Happy New Year

I am having great difficulty determining the best post to celebrate the beginning of 2009. I decided on the collage above because of the text, which reads, "Snap judgements, damning criticisms, whopping generalizations were part of her charm, signs of the form youthful vitality had taken in a year when crisis was everybody's breakfast food." This piece was made years ago, but reminds me that I cannot rest on my laurels and I have to keep working, keep making, keep creating. The text also reminds me not to judge the younger generation(s) as I always do (as working in a high school makes that pretty easy to do). In a year when crisis was everybody's breakfast food is one of my all time favorite metaphors and I feel that this past year was not so full of crisis as it was of solutions and hopeful direction towards a better future. So many positive things have come to the world this year, Obama, One laptop per child, The Gates Foundation work in American education and Global health care, LED lights, and the generosity of so many who help make life easier for others.

It was also such a great year for our family. we are all so lucky to have good health, wealth and joy in our lives. I personally had a great year for my business (I knit well over 100 pairs of fingerless gloves), it was the first year since 2001 that I did not learn anything new (in a classroom setting) and I realize how much I enjoy being a student and may look into doing more of that kind of learning. And I started blogging which I love.

I hope everyone enjoys each day of the new year year and finds abundance, happiness and good health. Happy New Year!

old collage

I still am very fond of this series of collages that I completed a couple of years ago - I did make a LuLu book of them all and will have it available for sale at the Indie Market on Thanksgiving weekend along with the prints and many other wonderful pieces of art work. I am really looking forward to that show - I am just hoping I have the will power not to spend every dime I make.

new work (sort of)

Back on September 20th I posted some paintings of birds I had completed. I was so thrilled to sell the one with the gears at the Public Market's Artist Row. I really want to paint more paintings in a similar vein to these, but here they are reworked in photoshop for cards to sell at the next show - (The Indie Market at VSW, Thanksgiving Weekend!)

Birds

Here are some new paintings with collage of mine. Well, I finished them in August, and was thinking about adding some xerox transfers, but have decided they are complete the way they are.

collage

Here are two collages I think are finished. I am having a difficult time accepting the vagueness of the images and the light colors. But I am trying really hard to allow different things to happen in my art work and appreciate them for what they are. I may put these two on Etsy today and see what happens.

And this is one of my daughter's pet rats. She is allergic to them and can't even hold them. So I take care of them and clean the cage and all. We had a long conversation last night about how much she loves them and if she gave them away it wouldn't be any differnt then them dying in her heart.

Decisions

So here is the finished piece in place. And I do really love it.
I played around more with the pieces to this puzzle and I think I may rip the painting in half and have the house shape/flyswatter hanging down in the empty space...

These colors are truer to the reality of the painting. In the photos below I was using photoshop adjustments to give it something it just doesn't have.

I am working on this piece for our living room. I have a large frame that I am repurposing for an empty wall. It is getting there. I need to sand down the shininess of the acrylic paint and decide how much collage to use. The oval of wallpaper is bothering me - I like it and I dislike it. I am considering painting something over it to push it back...but I don't want it very complicated.

companion piece

I just completed this piece this morning. It is kind of a companion to the one I posted on August 6th (August Art). I wish I had more than two weeks before I have to return to work. I am finally feeling like an artist again. I get really sad when I realize I won't be able to focus on art for while, but I am so lucky to have had the summer and the husband who doesn't mind the constant mess around the house.

Airplanes

I "threw" this piece together yesterday afternoon and I really, really like it. But I felt like it can't be anything valuable because it happened too quick and spontaneously. I have decided however that it took twenty years to make this piece. Well... it did take three days of being engrossed in the processes of making art and all my efforts of looking and thinking about what is possible.

August Art

I am halfway through my "week to make art." I do believe, as frustrated as I feel, that I am getting somewhere. I like this piece I completed (8" x 11"). I think I actually started it back in March. I have no idea why I am attempting landscapes. I have no conscious interest in landscapes. I actually have very little interest in being outdoors. But I think this is a pretty successful attempt at using collage and paint together (which is something I have been unable to do until now). Three years ago, when we moved to our suburban house, (for the great school district) I began a lot of work having to do with home and travel and tourism and returning home. I am going back to that this week. I have had a continual problem of accepting this house we live in and I need to get over it. It is a great house. My family is so lucky to have what we have.

LuLu

I have finally created a LuLu book of my collage series, The World Around Us. It is not for sale on LuLu as I will put some real collage on the book's cover myself. I will hopefully post it Etsy soon and I will definitely have it have it for sale at the shows I do around Rochester. The first show is Thursday, August 28th, at the South Wedge Market. I will have oodles of my work for sale in the Second Storie} booth. Then the Public Market hosts Artist Row on Sunday, September 21st. Mark you calenders, come early and start your Christmas shopping. Artist Row has so many great sellers and hand made bargains galore but the best one-of a-kinds are scooped up early.