Update With Pictures and LINKS!

And again, weeks have slipped by since I have posted here. Sigh. In my defense however, I have been pretty busy. Half my time has been spent in the garden and the other half has involved a lot of driving and watching girl's softball and soccer games.

The garden needed so much attention, I am truly ashamed of how poorly we kept it at the end of the season last fall. Um, actually I think we just sort of left everything out there, the watering can, the hoses, the dead plants in the beds, and fled the scene at first snowfall. I guess there was a good reason for all that but right now it seems like pure laziness. So I have decided to go all hardcore gardenchick and have been spending a lot of time in the garden in the last month, reorganizing it, weeding, mulching, planting and did I say weeding???? There are a lot of weeds out there. Anyway, I have been posting pictures in a photo album on FB which you can view, I have made it a public album. I am making a superhuman effort to keep up with things out there all summer instead of doing what I usually do which is bailing around July when it gets hot and too weedy. hehe, is weedy even a word?

Barn Study#325, 5"x7" Oil on Panel, 2011

And a few other brief updates. I have been working a little bit and very slowly. It feels like it took me forever to prep eight small format panels, paint, photograph and edit the images, and post them on my sales blog, but today they are finally all up. Although I wouldn't be a bit surprised if I messed up all the paypal buttons! Also, the winner of my last birthday giveaway, Denise Rose, chose one of the paintings (pictured above) from this group so I am shipping that out to her within a few days. I would have liked her to have her gift in a more timely manner, but I haven't done too many small panels yet this year for her to choose from......


I also recently painted five small bird paintings for a local show called 'Fins, Fur and Feathers.' I am sure there will be a lot of fun art in this show, but all I could think of doing was black bird paintings, and I mean that in a very literal sense, they are pretty much just black. I did some drawings (above) but I knew when I got to the paint, they were gonna be a really deep dark black (below). They were also incredibly difficult to photograph and so they must be seen in person. Totally worth a plane ticket to Albany, a car rental and a hotel in Cooperstown to come see them, right??? haha. Well, if you can't do that, you can see the crappy images here and if you don't already, go ahead and 'like' me while you are there.
Black Bird#4, 5"x7" Oil on Panel, 2011
I photographed them several times in all different situations and trust me, this was the best I got. I guess they are holding their secrets.

And one more link; I was having a twitter conversation (follow me@tracyhelgeson) with Robin Pedrero this morning even though I am fairly bad at keeping up with the threads there. Anyway, a friend of hers sent me a link to a map contest, which looks reallyreally cool, so I am passing it along. Looks like a good kid activity for the summer, and/or a fun detour for an artist. I love maps and even though I can't recall ever actually making one, I think I may try my hand at this one if I have time. Maybe a map of my garden since that is the only place I ever go anymore, heh.

Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down

Last winter I noticed this on our property:

Then I got a pretty good shot of a beautiful Pileated Woodpecker who was getting busy with an ash tree in our front yard:

He made several holes in the center of the tree, and then a bunch more after I took this photo:

After he finished completely gutting the tree, I guess he moved along because we haven't seen (or heard) him again. Maybe he decided to check out a few trees in the hundreds of acres of wooded land just down the road. heh.

As visually captivating as these holes are, they have unfortunate consequences for us. We had a rocking thunderstorm last night and woke up to this:
(Penny is also surveying the damage.)

The center part of the tree that the woodpecker had been so diligently pecking at came down in the storm. Luckily it didn't hit the house, or the cars, or even the potted flowers I had set down along the sidewalk yesterday, so I am not complaining. We'll chop up the fallen branch and add it to our firewood pile; but between losing its main artery and the ash borer that is infecting trees in NY State, I suppose the rest of the tree will have to come down soon.

We try not to micromanage our surroundings too much up here (with the exception of the dang weeds in the vegetable garden) so even though I will miss this lovely tree that shades our yard and house, I might also enjoy having the extra sunshine for my flower garden at the front of the house. Until then though, we will have a rather goofy looking tree in the yard.

This Will Be Fine, Right?????

White House, 10"x8" Oil on Panel, 2011

After frittering away quite a lot of days lately I am finally getting down to business but omg, why must I always procrastinate???? SO much work to do in the garden, which can't really be put off, and also I have a number of exhibits to prepare for in the coming months. Mostly a few group shows but they all involve me having to develop some new (for me) subject matter so some extra time and energy will be necessary.

However, one event that is coming up will need even more that that. One of the first places I showed my landscapes years ago was at a local nonprofit gallery, The Smithy-Pioneer Gallery. I have been included in their member group shows each summer (it's a seasonal gallery), have had a solo show and they can also take credit for getting my name listed in the Art in America's Annual Guide which I admit to being totally giddy about.

A few months ago, the new director contacted me and asked if I would like to be part of an exhibition called "Rural" that will be up during the month of August. I said yes, even though my exhibition schedule for 2011 was already getting a bit hectic and even though I usually try not to participate in anything bigger than a group show in August and September. I have learned from experience that it is really difficult to prepare for anything big while the kids are home during the summer, however, lately it is seeming like a bad idea to turn down any good opportunities. But I also paused when I heard who else would be exhibiting simultaneously.

But let me back up a bit first. The Smithy is the oldest building in Cooperstown. It has three floors, each with varying kinds of gallery space. The first floor is at street level and is the original part of the building, it's very rustic; stone walls, forges, anvils, and tools remain from its original use as a blacksmith shop. The second floor is where the member group show is held each summer, in addition to a small room that features a solo show each month. I had a solo there in the summer of 2008. And the third floor is a large open space, which usually features one or two artists and often has a particular theme, often historical. This is the space I will be sharing with Nancy Samstein. The member group show and solo show by Michael Whaling will be on the second floor and Wolf Kahn will be showing on the first floor.

Yes. You read that right.

THE Wolf Kahn. Monotypes, and maybe a few oil paintings. This is all exciting and everything but I must admit to being a bit intimidated as well. Over the years, people have often told me that my work reminds them of Wolf Kahn's and while flattering, I have never been quite comfortable with that, especially since I wasn't really aware of his work when I began my whole landscape/barn/color thing in 2003. (I wrote about that here and also wrote about meeting him" last year.) However, I feel now that even though our subject matter is still similar, the point of where my work has crisscrossed with his has passed. I was still concerned about being in such close proximity though and also about inundating viewers with barns and fields and tree lines, and I considered fast tracking a vegetable series I have going (more about that another time) so I could show those instead. But Doug assured me that my work has shifted away from his and it is true, I see that and I also hear FAR less feedback lately that includes his name in it;) So I am going to do some new work for this show, pursue the darker palette I have been using lately and also include more head on barn imagery like House, shown above, instead of the more angled views of structures I usually do. I think these are just a few of the shifts in my work that have distanced mine from his. Phew;)

So mostly I am pretty excited about this, but I still plan to stress a bit as well, which will ensure that things will be fine. Right?

