A New Look!

Well hello, again!  I hope to be a blogger when I grow up! With winter months approaching, I am once again thinking of life inside and connecting with friends on my blog.  I hope you will join me as I expose myself -- that is, revealing my ever-evolving art to you and the world at large!  P.S. I'm no photographer. These are pretty distorted, but a sampling!

One of my first painterly ones

I have been on a quest to grow from a cut and paste collager to an artist who paints on canvas. In 2014, I took a wonderful on-line class by Kelly Rae Roberts. It was such a benefit to see how she lays papers, paints and words onto a canvas and comes up with awesome complex backgrounds, sweet, fun and touching themes and beautiful mantras. One of the best things that came from that class was the community that we created as all 200ish of us shared our evolution. From blatant beginners like me to accomplished artists, each dared to try new things, and bravely posted our pictures on our facebook page. We continue to share and encourage each other as friends do. Sometimes we even meet each other and we already have so much in common that it is just like seeing your bestie after a long time away!

Still stuck on collage, but starting to play with paints. Sold it!

My aim is not to become a landscape or a portrait artist, but to use my intuition and put my feelings out there in a way that others can relate to. I LOVE it when people come to my art show booth and laugh and show my cards, collages and paintings to each other. I LOVE it when people get me.

A bit anal with the rubber stamps!

Well enough about me, already...How about my studio?  Older posts tell about moving into Dad's very dusty old carpentry shop. He's been gone for 11 years already and the 3 brothers had ravaged the shop and filled the corners with their own stuff, spare pianos (the piano tuner brother), big carpentry machinery and lots of sawdust (the carpenter brother) and old lawnmowers and icky old gadgets and gazillions of recycled screws, nails, and broken old stuff that my old Yankee Dad didn't throw away. Ever.

Playing with drippies and stencils. 12" square. Sold this one!

After all those years of sawdust, grease, spiders, mouse residue, old nasty chemicals and scary old liquids in cans and bottles...well you can imagine how daunting that room was. The good things were:   the size, a large L shape with some oddly angled walls, plumbing for a sink, lots of electrical outlets and high ceilings.

I love how this came out. It is a big one, too.

I hired Jim (the welder brother looking for work). His first project was to build an addition to the garage to house the stuff that no one could get rid of. Then after lots of cleaning and insulating, the room was boarded in with bead board paneling, the fluorescent lights taken down and replaced by overhead LED directional lights, I painted and painted it all white and Jim installed a kitchenette (donated cabinets with sink along a short wall). I put down a vinyl stick-down tile floor over the concrete and moved in.  The wall over the sink and one stretch in the middle of the longest wall became soft turquoise. In came lots of storage-wall shelves and Ikea cubicle shelving units. I dragged Dad's old metal workshop bench in, which he had painted turquoise years ago (industrial chic!) and filled up with my art supplies. The room is now kitchenette, studio, office and sitting area with a back door overlooking a small yard and acres of woods. I love it!

My favorite so far. The layering effect I learned from Kelly Rae Roberts.

Mom and I live in harmony, each with our own living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom.  We use separate entrances and driveways, but our spaces are open to each other.  I work one mile down the road at the Senior Center 15 hours a week and do freelance desktop publishing. I am starting to really feel balance in my life!

Art Show this weekend, Old and new things

I hope you will visit me here soon and often. I can't wait to hear "what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" (Mary Oliver)

Hugs,
Sherry

Ummm, revised!

Hello from Lalaland!

I have been a bad blogger. I don't know how I've managed to get so busy that blogging is nearly impossible, but I am and it seems to be!

Floating in a birch forest

One of the engineers of the submerged forest-beaver!

I am the epitome of the person of a certain age who lost her job a few years ago and now has a portfolio of part time options:  two office jobs totaling 25 hours a week; LOTS of pet-sitting jobs, in which I am away from home from overnight to 3 weeks at a time; free-lance work in desktop publishing; volunteer work with the senior center; a home to establish in Mom's house, which consists of converting an old workshop into a studio/kitchenette--yes, I'm actually finally getting started on that project.

