My current state of mind is.....?????

no comment!

He is telling her she can't do it, it's impractical, she is wrong, bad... she ignores him...

My current state of mind is... all over the map.

It is very jarring to go from a place of being so open and just working and working to needing to switch gears and do things like go to work and clean the house.

I have been VERY cranky. My poor girlfriend.

She doesn't deserve my bad mood because if it were not for her love and support I would have never done all the art "things" I have done in the last 20 years.

Today I have had some good time in my studio and I am definitely more cheerful. 

My month in Vermont gave me an increased confidence in my ability to draw and renewed my love for that activity. 

I'm turning 59 in a month or so.

I want, I want, I want... I want THIS to be my only job. 

This is what they call a rant.

Forgive me, but it is the truth.

Trying to get into the swing of things

Look Kristin! I finally made Ginger some gluten free bread that does not taste like toilet paper! It's 

pretty good, but like all gluten free breads it's much better toasted. Since decent gluten free bread is about $6.50 a loaf this is pretty nice!

Project #1... I have realized that I really do like working on recycled materials. There can be some issues with quality and will things stick, but Golden products seem to be able to surmount any problems. I've been working on getting some of these larger old paintings ready for a new life.  

Has anyone else out there been tired? I forget that I always feel this way when the seasons change, like I could sleep and sleep and sleep...

Manifesto

The title of the above piece is "Manifesto" or it could be "Proclamation".  He/she is announcing something important that comes from within...

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These two paintings were started at VSC and finished up this week. They are made of : recycled canvas board, paper, acrylic paint and ink, collage and xerox transfer. 

For those of you who know Ginger it's her 65th birthday this weekend!!!

Staying Focused

Staying focused after 4 weeks of activity consisting of painting, eating and talking about art is not easy. Returning to my small(er) studio, letting dogs in and out, cooking lunch while cooking paintings....but I'm in a pretty good mood about the return of responsibility. 

I'm trying to: be super organized, go to bed early, get up early, eat well and walk a lot all in the effort to have more energy and time for art. I'll let you know how it goes.

The nativity scene? They are made of plasticky rubbery material! So I gave them a bath. Not sure what to do with them though... ideas?

More images from my "giant sketchbook"

It seems giant to me because the paper is 22"x30". These are part of the 30 I completed. 

Some "work"

I am not sure why, but I hate calling what I make "work".  Saying "my work" referring to art makes me feel like a strange phony person. But it's hard to know what else to call it. 

I started out with 30 pieces of paper, 22"x30" and figured I would work on them in a random way, adding more and more to them until they felt "done". 

They had figure drawing every day, so I took some of the papers there and using a quill pen and black ink drew from the model. This was way fun. I used ink so that the mistakes would be evident. I wanted the ink blobs and smears to be, (yes Kristin) part of the process.

In fact that is what these 30 pieces feel like to me one big process party. I loved it. I loved making them.

Where to start?

Vermont is full of granite. Big rocks. The ones the residents are sitting on here were completely covered during the floods. 

This huge building is full of studios. Mine was toward the back in the green part. There was a great view out the windows of the river and people walking across the bridge.

In the late afternoon residents would gather in the adirondack chairs and drink wine before dinner. 

But what did you do and what did you learn?

 

The building below is the Red Mill. It houses the dining room and all the offices. In my painting it isn't red, but the shapes were very fun to draw. The first night when the flood warning sounded at 4am we went here to watch the flood waters.

I learned what I learned the last time I did this. That after a week or so something "clicks" or opens or falls into place and you just make stuff. Not that it's easy always, but that it seems normal and natural. Someone said at dinner one night that it was nice not to be the "weird one". Everyone laughed because the room was full of folks with odd ideas. 

More soon, might take a bit to sort it all out... might have been easier to have blogged each day...