New Local Art Studio!

A new art studio has just opened on 59th Ave/ Greenway, for those of you who are local. Susan has several classes listed on the new website, including one of mine! I have others to propose and hope all goes well teaching there so I can be a regular instructor there. Check out the new site! My class is scheduled for July 25th. This class is titled "Torn and Stitched: A composition of bits and pieces. This class involved creating transfers, hand sewing and playing with bits and pieces of fabric. It's great to learn how to use up all those little bits that you don't know what to do with! this class will focus heavily on composition and balance... the core structure of any type of artwork. Come join me!

Paintings

text reads: fall upon quietness



Well, as I mentioned, I have been doing watercolor paintings on canvas. It was Toni who told me how she was using this technique. I was at my mom's house today and used her camera to take pictures of the three canvases I have done over the weekend.

exhaustion...

The past several days I have been working like a crazy woman only getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night... not enough for me. This morning, I got up and started working around 9:00 and only stopped to shower and do a haircut mid-afternoon... I stopped working this evening around 7:30. I've got serious muscle tension in my upper back and shoulder as well as my neck. Too many art hours full of intensity, I guess.

Today, I helped the boys finish 2 more softies, mended a Beanie Baby, helped make Beanie Baby super-hero capes, and did two collage pieces as samples for my kids art classes coming up. I now have all my samples and will put a table out at church tomorrow with them and flyers to help promote the classes for July. (I love days when I get to be in pajamas and do art! PJ's are the best art uniform!) I need to get a picture of Max's bird. It's my favorite so far and I can't wait to show it! It's soooo cute!

I also finished a small 5x5 painting that I had started yesterday. I'm kicking myself because I can't remember the name of the artist that prompted this but, she was doing watercolor on canvas. I wrote and inquired about it and she was kind enough to explain her process. It completely fascinated me since watercolor is really my chosen paint medium to work with but doing watercolor is very time consuming and then, when finished, you have to put out money for framing. Anyway, yesterday I decided to try the technique out. It is very different from working on paper as the pigment is not absorbed into the canvas as it is paper but, I really enjoyed it! I will be doing more!!!

I used my computer to take a quick picture... obviously it's a pajama, don't do your hair or make-up day!
The text in the upper corner reads "fall upon quietness".

Well, it's now time to hit the bed. I'm so dead tired.

Just a quick catch up

I have been so busy. Actually, I stay really busy. Trying to piece together an income with two kids under foot amongst just daily errands and such... well, it's just a lot of stuff!

Still no word about any of my stolen items being recovered. I made a flyer and drew diagrams of all my jewelry and am making my way around to pawn shops. I found out that they hold merchandise for THREE months before it ever goes out to the floor so the reality is that my stuff is amongst a massive pile of stuff in a back room waiting to go out to the floor for sale in September in one of the vast number of pawn shops. I ran to 4 different shops today with one kid in tow in less than 25 minutes!!! And that's only 4 on the list! Anyway, you can bet they'll be seeing me again if I don't hear from the police before then.

My friend, Fran, gave me a digital camera to use but I need to get batteries for it. In the meantime, my camera on my computer allowed me to take this picture yesterday:
This is Max with his kitty critter he made! I'm putting together some kids art classes that I'll be teaching during July and one of them is a parent/child class.... how to take a child's drawing and turn it into a softie! This is Max's kitty laying down... it's suppose to be Kenzy, our cat! I think it's so cute! He sewed almost the entire thing himself with just a little help and instruction. It was his first experience with a needle and thread and he did great... and he's now also obsessed. He got in the car today after his summer school class and said immediately, "I want to sew when I get home." And sew he did. He made a little hanging case for my reading glasses and he embrodered a little piece that says "I love you" and I didn't even show him how to do that!!! He also made Sam a fabric wallet as well as a couple of Beanie Baby capes! He has been a busy little bee. Now Sam has decided he wants to learn too! LOL! Sam has drawn out his pattern and Max has another drawn up as well. Guess I'll be teaching more sewing over the next couple of days. But boy, does it get really quiet when Max is working on his projects!

