I did my first three ACEOs today. It's hard getting used to working so small, but I got out my very smallest brushes and went at it. It was kind of fun and now I feel like I'm perhaps concentrating a little more on detail--not one of my strong points. Hope to post them tomorrow when I have better light and I'm not so tired. The Brighthouse guys came back and had to put some sort of new card in the computer to get it up to speed. It seems a lot better, but I still think we need to consider getting a new one sometime soon--hopefully, with Apple-type software. I get tired of all the error messages from Microsoft and having to restart it all the time. Little Grey is becoming used to Marley--at least he can be in the same room with him now without gettting totally upset. His prior caretaker, Martha, came by to see him. I'm glad I got to meet her. She seems very nice and I'll be sure to keep her up to speed on Little Grey's progress like she requested.

Little Gray and Higgins

I worked some more on the website. It's really slow going and I'm constantly getting sidetracked by all the options available to people trying to sell stuff on the web. Today I was organizing cards I had from other artists and decided to look up a website of someone I admired at the Winter Park art show several years ago. I was surprised that her website was kind of in disarray (except for the homepage--it was great!) I would have thought an established artist who showed at the WP several years ago would have a totally awesome sight. But it did have some links to a site where you could buy t-shirts/cups/etc. with her artwork on it (Zazzle, I think.) That required quite a bit of time investigating and then, of course, all kinds of questions popped up about whether that's a good thing to do with your artwork, the leap of faith required to hand over your images to a company and believe they'll report all the sales and remit all the commissions to you (I'm very skeptical.) There's just so much to figure out, it's mind-boggling. Gave my brain a rest and worked out at the Y--step class and yoga both. The kitty is starting to take over. It's strange, but Seamus seems like he's afraid of him. I never realized he was so timid, but I guess it's been awhile since he's had other cats in the house and after being attacked by that female stray last week, I suppose he's being cautious. Jerry got a shot of "little Gray" (we haven't named him yet, but that's what his prior caretaker called him) looking through the door at the yard cat, Higgins. You can see by the look on Higgins face that he's not amused about another mouth to feed in the household. I'm sure he fears it will be less for him--and "hungry Higgins" eats a lot. We would have loved to bring him in the house when someone dropped him off last Halloween so Seamus would have a playmate. We learned quickly though that Higgins has a weakness of an unpredictable personality. He can be loving one minute and attack the next. And he hates other cats (but apparently loves Marley, our golden retriever.) So, we have a yard cat and now two inside cats and a dog. Life is good.

Today kind of dribbled away like the sand in my egg timer that I use now for trying to time photo transfers (none of which have worked so far). I'm in a photo transfer Yahoo group and there is much email about the right way to do it, but so far the only method I've glommed onto was using Great White photo paper and after searching all over town for it, I found out it's no longer made. I've tried a number of other products, but so far nothing. I'm kind of exhausted on trying to do that process, even though I really like the look of it and the possibilities. I guess I'll have to focus on just painting. Maybe that's a door to something ("when one door closes another opens!"). Did a little more fiddling with my website while waiting for the Brighthouse guy to come and fix the internet connection (infuriatingly slow speed.) He was a fine representative of Brighthouse's connection speed as he finally showed up around 6:00 p.m. He stayed for several hours and the final verdict was that it's a "neighborhood" problem and he'd have to send someone over next week to correct the connections. I guess this problem could have gone on indefinitely until someone bothered to go through all the hoops and hurdles of their customer service. I must admit I was a little annoyed when Jerry called CS and told them about the problem and I had to get on the phone and explain it (I'm the "technical/computer" person in the household.) I guess he got tired of my swearing about the slow speed, so he took some proactive steps. How novel! Anyhow, we may be getting the 15 Mips as advertised soon, instead of the 5 Mips current. Oh yes, and we got a new kitty. It's been an on/off thing. I saw an advertisement at the Y with a cute photo of a grey kitty and since we've been wanting to get Seamus a "feline" companion for some time since Chester and Ralphie passed on (years ago, now), I called. One thing led to another, and I thought the kitty's caretaker had second thoughts about relinquishing him since I didn't hear from her for a while, but she called today and said he was available. Jerry said he'd go over and pick him up while I waited for the Brighthouse guy. He said she choked up about giving him away (but she had three other indoor house cats and couldn't really keep him.) That makes me sad and I'm glad Jerry spared me from seeing her tear up (he thinks way ahead of me about some things and I really appreciate that when I think about it.) I told her on the phone I'd keep in touch with emails and send photos of him with Seamus and Marley. I hope I can post some good pictures of him tomorrow.

