Copy Cat

This painting was done as a specific assignment in my painting class in college. The assignment was to find a famous piece of art and copy it - verbatim, colors, size, everything. I copied this piece by Camille Pisarro entitled The Harvest (I think). I didn't want to post it until I found a link to the original work, but I searched and searched and could not find it! I found many similar works by him, but not this one. I must have found it in a book at the time (considering the internet was not even a part of my vocabulary). I wish that I had notated when and where I had found it on the back of my painting. Anywho...it has graced my kitchen or dining room wall ever since then - the spring of 1995. It is by far one of my fav works!

A painting with a story

You wouldn't believe the conversations this painting has sparked throughout the past 16 years. I painted this for my painting class in college, around 1994ish. I stored it in the art bldg until the end of the semester, but when I returned to retrieve it after finals it was gone. I was miffed, to say the least. After a month off for winter break, I returned to Denton to work and get ready for the Spring semester. A friend invited me to celebrate New Year's at the home of a group of guys she knew, so I went. After being there for a while, I needed to use the restroom so I wandered around the house looking for it. As I turned the corner to the hallway, there was MY painting, hanging upside down in this guy's house. You can not even imagine the horror this guy felt when I told him it was MINE and it clearly had MY name written on the back of it. Long story short, he was extremely apologetic and had been mistakenly told that people had the freedom to raid the art bldg. at the end of each semester (uh....lame-o). I let him keep it up for that spring semester, as I really had no where to hang it, plus I thought he was kinda cute and I developed a little crush on the guy :o). People have seen anything from a cat's eye to a fish, to the black hole in this painting. What do you see in it?

Italian Mural

A good friend of mine who is a fitness instructor was kind enough to let me attend one of her "boot camp" sessions for free last spring. I really felt a need to give back to her in some way, so when she mentioned she was wanting to have a mural of some sort painted on her bathroom wall, I said casually, "I could probably do that for you", even though I had never painted a mural of the kind she wanted before! I had a blast doing this for her and learned a lot in the process. Nice to be able to add it to my portfolio :o)

PEACE

So far, my least favorite art journal pages. Oh, well. Guess you can't love 'em all. A sweet friend the other day (who has no idea I art journal) said to me in an email "I am praying peace in the waiting for you...". Little did she know that my last two art journal prompts were "WAIT" and "PEACE". I thought about tying the two pages together somehow, but nothing came to me.

WAIT

Oh, the irony of the prompt. I wish this didn't hit so close to home right now, but it does. I am growing weary in the waiting.

INDULGENCE

Here's the latest art journal prompt. I thought I wasn't going to be able to anything with this word initially. I just simply wasn't inspired. I looked up the word on wikipedia and learned for the first time the Catholic meaning of the word. Quite intriguing and interesting. It really had me thinking and I was ultimately in utter disbelief that such a thing ever even existed. However, I knew this wasn't the traditional, common meaning that Lee Ann had intended the word to evoke in us. I began to make a list in my head ( I know, it's supposed to be a journal so I should've made the list on paper ) of all the things I indulge in from time to time. A cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper with extra ice from Sonic. Ice. Lots and lots of ice. Yes, I have an addiction to crushed ice, particularly Sonic ice, I eat it by the cupfuls daily. A massage. A pedicure. A new haircut/color/style. Having my eyebrows waxed. Having coffee with a friend - not just any coffee, but a pumpkin spice latte with whip. Chocolate Cake. Brownies with whipped cream on top or homemade vanilla ice cream. Devouring every single page of a decorating or art magazine. Playing trio pro for an hour on my son's itouch. A long, hot, bubble bath with candles and a glass of wine. Ahhhhhh - indulgence. What I kept coming back around to was an image of a beautifully decorated spa. I rummaged through my art/craft/fabric closet and was instantly inspired. I used acrylic paints, glitter, fabric, an old postcard ( I have a little collection of fashion postcards from college - I was a fashion design major - so glad to finally have used this in a manner worthy of its beauty ), a gold paint pen, glue, a tassel waiting to be used, and some old tulle leftover from my wedding 14 years ago. Actually, almost all of the fabric are scraps from my wedding. So....if I was ever hired to decorate a spa, I think I'd start here.

A collaborative

This painting has a great story. It originally was another ptg I did in my ptg class in college. It was birthed out of a very difficult time I was going through emotionally and was dealing with a lot of confusion. The original was very dark, chaotic, and messy. Central to its' theme was a question mark. Again, it sat in storage for many years, hated and un-liked. The great thing about paintings is that you can always paint over them. I gave my son, Aidan, who was really wanting to try his hand at painting, permission to paint over it and use it at will. He did a great ptg of a sword but was ultimately unhappy with it and did not want to display it in his room. I asked him if I could use it because I had a great idea to cover it with an awesome piece of fabric I forgot I had in my sewing/craft/art closet. However, as I was finishing up my "Amor" ptg, pictured below, Olivia really wanted to "help me paint". I told her that she couldn't paint on my painting, but that she could have fun with the old canvas that Aidan and I had "collaborated" on. She thoroughly impressed me with the outcome of her painting!! So much so, that I hung it in my bathroom. What do you think? A future Picasso?