I've had very little time and interested for blogging this past week.  I'm trying to get some new work finished in addition to writing an updated artist statement, all the while a hurricane has been ripping through my brain.  It could be a symptom of the early onset of summery weather we've had the last few days.

For a calming effect, I'll post some photos from an intimate dinner party this past Saturday at the lovely home of lovely friends who live in Kingston, NJ.    

La Conversacion, 2009, oil on canvas, 40 x 32 in.  

Finally, I'm able to post a photo of this painting I recently finished of Jack (on right) and our friend Anibal Rodriguez, both of whom work at the American Museum of Natural History.  My good friend Jessica Nilsen, who is a fantastic photographer, took some images of this work for me, which was not easy since the glare from sections of the painting was overwhelmingly visible.  

Noteworthy Blog

I'd like to mention Joanne Mattera Art Blog because I find it absolutely informative and engaging.  The author, Joanne Mattera, is also an artist.  Check out her weekly posts, "Marketing Mondays," for really useful thoughts, ideas, and helpful tips.    

Houses on the Hills, 2009, acrylic on found plywood, 16 x 7 3/4 in.  

Most recent addition to my Etsy shop.    

If you're an emerging artist like me and you're not sure where to start, you may want to consider getting this book by Heather Darcy Bhandari and Jonathan Melber.  It's available on Amazon and, look at that, it's even gone on sale since I bought it.  

For a thorough review of the book and some other reading suggestions, have a look at this post on Artblog.net.  

What listening to Soundcheck did to me...

Someone's cranky...I tend to disturb Sashi's cat napping now that I work at home.  

Heard a really good Soundcheck piece on NPR this afternoon about the evolution of musicians and how some gain more success and new fans with the freshness of their sound, while others are written off by their faithful followers.  The show focused for awhile on Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, who I've been a fan of for nearly 10 years (feeling my age) so my ears perked up to listen.   You can listen to that piece and the rest of the show here.    

Anyway, I mention it because a few things ran through my mind.  The first - and one I'm not proud of - was that I couldn't help but feel envy that someone in their 30's, my age group, already has a biography written about them.  (Although the author of the biography, Elizabeth Goodman, who was being interviewed on Soundcheck today, mentioned that Marshall was not pleased about having the book written.)  I realize how much Marshall has accomplished in her young life so far with her music, reaching supposed "icon" status, and has indeed lived several lives, recreating herself in persona and in art in order to survive rather than to keep up with trends.  But here it was coming through the radio right when I feel like I'm at a point where I need to figure out who I am creatively and can't quite define that creative persona.  I have an idea, but getting jump-started is the hardest part.  And I feel like it's late - I should have thought of this years ago!  

But of course it isn't late!  I've met so many people at various ages and at various stages of personal discovery, creative or otherwise.  I don't know why there's so much pressure to "make it" while we're still young (however you define "making it" - recognition, awareness, wealth, being affective).  Or maybe it's just me who feels this way...  Time is borrowed and it is quite possibly the most valuable thing a person can have.  And of course you can never get it back after it's lost.  My father died when he was only 38; such a short life.  I think since that's always in the back of my head I'm constantly worrying about losing time - not necessarily worried that I'll die young, but that I will look back and think how quickly it all went by and why didn't I take advantage of all that TIME I had?

I think I had intended to write more about artistic reinvention but there it goes...this entry just evolved into something else.   

Well then, going back to my precious cat, I know she won't be with me forever so I won't stop pestering her while she's cat napping because I want to give her as much petting and love as I can.  I want to honor those in my life while we're still together in this life.  And my goal is to honor myself and the work I will make by trying as much as possible to not waste time.  So today I guess I'm inspired by my cat and Cat Power (hee).                 

Untitled, 2009, ink, acrylic, pastel on paper

One of my latest Rabbit drawings.  The unfortunate incident with this drawing, which I happen to love most so far of this series, is that I needed to spray it with pastel fixative which ended up leaving blotchy markings on the paper.  The scanner also picked up the warped texture of the brown paper, creating ghostly white spots.  I had been thinking of making limited digital prints of the drawing but I'm not sure I love the scanned and printed results so far.  I'll have to play around with it a bit more and may need to move away from using brown kraft paper and back to watercolor paper, which is too bad since I prefer the former.