It was a long day in school today. Who would have thought a little tweak to my website would entail such agony. I tried to eliminate the clunkiness (if that's a word) by putting some of my paintings in a table, hopefully, with that "mouseover"? thing where it expands and you can see it a little more clearly. Wow! That wasn't easy. I finally figured out I had to create a separate page with the painting description, etc. and link to the the image on the computer...well, anyway it was quite a learning curve. I'll bet there's a simpler way to do it, but in the meantime I'm trying to get my shoulder unfrozen so I can't think about that now. I can be unbelievably OCD when I'm on the trail of a problem. I spent an hour doing yoga to get the kinks out, and even after a couple of glasses of wine, I'm still not altogether there. Tomorrow is another day, so I'll only spend a couple of hours on it (after I work out--promise to self). My brother called from Texas and said he got an electric bill from the landlord (apparently the electric bill is filtered through the manager of the apartment complex) and they raised his rate to almost $500 for electric for the month (for a 1/1 apartment). The tenants are up in arms because many can hardly afford the rent, let alone have someone raise the electric bill by over 100%. Geez, I know the economy is in trouble, but just maybe one of the main problems is due to greedy people from all levels of society. Enough already. I told him that Jerry and I would help to draft a letter to the owner of the complex and the tenants are working on confronting the problem in a number of ways, but perhaps it's time for us all to band together and fight corporate greed (and individual greed) wherever we encounter it. Maybe if I put on my thinking cap there's something in there for a painting....?

Homage to Louise Cadillac, 16" x 20", acrylic on masonite
We had a good art meet-up tonight at Trish's Teas in Baldwin Park. What a talented group of artists. Several new people came tonight and several artists showed their work. We have a monthly assignment and this month it was to create a piece designed in the style of an artist we admire. Mine was done in the style of Louise Cadillac. I love her stuff; it's so loose and painterly. I tried for something in her style in order to break out of my rigidity. It didn't quite get there, but I'm working on it. The assignment next month is to paint something inspired by nature, so I think I'm going to try something in that vein but with a street art or graffiti-type style. It's a style I would never think of trying to do, but there are several very talented artists around central Florida who are doing it and I can’t help but admire them. Note to self: take camera to Drunken Monkey and get some shots of the street art there and post. There was a woman from Artists Resource Group, Meg King, at the meet-up who talked very knowledgeably about the trials and tribulations of artists trying to market their work and how her company can help. It will be interesting to keep up with her website and see what type of workshops they'll conduct for artists. I need to learn everything (except I don't think I'm cut out for art festivals. The idea of people critiquing my artwork while dripping mustard from their hot dogs isn't really appealing to me :-)

Abstract circle (or cross), four 16" x 20" panels


Becoming adept at photoshop. Maybe adept isn't the right word, but I'm learning all about layers and moving things around. That's taking a while. Took some more pictures today of paintings since it was cloudy and I figured the light would be good. I have a new respect for photographers. It's an art unto itself and I spent a large part of today trying to get the photos of my paintings to look like they do in person by way of Photoshop. I'm not 100% satisfied with the painting above. It's four canvases, so I had to photograph them separately, otherwise they distorted, and put them on layers in photoshop, adjust balances and try to size them properly. Even though the ruler in the program seemed to indicate the proper scale, my eyes seem to think they aren't quite right. I haven't gotten to the part of rotating the canvases to do the cross configuration yet. I'll save that for when I don't have anything at all to do.

I didn't get any painting done today, but I looked at more artist's blogs/websites. Some are really great and I've gotten all kinds of ideas. There just isn't enough time to do everything, but I hope to post some of the really inspirational ones on my blog. I'm still learning and not quite sure about the RSS feeds?--maybe that's the way to do it? I wonder if there is some sort of protocol. But anyway, I did figure out how to put a link to some tunes. Not that it's necessary, but I saw another site with tunes and liked the idea. Mine aren't nearly so sedate--like classical music--but it's not rap either. Maybe I can turn them on to play and go into the next room and paint. I'll check it out tomorrow.

