Christmas Eve

The busy Christmas season is almost over. I had my last day at the shop yesterday. We are closing the shop from 12/24 - 1/4 so we can finally enjoy some time off and relax a little. We also plan to do some remodeling during that time. I have even put my Ebay store on vacation settings. After all the hustle and bustle, today is house cleaning day! We have been so busy, we still don't have the house back together after Bryan's move back and the subsequent rearranging of the entire house that followed! Today is the day to reclaim the house!

I had hoped to get Christmas cards out by now, but since I never did have the time, I've decided to send out Happy New Year cards. We still have to take our annual family photo in front of the fireplace, probably today. This will be the first year in a couple that all three boys will be together for Christmas at our house! THAT makes me very happy, doesn't even matter what else happens, only that they will all be here!

My brother and his wife are coming up on Monday for the day. It will be good to see them. We won't see my dad this year until after New Years, he is going back east for Christmas. Better him than me, too much snow back there! We are supposed to have a 60 degree day on Christmas!

I guess that's it for now, I hope to write more later in my vacation. Perhaps I'll continue on with my art story. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!!!

Happy Holidays!

It's that time of year again! There never seems to be enough time to get everything done. I like to complain about time or the shortage of it I've noticed! I wish I could clone myself! Then someone else could perform all the daily mundane tasks that I hate so much. We did finally get our Christmas tree up last week, but I still have to wrap the presents to put under it. Then there are the dishes and housecleaning that keeps piling up on me.

Fortunately, I did finally get some painting time in this week, may even finish a painting by the end of today. I am revisiting the rock landscape series. It has been too long since I worked on them. I love my rocks! People must think I'm nuts! I have my grandmother to thank for the love of rocks. She started me collecting them when I was only 5 or 6 years old.

In other news, my eldest son is moving back in with us! I must admit I am much happier about this than I first thought I might be. He is 19, almost 20 and he spent the last 5 months in his own apartment doing quite well if I say so myself! Until last week when he lost his job. He's going back to school in January, so he's coming home! It was 3 years to the day that he left to live with his dad in Arkansas! It is nice this time though, because he has done A LOT of growing up since then. Another plus, he's already found a new job.

So it's shaping up to be a great Christmas with all three of my boys being here with us! In case I don't get back here before then, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Like I said before....slippin', slippin', slippin'.....

Another week has slipped by and I have been swamped with Ebay orders. My continuing art story is being postponed until I can get caught up with everything. Of course, wouldn't you know it...as soon as I get slammed with Ebay orders....We are supposed to be moving into the new shop space and getting it set up. So, this morning after getting more orders out.....it's back to the shop to get more things moved in and then set up!

What a week it's been! I think it seems more overwhelming because I just had a wonderful, relaxing four day weekend. Thinking I had all the time in the world to get into the shop, until WHAM!, Monday morning I wake up to more work than I expected.

I guess I shouldn't complain, this is a great thing! In fact, just a week ago I was complaining about how slow business was. I guess that's what I get for complaining! The universe has a way have getting back at me for my negative energy. I need to stay positive!

Actually, I'm very happy as I sit here typing this morning. I'm VERY CLOSE to meeting my sales goal for the year....all in all, it has been an awesome year! I have to take this opportunity to thank all of the wonderful people who have supported my artwork this year and made my dream a reality! This was my first year, actually half year, to make a living from my art since 1995! I was able to finally quit the part-time job and devote all of my time to painting and business. I will write more about this awesome goal in the continuation of my art story. Basically, I have finally proved wrong the naysayers from my past....people who told me that I could never do it myself! These people tried to tell me that without them I could never sell my art! Well.....I have now proved you wrong! I can do anything I put my mind to. That feels soooooo good! Great, in fact! I guess I had better get back to work!

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'..........

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!

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

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.

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!!

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.

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!

Another Monday, another month

One more Monday, end of another month! Time flies when you have lots to do.
This is my busy holiday sales month. I hope to have lots of new listings up by the end of the week.

I only have a couple of weeks left to get paintings done for the Third Moon Gallery. I hope to finish the one I'm working on today and start a new one.

Finally done with the open air market for the year. We have our weekends back! yeah!

Not much to blog about today, but my goal is to blog everyday...so there you go!

Peace!

FRIDAY!

