by Susan Lobb Porter | Blogging, Inspiration |
You may have noticed Arty Life has a NEW look. It’s still a work in progress and you may be wondering why, why would I ditch the old header and move some things around?
I could blame it all on my inner geek, the one that loves to fool with webstuff. The one that said don’t write a post this week, take the website apart instead.
Yeah, THAT one.
I could blame it on the same crazy creative mindset that paints over perfectly good canvasses. You’ve seen me do that often enough around here, haven’t you?
Or I could blame it on the time change. Yeah, lets do that.
But it’s not the geek or the crazy painter lady or Daylight Savings Time coming earlier and earlier every year that got me off schedule. No, no no… it’s SPRING!!!
Yep, spring caused me to blow off writing a post last week. And the one before.
Because in my corner of the world EVERYTHING is GROWING! All those plants we planted last year, planted with big empty spaces all around, well those plants, right now as I’m writing this, are having plant babies and SPREADING out, beginning to take over the empty spaces just like the plant lady said they would.
Plant babies! YAY!!!
And it makes me happy. Sooooooo happy I was out there for awhile today pulling weeds and humming and sipping on some cold coffee while the dogs and cat hung out with me eating enough grass to guarantee they’ll be puking later on.
Note to dogs and cat: Not on the bed, please NOT ON THE BED!!! Or anything upholstered.
Spring caused me to want to spread out and renew myself. My blog. And my other blog.
Other blog???
Well, YES! Remember Big Bold Beautiful Yes! The blog where I wrote down to my soul, the blog I stopped writing a little more than a year ago. After an ugly presidential election that came between friends. After the terrible school shooting at Sandy Hook where guns came between friends. It was hard to write YES! when all I wanted to do was scream NOOOOOO and knock some sense into anyone who didn’t agree with me. So I pulled back. Missed a week. Then two. Then a month and a year and basically forgot it ever existed.
Until spring began to stir things up and YES! began bubbling up in my soul again. YES! YES! YES!!! I went back to it, took a look at what I’d written way back when and fell in love again.
And so I’ve decided to revive it. Expand it. Make it better. And change the look so it tied in better with Arty Life. And since I was doing that, I needed to change the look of my art site, the one that’s still waiting for me to finish, I needed to tie ALL THREE of them together. You can get to any of them through the nav bar up there. Or the sidebar if I get around to it. They’re different sites with different looks. Different message. Different voice. But if I did my job right they’ll work together.
Check ’em out. And do let me know what you think. Here’s the link to YES.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Arty Inspiration, Girlfriends, Inspiration, Photography |
If you read my blog last week, and I sincerely hope you did, you will recall that I was in Texas. There are not many reasons a fresh veggie lovin’ liberal from northern California would visit the land of everything-deep-fried-including-Oreos, certainly not for the foot long corndogs or the politics–no, no–NOT the politics, but I had a VALID reason to go to the lonestar state, the BEST reason of all … I’m a grandma.
Now go read that post so you can see how seriously I take this grandma stuff. You have to do that so you can understand how leaving the munchkin would’ve been hard, would’ve been devastating, would’ve broken my heart in a thousand little bitty pieces…if I didn’t have something to look forward to…
A side trip to Las Vegas to visit an old friend. A friend who knows me well enough to know that rocks and sun and light and big sky would feed my soul. Feed hers as well.
It was a quick visit, 48 hours, nearly every one of which–when we weren’t sleeping—involved driving around the desert.
Chasing the sun.
And falling in love with a landscape stripped down to the basics. A landscape that makes you reach deep inside and pull something out you didn’t know was there. Something...holy.
Long before the gamblers, the silicon titties, the wild and frantic seven deadly sins check-list that is the Vegas strip, long before that, THIS was here.
And the ancient ones who painted their lives, their gods, their hunts, their stories on the walls of rock were here.
I’ll be back. I HAVE to go back. Have to experience this more deeply. I want to camp. And hike. Take photographs. Make art. And I want to share this with you. The seeds of a workshop have been planted.
Now I just have to figure out the logistics.
And listen to da muse who was WAY inspired. Inspired enough to play with charcoal on a whole ‘nother level.
