Do You See

Have you ever noticed how much of what we see is dependent on what we want to see? All we have to do is truly open our eyes.

When you are looking for hearts, you end up seeing them everywhere and in everything; leaves, shadows, clouds, tree bark, and so on. Then when you are looking for something else you see it everywhere and the hearts disappear. I’ve been known to look at a clock, struck by its design then someone ask what time it is and I have no idea. I was looking right at the timepiece but the time was not what I was seeing.

 I get bored very quickly when walking but I can never get bored looking, watching, observing.  This is a trait I share with my Dad. He can sit and watch people, planes, plants, pretty much anything for hours.  My mom is the doer. Her energy level amazes me, even now that she has had to slow down because of physical problems she can still get more done in a day than I can in a week.

 Now back to the seeing … Often I will walk (as I did last night) the little path to the left of the big pier. Sometimes I really don’t want to –it is too hot, I’m tired, etc. but I know I really should.  9 times out of 10 though, once I get started I become completely absorbed in everything around me. I have walked this same loop so many times but there is always something new or the same thing I see in a whole new way.

Braingasm -Fresh ideas come rushing in. What if I tried this or drew that. The tangents lead me deep and deeper in to thought. Sometimes it is not my physical eyes that only open. It is the ones inside my head and the ones inside my heart.

 I find this particular location is especially magical. All places can be inspiring but have you ever noticed that certain areas just have that extra energy –well, to the left of the big pier is it for me.

God speaks and when I listen carefully and quietly enough I hear. It helps take the dark edges off and bring contentment and peace in focus. Awe is the word that rings in my head.

So in closing, may you have an awesome day. Open your eyes, your mind, your heart and truly see what an amazing world we live in.

The Soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. –Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Life is Art...

      I painted today. A picture from a picture. Was it art? Is it art? A picture from a picture. A still life. Mugs from the House of Humble. It has a beautiful ring to it doesn't it? Oh mine is an interpretation to be sure. But still... I saw more than the picture itself. I looked at the photo and I saw a story. Or maybe I saw less. I don't know. But I saw. Obviously some else saw first. Maybe even composed the whole thing. They gave the arrangement meaning first. There was definitely an intent. Did I copy? I doubt someone would even know that it was inspired from the same thing. It is not the same. But is it art? Imitation is the highest form of flattery ...or so they say. Isn't everything a copy in some way though. Only God can truly create an "original."
      I saw it differently though. I saw it through my eyes. I threw everything I have seen before in to it. I infused it with my memories, my dreams, my fears. The House of Humble. Cups, mugs, a mix, not a set. Humble. Ordinary, made special. Pretentious to say but a metaphor for life. My life. The life I wish to be content with. Humble. Mismatched, cluttered, purposeful, haphazard yet planned.
      I saw lanterns, the beautiful multicolored ones like from a fairytale, lit as a memorial for a life cut too short... or maybe simply complete. Up and away they went over Mobile Bay. A group of young boys caught a catfish, laughing in the water as the lanterns drifted above them. Fish leapt and leapt and leapt.
      The sunset was amazing. Pink air. Cotton Candy air. Making everyone soft and dream-like. Rays of light in distinct beams with grey clouds shifting from car to duck to clown while we watched. Pink fire rippled across the waves. Dancing. Grace over a meal. Fingers touching. Home.
      A wedding reception is going on across the street from my house. I see all the happy people smiling, waving sparklers and honking horns. Each one standing there has something going on inside their head we can't see. But for now there are smiles, tears of joy, flashes from the photographer capturing the moment... to be savored years later. remembered differently perhaps. A picture from a picture. The House of Humble. Gratitude and resentment.
      Life is Art. A picture is more than a picture. Life is precious and fragile and heartbreaking.

Today life was art.

Rusty Red Truck

Hello! Here is a quick peek at a project I just finished yesterday.

I have had this image in my head of these two girls atop an old ford truck for quite a while now so it was nice to finally decide to try and capture it with paints. This is the final piece snapped with my phone. (I'll post a nice finished image as soon as I can -computer issues still) But you are able to see some of the texture with this photo. I really love layering on the paper scraps and such but often it doesn't show much in the final scanned image like it does in person. The surface texture works particularly well with the scruffy rusty feel on the truck.

 



Below is a progress photo from my phone as well -the light is a little better as the sun hadn't gone down yet (An aside: I really need better light in my studio. It has absolutely wonderful northern light from a large window during the day but no overhead lighting at all for late nights or dark days) You can see in this progress photo some of the collage scraps like the racecar tissue paper and ticket stubs from the Barber Motorcycle Museum. Ok, one more tangent thought, the museum, OMG, so awesome. All the motorcycles and racecars but if that is not your thing, the building is spectacular. It is in Birmingham Alabama and is so worth a trip. Sorry, I am being totally ADD today so now back to the art.

