When In Home

Flying and Sisters

2012-01-22T14:33:00.000-08:00

Sisters
6" x 8"

Sorry kind Reader, I'm sure you've been thinking I dropped off the face of the art world. Actually I finished "Flying" last year before the holidays, and "Sisters more recently. Times are just bustling with family birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, and in-law visits, not to mention three different workshops I led. But the holidays are behind us and I am going full throttle. My littlest has turned five. That's right- He's SCHOOL aged. granted he isn't in kindergarten yet BUT just knowing before this year is out I will have more regular painting time is enormous. It is incfredibly difficult to be an artist mom with little ones running about. Creating art is alluring and intense and it gives one grey hairs trying to be simultaneously mom and artist. It is, admittedly, when I loose my patience. So I look forward to quality time with my studio all morning, and quality time with my children all afternoon.
At any rate, here they are- two new watercolors- painted on the two mornings a week my now 5 year old is in preschool.

Flying
9" x 8"
Do you know what movie still I borrowed this image from? I'll give you a clue- it was a black and white movie made in a country I get to visit next month. !!

Miss.P a New Watercolor

2011-11-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

Welcome Miss.P, a new watercolor. I'm sure, kind Reader, you know the artist I borrowed from?

Sukah Time

2011-11-14T16:39:00.000-08:00

A few people have asked me to post pictures of the sukahs we build every year for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. I suppose I could as easily blog them on my fairy gnome house blog
just as reasonably. I love this holiday- bringing our family outdoors at such a lovely time of year. Already we are a month past Sukkot, but I leave each years creation up until the rain and wind batter it down. Though the dried flowers have blown away, we still find an occasional sunny winter afternoon to enjoy a cup of tea and a treat under our free form sukah, or gaze at the stars through its loosely woven roof on a clear night.
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And, kind reader, in case you were wondering, Im a bit behind posting my newer pieces. Perhaps this weekend?

Studio Soiree Oct 27th

2011-09-20T16:26:00.002-07:00

I will have a hodge-podge solo show of my work up at the Share Exchange in downtown Santa Rosa through October. Sono-ma.com is turning the reception into one of her fabulous studio soiree's, with vendors sampling their wares, raffles and more.
October 27th (thursday)
come in costume!

Our guest list is limited to the first 50 people who respond. RSVP for you and a friend today! Hope you can make it!

(This Sono-Ma event is geared towards adults - make it a date night or a parent's night out and enjoy!)

-Hope to see you there!

RSVP to:
holly@sono-ma.com

or off facebook

For more details about this free inspiring evening for local parent artisans and art enthusiasts see http://sono-ma.com/category/studio-soirees/.

2011-09-20T16:26:00.001-07:00

A Tea Ceremony and Soldiers Marching through Time

2011-08-22T13:21:00.000-07:00

Tea Ceremony
2' x 4'
This ones been fun. I do so like to combine all the ways I like to paint- you know. So, dear Reader, I have a tree painting, an animeople people, and carved wood. Graphic style with realistic. Two wood ducks having tea in a bonsai

close ups

Foot Soldier
30" x 48"?

and in case you thought I was just sitting around. Originally I was going to paint each of these animeoples as a separate painting. But who wants to dwell on soldiers for half a year? So I combined them, focusing my attentions on my favorites. The research was fun- I had to find foot-soldiers through time- not generals- and then use the art from that period, and find an animal they would have depicted.

Summer Daze and Studio Makeover

2011-06-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

this table surface is way more beautiful than anything I can paint!
I am SO sorry my kind readers. It has been some time. I'm still chugging along- haven't put down the brush. For some reason I temporarily obsessed on 'doing up' my studio after the opening at Castle in the Air. My friend Chris Knerr, cement mason and graphic artist extraordinaire, helped me transform my scary chewed up particle board work table into a lovely cement surface. And I used up a lot of reallly old paint to break up the old band-aid colored walls. One of those- "why the heck didn't I do this ten years ago" projects.
Meanwhile I am working on a commission- a trade for a computer-yay. And while that challenging partnership resolves itself I am working on a more epic animeople painting of foot soldiers marching throughout time. And after that? sigh...I have to decide where my focus will be for the next year, for the show at RiskPress Gallery. More animeoples? hanging Box Art? more trees with a touch of the whimsical or sureal?

Chris teaching me how to make the cement table. I turned all the cement in a rusty wheel barrow with a shovel. it was pretty muscle intensive. then we added this adobe red.

hee hee power tools. hee hee

Not sure why the blue paint looks yellow here, but the finished table is almost too nice to work on!
more studio corners:

Castle in the Air Show Opening Night

2011-04-16T19:49:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much to everyone who was able to come to the opening reception at Castle in the Air. And thank you for all the support from people who wanted to but couldn't make it. It was a lovely evening of animal headed good times. John, one of Castles teachers and a fabulous artist, put together the lovely bird headed lady in her crepe dress, demurely yet confidently passing out the catalog and card for the show. I wish I could say I shared that same confidence but she did inspire me to try harder to discuss my paintings with complete strangers and pretend I am not a rather shy person. My Elephant headed self-portrait, Will Work For Peanuts, was fabulously shown on a boxed Easel, its large paint drawer full of peanuts. And I was happy to see people walking about actually circling titles in their catalouges of paintings they wanted to buy from the walls, willing to wait until May 15th to actually get their treasures home. Almost half the 24 paintings sold (or will soon be) so far! I did not bring my children to this show. I would have had to put bird masks on them, dressed them in little velvet suits and hung them up on the wall, which, while entertaining to myself may not have been appreciated by them. Thanks again and please stop by to say hello to all my painted friends up on the walls if you happen to be passing through Berkeley.

On Animeoples in General and the Reception in Particular

2011-04-06T15:34:00.000-07:00

Well Deer Reader, my sister, a Jungian trained psychologist, gave me a possible answer to the question that has flited at the back of my brain like a small moth headed person. That is- WHY am I seeing so many Animeoples in art lately? I, occasionally, when time permits, and so not often, go web surfing through the incomprehensibly huge world of art blogs and sites. And more often than not I find artists who are painting animal headed people. Some pieces are fantastic, some are less than. Most are in clothes worn hundreds of years ago. And I wonder- where is this all coming from? Are we dragging these images up from the depths of our collective unconscious?
My sister suggests that people are wanting to go back- pre-industrialization, to find our animalistic natures and return to nature. Is that it? To be less refined? To take a step back to the simplified, straightforward and slower paced days? So we stick a deer head on a woman in Victorian hoops, whose hands and garb are human and indicative of a past century or two, but whose outlook is toward the hills.
I like this answer.
So while perhaps I am searching consciously for some totemic chimera my unconscious strives to live on berries in a unmolested wild wood.
I hope you can all make it to Castle in the Air next Thursday at 6 for the opening!

River Gods and Zip Lines

2011-03-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

River Gods and zip lines...
two things you might not think go together, but in my world...
I am the queen of multi tasking, the empress of creative mothering, and heiress to the throne of put-it-off-till-later-so-we-can-do-what-we-want.
My house isn't too clean, but everyone is happy.
So Benjamin plays monopoly (rolling for both of us- "do you want to buy Boardwalk?"), while I work in the garden. And an hour of building a platform for a zip line is followed by an hour of wiring paintings for the Castle in the Air show. I rather like it. How dull it would be to do just one thing. Though I often do long for simplicity I soon find it dull when it occasionally shows me its serene face.

River Gods (framed)
based on Manet's Luncheon on the Grass (did you guess, dear reader, from my last posting?)
uh...14"X20"?
Did you know Luncheon on the Grass was Manet's version of an even older Roman artpiece called River Gods? (and that one was a version of an even older piece as well) It makes me feel like what Im doing- ripping off these antique portraits is more justified. MANET did it after all. And I actually didn't even know that Luncheon was based on this older piece until after Id choosen and find ref for Racoons. So how perfect to call mine River Gods. More odd intuiting.

Meanwhile, in the backyard....

Fearless Phineas getting ready to jet down the zip line. Parents, are you quaking in your Mommy boots? 12 feet off the ground, the line dives across the lower yard to only about 5 feet. BAM! They get going pretty darned fast. The beginnings of our future Ewok village?

Knight, Stuck, and Benjamins Interior Design

2011-03-10T13:09:00.000-08:00

Knight
10"H-oil on wood
almost done almost done! The show goes up on the the first, opening is the 14th. I want to wrap up these last few pieces so I can get to the hellhole of matting and framing. I have the supplies but I need the quiet space of no children, the soft tap of rain on the skylight to keep me company while I measure and cut angles.

close-up of Knight

Stuck
I was stuck for awhile on stuck. I had boring grey walls and the piece was lifeless. Im not usually a fan of metalics but this pseudo-gold sure did the trick. I think I might go back into the hand/key and bring it out a bit. The tiles were a makeover course in perspective. Yikes. I didn't get it perfect but hell- YOU try. yeash.

meanwhile, in the intersection of art and home and child...I had woven curly willowbranches into my lamp shade with teh paln of hanging paper cranes all over it. But my six year old snuck in and tagged it before I could. He, of course, choose to have Bionacles (Lego Robots) crawling and climbing up it.

But his best stab at decorating took place weeks before I even noticed it- and I happily left it in place, for its whimsy. A Ferby riding my guardian dragon.

and finally- a sneak preview of the final piece. Can you name the painting it's based on? Come on- its a classic- right at the beginning of Jensons History of Art book.

