Normally, I don't specifically discuss the kids too much as my focus here is generally art (um, MY art, to be exact!), but we made this card to send out to our real life friends and so I think it qualifies. My son was the art director and he took the photos, my youngest daughter did the illustrations and Doug did the photoshopping. And as always, I was in charge of actually getting them into the mail. Late, of course.
I have been so busy trying to finish up the work for the show in January that I have sorely neglected Christmas activities. Actually, that's not quite true-the last few weeks have been filled with constant interruptions to my studio time, all involving various holiday events, that we couldn't skip, such as parties, concerts and shopping with and for the kids. I've managed to do the minimum of preparing for the holidays and for the show, but shortchanged both a bit in the process. My grand plan to finish everything for the show by mid-December turned out to be a silly daydream.
However, I am close to done. AND I have a respectable number of pieces finished or nearly finished. I am going to start a couple more large pieces today and will get back to them on Tuesday. I feel confident that I will be able to finish them before January 2 and if not, I do still have enough paintings anyway. Besides working on the large paintings next week I will have to paint the cradles, attach the hangers and do paperwork, etc. That won't take too much time though so I will have some time to relax and hang out with the kids. Provided they can tear themselves away from the electronics they will be getting from Santa/Hannukka Harry. But maybe someone will want to play Scrabble with me, or read a book or do a quilting project as he is delivering those gifts too, just to balance things out.
Anyway, the next few days will be a blur of housecleaning, baking cookies, wrapping gifts, unwrapping gifts, eating and playing games. No painting on the agenda and I am going to leave the computer off until Tuesday morning. Probably.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!
10 comments:
Have a great holiday time, Tracy. Thanks for sharing your life as an artist this way.
Since starting to read your blog late this year I've been seeing a lot more barns here in NZ...all perfect for your work!
Take care.
Happy Festivus and all that.
I thought I was one of the few people egotistical enough to design his own Christmas cards. For a few years running I killed myself getting them done as well as I could -- recall that this was in the days before Cafe Press, before everyone's having color printers on their desktops, before you could buy glossy inkjet cardstock in every store. The very first year I had to buy cards at a stationery store in Manhattan, print them out on the high-quality (300 dpi!) laserprinter at the college newspaper, and hand-color each card. Whew.
It got easier each year in terms of production, but just about when it became as easy as possible to actually print the damned things, I got tired of designing them. Because, really, that was always the hardest part.
If I can find the files, I'll throw up a gallery for everyone somewhere and let you know.
Ah. Here they are. Funny, I thought I did more than three.
Hi Elizabeth, Thanks so much for reading. Isn't it interesting how barns are so beautiful when looking at them in an artistic context. I never paid much attention to barns before I started painting them, now when I see one I immediately pull off the road to look at it and get a picture.
Chris, I prefer to think of designing one's own cards as creative instead of "egotistical":-) I have a whole history, actually, of putting my artwork on cards, none so creative as yours, I admit, but perhaps a post about it is in order. After the break I am suppose to be on right now, of course.
Thanks for the link to yours, they are great and you should keep doing them!
Thanks for the support, Tracy. I think my cards would look great in the Metropolitan Museum of Art store.
Well, let's not get carried away here:-)
Hang on, I found the first one I did. Check back on my post for it.
That should put me over. Someone tell the Met I'm coming!
Merry Christmas Tracy have a great time!
xoxox
That's a good one too, Chris. OK, maybe you can get into the Met now.
Thanks, Angela, and I hope you have a nice holiday as well!!!
of all the people in the world you would not ever guess who I am. I was your roomate for 4 months in the 80s and I was your brother in Rochester. I also have a web blog and I hope you read me. Warning I talk about my faith and the bible but it is a blog I do on my own.
shadman (aka Shad)
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