Hi all y’all!

I have completed twenty paintings for the Children’s Hospital!

The process of these ten paintings (11-20) have been a balance between what I want to paint and what I think the committee will like. I felt pretty sure of myself while painting the first 10. Then, some of the paintings were returned. That had never happened to me before. Originally, I was asked to paint diverse people and happy paintings. When the paintings were returned, I was asked to change the skin color on all of the children that I painted to rainbow colors. I tried to do this to make everyone happy. I changed some of the paintings, but it wasn’t feeling like my art.

I am feeling a little insecure and that makes it harder to paint. For the last 10, I need to paint what I want within the new parameters and not stress about it. So far, I painted a shotgun house and am working on a rainbow colored tween. I started to miss painting faces so much.

Here are 8 of the next ten. I accidentally erased Einstein Alpaca and The Bee. I especially liked the alpaca.

The manatee is my favorite!

Warmest Regards,

Gator Girl

Hi all y’all!

Mardi Gras has come and gone (sigh). I signed up to dance with the Pussyfooters at the House of Blues for Friday. I feel pretty lucky.

GV_NOLA115_StPatricksDay_WG-1000x500 — xx

Saturday is the St. Patrick’s parade and the St. Joseph’s parade. The parades are very different from each other. The St. Patrick’s parade is in the Irish Channel in the afternoon. Friends who live near the parade route will open their house before and after the parade to offer drinks, snacks, and a bathroom. The floats throw vegetables along with the beads and toys.

The St. Joseph’s parade is in the evening in the French Quarter. My sweet darlin’ is in the Italian American Marching Club. I don’t have a photo to show you, because last time I saw the parade all the Italian men in tuxedos looked the same. I couldn’t find him.

Super Sunday is when the Mardi Gras Indians parade. This is one of those amazing things that is truly New Orleans.

So there you go. A quiet weekend after Mardi Gras.

In my art world… the original Joan of Arc was purchased for the new hospital. I am so excited to have her in a public place.

My friend just bought the original Garden Fairy aka City Park Fairy.

I am thinking that They didn’t know they were seeds is a learning painting. Learning how I feel about writing on the painting. I have liked words occasionally… in script along the side of the image, bananagrams, Pairs in Pears, a little piece of ripped paper with handwriting…

I made two more attempts to like the painting and call it done.

I printed on organza. The words shifted slightly.

I decided that I do like my handwriting, but I didn’t like the square shape. To be continued…

Raffi had an art show at his pre-school. His teacher is fabulous. When he painted part of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, he laid on his back under a table.