Lots to Say

Okay.... So much to say. I may have to write a couple of blogs today to get it all in. For some reason my computer won't let me rearrange these pictures, so just browse through them to get the progression. I am really excited with how fast the painting is coming together. I did all of this in about 6 hrs, which is really fast for me. I am really happy with how the figures are popping off the canvas. I am really liking the stamping better now that it seems to make the figures stand out more. Hopefully I will be able to have this one done by next week. I can dream right....

My sweet Stella is getting spayed today. Poor kid. I really hope that this takes some of her aggression out of her. That may be a pipe dream. She has so much energy and is just wild sometimes. I am trying to train her, but I feel so clueless. I haven't ever trained a dog before, and apparently I'm not so good at it. 

This is a pic of when I brought Stella home back in March. My how she has grown. 
I decided to put a reminder picture of what I am working from on my painting.


I started School once again this past week. This is my last year and honestly I can't wait for it to be over. This year is going to be so hard. I don't have that many classes, but the ones I do have are very demanding in every sense of the word. I have a hard time with enjoying the present. I'm always looking to the future and longing for what's next. I want to be working as an artist full time. I don't want to be making art for a grade and I don't want to be working in a coffee shop. But alas, I am where I am right now. I am trying to learn to be where I am, to love the Lord, to praise him, to grow in him in the now. It's hard to remember sometimes that God has me right where I am because he has my good and his glory in mind. It seems like I learn this lesson all the time...anyone else? If you know me at all, you know how scatterbrained I am. It's bad. Thank the Lord for my planner, I would be lost without it. I have written down all of my projects and papers due throughout the next 4 months and it is daunting. I have so much to get done. Life is so busy and I know that something in my life is going to suffer....currently it's my social life....I hardly ever see anyone. I hate that. I feel stretched at every end. I have so much to do and just enough time to get it done. And you say...isn't that a good thing? Well, sort of, but it doesn't leave any time to rest. Well, I think that's enough complaining for one day. I really do think that this semester is going to be good. I'm very excited about the artwork I'm making over the next few months. I am also excited about what the Lord will teach me throughout this year. 

P.S. I just did spell check on my blog....no misspells....it's a miracle!

New Painting

Oh yes...is there anything I really need to say here? My first self portrait done in a painting. I think it was quite appropriate that I chose to depict me in 80's fashion, since I am in fact a child of 80's. And the fact that I look absolutely ridiculous here makes it so much better. I actually finished this painting very quickly, in about 8hrs. This may seem like a long time, but I normally spend at least 20hrs per painting. I would have done much more detail work on this painting if I could have, but I am still very pleased with how it turned out.Kathryn and I with my ridiculous portrait.
We had my Dad and Sister at our house this weekend. We had Chuck, Ginger, Ruby, John, and Phillip over for dinner on Sat night. It was so much fun and the food was delicious. Above is a picture of Dad and John...I think they dressed to match.

Suzanne and Ginger

Kathryn, Me, Phillip
Me, Phillip, Suzanne
And after dinner, Ahhhhh.....Hammock Time. So very nice.
Well, it was until Phillip and I fell out of the Hammock. We all had a good laugh over that one.

What Now?

So life if busy, to say the least. I am working two jobs, leading a home group, serving at the church, working on two paintings, dating, trying to have some semblance of a social life with my girl friends, doing recovery at the Village, and keeping my house clean. Busy yes, but manageable. Now comes the problem. I start school in two weeks, and it's going to be a tough semester.  How do I do all that I am doing and add school in there? Well, I have no idea.  I'll be done with recovery at the end of September and I'll have to stop painting for a few months. I may have one job, or two. I'm still working on that one. Either way, I still have to work a lot. 

The Lord has put a desire in my heart to be a working Artist. I have had this desire for a while now, with really no idea of how to achieve that. Over this past year, the Lord has thrown so many opportunities and wisdom and advice my way. It has been so encouraging. So now I know what to do, but where do I find the time to pursue those things? If I do all of it now, like I need to, I may kill myself. But if I wait until after I graduate, I may be homeless.  Which could kind of be cool. I would help my starving artist look and I would have truly suffered, and thus could make magnificent, meaningful art finally....Or something like that. I want to take every opportunity that the Lord has provided for me. I want to chase the desires of my heart. But at the sacrifice of what?

Well kids, here is the moral of this story is that I have to choose between good things and necessary things. There will be much prayer in this decision as well as a lot of seeking the Lord's face to find out his will in this.  I admit that I have no idea how to deal with this. I need to Lord. I need him to show me his will, to guide me here. I am praying that he will make those things clear to me. I would appreciate your prayers in this. Thanks for listening.

Oh and I will be posting more picture of the paintings I am working on as soon as I have a free minute at home when I'm not sleeping.

Finally an Update

I am again sorry that I have left you to wonder what my painting must look like now. I have been painting when I can. But mostly I have been crazy busy. Every time I could use Suzanne's computer to upload pics, I was gone. Every time I was home to upload pics, she was working on her computer. It kinda put a kink in things. So I am now staying up late to update you. You should feel very special...because I am tired.
Okay... So here starts the new progression. I'm not going to explain all of these. Pretty self explanatory I think.





