An interesting thing happened when I was checking out a venue today. Let me back track. A month ago, I saw a flyer about a music and art venue called Gasa Gasa opening up a few blocks from my house. The flyer looked cool, gritty and funky.
Today, I stopped by in the middle of the afternoon. It looked closed, but I tried the door. They were closed, but the owner was waiting for someone.
I think, “waiting for me?”
He thought he was waiting for someone else. Ha! Retrograde working in my favor. (Mercury retro is known to be a time of ‘fated’ events.)
I loved the place. He said he liked my art. I left my card.
The weather is heating up here. It gets really muggy and then the thunder showers start. I love the south unreasonably.
I have some pictures to share today.
Chandelier
I bought this chandelier at an estate sale in the Marigny. The man who died was an old artist. Maggie showed me the chandelier. I told her I was busy and needed to look quickly because there were so many people there buying his treasures. She insisted I come with her and she showed me this chandelier for $25.
I took the bead strings off and soaked them in vinegar for 48 hours, and then in vinegar and dish soap. 60 years of grime floated off. I painted the chandelier with two coats of gold craft paint that I had sitting around. On the underside of the horizontal parts when you look up from underneath, I added brown glitter flakes and gold glitter.
Close up of Chandelier
I wrapped the candles in washi tape. They came out super nice. You can’t even tell it is washi tape. It cost me $75 to have it installed above my desk. As an added bonus that I didn’t expect, all of those lightbulbs made it much brighter in here.
Maggie and Raffi’s dresser for art storage.
I bought this dresser at the estate sale, too. It is IKEA and it cost $20. I had some cans of paint from other projects that I wanted to use up. I also wanted the dresser mainly black to go with my mainly black and white studio. The black part is gloss enamel. I love the shine and resilience of enamel.
Maggie’s bees
The blue and yellow parts are latex paint. I wanted Maggie’s bees to adhere. She drew the bees with Montana paint pens. The pens are filled with acrylic paint, but are easy to control, like a pen.
Crows on a Wire
I wanted to see what would happen if I painted a wild background with many colors and shapes as the base of my painting.
#2
How much do I cover up of the original painting? I love all the colors, but it is so busy.
#3
The little houses got larger. The crows are dressing up. The tree is turning into a magnolia tree.
In the garden is finished. I might frame this, but I also like the purple edge. The girl has her hands full. She is balancing her friend on her head. Girls are creative and strong that way. She doesn’t mind getting her hair a little messed up.
Cathy and Dennis
Cathy and Dennis sent me this picture from their home in California. It makes me so happy to see them with the painting. (The nasty voice in my head is fearful of buyer’s remorse.) They said that Heidi from Parcels and Post wrapped it so well, it could have traveled around the world.
Cathy wrote…
I call the painting WAITING FORMOSES.
I love what you said about it in your blog when you were painting her. As I remember you were trying to show her in an unhappy place as a slave who had a hard life picking cotton on a plantation, but with the hope of a brighter future for the baby she is holding. The darker side of the painting clearly says this to me and all the brightness is on the right side as the hoped for future. It fit so perfectly for me as I had read and talked with my 3rd graders over the years of Harriet Tubman that many slaves knew and called Moses for secrecy. They called her Moses because she made numerous trips south to lead her people north to freedom. Plantation owners placed a bounty for her dead or alive.
Thank you, Cathy for liking and buying Moses.
Maggie O’Keefe
Maggie’s teacher at the JCC taught the kids so much about art and artists this year.
Apparently, 4 year olds are little sponges.
And the JCC teachers are awesome.
Maggie Chagall
Maggie said, “I was dreaming that the unicorn and me were looking for a lost toy.
The unicorn was dreaming about going to the grocery.”
Now, what’s new with me… and then I will let you go.
warm colors
Acrylic paint dropped on canvas with a lot of water.
warm colors with salt
Added Kosher salt. Let dry completely. Brushed off salt into the sink.
warm colors with cool blue
Painted intuitively, whimsically, with abandon. I used brushes, my fingers, more water and a little bit of ink.
I don’t know the end version of this painting. I am hoping a crow turns up… a whimsical crow… with a friend.
I have been busy painting a dresser and a chandelier. I will show you next week. They are both going in my studio, so I am just having fun with them.
Wishing you all a fabulous summer,
filled with good luck, happy celebrations, and love.
