Morning, Sunlight and a Blog Tip

"Morning has broken like the first morning... Mine is the sunlight... " Cat Stevens
Popcorn Sky Morning
The photo in this artwork is one I lucked into quickly one day as we were out and about several months ago. I am always taken in with capturing light and cloud formations whether painting or photographing. This is one of my favorite cloud formations, I call it a popcorn sky or a Georgia O'keeffe kind of sky since she painted them. I played around with words and a favorite song, a meditation of sorts, and various art materials to inspire my creation. It's a page that I'll bind into a book full of altered photographs.

I am taking an online class from LK Ludwig about techniques for using your photos in your artwork... very fun... Perfect timing for me as I have been in a very introspective phase, a time for changes and examining choices, and what better way than to sort through old photos and take new ones too.

Another Blog Tip
Did you ever land on a blog or website that looked interesting, then found yourself waiting while your computer seemed to be in an endless loop of cranking and loading up their site? I have and I can say, I won't wait around too long... I'm not sure what "too long" is, but I do know, it's annoying and the average person just isn't going to linger.

SO, here's a nifty thing I ran across recently... a way to test your blog and see just how fast it loads up. When I tested mine, it was running a good 18-20 seconds to load the page. After looking at the test results data, I made a couple of adjustments: 1) decreased the number of posts showing on a page to 5 instead of 30, and 2) removed a cute little sidebar enviro icon that was chewing up loading time. Results: my blog page now loads up in 5-8 seconds, I try it at different times.

So, here's the link to Pingdom for this free test (and I am totally not affiliated with them). Just enter your URL and click test now. You'll get a report showing how long each item takes and the total.
I'm beginning to feel nerdy.... but I hope this is useful for you.

Trip to Canada, Experimental Painting and A Blog Tip

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. " John Muir Canada
We took another short British Columbia trip recently as I was recouperating from cold and sinus, it was wonderful soaking in an outdoor hot springs and walking on this peaceful lake. Although friends warned of lengthy border crossings, there were none, we were over the border in 5 minutes. Actually, you can google a webcam of each crossing, which I did before we left.
We took a side trip to the Hemlock Valley and the river area above which is a wildlife refuge, and a particular favorite spot for eagles since the river is filled with salmon spawning at certain times of the year. The beach was littered with bones, I love taking pictures of bones. They are evocative for me. It was a crispy cold beautiful sunny day, creating the darkest shadows, stark contrasts against the lit areas and the hidden areas... and the stillness and peace inbetween... nature is so soothing.
I was fascinated with this particular tree, the undulating shapes, the new twiggy growths sprouting everywhere headed straight up towards the sun. I must have taken at least a dozen pictures to satisfy myself. Of all the shapes, the undulating wavy shapes are my favorite, and then circles too. I can see a wave pattern in the branches along the ground. An art instructor once told me that each artist needed to discover which shape resonated the most for them, that O'Keeffe had done that. Here is a quote I like about shapes from her book "Some Memories of Drawings":

"I realized that I had things in my head not like what I had been taught - not like what I had seen - shapes and ideas so familiar to me that it hadn't occurred to me to put them down. I decided to stop painting, to put away everything I had done, and to start to say the things that were my own."

Experimental Painting
This mixed media acrylic piece I started probably 3 or 4 months ago, and was almost done with it. But it was one of those where I still didn't get that "I'm finished - it's done" feeling. Do you get that? That nagging little voice saying, it wants something else, what is it? I'm new to abstracts and have to listen harder to hear what it wants me to do. After a critique last week, I added a bit more white highlight at the top to what I already had. Then a few very light strokes to unify and now I'm done and I like it's organic feel. It's called "Rising". Notice the undulating shapes and movements, and circles.....
A Blog Tip
For those who use Blogger, they have added two new gadgets you may want to try. One allows you to add a Search Box which I thought might be convenient for me too if I wanted to find something from the past. The second gadget allows you to create separate Pages, almost like a website, with a "Home" Page too, making for easy navigating. Look at the top of my blog, and you'll see what I mean, I've moved something out of my sidebar into a separate page. I have several others in mind, but I have to think about it first. To find these new gadgets, go to your Layout, then look under the Header, where it says "Add gadgets". When you click on that you will find these two new ones at the top of their list.

