Colors

Last night I came home, cooked a quick dinner and had to overcome the whole fused glass staple incident by heading upstairs to the loft to an abstract I started at the beginning  of the month. It's a continuation of my music abstracts. San Antonio is known for Fiesta in April and when I hear the Flaminco music and the mariachis playing I see the colorful rhythm of Fiesta. Between last night and tonight I'm almost finished adding all the colors. It feels good to let my mind get lost in the painting.

 L

On another note, the book I ordered last week arrived today, " When breath becomes air" by Paul Kalanithi. It's about a medical student on his way to becoming a neurosurgeon when he becomes ill with terminal cancer. When I read an excerpt online, I knew I had to read the book.

 Another book on my list to read is a book my youngest son bought me for Christmas "behind the beautiful forevers" by Katherine Boo. The story takes place in Annawadi, which is a makeshift settlement in Mumbai.  This book has won quite a few awards and is on the New York best seller list.

I'm looking forward to reading both of them and can't decide which one to read first.

It's just Monday

I always look forward to the weekend, making plans, writing lists of all the things I'm going to do on Saturday and Sunday and how artistically productive I'm going to be on the weekend.  Sometimes, it just doesn't work that way, I get side tracked.  I read all these posts on Facebook "sell more art",  "sell art online", "create your page to sell your art", but no one says "get off the couch and create your art"  "Stop dusting and create art",  "pull out your sketchbook and create your designs", Motivate yourself to create".

I can draw and plan all week, Monday thru Friday, and when the weekend comes around, I lose my motivation...... what is that about? Maybe I need to get rid of the TV and recliner....

Now I'm at my 8-5, between files, thinking about what I could have created yesterday..... I had this intricate black powder drawing that I was starting, but then, I thought this is going to take me hours to draw out, so I put it to the side and created something fast, not intentional, and it wasn't in my original plan at all.  The kicker of the whole thing was that a staple from a bag of crushed  glass fell onto my piece and I didn't even notice until I took it out of the kiln this morning. Needless to say staple or no staple, I didn't like the outcome.  wasted time, wasted material.... now in a junk drawer....

I need to set my intention, and stick to it.

Here is a lovely picture of the burned into glass staple.

 

Change is in the air

Waking up this morning with a chill in the air, the sun shining, and the birds chirping in my back yard, I decided to come downstairs and have a quiet cup of coffee while Tiger sits in my lap purring.

As  I open the blinds the sunlight hits everything in the room and I can see how much dust has accumulated on everything...... just one more thing to add to my list today to clean. Right now though all I can think about is the events of yesterday, and contemplate my future.  It was a work day as usual, or so I thought, that was until a phone call in the evening that things may change, and the feeling I have is that I might not have job in the near future. After 15 years in the same cubicle, change is hard, even though I claim to love change.....  I won't go into any specific detail, but I have to consider my future and how I approach this. One might consider sitting back and just let chips fall where they may, but others, like myself, would like to know where my immediate future is going and where my pay check may be coming from.  I shared my news with the peolple of my art group and all they could see was me sellling my art as my occupation.  I feel that is easier said than done.  I will embrace whatever comes my way and go with the flow.

Now, on another note, since joining the San Antonio Glass Guild  again, I have been going to the meetings and this past Thursday I attended what they call a "make and take". We got together at Stouffer Studio and Gail, the owner of the studio donated over 100 pounds of clear scrap glass. She guided us on making glass hearts from small pieces of broken chopped up glass in several layers to be fired on a tac fuse, which basically means the broken shards will stick together, but not completely melt.  We each had the choice of either donating the hearts towards a fund raiser, which the actual benefactor hasn't yet been decided on, or we could take them home. I decided to donate mine.  It was a fun get together and I enjoyed seeing all the members that attended. 

Sunshine after the storm

It's about 5pm and I'm sitting on the back deck, in the sun writing on my ipad.  Last night wicked storms blew through Texas with torando warnings, and I was hoping it wasn't going to continue today like the weatherman had predicitied. I woke up this morning with some serious gray clouds and drove to my 9am gallery appointment without a drop of rain falling. The roads were wet but the highway was pretty empty with a lot of people off for President's Day, including me.
I arrived promptly at 9 and took a tour of there stained glass gallery, it was impressive to say the least.  The style, color and designs where phenomenal, and the craftsmanship was the best I have ever seen in person. After my gallery tour, I was guided through the design area, then to a workshop within the building. To my surprise we went out the back door to a HUGE workshop where all the glass is stored, and there were huge worktables through out the entire building, all I could say to my host, "I want to live here". I didn't think anything like this existed so close to home. I was amazed.

After the tour I presented my most recent style of work and they seem to like it, and want to include it in the gallery.  However, l did pull out of my  purse a cross had made a few years ago to show them. They LOVED it! I think my crosses will fit well amongst the Christian themed windows. Now I just have to figure out waht I am going to use as bails and what type of adhesive.  The adhesives have disappointed me over the years as they tend to pop off. However, I am excited again to create some new crosses.