Not that it matters, since I have to work thru the weekend as well. Weekends at the outdoor market are fun though. This will be our last weekend out there for this year. The weather keeps getting worse, colder, rainy, etc. Only on Saturday of course!

My cousins from Vermont arrived with their moving truck yesterday. So we spent the afternoon helping them unload the truck. Today I'll be giving a tour of Albuquerque to my cousin who is leaving to go back to Vermont tomorrow. Wish he could stay longer. Oh well.

Not alot to write about today, I have to get some work done before I pick up my cousin at 1:00. Finishing up another spiral abstract painting today,....I hope. I still have alot of detail work to do. I will try to post new paintings by Monday.

Finally figured out how to get the subscription box into my blog! What a pain! So, please sign up to receive email updates whenever I post a new blog!

Until later.......

So I'm middle aged,...who cares!!!!

I think I may have finally recovered from my birthday! LOL! It didn't help things that my dad, brother and oldest son all forgot it! In spite of the fact that I was in a perfectly good mood on my birthday, yesterday was terrible! I was in a crappy mood for most of the day.

I didn't get any painting done, but I did finally manage to get my studio and office clean! I still have filing/organizing to do, but I am pretty proud of myself for cleaning. Not that it was that bad, I'm just way too much of a perfectionist to work like that. In fact, the mess is probably what put me in a bad mood in the first place.

Today has been much more productive, I painted all morning and packed Ebay orders earlier this afternoon.

I am really getting into the new series I'm working on. I have now switched from watercolors to water mixable oils. I can layer the colors better with the oils also the colors are brighter. (Thanks for the suggestion, Carol!) I will post one soon. I have to get several more done by the end of November. I will be showing several paintings in the Third Moon Gallery in Corrales,NM starting then. I hope everyone else loves them as much as I do. I finally feel like I'm painting what is inside of me. I don't know if I can ever go back to what I did before. Of course if these don't sell, I may have to! :( It's hard making a living as an artist, especially when you move on with your art and people want you to keep painting what you did 10 years ago. My problem is I have a hard time sticking to one subject or style. I like to paint what I like, and being that I like a lot of different subjects, it's hard to stay with one thing. Hopefully, my collectors will bear with me. I think this new abstract work is what I've been searching for. MY ART!

Once Aaron and the boys get home however, my work day will be over. My cousin and her family are moving to Albuquerque from Vermont and they arrive today. I promised my aunt that we would help them unload the moving truck. It's pretty wierd having all this family here now. My aunt, great aunt and my cousin's family are all out here now. After growing up out west with all my family back east, I don't quite know how to handle all this family. It should be interesting at the least!

I hope to start blogging more often.....we'll see!

So you say it's your birthday?

Well, it's my birthday too, yeah!

Goodie, Goodie! I have to admit, this is the first year that I'm not very thrilled to be celebrating another birthday. What's to celebrate? I'm another year closer to the grave and I still have so much I want to accomplish with my life. Where have the past 36 years gone? I started seriously working as an artist 15 years ago! I have to remind myself that there was a five year break in there, and it didn't help that my first husband sabotaged my business so I had to start over again 5 years ago. So I guess I should look at the 10 lost years as my training period. I learned ALOT during those 10 years, mostly what NOT to do!

I have to also remind myself that people now look to me for advice on being an artist. There was a time when I had to ask questions of others, now they ask questions of me. My ultimate goal is to be a mentor to young artists just starting out. Mainly because it's hard to find a mentor for myself.

I remember when I was 21 and starting out, I thought 36 was OLD! Now I'm here and I don't FEEL that old. Of course my 89 year old great aunt calls me a spring chicken! Coming from her, I guess that's true. I guess I'm looking forward to what the next 50 years has in store for me. In 5 years I'll be entering another phase of my life..."the empty nest years". I must admit, I'm looking forward to those years! These days I'm very happy that I started having kids when I was too young, because I will still be young when they are grown. Time is just strange.

I may write more later today...I'm still trying to come to terms with my birthday!

Seventh Mountain group

So, last night was the first meeting of the Seventh Mountain artists in over a year. Seventh Mountain is an artist group that I co-founded a couple of years ago. It was one of my projects during the year that all three of my boys were living with their dad in Arkansas. I had to do something to keep myself busy or I would have sunk into a terrible depression. Actually, I did sink into a depression, but the camaraderie of all my artist friends truly helped me through it.

