Art that I like

"Para Hacer Cortinas"
(transl. "To Make Curtains")
Ando-Mirando (the artist's Flickr username)

I love this painting!!! It's very satisfying to me.

I was trying to explain to someone the other day why Jackson Pollock's art is, well, ART. I explained that even in the midst of his chaos, there is a rhythm and an order that delves deeper than the surface visual perception. I "get" Pollock, but it stems out of the same area of my brain that "gets" bebop jazz music. I can't do it, but I can love it and enjoy it. It requires a skill I haven't yet acquired. I won't say that I never will, though, because twenty years ago I would've asserted to you that I would never be able to play out of my head, to invent music, or to change keys on the fly without batting an eyelash. That skill just happened to me one day, out of the blue. It really did. It was one of those things that I would put on the same level as a true "tongues" experience, where you're actually quite suddenly speaking fluently in a real (read: KNOWN) language you hadn't ever studied. I needed it at a certain moment, and it was given to me in an instant. Just like that.

It was very, very cool. And weird. And has been a gift I have enjoyed immensely ever since. It has taken me to some wonderful places, and it has taken me to some very difficult and painful places as well. They've all shaped me into who I am right now.

Autumn Bradford Pear I

I've started a second one to go along with this one, but I have several major projects hanging over my head that absolutely have to get done first, so it may be a while before I get that other one done. Or I may continue procrastinating on those other things. You just never know. I gotta go with the inspiration when I get it. At least that's what I tell myself.

I found out a few days ago that a local newspaper is doing a feature story on me and my art classes. Today they interviewed me and took some photos. I think this will be coming out some time next week, so I'll share the article and pics with you then.

Regular school is done on Friday afternoon, but I really don't get to completely let my hair down for several more days after that. A teacher's work is never done, and the cover of the yearbook is due, so I'm going to be concentrating pretty hard on that until it's done. It would be simpler if it were just dependent upon me getting things ironed out, but I am also dependent upon submissions from others, and those items are just not dependably forthcoming.

I can't really even think about Christmasey plans yet. I was hoping I'd get to do some Christmas baking for the first time since we moved into this house 2.5 years ago, because today my oven finally arrived (!!), but Rick fell down the stairs the other day and broke some ribs, and he's absolutely unable to do the labor required to remove the drop-in cooktop so we can install the stove. I've waited this long, I guess I can wait a little longer. He really is in a lot of pain, so I'm not going to be mad. At this point, I'm just hoping to have a working oven by January 1. If it happens before then, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

We've been really struggling with the chaos of living with a mentally-ill teenager, too. It will be necessary for us to do as little socializing as possible during the lead-up to Christmas because it just sends her over the edge. After the Big Day, it will be easier to deal with her, but she just can't cope with anticipation and expectation and excess. Her moods have been pretty severely swinging. Right now we have given her only five changes of clothes to manage, because there are some pretty unspeakable filth issues she refuses to deal with (including her own body). Limiting her choices is pretty much our only option in this matter. I wish things could be different... I wish she could be like the other kids her age and have a celly and go have sleepovers at friends' homes and things like that. She just can't cope; she loses all mental cohesion and slips into complete delusional mania. What's the most frustrating is that she SEEMS like any normal teenager to everyone else around us. Nobody sees the transformation but us. So we seem like irrationally restrictive parents. I really don't care what most people think, but it's tiresome when we have to continually re-argue the point with her because she can't remember and learn from past experiences. Every day's new, and if she's been "good" for the past hour, that should be enough to make up for everything. Then when we don't give in, she begins swearing like a sailor's parrot, and then later remorsefully cries and insists she can't help being that way, so we should give her what she wants because she can't help it. It wears me down.

I need a private vacation. Preferably one involving warm sunshine and a massage therapist named Viktor who specializes in River Rocks and Aromatherapy.

On the watercolor board...

Current project, based loosely on the photos I took on Thanksgiving day. It's still in progress; I have been working while my students are also working on their own projects. They really like it when I sit down with them and work, because they get ideas and inspiration and learn techniques that it's hard to teach in a lecture-style setting. I don't always get to do it, but I love to when I get the chance.

