by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Life |
Right around this time last year one of those big Oh! birthdays was barreling towards me. Sucker was coming fast. I had to either jump out of the way or get steamrolled by another decade.
Well hell, I didn’t have time to get old. There were still too many things I had to do. Like breathe. And discover my bliss, much less follow it.
Because I’d spent all my life doing. Not being. I’d put my dreams on hold and taken time out to marry and raise a family. And then took care of my elderly mother. These were all good things and I’ve no regrets, none at all. Well, maybe one…I wanted to live before I died. Live for me.
And then I heard about SmARTist, a seven day telesummit professional development conference for visual artists. Call it a whim, call it a hunch, call it a major leap of faith…I decided to invest in myself. To revive the art career I’d carefully put in boxes and packed away when Firstborn, AKA Baby Marine, went to war.
I scraped together the money, because it wasn’t cheap, took the time off from work, told Mama even though the car was parked in front of the house I WAS NOT HOME and then, for seven days, I sat in front of the computer and filled an ENTIRE notebook with incredible insights and information.
By the time the seminar wrapped up I had booked my first show in seven years. Seven years. I had no current body of work. My mother was living in my studio so I had no place to make art. And worse…no clear vision of what I wanted to do. But I booked the show for November, figuring that gave me time to work things out.
Mama died last spring. Everything was put on hold as I took care of her through her final days. It wasn’t until June that I began making art again. And then there was no stopping me. I developed a strong body of work. Built a website, developed a blog. Been in two shows. Got a new studio under construction. I’ve been expanding my horizons through online classes and international networks of artists and writers.
I’m finding my creative tribe. And my creative vibe.
And it all started with SmARTist.
I’m spread a little thin these days. Got a lot going on, online and off. But when I saw the list of speakers and topics for SmARTist 2012, it was a no-brainer. And it starts today! YAY!!!
Other people my age may be looking forward to retiring but me? No way–I’m just beginning a new career.
And I’m loving EVERY minute of it!
by Susan Lobb Porter | Food, Recipes |
January. You know what that means…soup covers!
Soup covers? Umm-hmm…check out the women’s magazines. Practically every one of them sports bowls of steaming soup or chili on the cover this month. Because they KNOW a good many of us porked up over the holidays and want nothing more to do with food. Ever. Except comfort food. There’s always room for comfort food.
And what’s more comforting than soup?
Pause here for flashbacks of the Campbell kids. Rosy cheeks. Runny noses. A bowl of tomato soup with a side of grill cheese and that about sums up my childhood memories of winter. That and the tablespoon of wine Mama always gave us when we came in from the cold. “To warm us up.” We did a lot of running in and out of the house during those days.
Now fast forward to the present. Because this is about the soup I made tonight. My I-can-figure-this-recipe-out kale and white bean soup. I will tell you straight up that it was way better than last week’s supper nightmare. The one I talked about here.
Tonight’s soup was quite nice, actually.
First thing I did was admire an onion. Because I’m an artist and can focus in on almost anything. Which annoys Mr. Spouse to no end.
Just look at that texture. At the way the stem twists. And that round little body all covered in paper thin sheets. Luscious, luscious, luscious, I tell you. The artist in me had brief fantasies of forgetting about dinner. Of running off to the studio and having my way with Onion O’Mine and some charcoal.
But Hungry Girl took a deep breath and chopped it up instead. And then threw the bits in some olive oil and browned ’em. Just like that, without flinching even. Because Hungry Girl isn’t into anthropomorphizing vegetables.
Alas, no fresh garlic. Mine had seen better days and needed to go away. So I used garlic powder. How much? I dunno. Enough to fit in the cup of my palm.
The next step was to add one of those big boxes of chicken broth. This is a work night dinner, no homemade stock tonight, no overnight soaking of beans. I used two cans.
And then the spices. Oh my, thyme or rosemary? A search of the spice rack reminded me I’d used the last of the thyme so it became rosemary by default. Another handful measure. And salt and pepper.
And wine. White.
I let it cook for a bit, enough to soften the rosemary leaves. Then I put a bunch of it in the blender. Umm..note to self…the cover must be on securely before operating the blender. And don’t forget to put the laundry in the dryer before going to bed.
After I mopped the counter and the surrounding floor, I poured the pureed soup back into the pan. Gave it the taste test. Sigh…okay but something was missing.
Sausages! Smokey goodness. Of course!
I chopped them up, thinking all the while about a post I wrote earlier in the month. Don’t click on the link, fellas.
Puppies came running when they heard the kale. Yes, they know the sound of those leaves. They cannot get enough of it. By the way, the bean crusted jacket is in the wash right now.
I threw the kale in the soup, covered it and turned off the heat. Then I fed the horses, went down to the studio and fell asleep with Studio Quat on my lap. About an hour later I came back to the house. The soup was still hot and the flavors had had time to blend together just right.
Parmesan cheese on top, some sourdough bread on the side and dinner was delicious.
I ate two bowls.
[yumprint-recipe id=’2′]
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Life |
Funny thing happened tonight. Not funny as in haha. Funny as in whack upside the head PAY ATTENTION. Universe does that sometimes.
And when I don’t listen, she does it again. And again and again until FINALLY the message sinks in.
Today’s message was (and you need to say this in your best Forest Gump voice because the Universe thinks it’s amusing), today’s message was your butt’s stuck, Susan.
Seriously, that’s what the Universe said. Because ever since I fell in that pothole a couple months back…fell on my butt, my tush has been getting tighter and tighter. But not in a good way. Not in a she’s-got-a-nice-tight-butt kind of way. Which I would like, really. No, it’s been getting painfully tight, like a certain celebrity’s face. Who I won’t name because that would be mean and would rain bad hiney karma down upon me.
