Cat Art At The Cat Show

It was a very busy weekend. Last weekend I had my Chick Artistic Creations booth up for business at the Idaho Cat Fancier's Cat Show here in Boise. I'm always a little nervous about sales these days because of the recession, and although sales were not really high, they were still pretty good. And I met some very interesting cats too.

A local veterinary hospital, The Cat Doctor, bought $50.00 worth of my art prints to hang up in their offices. The prints that I sold were "Maynard on Roses" "Maynard in Pink Basket" and "Reaching For The Star." The doctor that bought them said that these prints communicated a certain type of cat behavior and personality that she wanted in her offices. The prints she bought were all from photographes of either my cat, Maynard, or my mother-in-law's cat, Cinnamon. (Both cats are now deceased.) It is cool that their image lives on in my art and on the walls of a veterinary hospital!

I also got to use some new display equipment that made my booth look really good--gave it that extra touch of class.

Hedgehog--Too Much Hair Gel!

"Oops! Too Much Hair Gel!"

This is my latest piece of animal art. I've been working on it whenever I could get a break from homework, my part-time job, and cleaning the house. This cute little hedgehog was created with colored pencil & Turpenoid with a special type of paper, pasted collage style in the background. A lot of my art seems to center around textures and I really love the way the spikey texture of the hedgehog looks with the paper collage texture. How do you like the title? It seemed appropriate.

Nampa Art Guild Colored Pencil/Turpenoid Demo

I am doing the 'Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy' Ren & Stimpy dance! Last Monday night I got to teach a class of about 35 people by doing a demo on Colored Pencil & Turpenoid! This is the most I have ever had in one class. It was for the Nampa Art Guild. It was an amazing experience and I wasn't even nervous like I thought I might be. A lot of people were really interested in this new technique and had never seen colored pencil used in this way before. I even got paid for it, so it was like an actual real job. This is what I have been working so hard for & sacrificing for!!! I thought to myself after the demo, "Hey! I'm really an art teacher now!"

It was an odd experience for me to be the center of attention for about 2-3 hours. Even during the break, I was busy selling prints to people and talking to them about lessons. It was like a dream come true! I will be doing more demos and workshops for the Nampa Art Guild in the future. Cool!

The Latest Projects

This was a big week at school. My wood sculpture project was due Wednesday and today I took my second human biology exam. My score was just a few points shy of an A. This is not an easy-breeezy, lemon queezy class--nothing like high school biology. In spite of that I am enjoying all the new knowledge I'm acquiring on human biology. Fascinating stuff.

I'm glad the wood sculpture project is over. It was interesting and I'm glad I learned a little about using power tools, but crafting things in wood is just not my thing. My sculpture teacher has a reputation for rarely giving out A's, so I am not expecting one this time. I will try for an A, but I have promised myself that I'm NOT going to have a meltdown if I get a B! However, I may have a meltdown if I get a C!

My hedgehog portrait is almost done. The spikey part of the headhog is very repetitious and is not something that can be done in one sitting. It's the kind of thing that makes you cross-eyed if you stare at it too long an most of the portrait is composed of the little spikey, porcupline-like quills. I have added some of my own touches to the hedgehog that go a bit outside of the original colors from the photograph. I am also using a colored pencil & collage background that looks really cool! This piece is going to be about exploring textures which is something I really love to do in my artwork.

Art & Character Development

Whenever we find ourselves being stretched and go beyond our comfort zone, we may find it not only uncomfortable, but actually painful. My first reaction is usually to run away and hide. Recently in my sculpture class at college, I was assigned my first project--to create a sculpture out of wood and to make an orthographic drawing of it first. Then our drawing and the entire project would be turned over to someone else. We don't get to create our own project. And so starts the stretching. Using power tools for the first time is daunting enough, but to make an architectural drawing that involves math and then do someone else's project other than my own was enough to freak me out. I am actually math phobic and anytime you attach math to an art project, it is automatically ruined for me! Suddenly I have been turned into a carpenter which is not a role I feel comfortable in or have any experience in. I don't even know what type of wood to get and what sizes they come in! Now the stretching has turned into a panic attack and I'm even thinking about dropping the class. But I didn't. Instead, I worked through the problem with my teacher, who was very patient and helpful, and we came to a solution.

This whole experience was a lesson in character development for me. The development of our character and learning to face our fears can be a really hard and painful process. What I gained by not dropping out and giving up was more than just newly-acquired skills & knowledge in architectural drawing and carpentry. I learned a lesson in perserverance, endurance and courage. Running away from our fears just makes it easier to do the same thing again, but when you face your fears, something inside you goes from coward to champion and you have taken one more step on the long ladder of character growth.