Primal # 1. Susan Lobb Porter. Charcoal on paper
Primal # 2 Susan Lobb Porter. Charcoal on paper
You up for joining me? It will be quite the arty adventure! Promise, really. Pinky swear even.
As always, would love to hear what you have to say in the comments below.
xoxo
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Inspiration, Photography |
Look what I found between the house and the barn today.
All sorts of stuff, stuff BEAUTIFUL STUFF!!!
None of this suddenly appeared. It’s been there all along. But today I had my eyes open. Today I was LOOKING. NOTICING. APPRECIATING.
And now I’m positively jumping up and down because I’m all fired up EXCITED about the POTENTIAL here.
Potential paintings! Which will look nothing like the photos, by the way.
And now I’m off to the studio. Check back tomorrow or later in the week. At the very least there’ll be some works-in-progress to show you.
And now I have a contest, my best best BEST beloveds! Indeed I do. It’s called What the Hell is That Stuff? The first person who correctly guesses what ALL six of these photos are (besides inspiring) wins a pony! And the person who makes up the most interesting answers wins a dinosaur. I’m SERIOUS about this so leave your answers in the comments below.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Inspiration, Life |
So go ahead, tell me. Because I want to know. Really, I do. Be brave. Be bold. Inspire the rest of us and share in the comments below.
xoxo
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Inspiration, Life, Process |
Seems like EVERYWHERE I go in blogland people are talking about ‘the word’. Their word for the upcoming year. Something to focus on, to work towards incorporating into their life on a more profound basis. A word that has special meaning to them.
Well, I want on this train. I want my word. I want to doodle it on sticky notes and post them around my space. I want a journal devoted to MY WORD. One I go into with markers and fancy pens and arty making stuff.
But mostly I want to get a necklace with my word, like the ones Liz Lamoreux makes in her Etsy shop. I want one I want one I WANT ONE!!!
But first I have to have a word.
Oh.
There are approximately fifty-five gazillion words in the English language. How. Do. I. Pick. Just. ONE??? Especially one I will develop a close–no, no, not close, an intimate relationship with.
One I will write about. Dream about. Wear around my neck every day like I’m married to it.
Well, I’ve given it a lot of thought and have whittled the selection down to, umm…maybe a dozen or so worthy contenders. I’ll mull them over for awhile until one just pops out and says ME! Me me, pick ME! And when it does, I’ll let you know.
Or not. Maybe my word will be something I need to hold close as I nurture our relationship. I won’t know until I know.
Meanwhile, in reflecting on this past year, I realize my life word would have to be YES!!! Yes, followed by three exclamation points because one just isn’t enough. This was the year I said YES!!! to lots of things. In fact, I created a blog devoted to it.
And then neglected the blog for the entire month of December. I don’t know why. Taking a little break from enthusiasm, perhaps. Misplaced my YES!!! pompoms.
Whatever. I will get back to it. Soon.
But if I had to pick one word, ONE word, when it comes to art…well, that would be easy. LAYERS. I loves me my layers. Always have. But in 2012 I learned to embrace them. To flaunt them in all their juiciness. Because they take away the fear of a blank canvas. What’s to fear when you get to scribble? To make marks that aren’t going anywhere except under more paint.
And so we’ll begin the new year with a look at some layers and how they morphed into my very latest work-in-progress.
This is probably five or six layers in. Working on several canvases at a time, rocking out in Studio Grande.
This is where I left it tonight. Not quite finished but getting there. A few more details and it’s done. I’ve been dreaming about bears a lot lately. Checking over my shoulder as I’m out and about on the property, especially at night. They’re definitely on my mind. Scaring the crap out of me, actually. So I’m thinking the title of this one will be ‘She Dreams of Bears’. But maybe not. We’ll see.
Be sure to check my FaceBook page in a day or two for a photo of the finished painting.
In case you’re wondering about all the attribution on the photo, it’s because I’d like people to share and re-pin my work. And I also want people to know where it came from.
Uh-Oh, getting noisy outside. Sounds like midnight on New Year’s Eve, which it is. We sure know how to party here at the Porterosa. Mr. Spouse has been in bed since 10 and I’m sitting here writing my blog.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Wishing you all the BEST in 2013.
