Good morning everyone! It's a big day here as I have multiple things on my to-do list.

First off, I have an art group meeting to go to. Some of you may already know about ArtistsConnect. We meet in Edmonds (WA) every fourth Saturday of the month. It's a great group of people! I have been a member since 2005 and our group has really grown! After that meeting I have another one with regarding ARTSplash - our annual summer art show that features art from our members. It's a wrap-up meeting to discuss how things went and how we can improve for next year.

Then after that, I have to take some more jewelry to Cole Gallery. I am pleased that my jewelry has done as well as it has. People are always resistant to bigger jewelry but I never can figure out WHY! lol So I am taking some smaller and lighter pieces to see how they do. I really need to get going on some new things but there just hasn't been time...

THEN I have to go run some errands - namely buy a new coffee maker for my mom. she wants a red one. It has not been that long since you could go lots of places to buy red coffee makers but these days they seem in short supply. I've already looked at two places. Sigh. There was a time when you could go look for something and actually find it. These days...not so much.  We need to buy a few pieces of furniture too and let me tell you, if you like beige or gray or ultra contemporary crap (and it IS CRAP) then you are in business. But if you want traditional, or a floral fabric, or anything pretty,  forget it. If you want that you have to order it. And really, who does that? Who orders big ticket stuff like that, sight-unseen? And the commercials for the furniture stores around here - OMG - SOUL-KILLING, SPIRIT-SUCKING UGLINESS. An endless sea of black and brown pseudo leather CRAP.  OK - off my soapbox now.

My studio clean-up is....going...but sort of on hiatus at the moment. Well, not really, but this week has been sort of busy around here. My mother's brother is not well, and so that has been a serious source of sadness and worry around here for several days. I just hope he pulls through. The state of our healthcare in this country astounds me. I won't go into it here, because this is not a blog about politics and such but sometimes I get so angry...

Anyway, I am trying to figure out a system that will work for me as far as where to store my paints and make them wholly accessible to me while I work. It's hard! And good lord,  I have a lot of paint. What I really need to do is make some hard decisions about what I really need in here that will facilitate my work. And what do I do with the stuff that I still like and MIGHT use one day...

All I know is that until I get my work table cleared off some there will be little work done.  I have managed to do a few things, but not as much as I would like. I think momentum is key here. Painting facilitates more painting. But if I stop...well, it's hard to get going again. My time is limited and I have a lot of other responsibilities (as does everyone) so I really have to prioritize things and make it so that I don't spend a lot of time searching for stuff or making space to work.  I've never been good at that, so it will be a seriously long learning curve.

So...on this Saturday morning...lots to do. Please, if you already do so, pray, light a candle, do a little dance, whatever your thing is, for my uncle.  Thanks!

Hopefully, I can report back later today with a little bit of actual art news!

So sorry - no new art for you today. :) I am cleaning my studio which is dire need of it. What a mess! Where did all this STUFF come from. Ah...I have no one to blame but myself.

I think one of the biggest challenges for me as an artist has been finding a place to settle into. I have so many interests that it can be really hard to focus. And that, coupled with my my pack-rat tendencies, often leads me to be a bit scattered in my art focus. Still, I think that part of maturing as an artist is finding your voice. Not that we don't still grow and change and all of that - we do. But eventually the extraneous stuff we like to do needs to settle into the background so that we can focus on what we really want to be doing and putting out there for the viewing (and hopefully, buying) public.

It's not much fun to think about selling art. I mean, it would be a lie to say that it's not exciting to sell something. Or that you don't get a thrill from positive feedback from others. It would be nice to say that I only create for myself and that if someone likes/buys by artwork then that's just a nice side-benefit.  I confess that I DO think about this stuff. I don't exactly work with this thought in the front of my brain, but it's there.

And yet, I am not good at the self-promotion aspect of being an artist.

Anyway...

I've decided that in order for the fall and winter months to be at all productive in here, I've got to get some of this clutter under control. I've got to purge. To weed out. To donate. To throw away. To pack up and store. It pains me in some ways. And I have to keep reminding myself that it's all for the good because I will be more productive in the near future. Right?

