WHAT IS AN ARTIST?

Last night I had an art exhibit at one of the Country Clubs in the area. It was open "only" to residents of the area. There were about 40 artist that exhibited there. MOST of them were friends and also most of them painted realistically.I happen to NOT know any of them. I had a conversation with another artist and she told me she ALSO used to paint with acrylics, but had found out, that to be a true artist you must paint with oil! This got my mind reeling!!! WHAT IS AN ARTIST??? According to the dictionary -one who create works of art.... WHAT IS ART??Human effort to imitate,supplement, alter or counteract the work of nature. SOOO... in a sense EVERYONE is an artist. If we are painters, jewelry smiths, sculptures, writers ,decorators ...in everything we do in some way is by definition ART!!! I at first felt inferior when I entered this arena of artists...but I truly love what I paint and enjoy doing it. If we ALL painted realistically then this truly would be a boring art world. So I go ahead...full-force and continue to fulfill my passion and I know that there is a place for me - an ARTIST - in the ART WORLD!!!

WOW!!!

WOW!!! What a great last few weeks. I have accomplished so much in the ART WORLD!!! I finished another painting, this one of a LAB. I also completed my grand-daughters Easter dress, which I smocked on white pique fabric. I smocked it in pale green and lavender. I also made a lavender slip to line it. Not sure what to do next. May start another dress and definetly will start another painting. Maybe.... another dog, but maybe another flower framed out of old baseboard. These have sold quite well for me. I pray that these creative juices keep on flowing!!!!!

PUG!!!

Finished my first painting in a new series I am going to be doing. Hope to get at LEAST 10 dog paintings done by the Christmas shows......This one is called PUG . It was a lot of fun to paint because it happens to be MY dog, Pudgy. It is 24 X 30 and is for sale. $ 400.00 + tax

Spent a wonderful afternoon at the Speed Art Museum looking at the new exhibit. The painting of Impressionism Era. It was amazing to see the different artists styles and colors. Made we want to go back to the Metropolitan Museum and spends HOURS again. To be able to paint like them would be amazing. Also, went through the museum gift shop and got some GREAT ideas for a few new things for my art shows coming up. NOW, my brain is going in all kind of directions.....NEED to focus. Almost finished with a new painting - new series of dogs- I really like this first one and am anxious to do more. Also, in the middles of smocking my granddaughter her first Easter dress. Also , have some ideas for some cute pillows and jewelry ideas. TOO bad I can't work on art 24/7. Well - for tonight I am going to try to focus on finishing my painting .

Well, it has been a little over a week since my last posting. WOW how quickly life changes. In this past week I have sat by my moms bed in hospice while she lived her last days, watch mom pass away and plan a funeral with my brothers. My mom happened to leave us the instructions for her funeral , so she made it quite easy for us. As I was in Atlanta this week, thinking back over my childhood, going through pictures and memorabilia I realized how MANY things I learned from my mom. From learning to sew, quilt and my love of COLOR. I will always remember the week she let me skip school and stay home with her "quilting bee" and work on a quilt. Thank goodness, I still have that quilt. It will always be important to me. I hope to be able to pass these same things on to my grandchildren.

"Creativity is an act of faith and we must be faithful to that faith, willing to share it to help 0thers, and to be helped in return."

-Julia Cameron

Life

After spending a wonderful weekend at my daughters , with our new grand-daughter, Lila I was called to Atlanta to spend the last bit of time with my mom. It has really opened my eyes to how precious life is , and how we go out of our life almost as we come in. My grand-daughter is so precious and cannot do anything by herself. Sleeps most of the day and relies on someone to feed her and dress her. The same with my mom, who is now in hospice and living her last hours with her family by her side. She too depends on us for everything.. She is as helpless as an infant. I pray that she will soon make up her mind she is ready. Not sure what is going on in her mind, i'm sure she is ordering things in her mind trying to get everything JUST SO before she leaves.I know dad is waiting on her to get there and is saying like her used to "come on Jo lets go, everything is fine". I am so thankful for my mom, my love for being artsy I got from her. She taught me to sew and do crafts, and be able to make beautiful things out of almost anything. Thank you mom for this wonderful outlet you have given me.