These are the kinds of days you dream of. Nothing to do but do what you want.

We are very lucky and blessed at the Suggs home. Whittney is home for the day - a fresh graduate from UT in Austin. We are very proud of her and wish her great things in the new year. Rachel and David are playing new video games - and loving it. Jim has eaten and played hard now he is napping. My beautiful Mom is also napping.

Stefani, if you read this, the ornament is beautiful, thanks. I will think of you every year when I put it on the tree.

Looking ahead

Our renovation is almost complete. There are just 14 doors and frames to paint and put new hardware on. Yuk. I have determined that they can be done slowly. It would be too painful to have a door marathon, not to mention my lack of excitement would result in poor workmanship.

So, back to the studio I went. I am starting to make some goals.

1. A drawing a day in the sketchbook. No pressure to create thought provoking images. Each sketch must be titled and dated. So far I am sketching an average of 4 a day.

2. Next weekend I will get plywood cut for my first batch of paintings. I think of paintings like cookies - I work in batches. I will talk to the boys at Lowe's and see if there is a great joining tool to help me miter my frames easily. I am taking it to the next level and my charming craftsmanship needs to step up, just in the frames.

3. December 22, 2007 my first day of my two week Christmas break. I will paint everyday for two weeks. There should be at least 4 to 6 works in progress. My goal is to contain my many ideas. Take an idea and develop it slowly into a series. My sketchbook will be a great record future work.

4. Continue working in the evenings once school has resumed.

5. February, send packets to galleries

6. Spring break - have gallery representation

Tomorrow

This month has flown. It is shocking to think that we will turn around and it will be the New year. Usually I don't have many thoughts about resolutions but right now I feel many changes are needing to happen with my life - within me. My job has changed, half of my day I am working with higher functioning spec. ed students, they have behavior issues. The kind that will throw a chair in in-school suspension. I have some of these students in regular ed classes, in the learning lab when other teachers could not handle them and in lunch detention. I now have a special place in my heart for these students. It hurts when one is permanently taken out of a class he loves for behavior issues. It hurts that I may never see another student because he has been sent to a special program school. No wonder this month has flown. No wonder I feel the need for changes and chocolate. On a good day I love to work, but there are too many things missing in my personal life. I am not living in balance. I need change. Tomorrow is a new day.

Still hanging

Tomorrow the machinery will come to tear out our awful tile and scrape up 25 year old mortar. Tomorrow the dust will fly all over my house. Once the dust settles, the fun work will begin. Flooring, painting, bookcases etc. Being done with this project by Thanksgiving is looking promising.

I have been living in a house under renovation for over 25 years. I do believe it when I hear "you are never really done". But, I feel that a new life will be able to breath within me once this is through and we can coast for a while without guilt or money. I am so looking forward to enjoying and not toiling.

I hope I can remember how to live without projects hanging over me.

Fresh water

Well the weekend is almost over and our goals have been met. My husband the stud pushed a shovel through the main water line while digging a hole for a plant (at 6:00 on Sunday). Poor guy he is filthy and without water. The pool is looking more and more inviting.

The plumbers have been called but, I am off to the grocery store to get gallons of water for hair and teeth.

This is one Monday I am looking forward to.

Celebrating mud

What a difference a day can make. Friday's are the greatest. It's a time to reflect on accomplishments and lessons of the week. Then toss those thoughts aside and kick up your heals and celebrate the days off.

I am celebrating drywall this weekend. I want all of the mud work done before the bamboo floors get installed the end of next week. My mantra is - the more I get done this weekend the less I will have to do in coming weeks. Even sheet rock mud can be fun when you get to sleep in another hour.

Have a great weekend.

Parted bodies

I have several recurring images in my paintings that I cannot let go of. They keep coming back in various reincarnations. This image is a popular one. The single figure in the foreground with figures, trees or both, in the background. In this instance I have placed parted figures (bodies parted from their limbs, incomplete) in the background. The parted figure idea began with the thought of incomplete souls, we all have our missing parts.

Today when I look at this image I see people with parts and stories that I am unaware of. It is impossible to imagine those stories and dangerous to guess.

A distant light

Like so many of us, I need my Monday's so I can slow down from the need to get it done pace of the weekends. My house is wearing me down. The walls are built, the closets are in, the bookcase is started, the tile is in - it gorgeous, and my bedroom and living room are starting to be painted. It sounds like we have done a lot, and we have, but there is so much more to do. Hopefully in the next two weeks the bamboo flooring will get installed. That is when the light will shine. Dawn, we have a new camera, I will post pictures.

This is a painting that I started several years ago, it was worth pursuing but never quit right. This piece is several not worth pursuing paintings cut up, glued down and painted over. To wet my brushes in a new studio, I pulled it out and now I call it finished.

It has only been one week and I can say I love my new job. The teachers and students I work with are wonderful. It can get a bit crazy at times. Imagine helping 5, or more, special needs students, moving at their own speed and focus, from class to class through crowded middle school halls.
Rae is loving her new school. It is going to be demanding but, she has Art for the first four periods - everyday. JD is going to play the Euphonium (really?) in 6th grade band. I can't wait to see the first concert.

I love this painting. It is peaceful, beautiful. It was one of those pieces that just fell into place with no effort. I can't say that I don't enjoy a challenging piece of art but sometimes those challenges can take forever. This piece took a few days and sold immediately. The roses in the frame are made from brown shipping paper. I roll the paper for the center of the rose, then apply individual pedals with duct tape. I then spray paint them and dry brush highlites.
This weekend I am going to start preparing a portfolio to take to a Design Center gallery. My friend Stefani started making digital/printed portfolios in an 8 1/2" x 11" format. I love the idea if I can get a good quality print - she did it, I should be able to. Thanks Stefani.
Have a great weekend.

Confused Landscape

Today was my first day of work. I got to take care of such necessities as filling out forms and getting my picture made for my badge, actually got a good pic.

I find it sad that in todays world we have to be so careful about what we say and how we present ourselves.

Today I had to sign a form agreeing not to mention on a web site where I work, or present provacative material. I will be fired. I understand and respect their position.

I have painted upside down landscapes for sometime now. I called them confused landscapes. I find this imagery most fitting for our times.

Bottoms Up....

My darling Rachey baby has set me up and I am ready to blog. I am one sentence into this new project and I already feel inadequate. Is there a spell check on this thing?

The purpose of my blog is to keep friends in touch with my art work and my new life here in Dallas. We moved in May and life has not slowed down. My house is still completely torn up. I have bare concrete floors - no, not pretty ones. Tomorrow I start a new job, I will be working at --------- Middle school in the ----- ISD. I will be a teaching assistant working with special needs students - a job I love. Saturday, I will go to a party and meet Jim's co-workers for the first time. After that stress - I will accompany my husband to his highschool reunion. The reunion a couple of ex-girlfriends asked him to come to. So, where's my margarita? Cheers to stepping out of your box and trying something new.