DATE: 06/26/2008 23:01:09 / MOOD: full of life

You know what a good cure is for a artist in danger of entering the dysfunctional zone?  A happy art client!  And...two more jobs not related to the happy art client!  And...the end of months of rain!  And...the start of an awesome vacation with the kids!  And...my not having to get a grade on this blog! 

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DATE: 06/04/2008 23:22:04 / MOOD: disappointed

I stuck out a 32 foot mural out in my yard, and so far, I had one person get the nerve to pull up and come into my studio.  He offered to pay me $500 for a highly detailed mural, even longer than the one I had...and he thought he was being generous.  Now, I would say this man was ignorant about art and artists, but I think he thought I was that deperate for a job!  When I said that I would charge $2,500 for a mural 7 feet high and 34 feet long, his mouth dropped open liked I slapped him.  He mumbled that he would have to confer with his wife.  Am I a meanie?  Do I come across wrong?  Just because I scalped him...does that mean I have an anger management problem, poohops?  I must be madder than a mutt at a cat farm.  Maybe I am just nuts for putting out something like an outdoor mural here!  I do have plenty of portrait work...but that only butters the bread...the meat is missing off the plate.  Now, my friends and acquaintances go on and on about my lovely mural, and my lovely studio, but no one seems interested in a mural around here.  I have done oodles of portraits for many in this area, but work is clamping down even for that...so it is very unlikely that I will really get any work any time soon that will really keep me busy.  Listen to me howl at the moon like my part husky/ part border collie dog.  Actually, she howls with sirens...and they are  coming to take me away! Heheh...just kidding! No, I'm shrugging my shoulders and will just keep on keeping on...I am so glad that I am alive and can see and feel the summer breeze...I don't take life for granted, job or no job!  God bless you for those who care!

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DATE: 06/02/2008 10:16:33 / MOOD: full of life

I'm sorry that I haven't been sharing my pearls of wisdom here lately, but I've been detained...more than that, I've been arrested.  I have had arrested development this last couple weeks that goes beyond the norm.

Besides passing of the gas, and forgive me if you haven't a clue of what I am talking about, I have been stopped (arrested) from contributing art to this art community.  It isn't because I don't want to, it is because I am doing personal commissioned jobs that prevent my from entering the finished products in this public forum.  I am also working on the "practice painting" for a competition mural contest.  I haven't forgotten you!  I will lessen the load of the silence between us by submitting this blog and giving you a sense of peace that you are you and you are so very glad that you are not me!  LOL!  I sit here in silence, for the most part, still admiring the majority () of my fellow artist's works...keep them coming because they make my day!  OOOO Yes, and please keep communicating with me on my page.  Not only does it brighten my lonely day (because I work in my studio by myself), it also puts a couple points in my star pocket on my personal page, and those points help bring up my Miss Manners to a more acceptable level. It also helps reduce the trauma residue of not receiving too many stars on my school papers as a youngster. 

Laughlines

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DATE: 05/09/2008 11:19:36 / MOOD: in love

I am about to embark on a journey of intrique and mystery, I think.  I say I think, because I have a mural to design, and after that, three more!  The jobs are reproducing like rabbits, but they stand in the "IF things work out" category.  The first mural job was an invite to a limited competition for a mural design to be developed as one of many for Newton County Tourism Committee.  There are 2 other artists in this 4 state region that were also invited to participate.  If I don't win the prelimary design, I don't do the large mural...that is the first "IF."  The second "IF" is a job in my hometown up north...I will have the job, IF I can make it up there this summer...because...I have another mural job...a good one...to design a large historic mural depicting stages of events for a company that used to own the building (A block large...it is huge) but donated it to a crisis center.  It's a "IF" only in when I can begin on it...everything is under construction and everything will be all new when it is said and done.  The timing coming available for me to work on it may really "suck", as my big-mouthed teenager would say.  My last "IF" is another competition, that I won already, but it is up to the school board if they prefer to install my mural this year or not....so, my dear people....AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAURGH!  wHY in the name of Betty Boop can I NOT have job consistency?  It is:  Hurry Up and Wait...then, Pow!!!!  Now, everything is going to hit me all at once.  And, oy!  Since I put up my advertising murals...I've been getting quite a few jobs...now guess....doing more murals?  NO...that's illogical thinking my friend....I am getting portrait jobs...again.  And again.  And again!  God bless the working people of America!  Laughlines signing out!

