It’s SPRING girls and boys! Calendar says so. Look out the window. Beyond the snow. See? Forsythia!!! And daffodils!!! And peepers and mud and snow…
And it’s WEDNESDAY. At least in this hemisphere. But no matter where you are it’s time to spread the luvvvv with…
RANDOM ACTS OF ART!
Time to hide little bits of art where they can be found by unsuspecting strangers. And share the evidence of your creative deviousness here. With moi, the Random Acts of Art Fairy. No…make that Random Acts of Art BUNNY! Because this is a blog hop, right? And because this week I hopped around hiding Random Acts of Art over at my day job. After hours, when no one could see me. Like the E. Bunny and the hard boiled egg stash.
I am the Rabbit. Koo-koo-ka-chu….
For those of you who don’t know, I teach art at the MOST magical place in the universe. A program for adults with developmental disabilities. If you’re brave enough to stumble around cyber construction you can check out our soon to be launched NEW website here.
Back? Okay. So you know it’s a pretty cool place. Some of my students know I’m painting rocks and might figure things out. But not all of them. And none of the other classes do. I started thinking why not hide them there? This way I’ll get some reaction from the finders. Or at least hear about it.
And maybe this will take on a life of it’s own. Become a perpetual game of re-hiding, like the eggs on Easter day.
First I put one in the weaving department. I’m fond of chenille. Really, who isn’t? Oh, and look. It’s not a heart. Susan is branching out. Imagine that!
Next I headed to the wood shop. Ohhhhh, lots of good hiding spots here. Like this one. Tucked next to a bicycle, of sorts.
And nesting in the wire brush. Or whatever it’s called.
Then I went to the snack bar. This one I super hid in an empty coin roll. Tucked in the drawer where these things are kept. Better than money any day. Which is a good excuse for a song, don’t you think?
Take it away boys!
Okay, that was fun. Any excuse for the BEATLES. Now back to business…back to hiding arty tokens.
This one is in the kitchen. In plain sight…if someone looks. And since classes take turns doing the lunch dishes someone is bound to find it.
The last one is in the clay room. In the hands of Mr. Action Figure. Handsome fella, eh? Barbi thinks he’s H.O.T. But what does she know? She’s sooo plastic.
So now it’s your turn. Got any Random Acts of Art to share this week? If you do, post the link down below where it says “You’re next…Enter here” The link stays open until Saturday 11:59 PM California time (PDT). And if you don’t have a blog but have a some photos to share send them to me and I’ll post them next week.
Helloooooooo, my sweetums! Been a long time. Took the weekend off from posting. Oh man, what a vacation that was. Channeled my creativity into painting. Yes indeed. Got some ART to show you.
But first…the weather report.
Remember all that rain I bitched about rejoiced over last week? Sumthin’ like 12 inches by the Friday evening news. That’s a whole lot ‘o wet. Indeed.
But Saturday we woke up to SUN! Blue skies. Big yellow orb. Heaven. Pure heaven. For a couple of hours.
Walked outside and it was like an enchanted forest around here. All that water going back up to the sky.
But it came down again. Only colder. Next morning we woke up to a different kind of enchantment. The kind that makes the dogs crazy happy.
But that’s enough about weather. Happens one way or another, every day. So let’s move on to ART! YAY!!! Let’s hear it for studio time. YAY!
I can’t hear you. Let’s do it again. LOUDER!
YAY!
Much better. Okay, so here are some works-in-progress. All acrylics. 12×24, (2) 24×24, 40×40. The closest one to being finished is the one with the woman.
'In Her Dreams' by Susan Lobb Porter. Acrylic on canvas, 24x24
Pretty close to being done. Might be, in fact. But until it walks out the door to a new home I always reserve the right to make changes. Just because I can.
Oh, how I enjoyed being in the studio. Enjoyed being productive. Did some thinking while I was painting and realized I need to do more of that. But since there’s only so many hours in the day something’s got to give. So I decided to cut back on the blog schedule. Instead of posting EVERY DAY (Is that nuts or what???) I’m cutting back to three days a week. At least for the time being. To make things easy to remember, I’m thinking Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
So I’ll see you Wednesday. Remember, that’s Random Acts of Art day. If you’ve got a link to share, there’ll be a link up on my blog. You can also send your photos to me and I’ll post them here. If you’re sending photos, be sure I get them by Tuesday afternoon, Pacific time (California). Can’t wait to see what you have to share!
