Finished 2 paintings last night - this one 32" x 32" to emulate the art of Andrew Wyeth... it's of my bedroom window - the house is over a century old and in New Middletown, IN (about 30 miles from Jeffersonville, IN and near Louisville, KY) - I want to do more to this one but it had to be finished enough to turn in... so here it is...

and this one - a self portrait that I didn't want to do... both for school... I'm pretty happy with the first one but the self portrait will probably be painted over (after it's graded tonight!)  the stairs are from a mansion in Louisiana (I've never been) and I'm sitting on the stairs knitting.. I think it looks like I have makeup on... but for my first portrait in acrylic (ever) and painting of a human form in years (over a decade since I tried!) I think it's pretty good.  I'll try again but this one isn't something I feel interested in saving... unless I'm convinced otherwise...

Self Portrait - Painting in Progress

I'm working on my self portrait for Acrylics class and it's coming along nicely so far... I have the background begun and I'm pleased with the way the colors look.  The staircase is from an antebellum mansion that is now owned (or was, anyway?) by Ashland (an oil company) and it's located in Louisiana - I think Baton Rouge?- anyway, it's probably gone now because of Katrina, but the photo remains, and I am in love with the curves of the staircase, aged plaster walls and old wooden stairs.  This one is due on December 16th, so I have to get going on it - I plan on working more on it this weekend. 

Thankful

The list could go on for miles... but here's a quick list of what (and who) I am thankful for this Thanksgiving, 2008-

- My Health - My Family - My Wonderful Animals - Eyesight, being able to move... drive a car... communicate effectively - Sanity (or insanity, depending on the day; I'm thankful for both) - creativity (the little I have) - my yarn stash - the support of my partner in my endeavors - friends online - friends across the country (and around the world) who I don't see as often as I'd like - sending (and receiving) random letters or packages in the mail - Knowing that everything happens for a reason and in time, everything passes - the comfort of knowing that my father and grandmother are both at peace, no longer suffering with illness or age - my history and the path that led me right here, right now - the courage to know who I am and the freedom in my country to be out and proud (even if that doesn't include the freedom to marry; at least I have the freedom to love) - and as corny as it sounds, I am thankful for every breath, every blink, every smile and laugh - I'm thankful I'm alive...

I'd love to hear who or what you are especially thankful for this year - if you feel inclined, email me or post a comment.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving -

Lyrics to the "song of the moment"

the song is beautiful and reminds me to be thankful for every day...

I'm Alive - Willie Nelson

It's so damn easy to say that life's so hard
Everybody's got their share of battle scars
As for me, I'd like to thank my lucky stars
That I'm alive and well

And it'd be easy to add up all the pain
And all the dreams you sat and watched go up in flames
You were on, on the wreckage as it smolders in the rain
But not me, I'm alive

And today you know that's good enough for me
Breathing in and out's a blessing, can't you see?
Today is the first day of the rest of my life
And I'm alive and well, God, I'm alive and well

Stars are dancing on the water here tonight
It's good for the soul when there's not a soul in sight
This boat has caught it's wind and brought me back to life
Now I'm alive and well

And today you know that's good enough for me
Breathing in and out's a blessing, can't you see?
Today is the first day of the rest of my life
And I'm alive and well, God, I'm alive and well

27" x 50", Acrylic and mixed media / collage on canvas - I had a great time working on this piece - frustrated a good part of that time - it was when I allowed myself to just "let go" and try things that it started to work out the way I wanted!

I'm excited about being finished with this one and look forward to the next projects!

What can I say... I am not liking it at all... I was frustrated yesterday in class and started to redraw with white paint... I am not happy with the flat blue sky (which would get more help anyway) and I don't really like anything about the composition -

Watch for drastic changes to this piece probably this weekend.  I can't decide what it wants to be... but chances are it'll get more and more abstract - I'm thinking of covering the entire surface with canyon wall instead of having the sky in

I went with a friend from school to an art supply expo in Pasadena on Sunday.  There were probably 100 vendors there, selling brushes, paint, canvases, and all kinds of neat artsy stuff.  We hung out at the Golden Acrylic booth and learned about OPEN - their new acrylics that stay wet for a day... (instead of 10-40 minutes!) - we also went by Duho Studios - a company that was making exotic wood panels for painting - BEAUTIFUL - I bought some goodies at a few booths, including loading up on pallette knives and mediums and gels at the Liquitex booth.  I discovered white ink there also - which I'm excited about and think I may use in a project very soon!

When I got home, I did some messing around on the abstract landscape - I added some texture with string medium that I tinted with inks - it's the consistency of honey and drips in neat long strings... I also put on some crackle medium and some medium that has a type of sand in it... To be honest, I'm not overwhelmed with this piece quite yet - I don't love the way it looks and have no clear direction as to how I will finish it.  I WILL say, however, that after visiting all those booths and reviewing some of the literature I brought home, I am looking forward to working more on it tonight. 

in knitting news, I continue to work on the striped sweater I am test knitting.  The more I work on this the more I love the pattern (and idea) and the more I dislike my color combo.  I just don't know if I'll wear it because the colors are soo bright... but I am not giving up; I wanted to do this more than anything and I'm clicking right along with the pattern... I will reserve final judgement when I try it on...

