It's already Thanksgiving week! I cannot believe how fast time is flying by! Last week was a good one. Together with another artist friend, we put down a deposit on a retail space to sell our art and other creations. So if you are in Albuquerque after December 1st, come visit us at our 'Collectors Corner' in the "Las Tienditas or Little Shops on the Rio Grande". This is a cool little shopping mall on Rio Grande Rd. just north of Old Town Albuquerque at the intersection of Indian School Rd. and Rio Grande. We have been talking about this venture for some time and finally found the perfect spot! Not only is it already an established business location, but it is in a great location. Anyway, come do your Christmas shopping, or just stop by and check it out.
This is a short week for the guys in my life, looking forward to seeing my family this weekend. My dad, brother and his wife are coming up to visit. I love this time of year! The best part about this year is, my boys are all here with me this year! Anyway, lots of work to get done in half the time this week, so I'd better get to it!
Monday, November 21, 2005
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Back in a Gallery
I just dropped six of my latest paintings off at the Third Moon Gallery in Corrales, New Mexico. It has been a couple of years since I have shown any of my work in a gallery, so I'm very excited about it. Third Moon Gallery is a wonderful place...old adobe house, quintessential New Mexico gallery. I will post the new paintings here, but please visit the gallery if you can to see them in person! Actually, I think I'll just post three of the six here for now. These are oil paintings on canvas, I call these the Spiral Sun Series.
Spiral Sun Series #1
20 inch square
Spiral Sun Series #5
12 inch square
Spiral Sun Series #6
20 inch square
Spiral Sun Series #120 inch square
Spiral Sun Series #512 inch square
Spiral Sun Series #620 inch square
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Art Story: 1992
On to 1992!
This was a difficult year in my life that I would rather forget. With that said however, this is something I need to get out so that I can move on to the future! I can easily say that the best thing to happen during this year was the birth of my youngest son Nathan in November.
I'm going to make this a quick rehash, because it was not a year I like to remember!
In a nutshell, (maybe a little longer)
January; evicted from our house with nowhere to go; moved across Tennessee to McMinnville to live in a gutted out mobile home with NO indoor plumbing or anything else for that matter;
February; found out I was pregnant with my third son; terrible morning sickness probably caused by the fact that I had to empty out the porta potty everyday!
March-June; husband continued to stubbornly go out selling my prints rather than getting a job that could actually support us; sales of art barely fed us; luckily the landlord felt sorry for us and didn't charge us any rent for the gutted out mobile home (particle board floors!); finally had running water after husband figured out (after my bugging him for months) that it would only cost $30 for the town to hook up the water line! Talk about living like hillbillys!! This is where I worked on my first series of Native American drawings, I wanted out of this place and figured the only way out was to make some great art! My 'Little Dancer Boy', 'Brave on Horse', 'Mother and Papoose', Woman Dancer', 'Sitting Bull' and 'Bronc' came out of this period. We took a trip in May to New Mexico to sell these prints and blew the engine on the car! He ended up staying with his parents for a month in Las Cruces while it was being fixed! I went back to Tennessee to relieve my brother of babysitting duty and spent the month having to walk into town (about 2 miles) to go to the store and use the phone because we didn't have a phone or a second car! Picture a pregnant woman walking down the side of a rural country road with a 6 year old and a one year old, carrying shopping bags. I could only carry a couple of bags with help from my oldest son because my one year old couldn't walk that far and I had to carry him too! So, we had to go every couple of days.
June; thanks to my husband's wonderful business practices, a man showed up at the trailer from Clarksville, TN to collect money owed by my husband; since we were broke, he took some of my original drawings; sheriff showed up to arrest my husband for a couple of bad checks written for food and gas on the premise that there would be money to cover them; He always did count his chickens before they hatched! So, rather than take care of the problem, we hit the road!
July; It took me a month to convince my husband that we should just give up and go back to New Mexico where we had family to help us out. We lived in the car for that month, renting cheap motel rooms when we had the money, sleeping in rest areas when we didn't. By this time I was 6 months pregnant and hadn't seen a doctor yet! So I finally called my dad to borrow the money to get us across the country to New Mexico and home we went!
