The Making of COSMIC JERRY

It was Huz's Birthday last week and I painted him a groovy portrait of Jerry Garcia. He doesn't often get to see my painting in action so I made a video of the whole process...

Artist Trading Cards with kids

So I've joined 2 fun NING art sites. NING = a place where one can build or join a particular social network. Artists Gary Reef and Jared Knight each a run a fun and engaging site. You can find links to these sites on the top of my sidebar. These 2 artist's networks are a great place for displaying, viewing and discussing artwork, watching videos and tutorials, and socializing with other like-mindeds. I suggested At JaredKnight.ning.com that we do an Artist Trading Card swap which is now underway. On Wednesday Jared proposed we also start a swap for the kids. Lo was thrilled at the prospect of not only making these fun little cards but also sending them off and receiving some back from kids around the world. She has enjoyed some of the guy's crazy videos as well and thought it would be fun to make our own. So I stuck the camera on the tripod and we went to work. Here's the goofiness that ensued....and my lame attempt at editing. Dea joined in the fun as well and made a few cool cards of her own. Head on over to Jared's NING site to get your kiddos involved in this ATC trade! Adult kids can participate, too!

Works In Progress

rEVOLUTION within

rEVOL(ve)UTION

I'm on fire folks. An awakening on some etheric level. As I said in my last post, I have sudden surge of ideas flowing in....a million tiny seeds of creation germinating...taking root, infiltrating my mind... I'm seeing, feeling, experiencing everything via a pallet and paints and an open canvas...through the viewfinder of my camera, and how my inner world will display on my laptop's screen. I want to take these pieces of....life....and synthesize, deconstruct, reassemble and express. I have my own paradigms and schematics of the soul that I want to articulate through these mediums-a longing that has always been a constant in my life. I'm bathing in and evolving from the works I see from so many talented creators through both the cyber and the real.

With my birthday-and Santa-came new photog equipment: New camera, new laptop, photo editing software to get acquainted with, awesome photo books to devour....as well as a suddenly rekindled desire to paint after a 2 year hiatus. Winning a $100 gift card to Blaine's Art Supply at the NYL Auction Dinner really helped-new colors and fun mediums! Oh, and then there's all those websites and blogs devoted to art, photography, and journaling that have really gotten my juices flowing. Sites that challenge one to a daily , weekly, monthly artistic PROMPT. Here are some I'd like to take on and share here: A Year In The Life, Inspire Me Thursday, Your Life Spelled Out..... so many more.

I need that type of discipline/commitment to hold me in the now. I don't want to loose this new sight, this new drive and passion. I desperately do not want this to slip through my fingers back into the routine. But how to keep hold of this, to compartmentalize it into my life of mommy, wife, massage therapist and keeper of the home? How to tighten up and improve on what I already do in order to allow more creating in? ...How I'm longing for some space. Physical space, to be exact. Enough to hold all my stuff of creation, with room to move, to trash, to explore, to not care where the paint flies...the floor...the ceiling... It's a challenge to keep all this in check while painting in my kitchen! Maybe, someday, a used yurt connected to the house. With an old woodstove and access to the hose. More ROOM where my canvases, as well as my imagination, can become larger, expand farther........ journeying the astral.....

A hodge-podge of goings-on.

Been busy! Usually I'm experiencing the after holidays cool down about now, but this year there seems to be a continuous deluge of......stuff. My mom came out for her yearly visit and we had a fun yet short time with her. She arrived right during Kick-off week at Huz's work(New York Life) and was subsequently dragged to one of the fancy dinners. We thought she might enjoy the Petroleum Club and meeting some of Huz's associates. The NYL Head Honcho put her at a table with a couple suave young agents and she had a swell time! She has since been dubbed,"The Cougar".

I enjoyed the chance to wear the cute French Connection UK dress that Dea and I both coveted when we saw it in New York City last summer.

Found if on the super cheep at Ebay! I got to have 2 froo-froo fancy nights out in a row! The next evening was the Annual Awards Dinner. Remember? The one where I wait until the last minute and fret over what kind of gown to buy? I didn't bother holding a poll this year-I wanted a plum colored gown but the internets were lacking so I settled for a black gown with an intricate beaded....thingy.

Normally I don't wear black-cuz everyone else does-but the thingy made it unique enough. A few quick clicks around and it was a done deal. Mom stayed with the kids so Huz and I could attend the banquet and spend the night at the Captain Cook Hotel. Swank-ay!!!! 'Twas a gay affair, good margaritas, fun friends, a couple of awards given to Huz and NO WARDROBE MALFUNCTIONS!!!!

Back to Mom. Mom loves to take the kids in for haircuts, so we enjoyed MLK Day in town, shorn and shopping. The rest of the visit was spent hanging out, eating out, playing around, and visiting friends. We went for a nice snow shoe up the valley and were planning on heading up the Powerline Pass trail with her the next day, but she then realized that she actually had to leave that night, not the following. We were all bummed that the visit was cut short a day. It was so nice having my mommy out.

(Nanook takes on the mountains. Pretty good for 67 years old!!!!)

In the meantime, I seem to have physically started to discombobulate. My low back crap started acting up, both shoulders started to hurt, and one morning...intense pain down the left side of my neck into my rhomboids. Did I get into a car accident, you ask? Did I biff whilst downhill skiing? Get into a knife fight with a cagey broad in a downtown back alley? No. I hit 40 is all. Skate skied with the wrong size polls(grabbed Dea's by accident). One night my head snapped back when I fell asleep sitting on the couch watching a movie. I know, I know...HOW could I fall asleep watching Fight Club for feksake?!?! Chronic Low back pain, bursitis of the shoulders and whiplash.

40.

So I've been going in twice per week for a barrage of cracking, zapping, kneading(this part is goooooooooood), re-assessing, steroidal patch applying and icing. So far the low back feels a bit better-Oh! My x-ray shows that I have lumbarization. NOTHING about me is NORMAL. The left shoulder is almost back to normal, the right still sucks. Maybe I should take a break from the poi spinning?

And then there is ART. Creating. A sudden surge of ideas flowing in....a million tiny seeds of creation germinating...taking root, infiltrating my mind...but that's my next post.

Busy, busy.