Building shit

Well, here are the current Works in Progress....the new addition aaaand I'm building my "official and bonafide" artist WEBSITE!

WWW.DANAPRUNER.COM

Yay! I have my own .COM! Come check it out and say "HI"!!!! You'll find my galleries of paintings-available and sold works- and photography, a shop and a strictly art related blog.

Which brings me to this one. I miss writing in it....and wish I could post more often. I'd like to make more of an effort to get back into the swing of things....but if I'm going to do so, I MUST get back to the first and REAL reason I started the blog in the first place....to have a more fun and stimulating way to journal on a regular basis. I've had a great time sharing my thoughts, photos, art, and tutorials with so many amazing people. But this blog became exactly what I didn't want it to be...a blog being created mostly for what I thought other people would want to see and read.

I felt that I had to exclude the simple and perhaps uninteresting daily things that go on in our life. I got caught up in not wanting to bore or turn people off. And so, while being a great blog, IMO, it lacks the everyday-and MOST important- aspects of my life. And to leave these pieces out is not truly who I am.

Also, I found that I was putting more emphasis on the share-ibility of our activities, crafts etc. then on just letting things happen randomly and spontaneously and writing about THAT. Foremost on my mind was, "Will people like this?" It all became ABOUT THE BLOG. "Will this bring in readers?" I was taking pictures of EVRYTHING...but not always from the heart or the seat of creativity. They were more snapshots then art. Things started to feel like they were being structured for other people's acceptance. This is in NO WAY to say that what we did or what I felt and blogged about was not true or sincere....there was just that slight paradigm shift of intention...from what came along naturally to what I hoped would be the end result-a great blog post. Not in EVERY post…but too often for my taste.

In the last few months, I've posted less and less and just let things happen in our lives. I’ve stopped researching activities and craft ideas in order to come up with the most exciting package for my blog. I’ve let Lo take the reins much of the time-when she's HOME, that is!-and steer us in the directions of her interests. And while these things are sometimes a lot less exciting then all the latest and greatest wonderful stuff out there in the blogoshpere, we have experienced them whole heartedly and with more open free souls. No worrying about camera angles and what will look and sound best FOR THE BLOG. My Facebook page is more along the lines of an accurate diary! I wish I had a quick way to just post my daily FB statuses HERE.  I'm really thinking along THOSE lines for this blog’s future. When time permits, I STILL hope to be able to share activities and tutorials that we do, to spend extra time  elaborating on the more in-depth thoughts and opinions that bubble up, but this blog will basically be making a turn toward the brief touchings on the day. A short paragraph? A simple photo? A shared link? And many may find that mundane....who knows. But at least it's something! Something to look back at as time goes on, serving the purpose of a journal or diary. Something that is ME....for ME. This is from my very first blog post: "This blog will be about my family and our experiences- with an emphasis on Waldorf education and how I'm implementing it into our lifestyle. With each passing year I realize how many details I forget over time and the fear of loosing those precious "gems" has prompted me to get this stuff documented."

 It has be as simple as that.

On to the new addition! It’s still going slower then molasses in January, but at least she’s buttoned up as of last week. Next is the trim and metal roof so we can get rid of the scaffolding and finally have our garage back!! Then come the floor issues. The a-hole who originally built the garage screwed up the ceiling. Even though we told him we were planning on building TWO floors onto it in the future!!!!!! It’s over spanned and we have to somehow shore it up. After that we insulate, sheet rock, mud/tape. Between this and putting in the floors, I’m going to claim the room as my temporary studio. Room to make a MESS!!!! And a fab view to boot!

And then….the floors! Wood floors throughout and into the existing house! And then…redecorating!!!!!

But, fuck, the way things are going….it’ll be MONTHS.

Onward ho.

My Facebook Fan Page!

I know I'm outing myself...but it's all good!

Hey, folks!  I've set up a new fan page for my art on Facebook.  I hope you FB users will stop by and consider "LIKE"ing my page and "suggesting to friends"!  I also put a fan page button here on the top of my sidebar.  Feel free to pass the info along as well.

I’ll be posting photos of my latest work, updates on what’s for sale in my ETSY shop(will be empty until the end of the month), links to my fav artists and galleries, as well as my current and upcoming exhibitions! I’m finally up and running and can’t wait to see what the future brings! Stay tuned! 

And THANK YOU for all the encouragment, support and wonderful insight over the last few months!!!!

Finished Work Friday- My very first art show!!!!!

