Ribbon at the Odessa Art Association Show!!

I put the 'Eye to Eye' piece in the Odessa Art Association show in March and I WON first in mixed media!!! Wow! I was so excited! It turned out so well, and the frame made a huge difference in how it looked - I'm glad they didn't have a gold frame that size, because the black is perfect. Only 60 pieces get into the show out of 200+ entries and I had TWO pieces accepted. I was SHOCKED when I walked in, it was right at the entry, what a wonderful surprise!

'Enchanted Evening' Prom 2008

Prom was last night, I've slept 12 hours, and I am still exhausted. Here's a few pictures of all the great kids and faculty who work on it, then put it up. 800' of 11' paper walls!!!
It was so beautiful - very classy and elegant.
Now I have to shovel out the art room, although I must say, it's been MUCH worse in previous years when we kept most of the decorations for some other group to use. I looked in the dome this afternoon - GONE- no evidence of the prom, like it never happened!!

Unnerving, dream or nightmare, but OVER for another year.
































































Wow, just looking at the pictures makes me tired!!!
Good thing it's only once a year!!!

This coming weekend, My DH and I, are traveling to Houston with 3 art kids to the State Visual Art Scholastic Event in Houston. We get to stay 3 days!! Our hotel is in Galveston - the Ramada on Seawall Blvd. right on the beach, and the kids are THRILLED!!! Me too! I'll have more pictures to add later to this blog and my school art blog.

Updates on 2 pieces 2/10/08

Finally getting the pictures uploaded on these pieces. The big blank white area is going to be about the same color as the top right, and have a collaged piece down the front of it with my 'patterns' stamp on it like buttons. The tags that will go on the flap will have all seven of her kids in their catholic school uniforms on them. Collaged and embellished and hanging on handmade buttons of some sort that I haven't figured out yet. The heart is metal tape(and it's browns and yellows like the edge around the big part, but looks pinkish in the photo) That's my mom holding me in the center, it's a transparency glued in between the 2 layers of foam core.

Progress??

Got the background 'painted' - chalk and oil pastels, paint sticks, and a bunch of turpentine. My artist daughter Erin came over and helped me through my BLOCK with this piece. She threw lots of great ideas out and one was about a map! I have an old world map from a 1963 Readers Digest atlas, so we cut it to fit in the hole, the colors are PERFECT. Not sure yet what else I'm going to put do in the 'hole' , but it is starting to work. The block is gone, at least for now! Thanks Erin!!! Lifesaver! I was ready to chunk the whole thing and my art 'career' too.

Alot of it isn't glued down yet. The bright silver metal piece is actually the same as the others, the flash got it.
I 'wrote' in the wet paint with several colors of oil paint stick, then used the other end of a paint brush to write into the wet stuff - more to my Mom. I use rubber gloves and turp to mix and smudge the colors, it leaves a cool texture.

The 'metal edge says:
'Mom, I've been missing you - are you out there somewhere listening, watching me? I'm trying to do right by you, trying to get the kids not to fight and be mean to each other. I'm trying Mom, won't you come to me in a dream Mom? Help me know what to do - I feel pretty useless right now, everyone needs something and I am only one person...just like you did all your life, try to fix things and make them better 'frosting the cow patty' I guess! But your dreams, your words, your hopes for all of us, are mine.'
'Mom this is for you- I should have loved you better when you were alive - I hope you can hear me now.'
' I miss you Mom, how many times have I almost called you before I remember - My mother is dead. These words are still impossible to comprehend. I haven't cried yet, I am afraid to...'


I'm still working through my relationship with my Mom and her death in my art, and this is part of it - says the very objective unemotional part of me -
the other part can barely breathe...

One hour later...

Got the edges done, I'll collage it when the stuff is dry tomorrow. I used oil pastel, chalk pastel and oil paint sticks on the colored areas. They'll need to be trimmed down and then glued. So far, I am pleased. I could work for HOURS listening to the live Coldplay CD - art making music. I have a project playlist that I'll put on later with some of my favorite tunes - some I've heard on other blogs and fell in love with.

I love our little cyber-community, we are so lucky. Thanks out there!!!





Here's where I work at school - 4X8 table, COVERED with 'stuff' - my home away from home. Which is where I'm heading in about 15 min. as soon as I clean up a bit. See ya!!!

Maybe I'm getting somewhere...

More on the mixed media piece. Played with silver metal duct tape and Adirondack alcohol inks. I wrote a letter to my mom on the metal over foam core, then applied the inks. Got a great metallic brass color, more like it had been polished and the left out to tarnish.

I have since gessoed the BLUE board - it was driving me crazy, way too blue! I have to work on the gessoed papers I'm adding, probably off whites, cremes, browns, etc, my colors with a hint of blue and fushia. I need to make some new stamps, but the designs escape me. Also the edges of the foamcore need modeling paste and color or collage...
I have about an hour today after school, so I'll get a bunch done.

