Sunday, September 14, 2008

Greatful Tuesday: The Smell of Oils


"Have you ever smelled oil paints?" she asked me? "No." I said. "Well, there is something about them that is delicious, you could just eat them."

This was part of a conversation I had over 10 years ago with my high school art teacher while standing in front of the Jamie Wyeth painting pictured above, titled Portrait of Pig.

I think it's funny the way things happen sometimes. I had recently been thinking about that conversation, as I packed up my oil paints, along with my encaustic stuff last week. I will never forget the first time I DID smell the smells that come along with painting in oils while I was in college. I instantly fell in love with the richness of the intoxicating (and probably somewhat harmful) aroma. I think it is in part because of my conversation that I had years prior with Mrs. Smith while standing in front of that huge painting. So, here I was thinking about that conversation so well etched in my mind and then I also found out that she recently retired from her teaching position at my high school and my mind went nuts with all of my memories and gratitude for her.

Most of my favorite stories of my time with Mrs. Smith actually happened outside of school hours. I grew up in a small town, my graduating high school class had only about 120 kids it in. For the most part, the kids knew the teachers and the teachers knew the kids. I happened to be lucky, Mrs. Smith lived in my neighborhood. So not only did I benefit from her during the school day, but there were a lot of extra trips that her and I took on our own. We went to Washington D.C. when the big Vermeer exhibit was there in 1996 because SHE knew what a big deal it was to have so many Vermeer paintings in the same exhibit, all in the United States (at that time, I didn't even know who Vermeer was). She got up and waited in a line that extended outside of the museum for a few hours to get a hold of the free tickets, got within 10 people of the exhibit before the said "sorry folks, we've already given out too many tickets today there will be no more..." Talk about heartbreak. We stood like little dogs with tales between our legs at the exit hoping to get a peek inside (they really limited the amount of people that they allowed in the exhibit at a time because most Vermeer paintings are very small, so they didn't want to over crowd the gallery). This sent me on a mission. When I studied abroad my jr. year of college I was DETERMINED to get to Amsterdam so that I could stand in front of a Vermeer, for the both of us. And I did.

I have been very fortunate to have had mentors during every creative stage of my life. I hope that whoever out there is reading this blog, that it will cause you to stop and think about the people who invested in you along the way and be greatful for them.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Caught off guard


Hi. Last week I walked into our entry way and saw this image on our front door. I am well aware that we have two lizards that live outside of our front door, but it totally took me by surprise to find the silhouette of one of them on the door. I thought it looked pretty cool.....

Today I am thankful for a somewhat over cast day outside (of course,as I type the sun is peeking out) and some time to get caught up from the weekend. I was caught off guard this weekend when I got hit with a terrible stomach bug. Ugh. It totally took me for a ride and dehydrated me in a very short time. After an ambulance ride, two bags of iv fluids and some rest, I'm feeling much better. Thankfully it didn't last long.

I like these days, when I can just caught up on things. It's quiet around the house. I'm working on cleaning up my studio and finishing up some projects. I was all excited last week to get some creative energy back and got myself ready to do some encaustic work, only to then realize that it is debatable weather doing this type of work is safe during pregnancy. The wax that you use when doing encaustic work can be toxic if heated over a certain degree (which I don't do), but can also produce some fumes that I probably don't need to be smelling currently. So I'm packing it all up for awhile. I am working on this piece that I started last year (it's still in progress). It was a collage piece that I started in my encaustic class. I think I am just going to finish it up using some none toxic collage glues. I think I can still achieve what I want without the wax.


Thank you to everyone for their well wishes and expressions of excitement for us on my last post! This week we get to hear the baby's heart beat... :)

I hope you are having a quiet day wherever you are....

Monday, September 1, 2008

Labor Day



Hello Out there. I've been keeping secrets from you....I'm pregnant....:) Officially 12 weeks this week. I've been waiting until I got to this point to share my news, although it has been painfully difficult to keep my big mouth shut.

I don't intend on turning this blog into a blog about my pregnancy. Its main purpose is to still track my creative experience through life. But how could something so HUGE not have it's effects on every area of my life, so I hope that you will enjoy some tidbits along the way of my experiences. I am hoping that now that I am through my first trimester that I will regain a little bit of my creative energy back. I even went out last night and finally got the supplies I need to do encaustic painting at home... I took a class on this last year at the University of Texas and have always wanted to continue to do it at home. Stay tuned for some exciting projects!

So I guess you can say somewhere around March 15, 2009 "Labor Day" will take on a whole new meaning for me...