It’s SPRING girls and boys! Calendar says so. Look out the window. Beyond the snow. See? Forsythia!!! And daffodils!!! And peepers and mud and snow…
And it’s WEDNESDAY. At least in this hemisphere. But no matter where you are it’s time to spread the luvvvv with…
RANDOM ACTS OF ART!
Time to hide little bits of art where they can be found by unsuspecting strangers. And share the evidence of your creative deviousness here. With moi, the Random Acts of Art Fairy. No…make that Random Acts of Art BUNNY! Because this is a blog hop, right? And because this week I hopped around hiding Random Acts of Art over at my day job. After hours, when no one could see me. Like the E. Bunny and the hard boiled egg stash.
I am the Rabbit. Koo-koo-ka-chu….
For those of you who don’t know, I teach art at the MOST magical place in the universe. A program for adults with developmental disabilities. If you’re brave enough to stumble around cyber construction you can check out our soon to be launched NEW website here.
Back? Okay. So you know it’s a pretty cool place. Some of my students know I’m painting rocks and might figure things out. But not all of them. And none of the other classes do. I started thinking why not hide them there? This way I’ll get some reaction from the finders. Or at least hear about it.
And maybe this will take on a life of it’s own. Become a perpetual game of re-hiding, like the eggs on Easter day.
First I put one in the weaving department. I’m fond of chenille. Really, who isn’t? Oh, and look. It’s not a heart. Susan is branching out. Imagine that!
Next I headed to the wood shop. Ohhhhh, lots of good hiding spots here. Like this one. Tucked next to a bicycle, of sorts.
And nesting in the wire brush. Or whatever it’s called.
Then I went to the snack bar. This one I super hid in an empty coin roll. Tucked in the drawer where these things are kept. Better than money any day. Which is a good excuse for a song, don’t you think?
Take it away boys!
Okay, that was fun. Any excuse for the BEATLES. Now back to business…back to hiding arty tokens.
This one is in the kitchen. In plain sight…if someone looks. And since classes take turns doing the lunch dishes someone is bound to find it.
The last one is in the clay room. In the hands of Mr. Action Figure. Handsome fella, eh? Barbi thinks he’s H.O.T. But what does she know? She’s sooo plastic.
So now it’s your turn. Got any Random Acts of Art to share this week? If you do, post the link down below where it says “You’re next…Enter here” The link stays open until Saturday 11:59 PM California time (PDT). And if you don’t have a blog but have a some photos to share send them to me and I’ll post them next week.
Helloooooooo, my sweetums! Been a long time. Took the weekend off from posting. Oh man, what a vacation that was. Channeled my creativity into painting. Yes indeed. Got some ART to show you.
But first…the weather report.
Remember all that rain I bitched about rejoiced over last week? Sumthin’ like 12 inches by the Friday evening news. That’s a whole lot ‘o wet. Indeed.
But Saturday we woke up to SUN! Blue skies. Big yellow orb. Heaven. Pure heaven. For a couple of hours.
Walked outside and it was like an enchanted forest around here. All that water going back up to the sky.
But it came down again. Only colder. Next morning we woke up to a different kind of enchantment. The kind that makes the dogs crazy happy.
But that’s enough about weather. Happens one way or another, every day. So let’s move on to ART! YAY!!! Let’s hear it for studio time. YAY!
I can’t hear you. Let’s do it again. LOUDER!
YAY!
Much better. Okay, so here are some works-in-progress. All acrylics. 12×24, (2) 24×24, 40×40. The closest one to being finished is the one with the woman.
'In Her Dreams' by Susan Lobb Porter. Acrylic on canvas, 24x24
Pretty close to being done. Might be, in fact. But until it walks out the door to a new home I always reserve the right to make changes. Just because I can.
Oh, how I enjoyed being in the studio. Enjoyed being productive. Did some thinking while I was painting and realized I need to do more of that. But since there’s only so many hours in the day something’s got to give. So I decided to cut back on the blog schedule. Instead of posting EVERY DAY (Is that nuts or what???) I’m cutting back to three days a week. At least for the time being. To make things easy to remember, I’m thinking Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
So I’ll see you Wednesday. Remember, that’s Random Acts of Art day. If you’ve got a link to share, there’ll be a link up on my blog. You can also send your photos to me and I’ll post them here. If you’re sending photos, be sure I get them by Tuesday afternoon, Pacific time (California). Can’t wait to see what you have to share!
Holy kamoly! Water water EVERYWHERE!!! Just pouring outta the sky like, umm…RAIN. All. Week. Long. The meadow is now a lake, the culvert a raging, bank-breeching creek.
