Apr 26, 2008

As The Crow Flies


Hello,


This was the first of two light balsa wood box tops I painted for a couple of jewelry boxes. It was the first in a series of ravens (or crows, I did both) and I still do love crows.


The Tree of Life is behind this raven, as is the Rainbow Bridge and another raven flies in from Northern European mythos. Memory and Thought were these birds' names, each assigned to sit on the shoulder of the main honcho, Odin. Or Woden (where we get Wednesday) or Wotan, depending on the story one reads. The god fears losing Thought, but admits he fears the loss of Memory even more. So human, these deities!


It's a little blurred, I think but will do for just show and tell here. Just plain old acrylics for kraftwerks.


Have a great weekend. Hopefully more show and tell in a couple of days!


Later,

Candace


Apr 25, 2008

A Very Fine Cat Indeed


The pen on paper, xeroxed to a larger size, then colour with pencil, markers, crayons, then cut out and put on a couple other paper backgrounds. The cat and the woman are on a piece. Background the same as the earlier post, it is slate blue with leaves and flowers in it.

Hope you enjoy it.

Later!

Some Artwork From The Good Ol Days




Started off with a black pen on white paper for the woman and cat. Chair and doll and pot of flowers done same way. Xeroxed big big big, then colored and markered, cut out, pasted on top of more paper works, after relining with a black marker for a bit more depth. Background is thin paper, a lovely colour, with dried "flowers" in it. It's around 12 x 14. Maybe 10 x 12....






This piece is called "If He's Mean to Your Cat, He'll Be Mean to You". (whatever lessons I learned at my mother's knee, this is the one that seems to have stuck and served me in good stead!) A bit uncomfortable for some at an art show where I took it to show, then one woman told me afterwards that this was a good measure of a man -- or anyone, really.




Hoorah, it is the weekend. More later!


Apr 24, 2008

The Elusive Dagmar


Captured not once but TWICE. This gorgeous matriarch usually stands back quite a ways from the others, is the first one through the yards, nimbly hiding in plain sight, or she is the last one to flash by just when you swear you've seen the entire Clan of the Cave Deer. She is not like the others. She believes the camera steals the soul...


Today a rough rough work day. I long for the weekend altho I am working a half shift on Saturday. Paper, stamp, color and brushes, canvas, etcetera are all waiting. And a chair I am working on promises to be cooperative with the project I have planned to finish before Labor Day. September seems YEARS away. Alas, I know better. It'll seem like next week when it gets here. WOW... where did the summer go, is what I will be saying.


Also am working up the Tea Party series. And a special piece for Miss Jeanne. That will go with Me to London when we celebrate Thanksgiving British style -- meaning not. Hip hip...
Later!

Apr 23, 2008

More Paper Doin's


One of the early paper multi media pieces. Raised in strict fundamentalism, religion as well as myth and faerie tales figure prominently in early work. No, they aren't my parents or even my grandparents. Just a representation. Someone said, "Does he have an arm missing?" Sure he does. He has a bad eye, too.
Colour sketchy here. The two houses symbolic of a mill village upbringing as well. Houses, identical in size, colour and design, on top of one another practically in these mill towns... you've seen one, you've pretty much seen all. There was one house I saw once, however, that had a cross shape to its chimney. The glass is reflecting overhead lights. oops...
Later
Candace

Meet The Neighbors






In order of appearance.
Edie, who feels comfy enough to turn her back on us as she dines al fresco.

A nice shot of Liz or one of her many incarnations (all of whom are also named Liz). There is a brown manifestation I cannot manage to capture on film. We call him Bob.
Betty. She will be more than happy to stand perfectly still and stare at you while you slowly edge towards her. A real publicity hound.
OOps, I have two of Edie. Can't delete one. I'm sure to hear about this from Betty.
Later.

Miss Independence


Reading about others' trips and vacations and art festivities, workshops, etc. make me feel very, very lucky indeed that I have met such people -- even if only online -- and can read about these things and plan for them now. Some years ago, in another lifetime, breaking away piece by piece and bit by bit, I did a series of multimedia pieces, mostly paper on paper, drawn, enlarged and xeroxed, blasted with coloured pencils and/or paints and/or crayons and markers.


