Wow! It's been a while since I updated here! How time flies when you are trying to get ready for a show....or maybe I am just spinning in little circles...that's what it feels like right now.
At any rate, I did finish another painting:
Forest for the Trees, 11x14, mixed media on panel
If you are in the Seattle area, be sure to come to the show: July 18-21 at the ArtWorks building on 2nd and Dayton in Edmonds. More info can be found at http://www.artsplash-edmonds.com
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Birth of the Sea, 6x6, acrylic, ink. glass on panel
Yes, it's true - I finished my studio makeover. I shot a video and had my husband John add music and stuff and so...without further ado...
I hope you enjoyed the tour.
This was actually shot about a week and a half ago. My studio looks a little different now. More specifically, my table is, once again, crowded with stuff.
The main difference here is that it is crowded with ART STUFF not the mundane detritus of life (otherwise known as Stuff Amy Needs To Put Away Someday But Is Too Lazy To Do It Now).
I've been shopping. I go through these phases where I like to go shopping and buy new supplies - although, as you can plainly see in my video, a lack of supplies is NOT my problem. Still, it's fun to go out and see what new products are out there. Of course, I went without a list and so I forgot about three things I actually NEEDED to get. This, people, is why I make lists. I am nothing more than a jibbering idiot if I go without a list.
And I have given it a lot of thought and have decided to offer up my canvases to my artist friends in the art group I belong to. I just don't paint on canvas any more - and it's not like, if I get the sudden hankerin' to paint on one, that I can't go get one somewhere.
So, have I been doing any art?
Yes!
and....
I am currently working on a teaching proposal as well. The deadline is looming and I am running into technical difficulties... Wish me luck!
I have managed to get everything off the floor in here and have vacuumed. I still need to mop and find my SOS pads so that I can attempt to clean off some of the dried on paint that's on the floor. I tried goof off, but it didn't really seem to work and it's a bit smelly so I am going to try the SOS pads and if that doesn't work then the paint will just have to stay there. It's not like I like my floor anyway.
I have to take out two bags of trash and a bin full of recyclables (is that a word?). Then begins the task of cleaning off the work tables in here. Which currently look like this:
Yeah. They WERE getting better. But that was before they got worse. Yikes. I have my work cut out for me. Because a lot of this is 'problem child' stuff - things I don't know quite what to do with.
I know I shouldn't mop before completing the project, but I feel the need to do it so that I feel as if I am making progress. It's all an illusion I am sure.
Cassie is trying to help me.
If only I could get her to sort through my drawer units. She could make some effort to earn her keep around here....
OK - off to find those SOS pads. (Update: SOS pads didn't work. Poo. But at least the floor is mopped. I sent my man to the store to find another kind of stripper to see if that works...)
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Just a wee little tease of some progress on the studio for you.
My sitting area - scroll down if you want to see what it used to look like...
Normal lighting here : (actually my red walls aren't quite that garish...that's a flash for ya...)
A little mood lighting for ya:
So it seems kind of rainy this morning - I thought it was supposed to be nice. I just want it to be a little warmer. I'd to not have to turn on the heat in the mornings. Is that so much to ask?
OK - off to shower and then get to work in here! I'd love to have some new paintings to put here instead of pictures of my slowly evolving studio....
I am pleased to say that I can now see the top of my work table. This is no small feat because my work table is big (4'x8') and is usually got piles of crap all over it. OK - not crap - artistic materials. Whatever. Anyway, I felt that I needed to be able to see the top of it to feel like I was making any progress and all, and while it's true that I did just basically move some of the stuff to the floor, the rest of it got put away or set aside for a new home.
I have several piles of things that came from underneath my table (to make room for the white storage units) and I don't know quite what to do with them. I need to go through them and sort and toss and donate. This is one example:
Then I have a piece of furniture that I am going to use for display on top and storage underneath:
This whole project is starting to get on my nerves. I want to paint, not clean and sort and organize. I must resist the HUGE temptation to just stick things places.
So today I didn't make a whole lot of progress in the studio yesterday though I spent hours in here...
I did get all my shelves and drawers put together. My hands were sure tired after that!
I am at a bit of an impasse though. I feel stuck. I have all these places to put stuff and I don't know what I should actually put in them....I stare at the table and the various little piles of stuff everywhere and try to figure out categories of stuff...and it's just not working.
However, I will leave you with a picture of two of my four shelf/cupboard/drawer thingies:
Getting these made and cleaning out under the table was quite a project really. bleh.
I saw a Target commercial last night and in it there is a beautiful young woman in a slim white dress and high heels and she is vacuuming with one of those little cone-shaped hand vacs.
It suddenly dawned on my that that is what my problem is - I don't wear dresses or high heels and thus my house never gets cleaned! If I had know that this was all I had to do I would be the Clean Queen!
OK. It was a nice theory anyway.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
I really AM making some progress in the studio. It's still a huge mess of course, but there may be a glimmer of daylight at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Maybe...
The most notable thing to me is the increase in floor space. Of course, if you remove big piles of junk, it stands to reason that you will have more floor space. God, I am a genius! Brilliant!
Anyway, I am pleased that I got at least some of the stuff into my flat file (which I inherited from my SIL, who got is from a place she used to work - reduce, reuse, recycle!) - but of course it is not completely organized yet and I think I may have one or two more shelves made for it. We'll see.
I have to finish putting together my shelf things to go under my work table. And that means that I have to clear all that crap out from under it. There is no telling what lovely spiders are lurking there. The other day I LOST one in a drawer and I fretted over it for two solid days. I found it and sucked it to its doom....but it was freakin' PREHISTORIC. yeeeecchhhhhh!
After much frustration and trouble trying to get my old blogspot account moved over to the new Google what-cha-ma-callit (I'm not a complete dork when it comes to the computer but man...sometimes it really ticks me off) I finally got it figured out (maybe) with the help of genius husband (shhhhh...don't tell him - he'll 'get the big head' as my grandma used to say).
Anyway, It's been over a year since I posted here and I suppose it's about time that I get back into it!
I'll try to post some art next time but for now I thought I would share what's on my plate right this minute. After much procrastinating and avoidance I am trying to get my studio into some semblance of order. I know myself well enough to know that I am not, nor ever will be, a neat freak. I am terrible about putting stuff away when I am done with it. I have lots of interests.
This leads to a terrible mess in my studio. And I don't mean just a big mess from creating art. I mean a big mess that KEEPS me from creating at all.
Here's what my studio looked like last weekend:
Anyway - it's not quite so bad this weekend, but it was a busy week so I didn't get as much done as I would like. I at the very least got the treadmill and mattress out of there - leftovers from a small remodeling project in which we had to clear a storage area...hence the odd assortment of unrelated-to-art crap in my studio.
I have the generous help of my friend Alice, who does the occasional pro-organizing bit. I've made lots of lists. I've hemmed and hawed...and now it's time to put this all into action.
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