Officially Old

Inclination part 1,
acylic on canvas,
5x7

Today is my birthday. I never really let birthdays get to me before but for some reason this one has hit me, 45. Usually its the 40th birthday that people dread, but when I was 40 my youngest was only 4 and it didn't bother me at all.

The kids have a nice day for me planned. Today I get to do what ever I want and they clean up and make the meals and tonight a family celebration. So, I probably will be in the studio painting and then relaxing, reading a book on the back deck, a hike in the woods is likely if the tempratures don't get high, a great day, I am very fortunate. I just wish my head wasn't saying, "your officially old now". I guess its time to set some goals for myself and get over this self indugent funk, maybe I'll try to run a marathon!

My Information

the shift,
acrylic on canvas,
18x24

My daughter arrived home safely from her Florida vacation looking like a tanned goddess and sharing stories of her adventures. She will be leaving in 3 weeks to go back to college and I was so glad the she was able to take some time off of work to relax and enjoy herself.

This summer is going by so fast, before I know it my show will be up. I just got an email from the gallery owner asking for information and photos of my work so that they can start sending out postcards and press releases. I still have about 5 more paintings to finish and I am pleased with how the work is going. The show is titled Mine: images of descent. It was tricky trying to come up with a title that encapsulated the essence of both mine and Mary's work. She is a printmaker whose recent work is all about identity. I have chosen to work totally non-objective, but have gotten my inspiration from photos of old coal mines. The painting that is posted is for the show.

Tanned Camera

I want to post pics of my new work. Things have been going great in the studio. I have 4 complete paintings and 3 in the works and I have been sketching out new ideas. My plans were to photograph my paintings and then get them ready for the show. Well, after searching high and low for the camera, going through my "I know I just had it the other day where could it have gone to" moment, I called my daughter. She is with friends vacationing in Florida (thank God for cell phones or I would have spent my day in a tizzy). She didn't think I would mind if she took the camera, AAHHH. I have visions of the camera laying on the beach getting sand all over it and kids with tanned bodies leaping to catch a frisbee, only to land on the camera. Maybe I am over reacting, OK, I am over reacting. She's a good kid, she took my camera to France last year (after giving her the manditory 1 hour lecture on camera care and maintenance, of course) and the camera came back fine. I just get frustrated when my day get rearranged, which is often, no, in fact, its the norm. I just keep waking up thinking that today is the day that all will go as planned. After 19 years of having children around you would think that I would learn.

It's a Scorcher!!!

Well today is suppose to be 90+ degrees. Its on days like this that I just wilt. Unfortunately this is only the first of 7 straight days of this type of weather. Watching the TV this morning, the only relief in sight is the chance that it may fall into the high 80's next Friday, ugh! I guess we will just try to make the best of it. I live in a very small home 980sq. ft. so it doesn't take long to cool off, if I start early, before the sun has been pounding down for hours. I have a one room air conditioner that is in the playroom/studio and then I put a fan facing out of that room into the kitchen and living room. If I keep the fans going and the windows closed it keeps the house about 80 degrees, and it helps cut the humidity (if the kids keep the front door shut).

I am trying to get more painting done before all the kids get up, a never ending stuggle between housework and artwork. We got in late last night, so I am letting them sleep in. We went to the Lake County Captians baseball game and then out for a bite. I highly recommend seeing a minor league team play. The stadium is much smaller, ticket prices are very reasonable, every seat seemed like a good one, and no lines in the bathrooms!! These young players were a joy to watch, even though our team lost, it was extremely entertaining.

New Work

Untitled
Acrylic on Canvas
18"x24"

I have finished 3 paintings and just started 2 more, thouroughly enjoying each one. Ed Makevich has written an excellent post on letting go of the idea of perfection and allowing oneself the freedom of growing through the process, definately worth reading.

Here I go again, and again, and again

What can I say, I changed my mind, yet again. I got three paintings into what I thought would be a series and lost interest. Not just lost interest, but went totally blank, disengaged, zoned out! I got to wrapped up in adding realistic elements to abstract ideas (an idea that has worked for many artists, but not me).

So, here I go again. I sat down with a scrap book that I had made in college, this old book inspires me. I made it when I was trying to figure out what direction I wanted to go with my work. A very wise and extremely talented professor told me to go through a huge stack of art magazines and pull out the paintings that I liked, then divide them into sections, portraits, still lifes, abstracts......the thickest section, by far, was the non-objective section. My book was filled with paintings by Rothko, Frankenthaler, Pollack...etc. What I had found out is that I love non-objective paintings, I love to look at them, I love to make them and, no matter what, it is the type of art the feeds my soul. So this is where I will happily be spending the rest of my summer studio time.

Started working on the paintings for my new series, here is the beginning of one. I still have a few things to work out but am excited at where I am going. I always try to leave somethings up to "fate" because that is where the wonderful, suprises come from. I find that if I over analyze the process and have every detail thought through then I don't have anyroom for the free flow of other concepts to engage, my mind shuts down to other options. So here is to keeping my eyes open and my mind free.