Snowqualmie Falls Icicles, a Sketch and a Blog Tip

A frozen ice palace with giant icicles surrounded the falls while the water created a powdery mist...
A Day Trip
The last few days I have been seeing on the local news how Snowqualmie Falls was experiencing a big freeze around it and lots of icicles had formed around the falls. We had never seen them with snow and ice around them before, so, despite predictions of snow flurries today, off we went since they are only an hour from our house. Absolutely breathtaking, white against the dark rocks, lacey and jagged, solid and fluid in the cold cold air.

These gorgeous falls are approximately 270 feet in length. I have seen them many times, and many years ago we used to go to the bottom of the falls at summer or fall dusk on Seattle Mountaineer "owl hikes" (since they were evening hikes with cookout dinners)... Now I have relished them in their winter coat too.
A montage of photos clockwise starting top left: from the viewpoint in the park, a large icicle about 70 feet long on the left of the waterfall, white wintry sky at noon behind the dark trees, and the utility buildings above the falls.
And though my hands wouldn't work too well in the cold, I managed to quick sketch the feel of the falls to me. Photo's and sketching, good things to do, as it requires a pausing to really take in what the eye sees, to really see the details and feel the awesome wonder out there. My thought for today, go outside even if it's cold or raining, the weather isn't "bad", maybe you just have the wrong clothes... pause, take in, reflect, record... breathe and enjoy.
An old barn along the back roads that we took...

Blog Tip
Way back in time in my blog I mentioned that I had a posting problem I hadn't resolved. Then it worked for a short while and then it didn't again. And finally a couple of days ago, I believe I resolved it. Here's a summary for you, in case you have this issue you can try it and see if it works.

Problem: There are some blogs I visit where my comments disappear and are never posted after I have typed them in and clicked "post". I have noted that these are blogs that make the comment box available on the same page as the posting versus the kind of blogs like mine that open up a comment box on a separate page without the posting showing.

My fix: I spent a bit of time on reviewing my firewall, and even made sure certain blogs were in the allowed category - to no avail. I also checked out "tools>options>privacy and ensured that those certain blogs of friends were in the "exceptions" category and not blocked - also did not work. Finally, I thought of checking something that I even mentioned in my posting of April 15 - changing browsers. So, what I found out is this:
-- Mozilla Firefox browser will work - allow me to make comments on blogs that open a separate page for the comments, while,
-- Internet Explorer browser will work - allowing me to make comments on blogs that have the comment box on the same page.
I don't know why. But now when I want to comment on the few that use the same page for comments, I use the IE browser.......!!! Go figure.

Art Date on a Rainy Afternoon, A Sketch, Bicycling and a Blog Tip

the rain came rolling in last night, good sleeping weather, we could hear it beating down heavily, and smell that rich wet earth smell...
An Arty Sunday Afternoon
I love rain and it did come down last night and today. But several of us dodged the drops and met to have one of our regular Art Dates. Such a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon, with a circle of a half dozen like-minded artists, each with our own projects to work on... after a busy summer it was fun to catch up on news and share new art and techniques. If you don't have a group like this, I really recommend it, even if it's only a group of two, as it's very inspiring, we learn from each other, and it's nourishing for the spirit.
A Sketch from Artfest
Reaching into my archives, I retrieved this quick sketch I did last year on the ferry from Kingston. I always grab my sketchbook, pens and sometimes colored pencils or watercolors on the ferry rides, I'm fascinated with all the shoreline scenery, and like the look of all the little houses here and there on the hills... just thinking wouldn't it be terrific to live right on the water with a view like that... Anyway, this sketch came about right after I had just finished another long weekend at Artfest, that huge and wonderful art retreat over in Port Townsend.

