My Art Collection

The inverted heart is left over from my wood-painting days.

Hee hee. Cute. He actually inspired me, too, but they kept making me work at work and I couldn't finish it.

Fortunately, I don't have a job. I am free to pursue my artistic talents full-time. Since my writing didn't make a splash on Gather, I think I will concentrate my efforts on black & white photography from now on.

I'm going to share this on Facebook and Twitter to see if I get thousands of hits.

Okay, I almost choked on my marshmallow ghost.

Apparently, Facebook and Twitter people sleep in on Saturday. I'm sure those thousands of hits will arrive later today.

Your troll is awake, though.

They never sleep, Barb. I'm beginning to suspect one ratings are automatic Gather features.

Another Grandma Moses discovered!

Thank you, Jim. I feel so successful.

My dad, who was a commercial artist, did his own wonderful artwork as a hobby. He also worked with B & W photography. You can do a lot with B & W, such as shadows, contrast,etc., that you can't do with color.

I learned this from the other side of the camera. When I modeled, I loved working in black and white photography because I could be anyone I wanted to be. There were times when I looked like a clown in person but the photos were gorgeous.

This reminds me of the neighbor who said she liked being able to do ANYTHING in her first ever home...She painted the fridge in bright pink, with sparkles! Then she did the walls to match! Her kitchen had this big double window, alway open, so when the sun came up, I would be near blinded by all the little sparkly lights. She had much fun, methinks.

I like the Jew Art, but have you considered nailing it down to keep it from Wandering?

There's an idea. I haven't tried that but will soon.

Small miracle is good, I cannot tell what it is but I like the contrast.
The diagonal brush strokes and drips of paint naturally flow across the light background, shadows stretching in and out of space seemigly reaching for something in the darkeness beyond.

Of course you'd have to change the name then.

Look forward to seeing more of these art installations. My city has a program for painting street intersections to help slow down residential traffic. Now there's a fresco!

That intersection project sounds like something I could really throw my talent into. Hope we adopt it here.

Small miracle is my favorite, Lea! (It's Bud, my fish, and his plants, upside down.)

Very good! just know that artist are no made but born. We are all artist from cooking a meal to painting, to taking photos.
I think art is in everyone domain, but it takes willingness to train, until you are a master.

The training part is my downfall. Once I get started, I don't want to stop until I get it. I get obsessed, put everything else (like eating, sleeping, cleaning the house) aside and do nothing else. If I have no talent, I might spend years "training". (Not thinking this will be one of those projects.)

I always wanted to by a hundred white china tea pots, and paint cracks in them, then sell them at craft fairs. Some with cracks like hairline fractures, and some with actual holes painted into the sides, with a visual of tea bags hanging inside. Thought that might sell...

Tea bags are really big this year.
Wilka

You could paint the tea bag label and string hanging on the outside of the teapots. Sir Thomas Lipton, the Mad Hatter, Robert MacGuffie, John Waters, all great teabag labels

What a great idea, Wilka! This is the year for your project.

potters do that a lot, by creating cracks and such to give a sense of antiquity. I think it could become a fad to have a teapot with a protester hanging from the side of it.

I really like this idea. If I thought I could paint a tea-bagger ugly enough to represent what they really are I would do it. Maybe I can trace photos of Mitch McConnell with horns and Sarah Palin with black teeth?

Looove small miracles. Looove it.

Thanks, Robi. Bud feels like a celebrity.

Sandy, YOU have a touch that I like. BUT I HAVE BEEN CERTIFIED. (As a Truck Driving Instructor in the CDL program. BUT that does not prove that I am NOT INSANE. )

I appreciate your encouragement, Karl. No telling what I might photograph today after all this.

Will you be showing a the next arts & crafts fair?

Send us a notice.

Fun!

I understand about art talent. My very kind 7th & 8th grade art teacher insisted that I take art in high school. She was very kind. I did not take art in high school.

Cena, I might step into the fairs soon. I'll be sure to let you know.

I didn't go near Art Class when it wasn't required. It didn't help at all that a couple of my friends were true artists.

Will you be doing a book soon? I will never be good at art by Peter's definition because upside black and white photos make me dizzy.

P.S. I freehand underglaze designs on most of my pottery. Occasionally, someone buys it.

I don't know about the book, Em Jay. Might take a month or so to have enough good art to do that.

I'm using underglaze on my pottery project and having a terrible time since it doesn't appear to be the color it will end up being. Right now, I'm painting pink and blue flowers that are supposed to be purple and red and it's driving me a little crazy.

