all hail His Noodly Appendage!!!

back to art...

Here's the last of the first three "Peeks" it and the No. Grosvenordale mill are in the Landscape exhibit at the Silver Circle Studio in Putnam.

Swap-bot Rocks!

There's a giveaway going on at Swap-bot.com's blog, and all I have to do to enter is to post here about it--easy peasy! The original post for it in their comments section is below:

http://blog.swap-bot.com/2009/08/30/huge-giveaway-for-atc-lovers/

My favorite ATC is a folded japanese-looking envelope type thing with a beautiful image inside–the folding and everything is fabulous and I can never open it up and close it in one try! Very interesting and a challenge everytime I show it to someone!

Swap-bot has been the source of all that is beautiful in my house right now! I’ve had so many terrific swaps with interesting and talented people all over the world–one of my favorite little treats is a tiny llama figurine from Peru, stuck into the package by the mother of my swap-partner from Argentina because she was so excited about the whole thing!

Living in rural northeastern Connecticut, we don’t have much going on here that encourages or even makes meeting new people possible, and my new world of artistic and creative friends through Swap-bot keeps me going!

Thanks Rachel and Travis for opening this virtual, and “postal” gateway to the world for me and everyone else!

Cyn

Good News!

I got a couple more calls from local Boy Scout leaders who heard from the original district person about my request, and one presented the idea to his next troop meeting and actually got a positive response and a couple of the boys and their parents were going to talk to my friend to see what she needs!

My faith in people is restored a little more today!

Nation of Nancys??

My son used to talk about a "Nation of Nancys" meaning the state of affairs in this coutry whereby no one lets kids do anything anymore that might result in some liability issue--no running around free in the woods or neighborhoods, no treeforts built on a whim, no exploring without adult supervision. Many things that, as a mother, I understand, but still...I remember my own childhood and the many things I did that could have resulted in injury or worse, but I survived, learning some valuable life lessons that I wouldn't have from merely being told the possibilities. As kids, we humans have a sense of invulnerability that make it possible to try new things without fear. Sometimes we get hurt, but with luck, it's not serious and we go on, a little more carefully.

I know there have also been serious crippling injuries and death--a young man from my teen years dove off a pier and broke his neck--he lived, but is in a wheelchair to this day. There are many stories of bad injuries and deaths from childhood accidents, so I know it's not something to take lightly.

My main complaint today is the liability issue. I also remember my brother in Scouts and the troop had adopted several elderly folks who lived in their own homes, but couldn't take care of the lawn and outside work anymore. The boys would go weekly to mow the lawn and weed the flowers, and everyone was happy. One boy tripped and skinned his knee one time, but no one sued the old homeowner who helped him wash the scrape and put a band-aid on it. The boy got back up and continued raking the leaves.

As a Girl Scout, we did similar things and no one got sued. We actually helped people who needed help.

This week, I ran into a friend who hasn't been able to mow her significant yard--the weeds are three feet tall. Both her knees are swollen with arthritis and she can barely manage to keep her job, much less manage the grounds of her small farm. She'd be happy to just have a path mowed to her fenced garden patch so she can grow some veggies to supplement her food budget. I thought of the boy scouts and went to considerable effort to track down a nearby troop--I had to eventually leave a message with the district leader--finding that person was like pulling teeth, virtually anyway, but they responded quicly to my message.

Unfortunately, they don't do personal assistance things anymore, due to liability issues. They are restricted to community services like cleaning up and taking care of public parks and things. They also have trouble finding a place for the troops to meet because of liability issues--none of the businesses want to have that responsibility of having Boy Scouts meet in their buildings.

While I'm glad they are still out there doing community service in some way at all, I think it's such a sad thing that we've come to this situation in the world.

Maybe out there somewhere is a group of adults who still do personal service volunteering--I'll keep looking. But I wish we'd find some way to get rid of the sue-happy attitudes and learn to (and teach our kids to) take responsibility again for our own actions.

Meanwhile, I think I'll take the weedwacker over to my friend's house and trim away some of the weeds for her. I can take a first step towards not being a "Nancy" (no offense to all you real women named Nancy out there--it's something someone else came up with!)

Disintegration...last?

...Maybe not, but the bundles parted company again, and I think I'll leave the two packets where they are, draped over the flowerbed fence. The bundle of tubes still hangs out, looking none the worse for wear after a winter and spring of typical New England weather.

















