Goodness it's been a long time. How dare I scoff at other's dusty blogs when I myself am so very very guilty? The main reason I've held off is that I never manage to get pictures of my work (the reason this is called sweet enemy ART) scanned and sized. Arkonbey says go ahead and just write stuff. But I am not one for writing so much as I am one for reading the work of others.
So while I'm waiting for paint to dry ( no, really) I'll offer up some of my favorite web readings:

Mimi Smartypants
(excellent)

Minor Tweaks
(amusing, and writes for Salon.com, another good read)

Cerebral Smatterings
(Amazing artistic skills, found him through Illustration Friday)

Brass Goggles
(There are some people with amazing talent & focus out there)

&
Drawn!

Those last two are more aggregator sites of cool things, but certainly they will lead you to some interesting reading.

And finally, COMIX

Order of the Stick

PS238

There. At least I've updated. Now back to painting for a bit.

the studio

Here's a few shots of the studio, there are ones which dictate the size better, but this will do.
The view as you enter: just after I cleaned up and just before I decided to take down that red rug thing.

My new favorite spot, in disturbing collaged format. Now that I've made this area welcoming, the easel is getting quite a bit of use. It's usually set up by the door now within easy access of the paints. And the level of crap getting stuck in my paint has, as a result of working vertically, decreased greatly. Oh how I love this place.

Garden!

not a particularly artsy shot, but these poor things (at least five clusters or more!) have survived some nasty late-spring snowstorms, so I thought I'd document them at last.



This is something that was rather startling to find. (I'm thinking it's rhubarb) There are several of these, and they are fresh-blood red. I got to see some fresh blood just before discovering these, because Nabu, never known for eating what she catches, ATE WHAT SHE CAUGHT. I'm 50/50 between being grossed out, and being proud. She ate everything but the guts, something hard, and one teeny paw. That's my kitty. Being outdoors all day has apparently sharpened our instincts.


We discovered on our lawn a mysterious cache (really, a half-buried dumping) of seashells. Some are quite decent, but there are so many of them, I wonder if they ended up on the lawn because their previous owner just got overwhelmed. So I've put them to use as little markers for the plants that are starting to show up. The grass had grown up so long before we moved in that I didn't even know half this stuff was here. It's fabulous.

pictures, right?

I found a picture that wasn't ten zillion MB.

um, picture this?

...still have not had a chance to get pictures uploaded. I do have about three paintings on-going right now, plus a few that I'd finished previously. You'll just have to take my word for it until perhaps this thursday. That's when I can get onto arkonbey's computer and do all my image sizing/loading. This sweet laptop just doesn't have the power for it, but she can do so much, I can't complain.
The 15th annual VT Open Studio Tour will take place Memorial Day weekend, so I want to have everything up and finished for that. And so it goes...

So I wanted to be able to show off my space to friends who can't get here themselves, and in preperation of that, oh my goodness, I actually cleaned my studio. Now photo editing must be done. Getting a good comfy (probably used) chair for the 'reading corner' is next on the list, aside from actually getting some artwork done. Since this room is a hell of a lot more inviting now, that shouldn't be as hard as it first was.

Weather today: beautiful.

foggy spring brain

We've gone from 3 feet of snow to bare patches of soggy ground in what seems an amazingly short time. Resisting the urge to just lie down and nap, we're trying to keep the house fairly clean and at the same time re-arrange and re-decorate.

Let it be said that right now I'm experiencing a bit of envy for Rick's studio, small though it is, because he has it well-planned out. Myself, I've just started using the other half of this wonderfully large room that is my studio, and actually started putting things up on all the walls. In other words, acting like I live here...
I have way too many things that I like doing, is the problem. But I think this room can handle all that. The table I'm typing on right now will most likely double as the sewing table once I get going on some fabric projects for the house.

But the best part of this room is that the size (and wonderful light!) will allow get-togethers with other artist friends. One of the main reasons we wanted to get a house in the first place.

List of things to do must not overwhelm me...