Not that it's that big of a deal, but it did make me feel good that someone from Etsy highlighted one of my paintings in a "treasure" room or something like that. I'm not sure what it means, but I thanked the person that did it.

One of the ladies in my step class this morning, who had just returned from visiting her daughter in NYC, told me some stunning news. Her daughter works in a gallery where the cheapest artwork is 17,000 euros (they don't deal in dollars). Most works average 250,000 euros. She said a man from Ohio bought a sculpture for 850,000 euros from a picture her gallery listed on the internet. It's stunning that people have so much money. And I feel somehow guilty about asking $200 for a painting.

I spent an inordinate amount of time today perusing the web trying to figure out how to sell my stuff. To be honest, I'm sick of it. According to the "experts," you have to be part carnival barker and part snake oil sales(person) in order to sell your art on the internet. Judging from the looks of the competition on sites such as Ebay, you have to pretty much sell your soul for a nickel also. If I feel like it and it happens, I'll just keep creating stuff until I drown in it. It's all vanity anyways. Today George Carlin died. Last week Tim Russert, next week, who knows? What's really depressing is that George Carlin was born on the exact same day, exact same year, as Jerry. Well, I really don't want to go there, but I guess the cruel reality is that we can keep on doing things to "defy" death, like creating art and in our deluded mind creating some sort of immortality, or just give into the hopelessness of it all. Today, I suppose, was giving into the hopelessness of it all. How depressing. Maybe tomorrow will be different and I'll squelch the negativity and resurrect the mask of optimism and sunshine and get out my paints and start daubing again. But today I'll wallow in the darkness of it all.

Precarious Penguin Perch ©, 9" x 12", acrylic on canvas board

Didn't get to post yesterday. It was very traumatic. We went over to the house at Suntree and tried to get into the garage to fix the sprinklers before the whole lawn died and have the yard crew work on trimming the shrubs. Surprise! The idiots living there wouldn't let us in--even with a Deputy present. Our lawyer told us we have every right to go in to maintain our property and had notified them several days ago that we would be there at 11:00. She, of course, lied to the Deputy and told them Jerry had "threatened" them and she was just trying to protect her children. These people are criminally insane. I shudder to think what they must be hiding in that house. I can only hope that they do leave by the end of the month, but I'm not counting on it. It was white-knuckle driving on the way home as it rained buckets and by the time we got back I had to take a two hour nap. I felt lucky to be able to pull myself together and go for a walk with Jerry and Marley. Anyway, today was a little better and we went to the Y and worked out for a couple of hours. I felt so much better after the yoga class--totally relaxed. I wish I could paint some of the colors and abstract thoughts that come into my mind when I meditate, but somehow when I go into my art room it isn't quite the same. I haven't had much luck with these photo transfers, but this painting is a feeble attempt with a photo that caught my eye of penguins (hundreds of them) on a ledge. It didn't quite work so I tried to compensate with some paint in a Klee-type fashion. May try a little wash to unify parts of it--but then again, maybe not.

Hummingbird and Angel Trumpets ©, 8" x 10", acrylic

I worked all day on painting. My obsessive compulsive tendencies can really get the best of me, especially since I tend to stand when I paint and I really get worn out. Memo to self: work out in the A.M. so you can paint the rest of the day. I tried some photo transfers and they didn't come out at all. Instead of obsessing, I said screw it and decided to paint. I like the look of transfers and they just can't be duplicated with paint, so it's disappointing. Maybe one day I'll hit the mother lode and figure it out. I did finish this hummingbird painting (not really, because I don't like a number of things about it and will probably keep fiddling with it until it's ready for the trash can) and decided to post it. I'm working on a portrait of Seamus and Jerry and Seamus. They aren't doing too well, but I lowered one of Seamus's eyes and it's starting to "look up." lol! One of the highlights of today was a "mud" painting I'm working on. Being the true frugal Irish person that I am, I primed a canvas with leftover paint which, naturally, turned to mud. Since it was so useless a canvas, I threw some more left over paint on it and it's beginning to take on a life I never expected. I'm starting to like the look of it. The somewhat engineered paint against the mud has an unexpected and unifying quality I couldn't have planned. I can see a whole series of "mud" paintings (I've already primed two more mud canvases) and the concept of bringing forth something of "beauty" from mud is also appealing.

