It’s been two weeks since I’ve posted. I don’t have a great excuse. I’ve done two paintings nights that I could have posted about (and hope to tomorrow). I’ve taken some walks and hikes. But mostly I’ve just been surviving.
Today was a rainy spring day, so I stayed in most of the day and worked on getting caught up with… well… everything. I did leave the house to give the dog a walk and I took my camera to capture the beauty of the neighborhood flowers.
That will have to do for a post!
This weekend was the WSO Spring Convention in Newport, “Making Waves”. My mom lives down there, so I had been really looking forward to this convention.
I had originally intended to take the workshop with the juror (Gale Webb), but with my new job I was unable to take the time off. Ms. Webb is an acclaimed watermedia artist; she does a variety of collage, watercolor, gauche, acrylic, stamping, and anything else that strikes her fancy. I felt like this workshop would get me experimenting a little bit more, and I was disappointed not to be able to attend.
This convention turned out to be a pretty adequate substitution. Through Ms. Webb’s critiques and demo I got a good idea of her process and style; while I’m sure I would have really enjoyed the workshop, I still have lots to think about.
In addition, I took two break-out sessions. One was on shell printing, backgrounds, and “chopping” (creating a stamp for your signature).
The second break out session was on “Gelli-printing“. I recently purchased one, but I hadn’t had much of a chance to experiment with this. The teacher gave some great examples and demos and this information will give me a lot to think about. When I sit down and create some papers, I’ll combine them with my marbling papers and we’ll see what happens.
After the sessions I took the dogs (Finn and Wilson who was visiting) to the beach.
It was a good weekend. Now I just need to get down to doing some [art] work!
Well, as of this morning I’ve been at my job seven whole days and everyone has been asking, “How’s it going.”
My answer: “Good. I know the names of everyone in my group.” That’s seven people. Frankly, this is my most amazing accomplishment to date.
My new co-workers are friendly and nice. My cubicle has a view of a tree.
I have found the nearest coffee shop.
A few co-workers go for a walk at 10 and 2 and I tag along. We walk around nearby Mill Creek.
On my lunch walks I admire the many flowers that are in bloom around the office.
One day I walked around the capital and admired the golden pioneer.
There is even this sculpture near my building (please ignore my thumb, I was using my Kindle.)
So, how’s it going?
Okay I think.
So the last time I posted a painting night, I was at painting night 7. Thankfully, it wasn’t the last time I painting. I spent painting nights 8-10 working on finishing paintings for my show “Galloping Out.” I went to Liz Walker’s marbling class the next week and I’ve taken a few weeks off since then, with my new job and all that excitement.
But tonight I took up the brush again. Or the scissors, depending on how you look at it.
As usual I seem to be motivated by deadlines and the deadline for the Oregon Society of Artists Rose Show is coming up quickly. I had started a painting, but it’s not going how I hoped.
I had been toying with the idea of using the marbled papers to make a stylized piece. Then the other day I went down to Muse Art and Design to pick up some supplies and became entranced with some papers. I particularly liked the way a white, lacy paper looked against a black paper. I decided to add some gold paint to that paper and collage it against the paper, then use my metallic marbled papers to create something with roses.
I haven’t decided if this is the layout… in fact, I’ve already changed it again. But I think this gives you a little bit of an idea where I’m going.
I also went through some old photos (1985!) of the Rose Festival parade and I’m toying with the idea of doing something with one of these photos (highly cropped) for the second category “Blooming Time.”
The front dark bay Clydesdale caught my eye, or maybe the flowers behind the pinto… We’ll see!
Today I enjoyed my last day of unemployment / stay-cation by playing golf, getting a massage, and running a few errands. I’m now packed up for the first day of work tomorrow.
The last few days have helped me take a deep breath, and here are a few of my thoughts.
A couple of weeks ago my Weight Watchers leader commented to me that the reason I might be stalled (since January) in my weight removal journal was because I was doing too much. The last quarter has been filled up with a lot of things, not the least of which has been significant job changes.
I’d like to report this instantly solved all my problems and I jumped back on track, but I’m rarely like that. Today as I putted the last whole, I got to thinking about my new year’s resolutions.
It’s an extensive list. Two pages in Word.
And frankly, I’ve got off track.
So here’s a refined list. And I’ve added some priorities to help me remove some items.
1. Remain employed
2. Continue to work on my lifestyle improvement project
3. Painting
4. Money
I’m going to call these my priorities and goals. Now, there are other things that I’d like to get done or have happen, but I’m going to remove them from this list. I may still do them; in fact, there are several that I will continue working toward. But I’m got to state that I’m going to push them to the side and try to focus on the four items above.