PS. No word on whether Mr. Kahn will actually be at the opening reception. Please do NOT get me started on how much I will be stressing about that if he does attend. Heh.

PPS. I just realized that I really should have added here that I LOVE Wolf Kahn's work. It took awhile but I was finally able to see his oil paintings in person and they were simply stunning, so much better than any of the reproductions. I guess that is another reason why having my work in the vicinity of his is intimidating to me, I can't compete!!!!!

Different

I have quite a bit of work that I should be doing, including several shows to prepare for, yet I am having quite a lot of trouble getting uninterrupted time in the studio. I blame the kids for this although it's possible that the magnetic pull from the computer screen has something to do with is as well. But mostly I blame the kids. Seriously. I can't believe I ever thought life was hectic when they were babies! Even though they are off to school during the day and supposedly that's my studio time, lately their needs are taking over that time as well, what with meetings, sewing things, dropping stuff off somewhere, laundry and picking stuff up all. the. time. It seems endless.

I used to be disciplined enough to just sit down and work in whatever time was available, but I have lost that. Partly because my studio is in the attic now, and not downstairs in the middle of everything like it used to be, which had its own problems. But mostly I think it's because my work and career have been in so much flux in the last few years. My excitement for working in the studio has changed; and it has taken me some time to see that it's not gone, it's just different. I have been letting that change throw me off but lately I am trying to work with it rather than trying to force myself to have the same intensity that I had years ago. Things are different now. I am different now. After many long discussions with Doug, I have come to see that despite all these changes in my work habits (which I have considered to be laziness and procrastination) my work has continued to grow and evolve. It's also more consistent; I make far, FAR less paintings for the sand down pile. So I need to accept these shifts and give myself permission to change without flipping out about it all the time. heh.

Anyway, it took me an embarrassingly long time to get around to starting this batch of small format paintings, but I finally managed it yesterday. The second I started moving the paint around I was in love with making art again so everything is right even if everything is different.

Stella is a Sicilian Buttercup

It took me awhile to accept that what I was hearing from the oldster's chicken coop last winter was a rooster crowing. I was convinced that it was just the crowing from the hen house in the back of the house, bouncing off the hills that surround us. But finally I just couldn't ignore the distinctive sounds of a rooster's crow and the little chicken that suddenly looked like a beautiful rooster.

StuStella, mid crow:


And so turns out that Stella is actually Stu. And not only is he not a she, he is not a bantam either; he is a regular rooster, a Sicilian Buttercup rooster to be exact. Although, you shouldn't take my word for it, clearly I can't tell a boy from a girl, or a bantam from a standard, if slightly rare breed. Frankly, I could still be wrong since I simply looked at my chicken books and found a picture that looks like StuStella, which is what we call him. Well, mostly. I still think of him as Stella and sometimes call him Stella out loud just so I can keep doing the Marlon Brando thing. heh.

StuStella is a really nice rooster. Especially compared to the two nasty ones that rule the new flock with an iron claw and have worn off nearly all of the hen's feathers with their um, aggressive passion. Stustella is not quite as friendly with me as he was when she was a chick and eating out of my hand and perching on our hands and shoulders, but he is not at all mean or threatening to me or to his ladies. And he's got to be a bummed that he is in with the geriatric crowd (5 and 6 year old hens, yikes!). But he watches over them carefully when they are free ranging and is very gentle and brief when he occasionally gets some action. I get the feeling sometimes that the hens are just humoring him by letting him think he is in charge, because after all, they were quite independent for over a year after their last guy died and they did quite fine on their own.

Surrounded by his ladies::


So anyway, now we are a three rooster family which is at least one and maybe two too many. StuStella is staying though, one should never let a good guy go. Plus he is a good reminder to me that I don't know everything and that sometimes I don't know anything!

Hmmm, maybe StuStella should have his own facebook page and twitter account?????

Baby Jules!

In the past few years I have told the stories here of the birth of each of my daughters (here and here), and since tomorrow is my son's birthday, I figured I better dust off my blogger password and post his story too before I get accused of favoritism. So kick back and get comfy; this is a long one.

Doug and I moved to Utah in late 1993 so that he could work full time with a company he had part ownership of. We rented a big rambling house that had a firepole (no really, it did) from the main floor to the basement. The house was kinda rundown but was in a great location, right in town yet totally secluded on a few acres between the Logan River and a canal. Kurtis (our nephew) was four and had just come to live with us. And after trying for a few years and thinking it wasn't going to happen, all of a sudden at the end of the summer of 1994, I was pregnant.

Despite a few moments of sheer panic, omg! a BABY is actually going to be coming OUT of my body!!!!! Doug and I were thrilled and early on decided to have a home birth. I did a ton of reading (books, no internet back then in the dark ages) based upon a few suggestions from some friends of ours who raved about how wonderful their home birth had been. I asked around and somehow came across the name of a midwife. We met with her and after asking her just a few of the questions on our list, Doug and I both knew we loved and trusted her completely.

However, most everyone we knew thought we were cuckoo. We fielded many calls from friends and family who were worried about me and questioning our sanity. My mom was so uncomfortable with the whole concept that she wouldn't even discuss the birth with me, which made me very sad. And when we chose not to have an ultrasound it got worse. However, Doug and I knew what kind of a birth we wanted and so we ignored all the drama. Through our midwife Chris and her assistant Alissa (who assisted in Sophie's birth too and is still a very dear friend), I had met many other couples who felt as we did, and so they became our support system.

So anyway, I had a great pregnancy, and I know it's not popular to say this but I loved every bit of it. I felt great, didn't care about the parts that weren't so great, didn't freak out about how much weight I gained for once in my life, and I felt so peaceful. I loved the feeling of a baby inside me even when he made me pee all the time and then gave me heartburn too. I didn't have any morning sickness although I did have a few seasick moments early on. I recall being in a hotel room during a car trip we were taking and watching the video for Sheryl Crowe's song, All I Wanna Do (the original version, before they cropped out the creepy guy watching her perform) and feeling like I was in a boat on the ocean, I am still reminded of that feeling whenever I hear that song!