I don't know what happened to my post from yesterday. I must have forgotten to save it. Just as well--still messing around with the tenants, posting notices, etc. Why do people have to be so difficult? Maybe I didn't post because I'd rather forget all this nonsense. I did get some painting done yesterday and worked on posting some more stuff to Etsy. Going to go do some fooling around with transfers. The Yahoo photo transfer group I'm in had some good ideas to try. The neighbor across the street brought over some chinese newspapers which I collaged onto some paper and gessoed, so they're waiting for some images/paint/ideas. Was supposed to go downtown for the 3rd Thursday art walk with the art group I'm in, but forgot about it until too late. I suppose we could go later, but it looks like it might rain.

Today was busy as hell. I did everything but paint--worked out in the yard weeding for two hours, spent some time on another website putting in some paintings, changed prices on another, paid bills, went to the post office to send a certified letter to the crazy people in the rental, went through an extended period of torture trying to get a credit report for the new tenant in Winter Park, went to the bank, worked out at a step class and went to Publix to pick up some juice when the car broke down and we had to call AAA and wait around until 8:00 p.m. for them to fix it. Another guy tried to jump start it but it didn't work, and he seemed to have lost his keys in the process. I felt really bad. Several people volunteered to help, including the bagger from Publix, who suggested looking into the battery. Sure enough, it looked like our battery had dried up. AAA jump started it after we got distilled water into it. I don't know if that's the only problem, because it happened so suddenly, but I guess we'll find out. We just had the car serviced 1000 miles ago, so that was kind of strange (and annoying) that it seemed to quit for something like that. Hopefully, tomorrow I can do something in the art room. Although, we have to make a trip to the east coast to post the letter because we're afraid she won't sign for the certified copy and we need to get into the house over the weekend to show it and do repairs. Yikes! I'm really burnt out over all this. I'm renaming this blog until I have the leisure to actually paint every day.

I'm trying to use up a tube of yellow ochre paint that broke open. I mixed some with gesso and painted over some canvases and started playing around with some contrasting paint and alcohol on top. I really like the way some are shaping up with that golden color underneath. I'm not sure where it's going, but we'll see. I'm reading a book on creativity by Nita Leland who has some good ideas. I practiced some drawing today, per her suggestion, and I'm going to set up a still life and do value drawings of the individual pieces in different view points and light. The idea is to then cut them up and reassemble them into a design. It kind of sounds like that notan idea I wanted to try in order to work on my design skills. We went to the lawyer's office today and picked up his letter for the tenants (although I thought ours sounded better but he suggested we not give that to them because it was getting too personal--not ugly--just personal). We stopped by the library on the way home and got stranded for a little while because of torrential rains! We sure needed it, but I could have done without the lightning. I got another book on abstract design and Alice Neel. I just love her portraits. They have such strength and are almost a psychological study of the individual. Who says women can't be great artists? I guess H. W. Janson, Art Historian from the dark ages. I checked my old history book just to make sure and, of course, she wasn't in there. I couldn't find one woman artist in it. No wonder I have such a sense of insecurity after going through art school with that book. I hope the female students today aren't being brainwashed like that.

We worked out today at the Y. I took two classes--step and yoga. I felt bad about not working on my hummingbird painting, but Jerry insisted that we needed to keep up with our exercise to help us stay focused on other things. He's right. I felt much better, but almost fell asleep in shavasana. I was so tired after staying up until 2:30 the night before. Keeping up with this blog, painting, trying to sell on the internet, looking at other artist's works/marketing, trying to get ideas--whew! it's exhausting. Was going to take a nap when we got home, but one of the guys who looked at the rental in Winter Park came over with a deposit and credit app. He's a student at Full Sail and said he just bought a $6,000 HD video camera and wants to paint one of the rooms in the house a special "green" and use it for a green room for special video effects (kind of like the green screen the weather man uses on TV to show his weather maps). He's an Iraq vet and will have two other roommates. I worked some more on the letter to the wacko tenants at Suntree and we'll see the attorney tomorrow for his advice. Can't wait. Ha!

Greek Town ©, 5" x 7", acrylic
Got a painting done today. Hooray! I was going to make it abstract, but since I have such a problem knowing when to quit and I have all kinds of abstracts laying around waiting to be finished, I did it somewhat realistic (at least, for me). I was experimenting with some new Golden paint ground I got the other day. It's called Micaceous Iron Oxide. It has a rough tooth and is awfully expensive and at first I thought maybe I got ripped. But the more I worked with it, the better I liked it. When you add a little water to the paint on the surface of the canvas, it does some nice things. It's probably hard on the brushes, but most of mine are pretty cheap. I'm going to try it with some paint and pastels next. I started another painting, but it's not going too well yet. It's a hummingbird with a couple of angel trumpet flowers. I'll get back to the abstract stuff once I clear my mind.

