….and she’s back!

 Let’s see if I remember how to post here! 

Hopefully I will remember how to post a few photos of my work. I have been doing more of my abstracted figurative work where I do an abstract and then look for inhabitants. I still do figurative pieces, but not as many. Abstract seems to be where I’m happiest lately. I’ve included a couple of the drawings I call finger drawings. These are ones I do on my phone with my finger, like a sketchbook drawing but the person I’m drawing doesn’t know it. 

That’s it for now. Maybe I’ll be back again some day. 

This was one of the first of the abstract figurative works. “What Lies Beneath” . It is sold. 

“Oh, How We Danced”

 “Claudine”

“The Band”

“His Side of the Story”

 

Recording reality

This 48" x 36" piece was recently in a show featuring work that expressed the artist's view of America today. Mine is titled " Recording Reality" . Each of the red stripes records one or more mass shootings as well as deaths that have occurred in the detention camps,at the southern border. The white stripes record some of the environmental regulation cancellations or rollbacks by this administration. There is more, but I won't force it on you.

Here are a couple more from 

my abstract conversation series. 

This piece is in a current show
"The Aesthetic of Our National Identity"
in Oak Park, Il.
Quite a thought provoking show.

There is an occasional life drawing in my days 

but mostly my work has become abstracted figures. 

These are paintings that begin as an abstract painting,

with no intention other than color choice. Once I am 

satisfied with the abstract I look to see if anyone is in there. 

Here are just a few....

Been gone for quite a while and now I can't figure out how this works any more! I can't access my photo gallery to post new paintings and I have barely been able to post this! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Maybe I'll be back tomorrow...if I can figure this out.

Well it’s July of 2019 now. My work has really changed.

Dreamscape

Very excited that this piece, "Dreamscape" in encaustic and oil/cold wax has been accepted in Morpho gallery's upcoming show "Wax (in) Blue" , August 10 to 30 

A couple of new pieces...

 Finished these a few days ago and am submitting to a show of encaustic work. Hope they are accepted. The rectangular one is actually hot and cold wax. Fun stuff.

I'm back...I think!

Been away for quite a while. No reason, just lazy I guess.Tonight I remembered that I have this blog and thought I would see if it is still here...and it is!! So maybe I will come back more often. Probably just to post my paintings, and there are quite a few. This one is in a show at the local art league OPAL in an abstract show. Nice show and nice to be able to show. So there you have it...not much more to say tonight. See ya!

There's a figurative show coming up next week that I plan to be in.
I'll be putting the little family group in it
and the nude
and the guy on the blue page.

So, that's what's going on right now...plus work.

New one causing frustration!

It's not this piece that is frustrating me. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. It's the frigging technology! I am trying to send this to an encaustic group that I belong to and I can't get it to be 300dpi and 7" on the longest side! This is what I need so that it , or another piece of mine (which I haven't even tried to send yet) can be put on the website of an encaustic group that I belong to. I have had pieces in 2 of their shows (sold one!) and would like to continue the relationship but if I can't get this to work they may shoot me! I don't have Photoshop, and I can't afford to buy it either so don't even think about suggesting that! I have sent it to someone who has Photoshop and she has made it 300dpi and all, but it didn't translate or something.

So right about now I am ready to shoot all computers!

Frogs from my past

Came across this is a piece I did the other day and hung it in my dining room. Then thought it would be fun to share, so I did...on Facebook. Only to find out that Sam Gross did a piece similar a few years before I did mine. BUMMER!!!!

Let me back-track a bit. The one in the oval is one I did that was in a show a few years ago. The theme was "The Deadly Sins" so mine was about eating frog's legs. I used a couple of old drawings that I did when I worked at the Trib in 1973/74. See, I had been at a party where frogs' legs had been served (really, they did taste like chicken!) so these little guys were on my mind. Maybe it was my Catholic guilt, maybe it was my twisted mind...dunno, but this is what came of it. So I had these drawings on my bulletin board (as all of us wierd artists did back then!) and one of the salesmen (in the ad dept) brought me the Sam Gross cartoon. I said, "He copied me!". I didn't know it at the time, but in fact his came first. BUMMER! If only I was working for the National Lampoon or the New Yorker!!! Ahhh, the money I could have made! His original is up for sale now for more than I could make in a year at the Trib...maybe even in a lifetime!


Then again, Sam Gross may have sued me!

HONEST...I didn't see his till after I did mine!!!












So my first drawing was the poor guy under the checkered blanket.




Then my mind went a little haywire and, well, I just wondered how these little froggies would get around.

Sorry I don't have the Sam Gross cartoon to share. I'm sure it can be Googled.

Couldn't sleep

After tossing too many times last night I gave up and sat on the edge of my bed. There was a full moon and I wrote this...

Moonlight poured across my bed
as if milk spilled
and waited for my tears

May not be great, but I sure liked it last night! Wish I had a pix of the night sky to go with this.

Claudia

The girl in the drawing from the last post was named Claudia. She died at age 12 from Cystic fibrosis. The photo I'm working from is from the early 50's. I hope she likes what she sees.

This is from a black and white photo that a friend gave me. She gave it to me because she knows I love to peek into family history this way.
Seeing it here I know she needs plenty of work.
But her tricicle will definitely be red.

Back to work.

Like whispers within the breeze

returning to the blue life of youth

and warmed by autumn wisdom

her dream

carries her

Dropped this guy off tonight at a local gallery.

It's my "Peace Nest". The show is called " Toys, Trinkets, Accessories and Stuff".

I hesitated about putting it in the show because it isn't a "toy, trinket or accessory" but it does fit in the "stuff" category. So maybe someone will look at it and see my thoughts.

I put a couple of fun pieces in the show. One is called "Time Square" and it is a tiny (1.5" x1.5" piece) that is shades of pale blue encaustic folding in on a watch face that has no hands. Just silly, no intended message. Another is called "Time Out". It's a tiny bird's nest with a couple of broken eggs holding a watch face. Silly!

I also put in "Nora's Poppies". This is the tunnel book that I did for my niece Nora. I put this in the show because I could almost hear Nora telling me to.

Feeling a little melancholy tonight

Every now and then stuff just piles too high I guess. It's kinda high tonight so I'm feeling a bit not happy. I'm hoping that writing about it will brighten the mood. The music feature being played on the radio as I drove home tonight didn't help. Actually it pretty much trashed any good mood that was trying to peek out. It was all 1969 music. That was probably the worst year of my life and so many bad memories crept into the music. As I write this I am trying to bring happier memories around me. I'm sure eventually, my mood will improve. Just posting this photo of me and my Mom helps. We all have some crappy stuff in our lives to deal with so I will do the same. I will deal with it...again. I must remember that I am so fortunate that my life took a wonderful turn and I have been blessed with a great husband, incredible children and the freedom to be me.
Dwelling on the past only destroys my present and future.
I'll try to remember this.