Mr. Spouse is putting the studio project on hold while he builds the ark.
Yoo-hoo…goddess of precipitation. This one’s for you, hon…ever hear of moderation?
Lights are flickering. I think I’ll cut this short before I get cut short. Going to take the weekend off while I’m at it. But I’ll be back Monday.
And if I’m not, it means the connection floated away. Or we’re without power.
Now in case you’re in drought mode, here’s something to remind you what it’s like….
I’m sitting here listening to the weather. Not the weather report, the weather. The real deal. The sound of rain blowing through the pines. Beating against the widows. Spilling over the gutter onto the patio.
The sounds of winter when it’s not quite cold enough to snow. The sound that will keep the pastures alive this summer. That will help the trees retain some moisture during fire season.
I’ve been listening to for days. It’s the most beautiful music, especially coming so late in the driest of dry winters.
That, my friends, is the number one thing I give thanks for this week.
Although the roof over my head and the fire in the wood stove are a close second. Creature comforts are a good thing.
Speaking about creatures and their comforts, it a wet world outside these days. There’s standing water everywhere. Puddles and mud. Puddles and mud. The ponies are hanging out in what I call the barn but it’s really a three sided shed that keeps them high and dry and out of the wind. They can go in and out as they please. When the weather is…weather, I make sure they have a nice fluffy bed of shavings to keep them warm.
And no one appreciates that more than my boy, Saki, AKA Pony-My-Heart. The sight of Mom lugging a bag of shavings through the mud gets him all aquiver. He’s all over me as I slice open the plastic. Nuzzles the bag. Pawing impatiently. Making excited little noises deep in his throat. Can barely contain himself as I dump the shavings onto the mat. And then he’s down on his knees, over on his back. Grunting and groaning and rolling like he’s the happiest boy on the planet. And for a couple of minutes I think he is.
The wind is picking up right now, driving the rain against the roof. It’s a comforting sound. In a few minutes I’ll climb into bed. We always sleep with a bedroom window open, no matter what the weather. I’ll snuggle under the covers. The rain and wind will sound like I’m right there. Outside, in the thick of it. Like a lullabye it will lull me to sleep.
I went to the local art store the other day. I only wanted a couple of pens, honest. But my plans were seriously screwed compromised before I even got in the door.
Before I even got out of the car.
A man and woman caught my eye. Young. Attractive. Matter of fact the guy was seriously h.o.t. In a younger-than-my-son sort of way. But that didn’t stop me from noticing. But what really caught my attention was the stack of canvases the two of them were struggling to carry. Huge canvases. GIGUNDO NORMOUS beautiful blank. white. things. that had me drooling with envy.
My creative lust-o-meter was popping off the charts.
I wanted to be like them. I wanted to wrestle creative potential into the back of my car. I wanted to go to bed that night KNOWING I had five glorious BLANK canvases waiting for me to have my way with them. BIG canvases. Because at this time in my life, size does matter.
I got out of the car. Marched right up to the couple, total strangers to me, and told them I had canvas envy. Then I went into the store .
Oh. My. See where this is heading? Umm-hmm…bet you do. Because my best beloved readers are the smartest ones on the interwebs, aren’t you? So you KNOW I went right past the pens. Straight to the canvases. And you’re right.
Thing about this store, it’s the only game in town. Got to drive nearly 50 miles down the hill to find more art supplies. Gas and time, ka-ching ka-ching. Or order online and pay for shipping. Ka-ching again. The local store knows that and, as a result, they are not kind with their markup.
Except when it comes to canvas. They practically give it away, provided you buy a case. A case of the small things means 10. A case for anything remotely large means 5. When you buy a case they give you 70% off.
Can’t come anywhere near that, even at the cheapest of the cheap source online.
So I found myself in the canvas section where I have been many times. Enough that I could probably qualify for an intervention. But this time I was just there to look. To ooh and ahh over the price list. To pull them from the rack and check out the size. To gaze longingly at their blankness and imagine….
And then I asked for a yardstick. Which I took outside to measure the back of my SUV. Because I was taking this imagining game to the next level. It was such a nice canvas fantasy. I said hello to the young couple on the way out. They were still struggling to fit their purchase in their car. On the way back into the store I talked to them again. Got personal this time. Asked them what size they bought. 4 X 6 feet. Oh. My. They were ambitious.
I was happy with 40X40. They fit so well in the back of the car, even with all the crap stuff back there. 40X40. Big enough for me. At least for now.
And I didn’t have to strap ’em to the roof of my car. Like some people.