Disintigration

Newest member of the family...Pepper

We were really missing having a cat around since our old calico queen, Sassafras, left us for the great hunting ground in the sky, so I started by posting a message on our local Freecycle looking for a calico kitten, and within a week we found Pepper, who is a little over 2 months old, and settling in fine.

New Peek--Putnam bridge lamp circa 1920s

Here is the latest finished--or nearly finished Peek. I'm not as pleased, as now I see a difference in the width of the top of the lamp from the one in the photo, so I may work on it a little more. I'm generally pleased with it though. I'm aiming at photo realism, and each one gets a little closer, and I learn more and more each day about how to "see" things better.

I had printed out a copy of the photo to use as I painted, but my printer was acting wacky with the inks, so the colors were off, so there is some orange-brown-brown tint here and there that I actually liked, so I left them in.

Another thing I've learned is that the Cerulean Blue paint I use in the skies darkens considerably when it dries. I think I have the lightness down, and later it's too dark, so I have to remember that for the next one.

First "Peek"

Here is the first finished painting for my "Peeks" series. It's of a tower of a major Victorian mill in North Grosvenordale, CT, now housing an assortment of small businesses and warehouse space.
Once major employers in the area, many of these old textile companies left the area to go south for better economic chances, leaving behind beautiful old buildings made of brick, constructed by mason artists of a bygone era.

The shapes and silhouettes invoke those older days when skill and workmanship meant something.

North Grosvenordale, acrylics on canvas board, 8" x 8"

Time doesn't stop...

It's been a little over a month, and I'm floating in a sea of confusion and surreality at times. Life just goes on no matter what happens, and bills have to be paid, work done, everythign just keeps going, so I have to wrench myself away from the sadness and step back into the river and swim with the rest of the fishes.

I'm working on a portfolio review at QVCC, which involves looking at my art and trying to organize it in some useful way, and eventually create a portfolio that shows my "body of work". This is more difficult that it sounds, as I don't really know what that body of work is yet. I do too many different things.

However, I do see some little bits of patterns developing as I lok through masses of photos of my collages, photographs, paintings, ATCs, etc. Nothing concrete yet, but I see possibilities. That's what the program is about, so I'll keep going until something flows together into a cohesive package.

**********************
To start the wheels rolling, I'm working on the first three of a set of nine "peeks"--small 8"x8" paintings in acrylics, of little images from this corner of my state. There are vintage streetlamps, clock towers, cupolas, Victorian milltowers, etc., all little peeks into the things we see everyday but perhaps don't really notice. Below are photos of the first three. They are from Putnam, Brooklyn, and No. Grosvenordale.

In Memoriam Terry "Vaughn" Stewart 1973-2009

The worst thing I can imagine has happened, I have outlived my only child.

We had a tumultuous life but it always worked out, and we were not just mother and son, but friends, too.

He had end stage renal failure which came on suddenly in 2006 and he'd been on dialysis since, with many problems caused by extremely high blood pressure, and the other complications of having failed kidneys, which finally contributed to a weakened heart which just stopped.

He was only 35.

Last December, just before Christmas, he decided to move back to Florida, which was his heart-home, and though I hated to lose him, I'd so enjoyed having him near to talk, goof around ont he computer, listen to him talk of his plans and ideas, I knew he wasn't truly happy here in cold Connecticut so I didn't try too hard to change his mind, knowing that his illness may take him away from me at any time, but he needed to be happy.

A few years ago he came upon The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, a book by Dan Millman, which changed his life and added to his ultimate happiness. He read it and it rang a clear note in his spirit which made him a better person, able to even help others, something no one who knew him as a unpredictable teen would have ever suspected.

.

I must tell you all, whoever may read this that there is never enough time. Gather your loved ones and tell them, show them you love them and keep doing it, even if it means that they move away, because you will be helping them reach their happiness in life, and there is nothing better you can do!

My little boy grew into a wonderful man, a caring friend and loving father, and I'm so happy to have seen it happen, but I will miss him more than I can say.

His Myspace

Disintegration 2-24-09

A little rain, a little snow, some freezing, a lot of wind...


Disintegration

Disintegration 2&3

ATC FYI

Just an insteresting aspect of ATC History!

House of Cards

OWOH Winners!

#1 is Angie Hall Haviland

AngieHallHaviland said...

oh...mystery box!! Crossing my fingers!

