goodbye "mild bewilderment"

it's time to say goodbye to this tentitive lady with confidence (she's from a Kotex ad) as she will be donated to Panche at the Escondido Arts Partnership for charity for the arts. She will be up for live auction.


I named this 30" x 40" piece "mild bewilderment" because she obviously braved alone a tour of an art museum, proudly participating in high society with the kind of confidence only a kotex pad can give.

Someone asked me if i was planning on going to Panache this year since it is so very close in time to my big Paris trip. well, yes, I love Panache, i am addicted to the live auction, is so exciting. i love watching people excitedly bid over my art. it is a huge rush. the last 2 years, my pieces have been reserved for the last of the evening to promote extra excitement. there is always a buzz about them. last, last year, my art went for over retail and last year it went for double retail.

the first time i watched people bid live on my art, i couldn't take the anticipation and got very drunk. i was afraid no one would bid. but i was wrong. the bidding was hot and heavy for quite a long time. i really had wished i stayed sober for it -fortunately my responsible husband who had to drive that night was able to fill me in on the details. his eyes were nearly bugged out as he didn't know either that my art would be such a hit.

aw, it feels so good. i hope i see you there. cheers.


"Panache 2008 Annual Auction"
March 1, 2008:5-8:30pm
Escondido Arts Partnership

i think i'm turning japanese

i think i'm turning japanese, i think i'm turning japanese...



i really think so.

now i may need to have carpal tunnel surgery....can you believe it?

something's up.

BTW, tom's still hammering outside and creating the lisa bebi's studio annex. exciting.

torn meniscus

yep, i have a torn meniscus - usually happens to athletes, but in my case, it degenerative - at least that is the preliminary diagnosis. i am waiting to get MRI scheduled now. then we will see. i only hope that i don't have to have surgery during the week i am in paris. that would really blow.
what was i doing when it tore? sleeping. i awoke to pain and it has only grown worse and worse.
thank you, god, for inventing vicodin.
my damn knee hurts.
OK good night, vicodin and wine don't mix to well.

building code committee

i have a story to tell - but i'm too tired tonight. sorry

work, work, work, work

still busy.........













and still a big mess..........

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slice of heaven

i've got a loooong way to go, but the books are starting to come together in the bookshelf area, well at least there is a bookshelf up and some books (and stuff) in it.....




of course, i have about 8 huge boxes of books more, to sort out -and as i do, i will be rotating in the ones i like better than the ones that are already there until finally i'm exhausted and my book collection is exhausted and that will be the final account on the books --- same for paint, canvases, specialty papers, images embellishments, ribbons, markers, scissors, bits of cloth, all sorts of buttons, clasps, containers, wires beads, glues, sharpies, watercolors, tablets, string, tapes, rulers, "t" squares, heat gun, glue gun, staple gun, embossing powders, waxes, oil sticks, sponges, crayons, canvases, watercolor paper, tracing paper, ink paper, pastel paper, 20 lb. bond paper, computer paper, computer and copier and inks, sandpaper, pastels, inks, sprays, glass, mediums, collage images, paper rack, canvas rack, jewelry making supplies, projectors, light tables (more than one of each), stencils, crimping tools, saws, razor blades, pasta machine, little bakers oven for polymer clay - polymer clay and tools, encaustics and tools, cutting edges, slicer cutter, punches, colored pencils, suit case and travel supplies, drafting board, ironing board, crafting table, chairs, triangles, fluid paints, turps, paint brushes, wrapping paper, lace, brads, stickers, tags, dyes, sealing wax, gel pens, chip board, alphabet stamps, rubber stamps, spray paint, handmade stamps, postage stamps, card stock, envelopes, photo mount corners, stitches supplies, awl, etc....... i will be reciting a longer list in my sleep tonight, no doubt.

i might as well add a TV and music center and a NEW CAR!!!!! only kidding, i just got one.
but i do need vanna white to point these things out for me.


well, i am determined to get this done by .........friday, er, friday week. meanwhile the deadlines are all mounting.

i want to thank kathy for coming over today and helping me sort...again.

and "annie" (see previous posts regarding annie and her family's snapshots) popped by with persimmons, yummm, thank you sweetie pie - she's been feeling sick - feel better.

