Happy Super Bowl Sunday! We have the honor of hosting the game here in New Orleans. It is still pre-game and everyone is happy.
I completed Justice.
Justice
I don’t know how the idea for a painting comes to me. It must be a muse. I just have a flash of an idea and I need to get it on canvas. I do not know any two women who look like these women. For the life of me, I could not get the dark-haired woman on the right to smile. Maybe she is a bit upset with our government.
I am also upset with our government. I choose to remain hopeful. I believe in the wise words of Theodore Parker, “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
Now the fun part.
If you and your partner look like these women, send a photo to me, nancy@gatorgirlart.com and I will send you a print. I really hope to see a photo or 10.
The only thing that I put on my board last year that didn’t materialize is NOLA Groundswell. We had some interest. We almost received a grant, but nothing concrete yet. I sent a letter off to the Internal Revenue Service yesterday asking for approval of our non-profit status. It has been over a year since our request, including a $400 fee for the government to consider our request.
Magnificent Maggie helped me. It is the same cardboard. New duct tape. New bristol paper.
The pink and orange glitter are the Pussyfooter colors.
2013 Vision BoardMy word for the year.
Physically visible in my fishnets and feathers on St. Charles. Gator Girl Art visible in a gallery in the French Quarter. I will keep you posted on whatever else decides to be visible.
The year of the snake.
I swear, this snake just turned up exactly like this when I used a brayer with green paint over dried white paint and glitter. I added the eyes and nostrils. I wish you could see the scales.
In one of my We’Moon calendars, I cut out a piece about snake medicine.
Snake medicine is with us.
We can pretend our skin is not shedding,
we can attempt to remain underground, curled up and quaking,
we can refuse to digest our life and suffer indigestion.
Or we can embrace the magic of our transmutation–
Chew on our life, swallow and savor it,
Slither out of our skin and leap out of ruts with passion,
Swirl into new experiences and dance,
Then feel the sun on our skin and dream.
–Gloria Rohlfs 2011
GGA in a gallery.
OK. I said it. Words are powerful.
AffirmationsMy favorite.
Maggie wrote “izmot”. She might have meant “tomzi” I asked her what it meant and she said, “Good Luck, happy celebrations, and love.” I couldn’t have said it any better. Isn’t that what everyone wants?
Happy New Year to y’all.
With abundant love, an open heart, and shedding skin,
I feel like I am finally back after the holidays and the flu. It might seem like a crazy thing to say, but being ill and sleeping 12 hours a day, does give a person time to reflect.
My word for 2013 is VISIBILITY. This word by itself might have thrown me back in bed for a few days. I plan on making my art visible to the public. I am thinking restaurants and a gallery. On the first of January, I was totally freaked out by this word until I realized 2013 is a whole year. I am currently making myself visible in my fish nets and corset. Pussyfooters is turning out to be a fun way to give back to the community. We make events sparkly and pink.
Orpheus 13th Night
I found out at this event that the Pussyfooter women are totally nice. After this picture Miss Camille and Miss Becky tightened my corset until I looked like Miss Scarlet (in my mind). I was grateful. I had no idea you weren’t suppose to breathe.
I am nearly finished with Shotgun Angel.
The first thing I did was spray the canvas with Ink Spray Dylusions London Blue. If you want to try this, it gives a nice continuity to the painting, but be forewarned, the blue bleeds through as many layers of paint that you put on. At some point you might want to stop the bleed by painting some parts in clear gesso. Otherwise, your yellow house will keep turning green.
Next, I dropped paint on the background, straight from the bottle: white, yellow and purple. Then I sprayed alcohol on the paint drops and walked away.
I put layers of paint, drops of paint, sprayed more alcohol until I liked the background.
I drew the wings on the painting with white chalk. Then I laid the cellophane on top of the chalk outline. I drew the wings on the cellophane with a black sharpie a little bit bigger than what I wanted.
