I haven't written a blog in what seems like 100 years. Life sometimes gets in the way. I also haven't painted in a few months. THAT is the hardest for me to believe. If I don't have time to totally immerse myself in a painting I just won't start it. Drewbie and I planned a trip to Pensacola, FL this month to dip our toes in the surf and get sand in our suits. If you have never seen or felt the beautiful, silky white sand on Pensacola Beach put it on your list of destinations. Our lodging in Pensacola is among some of the finest in the nation. The Walton Inn. Never heard of it? LOL Millie and Fred are the most thoughtful hosts. This vacation is more than sun and sand! It's having the best time possible with our long distance besties. This could account for the lack of painting. When we planned the trip we just said, "Hell with it, we'll find the money!" You know, sometimes the Universe just steps in and provides. So I got the beads out and got busy. Because while the Universe does step in and make shit happen, it just might need a little cooperation from me. I have been setting up every Saturday at the Crawfordsville Farmer's Market. This is my first year for this and it is really a pretty cool Saturday morning destination. Walk down Pike St. and you'll see veggies, flowers, plants, eggs and maybe even a hen clucking! There is a coffee vendor and the gal across from me sells the most amazing breads and cinnamon rolls! If you have always wondered if pigs fly... I am here to tell you they do! I see one each week at the BBQ truck. You can even watch artists from Athens Art Gallery getting their creative mojo on. If you haven't been to the Farmer's Market get down there this Saturday morning and support your local folks. I'll have funky new items each week. Feel free contribute to the Pensacola or Bust fund. I won't be mad about it :-)
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All through high school I doodled in class. At work I used to doodle in meetings. My doodles turned into t-shirt designs and my t-shirt designs led to art. My creative soul woke up and I will never ever squash it back down inside again. Doodling can be so therapeutic. You get lost in the repetitive designs and your mind starts to relax. Before you know it the stress of daily life is pushed to the back of your mind as a beautiful design emerges. The design below flowed from me with little or no effort. I am sure Karen was guiding my hand on this one. Karen's nieces Wendy and Mandy are warriors in this damn fight against breast cancer. Fight on girls, Aunt Karey is smiling down on your efforts. Of that I am sure! Peace, Love & kick breast cancers ass! Sue Anybody that knows me realizes that I struggle with the label "artist". Aren't you suppose to pay your dues with years of instruction at a prestigious art school? Own a beautiful studio and work with high quality art supplies? Actually know all about colors and perspective and rules? So you can see when at the age of 50 when I began my creative journey I squirmed when people called me an artist? I slap questionable quality paints on wood and canvas, glue in bits of dress patterns, tissue paper, torn book pages and whatever else suits my mood. I use wood stains for paint, dribble old printer ink in, pencils for shading, scratch it, scrape it, and sometimes paint over 3/4 of it before I am done. I learned an amazing term that changed my way of thinking. "Mixed-media" Imagine that. The process I use has a name. I found out there are no rules. I can just pick up colors I like and splash them on. I stencil, draw and do whatever I like. Sometimes it comes out pretty cool. Sometimes it is an epic fail, but that doesn't even matter. When it is an epic fail you call it a layer! Oh yes... I love layers!! Lot's and lot's of colorful layers. It's gets kind of exciting watching what emerges like the innocent bystander I am. And folks... that also has a term. Intuitive painting. Whoever is coming up with these terms God Bless ya! So if I have a hard time calling myself an artist... how in the hell did I land in this book? There was a "Call to Artist" and I answered the call! Ha! I quietly sent in my submission and figured if I made it in, well I must be an artist, right? Page 85 folks. This chick is an artist!!! This book is so beautifully done. I am proud to be among it's pages. Go check it out, it's worth the money. (FYI I don't make money off of the sales I just love this book) And in a few weeks watch for another post. I just MIGHT have answered another call. Peace, Love & Funk, Sue So yea... Tanzanian Wablybong. Where did THAT come from? It all started with Athens Arts announcement of the REvision exhibition. I wanted to do a strange bird. I could see it in my head, and it