and tom, who came and took measurements for the project "garage" where we are going to be putting in a few walls and windows and canvases racks and shelves for more of lisa's studio. of course my husband doesn't know of this project because he refuses to read my blog (because he doesn't believe in blogs).

also, i need to say hello to my sweet daughter brooke who recently moved to LA and has been trying to reach me to see how i'm doing, but i haven't heard the phone ring......the new studio is like a cavern.
and my husband who has been looking for me, but can't seem to see me down the hallway as there is too much laundry between us. i think there might be others looking for me, but i wouldn't know.
gosh, the new studio could also be a refuge for criminals.
or something.

breathe

soon, i will breathe again...when the studio is finally done.......




i would have taken another picture, except now the batteries of the camera are dead and i can't find the new ones......


tomorrow i am hoping to put the monolithic canvas holder somewhere. it is about 4 feet by 10 feet and 8 feet tall. soooo, i guess i will have it built into the garage somehow. my handyman tom will do it.....

i really wish it could fit into the studio - but it won't.

my biggest dream is to have a french doors built into the side of the studio so that i could step out into an enclosed patio - i would string lights out there and maybe add a small bar...... and a little fireplace.....cozy......ok and a jacuzzi. there.

mer-maiden

isn't she lovely?






i would like to be a mermaiden.
the flower embellishment is handmade using the coronado island system called "bloomers". (google: coronado island designs and stamps).
i am dreaming of becoming a mermaiden - yeah i know, i said dreaming.....jeesha.

anyway, my new years resolution is to get fit - i know i'm the first one in the world to resolve to get fit- but nevertheless - ok, my docotr told me i had to get the fat off. there.

anyway, my sport is, er, was swimming. and running. only running caused me to irritate my knee - er, bursitis.
anyway, enough about me.......

well, one more thing.....i'm still working on the studio project.

still working on it.......

it is actually a little bit bigger than it looks here.

and i actually look a little bit smaller than i appear here. how that works, i have no clue.

constant juggling act

oh, if only you could see my house. if only i could find my digital camera during all my debris shifting..., i would show you.
you see, my house is under construction.

over the last six years i have had a studio in three different locations outside my home. before that i had my studio in my living room, which is crazy.
but, every one of the outside studios has had some different major reason for closure.

my first one was a converted office connected to my husband's law office (2001- 2004).
i eventually had to close that studio because i became sick... - i had contracted an autoimmune disorder that caused kidney failure -an acute ailment- i was bedridden for a year....eventually we closed it down, thinking i was never going to work again.

but i got better.

during the end of my convalescence, i began to paint larger canvases at home, in the dining room...
my artist friend, joan irving, invited me to join her studio in escondido. i thought about it for a year as escondido is far.
i did move nd worked there for a year until recently the studio was sold to the city.
meanwhile, during the last year, i began to publish more and needed to work smaller some days, so i got a studio close to home in a scrapbook store until it went under in october this year.

so what is wrong with working at home?
lots of things. first there are a million distractions - mostly household chores the urge you to act now rather than later. the laundry, dishes, folding clothes, ironing, telephone calls..... i have overcome this urge pretty well as my messy house can fairly attest. i never answer my phone.. and does anyone still iron clothes? but, there are other distractions too like, school visits, the dog needs to go in and out and in and out of the house some more, and the cat wants to paw my brushstrokes and walk across wet canvases.
anyway, you can see what i am saying.

but as bad as that is...i need a place that i own - a place that won't fold or sell to the city or go anywhere if i become ill..... so here i am again - back home.

BUT this time it's different. kathy olsen has helped me with a huge and focused undertaking. kathy came over earlier this
week and demolished the wall separating the kids bedrooms. don't worry i asked her to. and, i tried to help.

so we took down the wall and threw out bedroom furniture and all other creature comforts of the rooms, and replaced most if it with art supplies, paintings and books. a corner area has my easel; another corner has my office. there is a place for paints, papers and a staging area for me to get ready for workshops abroad. i'm very proud of our progress.

