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I always enjoy a good mystery.

Okay I was procrastinating and painting up to the last-minute until I had to pick up my son from preschool finally as I’m flying out the door I realize I can’t find the car keys. Now I always keep my keys in my purse but today we switched cars and one of the two sets of keys that we made broke so we are sharing one key until we get another one made. So the key is not in my purse or on the key rack…where it always is. It’s not on the island, the peninsula, the computer table or my daughters detective drawer. Now this is a desk drawer that my daughter secretly store things from time to time I have found many things Wal-Mart cards, Q-tips, money, jewelry and empty candy wrappers I was thinking and hoping it was a sure place but not this time

So in a panic I call my husband at work and ask do you have the car keys? Do you know where they are? Knowing that if my husband had the keys it wouldn’t have helped the situation anyways because he was a bit of a trout away. In bewilderment I said okay I’ll let you go. What are you going to do he asks? Calculating it was too far to walk there the only thing I can do call Mom. Not a hard choice just an embarrassing one.

So next I call Mom and her line is busy I call again and busy still. So I call my sister who is staying with Mom at this time. Is Mom on the phone? Yes. I’ll have her call you back. No… I need to talk to her right away. So I can hear in the background and she’s trying to wrap it up but still keeps talking so I ask my sister to talk to this other person whom we both know just for a while so I can tell Mom of my predicament. As I quickly tell my story she says that my niece is here too. Great! Can she go pick up my son at school for me? I don’t see why not.

I make the necessary phone calls arrange everything and a half hour later my son gets a ride home. Words and thoughts are exchanged and my niece explains why she is home and confesses of being under a lot of stress about something and so we talk for a while and I listen.

Not long after my husband suddenly arrives home probably because of something I said. Together we search the whole house from top to bottom and as we are looking we are trying to recall who drove the car last, where did we go lately and basically trying to decide who’s at fault here. I know we’re terrible. Our search was futile no key found.

Although were befuddled we still have one last hope our daughter who is still at school. We pick her up and on the way home ask the proverbial question. Did you take the keys? She responds positively with yes I seen those keys. I’ve never seen her bee line to anything so fast and so sure. I was so relieved and silent all I could say was awesome. How they got there I didn’t care. What was important was the mystery was solved. I always enjoy a good mystery.

Looking back before taking that leaping forward.

As a passionate or most times obsessed artist I always have to reflect back on what I painted in the past and relate it to what’s on my plate now. I earnestly try to strive for a higher level of execution or thought. Having said that I still believe that ‘ I myself do nothing the holy spirit accomplishes all through me.’ William Blake. I went back to 2010 in an earlier blog but felt the need to go back one more year to 2009. Great things happened that year sometimes it never hurts to relive and relearn. I started the year out working on some portraitures. My top 10 for 2009.

1) Oil painting portrait 24″ x 36″ ‘Deana and Reid’

2) Oil painting portrait 24″ x 30″ ‘Jeff and Gloria’

3) I lined up an art show at ‘ The Dance Works gallery’

4) Grava gallery: put on display “Layla” throughout the summer.

5) Co-written and published 1st e-book.

6) Finished a nude figure painting in oils 30″ x 40″ for sale $2,500.

7) Worked on series for up coming show: Started (2) large paintings 24″ x 30″ called soul-searching and finished up the 11″ x 14″ smaller version of soul-searching.

8) August/pool party at The lighthouse: Displayed and delivered portraitures.

9) October: Gallery night opening at The Dance Works art gallery.

10) Flew to North Carolina for a wedding stayed at the Hilton. Took a lot of photographs plan to do a large painting of the boardwalk. I have new ideas about flying. Thank God it was only an hour flight!

My top ten paintings a year in Review 2010

1) The year started out with the sale of two paintings at The Dance Works art gallery. The show started in October and ran through the beginning of January.

2) Reworked ‘The Lilly’

3) Started taking my photography to a higher level.

4) I started preparing for my artist video. Release date will be in 2011.

5) I scheduled to do a speaking engagement at the local elementary school on career day. It was very enlightening.

6) Displayed art work at The Smith Brothers Coffee shop in Port Washington.

7) Also had work on display at The Last Drop of Coffee in Shorewood.

8) Worked on getting the Zazzle store up and running.

8) MIAD had an Art Sale for alumni/faculty/and students.

9) Most important completion and delivery of portrait called ‘GRANNY’.

10) Started preparing three new canvases.

Why you should frame your art.

There are two reasons why we have art frames on paintings. They can protect art, of course, but most importantly they can aid to their attractiveness on display.

Since the very early days of painting, frames have served to enhance the visual beauty of art. Pictures were hung on walls and they became furnishings. The first frames were often works of art themselves. They were large and elaborately carved and decorated wooden frames. There was a practical reason also. The frame framed the picture. In other words, it created a boundary that enclosed the image and separated it physically from the surrounding wall.