My due date was 'around' April 1st but I wasn't paying much attention to the dates; I could tell we weren't even close. However, I think everyone we knew called us that day, hoping for an April Fool's baby. About a week later the Braxton Hicks started, they were pretty strong and usually lasted every evening for several hours. I was paying close attention to my instincts though, which initially were only off by two days, heh. On April 13th we called Chris. She stayed all evening while I had pretty serious contractions and even though I was still sure I was going to have the baby that night, she knew otherwise. And about an hour later everything stopped and everyone went home. Ack!

The next day I walked and cleaned all day, and the contractions started again that evening, but I didn't think it was going to happen that night so I did what I could to ignore them. The next day I walked around outside as much as I could again and when the contractions started that night I knew it was time. The first few hours were fine, we were all talking and laughing. Doug held my hand the whole time, but as I progressed I finally had to tell him to stop looking at me with the big puppy dog pity eyes; I was fine! That was the only thing that bugged me, well besides being left out of the conversation while I was having a contraction, by the time I was done they had moved on to another topic and I was perpetually behind.

I think I labored like this for about 6 hours, pretty tough but I was doing the Bradley Method, deep breathing and relaxing completely during each contraction so they were manageable, even if I couldn't chat during them;) Finally there was a change around 2 am, I could feel it. It was time to push and so that's what I did. It took me awhile to get the hang of it (if you don't already know, you don't wanna know now) and after an hour or so, there was no progression. Chris checked me again and told us that the top of the baby's head was not at the opening of my uterus. She said she had seen this before and that sometimes the uterus is tipped back so that even though the baby is in the right place, the opening of the uterus isn't and that it was like trying to put on a turtleneck, shoulders first. If I been in a hospital this would have probably turned into a c-section or at the very least a vacuum assisted birth, but Chris said to NOT push during the next few contractions and that the baby would then be moved to the opening of the uterus. At this point I was like, whatever, so I didn't push when my uterus wanted me to and I think I can safely say that this was the hardest thing that I have ever done in my whole entire life. Not physically, although there was that too, but there was something so emotionally visceral about the need to push and not doing it and I don't even think I can explain it better than that, it was just so intense.

After the longest forty-five minutes of my life, the baby got into position (it worked!) and after another half hour or so, there he was; all screaming and poopy (he had meconium on the way out) and red and wrinkled and with a little conehead from being in the birth canal for so long. Doug kept saying "it's a baby, it's a baby" like he had never seen a baby come out of me before, and we were both crying. It was the first best moment of my life. It took us awhile but finally we decided to see if it was a boy or girl since even though I had thought it was a boy, we didn't really know. Then we just laughed because we realized that we didn't care about that. It didn't matter, the baby was out!

We named him Julien for Doug's grandfather, Jules who was really Julius (we chickened out on both Julius and Jules) and spelled it with an 'e' instead of an 'a' because we knew we were going to call him Jules anyway, and somehow that made sense. It's possible that I might have still been in the haze of labor and love and a new baby, because a few days later I considered either going with Julius after all or at least spelling Julien with an 'a'. But we ended up leaving it and everyone always spells it with an 'a'. Sigh.


Julien was born near dawn on Easter Sunday (not a huge holiday for a non-practicing Jew and a near athiest but everyone around us thought it was special). As Chris, Alissa and Doug cleaned up around me (vinyl mattress covers are VERY handy for a home birth) the cameraman arrived. Yes, cameraman. I had agreed to participate in a short documentary that a friend of Alissa's was doing about the differences in how babies breastfeed after medicated vs. unmedicated births. In probably the only few un-self-conscious minutes of my life, someone that I did not know videotaped me while I was breastfeeding my first baby. Julien was actually sucking his fingers within 2 seconds of his birth, while still crying but after a bit he settled down and after I took his fingers out of his mouth he latched on like a pro. I have never seen this video and since I am back to being my usual self conscious self, I don't really want to.

So there you are, the story of Julien's birth. He will be sixteen tomorrow and I often feel like I might burst with pride and love for him. He is an artist, a musician, a writer, creative, sensitive, responsible, a wee bit moody, a bit shy, very thoughtful and handsome.

A few more thoughts:

Living near the water while pregnant was very interesting; The sound of the river was very relaxing during labor and especially during all those evenings of faux labor, but it also made me feel like I had to pee about a 100% more often than I already did.

I watched the entire OJ Simpson trial while pregnant and I think deep down, Julien must be an expert on that case.

During the labor, Doug complained that his arm really hurt from throwing a heavy rock into the river earlier that day while we were walking around. Everyone looked at him and he still says he could tell we were ALL thinking, shut up.

Chris showed us the placenta and how it was starting to break down, so Julien was obviously significantly overdue. We kept the placenta in the freezer for a few weeks or so, then planted in the flower garden which is supposed to be good luck.

Around 6am Kurtis came in. He had slept through the whole thing! His eyes were all big; he left right away and came back with a little stuffed animal and set it down next to Julien. That was the 2nd time I cried in a day.


Kurtis with Julien who is crying in the next photo that was taken;) And yes, Kurtis is wearing Power Ranger gloves and his Batman cape.


Julien's finger sucking at birth was a sign to come, he was a devoted thumb sucker until he went to kindergarten and got a bit of teasing. I felt a bit sad when he stopped.

I loved every single minute of our home birth even the crazy part when I couldn't push. It was wonderful to be surrounded by people who cared about me, who weren't on any kind of schedule and it was really nice to be in my own queen sized bed!!!!

I can't say enough about The Bradley Method which got me through 2 more wonderful but very different home births.

And even though I haven't seen them since we moved away 8 years ago, I still feel an incredible closeness to Chris, Alissa and Kezia who did the documentary and was with us during the whole fake out labor and then the real one too. Yay for Facebook!

Chris and Julien, April, 1995

More About the Photos

Red Scarf Day, 2010, Oil on Panel, 18"x14"

Well, somehow January has almost completely flitted right by without me even once getting to my easel. I should be embarrassed to admit that, especially after I posted all my grand plans for the coming year, but somehow I'm not. I have a busy year coming up and I know that I will be completely swamped soon enough. Anyway, it's not like I have been doing nothing; I have been lining up a few new projects (will announce those as they become official), my girls have a crazy sports schedule and there has been a lot of driving and shoveling snow and attending basketball games. I have also taken some extra time each day to read more books, which I have really enjoyed.