I painted her wings by spraying a mixture of glue, Pearl Ex violet powder, and alcohol on the underside for sparkle. I learned this from Bonnie Rose Bryan on Lifebook 2012. On the front of the wings, I painted featherish stuff with Golden Acrylic Titanium White. As an added bonus, the cellophane glows in the dark. Cellophane adds just the right amount of transparency for wings and lays totally flat.
I cut the wings out mostly inside the black lines. They are adhered with Golden Gel Medium.
When I look at the photo of my painting, I don’t like her dress outlined in white.
I do love how the stoops turned out.
I had to resist adding tiny details like birds and cats.
I am planning to frame this in old wood from an old shotgun house.
If there is anything that I left out, that you would like to know… just ask.
Shotgun Angel
I was listening to Billie Holliday Pandora when I painted this. The angel must have been listening, too.
I have my next painting in mind. It is a political statement.
Thanks for checking out my blog. It makes me feel grounded and happy to connect with you.
On a beautiful winter day and the longest night of the year, Happy Winter Solstice.
I am painting my favorite painting. It has all the elements that I love. It is definitely New Orleans and full of magic and attitude.
Shotgun Angel in progress
It is a little know fact that Shotgun houses have their own angel. When she appeared on my canvas, I immediately fell in love. She is going to have cool cellophane wings. The nice people at Rouse’s Market gave me a cellophane sleeve without buying the flowers.
Here is Alligator Bliss in progress.
Alligator Bliss in progress
The glitter paper on his leg shows through the glass, but you can’t tell what it is with the glass on top.
This is my finished Alligator Bliss. I tried building up the background with molding paste. It made the swamp grass look pretty cool. I wanted parts of the painting raised to balance the safety glass I used for scales. That is also why I put tile along the bottom.
Alligator Bliss
Do you notice the yellow dotted paper on the alligator stomach? It is the same piece of paper I used on the curly hair of women. I am on the look out for another piece of bubble paper, now that I am hooked on its usefulness.
I made this little Christmas decoration for my daughter and her girlfriend. It is their dachshund with antlers and one of their rats. Cami, the dog, looks like a deer in headlights. The rat is quizzical. I painted it on a left-over piece of our dining room table.
Cami and rat
Wishing you all the blessings of the season. Time for this gator girl to look over the past years events and make plans for 2013. Time sure does fly.
I have been living my alternate dream lately. I have been spending a lot of time with my grand babies. They are growing up so fast, I have to slow everything down and observe the wonder of it all.
For a while I had trouble switching gears from creating art to child care. Then an epiphany. When my girls were growing up, I had to work. I wanted to stay home. Now I want to work, but my grandkids need me. I just needed to switch gears in my mind and realize my timing is off. All in good time. (I am becoming quiet fond of old-timey sayings lately.)
2013 is around the corner. My word for the coming year is visibility. This is the year, I put my art out into the world. Fly Be Free Art. I am thinking restaurants, galleries…
My Gator Agents will be an integral part of the plan.
Gator Agent Anne-Claire
Gator Agent KatyGator Agent JoeGator Mascot Buddy
I have 3 main agents. (One is remaining incognito at this time.) I have an up and coming star-agent as one of my east coast representatives. So far I have two agents based in Los Angeles and two agents in Philadelphia. I am not sure what kind of role Buddy will play at this time. That is why he is pictured here as a mascot.
Really, the sky is the limit at Gator Girl Art, LLC. If you would like to become an agent for Gator Girl Art, please email me at nancy@gatorgirlart.com or fbfgator@gmail.com. Give me a brief description of what you plan to offer. All emails will be read and replied to.
I am totally happy and relieved today to have completed my first parade as a Pussyfooter. I have an idea now what Mardi Gras will be like. The Krewe of Jingle Parade was 2 and a half miles and family friendly. The Krewe of Muses Parade will be 13 miles and big crowds. I’m thinking insoles.
Waiting for NenaMy first parade.
