Layers

It's not the best picture...it's so hard to show the delicacy of a letter transparency. I printed the letter (to my Grandma from her mother) on tracing paper. I'm learning that matte medium DOES NOT work well for everything (duh), I know. But it is like liquid gold. Now I am finally figuring out the joys of a glue stick. Who knew? Also, spray adhesive is pretty darn awesome as well, just make sure you have good ventilation (cough, cough).
I'm reading a little gem right now called "Steal Like an Artist" by Austin Kleon. It's a good read. I mean, it's true there is nothing really "new" out there. I find things I like and then figure out how they made them and then.....make them my own, meaning, my art, my drawing, my letters in my personal collection, you make it personal. You make it yours.

It's Been Awhile

just a few works in progress

Folks, I have been busy.
I have a new job starting in the fall teaching art at the elementary level and I am THRILLED.
I have a few workshops that I am teaching and very excited about.
My foot has stopped hurting.
I've scored some of the most beautiful goals in soccer in my WHOLE 40 odd years. Yes.
And although, I am allergic to spring (all of it). It's almost over.
It's almost summer.
I am content.

If you get a chance, do yourself a favor and listen to This American Life's latest show. The first story about a young man crossing the country and asking people what advice they would give to their 23 year old self is powerful, moving and inspiring.

Bright Tree

This is a little bright for me but kind of working outside of my color comfort zone. I've got a lot going on right now, hopefully some good change.

Last night, I complained to my husband that I was NEVER going to make it to the Olympics.
"In what?", he asks. (A good question).
"Oh, I don't know, running, swimming, anything! Because I can't get the pain in my foot to stop. It's this messed up nerve thingy. And I've done all of the PT, the three months-no running, no soccer, strength training, icing, Motrining (yes, it's a verb with me), all of that and still sheer pain will strike me like lightning. AND I am never going to make it to the Olympics!"

He laughs, "Oh, well, yeah, that's the reason you aren't going to make it. That makes perfect sense."

Dig In

Notes Under the Pillow



"B" is for Beth and for busy. (this is from one of my 6th grade art lessons)


I was very close with my grandparents. My Grandma Ruth lived with us and my other two grandparents were always under 90 minutes away. I miss them every day. There are times when it literally kills me that my grandfather can't see what beautiful children I have and how much they would make him laugh. And that my Grandma Ruth isn't able to gently implore my kids over and over to "Be good to your mother." just like she did to us. Grandma Gen can't spoil my children with "under the bed presents" and my kids don't leave a note under her pillow every visit just like I did. (Kind of wish she had kept some of those).
The narrative, our/my story, it's in my head but memory is fleeting. And I am find that if I don't write it down, I will forget, no matter how hard I try. Even the things, I think I will NEVER forget, I do. And life, has gotten easier in so many ways but also busier too. I have a little word document for each child that I have written down random, wonderful, eye rolling, ethereal and amazing things that they have done and said. But I recently realised that a lot of their history has been on here, an "album" of sorts, a scrapbook, if you would. My art, my thoughts, my family, our stories.
My uncle once commented that a blog is a very "sign on your lawn" kind of thing. And well, it is, but I can't tell you how much I enjoy going back and reading my entries from just a few years ago. I am, in sorts, saving the notes under the pillow.

Friday

quilting papers together

my son making collage monsters

leaving the inn

this is the Inn where we had out wedding reception-it wasn't abandoned at the time

tree on my "jog/walk" from over two weeks ago

my sister's handiwork

So the flu has turned into this week long headache/sinus thing that it driving me absolutely bonkers. I'm not a nap person (although, I can say they are nice every once in awhile) but that is all I have felt like doing for days now. In fact, I took a nap last night after work for 30 minutes, a nap yesterday on the couch for 90 minutes and a nap the day before that for like 2 hours....this could be left over from the flu right? I'm going to have some energy......someday........man, I hope so. This has also seemed like the longest winter ever. I'm actually looking forward to Spring. I even have my allergy meds stocked up.

Fluuuuuuuuu

this old print of mine is exactly how I feel

soooooo....I have the flu. Type B that is. I'll bet you didn't know there even was a type A and type B, well, I didn't. Seems appropriate that I didn't get type A flu though (get it?).