August; Finally back in New Mexico, found an old mobile home for rent that we could afford, husband finally found a job! I thought I was in heaven in this 2 bedroom 12' x 50' trailer, after living in the gutted one! This place actually had linoleum and carpet AND indoor plumbing; I didn't care that it was 30 years old! It's amazing what you can live with when you are depressed and beaten down!
September-November; depressed and pregnant I spent most days watching tv; November 6th my beautiful youngest boy, Nathaniel was born; Unfortunately, he had to be kept in ICU for a week because of respiratory problems (probably from lack of prenatal care!) So I spent the week traveling back and forth to the hospital to see/feed him. The funny part of all this was that Nate was born weighing in at 9lbs 10 oz. so he looked like a giant compared to all the little premie babies in ICU! They had a hard time finding an icubator head cover that would fit him!
December; The year ended on an ok note with Christmas being spent with family and friends.
So, in a huge nutshell, that was 1992! whew!
Next up, 1993.
This was a difficult year in my life that I would rather forget. With that said however, this is something I need to get out so that I can move on to the future! I can easily say that the best thing to happen during this year was the birth of my youngest son Nathan in November.
I'm going to make this a quick rehash, because it was not a year I like to remember!
In a nutshell, (maybe a little longer)
January; evicted from our house with nowhere to go; moved across Tennessee to McMinnville to live in a gutted out mobile home with NO indoor plumbing or anything else for that matter;
February; found out I was pregnant with my third son; terrible morning sickness probably caused by the fact that I had to empty out the porta potty everyday!
March-June; husband continued to stubbornly go out selling my prints rather than getting a job that could actually support us; sales of art barely fed us; luckily the landlord felt sorry for us and didn't charge us any rent for the gutted out mobile home (particle board floors!); finally had running water after husband figured out (after my bugging him for months) that it would only cost $30 for the town to hook up the water line! Talk about living like hillbillys!! This is where I worked on my first series of Native American drawings, I wanted out of this place and figured the only way out was to make some great art! My 'Little Dancer Boy', 'Brave on Horse', 'Mother and Papoose', Woman Dancer', 'Sitting Bull' and 'Bronc' came out of this period. We took a trip in May to New Mexico to sell these prints and blew the engine on the car! He ended up staying with his parents for a month in Las Cruces while it was being fixed! I went back to Tennessee to relieve my brother of babysitting duty and spent the month having to walk into town (about 2 miles) to go to the store and use the phone because we didn't have a phone or a second car! Picture a pregnant woman walking down the side of a rural country road with a 6 year old and a one year old, carrying shopping bags. I could only carry a couple of bags with help from my oldest son because my one year old couldn't walk that far and I had to carry him too! So, we had to go every couple of days.
June; thanks to my husband's wonderful business practices, a man showed up at the trailer from Clarksville, TN to collect money owed by my husband; since we were broke, he took some of my original drawings; sheriff showed up to arrest my husband for a couple of bad checks written for food and gas on the premise that there would be money to cover them; He always did count his chickens before they hatched! So, rather than take care of the problem, we hit the road!
July; It took me a month to convince my husband that we should just give up and go back to New Mexico where we had family to help us out. We lived in the car for that month, renting cheap motel rooms when we had the money, sleeping in rest areas when we didn't. By this time I was 6 months pregnant and hadn't seen a doctor yet! So I finally called my dad to borrow the money to get us across the country to New Mexico and home we went!
August; Finally back in New Mexico, found an old mobile home for rent that we could afford, husband finally found a job! I thought I was in heaven in this 2 bedroom 12' x 50' trailer, after living in the gutted one! This place actually had linoleum and carpet AND indoor plumbing; I didn't care that it was 30 years old! It's amazing what you can live with when you are depressed and beaten down!
September-November; depressed and pregnant I spent most days watching tv; November 6th my beautiful youngest boy, Nathaniel was born; Unfortunately, he had to be kept in ICU for a week because of respiratory problems (probably from lack of prenatal care!) So I spent the week traveling back and forth to the hospital to see/feed him. The funny part of all this was that Nate was born weighing in at 9lbs 10 oz. so he looked like a giant compared to all the little premie babies in ICU! They had a hard time finding an icubator head cover that would fit him!