After the parade.
I woke up one morning last week thinking, “I wonder if anyone just downloads my paintings?”. On the blog, I usually post works in progress. I sometimes put low resolution copies on-line. But sometimes I put high-resolution copies on-line. I know some of y’all are doing the same thing or thinking of doing the same thing with your art. I don’t like to think so, but maybe all art lovers aren’t ethical.
I contacted my could-be-daughter-in-law and she sent me this link, http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/watermark-images-photoshop/. I downloaded a free 30 day trial of Photoshop CS6. (Make sure you close all windows before you start the download and beware it takes 15 hours to download.)
The things you can do with this program are amazingly fun.
This is so funny… WordPress won’t let me show you my cool watermarks, because they are copyrighted. Good job WordPress!
I will tell you how I made the watermark that I like best:
1. I used a low resolution picture to be double-protected.
2. I drag/dropped the picture onto Photoshop CS6.
3. I made a Text box.
4. In white, I wrote Gator Girl Art in a cursive font.
6. To rotate the watermark diagonally, I selected the Marquee Tool, right-clicked the text, and selected Free Transform. Hovering over any corner, you will see a small curved arrow letting you know you can rotate the image.
There are many, many ideas if you go to the article. The watermark I like the best is embossed.
In a perfect world, my daughter could marry her girlfriend and photo images wouldn’t need watermarks. Someday…
We are having the most beautiful fall weather. Seems like it might be perfect for my first Pussyfooters parade next Saturday. I am looking forward to seeing what dancing in front of crowds is like, basically so the nightmares of being exposed in public stop. I feel compelled to do it because it has been a lifelong dream to be in a dance group. (note to parents: just let your kids live their childhood dreams in childhood. The dreams don’t just vanish with a “no”.) With the Pussyfooters, I met the requirements of having or living like I have vagina and being over 30. Yea me! I qualify. The Krewe of Jingleparade is on Canal Street.
Two more awesome reasons to join with the Pussyfooters are the service we do for the community, raising money to support and empower women, and for me to meet other women. Since I work at home now, I feel the need to get out and into the community for mental health.
I have two paintings to share today. I finished the La Virgen de Guadalupe. I just need to varnish her to protect her from dust and uv rays. I am also giving the person who commissioned her a chance to see her before I take her to be packaged and shipped.I painted the virgin how I think she would appear to the person I painted her for. I added the traditional saint card near the bottom of the canvas.
La Virgen de Guadalupe
I am starting a new painting just for fun on a piece of reclaimed wood. It is just a scrap of wood that I am going to frame in old wood from an old house. It is called Alligator Bliss.
I have some safety glass from a broken car window. It looks like the scales on an alligator’s legs and shoulders. It looks really cool to see the paint through the broken glass. The trouble I am having is the glass is raised up higher than the rest of the gator. My plan is to just continue on with the plan, hoping that it all turns out. Maybe I could put a piece of glass over the whole painting when I frame it. (Insert here any of your good ideas.)
He is not much to see yet. (Why are my alligators always men?)
Alligator Bliss in Progress
I laid some glass on the painting so you can see how cool it looks. Maybe it will be OK just to have the glass parts a little higher. Hmmm.
It is November. Traditionally a time of extra gratefulness for all of our blessings. I think it is especially important to practice gratitude when life is difficult.
I have a super great assignment. A friend wants me to paint La Virgen De Guadalupe. I am currently painting the Madonna and feeling grateful with every stroke of my paint brush. I like knowing who will receive the Blessed Mother because I can ask for blessings for her family, business, happiness, etc. while I paint.
I don’t want to post in-progress pictures today. Instead I am going to post glimpses. I will post the finished painting in two weeks. I plan to be finished for December 12th.
Madonna sneak preview
A cool thing happened by accident when I was painting. I started out spraying Ranger Ink Spray, Dylusions in London Blue, all over the canvas. I painted with acrylic paints for a few hours, and when I came back the blue was coming to the top. This happened for a few days. I really like the effect. I would just leave the painting with a bluish tinge to her complexion, but I don’t want it so blue because it is the Madonna.