I dragged my chill ridden, raw throated, appetite lacking, cough hacking self to the doctors and they swabbed my nose as if they were doing a brain biopsy. Poor nose started bleeding and I started crying-what is it about being sick that makes me so emotional? So, you have the flu, my doctor says. At least he was really handsome and funny about it, also comforting because he said he got this flu too even though he had gotten the vaccine. So it's not entirely my fault for not having gotten the flu vaccine this year. Everyone else in my family did though, of course. I dragged my three kids on a Friday afternoon through a drenching, pouring thunderstorm into the germ infested doctor's office just to get the flu mist in December. But me, nope, didn't get one because my doctor's office was out of them.
It's day four and my butt hurts from half sitting and laying on it.
Thought I'd get up today and do some dishes (I know sounds like fun right?), dropped my favorite mug and broke it. Ran upstairs and went back to bed.

And now I am on like day 6? (who knows). I am better but still feel really, really funky. The only kind of flu that I have had before was the stomach kind and you know when that's over, when you can finally keep food down. I have the feeling that I am just going to have to take it easy for awhile.

white ink

I've found that I love, love, love HOT press watercolor. Duh, how have I not figured this out sooner. And, I finally found a white pen that works!! It's a UniBall Signo UM-153. I've just been experimenting lately. I'm also enjoying Derwents' Graphitint pencils with a little bit of color. I've been busy writing actually and working on some other projects so this blog has been neglected. But I guess not having time to post ain't so bad really. More later.

I Love You

by Sara Teasdale

When April bends above me And finds me fast asleep, Dust need not keep the secret A live heart died to keep. When April tells the thrushes, The meadow-larks will know, And pipe the three words lightly To all the winds that blow.  Above his roof the swallows, In notes like far-blown rain, Will tell the little sparrow Beside his window-pane. O sparrow, little sparrow, When I am fast asleep, Then tell my love the secret That I have died to keep.

Reality Studio

works in progress

again....progressing.......

I once heard that if an artist's studio isn't messy then there isn't much getting done in there.
I also heard that you should never trust anyone who doesn't drink coffee.
And that if you flush ice cubes down your toliet, it will snow.
Also heard recently that I am the best Mom evr. (I'm really liking that award).

All the Right Things About Instagram

Norse the Rabbit.

old barn I run by (ok-jog)

student made snowflake hanging throughout my classroom

warm cup of coffee

one of my wonderful 7th graders made this necklace for me

Glass Haus-Charlottesville

reading at our local library

my kiddo drawing on my Promethean board on my workday-brought the kids with since Grandma was sick. They never complain about having to spend time in my ART ROOM, one of the perks.

So one of the things I was so excited about when I got my grubby middle aged hands on my iPhone was to immediately download Instagram. So that I could take pictures for.....for.......well, basically myself. My Instagram is simply moments I want to remember, every day moments, like a year in pictures/snapshots.

But I have come to the realization that with all of these cool internet tools, I'm using them like cro-magnon man used the wheel......LOOK everybody, it can roll down the hill! So, alas, I use Instagram for just one purpose......I take the picture when that little thought bubble comes up to the top of my brain....."I'd like to remember this." Snap. And put a nifty little filter on it. Voila.

(Also,  I just found out via my students, that kids aren't really using Facebook anymore, they are using Instagram. And they are not using it for posting pictures of old barns and bunnies.)
  
My husband and I just did our own version of an After School Special (if you're too young to remember those 4pm beauties then you are definitely reading the wrong blog, by the way (see how I spelled that out-old school, man......oh wow. ). We found our son using Instagram to....to.....post pictures of his new snowboard (ok, cool), a picture about a spoon attacking him (oh, he's ready for middle school), and to talk to A GIRL. All of a sudden, it's a whole new world. So, we had the talk about internet safety, responsibility, like how everything you put out there is written in Sharpie and not Crayola Washable and not to post anything you wouldn't want your mother seeing.....etc. AND, we made him let me "follow" him, cause, oh yeah, this mom is friending her kids and "following" them too. And then, they will friend and follow me......because I just know that my son wants artfully filtered pictures of cups of coffee and pics of his sister at the library. But I see it like this, your mother loves you and she will remind you and she will embarrass you sometimes too but there's no special filter that will bring back your youth and I intend to capture it and keep it and maybe sometimes post it.....and I'll follow you forever, that's a promise.