So, once the boys came back, the group just faded away without me to organize and pull everyone together. About a month ago, I went to an opening for one of the members, Ed King, and he asked about the group. "Are you planning to get that going again?" I said I would love to, but I thought, is anyone interested in that actually happening? I sent out an email to gauge interest and found that apparently everyone has just been waiting for me to bring them together. Well, maybe not "waiting", but most old members and a few new ones were excited about getting back together.

Back to the beginning of the blog,....Last night was the first regrouping and it went really well! I was so wound up when we came home that I couldn't sleep and stayed up painting until after 12:30! I cannot even remember the last time I was that motivated to paint! Interestingly enough, during the year that the group was nonexistent, I have had a hard time being motivated. I guess I just needed that connection to the Albuquerque art community. That was the most exciting part of the meeting for me, was all the talk of community and once again discussing the building of a community here in Albuquerque. I guess it's not neccessarily building a community, but bringing together the community that is already here. So maybe now I'm not so anxious to leave town and move off to the mountains to be a hermit! :)

In other news, I finally put up my peace auctions for charity. I have decided that from now on all my peace paintings will have 25% donated to the Peace Corps Fund. I have this dream to join the Peace Corps someday, but until that can actually happen, I will make my contribution with money. Below is a link to the first Peace Corps auction, and it already has a bid!

Charity auction for the Peace Corps Fund

Another busy week

Once again, I have let way too many days go by since my last post. It's hard to decide what to blog about and for some reason I'm afraid to get too personal still. Not sure why....After reading the blogs of a couple of my artist friends, Amy and Chris Schelling, I've decided that I'm just being a wimp! Why not spill my guts here?

So here goes!
The past couple weeks have been crazy around here. I've been trying hard to concentrate on my art work and all the many tasks involved in selling, promoting, etc. During the day, I get plenty of work done, but as soon as 3pm rolls around and the kids and Aaron get home.....forget about it! So, I'm seriously considering moving my studio/office out of the house again. When I moved it back to the house it was because the boys were living with their dad and there was so much extra space, it didn't make sense to pay rent for an outside studio. So now that reasoning doesn't work anymore!
The ultimate dream would be to open an art center with room for other artist's studios, a gallery and a classroom. Don't know if that will happen right away. The hard part is going to be finding a place to rent that we can afford. Hopefully, I can convince an artist friend of mine (JO!)to share a space with me. We've talked about it, but the hard part is getting her to commit to it. The best thing is that Aaron is now interested in getting his own music going again, so he'll need to have a classroom space for private students. So he will be onboard with getting a place.
As with everything I want to do, the biggest issue is money, isn't that always the way?! So.....I'm caught in a catch 22...I know I could make more money if I had an outside studio/shop...but I need money to get the space...but I need the place to make more....etc!
So...if anyone has any suggestions or knows of a place to rent in Albuquerque, NM...please let me know!
Other than that, I've actually made a step towards showing my art in a gallery again. I've shown my new work to 2 different galleries and both said they would be interested in showing my work! Funny, because only a couple weeks ago I was saying I didn't want anything to do with galleries anymore. Of course, it helps that I personally know the owners of both galleries. That made it easier to approach them. I don't know why I have such a hard time with my confidence! Inside I feel like I am meant to be a artist and that someday I WILL be world famous! Why can't I have that attitude on the outside? It was good for me to read Chris' blog for that reason. He's got the outer ego that I need! So I guess I'll just learn from him and try to be more egocentric. Maybe not quite as much as Chris...it's just not my personality...but enough to have confidence in my art.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother writing all this mess. Does anyone even read this??? I guess it would help if I could get an email out to everyone telling them about it! :)

Back to the studio - Again!

Not long after my last post, I got a call from the lady running the arts and crafts show at the fair, telling me there was an open space for the last weekend of the fair. Sooooo, I spent another weekend at the fair. This time I took my beads and spent my time wisely making jewelry. It was fun and more people bought chokers since I was making them right there. I even gave a couple of knotting lessons!
Now I'm back in the studio again, where I left off. I spent yesterday browsing reference photos for an idea of what I want to paint. I get bored so easily, always on to a new subject. A customer at the fair this weekend pointed out the wide range of subject matter I do, I told her I have a short attention span. The truth is, there is so much out there to paint and I only have so much time on earth! I want to paint everything! I guess I will eventually have to narrow it down a little, but I still haven't found that one thing I love to paint more than anything. Until I do, I'll continue to paint whatever subject catches my attention for the day. So I'm currently on an animal kick (maybe it's the state fair influence!) I painted a bald eagle yesterday and I may do a horse today. Still haven't decided. I've just finished another group of peace paintings, these are the "Peace Wave" series. More abstract, which I like for loosening up after I haven't painted in a while.

