Flying

I hate to fly. There, I said it. It's not so much that I have a fear of flying...it's that I have a fear of falling. I'm good with other people traveling as long as I'm not related to them.

This is a little collage piece I did last winter. The original painting was acrylic on hardboard.

Little Traditions

Oops. Almost forgot to unwrap the little family pumpkins. If you grew up in our neighborhood in the 60's, you probably made one of your own. Being the eldest, I was the first to make one of these little heirlooms. It's not easy being a trendsetter. They clearly got better as each of us took our turn. By the time my youngest (at the time) brother made his pumpkin, I was in middle school and was sculpting little round owls out of plaster of Paris. I'm thinking the pumpkin on the right may have been influenced by my sculptures. Mom.... he's copying me.

Creative Minds Think Alike

After several months on our respective "new jobs", I got together with two of my fellow outsourced coworkers this afternoon. We had spent six months in a "project pool" as compensation for being outsourced and it was during that time we forged a special creative bond. The "pool" project was monotonous (putting it kindly)and we soon found that no one in the corporation was terribly concerned about how much of the project we completed. (It reminded me a bit of that scene in Dances with Wolves where Kevin Costner is sent off to an abandoned outpost by a suicidal superior officer. You've been sent on a mission, but no one cares whether you accomplish it. Weird feeling.) We found creative ways to cope. Etsy, Apartment Therapy, and Stampington magazine reviews were daily escapes. Imagine our surprise to discover these "perks" weren't built into our new jobs. How did our new coworkers survive without these therapies? we asked ourselves. Vowing to hold fast to our artful natures, refusing to succumb to corporate standardization in our inner beings, we've made a pact to meet frequently at Tully's Coffee for some serious rejuvenation.

Care Giver Art Exhibit

I just received notification from the art committee at St. Joseph Hospital here in Bellingham that my work has been chosen to be included in the upcoming Care Giver Art Exhibit. I'm honored to be selected by the distinguished jurors. I submitted several images, so it remains to be seen which one they picked. I've never been an art show juror, but I can imagine it's a huge task to put together a collection of paintings that look good together. For the Northwest Watercolor Society shows, I've been told that there are sometimes 500 submissions and less than 100 paintings chosen for the show. An artist really has to calculate what to paint that will catch the juror's attention while they're flying through those slides at break-neck speed. This image is one of the four I submitted.

Creature of Habit

It's not something I'm terribly proud of.... this resistance to progress technologically. I blame it on my DNA. I'm not wired to pick up a new techno gadget and be heard to say "How cool is that", but more likely to mutter..."What is this thing?". I wandered up and down the gadget aisles at Fred Meyer the other night... just to see what had been invented while I wasn't paying attention. This photo was taken with my ancient Minolta film camera. I'm tempted to start looking for yet another camera body for it on Ebay before I frustrate myself with a newer digital camera.

Fade to White

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had the privilege of taking a photography workshop from Brooke Gatterman of Roxsey Photography this past weekend. Very fun and I learned so much. First I learned that I need a new digital camera...which I pretty much knew before I went. I brought along my ancient Minolta X-700 film camera with my beloved 28-200 mm Tokina lens just in case. I did actually use it. The adjustments of shutter speed, ISO and whatever that other thing is you fiddle with... oh yeah f-stops, were actually easier to visualize with my old camera.

So much to know, so few brain cells with which to learn.

Getting a Grip

Being a creative type, I'm always on an artistic tangent and with each tangent comes a boat-load of supplies. Once again this year, I will resolve to use up my supplies so I can rid myself of the guilt of not using up my supplies. I think I'm fearful of getting snowed in for a month and running out of things with which to entertain myself....like that's going to happen.

This painting was done using gouache, watercolor and acrylic on gold-gessoed illustration board.