I have managed to make 3 little Moo card holders using reclaimed silk necktie fabric. They are really cute. I plan to make several more as well as regular size business card holders to sell at Art Unraveled.

I have been presented with an opportunity to teach some classes at a new weekend art retreat that is planned for a weekend in April in Texas! I'm very honored to have been approached. There are many details that would have to be worked out for me to do this, namely... care for my boys for a few days. But, I think I can farm them out to a few different people. I don't want the burden to fall on my mom the whole time. They are high energy together and she'd be completely worn out having them both that entire time. What would be really great would be someone who just wants to come hang out with them at home for the weekend so Kenzy won't be left out of attention too! Anyone want to volunteer for anything?! :) Anyway, I have to make a decision about moving forward with this quickly because it just happens to be that the deadline to submit classes is the same deadline date for Art Unraveled proposals for 2010 which is Sept. 15th! EEK!

I have someone coming in the morning for a private class to learn to make mixed media fabric postcards. She happens to be someone whom I've not yet met but has also signed up for my class at Art Unraveled in August! I'm looking forward to some time with her tomorrow getting to know her. It will be a fun morning.

I've spent part of the day cleaning my apartment and clearing off one of my art tables to make space for teaching tomorrow morning. I'm almost finished so I'd better go get that done! It's getting late!

Break in....

Well, I won't be able to post pictures again for a long time... someone broke into my apartment yesterday evening just before I got home with the boys and took both mine and Sam's digital cameras as well as all my jewelry of value. They got some cash but didn't find most of it since it was in two different places. They also stole books! Books people!!! The police officer said that most likely, it was some meth addict just looking for things to take for quick money and the used book store is on the corner. Weird, still.... I'm very sad about my jewelry... especially my engagement ring that was Chuck's great grandmother's ring. I have not worn it in months because the prongs needed some repair and I was afraid to lose the diamonds. I've been putting it off because jewelry is a "want" and not a "need"... now it, along with any other jewelry he'd ever given me, is gone. I'm sick about that ring and my camera. What will I do without a camera?!!!!????

I'm so thankful they didn't take my computer... or have time to. and when I got home and realized my arcadia door in my bedroom was open, I immediately looked for Kenzy and am thankful he did not get out. They came in through my bathroom window... broke it out. And, I"m thankful we weren't here.. but I do suspect they were here when we got home and ran out when they heard the key in the locks. Otherwise, the door being opened for long, Kenzy would have been gone.

We spent the night with my mom last night and I actually hauled all my computer equipment along with me, the kids, and the cat! My window got boarded up so now I'm waiting for it to be replaced.

Cleaning up the fingerprint powder is awful! It's greasy! It took 45 minutes to clean up the bathroom today! I'm hoping the prints the police were able to get will turn someone's name up.

I'm thinking that maybe tomorrow and Wednesday, I'll hit some pawn shops and look for my stuff... just in case.

I didn't finish here at the apartment and get to my mom's until after midnight last night and my rear end is dragging right now. I'm thankful my step-dad came and got the boys around 9:00 so they didn't have to be up any later.

Gonna' finish cleaning up the kitchen and go to bed early. Ya'll pray for our protection and that the kids will not be so afraid going to bed. Last night, they were really freaked out.

Whew!

Wow, this week has been the busiest, craziest I've had in months. I'm pretty wiped out on every level. I am anxious to have some days that I can just hang at home and get some work done. Speaking of work.. I mean art. I want to get back to my painting and have even come up with another element that will be added to the swirling storm of a piece... broken windshield glass! I wonder what people thought when they saw me out by the street collecting a giant pile... ya' never know when you'll need it so I now have a stash! ;)

