Today is party day! 6 pm at my house. I hope to see all y’all. I am cooking for company today, so this will be short and sweet.
I painted every spare minute to get this finished. It is a gift for Miss Ashley of Hansen’s Sno Bliz. I framed it in her old, old screen door. I decided to give it back to her when I saw the look in her eyes when she asked what I was going to do with the door. She kind of looked like she was losing an old friend. I hope she likes it.
Snoball
There is often a line at Hansen’s because it is truly the best. I put Miss Ashley in the picture with butterfly wings because she is like a good fairy giving so many people enjoyment. The experience is not just the snoballs but also the other people waiting in line, the staff, and the timelessness of the shop. When my 80-something mother-in-law goes to get a snowball, it is the same place she went as a child.
You know, humidity gets a bad rap. I think it is kinder than scorching hot, dry heat. The air sort of envelopes you in a warm blanket. If you are not loving the heat and humidity in New Orleans in August, you can visit St. Mary’s, Tasmania, Australia. The high is 55 degrees today. If that is not an option, go on-line for a virtual visit.
I was reading the blog of Gone Rustic and kept thinking of people I wanted to share Rita’s art with. My sister and my California art friends, Mary Helen and Julie would love her art quilts and her dye and stitch projects. She also has a drawing section with one of my favorite things, Babushkas. Another, very cool thing is her shop is in Tasmania, Australia. Check it out!
Needle Felting Sample by Rita Summers
This is one small sample for what she shares with you on her blog.
Next up is, Stephan Wanger of Galeria Alegria. I have a great respect for Stephan’s philosophy and art. He uses Mardi Gras Beads that would have ended up in a landfill and makes the most beautiful art with them. He cuts every bead apart from the strand, glues the beads onto wood, then frames the finished piece. His art is truly amazing.
I don’t know when he finds the time, but Stephan also donates his time and supplies to local schools. He personally works with groups of children all day, and he leaves the finished art with the school.
Just check it out!
Can you believe this street car scene is made from individual beads? If you are in or around New Orleans, you can see original Mardi Gras bead art at 4431 Banks Street in Mid City. It will blow your mind.
It is almost August, if you can believe it. Exactly two weeks until our Gator Girl Art and Friends of Samuel Square Party. If you are in or around New Orleans, I hope you come by.
Angela and I sent our application in for a huge grant to improve Samuel Square. I have a good feeling about it. It is for $75,000 and their decision is between two parks. It might be good if you picture us at the ribbon cutting of the new playground.
Today, I am going to share the finished Making Amends. I chose the name because those were the words that refused to be covered.
Making Amends Completed
I oiled and varnished the frame. I like the rich brown color. The wood is the top half of a door. The top hinge is still on the right. I couldn’t decide why the painting wasn’t finished for a while. Then I put the sun further back and voilà.
Close up of her face.
I feel like I know her.
Close up of her baby.
I think he is going to do something special for the world.
I am getting some giclee’s made, framing a print, making a menu. It is exciting to have a party. My Aunt Grace is coming with three of her childhood girlfriends, so I already know it will be fun.
You are invited to our house. So please mark your calendar. It will be a perfect night for some good food and good friends.
The Front of the Invitation
You will see what is new at Gator Girl Art.
10% of all sales go to NOLA Groundswell to renew parks and green spaces in New Orleans.
Currently, we are raising money and awareness for Samuel Square Park.
Expect to:
eat great food,
have sparkling conversations,
drink a variety of beverages,
bring your kids.
2317 General Pershing Street
August 11, 6:00 pm
My youngest daughter, Katy, will be here from California. Antonia will be visiting from Austria. This seems like the perfect time to have a party.
Update on NOLA Groundswell. We met with some people from All State on Friday at Samuel Square Park. This is a picture of me picking up the application from. I have a good feeling about our chances.
That’s me talking about our grant possibility.This is Angela talking with the people from NORD and All State.
The meeting was scheduled at the exact time a huge rain storm was coming through New Orleans from the Northshore. I think that is why many of the people coming to support us didn’t come.
Why I think people decided not to meet us at the park Friday.
One of the really great things about New Orleans is that people use their initiative to make things better for everyone. When Angela and I decided to improve the park we found several organizations that are interested in working with us. This is all very exciting.
I hope to see y’all on August 11th. I am testing out some mini pecan tarts today.
Rain is dripping off the tin roof outside my window. I love that. I heard recently that if you say out loud something you love about someone, something, or some situation thoughout the day, your life will change dramatically for the better. It makes sense to me. Which brings to mind that I love all y’all reading my blog. It warms my heart.
