Day 13 - Kim Goes Shopping

I need to work a day ahead here, so following is something in advance for Sunday.  I'm not even sure how I arrived at this, but since Kim Kardashian West is everywhere, how could I not have her pop up in my artwork?  I happen to be, just like Jennifer Lawrence, a fan of the Kardashians.  To me it seems they work quite hard and they are beautiful chiquitas, you must admit!

I know they live a glamorous life, but can you imagine the constant vigilance it would take to always monitor what you look like and have to be followed by paparazzi?  Better they have the life than I.  I like the freedom to move anonymously and freely.

I just read a quote by David Bowie today from an interview he had with Tracy Emin.  It was originally from The Guardian, although I ran across an excerpt of it in Artnet News.

TE: Did you always want fame? Is it something you'd wish on your children?

DB: I certainly fancied my own spoonful of it when I was young. I was more than downcast to find that fame brought nothing more than good seats in a restaurant. There is nothing there to covet. The nature of fame seems to have shifted recently. I understand that it doesn't even get you a Madonna ticket these days. So I won't be recommending it to my offspring. Having influence is more rewarding for feeding ego. Satisfaction and excitement with one's work is the biggest buzz, though.

Click here for that full interview in The Guardian.

Back to Kim Kardashian West--here she is in full shopping mode according to my interpretation.

Prince Rogers Nelson's entire 1999 CNN interview (La...

Well, at the risk of scaring people away from me, I will risk it.  This day and age, news becomes old news very quickly.  But I seem incapable of expressing how much Prince, his music, his life...and now death...has affected me.  I understand that people start getting tired of hearing about the same thing, but since it's my blog, and even if I end up being the only reader, I want to still share that which inspires me and which I hope might inspire you.

Small clips of this interview were played last Thursday, 4/21/16, on CNN, but the full interview is so worth watching.  Only 36 minutes with no commercials, I hope you will gather strength for your own journey from it.

I love when he's says:

• "I don't worry about too much" and
• how he looked at Stevie Wonder as inspiration for "Stevie's connection to the spirit" and
• how he says he doesn't look back and by not doing so, he says he thinks it helps keep you young, and
• when he talks about his love of living in Spain where people just chill and "regroup and think about life" and how we need to do that in the U.S.

Creativity abounds in quiet moments, that's no joke. (my words not his)

Day 12 - Flares and Fins

Flares and Fins

Day 11 - Secret Cake Eater

Secret Cake Eater

This was entirely a drawing and then I ended up almost fully turning it into a painting.  I had a work banquet tonight, and I drew a bit on the program while listening.  Afterwards, a friend in town from Tennessee contacted me and wanted to meet which of course I wanted to do, too!  (I love spur-of-the- moment get-togethers, don't you?)  By the time I got home, I realized I had to book it to meet my deadline.  I also needed to cover up names in the program a bit more to protect the innocent. (-;  Anyway, that's how I ended up with a painting/drawing.  

Actually, I was so happy with how it turned out, I wished I had had a program made out of heavyweight watercolor paper.  Ha!  I think I'll be recreating this one on canvas.

Day 10 - Words Lost in the Wind

Words Lost in the Wind

Day 9 - Spring

Spring in Bloom, 

Spring Love, 

Spring Showers, 

April Showers, 

Windy Spring, 

Spring Baseball, 

Spring into Life, 

Spring

Day 8 - Happy National Pretzel Day

Happy National Pretzel Day

I'm very proud of this pretzel man!

Coffee Man & Un Petit Café

Day 7

Coffee Man & Un Petit Café

Oh, I love this one!  I've had that strange cut out sitting around for two years.  Yes, that's right, because I remember what I was working on when I peered at it and decided it looked like a percolator coffee pot with steam escaping...just in a slightly wrong spot, but details, details, who cares about that?  Finally, I ran across it again, and laid it on my desk.  I stared at it for about another week, until I finally knew how I wanted to use it.  It's a long story--much longer than it took for Mr. Coffee man to drink that tiny petit café!

Cloud Floater

Hey, I didn't forget Day 6 of my #100DrawingsonPaper that I'm doing for the #100DayProject.  I was just in Chicago yesterday at the Van Gogh 3 bedrooms exhibit--I'll post more on that later--and a French Bakery, La Fournette, so I didn't get it posted on my blog.  So here it is, a little something I saw in the clouds (well, I did embellish it a bit (-;) while driving home.

