Try To Remember

It's been c-a-a-a-razy over the last while. The weather has been amazingly HOT - which is not that normal for this coastal seaside town. We generally have fog roll in to keep the temp quite balmy - and lets you sleep in comfort, may I add - but when it was 80 last Wed at 9:30 in the evening, after a blazingly sunny day, we-e-e-ell, you knew it was not business as usual. 
I've had company too - an old school chum came for a viz and it was great! I played tourist in my own town and rediscovered what I love about this place through her eyes. (also, it didn't hurt to have hugs and smoochies from just about everyone we ran into that knows me and that seemed like the whole darn town to my friend - what can I say?) It's funny how those of us who live somewhere-everyone-else-who-doesn't-and-wants-to can get so blase about the features and attractions of that place. We just seem to take it all for granted. In any case, all that had me musing last night on summers of the past. 
My memories seem to be kindled by smell and sound. The first thing I recall is that 'chuck chuck chuck' noise the old hand pushed rotary lawn mowers made. I used to hear that evocative sound as I lay in bed at my bedtime - and it seems to me it was still real light outside - and then that is followed my the memory of the smell of freshly cut grass. Wowzers, is there a better smell? Well, unless you have allergies and that particular smell makes you stuff up like a turkey at Christmas. Add into these memories the seaside beach days that seemed to me went on all day - as I was lucky enough to be so close to the Ocean growing up - that comes with the soundtrack of screaming kids and waves along with hot dogs and fries. And stubbed toes as it seems I could never wear flip-flops without that happening. HOT slides! YEEE-owch! Sunburns before we knew the danger of that - peeling sheets of skin off... ok, yukky sounding, but I remember how satisfying it was to get a really big piece off before it tore.  And the smell of hot canvas tents from those long gone days of family camping. I still long for that particular olfactory experience.
Didn't it seem that summer was so much longer then? Certainly more magical......
Ah, memories.
Ah, childhood!

The painting is "Soaked" by John Cox. Don't think I could have found a more perfect illustration to this piece. It makes me recall doing just that with my-bestest-friend-forever-and-ever, Marilyn (hi hon!) I remember the sun sparkling on the waves just like that too....sigh. 

PS> Apologies to all for the tardy postings lately - I have to admit that it's time to replace the old pc but have to wait until I make a trip to the big smoke next month. Meanwhile I try to limit what I do on this old horse as it is becoming increasingly difficult to load pages and upload data etc. Hang in there with me my friends - I promise this too shall pass.

...and besides sleeping with make believe Princes...

We've been painting. (If you're wondering about the title to this post, see the previous one.....all will be revealed.) 

I have long had the thought of trying to incorporate my 'ladies' into a 'beach landscape' what with living here in 'beach side splendor and that's all the folks want' place....I think I blathered on about this before. It has certainly taken up my mind with the wondering about how the hey-o to make it work and anything previous to this painting just went flat on me. And I admit that this one too was making me go splah about 1/3rd of the way through. But, gods and goddesses bless us with a stubborn streak, we persevered and it finally jelled into this. 

I'm not disappointed with it and actually am thinking of carrying on with a series. Here's a close up of the hand stamped words:

Tonight we relax. 

OK, lie. I'll be looking through my collected pics to start formulating a new piece BUT! we just got the whole 8 disc set of 'EUREKA' and by golly! we're looking forward to sweet and sour chicken wings, beet salad and toasted pita and some quality sloth time watching the 16" screen. 

WHEEEEE!

The painting: "The Sound Of The Ocean Is There In My Dreams"

Acrylic

36 X 40 

Marla Thirsk 

Aug 2012.

It's just one vowel short to make a full Haiku. What's that - a 'Hai'?

 I'm certainly the 'Ku'(ook).

BWWHAaaaahahaha!

Really, I am a one girl party.

OH YEAH! This marks my 400th post! 

I should have a contest to win something. I'll post it next time!

Stranger In The Night

(The title refers to the old crooner Frank Sinatra's song "Strangers in the Night" and not my tendency towards becoming decidedly odder than usual in the wee hours....at least I hope that's the case.)

Having a good imagination is probably a requisite mien for an artist but there are times things happen to me that even my twisty little head just could not have dreamt up. 

Witness the other night. 

My bedroom is small, I may have mentioned. It is the verifiable width of the length of a queen sized bed. It is kind of cool, as it makes for a feeling of an alcove by placing my bed so that it is against 3 walls. And close to the 'end' wall is the window that for the sake of Jammie's midnight excursions ( and 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.) I keep ajar. Also, I like fresh air. 

