Watercolors

Really into watercolors lately. Never really had an interest until recently. They are just so low maintenance; easy cleanup and portable. I did these yesterday and today. There are others I did a few weeks ago that I'll post later. I'm just getting the hang of it. Mostly it's something I do while watching a movie. They're mostly just practice, but I'm really enjoying the process.

9/11

I can't believe that shit was eleven years ago. I was 18 and in art school. Drawing class. During break. I passed a TV and stopped. I was so naive I barely knew what it meant. I walked back to class in a daze. My first impulse was to shout it to the teacher and classmates, but something stopped me. Instead I decided to watch them all in their last moments of not knowing. Their last moments of living in a pre-9/11 world. I watched sadly. Then 5 minute s later another classmate ran in and announced it. The teacher was in disbelief: "What?! No. No. Are you serious?" A bewildered expression on his face. Finally he let as all go.

And time marches on.

So I hung my art show yesterday. Took maybe an hour, quick and painless. I lucked out because this just sort of fell in my lap. Beginner's luck I guess? I'm friends with the guy who owns the art store on facebook, he sees all the paintings I post, and he invited me to have an art show.

I see this as practice for the future. I've invited all these people I care about because I just want the support. I find it hard to really believe it's that big of a deal, but I wanted lots of people to come out and see my stuff. Now I have family coming from hours away to the opening reception, and I almost wanna backtrack and be like, "Wait! It's not worth a 4-hour drive!! This is not a fancy occasion or anything, it's just the art store in small-town Willimantic!" Don't get me wrong, I'm over the moon to have this opportunity. But people, this ain't Chelsea.

But mostly I've surrendered to it. I feel pretty good about what I put in. I worked hard for it (I could've worked harder, but I guess one could always work harder). I'm not so nervous about it anymore. It's out of my hands. It is what it is.

I intend for this to be just the beginning. I lucked out with this just coming to me, but now I gotta put in work to find calls for artists and scope out gallery spaces in nearby towns or cities close by like Hartford or Providence or even Boston. Even if they're just cafes.

Most of all I intend to keep on producing. It has to be my mantra. Produce, produce, produce.....

Ashlyn and Isabel

My childhood friend Carrie, who along with her brother lived across the street from me when we were kids, now lives in Arizona, got married last year, and had twin girls who were born prematurely in February. They've been having all kinds of problems and I keep up by reading her blog and checking up on facebook. She recently snapped a photo of the girls with her cell phone, and I fell so in love with this particular photo that I messaged her and asked if I could paint it, and then just mail it to her. She teared up and said of course I could.


I started it yesterday and finished today.


  

Kicking it into high geer

Vanessa and Ashley, my friends who are identical twins

So I gotta bring my paintings over to the art store where I'm showing at the end of this month. I'm working on three paintings between now and then. I just banged this one out in a matter of hours. It's funny how some take way longer than others. I had started another one before this, then decided to move on and get a start on this one and just ended up finishing it too. Now I gotta go back and finish the first one. And start the last one.

I've been working in the studio all during my weekends and squeezing in time before and after work too. Not only that but I have all these other obligations (gotta dog/house sit for someone in a couple weeks) and invitations (bbq's, birthday parties, etc etc) and I am pretty overwhelmed. This art show though is my first priority. I sincerely wish I had all the time in the world to be able to accommodate every opportunity that ever comes my way but it's just not like that for me right now.

All I can say is, I CANNOT WAIT for vacation in a little over a month. I don't think I've ever needed one this badly in my life.

Better!

Feeling better this week! Gonna be starting several paintings at once this week if I wanna get a move-on! Can't wait to get back to the studio and into my oil paints...

I'm glad I was born with a built-in sense of guilt and anxiety if I haven't been painting in a while. HA!

Life Without Painting Class

Well hello there, all my legions of readers.

It's my second week in to "summer vacation."  Life feels incredibly more laid back, even though I still work a full-time schedule.  So laid back even, that my body decided that this was a prime opportunity to get sick. So I had a fever for a couple days and missed work. But even though the fever went away a few days ago, I am still faintly congested, and I have never been more exhausted in my life. Really, I cannot remember ever feeling this tired and I'm not exaggerating. Mentally I'm great; I'm looking forward to my art show, going away on vacation, and just life being awesome. But physically I'm completely wiped out. I think of all the paintings I need to get finished before July, but my body basically forces me to lay low. I'll get up in the morning after having slept like the dead, make coffee, do a couple things around the house and then after a couple of hours of being up, I just want to go back to bed. It's weird and I want to snap out of it so I can get things done. It's even crossed my mind that what if I have mono? I suppose I'll wait a few days and if I still feel exhausted I'll go to the doctor.

Hopefully by next week I'll feel energized enough to get these things started:

-Commission for a friend
-Painting of the twins
-Sink series

Until then I'm going to listen to my body and rest up.