Starting Smoking and Sofonisba

2011-02-20T18:59:00.001-08:00

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Sofonisba
um...7" square
I can never remember her last name. I think it's amazing I can remember her first name. Anguisola or some such. Anyway- a very neat lady artist, who lived an interesting and all encompassing life as artist, court painter, wife and mother. A good roll model for me. Someone I'd really really like to sit down to a cup of tea with. After I learn Italian. And she really did look like a lemur. It wasn't exactly a stretch of the imagination.

I thought I'd lost three of my watercolors today. It took me an hour to find them. I felt so ill. Afterward I started smoking again...but not really. I did consume a cup of coffee late in the day as well as a large hunk of frozen cookie dough. Now everything is, suffice to say, VERY orderly and organized.

Watercolors on a Rainy Day

2011-02-17T19:17:00.000-08:00

The Lovers
10" High

based on a very old German tarot card. I finished this one early this morning and then proceeded to paint another tarot card- the high priestess, which most likely will be finished tomorrow morning. It is a lovely and peaceful thing to sit inside with the heater blasting and paint light filled watercolors while outside the slate grey sky throws down heavy blankets of rain. I am so reminded of when I lived in Northern California- more Northern California, and the rain was constant and I only painted in watercolor. The nostalgia and melancholy of that time in my life hit me so hard I was impelled to buy clove cigarettes at the gas station after getting Ben from school, though I'm not certain if I will actually smoke them.

Business Card Dilemma

2011-02-12T08:50:00.000-08:00

I just can't decide!! Dear Reader, what do you think? I can make a two sided business card-both sides color or just have info on the back and a color front. You know the drill.... I have to get my files to the printer by Monday. My last card had Geisha's hand on one side and the turquoise bird on the other. Should I stay with that or try to integrate an Animeople? My topics so often come back to all the diversity in my life. I paint many subjects- trees, birds, animeoples, figurative. Do I somehow try to represent them all? Should the front of the card match the colors of the back of the card. yee-gads. I have graphic designer block. (and yes yes- all these have the requisite bleed etc...these are the 'cut' images- and no border- thats my blogsite design))
here's the options:

A Watercolor, and Oil and a Website

2011-02-06T14:32:00.001-08:00

A Watercolor, and Oil and a Website walk into a bar....
no but seriously kind reader- I finally updated my website! Do you know what this means! Can you imagine the consequences of actually having a website to show my work- both new and old??!
WELL let me tell you!! It means this blog can be what it was intended to be- a place to document the challenge of balancing being parent, artist, and home maker. Along with new art I can post silly pictures of my boys and their bento boxes, odd house projects and crafty doo-dads. I can rant about the art world and its trials and tribulations while a child stands upon my foot.
yay.
so go check it out!! www.sharoneisley.com I still have to tweak the site some- put in some roll overs on words and what have you but the images are there. And now its all organized so nicely with my series page, thanks to Alissa Feldman, who traded me ages ago. And Adrian-who put together the initial website- something like twelve years ago. Thanks!!

Flamingo's Masquerade
ummm-9" high? something like that. Oil on wood.
Don't you just love my professionalism? and don't you just love brown and pink together?

Peace Dove
8"x8" watercolor

based on a Sofonisba painting (Sofonisba as a lemur soon to follow-hee hee). The window is from Nelson Mandela's prison cell. Isn't it strange then that she is christian? But when one borrows from art history- there it is- all that christian and catholic imagery. Its the dove that is the point anyway. Take it as you will. I like that people will read it in different ways. Hopefully positive.

Freed By the Flame and Blind Faith

2011-01-01T20:34:00.000-08:00

Freed By The Flame
ummm- oh shoot I dont know what size it is. Bigger than usual though. Maybe 20X30" plus the frame? I got this fabulous frame at the flea market. I live only three blocks from our best local flea. The kids eat and paint themselves with snow cones and get what they can with their dollar and I look for...well...fabulous frames. Like this one. Which originally had a really ugly flower painted on it. And now a moth- so much better- symbol of neurosis in my art. One of them has escaped. So look out world. But then, the moths never travel far from the flame.

Blind Faith
ummm...small again- maybe 8" high.
I painted Birds of Prey and then thought it would have been great to paint a hawk wearing his hawk hood and preying. I don't usually redo ideas but this one captivated me- and I like it when my paintings have some meaning- something to ponder. Is the painting a negative or positive take on blind faith? You decide. Oh- and he's a Peregrine falcon (not that it really matters but I just think falcons are neat).

my little dusty neurosis with its delicate feathered antennae. Only an inch high. Tiny brush.

Oragami Deer

2010-12-25T18:30:00.001-08:00

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8"x8" watercolor
No title yet. I'll have to ask my half Japanese sister-in-law. I'm sure she can come up with something clever. So lovely to sit inside on a rainy holiday and paint for four hours. Norman gave me a digital record player, so I situated myself at the table, recording great old vinal, and painting my strange Animeople.
I find animal headed people everywhere now. Perhaps its a Jungian thing, all these artists, fishing images out of the waters of the collective subconscious. I sometimes write to other artists when I find their animeoples. But they never write back. I guess that 'collective subconcious' prefers to remain anonymous on a conscious level. No above ground grouping together.
Two Animeople oils almost done!

Two New Watercolors

2010-12-07T17:15:00.001-08:00

Sorry, Kind reader, I am working quite a bit, I just seem to be falling behind at photographing and blogging the work...So, to get started catching up, here are two new watercolors.

Pets
6.25"X6.25"

The Queens Tea
6.25"X6.25"

I think I may have mentioned I paint at a cafe' near Phineas's preschool. Going all the way to my studio would loose me a precious half hour of painting time. But painting at a coffee house is a challenge. I have learned to choose well lit corners where I surreptitiously spread out my painting paraphernalia so that no one can sit too close. I realize it is probably better business to let people see me work but I'd rather glare at people in general than socially chat about the painting. So I tip up the paper block with my purse and try not to smile to invitingly. You can join me anytime, of course, for a cup of tea.

Branching Off Blogs

2010-10-30T18:16:00.000-07:00

well, kind Readers, I am sorry you will now have to go to another blog to get my fairy house info. I started a new blog to make it easier to just see paintings and home art if that's what you like or all the workshop and new fairy house pictures if that's where your interests lie. I hope this comes as a pleasant surprise to you!

Birds of Prey and Watercolors in the Rain

2010-10-27T09:28:00.000-07:00

Birds of Prey (click for larger image)
another animeople, another bad pun. sorry.
Phineas is in a coop preschool twice a week. Instead of going home and folding laundry or cooking more floors for the next woodland house workshop I'm going to a cafe around the corner from the preschool and working on small watercolors while nursing a cup of black tea. Something about this rainy autumn weather makes me long for the bright light and gentle colors of watercolor painting. My old friend. My paints are dry and crackled. Like the zen grinding of Chinese ink I sit and rub them softly with water to revive them, listening to the rain and the cafe' chatter.

But Im still getting used to the finality of watercolor painting. I think I would have given Mrs.Robin a hand holding up a lollipop to her nestlings. Really I just think it would be fun to paint a lollipop so I imagine it will show up in a later piece. Meanwhile I'm working on Queen Elizabeth having a cup of tea with a Rhino head. hee hee.

Shows Over and Benjamins First Art Sales

2010-10-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

Well, kind Reader, and so ends my back to back shows. Fun socially but not paying off any credit card debt any time soon. And I now have quite a few bottles of wine left over to drown my artist angst in, since not many spectators wanted wine in this hot weather.

But Benjamin came home pockets bulging with his earnings. A casual comment about 'passing the hat' and he took to doing dance/performance art to onlookers at Periscope gallery. To his amazement coins really were dropped into his hat. He then went on to draw little pictures for the onlookers and amassed almost six dollars in change. He refused to pay the bridge toll though so any hopes that he'll start supporting me were dashed on the rocks.

Two commissions in the works. One an owl in a tree straight up and the other a double portrait. And the next Animeople painting coming soon, titled, "Birds of Prey". Really I am too tired and need to take time off. Ha ha ha. Not likely. Being a mom and an artist is lovely- two fabulous jobs which I enjoy, up to about 4 o'clock every day, whereupon I would like to curl up in a warm place somewhere and sleep for a quarter century. And today, at 4:00 I only feel the pull of half eaten apples and forgotten lettuce turning into smelly liquid, books socks and toys strewn about, dust buffaloes on parade behind doors, dinner to cook, boys to teach and clean, projects unfinished, holes in fences and cracks in ceilings.

Note to Self

2010-09-28T12:51:00.000-07:00

So my new lesson is...don't have an opening during an already visually overwhelming event. yes. That about says it all.
Oh and come to the opening at Periscope Cellars Gallery in Emeryville this Friday night!

Sunday at Railroad Square!

2010-09-22T19:36:00.000-07:00

Another woodland house workshop complete, but I'm too behind to post photos yet. I just booked a november workshop at the Rose school in Berkeley so Im not certain when the winter workshop will be. Perhaps early December. Meanwhile put on your steampunk, Victorian vaudeville best and come on down to Railroad square this Sunday 11-3.
btw- if you want to know what the small print at the bottom says you have to come to the show.

Overlaping Shows and Workshop Deals

2010-09-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

first of all a
Special Workshop Offer!!
sign up one child for september 19th Woodland house workshop, sign up second sibling for half off!

