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Iluvzdrumz
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Name: Connie
Gender: Female
Interests: NOT IN ANY KIND OF ORDER: Painting, drawing, Jazzercise, taking art classes, my doggies, reading, hanging out with my honey and/or beautiful daughter, hanging with my friends, COFFEE, travel, the BEACH, music (even rap!), Art shows, doing something creative or artistic, sleeping (yum), chocolate (double yum), doing something out of the ordinary.www.ekaweeka.com/568
Expertise: Art, Jazzercise, margaritas, teaching.
Occupation: Art Student
Industry: Art
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  Jazzerbabe06
AIM:  crockito
Member Since:
4/16/2004
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S. Padre Sand Dune 30x40 oil with palette knife on gallery wrapped canvas.
Vieux Lyon 24x30" oil with palette knife on gallery wrapped canvas
S. Padre Sand Dune II 30x40" oil with palette knife on gallery wrapped canvas
These are the ones I started and finished since my last post. We had a longer trip than usual to S. Padre, so I had plenty of days to stare at these dunes while working on my tan. I loved the flow of the hills of sand and the peaceful feeling while baking in the sun. I think I captured it with both paintings.
Why do two of the same subject? The first one sold to someone who had seen its progress on Facebook, and I missed it so much that I took another view of the same dune and did another one. The palette is a lot warmer and I had more fun with the process, bringing in brighter colors and playing a bit.
The street scene is actually from a photograph that Sami's TA took of her group walking down a street in Old Lyon a year ago. He tagged her in the photo and she used it as her profile for quite a while. It always drew me in and I finally found the time and ability to paint it for her. Yes, Sami gets to keep it, even though I've had offers on it. I'm not in this for the money (that's for sure) and would rather give it to a friend or relative and, as Frank says, paint another!
Don't think I'm being flippant about the process. I know that magic happens in each one that is not necessarily captured the same way in the next one. But, just as it's not the same, it's also unique in what happens and so each person who collects a piece of art knows that their painting is a one of a kind and beautiful in its own right.
Oops! I forgot that I just finished a painting on Friday!! A friend of mine went to S. Africa to visit his son and sent me the most beautiful photos of what is a most amazing bit of geological scenery I have ever seen. The colors, the forms, the grandeur are mind blowing. We have the Grand Canyon, but these 'Potholes" got extra dashes of color that make our Grand Canyon look mighty pedestrian.
I did this painting in a 12x12 format for a show coming up at Austin Artspace. It's a juried show and the juror is someone who was on another jury that passed on my work, so I have no high hopes, but am willing to gamble that my $30 fee will get me in.
Potholes
I've started a commission, which is being mostly paid in UT football tickets...isn't that crazy? I love that I can barter for things now that I have a worthwhile skill. Since I have a record of sales, I know what value I can put on a painting and so bartering works.
Do you want to see the commission in progress?
360 Bridge 30x48" oil with palette knife ...
I know the bridge has an official name, but I've lived in Austin long enough to remember when it was just referred to as the 360 Bridge. Just like I don't know if I'll ever remember to call Town Lake, Lady Bird Lake. Too many syllables. I come from the North where we shorten everything!
This painting still has such a cartoony quality that I'm ready to tear my hair out. I imagine that the bridge is the culprit. I'm great with landscapes, but stick man made structures in there and I suffer greatly. The Lyon painting was the same thing...getting out a ruler and working on perspective made me tired and cranky.
It looks really good in the light in my dining room; I think I probably had too much light on it outside and the digital camera tends to compress everything. So, the dining room challenge means I'm heading in the right direction.
That's what they say, you know. If a painting shows up well in bad lighting, from a large distance, it's a good painting.
So, even though this one and another one I sold are destined to hang in guestrooms, I bet the owners hang it so that you can see it through the doorway so they can enjoy it every time they pass that way.
Enjoy whatever makes your soul soar.
later, kids
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| It's been remarkably dull this week, after 3 weeks of activity. For three days, I was okay with that because I could paint and do laundry in a totally quiet house. I need quiet to concentrate on my painting, so it was a godsend.
But, then I decided that the painting should sit for a few days so I'm not just hitting it with paint to "make it better". There's really only one area that I'd work on and it might not bother anyone else, haha!
What does bother me is that my paintings don't seem to be growing in ability as much as they have in the past. I do see some improvement, so I'll keep painting. Maybe it's time to just study for a while and not try to do "masterpieces". The goal is to do good work, but if I'm trying to create a finished product each time then I might be playing it more safe than I should, just so I won't say that I wasted my time and expensive paint and canvas. I have a painting right now that I've deemed "good enough" because I just don't know what to do with it (Aloe Flowers). I signed it and will probably just let it sit in my studio as a lesson.
These two paintings, however, are really on their way to being as good as my abilities will allow. I'm still working on the West Cave Preserve and the Hibiscus is sitting while I decide if the sky holes are too blue and too big. They probably are.
"West Cave Preserve"
"Hibiscus"
My brother sent me the photo of the hibiscus I'm working from and, while I was there last weekend for nephew Cameron's birthday/high school graduation, I remarked that they had waaaay too many hibiscus plants and that I should take one home to help them out . When I was in the driveway, preparing to leave, Libby ran out and handed me a pink hibiscus! Frank thought it was nice, so now we're going to have a bigass pink hibiscus in a few years because Frank can grow anything! Yay!
Sami flew up to Grand Prairie from Brownsville, so we got to be together all weekend and really hear about what she's been up to.
Right now, she and two other girls are getting to stay in an awesome beach house on S. Padre Island. They have to move back to the dorms for a few weeks while the beach house is being rented out, but then they'll get it for the rest of their stay (end of July).