This came to mind, since in our group today, only 2 of us are going to AF next April, and registration is due this week. The rest of us have decided not to, breaking a long pattern of going year after year, and instead will opt for other things. I'm thinking of specific painting workshops, travel or some other options instead... It's always good to try something new.

Bicycling
If you are a bicycling fan (or even if you're not), go check out this new blog Bicycling Over the Hill.... My spouse who I consider an expert on it decided to start a blog, and he takes great photo's too. I think I mentioned before, he does the 200+ Seattle to Portland bike ride every year in 1 day.... used to climb and did all the peaks around the NW too. I'm in awe of people who can do such physically challenging things, as I don't. Anyway, this is my welcome to him, and I know he'd really appreciate a welcoming comment from you to confirm there really are people out there that read these blogs!

A Blog Tip
Check out the upper right hand corner of my blog and you will see a new gadget. I replaced my previous language translator gadget with this new one from Google which is far and away the best I've seen. People can choose the language and it translates the blog page right there, no navigating away, and very easy for them. You may want to add it, after all, there are artists all over the world. Just click on the gadget, find it and get the code.

Cat Faux Postage and Sketches, and Blog Tip

I just love the feline approach to life, nonchalant, taking it as it comes, watching the birds, zoning out with that inscrutable look while their humans busy about...Photoshop Faux Postage

Another experiment in Photoshop I did a while back. I altered photo's of my wonderful cat using some filters & colors, added text, resized, and came up with this postage strip. Doesn't he look happy & excited about it? Actually, he's more excited about our resident woodpecker who drums on the new birdhouse we installed. Somehow our zen cat thought he could access it through the fireplace since the sounds travel down! Oh well. Today I'm working up more faux postage, very fun project.Art-A-Day Sketches
Very quick sketches of my favorite feline where I'm trying to capture the gestural, shapes. And below, I experimented with using a taped grid and several photo copies of a cat I met on a Canada road trip. I liked the facial positions, expression, so mixed in a few grids of sketches from the photos.Blog Tip

Something I learned by playing around with my Blogger blog is different settings available for links to your favorite blogs. Many have just the name of the link listed (using the gadget called "Link List"). If a visitor clicks, they are navigated into a new web link. But, if you choose a gadget called "Blog List", then you can choose to show an icon, a post title, etc. of your favorites... in my sidebar, I called it "Blogs to Inspire". I find blogs more interesting if they have set it up this way - it seems more inviting, friendly, and seeming to set up a circle of communication among the like-minded, esp. for artists. Another benefit of using the Blog List, is that when visitors to your site click on one of your favorites, it merely opens another window, so they don't navigate away from your site, and can easily find you again to read or see your art. Try it, it's easy.

