Not the First Time I've Done This

I was going through my old Facebook photo albums and found this from a couple of years ago....and, boy, am I glad I had it there 'cause I don't have it in my own pictures album on Picasa....a good reminder to save! save! save!

"THE FOREST MUSE" 

Celuclay over wire armature, hand sewn clothing from recycled materials, twigs, moss, beads and glass ball

There's another one somewhere so now I'm off to hunt it down.....

On a Roll!

 " DIVE IN DIVE IN "

Paparclay, slab built, sgraffito, stamped, hand painted and ephemera added

21" long X 11" high

...and we are having fun fun fun! The 'curious' thing about doing these sculptures is that yesterday, after posting the pics to my Facebook page (I get great feedback from the 'peeps' when I post my art there) I received a call from the Gallery owner (Reflecting Spirit) who said she had woke up thinking about mermaids and decided to do a show of them...and 'HOLA'! there were my pics.
Now is that serendipitous or what?!?
#3 now starting......

Muckin' about

"SWIM"

 Paperclay 

Slab built, hand painted, stamped, sgraffito and ephemera added

24" high X 12" wide

"SWIM" with fish

Hello, hello, faithful reader. 

I know you've just about given up on this blog - and who'd blame you? Not me and my procrastinating butt - really, I'm around - however what with the Flu and other stuff and well, let's be honest, a decided ennui towards writing anything....where does the time go.

Anymakesomemorelame-oexcuseway, I've still been creating! 

This is a sculpture in Creative Paperclay and if you haven't tried this stuff may I suggest you immediately leave the magic screen and run - don't walk - to your nearest Hobby Store ( Art Supply places have it too but it seems a wee more 'pricey' there ) 

SERIOUSLY in big love with it here! 

Am now working on sculpture # 2. 

At least you know I'll be back to post a pic of it!!

PS...'Sgraffito' is the term for things etched into a clay surface....and the root of 'graffiti'.

Blast From The Past

This morning on that new-age-newspaper FaceBook, someone posted the following paintings of mine from some years back....like about 13....14....maybe even 15? It was a nice surprise to be reacquainted with my old stuff. And I am remembering just how much I loved watercolor back then. But the amount of 'fuss' it created to present your finished work was really problematical. I'm talking about the whole having-to-frame-after business, of course. I used to have a mat cutter and a glass cutter and a frame cutter set up in my studio and that took up so much space and mess that I'm not missing it one bit.
But every once in a while I look at my old watercolor paints and if I'm feeling really nostalgic, I'll smell my 'Rose Madder Genuine'.  
Ah, what changes time hath wrought.

If you click on the image, it will enlarge and you can read the poem I wrote too. 

"BEACH HAT" 

Beach Hat

Sun Above, Shade Beneath

Walk Along A Shell Strewn Beach

Resonant Waves Never End

This is the Soul's Most Perfect Zen

Tideline Jewells, Ocean's Song

Gathered Here To Place Upon...

There's a proper term for this kind of poem that reads in a circle, if you will, but darned if I know what it is. 'Roundelay' pops into my head but I can't find it in my dictionary so I may be completely off the mark. I shall have to go to my poetry friends. 

And here's the other:

"IMPERFECT PERFECTION"

No poem. But I did some number of watercolors with poems back then. This was a collection of beach finds that all had some flaw, along with the broken coffee mug it made for a great juxtaposition. 

Kind of fitting for a New Year and musing upon what has gone before.....

Once Again - With Feeling!

Ahhhh.......a brand new day of a brand new year. Makes you feel the boundless possibilities of life ahead.....or I would hope that this is true for many. I'm cognizant of there being a great deal of misery and deprivation for a large contingent of humanity across our beleaguered planet. May we all try in our own way to alleviate this unbalance.......
Anymakeanewyearesolutionway, here be we the lucky and this new year gleams before us rather like a new canvas. The potentiality is vast, the outcome somewhat unknown but positive. Exciting.
For me, this year is already off to a resounding Huzzah! My first one person show at a prominent gallery in Victoria B.C. and ...... my son proposed to his lovely lovely joy of a girlfriend.  
Yes, I'm off to a good start! 
Here's wishing all of you all the joy life can bring. 
Oh, and unending inspiration to CREATE!!

The illustration is J. C. Leyendecker and his infamous "New Year's Baby" covers he produced for the now defunct Saturday Evening Post. His illustrations were instrumental in making a baby the symbol of a new year. How about that?!