Please, Mr. Table Saw, don't eat me!

My part-time job and school have been keeping me from doing much artwork. I have my first big exam in biology next week! I want to get back to the hedgehog portrait that I started a few weeks ago. I have never done a hedgehog before and the textures are interesting. I have a thing about drawing and painting different types of textures.

My sculpture class at college is preparing me for how to use all types of power tools! This class is starting out to be more like wood shop class because our first project is a wood sculpture. This is all really new to me, but I am eager to learn. I have always wanted to learn more about operating power tools so now is my chance. The only power tool I have any experience with is an electric drill. I'm not exactly handy with tools. Some of those tools look kind of intimidating. "Please, Mr. Table Saw, don't eat me!"

12th Annual Realism Juried Online Int'l Art Exhibit For Upstream People Gallery

Maynard On Roses

Just got some terrific news today! I received a letter in the mail today telling me that my art was accepted into the 12th Annual Realism Juried Online International Art Exhibit at Upstream People Gallery. Starting February 1st you can view my art online at http://www.upstreampeoplegallery.com/. The four pieces that will be featured are "Anticipation" "Got Nuts?" "Otter Odyssey" and "Maynard on Roses." Once again my dearly departed Maynard lives on in my art work! That's cool!

Mrs. Messer's "Watermelon" Portrait

Today I delivered the finished commissioned portrait of the two kids eating watermelon. (See the photo from January 12th blog, below.) This was for my Literature teacher at BSU. She really loved it and may even have another commission for me later on. Yay!

My literature teacher is Mrs. Neidy Messer from BSU. When I met with her today, I told her how much her classes on literature have been a major contribution to my life and have really helped me to grow as a person. As an artist, I can really relate to the creative approach of famous writers like Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jack London, etc. Not only were the literature classes fun but the knowledge, insights and philosophies I studied in those classes will stay with me for the rest of my life. These classes really helped me to think about the choices I make in life.

I am reminded of an old Twilight Zone episode called "Changing of the Guard" where a literature teacher has to retire and he thinks his life's work has been a waste of time. He thinks that everything he taught his students was forgotten. Then in the middle of the night, he goes to his classroom one last time and suddenly the room fills up with former students from his class. But these are students who have died, so they are actually spirits. Then one by one, they come up to the professor to tell him about something they learned from his class that stayed with them and had a major influence on them. The professor is so touched he actually cries. It is on of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes and actually helped persuade me to choose teaching as a career.

I recently saw this episode again during a Twilight Zone marathon during New Year's Eve and I couldn't help but think about my teacher, Mrs. Messer. Only I didn't want to wait until I was a ghost to tell her how much I appreciated her! She said that she doesn't get a lot of this kind of feedback and was very glad to hear it.

Art Day!

Except for the hour I spent fixing dinner, I spent the entire day doing what I love the most--creating art. It is nice to have a day when I can be this free!

The painting of the two children (above) happily eating watermelon is actually a portrait commission that I have been working on for several months and finally finished. This portrait is for a teacher at Boise State University. I am really happy with the way it turned out. It was done entirely with colored pencil and Turpenoid.

I even found some time to start on a new piece. It will be called "Massage Therapy" and features penguins. I know you are asking, "What does massage have to do with penguins?" Well, you will just have to wait until this piece is finished, then I will show you!

My Autumn Day Oil Painting

Today I went to BSU and retrieved my oil paintings from the 215 painting class I took last semester. We weren't allowed to take any of the paintings home until the class was officially overwith. This one was a Plein Air Painting that I painted in October. I was painting outside on the BSU campus and the weather was pretty good that day. I really like the way it turned out. I tried to get an impressionist style feeling to it.

You Have Entered The Twilight Zone

I have always thought of this period of time between December 26 and January 1st as a type of "Twilight Zone." Life does not go on as normal. At least not until everyone has had some time to recover from holiday madness and being frazzled with Christmas joy. I think it is particularly appropriate that the Sy-Fy channel is having their annual "Twilight Zone" marathon today.

I feel even more in the Twilight Zone this week because I am battling my way through a holiday virus that has given me an upper respiratory infection and has reduced my brain to jello. I have watched the entire "Back To The Future" series of movies on AMC about 3 times now. At least this virus had the good fortune of hitting me after Christmas and my Christmas Eve concert choir experience, which was wonderful.

