Louisiana – Page 8 – Gator Girl Art

Some copyright helpful hints

Posted on December 2, 2012 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all,

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.

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.

5. Selected Layer, Layer Style, Blending Options, 50% opacity.

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…

Until next week,

All my love,

Gator Girl

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Alligator Bliss

Posted on November 25, 2012 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

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 Jingle parade 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.

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 — 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.

Looking forward to feedback.

With unending love and gratitude,

Gator Girl

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Madonna

Posted on November 2, 2012November 23, 2012 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

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.

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.

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.

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.

In gratitude for you,

Gator Girl

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Celebrating with Altars

Posted on October 26, 2012October 26, 2012 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all,

I love Halloween and I loved it a lot more before I found out that pretty much all the popular Halloween candy has been genetically modified. Really, I mean what the hell are we doing to the children?

I am wondering what would be a good alternative is for this candy. Any ideas? I know the very least we can do is vote for labeling.

What I love more than Halloween is Dia de los Muertos. It makes all kind of sense to me to remember and honor those who passed on. Good and bad, they gave us everything.

I am celebrating Thursday, November 1 through Friday, November 2, by cooking some food I think they will like and doing things they would enjoy. I will think about impermanence and what matters in this one wild and precious life.

So far this year, I have put up pictures of people I know. I will be adding more photos.

This is the picture I found where my mom and I were happy.

I put some buttons, beadwork and my mother’s thimble in front of the picture. I think the buttons are extra buttons from when she sewed 100 pearl buttons on my sister’s wedding dress. I put mom’s picture near a childhood picture of her mother. This is my mom’s first year on the altar.

My dad is easy, because I feel connected to him.

In front of dad is a cuban cigar, his ashtray, and matches from a local restaurant I think he would like. I have to refrain from putting out pastries and chocolate because for me it would be like putting crack on the altar.

I dressed up the skeleton woman in a pink boa for Halloween. I keep her on my bedroom mantle for safety. Away from little hands.

Another intriguing part of this celebration is the idea that the veil between worlds thins at this time and makes communication easier with the departed. I’m just going to stay open to it.

My son-in-law, Christian, built the shelves for this altar in the hallway for me. He was building a closet in the bedroom and left room for a painting and shelves in the hall. I love the location because I can give my respect all through the day. The altar doesn’t change a lot. I burn incense and keep it dust free. Mostly I practice gratitude.

I would love to know if you have similar rituals, pictures of your altar, whatever you want to share.

All the best and happy remembering,

With a loving heart,

Gator Girl

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Two Shows!

Posted on October 19, 2012October 19, 2012 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all,

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.

Mr. Mario Padilla has invited my painting “Fly” of Frida Kahlo to be in his show.

Anba-Dlo-Banner-450x165 — I am definitely not going to miss this next year.

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 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.

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.

Wishing you healing and a lovely Fall.

With an open heart,

Gator Girl

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Dancing in the Moonlight

Posted on October 13, 2012 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

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. )

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.

trick or treat bowl jpeg — 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.

Until next week my loves,

Gator Girl

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My Mentor, My Love

Posted on October 5, 2012October 5, 2012 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all,

I need to write 2 distinct blogs on this beautiful day in October. I have been consciously putting off adding Shiloh Sophia to my list of Artists I Adore. I don’t believe I can do her justice. Today, I decided to offer my best and that will be enough.

Shiloh changed my life. She helped be to discover my dream and gave me the tools to get there. Shiloh is the founder of Cosmic Cowgirls. The idea came to her when she was just a girl. She has always wanted to empower and connect women. One thing that I remember vividly is when she needed two other women to help her run her growing business, she painted 3 women standing together. The perfect women showed up in the perfect time.

When I wanted to move to New Orleans, I started painting alligators. Alligators were all I wanted to paint for 2 years. To me alligators were the symbol and the means to adventure.

One of the classes I took with Shiloh was called Leading a Legendary Life. It was a 6 month Internet course that we begged Shiloh to continue for a year. In that course, we painted the 4 directions of our life. My Southern direction was Louisiana, being an Artist and living in New Orleans. My Northern direction were my Roots and my desire to stay connected to my family. Eastern was health. In the East, I was led to a group where I released 100 pounds. My Western direction turned into Vacation and Travel as California would no longer be my home. All of the canvases came to life.

Since this is a blog and not a book, I will let you follow Shiloh’s link to learn more.

Part II

I am painting a family from the other side of life. The happy family is dancing in the moonlight. I love celebrating Dio De Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. I will include a picture of my altar at the end of the month.

I am taking an online class from Jane Davenport. I am feeling more confident painting bodies. I am also trying some new techniques. I rolled a thick coat of Liquitex Professional Heavy Body Phthalocyanine Blue over the whole canvas. Next, I brushed in swirls. The moon is painted on dry gel medium applied with a motel key card. Swiping the card made some nice grooves. For the girl’s tights, I used a trick I learned on Pinterest. I put a nail in the eraser part of a pencil and used the head of the nail to make black polka dots. I am going to apply a shiny fabric, that used to be a gift bag for bath products, over the mother’s dress and the girls tights using acrylic varnish. I think the fabric will seem a little other worldly and add some shine and movement.

I am going to say good-bye now. I trust that if you need Shiloh in your life, you will find her. She is a genius for helping you to realize your dreams.

If you have your dream, carry it, nurture it, speak it, do something towards it every day.

With unreasonable love and an open heart,

Gator Girl

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Bee Love

Posted on September 27, 2012September 27, 2012 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all,

I am playing around here (I mean working) instead of doing housework. I never minded housework before I had so many better things to do. I do believe I was in the minority back then.