What a FUN event this is....making friends through ART

is always WONDERFUL!! Please enter me in your drawing!!

Be sure to stop by my blog :O)
http://angiehallhaviland.typepad.com/angiesartfulllife/

#2 is: Brenda

Brenda said...

Your mystery box of doodads sounds wonderful. Please enter me (#574)

****************************

I must say, this event certainly opened my eyes to the massive possibilities out there in the internet, and to the amazing numbers of really great artsy folks out there, too! I'm happy to have been a part of it all!

Cyn

Disintegration 2

Well as you can see in the picture, two of the three bundles didn't survive the wind we got this week!
I have the square bundle, so I'm going to interfere and wire it back on.
We haven't had any rain, and its been so cold that the snow blows around and doesn't melt on the bundles at all. We need warmer weather, for more reasons that just this project!!! BRRR!






Disintegration 3: Interference

I picked up the lost bundles and wired them back on. Weather is coming, we're expecting a lot of rain and wind!

Butterfly Award!

I received a Butterfly award from Lani Gerity at 14_Secrets ofArtist Happiness blog !
Thanks Lani!








Here are the guidelines for receiving this award:

1. Put the logo on your blog
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you
3. Nominate 10 other blogs for this award
4. Add links to those blogs
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.
************************
I Nominate--not in any order of preference:

1. Duane Keiser--A Painting a Day
2. Dot--originator of the Dotee Doll--Dot's Life and Art
3.Seth Apter--The Altered Page
4. Lisa Swifka--One World One Heart--The Whimsical Bohemian
5. Michelle Schafer--The Studio at Crow Haven Farm
6. Kim's Art By the Sea
7. Carolee Clark--King of Mice Studio
8. Enzie Shahmiri-- Sur la Table Cuisine
9. Amber Dawn--Amber Dawn's Inventive Soul
10. Fatma's Place

Disintegration

Through another artist, I found and got involved in this Winter project of Seth Apter's on his blog--The Altered Page, so the basic idea is this--to take some pages from a book (mine were torn out to make room for the alterations in a round robin project) and tie them together in a bundle of some sort and expose them to the weather to see and record what happens to them--with "Nature as collaborator". Sounds very interesting! So here is my image of the three little bundles of pages I tied together and hung on the windchime chain outside my house!

We'll see what happens to them over the next few months--it's snowing/raining right now--a good weathery start!

One World One Heart Giveaway Post

This is the post to comment on, in order to win the giveaway. I'm number 069 on the BIG LIST

My Giveaway for this event will be for two winners, each will get a 8.625" x "5.375" x "1.625" box filled with a variety of papers, stickers, ribbons and fibers, photos, ATC Blanks, Inchies, doo-dads and whatchamacallits useful for collage and assemblage. A "Mystery Box" filled with many things leftover from projects I've already finished, and things I can't stand to throw out because they are still useful, plus a few new things, too. Nothing will be materials that can't be shipped overseas

These boxes will accomplish four things, , participation in this fun event, the winners gets prizes, ,useful things get recycled, and I get a little more room!

So, all you have to do is comment on this post and watch back on February 12 to see if you've won!

One World One Heart Event

I stumbled upon this fascinating blog event yesterday--just in time to get ready to participate.

It's apparently an International mingling of bloggers, by means of a blog giveaway event whereby people will go to your blog after January 19 and comment on the giveaway posting (the posting on that day stating what they can win by just posting) and then, on February 12, a winner is drawn (ior winners, as some will be giving away multiple items) and prizes mailed to the winner(s).

So, I thought, what a cool idea! I want to play, too!

I'm going to post my giveaway on Monday and join in the fun!

Here is more info about the event
and
here is info about the earlier events in 2007 and 2008

********

This badge says a blogger is participating, so watch for them everywhere you go!

IT STARTS TOMORROW, SO DON'T POST A COMMENT HERE! THERE WILL BE A NEW SPECIAL POSTING FOR THE GIVEAWAY!

Back at the TPL--Thompson Public LIbrary

I was all set up to fill the lobby display case with my Ida Baily Allen cookbook collection for the month or January, but life happens at the best and worst of times, and I couldn't get it all together in time. With only a couple of weeks left in the month, I managed an Altered Books, Etc display instead, using many of the wonderful bits of art I've received in swaps this past year.

