Which orientation is the best?

I do a lot of abstract work and sometimes I lose perspective of up and down or right and left. Then I have to choose the orientation that works best for the piece. This is sometimes hard to do because I have vested myself into the work and certain parts of the work. The best thing to do is to set it aside and rotate it every day until I settle on one. I had one piece that I wired to hang both horizontally and vertically becuase I wanted the owner to have the versatility of changing the orientation.

This piece is one that I have been thinking about in the same way. I designed it one way but am not sure that a differnt rotation would benefit the piece.  Do you as the viewer have a preference?  This is an encaustic painting without any bells and whistles.  Just simple curves and soft colors except for the red winding through the piece.  I have been putting a lot of red ribbon images in my work. 

Thanksgiving is next week.

I will be hosting the Thanksgiving meal for our family. I have been very busy this year and have not done any decorating for this holiday even though I love the colors and textures of fall. Russets, browns, olive greens, oh my. They are so lovely. Last year I seemed to have lots of time and had lots of autumn in my home. This year not a thing has been added. The problem is do I try to celebrate fall or do I wait and rush into winter?

I have a long list of things to do today. Pinning down all the dishes that are being brought. Making grocery list and then purchasing same. Cleaning house (specifically getting all the dust motes out from under the furniture and the corners. Checking on the rental property and possibly going to hardware store for the last remaining items that are needed. Bathing the dog ( a must to help her with her itchiness). Stopping by my Mom's and checking out her new ceiling in the large bedroom. So you can see it is lining up to be very busy.


At least I do not have to gather materials in the woods like the lovely pilgrim in the posting. I found her image on a wonderful site by graphicsfairy.blogspot.com. I also follow her blog so you can find it in my blogroll. She has accumulated a delightful assortment of images that she graciously shares for craft and art purposes.

My encaustic workshop was great. It is so much fun to help artists learn a new technique and see the way they interpret the material. I love meeting creative people and sharing ideas. I just need to remember to take pictures. Maybe one day I will be relaxed enough to snap a few quick pictures of some of the layout and process.

It seems my personal life may be quieting down. Hopefully!!! Some resolutions took place this week. I know I must be maturing because I am able to move on with my life and not get mired down in petty small feelings.

"When I say that I'm okay
Well, they look at me kinda strange."
John Lennon

Have to get ready.

Hey, I have had a very busy week. Really working hard at the rent house getting ready for the new tenant. Big jobs for me are over. Will get carpet in Monday so hoping to finish trim work and finish paint touch ups. Thanksgiving will have a very big thanks for finishing this job.

My husband's retirement took effect this week with a very nice dinner at the "Reata" in Sundance Square in Fort Worth. The food was great and the company was nice. There were a lot of stories about friends and foes.

I have students for my workshop this Saturday. Will need to make up encaustic medium and find some interesting visuals for the holiday season. Can't wait to be engrossed in an afternoon of creative work.



My table at home is full of jewelry components. I want to make some pieces for gifts. Looks like I will be busy until Christmas.

This is an informative post without a lot of personal reflection. The small crisis I am currently going through has not resolved and I am not comfortable discussing it in such a public forum. Hopefully this posting may get through the writers block caused by this dilemma. Do readers really want to know personal or the process? Will take more pictures of the process when I get back in the studio regularly and start producing the stuff of dreams.

The glue that binds and the scratches that create character.

This is the altered book page that I started last night. Love the girl not so much the rest of the page. Could not find the words that I needed. Two of us could not quite get in the groove. Realized afterwards there was no music. Sometimes music is a great help in connecting with the parts of the brain that let the muse talk to you and work your creative mojo. The great thing is I can paint, glue and otherwise continue to work on this book until I get it exactly where I want it to go.



This is another girl that I wanted in the book. Love the intensity in her face. Scratched some detail in her but think she wants more. Once again felt the look but could not put into words what I wanted to say. Need some different resources.

These are not meant to be fine art but a way to tap into emotion and open up my bigger (is it pretentious to say more important) art. Right now with the stress of houses, jobs, and dare I say politics, family and the ever looming holiday season I am not doing the art I want to do. Doing smaller work leaps into the bigger work for me. I am having some larger cradled boards prepared to do encaustic. Can't wait to get them and heat up some wax. Talked with another artist who is doing some small work as background to her jewelry pieces. Makes me want to steal her ideas. Someone told me that all art is plagiarism and the idea of proprietary ownership of ideas is ridiculous. Not sure how I feel about that but I do know I have a great deal of trouble exactly replicating any piece I do.

"Let me be when I am weary, just a little bit more cheery." Glen Campbell

Happiness and Art

The banner of this blog says that creativity brings me happiness and joy. I need to remind myself of this more often and live the life I need. I am not saying to stop washing dishes, sweeping the floor, responding to loved ones needs. I am saying to be sure and make time for the creative process and not wait for it to knock on the door. Marc Chagall paints happiness better than any artist I know. The painting above makes me want to experience the lightness of being that would allow me to drift over the world with my responsibilities keeping me from totally flying off into the dark blue sky.

