Oh my sweetums, I’ve been spinning my wheelsuber busy in ArtyLand, so busy I neglected to post last week. Imagine that!
If you’re impatient or have a short attention span, you may scroll down now and watch the video. But if you’re here for a good story, stick around. You’ll get to the movie eventually.
It’s not that I forgot you, au contrair, you (my most best, BEST beloveds), have been on my mind CONSTANTLY. I’ve thought of you even more than I’ve thought of CHOCOLATE!!! Which is a lie, by the way, because nothing comes between me and my chocolate. But it sounds good, like overtime devotion in bloggy land.
Have you ever gone from point A to point B via points M,Q and X? Well, that’s what I’ve been doing. And getting nowhere fast in the process.
It all started when I got this idea for a blog post. I was scrolling through my iPhoto library, grumbling about the BAZILLIONS of photos I’ve taken and have yet to organize… yada yada… and I must be NUTS to think I can ever find a specific photo. Getting a wee bit frustrated because I’m not exaggerating the number of photos (well, yes I am because I don’t believe bazillions is an actual quantifiable number) when it dawned on me–ping–like a light bulb in the brain–that a lot of my arty photos resemble a LOT of my paintings. I don’t consciously take photos of rocks and paint them. And I don’t consciously paint pictures and then go photograph things that remind me of them–
But you’d never know that from looking at all those photos.
Never. As in NEVER. EVER.
So I thought it would be cool to post photos I’ve taken that inspired my paintings. Or at least resemble paintings enough to see where I drew some inspiration. I began picking and choosing photos to illustrate that point, saving them all in an album. Then I thought what the heck, let’s see how this works as a slide show. And then, since I liked the way it was working, I needed to find music. Music that was legally MINE to use and wouldn’t get all this work kicked off FaceBook or YouTube. That meant half a day pouring through license free music sites. Which is a mega time suck, believe me. I finally found something I liked, tweaked the timing so it would work, converted the whole shee-bang to a movie file, did the YouTube upload and went to bed.
Where I lay there thinking of how I could make it better.
The next morning I got up and did it ALL OVER AGAIN. New music. More bounce. Tossed out some photos, added others. Rearranged EVERYTHING. And then I added text because WHY NOT?
And when I finally got the video I was REALLY happy with, I thought the heck with a blog post, this is going to be my HOME PAGE on my website, the one that showcases my ART. The site I basically ignore.
Ah, but if I’m inviting people to see my stuff I’d better clean things up. Like get the galleries updated, the store open. Things I’ve been ignoring because they’re H.A.R.D. Technical. Not.Fun.
So now you know where I’ve been. I’ve been herding ducks. That’s right, getting all my little duckies in a row. You ever try and do that? It’s like herding cats on quack. (I’m high fivin’ myself for that one, yes I am!) What began as a simple blog post, turned into a video, a revamped website and a functioning store. Holy crap, I’m even impressing myself.
All because of this:
Do me a favor, if you liked this post PLEASE tell your friends. Share it on FaceBook. Give it a tweet. And, as always, stop in and say hi in the comments. I love it when you do.
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!
Well my sweetums, if you read yesterday’s poor excuse of a post you will recall I PROMISED you pictures today.
And you shall have them!
First are the eagerly awaited evidence of studio construction.
This is the back wall, the one opposite the door. The only plywood still to go up is the triangle above the windows. Is that the eves? Well, it was too high because it’s on a hill and Mr. Spouse decided next week will do.
And this is the front. With Bean sniffing around. Probably tinkled on something because he’s a dog and this is quasi-outdoor territory.
The wall of windows to the south. They will never be this clean again. Oh, that’s right, they’re not up yet. Ohhh…look at those boxes of skylights!
Okay, so now I’ll show you some paintings. Almost done. Not quite ready but close enough for show and tell.
I’m calling this one Family Tree. There will be more detail. More gold accents. It’s acrylic on canvas.
This one I’m calling River Rocks. Acrylic on canvas. Needs more layers. Stones need more work. Everything does. But I like to show works-in-progress because I think it’s cool to see where it’s been and what it becomes.
Reminder: If you are participating in Random Acts of Art Wednesday (RAAW) and don’t have a blog to link to, send me your photos TODAY and I’ll post them along with mine. If there are too many for the post I’ll make a gallery. There will be a place for links tomorrow. I hope to see LOTS of links and photos!
Spent the morning with my nose buried in a book. An e-book to be exact. One I bought from Kelly Rae Roberts a while back and promptly stuck in the virtual I’ll get to this later pile, AKA downloads. It’s called Flying Lessons . I’m only on part 1 but I’m flying. Already.
It’s about goals and blogging and selling your creative work online. Imagine that... It’s about knowing your passion, facing your fears and going for it. And it’s written by a woman whose done ALL that and more.
And then it’s about the nitty gritty DETAILS. But I’m not there yet. I’m only on page 33 after spending half the day on it. Because it’s the sort of thing you have to think about. Ponder upon. I can tell you one thing…I’m very excited by what I’ve read so far.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
Meanwhile, I finally photographed a few more of the oil and cold wax pieces I made for the show in November. These aren’t the final photos but are good enough to post here.
Beneath the Surface. Oil and cold wax on cradled board. 2’x2′
Crop Circles, oil, cold wax and plaster on cradled board, 2’x2′
I can’t remember the name of this one. Calling it Crop Circles for now. Because it’s late and I’m tired. The right name will come.
