Monday-early

Wow, I'm up and posting already. Could this be because I haven't posted in days?

Perhaps, but oh well . . . .

I'm attaching the latest finished self portrait (1993).

Here goes:



Now, I'm off to foundry and then art history class.

I might post more later.

New Day

Every day is a new chance to live the life I have always dreamed of, that of living as an artist.

So, yesterday was a rough day. All I had to do was get through that twenty-fours hours and arrive at this new day that has been wonderful.

Why so wonderful?

Well, I slept until about 10 a.m. then, I got up and George had made me a wonderful French toast breakfast!

Then, he followed me to campus and carried a four by five foot stretcher (frame) up to my studio. I carried the canvas, (that I had bought last year and never stretched) and got a fellow student to stretch the canvas for me. After stretching I got a couple of coats of gesso on the canvas so I could get ready to start a painting next week (wait? isn't that Thanksgiving break week?)

Besides prepping a canvas I also put some work on another in the self-portrait series.

Here's the results of today's work:



When I got home tonight from the studio there was a another fabulous meal by George made from the left overs of last night's roast chicken dinner; shepard's pie made with the left over chicken-yum!

If I don't watch it I'm going to end up being a B-L-I-M-P!

Welcome to my implosion

My day started off wonderfully and then I had a bad good crit today in painting . . . . I guess I'm just a bit sensitive, and maybe I should develop a thicker skin if I'm going to survive as an artist.

I've got to find a new way to paint, since my hands are hurting and they are my tools!

So, either I learn to paint big. . . or sloppy (trying not to move the wrist too much.)

This IS art school. They seem to like it sloppy, or at least loose.

Life offers me lots of chances to improvise.

Is that good? I suppose it's neither good nor bad, it just 'is'.

I'd better go, George is putting a fabulous chicken dinner on the table (lucky lady, me.)

A New Day

Today, thankfully, was much better than yesterday despite the fact that I woke up in the same cranky body.

I snuggled in bed with my two boys, Beezer and Tai-tai until about 9:30 then I got up, dressed, had breakfast and headed off to school.

One of the students did a presentation on Japanese Butoh dancing. I thought it was pretty interesting. . . . then I made my way to my studio, determined to get a painting at least started today.

I looked around my studio and decided I wanted a couple of more canvases to paint on. That, apparently was a good decision. The 24" by 36" format just doesn't seem to work too well for me.

So, I made my way up to the book store and bought one 16" by 20" and one 22" by 30", and a disposable paint mixing pallette (because scraping down the glass pallette in my studio would definately kill my already sore hands.)

I had a close up shot I had taken last summer of some radishes given to me by the farmer behind my house.

And, here's what I worked up today:



To the left of the vegetal thing is the third self-portrait I've been working one. I ended up covering over the left eye because it just wasn't right and then I just got sick of the whole thing.

So, I decided to go all 'vegetal' again.

Here's a closer shot of just the painting:



And, here are some things I left at the foundry. These are clappers for bells and one new bell I'm working on.

I just decided I've got to finish up what's there. I just can't work there anymore. Everytime I leave there I'm in agony for days. The details on the wax work, the grinding, everything just aggravates my tendonitis and whatever else is going on with my wrists.



So, it's back to painting, my first love.

Tomorrow night I'll be back to the Tlingits, my favorite North West native culture!

Haven't been here in a while. . . .

. . .I've been here.

So, today wasn't a particularly good day. I brought in a fresh canvas and some great Arches paper to start another work on. I even got to my morning class, (and brought a sandwich for lunch so I'd hang out and paint) then, went to the studio and began working from a photo I had brought in, but my hands just hurt so much that I put the stuff down. How depressing.

Then I stopped into Hope Zaccagni's office (she's a wonderful painter and our resident tech person-she makes sure we have solvent, rags and a host of other supplies) to talk for a bit. I was tearful. She was encouraging, telling me I could get a wrist brace and maybe attach a brush to it so I could paint.