This one is a self portrait of how I felt then. Miss Independence indeed. haha...


Thanks to friends and lovers, new networks of support, belief and kindnesses, as well as internal resurrections, and tectonic plates shifting, I really do feel like Miss Independence now. Creativity, even with one's self, is as big a process as any other. Maybe bigger. Maybe the only real process. Working on the self, inner as well as outer, can be a work of art eventually. For some, it's even a science! :D




Apr 22, 2008

Earth Day -- Where The Heart Is


The next few pieces of artwork being shared are from my earlier phases. The "paper chase" phase. I still do love working with paper, either as art or writing. Yes, I do that too.


This piece is called "Where The Heart Is". An Earth motherly type. The green background doesn't really show very well here. And of course, Have. To. Have. A. Cat. Or I did, anyway, in many things I did a few years back, (yes, that says '99) including nice big pieces that sold but I did not get photos of. :( I can't believe it, but it's true.


Looking over some of the shots I took this past Sunday (what WAS in the air that day besides Spring, beautiful Spring!?), T said, "It looks like we live out totally out in the sticks." We do, sort of. Our road says "dead end". How appropriately Southern Gothic!


Earth Day. Mother Earth. Where the heart is. Home. Even more concessions have been made this past year. "Hurt not the Earth..."

A friend once said, "I can't change the world." I agreed, "No. But if you changed yourself, that would be one. And if then, every single person changed, the world would indeed change." She didn't get it. She probably still doesn't. And on that sour note, Dear Readers, hasta la pasta!



Apr 21, 2008

Monday, Monday


Well, work isn't always what I'd call fun but finally having my own digital certainly is.
Looking at this little bit of my own life. The old VW is in the driveway beside those gorgeous and abundant azaleas planted by a previous person. In the shadows, trust me, they are even more beautiful.
Spring really is here with Earth Day being tomorrow and the weather was great. Getting off the telecommute early saw my having enough time to go out and "play" with the camera. 45 pix so far. Whew!
And playing sometimes means photos of not just life but art... or is it the other way around?
More earlier artworks up tomorrow. A three call day as well, tomorrow. Not quite the same as a three dog night but it will have to do.

Apr 20, 2008

Sunday




So I have a lovely camera -- a Kodak EasyShare only it is the shiny mauve-y pink which T got a big kick over -- and have been busy doing some visiting today and making some lovely photos of some earlier art posted here (ADAM AND EVE or The Snake Dance) as well. It's really funny, the Girls came up and just HAD to be involved in everything last night.
This piece was one of my earlier ones. It's all paper. I had drawn the figures, the cat, the woman and snake, the apples, etc. colored them or used colored paper, then put them on a background of green poster paper. It's a bit of a self portrait. Someone at an art show once told me that I did more self art than Frida Kahlo. I promise I do not have a uni-brow.


And today, Joe -- at Starbucks -- and I had a great conversation about art, i.e., performance. He saw a really powerful spoken word performance this week at a basically all female event. Our friend Kathleen was one of the performers but I was working. Yuck. Said it was great. That means a lot from him. He is not easily distracted or impressed although I know he would say otherwise re: distraction. LOL...


"Busy" season or Earnings at work has begun. We've merged with another huge, huge company and time is a real commodity now. T and I talked about ArtFest next year. Yes for me, maybe for her. Wow, I would so love to make it to Australia in May but an already planned trip to England to see Miss Jeanne is taking precedence the later part of this year. Plus I have a wedding in May and one in October that are out of state. So... maybe another time.
Does anyone have a Panasonic DMC-TZ1 or 2? 3?
Later!











Apr 16, 2008

What's In A Name?


I will tell you what. Everyone thinks Eye Candy is My blog and it isn't. EyeCandy -- one word -- is My blog. LOL... I have another one, too. And it will more than likely be My "real" as opposed to my "fake" art blog. (Not really. There is just so much to do and think and share and show.)