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DATE: 04/28/2008 16:07:34 / MOOD: in love

I've sunk to the bottom of despair's deep well, and people think that my brain stem's swelled....and my mind has cracked and gone to hell.  BUT...

A ray of sun broke through the mist, of acid reflux and sour fizz.  I've been asked to do for moola moo..some mural jobs, one and two  AND...

I won't be in shrouds of drowning fog...I've got a job, I've got a job!  Bless my canvases, you homely DAWG! Bye!

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DATE: 04/26/2008 14:59:59 / MOOD: full of life

I have so many kind hearted people compliment me on my work...but that isn't going to help me, besides stoke my ego.  What I need is for professional artists, (such as who are involved with this wonderful online art community) to freely give me critique on anything off you see in my work.  I need expert dissing, stressing, messing, but no dismissing...because I need to know what it is about my work that...er...sucks.  And please don't say that I'm talented and can make money...because I can't seem to impress the "right" people...even if I am not present to  embarrass myself in some obscure way as I pose as a professional artist.  Sooooooooooo....

 Please put down what YOU DON'T LIKE...what strikes you wrong...be blunt.  Remember...I raised 7 children, and 6 of them are now teenagers or adults...I think I can handle professional criticism.  In fact, I appreciate it.  I don't mean I like being tortured...I mean that I like to get my eyes open to the way others see my work.  Thank you, thank you and thank you...and God bless.

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DATE: 04/23/2008 08:15:20 / MOOD: angry

This is an open door to understand one artist's personal mental illness.  Do not read between the lines, don't pencil in your own labels...we don't want to be too graphic.

Self examination points out to certain causes that may be contributing factors to a confused state-of-mind. 

We are supposed to be a nation that loves our children, but we are destroying the very innocence of even the youngest because of the horrible intrusion of perversion through all the media.  Worse, we, as a nation, vow to maintain the constant mudslide of filth because we claim that it is our individual rights and freedom if we make efforts to control the flow.  Please note that the arts are the loudest proponents of protecting porn and poo.

What is bad is good, and what is good is bad.

Freak'n stoooooopud studies of things that don't even matter.  (Example:  Staying awake prevents good sleep, study shows). 

We are living better than the royalty of all history gone past, but we are lazy, apathetic, and entertainment driven, if one believes the constant negative drivel of the "news" media.  We complain a lot too. On the other hand, we have many creative individuals who have to climb uphill all the way just to contribute to a society that is rapidly loosing what is once was called common sense.  There is less time wasted caring for the individual. What a loss of so many human potentials.

Commercials are so annoying, that a true blessing would be a flung combat boot through the plasma tv screen!

Measles, mumps, chicken pox and whooping cough are all making a comeback, even though we had to listen for years and years and years about the astounding advances of medicine.  A dang virus or bacteria outwits the smartest scientist. Hey...have you noticed?  We still have cancer and heart disease!  What's that, you say?  Well!  Money is constantly being sought out for drug companies whose main focus is to continue to raise funds for their own favored disease...why seek a cure?

We uphold the arts in theory, but we are overstimulated visually, and the need for artists are non-existant unless you are one of the few who can land in mass-production land, paired to a photo or art "program" on computer.

 People hate negative people, but fail to realize that everything is on the negative.  Our family breakdown, our pagan and somewhat criminal culture, our dip-diving economy, our gas, our gas on the stomach, the loss of self.