Madonna sneak preview 2
It worried me that the blue ink would re-surface indefinitely, so I painted her face and neck with clear gesso as a barrier. I am going to paint some more skin tone colors over the gesso, leaving just a touch of blue.
Last glimpse
This is her neck. You can see how blue, even after 5 coats of Golden Acrylic Paint.
I am happy for the assignment. I am happy for so much to be grateful for.
We are starting the festival season here in New Orleans. There are many things to do every weekend from now until after Mardi Gras. This weekend I am lucky enough to have art in 2 locations.
I dropped Frida off while they were setting up last night. The Healing Center looked amazing. Really great art and music. I hear there will be a parade.
Miss Mandie from Downtown Chic Salon has invited me to share 10 paintings at Fall for Art.
I will be here.
I feel so fortunate and grateful for double invitations.
I finished Dancing in the Moonlight (alternately The Happy Family). I like the family. They look like New Orleans to me. I decided against button eyes and their mouths sewn shut. With the baby in the picture, it was going to look too gruesome. I just wanted them to look recently departed and back for a visit.I probably decided to paint them because of the Fall weather and Day of the Dead being just a couple of weeks away.
Dancing in the Moonlight
They are wearing many of the same colors as the night sky. You can see that the children inherited their mother’s chin. It was fun to see the family resemblances. I secretly have always liked the mother to pass down the genes.
Maggie wants another baby in their family in real life, so she asked me to paint a baby in the picture.
Dia de los Muertos is one of my favorite days. I spend time honoring and remembering loved ones that have passed over. I have a box of photos I look through that I have collected and pick a few for the altar. I don’t put everyone up because I would be too crowded, but looking through the pictures is part of the honoring and I think the departed understand.
My mom and I had a shaky relationship. She passed on several years ago.
I recently found a picture of the two of us enjoying time together. I am going to see if I like having the picture up in our house. Sometimes it takes a long time for forgiveness and understanding. At least for me it does. It turns out the altar is healing as well as honoring.
It is Saturday, the last day I allow myself to blog. I don’t know why the procrastination. I am also procrastinating finishing Dancing in the Moonlight. I am enjoying the family so much that I don’t want it to be over.
(The father’s cigarette ash is my favorite part. He is waiting almost too long to tap it off. )
Dancing in the Moonlight, nearing completion
I also call it Happy Family, but that is not the real name. I was going to sew buttons on for eyes and sew their mouths shut with embroidery thread in a cross-stitch. I am not going to do that now, because I think they would look too scary. I want the family obviously visiting from the other side, but not scary. I did put the cosmetic bag material on the mother’s dress and daughter’s tights. You can’t really tell, except for the shimmer and it feels lovely to touch. The moon has glow-in-the-dark paint as the last coat. Awesome with the lights off.
Right now, my favorite people to paint are recently dead. I like the colors better than skeletons or the living. With that in mind, it is odd that my next painting will have dragonfly wings.
My daughter and my daughter’s sister-in-law (let’s just call them Katy and Antonia) went to the Green Project and saw a lot of broken glass. They put it in a bag thinking I could make a snoball painting with it. How sweet of them. Some of the glass is from a car wreck and looks just like dragonfly wings. I am looking forward to trying it out.
We are having a little trouble decorating for Halloween this year. Maggie and Raffi don’t like anything scary. Maggie says when she has a Halloween store, she will only have unicorns and puppies. She has asked me so many times to change the hand that scares her in the candy bowl so it will give the candy instead of grabbing the hand that reaches in the bowl. Finally, I get that they don’t want to be scared.
This is the bowl that I am talking about.
I told Maggie that I had an idea. When the little kids come to the door, I will hand them some candy with my hand. She said that is a great idea.
Gator Girl Art 