The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Barbara

Oh how I was looking forward to completing some work in the studio yesterday, right after hanging 8 paintings from the With Sturdy Shoes Series at the local library ... ha! Despite my attempts to be a well-organized artist/businesswoman, efficiency continues to elude me. As I packed the paintings into the car I realized I had forgotten the brief biography requested by the library - no problem, it's all on my computer together with the interpretative pages I'd prepared for previous shows: just a few clicks of the mouse and they'll be ready, thought I. Couldn't quite find them and as I was under time constraints to deliver and hang the works, I left in a flurry. Ahhhh ... the paintings looked very nice hanging on the walls of the lovely newish Semiahmoo Branch of the Surrey Public Library, but they definitely needed those interpretive pages. At 9:00 a.m. this morning I thought I'd be able to quickly locate the pages and my bio, print, deliver and hang them before noon... ha again! By noon I was still tearing my hair out wondering where the @#$% I had filed the pertinent information in the computer. By the time I found them (I swear I looked in the same place 44 times and they weren't there until the 45th), and reformatted the interpretive pages, updated my bio, and added a little visually semi-creative-but-somewhat-pathetic flourish to all the white papers I had amassed, it was dinnertime. Ah well, as Scarlet said to Rhett, Tomorrow is another day.

Kaleidoscope

Here's a work in progress - part of the Leap Visual Artist Collective project (a word, & painting a month until February). August's word was Kaleidoscope. I'm about a third of the way through. Seven houses expanding at a rate of 1" house in the middle, a 2" house offset, then 3", then 4". Stay tuned for next week's update.

Not ready to get back to it yet ...

I've opened the door of my studio and stood at the entrance without stepping inside numerous times today. I just can't seem to bring myself to take that step and 'get back at er'. I don't know if it's the incredible mess in there that's been waiting to be attended to for over a month, or the sunshine outside, or the knowledge that once I get in there and start painting I won't be able to stop.

I want to fall backward, back into summer, like this little guy on The Fall of Man. Of course, what I should be doing is cartwheeling forward, up the ladder, getting a jump-start and some MOMENTUM (IF's theme word this week) to push me forward through the studio door to the big blank canvas on my easel.

... maybe tomorrow ...

Andrea Pratt

Still no new images of my own to share, however, here's one created by artist Andrea Pratt. For those of you in the greater Vancouver area interested in seeing Andrea's spectacular works in person (photographs and digital images don't compare to the real thing!), visit Gallery Fourteen during the month of September.