As the idea of paintings as furniture began to spread, the frame became such an essential element of the entire package that the art was not considered complete until it was framed. The frame often time was more art than the painting itself. The framer was an artist in his own right. One part of his art was the carving and decoration of the frame and another was the matching of frame and picture to create a harmonious whole.

Framing changed dramatically with the introduction of lithographs and prints. These were either original works or copies of works printed on paper rather than actual paintings on canvas. Little was understood about preservation at first and although the art prints were being framed in a similar fashion to oil paintings at first, it was soon realized that certain protection was needed. It also became common to use colored matting to frame the image inside the wooden external frame.

As the lithograph or print became more and more popular, the art of modern framing was developed. The external frame became more than just a frame for the image, but also the platform that allowed glass to cover and protect the image and matting to enhance and create an inner frame. The use of matting inside the outer frame became another art form. Colors in the mats themselves were matched to colors in the art work to create a unified visual image. The mats, the image, the glass, and even protective backing and mounting material was all held together by the frame.

Today, the major reason for the use of frames with art is still the original one. The frame isolates the art from the surrounding environment making it a unified piece. With prints, the frame still serves as a platform for the glass, backing, and matting. Of course, the major reason for a frame from a practical point of view is that we have become so used to them that no hanging picture would look natural without one.

Aazdak Alisimo writes about art framing for ArtFramingGalleries.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aazdak_Alisimo

visit my website at http://www.cedarlodgeportraitstudio.com

Boo Radley lives across the street.

It’s that time of the year. When my daughter who will stand at the corner of the lot peering across the street for long periods of time according to my watch shivering and whispering to her little brother who follows her around faithfully. It reminds me every time of the book To Kill a Mockingbird you know the part where Scout and Jem would wait to see if Boo Radley would come out of the house. Not that this house looked run down, overgrown or there were any rumors circulating about the neighbors that I care to mention, but instead the haunting decorum of Halloween that they displayed in their front yard religiously ever year antagonizing my daughter as she looks to see and not see at the same time. At night it only got brighter as she peaks through the curtains. I’m sure the neighbors were amused and look forward to her curiosity every year.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was a coming-of-age novel told from the point of view of an adult looking back at her childhood something I keep wanting to do myself. Scout was 9 years old an age I remember very well and she was, as the saying goes, ‘wise beyond her years’. Another familiar line ‘Roaming freely all day, coming home only for meals or the bathroom.’ An era we will only remember as a child and never repeat.

Taking photo 101 is not the same

Photo by almostfinnish

I take a lot of pictures. It’s a habit I learned not on my own. I have two sisters that insisted I take photo 101 in high school probably because they thought it was an easy credit and all you had to do was show up and then leave to go take pictures as they would laugh ‘skip class’. So it was my sibling duty to follow in their foot steps. I intern took this very seriously in learning to break open your roll of film quickly, transferring it onto a reel and then into a case of solution while being in complete darkness hoping that no one comes in and turns on the lights by mistake. More importantly the challenge was at developing a good image in the dark room under some faint light while being all consumed with these vinegar smells that filled the air and trays. You needed to know by smell which one was which because when adding more solution in the dark your sense of smell was more important than your sence of sight. There was a beginning and an end and you can not mix them up.

So once I was set up and ready I was in no hurry to go and could be there for hours. Each attempt was earnestly made a little lighter here darker there and even the pictures that didn’t turn out had some intrinsic value. I regret I don’t have them now tangible and in hand but in memory I see them a building, a pier, people I knew and pets we had. Black and white, some grainy but all from an adolescents point of view.

Now I take pictures download them into adobe where they show up in a matter of minutes. I enhance them in a matter of seconds and then upload them to another site and have them available for viewing. The images are very nice. Digital has not lessened the image. They are sharper and clearer and more dynamic than ever.

I value what I have learned and have a better appreciation for the camera and photography over all. I look forward to what the future brings.

I fear I haphazardly painted over masterpiece by mistake.

photo by almostfinnish

I love the crisp smell of morning when the air is still cool. There’s a distant murmur that the town is waking up and on the road. The hum gets louder and I smell coffee brewing. It’s Saturday I wake up with no regrets. I ponder the day in my studio with one cat by my side the other one is still in bed. It is very dim in here but light is creeping in through the curtains as the day approaches. I feel the room warm up. My paintings sit right in front of me. I see the mistakes I see the progress.