I hung up the solo show at daredevils and Queens in Railroad square amidst dye jobs flashing aluminum foil glares on my paintings and the warm sound of blow dryers. It was a challenging space- with only one spot in each space between mirrors on the fabulous cement walls, and a dry wall white holey nightmare on the other side. But it came together. I even have Inside Out House glowing in the hair washing room straightto the back. So go on by if you can and wander through, or get a cool punk rock hair do while studying Sid Vicious with a steller jay head. And join me for the opening, during the Hand Car regatta, 11-3 on Sept. 26th.
Orrrr, gentle Reader, if you miss it, come visit the Animeople paintings that will be marched over to Periscope gallery in the East Bay, for the Animal Pop show, opening October 1st!
busy busy busy bee me.
and until I get over to D and Q and price everything and take pics, here is a visual for you -Phineas making salsa with me...

New Woodland House Building Workshop Date

2010-08-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

I have a whole slew of new materials- enough stump/floor circles to last a year(Thanks to my awesome father and his 'best friend'- his chain saw) and some fun items I gathered in Portland. So sign up now! Hope you can make it.

Sid

2010-08-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

Sid or should I call it Steller Vicious?
I think he's about 12" high- too lazy to walk down to the studio to measure the painting. At any rate I was hanging out in a backyard and this Steller Jay was yelling curses at my cat, and I thought- Jays are the punks of the bird neighborhood. Which led to Sid. I love that Sid Vicious always had the eagle pin on his leather jacket. I imagine a Jay would make the jacket out of cat skin. This Animeople piece is more modern than the others but I just have to expand if I don't get dull by the end of painting 30 some odd of them!

and next up- a bit of a challenge- painting a corset for a friends project. I reallly don't have time to do this but I'm a sucker for an interesting project and its a good excuse to visit with some old friends I haven't seen in some time. I'll post it for you, kind reader, when it's done, but only if most of me is out of sight.
Also getting ready for the show at Daredevils and Queens, going up on the 9th. It really will be an ODD show of lots of different work- not a single series like the April show will be.

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Tu Xiao Jie (Lady Rabbit)

2010-08-04T15:03:00.000-07:00

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Yes, I know, I know, it is quite different than you expected. I had posted the original sketch a while back, of a Chinese Bunny lady standing, catching plum blossoms. But I happened across an ancient painting that captivated me and adapted it. I'll post some details later, but I'm already a couple minutes late to pick up the boys, so, till then...
Oh and by the way, my fairy house building workshops have been re-titled- they are now "Woodland House Building workshops". So much more room for imagination.;-)

Woodland House Workshop at Mayacama

2010-08-04T14:56:00.000-07:00

Sneak Peek

2010-07-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

I know it seems like I have been avoiding you, but really I've just been quite busy! I finishes a commissioned piece, that I don't care to post here, and I THINK I finished this other commissioned work as well- a portrait of a Lady and her Grandaughters. But it hasn't yet been 'approved' and until it's officially done I shall wait and just show you, Patient Reader, two unfortunately quite dark close-ups of the grand-daughters. Then, in the next few days I shall scrape together some time from under the fingernail of my days and post a few more small pieces I have finished and better close-ups. Till then...
..

July Fairy House Workshop

2010-07-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

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Some of the finished houses. Always so fun to see others creations. One boy devised a window with a curtain in a turret that was fabulous. Another house looked almost Eastern, another choose great fabric combination's and another house has a wonderful play with a simple color palette.
Before we started- here are some of the materials- now almost all gone. I need to prep for my August show so no workshop in August. If you want to sign up write me now to reserve your place for a Sunday in September- probably the 11th or 18th...or if there are enough people- both!

Lady Fox's Outing and a Commision Unseen

2010-07-09T14:58:00.000-07:00

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Lady Fox's Outing
on my mantle...8" High? Something like that
I like displaying the paintings this way. Perhaps I will create a shelf for the Castle in the Air Show and line a few of the Animeople pieces up, then hang a few, then a shelf...you get the idea, my faithful reader, you always do.
I finished a commission as well- a trade (don't read this you tax people you!) in exchange for free daycare for my older son over the summer as well as a weekend of babysitting both boys. I looove trades! At any rate- I'm not showing you the finished piece because I had to use a really lowsy low res print of a badly scanned photo for reference (it was a portrait my daycare providers father and recently, sadly, passed away mother). Note to self: DON'T agree to let the berieved father/husband/person choose his favorite picture of his partner to be painter. Get a handful and choose the most interesting photo instead and the one that is in focus.

close-up of da Bunny. I think he needs a name. Ideas?

Daddy Deerest and Blimp

2010-06-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

Rather appropriate for Daddy's Day, eh?

Daddy Dearest
20"H

...and a better image of Aeronaut with original blimp.

Pictures from The Latest Fairy House Workshop

2010-06-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

Someone actually got a picture of me. I'm helping one of the girls make a swing. Can you believe it, kind reader, ten ladies and 12 kids?! And yet- not chaotic. It was at Berkeley Rose school. A Waldorf school in Berkeley hills. My first workshop away from home, it was a lovely 1905 building, very very homey. I lowered the price a bit- 50-60 sliding scale, and made it a potluck lunch. I also simplified the process so that it is in fact possible to finish a house in four hours. woo-hoo! Everyone in this group did fabulously- they were particularly wonderful at listening to their childrens choices and working as a team. And such inventive houses- with bark slides and ladders and swings, little nooks and crow nests with soft moss carpeting. I wanted to live in them!

half way done..

Ladies working. This was towards the end when most of the children had 'finished' and gone out to play for a bit. Funny my last workshop was mostly guys. This one was all women.

a bunch more photos to share but until I get the slide show function sorted out I don't want to inundate you with too many. Im already planning the next workshop for a bunch of home-schoolers. If you are interested in signing up please write me at sharoneisley@sbcglobal.net. Thanks.

A Brief Interlude with Reusable Resources

2010-06-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

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The combination of creating something practical and lovely in my yard combined with getting materials for free makes me a very happy person. So, whilst amidst all the chaos of commissions and workshop prep I thought I'd share my ongoing art project- using reusable (aka-FREE) resources to expand and landscape my yard!

My first project was my greenhouse- for obvious reasons (as well as that growing plants from seeds is a very spiritual practice) it is called the Glass Synagogue. The stained glass window was a gift (free!) from my friend Jim Standard- (a master stained glass artist I illustrated designs for in the past). The windows came from all the local folk (and my Dad) who sadly replaced their fabulous, if leaky, wooden framed windows with ugly aluminum. Four very nice men lifted the top half of the building onto the bottom for me. Its eight years old now and going strong (though leaky as a toddler after drinking a gallon of apple juice).

Spring of last year I built this chicken coop for my six lovely ladies, who seem happy to frolic in it and even happier to escape into the yard to search out worms and poop on my lawn. The wood for the base and edging and some of the fence came from Craigslist and Freecycle- mostly from a remodel in the nice JC neighborhood. And my good friend Sven built the coop but hadn't used it for years. Oddly enough- it was again 4 nice men who helped me move it across town and onto the stilts and floor I had built. Four nice men are a useful thing.

This was my latest project-using everyone's cast off broken cement to create a patio under our canopy. I started with a couple Freecycle links- a nice old man in Sebastopol with a half demolished patio, a young guy in Rincon valley with another half demolished pale blue patio, and then our neighbor down a bit across the street who tore up a sidewalk. Good for the arm muscles, schlepping all those 4" X 2' chunks. Still need to get a patio set with circular bottoms so the legs don't slip into the cracks before the thyme is all grown in.

My next door neighbor demolished a shed. Hooray for only dragging boards a short distance! Its built extra tall in hopes the chickens don't discover the veggies. Phineas drags a little chair over to stand on and coax the tomatoes and little zucchinis along. Also- I like to use my apple tree pruning to build twisty dark purple trellises like the one in the left box. A pink Pearl Apple bears five little apples in the middle.

An simple arch that leads to the tree house my father built for the boys. A dead plum tree taken over by my climbing rose that is sadly past its early spring, once a year explosion of blooms that trail up into the sky.The strong support beam is from Craigslist (did I mention this was ALL free?) and the rest fallen wood from the lower trees.

But I haven't shown you the fallen wood fort or the pruned branches tepee in the front yard. Sorry my kind Reader- another time. I must go and chainsaw slabs of wood and draw portraits now, not to mention make cream cheese and Jam sandwiches for hungry growing boys.

Aeronaut and the Business of Being

2010-05-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

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Aeronaut
umm...about a foot high?
better pic coming SOON esp. now that I added one of the first dirigibles in the background sky!

And then I was busy.
With a fairy house workshop in less than two weeks two commissioned portraits (with people heads), a misc. hubcap project, and two large solo shows on the horizon I am a busy busy Mommy. This morning Phineas and I strolled through the old rural graveyard in a light rain, collecting moss for fairy house carpets. I love moss- I love its delicate tiny world- leaves like little stars or plush vibrant tiny fern leaves. An entire garden in an inch of ground. And then to the thrift store for small antique looking frames for prints of the Animeople paints. The framed prints sold well at the last show- the Sci Fi/Fantasy show.

One more Animeople done, 19 or so to go! This one fits into my steam punk-y show as well for September. Of course its a horrid reproduction, as always. The sky should have a slight pink hue and the coat and basket are a tad dark alas. But- come on- its been perpetually raining for weeks! What can an art photographer do??