I hope you read the article that I linked to on my facebook page. I became frustrated trying to link this blog to my facebook page and clicked away from trying. Viewing art brings a lot of good feelings. Joy, happiness, wonder and desire to create being the best. I have a favorite gallery that I go to just because the art is so fascinating to look at. When I go with friends I am never satisfied because I feel rushed to finish my walk through on their time instead of my own. I admit that I like the singular lifestyle of the individual artist. Don't get me wrong there is a lot of happiness and camaraderie when artists get together and work in the same room or together on the same piece but the true joy of being totally engrossed in a work is the apex of making art.

I hope you find your moment of happiness today and cherish it enough to try and make it happen every day. Love for everyone who reads these postings and a wish for a great day.

Public discussion does not promote tranquility, at least for me.

I spent yesterday trying to make my very personal opinion matter in a very public forum. Facebook posting to someones wall posting is not conducive to having a discussion on a serious matter. I have learned a valuable lesson. In starting down this road I made light hearted comments and was chastised for my ineffectual thinking which did not set lightly with me and thus followed a series of statements from me that were not well received and thus rudely commented upon. Oh well, we live and learn, hopefully from our mistakes. I do not apologize for being who I am, I apologize for thinking that others actually think about me as a person and not a series of characters typed in a matter that they disagree with.

Living in a very christian dominated right wing conservative state is hard sometimes for a progressive bleeding heart liberal like myself. I disagree with the combination of religion and politics in my community, my state and my country. I have spent a lot of time with christians who do nothing for their community but go to church and complain. I wanted to laugh when the WWJD bracelets were so popular. They replaced the cross as a symbol for peoples label of a good person. Evidently the message was lost because not a lot changed in how people treated other people.

Oh well, what a rant this morning in a blog that is supposed to be about art and not about my personal beliefs but sometimes the fingers got to do what the fingers got to do. And right now they need to be removing wallpaper and preparing for a new paint job. Home Depot will be seeing me today with the company checkbook in hand.

"All I can be is me- whoever that is. " Bob Dylan

Hill Country Tripping......

I spent the weekend in the beautiful Hill Country town of Wimberley, Texas. It is the location for "Market Days" a Saturday flea market, swap meet, music palooza. The weather was great. The sun was shining but it was cool in the shade. It's not around the corner so to speak. It took us five hours to get there but that was plenty of breaks for the wonders of the road (Collin Street Bakery scones). I bought a few small wonderful things. Gerber girl dolls, rhinestone buttons, a vintage florist frog, and other stuff. Saw a lot of things that I would like to try. I am going to have to break out the glitter and glue and beautify a bunch of ugly stuff. Soldering skills are going to improve after trying a lot of things. I'm also thinking of changing my Christmas decor from tradiontal red and greed to grey and silver.

I traveled with my good friend "Dragonheart" from the Wed. night art group. I am so appreciative of her driving and arranging rooms for the night with friends. We stayed at a lovely home on the Blanco River. There were deer everywhere, even near the back patio and at dusk the racoons came visiting. We could listen to the rushing water over the small falls and drink wine or hot chocolate and relax. The home itself was worth the trip. It was filled with original art, family photos, blue transferware, and other antiques. The owner had also stenciled surprises in each room. So thankful she shared her home with us. Our hosts treated us to a lovely meal at a local restaurant that had two talented young women providing live music on the porch.



The cool days of autumn are finally here in north Texas. I'm now going to have to prepare for my husband's retirement and the upcoming holidays. It will be a season of rejoicing with a tinge of sadness. We all miss my father-in-law and his good cheer. It will be tough to eat a turkey he did not carve. But life is about change and he would laugh if we did not enjoy being alive and the happiness we can endure.

Time to change...

This is the fence between my backyard and the pasture. Perspective is everything. From my patio this fence looks straight and there are buildings, bushes, dead sunflowers and other objects just a few feet from it. In this photo it looks very serene and calm. A sturdy man made thing to delineate one side from another. The shade of the tree looks inviting. Its so sad that some of us have fences in our minds that keep us from understanding and accepting the other side of the fence.

Today is election day and I hope everyone votes. Those of you who truly know me will know how I vote, the others can guess, but I truly am an old peace loving socialist hippy. I imagine it will not be that hard to see that I love both sides of the fence. The chaotic living and the serene downtime. The selfish what about me and the what can I do for you. The hipster hoodies and the woolen sweater. The I need all my money and the can you use a dollar. The SUV and the Mini. The vodka and the tea. The list goes on and on.




This week is a work work work week. Its Tuesday and I'm already tired and my feet hurt. The darkness of the morning is not helping me to start early. Time change is this weekend which will help to get started but make it harder to keep going in the evening. A lot of electricity is going to be used. I believe in conservation but if my house is dark I'm going to bed. The lights need to be on before its dark for me to continue anything into the late evening (9:00). If I am going to be creative I am going to have to squeeze it into the day. Small bits of time just for me. I have some incredible opportunities in front of me.