Questions:
what became of your children? oh, well, jamie lives in santa barbara now, so i took his room and rosie moved into the guest room, so i took her room too.

the guests, the british, where will they stay?
they can still have the guest room as rosie can sleep upstairs with us or in my studio since i won't be working while i have guests.

and what about your husband and the pets? well, they are still here. somewhere.
my husband did finally ask me yesterday if i was thinking of putting my studio in our house........i guess he isn't really aware of what i get up to - so i showed him that the dividing bedroom wall was down and thrown out. i guess he didn't notice the 80 black bags of stuff in the garbage outside or all the bedroom furniture waiting for pick-up out there either. the garbage pick-up is only right by where he parks his car....... hmmmmmm.
you can't blame him for asking such a question, for the past 8 years or so since kathy and i met, we have always been getting up to crazy stuff - how was he to know there was a wall missing.
the other nutty thing is, kathy, a very high energy person, came over a few days this week early -- like 9 a.m. - before i was fully awake. my husband let her in the house via the intercom system while he remained upstairs getting ready for work. once inside the house, kathy got straight to work hammering up pegboards, vacuuming or otherwise making herself useful.....he didn't seem to think this odd.
oh, well, men.

so. i have high hopes that the new, permanent studio will be completed next week. i have deliberately forbidden myself to do anything art wise until i have finished getting organized. it is very hard to hold off as i have the constant urge to just sit down and create instead of haul crap out. once i have my place squared away, i plan to have an open house. i better tell my husband first.

if he would only read my blog, he might know a thing or two.

my grandson gracie juries in!!!!

isn't he the cutest pitbull you have ever seen? that's my daughter's and her one-day-to-be-husband carlos's son. why did they name him graceie - because he isn't graceful, that's why. (see early-in-my-posting-career post regarding my grandson, gracie) i used to babysit him lots - like for a year!
OK, well, anyway, gracie made me proud this week as he (this mixed media piece of him) was juried in at san diego art institute this week. he will be showing now and for the month. if you can't see him in person, then check out sandiego-art.org later this week as they will have the regional show exhibit online.

sue norberg's salvation

my artist friend, sue norberg, did this piece which was published in teesha moore's art and life magazine. i received my copy in the mail last week. (www.teeshamoore.com).

when i saw this, i didn't notice who had created it ----i just thought it was fun to read and well put together. what a nice surprise to find out it was created by one of my friends, a local artist. this satirical piece points out just how outrageous and crazy the list of possible side effects can be of legal "novelty" high-end drugs.

as a family who watches TV together, we always like to crack-up and point at and laugh at drug commercials with their incredible and implausible length of possible side effects (some are just too silly, like the viagra ones), that could happen and then we as a past time enlarge the crazy possibilities with even more outrageous scenarios....
So this is kinda what Sue did, but, she made it into fine art!!!!.

both rosie and i loved it and then tried to make up other fake pharm-a-sydo - disclaimers,....we played like that for a few hours.

when i saw Sue at my art show at ray st. last saturday night, we began talking and i found out the piece was actually HERS! OMG....i had to give her a big hug and compliment as it had given rosie and me hours of enjoyment.
-

flowerchild

i wish i were a flower child again - a child of love from the 60's......of course in the sixties i was much older than this flowerchild. i was a young teenager.
in the sixites i learned to take small daisies, sting them together without thread or wire to create a long daisy chain that i could then place on my head, like a wreath around my straight blonde hair. i would pick the daisy with a long stem, cut a long slit in the stem with my nail and then thread the next daisy's stem through the first slitted stem - thus creating a long strand. i could add to this with layers and layers of flower chains to create a very complex looking head band.......lovely. that was the very best part of being a flowerchild --- the flowers.

in the late sixties, i hung out with my friends who were sitting in "love-in"s or "smoke-in"s, but i never smoked. i didn't like it. i was an athlete, afterall - a competitive swimmer. i did not need drugs, grass, dope. just friends to hang with during those years. friends that didn't spend 2 to 4 hours a day working out in the pool. a different kind of group of friends than those i knew from the sheltered pond i existed in....

she's a pretty little girl, isn't she? - very sweet and unassuming and young.