I'm sorry kind reader, have I mentioned that my good friend Sarah termed my miniature animal headed portraits as my 'Animeople' paintings (that's anim(al)-(p)eople) and I so like the word- it wonderfully has no 'ism' and no 'ist'. So I will go to the side bar in this here blog and change it from 'minitures'...when I'm not so busy. which I am. Did I mention I'm rather busy?

An Interum Rabbit

2010-05-09T17:08:00.000-07:00

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Oh dear Reader, you must forgive me my seemingly lackadaisical attitude! I have been sick for three weeks! A cold a flu and then a sinus infection have kept me from my studio, and sad unforeseen events like the passing of my daycare providers mother. But my studio awaits and I walk down there with a head that has mostly surfaced from the sea of ick, longing to paint! Meanwhile, couch ridden, images and ideas come to me in droves and with them the impatience to translate them to paper and wood. The drawing is part of a set of ideas for more 'Animeople' small paintings. I studied Ren-Wu Hwa: the traditional chainese painting of people, when I lived in Taiwan and I think it would be wonderful to do a couple of classic styled paintings (in oil, not watercolor) with the addition, of course, of the totemic/symbolic animal head. Also others based on classic Indian art (which I copied profusely in my travels). And and and

Meanwhile, between colds, and before flu I had a fabulous opening at Periscope Cellars Gallery in Emeryville, selling a few paintings, a bunch of small prints in antique frames, and making some connections that I hope will turn into wonderful collaborations. Yay!

All the Pretty Projects

2010-04-21T15:18:00.000-07:00

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In preparation for Benjamin's big sixth birthday the boys art has spilled over into my studio. But I love the combination! I know its trendy but seeing the lighthearted images juxtaposed with my more realistic art is why (at least visually) I love to drop cartoons into my paintings. I've been spending as much time helping Ben prep his Pokemon party decorations and pinata as actually spending time in the studio. Here's a sneak peek:

project #1- a future zoetrope for the Hand Car Regata show. Sides and front will be based on hand shadows taking flight. Should I bend wood or starch canvas? It awaits decisions.

project #2- a 3D representation of the forth dimension as defined by a tesseract and an apple tree. More on that later.

project #3- Now stuffed and painted, our Pekachu is ready to be destroyed. Pinatas are such a lesson in letting go of the finished product! Each one is a sort of performance art, as it is pummeled by small children with large sticks. Sorta like the monks and their sand art that they mystically blow away at the end- only smaller, greedier, meaner.

Spring and Summer Shows

2010-04-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

Hello Art Appreciators,

I have two shows lined up this summer so far, one at the beginning and one at the end.
First and soon!!
Ive got 5 "Animeople" paintings (animal headed miniatures) in a sci-fi and fantasy themed art show in Emeryville opening April 28th (yes- that's a Wednesday).
(see info below)
And Saturday September 26th I'll have over 20 pieces up at Daredevils and Queens on 4th street in Santa Rosa. The opening will be during the Handcar Regatta. Super fun steam-punk event!:
http://handcar-regatta.com/

Here's the info for the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show:

> Come one! Come all! It'll be both Scientific and> Fantastic!

Event: The 2nd Annual Science Fiction & Fantasy Art Exhibit
Wednesday, April 28 at 6:00pm-9:00PM

> Where: Periscope Cellars
http://periscopecellars.com/gallery12/
> To see more details and RSVP, write me or follow the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=105896249452786&mid=231fd94G23566f7bG46a32a6G7&n_m=shermworm1%40yahoo.com

Thanks!!

Summer Fairy House Workshop!

2010-04-12T14:25:00.000-07:00

I can't wait to see what the next batch of builders construct! Call or email me now to reserve your place or if you have any questions.
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Fairy House Plus Box Art Equals...Sculptural Painting?

2010-03-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

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Five Cherries
varnished manzanita branches, oil on wood.
About uh...18" high? The boxes are 4 or 5" square (I'm too lazy to go to the studio the measure the darn thang right now. Ive been moving concrete blocks all morning in an attempt to create a patio out of recycled materials.... not to mention scouring the neighborhood for our lost chicken, who I found and lured home with bits of Challah bread.)
Definitely spring inspired. Its so colorful and happy I might shock people. After Beware of God I was feeling the need for more obvious color.

I need to reshoot this side view- funny angles- they hang straight of course and the painting can hang on the wall or sit with a weight in it.

close up of one side. How the heck do I photograph this painting? Its 19plus sided!! Video perhaps. I envy the days before tech took over the business of art, when Gallery curators and buyers had to come and see ones work. The audience was smaller, I suppose, but the artists didn't have to spend hours of good painting time taking digital images and uploading them and photo-shopping this and that and web site maintenance. What a headache!

At any rate the piece is based on a poem I wrote when preggers. I wrote the three stanzas on the bottom of each box and the extra bit of the last part on the side of the box (you can kinda see it in the side view). I feel rather self-conscious about displaying a poem publicly. I'm still torn as to whether I shouldn't paint it out, but I bravely record it here.

And he'll chase the fat yellow finches from the cherry tree
catch them by their golden wings
as they fall into winter.

and next...once again which direction to go in? 3D rep of 4D with painted parts...or reg. ole paintings geared for the steampunk show based on epiphanies and children in trees? Or more branches shooting out and around? I try to limit myself and look what happens!! Too many ideas! tell me what to do kind reader, do tell? And what do you think of this latest 'branching out'?

September Show During the Hand Car Regatta, or One Bird In the Coop, and One Flew Away

2010-03-10T15:31:00.000-08:00

What a strange conflicting day. On the one hand I found a locale to show my work during the Santa Rosa Hand Car Regatta. Burned out on the gallery beat I choose an 'alternative' spot- a hip hair cutting spot called Devils and Queens, with good white walls- right on 4th street in Railroad Square (the regatta will go down forth this year so- yay!). So starting Sept 9th Ill have over 20 pieces up there to peruse, and Ill come up with a sorta opening invite and hang about with friends and fans there during the Hand Car Regatta, Sept. 26th. But the gallery quest goes on- another rejection that started as a "yes- we want a studio visit to pick out pieces for a summer show" and then, weirdly, faded into a "we already have an artist somewhat like you, sorry, maybe in a year, you have great potential but not there yet". She thought I was 25, and new from art school. yeash. I guess I need to swap out my google photo for something more um...aged? Or switch to my FizzGigg profile. yeash again. Am I burning bridges by being honest in this blog? Make myself seem unsuccessful and thus create my lack of success? perhaps. This one curator said she doesn't ever read blogs. Perhaps that is fairly true to gallery directors across the board. I am almost able to get my newer work onto my website. soon soon soon.

the Profession of Art is Odd Indeed

2010-03-04T14:30:00.000-08:00

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Study for 5 Cherries

Being an artist is truly one of the odder professions. Yes, older too, but what I wrote was oDDer. Imagine a librarian saying he/she needed to start meditating in order to draw forth the source of their inspiration. Imagine an accountant contemplating giving up being an accountant because it was too hard to know how good an accountant they are when compared to other accountants or to the history of accounting. Imagine a plumber studying the work of other plumbers and quitting their job because every type of plumbing had already been invented.
Of course all professions might focus on constant improvement, or working as a meditation itself.

My brother is a physicist and he probably falls into most of the artist related rantings and mood swings and soul to universe searching (but then, Physicists are an odd bunch as well).

At any rate I was reading this facebook discussion line asking each artist to describe a moment of 'awe' in which they viewed another artists work and in 'misreading' it or reacting to it (either because it was so spectacular or so horrible) created their own path in response. It was insinuated that this would be somewhat torturous, and that artists in general are on and off again tortured by their carrier choice. Perhaps. Its certainly true for myself. And yet we are driven as artists to continue through these ups and downs, because we must create. imagine our accountant feeling they must add numbers or go insane and they would look a bit daft themselves.

Meanwhile... I am branching out in the studio. Literally!- branches have entered my paintings. Or rather they are shooting forth from the wood surface and other paintings in the form of boxes are hanging from them. The painting/sculpture, called...probably..."Five Cherries", is based on images from a poem I wrote. And just you wait, kind reader- up next- Ill take you to the forth dimension...my noggin is spinning with ideas.

the Shelf of the Forgotten and the Pedestal of My Best Creations

2010-02-23T16:05:00.000-08:00

Pull up a chair kind reader! I improved upon the painting that heads this blog. That dates it as well, at least somewhat. I love this chair. I want it for my home. But at least it resides here on Outside Inside House. I painted the sides different as well- with nice furniture and lamps. Still haven't put the glass in- but I shall! Goodness I do like sanding. The most fabulous surfaces, the most remarkable abstract art are these walls in foreign countries- peeling and painted and sanded and chipping and painted again. So lovely.

Its quite possible that my work as an artist has saved me the silent discomfort of preferring or loving one of my sons more than the other. Sometimes when I finish a painting I feel so very fond of it. In fact I feel this way with most of my new born images. But over a few months, or sadly, even a few days, the joy of creating that new picture usually fades to a happy familiarity or possibly a disgruntled disappointment (Do you feel this way when you create? I know many artists who never like their finished art). For myriad reasons a few painting never loose their charm to me- I remain in awe that the emerged from my fingers. In fact these works make me feel more of a portal as though 'I' wasn't part of the equation or even the catalyst- the art came from elsewhere, from the Jungian waters of the group subconsciousness or some force, but definitely not me.

But my sons, though a gift, never end up on the shelf of the familiar and forgotten, nor on the pedestal of my best creations, and so are never one more loved than the other. They will always be my best creations but there is no way I can critique a creation that belongs so entirely to itself.

