...tonight I worked on the pieces for the Art Nouveau show that is fast approaching.  I feel like I have got a good start but still a long way to go.  I have little wooden plaques, some 8x10 canvases...all with some scrap of paint on them, even if it just the background color.  Hey....gotta start somewhere, right?  Still working with the Hedwig/owl inspiration…really having some fun with this theme…

About an hour or so into painting I picked up one of the plaques that I had painted with a coat of blue and quickly painted the simplified owl shape...but then quickly put down my brush to pick up a pencil….seemed only fitting that I elaborate on the branch…before I knew it, one of my trees had creeped into this small work…and then I started to think, yeah, that makes sense. Owls live in trees…yep.

So I unwrapped my new blank canvas and just started sketching…owl shape, check.  Crazy, curvilinear lines…check.  After going over the pencil lines quickly with black paint…ready.  This will be the canvas that I paint at the live-art event.

So that is where I am as of this evening.  Several plaques and small canvases in progress…three trays of ornaments not even opened and two packs of square canvases that need to be addressed. 

I moved my work space around a bit today...took time to drag my easel, table, chair, Pinky, msc paint and canvases out on the porch today to paint for a few hours...it was nice to work outside, definitely worth the hassle of moving everything...then I moved it all back inside, back to normal except the extra table is in the kitchen to accommodate the numerous canvases that are in progress...oh yeah, so that is what I was working on- the large tree painting...starting to 'carve out' some of the faces from the tree and adding some hair details...this one might take a while, I really get focused on one area (pic to the right shows where I stopped before heading out for lunch)...then I worked on some paintings for the Art Nouveau Harry Potter live-art event that this coming Wednesday.  I have ten 8x10 canvases that I am painting little owls one, some have ties, others are wearing t-shirts. At one point I brought some of my art supplies in the living room to paint while I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...had to be extra careful...did not want acrylic paint on the couch or floor...no mishaps, whew!  ....on a bit of a weird sleep schedule...need to sleep now...

The pictures below just show my make shift outside studio, working from the couch and then the final grouping…well, for tonight anyway, nothing is done…lot’s more to do!

So…maybe I need to get started earlier so I am not up so late…and on a school night, tsk, tsk.  But I felt like painting, so had to do it…not trying to find time for my art, gonna make time for it, even got a poster to prove it.  New mantra…please remind me.

Back to the big painting that I left before my trip to St. Petersburg.  I worked on the interior of the tree form, just getting some general values down in the figurative elements.  Next time I can start focusing on each one and adding details.  As I worked I stopped and photographed every 3-5 minutes…or whenever I remembered…thought it would be neat to make a time-lapse style slide show to document the painting showing from start to finish…whenever that might be. (below, some in-progress pics...didn't realize but I cut off some of the first pic, I started around 9pm)

In the works right now…drumming up business for Tipsy Art (ya’ll know anyone in these parts that wants a Tipsy Art party?  Give me a holler.)…working on this big piece for a show down in Boca…got to remember to go down to the Armory and Bear and Bird to pick up artwork…and, oh yes…I sent an email saying I was interested in participating in the next Art Nouveau Event, a Harry Potter themed live art event.  I had to think about that last one.  Not because I didn’t want to participate, not because it isn’t a great event/group to work with…but it’s on a school night…and it ends late.  Really. Late.  (Gulp…Nervous laugh…)  But that will always be my excuse, and I can’t let that stand in the way.  So I gonna start some Harry Potter works (my friend Siddhi is excited, I know she will keep me motivated), grab some coffee, and just make it happen.  Updates to follow.

Last but not least, I forgot to post my small experiment with glass from the FAEA conference.  They had this table set up in the vendor booth where you could create your own glass design from various colored glass scraps…then give the piece to be fired in a small kiln and picked up the next day with a pendant clasp attached…all for a nominal fee.  Totally worth it.  I posted the before picture and the picture after it was fired.  Turned out pretty good, and it was so much fun.

Where to start?  I just got back from my professional conference and I think this is the best one I have been to yet.  I hope that they keep getting better every year...that would be amazing, and something to look forward to.  Despite being tired from the journey to and from St. Petersburg and being exhausted from running to workshops and presentations...I do feel a sense of rejuvenation.  Not only in my teaching, but also as an artist. It seemed like everywhere I turned over the past few days I saw signs telling me to be an artist-teacher. Something that I have felt for some time now.   I got into this teaching gig because I love art, so the only way that I can maintain my sanity is to feed my desire to create art.  

I feel like there were many things this weekend that confirmed that it is okay to want to maintain my artistic self while continuing to grow professionally.  I checked out the Dali Museum, the Chihuly  Center at the Morean Arts Center and the Museum of Fine Arts...just wondering around, getting lost in all of the art, felt like I was feeding my eyes.  Feeling ALIVE.  In addition to my time in the museums, I got a chance to listen to other folks working through the same issues I face as an artist-teacher.  From the general session speakers, Professor Chang's workshop and presentation I attended...it was all affirmation for me to continue to make the time for my art. And I finally got a chance to work with oils! (above, left)  It was...different. I was excited by the smell of the oil paint, the palette knife, the new materials...Chardin's still life reproductions...but when it came time for me to paint...gulp.... Totally different painting experience.  We're not in Kansas anymore, folks.  I was frustrated, but excited.  I feel like it wasn't a total loss, and I am going to challenge myself to try it again...but at the end of my short painting experience I just missed my acrylics.  (Below, some of the pics from the Grissaile Workshop)

...in the words of Professor David Y.Chang;

Can you live it? Sure you can. You can be a practicing artist.…your life changes…after a busy day of teaching…and then to know that you have done something artistic to yourself is a great feeling. I feel strange and sick sometimes without know why..and then I realize I have not done something artistic, something in my studio…I don’t feel right, food doesn’t taste right…the minute I get back to the studio, doing something creative, something that was meant to be practiced…my illness is gone.

…How do we make it possible?  Where do the ideas come from?  When you do it you feel it….importance of attending conferences, to do things with your own hands…the immersion of studio experience should be the core of what we teach.  Art teachers are practically all studio art teachers.  We teach the practice of art, coupled with Art History and Art Appreciation...  We can’t cheat ourselves…we love the practice of art…that is why we joined this profession.  Taking joy in the accomplishments of our students’ practice of art comforts us…but why are we not doing what makes us happy?  It takes commitment….It only makes you better. 

…Setting a goal is important.  Being artistically alive is important. Being a practicing artist means you keep the art alive, alive means growth.  We teach as a career, but we practice as a life.


...so that is what is on my mind tonight as I get ready for another week of teaching and making art.