December, 2023
Yes, you are seeing inside my refrigerator – paint pots just below the chicken salad. It’s a trick I was taught by Chery Baird, my lovely art teacher, to save those leftover custom mixed acrylic paint colors.
I never quite mix the right amount, especially when I am working on a series, which is why I wind up with those little “palette cleanser” paintings before I feel I can move on.
Seal up the paint (those are little Rubbermaid pots), spritz with a little water from time to time, and store them in the fridge. I’ve had them last for months, which is so much better than having them dry out and get thrown away or saved as paint “skins” I never get around to using.
Good news, no waste. Bad news, I’m kind of ready to let go and move on to another color scheme, but there are all of these lovely paints still wanting to be used. Good news, I can always use them as a base to mix another color – it’s not so hard to turn a green to a blue or a neutral, or really anything. So, no bad news.
December, 2023
Our holiday season traditions have changed over the years, but one of the things that is emerging as a favorite is visits to Chicago area light shows. I think the COVID years pushed us to explore these events that of course were always there for us, but we just never took the time for. This photo is from the Morton Arboretum, which we manage to also visit through the year, and it’s a great night. Tomorrow we head to the Chicago Botanic Gardens to cap off the season
If you’d like to see a little clip of my amateur video, you can view it here
December, 2023
I’ve finally finished by 10 painting series based on a color palette inspired by the Villa La Contessina in Sorrento, Italy.
Now, I was taught to mix a lot of my own colors, so that means I have little pots, lots of little pots, because when you do ten paintings you will never get exactly the right amount mixed and there will be lots of little variations.
So, though I’m kind of ready to move on, I’m drawn to using what’s left on my brushes after a session or in my pots at the start of a session to create these little “palette cleansers” – just playing, really, with color and marks and little 3×3, 4×4, or 5×5 off cuts that are lying around.
Here are a couple more, and you can see others over on instagram @therestofmytime
December, 2023
At our house, this quote from Victor Frankel is often repeated:
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
Cultivating that space, and the discipline to watch for it, wait for it, and give it room to work its magic is what meditation is. Notice that it isn’t about removing the stimulus, and not even about eliminating the response, it’s about making an intentional choice. When you practice not jumping up every time a thought crosses your mind, you are building the muscle you will need out in the world to give yourself that split second to really choose, and not just to react.
If you want to know more about Victor Frankel, he is a writer best known for Man’s Search For Meaning. He was a trained neurologist and psychiatrist who drew upon that background and his experience as a Holocaust survivor to develop the field of logotherapy, which is based on the idea that the search for meaning is a prime motivator of what we do and why we do it. Go ahead, Google him, he has lots more to share.
December, 2023
Sometimes I feel the work I create is random and doesn’t have a cohesive style. But then, sometimes, when I look back after several months connective tissue appears.
Years ago I moved away from Atlanta and my art teacher before I completed my “final project” in composition. I never intended to paint. It was a composition course. But the last assignment was 10 paintings in a series. I was drawn to a color palette I later realized was inspired by a villa in Sorrento Italy I have visited several times, the Villa La Contessina series.
That color palette turned up in a collage series I recently completed too.
Here’s a little show of all of them together