 

I had so much fun painting the truck that I think I'd like to do a few more "old vehicle" paintings. Maybe more up close without people, maybe a cow or two (I have a thing for cows -it is their big expressive eyes)  There is plenty of reference material here in Baldwin County. It always amazes me how many abandoned cars, tractors, and trucks you can find rusting out in fields as you drive along some of the old highways.

Well, That's it for now. Adios Amigos!

Darn Computer :(

My Excuse...

Apparently my computer can't find its hard drive which wonderful folks means I can't get on the internet, I can't get to any of my photoshop art that I didn't back up, I can't get to my art scans that I had saved on the computer, I can't access my recent photos. I am screwed!

I am also irritated at myself for not backing up, for not having that fun money laying around for a brand new computer, for well... I am just plain irritated!

Its been almost two weeks and I've got to figure out what to do. Peter is allowing me to use his laptop tonight, mostly because I had to do computer stuff for my daughter at college but I'm using the opportunity to do a few other things as well. BUT -its a windows computer and I (& I truly hate to admit this) am an Apple Girl. I'm actually pretty good around computers but his is set up so I can't do anything. No quick keys are the same, no right click, browser completely different. I had to work around just to open up a folder and move PDFs (which are much more unfriendly on windows) Urgggg!

I promise not to vent often (well at least that is my intention) but give me some slack OK. This is traumatic! If I am a little lax in the posting department it is not for want of trying. Hopefully by next week (fingers & toes crossed) I can get my computer back up. Maybe if I'm really lucky I won't have lost everything and if I'm really really lucky and the stars align just right, I'll be able to access all my computer stuff. Say a quick prayer and wish upon a star, but for now I'll work off a little stress painting and dreaming of new projects :)

So Long for Now!

GLoRiOUs IMPeRFeCTioN

Don’t you just love the quirky and gnarled? The battered, the wrinkled, the messy? Things embedded with memory and depth. Oh, I do.

PlayBoy & Other You

The character lines gently etched into the face of a life fully lived... the twisted trunks of the massive oaks lined along the coastline having survived the constant battering of the gulf winds and the occasional hurricane blast... the patina of a neglected barn with peeling paint, weathered wood, and dissolving tin... the streetlight layered with lost notices, band promotions, and long past estate sales all torn, rain washed, and smudge with a glaze of graffiti... the faded grace of an abandon plantation, column capital toppled almost encapsulated with kudzu and morning glory, crumbling bits of stone slowly eroding back to earth.

Texture from Life

Don’t get me wrong, I also adore the clean, the sparse, and the new. Philip Johnson’s glass house... crisp freshly laundered Porthault bed linens... a brand new totally hot (if a bit pretentious) sports car... a baby’s just powdered silky smooth belly... saturated pure red paint straight from the tube.

It is the middle that is less lovable. The first scratch on your brand new bike... the first scuff on your leather sofa... the first brown droop on a bouquet of flowers... the first chip on your favorite mug... the first ugly age spot... the first fight with a new lover.

It is the pain of imperfection, the passing of what will never be again. It’s accepting change and the fleetingness of our earthly existence. (Ok, I’m reading too much into this, but I am in an introspective mood so I’ve got a little melodrama going on, but you get the idea)

It is about letting go of the unobtainable and enjoying the messiness of life. It’s picking up the broken seashells instead of holding out for the unblemished ones. It’s seeing past perfection and valuing the less obvious. Freeing your mind of absolutes and marveling in the amazing variations abounding all around.

Artwork Mashup

It almost seems trite to pull my musing back to art but the trite can also be true. Perfection can become boring. Asymmetry tends to hold our attention longer. Our eyes are drawn back to the unique and different. It is why I love creating collaged backgrounds and paintings started over old text. There is something underneath -even if it barely shows in the final piece. It is the beauty of journalling then gessoing over it and purposely skewing the proportions of a character. It imparts soul and secrets. It gives backstory that I think a viewer picks up, even if only subliminally.

It is a lot like life. Who doesn’t want a smooth carefree breezy Disney style reality -but it’s the struggles that truly mold us. It’s when we overcome adversity or handicap that we grow. We tend to shine brightest in the dark.

Good Morning PJ Girl

"A woman is like a tea bag, you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water." - Eleanor Roosevelt 

I believe that God never puts anything in our life without reason. We can opt to disregard its purpose but we are blessed and able to bless others so much more if we don’t.  

What hardships have you faced that you can now take and use -even if it’s just a greater capacity for compassion and empathy? 

How about a Byte: Eyelandia

I've been posting mostly BITS so here is BYTE. I have a series of related photoshop and video installations I am working on and thought I'd share one of them. It is a part of my Eyelandia Series titled "Eye C U". It is done purely by manipulating layers and adjustments, cutting splices then adding inverted words.

The eyes truly are the windows to the soul and I find them endlessly fascinating. 

Here's looking at you!