She suggested I take a walk down to the pharmacy and see what they had that might help me.

I decided that first I'd eat the sandwich I brought. So, I polished that off and then walked down to the pharmacy.

They only had left-hand braces so I got and in my car and decided to ride to Hornell to the Wal-Mart to see if they had any right hand braces.

Then suddenly, I was blessed with nausea. How wonderful.

When I got to the Wal-Mart parking lot I made a few calls from my cell phone (because I just needed human contact) and got my friend Marian in CT. We talked for a few minutes. I was tearful again and decided I wasn't going to go into Wal-Mart but instead I would head home and go back to bed because I was exhausted.

So, at approximately 2 p.m. I changed out of my day clothes and put on my P.J.s and headed to bed.

Tomorrow, thankfully, is another day. And, I hope my hands feel better.

I keep on telling myself, "I can do this with the help of God."

Posting, posting

My exciting life encapsulated for you, my faithful readers: I slept late, then went to the painting studio.

Now, I am home.

How exciting is that?

Well, really, more than that happened. I put more work on my third self-portrait (could this be a trend?) based on a 1993 head shot. Man, did I ever wear a lot of makeup back then!

It's one of those 'forest for the trees' moments. I guess I was so close to my own face that I never realized I was putting on my make up with a trowel. Man!

Here's the pic so you can get a laugh:


My exciting life encapsulated for you, my faithful readers: I slept late, then went to the painting studio.

I actually sent this photo to my niece in Oregon. Can you imagine? I look like a typical Lawngeyeland Yenta. Oh well, not to disparage any ethnic group. . . . PC all the way!

I forgot to bring my camera with me to the studio today so I don't have any pictures in progress on this one. I'll bring it tomorrow and update you then.

I'm giving the painting studio at least another full day this week. Then, I have to make my way to the foundry to get waxes ready so I'll have something for the final crit.

My plans are to four more bells. Two will be larger than what I've made so far and they'll be a sort of memorial to my grandparents that came over 'on the boat' from Italy. Hmmmm, I think I need to do more research on this one.

Well, it's off to bed with me. I have class early tomorrow (11:20 is early?)

I really need to get there today since I missed class this morning (a painful and ugly stomach part of my day today-but that's over.)

Sunday morning-Dos Gatos

It's a quiet Sunday morning here in Almond, N.Y. I've been up since a little bit before 5 a.m. and thought I'd make some constructive use of 'insomniac time' to look up some info about residencies and study some stuff for my research paper-presentation due the Monday after Thanksgiving.

I have luxury annoyances this morning. My scanner-printer-copier isn't behaving and I had to reload the software last night and fiddle with it some other ways this morning. So, I'm not getting done as much as I would like to.

I made a nuisance of myself over the last couple of days, calling up old friends to talk. I still don't feel like this place is my home, and yet, I feel a debt of gratitude to George for moving up here and giving me a place to live.

But, it's just so NOT the center of the art universe (or the general universe for that matter.)

And what are today's plans, you might ask?

To extricate myself from my bathrobe and P.J.s, get dressed (and somewhere in there take a shower for the consideration of all those around me) and make my way over the library to see if I can find some of the journal articles I located but was unable to get the full text of on line.

Then, it's off to the painting studio. I'm working on two paintings at this time and have an idea for a third one.

If I want to get any kind of residencies, grants, or even move on to Grad school I've GOT to have a more extensive portfolio than what I have now.

work, work, work, learn, learn, learn, earn, earn, earn!

Middle 'O The Week

I haven't posted in a few days so there's a bit of catch up to do.

Yesterday I had my metal casting crit. I was given a small room, across the hall from one of the student galleries. Since I didn't feel I had much to show from the whole half a semester's work I decided to do a performance piece. In this small square room, I draped a red and yellow batik piece up on the ceiling just below the two industrial strip lights suspended from the ceiling. I did this to soften up a completely white cube and give it a warm glow.