There are Altered Books, and tip-ins, Altered CDs, Alteered Matchboxes, big and small, Altered postcards and Mail Art, Art Dolls, mostly dotee dolls, Artist Trading Cards and Inchies.

My friend Alma came to help me organize it all and it took a couple of hours but it looks fine. Very colorful! I'll get pictures soon.

Next on my artistic agenda is registering for a Portfolio Review: a one-credit independent study at QVCC with Annie Joly where I hope I will finally begin building a real and professional art portfolio. She has been enormous help already, as the teacher in Introduction to Computer Graphics for a second time, after about 15+ years of technology had advanced Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop so much that it was all new again. I learned a lot about CS3, enough so that I am really loving it all!

I was organizing my photos, adding keywords to everything using Adobe Bridge--really, really excellent and fast-- and managed to crash my main data drive! Talk about Blazing Fast! Fred, ever my love and My Hero managed to save everything using his technological magic and an icepack!! It was about 5 hours of work that I had thought down the drain--not to mention ALL my photographs and records and documents--everything I've done for the past 6 years!!! He is just the BEST!

One of these days I'll go back and finish the Bridge job, I was only about half done.

I also want to revamp my website(s), perk up my blog, maybe put Wordpress into my website, paint a few paintings, finish up some swaps, and clean up the garage and office/studio. Not in any particular order, but any of it would be nice--especially the garage.

Time Flies...still!

One of these days I'll set up some sort of schedule for adding to this blog. I can't believe the huge amount of things that have happened in the world and in my little life since I last posted in October.

Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New year for starters. None of which were particularly spectacular in and of themselves.

We do have a new President though, happily I voted for Obama and he won! It seems to have broken the family curse--everyone we've voted for in the last umpteen elections has lost. :(

I've done a few new small pieces of art.
Some inchies in an animal theme for the 100Inchies Swap series in Swap-bot. The little animal pictures are cut out of a ratty old Webster's New American Dictionary from 1955.







and some ATCs--here's one for a Quick Turnaround Swap in Swap-bot called "Songbird"







And a set of four Blue and White Colors ATCs for yet another Swap-bot swap.



I haven't picked up a paintbrush again yet, but still have hope!

29-Days of Giving Challenge

Something worth checking out!

more painting!

I did this one for a swap--I think it's the last painting swap I'm going to do for a while--I want to keep some!!

This little painting, "Gardenias", is 7" x 5", acrylics on canvas, and went out to my Swap-bot partner in Los Angeles with a digital art ATC also of a gardenia.

Back to Art!

This is an art doll I made for a Swap-bot Group swap--the Autumn-Winter Recycled Art Doll. They are all to be made from mostly recycled materials, and this one is form an empty Boost bottle, scraps of fabric from other projects, extra silk leaves form another project and a bit of twine from a package. The little charm is the only non-recycled thing, I got it in a swap form someone else and it needed to be part of this doll!

Get Out and Vote! But intelligently!

I'm ashamed of my own ignorance in politics, but I'm definitly working on it! I will vote for the persons I think best able to do the job, but I'm going to vote!
This came in an e-mail:

Why Women Should Vote

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive.

Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'

(Lucy Burns)

They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

(Dora Lewis)

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.

Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail.

Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

(Alice Paul)

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited.

She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

Alice Paul

So, refresh my memory.

Some women won't vote this year because ... why, exactly?

We have carpool duties?

We have to get to work?

Our vote doesn't matter?

It's raining?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say.

I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote.

Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient. My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry.

She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women. The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'

HBO released the movie on video and DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum, want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized.

And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse.

Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave.

That didn't make her crazy.

The doctor admonished the men:

"Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."

Please, pass this on to all the women you know.

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote Democratic, Republican or Independent - remember to vote.

History is being made.

Separation of Church and State

I'm a little slow on speaking out, but fortunately, there are some good people out there who can help me out!
Palin's Pastor Problems


The only good thing about Sarah Palin is what she's done for me politically--I've never been so active in any political event in my life!!

She and McCain scare me!

Palin? Just say NO!

Here's another voice speaking the words I would if I had them!

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Online Labyrinthe for meditation

This is wonderful!
http://www.gracecathedral.org/labyrinth/interactions/index.shtml#

Vote for Change!

Someone e-mailed this to me, and I have been trying to gather all my thoughts about the subject to write on it--and here theya re!

Thanks to Eve Ensler!

