Studio Space.....

It seems like such a small thing....studio space, space to work, to think, to get the visual clutter out and some clean space IN so I can fill it with ideas, new projects, etc. My studio is not a fancy magazine studio, but a working one. That means, it gets MESSY. I seldom photograph the whole thing; something is almost always scattered.....besides my brain.

The City Dump....no, wait....MY STUDIO. omg.

I have to admit that after working non-stop before the health issues started last year, the studio had become a place I turned my back to; I didn't have the energy to deal with it. When you have too much work and not enough time, things pile and pile. The amount of time to clean it up at the end of the day is usually when I am hustling off to fix dinner, and when that was done, so was I.
But, it had hit critical mass.....and something had to go---the *stuff* or ME, and it wasn't going to be the latter. 

If the sweeper is out, it must mean action is afoot....

I had a friend tell me to focus on one small amount at a time.
And I did. Just one little area, then the next, then the next.

WHAT? There's a TABLE THERE? And the killer shelves...

And finally, after several weeks, I discovered I had a workable space again. 

OMG~~there's ANOTHER TABLE....

With STORAGE! I can FIND THINGS! :-)

It was NOT fun. All the time, there were other things I would rather have been doing, but the little-by-little approach kept me from crash and burn, and left me with *my* space back.

Dang! What a view

 To work.

First project for the *NEW* space!

To think.
To ponder.
To use things I had FOUND....

2 weeks lost; making meatloaf triggered the brain cells and I found them....

And in between it all, a place where a short break let's me have time to smell the flowers.

This is my idea of a Luxury Studio....

Life is good, I'd say!
How about YOU???




Pax....

A Little Light Housekeeping.....

"Hello! Mom cleaned today when she wasn't sewing for Pastor Steve."

"Would you like to come in and see? I don't have guests often, but am happy to offer some honey treat...."

 

"Everything is so nice; I just have to show it off a little!

You don't mind, do you?"

"I should be humble...but it looks so nice and I like company!"

"Mom says you all make her smile, so I'm smiling back at you too!

Thank you for popping in thru the blog~~I wish it was in person and I would sing for you!

Say, do you TWEET???

Sincerely, Sweet Pea"

Well, in between my assigned duties of laundress, charwoman and seamstress, I was also birdie-mom-housekeeper.

I shot the first photo just to put on Face Book; it never got there because *little one* flew right down to the front perch to check out what was going on. She has no fear.....I wish she had a little, due to the single leg situation.

Some day, she'll hop right out that door....

And now I have to fly the coop and get back to work! ;-)

Pax.... 

Art Redux.......

The other day when I posted "The Lovers" I mentioned it was Salvage Art. You know, you start those collages/paintings/drawings with a great idea. Great! It's wonderful!
And then it falls completely flat.

Plop.

No resuscitation possible on the original design.

If you're like me, you stow it away somewhere until one of two things happens:

1. You totally forget about it for years and then find it on a cleaning spree and dump it,

-or-

2. You shove it where you can't be disgraced by it and THEN find it on a cleaning spree and think hmmmmmmm.....possibilities here.

I've decided on option number two for this one. And anything I do along the way, I'll post. At least until it hits the point where, once again, it goes PLOP or is disgracing me...... ;-)

First off, this is a 12"x12" canvas panel. I covered it with different papers, used liberal amounts of gel medium, then started adding a bit of gesso, ink and color. And then the three images.

I'm not sure where I thought I was going with them; then or now. They are just *there*....floating around in a somewhat triangular space and not doing a thing for me. I still like them--it just needs more.

A lot more. More color, more tying in to the whole piece, more rhyme or reason with them....MORE. So that is what I am going to try and work on bit by bit, in between a couple of other things that need done, and real work. And I'll take pics and post and I really would appreciate critique as this goes along.

You won't offend me.

And besides, with most of you, I don't know where you live! LOL!!! So you can be honest and say it sucks rocks (or glass, as the case may be!) and I'll just sob a while and then put my *big-girl* panties on and get back to the art and consider your comments!!!

Let's have some fun with this one, okay?
Now go have a great day and don't forget----GO MAKE ART!!!!!

Pax.

Not One Bit Of Art, and a RANT ALERT!!!

