About Me
- Naomi Haverland
- This is my blog AND my website now. Click on the " my paintings" tab to view my paintings. Scroll down to read my blog.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Hello!
Monday, March 04, 2013
Jenson's Not Happy
This is my moist recently finished painting. It's a picture of my nephew, Jenson.
As you can see, I'm trying to expand my style. I'm also experimenting with oils again- something I swore I would never touch again. I know that I have more potential for my skills to grow with oil paint ( as opposed to just acrylic)- it's just that it's so uncomfortable for me. I first painted this in acrylic and then did a layer of oil over it- and I do think the oil added a lot to the skin tone that wasn't possible with just the acrylic.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Baby Josalyn
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Buckhorn Exchange
And here is a lovely picture of me and my real Valentine. Roxanne and Matt went on a different date together last night. And for today, Valentines day, we did nothing. Happy Valentines day all!
Thursday, February 07, 2013
Caps
This is a project that I started with the kids when we first moved into the house, and I predict it will be an "unfinished project" for the entire time we live here. Unfinished projects are usually bad, but sometimes they can be good, if the project is one that is meant to grow and evolve, and if time itself is an element in the piece of art.
Jodi originally had me start collecting caps for her. I don't know what she was going to do with them, but when she decided to move to Scotland, she abandoned her cap collection and I inherited all she and I had collected. Thankfully, when she moved back from Scotland, she didn't ask for all her caps back. In fact, she is one of my most loyal collectors/donors.
I have a big tub in the pantry of our kitchen and every time we end up with a plastic cap, we throw it into the tub. (By the way, threaded plastic caps can't be recycled, like their plastic containers can be). Every time the tub gets full, we go out back and glue them to the fence using liquid nails glue. I lightly sketch a wave shape on the wood, and then the kids and I glue the caps around the chalk line. At first, just our family was the major contributor of the caps- every now and then people would give me some, but most of them were from whatever products we used. But ever since I posted photos of what we were doing, I've been getting more and more cap donations from other people. At this point, I probably have way more donated caps than my own caps.
I know a cap that you would normally throw away seems like a small thing and not much of a sacrifice, but it really does make me feel so good when someone gives me a bag full of caps. Because, it's one thing to buy or make a gift for someone when they are having a birthday, or at Christmas time. But it's a totally different thing to slowly and gradually accumulate something for someone during the course of your mundane life. One cap isn't much, but a bag FULL of caps really adds up! A bag full of caps is a whole lot of thoughts of love for me during very intimate and personal daily moments. It's means that there was a moment when someone was making a PB&J sandwich for their kid, and they were scraping the last bit of peanut butter out of the jar while their kid sat there waiting, and then they thought of ME. Or... It means, they were naked in the shower, squeezing the last bit of shampoo out of the bottle, and they thought of ME. Or it means as they took their last Xanax pill and remembered they had to refill their prescription, they thought of ME. It means the thought of me invades people's lives in a very small, but very frequent amount that adds up to a whole whole lot and I'm just amazed that people actually do it for me.
I mean.... not everyone does it. And I understand. I don't know how much someone would have to mean to me before I would alter my lifestyle for them.... and maybe the people that do it for me, aren't perceptive enough to realize that all those small sacrifices of stockpiling caps actually accumulate to equal quite a bit of a sacrifice, and I'm thankful for their ignorance.
And it's not just for the finished product of having a colorful fence- it's for the experience for me and the kids- it's amazing how therapeutic the process is. We play music and the repetitive act of grabbing the cap and placing it on the fence becomes like a dance. It's colorful, and we're in the sunshine, and as an array of spots and circles grow down the fence, I try to honor each plastic cap as it goes up, knowing that at some point, there was someone behind it honoring me in a small way too. The pictures below don't show it, but we've got a pretty huge backyard and there is a whole lot more fence that isn't showing. Our fence goes on like, forever. So that means the wave of caps can keep growing and growing the longer we live here. It's such a fun ritual that makes us feel so blessed. So many people love us and we're so lucky for that!
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Rocket Science
Since Rocket won his school science fair a couple months ago, he had the chance to participate in the district wide science fair where all the Denver Public Elementary Schools sent their school winners to compete. This was a big deal to him, but he didn't expect to win.
The picture above is him before the fair. The only bad parts is they didn't let the public in to view all of the exhibits. I got into the zoo free, but had to stay out of the exhibit room- especially when the judges were present. But Rocket must have done a good job presenting on his own. During the awards ceremony, I said a little prayer to God hoping that if he was able to have the encouragement of placing, it would make up for all the negative experiences he's been having lately (mostly with other kids at school). We were all surprised when he got the award for "best in show". I hope I didn't help him too much with his project.
This is him along with the other three winners. He was beaming at this moment.
This is him with his big ole ribbon in front of his board.
We also got some special "backstage" access at the zoo to see some animals close up. I liked this grinning alligator.
Roxanne insisted that Rocket do what she had come to the zoo for- the carousel. And he was still on top of the world. He looks like such a little boy in this picture, I think.
The lion "cubs" were posing quite well for pictures and I thought they looked especially cuddly.
I also liked the dik dik deer. I thought a dik dik would be a better pet than a cat. Especially if it would sit in a window sill. It was about the same size as Friday, so they could be great friends.
We went to Chili's afterwards to celebrate Rocket's great achievement.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Pictures of Jesus
And this is a picture of Jesus I made using my "percolator" app on my phone- it was made from a classic Byzantine image. I thought it looked so cool, I made it my phone's wallpaper.