Quotidian #11

Okay this is a 4" x 6" oil on cardboard (museum board) of my back yard and the amazing big Aleppo Pine behind my house.  I am trying to get at the essence of the space by doing little studies.  Today while I was painting, I heard this guy (who had the idea for Pixar 20 yrs before he could make it a reality) make an amazing statement.  I think that I will make it my mantra for 2015: "Face toward the mess.  Most people like clarity.  Go toward the mess, don't avoid it.  Go through it...there WILL be more mess."  Amen.

Rex and His Chicken

This is Rex, my friend Mary's son with his Barred Rock chicken.  He was a wonderful chicken farmer as a child.  The men in the background are his dad and uncle.  I am kind of interested in 'how much' visual information is necessary to convey a story and an image.  I particularly like the uncle on the right...the suggestion of his cap and shirt.

Quotidian # 10

Okay, gentle reader...I am not sure if this is finished yet, but it was all that I could finish today.  I have not figured out how to portray those pesky rakes on the right hand side.  They are both red so the colors are fun but man...all those tines!  I do like the view from my tomato plant back, looking back at my porch.  I love the periwinkle post in the foreground, with my periwinkle bench in the background.  I just keep a can of periwinkle paint on hand at all times.  In fact, thirty some years ago, I repainted the old wooden high chair a new coat of this color between each baby.  I know, I know...probably wasn't safe enough paint...

Quotidian # 9

Okay, today I decided to try to paint my kitchen.  In case you were wondering, the cupboards are cream colored, but I kind of saw more color and then got carried away.  I think tomorrow I will try to stay truer to the actual colors.  This is a 6"x6" oil on board.

Quotidian #8

This is the eighth attempt at painting this view of my living room in the afternoon light.  Here's the thing, I am trying to learn to be content with each little step forward in my work.  Today, I am content that I really GOT the light hitting the left edge of the sofa...I am happy with that!  Tomorrow I will make a little more progress...Oh this is a 6"x6" oil on board.

Quotidian # 7

Okay, I just figured out why I am painting interiors.  I am taking a quiet time.  I have essentially, and happily, put myself in a time out.  This is a 12" x 12" oil on canvas.  I consciously tried to make pretty colors while being true to the rooms colors and values.

Quptidian # 6

This is an oil on canvas board, 8" x10".  It is an interior study of another view of my new living room.
But in this one, I am studying the lamplight at night as it illuminates the built in bookshelves and casts strong shadows toward the front door.   As you know, I am obsessed with looking and looking...at everything.  It takes me a really long time to really see what I am looking at...so painting it helps me see it more fully.  Speaking of seeing, I just saw an amazing little film called "Advanced Style".  It derives from a blog by Ari Seth Cohen's blog by the same name and was made by a film maker who is only 27!, her name is Lena Plioplyte.  It is about women in New York who don't care about getting older, they just care about looking fabulous at any age. It is such an uplifting, kind and creative film.  We all clapped at the end.  Please run to see it...it will make you see/look at/care and be curious about those round you.  P.S. My living room is 78 yrs old and she looks pretty terrific!

Quotidian # 5

Today I went to the doctor (MY doctor) in Arizona.  It was a follow-up appt., to make sure that I was healing after an event that sent me to a strange ER while traveling in California.  I am of a certain age,  that is to say, I get senior citizen discounts at movies and stores now.  I don't particularly feel old, I feel sort of special and fortunate to have made it this far in life.  But here's the thing:  I DO remember a time when certain things were different.  For example, I remember when I had a family doctor, and she KNEW me.  I mean really knew me, and my husband, and my children.  Even her nurse knew me.  Oh, and the receptionist knew me.  Well those people retired, and now I have people who almost never look at me.  When they are in the exam room with me, they enter data ABOUT me into a computer.  And to find out what is wrong with me, they don't ask me, or look at me, they read off a computer and mumble the particulars of "my situation" to themselves.  As I wait, I keep thinking, "I could TELL you that stuff".  But maybe they are afraid that I will ramble, and be inefficient or I won't tell them accurate information about myself.  Or maybe...I am being abused at home (I am NOT) and that would open a whole can of worms and take too much time...so best to stick with the computer, and not spend time either talking to me or looking at me.  I just think that the most important part of what we now call "Health Care" is the 'care' part.  And I do not feel 'cared' for when I am not seen, nor heard.
So this image is an interior that I painted.  It is a 6" x6", oil on board.  I am in a getting acquainted stage with my house and the various rooms in it.  I am noticing how the light spills into different rooms throughout the day...the kitchen, dining room and my studio in the morning...the bedroom, bathroom, and living room in the afternoon.  I am painting the afternoon sunlight that pours into the living room over and over.  This is the first time that I painted it, and I am noticing more and more as I continue to look and paint.  What if I just measured the rooms and thought that I knew them.  What if I told you how many inches each of my children were, and then assumed that I had given you a full picture of them.  It sounds silly doesn't it.