Two blackbirds in a tree

I have been obsessing with this image of a tree that just will not leave my mind. I am trying to capture it. Many of the images I have been creating have nibbled around the edges of The Tree As I Have Been Seeing It In My Mind, but none of them have quite gotten the full essence of it. This tree is one I have been working on this week. It's a watercolor base with metallic gel pens and polyester flake, done on 140-lb cold press paper.

Day-trip to Fort Worth

After my weekend jaunt with my girlfriends last Friday, I decided that it was ridiculous that we lived so close to Fort Worth and that my kids hadn't been down to the Stockyards or hadn't seen the daily cattle drive that happens on the streets of old downtown. So today my mom and I loaded up my charges and we headed down to Exchange Street to see some longhorn cattle.
THE WHITEST MOM U KNOW
I think I'm so white, I glow in the dark. I know that I reflect sun rays onto everyone else around me, thus aiding in everyone else's tan. Hey, I do what I can. Besides, while it's patently unfair that I have to be Day-Glo White, I can lay claim to the prize of having only four or five hairs on my legs, negating any need for leg-shaving. I don't shave, I tweeze. You're jealous. But you're also tan, so shut up.


This cowboy was quite adept at flicking the whip and making it crack like a gunshot. He also had trained his horse to smile for the camera, which was a nice touch. I think my mom might've gotten a photo of that hilarity, so when I get the chance to upload her pics, I'll try to remember to post one here to show you.



I really enjoyed getting a look at this fellow's horse. I think that this particular paint pattern might qualify as a "Medicine Hat" paint, because he was almost completely white except for a "hat" spot on top of his head. I could be wrong, I didn't Google it or anything, I'm just going by what I remember from that old Marguerite Henry story about the Medicine Hat Stallion back when I was a little kid reading every single horse book I could get my mitts on.



They drive a herd of longhorn cattle down Exchange Street twice a day, every day. It's very cool to watch.

Afterwards we went to Riscky's Barbeque and I enjoyed --nay, demolished-- some beef ribs that were absolute perfection.

And then after that, we drove over to the Modern and to the Kimbell museums to take in some art. Saw several Jackson Pollocks, Andy Warhols, a nifty Rothko and an awesome Donald Judd sculpture (among much awesomeness at the Modern), and then at the Kimbell we saw one of the coolest things EVAR -- the earliest known Michelangelo painting, done by him when he was about twelve or thirteen years old. Unbelievable. The dude was incredibly gifted.

After THAT, we went over to the TCU campus to check out a little-known but very cool collection of meteorites.

It was a marvy day in a terrific town. Fort Worth is pure awesomeness. If you've never visited it, you really should.

Student artwork

We wrapped up the school year's art projects with an assignment where students were to take famous works of art and reproduce them in a mosaic fashion. This student, Haley, chose Dali's The Persistence of Memory to do. I thought she did a remarkable job, don't you?

Art idea

I recently made this koi card (5" x 6.5") from a picture I found on the internet and it has given me an idea.

More to come as my idea begins to gel.

Business purchase

Just made a bidness-related purchase... I went to RubberStamps-Dot-Net and ordered a stamp to use on the back of my cards. It has my e-mail address and my Etsy address on it. I decided NOT to put my phone number because I'd rather deal with people online and not on the celly. I'm not a talker.

I called my bidness "Dazzling Designs." It's not wonderful, but I figure it relates to my e-mail address well enough AND incorporates the blingy-ness of the cards.

I have already made some dough on these things... not a LOT of dough, but it's coming in AND I'm getting great feedback. I would really like for this to take off. It's something I can do and I like doing it enough to keep doing it.

I may look into some local craft fair events; these are cheap enough and easy enough to produce that it just might be a pretty good sell at one of those kinds of places.

To the oars!