I have had some brief periods of feeling pretty good and I have been working on a commissioned portrait that I am doing for my English Teacher at BSU. It is coming along very well and I plan to have it done before I go back to school in mid-January.

By next week I hope to have my brain back again.

Vineyard Boise Choir Flash Mob

Merry Christmas! For your entertainment today, I have included a video clip of the Vineyard Choir singing at the mall in "flash mob" style. See if you can spot me. I am the one with the glasses, short brown hair, black turtleneck, and a blue and green peacock-like poncho.

Flash Mob Concert at the Mall

Beside the visual arts, my other passion in musical arts, so I am going to get a little off topic here and tell you a story that relates to the musical arts.

Once upon a time there was a brand new church choir that decided to go to the Boise Town Square Mall and do an impromptu choral performance of Angels We Have Heard On High right in the middle of the food court! This sort of thing is called a "flash Mob." Why it is called that, I'm not really sure. Maybe it originated from the term "streaking."

Anyway, the choir decided to do this for a couple of reasons. First, to remind people that Christmas is about love and the birth of Christ; second, it was a not so sublte advertisement of our choir and the Christmas Eve concert we are going to have at the Vineyard this Friday.

This little "flash mob" performance occurred yesterday at around 4:00 p.m. The Vineyard Christmas Choir went to the local mall and we found tables in the food court. Then at 4:00 p.m. one brave person from our choir stood up in the middle of all the lunching and munching and began to sing a solo of Angels We Have Heard On High. It was fun to watch the looks of surprise with that what's-going-on look on their face. Then I stood up along with about 3 other people to sing the next line, turning it into a quartet, then more and more people stand up and start singing, until the entire choir is singing from wherever they happen to be in the food court. I have never done anything like this before and it was really fun! Some people smiled, some even sang along with the choir, and some just went right on eating their lunch. There was a rumor going around that this little incident might end up on the local news channel, but I haven't seen anything yet. There were a couple of people with cameras taking pictures and someone with a video camera, but no one from the local news channels.

There is nothing like the element of surprise to get your point across!

Making My Christmas Cards

School is over for the year!! I'm a week behind on blogging because I was busy finishing up the last tests and projects that were due the final week of school, which was last week. I am now on Christmas break until mid-January. Yay!!

My present art project is my Christmas cards. Since I didn't send Christmas cards out last year, so I am using what I was going to use last Christmas. My Christmas card design this year came from a sculpture project. I photographed & made copies of the soap sculpture and bird's nest that I made last year in one of my BSU art classes and gave it a Christmas theme. I decided to revise them by adding some specialty paper that will give it a bit more punch. Above is a photo of the final version.

Thanksgiving Week Art Work

Happy Saturday after Thanksgiving, everyone! I have had the entire week off with no school at all, so I have been able to sneak my own art projects into my schedule just a little bit. I did a little bit of work on my portrait of a wolf and the dreamcatcher.

Thanksgiving week has been great so far. I spent Thanksgiving with my husband's family here in Idaho. The only 'fly in the anointment' was the 24-hour flu bug I caught Friday. So instead of Black Friday, I had a Flu Friday. And it cancelled out my 'to do' list for the day because I spent most of it in bed. Thank God it only lasted for 24 hours and I feel great today!

This week I finally got started on the portrait commission order that my college teacher placed with me about two months ago. I was so backlogged with school work, work, and teaching that I haven't been able to get to it. When it is done it will be a lovely portrait of two adorable kids eating watermelon. I will post it when it is finished. So far it is turning out great and I'm having fun with it. It is going to be so cute that I think I will make a print or two for myself.

Newest Animal Portrait--"Micah"

"Micah With Quilt"

About 40 blog posts ago, I posted this portrait of my mother-in-law's dog, Micah, without any background. (Micah is a Sheltie.) Well I finally finished the background part. The background is one of my mother-in-law's quilts. I have never done a quilt in my colored pencil & Turpenoid style medium. I wasn't sure it would turn out looking like a quilt, but it did. I thought it was about time I add some dogs into my animal art world and give the cat theme a break.

Oils versus Colored Pencil

I have made some interesting discoveries about oil painting. I find that I still have a tendency to work oil paint like I work my colored pencils and Turpenoid. And they don't work the same way. One of the first things I learned was not to try and draw lines with oil paint! You have to think patches of color, semi-blended out. Another thing I learned is that you can put on a really black, dark color or white paint, and if you work it too much, it becomes another color--usually gray. It is hard to get darks really dark and white really white. I have also learned that when I have worked on a painting for at least four hours, applying color becomes a whole different ball game because the canvas is so saturated with wet paint. It is easier for instance to apply a very light color onto a dark area when the painting has been set aside for a day or two to dry a little bit.