I am inspired today by a poem I found on-line. I decided to name my most recent painting after one of the lines. The poem is, “Be Strong. Be Confident. Be You.”~ Copyright: Tia Sparkles Singh, 2011. You can read ithere. The line I borrowed is, “Stronger than you know.”
She was originally called, “Born Hip”.She is, maybe, a third of the way finished here. It is a large canvas. 24 x 36Stronger Than You Know
I don’t think I used any cool painting techniques that I haven’t written about before. This is the first time I painted a border on the canvas. I knew what I was painting when my hands touched the canvas, but not before. She wanted to wear all red, and not have any red elsewhere on the painting.
The background was red inside the border in the beginning, then I added white with a roller, then the teal with a brush.
I used Caran D’Ache water-soluble crayons for fun and for the crayony look. To make the crayons permanent, I used Golden spray varnish when I was completely done.
“Strength” was the only title I could hear.
The next painting is, “In The Garden”.
In The Garden
I am showing part of the easel so you can tell she is in progress. I was going to paint her with an “Oh my!” mouth, but Maggie said she is just giving her friend a ride on her head because her hands are full. I liked that better. I love chickens.
Raffi is beginning his 3-year-old painting.
His favorite color is blue. His next favorite is orange. His third favorite color is blue and orange.
My newest Gator Agent. This photo makes me laugh, because when she was teaching kindergarten, she dressed like this one day (without the mustache) and her students didn’t recognize her. I am thinking she is still incognito.
TheKing Gator originalhas sold. I think he sold to his soul mate.
King Gator Says, “Wager it All!”
There are two ways of spreading light. To be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it. – Edith Wharton.
With loving abundance and sparkly light (reflected or not),
My sister said it best in her recent facebook post: “Never thought this day would actually come. What started as an ambulance 2+ years ago has finally embarked on its year-long journey through north and central America.”
We finally left Key West on Thursday April 25. It was completely anticlimactic. Hani left for the mechanic early in the morning and I stayed back and walked aimlessly around a depressingly empty apartment. I followed up a few hours later with all the animals in tow, after I couldn’t bear to sit (on the floor) there anymore. We waited at the mechanic for a few more hours for them to fix (the last?) thing, AND THEN we were finally off. By that point, my tears had dried (I’m such a sap) and we were both antsy to get moving. But not without a few stops on our way out of the Keys…
This blog has been on my mind and in my heart, but not on-line. Other things have trumped art this last month…
a weekend with a long lost childhood friend who has been to New Orleans every year for 20 years and had never been out of the French Quarter…
our family reunion in New Orleans and atJazz Fest,
Cousins at Jazz Fest
Lafayette and the Crawfish Festival in Breaux Bridge,
My sister and me at the Crawfish Festival.
swamp tour at Lake Martin…
Cajun Swamp Tours
a great performance from Charmaine Neville at Snug Harbor (she is there for two shows every Monday night and tickets are only $15 …
Maggie’s ballet recital…
Maggie waiting for her performance.
and ending with a weekend getaway in Grand Isle.
Mimi in Grand Isle
Grand Isle brings me to this weeks blog. While in Grand Isle, we met some friends of friends that are takinga year off for an adventure.
They can tell you better than I can, so I am re-blogging their blog. I think it is important to tell you about Hani and Sarah right away because you can catch the beginning of their trip.
Hani and Sarah are attorneys, married, and driving a vehicle that Hani built out of an ambulance, a truck and a plane.
Thanks to my daughter, Katy, Shotgun Angel is framed in the wood that I want for her. I cut one side too short and we replaced it with another piece of screen door. I thought I had wrecked the frame, but no.
I am still looking for 2 skeleton keys to hang from the door handle.
Shotgun Angel framed
I think I might lighten the sky a little in the darker parts… sitting with that idea for a while.
In the last 2 weeks, 2 women told me that they wanted to paint, but don’t. I would like to tell anyone that wants to paint:
Show up.
Start anywhere.
Keep painting.
I have taken classes on and off through the years. I got serious about painting when I took a class from Shiloh Sophia of the Cosmic Cowgirls. She empowers women and teaches a spiritual side of painting.
I learned how to draw proportional bodies from Jane Davenport.
A drawing class at the local junior college helps teach you how to see objects by their lines and curves. Wherever you see your next place to grow, go there.