I wish I could share my completed process of my painting, but I think I am 60% done.
Beginning Intention
The words say: making amends for the brutality of the human race, sending love, praying for a brighter future for all people. She is painted on a thin canvas nailed to the top half of a door with square nails repurposed from old shutters.
The woman is young, holding her baby in front of the house she lives in. Her baby is wrapped like a cocoon. She is either working for no or little money. Her hope is for her baby’s future. This woman is of African decent living in America. The painting is for all people in this situation in all the world.
60ish Percent Complete
The woman and the story that the painting is telling unfolded for me. I feel like if I went back in time, and ran into this woman, I would know her. The painting is a little unusual, because it is divided completely in half, with the young mother standing on the line. I painted the woman and waited for what was going to be in her arms. The baby showed up in a cocoon wrap.
I didn’t know what was going to be in the upper right corner and Miss Maggie said that sunflowers need sun. I painted the hot, African, or maybe Louisiana sun. The dots represent souls. Maybe they are supporting her journey, maybe they are waiting to be born, maybe both.
Mags wasn’t happy with the darkness of the cotton field and repeatedly suggested pink flowers and butterflies to lighten it up. I stopped and explained that not to long ago, as crazy as it may seem, the people with darker skin, right here in America had to work for free for the people with lighter skin. My painting is telling that story. She said, “Oh, just like the Pharaoh!” then she broke into a song… let my people go… no, no, no. She got it.
Next week, I will post the completed piece.
One of the interesting things that happened while painting…the words making amends could not be covered with 10 coats of all colors of paint. Maybe this is the name of the painting?
For the exciting update on our park project, please visit nolagroundswell.org.
We have a Facebook page called, Friends of Samuel Square Park. Please “like” it.
Summer is sure heating up. Record highs in so many places. I am on a road trip to Memphis. It is an extremely cool town, but I don’t have a travel blog, so I am sharing Maggie’s Blue Dog Art Camp adventure.
Maggie had an opportunity to go to a super well-staffed art camp put on by the Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts. Her class had about seven 3-4 year olds. She had so much fun and learned about different media and techniques.
Maggie coloring an alligator.
I sat in the class one day to see how they ran things, secretly hoping George Rodrigue would pop in.
I like the grittiness of city life. Kids don’t get too soft or entitled when they only have 8 feet until the sidewalk.
NOLA Groundswell, our non-profit set up to rebuild the parks and green spaces in New Orleans, received an email from the New Orleans Recreational District last week. Samuel Square Park might be chosen for a big grant! I envision a refreshing water area where the kids can play, accessibility for everyone, cool climbing structures, drinking fountains… Dream big if you are going to dream. Why not?
Last, but not least, we are combining a Gator Girl Art Open House with a Nola Groundswell Party in early August. Antonia, a guest from Austria, is a video blogger. She is going to capture the evening on video. Sometimes dreams are bigger than I even dreamed possible.
Until next week,
Take care and stay cool. If you can’t’ stay cool, drink some water.
It is heating up fast here in Louisiana. I think it is going to be a hot summer. I was thinking y’all probably read my blog on your email and don’t always go to my website. Today, I am bringing a bit of my website to you. You can find this information on a tab called “Artists I Adore“. I will be adding people as I go.
I recommend that you check out Tamara Laporte of Willowing Arts. She is a talented,open-hearted woman offering a 12 month on-line class with weekly lessons including 12 visiting teachers. I am taking this class. It is called Life Book. It is an art journaling class.
Of course, I like and relate to some lessons more than others, but I have learned something in each lesson. I look forward to Mondays when the new lesson is on-line. Because I am tight with the Cosmic Cowgirls, I have not taken advantage of the Willowing on-line community, but if you are looking for a tribe, Tamara has a good one you can join.
You can use MOONBEAM77 to receive a 10% discount on your first order.
Right now Tamara is offering a mini face class for summer.
If you are looking for a photographer in the New Orleans area, look no further! Dorka of Dorka Photography is wonderful. I love her as a person and as an artistic and knowledgeable photographer.
It is another gorgeous day here in New Orleans. I am having one of my favorite kind of days where I can have time to just ponder, listen and create. I think it is in my goat-nature to plan and execute. I am working on being flexible… loosely woven plans. This is really anti-goat mentality, but worth working on.