December; The year ended on an ok note with Christmas being spent with family and friends.
So, in a huge nutshell, that was 1992! whew!
Next up, 1993.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Still working on 1992
I'm still working on 1992, but it has proved to be fairly difficult because it all came flooding back and there was a lot happening! Most of it bad!
Thank God it's all in the past! Thank God that my current husband wants nothing to do with my art business, because he has his own goals and ambitions! Thank God we own our home (not a trailer!) and I don't have to deal with landlords anymore! Thank God I got away from my first husband! Thank God I don't have small children anymore! I'm sure there are many other things I am thankful for......Thank God!
It is good to look back at the past and see where all the lessons were learned....and be happy that I don't ever have to go there again!
I've definitely learned to appreciate all the good in my life now....it wasn't too long ago that there wasn't much good to appreciate!
And how can I forget....Thank God for giving me my art to get me through it all!!
Thank God it's all in the past! Thank God that my current husband wants nothing to do with my art business, because he has his own goals and ambitions! Thank God we own our home (not a trailer!) and I don't have to deal with landlords anymore! Thank God I got away from my first husband! Thank God I don't have small children anymore! I'm sure there are many other things I am thankful for......Thank God!
It is good to look back at the past and see where all the lessons were learned....and be happy that I don't ever have to go there again!
I've definitely learned to appreciate all the good in my life now....it wasn't too long ago that there wasn't much good to appreciate!
And how can I forget....Thank God for giving me my art to get me through it all!!
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Working on 1992
So, I figured I'd write another blog before I finish the 1992 entry. 1992 was a particularly difficult year to live through, much less rehash!
I suppose it will be good for me to get all my past out of my head and on to the blog, but once I started writing about 1992 I realized that the only good thing about it was the birth of my youngest son, Nathan. Even that wasn't exactly a good thing at the time. I love him to death, but the circumstances surrounding his birth were not good. One other good thing to happen was moving back to New Mexico.
Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to write my art story! It is impossible at times in the past to separate my personal story from my art story, so it may take longer than originally planned to finish.
Maybe I should just let the past stay in the past! Although, I believe it would shed alot of light on the person I am now to share where I came from and what I've been through. I just didn't expect it to be so hard to do! Time has healed most of my old wounds and life is wonderful now, so I should be able to approach it in a detached manner.
I may just condense the years 1992-1995 into one blog as they were the hardest years of my life. Why relive all that crap? I'll have to think about it a little while.
I suppose it will be good for me to get all my past out of my head and on to the blog, but once I started writing about 1992 I realized that the only good thing about it was the birth of my youngest son, Nathan. Even that wasn't exactly a good thing at the time. I love him to death, but the circumstances surrounding his birth were not good. One other good thing to happen was moving back to New Mexico.
Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to write my art story! It is impossible at times in the past to separate my personal story from my art story, so it may take longer than originally planned to finish.
Maybe I should just let the past stay in the past! Although, I believe it would shed alot of light on the person I am now to share where I came from and what I've been through. I just didn't expect it to be so hard to do! Time has healed most of my old wounds and life is wonderful now, so I should be able to approach it in a detached manner.
I may just condense the years 1992-1995 into one blog as they were the hardest years of my life. Why relive all that crap? I'll have to think about it a little while.
Friday, November 04, 2005
My Art story: 1991
I have been contemplating my art story for several months, even years! Today, one of the artist blogs that I read regularly talked about the ultimate story. She talked about how, as an artist, YOU are the ultimate story. So, I am finally going to tackle that subject! I've decided to start with the beginning of my art career and write about one year per day. Today is dedicated to 1991!
March 1991 to be exact. But first, a little background. According to my mom, I started drawing as a child, but doesn't everyone draw as a child? My memory of being an artist goes back to 9th grade and my first real art class. From that year on, I took every art class available at my high school. I wanted to major in commercial art in college. However, in my junior year I gave birth to my first son, Bryan, and my life took an unexpected twist. I dropped out of high school in my senior year, because I was married with a baby, my husband joined the army and ended up stationed in Hawaii! That move put a slight hold on my school plans. So,.....back to 1991!