For inspiration, I take a class called Lifebook from Tam Laporte. It is only $99 a year and you get weekly on-line tutorials from different artists.
Viral in the sense that I had more hits in one day than any other day in the history of Gator Girl on Etsy. It is all thanks to Brice and Zach at Hansen’s Sno-Bliz.
I was getting all kinds of ETSY sale notifications for my painting of a Hansen’s Snoball. I checked on Hansen’s Facebook Pageand saw that they posted my painting with a link to My Etsy Shop. The stats: 232 views and 6 prints sold in one day. It was super fun.
Hansen’s Sno-Bliz on ETSY
Cathy and Dennis Schlais picked up “Waiting for Moses”, formerly known as “Making Amends”. Cathy always loved Harriet Tubman who was called Moses. This painting reminded her of waiting for Moses. I am happy she has a loving home. Thank you Cathy and Dennis.
I bought some paints fromdreamingcolor.com. They are calledSilks, acrylic glaze. They have mica in the paint for shimmer and shine. They are not very shiny, just right. I bought them for mermaid tails and alligator skin. I painted Silks on the mermaid tail so her tail would be shinier than the water.
Mermaid FinishedMermaid Almost Done
It seems hard to tell the difference here. Trust me, there is more shine and depth in the one on the left.
I also tried to make her skin look unblemished like porcelain. I used a mixture of Golden Titan Buff, Golden Light Umber, and Liquitex Deep Portrait Pink for the last coat. I think it looks best to paint the pink on the cheeks, the darkness by the eyes, etc… before the last coat. It is kind of like the blush under the skin instead of sitting right on top.
My youngest daughter, Katy, is here from Azusa, California. She is helping me frame. I think I have it down now. I still don’t love it. I don’t hate it. It is just more like work than painting. I need frames, so there you go.
We had a lovely Easter with lots of family and lots of eating out. We are probably all a little spoiled. Raffi won’t get seafood every day now. I am happy to be back in my studio. I am happy to start another painting.
We got a verbal thumbs up from the IRS for non-profit status of NOLA Groundswell! Two years of proposing and waiting. We will have our paperwork within a month and can start writing grants for Samuel Square Park. For some reason, my grant thoughts float towards Pepsi.
On a whim, I grabbed Gator Girl off of my wall and painted, repainted and painted. Now I do think there is a limit of how much paint a girl can wear. I pushed that limit.
Gator Girl
I am happy with her sexy new look and her new hair style. I have always loved the painting except her expression. I used Effy Wild’s beautiful lips as an inspiration. (Thanks, Effy.) I still have a little skin tone to work out… maybe. Maybe I am happy. I hope she is still your favorite painting, Stacy.
I might also be finished with the Mermaid. I struggled with having the tail be a little camouflaged in the water or popping. I decided her tail should blend in. The blending is probably why we rarely see Mermaids.
Mermaid
Maggie thinks she needs a shell painted over her breast, but loves her tiara. I like to talk with Maggie, because we can discuss what Mermaids really wear.
I painted all day, every day this week because next week is the beginning of company coming to New Orleans. House guests will taper off sometime in June. It will be a blast.
And if you are worried that we are full up, just let that thought go. There is always room for you.
I feel so happy to be back in the land of the living. A virus had me in its terrible jaws.
Let me begin with the miracles.
#1 The mission of NOLA Fusion is to help out small businesses in New Orleans by sharing information. Gator Girl Art is their featured business for March! The miracle part is that I sent them my information and the VERY next day… featured.
#2 Three of my paintings are hanging at UrbanRoots…visibly hanging, visible to the public.
#3 Last month, I wrote that it would be nice if someone came to my house and bought a painting. I was feeling a little frustrated at the time because I didn’t know where I wanted to sell my paintings or how to make it happen. Yesterday, a couple driving from California to Florida, stopped by my house and bought a painting. Seriously.
The couple bought Making Amends.
I think letting go of makingit all happen versus letting it happen is the key. I think when you hold too tightly to the outcome of anything, you impede the outcome.
I have a more complete painting of Dream Little Chief.
Dream Little Chief
I started a new painting. Step One.
The Beginning
I am pretty excited about the first two days of this week and extremely grateful for money to keep my dream afloat.
Gator Girl Art 