It's been awhile...

Three and a half months since I last blogged. I have excuses and some of them are even good ones! I had to move my studio because my DD returned with her hubs so that they could save money for a home of their own. The move took the last half of February and ALL of March. They moved in on April 1st and on April 14th my DH suffered a stroke. It was a clot on his brain stem and it caused some damage that may or may not resolve itself. He is still partially paralyzed on the right side (he's a righty) and unable to do a lot of things he would normally be doing on a daily basis. BUT...that does not mean that life is sad or even hopeless. I am grateful for each little victory that he has achieved and thankful that my DD and her beloved were with me the day it happened.

I am in the midst of re-discovering my painting style. Took a BIG detour via online classes with Mindy Lacefield, Juliette Crane, Jane Davenport, Carla Sonheim, Christy Tomlinson & Tamara LaPorte. But the detour finally took me full circle and showed me what I DID love to paint so as the saying goes...'it's all good'. I hope to get back into blogging on a weekly basis. And sharing some of the things that I learned during my artistic detour. The biggest one being how to use a Gelli Plate! Hope you'll stick around or join me if you haven't already because I plan to offer giveaways & links to online vids that you may find helpful.

Technique Tuesday on ArtDemos.com

If you haven't joined ArtDemos yet, you might want to today. Because TODAY is Technique Tuesday and today I'm sharing how to make your own stay-wet palette for your acrylic paints. I've bought 3 stay wets over the years and they've never worked as well as the one I'll show you how to make today.
Be sure to pop over and see it on ArtDemos

A Penny a Piece

Took some time off but now back to listing my Flower Fairy House ACEOs. I scheduled three five-day listings tonight. You can go there directly by clicking on the image below. Hope you'll take a peek because they all start at JUST ONE PENNY!

McDonald's Dollar Value Meal

I think the penny sales on my eBay account are better than the dollar menu at McDonald's! Where else could you possibly snag an ORIGINAL Sadowski mini folk art painting for under a dollar. It has happened! Recently the final prices have risen a bit so I'm happy that I'm at least making slave wages for my pieces now.

Before I wasn't making money once you took out the 15 cent listing fee, the 8+% final valuation fee plus the 30 cent Paypal fee +their 3.25% processing fee. Now it seems that buyers are willing to snag them at prices that have topped $6.00 Woot, woot! Before these same original ACEOs brought up to $15 at the low point and up to $35 at the best of economic times. However, since I plan on making my fortune in very short order I'm happy to ply my buyers insatiable need for ORIGINAL FAIRY art. See for yourself, just click the icon above and get in on the fun of possibly snagging an original piece for $.01! Best of Luck~!

Coincidence or Fate?

I've been battling with my authentic self for weeks, nay months! on what my artist voice should be singing. I have gone back and forth looking at the various online sites to see what was selling; could I do that and did I want to?

Yesterday through a series of coincidences, I now believe in a Universal plan that I had misplaced somewhere along the way to making my art be profitable. I've tried various styles, mediums, surfaces...anything that was selling that I thought I could do as well if not better than the person who was selling it. I got confused and lost and my voice became a squeak in a depth of the blackest night. I was well and truly lost. And being confused is not the way to a healthy mental or physical lifestyle. Especially when one has already been through cancer and needs to keep healthy and stress-free.

It came to a head when I accepted a spot in a one night all out gallery bash in my old home town. I agreed instantly because I was sure it would finally help me decide on what I was 'supposed' to be painting. After 7 weeks of going back and forth and looking at my work I could not find a single thing that was consistent between the pieces other than I had created them with the same paintbrushes and paints. They were a mishmosh of every artist I have ever admired! Holy Cow! Now I knew I was in trouble because gallery night was four nights away and OMG what was I going to do.

Walking about my house and its hidey holes of supplies and such I came across a box of pieces I'd done back in 1996. 1996 was a definitive year for me for a lot of reasons. Not the least of which was I found myself in a position that Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Edwards have occupied. And as surely as Mrs. Edwards would have sworn on her husband's faithfulness I swore on mine. You know the old saying about the wife being the last to know. It isn't a saying, it is a truth.