needed to come out. I begged my Facebook friends to find me a pink flamingo. I wanted to find a discarded, unloved bird for this work of art. I started gathering supplies. As I was doing this my husband Drew started getting the bird fever. He found an old discarded skillet and removed the handle He brought me his offering with a tentative look on his face. “YES, that is perfect for the base! Good thinking.” He ground it sprayed a bit of textured paint on it and we had a base. Finally a friend came through with the bird. Now the fun can start! Drew grabbed the legs and took off with them as I started spraying a base coat on the bird. When he returned he had two lovely legs. He had wrapped the legs in copper wire that he had stripped from old appliance cords. We started thinking about feet and again Drew came through. Grabbing and old pair of his slippers he got busy. As I am cutting feathers from pop cans and inhaling spray paint fumes, Drew was busy fashioning feet out of slipper soles and making sure our bird wouldn’t walk off of the skillet. The next phase was gluing on the feathers and wrapping his neck in embossed aluminum foil. We seemed to be in total sync when it came to our vision of this bird. As I was putting all the little finishing touches on him Drew walks in the studio with the finishing touch. He had created a mohawk and dreadlock out of our Australian Shepherd’s hair. I added a bit of funk to the dread and we called it done. Every work of art needs a name. As I am finishing up Drew walks in and says, “ Wablybong…. Tanzanian Wablybong.” And that my friends, is how the bird was born. Come visit us at Athens of Indiana Arts Gallery Friday night. 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. There are many beautiful pieces from so many talented artists. I am sure you’ll find something that speaks to you! 2013 came in with a smile. I have had some doors open and exciting opportunites as a result. My word for 2013 was 'listen". Mostly to that little voice inside of me that shouts "go for it" all the time! One of the opportunities has been to hang my art in Athens of Indiana Arts Studios and Gallery The gallery is full of awesome local artist and I feel honored to be amoung them. Run down and check out it out! I have also been having fun creating "Spoonful of Lovin" These necklaces are one of kind. Most are double chains and have all kinds of little goodies hanging on them. What really makes them fun is the pendant is an old spoon with hand stamped inspirational words. Go take a look. If none of the words or phrases call out to you just drop me an email and I can stamp the perfect words on one just for you. Peace Love & Laughter, Sue Anyone who knows me knows that I am always in for a fun art challenge or a chance to sling some paint. But sling words? Take pictures of myself? Yea, not so much! Stepping out of my comfort zone... Kelly Barton and Liz Lamoreux of Chickadee Road threw out an invitation. This month, we are exploring the theme "I am beauty" and all that this phrase can mean to a person. We will be sharing stories about how this phrase came to be one of the most important ones we each turn to, the ways we struggle with believing it, the ways we stand tall in its truth, and a few other good things. I am ok, shy away from digging deep. I am easily distracted, some of my best ideas are born of this distraction. I am rebellious, don’t always live clean or even want to. I am shy, I hide behind my art. I laugh loud, it cleanses my soul. I am beauty. It all started because I was getting a little bored with the shoes piled around my closet floor. While on one of my many trips to the local Walmart I saw a pair of cheap canvas shoes. I am not one to spend a lot of money on clothes or shoes. I love shopping sales and nice consigment shops. When I saw these boring little gray shoes an light bulb came on over my head. After shutting off the light so as not to call too much attention to myself I grabbed them and threw them in my cart. Next isle.... writing supplies. I grabbed a fresh sharpie and headed home. I fired up the creative mojo and uncapped my sharpie. Funking up the first shoe went fast. I had to stop and think about the second shoe. Do I funk it up exactly like the other, or do I unleash a new stream of funk? The deciding factor? There was no way in hell I could ever match it. It would take way to much effort. So unleash a new stream of funk it was. My feet have never felt funkier. Try it, it was fun! After you finish them let them dry for 24 hours and then spray them with some water repellent. Slip them on your feet, walk out the door.... and spread some funk amoungst the conservatives. People will either love them or think your kids drew on your shoes. Really... do