Prince - Electric Chair Performance on SNL (1989)

Day 5 Shakespeare Consoles...Me!

On the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare, I wanted to pay him homage.  As is so perfectly befitting, his talent--yes, he himself--is so large, he could not be contained by one page, but rather he spilled over to a second.

I felt like ( no, I truly am not off of my rocker--just imagination, peeps) Shakespeare would say this quote to me, trying to arrest my deep sorrow over the death of Prince.  I even momentarily thought of putting a small Prince figure in there who said, "Shakespeare, you are one insightful, intelligent, sexy motherfucker!"  I couldn't bring myself to do it, though.

Saturday Night Live dedicated their entire show to Prince tonight--so classy of them.  It was great, and then I felt just incredibly sad.  You see, I read that he was cremated today, and suddenly it seemed like he had died all over again.  Seeing him singing with his sexy swagger, his virtuosity of that guitar, and thinking that his body no longer existed on this planet and he would never put on another performance like that, well, I felt my heart breaking like an egg hit hard against the side of a bowl.

Help me, great Bard!

Day 4 - Stevie Wonder on How He Wants Prince to Be Remembered SOLD

 Stevie Wonder on Prince's Legacy (from CNN 365 with Anderson Cooper)

I Am Heartbroken - Prince "While My Guitar Gently Weeps

I posted this a few years ago, but on this day, I am weeping for you, Prince.  I literally have no words for how much your music has meant to me throughout my life.  What is happening?  All our rock gods are leaving us in the last several months.  But this one...this one is devastating.

Day 3 Clearest Eyes

 Her eyes were the clearest after a snot-filled cry.

Town and Country - Day 2

Town and Country

Director Takes Three - 1 of 100

Director Takes Three

I decided I would do the 100 Day Project (I'm doing drawings on paper), but I really considered not mentioning it.  After I did that 365-day project in 2013 of a painting or drawing (and blogpost) every day for a year, I am hesitant to commit to such a thing ever again.  I have been going through a large spurt/large output of art recently, and I wish I had saved them all for this 100 Day Goal, because already, I feel like all my ideas are drying up after I typed "100 Day Project."  Eh, I'll see what happens. I thought about doing a dessert a day, but that will be quite expensive--both to the pocket book and to the waist!

For now, I have this fellow.  I'll see if other drawings are willing to come through my mind and out through my fingers.

Good night, I am off to bed!

Out The Window

Out The Window

Watercolor

Early Morning Toe Toucher

I worked on this fellow for quite some time.  I can relate to him!  I am naturally a night owl and if at all possible I'd like to lead my life that way.  Picasso preferred working at night and liked artificial light better than natural light.  Isn't that wild?  There's something so peaceful at night, when you're lost in your own world.

However, my job requires that I am there during the day so I try, try, try to be a good morning person.  If I had my way, as I've written many times before, I would just be Queen of the night! (-;

Acrylic, Oil, Enamel, Ink on Board

Here's a shot of our younger Magnolia tree during Sunday's sunset.  I love those Magnolia trees, dressed in frilly purple and pink, floating on the air.

Head Thrown Over

Head Thrown Over

Perforated

Perforated

Determined Prince Warrior, Accommodating Goose

Here's a little mixed-media treat.  A sparkling, glittery crown, chain mail helmet and scarf, and an accommodating goose, this determined Prince Warrior is sure to achieve his goal for he is bangled for battle!

Chris Cornell "Stay With Me Baby" [Official Audio]

O.K., as I posted earlier this week, after hearing the first stanzas of this song on the closing credits of Episode 9 (of 10) of HBO's series "Vinyl," the fantastic version of Chris Cornell singing "Stay with Me, Baby" (Better Midler sang it in the Janis Joplin biopic, "The Rose" back in the early '80's) has finally been released today on YouTube, Spotify, and itunes.  Enjoy!

My I'm Handsome

This baby started out as something classical, and then a humorous fellow emerged.  I feel his strong sense of self-esteem took over my initial, delicate charcoal sketch.  ha!

My, I'm Handsome!

