The other day our cat, Mackie, had a little bit of a limp.  He was walking a little funny for about a day and a half but as of today he is back to his old self.  So all I could think about that first day was Mackie, wondering how he was doing...and let's just say that concern found it's way into my daily art...so I made a gal with a cat on her head...she is looking up at the cat and the cat is looking down at her with one eye...and there's a little gray cat down at the bottom...since I am not entirely certain that Scooter didn't have something to do with Mackie's current condition.  Again, Mac is okay.  He is napping on his favorite blanket as I type this here post :)

Aside from thinking about my cat, I had a good session with the student I tutor and I did want to mention that in case she stumbles upon this blog post.  We are going to be working on an eye painting in the future but for our session this week I thought it might be fun to do something a little different, so I picked up some roses.  I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but drawing a rose is kind of how I realized my passion for art.  I believe it was in 4th grade, and I had this awesome AG teacher, Ms. Linkel (formerly Ms. York)  I went to my weekly AG sessions with her and somehow I ended up drawing some.  She encouraged me and I ended up making a pencil drawing of a single rose stem on a long, vertical paper.  She mounted it on black paper and it went in the school art show.  At the end of the year I was recognized at the assembly for winning first place, I remember standing up at my seat and everyone was clapping for my art...and it felt kind of awesome.  And I thought, hey, maybe I am good at this.

And I have been drawing ever since...and when I hear applause it always makes me happy, whether it is for me or someone else, I like it.  I like to clap for other people, feels like a small celebration of something good in the world.  Folks that know me are used to my constant clapping when I am excited about something.  

I digress, sorry.  The art session went well, we had fun and she did a great job drawing from observation.  And I had fun teaching the lesson.

Last night I watched Napoleon Dynamite and worked on my daily piece.  I wasn't sure exactly what to do...I kind of have an idea for a Yosemite Sam-inspired piece per my brother's suggestion, but then I was not sure how it would look seeing the body of work as a whole as far as transitioning to the next piece...not sure that even matters.  I just started to doodle and ended up making another piece with pattern and gold paint...kind of like the Klimt piece that I made earlier.  

Not sure what I am going to do for today's piece...but I will take Napoleon's advice and just follow my heART.

Yesterday, I found this sweatshirt at Old Navy that said, 'Heart and Soul'.

Except when I read it, to me it really said 'HeART and Soul'.

So...long story short, in order to help other folks see that, I took it upon myself to hand bead the letters so that the word 'ART' stood out a little bit.  I didn't want it to be super obvious, so I chose to use clear beads and sequins. All in all, it took me about 2-3 hours to complete, I put every bead and sequin on there stitch by stitch, and it makes me happy when I look at it.

Not to be a Debbie Downer...but, well...I turned on the news Saturday night...and it was so depressing.  Story after story about people getting hurt, killed...just an overall lack of respect for others.  And I let it get to me a little, I did.  

So anyway...I sat and sketched out these five pieces...trying to focus and take a minute to just be calm and peaceful in the midst of all that bad out there. I just kind of did these because I needed to.

And, well...here they are.  

...and with the bad...also the good.  I have gotten more into football over the years, and I actually found myself watching a the ESPN Football Sunday radio show to catch the scores for the Dolphins/Carolina game and also the Chargers game at Kansas City.  One thing that I have always felt is that sports and sporting events have the ability to unite people, to make them feel a part of something.  Maybe it is from my own years cheering and coaching cheer, but that is something that I have always believed was powerful and good about sports, especially football.  That being said, it was nice to have something else to focus on after being a little down Saturday night.  My only problem...the football team from my home state (Carolina Panthers) and the team from my new home (Miami Dolphins) were facing each other today on the field. I felt bad trying to pick one over the other...So I didn't choose- instead I suited up in my Chargers gear and prepared t cheer on my other 'home' team- San Diego.  John and I only lived in San Diego a short time but I really connected with the west coast and Pacific Beach, the area where we lived.