Reading into Things

I try to be intentional with gratitude every day, but today, my gratitude meter has been hovering even higher than usual. Yesterday (on Christmas Day) I enjoyed family, food, and a fun gift exchange.

A Look Up

Autumn Artistry

The natural world is a common source of inspiration for many artists. We find endless amounts of color, texture, and form in nature to inspire our work. For me, being outside seeing trees, bodies of water, wildlife, and the changing seasons, will always and forever feed my soul. Whether in exotic far away locations, or natural beauty found close to home, there's just... a thing about nature. Something that is healing, centering, nurturing. 

Up, Up, and Away

A few weeks ago I decided to raid my inventory of stored work to find something to put in an empty spot on a wall. These are paintings that are (or have been) available for purchase online or elsewhere. 

Chaos > Stagnation

If you walk into my studio, you might wonder why I have SO many projects going at the same time. 

Almost everywhere you look in here, there is a work in progress. Some just begun and some just a few mere steps from completion.

paper Process

 It's been a busy start to the week. So much so that I've already missed one of my items on a new content schedule I've created for myself. More on that later. 

Anyway, since I'm in the trenches, I thought I'd just let you peek over my shoulder at one of the things I'm working to complete: a pair of remakes of an ornament that sold last year in my Etsy shop. These are a customer request. Here are snapshots of just a few of the steps.

An Ode

I've long felt that part of an artist's (of any discipline) job was to move people to see the world around them from a fresh perspective. And since color, texture, and pattern have always stirred the muse for me, I'm sharing this.

Monday on Target- Focusing!

The other day something made me realize that I forgot to plan. Yeah, that sounds pretty silly.

Many of us are good at setting goals and putting new things into practice, like exercise, reading, starting a garden, etc. But then we get busy and sometimes lose sight of what we meant to do and why we started.

I've had success with something that I'm sure many people dispel as "hokey", silly, or pointless. But for me, it's been effective- I've seen results. And with new developments in my personal and professional lives, it occurred to me that I was falling off in one area in particular. One that seems to affect all the other areas. My vision boards. 

About Faces

coincidence: my face for #womenempoweringwomen 
trending recently on Instagram

Recently I launched my very first virtual art exhibit. After some planning, writing, and more editing than I initially bargained for, it was finally live online. Not just with art, but with interactive links and info related to the content. The name of the show is "Faces", and the topic is, well, faces. 

I created it in response to the cancellation of in-person events caused by the pandemic, and to the surge of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Pandemic Living

Recent weeks mired in the mess of a global pandemic have basically meant an upheaval of life as we know it. For some of us.

What I mean by that is that as a professional artist, introvert, (okay,  add Scorpio to the list of offenses), and general homebody, the idea of staying/working/eating/exercising/existing from home is, by no means a stretch. It's actually pretty routine for me, (and many of my introverted artist friends!). Don't get me wrong, I love to explore, interact with other humans, get fresh air as much as the next person. But doing all the major things of life from home is not uncommon for me, it's sometimes preferred.

Things I Make for Me: Nesting Instincts

What is it about a rainy Sunday at home that inspires a certain range of activities for me? Reading, relaxing, snoozing, and today, nesting. Post late morning coffee and a few magazines, I found myself drawn to clean up and pretty up a little corner in my bedroom. This corner was already a spot that held a nightstand and a little gallery of elders. A sort of abstract family tree of parents, grands, and great grandparents, arranged in a manner loosely guided by feng shui (courtesy of Google University) to watch over and inspire me. Today I carefully disassembled most of it, cleaned and dusted, and reassembled with some additions. I was already happy with this corner, but allergies and ideas motivated me to address the state of it. Here it is now, clean and reworked.

 

It is still a work in progress, and I hope to find more old pictures to add. As a bonus, I had the time to clean the dust off of the ceiling fan in said room. I'm NOT lazy about cleaning, lol. In fact, the control freak in me requires that I clean throughout the week. But, like pretty much everybody else, I'm always busy.

But home is my sanctuary, my escape. So I'm happy to have found time to make it even more comfy. And now back to my regularly scheduled Sunday stuff. Which, after I wrote this, involved me concocting an apple pie cinnamon roll cake thingee from my overactive imagination for my sister-in-law's birthday. So much for a lazy Sunday (what is wrong with me?), lol.

Throwback: A Rare Repro

Recently I did a rare recreation of an old watercolor painting for a customer. I say rare, because I almost never revisit paintings. I guess I feel I might not be able to capture the spirit of the original. 

But I took this on partly because this is a long-standing loyal customer, and partly because I wanted to see if I could do it, maybe improve on it armed with greater experience and knowledge. Of myself, the subject matter, and some of the natural elements in the composition. 

For reference to the original, I used the only print of this painting that I have in stock. My approach was to block in things just like the original, then see if I felt like adding a little something as far as color, lighting, form, etc. Here's the process in a few photos.

print next to new sketch

starting color wash

details

fleshing out the background

finally, the hands

done!

I have to say that I was surprised that I didn't end up altering much. Given more time, I might have done so, but since there were constraints and a budget in place, I had to find a stopping point. Also, I could now imagine recreating other versions of this concept. Learn more about the inspiration behind this piece and purchase the print I have available in my store at the link below. 

Photographic Inspiration

I haven't posted here in quite a while, as the business of being an artist/business person has consumed much of my time! A recent chain of events made a brief pause necessary. And within that pause, I was able to take a moment for myself to just look around and notice little things. While I try to do that every single day, I don't always have time to take pictures, make mental notes, and just absorb. 

