Work In Progress #1

My students often ask, " What kind of art do you make at home?" I am tempted to rant sarcastically, " Well, after a full day of teaching you lovely adolescents, I have a few hours at home before passing out.   What am I doing in those hours to stir my creative juices? After picking up the kids, helping with homework, walking & feeding the dog, picking up the house, throwing in a load of laundry, scrubbing a toilet or two, cooking dinner, cleaning up dinner, putting the kids to bed and folding said laundry, I have no time to crank out some art of my own. But thanks for asking".

Then I take a deep breath and remember I am still creative, I am still an artist at heart. I just need to find time to fit it in. 

I would give anything to stay home from work, send the kids to school and get to some of my projects- just for a week or two. Home alone: no work, no kids? It would be capital G- Glorious. A few weeks like that and I would be creatively satisfied. I could then head back to work revived. Until then, I thought I'd post some ongoing projects that are currently on hold:

Gold Stripe series

Inspiration:

These photos are inspired by the idea of the things and circumstances around me having a 'silver lining'. I am drawn to elements in nature to use as the host to my gold stripe. I recently bought a can of gold spray paint and am quickly realizing I could happily paint everything I own with it. 

Where is this going?

I am in search of my next object to stripe. I am searching for the perfect bunch of bamboo, a cluster of river rocks, and a fresh mound of wet mud. Stay tuned for more...

Fashion Police in the House

I wanted to follow up to my earlier post about Petra and her routine fashion meltdowns. We had a successful shopping spree at Old Navy about a month ago. After reviewing a checklist of articles and quantities she could buy, we piled into the changing room and edited out the unwanted. I was amazed at her maturity. Here we are in the changing room. No tears, thumbs up!

Back at the ranch, we fell back into some crying fits with her morning dressing routine. We soon realized the issue was more about Petra's diversion to the early hour than the clothing selection. Having her choose her clothes the night before is the only way we can function at this point. Here are 3 days worth of her selections. I really think the jewelry is a big motivator. We are currently working on her shoe issues. She seems to think she can wear her black Ugg knock-offs through summer. Oh no you don't. More about this later...