Then, I attached a yellow crocheted table cloth (made by my great-grandmother) to the back wall, so that when you opened the door it was the first thing you would see besides me standing behind a table, draped in a lace tablecloth, in an old velvet hippie dress I still have from the fabulouse seventies (that still, miraculously fits) with a sack on the table containing the bells I had cast.

On the side walls of the small room I had pictures from childhood and some pictures of my hand after surgery a few years ago as well as a photo I had taken of a bee pollinating a daisy.

When the class came in the room, I had a sparkly black scarf on my head and I picked up a small black sketch book I had on the table and began to read, "This is what memory is" and plucked a bell out of the sack rang it. Then I said, "the things we hold within" and rang another bell, and, "a fragment of fading", (bell ringing) different sounds at different times (bell ringing) resonating. . ."

O.K., so it's a bit wooky but it's art school, and for me, bells really do evoke a time of innocence, and purity, a simpler time, a time when hours and life passages (birth, death, and weddings) were marked by bells.

Bells are tolled when wars end, when days end, when life ends. They are a simple yet glorious instrument. And, I am making some of my own, that hopefully will pass into the hands of others who appreciate the music they make. And they, unlike me, will be around for a very, very long time.

I wondered today, for just a little bit, why my arms and back ached so much. Could it have been the ladder and heavy bronze bells, tablecloths and other stuff I carried from my car into the little gallery the day before? Am I really that decrepit? I guess the answer is . . . yes!

So, here are some of the bells I made. I should have taken a picture of the performance space. A big duh on my part!






So, there are the bells. I have a new appreciation for anyone that does metal sculpture. Some of the pictures I've put into previous posts show some of the process involved.

Now, on to my 'happy place', the painting studio. I had a crit with a couple of my painting professors today. I never quite know if they've liked what I've done or not. . .

The two paintings I showed in my crit today were the completed (second version) 1973 High School portrait and a painting I did from a photo of my dad holding me when I was an infant (a mere fifty-five years-ago).

The H.S. portrait was already posted on my October 30th blog.

So, here's the (still unfinished) painting from the old photo.



Now that I look at the photo of the painting I can see where there are wonky angles and I need to do something more constructive with the background. I dunno.

So, I showed these two paintings for my crit today and the male prof (who will remain nameless) says something to me about how all this work is about the 'past' and, "what are you doing with your life now?"

This question totally floored me.

I had no response.

Why? I thought I had worked up a good angle from which to paint and I was all set to retell stories from my family life.

And so, the question has plagued me since he asked it.

What AM I doing with my life now?

Well, first and foremost, I am going to art school.

Why?

Because I want to paint for the rest of my life.

I never want to stop.

How can I make that happen?

I think I am making it happen right now.

Just dropping in before bed

So, today was a packed day.

I got up early (7:30 a.m.) to register for the spring semester.

Thank God I don't have any more academic requirements after this semester is through.

I'll have my art history minor by the end of this semester. Halleluiah!

So, I registered for my two (count 'em) 2, painting studios next semester.

But, before I get there I've still got to survive foundry and my art history class.

I didn't take any new pics today. I'm just so focused on tomorrow's presentation.

I'm 'dressing up' for this one. My professor seems to love performance, so I've pulled an old hippy dress out of my closet and i'm going to wear that tomorrow with my pee-tinaed pendant. . . . to ring the bells.

More on this tomorrow.

G'night!

Hey, latest work in progress

Can't stay on here long right now. I've got to get to school. I've got class at 11:20, then lunch break, then metal sculpture crits throughout the afternoon.

Here are the latest pictures from studio:



See me in the window taking the picture?



I'm using old photos so I wanted to show the tabbed edges. Cool, eh?

O.K., y'all I'm off to the shower to get my self dressed and out for the day.

I might be back later with me.

Have a sparkling day!