Is it Done Yet?

2010-02-12T12:04:00.000-08:00

.Rower
2'X4' oil on carved wood

Another go at Rower. So much more interesting. Oh how I struggled. But- so often, the struggle adds such fabulous layers and depth to a painting- especially oil. Is it done? Maybe. But I'm setting it aside for a bit. A time out for this one. I do like the flat images mingling with the three dimentional/realistic ones. Been playing with this more and more in the last year.

Meanwhile there is a chicken in my bathtub. It had a bath, yes, and now is staying out of the mud (besides what it self-generates). We are off to Cloverdale early tomorrow. I have some pieces in a juried show there and Benjamin is entering his now clean chicken in the citrus fair. Wish us luck!

a close-up of the carved tree

Beware of God

2010-02-10T18:40:00.000-08:00

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Beware of God
2'X4'
Please click on image for larger view!

My son is very inquisitive about the universe and its many properties. He likes to discuss God. What is God? If God made us who made God. This sort of philosophical discussion. So I painted this one with benjmain in mind. It is a discussion painting- what is God? Is the tree God (and if it is is it dead or dormant or...)? Is the Boy God? The old mans eye in all its grey shades, or the black and white child's eye? Or is the art God (we used to make these in camp and for some reason, though it was not religious camp, the finished weaving was called a Gods Eye) ? Is the grass? Is the fence? Is the peeling wall or the broken cement?
And of course the warning- Beware of God. Of the notion of God? Or the attempt to identify God/define God? The following of a religion? Or Beware- as in 'be in awe of' God? Or just a silly sign. A sign from God? ha ha ha.
I'm not sure if the painting is done (particularly the foreground) but its going on a little journey friday so I thought Id post it.

Fairy House Workshop and A Note To Self

2010-01-31T14:18:00.000-08:00

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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

2010-01-22T14:02:00.001-08:00

."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

2010-01-16T17:49:00.000-08:00

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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

2010-01-11T16:27:00.000-08:00

.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

2010-01-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

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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

2010-01-04T17:35:00.000-08:00

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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?

Journey to the Southlands and a Zillion Projects

2009-12-19T16:26:00.000-08:00

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Hello my hopeful readers. We are all so hopeful these days. Hoping to stay afloat on the receding financial waters of our economy, hoping to suddenly be discovered, hoping all the good things last, hoping Sharon will actual write another blog entry someday...
Well here it is! That's one thing checked off your crowded list.
I went away. To LA. That's Los Angeles. For the holiday. The OTHER holiday. not Christmas. Its like the Other white meat- only we don't eat pork. yup.
Almost all the galleries I'd earmarked for checking out while down south were gone, vacated, kaput. Obviously next time I better check how long they'd been around and call them to make sure they were still hanging in there (pun intended). I did get over to The Glass Garage, where I someday hope to show my work. Its fabulous, but out of my league. That is the league of artists who no one has heard of. But they show great surreal/magical realism styles paintings. They show the work of Margo Selski, who I want to emulate. I really hope she is older than I am because one might get to feeling bad about what one has or hasn't accomplished in comparison. Three young daughters and a professor of art and her awesome narrative paintings are selling for upwards of 16K. That seems like a good reality...if busy. Do you know her? Because I'd really love to get her on the phone and ask how the HECK she does it. And she manages to keep her backgrounds almost abstract, drawing ones eye to certain areas (instead of allll areas which I can't seem to get away from). But I was thrilled to visit the Glass Garage which its very kind currator on a rainy day. And I did find one other gallery down in Venice Beach that might be interested, maybe, in a year, maybe. I really need to talk to an artist that knows LA, to give me the shake down.
meanwhile, back at studio central I have three unfinished paintings, some in the throws of some really hard to look at underpainting tones, one painting drawn and waiting that needs to be finished by early January for a local competition, and I just got a bread and butter job painting personalized holiday ornaments. It'll buy the butter but not the bread. AND I have a cold.
But life is good and instead of working I got in the hot tub with the boys and plan to walk and look at all the lovely holiday lights this evening with good friends.
I hope you are well!

Craft Fair Production and two more Fairy Houses

2009-11-24T16:37:00.000-08:00

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Please note the new fairy house workshop date is January 30th. That's a Saturday- from 10-2 including lunch. What a deal! Only a couple spaces left so please contact me to sign up now! (see flyer in my next blog entry).

Matching prints to vintage frames to sell at craft fairs. probably around 40 dollars each. So very reasonable! What a deal! These are the bigger ones. I have some true miniature sized frames- the fabulous old ones- mostly oval, as well. What do you think my readers, should I have black friday deals? First ten shoppers get 15% off! That's not bad for the Fairy Houses which are around a 100 each. Doors open at 6:30! Line up!;)

Another week another two fairy doll houses completed. Having fun with wood themes. The material really decides the final shape. Eucalyptus Oasis came out all upright and tall. I like craggy twisty trees, and feared Eucalyptus would not please me but in the end it has its own interesting character- its round skylight roof and regal beams. Redwood Retreat has more of the usual bends and twists, with the one amusing anecdote being that its main branch destroyed my clippers. my BIG clippers. and the bridge of my nose, swollen and a bit blue under foundation, since the metal of the clipper SNApped and flew back at me. The tree won. But I was able to snap the branch anyway. weird.

Redwood Retreat
front, close-up back, and another close-up
sorry the swing is hard to see as it is perpendicular to the front, and there is actually a third platform under the 'swinging lights'.

Eucalyptus Oasis
front, back, close up of swing

Fairy House Workshop

2009-11-08T14:57:00.000-08:00

..Please note the new workshop date! I already have some people signed up so only two spaces left!

"Master Crafter!" Doesn't that sound swell?

Fairy Doll Houses

2009-11-08T14:20:00.001-08:00

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Grape Vine Villa
2' Tall

Can you believe, dear reader, it has been an entire month since my last post. I do apologize! The holiday season has crept up on me, hiding behind blue skys and chicken eggs and suddenly I realized I needed to get with the times. That is, deal with this crap economy by spreading out even more than I already have. So Im on full time Fairy doll house construction mode. Empty tables at Craft Fairs await me. Im even trying to arrange a workshop on how to make your own fairy house. Join us if you like. Space is limited so write me asap! December 6th. Ill post the flier momentarily.

So some alternate personality I have of crafty mom has taken over my studio. Bark and bits of moss, scavenged from graveyard stone and pruned trees litters the floor. The boys play with the branches and pieces even as I attempt to organize them and there is more than the usual chaos. Still- as impractical as these all natural doll houses are, I am really loving sculpting again. I have flashbacks to being a kid with a couple nails and my fathers hammer in the wood pile. Its terribly fun, though my three unfinished paintings glare at me from their easel perches and I long also to finish them.

Madrone Manor
2' Tall

Chateau de Curly Willow
2' Tall

Chateau de Curly Willow -back view
2' Tall
Pricing these houses, like anything else I do (darn my obsessive detailing!) is a pain in the *!*. It takes five or six hours to finish one, not including collecti0n times. Other people sell theirs for upward of 200 but I'm trying to keep them down around a hundred. Who knows if they'll sell. I'm putting them in the window at Kidspot at Coddingtown mall tomorrow until early December when they'll join their warm fuzzy friends at school craft fairs.
Wish me luck...

New Miniature Painting - The Hunter

2009-10-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

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Hunter
9.5" X 7"

Another miniture portrait for you, kind reader, to view. Is it odd I am, in part, coping work from the past? I HATE actually copying works- like artists that hover before some masterpiece at the museum trying to emulate the work. how dull. Sure you can learn so much but, hello- yawn. These don't feel that way. Maybe the animal head makes it mine?
I want to do a whole family portrait of deer. At first I thought to borrow the figures from Las Mininas by Velasquez (I love the little girl but a dwarf deer?), but I want something less roomy. Any ideas?

Works in Progress and Magical Realism

2009-10-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

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Rower 2'x4'
click on image to enlarge

Generally, when my painting is done it's done, but every now and then I get a challenging piece that just won't finish, darn it. So it is with "Rower". The teal chair just wasn't vibing with the rest. A case of really liking a part but knowing that that part really wasn't working in the whole picture. It had to go to get to a better place. Sorta like life, eh kind reader? Certain relationships? It just wasn't happening, persnickety thing, so I attacked it with a sander. Please don't think I'm suggesting you do this to your boyfriend.

Anyway- the painting almost seems a bit spooky small like this, especially since I sanded her face off. Ill have to let it sit a couple weeks before I know where to go next. Even like this though its so much more interesting. So much art out there is just plum boring. I fear being dull or not unique or too trendy, which is equally boring. I want to give my pieces all a magical air. I like the concept of magical realism created by many South and Latin American writers (Marquez, Borges, even Calvino)- just a stretch of life- symbolism and the metaphorical layered onto real life.

And another miniature almost done- a sneak peek at my desk! The three wooden boxes are rolling about in my head waiting for their tripich images to magically appear. Perhaps a mobile?

The Rower and Other Challenges like Religion

2009-09-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

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Rower
2'X4'

Wouldn't it be nice if just because a painting pushed our abilities it was also a masterpiece? Sometimes in the past I have felt this to be the case but not this time. I worked from an older sketch I had. What works when it is only 4" X 8" doesn't not necessarily work when it is 2' X 4'. Ironically shrinking it down again for the blog makes it look better again. Perhaps I will go back into the painting in a few months or perhaps it will grow on me. Parts of The Rower make me happy. The child God rowing in the sky over wood-grain Buddhist clouds. The feet (which are my squat little feet).