Everything I touched today turned to crap. Dark. Bleak. (I know, what a cop out.) A landscape I was working on became too stiff, so I loaded it up with modeling paste to get some texture and then some ugly left over paint--yuck. Maybe my frugality isn't conducive to being a real artist. To be able to paint like Van Gogh, no regard for the cost of the paint--slather it on like butter--Yeah!--that's the way to do it. My Mary Todd Beam piece is starting to come together, I think. It's so hard to tell with an abstract, though. How do you know when it's done????? I guess when you think it is, but that's my problem. I never seem to think something I'm working on is perfect and should not be fooled with any more. Picasso could crank them out and never look back. Maybe that's what the genius is all about--a non-obsessive personality or Adult Attention Deficit Disorder (plus being a wonderful artistic designer). Tomorrow I'm going to load up a palette with paint (oil paint so I won't have to worry about it drying out) and really get into it, expense be damned. Moyers had a really good piece on tonight about today's second gilded age and it was certainly depressing. Where is Franklin Roosevelt (or Eleanor Roosevelt, for that matter) when you need him/her/them? This whole financial inequality thing is really getting to me and even though I feel the pain at the grocery store and gas pump, I know many others are feeling it worse. I hope Obama can clearly state a position on our problem and what he can do to solve it. Very sad about Tim Russert. RIP--what a shock and we'll miss him very much.

I'm sure glad I got some painting done this morning, because the afternoon brought the postman with a certified letter from the lunatics in the rental house. It was certainly hard to get back in the creative mood after reading her hateful diatribe. It's hard to believe a so-called "Christian"-type person could be so toxic. The tone of the letter and the horrible things she said about everyone from Jerry to the next door neighbor to the realtor and even the pool man were chilling. She has to be psychotic, although Jerry thinks it's an act. He called the prior landlord and, boy, did he get an earful. They were just the same to him--threatening, would not let him into his own house, late on the rent, etc. This is why we love having rental houses--Not! Thank God we don't have to deal with people like this all the time, or I'd be more insane than I am. Jerry insisted that we go down to the Y for a workout and I'm glad he did. In a little more calm mood, we got a letter done to go with a 3 day notice. I guess it's a trip to the lawyer's office tomorrow.

Today was busy working on setting up an online store in Etsy. Who knew there was so much out there to present your stuff to the world? (If any one is looking at the site, but it does look professional.) It seems like a more attractive option than trying to sell on EBay. I've seen some artists who had insultingly low bids. One had two bids for a total of 6 cents! Talk about a cruel world, I can't imagine anyone being that miserly and mean to insult an artist that way. It's heartbreaking. After always being the last to be chosen for whatever sport in school as a kid, I have a particular aversion to these types of public popularity contests. I guess it's something I'll never get over. It was fairly easy to get online to Etsy, but, of course, it was time consuming and I barely had time to look in my art room. I did sell a painting on Craigslist (not one of mine, unfortunately) just to make room for all my stuff. I feel like I'm drowning in it. The man who bought the painting was a very nice chiropractor who is really in love with art and seemed to enjoy looking at my stuff. In fact, he offered to buy one of my pieces that almost fell out of the closet when Jerry was showing him a naive piece we had bought at an antique shop in PA. It was surprising but gratifying. I wasn't sure what to say, but he said to call when I thought about it. Very nice! I'm hoping tomorrow I can finish that crucifixion piece, or whatever it is, and work on the Mary Todd Beam-type abstract on paper that I started yesterday. Another good thing, it rained today. We were going to take Marley for a walk when it started up, but I'm not complaining. We need all we can get.

I'm still working on this one. It almost looks like a crucifixion to me--so bloody. I guess it's hard to forget all those years Mom made us go to church. I tried to tone it down, but it still comes through--even with this lousy picture. It has some patches of strappo glued on , but the glow I'm looking for isn't there yet. I spent time today trying to write up an "artist statement," exactly why I do art. I'm not sure yet why and I found a lot of quotes from artists I admire about seeing, so I believe it has something to do with that. And I'm figuring out that I'm always looking for some sort of glow in my paintings. One quote I really responded to was by Oscar Wilde, "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." I think my quest has something to do with that.