Funny you mention "buying" - Leonardo Da Vinci called to ask how I think I'm going to sell this art work without listing prices.

What brand of underglaze are you using? Almost all of the ones I use are true to the color applied. I can only think of one pink that was different and it fired like crap.

Oh, I don't know. Whatever the studio put out there for me to use. These are specific for dishes and it takes three coats if that means anything to you. I haven't completed anything yet but I've seen what others have already fired and the colors look great in the end.

I'm an Amaco Velvet Underglaze girl all the way! Let me snap a couple of photos and show you how great the colors are.

okie doke.

that is a great glaze.

I like these a lot. I don't know what that means. (They do that good grade for the nice student thing in Hungary, too, when it comes to art. Or music. Or P.E...)

Oh, I'm sure I got a nice pass in P.E. And American History.

P.E. was the issue in my case--at least one P.E. teacher who insisted I (and a bunch of other nerdy kids whom she obviously hated) only deserved a B. Because the other teachers tended to vote such B's "up" (they had a meeting about the grades) for students who would otherwise have straight A's, this particular P.E. teacher started out with C's so they could only go up to B's, and thus I ended up with what was probably the only B I'd had on a report card up to then. (I think. I didn't care, and much of what I'm sharing now is my parents' reporting.)

So, it turned out that the very same summer, our school had gotten into the national level of the "Student Olympics" in swimming (amazingly, since we didn't have a pool), and at the last moment, one student on the team this teacher had selected got sick and was unable to go. So guess who got pulled out, from one day to the other, from the tranquility of her grandparents' house in a little village on the Danube River in northwestern Hungary? The C-upped-to-B-student, who apparently had the next best qualifying time...

(We came second to last, but I don't think it was all my fault.)

Ohhhhh. This story makes me cringe. If it wasn't mostly your fault, I hope it was Karma that the teacher recognized.

Well, I came second to last in my heat, so I couldn't have been that much worse than everyone else on our poor excuse for a team. :-)

Think she learned to grade on a curve after this experience?

In general, I don't think so, but she didn't bother me too much after this.

ha ha

Fabulous.

Negative art must become a new genre !!!! Just put it in black and white, and turn it upside-down, and it's really deep.

In fact, why not put the image in photographic negative to make it even MORE art !!!

I accept that new challenge, Peter. That's how much confidence you have given me. Thanks.

Lovely, Sandy. Art is in the eye of the beholder.
I've found that when I have something in my eye, sometimes blowing my nose will get it out.

Richard, does this mean I should include a box of tissues if I frame one of these for your Christmas gift?

Sandy, your work is much better than I could ever do. I wanted to color within the lines when I was little and couldn't no matter how hard I tried. I couldn't make a rectangle plus triangle house or a lollipop tree. By the time I was 6 I realized that other kids were way better than me. It never bothered me that much except when we were required to illustrate our schoolwork. Fortunately that was over by junior high.

I took drafting in 7th grade shop. It was a real revelation for me. I could make straight lines and perfect circles. I was still worse than most of the other kids. My line quality sucked.

Nippy, it sounds like you were probably the creative child who should never have been constrained by lines. I have one grandchild who started out coloring everything the wrong color (pink houses, green dogs, etc.) She actually quite artistic because she thinks outside the lines.

No. My fine coordination is just terrible. I don't have a strong visual sense. I can take decently composed photos but I'm not an artist at all. It's OK. My wife has a lot of artistic talent and can't carry a tune.

I don't have a strong visual sense either, Nippy. In fact, I think that has been mentioned by those who point out my many male traits (hope Randy doesn't see this).

Love your sense of humor...you rock! Keep up the great work!

Thanks, Susan.

Visual acuity
for an invisible realm
insists on metaphor
in psychic sound
every story implying pictures

No fair, Libramoon. You can't put more thought into your comment than I gave to my post.

:-)

it's ok, Sandy. no thought involved -- just tracing the picture

Wow, that is awesome. Alas, I could never aspire to such artistic talents. I will leave it thus to you. (my daughter made me promise to never draw again..lol, the same goes for singing. She actually likes my poetry though!)

Lisa, we can't go to karaoke together. People pay me to sit down and I don't want to share. Sorry.

I really like it Sandy, "small miracles" especially. There's an edgy, art deco character to it that makes it kind of sassy and I think that's cool. Very expressive if I may say so.
Nice work!

Thanks, Wade. You have my permission to print small miracles and hang it in your kitchen. (I owe you one since you are still hanging in my kitchen.)