coffee please......

It's a ritual. Morning coffee. Steaming hot cups of coffee brewed the way we like it. Our coffee tastes have evolved and we find that we are pretty sure we like it a certain way. The coffee makers we have used over the years include Mr. Coffee types, drip coffee makers, toddy coffee makers, espresso machines (almost had one plumbed into our house at one point) and our standby, the French press. We even traveled with a little french press and our own beans for a few years. We've tried countless coffee brands also. Well we do live in Starbuck's country where the coffee wars are fierce! For the past year we have used our standby french press and a store brand french roast, roasted by Starbuck's. One morning last week the glass carafe to the french press cracked! UGH! So off I went to explore new options. I roamed the internet, journeyed to kitchen stores and asked a bazillion questions. Finally I settled on this:



A Cuisinart automatic. It grinds the beans and keeps the coffee hot in a thermal carafe after it is finished brewing. We have had it a couple of days and I think I hit the right proportions this morning. The coffee is good and stays fresh in its carafe so that the last cup is as hot as the first. So we are happy again.

UPDATE: For those of you following the ever changing painting in the last two posts, here is the latest evolution. It has been in the house drying and I find it really speaks to me at this point. I don't feel a need to drag it back to my workspace.

process continued......

People ask me alot of questions about my process and I always find it a bit difficult to articulate. I'm not a conceptual artist. I work in a very free and intuitive way. What seems good one day? can completely change the next day! I have just gone through one of those very changeable work sequences and I thought rather then try to explain how it works for me, I could show the process. The last post showed a painting that I finished! I was pretty happy with it. I brought it into the house to dry and allow me to live with it awhile. The next day I found that it really didn't feel right, so I took it back to the studio and started working. This first photo is the start of reworking it.



This next pic is the next day of reworking.


Each time I work, I find things I like and things I don't like. Then what I wait for begins to happen. I fall into a zone that is so fun. I'm totally caught up in the process. It can last a short time or hours. Yesterday I was in that zone. This is what the painting looked like when I had to quit.


It is now in the house again. I'm not finished with it. I know where I want to go with it. I don't think this is better or worse then the very first rendition. I only have a few paintings that I feel are finished. This is how I work. I enjoy the work always more then the product. What the product is for me is a visual diary of the journey I took. To be continued I'm sure........:)

first day of spring.....

Finally - the first official day of Spring - It is actually a sunny day here, but the wind is fierce - I hope I can finish this post without the power going out! I have been working in the studio all week - a bit each day - nothing finished to show, but some things are running up on the end. The first piece is how my 'brush cleaning and pen tester canvas' looked today when I went into work.


I've been showing the progression on my sidebar. I was waiting for some things to dry, so I started to actually paint on it and this is how I left it this afternoon when I had to quit.


This other little picture is a page in a book I started today.



Jo at mystory had a post a while back about a 'quiet book 'she worked in and I haven't been able to put that idea out of my mind. So if the thought persists, then perhaps action is the next step. I found the idea very peaceful. Like all work in these kinds of books/journals, it's just easy playing. An old drawing now surrounded by bits and pieces of my world now. Happy first day of Spring everyone. Have a fabulous weekend!

UPDATE: 03/21/09

I worked on the painting more today and here is how I left it today.

It has to dry and then I have to live with it for awhile before I do the finishing stuff!

UPDATE; 03/22/09

I finished this piece today - I will live with it now until I don't want to do anything else to it.

It's feeling pretty cooked.

muslin........

Here are two little pieces I started last week. They are 5"X5". These are perfect to experiment with my new favorite 'muslin'. I am really enjoying this material and how it accepts paint. First I covered the little canvas pieces with some yellow house paint. I have an abundance of left over interior paint that I use to cover almost any surface I work on.



Then I just started working on the surfaces. Paint, Charcoal, pencil, etc.




Then I added my first pieces of muslin.



Here is how one of the pieces ended up.



and here is a side view.



and here is the second piece.



and the side view.



These were so much fun. I have started a larger piece and am enjoying it immensely. While I'm working and waiting for things to dry, I'm cleaning my studio space. I actually have found two shelves again. I have also started an assemblage piece that is taking shape.

friends........

Well, some days are just better then other days! I'm in my little corner this morning sipping my coffee and doing email and my blog. One of the emails I got was from my blog friend Daryl at on the m104. She asks if I have received my Sephora bag. Huh? Serious?! Daryl was part of a swap thingy on another blog where people were paired up with another person and then they exchanged gift bags. A very cool idea. Well, she was telling me (in an email) what she had sent off to her trade partner and I was all "geez, I would love that! Lucky girl getting that! blah, blah, blah." Well guess what? Daryl had apparently sent me a fabulous little bag from Sephora! Serious! I immediately emailed back to say, no I hadn't received the bag. Then she emailed that the tracking information showed that it had been delivered on the 10th! Oh, no. It would be on our front porch, which we never use to enter the house. I told her I would look immediately and BAM! There was the Fedex package! I ripped it open and here is what I found.


As you can see, I wasted no time in dumping my old makeup bag, filling my new one to the brim and have showed anyone who was in my line of fire today! This was so gracious of you Daryl! It totally made my day, and week, and month! Thank you so much!

Well the good times don't end here. One of my bestest friends, Lisa, went to Mexico for two weeks last month. I gave her a bit of money to buy something fabulous for me. I knew she would out do herself and I was not disappointed. Look at this ring!





It's a fossil. I am still drooling. I would say some days are just better then others!

work in studio

I have been running as fast as I can for the past 4 or 5 days. My play closed on Sunday which has given me back some very precious time. I have been in the studio for the past few days working again and I finished one of the pieces today. Below is the starting point a couple of days ago.



....and then



then I added some muslin strips - my new favorite thing....




and finally this - it is now in the house so I can live with it awhile - then I will make my final decisions....

home.......

Jim and I got home last night. I will not bore you with our little get-away except to say, sun is a very healing balm. I did not take one picture, write one note, think one creative thought - we did absolutely nothing but swim, lay in the sun, nap, eat and then get up and do it all over again! I will say though, travel days are absolutely the thing that does me in - by the time we catch a ferry, dump the car, catch our first shuttle, make our way through security, wait, wait, wait, fly, catch a shuttle, wait, etc. and then do it all in reverse on the way home, I always think twice about hitting the road again! That is my whine for the day - I'm a lousy traveler - love the destination, not getting there! Okay, so as I'm catching up in blogland, I find Mary Ann over at Blue Sky Dreaming is posting about art hanging in her home, so since I am too lazy to walk out to the studio this morning and shoot anything in progress, I shot this piece hanging in the house that I did about 7 or 8 years ago. It is a favorite of mine. Early collage. I was experimenting with found objects and tons of wax paper at the time.