*******************
> Eve Ensler,
> the American playwright,
> performer,
> feminist and activist,
> best known for "The Vagina Monologues",
> wrote the following about Sarah Palin:
>
> DRILL, DRILL, DRILL
>
> I am having Sarah Palin nightmares.
>
> I dreamt last night that she
> was a member of a club where they rode
> snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned
> and starved polar bears around their necks.
>
> I have a particular thing for Polar Bears.
>
> Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness
> or the fact that they live in the arctic
> or that I have never seen one in person
> or touched one.
>
> Maybe it is the fact that they live
> so comfortably on ice.
>
> Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.
>
> I don't like raging at women.
>
> I am a Feminist and have spent my life
> trying to build community,
> help empower women
> and stop violence against them.
>
> It is hard to write about Sarah Palin.
> This is why the Sarah Palin choice
> was all the more insidious and cynical.
>
> The people who made this choice
> count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
>
> But everything Sarah Palin believes in
> and practices is antithetical to Feminism
> which for me is part of one story --
> connected to saving the earth,
> ending racism, empowering women,
> giving young girls options, opening our minds,
> deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.
>
> I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one
> of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime,
> and should this country choose those candidates
> the fall-out may be so great,
> the destruction so vast in so many areas
> that America may never recover.
>
> But what is equally disturbing is the impact
> that duo would have on the rest of the world.
>
> Unfortunately, this is not a joke.
>
> In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept,
> the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.
>
> Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution.
>
> I take this as a metaphor.
> In her world and the world of Fundamentalists
> nothing changes or gets better or evolves.
>
> She does not believe in global warming.
> The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying
> our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers,
> are all part of God's plan.
>
> She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list.
> The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered.
> The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered.
> The oil is here to be taken and plundered.
> Iraq is here to be taken and plundered.
> As she said herself of the Iraqi war,
> "It was a task from God."
>
> Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion.
>
> She does not believe women who are raped
> and incested and ripped open against their will
> should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby
> or not.
> She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control.
> I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence
> and we know how many babies that makes.
>
> Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking.
> >From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library,
> has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently.
> She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference.
>
> This is a woman who could and might very well
> be the next president of the United States.
>
> She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.
>
> Sarah believes in guns.
> She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle.
> She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip.
> She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.
>
> Sarah believes in God.
> That is of course her right, her private right.
>
> But when God and Guns come together in the public sector,
> when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are
> denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and
> state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.
>
> I write to my sisters.
>
> I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands.
>
> This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of theU.S.,
> but of the planet.
>
> It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make
> it forever
> uninhabitable for humans.
>
> It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the
> world
> or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack.
>
> It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning
> or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency
> and destruction.
>
> It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare
> or whether we build more and more methods of killing.
>
> It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society
> or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.
>
> If the Polar Bears don't move you to go
> and do everything in your power
> to get Obama elected,
> then consider the chant that filled the hall
> after Palin spoke at the RNC,
> "Drill Drill Drill."
>
> I think of teeth when I think of drills.
>
> I think of rape.
>
> I think of destruction.
>
> I think of domination.
>
> I think of military exercises
> that force mindless repetition,
> emptying the brain of analysis,
> doubt, ambiguity or dissent.
>
> I think of pain.
>
> Do we want a future of drilling?
>
> More holes in the ozone,
> in the floor of the sea,
> more holes in our thinking,
> in the trust between nations and peoples,
> more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?
>
> Eve Ensler
>
>
>
> September 5, 2008
>

The Show Went On!

My art exhibit at the Thompson Library was lovely! I missed my own opening though due to a short hospital stay, but Fred stood in for me and talked to people who came to see my stuff.

I have pictures I'llpost later, when I get a little better organized--I'm trying to stitch them all together into a 360 deg view, but haven't sat down to do it yet! That'll be interesting!

I was fortunate to have someone drop out of a class at QVCC that I wanted to get into--Intro to Computer Graphisc--it happened on the last add/drop day, and was a little miracle for me. I was just shutting down my computer in expectation of the bad thunderstorm heading our way, and thought to check just one more time to see if anyone had dropped--I went all gaga and called the college to have someone walk me through the process of registering online I was so excited! I felt like an idiot! LOL--it was like winning an auction on Ebay!