I finally finished sorting the reference photos yesterday and that whole thing turned out to be SO overwhelming. First of all, I didn't realize just how many boxes of them I had collected, geez. I must have thousands of photographs! I should not be allowed to get obsessed with things. Heh, like THAT'S even possible. Secondly, sorting them turned out to affect me emotionally and I really could only work on them for brief periods before getting overwhelmed. I kept finding myself thinking about all these people and their lives, then moved on to think about how many stories and lives that there are in America and then in the whole world. Way overwhelming. Did I already say that?????

I also broke one of my rules of the 'People You Know' project. I had initially decided not to look for anybody whose pictures I found so that I could have to freedom to do whatever I wanted with the images. However, a few years ago I found a huge box of photos that traced the courtship, marriage and family life of one specific family. I have already used many of these photos for several of the portraits that I did last year in Vermont (see above) and as I began sorting I decided to keep the whole group of family pictures together. The photos are wonderful; they portray a classic 50's family filled with holidays, train sets, boys wearing cowboy hats, kids in the pool, in Boy Scouts, in the choir, the band and eventually posing with their prom dates and then graduating. As I looked through all of them I realized that I HAD to know what happened to the family, what they did, how the kids turned out, etc. I did some googling but the last name is rather common so didn't have much success with that. Finally though, I came across a Christmas letter written by the mother which gave me a few clues and I found the oldest son.

I debated for a few days about contacting him, because I knew doing so would change the whole direction of what I hoped to do with their photos, but finally I just couldn't stand it so I scanned one of the photos and sent 'D' an email. He responded rather quickly and we ended up talking on the phone. He was very nice, puzzled as to how I ended up with a big box of his family photos (I think that his mother had sent all these photos to her parents over the years and after they died, the box ended up in some sort of estate sale and then ended up for sale on ebay by an antiques dealer) and when it sounded like he didn't really have very many of his childhood photos, I ended up telling him that he really should have the photos, not me. I did ask him if I could scan some of them for use later on (he agreed to let me do that) and also described an idea I had about a project concerning his particular family images. D was actually very interested in that and after exchanging a few more emails, we decided to collaborate on the project over the coming year or so. He told me a little bit about his family members, just enough to keep me from completely busting open with curiosity and we decided that at some point in the spring we will get together in person so I can give him the box of photos and also to discuss the project further.

D should have the photos and I know that I did the right thing by offering to give them to him. And even though he is being VERY generous in allowing me to scan as many of them as I want, I still find myself feeling incredibly sad about not having the original photos. A combination of many reasons; how I like to have things, how I love to look through the actual photographs, feel the edges, the weight of the paper, the creases, read the notations on the back. It turns out that the tactile aspect of the photographs is a more important aspect of the "People You Know' project that I had originally thought.

So I was right about contact changing the direction of this series and while this is looking like it will be better and more fulfilling, I am not going to risk it again. I have two other family photo lots on hand, families that I am SO curious about but I am just going to put all that crazy-bursting-curiosity-energy into the paintings from now on.

Well, ok, I MIGHT do a little bit of googling but there will me NO actual contact!

Sorting It All Out

I have been collecting old family photos (other family's photos, not mine) as reference material for the 'People You Know' project for several years and now have a crazyville, hoarder-like pile of them sitting here in my studio. At first I tried organizing them at least into piles of yes, no and maybe, but I didn't really keep up with that and so they eventually ended up all mixed together in several boxes. That disorganization was very overwhelming to me and was one of the reasons I kept putting off getting back to the project last fall. I knew before I could do anything I would have to sort and prioritize the images, which in turn helps me determine the direction to take with the series.

So after quite a bit of procrastination (who me???) I finally began sorting them out yesterday. For some dumb, overly optimistic reason, I had assumed it would only take an afternoon or so to go through 5 million photographs, but now I see that it will take much longer. It took me at least an hour to decide HOW to sort them. At first I thought there only needed to be three piles; yes, no and maybe. Then I thought I should try to keep them together by family (I often get boxes of photos from one family) but they have gotten too scattered for that. Finally I decided that I should make piles based on the subject matter; couples, men, women, children, landscape/buildings. I started with those categories and promptly realized that I would have to add many more; adults WITH children, two people, three people, big groups of people, prom dates, cars, animals/pets, interiors (amazing how many people take pictures of their living rooms!), gardens, Christmas trees, people on horses, the aftermath of big snowstorms, sunbathers on the beach, vacation photos, people eating dinner, weddings, school photos, class photos, and parades.

Then things really got confusing. There was a lot of overlap and I spent entirely too much time stressing about where to place the photo of the car stuck in the snow on the country road or the wedding reception dinner on the beach or the girl holding a cat in front of a Christmas tree.
When I began to seriously consider another pile called 'trifecta' I decided I better chill out and just do the best I could.

The thing is though, it helps me to have them in categories. I like to work in series and am looking at several series within a series here. And even though I am pretty sure that I won't be painting images of little babies or even children in general, they are too cute and I don't do cute even thought this baby is SERIOUSLY cute: I have also learned that I should never say never; I will be keeping every photo no matter how improbable it seems to me now that it will ever be a useful reference to me. Like this one for example: I can't see using it as reference but omg, what a great bad photo! I always laugh when I see that couple dancing and can totally imagine how they must have been moving around the dance floor at this rockin' party. This photo stays and I might even frame it......

Once I get all the photos categorized I will go through each group and pick out a few for the 'yes, I must paint this right now' pile. Foursome is definitely one of those: Foursome

And while sorting them, I have also been obsessing about how to store them. I am good at multi-tasking! The super organized part of me that has been able to fit ten tons of junk into one room wants to go out and buy about 25 nice perfect stackable plastic bins, one for each category. However, the more practical solution is to put them into large ziploc bags and keep them in a file cabinet drawer. Easier to look through them that way, I think, and less expensive even though I do love those bins. heh.

Planning for 2011

Landscape Study #304, 6"x6", Oil on Cradled Panel, 2010

For some reason I have been assuming that I don't have much going on in the coming year, but after sitting down and looking at the events that I have lined up thus far, I actually think I will be fairly busy. Not as busy as I was a few years ago but I have decided to view this as a more streamlined schedule. hah.

