mutually

new small

some smaller paintings (9" x 7") I did last week.
It seems to be a format I keep coming back to. I'm lovin' the big ones but they are quite time consuming.
In the top painting, I embedded a seastar reliquary filled with resin. I think it's an idea I'll be exploring more in the future. Like right after I get a drill press. Drilling the hole with a hand drill was scary! At one point the drill bit got stuck and the drill flew out of my hand and kept trying to go around.

subterranean

on ebay here

Just been catching up on my life. big events always throws things off the track, not that there was much of a track, but you know what I mean.

Yesterday was the kiddos first day of spring break, so we went to the Science Center and then Grandpa's house for lunch. A pretty good day for everyone.

Today, we clean.

I did this painting over the weekend and am pleased with the results. I used a 20 year old bottle of masking fluid to get the root effects. I bought that bottle of masking fluid in highschool and used it once. I had the idea to use it in a mixed media painting, looked for it and found it easily. Either I'm more organized than I thought, or I got very lucky. It was so fun to use, it may be showing up in future pieces.

For those of you that don't know what masking fluid is, it's a yellowish, thin fluid that you paint on, it dries, and 'masks' out the area that you painted, so you can paint over it and that area will remain untouched. Watercolorists use it primarily. Once the top coat(s) of paint are dry, you rub the 'mask' off, it's kind of rubbery when dry.

Finally!

After a year of saving, researching, and hunting, I have my new (used) mini-van!!!
I am so excited and happy :)
(As well as nervous and stressed, but lets just talk about the good, shall we?)
I can't believe I'm so excited about a mini-van, how soccer mom of me.
Never mind that neither of my children play soccer, and that my son's favorite activity is the science club at this school ;)
Actually, the idea of a van always appealed to me, (you can fit more friends in!)
I come from a big family, and we are very close and some combination of us get together at least once a week. Now when we go somewhere, we can all ride together.

I have to say as far as mini-vans go, mine is very swanky... I'll just brag on it a bit...
Leather seats
heated front seats
sun roof
dvd
remote start (not sure what I would use that for)
power everything
three separate climate controls for driver, passenger and back seats.

When we were driving home from the dealers I had mine on 70, Mike had his on 68 and kids had theirs on 72, and we were all happy as clams.

I don't think I will be missing my last car, except maybe in the snow (it had AWD)
It was a '98 Honda CR-V. I bought it in 2000 and drove it for 10 years. I like to hold on to my cars, buying cars ranks up there with life's most stressful events and I try to avoid it at all costs. I hope to drive my van for the next 10 years and maybe even pass it on to Paul who will be 16 by that point. What a crazy thought! I hope the next ten years don't pass as quickly.
The Honda served me very well, and had only one repair done (radiator)
May this one do as well..

everything

Thanks for all the suggestions for what to do with old art. I think I will be photographing them, and painting over them.

Here's to letting go of the past and moving into the future

trinitarian

a close up























At last, spring is in the air,
the sun is pouring into my bedrooms windows,
the birds are singing,
everything is waking up after a long, cold winter,
or at least is intent on waking me up.

Going into my studio, which was such a refuge in the winter, now seems cave like and a bit depressing. I think I need to clean, organize and decorate the area so it is more uplifting.
I'm pretty good at purging items in the rest of my house, but I am so protective of 'art items'. Books, reference materials, odds and ends, supplies... I can't seem to let any of it go. If I can't use it in my paintings, I think it may be usable for a future classroom. One thing in particular I am totally perplexed about is old artwork. This stuff isn't good. It's from classes, or failed experiments, or at one time I liked it but now consider it unworthy.

What do you do with old artwork?