Palettes and Inspiration

With about 6 or so hours free every day now, I feel like I am finally able to live out my dream life. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to stay on track towards achieving that, but I have everything that is necessary to do so- I just have to be disciplined about it. I've been imagining this time in my life ever since I discovered that I was pregnant for the first time about 9 and a half years ago... of course, since then, I've been able to live a life I didn't even know I wanted, but now is the time to live the life I DID know I wanted.
I don't have any new art work to show, so I thought I would display some of my ever evolving paint palettes (above). Sometimes they end up looking better than the art itself. Sometimes I think the palette is like the life I didn't even know I wanted- random, unplanned, messy...but colorful and beautiful anyways- in its own way.
Ahhhh... I sure do love metaphors... :)

Even though I don't have any new art to post, I have been working hard, and have multiple pieces of art in progress. So they will probably come together all at about the same time. But here is a preview of some of the things that have been inspiring me and will definitely be creeping into some paintings soon:

We went to the aquarium earlier this month, and I discovered "mermaid's purses", which I had never heard of before- very very cool little things! Basically it is just a shark egg sac for a baby shark to grow in. But "mermaid's purse" sounds more magical, and this is definitely a magical, yet completely authentic, concept. At the aquarium, they had the egg sacs pinned to a translucent white light-up board, so that the inner part of the sac was illuminated and you could see the baby shark inside swimming around. The whitish colored ball is the yolk of the egg. The picture to the right is even more incredible. It is a man-made sac, out of transparent material, so you can see the little sharkie in detail- actually swimming around in there!! Cool, huh?? Will be on canvas soon (hence the mostly blue palette in the upper right corner of my palette picture)!!
My new friend, Heather, came over on Wednesday to paint with me. We discussed how maybe some day in the future, scientists will be able to make man made wombs and transfer babies into them, and we will be able to pin them up on the wall and observe them. Funny idea.


The other painting I am working on will combine elements of these two pictures of Roxanne. The expression on her face in the second picture reflects the fact that I had my camera out more than her actual feelings about the penny horse- that's the reason for the first picture. There will also be elements of the King Soopers logo (which I love!) and religious/spiritual connections (how can you possibly ponder the joy of the penny horse without bringing God into the equation?)... AND this will be a part of a dip-tic. I already have both of the canvases purchased (yay for selling jewelry!) The counterpart features a pretty crazy boy with a mullet named "Rocket".

Mustache Night at Coors

Typically, only Matt and Rocket attend the baseball games at Coor's field. However, last night we were lucky enough to have 4 tickets (thanks to a really awesome friend with connections), so the whole family went. It was mustache night, and we all joined in on the mustache fun.
My mustache:

Rocket's mustache:

Roxanne's mustache:

Matt's mustache:

Matt spend quite a bit more time on his mustache than the kids and I did. I drew the kids mustache on them after they had finished dinner at Wahoo's Fish Tacos. Some ladies came along and were so impressed by my mustache drawing skills that they asked if I would draw a mustache on them too. So I did.


Then the kids got free cotton candy. You can't beat that!

Rocket told me that the best way to get on the jumbotron is to dance like crazy during the 7th inning stretch.... so, I did what any good mom would do- I danced like crazy with Rocket during the 7th inning stretch song. Sure enough, we made it onto the jumbotron for all of the thousands of fans to see our awesome dance moves! That made Rocket really love me a lot.

Rocket took this pic of Matt and I... I must have misplaced my stache by then.


And this is a tired little girl with a sticky face who can't wait for the 9th inning:
I tried my best to get her to be able to enjoy the game, but it was useless. This is a conversation we had at one point in the game:
Me: "The Rockie's are winning, so we should be happy!"
Roxanne: "But I don't know what that means, I can't be happy if I don't understand what that means!!"
Me: "It means that they are playing a game, and we want the Rockies to win the game and right now they have a higher score, so they are winning!"
Roxanne: "But you keeps saying rockie rockie rockie- I don't even have a clue what it means!!!"
Me: "The Rockies are the team we are rooting for"
Roxanne: "But which Rocky? You keep saying rockie, rockie, rockie!!! Rocky what? Which Rockie? What's the Rockie's name that you want to win?"
Me: "Rockies IS the name of the team"
Roxanne: "I know!! I know!! But all I hear is rockie, rockie, rockie and I don't know which rockie you are talking about. I don't know anybody here that is winning!!"
Me: "Ummm.... Ok.... wanna go get a funnel cake?"
Roxanne: "Yeah, now that's something I like!!!"
So then we walked around the vendor's deck and looked at all the little shops and views of the city. Then she said:
"I really like this place. All these lights and colors are so beautiful"
And I said I agreed. And she said "I especially like that big sign there with the bright lights"- it was the score board. Even if she can't get baseball, atleast she understands what's beautiful.

And as if the night couldn't get any better, the ball fell into and out of the right hands on the playing field, which meant Matt and Rocket were really really really happy- along with thousands of other "wooting" people piling out of Coor's stadium. I think and hope the kids will remember nights like these fondly.

Back In Business

This is proof that I am in the process of bringing my Etsy shop back to life. Cause I know you are all just dying to shop there... right? That's part of being a mom with kids in school. I've also had a list of store owners that want to restock their stores with my stuff and have been calling me, and I've been not answering. Hopefully all this will help fund the purchase of another canvas or two!!