I am posting my results of non-stop painting this week.

I love many aspects of Bee Love. I am thinking of painting a series. My husband hates the human-looking face on the bee so much that he actually said the word “hate”. Obviously, some childhood trauma.

I think she is just too adorable to hate. She is definitely a girly girl worker bee. She is wearing a cream-colored vintage plastic bow. The letters are from a fancy set of Pairsinpears. The black polka dot tape is Washi tape that I bought on Etsy. She looks a bit like a Pussyfooter Bee with her pink striped leggings and orange hair. She is a hard-working worker bee. She feels she can dress pretty without having aspirations of being queen.

I have been trying out this fun technique. I color with Caran D’Ache watersoluble crayons over dry acrylic paint. Then I mix the crayon in as much as I want with acrylic varnish using a paint brush, making it water proof. Sometimes I leave a little crayon-look and sometimes I blend it completely in. Finally, I seal it two more times. I like the look and it is just kind of fun to color with crayons.

I just have a bit more shadowing to do on Bee Love.

Stand Up's Side View — Stand Up’s Side View

These are the words that are on the front of the painting Stand Up:

When a woman chooses to source her truth

from within her very bones, rather than

looking to a set of rules outside of herself,

she is truly wise.

These are the words typed on the side of the painting:

When she can stand up and speak a truth

that is boiling up inside her no matter how

big a risk it is to speak it, she is claiming her

wild soul, perfect and untamed.

When 5,000 years of conditioning is telling

her that her way is wrong, but she decides

right then and there that her way is right,

and in fact, always has been, she is finally

free.

Kitty Cavalier 2012

An odd thing about the words on the painting… I named the painting Stand Up, tentatively while I was painting. I found the words later in Kitty’s blog. I don’t know if I believe there are no accidents in life, but I do believe in synchronicity if you keep your heart open.

I have been invited to show my art at Fall for Art in Covington, Louisiana on October 20th. My art and I will be at the Downtown Chic Salon from 6-9pm. My niece, Mandi is the owner/ stylist.

salon_team — Mandi is on the right of center wearing all black.

Until next week…

My wish for you is your heart’s desire.

lovingly,

Gator Girl

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Stand Up!

Posted on September 21, 2012 by gatorgirlart

Hi All y’all,

I hope this Friday finds you just where you want to be.

I am nearing completion on Stand Up.

I still need to whiten up her skin tone. I am going to keep the comic book outlines. I am portraying her as a shero. She is wearing an outfit like Wonder Woman. She has tiny gold stars strewn through her hair at Maggie’s suggestion. I like the tiny-ness and the 3 D-ness of the stars. I still have those wonderful words from Kitty Cavalier to add. Because it is an extra thick canvas, I am going to type the words and put them around the outside edge.

I am starting a super fun painting called Bee Love. I went to a gardening seminar, put on by the Master Gardeners of Greater New Orleans. I learned some fascinating bee facts. Did you know that the worker bees are female? That drones only exist for mating? And bees have certain jobs like undertaker and hive cleaner? They are amazing little insects.

I bought a linen canvas for Bee Love. So far I love it. It is tight and smooth. I painted the canvas with black gesso so I can start out on a black background. I haven’t ever done that before, my backgrounds are usually 3 colors. Hmm. She will be a cute little worker bee with curly pink hair.

I got into the Pussyfooters! Woot, Woot-woot! I will be marching in pink! Miss Heather nominated me. Here is a peak at her thank you card.

I am taking a drawing class on-line with the fabulous Jane Davenport. Our assignment is to draw a super model. Heather sure looks like a super model to me.

I would love to stay and chat, but my paints are calling.

Until next week,

Never ending love,

Gator Girl

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Imagine it and you can have it… in the tangible.

Posted on September 8, 2012September 8, 2012 by gatorgirlart

Good Morning all y’all!

Either my husband is so sweet or I am risking my marriage to write to you. Time will tell. It is our 28th anniversary today and he helped me to nail on the trim to a dresser that I am reclaiming and now I am blogging about the process.

About 2 weeks ago, I was looking for a dresser on Craig’s List and found the perfect one for $20 in Mid City. I didn’t have a car that day to pick it up. By the time David got home with the car, the dresser was gone. I thought, maybe I will find one closer and less expensive. I didn’t quite believe it. Then… last weekend, our neighbors moved out and put a cheap dresser on the curb. This dresser didn’t have the same quality as the one I saw on-line. But it made me happier, like getting a dog at a shelter happier. This dresser was going straight to a landfill. Besides being cheaply made, it was missing a drawer and the front of a drawer. To me this was perfect. I needed a flat place to store my prints instead of on the top of everything And I always need more general storage.

I painted the top, framed the open drawer with molding from the neighbor’s trash, bought two baskets at Target (exactly 17 inches deep) for a grand total of $30. This total does not include painting with Golden Acrylic paints. I couldn’t wait long enough to buy less expensive paint.

Furniture ariel view — Aerial View of Dresser

I saw the idea for putting baskets in place of the drawers on Pinterest.

I am not quite done with Let it be me. I am going to try something new (to me). I am going to paint melted bees-wax around the woman to soften the background. I tried painting something small with bee’s wax before, but not one of my paintings. Wish me luck. I really operate on a combination of luck and divine intervention.

This painting is representing the moment of surrender. The giving up of self to the greater power. Big step.

I am hoping to heal the world with painting. What are you hoping today?

Sincerely,

With all my heart,

Gator Girl