Stitches

After a lengthy and unplanned break from art, I have made my way back into the studio.  Earlier this week I delved into the art journal project.  I tore down watercolor paper, folded and stitched it and have a lovely and stark white blank art journal.  My sister had a fun idea of each of us doing the artwork on our respective journals, then swapping them for the other to do the writing, and finally returning them so that we each have a shared project.  I love the idea!  Tomorrow I start on painting the pages.

Sewing is always my fall-back stress reliever, great when I feel panic from deadlines or just cranky from having a teenager.  Ha.  Today I worked on a quilt until my back screamed from bad posture.  Regardless of the discomfort, I continue to find time at the machine or pinning or just cutting to be so relaxing.


The best artsy moment of the day came with the delivery of a wonderful painting.  Last year, my husband and I enjoyed a wonderful day at the Laguna Arts Festival in Laguna Beach.  As I turned a corner, moving from one artist's work to another, I was stopped in my tracks at the sight of a large painting.  I was quite literally and inexplicably moved to tears.  It took a moment to place the subject, the ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier.  I have only been to the pier twice and can't figure out why it moved me so but for the sheer beauty of the piece.  Alas, the painting was unaffordable for us at the time and, sadly, we had to walk away from it.  Here we are one year later, and my husband surprised me with the news that he hunted down the artist, called her, and found that the painting was unsold and sitting wrapped up in storage.  The painting was delivered today.  I have a lovely addition to artwork in my home, all of which I'm so happy to look at every day.  Every piece of art in my home has deep meaning to me, beyond just the pleasure of the visual.  I am proud to call some of the artists represented my friends, and I am grateful to be surrounded by inspiration to be creative.

Today, I am the proud owner of April Raber's painting entitled "Mandala."

Hungry and Grumpy...

What a couple of days!  The "big" school year-end pool party we throw every year turned out pretty small.  The last two years, cool weather caused some kids to hold back in the belief that it might rain.  This time we moved our party to a nice, hot weekend, but I think the fact that it was on a holiday weekend hurt us.  Of the 35 kids invited, only two had the manners to call and RSVP as the invitation required.  My charming son insisted that at least 19 told him they were coming, but only about ten showed.  Those ten included two that told me personally they were not going to be able to make it.  Has the world lost its collective mind and forgotten the purpose of RSVP'ing?  We had soooo many hamburgers, hot dogs and unopened bags of chips in the house.  It won't go to waste with two teens coming to visit for a week, but it's not a good thing for a hungry woman on Weight Watchers to have to face.  Ack!

My weigh-in this morning was not happy.  I'm up a little over a pound.  I thought I'd been so good, then remembered last weekend and the trip to a restaurant without thinking enough about all I ate and drank.  Whoops.

Add to my hunger the not-so-fun and sometimes daily grind of being the mother to attitude-on-legs.  Sometimes I can blow it off, and other days I find myself wanting to whack that boy upside the head, but of course I don't.  I shouldn't say of course.  I really, really wanted to at least whip out the air horn and just blast it until I felt better and his ears were ringing.  Everyone says this ungrateful, eyeball rolling, gasping and wheezing attitude on his part is normal, but it doesn't make me any less cranky.  Fuss, fuss, fuss.  I'm going to get it out of my system and then let it go.

I grump, then delete, grump, then backspace...I think it's time to put away the keyboard and snap out of it.

One more harrumph for the road.  ;-)

Drawing Blind

Well THIS has been an amusing exercise!  So I've been doing the daily exercises in my drawing lab book, one of which was the blind contour drawing of a giraffe.  Guffaw.  That's no giraffe!  Next I tried the same technique drawing a cow.  It's as goofy as the "giraffe."  Looking for some sign of hope that this could improve, I immediately go to my expert Debbie who, in her always wonderfully cheerful and glass overflowing attitude, encourages me to keep at it and have fun.  Time to whip out the pen and sketchbook.

Stress and Journaling

I was very excited about the prospect of starting an art journal, inspired by Teesha Moore's videos.  I told my sister about it, and she's already gotten started!  I didn't have all of the materials I needed, so of course I'm behind.  I found a web site from which I can order individual panpastels, the recommended watercolour paper, and I found the Sharpie paint pens at Michaels this last week.  I'm always planning, but not so much making.  Today I'm going to at least go through my paper stash and old magazines, pulling pictures that have good colour and texture to use.

The topic for my art journal is going to be really easy.  I'm stressed liked a maniac right now.  Facebook has been a good place to share a little with friends about the stress of considering moving, but those friends just don't get it.  Well, most of them don't.  They are thinking of the fun of decorating a new place and the fun of exploring a new neighborhood.  That would have been the case before I had kids.  But Kevin is 16 and about the start the last two years of high school.  We weren't seriously considering moving once he hit high school.  That was just the deal.  I was ALWAYS the new kid, growing up in an always-moving military family and moving several times in high school.  My husband moved after his first year of high school and was devastated, leaving the idyllic beauty of Sonoma, CA behind for a rough and unfriendly community for his final three years of school.

