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Friday, April 26, 2013

another post! surprise!

hi all- trying hard to keep up with this. want to talk today about the direction my art is taking,which at the moment is a bunch of unrelated forays into portrait painting, some abstract pieces and the ever-present journal. i feel as if i'm on the verge of a break through, though what direction it's about to take i haven't a clue. i'm readying my children's book for submission to publishers. i'm trying to find my style so i can begin preparing my work both for the web site and for a portfolio, at least a collection of works that is somewhat organized, shows some growth and continuity, without being pigeonholed into constantly reproducing virtually the same work, all variations on a single theme,(alex katz comes to mind).i need to devote more time to painting and drawing, and less time on creating cutesy journal pages. i'm still interested in journaling but want to try and produce more good pieces that stand alone as works of art, more drawing and painting, less copying other artists works that i see in the pages of the magazines i read. i have a new sense of making things more authentic from the clothes i wear to the way my house looks, to the kind of art work i produce. although i'd still like to do some illustrating,try and make prints of my paintings to sell, and possibly get some kind of marketing thing going, i'm less interested in starting a full "creative business". i don't think i make the kind of art that lends itself to that sort of arrangement, though i will continue to explore in those directions. right now i just want to get through the last few months before i retire with as little stress as possible, fitting in a little art here and there,truing to organize it on my computer . well on that note i will end. hope it hasn't been too boring.later, brigid.
                                    

Sunday, April 21, 2013

still april after all these years

hi all- yes it's me again, making another entry twice in the same month. i do mean to blog more but life gets in the way. just recovering from a bout of something that left me weak and feverish for a few days.stayed home for two days and went back too soon to the mayhem of my nursing practice, which is relentlessly,exhaustingly busy. someday i will write a book about my adventures in that arena- i'm sure it will be a comedy of errors, with a little imagination and expertise thrown in for good measure. through my convalescence, i have been reading and re-reading rosamunde pilcher's marvelous romance novels. i am besotted by them-they take me into a world i dream about inhabiting, with cheerfully strong and wise women at the helm, and housekeepers and grounds, and groundkeepers(who often seem to be married to the housekeepers), and all kinds of amusing predicaments and good food and aga stoves and wellies , and a happy ending with the heroine in the arms of the man she once hated, but who eventually wins her love. jane austen stories in a much more approachable read- i highly recommend them to all you anglophile romantics out there.they are really good fun. yesterday i took a turn at gardening and repotted most of the tomato plants i bought last week, it was quite satisfying to be outside doing something useful. i hope to become more of gardener this spring and summer and later when i retire. doing a little painting and a little journaling, and trying to get the hang of my new apple notebook, which i love dearly and almost do not regret buying , even if it cost more money than i can really afford. i'm trying very hard to learn how to use it and a computer to boot, but i am dreadfully slow and stupid about it. i am learning things in a kind of slapdash fashion, but i wish knew a more orderly way to learn. i am taking lessons but each time i am tutored by a different person and they kind of look to me for what i want to learn, and i often don't know what to tell them. i'm a total computer phobe and most of the instructors are young kids who have grown up on computers so i feel quite helpless about it. but i am trying...on another more positive note i am getting published again in another magazine! awhile back i sent a whole journal to art journaling magazine, and the editor amber demien (thank you amber!) emailed me to say she would like to publish my work, probably in the july issue. i am quite thrilled and i wrote an article to be published as well, but i don't know what pages have been selected, because she didn't tell me. she said she would write to confirm the publication date in may, so i'm not even sure it will be in the july issue, but i am excited nonetheless. well i guess that's enough out of me for now. i will really try to write again sooner. cheers, brigid.
t

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

is it april or am i dreaming?

hi all- i cannot believe that it is april and i am finally headed down the retirement road. my official retire date is september 1st, but i hope to not work another day after the last day of june. i can't believe it. i have worked for the department of education for approximately 29 years- i can't believe that either- and soon i will be getting a pension, and all that cool retirement stuff. hilary will be graduating from college, and i am getting seriously old-i will be 60 on my next birthday! there is so much that i want to do in the next 20 or 30 years that i have left- i scarcely know where to begin, but  i'm really excited about being a fulltme artist, and having so much more time to devote to that, to hopefully writing and publishing some books,starting a creative business, getting my art work out there, exploring all kinds of mediums, and more than anything else just having the time to work uninterruptedly whenever i want to. i'm looking forward to to traveling a bit, to see some of the great art treasures the world over, to gardening, building a new studio ,finally learning how to use a computer and photoshop, and taking lots and lots of photographs, learning to type, reading everything i can get my hands on, taking pottery and sculpture and jewelry classes, maybe even doing an mfa. i don't think i'll be bored. i intend to spend a lot more time blogging, whipping my house, studio, and web page into place. oh and i'm being published again            in Art Journaling, hopefully in the July Issue. that's all i have to report for today; next post will hopefully less of a me me me, and we'll talk abut other things.cheers for now, brigid