gracie's shopping day

every dog has her day....this is my daughter's pit bull, gracie. gracie is actually a boy (see much earlier posts entitled my only grandchild). brooke named him gracie, well, because he isn't graceful. but since he is named gracie and i got hold of a photo of him - well, i couldn't help but have a bit of fun. he doesn't mind. i initally called this piece, gracie's birthday - cuz of the hat, of course.
either way....i like it.
i have run out of "annie" art at the moment. i'm sorry to the many "annie" fans who have written me. OK, that was mostly "annie's" family and, well, ...."annie".

as i have said, if you woiud like me to paint soemthing from your snapshot (copy) and will allow me to publish it, send you copies to
lisa bebi art
8030 La Mesa Blvds., suite 259
La mesa, CA 91941
if you have a short story that goes with the (copy) of your snapshot, simply send it or email a copy of it, and include your email address and wany other contact info you wish to send. please don't send me someone else's photos without their permission to publish...OK? i don't want to get into any trouble, i just want to have fun.

it's OK to send pet pix as well.
lisabebiart@aol.com
thanks kids.

the virginal bernice

i have been posting paintings made from snapshots from my friend "annie"'s family album in the last few days. And, i have mentioned a couple of times now, "annie's" mother-in-law, Bernice, as she is the purest person i know ---- wellll....
here is a shocking painting - it is Bernice!
this was painted from a snapshot of bernice when she was showing some skin at a tender age - possibly 16. isn't she lovely?

see how dreamy she looks - she was probably dreaming of her future husband and all the lovely children they would have together and then dreaming of her lovely future daughter-in-law "annie" and the pure and sweet grandkids that were sure to come into being. (not forgetting the other grandkids...that i don't know as well....)

OR, possibly she was dreaming of becoming a nun, only wondering how she could get a great an awesome tan before signing up to a lifetime of black sack wearing.

actually, i don't even think she is Catholic... besides she never opted for the nunnery, did she. good call bernice. i love this painting, i hope you don't mind me sharing it with the world.

annie and the hatchet family

this is not exactly portraiture - in fact its pretty bad if you were trying to see whose who. but "annie" is the middle youngun'.
i just thought the family who was "cabinin' it" in the wilds -well, you know, the whole idea that they gathered tightly together for a snapshot while the middle son wields a hatchet was pretty darn funny.

looks to me as though they should have had their own sitcom.

hey, hold on, where did "ricky" go.....? (that's the oldest son)

Oh i got it, he was either the one with the camera or....... the one out in the bush taking a wizz.

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back step counsel

where does a boy learn to be a man....?

Or, where does a man learn about childhood? This is a piece i made from another black and white snapshot of "annie's" (see previous posts....) this time it is of her husband's dad and grandpa. Little did junior here know he would later marry the pure and virginal bernice. (see pervious posts)
boy, see what a great lot of paintings come from just one person's family album? i made tons more.....
how about your family? what's in your closet? or wallet?

free demo - mixed media

i will be doing a free hour long demonstration of my magical mixed media works, thursday night, february 7, 2008, 7:30 p.m. at La Mesa City Hall (allison street). plenty of comfy seating and refreshments before it starts. park behind the building and follow the crowd to the "light" or the lite up part of the building.

ice cream at mission beach

my school friend (let's just call her "annie") also provided me with a black and white photo of her husband's youth (see previous posts of other snapshots turned paintings). an extended family of toe heads who spent many a day at mission beach. i felt i needed to paint it in pink (sorry about the glare on the right side of the painting)

i just love those elastic fronted swimsuits with the tiny skirts the girls are wearing. i can remember mine - it always had a smell of old elastic, cotton and beach. my swim cap was a matching thick knobby, rubbery thing with a snap-on chin strap that smelled like - well, rubber. that chin snap made a really nice loud "snap" sound that said, "now i'm ready to run and feel the water with my toe" (i was never one to jump right in).
i also remember that i used to try to suck the sea salt out of the knotted end of the neck tie on the long drive home in the back seat of our massive station wagon with no seat belts while feeling kinda squirmy about the sand in my butt crack.

