"headless walking"

i have many canvases, small ones, that i have painted (randomly) with the idea that they will be background for just the right piece, collaged painted paper piece.

this is one. when i placed the painted-on-paper woman on this canvas out of many canvases, she looked great, but better without her head - i personal can relate to this painting-- walk without a head.
i mean, as it is, my head is only a mere pin-size.
so,
i ask you: are heads that important?

well, lord knows, i have taken many many snapshots like this. or i have plenty of snapshots were there are little tiny heads at the bottom of the photo and lots of wall and ceiling.
so now i have my first painting without a head. i might paint those large wall/ tiny heads types next.

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sorry for the ow quality photo--- i have been using the camera (photobooth) feature in my mac. i can't find my camera.

tonight's painting....."seated girl"

reading

just finished reading "a thousand splendid suns"......boohoo

tonight's crappy painting on paper....

oh well, can't always do masterpieces.
this is a painting of saint rita -abstract. she had white bees come in and out of her mouth as a sign of divinity. so here are the white bees and a ghost like face.

i am wondering when i will be getting my mojo going again with painting. sometimes it is a real slog. i have been painting non-stop for 2 weeks. i hate it when things don't really come together lucidly or fluidly.

but i have been down this path some many many times--- it will break soon and i will be rocking and rolling.


but this dry period sucks.

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tonight's painting....."santa rita"

i am in a group collaborative project entitled: Patron Saints. we got to pick our patron saint, create an altered (actually altar-ed, as in an altar to the saints) book that will hold one of each saint in it. once a month we will mail our book around in a rotation so that we can each paint each other's saint.
my patron saint is Saint Rita (Rita is my sister-in-law's name)-she is the patron saint of perseverance....there are many symbols that are incorporated with her icon, roses and white bees, for instance.
i can't wait to see what others have done.
i will mount this painting on paper, which i created tonight onto my "book" as the cover--the book is merely a three ring binder, that i painted and aged.
i was not ambitious making the book - i believe others in the group created their books from scratch.
tomorrow i will work on Saint Francis of Assisi, who is someone else's declared saint. Saint Francis of Assisi is another favorite saint of mine- he is one of the patron saints who visited Gubbio, my in-laws home town in Italy.
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the stupid flu...
rosie came home early today with a fever. poor baby. i was sick last week. not for long, thank goodness. i know of so many people who have had a head cold type flu for 3 weeks or more. yuck to that.
brooke started college again today. she is taking about 100 units in hard stuff like spanish level 2 and economics and physical anthro. jamie is being jamie. he lives in santa barbara - over the weekend he was kate winslet.
OK, this is what happened. he was meeting a friend in downtown santa barbara, while the film festival is going on and there was this red carpet for kate winslet, et al.
i guess jamie was texting his friend while walking down the sidewalk-oblivious-when he realized he photo was being taken by paparazzi - he had stumbled onto the red carpet - somehow.....once he understood what was happening, he "went with it"....and was cool being a famous movie star for a day. er, nano second.

he said, "and the security didn't bat an eye".
poor kate.

painting

i have nearly finished this painting. i am going to add more dark to the bottom of the painting.
its not easy taking a picture of a painting using "photobooth" feature in my mac computer........
i painted the painting in a vague way - to add mystic - there is a semblance of a temple in the background on the left.

my little (not so little) rosie went to her first formal high school dance last night. we stayed up for her. she wondered why (her dad) stayed up.......

i guess it wasn't such the big deal for her like it was for us.

now for a swim.

messy workspace

paintings are starting to add up

whew! i have been working and working to try to get some more artwork together ---- i have had low inventory since last year.
here are a few stacked up.
meredith came over today and cheered me up - i have been in a funk for weeks now. we worked nearly all day-- painting. she did some fun paintings that i am sure will get framed and entered into the next local show.

i finished quite a few - not sure what will become of them.

my depression has been dominating me for too long. i am trying to dig out of it. meredith did a lot of good, she doesn't know how much she helped me. its a hard thing to put into words.

the obama song.......

i just can't help myself. man, this makes me feel like a flower child again!
this song puts a big smile on my face........

a new day....

this painting is entitled, "dunce quartet". it's one of my favorites.
i don't know about you, but i am happy today to have a new president and mostly a new presidential family. what a great warm family.
of course we all have a lot of work ahead of us - obama is not doing everything himself. in fact, he urges us all to dig in.
i, for one, am trying to live within our means. not use credit cards. just stpp being so wasteful.
also i am going to work hard on getting healthy and fit, so that i won't burden my family with medical problems. i know this doesn't really affect the nation, but it starts with our family, one family, doesn't it?

