"Introducing Junk Drawer Fridays" No.1

Have you ever noticed the amazing randomness of the lowly junk drawer??  And don't play coy with me...I know you have one.  Some people are even known to have MORE than one.

I was a 2 drawer junk girl myself until this very minute when I decided to add a third junk drawer.  Right here.
On my blog.
The reason being, I keep having these random ideas, inspirations, good stuff to share that don't necessarily "fit" anywhere.

Just like the amazing stuff in my junk drawer:)))

So, without further ado, be prepared to be amazed, to gawk in wonder, to scratch your head in confusion, over the random things I will share with you each Friday.  Why Fridays???  Because you will probably need the entire week-end to ponder and muse (or be seriously concerned) over what gets trapped in my head and then released on Fridays:)))

Let the Randomness begin:

Eddie has a new cinema hero.  He rarely "looks up" to anyone as you know, but I caught him hitting rewind and practicing his French on this, so thought it needed sharing:
If video does not appear, click here


That Old Sun Magic:  My favorite product to remove oil paint (even after it's dried) out of my clothes:))  Those who have seen me paint in person always tease me about wearing such nice clothes to paint in.  As all artists have come to know--EVENTUALLY YOUR ENTIRE WARDROBE BECOMES A PAINTING OUTFIT:)) An artist friend gifted me with this at a workshop last year and I am still on my first little tub of it.

Those at my Nashville workshop saw me sporting some Magenta oil paint on my silk shirt the last day of the workshop.  Sun Magic erased every trace of it:)! To visit their website, click here

A Piece of Pretty:

We all need little spots of beauty.  I don't even remember where I bought the little hanging vase below, but it has made me smile more than once:)  I had forgotten I had it 'til I cleaned out all those storage tubs  ---now it's hanging above my tubby with some clippings of petunias...in purple of course!

On Courage:

It has been said that courage is not an absence of fear.  It is feeling the fear and doing it anyway:)) 

 My New Zealand friend, Romiley, shared this video with me this week---it is such a reflection on life itself--through the eyes of an 8 year old girl on her first ski jump--thanks Rom!

(If video does not appear, click here)

Things to Worry About:


Word has it Eddie Pierre is in training for laundry duty.  Supposedly, he and his siblings are good (?) at the sorting portion.....sort of.

Word also has it he likes to sleep in....a lot....and DOES NOT like to be disturbed...

So that's it.  Ponder on Eddie practicing French, reclaiming your paint clothes, fear vs. courage, small pleasures, and laundry sorting cats.  That should keep you busy for awhile:)))

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"Extra! Extra! Read All About It!!"

Some folks wonder why I travel such great distances to teach.  Leaving home and hearth for days on end, on the road, sleeping in strange beds, hanging out in airports all alone---when I could in fact just teach local and let folks travel to me.

 Obviously........they haven''t met Eddie.

 Teaching away is how I how I manage to hang onto what bit of sanity I have left after living with the likes of Eddie Bill.

As if there wasn't an ample amount of bad attitude to go around, the "Eddie Pierre/who's yo daddy" debate did not enhance  Eddie's winning disposition....can you say multiple hissy fits?

But finally, in late breaking news today

So I may have just been dumped from the frying pan into the fire.  Eddie Pierre is coming to Paris-- to live with Eddie Bill---for the summer??
And Eddie Bill is going to tutor young Eddie Pierre???  Mentor him in how to be a stud muffin??
Badboy 101?  Show him the ropes?


Egads!!!  Early reports of Eddie Pierre are disconcerting to say the least.  He's the largest in the family of six and is already eating out of the big cat bowl, ordering others around and generally acting like a know it all.

And I don't care what the papers say---he not only looks like Eddie Bill---he ACTS like him

Eddie Pierre

Eddie Bill

I know...hard to tell them apart.  I think I'm gonna have to file for cat support.  

I don't see any other way around it.  

In Other News:

Eddie is working  on his first feature film.  Catman and Robin.

Here he is in costume...

I'm sorta afraid to ask who's playing Robin...

Yeah, like I said--- Folks wonder why I travel out to paint so much.

Obviously

 they haven't met Eddie.

Live in Antartica? Want me to come and teach?

No problem.

A girl does what a girl's gotta do.

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"In the Company of Friends" SOLD

"In the Company of Friends"

12 x 12in oil on museum quality panel

$550

From the beautiful facilities of the Nossi College of Art (the dream of one incredible lady, Nossi Vantandoost)

to the 19 artists who gathered

From one rowdy Karen...and others...

 who "blew me up" on their phones and used phone apps to "crack the whip"

To the...wait a minute...I know...they look so thoughtful.  But as we all know, looks can be deceiving. 