After Artfest, Looking for Diamonds, and a Word about Browsers

"Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans." John Lennon
After Artfest
A few words about my Artfest retreat with 3 workshops since I have been so busy upon returning home... As usual, it was refreshing to be surrounded by so much creativity, wonderful artists, the cool crisp sea air and magnificent scenery. Above you see 4 paintings I completed in Misty Mawn's class where we worked on portraits with sepia or earthtones... a very satisfying class and reminds me of how much I love paint and paper. Misty is a very fast and talented painter and excellent teacher with lots of techniques to share. Having done only a few portraits in the past, I am encouraged enough by my results that I intend to do more portraits.And here are pictures of layouts for my 2 assemblages in Michael DeMeng's "What a Relief" class in which we used old picture frames to build upon, and assorted recycled junque to make them into art pieces. They evolved a bit differently and I'm not finished yet, may post when I complete them. Michael's a wonderful teacher that shares a lot of info on tools and how to get that aged look, and his creations are a wonder to look at... this was my "challenge" class, as I haven't typically considered myself an assemblage artist... but this was much fun.
Sas Colby's class on Transparent Books was a relaxing mix of experimentation with all manner of materials (I used an old plastic see-thru pouch with a grid pattern, x-ray film, transparencies, rice papers, fabrics and other odds and ends... a bit of drawing and binding. Pictures to be posted later.Looking for Diamonds
After Wed through Sunday filled with art and lots of people interactions, I craved alone time, and on the advice of a local artist, found a wonderful quiet beach at a different location to explore. I was told there would be lots of beach glass. I naively walked along thinking of quarter sized pieces until another beachcomber showed me they were more pea or smaller sized. My treasures from that walk are in the pictures above - wonderful wonderful shapes and colors for my camera here at home. I told my sister (who lives in another state) that I had practiced using my eagle eyes to find those small glass treasures and was practicing for the day that she and I idly dream about a road trip to the diamond fields in Arkansas. No, I'm not kidding, a real state park where anyone can keep what they find and do. I told her last year I dreamed I found a 3 carat yellow diamond. Now I don't really need one, but I suppose it's the thrill of the hunt and finding a treasure whether it's a diamond or a shell or pea sized sea glass. I've always collected those and have little assortments laying here and there. Maybe they are alters to nature and memories.Now a word about John Lennon's quote, life catching up with you.... I missed posting a Sunday meditation this past Easter week and we've had a rash of "challenges". Mother always said bad luck comes in 3's or more.... We are trying to resolve audio issues, so I'm unable to hear any YouTubes, etc. And we had a big leak in kitchen sink, which turned into problems with removing the faucet and/or the sink... it made my husband get creative about our water supply! That's the garden hose from our new deck... Meanwhile the truck clutch also went out a couple of days ago which will completely eat our tax refund that I found after finishing taxes on the 14th, the downstairs toilet leak was just fixed, and we had an invasion of tiny tiny black ants going crazy over the cat food. We finally got rid of them today but I swear they were coming from another dimension right through the walls.... And to top it off yesterday I came down with a sore throat/flu and will probably miss my artist's reception tomorrow night at the Rose House... oh well, hubbie just made fresh strawberry jam, hot tea tastes good, and I'm going to keep looking for diamonds...

A Word About Browsers
Barely a month ago Yahoo decided to upgrade their mail system and at that moment, my emails ceased to be available for 3 days. We checked firewalls and everything else possible to no avail, so we called a Yahoo technician who had us install a new browser, Mozilla Foxfire. Aside from our own checks and those with the Yahoo technician that revealed no problems, we are fairly certain my mail system wasn't working any more because of the browser. The Internet Explorer browser that we've used forever simply doesn't work with the Yahoo upgrade, while Foxfire worked instantly. Mozilla seems to work faster and some other things that I had to make a work around with Explorer, work fine with Mozilla. And a friend who still works for one of the local Federal agencies says they switched to Mozilla... it is touted as safer. I still have Explorer as a backup in case I need it. The upshot is, I've learned that some browsers apparently don't interface well with certain sites, they have different features that may be related to how secure your system is, and they work at different speeds... and they have different versions. All very confusing. I wish I'd saved an article I read in the Washington Post about this. But, anyway, I'm mentioning this in my post, because perhaps if all else is ok with your system and you have problems getting into a mainstream website, maybe your browser is a problem. Mozilla was free and is well known. Now I use that one, but keep the other, just in case...

Pearl Rises Above the Monsters of the Deep, Rose House Art Show, and Free Blogging Widgets

Retreats are a wonderful gift to yourself, even if it's 10 minutes of quiet time doing something you love, or nothing at all... Maybe doing nothing at all is doing something for your soul, a letting go of all the "commitments", "shoulds", "have to's", "to do's", the endless stream of everyday life... or perhaps letting go of our personal demons and monsters that nip at our heels, and, so, is a replenishing of the spirit.