The dilemma we face is timing.  Not having planned to sell our current home any time soon, we are aware of major issues that would have to be addressed before putting it on the market - the exterior walls in the back have visible damage (it's just an old house), paint on the sunny side is peeling and in desperate need of a new paint job, the rain gutters were removed the last time it was painted and not replaced, and we've got termites.  There's more, but those are the biggies.  There's no dancing around those issues in the hope that a prospective buyer won't notice.  We're getting ready for house guests, followed by a lengthy vacation.  Even were the housing market fabulous, it can't be sold before school starts.  I WON'T move him after the school year starts.  It seems an easy decision.  Drop the notion of moving.  But my husband is exhausted from an hour-long commute twice a day for years and years, finally having the opportunity to buy in a neighborhood near his work that was previously way, way, way out of our price range.

Here's hoping that art can soothe my rattled nerves today.  And tomorrow.  Because heaven knows that stupid Crystal Light margarita isn't doing it for me!  :-)  I'm also going through drawing exercises in a book I just bought to help loosen me up in that arena (my artsy friends know just how much I blow at drawing), enjoying the silly outcome and the practice of it instead of worrying about the quality.  That, too, I think is good for the artsy soul.  Time to sketch!

Renewed Sense of Direction

I've spent the last two days in the studio doing a lot on the computer.  I've sorted photos, cleaned off the full camera memory chip (only after a panicky double back-up on CD of ever photo on it, just in case) and watched a zillion videos by Teesha Moore while I worked and my feet turned blue from lack of movement.

I think one of the big reasons for my getting so little art done is that I flounder about exactly what to do.  As I've fussed over and over about, there are so many areas in which I wish I were skilled, but I always let those too-many ideas block me from making progress.  As my good friend has advised, narrow it down!  I love working with fabric and paint.  That's probably what I enjoy most about my figurative work/art dolls so much.  They give me the opportunity to make a single piece that incorporates painting and sewing, with a little bit of playing with clay.  But sometimes the stress of the sculpting part takes the fun out of it (I know, I induce the stress myself which is totally dumb and a waste of time), but I've been looking at book after book about projects that include both the fabric and paint and just hadn't found anything that excited me.

Yesterday I was looking at an old copy of Artful Blogging and a very colourful spread caught my eye.  I went to the artist's blog and looked around until I hit the jackpot.  It wasn't until I saw Teesha Moore's videos on art journals that I got really, really excited about a new project.  The journals include everything I love doing, from using the bright fabrics and hand quilting bits to make journal covers, to the collage techniques in the individual pages.  I thought of other things I'd add, including personal images on fabric and interesting embellishments, and am so eager to start.  I have journaled since I was 12 and this is a great time to incorporate the journaling with art.  I really can't wait!  I can try the sketching ideas that my friend Debbie has helped with, and talk with my sister about ideas for painting cloth...the ideas are swimming in my head in a GOOD way for a change!  How fun to dip into the stash for something new and different.

Today is an especially good day.

The dust has settled

It's so nice to sit in the studio, even if it is just to upload photos from the camera to the computer, then the computer to the web.  I played a little with Corel and my Bamboo tablet for a little artsy fun too.  It's been too long!

My first big time commitment was having my "old" friend Julie visit for a week from Georgia.  We had not seen each other since we were in Middle School in 1974!  I was nervous, hoping we'd still like each other.  What a terrific and pleasant surprise.  I'm sure I blabbered her ears off (I'm so shy ;-) because she was remarkably easy to talk with and laugh!  We laughed a lot and it was so much fun.  We enjoyed a lot of wine on the deck in the evenings and got to know each other again.  I only wish I'd had a little makeup handy before I said, "Cheese!"  Hahaha.

Next came getting the house ready for my charming husband's birthday celebration.  Why, oh why, do I decide to make major improvements right before a party?  This is going to sound so shallow, but I was nervous about his Orange County co-workers coming to our little (old) house for the first time and seeing peeling plaster around the front door, the unfinished bathroom in the laundry room that I was sure would be used.  I made myself bonkers, but the house sure looks great.  We had a wonderful gathering of friends and enjoyed a fantastic backyard barbecue, catered so that we could really enjoy our friends.  It was just the best.

My sister and her children will be visiting from MN in early July, but they are the easiest and most relaxing house guests in the world.  It will be nice to enjoy time with family, especially since Lisa is an artist and inspires me so much.  We are plotting projects or swaps that we can do together, motivating me to get back into the swing of things.  I look at my friend Debbie's work and re-read her advice often, encouraging me to do something every day.  Now I can again.  Time to work on that balance between being a mom and making art.

Ditto

I still can't seem to find the time to make anything.  I've had a busy time with a long-time friend whom I haven't seen since 1974 visiting for a while, in addition to making home repairs, getting ready for a big party this next week (H's birthday), family visiting soon after that, then vacation.  Whoohoo!  We were quite serious about our New Year's resolution of returning to entertaining.  Seems there's a trade off that I hadn't thought about.

Today I received a survey request from an online source for inspiration as well as art supplies.  The survey asked the usual questions about age, etc.  Then there was a looong list of activities to tick off in terms of activities I'd done in the last year.  There were a lot of choices, but I didn't have many boxes to tick.  Oops.  The list was a reminder of all the things I COULD be doing, but haven't.  I was able to check off that I've sewn something, quilted something, purchased a bound book, made an ATC (along with something else that's skipping around in the back of my head that I can't recall...) and more that I wish I'd tried.  Another goal for the year!

As busy as this week is sure to be, I'm going to try to set aside just a pinch of art time.   What to do with so little time and so many choices?!?  Maybe just a few short sketches a la Debbie's suggested method, maybe an ATC.  In any event, I'll get a little something done.  Then it's party time!