Never a dull moment on FaceBook! And FINISHED work Friday!

Swing Shift(click for detail)

Playing with color and "letting go". Just setting up the paints and various utensils....some loud Indie Techno to set the mood ...and just hitting the canvas RAW. Extempore, impetuous, Enfant Schizo!

Yesturday's FaceBook status:

RunninL8... Hates the pretentiousness of Americans who wax British with the idiom, "I'm going to University".


RM: really? do you also hate Americans who add the 'o u' to certain words, for example colour... if so, I am in really trouble with you.

Runninl8: not so much. And it's the pretense i hate....not the people.

CS: I hate those wankers, its bollocks I tell you!

LLS: Oh, Bloody 'ell.

CS: Fish and chips

RunninL8: RIGHT! Cor BLIMEY!!!! I just shat my Alan Whickers!!! No more gettin' blindo for me!!!!

RunninL8: LLS, you're a corking corker and I LOVE ya!

CS: Those cheeky buggers are fit. I might try to shag one of them now

RunninL8: it's a GAS!

RunninL8: Cory, give the ole undercarriage a bit of a 'how's your father' first!

CS: Oh that's pure codswallop

DLM: Marginally better than I'm going to the water closet.

DC: Quick wit and humor. Love it. You would be a fun neighbor. :)

Work in Progress Wednesday...on Thursday. Waddaya gonna do?

One of the pieces I 'm working on this week was derived from a technique that I learned from GARY REEF on his NING site, LOVIN' MIXED MEDIA. Gary is a fabulous Australian contemporary mixed media artist who lives in Norway. His amazing networking matrix consists of YouTube art technique tutorials, FaceBook updates on his latest works, an Etsy shop and the NING site- chock full of informative articles, groups, videos, forums, and tons of like-minded artists....a fecund land of creativity and inspiration.

The technique used on my above Buddha work is Gary's "Bubble Effect" technique. A wonderfully textural work made by using thick layers of house paint and a heat gun.

Take a minute to check out Gary's work on his website and then head on over to Lovin' Mixed Media.....an incendiary device for the imagination!

As far as my Buddha....I'm not sure where I'm going to take it. I may add some Sanskrit text next to him and call it good. Or maybe get crazy with some lotuses all around. Or both. Hmmmmmm....

Earth Day!

Well, I had planned on keeping Lo home from school today so that we could celebrate Earth Day by going for a hike to the falls, planting some seedlings, and making glow-in-the-dark watercolor Earth paintings. But apparently there is a school field trip slated for today at the Anchorage Museum of Natural History to study polar dinosaurs. Lo very much would like to go. It's only until noon, so I'll tag along too and we'll just head home for our fun after the field trip.

Here's a link to what we were doing on Earth Day last year. I can't believe how GREAT the weather was that day!!!! Right now we still have snow on the deck, 32 degrees and overcast....

Happy Earth Day to all!!!

Work in Progress Wednesday

Since I missed posting a WIP last Wednesday, I'll post 2 today.

"Fugs!", you say! "Yes!", I concur. But fear NOT. This is merely the very BASE layer of this painting. I have no idea where this one will bring me, but I can guarantee it will be nowhere near what you see above. I'm currently playing with textures and layers. Stay tuned!

This one I started 2 years ago and recently dug it out. It will also be seeing more layers and a better blend of colors. Huz says the pink part looks like a boob. ~sigh. Now I all see is MAMMARY. Gonna have to fix that somehow...


I'm COMPLETELY stuck on the progress of my "bear"(from the last WIP post) and haven't been able to work on it since. Does that make me a STUCKIST? I think I'll just have to bite the bullet and ATTACK it. Turn off the left brain and dive into the right...

Work-in-Progress Wednesday

I thought it would be fun to start a Work in Progress post for every Wednesday, showcasing my current work. So here is the pain in the ass I'm working on so far this week. I love it....but it needs to "go" somewhere... but I don't know where that is yet (yeah, yeah....I hear YOU, Jerky-the trash is not an option!) We'll see where the week takes us!

And then there are the two below which are now finished. I am still in shock that the unicorn sold only 15 minutes after I posted it online! I've sold other pieces 2 so far and am now working on a commission. Which prompted me to start an ETSY shop. Not ready yet to launch it , though. I'm still working on getting that first body of work ready to show!

A Conspiracy of Ravens

A Creature So Likely That It Must Exist

ALtErNaTiVe eggs.....AND IT'S MY 2ND BLOGIVERSARY!!!!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEW! It's pastel HELL time again!!!! I shant go into another Easter Rant again this year.....I promise. This weekend is our Spring celebration here in Still Under 2 Feet of Snow, Alaska. Always a weird thing trying to honor Spring when the world outside is covered in cold white and MUD.....bare trees and grey skies. We're in that yearly bummer of a phase where the snow is both melty and icy hard, depending on the time of day, so you can't really ski, snowshoe or sled anymore (as evidenced in this video of me trying to ski on hard icy snow):

.....but you can't hike on the trails and enjoy the ridges yet, either. For the past few weeks I have perused blogs teaming with burgeoning spring! Sunny photos of kids, sans coat and hat, outside soaking up the freshness! Things have been quiet here in that respect....still, but with a stirring below that will eventually enfold in all it's fecund GLORY!!!! Oh, YEAH it will!!! But it will be awhile...~sigh....

In the meantime we've engaged in our usual Bring IN the Spring activities.....forcing willow branches inside, starting some seeds for the butterfly garden, making a gourd birdhouse, etc. And now, we are on to the eggs. Lo will be playing hooky from school today so we can do our eggs and other Springy things. I've tried to keep Lo out of the Easter Schmunsky isles at the grocery store so that she won't catch a glimpse off all those cheesy PAAS coloring kits! Glitter, Disney characters....and that nasty "tie-dye" one. Ever notice how STICKY the PAAS "tie-dye" eggs come out?! INSTANT pet fur and lint magnets....

Since my head has been in such a PAINTING space lately-I've been gettin' CRUNK on canvas for 2 months now!!!!- I thought it would be fun to incorporate a little of that in this year's Just Say NO to PAAS egg decorating.

This year, we decided to decorate eggs that would last for future Spring decor and celebration. We created our own mini egg canvases......on which to embellish in many ways. I bought some cheap fake decorative eggs from Micheal's (you can also use plastic Easter basket eggs), and gessoed them white just like you would prime a canvas for painting. From here we experimented with both acrylic paint and fibers- silk, wool and cheese cloth.

Here's what you'll need:

plastic eggs

sand paper

white gesso

paintbrush

various types of fibers

glossy Mod Podge

Here is our process:

1. Use sandpaper to lightly sand the surface of your egg-just enough to cover the egg in sandpaper scratches. This will provide "tooth" for your gesso to adhere to.

2. Apply 2 coats of gesso to your egg. Let the first coat dry before adding the next.

3. Take your wool or silk fibers(for mine I used wool roving and silk pulled from hand spun silk yarn) and gently pull the fibers away from each other.

4. Cover you egg with a coat of Mod Podge and place pulled fibers on the egg.

5. Gently paint on more Mod Podge and use your brush to manipulate the fibers where you would like them to be placed.

6. You can also keep your egg canvas white and paint it in what ever style you like with acrylic or watercolor paint.

7. Let dry...and display!!!

And what's THIS?!?!? A poor lost dinosaur egg! HOW did it get there with the other Spring eggs?!??!

A quick and easy tutorial on how to make Dino eggs will have to wait until next week! Plus, I have a bit to say about this 2 yr blogiversary....

MERRY SPRING!!!!