Anyway, I found the work I had shown that year. The last year I had a gallery show, the last year I was my true and authentic self. Holding those pieces in my hands I rediscovered myself. How refreshing and how peaceful it is to finally look into that artistic mirror and see your true self looking back at you.

So I have put aside all of those pieces I have painted over the last weeks and months and pulled out of storage the true and authentic artist I knew was hiding somewhere behind the curtains of my doubt and uncertainty. The pieces may or may not sell come Friday night. But the crowds will be friendly, the wine will be great and the work will finally be...authentic!

Back from Hiatus

God Bless my sister!!! She's been away since Thursday night on vacation with her DH. That left me as DD or Designated Daughter to our 85 yro Mom. Mom's a kick but a handful at the same time and I TG all the time for my DS, Dear Sister, who takes the brunt of the hauling about since she has a car. Mom has a car as well but because of the arthritis in her right knee we don't like her driving any farther than around her local area. Thusly I became the Designated Driving Daughter for the weekend. It wasn't bad but was time consuming and now I'm off to play today with my faux food toys.
Hopefully I'll finally have something finished that I want to show off later today. Have a productive day everyone...that's what I'm wishing for myself as well. Just wish I'd gotten more than four hours sleep! :o

BTW...here is a new piece I did yesterday. She's from the Dipsy Diva series!

BLESSINGS and Pink Ribbons!!!

I recently added someone new to my life. A buyer of my art who shared her dream of one day being able to paint herself. When I responded to her I said in part... "I've learned since breast cancer that tomorrow is never a promise and today is the day to make dreams come true...so go for it and enjoy"!

She has read my blog and my about me page and my world pages on eBay. By reading them she said that she could see how even through adversity one can find happiness. And she's going to start painting! And that my friends is the greatest blessing of all. Being a light in the darkness of someone's life and giving hope when one is feeling hopeless.

Perhaps this month I'll share my story of breast cancer. Since October is the official Pink Ribbons month it may be time to do just that. For now I'm off to bed with a prayer that tonight I'll get the sleep I've been longing for. God Bless!

Gallery Show 11.14.08

I'm excited about my first gallery show in 15 years. I'll be part of a group show in my hometown of Belmar, NJ on the 14th of next month. Anyone in Jersey and close to Belmar is invited. Here's a flier they forwarded for posting:



My daughter has a blind date tonight. After several failed relationships with 'hot' guys she decided to allow a friend to 'fix her up' with his friend. So unlike her but I guess she's tired of the 'hotties' only interested in her body, not her mind. This is one of my favorite 'photos' of her. It was done with a 'toy' camera and then manipulated quickly in Photoshop with a simplify filter.



Fired up the wood stove for the first time this season. We don't have a working heating system so depend on it for our winter warmth. NJ is usually bearable during the cold months but unbearable in the summer. Very hard to runaway from the heat but during the winter I can always escape to the unheated rooms to cool down.

Off to work on some sketches for the show. Happy weekend all.

Does anyone really care

that I'm blogging today? The world is a busy place, how can it stop to see what I'm doing. Does anyone really care? Probably not, but why not? Other blogs get great traffic but mine is slow on the uptake. I have to get noticed, but how? Ideas for anyone stumbling across this is always welcome. Feel free to tell me what I'm doing wrong and what I'm doing right.
I tweet on twitter but get no replies...do I not do it often enough? Are other people watching my tweets OR am I in cyberspace, flying solo? Hmmmmm...back to sorting AVON products, it's at least making me money. eBay and etsy are stubborn and I can't break through that glass ceiling to become a power seller on eBay or a seller at all on etsy. I AM doing something wrong but I need to spend some time figuring out WHAT??? Blogging can be a lonely business after all...especially if no one comments or says Hey, I like what you just said. Oh well, Sebby, my sweet darling cat is crying to get out of the bedroom and away from all of this cosmetic crap and oh, no! He's climbed up on the desk and any minute is going to pounce on the keyboard................ gbvgf gfv,fv g,vf, see..I told you so....ta ta for now or ttfn for those in the know.

