the miracle of may

hi everyone: may is finally here and i am counting the days until the end of june. retirement rears it's lovely head. there is so much that i want to do from painting and writing to reading to reordering my house. i want to spend a lot of time learning how to paint portraits like the old masters did, and spend some time doing landscapes and still lifes this summer. i also want to do some abstracts and encaustics, and continue to work on my etchings. and see as much art as possible all over the eastern seaboard.

i finally sent my children's book to a publisher, and am super excited about that. it would be totally awesome if it was published. i should hear in the next few months. i'm also getting very excited about redoing my studio and making some more space to make art, and organize all my supplies. i need to start collecting all kinds of cool baskets and suitcases and wooden boxes and shelves and organize all my journaling and art supplies on shelving units so that i can see everything and not have to go hunting for something every time i need it, and not having some haphazardly piled stack of things fall over because i have nowhere to put it.
   we walked until we could walk no more
   and sat beneath an old oak tree
   filling our lungs with the cool mountain air,
   filling our lungs with the scent of each other,
   promising that we would never again be alone
   and that we would always stay together
   and always laugh out loud
   about nothing in particular.
cheers,brigid

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.

                                    

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

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

february

hi all- sorry it's been so long but i've been busy working my way towards retirement in 4 months,16 weeks, 120 days give or take some weekends, a week off in spring and the odd sick day or 30. i've been taking an online course/workshop with misty mawn, and it's wonderful when i have time to participate which is seldom.she's really improved her drawing and painting skills and i'm learning some interesting stuff. she really puts her heart and soul into her classes and it shows- kudos to misty- i wish i had more time to spend on it.my art output has stalled a bit for the moment- i'm having a bit of a block, but work has been incredibly busy and tiring and i am utilizing all my energy to just get through the days right now, and it's cold and all i want to do is curl up with a blanket and read or sleep. i've gone back to straight vegetarianism after my too carb heavy vegan diet. maybe i can lose some of this old lady fat that's been creeping up on me. next year i'll be 60! i can't believe it-however did i get so old? i bought some lovely books by sibella court, who is a stylist who's worked for many people including anthropologie, whose catalogs and stores i just love. the books are quite full of all kinds of great photographs of all kinds of cool things like fabrics and papers and ribbons and string and all kinds of hardware and what she calls haberdashery all very vintage and cool and low tech. i recommend a glance through the books even if you don't want to invest in them. i keep them by the side of my bed and find them very soothing to flip through on the odd night that i can't get to sleep. well this has been a pretty boring post, for which i apologize, but i just wanted to say hello, so you don't forget all about me.cheers for now and farewell to february, the dreariest of months.until next time..

a winter tale

hi all- just at the end of a week long break that came upon me after i had a tooth extracted and wound up with a nasty infection and a fever of 102 that would not go away for most of the week- until today as a matter of fact.i stayed at home from work alternating between lying on the couch and determined to get some painting, journaling in, but as luck would have it no good work came out of the week,too sick for creative genius, as if the work that i do qualifies as genius!but at least i tried. tonight i had a little fun taking prints off my painting in progress and the results were quite interesting and looked like more than they were. i have to report   that i have some work published in somerset gallery magazine- i haven't gotten my hands on a copy yet but i saw the table of contents for the magazine and my article is listed in the contents. so I'm waiting patiently(not) for either  them to send me a copy, or for Barnes and noble to get it in stock or for the copy i finally ordered arrives. don't they know this is a big deal for me ! I've never been published before! somebody please have pity on me and find me a copy and mail it to me before i die!my address is 228 grimsby street s.i.n.y. 10306. i will reward anyone who sends me a copy with something or other, including the cost of the magazine. this is an a.p.b. to anyone who is listening.onto other news 6 months until i retire forever from nursing as a side job! lots of ! in this post. until we meet again, and in case i don't post until then merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah to all my Christian and Jewish fans. cheers brigid.

aaah december!

hi y'all- just when you think things can't get any worse december comes. i know all you christmas lovers are hanging your lights and listening to 106.7 with their nonstop christmas music, and are singing along trala tra lalala- but i hate december and am terrified of christmas and the shopping and the wrapping and the nervous wait for amazon packages to arrive! i'd rather it be february(which is closer to june) or may or something less sinister than whipping out your credit card for just one more gift, i don't think i got enough(when i'm wrapping it's like why the hell did i get so many gifts). anyway the good news is that our house wasn't really touched by the hurricane-we're the only ones living on our block, ian got hired back at his old job temporarily-we're not sure for how long but at least till march. i'm going to have some artwork, and a short article that i wrote published in amagazine called Somerset Studio Gallery, or just Sommerset Gallery in the December  issue, one week from now and I'm deathly afraid they're going to change their minds at the last minute and not publish it, so i'm trying to be very low key about it, but they just sent me a check so that's promising.i'll let you know as soon as i have the mag in my hand. keep your fingers crossed or pray for me if you pray -it will be a really good thing for me. i am also working on putting together a web site- it's still totally disorganized, but you can look for it brigid gallagher davies on art /slant.some of my paintings are on it by no means all so it's good for a laugh.past my bedtime got to run karen my faithful reader please send me your address again(sorry)send to my email bgallagherdavies@gmail.com.goodnight,love ,love brigid.