The rain continues to come down in waves, accompanied by the occasional thunderclap (which seems odd for January, but I suppose anything's possible). It's a cold, copious rain and it isn't accompanied by the lovely rain smell that I adore so much because it's just too darn cold out. Rick took his suitcase to work with him, because they may close down the Red River bridge if it ices over, and he'll be stuck at the casino hotel. Poor baby.

In more jubilant news, I made my first Etsy sales today. Yippeeee!!! I ain't quittin' my day job yet, of course, but if I could supplement the income this way, I wouldn't be forced to go get a third job to overcome the deficit left behind by his long period of unemployment. I would so much rather make money doing something I *love* doing, like making these cards, than by flipping burgers down at the convenience store on the interstate (which I *will* do if I need to -- nothing wrong with honest employment).

For sale at Etsy

Click here to buy it, or e-mail me at gradualdazzle-at-google's mail program-dot-com with custom or personalized ideas. There are 58 different cards in my shop to choose from!!

Cards! Cards for sale!

Y'all head on over to my Etsy storefront and buy my cards!

Handmade cards

I'm going to give Etsy a try, selling handmade cards and watercolor items. As soon as my storefront is set up, I'll toss out a link. The above is a sample of what you'll find there.

My portrait is done!!

Checked DSFDF today and guess what? My unknown friend is now a known one! The lady I painted is Vicki Brevell and she's from central Texas. And she painted ME! How fun is that? This was a great project. I'm glad I decided to do it, even if I'm not very good at portraiture.

Christmas art projects

Tomorrow's the last day of school before the holidays. My art students have been doggedly working on their final project of the semester, a Huichol-style yarn painting with a Christmas or wintertime theme. Here's one of my favorites:


I am tickled at some of their results; they worked hard and made their projects look really good. I made some patterns available to them, but some (like this boy) wanted to design their own -- with terrific results. Thanks again to RedFish for donating the yarn. The kids have put it to wonderfully artistic use so far.

Okay, I'm done

My ninth attempt. Portraits are definitely NOT my specialty, but this exercise has taught me a great deal and I don't regret signing up for it. I feel horribly inadequate next to the amazing and beautiful portraits already showing up over at DSFDF, but I've never really been afraid of making a fool of myself, so I sent mine in anyway.

Previous practice attempts...

Other stuff

This has been a pretty heavy "art" week for me, personally... not only have I been in overdrive trying to come up with a portrait of this woman that doesn't suck, I've also been producing Christmas cards for my co-workers to go along with the little gifts I got for them. The one above was done using torn paper that I had painted in the colors I wanted. It's only about 3.5" x 5" or so, pretty small stuff. Makes a nice little card size though. I just make them like postcards and write on the back rather than try to do a folded card.

I got this totally awesome Christmas card in the mail from MaggieKatzen today; I need to scan it and show y'all just how cute it is. It's a watercolor painting of a kittycat's paws grabbing an ornament ball, done in a primitive style. Totally perfect and totally appropriate. The kittycat is even a mackerel tabby, a coat pattern which both MaggieKatzen and I are both inordinately fond of.

More attempts...

A quick watercolor sketch...


Then a colored pencil sketch...


And a plain old pencil sketch...

Wacky...


And REALLY wacky.

This poor woman's face has been through the wringer with me! Here's all nine of them, arranged like The Brady Bunch:

Second try...

I'm just not really able to get a solid likeness. I may try something completely nonobjective tomorrow. LOL

First draft

I'm participating in a holiday portrait project over at Different Strokes from Different Folks blog. This is my first attempt at this nice lady's portrait. I have no idea who she is; they distributed everyone's photo randomly and we're just going to see what we come up with. I'm not a portrait kind of person, so it's not lovely, but it's a start. I'll give it another go today and see if I can improve it before I turn in a final final.

Gorgeous stuff

Did you know that there are Tiffany stained-glass windows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC?

This one's called "View of Oyster Bay" and he did it back in 1908. It's huge and it is absolutely lovely.

And on my way up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I walked through Central Park. The fall foliage is just amazing, and even on a rainy Saturday morning, that place is a treasure.