There it is. I know it's kind of freaky just having a floating head there and all. I have to finish the stamping before I can do anymore of the painting, because the stamp overlaps onto the canvas I need to paint. So I have to be able to paint over the stamps for it to make sense. I am liking the stamping more now. I think I may cover all the color and just do black and white now. Still working on the idea, but I'm very happy that it may be salvageable. I am so thrilled with how well the face turned out. Every time I sat down to paint I was frustrated at the way a certain feature ended up. But as always, I left it as it was to look at later. I still can't believe that I painted this. God is so good to give me the ability to do this. I am always so blown away by it. I am really excited to get more done. Hopefully I will have a lot of time to paint this weekend, but the weekend is already filling up. I need a vacation! Anyways, let me know what you think. I love getting the feedback.

Sorry I Left You Hanging

So sorry I left you hanging on the painting. I have done alot of work on it in the past few days, but have not had the chance to upload picutres and blog. Life has been incredibly busy lately.
So here is update pic #1. I put in the background, with the help of my lovely friend Shaina, a pattern. Yes, it is a paper pattern. I have been using these a lot in my art lately, and I LOVE them. They give color, design, direction, and interest with very little work. I simly put clear gesso on the areas that I wanted the pattern to stick. Then I stuck the pattern to the canvas, trimmed the edges and put more clear gesso on top of it to keep it from ripping anywhere.


So I started on the face. It is still prett rough and needs so much more work, but I'm excited to see where it's going. I have been told many times that when you paint a face there should be blues, greens, purples, reds, yellows, and skin tones. I have yet to figure out how to do this. But I am going to give it a shot in this painting. I am going to put colored glazes over the face after I have done all of the skin tones. Hopefully I don't ruin the whole thing by doing so. We will see.
Gotta love experimentation.
Here is a close up of the face.
Okay, now for the fun part. I made stamps, then stamped the canvas. I still don't know if I like it. I have put black over all of the colors except the white and red. The plan right now is to stamp the entire back ground. I'm still not sure what the pattern will be, or what colors will show up. So many options. I really don't like it right now, but I think I can salvage it.
Here is a close up of the stamps that I made and stamed onto the canvas. You can also see the pattern paper better.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Oh To Create

I am working on a new painting right now. It feels so good to be working on a new piece. I decided that instead of finishing the whole thing, I would update you on my progress as I work. I know that this may irritate some of you, like Suzanne. If that is the case, I am very sorry. Just don't look as my blog for the next couple of weeks until I am done.

Here is the image that I am painting from. Below is the first day's progress. All together I think I worked for about 2or 3 hours, but a lot of that is setting up. I probably only painted for about 1 1/2 hrs.

These are pictures of me in my class in South Dakota a couple of weeks ago.

Here is the first piece that I carved and printed. I think I spent about 1 hr carving this plate.
This is the second piece that I carved and printed. I spent about 8 to 10 hrs carving this one.
Here is the sketchbook that I made. I am so proud of this! I cut and sewed and glued all of this myself. So cool..... Awesome.

Practice Husband

So I have fears about marriage. Shocking I know...

I worry about things like, what if I get married and it goes totally wrong and my husband becomes a drug adict?

What if after being married for a while we just get bored of each other?

What if the guy I marry is a terrible leader and I struggle with being submissive?

Dear Lord...What if one of us commits adultery? Yikes

Some of these are irrational, maybe. Some of them I think are legitimate. These aren't all of them. I'm sure I could come up with a very extensive list. 

But the Lord in his infinite wisdom decided to give me a Practice Husband to dispel some of my fears. And to teach me how to fight well and seek the Lord to heal my wicked heart, instead of trying to fix the other person. Easier said than done!

So my Practice Husband just happens to be my sister, Suzanne. We live in a little house that we love. It's just the two of us. We couldn't be more different, and growing up we never got along. We used to wake up fist fighting when we shared a bed at a young age. I am the artist, disorganized, messy, procrastinator, terrible at cleaning and budgeting, and I am very emotional. Suzanne is the type A, organized, get things done, planner, and is very practical, not very emotional. I know you may be having a tough time imagining the issues that might arise between the two of us, but I promise you we have had our differences. 

We moved in together and had our nice honeymoon period. We got along, talked all the time, and never fought. That was nice, but quickly ended. We soon discovered our differences in personality, cleanliness, and the different things that really bother us. We fought for a good 3 months straight at least. We are both in Recovery at the Village after all of it. We very glaringly saw our flaws and our need to draw close to the Lord to be healed. We both had to learn to deal with each other with grace, love, patience, and servant's hearts. It's been a hard road, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We still have our differences, arguments, and frustrations, but we know how to deal with each other well. We now have a blast living together. I'm always excited to get home to hang out with Suzanne. We have more and more fun every day. It's so beautiful to see the relationship that God has blessed us with. It has given me a deep confidence in the Lord to bless me with an awesome Husband and a great relationship. One where we enjoy each other more all the time. 

So moral of the story... have a Practice Husband!  They are fantastic.