another thing, i want to be as green as i can be. i already drive a prius (not a beauty of a car, but it is great on "feel good"). i will also recycle more - even in my art. OK, OK not much of a stretch for me. next, i ought to clear out my house of unnecessary stuff and give stuff to thrift stores. well, this is tough for me as i am a hoarder - especially of books. but i will force myself to let go of books and let them go free and naked into the universe for a happy full life outside my home.
and i will only allow myself to have one light on at a time in my house-- when i am the only one home.

i don't know if these efforts will help out our country much - but what if everyone tried a little harder not to be wasteful? that would work.

so, here's to a new day and a new life in USA. clink-clink

more dancers......

not completely bollywood.....

but at least some dancers. these are little dance cards i created for somerset studio magazine.

tomorrow

we will be driving the new mercedes around. rosie has a swim meet, which also means i will be an official for two days. it has been so hot here - can you believe it? in the 80's while the rest of the world is under snow.
but the weather changes are what make californians crazy. so unpredictable. no wonder we are laid back. we know that the weather is our master. just a couple of days ago, i was thankful to have a pair of ugg's. now i'm looking for my shorts.

i hung out with my friend, kathy olsen today. she was sporting shorts. we had some great laughs as we shopped through the clearance racks at michaels and jo-anns. we didn't buy much. we were wondering if anyone out there was into art anymore - times are tough, does that mean no one creates - cuz they can't afford it or have the time? - can't justify buying goodies to create with?
i don't know. what do you think?
i am working on a series of bollywood paintings. i love the colors orange and yellow and some pink. i went to see "slumdog millionaire" with my daughter brooke the other day and have not gotten past the beautiful colors. great visual movie, although disturbing.
also i have been watching now and then some tidbits of "this is india" on KPBS. no one else wants to watch it with me. i am totally intrigued by india. i traveled there in 1973 and have not gotten over it. 1973 was a long time ago, but in the movie slumdog, the slums look the same as then. i am fascinated by the indian slums, they are so self contained in a way. they are very efficient - the way they run or organize their lives in the caste system......unless they want to change things.
i just finished reading "white tiger". the character balram wanted out of his caste and he did it by murder and bribes. a bit drastic. its actually a pretty humorous book.

as i say, i'm fascinated by indian slum living, yet we are going to tool around in the mercedes. i am a big hypocrite.

petticoat junction

because someone made a comment about the pic of me when i was a tender 32 looking as though i might be one of the brady sisters....well, i thought i would honor that comment with this intro.
truthfully i always hoped to be like lisa on green acres......i married a lawyer and there is the farm in italy......its just that--- 1. i don't have a hungarian accent....(although my ancestors were hungarian) and 2. i look nothing like eva gabor.

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handmade cloth

i finished 6 art quilts today and sent them off to somerset studio magazine. they were approximately 2' x 3'. unfortunately, i took a pic of them with my daughter's rosie's camera. apparently she lost the connecting wire to upload it to the computer - so until we find it (have you seen my house? might never find it - it's probably somewhere near lost socks) i will have to make do with scanning what i have.
so, here are some tidbits of the cloth i created to for backgrounds of the art quilts.

i was lucky, last week while shopping with my lovely daughter, brooke, (who is one great recession-eista and is learning to make EVERYTHING herself)at jo-ann's we spotted a bolt of unbleached muslin with a soft hand for only $15. i think bolt was 25 yards. this was one happy find.
i probably created about 8 yards of fabric that looks somethings like the above. it was fun just painting and spraying ink and aging dye and drawing on it until i felt the piece was done. then i created the center of interest - a paintover on cloth of various people. three of glam girls and three of prairie girls. the result was pretty - well, paintover-like.
now if you will excuse me, i will be looking for the camera connecting cable for awhile.

Bubbles, age 32

i don't even resemble this person anymore.




since someone asked, yeah, this is me, er, was me, not brooke.
i was a hard body. actually since i posted this picture last night, i have felt haunted by my old being, asking me "what the hell happened????.....how could you have done this to me.....?".
then i told my old me, "i am sooooo sorry, (sobbing) i will try to do better."

i found this old picture the other day while rosie was looking over my shoulder, she said, "hey that person looks just like you". i didn't know what to say to her since a few seconds before she said that i had told her, "hey look at this picture of me".

yep, its me......me, when i was "bubbles".

good golly, it's "bubbles"......

when i was in my thirties i worked for a well established law firm downtown. i was single (widowed) and since i worked out constantly, i looked as good as i was to ever look. . .. somehow i was given different nicknames. one was a sort of song...."good golly - it's miss godley" (my last name was godley). but another more fun name given me was "bubbles", because i guess i looked like a striper. or perhaps, and most likely, i really didn't at all but my co-workers thought it would be hilarious to give me a striper's name. i personally think "bubbles" matched my personality. but times and things change..........