It does, however, also make it possible for 'other' not-so-much-wanted visitors access. I wrote about the raccoon that appeared one evening and the ongoing battle I wage with those denizens of the creep > spiders.

But the visitor that appeared on the night in question was really a surprise. 

Now, I'm seriously near-sighted. Without my specs (and thank you Ben Franklin for inventing them!) I can see clearly for about 10 inches,  give or take depending on what I'm viewing. Add to that the bonus failing of night blindness and you can agree that I'm most decidedly not the gal you take on a romantic midnight stroll. Well, unless your plan is to make me fall (read: stumble ungainly) into your arms. Or on my ass, which is the more likely scenario. 

Moving right along from that particular imagined spectacle, there I am, snuggled up in my bed asleep when, true to the fact of aging, I awoke. I turned on my light and for some reason noticed a dark 'bump' down at the foot of my bed. Close to that window opening - remember me mentioning it? It wasn't 'spider-sized' so my heart didn't automatically ratchet up into the stratosphere and  I sort of shook the covers trying to move it. It didn't move. "Hmmmm," my befuddled early hour brain thinks "that's weird, maybe I'll put on my glasses"

Now Life is full of disappointments, on that we can agree, but may I say that the one I find most letdown about is the fact there is no soundtrack playing. This would have been the BEST of a time for cuing the tweeky violin sound, as I leaned closer towards the dark 'bump' at the foot of my bed.

Imagine my complete dumbfoundedness (and if that isn't a verb it should be) when the bump revealed itself to be a little tree frog. 

Wowzers! 

I gently put my hand over it to place it back outside in a much more genial environment than my bed - I guess that depends on your viewpoint as Jams seems to like it; as for human thoughts...yes, well - 

Anylet'snotgothereway,  I can still recall the feel of it's moistly cool and infinitely soft body in my hand. How awesome a visitor was that! Baring it turning into a Prince, it was still pretty magical.

The digital illustration is I'm not sure by who knows who. This is the problem with trying to find accompanying art to illustrate the theme of my posts. Occasionally I find some work that has no acknowledgement of Artist or even title or link to where the image came from ( and yes I know I don't post links but I do acknowledge artist and post title. )

If anyone has a clue please let me know. If you're the artist, I really like your work!

Sunny Side of the Street

Ah, don't you love how the moment you make some definitive statement, life intervenes to kick your a** ?

Perhaps it's just me (and that certainly points to perhaps changing my operating manual in this life) but it does happen that oft times we are brought up short by something happening that goes completely contrary-wise to what we have been stoutly claiming as the be-all-and-end-all-amen-exclamation-point.

So here I am taking my big foot out of my mouth yet again and wearing the sheepish grin akin to the lovely lady in the pic above.

After my grizzling woe-is-me blither in the last post, just guess what happened....ah, yes indeed faithful reader - we sold, not one but two paintings. 

sigh bloody sigh

Mind you, it was not completely smelling like roses as the first painting was bought by someone who had seen my work at UKEE DAYS that I had listed at an abysmally low price because the-wolves-were-at-the-door and I needed that filthy lucre. Ethically I didn't feel it was right to charge more so I let her have it at said minuscule price. Then I found out that this person was actually very well off and could have bought 5 originally priced works without blinking an eye. 

Well, bad word loudly said.

Then my Gallery Guy phones to say that he sold another painting BUT- and proceeds to rap my knuckles with vigor -  he had to come down in price drastically because of the prices I put on my work at UKEE DAYS.

sigh bloody sigh

Who needs enemies when I can kybosh myself much easier.

Other than that > we are finally enjoying a spate of excellently sunny days here in Ukee and I am inside painting. That's ok by me as I'd much rather be painting than anything and lying in the sun feels good for about 5 mins then I get antsy and want to DO something. Also my skin is still pretty unwrinkly at almost 60 so it's true what they say about broiling yourself. Add to that my slight phobia about tanning due to my mom dying from the very rare and horrific disease 'Scleroderma' and she baked herself to the color of a walnut . 

Ye-e-e-ah.

But all is not lost as I'm working on a whole new style of painting - it took me a good week of experimenting and research to figure out how to do what I was envisioning but I'm pretty excited to see what is happening. This came about by trying to figure out how to join -so to speak- my ladies with my 'old' style of landscape paintings. 