Art Pieces for Artfest GalleryAs I posted before, I am blessed enough to be going to the Artfest retreat this year. This painting "Pearl rose above the monsters of the Deep #2" (12x16 mixed media acrylic) is one of my two items for the Artfest Gallery April 1-5 in Port Townsend. The theme of the overall retreat is "sea monsters", so this is one of my interpretations. The second is a fun altered recycled seashell box, which could be set on a mantle or table or hung as wall art, "Pearl rose above the monsters of the Deep #1".
Rose House Exhibit
I have been invited to show at the Rose House in the April Edmonds Art Walk located at 555 Main Street at the corner of 6th Avenue. It is a lovely historic Victorian house built in 1907 and I am excited at the prospect of having my watercolors and mixed media shown there for a month beginning April 16. My friend, Sharon Baker will also show more hand-hooked rugs and mixed media art as well, and probably one or two additional artists. The opening reception is on that evening of April 16, and usually has all the artists showing at the reception. It is a fun opportunity for stopping in, meeting artists, seeing the art, and sipping a little wine. Do plan to stop in.

Free Blogging Widgets
Look at the very bottom of my page and you will see something called a "Neocounter" (no, I own no stock). Oh my, how fun, now I can see where people who read are coming from! Easy to add widget, just click on it and go to their site and follow instructions.

And I have added a "tag free zone" jpg which I got free courtesy of Helen of Heb-Art Journal in my blog list who has wonderful photos and art.

African and Mexican Adventures, Blogging Discoveries/Tips

"The universe is made of stories, not atoms." Muriel Rukeyser

African Adventures
Another trip to African Mama's shop this week where I enjoyed using my digital camera again and then playing with photoshop with the images. I love the intense colors, the designs, the craftsmanship, and the masks are fascinating. They all hold a story, a mythology of the people who created them.
And here is a quick African mask drawing I did in my Art-A-Day journal that I started last November. So far, so good, one art drawing or collage done for every day...

I was thinking again of my French cousins who recently made a soulful trip into the now unstable and dangerous Congo and came back with two adopted children. Quite frankly, an adventure that was quite hair-raising (rebel fights with machetes in front of their hotel, interrogations about trafficing children, and more). A story of courage, patience and perseverance with great reward at the end and a return to their home. Their compelling story and wonderful pictures can be found here. The most heartwrenching pictures are those of all the children in the orphanage looking out at you... It is all in French, but after all, I have provided some translators if you wish to read.
Mexican Adventures

I'm beginning to think about getting ready for Artfest 2009 in April where I will be taking another workshop from talented assemblage artist Michael DeMeng. The found object assemblage ("doll" if you will) above I made last year in a class with him. Looking at his blog I read about his adventure at the Island of Dolls in Mexico City (great photos, story and videos). Recently I'd seen a documentary on the travel channel about that very place and thought it looked/sounded creepy, but the story behind it is haunting and quite beautiful in a strange way. I once saw a local museum exhibit where in a very large empty room, 100 vintage, broken, used dolls had been installed all standing (feet glued to the floor) staring straight ahead about 2 feet apart throughout the room, all speechless but communicating. Dolls, like masks, embody the stories of the maker, the owner and the place and time where they were brought to life among the people.

Blogging Discoveries/Tips
Some quick blogging notes on changes I made I thought might be helpful, Im no expert, but....

Translators
I discovered a much better version of the Google Translator which was improved thanks to Joel Robinson, and replaced my previous one. Now if you click on a flag it translates to the language indicated right here on this page and so eliminates the step of having to navigate away from my blog and then having to insert url or text. In addition, I've added the Dictionary translator which does navigate away but is handy for sidebars which don't translate with the Google Translator. You can add either gadget to your own by clicking on them and going to that site.