We took a 120 mile round trip to Suntree to see the state of our rental. Boy, was that a shock. In the middle of a drought, these people don't look like they've turned the sprinkler on in months. So, it looks like the lawn is dead. God only knows what the inside of the house looks like since they won't let us in. Jerry put a letter on the door reminding them of their obligations under the lease, and she was peeking out the window when we were there but didn't come to the door. We went to the Realtor's office and they said they hadn't encountered people like this in a very long time and gave us some advice about what to do next. Their behaviour is just plain bizarre. She couldn't come to the door, but as soon as we left we got a call from the Sheriff wanting to know what was going on. I couldn't believe how fast she must have jumped in the car and driven/flown to the Sheriff's office, because we couldn't have gotten 1 1/2 miles from the house when he called. Knowing their fundamentalist status, there must have been some divine intervention there (or perhaps the other kind.) Jerry could hear her shreiking in the background about the injustices (putting a notice up on the door?) we had done. Anyway, this thing is terribly depressing and saps alot of energy (and I guess money when all is said and done). If the lesson never sank in before, it will now. Whenever you encounter a fish sign, or someone parading around with one, run like hell. Perhaps I can incorporate the fish sign in that ugly painting to resolve it. It belongs in an ugly painting.

About the only thing I can say about today is that I worked out (step class and a yoga class.)Jerry had another cold, so he didn't go with me to the Y. We've both had it twice now--hope this is it for the year. I worked some more on that painting with the strappo pieces and glued them down and added some red. Maybe I can post it tomorrow if I'm satisfied, but it's still not quite right. I also worked on that horrible "protest"-piece-pepto-bismol painting and it's becoming uglier and uglier. Oh well, no one said art had to be pretty, and in fact I've seen some pretty ugly stuff (even in books at Barnes and Noble). I can't remember the artist's name (must have blocked it out), but one book I picked up there had paintings of people's excrement! All done in horrible shades of brown mud (naturally). It was a huge, coffee table-type book. When I saw it at the store, I opened it up with excitement thinking I was about to discover a wonderful artist in the impressive tome. I about threw up. Why would someone paint something like that. It, quite honestly, borders on perversion. Hell, it might be outright perversion. Speaking of perversion, we're having a problem with the fundamentalist "Christians" renting our house. They're moving out, but refuse to let any prospective tenants in to see it. I wonder what they're hiding. And tonight the guy threatened Jerry with calling the police if he even tried to come over and do any maintenance. Wow! WWJD? I don't think he would do that. Anyway, if I can't get some ideas for paintings out of this, what will it take?

Today was a bust in the art room. Nothing turned out. I'll still work on them tomorrow, but my painting with the horse head transfer rubbed off, so I'm painting his head now. I guess it's good practice. My strappo fragment did come off nicely in a tub of water, though, so I'll try and finish the abstract with the other strappo piece on it. Somehow it's not too satisfying. I love a good abstract, but I sure have a hard time doing them. Just trying for a subconscious thing, like Mary Todd Beam does, and throwing the paint around and see what materializes doesn't seem to be working for me. I really like her paintings and wish I could resolve my abstracts like she does. Maybe tomorrow I'll load up that crappy painting with the pink pepto bismol(?) looking paint with gel like she does and see if I can salvage it.

Seven painting ©, 11" x 15", mixed media
Today's meltdown of the stock market and oil exploding over $11 a barrel was a little distracting, to say the least. I added a "widget" to the site for news, because it's impossible for me to divorce myself from what's going on in the world. The anxiety of worrying whether I'll be living under a bridge in the not too distant future seems to have a negative impact on my will to create and the type of paintings I'm doing. In fact, everything I touched today in my studio was anything but pretty. Maybe blaming it on the environment is a cop out, but I guess art can't always be pleasing. It's strange, but the painting I'm working on has a prominent "7" in it, which somehow I never noticed. Maybe it's a subconscious wish for some luck in our country's dire situation. Bill Moyers, on PBS, had some guests on tonight who really scared me. What with all the sabre rattling going on now with Iran, they said one incident of a tanker blowing up in the Straight of Hormuz and the insurance companies would take care of insuring that oil went to $200 or $250 a barrel. I can't help but think that the smart money is betting on that now.

