by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Life |
Arty Life is getting a makeover. Imagine that. Gonna pretty up this blog o’mine. Check out the home page. Notice anything? Like three columns now, instead of two. And my picture on the left because…well because the whole damn leaf moved there when I switched to three columns and I was so busy trying to fix the size of the center images, so FRUSTRATED that things were behaving BADLY that I said okay, picture on the left works for me.
Sometimes design by default isn’t such a bad thing.
Why am I doing this? Because I can. And because this blog is in the early days. Still figuring things out. Still growing. But mostly because when I went live with this sucker back in October I considered it a work-in-progress. Like those layer canvases I’ve been showing you. Not a painting yet but a start.
I imagine Arty Life will go through LOTS of changes as I grow into my blogging britches.
And not just design changes.
I just finished Liv Lane’s class How to Build a Blog You Truly Love. Six weeks of discovering passion and purpose in cyberland. I’m dizzy, POSITIVELY DIZZY, trying to sort it all out.
In a good way.
So stay tuned. There. Will. Be. Changes.
In a good way.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art |
I’m sitting on the sofa, feet up on the coffee table. Big exhale…I’m tired, a good tired. Been a good day, spent a lot of hours in the studio. I stocked up on canvases last year. They were on sale locally, 70% off if you bought a case. SEVENTY PERCENT. So I bought them by the case. All different sizes, from 3X4 feet to 5X7 inches. Big fat gallery wrapped canvases. CASES of ‘EM.
Ahhh…
And then I spent the summer and fall painting on wood. That’s just a little bit of it, up above. Plaster and wax (both hot and cold) need a solid substrate. Something that won’t flex and crack. So I built cradled panels, so many I can’t even tell you. I almost sorta forgot about all that canvas. The elephant in the room.
Not any more. The studio is chaos right now. So many works in progress. They’re all in acrylic. Not my favorite medium, not after the juicy lusciousness of oil or the richness of beeswax. And plaster is just plain old fun. But then acrylics mixed into glaze medium and layered and layered and layered and then turned into something magical…ah, I can handle that.
So I spent the day painting backgrounds. Just backgrounds. Random strokes, random colors. Filling the canvas. It’s fun, really. No ego involved, just me and the music. And with all the canvases I have, I could be doing this for the next month. Eventually the paintings will come to me. And when they do, I’ll be ready to go.
For a look at how a painting evolves, check out my recent post ‘Making Peace’.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Life |
It’s BLISS day, my sweetums! The day when I share the little things that rocked my world this week. And you can share too, in the comments. Or by clicking on that button over there, the one on the right, and linking up to the Little Bliss List blog party.
So here’s what did it for me this week. Things that put a smile on my face, made my heart go all soft and awwwww…
Number one. Numero Uno. The kids at the local high school (Nevada Union, Grass Valley CA) BLEW ME AWAY with the election of a special needs Home Coming Queen. The election of Rachel Bristol, a senior with Down syndrome was the SECOND time this academic year when a special needs student was elected to the Home Coming court. The first was last fall when Colin Pierce, another Down syndrome student, was elected Home Coming King.
Here’s the link. Unfortunately the local paper is now a paid subscription online. Copying the URL doesn’t work. Never fear, you can read it on my facebook timeline.
I read about this in the classroom where I teach, maybe a ten minute walk to the high school. My students are developmentally disabled adults. Many of them went to that same school. The day before the newspaper ran the story, one of my students, a young woman in her twenties, was talking about how unhappy she’d been in high school. How mean the regular ed kids had been to those in special ed.
And now they’re winning the biggest popularity contest of all…Home Coming.
While I was reading about Rachel Bristol, a young man just a couple of years older than her was dancing in front of an easel a few feet in front of me–and I mean dancing–while he painted on a 3X4 canvas. He’s Downs and there’s NO ONE who paints with the joy that he paints with. He’s relatively new to us and already several pieces of his have been accepted for a show in New York City.
Bliss indeed.
