by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Life |
Got a story to tell you. It’s about my new friend Alicia. We met online. On this very blog in fact. She read my post, Yellow Bird. It was a chance meeting of kindred spirits via the magic of the world wide web.
Alicia has a dream. Her ‘dreamiest dream’ is to open a non profit art center for kids with asperger’s syndrome and autism. Not just dreaming…she’s DOING. Because as the mother of a very special, very cool little kid who happens to be somewhere on the spectrum, she knows firsthand how art changes lives. Changes focus and attention.
She’s also an accomplished mixed media artist.
Right now the kids are working on her kitchen table. As soon as she finishes remodeling her garage into a studio they’ll meet there. And she can take more of them. You can read her blog for the details.
To help finance her dream Alicia opened an extra special etsy store, Mum and Finn where she creates paintings and all sorts of other cool stuff based on her son’s descriptions. There’s a monster doll there I’d give my right arm for. Her name is Eunice who traded her right arm for George’s intestines, she survived but he did not.
Something tells me young Finn did the naming.
Here’s the cool thing…one hundred percent of the profits from Mum and Finn go to finance the art center. One hundred percent.
Alicia’s got another project in the works, the Tallest Handmade Book in the World. Attention art peeps and anyone with an ounce of creativity…make a page or two or three and join the fun. The finished book will be auctioned off for a good cause. You can read all about it here.
Starting a non-profit isn’t easy. Let’s all spread the word and help Alicia’s dream come true. Let’s change some kids’ lives with art. Facebook Like, Tweet it on…share on whatever social network platforms you can.
Some very special kids will appreciate your help.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Life |
Tonight I’m sitting down with my planner. Later. After I write this post. And take the dogs out. It’s a nice planner. Big, executive size. Columns, columns and more columns to organize my time and priorities. I shopped around, looked at lots of planners before I decided this was the one. This would bring out the best in me. Because of the columns. I mentioned the columns, didn’t I?
And the cover. Brown leather, the real dead cow deal. Looks so…rich. So…official. So grown up. Like I have a job that requires pantyhose or something. At least a briefcase.
I’ve had it for three months now. It’s one of those July to June things. I got it in September, because I had things to do. First thing I did was rip out the summer months. Because I hadn’t used them now, had I? Last week I ripped out the autumn pages. The entire season. Because I hadn’t used them either. Because they were EMPTY. Virgin pages, like I don’t have a life or something.
When really, I did a LOT in those four months. Launched this blog, had an art show, cooked a turkey for Thanksgiving…. And none of that shows. A stranger flipping through my planner would think I’m the most boring person in the world. That I don’t have a life.
At this point DearDaughter pipes in and says that in fifty years I won’t have a life, I’ll be dead. Well yes, probably. But did she have to put it that way? Like there’s a timer ticking away while quite possibly checking my planner status. Might as well take this one, she’s not doing anything with her time anyway.
Not doing anything??? Hellooooooo. Pause here while I check my e-mail. Further pause while I peruse an add for a miracle weight loss supplement that found it’s way to my inbox. And then of course I have to google it and read the reviews. WHAT DO YOU MEAN I’M NOT DOING ANYTHING???
I’m doing so many things I can’t remember them all. Which is why I’m going to go through my mental lists, random scraps of paper, the oh-so-scary depths of my purse–including the zipper compartments–I’m going to go through all those things, figure out what I need to take note of–
And write it all down in my beautiful executive size brown leather covered twelve six month planner.
Tomorrow. Because it’s bed time now. Past it actually. And there are things I have to do when I get up. Like go to work. And other stuff. But tomorrow night I’ll organize it . Really. After I watch The Office.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Food |
Chicken enchiladas, what’s not to like? I mean, anything smothered in hot and gooey melted cheese has an advantage over all the other food groups. And I had all the ingredients in the house which was a definite plus considering my recent pledge to actually eat the food in my freezer.
But I also had a bag of mixed greens that was past perilously close to it’s toss-by date. I should just saute them up with some onions and mushrooms and call it a night with all the good nutrition boxes checked.
