Back to work (again!)

Yay! it’s finally a new year and 2009 is officially in the past…

So I’ve started my new schedule: four days of focused painting and one day of teaching/networking/adminstrative/blogging/etc. (Not all at once of course.) The way I figure it that will give me 24 hours/week of solid painting time. Is this enough? Not sure.

Especially since I just calculated that I have to average 12 paintings a week to make my slightly adjusted deadline of May 1. Gulp.

But believe it or not I think I can do it! These are mostly 6 x 6″ paintings. And many of them, if I stick to all of North America’s mammals, will be rodents. Portraits of rodents — little pointy faces with black beady eyes. Piece of cake!

Hmm. I may have to reconsider that one. Not sure I can handle that much rodentia, despite the temptation of ease of execution.

I think I will end up doing some birds too…

So I took out twelve canvases and put them on my work table yesterday. It’s not that bad. I can do this!

But I did take out some I already started to help me ease into the new year.

Yeah they’re my rules and I can bend them. As long as they get done right?!?! Right!

I can do it!

I’ll post a picture next week of the best of the twelve…

A new word for a new year

For the past few years, instead of making New Year’s resolutions, I simply pick one word.

I got this idea from Christine Kane, one of my favorite musicians and blogger extraordinaire. For 2009, I picked the word “ACCEPTANCE” because I wanted to work on accepting people as they are, instead of how I wish they could be. A lovely thought, right? But boy, did this year turn out different than I thought – I had to do a LOT of accepting: Of my mother dying suddenly; of having to clean out her house; and then subsequently selling it (50+ years in the family); of having that, my last connection to my hometown of Brooklyn, NY severed forever; and, last but not surprisingly,  of not being able to work on my 350 project. Oh yeah, and I got laid off from my Something Wild gig.

I did not accept any of this very well. In fact, I raged against it all. I let the grief swallow me up. I barely painted. It was all very natural but much of it was not welcome, not wanted, and definitely NOT what I was planning on happening for this year!

But eventually, with the help of my darling husband, my family, the support of many wonderful friends, the wild bears I met in MN, and an absolutely amazing weekend workshop at Kripalu; I am finally coming to terms with it all. Yes, acceptance was the perfect word for this year.

So what will be the word for 2010? I want it to be a word that is not as heavy, not as self-improvement-y, not as serious. Because I really really hope that 2010 won’t be any of those things. I plan to get back on track with my 350 project and I have all these cool ideas swirling around in my head for a new body of work too. I want to paint paint paint! I want to dance more and laugh a whole lot more than I did in 2009.

So it’s official: my word for 2010 will be CELEBRATE. Because despite all the sorrow and losses, I still have so much to be joyful about. And above all, I want my art to celebrate the things I love about this world. And I have great friends who are really great to have at parties. It’s a darn good word. And even if 2010 isn’t perfect, this word will remind to focus on what is beautiful and magical about my life.

My next post will probably be in January! So Happy New Year, Happy Solstice, and don’t forget to CELEBRATE all the good things in your life — past, present, and future…

Open Studio A Big Success!

Here's what the paintings looked like at my open studio last weekend

Whew — Close to 200 people showed up at my open studio on October 24 & 25th! It was the grand unveiling of my 350 project and everyone seemed to be impressed (or thought I was crazy.) It was great to see it up on the wall and I am pretty charged up to move it forward. And thanks to all my wonderful supporters, we raised a nice bit of change for the Piscataquog Land Conservancy.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to really focus doing more of the 350 paintings for a few more weeks… I have a commission and need to get some paintings done for the Sharon Arts Gallery Holiday Show. As much I want to finish this project, the chance to make money now can’t be ignored. Plus, paying for 350 panels and paint and stuff adds up, you know.

Besides, my new goal is Earth Day 2010 — plenty of time!!!

Sneak Preview on Track

This is the cover of the postcard promoting my open studio

So I have been working non-stop getting ready for my open studio. Got the postcards done (see above) and in the mail, got some reproduction prints and yeah I even got the t-shirts all ready! And oh yeah, the original art is coming along, slowly but surely.

I think it should be a fun weekend and I put my order in for some lovely weather. Now if I could just get some sleep — I get wicked bad insomnia when I have a big event coming up. And this one, at this moment, feels kind of big. Not earth-shattering big, but probably the biggest thing I’ve done this year.