Lisa Bebi unique paint-over collage technique

I've read about this technique several times and finally decided to try it out. I'm pretty pleased with the result considering this was my first try. I left her face mostly unpainted because I loved her sassy look.

I'm working on painting number two but the weather that Hanna the Hurricane pushed in front of her is so tropical I feel like I'm breathing soup. But I'll be back at the drawing board as soon as I Tweet this blog posting. If the other piece is done tonight, I'll post it here as well. Thanks for looking. PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS AND CRITIQUES, that's the only way that I'll be able to hone my technique since I'm doing this by reading an article and not by taking a hands-on class.

Countdown crunch!

Spent the day getting some more supplies packed for my sabbatical. Tomorrow I get to organize all of my eBay oddz and endz that I'll have to auction off when I get home in the fall. I've got a 7:30 am appt. on Tuesday for my six month CAT and bone scans and hopefully they'll be 'clean' so that I'll then be starting my fourth year of remission. Wednesday I've got to go food shopping for the first couple of weeks I'll be away and then Thursday morning it's sayonara NJ, hello PA. I'm hoping the trailer make it through the winter with no new leaks so I won't have to spend any time doing work related things. I've been cleaning house for a month and a half. That should let you know just how much sh*t I've collected over the last 21 years of residence in this house. If you wanna be one of my 'sabbatical sistas' send an email so I can put you on the list for semi-daily updates of my life by the lake.
Just my cat, my Chi and me...sounds like heaven 'cause I won't have to pick up a mop or a dustrag unless I want to...YAY!

I miss painting :(

I've spent the last six weeks, scrubbing, cleaning, hauling, dumping and now tomorrow yardsale selling to get ready for my four month painting sabbatical in the wilds of Amish Country, Pennsylvania. I'm going to learn to paint AGAIN! This time painting for me, from my soul, from my own silly sketches that make me smile. Hope my friends on line will keep me company while I'm there...I'm taking my 'puter with me so I can keep in touch. AND I'll have a cam so I can talk to anyone who wants to see the crazy painter from Jersey who is on a journey to herself!

http://artandcraftauctions.com update

There are now over 285 users at http://artandcraftauctions.com and we have added user groups. I'm overworked keeping up with everyone and everything but it's worth it to see artists selling their work daily.

I'm trying to find time to get to my own artwork but it's hard. By the time I get done with keeping track of postings and memberships which is a left brain activity I can't seem to kick into right brain mode which is essential to my work. I've been able to get a few paintings done

Pink Kitty


Flowers in her Hair

But I'd like to do a couple of primsical pieces...you know prim whimsy folk art...but I just can't dig out the hours I need and then I don't have the drive to get it done.

I'm frustrated but glad to have finally gotten ArtACA out of my head and into the 'real' world via the net. I feel like I have a newborn who needs constant mommy stuff done. Watching it grow up will be as satisfying as motherhood has been.
We added a new category called Art Dolls-OOAK for all of those dolls that aren't craft but aren't quite art either. I may even list my chimney pot faeries...if I can figure out where I've stored them.

New Year ~ New Promises

Being a right-brainer I sometimes forget how important self-promotion is. I tend to think that since I'm making art, people will obviously find me. I keep forgetting that if they don't have your addresss they can't locate you in a sea of billions of others. It must be my "god complex" acting up. I tend to think that the world revolves around me but of course it doesn't, does it? Or does it? :)


I was so pleased to start the New Year off with this great award:


I'm a Diva Queen AGAIN! The last piece that won this award was this little sweetie:



So do you think you can spot a style change? I'm finally painting from my heart instead of from a place where I think that others will bid and buy. I've re-vamped this blog, and my Etsy shop and make a promise to myself to blog every day!