Oh, Happy Day!

What a day to celebrate….Ten years ago today I celebrated the birth of my daughter (well, maybe not the WHOLE day since she was born at 10:35pm). Of course, I don’t remember the pain, just blips, and the funny things that happened. Amazing how the mind erases exactly what it should so you do it again… So happy birthday, my dear, beautiful-in-every-way, Claire!!

And what better way to celebrate than to jump back into the saddle here too. I’d been meaning to send this since the 16th of the month, but I guess needed to decompress. I’ve missed blogging, so I’m glad to be back.

I’m attaching the 5 paintings that I produced over the holidays. They’ll appear in the corridors of St Paul’s Children’s Hospital, 3rd floor/Surgery. Keep in mind St. Paul’s hospital theme is “sky”; the floor theme is “drawing and painting.”

Like for the Minneapolis Children’s Hospital paintings, I wanted an overall theme, so for this series of 10 paintings I chose my favorite St. Paul sights. I tried to get creative in my interpretation of drawing and painting, trying to paint the impossible in most cases. The drawing/painting theme is more prominent, and in some instances I pushed elements of the sky. Other times, you can just see the sky.

I really like how these turned out. Hope you do too. And of course, my commentary is below each picture:

"Monkey Business"

“Monkey Business” is at Como Zoo.  I wanted the animals to be painting, rather than the humans.

"Paint Me a Rainbow"

“Paint Me a Rainbow” is the St. Paul cityscape view from the river. It is also a concept I attempted when I was maybe 12 years old and wrote a children’s story about how rainbows are created. I think I had little people and angels pouring paint from the clouds and it was more spiritual. This time I tried to add practicality to impossibility. This is one of my faves. Sort of reminds me a little of Peter Pan, being in their jammies too.

"A Little Help From Friends"

“A Little Help from Friends” is at Hidden Falls, or my rendition. This one was painted with my son in mind, and his bus obsession.

"Changing Seasons"

“Changing Seasons” is a view of the Mississippi River on the St. Paul side, off River Road, just down from the University of St. Thomas. I used to go down there a lot and remember sitting there drawing this view for one of my classes. This one is Claire’s favorite.

"Twinkle Little Stars"

“Twinkle Little Stars” is at Rice Park, downtown St. Paul. This magical little park lights up during winter, so I imagined how awesome it could be to jump in a trampoline that high and create the twinkle above. Of course, I don’t know if I’d have the guts to go that high without a net below. So I’ll live vicariously through my pencil and brush.

A Crocodile Day

Hi! I’m back. I’ve had to take a bit of a break with my daily doodling. I’m working on other paintings because of the crunch of pressured deadlines. But I just couldn’t stay away… I wanted to doodle today because I was inspired by my son this morning. As he says good-bye, we’ve been saying the “see you later, alligator… after while, crocodile… see you soon, baboon” and he is still learning, so mixes them up and doesn’t pronounce correctly. His sweet little voice replies “see you late-o baboon. See you late-o cock-o-dile.” Then he giggles and his HUGE smile and tuck of his chin melts into his coat.

So today, you get a sketch of a contented croc today. I had to look up for reference, because I still didn’t know the difference between a crocodile and alligator. I found out (again) that it has to do with the width of their snout from their jaw to the tip of their mouth. An alligator is wider.

I’m really itchin’ to paint this creature. I’ll try to tomorrow or this week.

"Crocodile Day"

The Final Mrs.

I’m a bit of a spotty blogger this last week. A little sleep deprivation and too much work screws things up. Also today marks the official “Day 30″ of my 30-day challenge. Since Thanksgiving, I’ve lost about 5 of those days, so I’m tacking them onto December to round out my 30-day commitment. If you’d like to continue following along after that, I’ll certainly enjoy your company. I’m hoping to post at least a couple times a week after this official challenge is done, and more often when my work slows down (so after the holidays). Please stay with me if you so choose.

So my post for the past two days, Monday and Tuesday, is that I finished my xmas card. I created 2 pieces and this is one of the spots. I will not reveal the cover until after the Holidays. This is the final from my last post. Comparing the two you can see just how she came to life. I like the background that evolved because it makes the stars glow a little more than the purpled allowed and makes the red pop. I kept the purple underpainting in there, but added more blue and then rested with green/yellow. And I am very happy with her expression too. Faces are challenging, but am pleased with her results. I thought she needed cat glasses to match her fancy shoes and bow accessory. Shouldn’t everyone score a pair?

Until tomorrow, have a wonderful Wednesday!

"The Mrs. Progresses"

"The Final Mrs."

The Mrs. Progresses

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27

A quickie post… This is actually yesterday’s post, so I will post today’s hopefully later. Haven’t had much of a chance to work until now. I’m continuing on developing the Mrs. Old Man Winter and added her first layer of paint yesterday. I’m going back in with ink, then the second and third layers, shadows and highlights to make her pop and sing! We’ll see if my initial vision translates successfully onto paper.

Wish me luck posting “today’s post” before midnight!  Looking at the clock, it might be tomorrow…

"The Mrs. Progresses"

New Inspiration

LIFE HAPPENED these past 3 days as I wasn’t able to make it to my drawing table and spare an hour or two to blog. I was stessing about it every day, but last night I finally quieted and thought, “I’ll just continue the days in December. Not a big deal. This is my personal challenge anyway.”