Quotidian #4

This is a 5" x 7" (oil on paper) of my favorite paint...which is Farrow and Ball.  This company makes the most yummy, subtle colors for your home.  Every time I look at the little sample can in my studio I smile because it is so lovely.
 As to my day today...it was pretty frustrating.  Had to do lots of business details all day, there was a disheartening family trauma, and didn't get to my studio til late.  The light wasn't so good so I used artificial light, which is not my favorite and harder to see by as I get older.  But, I showed up and did a little work...nothing to write home about. But here's the thing:  If I didn't even show up and try, I would feel even worse about my day.  So maybe my daily redemption to be had in "just
showing up"?  Possibly.

Quotidian # 3

Okay, this is an 8" x 12" oil on masonite painting of my favorite olive oils.  I am LOVING painting my favorite things.  Maybe I should start humming the 'Sound of Music" song while I paint!  Although, to be honest, I am often freaked out and worried when I work.  I HAVE to paint. I know that it is gift that has been given to me... and yet I suffer from major 'imposter syndrome' (you know the voice in your head that tells you that you are not a REAL painter, or writer, or film-maker). I am sure, that any minute, everyone is gonna find out that I can't really paint...or that the 'muse' has left the building.  So I ignore the inner voices and try to do what all of my heroes advise, "You just need to keep showing up every day, and doing the work."  Some of my heroes are Peter Brown Hoffmeister (the writer), Carol Marine (painter) and Alice Neel (painter who just kept going no matter what life dealt her).  So if you are a doubting artist out there, I want to encourage you to "Just keep swimming" (Dory) xo

Quotidian #2

This set of four (oil on watercolor paper) studies is 11" x 14".  Each individual study is 5" x 7".   Lately, I just want to paint the portraits of all of my favorite things.  This is a red lacquer paper
mache box that sits by my bedside.  I got it from my 94 yr old beautiful neighbor!  So it is both beautiful and reminds me of her.

Quotidian #1

I know that I have been missing in action all summer.  I was living in our wonderful old house in Eugene and hosting every single kid and grandkid...it was awesome.  I am blessed indeed.  Now I am starting a new series of quotidian (fun word that I love which simply means "daily") people, things and places.  The stuff of life, which many of us are experience and maybe don't really see, or particularly notice.  I know that I am guilty of that a lot!!  So here goes...I promise that it will be humble stuff, often very ordinary. xo

Aspiring Americans: #3

This is another 6" x 6" oil on canvas.  As I paint these portraits, I am struck with the ancient Mayan features that I am seeing.  My daughter just sent me a beautiful photo of a Native American man that is captioned, "You're against immigration? When did you leave?"  Check out the website Voto Latino.

Aspiring Anericans:#2

This is a 6" x 6" oil on unstretched canvas.

Aspiring Americans: #1

This is a new series of 6" x 6" oil on un-stretched pieces of 12" x 12" canvas.  I am titling each of these portraits "Aspiring Americans"; because each one of these people wants to be a contributing United States Citizen.  So, I will be using a new term for what some call "illegal aliens", some call "undocumented immigrants", and henceforth be referring to people as "aspiring Americans".

People With No Names: The Indocumented #128

This is a 6" x 6" oil (on unstretched canvas) portrait of a recent deportee who I met in Nogales, Mexico.  One question that she asked, still haunts me.  She asked, "Why are Americans so hostile to us?"  She said that if Americans came to her for help, she would help them.  She would welcome them and she would feed them.  She would share whatever she had.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #127

Yesterday, the County Supervisors of Tucson, Arizona voted to have our county (Pima County) be "Immigrant Welcoming".  The City of Tucson has made this a 'welcoming city'.  This is especially noteworthy because Pima County has the most border area of any county in the U.S.A.  Human dignity and human life are being given respect.  This small 8 x 10 oil study is a depiction of 3 immigrants being captured and surrounded at gunpoint by 5 U.S. Border Patrol agents.  It is another version of the last two paintings posted.  This image references a real event that occurred along the U.S. Mexico border.  Despite the new policy in Pima County,  THIS is the welcome that immigrants can expect until we have an 'immigrant welcoming' policy at the Federal level.  Still, 'Bravo' Pima County Supervisors!

People With No Names: The Undocumented #126

This is a small study, 6" x 8" for the painting that I posted yesterday.  I actually prefer these loose studies because I think that they reflect more accurately the situation on the U.S./Mexico border. 'Who is who' is not so clear, it involves a lot of people, and it is a big legal mess.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #125

•          Hágase tu volundad en la tierra, como en el cielo
  

People With No Names, The Undocumented: #124

OIL on canvas 11" x 14".  He may look like a young boy, and he is.  But he is the FUTURE and not the PAST.  Nelson Mandella died yesterday...and he was amazing, and great, and a species changer, BECAUSE he chose the FUTURE,  not 'the old way of doing things' and of 'being' in the world.