My son entered Saturday school and its been in my brain- I always saw a lot of really great kids come out of various religions weekend youth groups, but then again it is religion in all its crazy doctrine and all the good and bad that religious groups have done in the past. All that history sure muddies the spiritual waters. And I am wary. I've never painted God. Goodness gracious why take up that one? Next I'll be doing illustrations for kids bible books with old men Gods and God Light (actually there have been some awesome religious illustrations not to mention..oh that entire history of Italian Renaissance art!). But it snuck up on me-really. I didn't realize the child might be God until after I'd painted it. And no i don't think of God as a person at all yet to be anthropomorphic He got a bit sneaky this time, and I don't really mind. Oh and I am actually planning to paint a piece called Beware of God that will in fact have a surreal sort of Old Man God and god light as well!
Happy Roshashana!

The Art World and Childrens World, Never the Two Shall Meet

2009-09-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

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Why is it that as an artist revealing that you have kids makes one seem unprofessional? As though the world of motherhood should be kept a secret from the world of art. Kids just aren't cool in the art world. Do I believe this?

I recall having to go show my art to the owner of a upscale bistro, with my 18 month old son in tow. This was NOT intentional. The person who was supposed to be watching him for me had gotten sick for the zillionth time and I was stuck. Would it matter? Phineas sat in his stroller, happily turning a string cheese stick into goo while I showed this rather serious young entrepreneur my portfolio. He kept glancing at Phin, expressionless. He seemed nervous. Who could blame him- after all you never know when an 18 month old child will suddenly free themselves from stroller restraints and launch themselves at your neck like the Monty Python Rabbit. He had supposedly seen all this artwork before on my web site and said he was interested. About half way through the portfolio he came to my portrait of Jim Hensen as St.Francis blessing the muppet animals. He balked. He didn't even know who Jim Henson and the muppets were. He didn't get it at all. Suffice to say I didn't get the show.

Most museums these days have a childrens area but one rarely sees kids in the adult areas. While I love having a space for the children to get their hands in the art, I wonder if we aren't working against ourselves. Traveling to Europe I was amazed at seeing children in galleries and museums. The mom or dad would be leaning down and explaining things or asking questions. The children seemed, amazingly, well behaved and interested. How wise to raise them to appreciate art! Not only by giving them bits of fabric and beads to glue on a cardboard crown or whatever the craft of the day but by treating their eyes to amazing artwork.

When I try to bring kids into galleries in the city most proprietors think me mad. But they should not be surprised when so few adults value and want to buy original art.

Sorry- I wanted to post St.Henson for y'all kind readers but I don't seem to have a digital image of it! Still have the painting though so I'll post it tomorrow when the light is better for a quick shot. Meanwhile here is a sketchbook page- the Rhino of Change, for Sarah Soward , the Rhino girl who comes with me to the zoo but only really wants to draw the rhinos.

Kindergarten and Beyond the Used Car Fiasco and a New Box

2009-08-30T20:13:00.000-07:00

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My goodness, this feels like my old attempts at keeping a journal when I was a child. Almost every entry started with 'well, I haven't written in a long time...'. But I swear this time is an anomaly. I've been dealing with the great used car search (three potential cars didn't even pass their diagnostic tests). I totaled my old wagon and had only a couple weeks to find a new one. I now know a great deal about used wagons of all makes, as well as newer small SUV types (feel free to pick my brain if you need to). Suffice to say I didn't get a speck of painting in. So you can imagine my JOY at finally getting to not only paint again but with Benjamin starting kindergarten getting to paint 3 days and 2 evenings a week!! I might try to find some solid paying sort of work one morning a week (to pay for my CAR payments- my increasingly badly adult and complex existence in America that consists of buying things then insuring those things. House and Cars and Health and etc etc and with ALL of that I still think its sad I didn't save enough so I could go out and get a big screen TV. Yeash. Hook line and sinker capitalist. And wasn't I clever to go to ART school? So I could make buckets of money after graduation? There really must be a better way!)
ahem.
As I was saying. Benjamin started kindergarden. See the days stretching out as his body stretches up and his mind expands to encompass so much information and to develope and determine who he is and who he will be. His first step on a long path to himself. Here he is starting out! Day 1 of a possible 3,600+.

I'm almost done with that last painting- "Rower", though it needs to sit and think about itself a bit. Meanwhile on to a new hanging box painting. A peek into the process. I am really not careful enough with measuring- my craft lacks. But the box comes together after some tops and bottoms and a lot of sanding. How modern these cubical box paintings for small spaces. How modular. Its so Dwell Magazine.

A New Painting

2009-08-13T16:14:00.001-07:00

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Trying something new. A drawing from my sketch book as source (not source of inspiration-that happens often, but source of photo). Usually I have photos to work from and so my work gets rather tight. So this time I can't take photos. The tree was drawn in Normandy at the base of Mont San Michelle, the girl at a cafe, and the little rower from my head. I did abscond with a photo from the internet for the rower, as he is a bit rough comparatively.
So you can see my usual process though. I transferred the drawing with some really horrid carbon paper that gave me just enough of a line here and there to be able to use my Chinese brush and ink to find the rest of the drawing on the wood. Then a bit of staining and Ill carve - the tree and...? there's so many ways to go from here!

Its been really bloody hot and my studio is my garage, oh joy, so one wall is a huge metal heat radiating monstrosity. I hung a red heat repelling blanket on it and various sketches but lordy lordy that didn't do much. So I can only be in there for short periods of time right now (in the winter it is icy cold, but heaters do better than fans at battling extremes of temp.)

I really ought to be updating the work on my web site or mopping or some such domestic chore, but I fear my brain has melted. So I'm off to stare blankly at the piles of laundry and toys and smears of dirt in the shape of small fingers.

Lady Squirrel, Show Canceled, and the End of Summer

2009-08-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

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Lady Squirrel
I'm too lazy to go down to the studio but I think its about 7 inches high. One of the best pieces, I think of this silly series thus far. Sometimes even a size 0 brush isn't small enough. How rediculous. Its like buying jeans nowadays, where the marketers keep lowering what a size, say 12, is, so that someone can feel more petite. In old patterns I have to buy 12 sizes up from my current size. Ludicrous! Actually, no, brushes aren't that bad.. But still. A zero?

Sad news- I think the August 29th show is canceled. Either the gallery is being sold or under new management or some such tumultuous affair. I SO need to find a gallery that isn't in economic straights. If anyone can suggest one that would jib with my style I am all ears. If you hook me up with a good gallery I'll paint you a self portrait of myself with ten ears...all ears...get it. I think I need to go sketch that now in my book.

Summer nears an end and soon my oldest will enter the Totalitarian world of elementary school. No tears shall be shed at this cross-roads event, I can't WAIT to get more time to paint. But seeing him in this new identity I am so proud I might get a bit verklempt.And I have been painting less for these last couple weeks so I can spend time with these manic little men. It's odd I don't sketch or paint them more as I find them such lovely specimens of humanity. But I have been taking advantage of their willingness to pose for me.

Why Be A Professional Artist? and Summer With a Toddler

2009-07-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

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What a strange profession I am in! Is there any other carreer or job besides being an artist that one works in because its the only way one has any time to do it? Most artists love their work. I sure love to create things. But I can't help wondering, How the heck did I end up an artist? And why?

Being an artist is almost always a really a lousy career. Few people are very successful at it financially. I know of a few, and amongst those few at least half feel they have sold out, or aren't really doing what they want to do. I suppose if one can make it work it's pretty priceless. And how does one go about becoming a 'sucessful' professional artist? Should I hire my own business manager like Schnabel? Should I tote bad reproductions of my work to all the galleries on the west coast? Should I go back to full time illustration and make someones images in a two week turnaround? Should I get a desk job and paint two nights a week and on the weekend? Should I take on any job that uses any sort of creativity? Should I move to New York? Should I scale down my paintings and and sell prints on Etsy? (actually I plan to open an Etsy shop soon for selling prints, as well as toting my bad reproductions down to LA where I think I'd have more luck matching my art to a welcoming gallery but why why why?).

Why? Why do we do it? Is there nothing else I'm good at? I don't remember being 5 years old and saying "I want to be an artist". I guess we just paint and paint and paint and eventually start to sell the paintings because they are piling up in the garage/bedroom/livingroom/shed, and after all, eating is nice, as is buying more art supplies to support this habit.

Some guy from Freecycle wrote to ask me why my handle (on Freecycle) was ArtWithoutReason. I think I scared him because he never responded to the somewhat lengthy account I gave as a reason. But seriously- there is enough art in this world. California is up to her pretty neck in artists! They are like a poor plauge on this coast. And beauty? There is enough beauty in the world- the world itself is amazingly beautiful. And my 'vision'? Is it so necessary to add another persons ideas or outlook or vision to the world? Has art ever REaaLLy had an impact? Changed peoples way of seeing for the better? Should I do somehing just because I do it well or even better than some other people?

So why the heck be a professional artist? What do you think?

While you are considering this question please enjoy these completely unrelated photographs of summer with a toddler.

General Quail, Another Miniature Painting

2009-07-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

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Here you are my revered readers- another miniature painting.
This series is so impractical. So much little detail in such a small piece! But I'm strangely entertained by these odd little animal people of the past. I strayed a bit on General Quail, giving him his clover background instead of the more traditional curtains or what have you. Though, when I taught the history of Elizabethan Miniature painting I loved best the symbolism some artists worked into the background. I recall flames and rose vines. All suggesting burning desire and etc etc. So perhaps this skinny necked General is looking for his lucky clover? Or perhaps just looking to eat the bug that ate the leaf.
This one will hang by a ribbon bow, traditional style, attached to the back.