I took this class years ago when both Photoshop and Illustrator were new, and the college didn't even have syquest or zip drives, so we had to adjust all our images to fit on floppy disks!! I enjoyed it then and it launched me into the love I have for Photoshop today, but I never really utilised Illustrator much. This time, the teacher assured me that it would be about 2/3 illustrator, and using the newest versions, so I'll learn something I've been wanting to learn for a long while.
I can't wait for class tomorrow morning!

Busy with Art

"The Harbor, Monhegan Island, ME" acrylics on canvas, 16" x 20"





I participated in an Adult Open Studio program at TreeTop Studio with Nancy Shay over the last couple of months. My six weeks stretch out a bit due to skipping a couple, but I worked on two paintings in acrylic and actually finished one!


Nancy had some pictures she had taken in Monhegan Island, ME and I picked one of the Harbor to use for my subject. I'm so amazed at how it went and was totally surprised and pleased with the resulting painting. The experience has inspired me to continue painting now at home--or at work where I've moved all my painting supplies so I can work in the off-shift time between lunch and dinner.

I'm having a solo show at The Thompson Public Library, too. August 1-26 with an Artist's Reception on Thursday, Aug 7 from 6:30-8.

It's exciting, though mostly I'm using the event to see what I really have, and to get more organized. It's forcing me to pull everything out and make sure all the good stuff is framed properly and ready to go. The show is called: "A Little of This, A Little of That: a Multi-Medium Exhibit" and I'll be showing Paintings, digital art, photography, collages and sculpture. Should be educational, for me, at least!

Top Three Laughing Babies

This is hysterical--one of the reasons people survive as a species, I'm sure! The #1's all look like my brother in law, James!

Dotee Dolls!

Now there is the cutest fad going around in the crafty art doll and Swapping world--Dotee Dolls! They are little finger long dolls shaped rather like Good n Plentys with faces, beaded tails and fancy hair, with a loop to hang them. Here are two I made for a swap on Swap-bot:















The next picture is of three other dolls I made for swaps--the two on the sides are "icicle dolls" and the little one in the center was for a Goddess Doll Swap:


They're fun and easy to make, quick because they are small, but no limit on how much embellishment you can add to make them really special!

My First Juried Exhibition!

Ok, here I am grinning ear to ear with my very first entry accepted into a juried art show!

The 65th Annual Connecticut Artists Juried Exhibition at the Slater Museum in Norwich, CT. This was my third try to enter something into this local but prestigious (to me!) show.

The piece is a collage called Circular Generation and it's composition came from a collection of circular and flowing items that are arranged to represent the circular flow of life itself, from the little ways day-to day activities can lead us back to beginnings and the large circle of life where we all return to the beginning one way or another. It's a little piece with a lot of meaning.

Here's a close-up:

How to Become a "Real " Artist

That's the question. I've been pondering this concept for a while now, and having just had my first artwork accepted into a major (for our area) Museum Art Show, I feel like I can take the whole thing more seriously.

I subscribe to three Art business newsletters:

Fineartviews by Clint Watson

Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Letter

and just newly subscribed to: Art Marketing Action newsletter from Alyson B. Stanfield
Here's info about her new book:
I'd Rather Be In the Studio: The Artists No-excuse Guide to Self Promotion(.pdf)

They communicate with each other, so they contribute to each others' information to confirm and recommend the best ways to work out the business of being an artist.

It's a little overwhelming at times, and sometimes I feel like I'm reading and researching too much and not making art enough, so I have to make some decisions. Winter has been a time for research and pondering though, so as spring peeks around the corner, I'm making more plans to do art instead of just thinking and talking about it.

No Time, oil on canvas, 13.5" x 15.5"

Last lunar eclipse till 2010

I caught this one picture of the lunar eclipse starting tonight, no tripod, I had to use my car!

ArtandCraftAuctions

I've listed a collage on the new website to be part of it all, I have to work on gathering other pieces to list this week, so watch for them.

This is the site for my current piece listed today

"Eye of the Storm"
mixed media, 11" x 8.5"

New Auction site for Art only!

Well, Ebay pissed off enough people to get boycotted this week, and to send many of the self-representing artists scrambling to create a home of their own. It's http://www.artandcraftauctions.com/ and should be up and running sometime this afternoon.

It's going to be an auction site where only Fine Arts and Crafts and supplies will be up for bid, and no big corporate businesses, powersellers with a zillion satelite sellers scattered all over, but the real artists themselves.

