Different Strokes Portrait Challenge

This month I emailed a pic of myself to Karin Jurick of Different Strokes for Different Folks fame. She is an amazing "daily painter" who has a new image about every two or three weeks posted on her blog for artists anywhere to work on. It is really great to see how other people interpret the same image. I have challenged myself with her images in the past, but never posted them or emailed her to put them on her website because I was not very pleased with my attempts. This time, since I submitted my photograph to be painted, and in turn got another photograph of another artist in return, I feel obligated to try and make my attempt not only somewhat well done, but also get it in, because I am, (as I am sure other artists are too) scanning the beautiful portraits on her post. There are amazing artists out there!

So, thanks to Karin for organizing all of this, I love feeling like I am a part of an artist community!

Best of 2009: Favorite Trip

I like a challenge, and reflecting back on my year, so I have decided to try this new blog challenge, hosted by Gwen Bell at "The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge". Already I am behind schedule (oh, whoops, it is December 4th already...got some catch up to do!), but that is okay, I am going to be kind to myself and not worry about it! Perhaps this is a life lesson I am finally learning!

Over the last 6 years, my family and I have been incredibly fortunate to visit many crazy exotic amazing locations. Thailand, South Africa, Egypt, Italy, France, Ghana, Zanzibar, and on, and on, and on. We are, however, no longer living the expat lifestyle of traveling every three to five months, and we do not have cash left to spare extravagant trips any longer.

This year we did, however, go ahead and take an amazing trip to Washington D.C. It was a cultural experience. It was a learning opportunity. It allowed our family to reconnect and have fun traveling and learning and seeing many new, crazy cool things all week long.

Cherry Blossoms, The White House, Annapolis, Baltimore, Mt. Vernon, The Smithsonian collections....wow, really great stuff!

Yukon Cornellus

I'm off to get my life-sustaining supplies...cornmeal, gunpowder, ham hocks and guitar strings!

Inhumanely Sensitive

"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this:

A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.

To him... a touch is a blow,
a sound is a noise,
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god,
and failure is death.

Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create - - - so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.
"
— Pearl S. Buck



I cannot tell you just how much this quote touches me. The fact that I am currently reading Pearl Buck, and hear her words echoing inside my brain....is this coincidence? Sometimes it does seem as if a higher source, creator, goddess, (name your deity) is there...

Everyone always tells me how overly sensitive I am. How I just take things too personally. I have always, always, always viewed this as yet one more of my many failures, the fact that I am "inhumanly sensitive". But, this quote almost, in the tiniest way, encourages me...says "hey, yes, you are sensitive, and that is just part of who you are", and not so much, that is a part of your failures! Wow. Thanks Ms. Buck! I needed that!

Here Kitty, Kitty

I really enjoyed the technique I used on my last post, and so I fooled around a bit with an image of a cat. We used to have a couple of cats, but time passes, and things change. Our first beloved cat passed away after 14 wonderful years. He was such a charmer, much more of a puppy than a cat, he would come when you called him, and enjoyed being loved on and all.

Our second cat, Truman, was a bit of a fraidy cat, but she was a luv to me, and I adored her. I was very fond of her, and when we moved overseas, it was very hard to say goodbye to her as she went to her new home.

This pic reminds me of Truman, and I miss her even more when I look at it.

This is also another entry in the Art Every Day Month challenge over at Creative Everyday. I don't seem to be as good as some with posting every day on the blog, but it is fun to be thinking creatively and sharing in this supportive community. Thanks to all who have commented on my posts, I really do appreciate the feedback!

AEDM entry...

Art Every Day Month entry for today, a smiling mutt! This happy dude was so much fun to do, play around with....I scanned a piece of wood from the garage, and then painted upon it...white and black only, I really like this effect. Perhaps more to come...I hear a kitty in my future!

Today I retrieved my Bride from The Phinney Ridge Neighborhood Association gallery. Sadly she didn't sell, but she sure had a blast being up there! I will be hanging her down at The 253 Collective again for this weekend.

I tried a bit more color in this step of my "study", hmmm, it was a sort of intuitive process getting to this point. Simply searching for balance of color, showing vitality and warmth shared between mother and child. Who knows if this painting ultimately works. I am trying to analyze less, and let the elusive muse guide my hand. Divorcing from the head and listening with the heart. I would love to say this is going to be a series, but, only time will tell if that will unfold. We will see...

