Morning Thoughts....

I love the quiet morning time, being able to slip into the day slowly.

A beautiful sunrise inspires me and fills me with awe.

We live on an amazing planet, and I am glad

I can view it all with an Artist's Eye.

 

 

Mornings are filled with rich black coffee and good reading.

Sometimes the material is deep, sometimes not.

Thomas Merton is a favorite, especially when I want to think.

The above book is wonderful~~when strict Catholic Monk

meets the Asian religions, and finds we all

come from the same cloth.

What a wonderful thought!

Sometimes morning provokes a solitary mood;

being astounded at the beauty of ONE

is enough.

In a world burgeoning with MORE,

the singular sings.

I close my eyes and savor those notes.

And in the studio, my heart is like a child.

It is NOT serious here; there is fun to be found.

Let the rest of the responsibilities go and take a moment

to laugh, to play.

The day is started right.

With camera in hand, I find the still lifes of Mother Nature.

Not planned, not structured.

Left by the touch of the wind and perhaps a stray squirrel.

Arrangements better than I can create.

Earth~~the ultimate artist.

Ultimately, it all leads back to this.

Brushes, pencils, paint.

The tools, life blood, lust of every artist.

The studio a haven.

My thoughts returned to what I love so.

The day will be one of gesso and color,

light and dark,

canvas and paper.

This is a rich life.

I'd like to welcome a new follower, a dear friend from FaceBook, Todd-Michael St.Pierre. T-M is a fantastic author of both children's books and my personal downfall, Louisiana COOKBOOKS!

Please visit his web page HERE and take a look around. You need a cookbook. 

REALLY!

Trust me!

It fills the head with all sorts of GOOD Morning Thoughts!


Pax....

Random Studio....

It's a lazy Sunday afternoon as I put this together.

I have had the photos for a day or two,

waiting for the moments to crop and tweak.

Random shots from my 

Art Haven.

Enjoy!

New book, no time to really check it out thoroughly yet, but promising from eye-candy and journal aspect.

Brushes......usually making art. This time, they are art.

Animal claws? Maybe at some point, but for now, gleanings from the Tulip Poplar.

My love of old books.....I have many. These are NOT cutters.....

These ARE CUTTERS! Pretty good too....

A shelf of stamps. More elsewhere....love seeing them. All the possibilities.

Gleaned from personal collection and Goodwill, these are cutters, or scanned for text, image, etc. Collage inspiration!

Always room to learn more~~reading Julia, taking notes, soaking in each glorious day.

And my sense of humor....catching the *little ones* in a sweet hug! ♪ ♫ Milo has a girlfriend!♫ ♪

Back to work now.

Will be off blog tomorrow,

and will probably try and answer comments

on Tuesday.

Have an enchanted day;

find the extraordinary

right around you,

in your ordinary!

Pax....

Well *Red* Studio

I love red.

I always have and always will.

I'm sure somewhere there is a thing as too-much-red, but for me, for now, there's always a bit of room for some more.... 

Like here, in red felt and sequins and beads....

Or here, in a delightful Mardi Gras throw....gotta love red shoes!

And yes, this is SUPPOSED to be red, but it's kinda fun against the Flame-Rug!

LOL!!!

Sometimes it's that little intense POP of red that makes things work....

My favorite images, hearts~~anatomical or not...definitely RED!

Spotlighted under a small lamp; red hand knit doily and a beautiful red beaded sacred heart pin from Jan...

Or here, in work from a Michael DeMeng class...new ways to play with RED!

And my sweet red heart milagro from New Orleans....aging perfectly; it looks like it has wings.

Today was a RED LETTER day!

Hope yours is too!

Pax....

My Work In Action.....

I have to admit, getting to see a piece of my handwork *in action* makes me look at it in a whole new way.
You have to understand that when something leaves the studio, generally I have moved on to the new project or am in a state of collapse and am trying to dig out the house. This was timed perfect; delivery late last week and then use yesterday.

Pastor Steve, with the bowl used for water for Confirmation and Baptism.