In Case of a Crash
I finally saved a version of my blog template in the dashboard which Blogger advises to do. But even better than that my programmer husband taught me this great easy thing to do that I will also pass on to you. Go to the current page of your blog, then go to the web toolbar, click on view, then source. The window opened up will show all of the codes which make up your blog. Now highlight, copy, and paste it into a word processing document such as Word or Wordperfect and save and date it. Occasionally, you may want to update that with your latest version. Now if your blog disappears (as I've heard some do) or some other blog mishap then you will have a better possibility of reinstating what you had. Additionally, the source codes appears to include ALL the postings that you have set your blog to show when opened.

About Starting a Blog, Not Lost in Translation, and Art from a Photo

Sometimes things are "lost in translation", but saying it more than one way seems to help.....

The photo I took many years ago in the small village where one of my French aunts lives and beneath it is the watercolor interpretation/"translation" entitled "French Country Dreams" that I did two years ago. Prints of the watercolor will soon be available in my Etsy shop. Meanwhile I'm thinking I might like to paint this scene again, and I'm sure it would get "translated" differently yet again.

Google Translator

Experimenting with my blog, I located and added the gadget in the upper right corner, a google translator. A click on this gadget takes you to a page where you enter the url address of the page and choice of language translation. This is mostly for the benefit of any of my French cousins who may stop in for a read. I have been thinking of them a lot lately since one of them made a trip into the unstable Congo recently. But, what a great discovery this little gadget, since in past, I've found Spanish and Japanese art sites I couldn't read...so now I'll be able to translate anything! We are all just a click away.

About Starting a Blog

For those looking to start a blog, it has been very easy to use Blogger. Go here to their page and just read and follow the instructions. From our local library I also checked out Blogging for Dummies by Susannah Gardner and Shane Birley. This was after I had already set up and started blogging, but it was useful as a reference on what I had already done and for going a little beyond the basics. A couple more blog books are on order from the library. Here are some concerns and thoughts I had when contemplating a blog, just bear in mind, it's all very subjective, and you must figure out what is right for you. I hope this will be helpful.

1. Why do it? Many reasons are possible, but I think mine is a combo of: self-expression, conversations with others with like interests & expanding my community, presenting my art, business, becoming visible, sharing something that might be of benefit or inspire others, doing it because I really want to not because it might be the trend.

2. Finding Voice: What do I want to talk about, identifying what really interests me, a unique perspective, am I writing for me or the audience or both, who is the audience; It took a bit of reflection but I summarized it in the header and the "about me" sidebar, and for me it's also a bit of a "virtual sanctuary" - I intentionally want an uncluttered peaceful feel, focusing on the positives, and a combo of writing and visuals.

3. Setting my own limits: How much time to devote, how many postings a week. Initially it takes more time, reading and figuring it out, but then my goal is posting a couple of times a week, not so overwhelming for me and enough time for readers to actually see and read something and comment.

4. Privacy: My personal concern about this is that basically what I said could be read by anyone, not just art friends. So, for me, certain subjects are off limits just for ID security, eg., personal info or family/friend info or pix, birthdays, etc. Nor am I interested in using a blog for heavy duty angst or personal problem solving as some are inclined, nor highly controversial topics.

5. Copyright: As an artist I want to show my work and occasionally be compensated for it. So in posting I added copyright statements and on some artwork I experimented and self-taught myself how to add watermarks with Photoshop. And as I respect others work as well, I won't post pictures of other artist artwork or pictures of people without their permission and a reference as to whose it is.

So far it's been a rewarding experiment, serving to help me clarify thoughts or my focus, meeting other artists, sharing art and writing. So, start up a blog if you haven't, and let me know about it.

About Posting

I must confess that until I started blogging myself, I'd been a "lurker" reading them and not saying anything. But now, I find it's very encouraging to hear from others, so now I do post comments here and there. Unfortunately on 3 of my favorites the system of comments doesn't work and I haven't debugged it yet! So if you are secretly reading my blog, I would love to hear from you and what you think... do drop in and say hello.