I am still trying to decide if I want to sell at the Puget Sound Gift show again this year. I want to - I just know that I need to do a bit of different stuff for it - more gifty type things - things that are priced well, small maybe, things that can be given as gifts.  Art is not a thing that people usually give as a gift. Art selection is rather personal. So paintings are not usually big sellers at these things. that's a shame of course. So I think that if I can come up with something I will do it. If not...well. There is always next year.

OK - I am off to do stuff. You know...stuff!

New work!

I am very pleased to have this one finished. Or mostly so...still needs painting of edges and wire for hanging...:)

It Has to Be
18x24
Mixed media on panel

I am happy with how this one turned out. After taking probably two weeks to finish - which is unheard of for me - I am ready to move on to some other things that I have also been working on. mostly small stuff though. I so love painting big - not that 18x24 is considered big at a gallery...I don't think it is.

It has lots of glazes of color, rust, pencil, charcoal, collage...probably some other things that I have long since forgotten I added!

I am hankering to try something new, as far as medium goes. not that I am going to abandon acrylic - no no no - acrylic is too wonderful for this painter whose often interrupted schedule doesn't usually allow her to work with encaustics. But I have been reading about cold wax and oil combined and really love the way it looks. I think I even have a little pot of cold wax to try it with. somewhere....

Which brings me to a hated task that must be done soon. Cleaning. ugh. But it's pure chaos in here, so...there ya go.

Wow, I think this was ... 4 posts in one month? what's come over me? :)

I'm turning a corner here, people...yes I am.

Maybe, just maybe, I am over the block I had earlier this week. Well...no...it's still there, but I am pushing forward anyway - working on something a little familiar to me, just make it so that I CAN work. I have found that if I do something I have done before, not only does it not look the same (which is good), but it gets me out of my head a little, and thus, I can be productive. I often discover something new too!

I have been trolling the internets this a.m. looking at encaustic stuff.  What fun it is to just surf around and look at great artwork. I try to let it inspire me, not intimidate me, but there is often a feeling of ... oh! I wish I had done that! :)

At any rate while surfing images I saw one of my own...uncredited of course...I know there is little you can do with websites that swipe your pics and then post them with no credit. It's not a very good piece anyway, so I am going to let it go. Just a little disturbing to find it out there...

I hope to have some new pics for you later on - or maybe early in the week next week. Wow! Look at me and all my post-i-ness! I SO need to be better about blogging here...I am trying, I swear!!!

Off for more coffee!

A Rose, Lacking Soul

6x6, mixed media on panel

I am seriously just sitting here at my computer, in my studio, completely and utterly stuck. what's up with that? It's not as if I don't have ideas in my head, or in my journal, or even projects to finish.  I just can't seem to make it happen. I feel overwhelmed, completely un-artistic, muddle-headed, and just plain devoid of...something...  god I hate that feeling. It's so hard to overcome. I am totally having these flashes of 'what if this next piece is crap' or 'what if I totally screw this up' and similar thoughts running through my head. It's maddening.

Part of it, I know, is that my studio is a complete disaster area. I have no room to work, I don't know where things are, there are too many things around that I DON'T need, and the list goes on. 'Just begin' the rational part of my brain says. 'It gets easier once you begin'...yes, yes, I know...but...

BUT WHAT???!!!!

Why do I do this to myself? I think that because I can only work in fits and spurts, I lose momentum. I get distracted.  I feel like anything BUT an artist.  These just sound like excuses don't they? Perhaps because they are.

I know it will pass. This isn't my first rodeo, right? Right.

Another new piece

This is another little guy - 6x6, acrylic on panel.

Acid (rain)

I have two more in the works...I need to get off my bum though and get to work on making room in my studios so I can work on my bigger stuff.  I've decided that people like BIG paintings, but can only afford little ones! ah...such a conundrum!

A woman at the art group I belong to brought in a big painting for part of the demo last weekend and it was big and she and her husband had made some easel type things to display the piece. It was cool and I need to ask her how they made them because I forgot to look while there... Of course they need to have a wall or whatever to prop them against - they were sort of free-standing... that might be a problem in this studio...ha!

I'm just happy to be painting a little. I find that doing so in the a.m. early before I go work out or get any other part of my day under way, is the only time I really get. I always have aspirations of staying up late, but it never does seem to work out that way.

I need to update my website in the worst way too...ugh. I need more hours in the day!