I'm hoping I can get in with some of mine to help get them off the ground, I know the 250 charter members will be rushing the "doors" this afternoon to register and get in, so check them out a little later on when things have quieted down somewhat.

Later!

More Snow!

The snow came again in the night last night, soft and quiet, it piled up on the trees and the cars. I managed to get out of my driveway just before the big maple at the end of the drive gave way under the weight of the heavy snow and came crashing down on across the driveway, taking the power, cable and phone lines with it! Strangely enough, that line powers the big house, which still has power, but the little house out back which is on another line altogether is without pawer, cable or phone. Strange quirky things happen sometimes, I guess.

It's stopped snowing now, around noonish, and the drive at work has been plowed and the snow is melting across the blacktop so with luck my drive home will be easier than the drive in. Nothing had been much plowed and it took me an hour for the normally 1/2 hour drive.

It looks great though! like a winter wonderland. Pictures will be forthcoming!

Enjoy!
Cyn

End of the year is nigh!

The weather has been weird, but, hey, it's New England. We had a pile of snow a couple of weeks ago that turned to rock hard ice on the driveway, treacherous to try to walk or drive on, and nearly impossible to clear away, then it got warm, in the low 50s and the driveway and paths all cleared just in time for Christmas, but enough snow stayed around for looks, and now it's raining again. January and February will probably bring more snow and ice, and thaws like normal.
We'll manage, though Fred has been thinking about moving to North or South Carolina, and counting the weeks until spring is supposed to come.

Check out my Slide Show!

Making Matchboxes from Scratch

I've been in at least ten swaps of decorated and filled matchboxes. I know ten, because I bought a ten-pack of small matchboxes aw Wal-Mart and used them up--except for the wooden matches which I out in a jar, waiting for something creative besides using them to start our outdoor fireplace.

So I decided to take one apart and make a template so I could make my own out of sturdy cardstock as I need them for various creative endeavors.
This is the basic pattern. I use Hammermill 110lb cardstock from Staples , or Georgia Pacific 110 lb I found at Wal-Mart. I prefer the Hammermill because it seems a smoother finish, good for printing color images on.
















These are some samples of templates that I decorated in Photoshop, ready to cut out, assemble and further embellish, or not.

December already?!

Wow, time does fly when you're having fun, or just crazy-busy!

Ice and rain this week, no real snow yet!

Sat., Dec 1, I did another workshop at the Putnam Library, this time on making handmade holiday cards, and 6 people signed up, but only two showed up. Disappointing, but we had fun anyway! Their loss!

I got to bring two of my "grand-friends" (my best friend's granddaughters age 10 and 8) and Pat from the Library participated and some really beautiful cards were made and taken home.

The reporter form the Reminder News came and took pictures and interviewed people, and there were pictures and a nice article in the paper, though I have yet to see it--I have to get one soon!

I'm all caught up with my Swap-bot swaps again, and haven't signed up for many new ones--a few in January and February. It's too addictive to let go completely!

I do want to get some other art going now though. The old gym at work is being heated, so I'm going to bring my paints and supplies in to work on some ideas that have been mulling around in my head for a while now. It'll be a nice change of scenery!

Take care and have bright and happy holidays!
Cyn

Check out my Slide Show!

Check out my Slide Show!

Giant Tag Sale

Our art guild (Northeastern CT Art Guild is having a Giant Tag Sale next weekend (Oct 5&6) at the Sunshine Shop Greenhouse on Upper Maple Street in Danielson, CT

We had one last year that was a good time and raised us a nice sized chunk of change to help fund some of the programs we run monthly in the guild.
Lots of cool stuff is donated and sold for good prices some antiques, some art, some household items, lots of eclectic collections of things you just might need. So if you are in our area, stop on by between 9am and 3pm each day and see what treasures you might find.

I hear there may be some tasty bake sale items, too!

Summertime, summertime

Well, three weeks have passed like a blink, mostly because my 9 year old granddaughter was here! Time passes so quickly when you are having fun! I didn't get much art done at all, save a few ATCs here and there, but now I have time to get to it once again.

I had so many plans for this summer and it's already August and nothing much has been done, but, oh, well, que sera, sera! I'll do what I can as I can.

My sister is up from Virginia with her cool quilting and embroidery machines (both of which cost more than my "new" car (see a picture of that below in an earlier post). We'll have some time to play with them soon, too!

So for now, best laid plans, blah, blah, blah..and time marches on!