Painted pages plus a photo....not everyone can draw

I keep trying, but have not yet proven the adage that everyone can draw. One of the iPad photo apps allows one to change a photo into a pencil sketch.  This one is a tree that lives in the great state of Texas. The sketch has been gone over with colored pencils and voila!  I have my own drawing....well, sorta.

Maybe with just a bit more practice and effort I will be able to do this on my own, but in the meantime I can have a great time with my pencils.

The backgrounds shown are acrylic paint scraped and sprayed and manipulated.

Purging...good for the soul, hard on the body

The talk about purging went on long enough.  I finally got to really working hard on clearing out the mess in the studio last week.  The photos on the left side of this collage are the Before.

Looking at the room since finishing, I can hardly remember the mess that greeted me daily. However, the muscle pain from all movements foreign to my decrepit body are reminding me each second that I have overextended myself. No one ever informed me that cleaning required training!

The getting up and down to empty and re-label drawers, the moving of piles of STUFF, the rearranging of the furniture.....all the unusual (to me) movement has required buying stock in the Ibuprofen companies!

In this second collage, the photos on the top are the Before, and those on the bottom the After.

Now there are 5 standing work stations with the drawers below each holding supplies for each specific area.

There is still a lot of fine tuning happening, but so far all seems to be working much more efficiently than before.

More importantly, I do not get sick to my stomach when walking into the room!

All the drawers are labeled and actually hold what the label indicates...well, most of them.

Here is all the stuff....good stuff....that will be going to friends.  Once again, I will have happy friends and that makes me very happy indeed.

One box will be mailed to Leighanna when I get her address....metal stuff.  Michael deMeng's rusty thing from AZ will be handed to him at Art Unraveled.  Many things will go to local people or their relatives.

The rest will be driven over to the local Goodwill Store.

Time for a nap!  Have a great week everyone!!  Go to the studio and make art.

Never-ending........or stagnant?

This Never-ending Book from a class with Albie Smith could be considered to be somewhat mislabeled.

True, it can be never ending. Pages can be added forever making a long, serpentine book.

However, if one quits adding pages, it is done. 

It will stay as it is, the same, stagnant. 

Nice to look at, perhaps, but no longer changing, growing.....a death of sorts.

Pleasant enough, but still, left alone,  and getting dusty.

Life is like that.  Change, grow.....or slowly die.

Thank goodness for art and art retreats!! Keep on going and growing, guys!