Beach Babes

“Some people say there is magic in believing. Our expectations are powerful; they are self-fulfilling, in fact.  And if our expectations are generally negative, we’ll find the circumstances of our lives pretty dismal too.

The good news is that when we expect better experiences, we’ll also find them. How does this work? Surely it requires more than just believing. But it really doesn’t. When we look for the good in every situation, we quite selectively see it. Making the choice to live this way means we’ll regularly see opportunities for opening doors to better lives.”

–Karen Casey

So true!!!

Sunday in Eufaula is the peak date (according to monarchwatch.com)  for the monarch population here (Latitude 35),  as they migrate to Mexico.  Keep your eyes open, as the population will be smaller than usual, due to weather extremes over the last several years.

Beach Babes – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor

You may remember seeing this before.  In honor of the monarchs, I was searching through my stash for a painting of a butterfly and I don’t seem to have one… so I am giving you a painting of some butts in stead.  😀  he he he

Saturday is  Eufaula Art Walk and Car Show.  I’ll be at the Main Street Studio from 8-11 am, so stop by and say hello if you get a chance.

Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend.

Karen Casey, Ph.D., a Naples, FL resident since 1991, published Each Day a New Beginning, her first book, in 1982. This daily meditation book for women in recovery has sold more than 3 million copies. The 25-year Anniversary edition of Each Day a New Beginning was released in August, 2006. It was closely followed by The Promise of a New Day, in 1983, another daily meditation book for both men and women in search of serenity. It has sold more than 1.2 million copies. Following on the heels of these two books, Karen has written 22 additional books with more on the way. In fall, 2005 she published CHANGE YOUR MIND AND YOUR LIFE WILL FOLLOW.  In April of 2006 she published ALL WE HAVE IS ALL WE NEED and she published three more books in 2007. SERENITY was released in March. BE WHO YOU WANT TO BE, in April and in December, a companion book to CHANGE YOUR MIND AND YOUR LIFE WILL FOLLOW, called  ITS UP TO YOU: A PRACTICE TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE BY CHANGING YOUR MIND.  In late July, 2010, LET GO NOW: EMBRACING DETACHMENT  was released.  Currently Karen is working on her memoir.

Karen is married, a grandmother, an occasional golfer, and an avid bridge player. She and her husband, Joe, own a home on Prior Lake which is adjacent to Minneapolis, and they recently built a log cabin outside of Lafayette, Indiana which is her home town.

Cheesecloth Cat

“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of it’s sorrow, but only empties today of it’s strength.”
— Charles Spurgeon

Cheesecloth Cat – 4″ x 6″ Mixed Media

Okay… I know… corny.  Just sharing fun with cheesecloth that I did the same weekend that I did the bug from yesterday.  🙂

Have a great day!

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92) was England’s best-known preacher for most of the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1854, just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 20, became pastor of London’s famed New Park Street Church (formerly pastored by the famous Baptist theologian John Gill). The congregation quickly outgrew their building, moved to Exeter Hall, then to Surrey Music Hall. In these venues Spurgeon frequently preached to audiences numbering more than 10,000—all in the days before electronic amplification. In 1861 the congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed Metropolitan Tabernacle.
Spurgeon’s printed works are voluminous, and those provided here are only a sampling of his best-known works, including his magnum opus, The Treasury of David. Nearly all of Spurgeon’s printed works are still in print and available from Pilgrim Publications, PO Box 66, Pasadena, TX 77501.

Texture is a Bug

“All the arts we practice are apprenticeship.  The big art is our life.
— M.C. Richards

Texture is a Bug – 2.5″ x 3.5″ Mixed Media Painting

This little bug is done on a small ATC sized canvas.  The legs are string, the body is spackle and the wings are spackle and cheesecloth.  All of it is painted with acrylic.  What I ended up with is a painting a little boy might like.  🙂

I am inspired so much by mixed media artists, yet I rarely dig in and play.  This was done quite a while ago and even though it is quite ugly, it makes me want to try it again.  😀

M.C. Richards
Artist & Philosopher (1916-1999)

Mary Caroline Richards had a richly diverse life, which began in Weiser, Idaho on July 13, 1916.  She was raised in Portland, Oregon and later went to Reed College to earn a degree in literature and languages.  She wrote poetry, and when she became part of the faculty at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, she taught writing and produced plays.  At Black Mountain she also danced, studied pottery, and became increasingly interested in innovative teaching methods.  She helped create a commune in New York in the 1950s, taught and gave pottery workshops in the 1960s, and later worked in Camphill Village in Pennsylvania, an alternative educational community based on the teachings of Rudolph Steiner.  In the last decade of her life she began to paint as naturally as if she had been doing so her whole life.  Her art-of-many-genres wove together all her concerns, including community, agriculture, craft itself, and spiritual ideas. Always a poet, she regarded the end of her life – as physically limiting as it was – as another fulfilling adventure, “living toward dying, blooming into invisibility.”
– Margaret Wakeley

Tulsa Int’l Airport Plein Air

“A sense of humor… is needed armor.  Joy in one’s heart and some laughter on one’s lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life.”
–Hugh Sidey

Right on!!