But I wanted enchiladas.
So I came up with a plan. Make enchiladas as a layered casserole–which I’ve done many times and it’s delicious. Only this time I’d add the greens. And I’d take lots of pictures and blog about what a great dinner I made.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Look at that. Layers of corn tortillas, chicken, wilted greens, enchilada sauce and cheese. Ready for the oven. Oh, I think I’m in luvvvvvv….
And here it is all cooked and ready on the plate. Complete with salad.
Too bad it tasted like crap.
Oh well…next time, if there is a next time, I’ll use mild greens, like spinach. I’ll save the big boys, the collards, turnip and mustard, I’ll save them for the onions and mushrooms saute with a dash of balsamic. Where they belong.
To be honest this wasn’t the worst dinner I ever made. Far from it. That honor goes to Tuna. Eggplant. Casserole. Which should be against the law. And has been forever banned in our house.
Sometimes being creative isn’t necessarily a good thing.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art |
I really intended to have some quality time in Studio Grande today. But first I had to get a massage. Because a girl’s got to be good to herself once in awhile, you know.
And then there was the barn that needed cleaning. And a truckload of hay to buy and unload.
And OMG, I haven’t exercised in days. So I had to do that too.
And check my email. Do you have any idea how crazy full my inbox was?
Next thing I knew it was time for the five o’clock news. Umm…where did the day go?
All was not lost. Studio Quat got her lovin’ and I put in some time (damn little) painting this evening. Wasn’t in the mood to finish the one I showed you in yesterday’s post. I ended up working on one of the smaller ones instead.
And I didn’t finish that one either. But I’ve got some photos to show the progress.
This is early in the process. Just getting some color down. Some marks.
More layers of stuff. Paint. Water crayon. Just having fun.
More! More! More!
Now it’s beginning to get interesting. Stencils and stamps are involved for texture.
More layers and more layers. Glazing made the water crayon run and mute the colors. Eventually I encouraged a feather. And that’s where I left it last night.
Tonight I wanted the feather to pop. But I wasn’t happy with the colors of either the feather and the background. So stamped into the paint to make things more interesting. Then I glazed over the background to pull it all together.
This is still most definitely a work in progress but it will be a few days before I can do the studio thing again. Day job, you know. I’m planning on finishing all three over the weekend.
You can hold me to it. In fact I hope you do.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art |
Studio time today. YAY!!! Got to paint. Got to make ART!!!
Pause here for backflips. Handsprings. For jumping up and down and waving arms wildly.
I MADE ART TODAY! In between lumber yard runs for the new studio. In between other stuff that had to be done. I found the time. Squeezed it in. And it was lovely….
And it was different. Today I used acrylics, just because… I’m not sure what the ‘because’ was other than I wanted to play with layers and the drying time is faster than oils. And I can always add oils to acrylics later on, but not the other way around.
I worked on three pieces today. Two 10×10 clean, ripe, ready for my attention virgin canvases. The third one was 12×24 and been around the block with some charcoal. That’s the one I’m going to show you today. It’s the closest to being done of the three. Not finished yet, maybe tomorrow, but I want to show you the process.
Because it was so much fun. So liberating. Not a doodle but similar in the layers and layers of surface treatment. And relying on the random happenings of the surface to trigger the final design.
Now I’m going to let the pictures do the talking.
First I had to say goodbye to to da pony. I grabbed some acrylics and squeezed directly onto the canvas. I wasn’t concerned about color this early in the game. I just wanted coverage.
Which I got.
Many layers. More colors. Textures with stencils. I used the brayer, my fingers, water crayons. The trick here is to wait between layers for things to dry, otherwise you get mud. I still didn’t have a clue where this was heading.
I added more paint. Sprayed with water. Let it drip. This wasn’t the first spray of the day. When this dried I saw some images. So I painted around them. It’s still not finished but this is where it’s at now.
And no, those are not blue afros. Or maybe they are. Come back tomorrow and maybe we’ll both know.