New Grandbaby Pictures!!!

Here's little miss Jillian Grace!!













Here she is with her Mommy, Jaclynn.













Here she is with my son Danny - now a father of TWO girls!!

Three months in a nutshell!!!

Long time, here I am again!!
My 79 year old Dad had surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm on September 17, and Dan and I went to Seattle for that - very bad, he was in ICU for nearly 3 weeks and on a ventilator for much of it. He had renal failure, lost part of his colon and ended up with a colostomy and for a while we weren't sure he would come back at all. I went back for 8 days the middle of October and he was starting to come around. He was in a regular room, but unable to sit up or feed himself. After a week of my nonstop chatter and sneaking him 'medicinal' McD's sausage,egg, and cheese biscuits and coffee, he perked up enough to start feeding himself and get off the feeding tube. His one good kidney has come back to life, but he is now being treated for insulin dependent diabetes... My brothers Marc and Pete, my sister in law Lisa, Dad's friend Claudine, and I have tag teamed him so he'd have constant company, and it has helped tremendously.
Marc, who lives there in Seattle (he's the artist who's link is the first on my list) is the primary care person, since the rest of us are so far away, so much of this has fallen on him. Dad's in rehab there at UWMC and progressing ever so slowly back, we all hope, to his pre-surgery self.

And of course, I also started back to school in August. I have 165 Art 1-4 high school students, absolutely the most wonderful bunch I have ever had!!! This school year has been so nice!!

I am also a Nana again!!! Jillian Grace was born October 17th!! My pictures won't work on blogger, so I'll get the other disk from school.

My cup runneth over...

I'm back in college this semester, behind as usual...I don't know why I ever think it's going to be any different, it's always going to be something that makes working on my masters nearly impossible. But I will keep going, no matter what, as long as my dear instructor Carol doesn't throw me out!


These are 2 technique photos, this is modeling paste over salt and lace - fun stuff!! Click on this one, it looks cool!











This one is modeling paste over crumpled pattern tissue that has had photos and letters xeroxed onto it - it didn't smear, I was shocked!!!















This is my journal -
Like I say, it's a lifesaver for me - I did the design on the way to see my Dad. Five hours of flying gives you lots of time to think and plan.












This photo is the center piece from the journal before it's glued onto the foam core, it ends up 2 thicknesses of foamcore for this part, 1 for the piece below it and matboard for the base. It'll be about 22"X28" unmatted.
























I finished up the spring semester with 7 finished pieces, and I'm trying to find the pictures to upload for that.
I'm grabbing 15 min. here and there, whenever I can. Again my journal has been a lifesaver!!

Trip to Washington DC

In April, my art student Joey won the 11th US Congressional District Art Competition. He entered a photograph he took at our cemetery after an ice storm in Jan.2007. Part of the prize was airfare for 3 to DC and 2 nights in a hotel there. My fantastic principal paid for an extra night for Joey and his mom, and 3 nights for me and Dan, and our rental car, and part of our meals. It was the trip of a life time!

We left from Midland EARLY Wed. AM Jun. 27 and flew to Austin then to Baltimore. LONG trip, we got in about 2:30PM and drove around awhile, then got settled in our hotel - Capitol Hill Suites - and then went driving around to look at the lights. WOW, DC is gorgeous at night.
I lived in Alexandria, VA and in Upper Marboro, MD in the mid seventies. It has changed alot since then. The most noticeable is the accessibility of monuments and the government offices. Thank you 9/11...

Anyway, we visited with Congressman Mike Conaway Thursday morning in the Cannon building(wow, what a beautiful building!) and then went to the Capitol through the underground walkways - saw Joey's picture hanging in the passageway - we have awesome high school artists in this country! The temperature was 94 and VERY humid. I think we walked 10 miles that day. That night we went to the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - again, awesome places.
Friday it was cooler and cloudy, we went on the White House tour, and then did MORE walking, went to the Air and Space Museum, and the Hirshorn and went to the pavillions on the Mall - they had Irish musicians there and Vietnamese dancers - very interesting. I ended up with shin splints...OOS(out of shape!) But I'm a trouper, so we went driving around all over, up Embassy Row and Georgetown, it was so pretty. On Saturday, we left at 3 for the airport, and got home at 11PM - VERY long day. As always, so glad to be home.

Next time I will do my homework for the trip. I should have looked up what art I wanted to see and had the addresses (we have a Garmin - absolutely indispensible in a strange city!) and the address of my old job on M St. NW - Aetna still has offices there, but I didn't remember the address...it was a great trip for me, down memory lane...

BWO!!

Yeah! Thanks to Connie(Altered Route) and her May 17th post with the link to BWO - I'd been wanting to put it on my site, and her link to Tiffini (Tartx) who has an awesome blog and webpage, finally gave me the push to do it! Thanks!!!