I envy them the chance to eat breakfast out on the porch and hit the beach after work. For Sami, after work is pretty late because she works such long hours. But, she's learning a heck of a lot and will have a lot of material for her paper and presentation. And having mindless weekends on the beach and breathing that salt air ain't nothing to shake a stick at, as my dad would say. Though why anyone would shake a stick at something is beyond me...maybe it scares away small creatures, but that's about it.
Speaking of small creatures, we had a squirrel stealing our cherry tomatoes while I was up in Grand Prairie. A lot of the time, he/she wouldn't actually steal them, but take a bite and leave the rest on the plant which is just rude! I think that, by putting my hibiscus plant by the tomatoes with its wrapping of shiny cellophane, it acts as a deterrent. The shininess and how it rattles in the breeze may be enough for that squirrel to freak out and seek its Vitamin C elsewhere. I hope that continues because I sure luvz me some fresh tomatoes!
And soon there will be peppers! I hope they don't all ripen while we're down at S. Padre for beach week!
Yes, even with Frank having to take an unpaid week off this quarter (and last quarter and the next 2 quarters), we are still going to do beach week at our favorite condo. It's not that it's just tradition; we need that week at the beach where everything is the same as it ever was, so we can relax. And by we, I really mean Frank, but I get the benefits of a relaxed husband and that makes me happy. The doggies love it, too.
AND, we get to see Sami! I don't know if her other two roomies are going to move in with us that week or still stay in the dorms until their beach house is free. That could be a little cozy and I'd have to let go of a lot of control of how neat and uncluttered things stay. Sami's done a good job of helping me with that, with all the years of bringing a friend or two with her. Their stuff explodes everywhere and dishes and glasses litter most of the surfaces of the livingroom. Just so they don't expect dinner! My part of the vacation is not having to hit the grocery store but once that first day and not having to plan meals and cook. Woot!
I figure that's also my birthday present, cuz I don't have any needs or wants for anything else. Frank has agreed that his present to me will be to frame all my paintings and wire them. I already have the frames, some of which have to be put together, but need his abilities to get it done right. That's a huge gift to me.
And since Father's Day is the day before my birthday, I'd rather combine a nice meal for the two days. I hope he'll agree. He's taking that week off as his furlough, so having him at home on my birthday is a treat already!
Enough blather. Y'all take care and if you want a book recommendation, check out what I'm reading.
Later, kids
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F my life right now. I went to my orthopedist on Wednesday because of a major pain that got suddenly worse over the weekend. Xrays show that I have a torn Labrum (just like Alex Rodriguez) in my hip joint and bone on bone arthritis of the hip joint. Because of the arthritis, my ortho won't do surgery to repair the tear, siting that it will only be 20% successful in reducing the pain.
His suggestion was to get a cortisone shot in the hip joint, which could last weeks or months. And repeat as necessary until I deem it time to get a hip replacement. F my life!
I was looking at the Xray and wondering why I now have the prospect of a second hip replacement looming when I am neither old nor overweight, so I asked him what he thought was going on. And his response was that it's possible that the shallow setting of my hip joints (hip displasia) was enough for there to be too much pressure on too few spots on the joint, resulting in wear and arthritis.
Having gone through years of pain when sitting and standing, not knowing it was a degenerated hip joint, I can feel it coming on with this hip. Just sitting here typing this is causing pain, so I know this is what I have to look forward to for the next couple of years or whenever I decide I'm ready for another surgery.
I am totally, fucking not happy about this.
But, I'm not dying. I don't have breast cancer or any other kind of cancer requiring chemo and radiation. I know what I'll have to go through to get this fixed and I'll be better off on the other end, so I should just quit griping. Done.
Here are some photos of paintings I've finished or have just started:
"Aloe Flowers" 2009 oil on canvas 24x26"
"Mother's Day Tulips" 2009 oil on board 12x12"
"West Cave Preserve" work in progress
"Hibiscus" (bigass) work in progress
The hip's a bummer, but complicating things is the fact that Sami is going to have to move out of her apartment this coming week because her roommate has just now trying to sublet her part. It's too late (more than likely) for them both to find sublet (ers), so Sami cannot leave her stuff in an apartment with a stranger, nor even leave her name on the lease should there be any trouble while she's gone.
Packing boxes, hauling shit down to the car, taking apart furniture all takes a strong healthy body, or two, or three. That ain't me.
And since Sami is driving down to Brownsville for her 10 week internship on Memorial Day, all this has to get done before then or I will be the one humping boxes, etc. the whole next week and cleaning the apartment...while my mother is visiting! At 85, she is not going to be of help and I would not even ask it of her, so here I go bitching again.
So, wish Sami luck in getting her rear in gear for packing up everything and getting it home!
Later, kids
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| ...but not so much that it hurts your bottom line.
Today, it was announced that HEB would do its part on Earth Day by giving out a recycled material grocery bag for 7 plastic bags you bring in.
I'm thinkin', I've got a binful of these things and can get into using the "bring your own" grocery bags easily if I bring them all to the H E B.
Nope. One bag per customer, but you are welcome to recycle as many plastic bags as you please (which is what I do regularly anyway).
They didn't take the price tag off of the bag, so I see that for $.50, they bought the goodwill of the community.
All I'm sayin' is, if you want to buy *my* goodwill, give me the 5 bags I should have gotten for all of my plastic bags. Not only is that a goodwill measure (not just a gesture), but it will help the environment really and truly.
Until I get enough bags to hold all my groceries (lookin' for freebies, yo), I'll be supporting the recycling industry and maintaining jobs for Americans. Someone else will have to take care of the environment for a while.
later, kids
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