Zippy

okay, okay, it's cool, it is

 All right....all right.....all right....ONCE upon a time I was 29 years old, cute and on the lower end of the BMI healthy range and living in the city. I lived with my fiance (now my husband) in a 1200 square foot apartment in Cleveland Park, Washington DC where our rent was as much as our mortgage on a four bedroom home is now. We drank coffee from the local bean shop and took strolls down Connecticut Avenue. Went for runs through Rock Creek park (unbeknownst to me and unfortunately right past poor Chandra Levy, yes, sigh) We named the giraffes in the National Zoo, I called the baby Zippy and claimed him as MINE. The Uptown theater was right across the street, we always sat in the balcony, a movie there is an experience. We had parquet flooring, a window the size of our wall, a view of the National Cathedral, an envelope sized kitchen with classic black and white tiled floor. But nothing about my life there looked like this. Okay, I do realize this puts me in the 40 year old mother of three, once an Indie hipster gal turned domestic who is apparently jealous of twenty/thirty something creative WONDER couples, with no kids, and copious amounts of unfiltered creativity that they apparently have on tap. I know, but I am sure, sure, sure, sure some of you know exactly what I am talking about and you are quietly fist pumping our abilities to not buy into the pink clear glass vase look and arranging our books into pastel color families that would mean constant vigilance to keep pristine, ordered and unbroken in our households. I can't help it, it's ridiculous. Whew, I feel better now.

Actually, I very rarely visit sites these days that make me feel that someone else is living better, cooler, hipper.....who needs it. (which brings me to my Pinterest worries... I get this feeling that people are using it to make themselves feel bad, defeated that they aren't making cute paper organizers out of leftover pizza boxes, sprayed in metallic....oh, you get the idea-this Pinterest thing is a whole other post...)

I recently took my daughter into DC to go to the zoo. We scooted through the animal exhibits, even viewing a chest beating show from a huge gorilla (which was really really cool), but, sigh,  no giraffes. They weren't there anymore, perhaps they too decided to head to the suburbs.

It's not that you have to give up the things you love when you become a parent or enter into a relationship but it does change. The pastel paper thin vases balanced precariously on the mantel turn into family photos, the glasses, sippy cups. And it's all good, it's not going to be featured over at Design Sponge but that's okay with me........I used to have a giraffe and nothing is better than that.

WInter Pics

when little miss does this with her teeth, we call it bunny teeth-appropriately

South Street Inn in Charlottesville

Do the Work With Joy

Just lost this entire post one minute ago.......a few witty paragraphs lost into cyberspace. Ugh...so this is going to be it for now......here is some art........enjoy.

Kodaslide

From Don Draper of Mad Men:

Nostalgia - it's delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, "nostalgia" literally means "the pain from an old wound." It's a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn't a spaceship, it's a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards... it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called the wheel, it's called the carousel. It let's us travel the way a child travels - around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know are loved. 

I think that absolutely sums up the art that I make and why I make it. The Kodaslide compartment index above is a copy from the one I found in my parent's Kodak Carousel. I can't use the original. I'm not entirely happy with the collage above but I feel like if I don't push through and just make things, good or bad, it's just like I've gotten off the darn carousel. So here's to getting back on and going back home again.
Happy New Year!

Quiet Thought

I haven't meant to be off the blog for so long but everyone needs a break sometimes. Also, there is the little fact that each member of my family has been falling to the 103 degree fever throughout the past two weeks. I am the last to fall. Christmas has been nice. The book ending kid birthdays on the 20th and the 30th just adds to the chaos.

I've also been quiet as I have been processing a lot from the Newtown school tragedy. As a parent, I am heartbroken but as a teacher I am doing so much more.....on the Monday after, I found the key to my supply closet in the art room. I sadly, checked to make sure it worked. It does. I calculated how many of my kids I could fit in there. I promptly fell apart. I have never wanted people to understand more that  teachers keep your kids safe everyday, we love them, we think about them even when we aren't teaching them, we open up new worlds for them, we are responsible for them when they are not with you, when they are with us they are our students. My husband texted me that Friday about the shootings during my last class of the day. I snuck over to the computer and looked up the news, turning the screen so my students couldn't see. As I read the unbelievable, I looked out at my sixth graders and gave each one of them a hug in my heart. And I pretended like nothing was going on. In my room, they were so busy being 11 and 12. I knew when they went home that day and saw the tears in their parents' eyes, they would have to grow up a little bit. I took that mental snapshot right before....

Hug a teacher today doesn't even dent the ice but it was nice to see the banner hanging in Newtown. I have never been more sad for these families who I do not know, or more proud of the teachers I do know and the ones in every school, everywhere. It will take more time to heal. I hope in this new year the families find some peace and some quiet thought. My heart is with you.

Tub

So busy with the holidays and two birthdays. Can't stop taking pictures with the new phone. Love, love, love this new tool. (A nice warm bath.....ahhhhh.....)

Fall Seven Times Get Up Eight

my bluebird of happiness.....come perch on my porch again.....soon.

Oh where, oh where, do I start......let's first start with learning one's lessons the REALLY hard way.

