being in a different space... can make you feel like a different person. for a little while you get to walk in someone else's shoes... and you start to understand them a little more... and yourself as well. i always feel so healthy when i stay in hotels. the fluffed pillows... fresh sheets.... more towels than i know what to do with... and none of my own life to muddy it up. i am on week 2 of my mini-dogsitting-break.... i have painted more this week than i have in months... i have explored new places.... met a couple new people... swam before work... reading after work.... it has been... on the whole... a vacation. a working vacation.... but a chance to look at myself without the habits, however small, that are associated with my residence. and on that note... here's some new stuff... finishing submissions for the RED show tonight~

i am feeling wordy today... but i also wanted to share this... the first time i heard it i think my heart actually stopped beating... there's no question that it is a beautifully sad love song... but for me... it is a love song to myself... a reminder that if there is something i am wishing for... i can have it 

Don't say it's over
Cause that's the worst news I could hear I swear that I will 
Do my best to be here just the way you like it
Even though its hard to hide
Push my feelings all aside
I will rearrange my plans and change for you

If I could go back 
That's the first thing I would do I swear that I would
Do my best to folow through 
Come up with a master plan
A homerun hit, a winning stand
A gaurantee and not a promise
That I'll never let your love slip from my hands

If it's the beaches 
If it's the beaches' sands you want
Then you will have them
If it's the mountains' bending rivers
Then you will have them
If it's the wish to run away 
Then I will grant it
Take whatever what you think of
While I go gas up the truck
Pack the old love letters up
We will read them when we forget why we left here 

it's funny how singing the beach boys acapella at the top of your lungs at 3 in the morning can clear out more than your throat... sometimes people become zombies... trudging through their daily routines... not noticing much... not taking much in... not giving anything back... not building... but too dead to destroy anything either... my life has felt like that for many months... and i didn't even realize that's what was happening to me... it was a long stint of the blahs... but something shifted in me this past month... and it's as if my senses are back... only stronger than before... i am having so much fun with my art again and finding new ideas that seem so obvious to me now... as if they've been there all along... new people have come into my life... new ways of thinking.
i went to the heart of the beast a couple of weeks ago for a puppet show... saturday mornings they have a 10am and noon show ... geared towards children... but so much fun for myself and the other adults there. i sat there... watching... laughing... my eyes as wide as they could go. and i realized that this place had been just a mile or so from me for years. i never knew about these shows. how could something so good for me, be right there all along. afterward i was lucky enough to tour the storage rooms at the theater! i felt like a kid in a candy store... worktables, paints, fabrics, string, sunlight pouring in off the street. and then, thousands upon thousands of puppets... years worth of puppets in every color, shape and size... and i almost wanted to cry. all the love and time that went into making these works of art... works of art that were used in a parade or a puppet show, and now sat quietly... collecting dust, waiting to maybe be called upon again one day... and then i thought of how beautiful a thing that was... to create art for the moment. the puppets are all about the stage. the performance. that makes the elaborate nature of them even more special in my mind. someone builds a serpent, or a wolf, or an giant moon... they dirty their hands, sacrifice their time and money... they sculpt and paint and adorn with fabric...and then it is sent out into the world... briefly... and that's it. it made me think about my own life. was i putting my time to good use. was i wasting my energy on things and people that don't matter to me. it's not like i haven't asked myself these questions before... but like i said... something shifted a few months ago... and i haven't been myself. it made me think that i have been wasting time. and just like the puppets... i don't have much time. and there is a lot i want to do while i am on stage. 

the video below really inspired me, he's a minnesota native... and this is him painting on acetate with back lighting.... it played into my recent thoughts about time and living for NOW. because he does his work as a performance piece. there's a short bio video below the music video.

today i am working on my submissions for a show opening February 11th @ Studio 204
the theme of the show is RED... and I am certainly in a red mood ~

everywhere i look i see the things in life that are beautiful... it's as if everything is dancing around me today... and i have a smile so wide it may extend beyond the borders of my face... art + music = happiness

i can't get this song out of my head today.... i think it's very romantic... in a scary way.... kind of like sleepwalk... also one of my favorite love songs

forgot one...also, just uploaded new stuff to the peanut gallery.... :) so, check it out

i'm having a lot of fun playing around with water colors.... i had some great news last night... but i have to keep it a secret ... until i know more :)

i bought myself new markers today... i realized i haven't had a real set of markers (unless you count the 8 pack of scented markers.... ) in a very very long time.... it's gonna be interesting trying to remember how they work

Picasso was in a park when a woman approached him and asked him to draw a portrait of her. Picasso agreed and quickly sketches her.
After handing the sketch to her, she is pleased with the likeness and asks how much she owed to him. 
Picasso replies: "$5,000."

The woman screamed, "But it took you only five minutes."

"No, madam, it took me all my life" replied Picasso. 

Check out the most recent addition to my website... I have opened a new section called "The Peanut Gallery".... everything is priced very low... and includes some of my sketches and photography... people have been asking for prints of some of my pieces... but I am not offering them quite yet... I am however, in the Peanut Gallery... selling prints of my photography as well as the opportunity to order things like mugs etc with my paintings on them... more of that to come... check back frequently for new items!!!

a few more pieces i've been working on for the current project.... i have a great idea for a fun promotion.... and i will post more about that soon...