While my bio states that I have always been an artist, March 1991 is when I started seriously considering a career as an artist. I was 21 years old and going to school to become a CAD drafter. My oldest son, Bryan, was 5 years old and my second son, Jeff, was 7 months old. All I really wanted was to be a stay at home mom. As is usually the case, money prevented that from happening. I was working the graveyard shift at the front desk of the Comfort Inn. Most nights I sat and watched TV in the lobby. One night, I sat through an infomercial for Tony Robbins.(I know, pretty funny, huh?) Being the person I am, I thought to myself, I don't need to buy some guy's book to know what I need to do. So that night I decided to start using my dead time at work for drawing. It had been some time since I had worked on my art. Many factors played into this...my husband told me my work sucked for one! Not to mention I had been up to my eyeballs in diapers and baby puke for some time.
The first drawing I did was of a covered bridge in Kentucky near where we lived at the time. I had postcards printed and my husband started selling them to people at his job in a local convenience store. Don't remember how it all came about, but he hooked me up with the local Historical Society and I started doing drawings of all the local historical homes, churches and buildings. I participated in the local historic homes tour, selling matted prints and postcards. Out of that tour came many commissions for local homes and churches. I eventually left my drafting classes to pursue my art (encouraged to do so by my drafting teacher!). After seeing how well my art was selling, my husband decided to quit his job as well. He became my sales rep and changed his view of my work! I also did some drawings of Civil War Generals, which were very popular in the south. I enjoyed more than anything, researching the history of the south and the Antebellum architecture. Beginning in this year, my husband went out on the road to sell my prints to shops in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia. During this time, I spent my days at home with the boys, drawing whenever I could fit it in. At this point all my art was done in pencil. I had worked in watercolor in the past, but still didn't feel confident enough in my abilities.
Next up, 1992!
March 1991 to be exact. But first, a little background. According to my mom, I started drawing as a child, but doesn't everyone draw as a child? My memory of being an artist goes back to 9th grade and my first real art class. From that year on, I took every art class available at my high school. I wanted to major in commercial art in college. However, in my junior year I gave birth to my first son, Bryan, and my life took an unexpected twist. I dropped out of high school in my senior year, because I was married with a baby, my husband joined the army and ended up stationed in Hawaii! That move put a slight hold on my school plans. So,.....back to 1991!
While my bio states that I have always been an artist, March 1991 is when I started seriously considering a career as an artist. I was 21 years old and going to school to become a CAD drafter. My oldest son, Bryan, was 5 years old and my second son, Jeff, was 7 months old. All I really wanted was to be a stay at home mom. As is usually the case, money prevented that from happening. I was working the graveyard shift at the front desk of the Comfort Inn. Most nights I sat and watched TV in the lobby. One night, I sat through an infomercial for Tony Robbins.(I know, pretty funny, huh?) Being the person I am, I thought to myself, I don't need to buy some guy's book to know what I need to do. So that night I decided to start using my dead time at work for drawing. It had been some time since I had worked on my art. Many factors played into this...my husband told me my work sucked for one! Not to mention I had been up to my eyeballs in diapers and baby puke for some time.
The first drawing I did was of a covered bridge in Kentucky near where we lived at the time. I had postcards printed and my husband started selling them to people at his job in a local convenience store. Don't remember how it all came about, but he hooked me up with the local Historical Society and I started doing drawings of all the local historical homes, churches and buildings. I participated in the local historic homes tour, selling matted prints and postcards. Out of that tour came many commissions for local homes and churches. I eventually left my drafting classes to pursue my art (encouraged to do so by my drafting teacher!). After seeing how well my art was selling, my husband decided to quit his job as well. He became my sales rep and changed his view of my work! I also did some drawings of Civil War Generals, which were very popular in the south. I enjoyed more than anything, researching the history of the south and the Antebellum architecture. Beginning in this year, my husband went out on the road to sell my prints to shops in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia. During this time, I spent my days at home with the boys, drawing whenever I could fit it in. At this point all my art was done in pencil. I had worked in watercolor in the past, but still didn't feel confident enough in my abilities.
Next up, 1992!
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