Tulsa Int’l Airport Plein Air – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor Sketch

When I was waiting for my departure from Tulsa, to go to Jackson Hole, I did this little sketch.  Before I even finished drawing the plane… it backed out and left!   So, to continue, I just made stuff up.  😀

Sunday afternoon, I resumed my flying.  I haven’t flown in three months because it’s been so dang hot!  They are selling the plane in Muskogee, so my instructor  met me in McAlester and flew with me, so he could re-endorse me for solo flight.  I did great!  I had some beautiful landings and even got a compliment from my instructor.    (Those do not come freely!)  It was a great day.

I’m ready to get busy and finish this thing up and get my license.  I’ll be doing a lot of studying and very little art, until I am done.  I may post some older paintings for a while, just to keep my little positive quotes in front of you.  I’d hate for you to forget to wiggle your butt.  😀

Hugh Sidey  1927 – 2005

Hugh Sidey, who covered the White House and the American Presidency for TIME for close to half a century, died in 2005 in Paris of a heart attack. He was 78. Born and raised in Iowa, Sidey came to understand the presidents of the last 48 years as well as anyone. He was with Kennedy in Dallas and Nixon in China. He was the iconic insider, staying close to many presidents even after they left the White House, becoming great friends with Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush.

A fourth-generation journalist and son of a country editor in Greenfield, Iowa, Sidey never became a prisoner of the Beltway. He’d often go home to Iowa to listen and learn what Americans were thinking. He was among the first print journalists on regular television, appearing on the late Agronsky & Company. As he scaled back his work for TIME, he continued to be deeply involved in the life of the White House. He was active in the White House Historical Association and co-wrote a book, The Presidents of the United States of America, that is a good history of the men and the office.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1133407,00.html#ixzz1Z9nhKftW

Sock Monkey or No Sock Monkey

“To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.”
– Katharine Hepburn

Art Walk Poster – 11″ x 14″  Watercolor

You may remember that I did the poster for this year’s Eufaula Art Walk & Car Show.  The only thing they asked for was to put a car in it.  I also put a sock monkey in the car and well…. that didn’t go over so well.  They asked me to photoshop it out, so I did.  That’s okay.  Not everybody likes sock monkeys.  (what?!  Really?!)  he he

The prints that will be available for sale at Art Walk will be the ones without the monkey.  They will be auctioning off the original (with monkey) at their silent auction.  I still haven’t seen the posters with the Art Walk advertising on them.   That is why they have so much blank space on them… for the words.

Be sure to stop by the Main Street Studio, 201 S. Main, in Eufaula this  Saturday, October 1st.  I will be there from 8 am – 11 am, and the auction will run all day.   They are also offering several workshops in the studio.  Around Eufaula, there will be a car show, a golf cart show, an Indian Exhibit, over 30 local artists, kid events and food everywhere.  The hub, so to speak, of the event is going to be at Bank of Eufaula, inside and out.   (They always have coffee and really good cookies there, too.)

I have around 25 small paintings at the Main Street Studio, too, so don’t be shy.  They are all available for sale.  😀

Remember, there is only one painting with the sock monkey in it, the original, available at the silent auction.

About Katharine Hepburn

Gutsy American actress Katharine Hepburn was ranked the greatest actress of all time by the American Film Institute for her roles in films such as The African Queen and The Philadelphia Story. She was born in 1907 in Connecticut. Early in her film career, RKO took away her overalls, demanding she dress like a screen icon, prompting her to walk through the studio in her underwear. Her romance with Spencer Tracy led to their delightful verbal sparring in films like Adam’s Rib and Woman of the Year. She died in 2003.

Scarecrow in Fall – Watercolor ATC

“Since no one is perfect, it follows that all great deeds have been accomplished out of imperfection. Yet they were accomplished, somehow, all the same.”
– Lois McMaster Bujold

Scarecrow in Fall 
2.5″ x 3.5″ Watercolor and Sharpie ATC

Ryan, over at Asmalltowndad’s Weblog has initiated a small ATC exchange for fall.   If you look at his post from September 19th, you’ll see the one he mailed to me yesterday.  I can’t wait to get it.  It’s beautiful, don’t you think?  I hope this little ATC brings a grin to Ryan’s face.  That will make my day.  🙂

The photo reference I loosely used is by Artistammy, at the WetCanvas Reference Image Library.