Generally when I plan my studio schedule, I allow about 2 months of pretty solid painting time for a solo show, so I block in those times first. Then I look at any group shows that only need a few pieces and if I don't already have work on hand for those events, I set aside about 2-4 weeks to do that work. That is more than enough time to do two or three paintings, but in those situations I often do several extra paintings so that I have some choices for the show (I have learned not to put all my eggs in one basket) and also I prefer working on at least five paintings at once, I do much better that way rather than getting all obsessed with one painting which usually leads to overworking it. Then with the months where I don't have to be preparing for anything, I try to work on other things such as the People You Know portraits, or experimenting with other subject matter. I always hope to do more charcoal and/or pencil drawing during those times, but I haven't exactly met that particular goal, oops. Also in early fall I usually need to do a few new landscapes just to have on hand to trade out with the galleries' inventories before the holidays if necessary.

I used to write all this stuff down on a large calender on the wall, along with due dates, reception dates, etc. But either I have a better memory now or I have much less going on (ok, it's the latter) and I mostly just keep it all in my head and on the sidebar of my blog. Plus referring to my emails and/or gallery websites for specific dates works too. Super high tech, I am.

So anyway. Here is my plan for 2011:

January and part of February: People You Know portraits, and begin a new series involving vegetables (stay tuned for more info on THAT one).

Mid February through March: begin working on the paintings for my solo show at The Harrison Gallery in April, which will feature landscapes.

April: take off a week or so to have some sort of emotional breakdown after all the previous month's intense painting, start some new work to send to Chrysalis Gallery in Southampton, NY for their summer season.

May and June: back to the portraits and probably the vegetable series too. I also usually participate in a local group show around that time too so I will fit that in here too.

July: I have to paint six (or maybe eight) 36"x48" Black Paintings for a 3 person exhibit show in Texas. Also those paintings will have to be shipped there in a crate so I have to research and plan all that out by then too. Blech. I hate shipping, can someone invent teleporting already????.

July and August: I plan to participate in The Harvest Festival in Sharon Springs again in September, because it was great fun last year. So I will start doing many small format paintings for that (more is more, right?), plus even more of them for my sales blog for the holidays.

September, October, November: I MAY have a show in the fall and it MAY include the People You Know series although nothing has been officially confirmed yet. However, I am choosing to be optimistic that it will happen so am setting aside some time just in case. I already have plenty of portraits on hand for it, but just in case I need a few more paintings, I will have some of August and the rest of the fall to do a few things if I need to. I will also use this time to continue with the small format paintings for the sales blog.

December: Three options here kinda depending on what is going on in January. Sometimes I have a solo show in January at The Harrison Gallery, if that is the case I will need November and December to prepare for that. If I decide to go to the Vermont Studio Center in January (instead of February which I am leaning towards), I will need some time to prepare for that, and if neither of those happen in January I will take it easy in December and just enjoy the holidays. If I do one or both, I will just be squeezing the holidays in, heh.

Thankfully, I am not married to this plan, it is totally fluid; I can always add things in, and in fact I sure hope a few more exhibition type things will come up. In addition, there is a ton of other stuff to fit in, including things like planting the veggie garden in the spring, raising more meat chickens this summer, house stuff like repainting the cabinets in the laundry room, and a zillion kid things that mostly include me driving and watching their sporting events.

Oh, and yay, now I can refer to this blog post too when I need a reminder of what I should be working on, right????

Catch Up, or is it Ketchup?

Landscape Study, #305, 6"x4", Oil on Panel, 2010

I ignored almost all things art in the last few weeks and it was lovely. It's not like I have been terribly busy in the studio this last year or anything, but the shifts in my business in the last few years have made me think (and stress) much more about where I am going with it all, which has really affected my mindset in the studio. Sometimes I find myself longing for the first few years when I started painting again after taking a decade off to raise babies; I just painted and painted trying desperately to catch up and while there was some thinking and plotting about the future, mostly I was just immersed in the process of painting again.

Things are different now, however. I have a teeny tiny toehold in the art world, including gallery representation, collectors and some very minimal attention, but now I want more and I have been feeling overwhelmed about how to advance. Especially since none of the things I did at first (like cold calling galleries) are working. Having different bodies of work now seems to confuse the matter, for me and for those who I contact.

So.

I came to no profound conclusions during the last few weeks while I was super busy cooking meals, baking cookies, cleaning the house, playing scrabble with the kids, reading, and obsessing about getting a complex jigsaw put together. Well, except that I realized that I really need to get back to immersion in the making art part, which is something that I had already suspected. I HAVE decided though, that I must have faith that if I do that again, the other parts will move forward and more exhibition opportunities will come my way. All along I have been sending out my info and applying for things, etc. and will continue to keep that up, but holy cow, I really gotta paint! It keeps me from getting overly crazy, heh.

This break has helped though, as did viewing a group of portraits by John Singer Sargent at The Fenimore Art Museum. A new art book of drawings by Willem deKooning (thanks Doug!) also inspires and so does laying out my studio schedule for the coming year. I am finally yearning to paint again.

Anyway, more about my schedule later, and all this immersion stuff will have to start tomorrow; my studio is a wreck and today is a 'ketchup' day........

And the Winner is........

My son wrote down all 62 names (ten more than last year's giveaway!!) on a piece of paper, I cut them all out and here they are waiting for princess to sweep into the room and choose one;)

Ginger knows after a few years of all this contest stuff to look away while choosing the name. However she is looking FAR less perky than she dids last year. Maybe it was the 87 miles that she did at swim practice after school today.

But she gets to gets to read it first anyway.

Denise R.!! Yayy!!!!

Denise has been reading my inconsistent blog posts for about a year and a half and is a regular commenter. I see this is her second try for my birthday gift giveaway. So keep trying, folks!!!!!

Email me Denise, so that we can make arrangements and also I would love to post a link here if you have one.

And again, wow! Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes and incredibly kind comments. I admit to tearing up when I read through all of them and that usually only happens when the cute little Amish boy rings the bell near the end of Witness and all the neighbors come to help without fear for themselves. That gets me every time.......

Slight Delay

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let all you lovely happy birthday wishers know that I will have to announce the winner of the drawing later on tonight. I forgot that my assistant/daughter has swim practice tonight and won't be home until 6pm at least and then she MUST have her dinner.....

We will do the drawing later and I will try to post the winner's name right away, although it might have to be tomorrow if there is too much teen and tween drama this evening. heh.

Pack Rats and My 3rd Annual Birthday Gift Giveaway

My 2nd birthday, 1966.