I've just drawn today a Miniature Squirrel Nobel Lady. Very Ornate. Never will you meet more regal a squirrel ("I want a trained squirrel!"). Coming soon to a blog near you!

Benjamin is in summer school in the mornings and yet somehow I am getting LESS done when he is gone, still trailed by the grasping hands of young Phineas. I hope this is not a foreshadowing of my [lack of] activities during kindergarten. Still I must remind myself daily to spend some time with my older son while I still have him, mostly, to myself. So today with an odd overlap of daycare I was able to play Candyland with Ben for a precious untoddlerated hour.

New Show Date Change

2009-07-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to let you know that the opening for the show at the Pallete Gallery in Healdsburg that Ill be participating in has been change to August 29th. The show will run for six weeks.

Letting Go of the Original Vision

2009-07-11T18:52:00.000-07:00

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4'X2' Letting Go

The balloons were tied to my clothes line for a week. I took so many photos of them out in the sun I near on got sun stroke. From sun stroke to brush stroke. Sounds like the title of an article in Weekend Artists magazine. Originally and until a couple days ago the balloons were multi-colored. I just couldn't balance all that brightness. Finally I realized they needed to be all white to blend with the sky and I had to let go of that original vision. But what a fabulous example of how layering can really add dimension and enhance the finished piece. I think if there hadn't been a bright orange, celadon blue, and grass green balloon in the mix it never would have glowed like this final painting.

I've never painted clouds before (or balloons) on such a scale and it was quite challenging and fun. I held Benjamins hand in the air and sketched it directly onto the painting. His little fingers flexed and rolled and straightened alien long but the final, I think, worked out so all is well. Thank goodness the boys don't mind being free models. (okay perhaps there was a promise of ice cream).

Life Isn't Fair

2009-07-07T20:31:00.000-07:00

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Well, the tempest of creative energy that hit me finally moved away to more temperate studios. I have nothing to show from the last week save two alllmost finished pieces and a few not so finished ones. Why these waves of energy? I know women who have four children and throw enormous block parties and go dancing on the weekend and sleep six hours or less a night, and don't tire or get sick. I shit you not. How the hell do they do it? Why are they so blessed with energizer bunny like attributes while I come to the end of the roller coaster ride and crash for two weeks? And of course it's these crazy frenatic ladies who bear eighty children and populate the planet with MORE perma-charged children, and I am left in their wake.

I always over-do it. Then I burn out. Then my annoying chronic condition flares up and my body says, "laundry? hell no! Painting? uh-uh. Sit on the couch and stare out the window while small children climb mount Mommy, puncturing your ribs with their pointy apendages? You bet!". So while the desire to paint is making my brain spin I have to still my self. (my more zen like, less gripey self might say something meaningful like- these periods of so called calm are when I imagine up my next series of paintings, when my creative self refreshes, but Im not feeling so pleasent as all that right now).

And people say- ohhh- young children are just so wearing-just wait until they are in school. My mother is one such person who says this. But at my age she raised my brother and I while working on her PhD disertation while taking care of a ranch full of animals while working a part time job while cooking and housekeeping for my rather traditional father. Of course NOW she can't babysit Phineas and Benjamin for more than two hours without collapsing, exhausted, and rushing home. So I guess she just delayed burn out. Maybe the mom of four, who, by the way, is also a part time nurse (yeash) will also burn out someday. And why does frenetic nurse lady get the parents who can't WAIT to take the grandkids for a weekend, hell a whole week!

It's just not fair. I really hate it when life isn't fair. It really gets my goat.

Persimmon Thief and the August 1st Show as well as Grumbling About Art Reproduction

2009-06-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

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Sometimes the influences of having lived in Taiwan, not to mention having had an interest in Asian art from the time I was about ten years old, comes through quite obviously. This painting, Persimmon Thief, was first drawn in with Chinese ink and brush so that, when I carved the branch out, I retained the feel of those brush lines I so love. Of course, it's tall vertical shape is like a scroll as well. Painted about a year ago (unlike all the other just finished pieces in this blog) it hangs in my husbands Edward Jones office where his clients say they feel like the raccoon, getting away with their higher percentages and dividends and whatnot's, i.e. their share of the financial pie.

Oh but I do so despise (I know that's a strong word but it is such a frustration) art reproduction. This painting is taller than myself and I am forced to tile together almost seven separate photos to create one. Each photos light is slightly different as the camera adjusts itself and by the time I've fiddled the thing into existence it is never quite what is on the wood. This piece is not so 'minty' colored. And it is so hard to view it so small. sigh. grumble grumble.

A few of my paintings (and likely this one) will be hanging what I hope to be a fabulous show August 1st in Healdsburg at the Palette Gallery (who's name may change very soon- Ill keep ya posted). A group show, we have all done labels for EricKent wines, a really fabulous and unusually artist-friendly label. EricKent will be pouring excellent wine as you peruse the wonderful art. Please join us! And check out Eric Kent Wines homepage to see all their fabulous artists and wines!

Studio Contour, Sharing a Studio With Children

2009-06-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

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Someone recently asked me, incredulously, how I can share my studio with my kids. Okay, okay, so its not really ideal. Generally either I'm helping them with a project or listening to their sleeping sighs through a monitor, or berating them for trying to sneak into the Mommy area once again. And the shared floor space is always a mess of small toys missing small parts, strings, a few washers strung with wires and bungee cords into what Ben has deemed his latest teleportation device, picture books, screw drivers and half dismantled electronics, as well as glasses of murkey paint water, and lately a scary tin can half filled with desicated black olives.

As you may guess, gentle reader, this is not an easy enviornment to paint in, and Im certain passers by get to hear through the thin metal barrier of the garage door the earful I lay on the boys for their mess. Or perhaps they overhear my sad attempts at bribery- a fruit leather treat in exchange for cleanliness.

On the other hand how wonderful it is to flee to this space at nap time or in the evening and know I can rejoin the family as needed without driving across town. And how wonderful to see their creations emerge and line up for display as mine do. And if a small boy, sleepy, comes and finds me still painting, time can be bought to finish using up my mixed color while said child creates another deluge of mess on the other side of my dog gate barrier.

I tried to capture the chaos with my camera but the photo was just that- chaos, and imposible to read. So I tried a contour drawing instead. A single line threaded around haphazardly seemed more sucessful. Thanks to my friend who suggested contour, I shall try to draw other artists studios this way when I interview them. You can make out their table and supplies, my dog gate covered half down with a a tarp and my easles and sewing/small painting desk, as well as the edge of my round table that sits closer to the garage door. I edited out the clutter.

I'm frustrated not to be painting much this week but Im fighting some fatigue causing chronic malaise and must also do other things like shower invites for a deserving friend and wretched laundry. I can't wait to show you my Quail General or the large piece on the easle, which is trying my patience.

And Yet Another Miniature, Jackal, and A Sappy Bit on Being a Parent and an Artist

2009-06-16T15:07:00.000-07:00

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Jackal
6"X8"

Being an artist and a parent means updating my blog by pressing as softly on the keyboard keys as possible while they sleep in bed behind me.
Being an artist and a parent means occasionally destroying my brush by forgetting to clean it because I had to RUN from my painting to attend to some duty like scraped knee kissing and sibling or cat claw removal.
Being an artist and a parent means letting go of keeping floors clean and laundry folded.
Being an artist and a parent means making sure the caps on the varnish, painting mediums, and acetate containers are screwed down really tight.
Being an artist and a parent means enclosing the studio behind a dog security gate/fence while my kids run amuk in the rest of my studio like chickens with their heads cut off and somehow miraculously still concentrating on painting.
Being an artist and a parent means always having an ear leaning away from the project.
Being an artist and a parent means finding a way to let them participate and create their own always amazing (to me) art.
Being an artist and a parent means sometimes putting down the child to take up the brush, and sometimes putting down the paintbrush to hug the child.

Ibis, Another Miniature Painting, and the Possibility of Interviews

2009-06-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

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Ibis 6"X 4"

Just a quick post today. I don't usually post on the weekend (you know, in the TWO big weeks I've been blogging so far!) but I am trying to write at least three week day posts a week and last week was a bit post slim.

All this blogging about myself feels so narcissistic, and anyway, how much can I personally write about being both parent and artist? So I am compiling a list of interview questions for parents who make art at home while they also don the mantle of parent. It may take some time to actually finish these lists and pin down interview times so please, kind reader, bear with me and all this me-me-me-writing until then. I promise the interviews will be worth waiting for!

My miniatures aren't all that miniature, just so you know. Ibis was actually the first one, and a bit rough, but also the smallest (by a couple inches). I added the curtain last night, which helped ground the bird. And Jackel is done as of last night as well, but too wet to photograph.

Printing Lace Shadows and Inheritences

2009-06-09T19:04:00.001-07:00

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Lace Shadows
4'X2'

One month after I jetted off to Taiwan to see what was up with that guy Norman and I, my step father passed away. I didn't have enough money to fly back to the states and my mom told me not to try to return so I didn't. But a year later, when I did manage to get back she had gotten rid off just about everything that my stepdad had owned. Actually-everything. I had nothing to remember him by and being the sadly materialistic person that I am I was quite distraught.