Springtime in Baltimore

My morning of full of successes, and I'm please to announce that I have a third success to add to my day, this afternoon. The success here isn't so much in the painting itself, but in the fact that it actually got completed, finally. This painting (my second one of Jason) sat on my easel ALL summer. When I came back to finish it, I forgot what I was doing. That's why you don't let paintings sit for that long. The background and sky tripped me up, so when I got it back out, I just painted over the background and started over. Ofcourse, I can't compare it to what it looked like before, but it might look exactly the same.
Having stopped this painting in the middle of not being able to get the sky quite right, I was stuck thinking about the sky all summer long. That's not really a bad thing, because I've noticed a lot of things in the sky lately... a lot of clouds. When I was in college and taking a meteorology course, my roommate and I would sit on our front porch and talk endlessly about the clouds- putting our meteorology terminology to good use (what? Isn't that what you did in college?). There really is this whole other world up there in the sky- with gigantic otherworldly creatures called clouds. All summer, each time I would step outside, I would imagine that the sky was actually a 2 dimensional backdrop, like the kind they use at a photography place (or like the one in the movie The Truman Show). And then I would imagine that the clouds were alive- some are monstrous and some are cute. The closer the cloud is to the horizon, the smaller it is... that's an important thing to know when you want to paint them. And while just looking up at them is pretty fascinating, I think it would be even cooler to go on a hot air balloon ride through them. I don't have a bucket list, but if I DID, I would have going on a hot air balloon ride on my bucket list.
And when I look at the sky, this song always comes to my head. So, as you can imagine, this song has been coming to my head a lot- just about any time I'm outside during the day, this song is in my head:



Anyways... none of this talk has anything really to do with the painting... I mean except for the sky. But the painting is supposed to be about springtime in Baltimore- where Jason lives. You can tell it is springtime because of the color that comes alive in the spring. I may be remembering my time in Baltimore a little more colorfully than it actually was... that's what memories (and paintings of memories) are for.

Successful Morning...

You know why this "universal health care" plan could never work? Because there would be no way of telling who really has mental health problems and who doesn't. Anyone can SAY they have anxiety. But how can a doctors office know for certain that someone is about to go over the edge? Easy- with a 25 page printable questionnaire, due the morning of the appointment, that requires them to answer confusing questions about their history, their primary care something or another, and then requires them to perform detailed tasks involving calling their insurance company- who knows WHICH number on the card they are really supposed to call... it's all part of the trick though. And the insurance companies are in on the trick. Because when you call the "mental health services" number on the back of your card like I THINK you are supposed to, they give you a maze of options and numbers to press... "if you are a provider press one"... well, am I a provider? Yes, I think I am... wrong. Ofcourse it never says, "if all of these options are giving you a panic attack, please press 3"... After 25 pages of these sorts of confusing questions or tasks, the true mental health patients will be clearly separated from the fakers and drama queens. If I had calmly marched into the doctors office this morning on time with my 25 page packet completely filled out, and set it down in front of the receptionist, she would have smiled and said "thank you" and then proceeded to put a check inside the "faker" box that she would hand to the doctor. Then the doctor would prescribe me placebo and collect their money for their services. But, of course, I am legit, and I passed the test! Yaaaaay! I passed! I didn't have it all filled out! I got confused... I didn't call the right number and when the recording gave me the run around, I didn't remain calm! SO the receptionist knew I was for real, so she proceeded to RESCHEDULE my appointment for tomorrow. So then I left. This means things are going well.

BUT since I was in the area, I decided that I should try to be a nice loving wife- I had absolutely no time to be a good wife this summer with the kids out of school, but now with them in school, I am expected to do nice things for my husband. So I stopped by the grocery store and picked up a package of Matt's favorite cookies, and then drove over to his office. I called him from my cell phone in the parking lot and said "hey I was in the area, wanna come out for a quickie?"
And he said "UMM... NO!!"
And so then I was like "I said a COOKIE!!"
And then he was like "Oh, ok I'll be right out". So I waited by my van until I saw him come out the door, and then we started walking across the parking lot towards each other. But then suddenly he stopped and yelled "NO!"
And I was like "what?!"
And he calls out "NO! I don't want those cookies! They are disgusting!"
... and I was confused and said "but these are your favorite kind!"
And he called back, "no those are Safeway brand! I only like King Soopers brand!"
Well fine. Luckily, I had left my van door open, so I chucked them across the parking lot back into the van. And then I said "well this is the last time I bring you a treat at work."
And he said, "what?! You're so mean!!"
And I said, "Oh really? I'M so mean? Do you really think that's what people think of wives that bring their husbands cookies at work?"
So he said "I don't know... why don't you go BLOG about it!".
So I did.

This is how successful days begin. When your kids are in school, you have time for things like this. I successfully passed the mental health fakers test at the doctors office. And I successfully passed the "do you love your husband enough to bring him cookies at work even if they're the wrong kind, because it's the thought that counts" test. Onward to even more successes now!!

Disclaimer I am sure Matt will want me to make: I may have left some minor details out of the cookie story.

Maria

Recently, Maria asked me to take her senior pictures for her. We ventured out to "La Favorita Tortilla" Ranch, where we found a hot boy and a horse to pose as eye candy. I had so much fun because Maria is so cute and beautiful, so every picture of her turns out perfect. Here are some of my favorites:

I accidently didn't see Roxann'e creeping around behind the truck there. Maria pointed it out after I mailed them to her, so I still have to photoshop her out.


In reality, this guy could only have Maria in his dreams.

I hope Maria doesn't move too far away when she graduates, because she's our favorite babysitter!

Liturgy

This was the liturgy reading at church yesterday. If I prayed this everyday, I might have no unsatisfied desires, and no fears. Somebody took the picture above- I stole it from facebook.

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, O Jesus.