Sneek Peak at the layout sketch:

The black line is because I reproduce this on transparent film for my overhead projector - the best tool I've EVER used.

Can't wait to get back at it!

And now, to close: how Jams deals with the heat of the day:

That's her lying in the striped shade cast by the gauze curtain I have hanging in my doorway - keeps out the bugs and still lets in the air - makes for a great photo, huh? 

The pic at the start is an Art Doll by Lesley-Anne Greene - isn't it brilliant?! She's a Canadian girl too! 

Deep Frying in the Crockpot of Life

It's more than obvious that I've been absent from posting for close to two weeks now - and to my faithful reader I send abased sorries - but I am most certain that for each and every one of us, living as best we can upon this lonely blue planet, there are times when you are just plain old tired of it all and seriously just want to go home and draw bunnies. 

Add to the mix a heavy-duty soupcon of disconcerting health issues along with a real slog in the Art choice-of-lifestyle and we pretty much are burnt out right now. Meanwhile back at the ranch, the good ol' PC has developed the most irritating glitch of refusing to type the same letter twice unless you develop a Gandhi-like time out and wait for the frickin' thing to do the deed. And the backspace button is following along in blind devotion.

It's beyond the pale. 

Even the act of creating seems fraught with dire omens. Take this past weekend where I was a vendor again after about a 5 year hiatus from the local BIG celebration of UKEE DAYS. This is a weekend long event of a mini festival taking place on the local Ball field and it's really a joyous occasion of food, music, local crafts/art and smiling happy people. I decided since I had failed the cut in the Sooke Art Show, that I'd go in and participate and maybe sell some of my prints of the Ice Cream Ladies and cards of same along with my Art dolls. ( Everyone seemed really enthusiastic about them.)

That process started with a huge bollox of the prints not getting done until Friday (set up for Festival was 8:30 am on Sat) and the fellow who usually builds the frames and stretches the prints had to leave town to attend the funeral of a family member. I had to build and stretch them myself. Ok, I DO know how to do this but I wasn't really prepared to add that onto getting the last two dolls done along with folding and stuffing all the cards , sorting the items to go and the usual slog of packing tent/screens, hangers, tie-downs, easels, boxes of art stuff, paintings, chairs, tarps, food and something to do while sitting there for two days, into the van.

Then when I arrived on site I found that the good folks had not read my entry form where I told them I had my own tent that I wished to use. I mean, it was great to not have that incredible gymnasty feat of setting up this 10 X 10 tent but mine has a hand painted roof that really looks cool and does add to the feeling of ARTIST on site. 

Then we sat for 2 days and sold 3 items; 2 cards and 1 doll. 

Now, I've done this and other festival/art market/craft fairs so am - at least I hope so - cognizant of knowing you cannot go into them with the preconceived idea of selling out...you're asking for big unhappy to do so. Still and all, I reduced the prices on those paintings and even those fleeping dolls that take 3 days to make and I probably made 5 cents an hour at the price they were.

So I'm tired. I'm just plain old tired right now of the whole damn shooting match. 

And I'm going to take some time to recharge.

And am considering an extended visit with those chocolatey chip cookie ice cream sandwich thingies. 

Of course with the way things go, something fabbo will occur and I'll be back in the saddle again sooner than you think.

Ah, Art. 

There's no life like it. 

The pics: The first one is self explanitory. The name of the artist was posted as "Snowboy" . That is not self explanitory . Unless you know something about said artist, I guess.

Pic number two is at Ukee Days with my friend Mo from Ukee Bikes poking her head into the shot making for a very fine juxtapose. The company at the fair was top notch may I add. Taken by Randy from Little Beach Cabins. Seek them out for a great place to stay here. 

Oh and PS....along with the peevingly annoying  not-typing-same-letter-twice glitch, the spell-check won't work. 

......sigh bloody sigh......

Um, Hi? It's us, your next door neighbor?

