Fall fever?

I feel like with the changing of the seasons I always end up feeling stuck in a rut. I get restless and easily bored and easily frustrated. Then the weather kinda evens out and I kinda even out and all's right in the world. I guess I have seasons of my own. 

"Strange Reflections" oil on copper 10"x14"

I've been working on a series of work I'm calling my Reflection Series. I love reflections. I love how something completely true to life can look so abstract and unrecognizable. I've had a lot of fun lately putting things in silver bowls and then painting close-up pictures of them and their weird swirly reflections. However, I feel like I've hit a wall the last couple of days. I'm still trying to figure out if, in situations like that, it's better if I just stop what I'm doing and do something completely different or if I should just keep working. I think today, though, it's time to get out of the studio. I have hundreds (literally) of flower bulbs that my sweet Memaw bought us as a housewarming present. I'm going to go play in the dirt. 
I don't remember who said it, but I heard a quote once about how planting a garden is the epitome of hope. Planting a garden implies faith that spring will come and you'll be around to see your tulips and daffodils bloom. I like that thought. Then maybe I'll come in and play with my art supplies and see if new ideas bloom. If not, at least I'll have tulips in the spring. 

Nike has the right idea...

Sometimes regardless of how fun your job is, every occupation is work. Today, art feels like work. It's rainy outside, I'm working from home, and it's very tempting to curl up and watch a movie. However, I'm really trying to be the absolute best artist I can be and that just won't happen if I wait around to be inspired or only paint when I know a masterpiece is going to flow out of the end of my brush. Would I even remember how to hold a paintbrush if I waited for that? So, just a reminder to myself (ESPECIALLY to myself) as well as all my artist friends out there and all my friends who deep down inside are artists but have a never-ending supply of excuses about why they don't do art- not every painting (or whatever kind of art you do) is going to be magic... not every one is going to be good, but every one teaches you something and is a necessary stepping stone to the next. And who knows, the next might be magic.
So,
Just...
Do...
It!

Clearing out the Studio Sale!

My good friend Mary Liz Ingram and I are having a Clearing out the Studio Sale this Saturday at Mary Liz's home, 208 Montgomery Lane, Homewood, AL (near W. Oxmoor). The sale is from 2-5 and we'll have marked down oils, acrylics, and pastels- plus yummy snacks! Come hang out!

Because I have lived...

A good friend of mine, the amazing Sunny Carvalho (www.SunnyCarvalho.com) created a beautiful little porcelain doll with a quirky face and funny hat with the words printed across the front, "because I have lived." I have the doll sitting in my studio where I can see it everyday because it spoke to me for a specific reason. 
I've always felt it was important that my being alive make a difference in the world. So when I left my full-time job doing one-on-one behavioral therapy with children with autism to pursue art full time I had a bit of a crisis. I became worried that art was too "decadent" a career choice. What good was I doing in the world painting pretty pictures? Sunny's art doll reminds me that the world can be different "because I have lived."
On that same note, I'm reading a book right now titled Art and Fear- Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland. Reading it feels kinda like talking about the ins and outs of the art world with a good, wise, and more experienced (as well as sometimes sarcastic) friend. There was one part in particular that reminded me that my being alive changes things. "And so you make your place in the world by making part of it-by contributing some new part to the set. And surely one of the more astonishing rewards of artmaking comes when people take time the visit the world you have created. Some, indeed, may even purchase a piece of your world to carry back and adopt as their own. Each new piece of your art enlarges our reality. The world is not yet done."   I highlighted that last part because that was the main point. I wanted to tell the authors thank you for making me feel justified on one of those days when I don't feel very worthwhile and thank you, Sunny for my doll :)