I went to the local art store the other day. I only wanted a couple of pens, honest. But my plans were seriously screwed compromised before I even got in the door.
Before I even got out of the car.
A man and woman caught my eye. Young. Attractive. Matter of fact the guy was seriously h.o.t. In a younger-than-my-son sort of way. But that didn’t stop me from noticing. But what really caught my attention was the stack of canvases the two of them were struggling to carry. Huge canvases. GIGUNDO NORMOUS beautiful blank. white. things. that had me drooling with envy.
My creative lust-o-meter was popping off the charts.
I wanted to be like them. I wanted to wrestle creative potential into the back of my car. I wanted to go to bed that night KNOWING I had five glorious BLANK canvases waiting for me to have my way with them. BIG canvases. Because at this time in my life, size does matter.
I got out of the car. Marched right up to the couple, total strangers to me, and told them I had canvas envy. Then I went into the store .
Oh. My. See where this is heading? Umm-hmm…bet you do. Because my best beloved readers are the smartest ones on the interwebs, aren’t you? So you KNOW I went right past the pens. Straight to the canvases. And you’re right.
Thing about this store, it’s the only game in town. Got to drive nearly 50 miles down the hill to find more art supplies. Gas and time, ka-ching ka-ching. Or order online and pay for shipping. Ka-ching again. The local store knows that and, as a result, they are not kind with their markup.
Except when it comes to canvas. They practically give it away, provided you buy a case. A case of the small things means 10. A case for anything remotely large means 5. When you buy a case they give you 70% off.
Can’t come anywhere near that, even at the cheapest of the cheap source online.
So I found myself in the canvas section where I have been many times. Enough that I could probably qualify for an intervention. But this time I was just there to look. To ooh and ahh over the price list. To pull them from the rack and check out the size. To gaze longingly at their blankness and imagine….
And then I asked for a yardstick. Which I took outside to measure the back of my SUV. Because I was taking this imagining game to the next level. It was such a nice canvas fantasy. I said hello to the young couple on the way out. They were still struggling to fit their purchase in their car. On the way back into the store I talked to them again. Got personal this time. Asked them what size they bought. 4 X 6 feet. Oh. My. They were ambitious.
I was happy with 40X40. They fit so well in the back of the car, even with all the crap stuff back there. 40X40. Big enough for me. At least for now.
And I didn’t have to strap ’em to the roof of my car. Like some people.
Oh my sweetums, I am jumping up and down. Indeed I AM. Because I have discovered a new art tool. New to me. Before I tell you about it, you have to make a promise, a solemn pinky swear PROMISE that you will exercise discretion with what I am about to tell you.
This is SO COOL but there is a potential for abuse over-enthusiasm. And weight gain.
I kid you not. Go to the grocery store. To the frozen food section. Skip right past the vegetables and frozen pizzas (we’ll cover those in another post) and head straight to the ice cream. Now dive head first into the Haagen Dazs…not the normal small containers, the ones that serve 800 four but you can eat all by yourself if there’s a good movie on the tube and you are not being mindful.
Mindful eating is the topic of another post coming soon. Seriously, it is.
What you’re looking for here are the teensy-weensey little biddy almost microscopic single serving containers. The ones you probably pass by because what’s the point of buying so little ice cream? Really, what is the point? Besides portion control, that is.
Well, you’re about to learn there is a point. So pick out your favorite flavor. Pay for it. Oh yes, do pay. And then open it up. And look what’s hiding right under the lid…
A paint scraper! A palette knife! A…a… thing you can use for sure in your studio to move paint around. Dip into glazes. Make marks. Scratch surfaces…. I am positively swooning at the possibilities. I mean, this ranks right up there with FOAM BRUSHES fro convenience. Price. Versatility.
Foam brushes? Oh, big. happy. sigh. But you can’t eat them.
Lots of time in the studio today. Made some progress on a couple layered canvases. These are works-in-progress, far from finished but I thought you might like to see the progression of one of them.
The horse was the first thing to pop out in this piece and then all inspiration s.t.o.p.p.e.d. So I put it away for awhile. I wasn’t thrilled with the lack of movement in Mr. Pony. And confused by my need to put a face in there. My literal mind was going umm…this doesn’t work.