So last Friday it dawned on me that I should touch base with the owner of the cafe in town that was going to host my first art show. I picked up the phone and dialed. Emblazoned in my mind was OCTOBER. One month to finish about 10 more pieces for the show. One month to get together a good artist's biography and all the description cards that are hung below each painting on the wall. Plenty of time to sign, title, varnish and wire up all the canvases as well as put together a flier and start advertising for a First Friday reception. I hung up the phone after talking with the owner of Jitter's with my mind and heart in my feet. Attention Deficit Disorder had gotten the best of me again, the bastard. Not October. SEPTEMBER. We had scheduled the show for September and he needed everything to be ready to go by 7pm Sunday night. Battling a nasty chest cold and feeling exhausted, this seemed insurmountable. There was no way to back out. How unprofesh would THAT be?!?! But at the same time...what I had envisioned for my first show-enough pieces to warrant the "fireplace" room and a strong First Friday reception- was just not going to happen! I had about 23 canvases but there was NO WAY I could produce 10 more in 2 days! 2, maybe. I gave up the dream of that Perfect First Show and resigned myself to something more on the half-assed side. I downed the cold meds and coffee, tried not to cough up a lung and got to work. With the help of my sweet girls and our neighbor we were actually able to get everything done. We packed up the truck with all the canvai and headed down to Jitter's coffee shop. The owner helped hang it...and I even got the "fireplace room"!!!! Turns out I had just the right amount of paintings! I'm pretty pleased with it....and a friend and I just might do a joint reception next week. He's running for State House so we thought we could do a meet & greet/art viewing type of thing....kind of a weird concept but who knows. Truth be known...I'm a shrinking violet when it comes to having a spotlight focused on me...and even though the people who will show up for this art show are mostly my friends, it still scares the crap out of me. So, since I blew the First Friday thing anyway, maybe doing a joint event will ease me into the whole scene and give me the confidence I'll need for a more "public" FF reception.
For now, I'm just fekkin' thrilled to be showing my work here in town!

(Dea helping with the hardware)

(cutting descriptor cards)

(The aftermath of the art show scramble.....................................and back to peace and calm!)

How NOT to raise a wall.

Measuring the windows

Waiting.....

Here we are on the verge of September....and our new addition is still barely off the ground. We're starting to feel the panic. The goal has been to get this thing up and ready to heat by the time snow flies. And as I've stated before, the framing was supposed to be FINISHED by July.... But such is the quagmire one sets themselves up in when counting on a retired contractor that is not really asking for much monetary compensation. In return, we're kind of at the mercy of his whims...not sure when he'll be showing up. Huz and I, with help from Dea and Lo have done 90% of the work ourselves so far. And I'm still lovin it! I've always been one who's happiest when making something....art, a baby, a new meal, landscaping, construction....and I really enjoy the labor put into it. I relish a productive day of hard busy work, and the peace that comes at the end of it when you can stand back and look at what you've produced.

Sister power

....But, alas, the completion of this project is at the mercy of our contractor who has not made it a priority. And it seems every other week one of us is not available to work on it. We were in Jersey, then he was of on vacations with family, now Huz is in Washington DC for conferences for the next week...oi. As long as WE are here and the contractor actually shows up for 30 minutes to instruct us on what to do, we're good to go! We slammed out the first wall in 3 hours and the second wall took a Sunday....But actually getting him here at the house in the first place has been a problem. A lot of wasted weekends.

So imagine my surprise-chagrin, actually- when our MIA contractor calls last night and says, "Let's raise those walls!" We didn't take him too seriously. Since the biggest wall is like 2 tons, we had been planning to have friends and neighbors come up for an official Wall Raising a la the Amish if only we had a day and time to give them. But the contractor is not so good at such commitments. We knew he had his son and grandson in town and they were willing to help. And I assumed that he had a few other guys...so we figured we'd wait and see IF , WHEN and WHO showed up. I was feeling crappy, a chest cold coming on, and just wanted to go to BED. Lo and behold, he shows up after 9PM with Jr. and Jr. Jr. That's it. Huz and I felt bad about calling folks to come help since it was so last minute and late! But Dea knew that our next door neighbors were up so we asked if they wanted to help. Apparently we needed all the help we could get.

Enjoy our Fellini-esque wall raising video! I'm the one with the afro puff in the black hoodie wielding the hammer. (It's been a long recovery process for my low back so such heavy lifting is OUT for me.)
The vid is fekkin' ridiculous to watch-I almost cried like a girl at the end-but at the same time I'm SO upset that people could have gotten hurt. This was not a paid construction team...just friends helping out. I am NOT happy with the contractor's lack of judgement. And I feel HORRIBLE that I dismissed my own concerns about the situation. We figured we don't know SHIT about how all this works, so we put our trust in the guy who does. But as I look back at the last couple months, we-especially Huz-have found mistakes on the contractor's part, we've second guessed some of his ideas, really only need minimal instruction from him, need to go with our OWN instincts, and as long as I have Huz's math skills-I can DO THIS!!!!

We WILL be having a serious pow-wow on how we are going to proceed with this construction. Renting jacks to raise these walls for one thing...And we will NOT be second guessing our own instincts and logic AGAIN.

The ThighMaster..... Alaska-style