Off to paint!

Cleaning the studio

I've been back in the studio for a week now and I'm just getting the place clean enough to work. If only I could KEEP it clean so I don't have to go through this every couple of weeks! Actually, it wasn't all my mess, Aaron just moved his computer back into his studio. So I had to rearrange my computer desk, plus clean up the mess I made getting ready for the fair.

What's truly cool is I just received a FREE flat file cabinet to put all my prints in! It's perfect! So now, between the free cabinet and the $20 cabinet I found at the flea market, I can get organized. The value of these two cabinets if I were to buy them new would be over $2,000! These aren't your regular filing cabinets, these are large size flat files usually used by architects for blueprints, etc. So, no, I don't usually get excited about filing cabinets, but these are something I've been dreaming of for close to 10 years! Up until this point, I've used portfolios and shelves to store my flat paper, art and prints, not to mention the boxes and boxes of prints in the closet! Now I can actually FIND things because I can label each drawer with it's contents. Maybe now I can stay organized!

Pretty funny the things I get excited about! Well, there's still lots of work to be done, and I haven't had time to paint in over a week! I may spend the entire day painting today. Time to get some new originals up on Ebay and my website.

State Fair

I spent the past 5 days (Fri. - Tues) sitting my art booth out at the New Mexico State Fair. It was fun to meet other artists and other people from around the state and even some from out of state. The days were long, the food was expensive, but the atmosphere was festive! I hope to have a booth for the entire fair next year. This year I only had enough money and energy for the first 5 days. There are still 12 more to go before the fair ends. So now I'm finally back to work in my studio. Lots of orders that need to go out, and lots of mess to clean up since the boys were home alone in the evenings while I was there. I was also reminded why I stopped doing arts and crafts type shows. I made my booth fee back, but not much extra, considering all the hours I had to put in, I wonder if it's worth it. While it was lots of fun, it wasn't very profitable. Sometimes, like today, I feel like I'm spinning my wheels, but not getting anywhere. Aaron and I have been talking more lately about opening the Art Center we've always dreamed of. I think we'll start looking for a building in January, once the Christmas season is over. I have at least 4 other artists interested in studio space, so I think it could work. We shall see! Back to work!!!

What can I do???

So after days of shock at the devastation left behind by Katrina, I'm left wondering what I can do to help. I donated what piddly amount we had in savings to the Red Cross, but that just didn't seem enough. What disgusts me is that our Federal Government still hasn't sent aid!
I don't even want to go there, I'm so disgusted!
Anyway, so I decided to put up an auction for one of my paintings and donate 90% of the final sale to the Red Cross for Hurricane relief. Follow the link below to view the auction. I hope I can raise a couple hundred more to donate. Although, I still feel like it's not enough, it's all I can do. That and pray!

my auction for aid

Katrina

Such a horrible tragedy on the Gulf Coast! I don't know what to think except, God, please help all the people get through this! What I really cannot believe is all the looters! What is your problem people????? To take advantage of the misfortune of others, even if you are experiencing misfortune too, is unforgivable! All I can do is pray for the survivors. It's all just sooooo sad.

More Butterflies

So I'm enjoying the Butterfly series...perhaps getting a little carried away?....NO, not possible. I have been researching butterflies for different colors and patterns. There are many incredibly beautiful creatures in nature! So, below are the next four butterflies in the series. I plan on continuing with this series indefinately, I could go on forever. These four have a slightly different design, I only painted half or one wing. For the prints, I copy and flip the painting and create a whole butterfly. I know, it's a little lazy of me, but really it's the only way to get both sides exactly alike. Plus, I may mix and match different sides as well.

too long

It's been way too long since I've posted anything, so here goes. Again, I'm having trouble deciding what to write about. So I guess I'll just write about what's been happening. Life has been hectic lately, with getting the boys back in school, selling lots of prints, the same old housework crap, etc, etc.