the maddening thing about sand: i never figured out how to get all the sand off my feet before entering the car - under the swearing threat of my mom - i mean, if you showered at the beach, you still had wet feet that touched the sand to get to the car. i would try to walk on only the edges of my feet, or my toes, but it didn't work and it made me lag behind, which earned me a hardy "back-of-the-head" slap for holding people up. to be fair, my mother was always lugging a giant umbrella, straw beach bag with matching straw hat and a wooden fold-up chair which made her "the people" i was holding up!
anyway, i was always on the lookout for a small isolated puddle on the road to the car to rinse my feet,--but my mom would have a conniption (shit-fit) if i waded in it!!!! she said the puddle had dirty water in it. "yeah, sooooo?" i said. then, smack, back-of-the-head again!
i think that is when i began my characteristic arm flailing gesture meaning i don't understand YOU! - heavy sigh- just remembering one of many early frustrations....and missing my mom. (clear throat, ahem) sorry i went there.

anyway, back to the toe heads; they sure look like they are appreciating their ice creams. yummmm, licking melting ice cream while salt is crystallizing on your skin in the sun. that has to be one of the greatest gifts of youth. that kind of enjoyment.

i'm not certain, but i think the woman there is bernice (see last post). she looked innocent and virgin in the last post, right? well, she ended up with 3 kids!!! and a whole load of nieces and nephews. i mean she got married and everything, but back when the car picture was taken, i bet she never dreamed it would happen this way. who ever does?
and guess what? today, she is still a virgin! at least, i think she is.
well bernice, i think you are the purest woman i have ever met. and your purity shows to this day. god bless you.
oh and by the way - the second tallest toe head boy is "annie's" husband, "mike" - he grew up to be a surfer, but then he had to start working to support "annie" and their three pure kids!

bernice, by the car

This is my childhood friend's mother in law -

this painting was derived from a shadowy a black and white photo.
my choice of colors (again) were inspired from picture books i had read in the early 1960's.

Doesn't she look wholesome? well, she is a very wholesome and pure character - even to this day.


WORKSHOP NEWSFLASH: i have decided to conduct a one day artists' workshop in mixed media....

February 4, 2008, Monday from 9 until 4:00- bring your lunch, $90.

Norma Yukos is hosting the workshop in her beautiful Leucadia studio. Also, Lauria Mika will be conducting a 2 day workshop on polymer clay mosaics (check out her book at Barnes and Noble), $180 for the 2 days, February 2-3, 2008 at the same location.

working artists: the workshops are tax deductible

first paid, first served

only 12 spots open!
contact: Norma Yukos Yuskos@cox.net

Artfesters and Out -of -Towners: contact Norma for lodging info.

tina, what powers!!!!

this is a painting of tina, a childhood friend's sister...doesn't she look like a stinker... well, the truth is she has been a very nice person all her life. she would never even say "boo" to anyone. I love her hair topknot.

i think her daddy took this picture of her in their backyard. then i made a painting from the photo. guess how old she is now ---yep, you are pretty close - she is somewhere in her mid 50's. the photo of her was black and white of course. i painted this piece in sort of "dick and jane" storybook colors.

she lives in alaska now with her husband. she has two grown children, one is married and living in florida, i believe.
can you imagine growing up here in southern california then moving to freezing alaska - fairbanks alaska at that. she even owns sled dogs! I can't fathom....

my daughter brooke lived in anchorage for a couple of years while she got her big kick start into radio news. she was an anchor for the all news station up there - which was affiliated with CNN. from there she went to CNN in Atlanta (hotlanta) and anchored world news for a couple of years. then she moved back to san diego to be near me, to nurse me as i was deathly ill with acute kidney failure.... i regained health and now she is moving to LA as she is still doing CNN radio and also national public radio and going to college. she is very busy. i'm proud of her. but wahh!!! well, LA is not so far, i guess.

anyway, back to tina and the sled dogs. i hardly know what to say to tina - except you are some kinda powerful woman. So here's to you and your dogs!

what's black and white and has beeswax on top?

yep, these elf children that's right!

chez moi- our paris apartment

i understand the Paris apartment for the workshop is now full.....we have a waiting list.. BUT there is still space available in the workshops themselves. $150. a day. Renee Richetts can help you find a reasonably priced hotel nearby.
the workshops take place in the apartment.

remember artists....you can use the entire trip as a tax write-off if you are selling your work but are making a lose......

email renee richetts rrichetts@cox.net

Prairie Girl

Charming little prairie girl. Such a romantic image.