(Note:Last year, I went gluten free as suggested by my doctors because one does not argue with lab results that state you are 500 times over the normal limit for normal people  (something, something etc. etc. etc.) in your body...well, except that I did argue it for two years but I have already rode that horse into town so let's move on. So, I have been so very, very, very, happy to be healthy again after getting rid of those pesky gooey things called gluten protein in my diet. Yes, I even feel better than I ever had before.) 

Problem is, is that when you eliminate something out of your diet and it sneaks back in (cough cough) because you were living the wild life of ordering a cobb salad in a movie theatre (I know, I know) then eating it in the dark.....it comes back with a vengeance, like a Taylor Swift song on steroids. And I did this culinary walk on the wild side, the night before I was about to host Thanksgiving for, oh, about 20 or so people.

So, I spent most of my Thanksgiving evening explaining that I was absolutely not contagious (because if it was, I would have given it to every sucker I know by now, just kidding....a little). It's tough being the hostess who is slowly turning a shade of blue right before you while also stuffing her buttered hand inside a turkey, one can think thoughts, who wouldn't? It wasn't too bad an evening but not being able to help clean up after made me feel bad as my sister's in-laws scrubbed my pots and pans. I know they were happy to do it but it just felt so, childish of me. Weirdest thing was....

I didn't EAT ONE SINGLE thing I made that day....the local, free range, organic (expensive) turkey, the gluten free stuffing, the pumpkin pie custards, the homemade cranberry sauce.....thank goodness I didn't actually make my mashed potatoes because that would have sent me over the edge. There's nothing like being sick during the holidays but the worst is when it is preventable. I mean, I was (am) sick because of my own lack of judgment (a.k.a-stupidity). My sister-in-law, let's just call her a sister, Katie reminded me yesterday, we learn things the hard way so that we don't forget the lesson. Oh, so true.

So I saw this other thought today over at Uncommon Goods, a Japanese saying "Fall Seven Times, Get Up Eight" and it just resonated with me. I don't think I will be falling down again anytime soon. But tis' the season, there will be a lot of sausage balls floating around and various decorated trays with questionnable sprinkles  and I may be tempted but sigh, I'll just stick to the veggie plate and eat it in a well lit area....damn it!

Sheesh

Okay, I have a bunch of collages that are so past their due date so I'm just going to post them so maybe I can move on. Sheesh.

Chocolate Sculpture

Do yourself a favor and watch this. Then go grab some chocolate!

Company

Eagles Nest

Adobe Ideas and iPad Mini

rather rudimentary but hey, it's the first thing I've ever drawn on an iPad AND I drew it with my finger

my four year old daughter Anna's tree (also drawn on the new iPad mini)

So I recently found out through Claudine Hellmuth that she uses Adobe Ideas for a lot of her drawing. I have been desperate to cut out the middle man for some of the art that I do. ANd I am hoping, maybe, I could FINALLY get some new stamp designs over to Emily at StampingBella. (It's been waaaaaaaaay too long and I know I'm on some kind of list over there at this point). So I asked Claudine about her stamps and drawing using a iPad. She loves it.

So my dad the technophile that he is, already has the iPad mini. This weekend,  I loaded up the Adobe Ideas on his iPad. I wasn't sure if I could draw on a pad. And would the mini's screen even be big enough? But alas, it's pretty darn cool. I was impressed. And I didn't have a stylus with me so I drew with my finger but I was really surprised about sensitivity of the pad.

Best of all, it vectorizes your art and you can send it right into Illustrator or Photoshop to tweak!!

I have done so much erasing and redrawing with my simple line drawings, which takes so much time.  Years ago, I used Adobe Streamline but we've come a long way since then baby.......worth waiting for! We'll see. I've got to try the stylus first before I start justify buying the iPad. Regardless, it's fun....fun.....fun......

Simple

During hurricane Sandy, our power actually stayed on. Out here in the western part of our county, we have a lot, I mean, a lot of trees and they come down hard in storms like that. So we had our flashlights, water, a carafe of coffee (yes, I know), non-perishable goods (Doritos), fire logs and wine. I sat and waited for the lights to go out while the kids had their friends over and had a storm party. Me, I sat down and read and made art. No sense in cooking anything. No sense in getting into a movie, because the power was going to go out at any moment. And for me, it was kind of like the perfect storm. I was totally in the "zone". ah, I have missed the zone.

(I also during this time finally figured out how to print on vellum and tracing paper allowing me more transparent layers. Using spray adhesive and card stock. And now, unfortunately for my nose, I figured out that matte Modge Podge is amazing, I couldn't get my papers to glue flat-if I wanted with the matte medium. If only it didn't stink soooo much.)

Glimpses From Halloween

used my lino tools-fun!

goofy

me and my pumpkins

at the pumpkin patch