I 

My newest piece out of the kiln this morning,I mounted it and took it with my other pieces

"Left luggage" fused glass 7"x9"

2" dichro fused glass cross I made this one for my hubby years ago

an opportunity

I really do love my husband!  My hubby works all over the southern district of Texas and when he came upon a stained glass studio and gallery he didn't hesitate going in and checking it out.  He referred me to the owners and I now have a 9am appointment on Monday to present my work for their gallery!  I am so nervous and excited!  This is the first place I will be taking my 2D glass artwork, and I just hope it is well received.  

I went out today during my lunch break and bought a brand new storage bin to carry all my artwork. Now I need to go out and get packing supplies so nothing breaks during transport.

I'm getting a bit ambitious, however, I would like to create 2 new pieces before I go to the appointment, hopefully I will come thru for myself! Ok, I would be happy with just 1 more piece :)

 

Feeling accomplshed

I was anticipating the weather to be cloudy and gloomy, so I had no plans to leave the house today. I created my to-do list early this morning which consisted of cleaning up, laundry, bathe the cat, bathe the dog and continue on with whatever I felt like doing. Instead the weather was sunny and warm, almost hot.  I even hung my legs into the pool this afternoon, for a split second thinking jumping in but deciding against it since the water was barely 60 degrees.

Once I finished my to-do list I decided to venture into the garage where my husband was already working on his own projects.  With the garage door open it was a beautiful day to work outside. I measured my boards and my husband cut them down to size so I could mount my glass art.  I have had two dimensional pieces sitting on the shelf of my closet as far back as 2009. They all had one thing in common, they needed to be mounted on something, with some kind of adhesive.  I never could figure out what I wanted to mount my artwork on.  I didn't want to use glues or silicone, and I certainly didn't have the tools to cut steel to use as the backing.  2017 brought new knowledge and now I know what to use, and want to use. I was on a roll this afternoon, I even mounted my tiny scrap glass 2"x"2 drawings.

So the day was not wasted and I accomplished what I set out to do and more.

2"x 2" poppy on scrap stiff white (2015)

 mounted on black board

2"x 2  little bird on scrap stiff white (2015)

Mounted on black board

8"x 8"Fused glass abstract rhododendron (2009) made with glass powders with reaction to french vanilla. Mounted on black board 

7"x 9" Rockaway poem fused on french vanilla

Mounted on blue whitewash board  2015

8"x 8" Cosmic abstract (2009)made with glass powders and gold leaf

Mounted on black board. 

 

Did you know Grey Gardens in East Hampton is for sale???? A cool 19 million. I have always loved that beach bungalow- mansion.  It is the smallest home around there, and I would love to live in it. Only in my wildest dreams......

Patience

They say patience is virtue- "the ability to wait patiently, without getting angry, the ability to wait calmly".... I really don't have patience.  I get easily frustrated when I am putting details in my art, especially when a time crunch is looming. Point in fact: the second firing of piece below. The first time around it seem a bit flat and dull,  I decided that when I got home from my day job I would "QUICKLY" add to it and get it in the kiln before 6pm (I get home at 5:30) so I don't go to bed with a kiln on..... Thus I rush against clock, my work gets messy and the details get skewed and sloppy.... If I only had the "patience" to wait until this weekend, I would not have rushed myself in a 30 minute window, and maybe, just maybe, my work would have turned out the way I saw it in my head.

1st fire

2nd firing

It may need a 3rd firing .............. or just file it away somewhere.

just things

I have so much on my my mind lately.  Good things, bad things and wishful thinking.  Maybe Arnold could take over?

Since the class a couple of weekends ago I haven't created anything, but have prepared my glass to create some art. My space is ready with measured and cut glass, I have downloaded reference pictures from a great site, pmp-art.com that allows artists to refererence the photographs without having to worry about breaking any copyright laws.  All that's needed is to create a login account and the array of photos to reference are plenty. 

Sometimes when I get tired of drawing tedious little lines to create a picture, I just have fun throwing things together to create an abstract.  This particular piece was created towards the end of class, put into a tiny little kiln all by itself, and the kiln malfunctioned. The kiln shut down before it got hot enough for a full fuse, creating this textured piece instead,  I call that a "happy accident".  I even brought this piece into my cubicle at my day job because I love rubbing my hands over it. As of March 1st, I will be in my cubicle for 15 years, and this is the first personal item I have placed in my area besides a plant someone gave me as a gift.  I always thought I would hit the lottery so I didn't want to have to pack up stuff off my desk.... :) Just kidding, there really isn't any space for personal items.

"Happy accident" 4"x6"

Last night I had to go shopping for a new dress for a business luncheon today. My closet is full of pretty dresses, but they're all in different sizes, and I seem to have outgrown the last size dress I own. I was determined to go bold, I wanted a red dress. Ok so I ended up with a deep red, almost maroon color, and since it was sleeveless, my arms looked like cottage cheese under the fluorescent lights, so I had to buy a cover up...  anyway, I was pleased with my purchase.  

 

In my cubicle with my cover up on.