Category: In the Beginning

Holding My Breath

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Way back in January…remember January? Going out? Being with friends? Hugging them? Toilet paper?

Way back in January, I did an art show and the woman in the booth across from me was fabulous! I was fascinated by her and her steampunk top hat. It took me all day, but I finally got up the courage to ask if I could take a picture of her. She was my muse.

In that funny way the universe works; marrying disparate items, events and emotions, Holding My Breath was born.

Holding My Breath

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In 2017, Hurricane Irma came through leaving downed trees and water, water everywhere. Along with the rest of my property, my chicken coop was flooded and my chickens were stranded in there.

Dressed in black construction bags for pants – the duct tape held them up – and kitchen dish gloves, Husband waded into the coop to catch my terrified chooks. The chickens were squawking, the husband was swearing and I couldn’t stop laughing.

He assembled a temporary coop that sufficed until we could get out for the bits to create a better solution as it was apparent that it would be quite awhile until they could return to their coop -three months to be exact.

Husband proceeded to build the Taj Mahal of coops. The plan was to have something on wheels that we could reuse should we ever flood again.

Once the waters receded, the plan was implemented: Attach the coop to the tractor and pull in behind the workshop into the chicken run. Easy peasy, right? Wrong! This beauty with its pressure treated lumber and cedar shingle roof was not to be moved. No way. No how. Off came the roof and various other bits and finally we were able to drag it behind the fence.

Fast forward to 2020 and the creation of the new studio.

All those shingles, plus another full pallet that hadn’t been used were still in the building. I knew immediately that I wanted to paint on them.

As I worked through this painting, the news worsened. Any interaction with anything from the outside world made me feel like I could feel the germs crawling on my skin. Still does. I can’t possibly wash my hands enough.

We’re all holding our breath right now. Better days will come and there will be more muses to meet and deep breaths to take.

For now, there’s art, there’s sunshine and for today, still toilet paper in the linen closet.

Stay safe my loves. As my mom always said, “This too shall pass.”

Ch-ch-ch-Changes

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If this page looks different each time you visit it, it’s because every time I touch it, something unexpected happens.

This isn’t my first trip to the website building rodeo. It is my first time using a drag and drop editor. This is making me crazy! I like to touch the code. I love Dreamweaver. I adore problem solving.

With this, I’m simply scratching my head and going in circles. I’ll get it eventually. I always do and once I do, we can get on to talking about fun things like art, art and more art!


Categories: In the Beginning

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Starting as I Mean to Go On

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Well, this isn’t what I thought I would be doing a year ago. Last year, on January 1, I committed to myself that I would work through the online art and art journaling classes I had purchased. I promised myself that I would be consistent (Consistency being my word for 2018) and have a standing appointment with myself for two hours each day to “art”. And you know what? I pretty well did it!

June 1 came around and using techniques, skills and all the inspiration I had acquired up to that point in my various classes, I again made a commitment to myself: I decided that I was going to do 61 faces in 61 days. I participated in a Facebook group called ICAD: Index Card a Day and guess what! I did it! – For more information on this and the wonderful Tammy Garcia who hosts that challenge, click on the 61 Faces button at the top –

I’ll get back to all that later because right now, I’m not really feeling like I’m starting this year as I mean to go on. I’m battling this crummy website, getting product ordered for my first show (yikes!) which is now in 11 days, I have a jillion friggin things to do and all I really want to do is get painty, gluey and inky.

So, Happy New Year to all of you from all of the voices in my head and let’s see where this adventure takes us!

 

 

Welcome to my journey as a mixed media artist!

This is a brand new adventure for me. Any comments, suggestions and ideas are greatly appreciated as I bumble my way down this road.

Seven short weeks ago, I had a vague plan about setting up an Etsy shop in the first quarter of this year and then I ran into a dear artist friend with whom I hadn’t been in touch for four years. As only this particular friend can do, she made me rip that band-aide off and here I am with my art being printed and my first foray into public in 12 days.

Be gentle with me as I figure out this website, Instagram and all the other bits and pieces.

Happy New Year! It’s going to be a wild ride!

Hugs,
Julia

Jan 1, 2019

Categories: In the Beginning