I managed a few shots that were decent.......I did not want to disrupt service and frankly, I figured I would land flat on the floor with the foot being, ummmm, uncooperative to say the least.

During the children's moment, asking them if they wanted to touch the water in the bowl.

I also learned something about myself. 
I am a worry wart of monumental proportions, as the above photo had me freaking~~what if WATER gets on the stole????? (I don't have children; my WORKS are my children and I am way too over protective.....omgosh....yes I am!) But all went well, I was able to breathe without a paper bag being put to my mouth......   ;-D

And I suppose at the end of the day I have but one question:
Next time, Michele, can you distract your husband long enough so I can put some LIQUID NAILS on the bottom of his shoes so I can get some shots IN FOCUS???? 
LOL!
Now I am off to clean and prep for the next project, and may be blog scarce. I beg your forgiveness~~I just do not have enough hours in the day right now, but I appreciate all of you who look and read and comment. I do; beyond words. You keep me going.
Grazie!




Pax....
  

Shine On....

It was glorious......even when the clouds rolled in.....

I am away from the computer most of today. First, having a new power line buried and anticipate no electricity most of the time. Second, doing the yearly greetings and salutations to the Doctors in my life and letting the moths out of the checkbook at the same time. Hmmmmm......I'd rather be on-blog.

Saturday evening I had about a one hour time window to try and get photos of the moon. Out of I don't know how many attempted shots, I managed a couple that were of any use. The cameras (yes, plural) I own simply are not sufficient to do what I want. So I am beginning the WHINE for a new camera and hope DH catches on.  ;-)  Because I really want a big honker and I know what the answer is going to be. I need you to channel whining powers my way...LOL!!!

Anyway, I'll catch up with everyone tomorrow, and in the mean time, shine on!

Pax....

Tag Me!

Sometimes I find that the harder I try and focus in one area, the more real life starts pulling me hither and yon.

Case in point, it should NOT have taken me so long to finish this current tag for the Sketchbook Challenge. But there were little things like trying to keep up with my online class and FIND things in the studio, distractions such as FOOD and COOKING and then having electricians in to redo all my studio lights.
The good part of that is now they are bright enough I only have to have half of them on. Of course the downside is I can see all the dirt and crud in nooks and crannies which remained well hidden in dim shadows. (there is something to be said for mood lighting.....ahem.....)

At any rate, for those who want a story, in New Orleans the tombs are quite ornate--not all but depending on your personal wealth you could commission someone to build a fine family tomb complete with caveau beneath to accept remains after it was time to push to the sides previous generations and newer caskets be laid to rest.

One of the common motifs is the inverted torch, symbolic of life being extinguished. I photographed several different versions of this while there, but the one depicted was by far the most beautiful. It was the difference between the stone mason and the sculptor.

The drawing started with the watercolor wash, was built up with hard drawing pencils, gesso, and Prismacolor pencils and finally received a bit of both black mica gel and pearl mica gel. With age and humidity, the stone the tombs are made of take on a patina both dark and dirty and tidbits of shiny highlights.

A good view of the under texture from gesso, then the addition of layers of colors and finally the mica gels.

This was a more difficult piece than I anticipated; I have used the image in so many works that finding the *new eye* to really see and interpret was hard. I found myself walking away in frustration several times.

Overall though, I am happy that this varies a fair amount from the photo and took on a life of it's own. It has it's own story to tell now.......

I think maybe the next thing I'll include in the tag book is a crawfish.

Because after photographing it, I can EAT IT!  ;-)

It's hard work drawing AND being witty, or so I think.....don't burst my bubble.

I have no *odd-thing-in-my hand* photo this time, not that I don't have an abundance of odd things within hands reach, but decided instead to leave you with a lovely and colorful Winter sky, as the sun had sunk below the tree line and everything was lusciously shell pink and blue.

Pax....

The Glorious Glow of "After-Storm"

We had a surprise thundershower late in the afternoon the other day; when the storm had left and the sun began to shine again while setting through the moisture rich atmosphere, Mother Nature put on a color show.