Number two good thing full o’bliss…the decision to launch Random Acts of Art Wednesday (RAAW). You can read all about it here. The response was AMAZING!!! I can’t wait to see what you link up with on Wednesday. Because you WILL be linking up, won’t you? Remember, if you don’t have a blog just send me a photo and I’ll post it. Need to have the photos by the Tuesday before.
Number three…a little hint o’winter. Just a tease from mother nature, considering she’s held off on WEATHER this year. Don’t even know if you can call it snow when the grass is poking through but still, waking up and seeing this was a good moment.
Number four. The arty cathedral in the woods, AKA the future Studio Grande. Mr. Spouse is a good man with a serious building habit. And right now that’s making me a very happy Mrs. Spouse.
And number five? Hours and hours of studio time this week. Music! Layers! Big canvasses!!! A couple of small ones finished. Perhaps next week I’ll have something to show for it.
So that’s my list. Now it’s your turn. Can’t wait to read what turned you on this week.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art |
I loves me my layers. Layers and layers and layers of random paint. It’s a good thing, you know, something to do in between muse strikes. Something to do with left over paint.
Eventually I get around to finishing them. Today I did another for the ‘Feather’ series. I seem to like feathers these days.
Here’s the original 12X12 canvas. Got a couple of layers going, don’t know how many. And yes, the workspace is a mess. It’s embarrassing. But as long as there’s room to work and I can find things it’s okay.
Decided to make some marks.
More marks. More color.
More glazes to tone down the marks. Then I block in a feather. But not in the obvious place, not over the quazi feather that’s still visible under the glaze.
I really don’t know where this is going but I’m following the curves indicated by the breaks along the upper edge of the feather. Which gives me two orbs. Two globes.
Needs some contrast. I fill in the back ground so the orbs pop. Throw in some gold accents. More glazes.
The final result…’Peace’.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Life |
Random Acts of ART. Spreading the luvvvvvvv. One heart, one rock at a time.
Tokens to share with anyone who finds them.
First for friend and co-worker Christina. She’s on vacation and doesn’t know I, ahem… borrowed some rocks. Made them pretty. And put one back with the avocado tree. Where I got it in the first place.
First public drop…the gas station. Tucked away there next to the pump. Much harder than I thought. I stood there pumping gas, feeling the weight of all those rocks in my pocket and KNOWING everyone was looking at me. Which they weren’t, of course.
I felt like a criminal.
And really, it’s not like I was doing anything wrong. Just a little artistic littering. Spreading the luvvvvv with unexpected treasures found in unexpected places. I kept looking around in a most guilty manner. And when the coast was clear I made my move.
Whew…no sirens. Not a one.
Emboldened by my brazen actions I moved downtown. The PERFECT, I mean the most positively absolutely PERFECT drop spot manifested right there on the sidewalk.
A little hole..no,no, a nest… just begging to be prettied up. Which I did. Without a moment’s hesitation.
From there I went to the coffee shop. The table was too obvious.
But the window sill between the curtains was just right.
And the shelf with the Valentine cards…oh yeah, couldn’t pass that up now, could I?
I painted a total of twenty-something rocks. My original idea was to scatter them all at once. But what started out as a silly Valentine’s Day event became something…different.
It became a mission. Johnny Appleseed planted trees. I’m planting…well, I’m planting ROCKS. But they have hearts on them and good intentions. And maybe, just maybe, people will find them and smile. They can keep them or they can leave them for someone else to find later. Or they can find their own place to hide them. It doesn’t matter, I’m just passing them along.
And I’m going to keep on doing this. Because it FEELS SO GOOD. I’ll be hiding one or two of these heart rocks every day. Somewhere in the community. I’ll photograph them and post the photos here on a regular basis, say every Wednesday. Random Acts of Art Wednesday. Make it a regular thing until we get bored.
What do I mean, we?
‘We’ my sweetums, means YOU can do the same thing. Doesn’t have to be rocks. Could be little cards or bookmarks. A little piece of art in public places. Something that will make people smile and will do no harm. Something that will make you feel good. If you have a blog you can post the link here. And if you don’t have a blog you can send your photos to me and I’ll post them.
Changing the world one little piece of art at a time. Or at least having fun thinking we are.
