What kind of images of food would you include on your walls?
P.S. Daylight savings time starts this weekend! You better believe I'll be celebrating it!
|
A few weeks ago I went to an art bar for the first time - the kind of place where you paint and drink at the same time. It seems like a hazardous combination, but it was actually wonderful. Being in such a fun environment helped my perfectionist inclinations chill out, and I was able to enjoy doing a simple painting. I still decided what I wanted to paint before I arrived. Since going to Bailey's Range in St. Louis over Christmas (see above), I've been wanting to do a similar style painting for our kitchen. I decided on a cherry, because every kitchen needs something cherry themed. My mom engrained this in me at a very early age. Though thinking back to out cherry kitchen growing up, I'm remembering that the tiny cherry wallpaper was actually hung upside down (the wallpaper man hadn't realized what he was doing until after he had finished the entire kitchen). So I guess that means that every kitchen needs something cherry - and a cook with a sense of humor. I liked how this turned out so much that I'm thinking of doing another painting for our kitchen. This one will be bigger and may include a series of drinks, fruits, vegetables, or a combination of all three. We still have lots of empty wall space in our kitchen. And it obviously needs to be covered with art and paintings of food.
What kind of images of food would you include on your walls? P.S. Daylight savings time starts this weekend! You better believe I'll be celebrating it!
0 Comments
Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything. This poem, attributed to Pedro Arrupe, captures my feelings for Valentine's Day so well. i decided a long time ago that this holiday meant much more to me than whatever romantic feelings I had or didn't have. Valentine's day for me is all about celebrating love, in all its various forms.
The love of a newly married couple -- the love of an old married couple -- the complex love one feels for a family member with mental illness who won't seek treatment -- the love of a pet for its owner -- the love a parent feels for her brand new baby -- the love between two old friends -- the love we have for all the people we've lost -- the love felt for the first flower of spring -- the loving kindness one feels for humanity -- radical self love - the love I feel for ice cream -- the love a teacher feels for her students -- the love that leads people to dedicate their lives to making the world a better place -- love for nature and creation -- the love Martin Luther King talked about feeling for your enemies -- love for a favorite place (like Paris) -- love of chocolate and desserts -- the love a grandparent feels for a grandchild -- love of what you do... Love is so complex and profound and beautiful. I've been in love with so many people, places, and things. There have been so many things that have seized my imagination, that have gotten me out of bed in the morning, that I've spent my evenings with, that I've read about, that's broken my heart, that's amazed me with joy and gratitude. My heart is full of gratitude for all these things. Happy Valentine's Day! Hope your day is filled with so much love. What are you in love with today? I have to give a special shout out to my hunky husband who planned an overnight trip for us and to our great friend who offered to keep our pups company for us. Hello lovelies!! Happy Tuesday evening!! I could not get my life together enough to share these photos with you any earlier today, so I'm posting them tonight - sweaty and tired and happy from another roller derby practice. What is it about February that just makes me so sluggish? Listen up February: I will show you! (Show it what, I don't know. But it will be shown!) Here are a few more lyric paintings I wanted to share with you. I've been slowly starting to advertise selling them to my Facebook friends, and they seem to be catching on. People are becoming very creative with their colors and lyrics, and I just love doing them. I can come home from work, lay on the couch with Paul, watch Star Trek and Buffy, eat ice cream, and paint away! It's pretty much the best arrangement in the world. That top painting is a Rilke poem requested by an old friend. I liked playing around with the square shape and with having less words on the canvas. Directly above is a painting of the song lyrics for a friend's fall wedding. I feel so honored that my work will be a reminder of their special day. And here is my absolute favorite lyric painting to date. I LOVE light teal blue with red right now, and the song makes my heart go pitter pat (Make You Feel My Love - did you know Bob Dylan originally sang it? I didn't.) It's going to be a Valentine's Day present, so I'm not sharing a link to my post on Facebook, just in case. Doing these paintings has been giving me such great energy. Now that I'm back into the swing of painting, I've been feeling inspired (and brave enough) to try more complex subjects. It's been fun, but I don't have any samples to share yet. But you can bet I will when I do.
