Discovery

Mr. Eleven is away on a fishing trip for the entire weekend. My plan was to spend every possible second working on THDP. Things didn't exactly work out as I had planed.

Each morning the first thing Frankenstein and I do is walk the grounds. We go out in the yard and make sure everything is OK, well I do, he marks his territory. This morn I noticed that in one of our 4 bird baths was a little chipping sparrow. It was 45 degrees out and this little guy was huddled in the bath. This is strange enough, but the day before I found a scarlet finch sleeping in another birdbath?! The finch flew away when I woke him up. But the little chipping sparrow just sat there. He finally took a leap out of it and hopped under a bush to hide. He seems to be too young to fly. Odd for this time of year. Then Frankenstein saw him. I had to lay down the law with my assertive voice, NO! The little bird looked too much like a dog toy. But Frankenstein listened to me and stayed clear. The bird found a safe place to hide and I can't locate him now. I am hoping he is OK. This all seems rather odd, why are the birds sleeping in cold water?

Our next chore of the day is to poop the Lizard. Truman just needs a ride to the shower and she does the rest. Frankenstein likes to watch. She did her biz and we were on our way.

It is time for our walk. We gathered our things and set out. The moment I shut the back door I knew what I had done!..We were locked out!.. Panic! Mr.Eleven won't be back till Sunday evening. My first thought was well Frankenstein and I can sleep in the studio, a day and a half with out food or heat is doable. Wait...no it is not! So I decided to break in. But first we went on our walk. I didn't want to freak out the dog so I acted like everything was fine. All the while planing how I would break in to our house. By time we got home I had a plan. Lucky for me there is a ladder in my studio. Also I remembered that I had to open the Kitchen window to let a fly out just the day before. For some reason had not locked it, but remembered that I didn't. It wasn't easy, but I was able to climb in!...YIPPY! Frankenstein hardly noticed what I was doing. He was busy hunting for chipmunks all the while.

I was still feeling the stress of having to meet some Artist Grant deadlines last week. The mere thought of filling out those applications and submitting slides makes my guts rot with pain. The little bird was on my mind, was he OK? Then I locked myself out of the house! What next? I just didn't have it in me to paint. I know these aren't the worst things in the world, but my stomach hurt. My to do list was calling, so today would be the day I rip out the disgusting carpet in our family room and hall. Fun!..mindless fun! Well, it is hard but requires no thought, so, perfect.

As I was pulling up carpet in the closet I noticed a box jammed in a corner. It was old and dusty and could be easily missed.. I opened it. It was full of records! 45's from the 60's!..Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Rascals, Sony and Cher and much more. All in mint condition. So cool! If my life was a movie this little box could be sold for a fortune and all my materilistic dreams could come true! I wished I had a record player so I could play the records. It made me think of The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco. A box of memories, but not my memories. But still it triggered my own. Under the carpet were old linoleum tiles the same ones I had grown up playing on as a kid. This house was built 2 years after I was born so it's bones and my own are made of the same layer of star stuff. Connection!

By avoiding the studio, I became closer to my work. What I thought was a diversion became a discovery. I feel more connected to my home and memory. Tomorrow may be a great studio day! There is no place like home! Not to mention there is one less thing on my to do list!

Frankenstein Friday

After his bath Frankenstein went out in the yard, ran, rolled in the grass and finally took a nap in the warm sun. He started to chew on an old corn cob but dozed off after a few chomps. Sorry the photos are a bit out of order..

10 0f 100

Another clothes line full!

Here we have 6,7,8,9,and 10 of 100.

Current Events Painting of the day

Not Torture oil on canvas 2006

Thursday is Kick Ass Chick day

The first female portrait I did in NY was Judy. It started a group of what I called The Kick Ass Chick Paintings. I will post one each Thursday. Here she is lounging in, Matisse's Harmony in Red with the Katzenjammer Kids looking over her shoulder.

9 of 100

Wonder Woman Wednsday

I am not the sort to dress up like Wonder Woman for Halloween. I don't have a huge comic book collection and not one action figure. My connection to the Amazon Princess stems form this reissued first addition comic. It was on a family vacation in North Carolina in 1975. We were allowed to pick one thing from the gift shop, this was my choice. It has been with me ever since. From the first page I was in love. I still get chills when I look at the pages. In Umberto Eco's amazing book, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, he masterfully explores how memory is linked, anchored and triggered by our pop culture experience. But there is more to it, than that, it is the way the comic book is printed the dots and color bleeds, the sexual undertones, it is chalk full of war time and race propaganda. But most of all Wonder Woman Kicks Ass! I will showcase either a painting with Wonder Woman or a panel from the comic each Wednesday.

8 of 100

I am starting to think there is a story developing here. When viewing, all the panels lined up in order. Something like: Alice's even further adventures in Wonder-Womanland. That sounds too much like a porn title...I will have to work on it..any ideas?

The first 8

In the right order

Melanerpes carolinus

This Red-bellied Woodpecker has been banging on my windows for the past two days. It sounds like someone is pounding, with their fists. At first I thought he was a red bellied peeping-tom, but now I think he is eating bugs who are sunning, on the warm window ledges.

6 of 100

The first connection I made with another 100 dresses inspired project was with EB over at be dream play (I haven't got this linking thing down yet so, you can find her in my links) . Her idea was to have an on line Ball, everyone made 'dresses' for the party. I didn't make the Ball but, it was on my mind when I painted 6 of 100.

Simple but effective

I love simple solutions. I strung up cloths line in the studio and hung the paintings with clothes pins. I think I will have space for about 40.

The real 5 of 100

Proving once again that I am a visual person and not so good with numbers. The painting that I posted as 5 of 100 is actually 7 of 100. I cheated a bit with 5,6 and 7. I went back and worked on them after I had already moved on to 8 and 9. I decided not to do that anymore. Forward motion from here on in.

What is that in the yard?

After a frantic search of the yard, I found the sad little body. I put him back together...but he is not safe for long. FRANKENSTEIN!

What is that in the yard?

What is this blue stuff? When I saw it, I knew. A panic over took me. It was my child hood pal, who has always been in my studio looking over my work. As kids we never played with Barbie we played with Trolls. This was my troll's hair. But where was his bod? FRANKENSTEIN!..What did you do!?...where is the body!?

A man for Monday

This was the first portrait I did, of the NY portrait paintings. Kevin was painted in 1997. It is a small painting about 5"x7". Happy Monday!

5 of 100

Enough puttering around in the studio! With 5, I kick it up a notch. Time for some action. My stamina is up, vision getting clearer things are starting to happen. Wonder Woman has come to save THDP!

3 of 100 +4 of 100

I was really struggling with painting on a smaller scale with these. The NY paintings are all 4'x5'. The 100 Dresses paintings are 24"x30". It is like learning to walk again. How far should I push them? Should I always have a dress in the picture plane? Searching, searching,searching..

The Bee in 4 of 100, was on my mind, because of the lack of bees in general. I saw just a few all Summer long. CCD, Colony Collapse Disorder. Whatever the cause, be it, pesticides, malnutrition or parasites, their immune systems are being compromised, the Bees are vanishing. I even saw it on TV.