If possible, these are the other things I’d like to see happen this year.
I’ve been quiet on the blogging front the last week because I’ve been focused on projecting a facade of a reasonable, sensible adult. It’s hard on the best of days, but the last week truly tested me.
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I have accepted a new position with the State of Oregon, and last week marked my last week of employment with Multnomah County. I am looking forward to this change, but I’m also very emotional about what I’m leaving behind.
Friday my work team took me out to lunch (a sushi place that wasn’t good enough to recommend) and that evening my work friends took me out to dinner at a great Mexican place, Taqueria Nueve (T9) (I’ll recommend the tacos and margaritas, but not the beef enchillatas). This adventures marks two restaurants explores on The Essential 38 Portland Restaurants list.
Saturday I careened around the Portland area, hiking, playing with the SEO horses, going for a bike ride with my Weight Watchers group down the Springwater trail, gallery sitting at the Oregon Society of Artists, before landing at home in an exhausted stupor.
Sunday I went to a golf Meetup and played 18 holes at Oregon City Golf course. While this was a tiring day (well over my Nike Fuel activity goal) I had a great time. (We won’t discuss my score.) It was also very nostalgic; Dad and I golfed here frequently and it was where I practiced frequently while in the high school golf team.
Today I entered “unemployment” or a “stay-cation” depending on how you look at it. I will start my new job on Wednesday (no fools) and so I’m taking a couple of days off. I spent the majority of the day running small errands and making phone calls. I met with a handyman about a house repair. But we did get in a hike to Canemah.
I am sure I am not the only person who finds all sorts of fun things to do on Facebook and has a hard time following up on them. For a while now, I have wanted to take one of the monthly “walks” guided by the Native Plant Society of Oregon. Today that finally worked out for me and I went out to St. Helens to a little park called Nob Hill.
I wish I would have asked for a plant list, though I did pick up a nifty pamphlet by Metro I hadn’t seen before. With this pamphlet I hope to put formal names to some of the flowers I see around Canemah regularly.
On this hike, however, we saw white fawn lily (Erythronium oregonum), trillium, camas, strawberries, several types of ferns, ninebark, and lots of other things that unfortunately I am now having trouble remembering…
But the most exciting thing was seeing, for the first time, checker lilies (Fritillaria affinis).
Of course, after this reports of seeing the first osprey of the year completely pale. I also saw a cute little ruby crowned kinglet. But the checker lily was the most exotic.
At home in Canemah, Great Horned Owl let me see him three times this week (with the time change I’ve been able to go after work; as it’s getting dark, he’s calling so I can find him easier). Vultures have returned and trillium are in bloom. The rain this week helped with the drought, but it’s going to be a tough summer for the frogs.
And I guess that’s all the news that’s fit to print about today!
Today was the second (and final) day of the marbling workshop and the entire day was devoted to creating our own marbled papers.
First, Liz demoed the correct techniques for the process. It’s very chemical-ly and technical and I feel like the best way to talk about all this is just to give a website: Galen Berry.
After we had our instructions, we began. At first we created marbling that would cover entire sheets of white paper.
We had also been given a few sheets of black paper, which we used with metallic paints.
Soon we were merrily marbling along.
And the papers began to flow.
After a while Liz helped us marble over paintings we had already created. This process involves adding another chemical to the mix to create “open” areas of the marbling to allow the under painting to show through. I choose “Taylor Said Goodbye”, a painting that I have never been fully happy with, to experiment with the process.
Much better!
I am about the only person in the class who marbled all my papers (I’m speedy and have stamina); but I’m also very tired at the end of the day after doing all that and helping with the (extensive) cleanup (what a messy process!) But I have so many papers to play with now! Painting nights forever!
Today I took the day off work to go down to Brownsville to attend a marbling workshop with Liz Walker. I have admired Liz’s work for many years, particularly her use of shapes. In the last couple of years she has put out some really great pieces using marbling. Every time I’ve found out about one of her workshops I’ve been unable to go, either because it was full or I couldn’t get the time off. So finally being able to attend a workshop with her is very exciting.
The syllabus for this two day workshop was to spend day 1 prepping new paper and old paintings (or other objects) for marbling, then to learn about the possibilities for the technique. Day 2 (tomorrow) we will actually be marbling all day!
I am having an absolute blast. Liz is a great teacher who kept us entertained and busy all day. I’m sure I’m not the only one in class trying to get just a few more strokes in to finish my painting at the end of the day!
These are the two paintings I worked on. Hopefully you can see how they emerged!
I can’t wait for tomorrow!