If you’re around New Hampshire on October 24 & 25, come on by and see it for yourself. I’ll be open from noon to 4 pm each day. Visit my website for more information and directions. Hope to see you there!

An Auspicious Autumn

A painting that I worked on in between my 350 project paintings -- it's metaphorical of course.

So yeah — auspicious. That’s what I’ve decided this will be. I’ve been working on getting ready for my open studio at the end of October and I’m really getting excited about it. It’ll be fun to show people all of my 350 paintings to date (I think I’ll have about 45 by then, plus a few from my co-artists.)

Part of me sighs when I think how far I had hoped to be by now, but in the interest of cutting myself some slack, I don’t think this project will be irrelevant just because it won’t be finished this year. Listening to the news, it kind of seems like it may take a while to get a world-wide consensus on what to do about global climate change anyway. Of course I HOPE they can pull their act together when our great world leaders meet this December in Copenhagen — this is, after all serious stuff!

In the meantime, I’ll keep plugging away towards having a show of all 350 paintings by the spring of 2010…

Off to see the bears…

Recent painting on yupo paper

I’m heading to a black bear workshop this week and hoping to restart the 350 project (in a slightly revised format) when I get back.

I’ve spent the last few months processing all the events of this past spring — soul-altering stuff. But I guess, as they say, that which doesn’t kill makes you stronger!

I have done some painting — just not the 350 stuff. For some reason, I often turn to bears when life gets hard.

By the way, my open studio will be held on October 24 and 25 this year and will feature a sneak preview of the 350 project! Don’t forget to sign up for my e-newsletter so you can get a reminder email.

A Bump in the Road…

350 -- Flying Squirrel

Life has thrown me a rather strong curve-ball recently and so this project will have to take a backseat for a while. I’m still determined to get it done, but it won’t be getting much attention for a while.

So here’s a creature that manages to sail through darkness with grace and apparent ease. Seems like a good metaphorical note to pause on.

Closing in on 34

#21 of 350 -- Porcupine

Greetings from Vermont where I am closing in on #34. It’s been a productive week despite the suddenly gorgeous weather. Spring is coming slowly but surely to the Northeast Kingdom — yesterday I saw my first Mourning Cloak and I heard wood frogs quacking in their vernal pools. Butterflies and mating amphibians — definite signs of the new season.

I like this porcupine — at some point I will have to formally sign and number everything. Let’s just call him #21 — that’s my favorite number.

Five percent and counting…

17 and a half means I'm 5% to 350!

So this photo is from the wall of my studio — I apologize for the crookedness and poor lighting, but I figured it would be fun for everyone to see where I’m at. I included a half-done gray squirrel (lower right) which I have wiped out twice. It was going down the very Disney-esque road — it’s hard not to make squirrels and chipmunks look cute.

I really like the porcupine I did yesterday and think the groundhog is crazy — but in a good way.

I had a studio visit from the visiting resident/artist Cora Cohen today. She’s a rock star in the NYC/abstract world so I was a little nervous as you can imagine. But she was super-nice and gave me some good things to think about. She does think my greens are a little “acidic.”

What do you think?

Bunny Love

I always think of snowshoe hares when I hear the sports guys on the radio talking about “March madness” because this is their mating season (the hares, not the sports guys!)

And believe it or not, hares get pretty crazy. There’s leaping and cross-peeing and all kinds of lagomorph lunacy. I wrote a “Something Wild” spot about them once. It had the best alliteration I have ever used (to date) in describing how the males impress the females with “boisterous bouts of bunny boxing.” They do actually stand up on their hind legs and trade jabs with their front paws.

So I have arrived at the Vermont Studio Center where I am beginning a one month painting residency. I am one of 50 artists who have won fellowships to do nothing but work on their art. It’s totally awesome — the food is great, my studio is big and bright, and everyone I’ve met so far is really wonderful. I love talking about painting over dinner.

(Not that my husband doesn’t indulge me and let me yammer on about my work, but it is different when you have a room full of people who are all painters, sculptors, and writers.)

I’ll try to add some pictures when the sun comes out — hopefully tomorrow. Mud season in Vermont isn’t terribly picturesque but it does make you want to stay inside and paint!