Art Crawl set-up

Only 2 days till the St. Paul Art Crawl--an open studio event held here twice a year. I am busy converting our home studio/living space into an art gallery for the weekend! Unfortunately, I am not at the top of my game--I have not been feeling good today--tired, achy, getting the chills...but the show must go on!

Earlier today I did some shopping, picking up supplies. Now I'm moving furniture around, setting out artwork and trying to envision where everything should go. 

I'm hoping that tomorrow I'm feeling better (I picked up some medicine while I was out!) and can get lots more done. Friday I will be hanging the final pieces, putting up tags, baking some treats and saying a few prayers for good weather!

Hope Garden

With less than a week before Art Crawl, I finished "Hope Garden" this weekend! Working on this painting the past few weeks has helped me escape the stress at work and keep my spirits up. I love working with such bright, intense colors. It measures 24x36--so it is one of my larger paintings. I think it is even more vibrant viewed in person than these pictures show. I will have it on display during the Art Crawl.

Some detail shots--

Painting the stress away

Back to work this week meant dealing with everyone's stress--besides my own--regarding who's going to be laid off, when it's going to happen, what work is going to be like for those still at work...not a relaxing or productive day! 

All the more reason to head over to the studio after work...that and the fact that the Art Crawl is just 10 days away!

The studio is this little place where work stress doesn't exist. Turn on the music (tonight--some 70's Motown love songs), do a little dancing and painting and stress escapes!

Honestly, sometimes there is stress in the creative process...the stress of not being sure of how to proceed with a piece or if you even like what you just did...but that is a very different stress...

Thank you for your words of encouragement...One of the things I didn't expect when I started this blog was to build a community of friends and fellow artists that I could turn to for much needed support...it really does make a difference...and it gives me hope.

(The painting is not done yet...but I'm determined!)

Painting hope

Those of you who are friends or have been reading this blog for a while (not mutually exclusive groups by any means!) know that my day job is being a social worker at a small nonprofit agency and that this past fall my agency was within hours of laying folks off. (If you are new to my blog, you can read about it at this earlier post or by clicking on the Southside Family Nurturing Center label).

We've been waiting these past few months for the county that contracts with our agency to release the new specs for our future contract. It was supposed to be released in March, but we were not really surprised that it was not released on time. 

Over spring break, our director received an update from the county. Yesterday at a staff meeting our director shared the news that basically the county does not have the new specs ready but the county has informed us that starting July 1st they intend to cut our monthly budget allotment in half! The bad news doesn't end there. The new contract proposals don't look to favor agencies such as ours.

The bottom line is that staff will be cut...soon. At the end of the month we will have more news and shortly thereafter layoffs will likely be announced. At this point it looks like 5-6 people will lose their jobs. With the 2 positions recently vacated this is 20% of our staff.

It's hard hearing this kind of news as you're heading home for the weekend...definitely puts a damper on weekend festivities. I'm taking in the news, trying to digest it, not quite ready to take action. 

Except I knew that I had to paint. And I knew exactly what I had to paint. I had to paint Hope. I went to the studio on Friday night and started painting a new large piece that I had dreamed about at the end of Spring Break. It is bright and colorful, full of flowers and life. 

I will be busting my butt to finish this painting in time for the Spring Art Crawl (just 2 weeks away!) I worked on it for several hours today. It is similar in nature to the whimsical winter paintings that I started working on in early winter--when I was first dealing with the possibility of losing my job.

I read somewhere that in these tough economic times people are more interested in art that expresses hope and optimism. I don't know if that is true, but I know that I sure what to paint work that reflects hope. I want to paint with bright, vibrant colors. I want to paint things that make me feel better. Hopefully others will feel more hopeful when they look at my paintings.

 

 

Melange mixed media challenge

 

I saw this week's challenge on the Melange Mixed Media website--Ice Cream--and had to participate! From time to time, I incorporate some mixed media in my work. This is a painting that I finished this summer. I call it "Ode to Izzy's". Izzy's is my favorite ice cream place in town...it is so good! They make all their own ice creams and make some pretty crazy flavors...but back to the artwork!

It was created on a 16x20 stretched canvas. I used acrylic paints, but also some oil pastel sticks for the face and hands. It's new for me to be painting more realistic people. Painting the ice cream was fun...I used lots of medium to create texture in the ice cream. Oh, that little strawberry dip on top...that's what they call an "izzy". I want a taste!

I used letters that I painted and attached to the canvas to spell out Izzy's. I also used ribbon on the dress and hat, along with a brad on the hat.

 

 

You can look at the other pieces completed for this challenge on the Melange site. You can find work by some very talented artists there. Check it out!

I'm thinking about listing this painting in my Etsy shop--probably after the Art Crawl...unless someone buys it at the Art Crawl first!

 

Spring Break is over and...

It's back to work for me...which means juggling work with studio time. I have a major event coming up in a few short weeks, lots of paintings started and need to find my way to the studio after work. So far that's not been happening!

My butt has been dragging this week. When I get home from work I feel like I'm barely functional. If I can just get myself to the studio...even for an hour...I would feel so much better.

We'll see how this plan works!

Just keep painting...

It's been a glorious week here--sunny, unseasonably warm (we hit 80 today!)--a wonderful week for Spring Break. I've enjoyed some time outdoors, but lots of time in the studio painting.

Just a little over 20 days till the Spring Art Crawl...I feel good about all the work I've been doing. The real question is will I have enough time to get everything done (in time for the Crawl) that I've started. Probably not...but I'm going to keep painting like crazy!