And then I looked at it today and saw a sleeper. A dreamer…But there was one problem. A BIG one. Ponies don’t stand around in dreams. They RUN. And they run FAST.
So I was BOLD. And BRUTAL. I dispatched Mr. Pony. Just like that. Took my brush and cut him into three ponies. Action. Energy. Ponies worth dreaming about. And then I claimed another from the area above her head. Because I could.
Got a ways to go with this but if life doesn’t get too much in the way I might finish her this weekend. We have a solid week of winter weather rolling in beginning Sunday. YAY! That’s great. We need it.
But it also means I’ve got to spend some hours down in the barn, spoiling my real life ponies with fluffy dry beds. And when the storm comes, I will dream easy, knowing that they are dry and warm.
This weekend I was checking out a blog, Living in the Moment. Oh my sweetums…lo and behold, the subject was about…well, if you’re a regular reader of my Wednesday Random Acts of Art posts, you might have an idea of where I’m going with this.
TA TA–and you’d be RIGHT! Kristne Dubuque Ortega discovered, if not a Random Act of Art, a random act of luvvvv. You can read about it here. Go ahead. Read it RIGHT NOW. Really. Do. I’ll wait. And when you come back we’ll have a talk.
And jump up and down waving our arms and doing backflips because now you KNOW, without a doubt, how COOL it is when someone finds an unexpected little treasure. Something hidden but not quite hidden by a stranger.
Our little Random Acts of Art can make a difference in someone’s day. There, that’s our talk. Now on to business…
We’ll start today with a couple of contributions from sister Marjorie Ellen in Norway.
This first one was left in what normal people call a theater but Norwegians call the movie house. Very civilized, look…flowers. I don’t know the name of the movie. Or if sister M.E. had popcorn. I hope she did. With lots of butter and salt.
This one is extra special. She left it in the mailbox of a friend with a broken heart. I would make all sorts of heart emoticons here but I haven’t figured out how to do that.
Now it’s my turn and I have a confession. I didn’t get out much this week. Had a couple of snow days. Some work from home days. And a whole lot of painting going on down in Studio Grande. I did get some heARTs out but I decided to hide right here around the Porterosa. Because my family deserves love too, right?
The first one was a blatant gift for Mr. Spouse, he who is building the new, improved Studio Grande. A token of my appreciation left on the chop saw. He was honored. Well no, he was perplexed. After all, he couldn’t hammer it, chop it or eat it. But he decided to keep it somewhere special among his tools. So he said. He is a most romantic man. I suspect he’ll find it again in a few weeks, scratch is head and wonder where this came from.
I do so love him.
Now this second one has quite a story behind it. I had a rock in my pocket with the intention of driving into town and making an art drop. I was walking down to the barn, mulling over where I would go for the next random art drop. That’s when I felt the humm. It’s a vibration, really. Starts deep in the bones and resonates out through the soft tissue and then you hear it…angel voices in the wind.
The chimes we hung in the oak grove.
I forgot about the barn and headed down the path to the place where the deer bed down. The place where Mama wanted us to bury her ashes, along with those of my Dad. As I approached the circle of moss covered boulders, the hum I was feeling gave way to the soft gong of the chimes. Slowly, one distinct note at a time. As I stood next to the tree that holds the chimes that hang over the rocks where my parents are, the clapper began dancing in the wind-that-was-not and I KNEW that the right and perfect place for the rock in my pocket was right there. In the fork of the tree.
Because Mama was telling me, hey, why drive all the way into town when you can spread some of the luvvvvvvvvv right here.
So I did. Seems I listen to my mom better now that she’s on the other side.
Those were my Random Acts of Art this week. And Margie from Norway. You got any this week? This is a blog hop for those of you who have some Random Acts of Art you want to share. Click below (above the comments) where it says “you are next…click here to enter” and follow the directions to enter your URL. The link list remains open until Saturday 11:59 Pacific Time, USA. Oh, and remember, this week is when daylight savings begins here in the US. If you don’t have a blog and want to join us next week, send me your photos anytime before Tuesday night and I’ll add them to my post.
Help spread the word! Tell your friends. Click the social share buttons down below. We are spreading the luvvvvv around the world, one arty token at a time.