The Party's Over

Took down the "Christmas Me" - I pretty much am the kind of person that likes to clear the decks darn fast after the Christmas pandemonium passes. Not that there's a lot of pandemonium around here in the artist's hovel.....well, unless you consider the actual 'take down' process.

Those of you who have been following stumbling along with me in this blog will recall the method I employ to tidy....see 'Multitasking with a Magpie Mind (6/27/12) ....and we held true to form for this chore as well. Which went as follows and for brevity's sake we shortform this:

Find christmas boxes in temporary cache-it-all-storage-studio room>must move stuff-on-shelf to get them>move chair out to do this>rearrange furniture to place chair in front room>rehang coats that were on floor to chair>find old photo box whilst moving chair into place and locate funny old photos of self>upload these to Facebook>make coffee>take off decorations>find new box to transfer stuff into (WTF...did these decos breed??)>look around to see Jams IN box>take photo of Jams in box>replace Jams onto her chair and boxes into studio/storage room>upload photo to Picasa for blog>get hungry and decide to make soup>Dante's seventh hell of dishes means there is no pot to do so>restack dish mountain to find pot>think about how all this idiocy would be good post>search Internet for good pic to illustrate blogpost>and the rest you know.

I'm exhausting. And that's not a typo. 

And I still have to make soup.

Ok. Here's Jams in the box:

Sorry it's fuzzy - she decided there was a spot she needed to lick as I snapped the shutter. 

The painting is "Portrait in Silver and Black" by Jack Vettriano who is well known for his dancing people on the beach with the butler holding an umbrella. Yeah, those. Which I'm not a fan of, so this was a surprise to find. I like this a lot. It makes me think of these dark grey days we still have to get through until Spring. That's kinda me right now.

But....we have new paintings to get to.....huzzah!

Marla's Christmas Tradition: Stories # 4 (new!!)

Happy Happy Sugarplums and Nutcrackers, everyone! Are you all nestled in your trundle beds? Sitting comfortably? Then let's begin......

Roasting By An Open Fire
It seems that the Festive Season has caused the most stories in my life but none as - um - cataclysmic as the New Year's Eve my Dad gave a box of Sparklers left over from Halloween to my brother and me. My Dad was the owner/pharmacist of Robson Drugs in downtown Vancouver for many years and they sold fireworks so that is why he had this package of sparklers to surprise us with. We, of course, thought that was just the coolest thing ever!  There was company over for dinner and I think that in order for the grown-ups to enjoy themselves, ie: get into the booze - he had the mind set to keep us out of their hair by giving us something 'entertaining'... 
Anyyouknowthereisgoingtobetearsway, Iain and I went outside to light those sparklers and wave them around in a celebratory way. For the first 4 or so sparklers we lit all went well but after that there was a pall in the thrill of it all. 
That was when my brother came up with the idea of lighting all of the remaining sparklers in the box at once. 

Let us pause here to think about how as a kid you are woefully short of figuring out the long range consequences of actions that at inception seem nothing short of pure brilliance. 
As my brother lit all the remaining sparklers, it seems to me that time slowed. I vividly recall the great burst of flame and sparks and then the horrific realization by my brother (and me) that he had what amounted to small incendiary device in his bare hand. His reaction was to scream and throw the flaming bunch over his head. What we failed to notice is that we were standing close to an old, decaying and very Dried-Out Cedar bush. Beside the house. 
The thing to also be aware of is that this was Vancouver where the houses were pretty darn close to each other. Sort of like lean-out-the-bathroom-window-and-shake-your-neighbours-hand way. 
Of course that bush lit up like the proverbial torch. 
Well, my brother took off down the street and I ran into the house screaming like a banshee. The 'adults' reacted like this: The women immediately ran for the phone to call the fire department and the men....well....the guest fellow who luckily had a great deal of presence of mind, ran outside, found the garden hose and turned it on. 
And my Dad? 
He ran downstairs into his den. 
I'm serious. 
Anywhatastoryway, by the time the fire truck got there, the fire was out from the quick thinking of our male guest. 
My brother was located hiding in the garage. 
Can't really recall when my Dad reappeared. 
But I guarantee that pretty much was the last time we ever got any fireworks!

The painting was found after a long search for 'firework paintings' most of which were the standard pretty lame exploding shapes-in-the-sky deal....bleah. I found this but the only identifying info is : Glenray Fireworks