updates

Park Avenue commission - very close to being done.

"Nape" in progress. Loving this one.


"Checking the Surf" complete.

Snow

Today's Post Secret fave. I used to get called Spock as a kid, because I have one pointy ear (the other is "regular"). Kids are so mean. However, even though I was (and sometimes still am) embarassed by that ear, part of me thinks it's kind of cool too. How can two ears on the same head be so different? Is it genetic? Is Leonard Nimoy really my father?

So wow, did we get a lot of snow last night. We were scheduled to have a performance of "I Ought to be in Pictures" at Possum Point last night,and one this afternoon, but they were cancelled, wisely. Rescheduled for next weekend. At work, we were supposed to have "Poetry and the Permanent Collection" an event I was planning to attend from 1-5:30. Cancelled also. So for a day that was really packed full of things-to-do it ended up being just a nice relaxing day, napping, reading, eating, walking in the snow with Haley and watching a great movie. We watched "500 Days of Summer" which I absolutely loved and will be adding to our movie collection. Brilliant movie. Artfully done, funny, edgy, just great. A nice surprise. And I just love Zoey (can't remember her last name) who plays the female lead. She has been wonderful in everything I have seen her in. She was the blonde who played Will Ferrell's love interest in "Elf". Amazing voice and just the cutest way about her. The guy in the movie - not familiar with him but he did a fantastic job as well, especially with going from being wildy, crazily in love to emotionally mortally wounded.

Haley and I took a walk in the snow last night. It's the perfect kind of snow - powdery, and at night it's sparkly too. Amazingly pretty. Haley decided she wanted to know if a person's tongue would really stick to metal in the cold. She tried it on our street light, but I guess it wasn't really metal. So, she (against my advice) tried it on a stop sign. Voila! It worked! Fortunately, she only used the very tip of her tongue, and pulled it away quick enough. That was bad enough. Her tongue hurt for the rest of the night and was bright red on the tip. LOL. Lesson learned. The snow was deep, probably 6-8", and the night was so quiet. No cars. Not even any tracks in the snow. But the wind was blowing very hard and went the snow hit our eyes, it stung like little snow needles. We even made the obligatory snow angels, but when Haley hit the ground, her coat rode up and her bare back was against the snow. She was making squealing noises and I was cracking up.

Now it's studio time, if I can get my car out of the neighborhood. Looking forward to painting. Happy Sunday!

Chasing Cars

All that I am, all that I ever was, is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see.

Updates

Paintings still in progress with updates to "Butch" (not sure if that name is sticking). And a new photo of "Randy" (the tattooed guy). Both still have work to be done, but coming along.

Shopping Cart

You can now purchase my art online! (So, what are you waiting for?) :)

Pleasant Valley Sunday

Yeah, hell...running a marathon is easy.

(Okay well, not easy, but some things are harder.)




So here are my "boys". Some of the figure work I've been working on. Having a BLAST doing something different. Maybe better motivation than houses? These aren't done, in progress only, but so far, so good. A big departure, and one I may stick with for a while. There's another in progress, but don't have a pic yet. Spending a lot of time on that one.

Figures

So, to clarify - figure work is painting people. Human form. Figures. I have decided to paint male figures. Specifically, male figures from the Lifeguard Competition last summer. I mean, the light was perfect, the sky was blue, and well, there were just SO MANY lifeguards....and well, they just were like....FIGURES. So, I just so happen to have quite a few photos from that day, which leaves me with quite a selection of figures to paint. And so far, I am really, really enjoying myself. With the figure study, I mean. It's good practice, you know, to really focus on the human form now and then, and get a little more "organic" and move away from the perspective and straight lines of houses/buildings/structures and such.

:) I will post pics soon...

Silly humor

I love the idea of this, it seems silly to me. And for some reason, silly stuff makes me laugh. I've always been a fan of Monty Python (the silly walk stuff sends me rolling to the floor) and Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell, that kind of thing. I know it's not something to be proud of, and frankly I'm not, but we really can't control what makes us laugh, right?

The Lewes Historical Society Show is next month and I have decided to do some figure work for it, for a change. Getting kind of bored doing the same thing, so just changing it up for a while. It will be interesting to see what kind of reception they get (or don't get). But either way, it's a nice mental break, and FUN.

and something happy and hopeful.

