"Do you actually use all this stuff?"

I'm not really sure what the girl behind the counter of Michaels meant by that.

I have bought an incredible amount of supplies recently. For some reason, I was really trying to use up everything I had before purchasing more. And! Because my grandmother sends me a new 40%-off-one-item coupon every other week in the mail, (hee) I decided to buy up a bunch of stuff. I have a show coming up and some large paintings to paint. I looked like the Liquitex poster child. (This was not paid for by Liquitex, Inc.) (heh)

(Actually, I use many other non-Liquitex products.. I just bought a whole bunch of it that one day.)

(dangit.)

(can you hear me when I talk in parentheses?)


I imagine other full-time artists can relate, but I cannot believe how much money I spend on supplies. When I start to hyperventilate at the cost while walking back to the car, Colin has to remind me that this is my job [and passion], and how I make money to begin with. Sometimes it seems as though I buy very little else. I only recently bought 3 new shirts, because all the rest of mine have paint splatter on them.

[I just recently realized that when we live in Hawaii, I will get to use real Hawaiian beach sand in my paintings!! :::squeal::: The real trick will be how I'll be able to peel myself off the beach long enough to actually paint. Hopefully Pele won't have a problem with me stealing her sand. I only take small bits. And I make pretty pictures with it. Hmm. Maybe I'll leave the black sand alone. Just in case.]

Sorry. Sidetracked.

Ooh! Caught on camera! A specimen from the elusive Designus Graphicus species:

Orange and Teal

Check out these two gorgeous treasuries on Etsy that I found myself in today! The color schemes of both are really incredible. Thanks to you both for including me, these are excellent!

(by debralinker)

(by farmgirldesigns)

:o) Purdy.

Not Exactly Tropical

But not exactly not...


These pink clouds were floating by directly overhead. Wispy and pink, they were.



...and despite not taking very good care of my 2nd plumeria tree on the balcony, it's proving its worth anyway. I love plumeria. They're really just the best flower in the whole world.

It was weird out today, cloudy and humid. I loved it. I guess I would prefer it to be sunny and humid, but that never really happens in Southern California.

I've been very peaceful lately, an interesting contrast to how much work we have before us, how much planning we are doing, and how out-of-our-element we've been feeling. I don't know why, exactly, but maybe it's because all of this work is going to benefit our long term goals in a really powerful way. I feel things starting to click. The work and opportunities that are ahead of us seem to be a direct response to our goals, which we've been speaking out loud as much as possible.

I'm such a romantic. It's hard for me not to take things like pink clouds, blooming plumeria, and warm humidity as some sort of encouragement that we're on the right path, a path that will eventually lead us to achieving our life-long quest to move away from this awful place and forge a new life somewhere else, in a place that feels like home.

Oh, cool, the sun just came out.

How I Feel About The Management At The Apartment Complex I Live At

By the way, did I ever mention that I painted the plastic sheeting that covers my kitchen lights? Well, I did. I did, and it's pretty.



It was really one of the best decisions I've ever made. And yes, it glows in the dark.

So there.

Lightning!!

In slow motion!!



Wow..... wow.

Namesakes and leather

Okay, backstory: So I bought this awesome wallet for Colin at Christmas from my friend Arlene at Sewlutions by AMO, and it was so awesome! Soft and sturdy and wonderful. Handmade leather stuff!! (Sorry, Vegans.)



She and I got to talkin' and yada yada yada, she liked my name(s) so much, she wanted to use them on products, and of course I thought that was completely rad. :oD

Today she emailed me to let me know that she'd created another totally awesome handmade leather product (sorry again vegans) that used my name! (!!!)

Introducing, The Maddox:



It comes in a couple different colors, and she might add more colors too. So cool. Ahh... all those times I made Colin carry my IDs and stuff because my outfit didn't have pockets and I refused to carry a purse.... I think I'm gonna have to get one of these. I mean, it's called THE MADDOX!

Oh, and there's a Shayla in the works at some point too. Huzzah!

www.sewlutionsbyamo.etsy.com

Whoosh

The sound that my new schedule makes. I now have to move at hyper-speed in order to get everything done before *the big show* in November.

Lookie, a new color study:




Available in my Etsy shop.

It's one of two that I worked on along with a new Orange painting that I'm finishing up. I don't know that I'll be doing more (color studies) than that, because of my previously mentioned Whoosh Schedule. I have to streamline my whole process here. There's a lavender moon painting floating around my head that needs to come out and get on canvas soon.

Very soon.

[whoosh]

A Bigger Boat

(Selling the Invisible and Selling Art Without Galleries)

The top one is actually a blank leather journal, yet to contain anything. Colin and I have stacks of these blank journals between us. We love the concept of blank books, we just never fill them with anything. Too much pressure. But, I like this one, it says CARPE DIEM on the front. It makes me *want* to write something in it. But I don't know what.

I've never been the type of person to keep a journal, and I don't really see the value in recording the various boring details of my life. I'm also rarely inspired to write down a stream of thoughts or emotions. Like I said, I'm not really a journal person. I'm a blank book person.

Meanwhile, I'm about to immerse myself in a new project again. It's exciting every time I do it. I like having a deadline. This project is a bit bigger than previous ones, though. Bigger event, bigger results. Bigger is fun.

Even the paintings get bigger when I'm preparing for a show. I must designate most of my floor space to white canvas again. Sorry, Joey. We'll play fetch at Christmastime.