Mother & Child Study

Isn't It amazing when finances seem to stop, you start to look for other items to paint on, or "repurpose" for your use? I had this old canvas from high school which was absolutely awful, and I found it the other day and said "hey, I could paint on that!" This woman and child morphed from it. There is not much from the background image which shows through, in fact, I am pretty sure I am breaking some sort of "rule" about painting on it, but, hey what the heck. I am using it as a study. Color has been buggin me lately, and so I am starting cool, and will eventually end up a bit warmer. We will see. This is also another Art Every Day Month submission. I am loving doing this! It makes me post much more regularly than I have in times past!

Sweet Lorraine

I am so blessed to have wonderful people around me in my shared studio space at The Broadway Artists Cooperative, when we are all painting, and enjoying the process, the feeling of happiness floats through the room so wonderfully. I am beginning a new series of portraits of people, and I thought I would begin with those around me first. This is a sketch of Lorraine Toler who is a studio mate of mine. I am having a fun time with this...there will definitely be more to come! This is also another "Creative November" post....I have been creative everyday, I really have, just not as good at scanning/uploading images to this blog as I should be!

Partridge in a Pear Tree

So, after fooling around with another big acrylic painting, and stepping away, I picked up my drawing utensils and went at this partridge. Holiday feeling, and festive, I kind'o like the way he turned out! Another post for my Art Everyday in November goals!

Dia De Los Muertos

I have officially delivered the blushing bride to The Phinney Center for it's upcomming festivities. Yippee! I am so happy to have the opportunity to have it in this show! This Friday, November 6th there is a huge fun celebration! Looking forward to seeing other great art!

First one for November

I am going to try to post a "creative everyday" post ...everyday (duh?!) in November...and here is the first...lets see if this works!

This was done as a drawing of a random picture from the flickr photostream. Kindof fun...and random. Keeps it interesting!

Christopher Schink

Last night I had the opportunity to go to an arts organization's monthly meeting. I am not a member of NWWS (Northwest Watercolor Society), but they allow visitors to come to meetings, and since the artist presenting was a favorite of mine, I went.

Christopher Schink is a funny presenter, and paints nice big bold "watercolors", tho many of his works on his website say acrylic. I got inspired and excited about creating once again (and got in a little visit with my mom as well!)

An Evening at the Barefoot Collective

Last night I had an great evening. There is a local company in town which hosts an evening for artists to present their work and get feedback. Essentially you get eight minutes and it starts at 8 o'clock. I am trying to get my art "out there" more in hopes of generating income which hopefully would allow me to stay in my studio space and keep producing more art. .

..so I signed up. Sure! I can do this, sure, why not, a group of creative individuals, giving critical feedback, especially with the idea that this is really for work in progress. Well, I showed up and it scared the gee-beez out of me! Yikes, what was I thinking, why did I think I could do this? HELP! But, I persisted, (I parked a couple blocks away thinking that if I got to the door with my work and got cold feet it would be harder for me to back out) and found myself among many beautiful amazing talented performers.

I am not a performer, but I stood up and presented my art anyway, and .... it was.... so beautiful! The words these people used to critique my work (as well as the work of the other artists there) and the way they asked questions, and all of it...so wonderful. I was scared through the whole process, and even after coming home I still felt nervous and edgy, but I felt different waking up this morning. I really did, it was happiness and even a little bit of accomplishment! (weird right?)

I think if I had a new series of paintings I wanted to show off to get feedback, I would return to this venue. They really were kind, and I have a new sense of where I want to explore now. All in all, great evening!

This Frida picture is one of the paintings I showed last night...

Immanuel Presbyterian Church

Here is a painting, recently finished for a beautiful church in Tacoma's North End, The Immanuel Presbyterian Church. I tried some new techniques on this painting, and I am very pleased how it turned out. The underpainting of the work was a little funny to look at, but the final product was worth it!

Puyallup Fair

This little watercolor was accepted in the Puyallup Fair! I love having some bits of validation, it really does help when someone out there sends a little signal that all this time and work isn't all rubbish. So...go see the fair if you can!

Creative Nike Ad

This s a wonderful add by Wieden+Kennedy for Nike....oooohhh how I love it!