Top Ten Things From The Last Two Months

Not kidding, I have 3 blog posts in "draft" mode from the last two months. For shame. Each very different from the other. Each with a paragraph and a half. Each abandoned because I didn't see the point to continue and it just felt.....forced and exhausting.

But I'm no quitter, damnit!

THIS post WILL make the light of day, so help me God. Sitting in my backyard on this beautiful morning in my long ridiculous bohemian "I'm an Artist now" robe, drinking my third cup of black coffee, and listening to the calming sounds of the running water from the makeshift fountain Paul built. I'm ready to write. The pink post it above my office desk has been saying so for the past few days.

Surrounded by plants, sunshine, and running water....sometimes you just need to insert yourself into a more Zen like space.

Last night was shitty energy for us. I had every negative attitude in the world. Yet, I knew I'd wake up different. I always know it's temporary and I always know it will come back no matter what. I was exhausted, depleted, unmotivated, irritated, etc. Without getting too deep into it, it had much to do with homeschool stress, constant acne flare ups despite acne medication, interrupted productivity and focus on a commission project, and not feeling pleased with self for the artistic choices I had just made. Went to bed at 9:45pm with an alarm set for 4:15am for my 5:15am training session at the park. I feel great now! It's Friday and I'm ordering a bunch of sushi tonight and we're watching the original Jumanji in the backyard on the projector screen. The little things.

I thought I would wrap up the last two months of life as Stay-At-Home-Artist with a "Top Ten" list as a quick update. ("Quick" might be a generous word. I apologize.)

1) After two months of working my ass off, I completed the BLM painting, titled "Young Activists", size 30"x24". I posted it on eBay, FineArtAmerica.com, and one other site that I can't even remember right now. I haven't spent any time aggressively marketing it or getting any prints made but it's on my mind's "to-do" list! Oh, by the way, if you or anyone you know might be interested in purchasing this bold piece of artwork, please message me. We are donating 5K of it to Rachel Cargle's,The Loveland Foundation, an organization that supports communities of color, particularly young Black girls and women. How wonderful is that??

Though hard to detect in a photograph, the boy in red with the yellow mega horn has a super shiny high gloss resin pour.

2) I'm a pet portrait artist now! I've done 4 pet portrait commissions in the last 2 months. Two of them cats, and two dogs. Three out of those 4 were "word of mouth". The last one I did was a bigger commission and a very unique one. I gave myself one week to do it because it's for an 8 year old boy's birthday coming up next week.

My friend's kitty, Mayakovsky passed away a few months ago.

A word-of-mouth commission for this client's Fiance who just lost his beloved dog, Tiki.

A word-of-mouth commission from a client who lost her Kitty, Elliott.

Word-of-mouth commission for a client who wanted a special gift for her 8 year old brother's birthday. This is him and his doggy best friend, Yogi in WWII Navy uniforms in front of his favorite battleship, the SS Yamato.

3) In the last blog post, I mentioned that I would be working on a submission for the Burbank Art's Utility Box Program. I spent 3 days working on and finalizing the concept with 50/50 expectations of getting chosen. They would only choose 6 artists. A couple weeks ago, I got their email that I was NOT one of the chosen ones. I let out a huge sigh of relief.

Layout for the utility box artwork. The theme being "Community", my idea was to get a colorful variety of people, safely shopping local.

4) A rather large pricey commission was given to me months ago with no due date and I keep putting it off to make room for all the small ones coming in that I know I could knock out OR because some of the small ones actually do have due dates. Every damn day, I look at that 30"x40" drawn but not yet painted canvas and think, "I'll get to you soon, honey. I promise. I haven't forgotten about you. Just hang tight."

I work on this large commission in between the smaller ones. I don't feel great about doing that but client is more than understanding, patient, and has no deadline.

5) The current commission I'm working on is certainly different! Client wanted 9 of the same painting, as gifts to encourage, support, and inspire some of the closest women in her life. These are 9"x12" paintings and a knock off from an original that she really liked. I made a few changes so I'm not completely ripping anyone off and will be making slight color changes to a few of them to make them a bit more unique from each other. I'm excited by this project.

6) About a month ago, I paused on commissions and worked on an original painting for myself, titled " 'Be Still', they Said." I've been itching to get into abstract art so this was my chance to break free and let loose a little. Inspired by Glennon Doyle's latest book, "Untamed" and my own recent revelations. I promised to do a companion piece to it, titled " 'Fuck That', I Said", but that has yet to happen.

En plein air "the act of painting outdoors".

" 'Be Still', They Said" is an ode to all women who were raised or taught to be "small". I experimented with abstract for this one and it felt good to go wild.

7) We have this flock of green parrots that visit Burbank every Summer. One day, Paul and I were in the backyard contemplating what the hell I should paint as a mural on our backyard wall, when one of the bright green parrots perched on top of a power line over our heads. At the same time, we both KNEW what the mural would be. An homage to where we live with a fun retro/stylized parrot theme. Then that idea spawned another fun personal painting idea of doing something simple and stylized, of a green parrot and experimentation with gold leaf foil. We framed it and I like how it turned out. I want to do a small Bird series now. A flamingo....a crane...an ostrich....

Sort of abstract, definitely geometrical, and a departure from what I'm used to. "Green Parrot of Burbank" took less than two days and was so fun to do. 12"x12" with gold leaf foil.

8) As soon as the announcement of Kamala Harris to be Joe Biden's running mate for VP was made, I sketched this. Not everyone appreciated it. LAUGH OUT LOUD!!

Quickest celebrity portrait I've done and I love it so much!! On toned paper, graphite pencil, charcoal, and white conte crayon. Yay, Kamala Harris!

9) My art studio has moved from the dining room to the guest bedroom, which we officially yet temporarily transformed into our office/art studio, until we renovate the garage at some point. We got rid of Luke's bed and gave him the bed from the guest bedroom since "it's waaaay comfier!!" Why even have a "guest bedroom" at this point when we can't have any guests come and sleep over these days? Paul changed the lighting for me and the room is working out quite nicely! Didn't realize it, but I'm so much more productive in there rather than in the dining room. Also, it's so nice to have our dining room be a dining room again.

10) Luke turned 8 on August 28. As per 2020 birthday tradition, I painted his cute little Tudor portrait, framed it some faux gold frame from Amazon and now it hangs perfectly below our Tudor portraits on the living room wall.

Happy 8th Birthday, Luke!

The Grider family, in Tudor Elizabethan fashion.

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