Speaking of which, I have found a new digital camera I am very VERY happy with. I will be grabbing it up for real tomorrow at the ridiculously close Best Buy.


Here is a photo of it up there in that corner, kids. Yes, I will more than likely go with the red! It has a great screen on the back, plenty big and plenty easy to use.
Anyway. Take note of My Name and My Blog's Name. Dear Me... Maybe I should change it? (not)
Later,
Candy

Apr 13, 2008

Cards Et Al

Making cards for different things again, to get back in the swing again. Maybe an art show. Already divvying up monies to try my best to go to Judy's art classes in Italy next year... wouldn't THAT be fun? However, push coming to shove, ArtFest would be just fine! Go to Judy's website/blog at http://judywise.blogspot.com/ for the Sweet and Low Down on this annual time of art, friends, and more.

Apr 11, 2008

Blogging Without Obligation


Yes, Blogging Without Obligation. That's exactly what I need. Now that I am back in the "swing of things", I hate missing even one day but find that once a week is evidently pretty good from all accounts! But one must refuse to feel obligated about the fun stuff... especially when it comes at, not exactly a price, but a readjustment. A tipping point, maybe. Work is a very very hectic thing for Me, esp during the dreaded "earnings season".
Basically, half the year, my life -- or the time in it -- is not thoroughly my own. The dough is good but I remind myself, "this is not who I am. It helps me be what I am." Someone asked me a couple of years ago during a meeting at a unitarian church, "What do you do?" I said, "I read and make art and go to movies." Everyone really liked that answer. You have to admit, it was a pretty good one. I knew she expected to be told how I get money, she meant my job.
But that is not what I do, what I am. It's a part of it, of course. And the blogging is part of the journal of my life, too.
More later!

Apr 4, 2008

TGIF Fer Sure




That's us again, in San Juan. T on the left, hiding behind Hermanos and Self on the right, hanging onto "Hermanos" near the Modern Museum in San Juan, PR. Then at the end of the next to last day... life is good, sing polly wolly doodle all the day. Sorry you can't see us, really. Adds to the alleged mystique of Les Artistes! Bahahaha....

But today, TODAY, in Athens GA., after a higgledy piggledy day, I am up and out, meeting Tony and Faye at the Globe, one of Athens' premier bars (more like a pub with pub food, trust me!). They even have fish and chips. lol... Miss T was ecstatic.

A sweeping, stormy storm while we all sit inside, watching it from our cosy chairs in the wood and brick Bar. Carlton and then his partner, Donald -- whom I know, the world is *small*! -- Cindy and Loretta. Tony and I drink and discuss work, stories, Miss Jeanne's London Life and MySpace, while Tia gets to know the "Boys". Donald and I have a special passcode. It's "Diana Vreeland"!!! LOL. AKA, "Pink is the navy blue of India", another astute observation by Her Highness. And that Tony... such a softy about little Bella! Well, I am the same way about Molly Brown and Bess.

We just had a lovely, lovely time and you can TOO have a Bloody Mary without ice. So there.

Tonight, packing up boxes and putting them in the basement as Stanley Steemer comes by tomorrow. Watching "Numbers" as I drink coffee and relax for a bit, Tia studying for her big papers. She SOOO helped me with my tax return. And I actually am getting a tax return.

Claud stopped by today during lunch for about an hour. We had coffee and a bit of a gossip. She looked positively luminous with that white, white skin and those snapping blue eyes. The red hair sets it all off, seriously. It's like seeing the Archetypal Faerie Queen up close and personal.

Starbucks at 11AM Saturday and then home to actually do some WORK. Artwise, that is... look for photos of that and not just vacation pix.

Later!

Hello Again.


Well, it's that odd time of year when I start stretching out again and trying and doing and wishing and dreaming new stuff. Yes, Spring has indeed sprung altho we've had oddball weather in the Sunny South. And whoever coined THAT term needs his bottom kicked about! Very warm and sunny and then cold and dreary.


