Brandy's Batman Hair Gel Lesson

Just a quick note:

Today I saw Brandy's link on Kat's blog for the "Rockin' Girl Blogger" award and went to visit. Of course I see the post that most describes me right now! I haven't bought my good moisturizer in 2 years, new make-up (except for mascara, which was an emergency because I couldn't scrape any more dry, crusty, gunk out of the tube last month!) in 3 years, and I desperately need new shoes for daily use. As I looked at the beginning of crows feet on my eyes the other day I was feeling very, very sorry for myself. However, after reading her blog I had the (overdue?) revelation that no one has actually forced these sacrifices on me, I have just nobly (rolls eyes...oh, please!) ignored my own needs. I think I may be lucky that no one has slapped me up-side the head and told me to "snap out of it!"

Speaking of Brandies (different Brandie) - have you seen Somerset Studio's new mag "Artful Blogging?" She's in it! I'm loving the magazine, too. I like reading about what motivates other people to blog. It kind of makes me want to submit my blog experience, but I feel like I should have more and better art first.

Speaking of art. Since I am woefully low in altered art pieces, I thought I would post pictures of a couple of old oil paintings. There they are on the left and above left. The first one is a detail of a painting I did for my sister after she fought back and scared away a couple of home invaders (don't ask - I nearly passed out from fright for her just hearing about it afterwards. I've never been so scared in my life.) Anyway, I was so proud of her that I decided to paint her as a boxer. This painting looks nothing like her. I modeled it on a photo I found online of a girl boxer. Somehow I ended up melding the two heads (that photo and one of my sister) and the result is this. I kind of like it in a primitive-folk art-sort-of-way...and I kind of don't like it at all. I actually took it back from my sister about a year ago so that I could "fix" it - but I'm not sure what to do! My painting teacher told me to bring it in and she'd help me, but I'm sort of embarrassed. I don't know.

The second painting is a detail of a little 12" x 12" that I did in a painting class about 4 years ago or so. This one I like, it looks better when you see the whole painting in person. A friend and her husband wanted to buy it, but since it's the only painting I've been satisfied with I couldn't give it up! They're moving away next year, though, so I may just give it to them. We'll see.

My painting class has been on hiatus for months. I really miss it. I love, love, love painting and I can only do it if I'm taking a class. This house is just too small for it. Too small and too chock full of stuff. There's nowhere to store a wet painting and nowhere to store a palette of paint - unlike with acrylics, oil stays wet for quite some time and I hate to throw out perfectly good paint. I'm hoping that this new cabinet we're going to build will have enough room for painting and paint storage. Not to mention canvas storage. I have about 10 large canvases - brand new - that I bought at Aaron Bro's 2 for 1 sale with my Christmas gift certificates. It's really called their 1 cent sale - buy one get another for one cent. It's the most fabulous sale if you buy canvases. Keep an eye out right after New Year's and right around the 4th of July.

P.S. I've tried to fix the spacing on this entry 10 times! This has happened before, too. I think blogspot is fond of ginormous paragraphs...