I like that quote today.  I’m taking a flying lesson tomorrow, after 3 months off.   I’m a little nervous, since it’s been so long.  My instructor needs to fly with me in order to re-endorse me to fly solo.  My last endorsement expired a couple weeks ago.  It comforts me to know that no pilot was ever perfect, since there are no perfect people.  Of course, if you’re flying soon, I may not have comforted you much.  he he   😀

About Lois McMaster Bujold

Lois McMaster Bujold, the award-winning American science fiction and fantasy writer, is best known for her “Vorkosigan Saga” space opera, a series of novels and short stories which blend action with strong character development. She was born in 1949 in Ohio and began writing seriously in her thirties. When her best friend began publishing novels, Bujold thought, “If she can do it, I can too.” She has won the prestigious Hugo Award four times. She lives in Minneapolis and has two children.

Metal Mama I – 8″ Metal Art

“Luck? I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work — and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.”
– Lucille Ball

Metal Mama I – 8″ Metal Art

This is the little metal lady I made for my mom.  This is my first one  and it’s a little spooky, but I liked using that weird pendant for her head.    No time to add hair, but that’s okay.  The next one I make will be even stranger, I imagine.  🙂

About Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball, the beloved redheaded comedian, was born in 1911 in New York. She enrolled in drama school — where she was told she had no acting talent, so she became a model. That career led to her discovery by Hollywood. Ball and her bandleader husband, Desi Arnaz, pitched a sitcom to CBS, which refused it, but they went on the road with it as a vaudeville act. The act — about a ditzy housewife and her bandleader husband — was a success, as was the ensuing TV show, I Love Lucy. The show made TV history when Lucy’s sitcom character was pregnant on the air. She died in 1989.

Metal Mama II – 8″ Metal Art

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Metal Mama II – 8″ Metal Art

Okay, I understand that she is a departure from my usual art, but I had so much fun!  I made her for my little sister. She is made from new stuff and some old treasures I had stashed.

Dona and her husband, John  rode their Harley to Idaho from Oak Harbor, Washington to be with my mom and brother while I was there.  This little gift didn’t take up too much room in her small pack.  I made one for my mom, too.  I’ll show you that one tomorrow.  🙂

About Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the multitalented and prolific German author and scientist, is best known for the play Faust, which has been adapted into operas, films, and novels. He was born in 1749 in Frankfurt. An unhappy love affair inspired his first play; his similarly themed novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, created the prototype of the romantic hero. He also invented the color wheel concept of light and made important discoveries in plant and human biology. He died in 1832.

Stranded Iguana

“Courage is the human virtue that counts most — courage to act on limited knowledge and insufficient evidence. That’s all any of us have.”
– Robert Frost

Stranded Iguana – 5″ x 7″ Watercolor

Li took the photo of this poor, stranded iguana in Belize.  She said the river came up after he was out there and she really felt for him.   I hope it wasn’t too long before he was able to get back to dry land.   Oh…  I took creative liberties with his coloring, since he was in no position to fight me on it.  he he  😀

About Robert Frost

Robert Frost, the influential American poet known for his rural settings, uncluttered language, and meditative themes, wrote the poems, “A Road Not Taken” and “Mending Walls,” among many others. He was born in San Francisco in 1874 and moved to Massachusetts at age 11. He ran a farm for ten years, selling it to move to England and become a full-time poet. After achieving his goal, he moved back to New Hampshire. His ambition was to write “a few poems it will be hard to get rid of.” He died in 1963.

Sea Turtle Watercolor

“Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions.  Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
–Mark Twain

Sea Turtle – 6″ x 8″ Watercolor

I had a great time painting this.    Of course, just like I don’t have patience for tree painting… I’m the same way with the underwater plants, too.  I just made some up.  😀

This is painted from another one of Li’s Belize photos.

We had a terrific anniversary on Saturday.  We took the retro Tbird for a top down road trip to Van Buren, Arkansas.    We went to our favorite store, A Little Bit of Mexico, owned by Barb and Dave Little, to treat ourselves to some art.  We bought 2 pieces by metal artist, Andres Martin De Campo.  Here is a YouTube video with some of his work on it.   Here is a photo from Facebook of his shop in Mexico, where he uses live models to pose for his art.  One of the pieces we bought is a sea turtle trio, to go over our fireplace.

We had a great day, but couldn’t fit a single one of our purchases in our itty bitty little Tbird, so Barb and Dave delivered our goodies yesterday.   What a fun weekend.

Samuel Clemens, alias Mark Twain, is an American icon whose razor-sharp wit and inimitable genius have entertained countless readers for more than a century.  His many publications include such gallant childhood essentials as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, along with many dozens of other works ranging from airy magazine columns to focused, biting anti-imperialist satire.

He was born in Hannibal, Missouri in 1835.  The Clemens family consisted of two brothers, a sister, and the family-owned slave, Jenny, whose vivid storytelling was a formative influence on the young Sam.  As he was growing up, his parents explained their perspective on the nature of things in the established South, about the slave-owning tradition, and about ‘rough western justice.’  more…