I didn’t know how tight things were until I did an hour of yoga. Yin Yoga. Passive, restorative melt into the posture and hold it forever or until you die from boredom and/or pain yoga.
An hour where I discovered I really AM the age it says on my driver’s license. But not the weight. Or even the height.
Damn…
Yoga that used to come easy did not. But I did what I could, using props and patience and now I feel so much better. Like I’d been hit by a truck and survived. I want to do nothing more than crawl into bed, my new best friend.
But first I have to tell you about the second whack upside the head. That’s right, two in one day. TWO. And I saved the best for last because really, the first was TMI, but this…this is sooooooo cool. This time FaceBook channeled the Universe. FaceBook, without ANY prompting from me, took my timeline photo (which is loaded nowhere else) and put it out for the world to see. Just like that. Without any prompting from me. It’s a photo of one of my paintings from the last show. And in just a few hours tonight it got more likes and comments (and a share!) than anything I’ve ever posted.
And I didn’t even post it. Not officially anyway. I just wanted something that wouldn’t clash with my profile picture.
I get the hint, Universe. I FINALLY get it. There’s more than one way to stretch.
Time for some self promotion yoga.
The pieces from the last show have to be photographed. Real photos. And I have to upload them to my website. With prices and a shopping cart. Matter of fact, I have to put prices on the pieces that are already up. And I have to tell the world.
Because it’s time to come unstuck.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Life |
We had a little weather this weekend. Weather being rural code for shit happens. Hard freeze? Some part of my 12 year old Toyota will break, if not break off. Heavy rain? The phone line to the house will die. Guaranteed. And sometimes it takes days to get it back. Days until I can get the tech from AT&T to come out and test the line and tell me that is is indeed their problem and they’ll get around to fixing it…soon.
And then there’s snow. Make it heavy, throw in some wind and say goodbye to power for a day or two. Or seven.
It’s all just part of living in the country.
Yesterday Mr. Spouse and I went lumber fetching in the truck-that-shall-not-be-named, formerly known as Big Girl Truck, soon to be known as For Sale. A 22 year old gas guzzling full size Chevy pickup with more scratches and dings than an aging tom cat. Great for hauling stuff around, like my weekly adventures with hay. But not my steady vehicle, even though sitting behind the wheel, feeling all that power VA-ROOM VA-ROOM, is so damn seductive in a cowboy sort of way.
But every time we go somewhere I wonder if we’re coming home together. Or if this is the day he’ll flake out and leave me stranded. Cause he’s a bad boy…and I know it. Clarification: I’m talking about the truck here, not Mr. Spouse.
Let’s just say el trucko misbehaved at the lumberyard. Badly. I will spare you the gory details of lumberyard boys who are not mechanics, of Mr. Spouse who is not a mechanic but who valiantly repeated over and over under his breath a mantra about not getting angry…for which I was most relieved. I will even spare you the details of waiting for AAA. Of the cramped ride in the tow. Of abandoning POS truck at the garage that was closed.
I will spare the details because it was a cold and damp and cranky sort of day. But I took photos, played with the new Grungetastic app on my iPhone.
Grunge makes him look like the bad boy he is. And this truck is definitely a he. For many reasons.
Mostly because a she truck would be a lot prettier. And she wouldn’t be held together with duct tape. And she’d be more responsible about getting me home.
So we got home and I decided I would blog about my adventures in lumber land. Especially since it ate into my studio time and I had no new art to show. No progress on old art either. But there was one problem with that idea….
We had NO internet connection. We had power but the phone was acting up. And we had NO INTERNET!!! So I couldn’t even blog. We watched TV. Even talked to each other…. Imagine that!
And when the news came on we learned that an accident on a rain slicked highway took out phone, internet and cell access for the ENTIRE county. Including 911. Nothing to do but go to bed and stay healthy….
Everything was fixed by the time we got up.
And if I missed a blog post, well that, my dearies, is the high tech version of ‘the dog ate my homework’.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Photography |
What’s a girl do when it’s cold and rainy and she doesn’t want to go down to the studio and work? But she still wants to make some cool art. WHAT DOES SHE DO???
I don’t know what SHE does but as for moi, the answer was to pull out the iPhone and visit the app store. It’s like the dollar store only better because some stuff is free. Quite a lot of it, actually. And the rest of it’s pretty cheap.
And it’s a gold mine for all sorts of art and photo apps. Like Grungetastic by Jixi Pix Software. Grungetastic isn’t for when you want a pretty photo. It’s for when you want an interesting one. It’s for when you want scratches and textures and layers and you want them NOW, not after hours in Photoshop.
The basic app comes with three styles of grunge: Classic, Bleached and Pop. Each one can be manipulated to your heart’s content. Additional styles can be purchased through the app: Worn Pop, Worn Grunge, Gritty Grunge and Distressed. You can see samples of the last four on their website.
And it costs a whopping 99 cents. Gasp! Gonna break the bank…
As a mixed media artist I’m ALWAYS on the lookout for altered photos. Now I can make my own easily. Here are some samples I did tonight using the three that come with the app. I’m using the same photo in each so you can compare the different effects. I didn’t label which style is which. Sorry. And as for manipulation, I simply hit the ‘random’ button and let the app do the work.
I could’ve manipulated sliders but I was being lazy.
There’s not much distortion on this one, some, but not a lot. I figured you should have some idea of what the basic image was.
Little more in this one.
This was using the Pop style. Pop always has a posterized effect.
Classic Grunge?
You can manipulate borders too.
This is just a small sample of some of the effects you can get. A small sample. Oh man, I’m going to have a lot of fun with this… think IMAGE TRANSFERS!!!
Oh yeah….
