Yin and Yang

Day 6

of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge, hosted by Leslie Saeta.

These two things are on the path to finding the equilibrium of their wholeness.






The "Yin and Yang" are held together by the front and back flyleaves of an old poetry book. I actually love how it all came together - literally.

"Yin and Yang"
Acrylics, book pages and clippings, on canvas panel, 12" x 16"

Make Room

Day 5

of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge.

My daughter woke me up early in the morning to let me know that there was something really disgusting in the living room. Half of a gecko was lying there, neatly placed between the half-done spiderman puzzle on the floor and the old black collapsible chair with the half-attached seat cushion that has already lost half of its plushy filling. I loved the obvious "half" theme here, so intriguing, and I think I will do a "half" theme piece very soon. I already have a clear picture in my head.

Anyways, this is my piece for today: "Make Room." I wanted to do something based on the concept that a room is constructed by the person creating the room by placing herself or himself in it. In this case by the tiny dancer.

"Make Room"
Acrylics, ink, book clippings, on canvas panel, 9" x 12"

You Better Believe It

Day 4

of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge.

I just loved finding these little sugar and spice jars!

I immediately knew that I had to make them into a piece about the idea of Creation. And about the flabbergasting arguments defending this concept.


"You Better Believe It"

Watercolor, acrylic, storybook clippings, on canvas panel, 12" x 12"

Another Good Trick

Day 3

of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge.
 
I have been working on several pieces today. Once in a while my 8-year old daughter came into my studio and gave me her opinion on things. I like her ideas and insights a lot. We talked about a certain piece I want to do and that I would like to incorporate a tiny drawing of hers. She agreed but said that she will have to buy it from me for five dollars. I guess, it's a deal.

Anyways, I finished this small piece today, inspired by what has been in the news. I have to be cute with my worries, otherwise I would just sit and cry.

"Another Good Trick"
Watercolor, ink, storybook clippings, on canvas panel, 5"x5"

Last Supper

Day 2

of the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" challenge!

The chickens are having dinner, or better: One chicken is having dinner, while the others are serving - happily or not. Quite soon, they will all end up as dinner themselves, so their happiness and roles don't really matter - or do they?

By the way, I enjoyed including the little humpty dumpty here because he always reminds me of this very odd dream that I had just before I gave birth to my son Jacob ten years ago. I dreamed that I would give birth not to an actual baby but to a gigantic sperm cell with arms and legs. Hobby psychiatrists, feel free to analyze.

"Last Supper"
Watercolor, ink, storybook clippings on canvas panel, 12"x16"

Fortune

Day 1

So, I have signed up again for the "30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge" hosted by artist Leslie Saeta. I really enjoyed doing it last year, it was a very intense and very valuable experience. I learned so much, I found my process and my style. And I will say, I have been quite successful ever since. I have sold nearly all of my 30 paintings and more, and I had the chance to have a few small pieces in a group exhibit a few months ago. Next Spring I am going to have a solo show even. And did I say, that I received an Honorary Mention for my sculpture "Undo?" Needless to say that all this makes me very happy. I am a visual writer, a storyteller, and I found my listeners. I found my art home, that's a good place to be.

Inspired by all this, I made "Fortune." For years I have been keeping this wisdom in my wallet that came from a fortune cookie: "Fear is just excitement in need of an attitude adjustment." This "fortune" - being in control of your fear - has got so relevant these days. To consider fear a rational choice and not an emotional state of mind, didn't quite occur to me before for some reason, at least I wasn't applying it to myself or my own life. I keep reminding myself.

"Fortune" - acrylics, ink, book clippings, fortune cookie fortune, on canvas panel, 12"x9".

Kaleidoscopes

My sample which I made for my recent
"Printmaking: Mandalas" summer art camp
(which I should have called "Kaleidoscopes").

My daughter Mona had her first day of school today. For all of us this is a very different kind of first day of school. Because Mona decided to leave the local Montessori School, the place where she and her older brother Jacob have been all their school lives. We love the Montessori concept and we love all the teachers at "our" Montessori school. It was convenient, too, having both kids at the same school. We know most families there, and for a few years I have been teaching art to the elementary and middle school kids.

However, when I was talking to Jacob and Mona about the different school options that are out there, Mona immediately said that she wanted to go to the public school. She loves the idea of trying something new, meeting new people, making new experiences and challenging herself in many ways. I thought that she may change her mind after a few weeks, but no, she didn't.

We all went to tour the school. Someone from the school office showed us the classrooms, the gym, the library, the detention room. Mona loved it, even the detention room. The school was in the middle of major constructions, heavy machines were sitting in the hallways, some floors looked shinier than others and were fenced off with stripy tape. Motivational sentences on the walls. It smelled differently.
Yes, that's what I want, Mom. I really really really love it. This is my school.

Mona's piece.

So we went to buy pencil toppers, wipes, and composition books. We filled out the enrollment forms and handed them to the school board officer who was sitting behind thick glass. And then we checked out the various khakis and poloshirts with their hardly noticeable individual details (which at  the end, make all the difference) and found that most of these uniform pieces looked odd and uncomfortable and not very flattering on my very slim Mona. I don't know why I was surprised.

Several times, Jacob said to his sister, you are so brave, I couldn't do it. I am not for change, I like things to be the same. Which is not really true. He just loves where he is right now, in every literal and not literal way. He is such a thinker and reader, his view of things, of the world, has been changing fast and profoundly. But he is probably not noticing his change because he has been doing his thinking and reading mainly in that same cheap collapsible black armchair that we bought a few years ago and which is close to falling apart any time very soon; only thin fibers are holding the seat and frame still together, sooner or later this chair will make him move to another place.

And Jacob's work.

Mona's change is much more visible. She has just discovered that she can and may choose her path. That it doesn't have to be the one that her older brother is walking, even if this path has proven to be a good one.

It's like turning kaleidoscopes at different speeds. No matter how fast they turn them, the reflections are in the bag, or better, in the tube.  And the patterns are constantly changing to something new and fascinating.