Blog Schmlog
March 21, 2009
I’m terrible at this blogging thing. Huge amounts of time lapse between posts. I struggle to come up with anything remotely interesting to write about. And the fact that painting is not coming easily is not helping. So today, I attempt to lock myself in the studio and paint, paint, paint. All I want to do is nap, nap, nap. In order to try and build momentum I’m trying to paint this little arugula blossom from my yard. I am not a flower painting person but I just wanted to document this blossom for some reason. It’s the first year I’ve planted arugula and it was a surprise to see this foot long stem come out of it. After this it’ll be the end of the arugula, my last homegrown salad, until it gets cool again. Anyway, I’m going on about not much here. I’m painting for the sake of painting. Not counting on the muse coming to visit but I am counting on that “If you build it, they will come” (is that the correct quote) idea.
Fruits of this weekend
February 15, 2009
After a long hiatus, this is this weekend’s results. Some small (6″x7″) pieces. Not quite done but they’re close. Fun, bright stuff to get me going again. The juices are starting to flow again.
Back at it
February 14, 2009
It seems like ages since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been away from the easel (a self-imposed, one month break) for quite awhile and focusing on nothing but work and decompressing on the weekends. Today, I’m back at it. And it wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. I started the day with a long walk with the dog, an hour watching the chickens explore the yard, and 2 cups of strong coffee. Then I entered the studio, put a dab of paint on the palette, walked out of the studio and didn’t come back for two hours. Talk about easing into it. Eventually I got 2 small paintings started and I emerged unscathed and mentally intact. It’s a funny thing to take a break and then spend most of that break worrying, “What if I never paint/draw/sculpt/whatever again?’ Anyway, I’m back and I’ll soon be posting works in progress on this site again.
Closing out another year
December 28, 2008
Another one? Gone so quickly? When I was 6 time seemed to crawl at a snail’s pace. Now it is zooming by at lightning speed. 2008 was a damn challenging year. It seems like 2009 has a lot to prove. For me, I’m attaching all kinds of hope to this new year. Maybe it’s Obama’s infectious “Hope/Change” attitude. Maybe that’s silly. I don’t know. I’m not a New Year’s resolution kind of person (”I will clean the litter box every day” lasts about a week) but there is one thing I am considering changing. My obsession with the news. I’ve decided it’s IMPOSSIBLE to start feeling any hope or motivation when I continually inject myself with CNN, the AP, NPR, CNBC, BBC, and Bloomberg. I mainline this stuff. At a stoplight, in my car, I will read CNN on my phone. I will check the stock market. I will check CNN again to see if it has been updated. Granted, it helps pass the time when I am stuck in a line at the bank or waiting for my number to be called at the deli counter. However, to be constantly reminded of, essentially, only sad and awful and disastrous tidbits of information is to invite madness. It’s an addiction, an illness. NPR…I love you, I really do. But it used to be comforting to listen to. Now, it is just adding to the anxiety filled noise. Maybe it is me who has changed. The things that are being reported are actually affecting me, are relevant to my daily life. Maybe before they were just stories. Regardless, it’s all being cut. Now the question is, cut back significantly or go cold turkey? I have a few days to consider my style of rehab. In the meantime, I’m going to start gathering things that will be the methodone to my heroin. Gotta replace one addiction with another. Wouldn’t it be great if I became addicted to not procrastinating?
It’s a boy! It’s a girl! It’s an omelette!
December 21, 2008
Who knew that my chicken laying it’s first egg would be so exciting!? Of course, now I’m checking 20 times a day for the next one. A one egg omelette isn’t much of a meal.
December 10, 2008
“My whole life has been spent walking by the side of a bottomless chasm, jumping from stone to stone. Somtimes I try to leave my narrow path and join the swirling mainstream of life, but I always find myself drawn inexorably back towards the chasm’s edge, and there I shall walk until the day I finally fall into the abyss. For as long as I can remember I have suffered from a deep feeling of anxiety which I have tried to express in my art. Without anxiety and illness I should have been like a ship without a rudder.” -Edvard Munch
December 2, 2008
Keith and Trapper, take care of each other in heaven. You will be missed by so many.
Company in the Studio
November 24, 2008
I have 2 studio plants. My first studio plant is a Peperomia named Picasso. I read in a biography about Picasso that he had a tomato plant growing in his studio. It was wartime in Paris, he was poor and hungry and therefore had a small tomato plant in his quarters. He also painted it.
I imagine this little plant to have been a quiet companion, a giving and unselfish friend sitting by the window, providing Picasso with a blast of color and brightness during a dreary and miserable time. So, I too have my studio plant and it is also my companion. It is a presence in my studio that, were it not there, it would be missed. I’ve recently added another plant, this one named Hemingway (the seedling came from Hemingway’s yard), a Tamarind tree. The cats have been guarding it as if their lives depended on it. They are completely enamored with it and just lay next to it. I don’t let many people in my studio. It’s a very private place for me. Other than Picasso, Hemingway, (oh yeah, and Esmerelda, the wooden lady behind Picasso), these are the only visitors allowed to watch me paint, watch me pull my hair out when the painting’s going crappy, watch me dance around when it’s going great, or just sit quietly in the corner while I just think about what it is I’m trying to do with this painting stuff. They offer no advice, pass no judgement. Just a bit of water every so often and they give back the best color green ever, new leaves that seem to just appear overnight and a reminder that it’s the simple things that give pleasure. For that I will one day have to honor them with a portrait.
Face your problems head on
November 23, 2008
I have a confession to make. I have to face things head on and admit that I have a problem. That’s the first step, right? Admitting that I indeed have a problem? Well, I do.
My name is Sally and I have a problem with coffee cups and glasses.Everywhere I go I leave a trail of drinking vessels behind me. I will drink from a glass, take one sip, then minutes later go get another drink in a different glass. I can’t stop it. I’ve tried and tried. I don’t know how to stop. One of the household chores that I despise is emptying the dishwasher, especially the bottom part. But I have to say that, opening a steamy clean dishwasher and pulling out the top drawer, the one holding all the glasses and mugs, gives me a little charge. All those glasses that are now available for me to use…all of them in a day or two…sublime.I’m not sure how to deal with this addiction. Cold turkey? Gradual weaning? Psychotherapy? Switch to drinks in juice boxes only? Hmmm. I might be onto something.
November 20, 2008
“To restrict the artist is a crime. It is to murder germinating life.” -Egon Schiele
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