Several years ago when my mom was moving she gave me some boxes of things she had saved from my childhood. This was the first hint to me that she was such a pack rat, which was confirmed after she died a few years ago; the crazy stuff she still had? Yikes! For some reason I had never noticed that she saved EVERY.SINGLE.THING.EVER. Maybe because we moved nearly every year while I was a child and somehow it didn't seem like we had very much. Anyway, in one of the boxes she gave me, I found the entire outfit (including the birthday cards that are on the table, but NOT the cake, thankfully!) that I am wearing in the above photographs. And by entire, I mean ENTIRE; the shirt, the jacket/sweater thingy, the skirt, a slip, underwear (I was potty trained already? wow!), those same socks, shoes and even the blue hair ribbon which was attached to the bobby pin which still held a few strands of my hair. Possibly slightly creepy, but mostly very sweet. My mom was an unwed mother in a time when society was very different and even though things changed and became more difficult as I got older, she was at her best as a mother while I was very young. She made most of my clothes (including the whole outfit I am wearing in these photos), she was very creative and despite having little to no money, few friends and family, she always managed to put together a good day for me. Although I think this was probably the birthday that was the most fully documented, heh.

So.

Time for my 3rd annual birthday gift giveaway. I am not as crabby as I have been in the past (and if you read that post, check out the link for the previous birthday post, still my fave) so this time I am including those of you who live in Canada. I am continuing to draw the line at shipping overseas (sorry) but if you have an address in North America that I can ship to, please wish me a happy birthday here in the comment section of the blog which will make me feel terribly popular and like I haven't lost most of my readers due to spotty postings. My super enthusiastic daughter, Ginger, has agreed to draw the name again and I'll announce the name tomorrow. My birthday gift is the choice of a painting from my sales blog and if there is not currently a painting that speaks to the winner, the choice can be made at a later date. I want the winner to get a painting that they reallyreallyreally want.

Y'all have until midnight tonight. GO!

Visit US on Black Friday

Landscape Study #300, 5"x7", Oil on Cradled Panel, 2010

I am an equal opportunity shopper so I am not going to tell anyone here not to spend your money during this shopping season at a mall or at a big box store because sometimes ya just need a big bag of socks and there is nowhere else to find one, even though I am currently boycotting Target, hate Walmart and only go there if I am ABSOLUTELY desperate and there is not even a Kmart within an hour of here either.

Oops, I digress.

But I do hope that you will at least spread your money around and help support artists and craftspeople who pour their hearts into making things while often barely making a living wage at it. Electronics are nice, and I like a good new gizmo almost as much as the next person, but ultimately my most cherished gifts have been the crazy little ceramic pots/sculptures/collages/picture frames/other not quite identifiable objects that my kids have made for me, the earrings that a friend made for me, a necklace made by another friend. My husband has given me wonderful gifts over the years such as a beautiful woodcut by an artist friend of ours from Utah, a painting by an illustrator that I idolized when I was in college. Even though the computer Doug gave me one year was awesome! amazing! useful! and crashed within 2 years! I would ultimately prefer my art collection if I had to choose between the two.

So please visit my little gathering of artist friends at The Fine Art Department and also at the Small Art Showcase; between the two collections you are bound to find something beautiful and creative to give your loved ones, your friends, coworkers, and/or yourself!

I would also like to pass along more links to some other sites:

My old friend (and I mean that literally, we were co-barflies back in Philly in the late 80's, which now makes us old friends) Charlie has gained quite a following on Facebook and Twitter with his unique observations on life and has now put them on shirts, bags, etc at Shot of Wry.

I have never met Sarah in person, but she is a very good friend of Charlie and his wife Cecily who was also my co-barfly and best friend back in the 80's. One of Sarah's photographs hangs in my living room and I often spend some time with it, soaking in the sadness and beauty.

Lately I have been wearing more wood shavings from the hen house than jewelry and in fact I went so long without even putting on a pair of earrings that I had to recently "re pierce" the holes in my ears that I have had since I was thirteen, but that hasn't stopped me from drooling over quite a few items on this Etsy page. I may just have to forward this page to my husband so that he will be able to more easily do HIS holiday shopping this year, heh.

Two of my very good friends in real life make wonderful one of kind, "upcycled" jewelry and clothing, although lately I am seeing way more jewelry at Quirky Works than clothing. If you come to visit our town, you will see that EVERYONE is wearing their creations! Oh and you can like them on Facebook to receive updates.

Julie worked at the gallery in NYC that represented me for about a year and a half before they closed (STILL devastated about that, btw) however I was lucky enough to have made two lasting friendships (the other being the gallery owner) during that time and Julie might currently be my leading collector of small format paintings. Anyway, she has an Etsy page and makes the most wonderful cross stitched ornaments. Go see.....

And the other day I asked for links on my public facebook page and believe you me, there is a TON of shopping to do in the comments section of that post!

Ok, that should be enough to get you started. And please, PLEASE, if you make handmade arts/crafts and have a sales site or know someone who does, post the link in the comment section here. Now don't be shy about it, I WANT you to be able to show your work and now's the time to be flaunting it posting it......

So have a good turkey day in between all this shopping! I will be taking a vacation form my blog, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

I'll Miss You, Tom Butter;)

Magenta Pool, 18"x18" Oil on Wood Panel, 2010

Sadly, I have finally decided that I just really can't go to the Vermont Studio Center this January. It truly pains me because one of the visiting artists that month is Tom Butter, who was also one of my teachers about 25 years ago at the Philadelphia College of Art. I was thrilled when I noticed that he was scheduled to be at VSC during January which is about the only month out of the whole year that I can actually get away from here to go there and was SO looking forward to seeing him and also getting his feedback on my work these days. He was one of my favorite teachers mostly because even though I was an interloper in the painting department (an illustrator crossing over) he took me seriously unlike some of the other painting instructors who shall remain nameless. Well, mostly because I can't recall their names anymore, but whatever. However, at least Tom and I can be Facebook friends, there is always Facebook, I guess.......

Anyway, besides Tom being there, I also wanted to go because I have some plans for some new work in mind and being at a residency is such a good place to focus on new ideas. Or get really confused about what to do. Either is fine; as both are valuable processes. I will just have to settle for trying to get started on those new things here at home and hopefully will have made some progress before January 2012 which is when I have rescheduled my residency.

So I will stay home and paint. I will also prove how grown up I have become by using my residency funds for upcoming expenses, including two crowns I need and that our dental insurance probably won't pay for, and also by staying home with the kids while Doug does some traveling for his business. Evidently. we aren't supposed to leave kids home alone even if two of them would really enjoy that, heh.