It makes me a little weepy sometimes, these ups and downs, worrying about my art and/or writing and its myriad fits and starts. Seeing or not seeing the parent(s), seeing the niece grown and watching her own daughter readying for marriage, seeing a sibling hale and hearty not so hale and hearty, being in the presence of an in-law that is sheer happiness for the innate serenity and kindness that abounds. And missing a good good friend, but then giggling over her MySpace...


I found this once before and now, lo! it is on Nina Bagley's website.


For Loneliness


When the light lessens,
Causing colors to lose their courage,
And your eyes fix on the empty distance
That can open on either side
Of the sunset line
To make all that is
Familiar and near
Seem suddenly foreign,


When the music of talk
Breaks apart the noise
and you hear your heart louden
while the voices around you
slow down to leaden echoes
turning the silence
into something stony and cold,

When the old ghosts come back
to feed on everywhere you felt sure,
do not strengthen their hunger
by choosing to fear;
Rather, decide to call on your heart
that it may grow clear and free
to welcome home your emptiness
that it may cleanse you
like the clearest air
you could ever breathe.


Allow all your loneliness time
to dissolve the shell of dross
that had closed around you;
choose in this severe silence
to hear the one true voice
your rushed life fears;
cradle yourself like a child
learning to trust what emerges,
so that gradually
you may come to know
that deep in that black hole
you will find that blue flower
that holds the mystical light
which will illuminate in you
the glimmer of springtime.


John O'Donohue


Amen, Sisters and Brothers!


Apr 2, 2008

Bringing the flowers that bloom in May


The happy couple to your right, there. My nephew, Jonathan, and his blushing fiancee, Brooke. The happy event will happen Memorial Day weekend in Edisto Island, SC. Can't wait to take that road trip! A five hour drive but worth it. I was able to spend some real face-time with Brooke and J this past weekend... oh yes, we were stuck at Red Lobster for TWO hours. Just our luck that there's an unruly, inebriated diner in our section. Whew! We decided to do Olive Garden from now on.

They have bought a 1913 house in an area that is just now being up-and-comingly renovated/gentrified. Nice! Maybe photos of that in the future as well.

As well as photos of the artwork!

More intense jaw pain today. Nothing seemed to help and I really can't take any painkillers right now. Well, it helps me focus on the artwork, if that makes sense. It's almost like drawing rows of flowers and bees and spirally green ferny things takes me away and out of the pain... oh, that and a couple of slugs of 110 proof whatsis. (I wish!)

Saw Joe and Teresa today at Fourbucks (aka Starbucks). They're looking well and the conversation was as subreferenced as ever. I keep promising them to give them a "tour" of my art. They've read a short story I did some time back for HardluckStories, entitled "Nice Tie". Joe writes also and it's great talking with him about this other creative discipline I hurl myself into on a fairly regular basis.

Have to go read Judy and the rest of my artklatsch blogs. Later.

Apr 1, 2008

April Fools


-- are everywhere. Well, it's finally happened. My company has swallowed up Reuters like the dragon swallowing the sun. Or the snake that swallows up its own tail... and that's no April Fool Day, either.


Had an interesting weekend in every sense of the Chinese curse. It was good to see all but also good to come back. My niece Diana, as always, was lovely to be with, too. Getting to see her plus Jon and BC was simply the icing on the cake as someone said. Jon's new house looks great. It's an OLD 1913 house with all the original everything -- like the wooden floors -- and is really quite gorgeous. I will try to post a photo here very soon.


If I'd seen Leon, it would've been a perfect weekend in Palmettoland. And if Sophie (the darling in the photo) had been in with her humans instead of San Juan, PR, it would have been really perfect. This dog is more well travelled than most of the people I know exc for her humans (read: my brother and s-i-l). She's 12 now and is slowing down. Everyone I know is crazy about her. She's why people love dogs.
Am reading "A History of the End of the World." Raised in an extraordinarily millennialism evangelical fundamental household, The Apocalypse was a very, very, unimaginably very real thing to me. As Sarah Vowell said, "I needed more Seven Dwarves and less Seven Seals."
However, it has given me an idea for a series of little paintings, etc. So, it can't be all bad, can it?

Later!