Painting at the beach tomorrow

I have just finished *endless* framing and I am prepping canvases for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Thursday- so I am taking Journey to the beach!

I am looking forward to painting on the golden sand and soaking up the sunshine.

I am going to be working on some fun little paintings to submit to the February Somerset challenge: theme is 'Sisterhood'.

Not having a sister, "sisterhood", to me, refelcts more on deep personal friendships with kindred spirits. Many of my friendships stemmed from doing some activity that brought us together & gave us something to share (at least in the beginning) so I am focusing the project on activities that bring women together and serve as the birthplace for "sisterhood" to develop. This is the first time I have tried submitting something to a magazine so it will be interesting to see if anything becomes of it.

It is nice to have a no-pressure assignment to work on.

Finished today

I have been working on this for a teacher in Colorado.

I let Journey help me block in the first layer colors- he loved it! And we both got covered in paint, so this painting is really special to me. It was first time I let him help me with my work.

(not the first time he has "helped" but certainly the first time he has been invited to help).

I can't believe he is going to be 4 years old on Friday.

Tonight is his birthday party with the family.

Ceviche, anyone?

Well, yet another strange coincidence arises in my little artsy world. I called up Ceviche Dave's to see if they had any free wall space and low and behold, they told me to bring my work down because they are having their anniversary party tomorrow and would love to hang up some new art. I couldn't have asked for better timing. Very groovy.

So I am extending the invitation to the party- if you are one of the few who haven't tried (and ultimately become addicted) to Ceviche Dave's seafood delights, you should definitely make a point to pay them a visit tomorrow. I also hear that Dave and his family throw one heck of a party so I am sure you won't be disappointed.

I wish I had a little more time to bring down the one I am currently working on, too. It is a netfisherman with a catch of 'Uhu. They totally look nice together *sigh* oh well.

Designing

It so hard to wait. Here is one of the first sketches I made for my very own Sasaki purse. I love the burlap sack purses she makes already and commissioned her to make some for my family members this Christmas using their company's own coffee sacks.

Of course, it wasn't long after wrapping up all those purses and giving them away did I realize that I realy wanted one for myself.

So I tried to come up with a image that had something to do with coffee- to go with the burlap fabric- but would also allow me to do something very whimsical and nouveau- how I like to do.

I wanted to get an up close look at the coffee flowers while also being far enough away to have quite a bit of the ladies figure in view. So I came up with this odd angle, almost looking down at her through a tornado of coffee branches.

Now I am just waiting for my fabric to arrive and then I can send it all off to "the sweat shop".

Anela

This is my most recent painting- freshly rebirthed into a fine handbag.

Click here to learn more about Anela: the latest from Sasaki Bags.

Traveling Journals

I discovered this interesting site called http://www.1001journals.com/ and they have a really interesting project going on that anyone can participate in. You can either submit your own personal journal or you can sign up to add to traveling journals that are going from one person to the next.

There is also another third way to participate which might be interesting if you were trying to draw people to your business: it is a location journal where people travel to the journal to add to it and it doesn't leave that certain spot. The traveling journals all have interesting themes; some are very specific and others are a little more "anything goes". I signed up to participate in a few that sounded creative and also added one of my own that I will be sending out into the world.

Journal #3356- I am sending mine out with a cd of music and challenging people to create whatever images or poetry, etc. the music inspires... nothing I composed, just a mix cd of some favorite songs that bring interesting mental pictures to mind for me. I am curious to see if the images the music brings to my mind are the same sort of things other people see also when they hear it.

A little experiment on how universal a composer's intentions really are. This should be interesting. If you want to participate in my journal, go to http://www.1001journals.com/ and register... then look for traveling journal #3356 from Holualoa Hawaii. And while you are there check out some of the others- it's really a cool concept!

Me? Balanced?

I was reading this book called The Creative Entrepreneur (it was really helpful- I recommend it) and in it there is an exercise where they try to show you how the brain works, which side does what, etc. And they had a list of statements that a right-brained person might make and on the opposite page there were statements that a left-brained person which were pretty much the counterpart to all of the right-sided statements (I am very organized/ I am very messy & scatterbrained)...

Well, in my journal, to see which side of my brain I use more (everyone assuming they already know... you will be surprised to hear the result)...

I was surprised to discover that I had exactly the same amount of left-sided comments that described me as I had right-sided comments.

So I guess I am equally using both sides of my brain.

(what a relief!)

How was my day? ...

Encouraging Martha Graham Quote

Choosing

This is always an exciting time of year for me; a fresh new year; so alive with possibilities. But with SO many possibilities I often feel overwhelmed with

choosing

(which to pursue and which to let go of).

It is hard to decide what to give my focus and attention to. But I also know that spreading myself too thin doesn't give any of ideas a real chance.

So

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

where will this new year take me?

what direction will I decide to travel?

-stay tuned-