderful new adventure and I’m reflecting again on how we watch each other jump out of our respective comfort zones over and over as time goes by.

    Our merry gallery crew! We Halloweened it up a bit on First Friday and had another wonderful show… Then I had another event there last night to attend… Geez I’m beat – and, for once, grateful for the time change. I have to drive about an hour to see a friend pretty soon here and was able to slip a nap into the schedule that I couldn’t have without the extra hour today… ahhhhh… blessed napping….

    And here’s a shot of most of my hanging at the show.  I just dressed as myself in college hehehe… It worked.  The art got a very good reception and I had some really good conversations with various locals etc… What a fantastic time!

    So now I’m back to tackling my commission list. I might skip next month’s show. Ok. I probably won’t skip it. I can’t help myself, but I do have an awful lot of commission work to get done super fast.  Lovely to be busy doing something I love!

    Gotta run now and get ready to go.
    Have a lovely Sunday (it is Sunday right haha?)
    Onward and upward!
    *

  • The life of an artist


    The life of an artist…
    I get up when the sun rises without an alarm clock.
    Hugs and kisses are abundant.
    So is coffee.
    Work means going out to play with a bunch of fun, creative people.
    Also… lots of packaging and making friends with the post office employees.
    Hands and clothes always covered with paint…. try to keep it off the baby.

    This is a painting I did many years ago and have always been quite fond of, but my walls and storage are full so I’m offering it up at $30 (11″x3.75″ on wood – varnished)… This piece has always felt like a self portrait to me…
    Have an art show tonight and piles of commissions to get done, not to mention work to complete for next month’s show etc etc etc…
    Sure beats working in a cubicle!
    Onward and upward
    *
    Edit:  The top piece sold this morning and I wanna change my cheetah (18″x37″) so I’m trying to move it before I paint it.  It was listed at $425, but I’ll move it at $350 for a limited time.