Hope your week has been off to a great start! And as always, thanks so much for reading. Here's yet another version of the lyric painting I've been so enjoying doing lately. This one is the "I Belong with You" song by the Lumineers, painted for my sister-in-law who cannot get enough of teal blue and white. I think she liked it, and it was super fun to be able to give her something meaningful and homemade for Christmas.
I'm cold and tired today (was 1 degree when I woke up this morning at 5:45 am...ugh), so I'm keeping this short and simple. Hope everyone is having a wonderful hump day. Thanks so much for spending part of your day reading my musings. I had a burst of inspiration the week before Thanksgiving and decided to paint my mom and sister some simple Christmas paintings to help decorate their houses for the holidays. I had recently seen a chalkboard style piece with these lyrics - and then a flashbulb went off - and I remembered these paintings I did last winter inspired by Elsie's paintings on A Beautiful Mess. A couple of hours spent watching some old Buffy episodes, and I had a two colorful gifts for two of my favorite ladies. See below for how my sister used it for decorating at her house warming party. And you can visit A Beautiful Mess if you want some guidance in how to make your own. I'm thinking of making one for the winter because that's when I'll really need some cheer in our apartment. My mom suggested part of a Robert Frost poem. I love that idea! I'll be sure to share if I end up creating one.
One of my 101 goals was to make a painting every month for a year. I've done ok, but I fell behind a bit during the summer. So I'm making an effort close to the end of 2013 to catch up. Here's my latest creations: a couple of fall paintings to decorate our apartment. Paul and I both love the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song, so it seemed like a good fit for these simple paintings - though I don't think they will be on display too much longer with the Christmas season right around the corner. Poor fall always gets gipped with the Christmas season starting 21 days before fall really comes to an end. I think Christmas should start in January when everything is cold and depressing and spring is still a few months away. Right?
You can see more of my paintings here. And please try to ignore the ugly background. Still trying to figure out set up spots with good lighting in this apartment. Nothing is more practical than finding God,
that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything. Pedro Arrupe First, I want to thank you so much for all for your kindness and support in light of our recent loss. I'm amazed at how much love Paul and I have in our lives. I ask that you keep our friend's family and friends in your thoughts as they struggle through this difficult time.
Lately, I've been wanting to paint and draw and develop my artistic style. I'd like to see if I could ever make a part time career out of painting. I know that there would be a lot that would go into it, and it feels overwhelming and scary. And so fear and getting caught up in other things has caused me to keep putting this off for another day. So I took a risk today. I asked a friend of mine who is a writer if she wanted to work on a children's book with me. I've been feeling really drawn to illustrations lately, so much so I picked out this beautiful shower curtain for our new bathroom. I love it. Taking my passion for illustrating to the next level, I offered to do the art for the book, and my friend agreed to write the story. I love kid's books, but I've never tried to create one, and I have no idea if I'd be any good at it. But why not try? The worse that will happen is that it doesn't turn out well, and I move onto something else. But who knows what the best could be. Other things I've done have taken off more than I ever expected. I'm not putting the pressure on this to go places, but I'm also not backing down from giving it a shot. Wish us luck! My paintings of the Salvadoran Jesuit martyrs are up on the Ignatian Solidarity Network's home page! I am so stoked! Check out the website here (screen 3). For more info on my paintings check out my blog posts here and here.
I also did a guest post on my friend Sarah's blog a couple of weeks ago on advice for new long-term volunteers: 10 tips for new volunteers. It was a lot of fun to write, and I'd recommend checking it out (of course I would - I wrote it!). One of my New Year's resolutions was to get back into painting. Strangely, I had been avoiding this hobby that I really enjoyed. But you see, I have a little problem called "perfectionism." I have a difficult time letting myself paint for fun without worrying about the end result being a perfect masterpiece. I started small with projects like this and this and this simple little winter painting above. I've been doing very easy pieces that don't require a lot of sketching or thought; great paintings to make while watching Downton Abby and listening to books on tape. The paintings aren't perfect or even that memorable, but I've been having fun. It's refreshing to be doing something again that brings be a lot of joy.
|