But then, about a year ago I started collecting old crocheted bits of lace from craigslist, garage sales and flea markets. I mentioned this in passing to my mother. It turned out my step dad actually knew how to make lace and my mom still had one of his pieces, albeit a bit ripped. I sewed the lace onto a pillow, embroidering what lines were missing. The other pieces of lace I have found are either speckling my house like the freckles on my hands or being used in a new series of paintings I am working on. I actually roll oil paint onto the lace and print it, wood cut style onto my paintings, and then carve around them a bit. It's fun. I sold the first one, "Stork", already, done in my favorite long vertical, about 6 feet tall.

I just finished Lace Shadows, but instead of leaving only the color of the unfinished wood cuts I stained the wood lamp black in the shadowy cuts and rolled the lighter hue over to catch the edges. I am currently working on a sky themed piece to balance all the dark shadow.

The Possibilities of a Fabulous Garage Sale Find

2009-06-07T21:05:00.001-07:00

Our old friend Mike stayed with us this weekend. He gave me a dollar every time I had to squeeze into the back seat between the kids two car seats. I don't much like mini-vans and I wouldn't buy an SUV but sometimes I do wish we had a bigger car. Still, I made almost ten dollars over two days by insisting we stop at every garage sale we came to (and then squeezing back into my squish spot). On one of these stops Mike persuaded me to purchase this fabulous Tampax dispenser. I plan to weld on groves so I can drop a board/sign down the front listing what I want to dispense. Won't it be superb?! After it is filled with small rolled up photo copies I shall put it up at art shows and make a whopping 50 cents per piece (or sell the whole thing for some exorbitant amount). Every tenth try will still be a Tampax.

But there are just so many choices of what to dispense with! So you, kind reader, must help me out by voting for what you think I should start with. Or if you have some other brilliant idea please comment. Thanks!

The Art of Mothering

2009-06-04T14:58:00.000-07:00

What do you mean I have been focusing on painting more than on parenting lately??
actually it's amazing Benjamin can even fit into Phin's clothes at all.

Tea With The Advesary, a Chicken Coop and Critique

2009-06-03T15:38:00.000-07:00

A better name for this painting might have been Tax Write-Off. Or perhaps Which Came First-the Chicken or the Egg, because although I really enjoyed this painting I also really wanted to get chickens and to paint chickens (that is- to make paintings of chickens, not to actually paint a chicken which would fall more into the performance art field- who was that guy that swung the chicken about and covered himself in feathers?). And so so so conveniently all my chickens, chicken supplies and what coop materials I had to buy (mostly they came from Freecycle and Craigslist free stuff), were all a tax write off. And for a bonus we, hopefully in a month or two, will get a wonderfully colored selection of fresh, free range, organic eggs (not to mention fabulous chores for the boys to do- the fabulous fun of mucking out the chicken coop).

At any rate- please look for the implements of death somewhat hidden in this rather narrative painting. Next chicken Piece will be a Baba yaga style house-but Victorian- with chicken legs, and it will be hatching a fifties style house. If I only paint the legs can I write off the whole chicken?

The coop leader, alpha hen, and most outgoing of our chickens is Bellina (also known as Chickie). She and the others lived in a refrigerator box in my studio while the coop was being built. Bellina was first to discover she could fly up and roost on the edge of the box. For two weeks every time Id go to paint she would watch me critically from her perch. Some people get Dore Ashton as their critic...I get a chicken.

Noble Egret, A Foppish Bird and the Back of Art

2009-06-01T17:17:00.000-07:00

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And also a whole other series I'm working on! Are my energies a bit spread out or am I in a creative typhoon? Whatever the case, I have already painted a couple of these miniatures. Clever clever me, I thought I ought to work smaller so as to make my art more affordable to the masses, so I came up with the most detailed little pieces I could conjure thereby making my time worth very little.

In Elizabethan times, lacking a camera, people carried about portraits of their loved ones. For some inexplicable reason taking these and painting them with animal (mostly bird) heads seemed a good idea. Tennie Tiny bits of lace done with negative 1 size brush? But I like them. They are so wonderfully odd with their human hands and fancy frippery. I should like to paint all the old Egyptian Gods this way. I already have Ibis done (soon to be shown here). Jackal will most likely be next. And then I'll paint all the Egyptian gods in punk clothes.

But Im not really showing you, kind reader, any integration am I. So here's a bit of a secret. Many of my paintings have a bonus drawing on their backside by little elves that sneak down into my studio and draw on the wood sitting about- just like Mommy! So I always face the less desirable side out, thus leaving the good grain for my painting and giving buyers a little surprise when they turn the painting around.

Squirrel, Squirrel, Squirrel, Squirrel

2009-05-29T14:52:00.000-07:00

Another doosie of an art reproduction nightmare! This little box hangs from the rafters or sits on four little acorn feet. It's from my box series but another experiment (Ha HA my brother, there is secretly more than one mad scientist in the family). Theres a little antique key sealed up inside. One of those 'just for fun' kinda pieces. If I'm painting something less than serious does it mean I'm not a serious artist? get real. That's one voice anyway. There's other annoying little voices in my head that say silly things like "you'd never see THAT at MOMA". Of course, that in itself may be a reason to paint it. The four views, like my other pieces of this ilk represent different realities. One is the 'paper tiger' or Oragami reality, one realist, one carved, and one cartoon (my most lived in reality?). And of course, I have to wonder if I'm painting partly cartoon images because I've been influenced by living with little kids or if I would have gone that way anyway. Suffice to say, this is one of Benjamin's and Phineas's favorites currently still in my studio.

Children's Portraits

2009-05-28T16:01:00.000-07:00

For the last 2 years or so I’ve been experimenting with painting children’s portraits on commission. When in Rome. Might as well tap into the community that I find myself hovering around the perifery of. Children's portraits are quite a challenge! I can paint a reasonably good likeness but the piece has to be affordable, which is why using oils wasn’t the best first choice. None the less, in usual fashion, I went that direction and regretted it after realizing I wasn’t making enough to justify the detail and hours I was putting in. In fact I misquoted an amount to a playdate friends mom, who although usually a seemingly easygoing lady, decided that telling her I couldn't paint her two children in oils for 300 dollars was grounds for never speaking to me again. Pricing is the ingrown toenail of being an artist.

Finally I switched to watercolor. My old friend!! Watercolors were my first love and I almost wish I’d never cheated on them with oils and printmaking (exept they are such lovely affairs). So light and optimistic watercolors are. So unpretentious! (Of course I still have three other bodies of work coming out- two of which are done in oil with all its buttery goodness).

This little guy was really into planets and was just calling out to be the little prince.

My client, a mom at my son's preschool, was thrilled with the finished piece. Always a nice feeling. I’d like to charge more but everyone is so destitute these days and Im happy just to paint with the light filled watercolor pigments. So Im thinking of creating a sliding scale. Somewhere between 150 and 400. Is that rediculous? Who would rather give me 400 than 150? But actually I'm happy with 150 so long as I don't have to make any 'alterations'. I even put an ad in the school newsletter. I'm advertising now? but no takers. 150 bucks?! Come ON thats such a DEAL. I need to tap into a wealthier community (do they still exist?) and charge 500. Hmph.

Inside-Out House

2009-05-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

I want to create more of these house themed “night-light” paintings (theres a light inside that lights up just the bird at night-check out the second photo). They are rather challenging to reproduce two dimensionally though (art reproduction is my nemesis- so here I am, throwing everything onto a 2D blog surface-great-just great). It’s fun to paint this way but it takes more time-is it worth it-all the cutting and gluing to make an art piece that has multiple levels? And is this type of box art all that interesting? It is a good challenge making the inside work with the outside. Am I just trying to create something new and original when all art has already been explored? Do I really believe that there isn’t anything new? And does it really matter either way?

Well…better to just PAINT than to sit about smashing oneself in the head with a critical hammer. Bam bam bam. And better to paint than to blog. Blog blog blog. Actually I need to go pick up the boys from their once a week 3 hour daycare. Artist stepping down, Mom stepping up.

When In Home

2009-05-26T14:37:00.000-07:00

"When in Home", as in, "When in Rome"(my hubby didn't get it so I'm revealing the obvious for the sake of others who have come home punchy from a long day).
"When in Home", as in , for sanity sake and to create a better quality of life I am always on the lookout for ways to integrate my art into my home and family and my home and family into my art. So yes, it's true, I am using a pun to title my blog. Oh well. If you know my family you would know how appropriate a pun title is. In fact, one might say that I am thus integrating my family into all this, art, home, and blog, as well. And of course, it is near on impossible to escape ones roots.
And to be all stream-of-consciousness-y on you, a new painting popped into my head today of a tree floating in the sky with its roots intertwined below it into Celtic knots. A good challenge to make it seem real. And another pun title? "Painting My Roots" or something dumb like that. Maybe it is a bit schmaltzy but I think it could be beautiful.
But back to this blogging thing. I am slightly dismayed to find myself starting a blog. No, no- you bloggers- don't be offended. Its just I'm not a public person. Sure I don't know when to shut up once I start talking but to go as far as sharing my inner thoughts with the world at large? And yet, painting is necessarily public if one wants to get any feedback and to make a name for oneself or to earn a living. So I'm gettin' with the times. Forgive me if I do go on. Mostly I want to show you my new work, as it percolates, and all the wonderful (and perhaps not so wonderful) ways of dealing with being both Mommy, wife, neighbor, and artist.