And the sliver of the bright side here (besides new crowns) is that it may be better for me to skip a year anyway. As much as I enjoy those residencies, they are also kind of intense, and so I think I should take a bit more time in between.

But still, bleh. I am kinda bummed out about this today......

Golden Oldies

Pink Tree Up Front, 2007, Oil on Wood Panel, 16"x20"

I have spent the last few days sorting through my inventory and my studio is still a mess with bubble wrap strewn around and piles of oddball paintings everywhere. But it is a huge relief to have reorganized my inventory cabinet even if I did miss out on a beautiful weekend outside and all the raking and gardening too. Heh.

It took me several hours to go through all the paintings, recording them, rewrapping and reorganizing them so they would be all neat and orderly in the cabinet and I was heading towards a funk when I started to see just how much unsold work I have on hand. Yikes! It was only a few years ago almost everything I painted was selling and even though I have been painting far fewer landscapes in the last 2+ years, evidently I am still too prolific for the current economy.

But as each group of paintings were spread out on the table, I realized that I was looking at work that was so colorful and expressive and well, accomplished. So my potential funk turned into pride that I could have created such things and now I am now feeling even more determined to find their people.

I ended up adding almost 40 pieces to my 'Available Work' page on my website and alas, that does not include everything that I have on hand. It also does not include any of the 'People You Know' paintings, none of which have sold, but I have some different ideas in mind for that series. Anyway, I am not planning to sell this available work directly (the prices listed are gallery prices), mostly I think this page will be a good resource for the galleries that represent me.

However, this does bring me to a question for those of you who have gallery representation. What do YOU do with older work that hasn't sold? I am firm in not selling around my galleries (particularly at lower prices, which is a real no-no) but then I end up with so much work on hand. It would be very helpful for all of us, I think, to hear how others have handled this situation.

Tracyland is Back

Landscape Study #281, 5"x3" Oil on Cradled Panel, 2010

And so all of a sudden I am feeling a renewed energy and enthusiasm about everything; painting, marketing my work, reading, knitting, cleaning the house and even weeding and clearing out the dumb stupid messy gardens for the winter (which I have been very UNinterested in, lately). This enthusiasm is also extending to wanting to be a better blogger. Still not sure that I have as much to say as I used to, but I am going to keep trying. Just don't expect too much depth here for awhile, k??

It's no secret here that I have been struggling a bit with various things in the last year or two; a normal part of growing up, I think. Heh. Some of that has had to do with the crappy economy and the closing of several galleries that had been representing my work. However, I am not entirely blaming the economy for the slow down in sales, which has been even worse for me during this last year, because I have also neglected opportunities to be getting my work out there too. And part of THAT has been due to my being somewhat burned out on painting landscapes (which is what sells) and pursuing other subject matter such as the 'People You Know' series (which DON'T sell) and well, just being in flux as far as which directions to take, in life as well as in painting.

However, reality has helped to shake me out of this flux. We need more income what with looming college tuition (x3), various camps and programs that Doug and I really feel that our kids need right now in order to balance out living in this very small and sheltered environment, not to mention just keeping up with the money pit (our house and the barn is becoming very needy too). Doug's company is doing ok, but since they sell stuff, it is also vulnerable to the whims of the economy. Mostly though, I seem to be the weak link around here lately. With some additional effort I can earn more as an artist than I can in either of the two available jobs that I am not even qualified for in our little town, so more painting and much more marketing it is!

I am currently in the process of sorting through all my available inventory and have begun posting those works on my website. I have made a proposal to a local company (which I will not talk about again in order to NOT jinx it). I have been compiling a list of galleries and museums to stalk pursue and am in the midst of putting together my info to send out to them. I have also made a rather reluctant decision to publicize my sales blog, just a little bit. In normal times I probably wouldn't do that because I have preferred keeping that low key so as not to interfere with my gallery work. However, the sales of the small format paintings have been paying the bills lately so for the time being, I am going to be a painting pusher. heh.

I am starting to feel the same excitement that I did seven years ago when I began painting again and was trying to get something going. I am thankful that have so much more experience (and collectors!) this time though and I hope that will help balance out the whole crappy economy thing, just a little bit at least. However, even though I have pursued some things recently that I have declined to do before, such as selling my work myself and having a booth at a local Harvest Festival, I am still being very careful about my decisions and am continuing to stay firm on my long range goals.

So that means no Tracyland reality art show, folks. Although, now that I think about it, that would be a good name for one. hmmmm........

Seeing Wolf Kahn

Barn Study #246, 6"x6" Oil on Panel, 2010

Last Friday I was cruising around on the internet looking for galleries and museums that really need to be learning all about moi and my fab work soon. Heh. I was checking out The Brattleboro Museum's website and noticed that they were hosting a lecture by Wolf Kahn. Now, I have a long and checkered past with Mr. Kahn (I wrote about that here and here) and have always been interested in meeting him, even if I am not always very happy about my work being compared to his so often. Anyway, since the lecture was the next day and my schedule was relatively clear, I took that as a sign that I should go. No babysitters available so I decided to take my son, Julien, who is probably headed towards art school in a few years. An added plus about that was that he actually knows who Wolf Kahn is and what kind of work he does, so he was excited about going as well.

After deciding in advance about the VERY IMPORTANT issues (we settled on playing my iPod on the way there, and his on the way back) we had a nice drive to Vermont on a beautiful day. I had kind of hoped we could stay overnight cause Tracy's night vision isn't exactly stellar these days, but I had been unable to find anything before we left. Found out why when we got to Brattleboro; turns out that nearly everybody in New England was actually in Vermont for the weekend, looking at leaves and clogging the roads for me. So I mentally prepared myself for another three and a half hour drive back, bleh.

Despite being crowded, Brattleboro was great. We had a few hours to pass until the lecture, so we walked around and went into a few stores. There was an excellent record store where we bought a few gifts for Doug's birthday, including two Bob Dylan albums that we had never heard of and a Grateful Dead album where all the band members are dressed suspiciously like the Bee Gees on the cover.