Fascinating stuff.

Sight is probably one of the biggest things we take for granted in our lives. This is amazing, and a true example of the human spirit overcoming obstacles.


A man who sees above and beyond

Pics

So here's a big collection of random pictures. The first is the last commission I completed, of Penny Lane Mall on Rehoboth Avenue. Still working on two others.
The Snowball 5k was this past Saturday, and I don't know what the ttemp was, but it was VERY cold. This is the bay, not sure if you can see the whitecaps. We were at the State Park, so we had a little extra wind to make it reeeeal special. The following shots show how warmly everyone was dressed....for a RUN. My cup of water was freezing as I drank it. Yeah, we're stupid.






This is Jim Killion. I can't wait to show him this pic, it's so him. It's a shot from rehearsal for "I Ought to Be in Pictures". He's a trip - one of the funniest men I know.



Snow!




Lorrie, hamming it up on New Year's Eve

Tina and me, Garrett and Charlotte.




The back of my New Year's Eve dress. :)

It's January...whatevah.

This was a good weekend with lots of friends, get-togethers, quiet moments and loud ones as well. Well-balanced I would say. Did a 5k yesterday that was so cold, the water in my cup began to freeze as I was holding it. (That's cold.) I have some pics to post, and will when I'm on the other computer. This lap top is maddening...the keyboard is not very reliable and likes to leave off letters while I'm typing. If I don't pay attention, there's typos every other word. Arggh.

Dusty heads back to school tomorrow. Sad, but I hardly got to see him anyway. He's been home for a month, but mom is way low on the list for visitation.

Back to cleaning, pics later...

Interpretation

So, are you a glass half-full or glass half-empty kind of person? I consider myself (generally) a half-full person, though we all have our moments, yeah? I was bemoaning 2009 to a friend the other day, who said "you know, a lot of great things happened to you this year too." She's right, they did.

January of 09 began with a mixed bag. Dick Cheney was on Face the Nation talking about Iraq and whether or not the U.S. made a bad decision about the invasion. All I could do was look at him and marvel about how he looks like Satan's evil brother.

An old boyfriend got engaged to someone 20 years his junior. It was announced that the Kennedy Gallery was going up for sale, and I actually considered the possibility. There was a lot of painting in January, getting ready for the 100 for 100 show. Read "Pull of the Moon" which was one of the best books I ever read. Had a bad feeling that the relationship I was in was headed south and I had no idea why. Went to Atlantic City with Haley for a dance convention. Had several commissions to work on.

February 09 - Became part of B.A.S.E., our studios on Baltimore Avenue. Now had a great place to work and be with other artists. Old boyfriend got married to the younger woman. My engagement was going on 2 years with no marriage in sight. Fiancee on probation for some big errors in judgement. House on the market and off the market for months. Sold nothing at the Lewes Historical Society show. Close friends marriage dissolving. Painting, painting.

March 09 - Haley turned 14. Dustin firming up college plans. Relationship seriously hitting the skids, still clueless as to why. Attended a great St. Patty's Day party with even greater theatre folks. Long, cold, snowy month. House still on the market, but someone interested. No hours at the gallery, but great creative time at the studio.

April 09 - The sound of screeching brakes followed by mass destruction. Relationship ends with an enormous, sickening thud. Sickening thud is followed by immense grief and a bad one-time (and last time) experience with Ambien. I'd rather go sleepless than ever touch that again. Immense grief is coupled with huge, flashy car accident that totals my beloved convertible and leaves me banged up, but lucky to be alive. The top was down in this very embarrassing, very public accident. If the car had flipped, well, let's just say I wasn't wearing a helmet. A great, sporty, new red car is purchased. My grief is being soothed by its beauty and Bose system. An offer comes in on the house and I am now alone. It's great exercise packing up a 3,000 square foot home by yourself, and super good therapy. Oh, the things I threw away/gave away/sold. Cleansing. Healing. Found a new house and bought it.