I am feeling so overwhelmed right now. These things are on my plate:
1.)Taking care of my kids, 24/7 alone.. in summer.. no school for help! Although Max going to summer school for a few hours 4 days a week at least insures some peace in the house since Sam has no one to fight with during those times but there is still at least one kid here all the time. Any breaks I get (thanks Mom... you will never know how much!) are usually because I have some meeting or appointment that I can't take the kids to. I would just about die for a whole day at home alone, to do art!
2.) Legal stuff... 'nuff said.
3.) emotional stuff... 'nuff said.
4.) trying to make money working back into the hair industry after being out of it for 10 years.
5.) putting together class proposals for art... and I just got notification that proposals to teach at Art Unraveled for 2010 are due Sept. 15 of this year! Earlier than last and I HAVE to get proposals in for this. It's way too important. For this, you have to turn in not only the proposal for the class but pictures of the sample... so you can just do that over the next year... has to be done before proposing. You are also required to have supply lists complete, hand outs made that students would receive, etc... Let's just say, it's not a one page, one day deal.
6.)I have a vendor table at AU this year in August and HAVE to get some things made to sell... (when?!!!!!)
7.) filling out forms for state and city tax licenses for vendor day at AU
8.) proposing classes locally
9.) And in the meantime, I have found a place here called Fresh Start. It is a Women's Resource Center that offers tons of workshops for free, if you can't afford to pay the usual $5.00 per class... and free child care. And they have women on staff to help you with just about anything under the sun. I have been utilizing their services and I can't begin to tell you how they are helping me with many things I have on my plate right now. This morning, I am going to try out the Saturday Yoga class. They offer tons of workshops on anything from communication, finances, health, job readiness/career advancement, legal information, life skills, personal growth, self-esteem enhancement and support/empowerment groups. They have a beautiful facility and are the only place in the entire country like it. I am incredibly fortunate to have a place like this to go for help.
10.) I have a local art fair coming up in July but I don't see myself being able to get enough things made for that as well as my vendor table at AU. :(

Add all these things in with daily life stuff with kids and there just aren't enough hours in the day. But God is good and faithful. I just get up in the morning and ask for direction for what I need to do THAT day and try not to freak out about the future, how things will work out, how I'll find enough time... how I'll pay my bills, etc... I just can't go there. One day at a time. But it isn't easy. Yet I feel peace.

I also had a friend that told me about a local gallery that she keeps insisting I visit because she believes they'd love my stuff. I need to get over there.. at some point. But then I'm back in the place of finding time to make things to sell there. Argh....

This week, I rode our new light rail for the first time.. and alone! I'm pretty fearful of doing things by myself the first time but I did it and was glad I did. It was so easy and sure beats driving in traffic! And I got a bit of walking in that day and it felt good. I miss my walks terribly but can't go and leave my kids home! So, walking is on the back burner until school starts back. My exercise routine has suffered terribly since they got out of school. I can't do yoga on Tuesday mornings anymore either because of the childcare issue. Sam HATES hiking so going to the mountain isn't in my reality right now either. This past week, I got to my counseling appt. early so I took a 20 minute walk while I could. I have a yoga video that I found at a thrift store but I hate it... it moves too fast. Like aerobic yoga.. sorta' misses the point. I do have a couple of others that I need to try out. It's just so hard to do that with so many interruptions from kids! I'm trying to teach them that a closed door is like that for a reason. Knocking to interrupt is only permitted when blood is involved. They haven't quite gotten that yet. I think a sign needs to be posted on my door.

I played Scrabble with them last night. I've always loved board games and never had anyone to play with. Now they are getting to a great age for them. Sam is going to be a complete whiz with Scrabble. Last night, I had put down jaunt. Well, at his turn, he adds an "ier" to the end. I look at him like he's crazy and told him it wasn't a word. He swore it was and I came to the computer to the Scrabble games on Facebook, that I play all the time. I pulled up the dictionary where you just type in a word and it tells you if it is a valid word or not. Well, it was! He scored 45 points on that word since it landed on a triple word play! He's only 9! I think I'm in trouble... and I love it! LOL!

Well, the critters are crawling out of bed so they day is about to go into full swing quickly. Better run....

Painting progression

Here are the next two phases of my painting, still in progress. Still have a ways to go.