On a more positive note, this blog thing brings back memories of my grandfather who kept a diary, in tiny, meticulous handwriting, in many small leather-bound books. My siblings and I have enjoyed reading them (with a magnifying glass). I never kept one until now, but I can't help but think how he would have been in heaven with the tools available today. I can see now why he kept a diary--it helps to sort out, define, vent and, hopefully, resolve the problems in our lives. That's a lesson worth remembering.

It's beginning to dawn on me that perhaps I set my expectations too high. A painting a day? What a joke. Perhaps if I could stumble into my perfectly organized studio (with the high ceiling and north light, might as well dream big) with a steaming cup of coffee in my hand in the morning and only worry about fooling around with my paint, I could possibly drum up something on a 5 x 7 canvas or card. However, the chaos around me is overwhelming. It's really hard to work under these circumstances, but I'm beginning to organize. I picked up a shelf from Tiffany, who is moving out of our rental, and am using that to organize my painting supplies. Jerry is helping me hang some stuff to get it out of the way. And I did spend a little time trying to salvage an abstract on paper with some photo transfers from a magazine. Don't know if it'll work out, but I'll see what develops in the morning when it's had time to dry. Did spend an inordinate amount of time on my website trying to add new things--many of which didn't work out. It sure makes me appreciate this blog. It seems so easy to get a good looking website out of their tools (at least in my humble opinion). No wonder Google is going gangbusters.

Twilight landscape with waterfall ©, 16" x 20", acrylic

Working through my stack of unfinished paintings. Still not satisfied with this one, but trying to keep to my commitment of finishing one a day (not sure now long I can keep this up.) I added more yellow to the sky and highlighted the trees and added more detail. I was experimenting with mixed media and using some material I had left over after making a blouse. It got all covered up with acrylic modeling paste and then some interference paint I was fooling around with. That made the picture-taking kind of hard because of the glare. The quest to get a good photo is more mystifying to me than the painting. Maybe tomorrow I'll try something new and forget about salvaging the old stuff for a little while. I'm getting a little tired of it.

Burnt Offerings ©, 12" x 16", mixed media on canvas board
Finished another one. This one has been languishing around for a long time. I had tried a number of experiments, including adding a fragment from an old family Bible that had fallen apart. The fragment is about Abraham getting ready to sacrifice his son when God steps in and tells him never mind, he passed the test. I'm calling it "Burnt Offerings" for a number of reasons, including the fact that about the only thing you can see from the fragment is "burnt offerings." I included bits of a CD because I've always liked the way they look, especially in a mosaic pattern. I guess they're another formed of burnt or "burned" offering.

Evolution ©, 11" x 15", mixed media
Hooray! I finished a picture. It's amazing what a deadline will do. I had this board laying around forever with some elements laying on it (don't know why I chose those particular ones) and never did anything with it. My mission is to get all my unfinished paintings finished (on a daily basis until complete). They may not be perfect (what is?), but maybe I can move on and actually tidy up my art room. It was certainly not easy trying to navigate around so many unfinished works, but I got a really nice shade of green I copied from a Rousseau painting and it seemed to go well with a lot of the unfinished works. I even dabbed some on the big painting on the wall and it seems like it might be starting to come together. However, I do need some additional elements in that. I'm not sure what. Hopefully, I'll sleep on it and my dreams will tell me.

Well, today was a tough one. I'm really struggling with trying to set up this blog. I thought I'd go out of my mind trying to figure out the slideshow with Flickr. But I went and took a nap for a little while and when I got up it finally came. I had skipped through assigning an "alias" on the website, so it couldn't pull any of the photos off. Once I got that, everything fell into place. I really need to focus on doing things step by step. BTW, Flickr is totally amazing. On another note, I feel like I'm already falling down on my "daily paintings" vow, but setting up this internet tool also counts too (I think). It's amazing some of the websites out there and the organization of some artists I've seen. It's a learning and humbling experience. Well, tomorrow I'm going to do a painting and I'll work on some sketches tonight.

First blog

This is something new for me. I'll try it and see what happens--it seems everyone else is doing it so I might as well try it also. I hope this will motivate me to create paintings everyday (or at least dab some paint on a canvas for a little while) like others are apparently doing. I sure need some discipline and knowing I made a commitment to post work online might be the way to do it.