so remembering those good old days, i thought i would post this youtube of sally rand. i only wish i could get down to my old "bubbles" weight - i have been dieting and working out.....it might take until never, but i will try. enjoy:

ok, uhm, this video does get a bit boring........
i think i will paint several sally rand-ish paintings today.

polaroid shot......

by Jennifer Trausch at the nelson hancock gallery. great photo.

wish i had legs like that.

goodbye to happy hare......

i was sad to read in the newspaper today that longtime radio personality and one of my daughter's mentor's early in her radio career, Happy Hare died.
he was so good to my daughter, i will forever be grateful to him for his mentorship and support. plus he was a good voice for KOGO radio.

"Hi There, it's Happy Hare"......i will not forget.




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holy cow, i just read that the new yorks times might go under in may! i will write about this tomorrow. good night for now.

artist on call for stampington

you may or may not know that one of my jobs in life is to be an artist on call for various stampington magazines, ie. Somerset Studio's Inspiration.
what does this mean?
well, i get cool stuff to create with and a deadline to submit these creations that then go into the various magazines. yes, i get paid for this fun stuff too.
for instance a while back i got these very cool smallish hangers to decorate. i took these a created a couple of hangers for a teenager's room in shabby chic. they appeared in inspiration magazine last (i think it was )september.


today i completed a load of work for the magazines. i was given two sets of silhouette stamps of women dancing of which i used to make:
8 tags,
3 awards
5 pairs of swinging '60's earrings
2 headbands
2 paintings
5 journal pages
of course i didn't need to create so many, but today was my first day in a very long time back to creating and i felt f.r.e.e. to create something and went into overdrive.

i can't tell you how good this feels. tomorrow i am going to complete these 3 large paintings that have been collecting dust for months. i am hoping to have a show this saturday night in escondido (262 east grand ave.)-- come on by from 6:30p.m.- 8 p.m.
also tomorrow brooke and i might go see "slumdog millionaire". she didn't feel up to it today. she is getting over a very heavy duty flu. still coughing a bit.

back to school.....

for you, little rosie.

one more day

school starts tomorrow morning for the rose. it has been a long school break. i enjoy her company and we did a lot of things together, but it is time to think of working again.............

since i have been on a kick with the polaroid (commercial) jingles, i thought i would post a few artsy polaroid transfers. actually i think these might be from the throw away tear off sheets. these are not mine, i found them on the internet a while ago and have lost track of who they belong to - so i really apologise for not giving someone very worthy of their due credit.

anyway, enjoy these fascinations of mine. and meanwhile if you are still interested in polaroid transfers, just check out www.polaroid.com. this site directs you to many wonderful polaroid sx-70 altered images as an art form. for some real eye-opening great polaroid art check out: http://www.cathleennaundorf.com. her fashion work is breathtaking.

i saw the movie "yes man" today -it was a weak ok. i don't think anyone should rush to see jim carey in up close huge movie screen fashion. he is beginning to look very scary; i think he ha over stretched his facial muscles - just my opinion. but i do love zooey deschanel and rushed home and purchased the sound track just to get her weird ballads on my ipod. also her face, especially her eyes resemble my daughter rosie's (as brooke and others have recently pointed out) which make her easy for me to look at. see small pic on top. also, deschanel appeared blonde in Elf, as the singing elf, "jovie".
and BTW, proof that the readership of this blog is much different than that of my daughter brooke's livejournal, brooke stole the two photos of her sibs from the recent posts here and posted them on her own blog. guess what? she imediately got 50 comments about how hot rosie is and a few about how hot jamie is. what does that prove? well that she has a much bigger, and younger readership than me and she has some pervs following her too.
and it also proves that this blog is read by upstanding citizens - maybe mostly geriatrics.

rosie in the new mercedes

polaroid swinger commercial....

meet the swinger......
as i mentioned in a previous post - i just can't stop singing the "meet the swinger" song. and yeah, the commercial is a whole minute long.

HA!!! i have been married for 17 years and only found out today that my husband owned a polaroid swinger in 1966! damn, i'm jealous! and i looked at him and asked "who are you?"


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how about those chargers?????!!!!! what a great game.

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the instamatic commercial..youtube

like someone commented on youtube....this is back in the day when commercials ran for a full 60 seconds. i didn't time this one, but......