Putting on the Mask

My last blogging entry was regarding authenticity and what I feel it means to be real. This one is about making the artwork that spawned that post. 

First, I'll begin with my inspiration. As I've mentioned previously, I have lots of sketch/notebooks (yes LOTS of sketch/notebooks) which when ever the light bulb in my head blinks, I immediately pick up. Sometimes it is a quote or just a word, other times it is a full blown drawing down to the last detail but usually it something in-between. (This keeps the stress down since I know that if I have a day when the creative muscle is not cooperating, all I have to do is pick up any one of them and Ta-da I have my Mojo ready and waiting)

Well, this particular inspiration is a combination of a sketch I did over a splatter of purple paint, a beautiful b/w photo of some roses, a rather bland painting of a girl I had done over an old paperback page for valentine's day but wan't quite happy with and a rerun I caught of HGTV's Secrets of a Stylist. The first three inspiration images you can see right above. The tv show which actually triggered the sketchbook drawing had a lovely bedroom make-over for an actress named April (she is the best friend on Drop Dead Diva) The colors in the room were in shades of lavender, gray and white with a bright orange pillow pop.

I still had one of the collaged boards I created while doing the previous friendship painting so I was ready to go. If you ever don't feel up to painting but still want to spend art time, I highly recommend getting some backgrounds going that way when you do want to paint, you are already one step ahead and no intimidating white canvas creeping you out. I draw up some flowers, cut them out and add them to the board then start painting messily. I begin with mostly purples and grays. Next I scan the Valentine girl page (I never know when I might want to come back to her and let's face it, I am a natural documenter and scan pretty much everything -now finding it on the computer later, that is a different story) then cut the girl and hearts out of the original paperback page. I position the face on the board and use matte media to "glue" it down. I add more purples to her hair and decide to put the hearts away for a later project. 

The painting is getting a little muted and dull. So I roll on some orange polkadots, still not loving it so I pull in some blue. That, while going away from my initial color concept, starts to add some much needed life. Now I see it going more in a New Orleans Courtyard sort of direction. I cut out a bird shape from some old sheet music and paint the details with fluid acrylics. Then add some stamping in black of music notes, graphic flowers, and butterflies. I use purple, black and blue watercolor crayons to outline the girl and the bird. I paint over much of my girl's face to blend it in. I deepen the darks and lighten the lights but the background is really competing with the figures so I add glaze of Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold (a burnt rust color) fluid acrylic to settle it back down. Most of the original collage is completely covered up but paintings are like that -they have a life of their own.

Next, I have to decide what my birdcage is going to look like. Thanks goodness for Google. There are hundreds of birdcage images. I just absorb for a while. Then I take my roll of bumwad (trash paper, tracing paper, whatever you want to call it) and sketch over my painting to figure out how big, how detailed and exactly at what location I want to put the cage. I'm actually happy with my first option. Often at this point, I will completely change my mind and decide to add a fish instead of a bird or a building instead of a flower, or a key instead of a heart, ..... but today I stay with my original plan.

After painting on the birdcage, I scan in the image. I told you I am a scan fanatic -love me some scans. I decide take my image in to photoshop and up the saturation then print out a larger version. I actually use this print to complete the art piece. I'll probably come back to the original in the future and modify it differently, who knows.

I need a mask for my lady but the scrap of gridded acetate I planned on using competes with the more decorative lines of the birdcage. I wish I had some black lace then brrr ring ... It's my Mom on the phone. Would she like to go with me to the fabric store -no, it is late but she just might have something in her sewing basket that could do. Yeah. No late night fabric run to the next town. I drive over to my Mom and Dad's house, bringing my print to try out the lace. The lace is really big and heavy but if I cut just a small section of the center of a scallop it will work. Bedtime. Next morning I glue on the lace and add jewels to the corners. Another scan. I want to add my words but my computer fonts are too perfect and my rubber stamp letters are too small. What to do? There is an old newspaper besides me, the joys of a messy art room, so I stamp the words the way I want them, blow them up on the copier, grunge them up with an ink pad and a little paint. Re-blacken the letters that blur too much, glue them on, then outline with black and blue watercolor crayons. A few more jewels on the birdcage, iridescent paint on lips, bird's breast, and under the lace at the eyes. Voila ...all done.

Life is a Masquerade, My Friend. 

Won't You Join Me in My Masquerade?

Don't leave quite yet, there is just a bit more. One of the last little things I like to do is play around with my artwork in Photoshop. Such a deviant little time sucker it is. Well, below are a few of my variations.

First is an Oxblood rendition. I think it has a more mysterious nighttime feel. The middle one is over bright and intense. I think it has a youthful kick. The last is blend of purple and tangerine. I think it is the most cheerful and light-hearted. Some or all will soon be available in my Etsy Store so drop on by.

I hope you've enjoyed this peek inside my process and will come again -bye for now :)

Music to go along with the Art: Masquerade