The other morning I could/did. And I wanted to share my pictures, which, to me are visual notes. Taken in downtown Atlanta on one block of the city:

{Sharp} Silver Linings

gaahhh!!!

Whether it is apparent or not, it feels like I am constantly working on making progress in some aspect of my art or my business around my work. It's really an almost daily commitment for me. But sometimes things throw me off track, only to set me back down even further along than I planned. For example, about a week ago, this happened→

I was sitting at my desk in my studio editing pictures, and I kept hearing a funny tapping sound. I ignored it at first, but it kept up, so I got up to investigate. And I found that one of the two windows in my studio had somehow shattered, or buckled, or imploded- whatever. Glass dust and particles were slowly falling in. 

Good thing (and I warn you there are a number in this post) I've had enough years of mishaps that I've now trained myself to bypass the freak out and the thoughts of inconvenience, productivity setbacks, general pain in the..., etc. (at least initially). Yes, I finally learned what a waste of time and energy moaning, groaning, and getting all upset is. Instead I used the energy to quickly move things away from the window and focus on making things as safe as possible. So I dragged out the ladder I keep in my studio and rigged this up until someone could come and take a look at it.

 sidenote: A few weeks back (with skepticism) I bought a roll of duct tape from the Dollar Tree store in my neighborhood.

It had a chance to prove
 itself here, and it did.
Not only does it have a snazzy
print, it seemed just as strong as the
more expensive stuff. #yestothat

pardon my dust

Later that day, a guy showed up, took measurements to have a new pane of glass made, and complimented me on my studio and my tape up job. I felt better knowing that things were moving towards a fix, and once he left, I added a tarp to catch any stray glass. I really didn't want to spend the next few weeks making bloody discoveries of tiny pieces of glass that had fallen in and on things. Once the tarp was up, and the place where my white box (that I use for picture taking) was cleared and covered in plastic, Good thing #2: (3?? I don't think I've included them all) I was able to go back to working on things that don't take place in that corner (no excuses!). 

After a few days of not being able to work in that corner, I decided to take the white box outside to try getting some pictures done.  I set it up on a plastic deck chair in the sunlight, and it worked like a charm (yeah, another good thing!). 

My new pane of glass was installed a couple days ago, and much of the broken glass cleared by the glazier. I still had the task of removing the plastic shield I had created, which had a bunch of scary pieces still just hanging there in it, all sharp and stabby. I finally got my mind to the task, got up on my ladder with goggles, dust mask (just short of a hazmat suit), and the long hose on my vacuum cleaner and tackled it. Once I had removed all the glass I could find, removed the tarps and all the plastic, and given the whole spot a good obsessive compulsive vacuuming, I was ready to start putting everything (especially my white box!) back, so I could get back to photos, etc. over there.

And once you start (here comes another one) something like that, it often just snowballs. And this case was no exception. So I ended up putting things back better than they were before, including some bonus cleaning and purging things I don't need any more. And now I am sitting here typing this, and looking at that corner thinking of what else I can do to make things more efficient, neat, and productive. That stupid broken window helped me fix something else! #Perspective, my friends. Perspective.

PS: It is so true, that a clean, organized work space is very inspiring (time to make some messes!)
PPS: I never figured out what broke the window. Meteor maybe?
PPPS: I got my white box years ago. You can find a similar one (plus links to other tools I use) in my tools storefront on Amazon.

SmARTphone Scores

how old could it be??

I love random beauty of pretty much any variety. As an artist, I absorb inspiration constantly from everyday life. I stumbled onto a quiet little spot the other day, of what seemed to be otherwise unnoticed beauty, and I had to explore and take a few pics, allergies be damned.

For me, color, texture, and light of certain qualities draw me in, cause me to take notice and make mental notes. Thankfully, in this day of smartphones, I can do more than that. My phone is currently full of pictures like this, serving a purpose similar to a sketchbook. I have a whole folder in my phone devoted to photo references. I look at them as valuable gems to reference for sculptures, painting details, and more.  

 I love using technology to facilitate creative inspiration and work. Since I seem to use it for so much of that, I'm thinking I need to start calling it an ARTphone. Maybe even leave off the phone part, if I'm being realistic, (who makes calls anymore, lol??). Hey - it could become a thing! Off to take more pics...

 

Seasons of Anticipation

Spring Azaleas

I could make lists of the things I love about every season. I've lived in the Southeast for many years now, and have lived further north, west, and south. So I've experienced seasons in several extremes. 

We're well into Spring in Georgia, settled in enough for the pollen to have subsided, but the season still fresh enough to awaken the senses. Its arrival made me think about how much I relish every season. Before the first signs, I begin to anticipate all the little things I will enjoy. It's not just about the weather. It's the seasonal food, the family, friends, even the clothes... All the little things that I have come to look forward to, and that have contributed to sweet memories and lots of creative inspiration over the years. I like to "pre-savor" each season in early appreciation, since they often seem to pass so quickly. Sort of like the anticipation I feel when I see my plate coming in a restaurant. I'm almost glad it's not quite there, because I get to start appreciating the experience before it even reaches me. It's much nicer than looking up one day and realizing with sadness, that the days, the light, the colors that belong only to that season are swiftly slipping away, that exact time never to be recaptured outside of memories.

I don't consider myself old, but I've grown to appreciate other things in my life that way-- people, places, projects, etc. Day to day, consciously or unconsciously, things grow and change. The world is constantly changing. And my answer to that is to constantly renew my promise to me: to pause in anticipation, appreciation, and expectation of a season of wonderful things.♥

fresh cut!

Wordless Wednesday: Texture (and a Guessing Game)

↓↓↓↓

agave

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

♥