This a redux of a painting I did a couple of years ago. She has been sitting on the easel staring at me for weeks.

Was a better painting day today, I allowed some space around my disgruntledness of yesterday, no resistance. Things began to flow. Allowing for happiness by being aware today, bringing the light of consciousness to today’s activities.

and: lovely words snagged from my friend Mei Noel:

you may not go home and paint a painting and get it in the louvre. but you can go home, paint, just do it, love it, and hang it on a coffeeshop. or share it online. or give it to someone who will love it.

you may not become a concert violinist, like you wanted to since you were 9, but you can buy a violin and take classes and enjoy it and learn to listen to music in a new way (this happened to me)

you may not be able to go home and write the next great american novel, but you can go home, write, love it, get it published, and write some more.

every moment you paint, draw, make music, sew, write, etc etc is a moment in which you are living the life you love, and just because you may also have another job that you need to pay bills does not mean you are not also, in those moments, living the life you love the most.

Almost done with this one, oil on canvas 24 x 24 in. After one more day of drying I will finish the dress and frog, some glazing and details. That should take about an hour tomorrow.

I figure since the whole dress up thing, women dressing up like little girls and little girls dressing up like women is all storybook and fantasy, so why not have a prince. I need to be careful with the Lolita idea though because without an edge its very trite and so similar to a gazillion big eyed girl illustrations out there, not to diminish my own imagery or concepts but to defend my position as a thinking artist. Okay, I won’t go off on that tangent. today. By the way, I am totally okay that people don’t like my art or my ideas or my style, nobody can please everybody and I always welcome constructive remarks, criticism, questions or jokes, I can do without disdain…

oil on canvas, 18 x 24

this pop eyed girlie had a mind of her own, changing my direction with each bit of layering and so the original idea has gone by the wayside and I will have to mull her over for a few days or weeks. Right now my inclination is to dull down some of the coloration, but also wanting to think out the conceptual aspects…

Started a series of Pez Heads last year and just now starting to flesh them out, this one went very quickly, tomorrow some glazing and a bit more color.

For Steffie Stitches, feeling the pain on the outside helped her to not feel the pain on the inside…

I was possessed when I started this painting. It was not intended to be a pug, but something took over and boom there she was! Possessed I tell ya!

The love bug is a fruit and leaf mimic. It is camouflaged until it opens it eyes and flies off its perch. Once bitten, smitten, love is irreversible.

If you would like to see the progression of this painting click on the link to flickr in my sidebar.

and um, there is a little spot on her cheek that I accidentally made with my brush before photo documenting.

finished! 18 x 24 oil on canvas

I had basically decided that I was not going to create any work influenced by the Omo. That was after many useless attempts resulting in less than satisfactory pieces, well crap really. Just Crap. It bummed me out to the point of, maybe I should give up, how in the world can I even think I might capture the essence and beauty of work completely natural, emotive and uninfluenced by commercial venue. I still don’t think I can, yet when I began painting this morning, with nothing in mind in particular, except a figure, well this piece decided to be born and there is no denying its influence by the Omo. (see earlier post). I posted the progress piece because I can easily take it to the point of no return, in which case at least the early version shows a loveliness and hopefully I will add to that, not take away.