by Susan Lobb Porter | Life, Studio |
Scary photo alert: If you have an aversion to other people’s messes go get a cuppa something and skip over the first few photos with your eyes closed.
For the past six weeks or so I’ve been playing this little game called moving stuff. What began as clearing Mama’s house out for the renter became just dump everything from the old studio into the new studio and it will sort itself out. Eventually. In due time.
Mwhahahahaha. Oh, excuse me while I wipe the tears from my eyes. Silly me, the Clutter Fairy must’ve lost my address. If you see her, snip off her wings, take away the crown (it’s from Burger King anyway) and tell her she’s been a baaaaaad fairy.
Tell her Susan says she sucks. Not personally sucks, because I don’t want to damage her tender little ego because I’m much too nice a person to do that, but her job performance is wanting.
Wanting. With a capital W.
Look at this. Just look at this. SEE WHAT I MEAN??? That sparkly little glitter-dusted effing fairy flew away and left me with this!
And this!
And one more because I want to burn it into your eyes. Imprint it on your brain–
So that THIS will make you weep with joy. This working, functional ORGANIZED studio space will make you sigh with relief.
SENSITIVE SOULS…You can come back and look at the pictures now.
Because everything that stayed, that didn’t go away, has a place. A place that is logical to me. A place where I can find it. I know where everything is. And yes, I do have about eight cans of spray mount, six cans of varnish and enough canvases to keep me busy for a long time.
I also have a useable desk. Ignore the blue cord. It’s a power thing for some tool Mr. Spouse was using outside. It’s not really there.
And the comfy corner is once again a place to breathe. To be. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh….
It took a few weeks to get to this point, mostly because I was simultaneously doing the same thing to my house, another place the Clutter Fairy bailed on me. But it’s okay. The house is, oh my god, it’s wonderful!!! It’s like…do I even live here? Oh, I DO! Lucky me!!!
But the studio…having a functioning studio that wants me to be there, wants me to make art… That is the BEST thing of all!
I even painted today, yes I did. But that’s another post, a come back tomorrow post. Or maybe later in the week post. Because I might be too busy painting to blog.
We’ll see.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Studio |
Clutter fairies descended upon the new! improved! Studio Grande. Look what they’ve done.
Look closer.
OK, hands over ears. Open mouth wide and SCREAM–
Oh noooooooooo!
This is my latest project. Stay tuned for the progress photos.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Life, Studio |
In my heart I was painting. In my dreams I was painting.
In reality I was sorting through the remaining stuff in Mama’s cottage, the old studio, getting ready to rent it out. Bags of garbage. Bags of recycle. Bags of stuff for the thrift store. Stuff to donate to the art center where I work. Stuff to lug up the hill to the new! improved! Studio Grande. Open the door, toss it in and hope to God some fairy comes during the night and finds some place to put it.
Or some robber. At this point I don’t care. As long as he leaves the good stuff.
Stuff stuff stuff stuff STUFF!!!
Do I really need a huge Rubbermaid tub full of styrofoam and cardboard stuff taking up valuable space? When is the next time I’m going to use them as sculpture bases. When?
About two weeks days after I give them away, that’s when.
But I’m going to get rid of them anyway. Because I. Don’t. Have. Room. For. STUFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!
While I was slaving away, hunkered over boxes and bags of stuff, Studio Quat mistook my leg for a sturdy tree. She climbed straight up, using her claws of course) and settled in on my back.
It was amusing for the first few seconds.
On one of my journeys back and forth up the hill I threw on the apron, grabbed a couple of paintings from years ago and slathered ’em up with cold wax and oil. So I guess I did do a little painting this weekend. Damn little. But enough to hold off the creative crankies.
Now here’s where I quit whining:
Last year when we were building the new studio I decided I needed to cut away the hillside further up and make a nice little area for Mama’s garden furniture. A nice little place to sit where I’ll hang prayer flags and wind chimes. Put up all those arty birdhouses I’ve been collecting. Create a cozy little special outdoor space.
I seriously envisioned doing it myself. But Mr. Spouse always needs a project…and who am I to deny him his fun?
This is where it’s at right now. Eventually there will be concrete. And rocks on the retaining wall.
I had to test it out. Had to sit there and listen to the breeze, way high up in the trees. Had to listen to the hawks calling to one another as they flew overhead. And then the crow cawing in one of the pines. The sun was out, not a cloud in the sky. It was perfect.
I sat there with the sun on my face, looking up to a perfect blue sky way up above the trees. Thinking how grateful I am for this life.
And then I got busy again moving stuff.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Mr. Spouse, Studio |
Life is good. Life is SO good I can’t stand it!!! Yesterday I discovered Judy Wise is teaching cold wax online!!
Handsprings! Backflips! Dance break. Shake it out, just SHAKE IT OUT!
Ahhhh…much better now. I really need to cut back on the sugar.
Why all the enthusiasm? Well, let me explain. I love oil and cold wax. Love it love it LOVE IT! I did some pieces with it last year.
This one is Dunes. If I remember right it’s 2×3 feet. I sold it last October during the studio tour. You can see more of my cold wax pieces here.
Everything I did with cold wax came from being self taught, from piecing bits and more bits of internet information together. Flying by the seat of my pants. But I’ve taken a couple of classes from Judy in the past, Plaster Workshop and Hot Wax. I adore her. So when I heard she was offering this class, my all time wish list of if I could take ANY painting class this would be IT class, I signed up, just like that. And then, because the class is beginning RIGHT NOW, I ran to the lumberyard and had them cut a sheet of quarter inch birch plywood into eight 2×2 feet panels. And I bought some sticks of pine to support them.