My dad came up to visit this past weekend in his brand new mustang convertible! He let me drive it around all day Saturday, what a blast! I want one now! Yeah, right, like we could afford one!

Sunday at the flea market, my canopy was blown away by a huge dustdevil! The amazing thing about it was that nothing on my tables was moved! As I was trying to hold down the canopy(I was actually lifted off the ground!), I was looking at the prints and praying that they wouldn't get blown away. Well, as soon as the canopy blew away and landed on top of my neighbors canopy, I looked at the booth and realized that not a single thing was out of place! Not even my business cards moved! Pretty amazing I must say, considering that the canopy is a twisted mess! Thank God for that one. Wind can be nasty at outdoor markets and I've had many prints destroyed in the past, but for some reason I was spared this time. Strange day, I think I was in shock most of the afternoon and evening.

Today is my day off, yeah right, its more like my day to clean house, do laundry, etc. No "business" work today. Last week I started putting originals back up on Ebay, I plan to start listing more every week leading up to Christmas.

As for painting, still working on the butterfly blessing series. Only doing small paintings still. I'm not sure if I'll do larger ones, butterflies work well as small watercolors, in my opinion anyway. I won't paint any large ones for sure until I come up with a design I really like. Well, time to check the laundry, what an exciting life! :)

Had to post this

I found this on another blog and had to re post it here. Too good!


Bush is my shepherd;
I dwell in want.
He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.
He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.
He restoreth my fears.
He leadeth me in the paths of
international disgrace for his ego's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the
valley of pollution and war,
I willfind no exit,
for thou art in office
.Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control,
they discomfort me.
Thou preparest an agenda of deception
in the pretence of thy religion.
Thou annointest my head with foreign oil.
My health insurance runneth out.
Surely megalomania and false patriotism
shall follow me all the days of thy term,
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever.
AMEN!

Butterfly Series

Finished four new paintings, actually sketches for future larger paintings, following along
the butterfly path. (See the butterfly blessing blog) Inspired by real butterflies, I gave
them a little abstract twist all my own. I have these four new sketches scheduled for auction
on Ebay. The larger versions will most likely be saved for my next solo show. I need to get
busy planning that show in fact.
I have been having a hard time staying motivated lately. It is the end of summer for Aaron
and the boys, so maybe it's just that lazy end of summer feeling. I hate to always look forward
to the future and not enjoy the present, but I do look forward to school starting up so I can
get more work done. Too many distractions in the house right now!
I'm posting the new paintings, let me know what you think.

Butterfly Blessing #1

Butterfly Blessing #2


Butterfly Blessing #3


Butterfly Blessing #4

What to write?

It's funny how hard a time I'm having coming up with blog ideas. I usually write in my journal several times a week and I thought blogging would be easy. I find myself coming up with ideas to write about, then I end up wondering if I should reveal so much about myself.
That was the main idea of the blog in the first place, wasn't it? To reveal a bit of myself to people who may be curious to know more. The dilema is how much. All? Why not, right? It is proving to be much harder than I expected. At the same time, I already put my heart and soul out there every time I show a new painting or drawing. Why should words be any harder?
Because I'm not a verbal person, I'm visual.
However, I believe the story behind the art is just as important as the art itself. The art brings you in at first, but the story keeps you coming back to see what's new. Personally, when I am attracted to a certain artist's work, I like to find out as much as possible about that artist's life. Usually by reading biographies or autobiographies (or blogs!). I feel more connected to the art.
Not that I have an extra exciting story to tell, my life has shaped who I am though, so maybe it is important.

Butterfly blessing

I had a whole blog all typed up and ready to post yesterday and like a dummy I did not think to save it anywhere before I tried to publish it. Of course, I ended up losing the whole thing and now I have to re-type it! That’s ok though, because it’s worth retelling the story.
Yesterday, Aaron and I were out for a hike and we had a cool butterfly encounter. We were taking a break, sitting on a blanket, when I reached for my water and a huge Monarch butterfly flew around my hand for an extended period of time, flew into the trees above us and after I said, “come back little butterfly”, it flew back to me and touched my forehead then flew away. Aaron said it looked like the butterfly blessed me. It was an amazing experience.