Playing with Magic setting on new camera

I have been in limbo with that project, as getting brothers motivated is almost impossible without the moola to pay them, and thanks to a recent financial benefit, we are moving forward. I went on a scouting mission to Home Depot this weekend, looking at flooring, paneling, paint colors. I should be in there by Thanksgiving....HOPEFULLY!

Breaking up housekeeping...

One of the coolest things I've done this spring/summer is take an e-class by Kelly Rae Roberts! She is one of my favorite mixed media artists, and this class was just a blast. The best part was meeting so many like-minded artists and learning to be fearless and express myself with paint. When I get my studio back together, I hope to plunge back in and do lots of artistic stuff. I miss it. I had a great start early this year when I set up a temporary studio space, but that is gone now and everything is moving into the garage for the remodel.

So I hope to reconnect this fall and reestablish myself as a blogger once again!

Meanwhile, enjoy this lovely time of year!

Hugs,

Sherry

P.S. Thanks, Tammy, for noticing me here!

Ummm

A Simple Twist of Fate

Hi Folks,
Well, Another month has passed, and it's a cold bleak day in New England. A simple twist of fate (circumstance, karma) has me stranded in my favorite home in the "wilds of Worthington" with 3 dogs and a yard full of birds.

 

The twist was that after staying in all day on Saturday watching it snow, I decided to drive to the Old Creamery and pick up some food, including a nice hot container of clam chowder. After driving a few miles, I regretted my plan, but carefully continued on. Coming back, I slid into a tree and smashed in the front of my car. Luckily I wasn't hurt! I gathered my wallet, my groceries and walked to the nearest house. Some very nice people took me in and called 911 to get help.

Their house was warm and cozy. I was invited to eat with them, but decided to eat my clam chowder, which had popped open and squirted most of the groceries with goo. I cleaned up the tote bag and the groceries and ate the remaining soup.

Meanwhile, the fire dept. came and checked me all over, then the State Police came and asked me questions and called the ambulance. They checked me all over too and advised me to go to the hospital, which I refused, as I didn't feel any pain. Eventually, the tow truck came and towed my little Subaru away and these kind people drove me "home" to the dogs. I ended up with bruises on my shin and my breast (from the seatbelt).

My insurance doesn't cover rentals, and I really can't afford to rent a 4WD car.  Plenty of people have offered help, but with 6 miles of dirt roads and winter conditions, I haven't taken them up on it yet.  My office sent me work to do, and I have a couple of consulting jobs on the computer too, so here I am!

Please excuse the poor indoor photography!

Another twist--Since I moved in with Mom in October, I haven't had any place to play with art. The room that will be my studio was all full of tools, wood, sawdust and cobwebs. Big stuff like Dad's old workbench and Richard's grand piano (for sale cheap) littered the room, not to mention tons of nails, screws, washers bolts, hammers, screwdrivers, etc!

So a few weeks ago I started condensing and cleaning the room. If I couldn't get rid of the workbench, I could use it for my own work table. I found a couple of pieces of plywood to cover the holes and dirt and put it in a corner of the room. I cleaned and de-cobwebbed till I was sneezing and coughing. Then I stapled up some sheets over the bare 2x6's and hung a couple of corkboards. I brought in a cubicle cabinet with red containers in each cube. I laid a couple of old rugs on the cement floor and set up a couple of card tables to work on. (Everything else is pushed to the other side of the room for the moment.) I dug out lots of supplies and bought a few more.

On Jan 11, I invited Emily to come and do some art, thinking company would help me get creative. Em didn't make it, so I did a piece of art anyway. She didn't show up the next day either, so I did another one.  I determined to create one piece of art every day. Not only to expand my artistic mind, but to help me be in happy mode during this difficult time of the year.  I can easily become depressed when it is cold and gloomy, so I need to keep myself creative.  It is so uplifting to be playing with my art supplies!

Collage is my main genre, but I want to get more and more original. I also want my new art to be affirmative and to encourage people. I like to use recycled materials when I can. Eventually, I will get some painting lessons and mix things up.

I packed a pile of art supplies and brought them here to the "dog house" and kept working (playing). Today is day 11 and I'm still doing it!  For now I can say that being stranded with the dogs is, in a strange way, my own art retreat!

 You can see my daily artwork and follow me on Facebook.

Meanwhile I hope your twists of fate are all good ones!

Hugs,

Sherry