May 09 - Great, sporty, new red car gets sideswiped in the Gallery parking lot. Hit and run. Utterly exhausted from the packing/moving, but so glad to be out of the old house. My FRIENDS are amazing. They were right there with me, helping with moving, helping with healing, helping with it all. There was never a second they weren't there. The house has a fantastic energy. Haley loves it, we get settled and happy, and things feel peaceful at times, but grief reigns supreme. Funny how bad things can get covered with great things. The great things try to smother out the bad things, but those bad things are persistent little buggers - like cancer cells eating up all the healthy cells. Time is the chemo.

June 09 - June through August is a blur. Busy at the Gallery, busy at the studio. 100 for 100 show at the Gallery went well. Hung a show at Cafe Sole and began busily selling from all three places. Painted several new originals - bigger ones, as I was so sick of painting mini's. 100 mini's...hard to know how tedious that is till you do it. My eyes haven't been the same since. Summer. Sun. Beach, friends, long days, moments of smiling creeping through. Great, sporty, new red car gets hit in the Convention Center parking lot. Hit and run.

July 09 - More of the same, getting ready for Dusty to leave for school next month. Great, sporty, new red car gets hit by a guy on a crotch rocket in the Bronx. Hit and run.

August 09 - Dusty leaves for school. On the train. I'm not going back to the Bronx in my car. He turns 18, I turn 45. Fun with friends on my birthday, beginning to feel some lightness. Interview with the Art League, a dream job I never thought was possible.

September 09 - Haley begins high school. Dusty is a freshman at college, and I am facing the inevitability of an empty nest. Several commissions come in, which keep me busy until the end of the year. Job offer from the Art League, and I stand back amazed and wildly happy.

October 09 - Participating artist at the LDAF Blue Jean Ball. Great fun, great exposure. Uneventful Halloween - first time in years. Haley's first high school homecoming and she looks amazingly beautiful and much older than her 14 years. Job is going well, still in shock over the amazing luck.

November 09 - Acupuncture to try to release some of the leftover "stuff". Yoga, meditation, contemplation, life adjustments and realization of some major paradigm shifts going on in my life. The shifts feel good. Some fear there, but learning to ride with the tide and let the shifts happen. Feel like I'm being guided down the right path with very little effort on my part. Still working on commissions. Holidays are here, and there is some trepidation.

December 09 - Not the easiest holiday season. A very different one for me, but again, a change that is okay because I know it's all happening for a reason. some kind of lesson going on here and again, I'm rolling. I have a great job, family, friends, home, and want for little. Life is good and healing takes time and patience. Spring is a few months away and I know that 2010 is going to be a great one. So, my glass is most definitely half-full and getting fuller. :)

Monsters

Sometimes I am horribly afraid to turn around canvases which I have piled against the wall; I am constantly afraid of finding monsters where I believed there were precious gems!...Thus it does not astonish me that the critics in London relegate me to the lowest rank. Alas! I fear that they are only too justified! However, at times I come across works of mine which are soundly done and really in my style, and at such moments I find great solace. But no more of that. Painting, art in general, enchants me. It is my life. What else matters? When you put all your soul into a work, all that is noble in you, you cannot fail to find a kindred soul who understands you, and you do not need a host of such spirits. Is not that all an artist should wish for?

Camille Pisarro

Bluebirds in the morning

My house must be appealing to bluebirds. Real bluebirds, which you hardly ever see, not bluejays. The males are brilliant blue, and the females (I think I have this right) have reddish underbellies. They stop by my house to eat purple berries off a bush. This morning, at about 8:30 a.m. with the soft light of the morning, there were a flock (probably 8-12) bluebirds flying around the front of my house, with snow as a backdrop. Truly breathtaking. I never seem to have my camera handy when they're there. But I'm so grateful to see them, there's something so incredibly hopeful about them.

Art League

If you're looking to take some classes in 2010, the Rehoboth Art League has a TON. We're doing classes in pottery, acrylic painting, textiles, sewing, digital photography...and more. Check out rehobothartleague.org to get signed up. There's nothing to do in the winter anyway, right?

What a weekend.

My poor liver. My resolution is to stay away from wine for a while. I can handle that. Ughhhh.

It is SO cold. SO windy. SO January. And to think, only what....28 more days of this or something?