Art Talk

Last Wednesday, I had the honor of being invited to speak at a local art league on my approach to art.  I passed around a couple of handouts and reminded everyone that you make art because you have to and not to worry what anyone thinks of it.  It took me a lot of years of angst and tears to get to that point.  Don't get me wrong--it's the best feeling in the world to hear that someone enjoys your art or that it speaks to them.  However, your art won't come from your heart, it won't be full of your truth or your experience if you're making it to please someone else.  And, in a weird twist of events, the closer you are to your own truth, the closer you'll come to truly touching on someone else's truth.  Isn't that wild?  Here's a few snaps other people took of just some of my creations.

Boy on the Brink

Awhile ago, I was cleaning my art studio and came across this drawing from 2011.  I WISH I would have taken a picture of it before I revamped it.  Instead, I worked it over with ink, pastel, acrylic, and collage from heavyweight letterpress paper. I think his look catches him between childhood and the restless ambition of teenage-yearning-to-be-an-adult assertion.

 9" x 12"

Waiting To Get In

Here's a little illustration of a guitarist waiting to get into a club.  P.S., I did this before HBO's Vinyl show tonight.  I'm a little out of order here.  Hmm.  Looks somewhat blurry.  Posted this initially on Instagram and my phone (camera) is dying...  Looks a lot better in reality.  Watercolor, ink, acrylic pastels (yes, there is such a thing)!

Peppermint Oil in the Eye

I hadn't been feeling well the past few days so I'm playing a little catch up.  Anyway, Saturday, I was trying to be all homeopathic and was trying to open a bottle of peppermint oil in order to inhale for my lungs and ingest for my upset tummy.  In a strange turn of events which seems only possible for me, I instead splattered the oil into my eye!  With hands shaking and eye burning, I tried to rinse it with water.  Once I finally was able to open it, I can tell you that it certainly was wide awake (and rimmed in red)!

HBO's Vinyl and Chris Cornell

Have all of you been watching HBO's series, "Vinyl"?  Produced by Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger (you all know that the Rolling Stones are my favorite group of all, all, all time, right?), it's a snapshot of the changing music world around 1973.  Tonight is episode 9 - only one more episode left.  SOB!  You can watch it all on HBO Demand, if you have it, and also HERE on the HBO Vinyl home page. There have been a few lagging moments, but truly, it has been a great journey through that time period with flashbacks to Neko, Lou Reed, Bo Diddley, etc.  You get imaginary run-ins with John Lennon, Andy Warhol, the New York Dolls, etc.

Anyway, tonight in the closing credits they featured a song ("Stay with Me") by Chris Cornell.  I've seen Chris once with Soundgarden and 4 times solo.  Hopefully when I see him again this summer, he'll be singing this one...and HBO will be putting him on a soundtrack for the series.  I think I read that he will be on an EP, but I also saw a listing for Volume 1 of a soundtrack and did not see his name listed.  I will pursue this conundrum further, peeps, for those of you who care. (-;

I have a love of music that makes life worth living! ha!  Perhaps you will then understand my ramblings of excitement here.  I wish the "Vinyl" series could go on forever...

Check it out for yourselves.

By the way, Bette Midler originally sang this song in the Janis Joplin biopic, "The Rose."  I love both versions.  Chris is the king of reinventing these older songs (the best was Michael Jackson's, "Billie Jean" in my humble opinion--but "I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston/Dolly Parton) was really good).

Bette Midler "Stay with Me"

Press

Press

I gave this a little shaded filter on Instagram...I liked the murky look of it...moving out of darkness and going forward.  It's lighter in reality, which I think gives it a more graphic, Warholian look.

Kevin Became A Cherry Coke

Kevin drank so many cans of Cherry Coke he eventually became one.

Flying Thinker - SOLD

Flying Thinker

This art on cardboard has everything on it--oilstick, ink, acrylic, watercolor, crayon, enamel, glitter.  What can I say...it went through many transformations.  I had the painted cardboard sitting around for about a year.  I used it as a paint palette for another piece of artwork I had been working on.  As I was cleaning up from my other project, I looked at this piece and liked the splotch of black ink on it.  I had an idea and just kept working it until I got to this finished piece.  Actually, this angle doesn't show it well, by the two faces work separately as well as together.

Swivel

This one is spinning all over the place.

Swivel