RIP polaroids.....

i don't know about you but i'm still lamenting over the loss of my dear friend the polaroid instant photo. polaroid filed chapter 11 bankruptcy december 19.
i miss the big-ass flash and the wait 60 seconds - count 'em until the washed out image of a startled face (because no one is really prepared for the flash) becomes sort-of clear. i miss waiting for it..... you know, wagging the photo to help it dry and develop......while loved ones crowd around to see - then laugh, then wait, wait, wait - oh, it looks clearer now. of course the person whose picture was just taken can't see the image for a few minutes anyway because their eyes are ruined from the big-ass flash.

i was kinda jealous of our uppity young neighbors who got the first one on our block. the polaroid swinger - GAWD, i wanted one so badly. they were a bit stingy about letting us kids play with it. they said something about the developing paper being expensive. "meet the sween-ghar, the polaroid swinger" (sing with me)... "take a shot, count it down, zip it off...."

so i remember my 14th birthday getting the new instant camera that had a square cube rotating flashbulb. The totally coooool instamatic. that way i could take 4 instant photos without having to change the bulb. and it was lightweight about the size of my one-snap pocketbook. but it was not a polaroid. it was a kodac though. the flash was freakin' blinding.

yep, the good old days. when the polaroids got wet - it turned into a smeary mess - which was a sad discovery i made one day when water spilt and seeped under my glass topped (to protect the wood top) coffee table. then of course it stuck to the glass, but didn't any photo do that? i had a lot of photos under that glass.
one thing about the polaroid - it spoke the truth. instantly. unlike today when every image under the sun can be altered. oh sure you can alter a polaroid by sanding it down and painting on top of it - but that is just for fun art projects and laughs.
police and investigators used polaroids to show what the immediate crime scene looked like or an instant mug shot.

the photo above of the man above is of the unveiling of the 60 second one-step process for producing finished photos - that is edwin land, 61 years ago.
i liked the smaller squarish-sized ones better. then the ones that didn't even have a pull off paper, it just developed before your eyes.
i hate to say this, but i hope to be the first uppity neighbor (although no longer young) to own the new PoGo digital printer (instant digital camera) with zink technology.............and of course, the neighborhoods kids ......will not care less.
times have changed, man.

(still humming, "meet the sween-ghar, the polaroid swinger.....")

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTONS

we just saw this movie, rosie, jamie and me.....we all three cried like babies.
it's a very sad, mournful, moving movie which makes you think about what is important in life and about aging and (lost) opportunity. it is also about love and loss and love and loss some more.
the movie was created from a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Brad Pitt plays the awed-faced, always witnessing from the sidelines, internally mournful as he knows he is odd (no matter what age he is playing) Benjamin Buttons. it is the story of a man born as an elderly baby and how he lives through his completed life growing younger and younger until, well, you know. buttons offers as explanation throughout the movie, that he was born with a strange affliction, or that he is actually a lot younger than he looks........
but actually only a few people realize that he is moving through life getting younger instead of older.

we, three, thought the movie was very good and provocative, albeit sad at times. it makes you think and it makes you feel.
just don't wear mascara.

happy new year!

cheers!


bottom's up!


here's to your good health!


drink and be merry!!!


(first, i need to pitch a bitch about cox cable leaving me with NO internet connection for the past 4 days...) outrageously bad conduct on cox's part. naughty naughty service.
grrrr.
ok done with that lash out with cox, on to more merrier thoughts.



so here's to a new year, new beginnings and all things looking up!?!

last year started out so very promising...there seemed to be plenty of money circulating among my friends and fans...... i had 3 really wonderful workshops: one here in luecadia, one in paris, france and one in washington state (artfest). lots of art opportunites for me as well.
then, i had hand and knee surgery. (separate surgeries) that sucked, but now i am better, thanks.
then we had an extented stay in italy in october. i was to have a few workshops there, but they didn't pan out---i blame bad finances - globally. no one wanted to afford it or risk it-- at that time - and they were probably right.
then the new art TV show business.
yep, lots can happen in a year.
this painting i am standing in front of (me looking extremely geeky, er, drunk) with my lovely daughter rosie (see how much she has changed since march 2008, look at previous post where she is with her brother)...sold to the highest bidder for $1,000. at "panache" in escondido last march. that was exciting. a live auction. i love those. (i know i have posted this pic before - sooooooo. i just wanted to post a picture of me toasting with champagne! to wish you happy new years!) oh, hold on!!--- that's a wine glass!!! - well, i was drinking champagne earlier that evening!)

i was on vicodin (before knee surgery) and drinking said champagne - that was fun at first........then i was very sick. my daughter rosie will never let me forget that mistake. it upset brooke too.
still, i had a fun evening.
so i wish you all a great new year. i hope we all have better circulation this year. money circulation that is.
as for me, i think i will stick with painting, minus the vicodin. but always champagne.