But not for me.

Sure I created this piece and i like it well enough - i mean, i like the background part of it more than the image. and yes, she is pretty and sweet looking enough......

But, i don't know why, i just have never been one to be in love with Americana. I like folk art well enough and i love primitive and outsider art (which is different), but elongated hearts made out of roughly chiseled wood or rusty tin doo-dads with a curly-q rusty wire looping around as a hanger, tattered cotton made into hooked rugs, milk paint, raggedy ann and andys...just don't do anything for me. to look at these things in a shop, say, just don't give me an "oh how darling" reaction at all-- no emotional sigh, wishing i were of a different era.

well, that's not fair, i like the certain eras - ones i can remember - you know the 50's through the 80's, say. i loved the honesty of the Andy Griffith Show, for instance - But i never really got into the Little House on the Prairie, never really liked barn dwellers or corn huskers.

My mom owned an antique store where she specialized in early american pine furniture. i think i learned from looking at butter churns, bed warmers, pot bellied stoves and rigid tall-backed benches, that there really wasn't much to get all romantic about. I mean, those times were tough, dusty and hard.

My idea of a romantic era involves a simple, honest, but somewhat civilized lifestyle. Mayberry type of living. Like my early childhood when i was being looked after by my strict Baptist grandma who we clearly understood. she talked no nonsense; she had raised 4 boys and one daughter single-handedly as a widow- who believed in using the "switch" when her kids (and even the neighborhood kids) became too unruly.

I love to dream about the days when young girls wore white gloves to church and they were expected to keep them white. They wore white ankle stockings and mary janes and pretty little smock topped dresses with a fluffy petticoats and ruffled undies underneath. When hair was pincurled overnight and bangs chopped high on the forehead that would somehow emphasize a broad mouth full of milk white teeth in a healthy Pepsident grin. When pop-beads and plastic smelling baby doll houses and tiny tables for tea parties were the thrill. When big brothers had cap-guns and played cowboys and Indians with a bow and arrow set that had a faux sheepskin quiver, brightly colored feather arrows with rubber suction tips. When daddies wore their pants up to their necks with real leather belts that could be used for a beating if you ticked off your mom during the day and she ordered him not to spare the child.
OUCH!!! wah!
Yeah, those are the days to remember!!!!! I paint those days a lot.
But heck, sometimes i like to add in other eras like Prairie Girl, into the mix for interest. but, on the whole, its just not my bag.

transcending downward

i know, how can you go up as in "transcending" and be going down at the same time? well, that is this painting. Ruby (my mom) is traveling downstairs yet, in a transcended or ghostlike form...i feel like that today actually. not dead, silly.
just...... i feel too tired or "stuck" to create anything (downward), yet feel like something (i don't exactly know what)is welling up inside me - maybe something will burst, transcending me up a notch.

i complained about feeling this way to my daughter, Brooke today. i told her i didn't know what the matter with me was, i don't feel like doing much - usually i have very BIG art plans on the horizon, lots of energy. she told me that i was merely having a "fertile void".

i like that. i think it means that while i am living an emotionally hulled out, shell -like existence these last couple of days, my brain and creative juices have been resorting and rejuvenating.

gawd, i hope so

i think actually i am at wit's end because i have NOT yet got my studio sorted out. i heard a couple of days ago, the city closed escrow and the studio has been eminent domain-ed - the studio will soon be a new hospital. dang.
that leaves me at home still trying to squeeze my huge studio into two bedrooms. i think i need the entire house -- but what would become of my family? it's a tough call.
i don't know what to do. i love having a studio in an art community, but it is so far away - about 25 minutes drive one way. if i chose to have it close to home, will it be a mistake to establish myself away from the big art scene? does anyone out there have an opinion about this?
i'm nervous about the change. i have collectors in escondido area. i sure don't want them to forget me.
what would Ruby do? where is paul cezanne when i need him, i bet he knws what i should do (see previous post in december about the gypsy and the fortune teller). or even grandma.......i smell lavender....

my Mom

i dunno, i miss my mom.

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this makes sense to me!

what would this world be without randomness?