There has been no retouching of color in these photos.....this is what it was really like as the shades and hues undulated, changed, glowed, sparkled and left me running trying to capture everything at once.

Enjoy!

The ultimate paintbrush, don't you think?

Pax....

Red Skies At Dawn......

A brief interlude from the previous story......I could not let this progression of an amazing and breathtaking sunrise go by......to stand and shoot this was absolutely delightful!
I will continue with my story from yesterday's post when I get everything up and in order, hopefully tomorrow.

Pax....

Moments of Perfection.....

Sometimes, there are things that simply cannot be

improved upon;

rare moments caught by chance~

The play of light and shadow

dancing upon the

the evening cool and then

in one swift second,

 illuminating the simplest of blossoms.

Elevating the moment

to

PERFECTION.

Pax....

What Fun, What Fun......

Let's see..which part did I enjoy most these past few days? Being steam boiled, baked, or having to get my broom and the flying monkeys out last night???
You know, Indiana is the PITS.
I will be back with a *real* post tomorrow or Tuesday, depending if I get done fighting with roofers, AT&T which cannot provide me a phone line that works during wet weather, and oh yes, I have to do a promo video for a local Charity this week too......
Do any of you feel the need to comment? HA!

Pax....

Black Leather Days......

Once upon a time.....what seems like forever ago, though it really is not, I used to do a variety of modeling. And I enjoyed it and in this case, the young photographers I had the opportunity to work with, getting them accustomed to live models. (and believe me, I was very lively then!)

This is a shoot I did with a group at a tech school (an adult evening class), thus the difference in color and saturation of photos. That blue bass is the one I let get away....*sigh*....it had a fast neck and the most wonderful pickups for harmonics! How I loved it......man, could it sing. I have a different one to take it's place, but this one was special. It was the perfectly balanced, perfectly constructed, most wonderful piece of Fender Jazz Bass history I have owned.

I will always be glad that I have the pics I do from this session, though after scanning and resizing, they do not have the quality of the originals.

What fun!

And how I loved those kid leather pants! YOWZA BABY!!! Like a skeleton slipping into it's skin! LOL!!!! (seriously, get out the cooking spray and the slide me into them....)

Some of the students really caught the essence of *me*...the photo above was one I was fond of though the lighting was a bit harsh. (where was gaussian blur then???LOL!!!) I like the highlights on the tuner keys......yeah, it's a bass player thing.

This is another that lost quite a bit in reducing the size to post so that it would not take up all my free storage.....try clicking and see if it is any better.

I was always fond of this, taken as an off-camera moment....photo floods are sooooo hot, especially when you are wrapped in a cow! HA! My expression seems to be one of *get the shot and let me move....*

This is by far my favorite; I think I had posted it on Face Book once, or maybe it was here...who knows, I can't remember...and Tristan said I looked like a Punk Madonna. (as in the religious one and NOT the singer...*ahem*) That was about the highest compliment I could get! :-) I always liked the fact that the cross I had worn that evening really showed; it was one Gary purchased for me when he was TDY in England.

Toward the end of the shoots, there was always wind down time, and I was sick of smiling and hot and needed to powder down. But sometimes a gem like this would come along.....however, usually.......I was like everyone else at the end of a hard days work.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

LOL!!!!

As an aside, it took two men to help me up from this shot. The combination of nose-bleed stilettos and skin tight drawers made me much like a bug stuck on it's back. There I lay, saying "Get me up, please!!!!"

I cannot wait until Fall, when I can don my leather jacket and gloves, my Doc Martens or Harley boots and go out into the brisk air! I treasure the cool mornings and nippy evenings, the scent that is sweet in the air as the leaves begin to turn, and everything in the world is right again.

Thanks for coming along for a laugh.....this old school punk misses the days of late concerts and playing so loud I half deafened myself, of beating the hell out of my bass and the amazing calm the sound vibration sent through the whole of your body.

I miss my music much.

Alas, we move on.

Have a good one...some fun...some laughs...just don't get stuck!

Pax....