You Can Do It, You Did It! (SOLD)

I have several commissioned pieces I am finishing up this month and next.  The first is from a co-worker, Diane, who volunteers as an adult-learning tutor.  Diane began with one of her students as she helped the girl earn her GED (General Education Development) high school equivalency diploma.  From there, she has encouraged her protégée throughout her college career, and on Saturday, this young woman with earn her Associates Degree in college.  Isn't that an inspiring story?

I tried to do several things here.  I wanted to give the diploma and it's lettering a "parchment" paper/old style look.  Diane used to tell her, "You can do it" and when she reached certain achievements, "You did it."  Diane also had given her a turtle charm bracelet inscribed with the "you can do it" motto on its back so I wanted to include that. 

The graduate also likes fairies.  I thought this was so apropos, because it is a representative of magical possibility.  Can't you imagine yourself clinging to an image like that as you begin a long journey from no high school diploma to graduating from college?  It makes me want to cry for what she's achieved.  Anyway, I thought I would give her a floating turtle to represent both a mythical and an earthbound symbol of determination, hard work, and magical reward.

Diane was also her encourager along the slow, plodding path of class building upon class.  She was her "human" turtle so I gave her shirt the same green color of that sweet creature.  Finally, our college's color is purple so the graduate is clad in it along with some purple thrown into the background.  So there you have it!

Oil Pastel and Ink

9" x 12"

Day 138. Goodbye, My Dearest Flip Phone

About a month ago, I was making pasta for the man.  My pots were in the dishwasher so instead I used a deep Calphalon braising pan to boil the water.  As I was carrying the water-filled pan from the sink to the stove, I was simultaneously talking to my mom on my cell phone.  And just as you see a glass falling or yourself tripping in slow motion, my cell phone slipped from where it was perched underneath my chin pressed to my shoulder.  You see, I was using both my hands to carry that heavy pan!  I watched as it slid, slid, slid slowly down my arm into its watery death.  I could still feel the ghost of it's weight under my chin, yet my eyes saw--there it was, looking like an underwater turtle with a snorkeling tube of an antenna.

I did manage to shake myself out of disbelief, grab it, and resuscitate it.  However, it was never the same.  It had already been moving into the land of feebleness.  I knew I had to make the switch to a smartphone.  I had even recently been at an art show in February and another artist said to me aghast, "Are you still using a FLIP phone?  I saw you pull out an ANTENNA.  I can't believe it!"  I mean, I felt like I was holding a Thomas Edison relic in my paws.

Listen, I was the same way with my bag phone.  I know about 2% of the population remember those, but until it was stolen out of my car, it was suiting me just fine.

O.K., so after a month of my phone flashing "car kit connected, car kit disconnected" and constantly dying on me, my husband and I FINALLY made the leap to the 21st century.  It seems there are quite a few dazzling things I can do with this new phone...if only I knew how to do them.  Oh little flip phone, how I miss your ease, your simplicity, your inability to make me frustrated when I just want to dial a stored phone number!

Here's a re-enactment of the ultimately deadly event, followed by an appearance by Mr. Flip on my counter as I was finishing up work on my 2011 Brooklyn Sketchbook Project, "Coffee and Cigarettes."  (P.S. Cigs are props only--you'll find me puffing on an inhaler!)