you care what they think? The world needs a little more funk! Peace, Love & Laughter, Sue It has been ages since I posted anything to my blog. I haven't been sitting around doing nothing though, I assure you. So much has happened between my last post and now I won't even TRY to cover it all. Besides, who would really want a blow by blow of the last 6 months? Drewbie is employed full time, my day job is awesome, grandkids are growing like weeds, son got married, I am having my first art show... my life in a nutshell. Anyone that knows me knows my art journey has been an absolute joy and full of insecurity. I have decided that it is what it is. I like playing around in new mediums and trying on new styles. Why should I change? I know most artist have a "style", but I am beginning to think my "style" is randomness. Is that a word? I paint or draw whatever falls out of my head, and I kind of like it that way. I don't paint to get rich (it's probably a damn good thing) and I don't paint to please others. However, when I get done with a piece I look at it and smile and it makes ME happy. There may be a lot of people who look at my work and think, "Really?" Well, that's ok. I finally realized there is enough room on this old earth for all of us. Not everyone will appreciate my quirkiness on canvas, but I bet I make a few others smile with me. I have been getting ready for a month long show at a local gallery. creativeLAB To do this I had to put my big girl panties on. When I picked up a paint brush again after all those years I NEVER would have thought I would have enough guts to attempt this. But Anne asked me if I would like to, and I just swallowed my anxiety, got out of my own way, and said "YES!" Thanks Anne, for having faith in my work and embracing my quirkiness. To make it more fun and add some stress I decided to create all new pieces for this show. I am happy to say I will have 12 new pieces. My grandaughter, the little budding artist Scarlet, will also be showing one, as well as a collaboration with my baby sis Andi Suiter. You all are welcome to join me July 27th @ the creativeLAB from 6:00 - 8:00 to celebrate my Accidental Funkiness Peace, Love & Laughter ~ Sue Hi you all. I hope you are surviving the winter blah's!? I have something that might perk you up and add some funky fun to your world. I am offering an online workshop that will be a lot of fun. We are going to take a children's board book and turn it into a work of art.
Don't read this and say, "I am not an artist, I can't do that!" You can do it! Just the other day I walked my 6 year old granddaughter, Scarlet, through the same techniques to create a box to put all her special things in. She was so happy and proud of it she took it to school for show and tell two days in a row. She told her mom, "I have to take it back. Everybody didn't get to see it!" You can buy one of these board books at Big Lots for $3.00. I know, I just went and bought a few. You can use one of the small ones (approx. 5"x4") or one of the larger ones. The one I found at Big Lots was about 8"x8". It even had a mirror in back that will be fun to work with. We'll use a little gesso, mod podge (Store bought or homemade. I'll give you the recipe.), a few paints and some scraps of paper and bits you probably have on hand. Everything we are going to use can be purchased inexpensively at Walmart or a similar store. This would make a great gift for your special someone for Valentine’s Day. Or maybe you have a chickie in your life that is special to you and you want to thank her for being there and show her how much you care? You could even create a special little photo book representing a special time in someone’s life. Go to this link ALTERED BOOK ONLINE WORKSHOP and sign up now. I'll send out the supply list on the Jan. 20th so you will have plenty of time to gather your supplies. On Jan. 25th I'll send out all the login information. The class will start on Jan. 25th. I will even set up a flickr group so everyone can show the progress of thier books. I am going to leave the workshop up the entire month of Feb. So don't stress if that weekend is not good for you. You'll have plenty of time to complete the project. Come join us! Peace, Love & Funk, Sue Nina threw out the challenge and Missie and I accepted. Below are the results. True to our styles, we took the challenge and it resulted in 3 very different paintings. Thanks Nina, this was fun. We'll definitely have to do this again soon :-)
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AuthorWho am I? Wife, mother, grandmother, friend, quirky kinda chick with a laugh that is too loud and a sense of humor that is at times a bit warped. Archives
May 2020
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