More Bucky Boo-Boo Bunnies*

I can't stop myself. These are ink and watercolor on cardstock cut out and arranged on the scanner bed. What should I do with them? They're breeding like, um, well, you KNOW. The one on the far left looks like a demented Winnie-the-Pooh with a wicked overbite.

Mark wants me to write a story about them. About what exactly? Their orthodontic issues, lack of trousers and the challenges of living with asymmetrical limbs? Hey! Maybe I could license the images for Orthodontist Appointment reminder postcards!

*copyright pending.......or not

Trumpet ate a bird.

A chickadee. It got trapped in our screened in porch and he caught it. Mark and Conn chased him and tried to get him to give it up, but Trumpy ran fast and chewed faster. *gulp*

Just when I think I have anthropomorphized him completely, attributing to him all sorts of complex emotions and thoughts, he does something so dang dog-like. Eats a bird. Then chucks up the feathers.

I hope he feels guilty.

Week 4 - Astor

Studio Move

I've decided to move my studio from our Dining Room to our little guest bedroom. We call it the green room - it's the girliest room in a house full dirty shoes and Prater men.

Here's the rationale - I'm messy, the DR has no door and is visible from the entry. It spills into the kitchen and living rooms and never looks settled. Besides, it seems like better use of the green room to use it daily as a studio space than for a weekend every couple of months. Carol loves the couch, right?

So I am going to get rid of the day bed, pull up the carpet, paint the concrete underneath and move in. The armoire is stuffed with miscellany, so I will have to cull it out to use it for my supplies. Same with the closet.

Here are the before pictures. If you're in the neighborhood and feel like pulling up tack strips, come on by, I'll put on some coffee.

Blind Date

I did these two last night. Each is on a 4 x 6 canvas panel. I don't like how thick the outline is around their heads and limbs, but I got impatient and wanted to finish them. I used the only Permapaque marker I have which is pretty thick.

I experimented with the background painting it first with acrylic then putting a wash of dye ink over it and finally scribbling some caran d'ache on top and wetting it to blend.

They met on DinoMatch.com. (I've decided they are sort of evolved dinosaurs.)

I gotta tell ya, weekly art is giving me more time to play with other things. My total amount of studio time per week is probably about the same, but I spend more time experimenting/learning.

Family Portrait

I realized after I'd painted the mom and dad that they should have been holding, um, limbs and the kids should have been beating each other senseless. Oh well, next time. I like how they're so happy even tho they have serious dental problems and bad posture. They are on a 12"x 6"canvas.

Anybody know what fine tip permanent (waterproof) marker will work on acrylic paint? My Sharpies and Microns keep giving out on me. Permapaque? Help.

It's love

He looked lonely. Her name is Phoebe.

Week 3: Sunny

I have been playing with these chubby, orthodontically challenged lizard-people in small doodles and watercolor for a few weeks. This one is much larger - acrylic, marker, and caran d'ache. Less busy than my usual. I kinda like it.

Snow on the Kudzu

I used to live up north, so I know this is what spring looks like up there, but down here? This is pretty unusual. In the nearly six years I've lived in Georgia, this is only the second time we've had snow and the first time it's stuck for more than a couple of hours.

The streets didn't ice over so school wasn't called off, much to the boys' disappointment and my relief.

Trumpet seemed to like the slushiness. Here he is, looking regal as always. Ironic, since he's such a goofball. What a poser.

Week Two: Save

I think this weekly thing is going to be much more doable for me - I have the freedom of more time to complete my assignment as well as more surface area to work with - twelve times more.

I've noticed after two 6"x 6" pieces that my image choices and scale are very different in the bigger size. Next week I am going to try to replicate the proportion from some 1.5" squares and see what happens.

The folks in the photo are the Gareys: Baby Tony, Bob, Kay, Carol (my mother-in-law) Cooky, and Mickey. Bob and Kay's thriftiness is the stuff of legend.

Week 1: Tough Guy

So here is week one's effort on my new size: 6 x 6, fully 4 times the area I had to work with last year. I wish I were more disciplined. More regimented. Dependable. I wish I were more like Debbi who just began year 5 of daily art. I'm just too easily distracted. Or lazy. Or flaky.

The photo is printed on muslin, adhered to the canvas with a skim coat of gel medium under and over the photo. Done in acrylic with a collaged Greek word (TraHEES meaning rough or tough) and Caran d'Ache.

The man on the bottom right is my Popou Maki, he was very strong, very rough and tough. He was from Crete and lived well into his nineties. My dad used to tell us Popou Maki could pull a tree up out of the ground with his bare hands. Roots and all.

Happy New Year!

We rang in 2008 in South Florida with my folks. No, we didn't get another kid for Christmas, the extra boy you see on the right is my nephew Nick.

No gator heads or windchimes under the tree this year, but I did get an iPhone. I love it more than one should love an inanimate object. I also got knitting needles and yarn. I am going to knit a lens cloth for the iPhone.

I am doing weekly art this year, still square, but much larger: 6" x 6" and canvas.

Some resolutions:

1. Learn to knit
2. Read the complete works of Jane Austen (halfway through Emma)
3. Write more
4. Worry less
5. Join a choir
6. Drink very good Chardonnays (no more $5/bottle swill - life is too short)