So I missed my HUGE opportunity to do a Thanksgiving Day blog. But received an email from a friend of mine, and quickly changed my tune. She is also a huge inspiration to me, is a very grateful person and expresses it in all aspects of her life. She openly encourages others to do the same. For Thanksgiving Day, she wrote a grateful message and within it asked, why do people just celebrate one day of thankfulness? What would happen if everyone changed their thoughts of thanksgiving and tried to make every day a day of  gratefulness? What if the world saw each day as “Thanksliving“?  I love that idea. So you WILL get my Thanksgiving blog sometime soon and more times after that.

Okay, now onto today… So all week, I’ve been feeling the pressure to produce this darn Christmas card before Dec. 1st. I’ve been forcing ideas out of me and nothing was flowing, always hitting a wall. Imagine throwing up. Well, it was like my ideas were throwing up all over my paper. Everything stunk! So after my hiatus of 3 days of drawing, while running around the lake early this morning, I got an inspiration!!!  YIPPE-YI-YEA!!!!  I imagined this female character, her round form, her short legs, even her pointy shoes. She is the wife of Old Man Winter (last year’s card). I thought of a title for her. I even pictured her coloring. Finally…!!

Now I just have to produce it.

So I sketched her and I like where this is going. (And I REALLY mean it this time.) She sort of reminds me of my fairy Godmother.

"An Inspiration"

“Fueling Up”

This is from a VERY tired me who dauntingly is looking into what needs to get done in the next few weeks. If I could only strap on my super power jet pack, crash helmut, elbow and knee pads (safety first!) to get ready for my lists, I’d “fill ‘er up” in a heartbeat.

One quick, easily calculated lesson that I’m taking away from my crazy visual… remember that only one day happens at a time. Remain positive. Remember I have children and a husband. AND finally, there are roughly 16 waking hours in each day (if I get 8 hours), which translates into 512 waking hours to accomplish my tasks (give or take a few.) BUT, if I trim it down to only 7 sleeping hours, I gain a whole whopping 32 hours. And just think about what I can do with an EXTRA 32 hours.

Strap it on, baby. Here I go!

"Fill 'er UP!"

“Octo-Me”

Today, this is how it went. So much to do, so many directions… nothing accomplished.

"Octo-me"

’nuff said!

“Pink Elephant in the Room”

Saturday, November 19

Enough of the deep thoughts after Friday’s blog…I need to add a little lightness to my day. One of you dear friends told me that your kids really enjoy my monkey illo that I did on Day 4, so I pondered. I like him too. I especially like his eyes.

I think he needs a friend. So guess what? He gets a friend. (Don’t you wish it could be this easy to make a friend?)

I ran out of day on Saturday to do more with him, so this is all he evolved into:

"Elephant Sketch"

Sunday, November 20

Today, I need to add character to this friend. I need him to possess the same strength of personality as the monkey.  It definitely needs to be in color. He needs to be rounder, squishy, saggy, wrinkled. He needs strong eyes. I think pink with blue nails suits his personality. What do you think?

So I inked and painted, then inked and painted. And he was complete.

I like him.

Monkey friend, meet Ele friend.

"Pink Elephant in a Room"

Day 18: Honesty

I’ve been contemplating questions about honesty in creating art…why am I creating it? Who is my audience? Is it coming out of me honestly or in disguise? Am I trying to impress or it is just an expression of me? When I was learning how to paint in college, I really didn’t have the pressures of an audience, nor did I have the responsibility of pleasing a client. I painted from my soul and expression came flowing out. When I was dealing with the recovery of treatment from breast cancer, I needed to release my sadness, so my expression came flowing out. It wasn’t for anyone. It was for me. That in my mind was true honesty.

These feelings are one of the reasons I really like doing this blog. These little ditty doodles aren’t for anyone (although I know I have an audience) but they are for me. I press “publish” with the thought of “who cares?” But with this experience, I’m realizing that I really miss the moments of pure and true free expression. I miss approaching a blank canvas with paint in hand and seeing what erupts. I miss painting without fear… fear that it won’t turn out, fear that people may not like it.

This type of painting I’m talking about is very different from what you are seeing on this blog and what I have done lately. It is very emotional. It is like I have two painters trapped inside me. I REALLY do enjoy creating art for people/kids too, knowing that it brings them joy. I enjoy my current process of art. I’m just curious (and a little bit afraid) about the other. This blog I think, is helping me make baby steps back to that other place.

I do know that I need both in my life.

Funny, how even though I am writing about craving this freedom, I do just the opposite with my blog today. Because I am under pressures of deadlines (gotta love ‘em and hate ‘em), I used today to create art for an organization and just wanted to brainstorm.

I got inspired a while ago by a photo that a dear art friend sent out on her blog, and immediately thought that she captured this amazing feeling. I thought, wouldn’t it be incredible if I could capture this feel for the Dragonfly Project? So thank you, Sharon, for giving me inspiration!

With this piece I sketched, enlarged it, fine-tuned it, then inked it. It doesn’t look like much, nor does it have the “feel” that I’m shooting for. It is still in my head…hoping that I can translate it onto paper. Not sure I like the borders or where I’m going with the painting exactly, but I’m using acrylic, so I can paint over anything if I change my mind. This will probably be completely different from what you see here. I will trust that amazing is bound to come.

Ironic to say, but I’m really hoping that it will turn out too.

"Soaring"

Ringing the Bells

Do you ever get a song stuck in your head -good or bad? I woke up with a bubbly song in my head from the Christmas musical that my daughter has been practicing frequently. So when sitting at my drafting table, room completely silent, just me and my paper and pencil, all that I hear are the lyrics to “Ring the Bells”. I can’t help but dance a little.

I love moments like these.

So a visual pops into my head, a silly image, not at all what the musical is about.

Happy Thursday, everyone!

"Ringing the Bells"