Ah yes...that pretty much sums up yesterday. While I need days off, here is what yesterday looked like at Chateau Lockard:
First, the new mail server had quite nicely deleted all my settings for what was and was NOT Spam, so I spent a couple of hours in the morning re-entering 100+ e-mail addresses, white listing them. Then I got to go through all the bulk mailings I subscribe to, and try and figure out which ones were in the said white list and the ones needing to be put there. This was not fun.....in any way, shape or form. By the time I was finished, I had a whopping headache, plus I assume the hip hurt because I had sat on it for so long.
Second, (related to the first), I discovered the lady I keep in contact with about doing church banners had written me, and said useless mail server had decided to dump her letter---which had business in it---into the Spam file while letting through lovely smarmy e-mail about things being enlarged or people who want to *be my friend*. Obviously they do not KNOW ME. And I really don't need and/or WANT anything enlarged. Ahem!
Third, I had a good painting fall off the wall, straight down behind a glass nightlight. The light bulb shattered into pieces too small for my decrepit eyes to see, but I figured the fingers and toes would find them soooooooo......
Fourth, I was FORCED to get the vacuum out and start sucking glass. I could not see it, I could only hear it. And being as OCD as I am, and having not cleaned the studio in a while, I was discovering all sorts of nasty tidbits that I really did not want to share my space with, so a full fledged attack on the floor began. Which, considering the amount of crappola I have in here, is nigh impossible.
So I did the obvious and sensible thing; I sat down and played on Facebook a while. Quite a while. Sweep a little, read a little, sweep, sweep, sweep.......wait a minute. That's beginning to sound vaguely like a song from "Oklahoma!"
THREE HOURS LATER.......
I finally have enough of the dust up that I don't feel too guilty about sitting again, I've actually put a few things away and I am pretty much done for the day. My time has been spent on drivel--useless and inane, back breaking, giving me pains all down the leg, and all because a painting had to fall off the wall.
I did, however, find two books I forgot I had (and have not read) and got more things put away. It is that amount of Southern Blood that rises to the surface and forces me to submit to the sweeper. It should be illegal. Someone should do this for me. There are so many better ways to spend time......dang! Housework is the spawn of the Devil's Arse!!!!!

(deep exhale....)
Okay, I feel better.
On the bright side, it looks like I will be doing a set of Christmas Banners, so that is actually money, which I've seen little of since the great fall, and I am quite happy about that. Will meet probably sometime next week. And I should shut up and count my blessings, which are very many.
So get out there and enjoy the day; let the house wait, let life grab your hand and take you for a joyride!
And go make art!

Pax.

Fiber Art, Fiber Friends and Another Blog To Check (Psst! Giveaway!)

Well, first things first; the long hanging is finally done, and not what I had planned but I like it a lot and will definitely hang it somewhere in the house! YAY! Now that means the table is really clear for the unfinished project (banners) and
I don't know about the rest of you, but trying to get the momentum back and restart a project is exceptionally difficult for me. My attention span must be as long as.......oh..........one of these little punctuation marks? It is always hard to restart.

At any rate, before I blither too much, I want to thank Leslie for the lovely blog post she put up about the piece of art I sent her---it's always nice to hear someone appreciates your effort and it's even more fun when BOTH of us were somewhat clueless to why the other was asking for things..... :-)

It turned out to be lots of FUN!

And before I forget, hop on over to Yoborobo because there's a cool give away and you can check out the interesting art, especially, if---like myself---you love "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and anything Halloweeny! I would insert another photo here of the giveaways, but I am having a hard enough time with three pics

all on the left side without tearing my *naturally blond* hair out by the dark roots......so you have to go to the site....okay????
Now back to my hanging; finally this afternoon I got all the doo-dads on the bottom and am HAPPY. It meets my requirements for gaudy, dangley and close to glow in the dark. It also has a lovely

Oriental feel to it that sort of just happened and those are the types of happy accidents a girl can really enjoy!

And it's long too, about a yard and six inches all together with the dangley bits. The close ups show the use of the Angelina I fused, cut to back the leaves And Linda's marbled flowers were absolutely perfect.

Plus, the best part, this uses only about 2/3's of a fat quarter. Yes, one little fat quarter can go a long way if it's the right print and you don't get scissor-happy. (or if you're lazy like me and find a few seams are better than a whole lot!)

I had some cool glass leaves that were meant for jewelry, but I have had them stashed away for a long time, waiting for the right project. I think the bottom close up shows them pretty well.

Besides this, I got all the old plastic drawers emptied, and have them cleaned and ready for their new home, when I can get a schedule set up, or when I get the seats pulled out of the back of the Cruiser, because there is NO WAY they will all fit, even with the seats folded down. It's going to be interesting to say the least.......

