June 27th 2008 The Blue Gallery

Well, I'll keep this brief. The opening went really well and all three of us managed to get through our talks just fine. The other two artists, Bernal Koehrsen and Laura-Harris Gascogne, were incredible. They're kind and positive, and genuine artists. I feel really lucky to have met them and have my work in the same space--it was a good night.




Bernal's paintings on canvas and aluminum with resin:One of Laura's porcelain pieces ( for scale, this is over two feet tall):

And this is Stella! She's awesome and is the protector of the gallery! (And she wants some snacks)



Here's what I finally ended up wearing. I figured if I showed enough cleavage, it really didn't matter what I said in my talk...
I'm just glad this day is over. WHEW.

House Painting Commences!

The painters began painting on Wednesday, June 25th. Here's some photos from the 25th through the 27th:




The porch floor, looking like a massacre occurred here:





And this is from yesterday (the 27th) afternoon. By evening, they were almost done with the front of the house, but I didn't get a chance to take photos. I had an opening to attend!

You are Cordially Invited:

I'm nervous. Not about the show, but I've been asked to speak about my work. I've never given an artist's talk before and I'm not good at that sort of thing. Especially in front of other artists. I hope I can pull it off.
"Uh, I like to paint ... and stuff..."

Paintings and Stuff

Hey! There's a pretty caterpillar on my parsley. (I've got tons of parsley--he can eat all he wants).


Esther actually wants to mow the grass (now if we can get her to do it when she's a teenager...). And look! My house has mange!

I framed a few pieces for the Blue gallery show today. Hobby Lobby was having one of their "1/2 off open-back frames" sales. You have to love it. Even though shopping there annoys me somewhat.


So here's "East Texas Ophelia" in her new garb:



And "Lilies":


And "Winkle Picker". I hate that the frame cuts off so much of the bottom of the painting. It's my favorite part.


Here's a closeup.


"A Time of Hunger and Despair and Giant Insects" is finished. Sorry about that glare in this photo:


So I've been painting like crazy. They're all done except for "Plague House", and that one is just complication after complication. It's like a really difficult child. You want to beat the snot out of them, but you can't. OUCH--how many parents just said,"Oh no, she didn't!"?

Exhibition Record!?

I'm trying so hard to write up an intelligible artist's statement and exhibition record/resume for this upcoming show and it's making me kookoo! It's been really difficult this week to focus on any one thing, and going back and recalling all the shows I've participated in is proving to be hurty.

Hmm, maybe I should record these exhibitions as they happen? Instead of waiting a year or two?

Testing: One, Two...

So here's a sneak peek (for EVERYONE, including me!) of our paint colors. They look much brighter in reality. I'm a little freaked out that they may be TOO bright, but against the drab, faded pink and blue-gray, I think anything would look bright.

The green is Sherwood Green and the trim is Golden Hills (in the samples they looked much duller--which is what I kinda wanted, but oh well!). At this point, anything's an improvement.

Yay us! When the house is done and the porch is painted, we're buying ourselves a porch swing--whoo hoo!!!

We've got painters!!!

Well, not in the photos. But you can see what they've been doing!
Our paint rep friend had to finally fire the original painter and hire a new guy. And they actually showed up when they said they would! So it's been a few days of power washing and scraping. They said it's gonna be two or three weeks of just prep work: washing, scraping, caulking, etc. And then painting!

So exciting! I never thought we'd get to this point.


So you wanna see some UGLY?


The old paint is literally coming off in sheets--you can just pull big pieces off, like peeling wallpaper. That's how crappy a job the previous owners did painting the house.

I can't wait til it's all done and I can do the foundation planting I've been looking forward to for two years!!