Update

This is just an update about what's been going on around the place.

Are blogs dead? Not sure, but there was a short discussion about that on Facebook, and it made me think that maybe they are. I suspect they are being replaced with said FB, and Twitter, Instagram, etc. Instant gratification. Blogs took over from the old My Space, and now blogs, if not linked to some of the instant messaging apps, may not get as much attention. In my own case, this blog has been running for a number of years, and only has 14 followers. My Pinterest site has been up six months, maybe a bit longer, and I already have 92 followers. Yes, Pinterest is all about pictures, but in some respect, they are the same pictures you would probably want to share on a blog if it weren't so time-consuming. For those who use their blogs as a personal diary, like I do, then I guess it doesn't matter if no one else reads it but me. But it does make me pause, and wonder if it is worth my time, when maybe that time could be better spent on projects or painting.

Speaking of painting...which I haven't done much of lately because the garage got so hot (daytime temps got up to 113) I just couldn't work...I am fired back up to start a new series. It will run concurrently with the series I've  already been working on, Gypsies, which has one drawing, a finished painting, a painting still in progress (the one I had to set aside due to the heat), and many ideas for future paintings. The new series will be called Ghosts in the Ruins. Figures in decayed rooms. Lots of mould, peeling wallpaper, chipped paint, and plants reclaiming the space that used to be theirs. People looking lost, wondering what happened to the place that they knew, wondering why they are there again, and wondering if they can get back. Back to what? Back to a life before the decay? I want the painting to express a sense of bewilderment. A sense of "Why did we abandon this place, or let things get so bad?"

Since the new series will involve lots of texture in the paintings, I started thinking about how I would get that decayed, crumbling look. As I was sitting out on the deck the other day, it got a bit warm, so I peeled off the sweatshirt I was wearing, only to discover that a dryer sheet had been stuck inside. I looked at the dryer sheet, and thought, "Wow, what a great texture. Wonder if I could use these things in my paintings?" So I am going to experiment with them, glueing them down with matt medium then painting over them to see what kinds of surface textures I can get. And you know, it's always good when you can repurpose something rather than throw it away.

On my reading table is my Big Red Boxed Edition of Lord of the Rings. I hadn't read the book in over ten years, and wanted to go back to the source after having seen the Peter Jackson version so many times. It reinforces just how much the movie veered away from the book, and in some places abandoned it all together.

I have put up four tubs of tomato, pepper, basil soup base. They are now in my freezer, waiting for those cold winter evenings when hot soup tastes so good. I may have enough tomatoes left on the vine to make one more tub. I know I have enough peppers! The peppers went crazy this summer.

Lastly, a quick word about the horse we adopted in July from a kill yard in Washington. After a month and a half, she is finally out of quarantine and in her permeant turnout. She has been such a good girl, very level-headed...until the farrier showed up. She took one look at him and every alarm bell in her body went off. We managed to get her front hooves done, but it was pretty traumatic. She was literally shaking with fear and refusing to let him touch her. So, I have no idea what was done to put the fear of the world into her when it comes to farriers (she has never reacted to anyone like that before, not even the vet), but we will have to figure out something, as her back hooves were in worse shape than the fronts. Might have to give her a sedative for the next few sessions, to get her calmed down and over the fear.

That's about it. The days are getting shorter, nighttime temps are dropping into the 60s, the air is crisper and smells of fall, and we even had a rain/hail system blow through, that washed all the dust and ash from the trees. You could almost hear them sigh with contentment.

My Imaginary Interview With Seth Apter

I recently won a book, Seth Apter's "The Pulse of Mixed Media", from a giveaway on The Voodoo Cafe. After reading the book, and being intrigued by the questions Seth asked over a hundred other artists, I decided to pretend he had given me a call and asked me a few of the same questions. So here we go...my pretend interview.

Seth: What three words do not describe your artistic style?

Me: Cute, bright, minimalist.

Seth: Is there a color that rarely shows up in your artwork?

Me: Yellow (really, anything pastel).

Seth: What is your current art obsession?

Me: Perfecting the things I already know how to do, to take them to a new level.

Seth: What is your biggest pet peeve in terms of art?

Me: Pretension. Artist who describe their work and what that work is trying to say, in terms so esoteric no one can understand what they mean.

Seth: How do you express passion in your artwork?

Me: I think all true artists are passionate, or they wouldn't do what they do. Their art is their passion, and every piece would show that passion.

Seth: Do you deliberately hide messages in your artwork?

Me: Sometimes, but the most consistently hidden element in my work, even my jewelry, would be cat hair. I live with four indoor cats. There is nothing in my house that doesn't have a certain amount of cat hair on it.

So, there it is, my imaginary interview. Seth asked many more questions of the artists in the book, and they give very interesting, compelling answers. It's a very good insight into how these artists feel about their work, and why they do what they do, and do it so well.

And thank you, Seth. Call me any time. :=)

Here is a link to Seth's blog, The Altered Page.