But when you are use to one or two types of media, it is hard to erase what you have learned before and learn something else. With colored pencil, there is an advantage in doing lots and lots of blending. But this isn't necessarily true with oil painting. Some blending it required, but not nearly to the level that colored pencil requires. This is a hard habit for me to break. I am learning to be a little bit more loose, using broken patches of color, but this is still hard for me. When I do paint something in a very loose way, it is usually a small part of the painting and I can't seem to carry it throughout the entire painting. I can see how oil painting lends itself to the impressionistic style of art much better than colored pencil does.

I have also learned that I am uncomfortable doing paintings that are larger than 16 X 20. And sometimes that is too big for me. The larger the painting, the more you have to understand that the painting has to look a certain way when you stand 1o feet or more away from it. I tend to be very 'tight' in my painting, so that it looks great close up, but when you stand far away, something gets lost in the translation. I find this a hard skill to acquire. Some of this applies to my colored pencil paintings, but not to the level that it applies to oil painting.

What I do like about oil painting is the brush strokes & different techniques you can use and how you can work with patches of unblended color to give it an impressionistic look. You can paint over something you don't like without ruining the painting. What I don't like about oils is you can't do line work. Fine detail doesn't work as well in oils as it does in colored pencil. You have to create texture without painting lines. It is messy, takes a longer time to clean up, and is more environmentally unsafe, and takes forever to dry.

I'll take my colored pencil, Turpenoid and mixed media any day over oils. I don't care if oil paintings are considered more "ritzy" and bring in a higher selling price, I don't like this media enough to make a switch from colored pencils.

Vine Arts Gala "Creating Culture"

Last Saturday, I got all dressed up and went to the Vine Arts Gala. There were about eight artists with their art exhibits and I was one of them. This Gala was called "Creating Culture." The purpose was to promote awareness of the arts within the community and in the church. And also to raise a little money for the Vine Arts program at the Vineyard church. Not only was this a lot of fun to participate in, but it promoted me as an artist and I got to sell some of my art to the public. I actually made some cash on the side and I didn't do too bad for an exhibit that was only three hours long.

There was music, food, poetry readings, and a couple of guest speakers. The speakers were J. Scott Elroy, an artist and author; and Irene Deeley, who is the owner of local art gallery called Women of Steel. Irene sponsors a traveling art show. I got to talk to her and gave her my card, and she will contact me when the next traveling show comes up, so I can be a part of it. Another cool opportunity!

This event was so much fun! I knew many of the people who came to the gala, and it was fun to connect with fellow artists and chat with everyone. My only struggle that evening was with my high heels. They looked really great, but after about an hour of walking around, my feet were saying 'ouch' and I had to sit down a lot. High heels were a lot easier to wear 25 years ago.

Self Portrait

There's nothing like staying up until 1:00 a.m. working on an assignment for 0il painting class, as the rest of the family sleeps. My latest project for oil painting class is a self-portrait and we can put in any type of background we want. I changed this thing about five times and I think I FINALLY am on the right track. It actually does look like me too! This portrait has gone through a series of changes. When I first started it, it looked like a scary ghostlike zombie. That was probably because I started it on Halloween night. Then I kept changing the background. I would paint something on there and then paint over it because I didn't like it. I finally got it to look less like a ghost or zombie, but instead it looked like a lifeless manequin. And it didn't look like me at all. Tonight I stayed up until 1:00 a.m. determined to win the battle and cross over into the land of good oil portraits. My efforts paid off because I am really liking it. I can't post a photo of it on my blog because the paint is still wet and it is too big.

Plein Aire Painting With Oils

Tuesday I had my first experience doing Plein Aire Painting in oils. I've done this with other media, but not with oils. It happened to be a rather nice afternoon on the BSU campus, so our teacher decided it was the perfect time to go outside and paint the scenery. The trees on campus are beautiful right now because the leaves have turned various shades of yellow, orange, and red, so that is what I decided to paint. Just for fun I put in a tiny little squirrel on top of a trash can just to give a narrative to the painting. Everyone else packed up and left around 4:00 p.m., but I stayed until 6:00 p.m. By then I was getting too cold anyway, so I took my little 6 X 9 size painting home and finished it there. I can not crank out a finished painting in just two hours.

I would post the finished piece here, but it is still wet and I can't put it on my scanner right now. Very messy. Oils take forever to dry. You'll just have to take my word for it that it came out very nice. I was pleased with the results.