I’m kind of ruminating over one of my latest comments.

art is nothing but paintings. i really cannot stand how people will go to an art gallery and stand there for so long trying to figure out what the painting means. Give me a break!!! Art is nothing but a hobby. i cannot believe people pay so much money fro drawings.

emps79

I for one could only hope that someone would stand there in front of a piece and wonder for a moment it’s meaning while quietly being mocked and disapproved of by its meagreness. Because the process it took for me to get there was more work than I had bargained for. More confidence than I realized and more money than I had anticipated. I still got there whether someone was inspired or not. I’ve personally heard everything from the drunk that came in off the street, from the niceties of blatantly being indifferent to the art, to subtle comment of trying to understand and last the one person who pull you aside and hands you a drink and says you look parched.

It’s a time-consuming hobby and an expensive one too.

But no seriously I think once marketing comes in play isn’t it automatically elevated to be something more? When you open yourself to criticism and critique you are now no longer that quiet hobbiest who paints for enjoyment and relaxation. And having to frame all your pieces and many of them I have to stress for the world to see for a short weekend or a month is now an investment and not just an expenditure. Lastly the number of rejections you have to go through before someone agrees to give you a show is far from comforting.

They are not all going to be masterpieces.

Many are not going to be liked.

My masterpiece has not have been painted yet or I fear I haphazardly painted over it by mistake.

I like watching old movies that well-known stars were in and I think they were pretty bad, young and you know rough but someone seen something in them so they had to start somewhere.

I think a hobbiest doesn’t really let his work see the light of day. The rest of us who try have earned that right to call ourselves artists.

Come visit me at my website at www.cedarlodgeportraitstudio.com

Dillinger lives out back.

This week after little attempt to discourage our newly arrived ground hog that moved in around back of our home to please leave we reversed our decision after hearing the pros in keeping him. He’s quite a handsome and lengthy little animal nothing compared to the rabbits, squirrels and chipmunk that habitat our back forty. There are dogs on all sides of us which should give us some comfort but they seem to not mind him or are oblivious to him as we were.

Its presence seemed so sudden and rudimentary as we notice a pile of dirt a yard long and a foot wide along the back of the house. Thinking to our selves what kind of animal could do that?!? We have no idea when he arrived and even though we thought he might have gone it appears he is still here and liking it. How could our lives get so busy that we would missed such a creature walking back and forth to the garden. Now the cucumbers we had noticed something and were happy to share but obviously they didn’t particularly seem to like them from the sampling of a few and all tasting rather the same. So as we sit here now watching him and evaluating the situation a name that is fitting was all that I could think of. He’ll be hibernating soon and in the spring if we make a bunch of noise like we always do he might then decide to leave on his own behalf. In the mean time I seen that someone put cauliflower on the grocery list.

Otherwise I want to say school is back in session and things have gone back to normal but one can never predict normal when change comes into effect. The freedoms that come with time seem to have some invisible strong holds that we have to battle amongst ourselves. Once won masterpieces will be made.

I call one cat Houdini because he never fails to get outside.

I was up very early this morning not something I normally do but the cats kept me company even after I fed them. Very social animals always in the same room that we gravitate to. They are identical in color like a couple of bookends but not in nature.

We had talked about getting cats for Christmas one year under the condition that we wanted kittens and we wanted two so that they would keep each other company. I was thinking this was a big order to fill and unlikely to happen but it turned out a friend of mine gives me an ad for free kittens available for pick up on Christmas Eve. In disbelief I call and there are two left so I said I’ll take them. She says don’t you want to see them? I said no kittens are cute no matter what. So my husband picked them up late on Christmas eve and they stayed under the tree all night until morning and after Santa came.

One is named blue and the other bear although I wanted to call them Picasso and Pollack. I had a photographer friend who had two cats one was called Kodak and the other was Fuji.

They keep the mouse population down don’t know where they find these mice but they get one every year. Were not sure who’s catching them but we suspect one over the other although they both get rewarded and praised.

I call one Houdini because he never wears his collar and he never fails to get outside.

They are also a couple of pack rats. They can scoop up a necklace and run downstairs before you know it. And hilarious to to see them grab a balloon with there teeth run trying to squeeze it through the cat door repeatedly forwards and then backwards until they make it or pop it. What else do they have downstairs?

They communicate very well for cats loud at times like the rest of us. But don’t shed much. They are worth the 16lbs of cat food we buy every month for them. They are very thin stealthy cats and can put up a pretty mean fight between the two of them. They keep us informed with what is going on outside this house which is comforting. A chipmunk comes and talks to them every morning and some of the neighbors cats come to tease but that groundhog that moved in near by the other day has got them and me both worried.

Full of adventure and kool-aid.

Photo by almostfinnish

It’s another scorching day here in Wisconsin. Bearable at best the shade is a must the breeze a blessing. The clouds at times look like a storm is coming but don’t amount to anything. We are trying not to run our air conditioner. This heat wave won”t last long and knowing were all in it together makes it not so bad and unversal. These days just remind me of when I was a kid. Hot breezy days full of adventure and kool-aid. With the cloud shadows rolling across the yard as the sun peeks in and out.