We had an excellent dinner here and got to the lecture early enough to get front row seats. The lecture was held in a packed, small and dark theater but after an introduction by the Museum's director, Mr. Kahn got up and stood at the podium under a spotlight. The topic of the lecture was "Can Art be Taught" and right away he joked about how he had written a rather formal presentation and would now rather just tell a bunch of stories, which is exactly what he did starting with two of his teachers: Stuart Davis and Hans Hoffman, who had very different styles in the classroom. Stuart Davis talked mostly about jazz music and baseball, he had very little passion for teaching. Hans Hoffman spoke of a lot of things that no one understood and in fact he told his students that they wouldn't understand what he was even talking about for at least 5 years. He also had a tendency to draw into his student's drawings if he felt it needed correction and was even known to cut up the drawing if he felt it should have a different angle to it. He did ask before he went into a student's painting however, so that was good;)

Other highlights from the talk:

-He greatly dislikes the work of Jeff Koons and Gerhard Richter (I am repeating this only because this the talk was being videotaped and well, he did say this out loud in front of many people, so hardly a secret).

-This led to a discussion of the differences between artists and art students, that most are amateurs and others have a calling to make art, and how teachers are doing a disservice to them if they don't understand the differences in their students. He also thought though, that art is worth doing if it is something one enjoys and if one gets a little bit better each time, even if one is probably not going to a be really successful and famous artist. (phew!super glad to hear that!)

-He discussed his experiences as a teacher in the 60's and 70's and the various politics involved with that, then he went on to describe how in every class there were maybe 4 hotshots, 15 mediocrities and 10 who shouldn't be there at all. This didn't sound so harsh when he said it and anyway, based on my years in art college, I don't think it is entirely inaccurate. Guess which category that I think I belonged to?????

-He described the exercises that he had his workshop students do. I thought they all sounded interesting even though I would probably be a pretty crabby student and complain about starting off with making a gray scale. ha. However, he was redeemed in my opinion by using the term "shot their wad" while describing the next exercise. It was the perfect term. Really, it was.

And I was able to decipher a few more more advice related tidbits from my mostly illegibly scribbled notes:

-Don't let ideas enter your mind.

-He talked about how his macular degeneration has led him to be less fussy about the details and that he has to now pay more attention to the big picture.

-He joked that as his worked has changed due to his eyesight he has been getting much better reviews and wondered if he would have to be blind in order to be considered a genius!

-He said he knows his work is too nice and maybe even sweet, but that you have to work with the emotion that you have. He said his friend Joan Mitchell had a lot of anger and it really showed in her art and worked well for her.

Mr. Kahn was VERY funny, a very appealing mix of self-deprecating humor and self confidence too. While some of the things I have written here might sound a bit harsh in print, hearing him say them was quite different. His discussion of his teachers, of the art he dislikes, how crazy teens are; it was all delivered in a very endearing manner.

Anyway, he answered a few questions after the talk, then sat down at a table in the lobby and signed books etc, while I kicked myself for not bringing my own book of his to have him sign. I bought two show catalogs and he signed one for me and one for Julien. I was able to chat with him for a few minutes and naturally I made a few dumb jokes and only babbled a little, so that was good. Relatively speaking anyway. Heh. My son really enjoyed the lecture and I think he still planning to apply to Cooper Union after all that.

And except for the idiot who insisted on tailgating me while I was driving in the pitch dark, on a winding road with little to no shoulder, at 6o mph (slightly OVER the speed limit, I would like to point out) with his brights on, the drive home was rather uneventful, even if I do not understand what the heck so many drivers were doing driving around on the highways near Albany at midnight, but whatever. Leaning towards country bumpkin here, I guess.

Well, a country bumpkin who got to meet Wolf Kahn, ha!

PS. No image of Wolf Kahn's work because I don't know how to do a screen grab and no pictures of the event because neither one of us remembered to take any photographs. You'll just have to settle for one of MY barns, hehe.

Free Bird

Black Underneath, 10"x8" Oil on Birch Panel, 2010

So I have done little to nothing in the last few weeks while "recovering" from preparing for two almost back to back events. I haven't really caught up on house and yard stuff, although I have done the basics. Mostly I have been working on my taxes, cleaning up my studio and packing and shipping out small paintings. Have had quite a good run on sales lately!

But I am trying reallyreally hard to NOT waste all this time, this time. I was incredibly unproductive during my last slow period between shows and I don't particularly like how I feel about myself when I allow that to happen. I just get so overwhelmed by how much I WANT to do, that I can't do anything. Dislike!

I literally do not have anything on my schedule until next April. As much as I think I would like to keep all this free time to do whatever I want, the reality is that I really need structure and deadlines in order to stay productive. Things do often just come up at the last minute, but it's crazy to be depending on that happening so what I need to do first is to send out my info, applying for competitions, etc.

And as far as actual painting goes, um cause that is what I do, right now I am leaning towards focusing on the 'People You Know' series again and trying to get them to work better in a smaller format, like 8"x10". But first I must actually get some more 8x10 panels....

Until I get those (must order them today), I think I will work on the squares that I have left over from this project that I began at the Vermont Studio Center last winter.

Starting on those tomorrow. Heh.

Taxes and Twittering, Twittering and Taxes

Barn Study #244, 4"x6" Oil on Panel, 2010

So today I am (supposedly) going to finish up putting together all my deductions for 2009 so that I can send it all off to the accountant. Yes, Doug and I are somewhat lame in that we never get our taxes done in April, October is our April. In Doug's defense, his side of things is somewhat complicated and it is a real challenge to get it all together by April. I don't really have a defense for myself; there about 10 ways that I could do a better job of compiling my info throughout the year so that on January one, viola! It is all ready to go! However, I admit to being a complete and total procrastinator in general and particularly when it comes to anything tax related. We are doing pretty good this year however, our accountant will have 9 whole business days to put together our return which is about 6 more than we usually give him. heh.

And since taxes and all tax related talk is right up there with fingernails scratching a blackboard, I will end this very brief post with something silly and happy. Like twitter, what could be happier than twitter???? ha. Last night during some crazy tax induced haze, I opened a twitter account, which is pretty much how I ended up on Facebook too. I do not need any more reasons WHATSOEVER to be sitting on my behind in front of the computer but well, now I have one another one anyway. Still not entirely sure what I am doing there nor do I understand the etiquette yet (am I supposed to follow everyone who follows me? is it rude to block people/organizations who follow me and are clearly trying to get me to open bad bad links? and how the heck does this work with my blog and facebook pages? isn't everyone going to be super sick of me between all these things? I don't think I have enough interesting things to talk about!) but since I might possibly qualify as an attention ho, I may as well go with the flow so if you are also a twitterer maybe you'll see fit to follow me.

How is THAT for an invite????? hehe.

PS. The above painting is available, along with a bunch of other new ones, at my sales blog.