Ah, hello good people, wherever you are. 
In the world of stereotypical behavior, there is nothing to compare to the oft-times irritating one that exists between Canada and it's neighbor to the south, the US.  And that adage is: The States knows absolutely nothing about us - we who have lived peaceably ( well apart from those earlier days when we all were hot-headed conquering rampagers) beside each other for oh, almost 150 years, give or take those murky waters way-the-hey-o-back-then. I was brought up against this the other day when reading one of my favourite Blogs: Lines and Colours (I have a link)
The very esteemed author is one of my favs when it comes to illustration and this is truly one of the BEST blogs out there about Art and Artists. However, and it pains me to say this, he did fall into the above category when in his post about the 4th of July  he made a somewhat sarcastic comment about the fact the US celebrates it's Presidents and does not defer to some old lady in a strange hat. 
Ah geez anywhydon'tyoucheckyourfactsway.
OK yes and all, Canada was a British colony for a goodly # of years  BUT ! has had it's Independence for 145 years now. ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY FIVE.
For crying out loud. Get past thinking we're still a British colony already Uni-States. 
Now in the author's defense, I may be jumping to conclusions about thinking he was referring to Canada with that remark but since we celebrate our 'Independence' on July 1st, so close to July 4th - it does seem an inference is applicable.
But then we all know US people are rude and carry guns, right? 


The pic is a New Yorker cartoon and there is nothing that compares to the awesomeness of New Yorker cartoons.


Also may I add that I have a gazillion relatives in the States and they are the finest folks I know. Please accept that I write with a tongue firmly in place.

BUT.....is it ART?

This is "BIRDIE". 

The 'Art Doll' I made while bemoaning/whinging to myself about Sooke and etc etc bla bla yadda. 

(I think those branches-as-hair is just a touch of creative genius)

Yes, well.....we may be down but we're not out. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Gallery Guy from the town where I've had my month long show at calls to ask for more dolls please as all the ones I put in the show and made to bring in as the show was on, have SOLD.

ALL of them, folks. 

And therein lies the dilemma of today's post.

Anyone who has a smidgeon of cognizant awareness can put this together and realize that the ART DOLLS  are what people are buying and so, ergo: make more. 

(this is what you'd call :the pregnant pause)

BUT IS IT ART?

Oh, sigh bloody sigh.

In every Artist's life there comes a time when you are smack dab up against the evil of creating something 'kitschy' as a what-the-hell-why-not moment that becomes 'vogue-ish'. Large eyed kids and velvet Elvises aside, you know what I mean.  

I originally made the art dolls as a break/recharge from my regularly scheduled  serious painting sessions. They were fun. They were cool to invent. They used up a lot of fabric/beads/junk I had lying around.

And people liked them.

 Consequently, they have grown into their own thing and garnered a whole section of studio space, but moving on with the sad tale oh wah.

Anystillplayingwithdolliesway, the Gallery Guy in the next town, wants to do a whole show based around Art Dolls exclusively. He's thinking @ 70. Or so. 

And I am really (really) happy to have had this success but somewhere in the way away place of my head/soul/whatever, is the little voice sneering about the whole "not really Art, is it" thing. 

I have a good friend that lives very far away - NY to be exact - whom I met cyberly. Actually he was the ONLY  guy that was decent from my rather 'here be monsters' excursion into the hell of cyber dating services. I don't know what it is about me - maybe it's the 'artist' label - but for me the whole dating site thing was a colossal failure. While everyone else got the-mate-of-their-dreams, I got the guy who sent pics of his goodies with a sock over it and the other jewel who talked 2 hours non stop about himself and another prince that wanted to stay with me right away, forget coffee. (can we say "desperation" ) And so forth. 

The problem with J. is that he is beyond phobic to the nth degree about flying; he says a boatload of Valium won't help;  and I'm poor - so we have never ever met in the physical plane of existence. Perhaps this is why the relationship works. Who knows.  

The thing is J grew up in a life of the silver-spoon-in-mouth kind...never mind silver, it was Titanium. I am often just gobsmacked by his tales. And meeting the rich and famous? De rigeur for that boy. 

Ok all that aside, J and I often talk about fame and what makes it work. He says; and I quote:

 "hell, if it is good enough for Barbie it is good enough for you.

you need to invent a pet rock, hoola hoop, whoopee cushion. what the hell?

you public needs you, Girl!!! you must feed your public!"

So the whole question of Art versus crap just becomes moot. And I am not ashamed of these dolls I make; far from it. They are unique and trippy and full of creative genius and if they weren't, people wouldn't buy them. 

And what is Art anyway.

"BIRDIE" is made from fabric from my own pattern. Her clothes are from Designer Fabric swatches and from my own patterns I make up. The little Birdhouse Hat I made from Paperclay. She stands about 14" high. 

Oh, as a last thought, the following comment from Banksy:

 

This was an actual 'painting' he put into a show. On a piece of cheap plywood. And will probably get thousands of bucks for. 

The art world is full of pretentious bullshit, no?