I hate to mention the names of who else was rowdy, but hey, I have never minded posting photos....;)

 A little taste of musical easels:))

Only the ones who behaved themselves got to be in the group shot.  And yes, I did say 19 artists were here.  Originally.  Hey, how did Karen get in this photo??? 

Okay, okay---I FORGOT TO TAKE THE PICTURE...almost:))!

Thanks to Joanne, Linda, Maggie, Mary Lou, David, Roger, Kristen, Carol, Ellen, Sarah, Pat, Patti, Susan, Karen, Karen, Debra, Marcia, Christy, and Carol for a wonderful 3 days of painting amongst friends:)!!!

And guess what??I hung out in Nashville a couple of days past the end of the workshop.  All work related if anyone needs to know:)) 

 I worked at:

Visiting the home of the History Channel's No. 1 Show--"American Pickers"
Neither Frank, Mike, or Danielle were there so...

I ate out.

I discovered a place where I could get a tan, have my hair done AND eat some bar-b-que--all under one roof so...

I ate out.

(Passed on the hair and tan though). 

I visited Leiper's Fork way out in the beautiful countryside of Tennessee.
Home to many country music stars, like Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.
I didn't see either one of them so...

I ate out.
(At Puckett's Grocery)


I went to the B.B. Kings Blues Club
B.B. wasn't there so...

I ate out. 

I finally came home, fearing if I didn't leave the wonderful hospitality of Nashville, that I would end up looking like...well, like the head I saw suspended from Antique Archaeology's ceiling...

 I drove home Tuesday and had to break the long drive up so guess what I did?? 

No.  You're wrong.  Do you think all I do is eat on these trips???

I stopped at the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY.

THEN  I ate out:)))

Wonder if the above Pig's head comes in a one size fits all??

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"All Aglow" SOLD

"All Aglow"

12 x 12in oil on museum quality panel

$550

Signs it's going to be a good workshop

1.  Your name is ON the sign ;)

2.  A SHRINE has been built in your honor?

3.  They're serving dark lettuce  wedges that some would say looked like chocolate:)

Signs that you have a ROWDY bunch on your hands??

to be included in my next post...

Honestly, it was a great time spent amongst friends:)))!

And with no Miracle Grow, 

just colors and brushes,

 a BUMPER CROP of sunflowers were grown in one day:))

Stay tuned--- more to come on Nashville, American Pickers, Paintings, & Artists!!

P.S.  The newly added Paris Workshop for July 2012 is now filled, contact me if you would like to be on the wait list.  

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"Pink, White and Ed" SOLD

"Pink, White and Ed"

8 x 8in oil on museum quality panel

$350

Bad boy Ed has been quite contemplative of late.  

One could almost think it is the softer, more mellow side of Ed.  

Almost.

There's the  unfinished business of one Eddie Pierre

part  Parisian, part Kentuckian, 

half a moustache

Full Blooded Trouble

Contemplative and plotting can look pretty similar

....kind of like Eddie Bill and Eddie Pierre.

The plot thinnens......

P.S.  My Nashville Workshop is in full swing at the Nossi College of Art and Design:))  Beautiful art accumulating as we speak:))!
P.S.S.  Any American Pickers fans out there??  I am gonna do my best to visit their store while I am here in Music City:))  Stay Tuned!

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"Afterglow" SOLD

"Afterglow"

8 x 8in oil on museum quality panel

$350

"The Sun Never Says"

Even after all this time

the sun never says to the earth, "You owe Me."

Look what happens with a love like that,

It lights up the Whole Sky.

 

 

--Hafiz

P.S.  A warm thanks to  you, Christine Bart, for sharing your Italy trip photos with me:))  The afterglow title could also be said for the smiles that were plastered on the faces of you and your friends in every photo taken there!!  I owe you a print... and so much more:))!

P.S.S. The just added Paris, KY workshop July 16-18,2012, has about 5 spots left:)).  Click here to learn more Pin It

"For Your Eyes Only"

"Italian Kisses"

Framed Print

Click to View Framed Price (with or w/o mat )

We have winners!!

Gretchcn Stoudt was one of the winners (Congrats Gretchen!) for my monthly giveaway.  She said it was a difficult choice, but she would love a print of "Italian Kisses" as it evokes such wonderful memories of her time spent there:))
Jean Gallo was the other winner and she has selected my book, Let There Be Love.  Jean said she had four kitties of her own, so it made the decision especially difficult.  A cat painting, or a floral or a landscape.  So she settled on the book as the best compromise 'cause it has 'em all:))  Congrats Jean!

