Water Drop Charm

Water Drop Charm

felt, cotton, embroidery floss, silvertone jump ring

99/100 in 100 days creative challenge

This is a charm that I whipped up. My mermaid was the inspiration. A drop of water from that ocean. Whatever ocean you're swimming in.

What have I been doing lately?

I'm trying to get back into my writing practice.

It's really hard to build up that kind of habit when you have lost it. When you let life take you away from the discipline, as life so often does.

But this week, I have attempted to take my laptop down into the basement, after the boy has been taken to the school bus, and before I have to go to work, and write.

It hasn't always worked, as other things have gotten in the way and momentary emergencies pop up... but I've made it 3 mornings out of 5, so that's farther along than I was before.

I am getting there.

I don't know that I am going to be able to have that steady writing practice anymore, now that the boy is in school and has an unrelated schedule, and now that I have a job with a different schedule every week.

I have to adjust my writing according to the needs of the day. And some times I miss my writing time. And sometimes I don't get to run off on my own, but have to work while the kids are watching Phinneas and Ferb in the living room and I am sitting at my desk in the corner, fending off requests for gold fish and candy and such and impromptu performances of rock airbands.

But I do what I have to. I keep going. I attempt to revise and am interrupted. I sit down and focus and pound out a chapter. Then go on and do mom duty.

Keep going. Try your best. Don't give up, even if you don't meet your goals every day. Start over. Keep trying. Sit down and start. Sit down and start again. Remember your ultimate goals. Remember to do the things you love. Remember this makes you a happier person. Remember and keep going.

Drop by drop, you fill the ocean.

Mermaid on the Midway, or She Knows Without Knowing

Mermaid Girl on the Midway, or She Knows Without Knowing

Acrylic Paint on Paper, 8"x8"

50/100 in 100 days creative challenge

I've been holding on to this one for a while, but here it is. I really like her.

What do I tell you about her? That I worked on her for so long. That I didn't work on her for even longer. Staring at a half finished painting, wondering what to do. That I asked advice on what to do with her and got advice and still stared at her without painting, wondering if it was the right thing.

In the end, I neither did my first instinct with the piece, which was to put another graphic pattern in the water, with a slightly muted blue, so it wouldn't stand out, nor did I do what the other artist suggested, which was to paint in organic fluid lines to suggest the water, also muted. I decided the pattern would be too busy. And I tried the organic lines and was not satisfied. So in the end, I just did a graded lighter blue to darker blue, with and organic flow between lines. The detail, which I'd planned with the graphic pattern, went instead into the hair flowing about her, which suggests her being underwater, but not obviously. I like the subtleness about it. The way her scales could be a dress. The way her tail is secondary, and could be ignored if you were just looking at the girl.

But like I said, this is not the painting a day kind of project. This is a process that is more extended and involves a lot of staring, considering, thinking, wondering, looking out the window, doing other things, coming back, considering some more. Maybe in a way, all that not painting is a way to get to whatever we already know.

When I was in the midst of painting this picture, I also stumbled across this little cast iron lady and I was compelled to buy her. I mean, come on. A teal mermaid? A requirement.

Oh, and if you're interested in a print of my mermaid, you can get her in my etsy shop, here

The Painted Lady, or You Have Something To Give

The Painted Lady, or You Have Something To Give

Acrylic paint and watercolor pencils on paper

8 1/2" x 8 1/2"

This is a painting that I did a while ago. I forgot to post it. Ooops. I posted a sneak peek once and then I think I got caught up in the drama of packing and moving and just forgot. It was posted over here at Magpie Girl, and then I just plum forgot.

So here she is.

She seems so gentle to me, although usually, a tatooed girl would be seen as tough or strange or counterculture.

But maybe not posting her was okay. I've finally gotten prints of her up in my shop, along with some older work, and some even newer, never seen before, work that you have to go over there to see. Oh, how sneaky of me.

Not only that, but the extra day gives me time to get my butterfly tutorial together. Stay tuned.