Funny enough, I have been thinking about painting butterflies since we have been out hiking and now I have the sign that that is what I should indeed be painting. (As far as I am concerned anyway) I know some may say it’s silly to believe such things, but I do. Of course it's just another of the many things on the list to paint.

People have often asked me how I choose what to paint. Most often the ideas just come to me. I can almost always count on several ideas coming along on a hike. Must be the fresh air and exercise! The problem most of the time is choosing what to paint out of all the ideas. There is not enough time in the day, week, year to paint them all.

Top of the Mountain

Happy Fourth of July to all. Yesterday was a great day. Aaron and I started our day with an 8 mile hike to the top of the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque. It was amazing! We've been hiking the Sandias for five years and this was our first time to finally make it to the top. This was a pretty good accomplishment considering the elevation climb is around 3,000 feet! The view was incredible! You could see for what must have been a hundred miles. Not to mention the great viewpoint of the rock cliffs on the west side of the mountains.
Hiking has to be my second favorite past time. Painting being my first of course! There is no better way, as far as I'm concerned, to clear your mind and inspire new ideas. It's also great exercise. I am now planning to do another whole series of rock paintings. These will be different from the first series because I plan to paint them more abstract this time. I'm thinking Georgia O'Keefe's flowers only with rocks.

Speaking of paintings, I finished the abstract spiral sun series this morning. At least for now. I still may do a couple more. I will post the final painting here soon.

I'm feeling very accomplished after the hike to the top of the mountains yesterday! I look forward to more trips to the top in coming weeks, with some great paintings coming out of it.

New Work

Been working like crazy in the studio, this week I got back to my abstract spiral series. I've finished four this week already! There is nothing better than having an idea work out better than I'd hoped! I love this new series. It's all me, my feelings, what's in my head. I don't even care if anyone else likes them. While, of course, that would be nice. I love them, and if nothing else, I can hang them in my own house.
I may save this series for my next solo gallery show. I still need to take a couple of them down to Gallery 5 to see if they'll give me a show. They are more of an abstract gallery, so I think these will work out well for that venue. I will need at least 10 pieces for the space. It's hard for me to do though, because I'm really anxious to put these up online. I may just post them here to get that out of my system.
Although I know people really like my portraits and pottery work, these abstract pieces feel more like me. I feel like myself working on them. It's hard to explain, but it's like I've finally found the art inside me that's been fighting to get out. It was almost an epiphony when the idea popped into my head. More so than the peace series was.
So, below you can see a couple of examples of the new series. I will post all of the new series on my website by the end of this week. I will also list the smaller sketch watercolors I did for this series on Ebay throughout the week.
Please let me know what you think of these new paintings. I'm interested in hearing some feedback.

Why Sell on Ebay?

I have heard it said that selling Art on Ebay is bad for your career. I do not see it that way.

The internet is here to stay and Ebay is a huge part of the market online. It only continues to grow. My favorite part is the ability for an artist to represent themselves. I will admit, I am a bit of a control freak (it's the scorpio in me) , but nothing beats direct contact with collectors. I get to meet and in some cases know the people who hang my art on their walls. They get to know me, the artist, which is more valuable in a world of Walmart superstores. There is a person behind the art. In all my years as an artist, this is what people want when they buy art. Not just something to hang on their walls, but a story, a conversation piece.

Representing myself on Ebay allows me that connection with my collectors.

That's why I sell on Ebay.

stormy summer afternoon

The sky is black and thunder is rolling. I love days like this! I have been feverishly working at getting finished with the commissions and I've finally done it! Now I'm at that moment when I have to decide what to work on next. Of course, this is when other things start to distract me and there is always laundry to do! I may take a break until tomorrow anyway, my thumb is completely numb from the drawing marathon of the past couple of days. I have lots of organizational work to do, filing, bookkeeping, all that fun stuff I put off forever. Actually, I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with it. My middle son Jeff will be here from Arkansas (where he lives with his dad) tomorrow, so there's a few things to get done around the house.
It just started raining! Just what we always need.

