about my art

Well as requested by g- I will blog a little about my painting. I blogged about my chain garden paintings when i first began the series as well as about some of my other paintings. But I realized I didn't really explain the symbolic idea behind the chain garden paintings. I like to explore relationships in my abstract pieces. i like deep relationships with people and those who are my friends have a great impact on me. In the chain garden the underlying framework is the "connectedness" of everyone- hence the sort of fabric of chains, the way we are bound together through our complex web of family, relationships, friendships, chance encounters, etc. The flowers- those individuals and relationships that really impact us - define us more than the everyday interactions. This is one of my favorite series to work in I love doing variations in backgrounds, sizes, etc. You can see most of the series on my gallery.

And for your viewing pleasure a few other pieces I did recently- I was in a palette knife painting mood- just playing with colors and shapes- no brushes involved

Oranges (11x14), geometry 2 (24x36), and pennants (16x20) ( i prefer it as pennants- although whenever smart baby sees it he he turns it the other way and says "BOATS!BOATS!")

sand- our pet tadpole shrimp

One of smart son's school units was on pets. I have to say I love animals, but not in my house. Seriously I have a hard enough time keeping my children fed, clean, taking care of their messes that I have no desire to add an animal to the mix at this point. Also add to this my objections to things that smell, things that shed (complicating the wearing of black pants), things whose poop I have to clean up (motherhood provides enough of that already), or anything that bothers my allergies. I do however appreciate the pet keeping experience for teaching responsibility and learning respect for living things. I found something just my speed -- tadpole shrimp. Yes you just dump the egg packet in water (as one of the amazing things about tadpole shrimp their eggs can be "dehydrated" and feed every other day. For 8 weeks now "Sand" as smart son affectionately named him is going strong. And when the time came to do the school assignment to make your own pet rock you can only guess what my son decided to make his into-- no cats, dogs or mice here - way too trite-- only a tadpole shrimp would do- we used wax paper, lanyard string, and 3 eyes (because yes they have 3 eyes) to concoct the pet rock. Sand has become a welcome addition to our family even smart baby loves to watch "sand -- funny fish" as he calls it. so if you are thinking of adding a pet- 2 thumbs up for the tadpole shrimp.

paintings

These are a few of the paintings I have done over the last few months and haven't posted- I am still behind and have 3 more paintings I need to get done but I have had zero creative energy hence the lack of painting productivity. A mixed media piece, a new piece in the chain garden series, and a new blue crab.

smart baby turns 2

Today my smart baby turned two. His favorite thing as of late- robots. He has a pair of robot jammies from the Gap that he begs to wear (here he snuck outside in them). He loves to have you sit and draw him pictures of robots. So I made him this little applique robot t-shirt to wear on his big day. I made him a robot cake (not smart mamas finest, but it will do). I save the really cool birthdays-- where i pull out all the stops-- for the years when they can remember it! We just had a fun family birthday for him. I made him his favorite penne arribiata for lunch and then we had cake and presents. Here he is building with his new bead blocks and playing with his new vehicles.

Happy birthday, smart baby we love you! I think we're going to have to change your blog title I don't think we can call you a baby much longer.

totally AWOL

yes- that has been me lately- Life has just been busy. Smart baby continues to keep the world upside down. I have been sick, we've had company, about a million appts. (smart son has been having some testing done and it looks like we are now making progress on the scholastic front! yah!). We've had birthdays, anniversaries, mulching of the front yard, teacher appreciation week at school, company, t-ball has started, you name it- and to be honest I have just been tired. I have so many things I want to blog about- pictures to show and i will get around to it-- Thanks for all who have missed me and been thinking about me- i really will be resuming my regular blogging soon--

xo smart mama