I will say this though... I am already trying to decide what the next color combo will be for this pattern.... I might use neutral beiges, or different greens (now THAT's a surprise coming from ME!) - or possibly if the gauge works out different skeins of noro kuryeon... we'll see; I don't want to get too ahead of myself - let's focus on finishing this one!

I finished the quilt painting this weekend - 36" x 36", the object was to demonstrate a number of different color theories within the panels.  The canvas was to be divided into 16 separate spaces, with a pattern or motif in each one. 

I decided to do a quilt pattern which ties into my southern history, and designed a panel that features a Star of David (hinting at my partner's Jewish history)... within the piece (it's not easy to see here) you will find bits of letters from my grandmother and father, a masonic symbol in my dad's honor, a Jewish morning prayer, etc.  Among other things, I also included fingerprints from me and my partner (in different triangles) - and added texture with mediums, gels, etc.  The entire piece is coated with glaze and seems "finished" although critique is coming up tomorrow (Tuesday) and after that I may glaze on top of it to "age" the piece a bit... I also was thinking of painting stitching around each triangle (like quilting) - but didn't have time to do it before class so I didn't start.  I have no problem doing it but don't know for sure if it'll add to the piece or not... if I DO paint the stitching on the canvas, it won't be stark white paint - it'll probably be some sort of glaze or mixture of white with another color so that the stitches are there but not as obvious as you'd think.  What do you think - should I "quilt" the painting?  (all 768 triangles on the canvas)? 

OK so it doesn't look like much yet - but it's my abstract landscape painting... I stretched the canvas myself - I believe it's 28" x 50" - strange size (deliberately because I had to stretch it; why would I stretch a "standard" size?) - at this point, it's just a basic wash in colors, and I started to apply some old photos torn in bits and pieces - trust me; I have an idea.. I just hope I can make it work :)

right now, it's feeling pretty flat... but give it time... this is what it looked like after the first session...

It's getting closer to being done... I added the wrapper to the taffy on the bottom and the cellophane wrapper to the butterscotch candy at the top left - I have a few tweaks I want to do to it before it's complete but I better hurry up; it's due next Tuesday!

We also got our assignment for our "midterm" painting - due October 21st and we do not work on it at all in class - it's a 36" x 36" canvas - more on that later.

Sorry for the bad photo; it was late at night and I just wanted to get a picture posted...

So here's my painting after the second class - I like the little slideshow feature that flickr has - it helps to see how the painting is progressing! 

Last night, I started to build up the wrapper for the sucker on the right, and people are looking at it and saying "It's a Tootsie Pop!" - which makes me smile - because it is! - I still have to make the actual candy red (or cherry) to match the red wrapper - I also have to clean up the wrapper a bit...

and the darn stick is all wonky - it needs to be cleaned up... and of course, I must still finish glazing and painting the butterscotch candy on the upper left... and do the wrapper for the candy on the bottom right which is supposed to be some sort of taffy in that opaque wax paper.  Lastly, I'll need to glaze and finish the wrapped tootsie pop on the bottom left corner - it shows the circle of white so far but I need to add words of some sort.  I was thinking instead of painting the actual logo of the candy that I might do something else - like a year, or some other logo... any suggestions?

We have one more in class session for this painting, then I think the following class is when we do our critiques - I feel pretty good about my progress... I think I'll have it done (as long as I don't mess it up doing the wrappers... and as long as I can figure out what I want the writing to say!)

I found an awesome vintage easel online (yeah, craigslist!) for a great price - it's over 7' tall and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! - I haven't figured out exactly where I'm going to put it (it's REALLY big) yet but I have a feeling it'll end up in the garage.  We are thinking that if we clean part of the garage out I'll have room for my yarn storage system and my painting and circular sock machine stuff - it'll take some doing though - we're due for another yard sale!  (if only we had the time to do it!)  This photo is from the listing... I can't wait to get the area set up so I can paint - it'll be awesome!

We went to Alamitos Bay Yarn Co. for their sale but didn't find anything - all the wool (the stuff I loved) was not on sale - so we headed to Yarn Lady (in Laguna Beach I think) and I bought yarn for the buffalo sweater.  I started it yesterday, hoping to get gauge after my muddling around - but ended up with a back that's only 17" across - not quite big enough... I think I'm going to have to double the yarn to get the right gauge (which I believe means doubling the quantity) -

I also used a little mohair yarn along with the normal yarn - all the way through... and I think it makes everything blend a bit too much - so for the next try I'll use the yellow mohair on the oatmeal yarn, an orange one with the pumpkin yarn and a chocolate one with the brown - we'll see how that works... (that also means that while doing the rows shown above at one point I'll have like 30 yarns hanging in the back - 2 for every color - 3 colors in a motif, 5x across the row - not that I'll be working with all fo them but holy cow... that's a lot!) - it's doable though and I love the sweater so I'll keep working on it!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! 

... and here's a little treat for those of you who might not know... may I introduce to you (or remind you of) the one...the only; Alberta Hunter!  there's a wonderful documentary out there about her life... she had an amazing story - it is also a musical ("My Castle's Rockin'") ... check her out!