Now off with ye all! Go have a wonderful Monday, get
signed up for another giveaway and have a great creative start to the week!

Pax.

This should be my motto.....

Needless to say I snagged this from somewhere; it was in a link from a friend so I have no idea who the credit goes to......but it is an excellent statement of life here at the moment.
I am supposed to get the computer back this morning, however, I have to get cleaned up to go to the Dr. this afternoon, and that is NOT a short process. So how I'm going to manage all this, I don't know. I should have told them I would call when I got back in and life would have been much easier.
No. Oh no. That's too easy. Make it hard on yourself Anne....drink more coffee and really do more stupid things.......FAST.
Last evening DH taught so I took advantage of the time (besides playing on Facebook) to start purging some of the old junk in my studio. I had probably ONE DOZEN bottles of dried up glue. They went. Other thing I don't know what they were or where they came from----OUT. In fact, I emptied one full set of drawers, six or eight, and also the *junque* on top of the drawers. I kept asking myself how artists can be such pack rats and produce anything. Or find anything.
I have put this off for a long time, but the purchase of two new sets of slim drawers for the wet studio forced me to come to terms with a bunch of crappola that had been ignored far too long. If I move THIS over HERE, then I can put THAT over THERE. And geez, that gets old.
I have a feeling you all know the routine far too well........sigh......
The only perk out of all this is there will be several empty sets of nice drawers I can give away when it is all done, which is sort of a motivation for me to keep plugging along. And the second part is usually when I am doing this, the next thing that happens is ART. It is this bizarre ritual of purging (though you could not tell it) then creating. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Now off to transform into the Sex Goddess (SNARF!!!!!!!)......or at least a clean and coiffed version of me.
Drink more coffee Anne; you'll believe anything!
Have a great day folks and I hope your drawers aren't filled with dried up glue.

Hmmmmmmmm........that sounded a bit odd........

Okay you know what I mean! May your studios be filled with plenty and may your creativity be abundant! Is that better????
Pax.

Tuesday......that feels like Monday......

I think the picture says it all...except I was certainly not partying all weekend, and frankly, I think I might have been perkier if indeed I had been! It was a typical non-stop work-a-thon here, leaving me in a state of semi-paralysis this morning.

Plus, I am confused as to the DAY of the week, which always happens after a long holiday weekend. You know---the whole week just isn't *right*.

I might as well bemoan my lack of artistic activity; I ended up snitching a whole, whopping 15 minutes in the wet studio, and my plans to work on the sewing studio---to clean it up so I can get ready to start finishing the church banners---did not happen at all.

So there is one unhappy little camper writing this morning, and even more unhappy that she is going to have to scurry off to PT and lose the early part of the day to further making herself miserable. (pout.....)

Patience is not one of my virtues. As much as I enjoy the folks with the therapy, I have had enough because now that there is a lot of outdoor work, it is cutting into my art time. I have felt the need to cloister myself in the studio for a bit, and I know that I am going to have to do some creative time management to make it happen. (and that, too, is not one of my better skills) It frustrates me. It makes me feel all....hmmmmmm........out of whack.

Art is a peculiar and demanding mistress in that she loves you, leaves you, drags you around by your nose and then rewards you with wonderful creations.

I think she's going to be pretty unhappy if I don't get that studio back into my life on a regular basis.

And I think that I will be too........maybe tomorrow I will be brave and post a pic of the colossal mess I have facing me that has to be tended to before the banner sewing may again commence. It will help guilt me into action! I will have to answer to the blog.... ;)

Here's hoping my gentle readers got some rest, had some fun, and most of all, had some time for creative musings. Now go do what you do everyday---try and take over the world with art!

Catching up

(Copyright Anne Huskey-Lockard, 2009, all rights reserved)

On just about everything today. The house, the laundry, the piles of *stuff* that have collected mysteriously everywhere. I'm sure there must be some evil Pixie that comes in every night and distributes these little non-treasures that I then have to contend with.

I have been quite lax on anything that has not been health related or art related and it has caught up. I'm at the "Oh cr*p" stage, wishing it would all go away, along with the rain and the gloom and the soreness and limping.

I want to run away and walk through the woods, take photos of flowers, mushroom hunt, breathe in the smell of the earth coming back awake from a too-long winter's sleep. I want to take my camera and wander through town, finding the remnants of old buildings that speak to me and need recording before time and age take them. I want to sit quietly at the Cafe and have a latte and just zone out.