For the two or three weeks, I have been painting a picture of Frida Kahlo. She is an inspiration in her fearless portrayal of her pain. She is so obviously someone who wouldn’t have been the person she was without the pain of the polio, the bus accident and Diego. Diego hurt Frida terribly, but he also validated her as an artist. I could write about Frida all day, but there are many books that do a better job. So here is my process.
Before this roughed out painting, I wrote “July 1907 – July 1954 Frida Kahlo” on the canvas, because I wanted to make this a tribute and to feel closer to her. I just happened to have a thin canvas that fit inside the frame.
Frida Picture #2
This picture basically demonstrates that it doesn’t really matter how the painting starts out. Visualizing where the painting wants to go, staying connected, opening your heart, having fun with the paint and the colors is what happens throughout the painting, but really clear here.
Frida Finished
This painting is rich with symbols. Starting on the left is a picture reproduced from Frida’s journal. I love it, because she is a skeleton in the picture. Under her journal page are loteria cards of a skeleton and a rose. Below that it says, “mi amor” in my best Frida handwriting from studying her journal. Printed on canvas is a picture of Frida and Diego.
On all 4 corners are tiles that my sister made, just because they look Mexican. Up at the top, you can barely see a photo of Frida in the hospital and a photo of her blue house. On the right side of the painting following her clockwise from the house that she loved are the words, “Painting Saved My Life”. On this side there pictures that you can slightly see of Frida with her monkey and her parrot. Here, there is a blue butterfly symbolizing her freedom.
On the bottom is the word, “FLY”. I don’t believe Frida would want to Rest In Peace. I nailed 3 milagros under the word FLY that I bought at the mission in Carmel, California. One is her leg that caused her so much trouble, starting with polio when she was a small child and ending with amputation shortly before her death, a bird and a heart. Her initials are covered in gold glitter and paint to symbolize the gold that covered her after the bus accident.
Finally, the center of the painting. Hovering above the daisies is an orange and red butterfly symbolizing pain and eventual death that shaped Frida’s life.
I almost hate to be done. Being done with this painting is like being finished with a good book.
To all of you out there, learning and growing from your pain. It’s not in vain. Look to Frida for your strength.
We are mid-way in the year of the dragon, the year of possibilities. It is kind of overwhelming in an exciting kind of way, don’t you think?
Today, I decided to share the finished Raven Wisdom and the young woman with revolving names. I call her Hopeful Anticipation, but I will explain that later.
Raven Wisdom
I delivered Raven to California last week. I don’t have a picture of him framed. The frame was really cool. I used dark green reclaimed wood from the Green Project. The best part of the frame was a shelf along the bottom to put shiny trinkets, gems and crystals that Raven might like. There are hinge holes on the right-side bottom of the frame where I hung a string of burlap with dangling wing and heart milagras.
Hopeful Anticipation
I can see my painting becoming more urban. I like it. I offered a contest to name this painting. I liked many ideas. I decided to leave the words off of the original, because I like the painting this way, too. I didn’t want to limit her. Limitless Possibilities? See, her name keeps evolving.
My idea is to send the photo to the print shop for prints and giclees and add different words to the copies. It will make each copy an original. I will post later what that looks like. I will send a print to those people who sent me words that I use. It’s not too late for you!
I am totally engrossed with my new painting of Freida Kahlo as a skeleton. I don’t know if I will make prints, because the frame is totally part of the painting. I will post the process of Freida next week.
I am writing to let you know a few things about myself. I LOVE everything to do with food. When I was in kindergarten the teacher asked us to share what we loved. I went first, and said, “spaghetti”. The girl who went next said, “my mom”. I thought, “damn, I should have said that.” Apparently, my five-year old self was my true self. I love shopping for food, preparing it and most of all eating it. So much so, it is a compulsion. The only times I forget entirely about food is when I am painting. I love to mix colors and paint a picture until I am happy with it. When I start to love the process and the desired form begins to appear, the endorphins really kick in.
I HATE people lying to me. I hate war. I hate stinky things and when guitar players play the same pattern over and over in a really high pitch.
I DESIRE a peaceful existence. I want to paint every day. I want the willingness to turn all of myself over to God. I want a happy family and to travel.
I want to LET GO of entitlement, selfishness, and anger.
BEAUTY brings aliveness, creativity, appreciation of art and nature, appreciation of my family and friends.
The feeling of DESPAIR comes from the hearing about abused children, poor treatment of people with mental illness, despair in other people, war, shopping for clothes.
I LIKE a party. Sitting around a fire pit. Date night if it turns out well.
I WANT recognition of my art.
I am WILLING to let go of my inner critical voice, or at least mute it.
Gator Girl Art 