Then I came home, batted my eyes just right and asked Mr. Spouse to lug out the chop saw. I certainly know how to use the chop saw but Mr. Spouse, in a fit of manliness, decided he would chop the pine.
So I let him.
And then I put on my Arty Life construction hat and began building cradled panels.
First I laid everything out one panel at a time. Then I squirted wood glue on the sticks, one at a time. Set the panel on top, lined everything up and shot ’em with the nail gun.
That’s when I realized men take everything about their tools seriously. Check out the name on that sucker. RIGID. I dunno, it just seems so in your face, so yo, babe check me out.
And that’s all I’m gonna say about that.
Change of subject.
Arty Life is getting a makeover soon. How much of one I’m not sure, I’ve just got these Bigger! Better! ideas roiling around in my head. Now all I have to do is figure out how to implement them. Photography! App reviews! Stuff!!! I think I’ll be rolling them out in early February. Stay tuned.
And if you haven’t seen it yet, I’ve begun photographing my horses every morning. A daily photo journal of the ponies and moi. You can check it out here.
Until next week, my sweetums. And, as always, LOVE to hear your comments. Because you are my best beloveds EV-AH!!!
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Food, Studio |
Oh my sweetums, I am recovering, RECOVERING, from Open Studios…by killing myself with COOKIES.
But they are very GOOD cookies. Filled with things like butter, eggs and flour. Walnuts!!! And oatmeal! Raisins! Cranberries! And CHOCOLATE CHIPS!!!
And I’m storing them for safe keeping in my tummy. Tomorrow they will meander over to my hiney where they will stay until I put on a Village People CD and dance them off.
Unless I exploded before that. BOOM!!! Because there’s only so much sugar and carbs a belly can hold until they take on qualities similar to that of military grade weapons. And if the rumblings are any indication, I’m reaching critical mass right now.
If I survive the night, if the house doesn’t fall down around our ears while we sleep, I. Will. Repent.
But that’s tomorrow. Let me tell you about Open Studios. Which was today and last weekend.
Well, it was my first OS in years and years and YEARS. And it was a pretty good one. Sold a couple of big ticket paintings as well as some little stuff.
'Dunes' by Susan Lobb Porter
'Summer' by Susan Lobb Porter
Crappy photo alert for ‘Summer’. Sorry about that, the good photo is in the other computer and I’m too bloated with cookies to properly fetch it for you.
Back to OS…I raised some money for the local animal shelter with some prints. Met some nice people, got a couple pages of names for my list. In between customers I experimented with my new printer. Found the perfect paper to reproduce my encaustic paintings. Perfection. Absolute Perfection. I would tell you except the notes are out in the studio and I’m not running out there right now. You’ll have to trust me on this. The encaustic is reproduced so well you’ll want to EAT them. I’ll be posting more info on those prints on my FB page. If you haven’t like my FaceBook page yet, oh my goodness, do it RIGHT NOW so you won’t miss out on all the excitement.
Oh, speaking of my FaceBook page, October 15 is the date for the ‘Red Door Challenge’. A couple weeks ago I posted a photo for anyone and everyone to use as inspiration for a painting. If you’ve done anything be sure to post it on my FB page wall (link up above). I’ll be posting my own creation as well. Be sure to share on your own wall, tag and all that stuff. I would love to get lots of people to take part in this.
And be sure to keep your eye out for the next challenge!
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Life, Studio |
Exhale mode, sweetums. Great. Big. Exhale.
Ahhhhhhhh…
Open Studios Tour is coming up! Oh, indeed it is, first two weekends of October. This is where I plug the event and tell you if you live anywhere in the western hemisphere northern California, and do not come, I will personally TP your house!
Trust me, I learned from the best, having raised my very own delinquent. Had FirstBorn paid as much attention to his grades as he did the price of toilet paper, he’d be a BRAIN SURGEON by now.
But back to the Studio Tour…. Got a little more than three weeks to get things in order. I’m not worried about the art, got paintings coming out my ears right now. Seriously. Lots of art. But of course I’ll probably get in a frenzy the week before and crank out paint my bum off.
It’s the housekeeping that has me a wee bit, umm… well, see for yourself.
The exterior of the new! improved! Studio Grande is still a construction zone. Tar paper and stucco screen are waiting for the stones to go up. And they will, at least on the front, in the next couple of weeks. Mr. Spouse does stonework but for this, for rock and brick that gets walked under, for this we’re hiring a real mason. YAY!!! I’ll be posting photos of the process, and a conversation or two about all the amazing arty things you can do with cement. Meanwhile you can see some of Grant Weiss’ work here.
I spent the afternoon dealing with construction debris. Bagging up what I could. And then I decided to get a start on the patio I plan on putting in just a little uphill from the wall of windows.
See this? One dead oak and a bunch of construction stuff. Well, by the first weekend in October it will ALL be gone. And if the gods of patio construction are with me, there may even be a patio! At least a clear, level place to put a couple of chairs.
And look! It wasn’t all about garbage bags and recycling cardboard. I got a couple bins of stomped-on-squished-down-tight kindling for winter.
OMG!!! I just remembered I bought some chocolate chocolate chip ice cream to reward my sweaty labor.
OMG! OMG! OMG! I’m outta here. It’s been real but I believe I hear someone calling my name. From the freezer. But I’ll be back in a couple of days. And I’m sure there’ll be some more photos.