I look forward to getting back to my own work, more abstracts, rocks and portraits to come!

one of those days

It's been a while, I've been busily working on my commissions. Finished the second pottery drawing for the first commission, I will post it later. I'm close to finishing the portrait for the second commission also. Looking forward to finishing so I can get back to my own work. I have been making jewelry while working on the commissions. Mostly hemp with beads. It is a relaxing hobby to do while watching tv.
Today started out as one of those days, until I received a couple of kind emails from collectors of my work. It is amazing how a simple email can make my day when I'm feeling a little blah! I think that is my favorite part of being an artist. Getting letters or email from strangers who have been touched in some way by my art. That's why I do what I do. It is inspiring to know that I can have an effect on people I have never and may never meet. Although it can also be a little embarrassing to have someone go on about my work, it truly makes all the hard work and rejection worth while!

Working in the studio

It feels great to be back in the studio everyday! Even though I am working on commissions and not my own work. The commissions I'm doing are two of my favorite subjects, pottery and portraits. Once I finish the 2 drawings and the painting I have to do, I will get back to my peace flower abstract series. I also would like to do some more rock paintings and nudes. I'm just so excited to be back!
This morning I'm working on getting my computer work done. I have many prints to get into the Ebay store and I also hope to get my website updated. The website update will probably take more than a couple days as I am completely remodeling it. It needs it! While searching my name a few weeks ago, I found a site that reviewed my website and it wasn't a nice review! The reviewer loved the art but said it was a shame that the site was so bad! So that was a wake up call for a complete overhaul. I've been wanting to do it for some time, I just haven't had the time to spend on it. I only have one week of uninterrupted time before school ends and Aaron and Nate will be home all day, everyday. While I love having them home and not having to get up early for school, it makes working from home much more difficult. So with that, I'd better get to work!

Summer is here!!

I just came home from my final final! The semester is now officially over!
I am looking forward to getting back to business now. Actually, I've been easing back into it over the past week, between studying for finals. I will be posting alot of new things in my Ebay store and plan a complete overhaul of my website. I have quite a bit of new work that needs to go up. I have already started putting my new jewelry into the Ebay listings and have much more to do. So I guess I had better get to work!

Paula :)

Almost Summer!

One more week until my summer begins! I am so looking forward to getting back to my art. I don't know what I was thinking, going to school full time and trying to work full time! The good news is I have discovered alot about myself and realized that college is not for me! I do have a degree already, I thought I wanted to go back to get my certification to be an art teacher. What I found is that I am an artist pure and simple. While I love working with kids, I don't have to be a full time certified teacher to do that. Knowing as much as I do about the profession of public school teaching, both my parents and my husband are public school teachers, you would think I would have been scared away from it long ago. A big part of my decision came from writing a research paper for my English class on the No Child Left Behind Act. I didn't know much about it until then and that was enough to push me off the fence of uncertainty.
I had already been considering my motives for becoming a teacher; trying to please my parents, feeling like I don't contribute enough to our finances, feeling like a bad person because I only have an Associates degree. I'm not doing it for me!
Why should I care if I'm the first one in my family to NOT earn a BA degree? I have known since I was 13 that I wanted to be a professional artist. Being an artist is the only "job" I've had that I can work at for 80 hours a week and not feel like I've worked at all. I guess the only problem is that I don't earn an hourly wage! I guess that is besides the point because I am doing what I love and I need to stop letting other people make me feel like I don't work. I work harder at being an artist because it's my dream and I love what I do. After all, isn't that most important? For me it is! Life is too short!

Below is my first finished piece in months! I just finished it today and boy am I happy! It took waaay too long to get this one done. It is a commission piece. This is a pencil drawing of a Mata Ortiz pottery piece. I still have two more drawings to do for this commission, then on to another commission, a portrait.

Blog Replaces Newsletter

It has been a couple of years since I published my last newletter. I used to send my newsletters out quarterly on a very regular basis. Now that I have discovered blogging, this will replace my old newsletters. I plan to use my blog to keep everyone up to date on my art activities. As my first and last semester back at college (it's a long story! maybe I'll get to it later) is soon to end, I will have much more time for weekly and possibly daily posting. Daily is probably a little far fetched with my habits! I hope to put up pictures of my latest artworks and discuss some of my ideas for future art. My primary goal is to make this a forum for keeping in touch with my art fans and giving them a little peek inside my head. This could get scary so watch out! It seems everyone loves a little reality show these days! So please come back often and if you plan to reply to my posts, please be nice! We artists can be sensitive! :)

Sincerely,

Paula :)

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog. This is my first weblog and it will include many things. It will serve mainly to update my art collectors on my latest projects, progress, etc. So check back often! Thanks for stopping by!

Paula :)