 The intense anger reaction when God is mentioned.  Our only hope and cure is hated.

 Now you may understand a few of my mental illness stimuli.  I hope you can understand with compassion that this mental illness is shared by the majority even though realization isn't apparent.  Now, I am finished with the whine.   Please don't despise me.  Truth is hated more than the Lie.

 

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DATE: 04/20/2008 22:33:04 / MOOD: other

I am never satisfied with myself.  I like a few things I have created, but I soon have an empty feeling...like...it exists in space but lacks creative sense or purpose.  It could be a drawing that really grabs me while I am working on it...but after it is done...it's just another piece of paper to be framed or matted and ignored.  I know that I'm one of millions of creative people who walk the planet.  I know I inhabit a small space on God's green earth and I am so happy that I am alive and art is secondary and my teeth are still in my head.  But...that art thing.   Auuuughhhh!   Really...there is nothing new under the sun.  The superficial will pass away, but I still inhabit this body in material space and time, and I am stuck with this brain.  There will always be someone more gifted, smarter, better looking (excuse me while I giggle here), godly, or whatever.  I am...not there yet.  I am not competing with anyone but myself...so understand that part of it.  And, generally speaking, people seem to want to  define me as a person by what I do with my hands, so it does bother me if I have an "off" day.  Life isn't all about what one's hands can do...but there are very few safe outs for me to indulge in without worries, so...YES! I want to be a "better" artist. Hahaha....yesth, dear, I wants to be bedder.   Enough about me.  I want to know about your feelings.   Are you there yet?  That's the main question I would love for you to entertain, if ever so briefly!  Please honor me by sharing your thoughts here.  Are you pleased with your level of artistic achievement...your own creativity...the work of your hands?  I would really love for artists from all walks of life and interests to respond.   

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DATE: 04/12/2008 19:22:51 / MOOD: full of life

Okay, this is my first blog...ever.  When I blog I will say excuse me!  Now to the matter at hand...

 I grew up within the blue collar structure where a person presented him or herself upfront, no matter the consequences.  Imagine my horror, when I discovered that my provincial talent and personality did not mesh well with the intellectual artists that empowered the art movement in my hometown.  I discovered, while I traveled through several states selling art in my early 20's...that there was a way of selling art that rose above the actual purchase of the piece.  I had to literally sell myself in order to sell a picture to the more "sophisticated" art patrons.  I felt like I was cheating them and myself with artistic talk that sounded like the after effects of a thunder boom in the heavens...just a lingering sound of fading noises.  A lot of emptiness after the big bang.  So...here I fast forward to today...I am grounded in one town, still provincial and naive by choice, surrounded by a few dominating artists who play the game with force...the powerfully creative empty words to sound important and above the average...with art that is secretly understood by the few, the proud, the arrogant.  I can't play that scene.  They tried to get me in the fold, and I folded...I just can't play the game, and now I have been ousted like an artistic cancer!  I am treated nicely, but not equally.  Hmmmm.  Now be honest.  Or don't respond.  Is it necessary to put on the "creative facade" when selling your art?  Do you play with the stereotypes of the "I draw outside of the lines" artist...by dress, habit and speech?  Do you think I'm imagining all of this?  I would say that the artists I have known in my life (and I belonged to a large city guild at one time) are divided down the middle as far as the image they want to portray to their art customers, and even towards their peer group.  A small percentage, I believe, are actually inclined to be outer-spacey and out there with the jargon .  Some are normal although they can joke and understand the more unusual abstract thinking patterns of some of their artist friends.  And then there are what irritates me...the fake artsy types that ruin the rest of the other artist's reputations for being way out there in order to falsely sell their art... usually the type that we can call untalented but open to interpretation. Tell me...how do you present yourself?  Do you speak plainly or are you even forced to talk above the concrete-thinker's head, hoping to impress them into a sale.  Worse yet, have you put on the act to impress a gallery owner or a collector?  This is just for fun now!

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