I have so much to do that I even started working on a schedule of sorts, to make sure I have enough hours each day to get a lot of work done. It's time to crawl back into that obsessive, constant, productive period of nothing-but-painting. My spare time will be spent in business meetings and organizational tasks.

If only I had something to write all this down in!!!

bah.

I am a Sand Artist

(actually, Colin created that turtle for me.) :o)

So last week I submitted my work to someone in NY who was writing an article about Sand Artists. I even told her in my email that I didn't think I was exactly what she meant, but that I did use sand in my art, so I was submitting just in case.

Turns out, she liked my art and immediately sent me more information, and 8 interview questions about why I do what I do. This was very interesting for me. I hadn't thought of myself as a sand artist exactly, even though I use sand in almost all of my paintings. Answering these questions helped me recognize that I use sand very purposefully, and even emotionally in my art. Here's one of my answers:

"Part of the thrill I get in each painting is allowing the chaos factor of working with water, paint, and sand to alter how the paintings look. Sand is very absorbent. The paint sinks into the sand as the sea does into the shore. I try not to stop this process too much, because I enjoy allowing the sand to affect the paint the way it naturally wants to. I want the texture and feel of the painting to fully represent all the unique aspects of real sand."

:o)

Oh, and I just found out (like 10 minutes ago) that I have a really really really super amazing crazy exciting wonderful SPECTACULAR event happening in the future (November, actually) that I can't WAIT to tell you more about. It's really that terrific, and really does require all those adjectives. I'm talking, next-level. Really. I'm going to keep saying "really." It's that good.

From Orange to Blue

...shown with the lights off...



Pale Orange & Yellow (color study) now available.

Glossy

And also glassy, but I took these pictures before that happened.

I will list this in my Etsy shop tomorrow, Wednesday.

Phi Interruption

Remember when I said that Nova Palette was my new favorite piece from Interrupt?


Well... I think I'd like to revise my previous statement. Cause this one is pretty freakin' rad. It's called Phi Palette.

Up for me this week: Working on a book, (heh, that sounds cool every time I say it) working on an interview about Sand Artists that I get to participate in, learning more about international shipping, getting Luminary and Wisdom ready to meet their new family, and initial planning of 6 small paintings to send to 2 different gallery locations in New York!

[and I haven't even had coffee yet!]

Gravity . 11x14 inches . 2008

It's drawing you in...

1. natural light
2. artificial light
3. artificial and UV light combined
4. UV light only
5. no light (it glows in the dark!)

Ingredients: acrylic, beach sand, phosphorescent pigments, varnish, water & light on canvas.

Woo!

The full listing of Gravity with all 5 images is in my Etsy shop.

Enlightenment . 24x30 inches . 2008

1. natural lighting
2. artificial lighting
3. artificial and UV lighting combined
4. UV lighting only
5. no light (glow in the dark)
(sidenote: the glow is so bright that it lights up our entire living room.) :o)

Ingredients: acrylic, beach sand, finely ground glass, phosphorescent pigments, varnish, water & light on canvas.

It's taken a long time to get here, and I can't honestly say that I'm satisfied to call it done. On the other hand, I think it takes a maturity (that I don't really have) to know when to let it go. This in itself intrigues me, and I've decided that I'm willing to try. Anything more would be too much.

The good news is, I have the freedom to explore this concept again in the future, if it seems important to me to do so at the time. What I would be painting would be "Enlightenment," not a particular color or shape. I have no idea what enlightenment will look like to me in a few years.

This is what it looks like to me right now.

It's based off of a Zen Teaching that I read years ago in a book on Japanese Gardens. It struck me at the time, and made sense to me in a way that I can only describe as profound.

Enlightenment is like
The reflection of the moon
on water
The moon does not get wet
The water is not separated.

It's difficult for me to say much more than that.

One of the happy accidents that I love most about this painting is the subtle "aged" look that occurred naturally and that I enhanced because it was the right thing to do. I had initially wanted a smooth, glassy, water-like feel to the piece, but as time progressed, so did my intentions for the finished painting. I wanted to add "time" to it, painted time, painted to show the slow, constantly winding path we all take throughout our lives, inching ever closer to enlightenment.

The most interesting lesson I learned from this painting is that I don't think I'll ever be finished with it. :o)

Either way, here's the official listing in my Etsy shop.

I'm super excited about this particular "version" though. Perhaps I say that about most of my paintings, because the entire reason I make them is because *I* enjoy it. If I wasn't personally excited about it, you probably wouldn't ever see it, because I wouldn't really want to show you. The truth is, I'm painting for me.


P.S. So, I've been thinking of doing another walk-through installation piece..................

Color Backlash

As always happens when I finish a painting, somehow, mysteriously, my next painting ends up being a direct contrast of colors to my previous painting. It's like my brain needs to balance. The last painting I finished is a very soothing, cool, teal&blue&white extravaganza. (Which I'm not *entirely* finished with because I can't seem to stop fine-tuning it, even though I officially debuted it to my friends at a party last weekend.) (Although I promise to finish it today and try to get final pictures up tomorrow.) (But if I keep talking in parenthesis, then it doesn't really commit me to anything.) (ha.)

ANYWAY.


What I'm saying is: Orange. And Yellow. Obviously. It had to be that way. Orange&yellow&purple, actually.


Bright, neon looking purple, just like these orchids, which somehow my best girl just psychically knew I was planning to use anyway when she randomly gifted me with this incredible plant yesterday. [How did she know???? I only began the orange yesterday morning.]

I love starting new paintings. :o)