For mature audiences only....

Whoa!!! 

Hope I didn't cause you to spew too much coffee while viewing the perfect photo of me:) I know, you're hopeful I will make this pic available as a limited edition print;)

FYI--For obvious reasons, the hairdresser responsible for that up-do is now in the witness protection program. After that photo session, I vowed to never go in search of the perfect photo again;)

You know what I am talking about.  Our quest to capture our perfect selves for posterity's sake.  We get our hair "sculpted" into place , the "just right" outfit with matching jewelry, and then begin posing in ways that look as natural as chimps giving a high tea.  Breath sucked in, head tilted, teeth clinched, hands like lobster claws trying to trail "naturally" over the shoulder of someone else who looks to be in pain as well.

Somehow, when the photos first come back, we actually think they LOOK nice!  Then the years pass, and they become great fodder for....well, posts like this;))

What usually becomes a favored photo of ourselves or a loved one, are the candid shots taken of you just being you and me just being me.  Maybe no make-up, maybe a little bulge showing somewhere in it.  Maybe even some un-sculpted hair-dos.

As a general rule, that all goes pretty much unnoticed because what we see is a face full of love, smiles,  and hope--the REAL person.  Which is much more perfect than the "PERFECT" person in the other photo.

So here's the deal.  We can't, nor do we wish, to "pose" our creative work to be perfect, anymore than we do ourselves.  A mission to create "the perfect" work of art can end up with a stilted, unnatural something that looks nothing like the vision in our hearts.

 Art and Fear makes this point so well in the  tale of the professor who place his students into Group A and Group B at the beginning of the semester, with the directions that Group A would be graded on  one piece of sculpture (they only had to produce one).  Group B would be graded on quantity--no matter how it looked, the more pieces, the higher the grade.

Well, Group A hovered, labored, and worried over their one piece, trying to produce the perfect work (kind of like the labor involved for me to look that Awesome in the above photo;)).  Group B, with great gusto, just began making piece after piece, not focusing on perfection, but just showing up and doing the work.

Guess which group produced the best quality pieces??

You know it....Group B!
Which serves to remind us all--
B(e) yourself in all things--that is what will delight and bring JOY to yourself and those around you!

Forget perfect, BE real instead;)))

P.S.  If you care for me, please do not share this post.  I have a reputation to maintain--I could quickly be dubbed as a Bob Ross look alike.

I know that is what you were thinking.  I wasn't born yesterday, as can be proven by the afore shown hair-do and shoulder pads;))
If, on the other hand, you believe all of Eddie's trash talk, then share it with everyone.
I'm not afraid.  I lived through the 80's fashion derailment.  After that, there is not much of anything left
to fear.


P.S.S.  For those of you not afraid of big hair and painting with me, due to much whining of those who do not want to wait 'til 2013--I am adding one 3-Day workshop in Paris, KY , July 16-18, 2012.
You are getting the scoop here first:))  Click here for the info:))


And speaking of silly photos...here's Ed Pin It

"Momma's Best" SOLD

"Momma's Best"

8 x 8in oil on museum quality panel

SOLD

Happy to go and happy to be home again:)! 

 It was a picture perfect week -- great weather (the locals kept trying to tell us how much it rains, but personally, I think they are trying to discourage us landlubbers from moving to the island;))

A great location to paint in, all kinds of new, amazing artists/people to meet, dozens of completed paintings,  new inspirations to paint--

What's left to say.  

We came, we saw, we painted, we laughed.

We're going back!!!

Cary and Sieb (our awesome hosts for the workshop) opened their home to us for the evening allowing for some great social time!

Which inspired MORE GREAT ART!!

Which in turn inspired.....ahem....more eating;))

As in snarfing down fresh home baked bread by Cary (some of which was "no knead" bread but we felt like we did "need" it....along with REAL BUTTER, of course:))

Along with maybe a glass of wine.

And some salad and pasta.

And a berrry wonderful dessert with ICE CREAM.

Now that I rehearse it all---when did they have time to crank out all those paintings???

Lovely artists, inside and out:)

The smiles say it best.

We had a marvelous time!

Thanks to each of the warm, giving, talented artists who made my week on Whidbey Island one to smile about:)

Sometimes a movie just says it best:))

If video does not appear, click here to view!

Silvia, Gloria, Barb, Linda, Jacquie, Pat, Christy, Cici, Anna, Helen, David, Kerrie, Bente, Laura, Sue, Christine, JoAnne, and Faye...I love you guys!!!


P.S.  My monthly winners have been drawn via Random.org--better check your email--it may be you:))! Pin It