Instead, I get to listen to the roar of the sweeper, smell floor cleaner and try and figure which pile of laundry requires attention first. These are not the priorities of life I excel at. I'd rather be trying out the new rubber stamps I bought, or mounting some u.m.s I've had FOR EVER, or looking though some books for some verbal inspiration for a piece taking shape in my minds eye. (in Latin, no less!)

Surprisingly, when I get out the John Deere and do the acre, that is good creative time. I just listen to the hum (or rattle, depending if I have had it tuned up) and soon I am off elsewhere in Artland, thinking or rehashing an idea. It's odd, but it works.

Alas, when you're pretty sure you could grow potatoes in the corners of your rooms due to build up of dust, art gets set on the back burner. You know, where things simmer. And maybe that's okay. Those five fresh canvasses in the wet studio need thought before diving in.

Simmering is good.

I need to remember that.........

Now go simmer your creative brew; let me know what you've come up with!

PROGRESS!!!

Things are going fairly well. If you read "D-Day" then you should recognize the following photo as the wall-of-doom, uncluttered. The chair still needs the seat and arms upholstered, but that is for Spring. Just close your eyes and pretend that it is done in a lovely fake leopard print......yeeeeaaaaahhhhh!!!! (because that's what I have for it!) I bought some sheer curtains to hang over the shelving area--really neat . A white b.g. with these intense bright circles on them! FUN! It should help to keep the stuff on the shelves clean. (yeah, right, Anne. you bought them because you loved them and that was the only place to put them....)

While we're at it, I am including the cleaned out bathroom, which is excessively small, so the angle of the photos are wonky. Yes, I did the tile floor. That was not a pleasant job for someone with long legs......I could barely walk, plus it ended up costing me a fortune. Every piece, hand set........

I sponged and wiped the walls with a bronze paint, then stenciled silver Fleur-De-Lys. I painted the baseboards fancy too; don't know if they show up here.

So finally, since 2001 when this studio was constructed, I will have it all in order.

Which means the top half will fall apart any minute!

This is the back of the basement, which is overflow storage and has turned into an efficient area. Before it was just junk piles on a little plastic table (useless!!!!) and then on the floor. Now it is stuff actually worth keeping and up and in something of a state of order.

I did the small quilt on the right wall when I was working in a fabric store years ago. Uh huh, like having an alcoholic work in the liquor store.

I quit for my bank account's sake.

And I still wanted to have a place to live...... ;)

Now, the sad part of all this is I have DH home all next week,so I suppose my progress will be bits and pieces as time allows. I do a lot better with whole days to slave away!

Okay, enough.

Wow.

You got to see my latrine.

Have to go water the parakeet before he pulls his bowl off the side of the cage.....

How to torture yourself......

Well, the basement rehab is going well. I'm pitching, giving, sorting and I am happy even if not able to move. Lugging heavy boxes up and out of the cellar is really hard on an old fart. Harder yet was getting the old plastic shelves out in one piece without wrecking something---namely, me.

So to further humiliate myself, I find, in the rooting process, a photo of myself from YEARS AGO. I mean, young and thin and with a waist and legs up to THERE! It was taken when I was painting nose art on a B-17 at Grissom Air Force Base that was in the restoration process. I think I was 24 and still single and just full of myself! (ah! youth!)

Anyway, here it is for a laugh. Vintage cheesecake!

Where did that body go???? It must be buried in the cellar somewhere.....I need to keep rooting. Or maybe I was abducted by aliens and left in this plump, sagging specimen I loosely refer to as *me*. I'm crossing my fingers that I find THIS girl down there!!! And if I do, I'm abducting her and we're off to the plastic surgeon..........

In the meantime, back to the work at hand.

Ick.

D-Day

....I guess I should call it "B-Day" because I will be in the basement all day working on trying to get mountains of JUNK moved so I can get new shelving up and the old stuff out and dispose of things that I have collected for heaven only knows what reason. (because my alter-ego is "PACK RAT WOMAN---SAVER OF EVERYTHING!!!!) Sadly, that is true and something I have been working to correct. So believe me, this is major trauma doing the basement. But, I need the space more than the junk and hopefully it will look nice and be usable when finished.

Here is where I work now:

Here is what I am up against:

(click the photos if you would like to see anything close up, though why, I don't know.....)

I think I would just like to run screaming naked through the yard and get arrested and then maybe the Basement Fairy would have pity on me and come clean up my mess. Do I hear someone say "Fat chance"???

Dang.

I thought so.

If I don't re-emerge to post in a couple of days, please send Law Enforcement to look for me.