Fairy House Workshop and A Note To Self

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Wow- now I know why people teach- besides that one can actuallly make a bit (and I mean only a bit) of money doing it-teaching is a great source of inspiration and ideas! And how fun it is to share something that is fun with others. I've taught a couple single adults to build fairy houses and a few kids but never with the amount of time or the number of people this last workshop had. The houses they built were spectacular- I'm proud of all of them. I really couldn't get them to stop, they were so engrossed with their projects, and our four hour workshop ran on an additional three hours! And when parents took over house building I showed the two boys how to make beds and swings and other fairy house furniture to furnish their lovely homes! even the dad who rolled his eyes at the idea of crafting being a fun and relaxing way to spend the day, found himself having to change drastically his opinion and really got into it. But then, really, building a fairy house is sculpture- an architectural sculpture.

But Oh kind reader, please slap me for trying to do TOO much in a weekend! First an art opening in SF on friday night with a drop off and late pick up of the boys at a very kind friends home near the show. There is no way to go to SF in the evening and not come home quite late these days- the drive is easily an hour and a half each way. (The opening went well at least in numbers as the floor was packed with gawkers- even with the door charge. And many an interesting conversation was had on the grey area between erotic art and porn- when does one stop and the other start? but that is a different blog all together). Then rushing about in the morning to prep art to send with the oh so good and helpful Hubby to the show up in Cloverdale, and the last few things for the workshop. Then the 7 hour workshop, the last few hours in which I had little Phin to entertain, and then making dinner because I still have that hat to don as well...Somehow in all of it I misread when I could drop off artwork for the local National Arts competition and so the painting I had so cleverly made to order didn't make it into the show.
It was too much. Too much too much. I felt like such a gosh-darn idiot, but really it was just athat it was too much. Note to self.

A SF show and Steam Punk Portraits

."Davina" 20X30 or something like that
actually painted this last year but the portraits would be like this only, well...steampunk.

First off, I seem to be making a spot for myself, both indoors and out, hopefully, at the Hand Car Regatta here in Santa Rosa in September. I plan to have an art show in a salon there as well as offer Steam Punk styled portraiture. I want to do a few paintings before the show so I am offering a deal now to any who would be interested in commissioning me to paint their portrait steam punk style. An around 2' square portrait would range from 5-800 depending on the number of people in it and size. Picture yourself(s) in Victorian clothes with mechanical butterflies flitting about you or walking a steam powered pelican, or perhaps flying in a steam powered contraption of sorts. Let me know if you are interested. I can only do 2 or 3 right now and then prices go up!

Also-So I have a few pieces up in an erotic art show in a gallery in SF(2183 Mission St. 7pm, $5, music and snacks, etc...) next Friday. You are welcome to come though I really haven't a clue what to expect from this show, which also has music and 'sexperts'. Still, a good enough venue (esp. for my Euro Knockers piece), and why be picky in this economy? It sure beats craft fairs, which, let me tell you, are not my favorite method of getting work out there. I'm just not that social. Craft Fair people are friendly and need talk to all who peruse their wares. Artists get to be aloof and mysterious, lurking in gallery corners or bursting into tears or yelling dramatically if need be. Much more fun.

a Little Peek, a Little Tongue and Cheek

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European Knockers
13"x6"

It's really hard to imagine what I was thinking when I carried a almost solid metal door knocker back from a trip to Florence, Italy. But goodness the knockers on doors across Italy are magnificent. I photographed a few of them, naked women hanging out of the mouths of dogs and catorted faces. And of course there is the silly lewd humor of "nice knockers" which ran rampant as my good friend Annetta and I walked all about (often lost). So this piece, which is going into a SF erotic art show on January 29th, is quite tongue and cheek. It is lite on the inside so you, the viewer, can actually, voyeuristic-ally, peek in and see this:

And then open the box to reveal a painted collage of all the boobs of famous paintings from European history (or at least a good deal of them).



and the classic geranium, bringing green and spots of color to balconies across Europe, winds over the sides of the piece.


Normans Uncle recently suggested I should take up painting porn to make money. Not exactly the most compatible line of work with being a Mommy. I'd have to throw covers over my unfinished, and done pieces, not to mention I'd be blushing all the time.
Still, I hope, painting nudes (which I still often do), at least my boys won't have a airbrushed magazine idea of what a woman looks like, and they will, hopefully, be able to look at a nude painting as viewers of beauty and the body as a vehicle for an idea, seeing beyond the nipples.

Persimmons in the Winter so Easy To Look At

.Persimmon Dreams 40"W

I do so love to paint Persimmon trees in the winter. This painting is for the Santa Rosa Arts Council Competition, if the little tinnie entry form miraculously wasn't lost in the mail. Somewhat pedestrian, but I fear the world of art in Sonoma County is, for the most part, quite pedestrian, or trys too hard to be modern, probably in protest of the banal plein air paintings that seem to dot this coast in a North Bay fog of blandness. So I made a nice painting with an interesting surface-layers and layers and carving, but easy to look at without being too mind bendingly odd. I might add some reflected red light. Or not.

Will Work For Peanuts or Not? A Self Portrait

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My Goodness it's been ages (ten years?) since I made a self portrait. I think I drew a mustache on the last one and called it Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. ha ha. At any rate. I like this one better. It falls into both my miniature series and my box series (you see I'm forcing myself to limit the series I'm working on- to focus in on two directions. But not prone to leave anything out I sneakily combined some existing directions- don't tell anyone, okay?). Actually it is bigger as well- paint box sized, you know, not exactly miniature.

Its my grandmothers old painting box. And myself as steady Elephant- working for peanuts and wondering which direction to pursue. Should I paint Chinese clouds-cartoon elements in the realistic world- just as we often act like cartoon characters/2D animations in the everyday? Will this bring me my prosperity, my peanut rain? Or? And yes, I do often feel I'm painting with my nose for how clumsy my art can be.

If a fortune teller who was known for truthful telling read our cards and told you would would not succeed as an artist (or whatever it is you, my open minded reader, are working so hard on in life), would you continue to do it? What if she said you would eventually get by financially and emotionally on this path but never be entirely content and stuck with the choice for life? What if the alternative would mean you would have to change a lot and still would not guarantee you happiness and/or success? What would you choose?
Would you continue on your path even if you would never rise past average?
Seriously, I want to know. so please comment.


And in case you were saying to yourself, 'Hey! I thought this blog was about painting while parenting!' I'll have you know I typed this blog all one handed while my other hand has slowly fallen asleep cradling a deeply sleeping almost 3 year old boy. We steal our moments. Or we just get really good at multi-tasking.

New Years Resolutions

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Happy New Year! May your resolutions make you a better, fitter, more successful, more organized, cleaner, more endearing, easier going type of person. Almost all my resolutions have to do with career advancements. I'm so on it! I'm already perfect, of course, so I didn't need any personal improvement. right.
Don't get confused, kind reader, when I post three or four posts on this blog this week. Don't think for an instant that my resolution had anything to do with my blog. I am just at the tail end of three paintings, needing only a bit here and there and a go with the digital camera. In fact, what I plan to update is my website. I think I said that last year as well. But now I have the new programs to make it happen, and with a little duck tape and rope and some quality time with the closet, my boys shouldn't be a problem.
New year-new sketch book. Here's the cover and first drawing in my new sketch book to keep it visual..I mean real. I usually take a drawing from the old sketchbook for the cover to start out the new book. This gives it a feeling of continuity. I don't often post my sketches because they are constantly being added to. In fact the cover is just waiting for a park playdate with crows to give her a nice black bird head. You can already see it turned toward the tree, can't you?