Carnation: Almost...Finished?

I never posted my photos from Portugal! It was a beautiful place and I took over 300 photos. I may have to do a few paintings from the pictures I took, including local flora, beautiful coastal areas, gorgeous architecture and even a man trying unsuccessfully to rescue his small, sinking boat.

I'm now in California for a short trip and will be on my way back home Thursday night for another trip to visit my in-laws for the weekend. It will be busy, but I tend to prefer being busy than not.

As you know, I like to freak people out on the plane by sharpening my colored pencils with a battery operated pencil sharpener. (I really don't like to freak them out...I'm so paranoid someone will say something to me to get me to stop, so I try not to sharpen them too often!) On a similar note regarding pencil sharpeners and airplanes, if you bring a battery operated OR an electric pencil sharpener on a carry-on, be sure to take them out of your bag, just like your laptop, and place them in the bin to go through the xray. After consistently being stopped to have my bag searched, I tested it out and placed both sharpeners in the bin to go through separately...and it was smooth sailing!

I was able to get quite a bit done on the carnation last night in the hotel room, so now I have to let it sit, facing me as if it will shout "I'm done!" or more likely "come on, you know I still need to be worked on...I look terrible!" The photo is from my phone, so not a great picture, but you get the idea. At least I see the light!

(Updated June 28th: Instead of putting up a new post just on this, I thought I'd add the finished piece below:)

Portugal is beautiful...

...or so I've been told. I've been in Lisbon for 36 hours and I haven't stepped foot outside of the hotel. I'm here for work (my day job), so I've been busy with meetings, email, and teleconferences. Oh...I did have dinner outside the hotel room, so I've been inside a taxi (I'm glad I don't have to drive here...I'm not sure if I'd be comfortable riding a bike much less a car on the narrow streets here with cars parallel parked on the side of the road) and I've been inside of a restaurant - Lisboa a Noite - very good food.

I hope to venture out sometime soon and actually be able to work on some art!

To my Father

So, I was going to write a beautiful poem or something for today. Today marks 3 years since we lost our dad. I was pregnant with my daughter, who shares his birthday, April 11th. I think it's very appropriate to include him on here, because it really is because of him that I got back into my art. I remember doing something for high school or college for art, and bringing it downstairs for Mom and Dad to look at. He actually bought one of my first pieces before I even graduated college. He was always silent about it, not giving much encouragement, but any that he shared, I cherish. My first award was a portrait of him (1st prize).

In memory of my dad, I was looking for some unique symbol...something that was out of the ordinary and didn't just say "Dad" or "In memory", etc. As I was racking my brain, I thought of the perfect symbol...a katydid. Let me explain...most of my fondest memories when I was young, was when my dad and I would go walking through the woods, or just simply spending one on one time in the backyard. I remember he would talk about the trees, the leaves, the animals, insects, ets. He would walk with me over huge logs that would cross the creek and talk about how huge the tulip poplar trunks are...the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees, the beetles that crossed our paths, and my favorite of all, the sounds of summer. I remember a conversation with him about locusts, cicadas and katydids. Throughout my life, I've since got the katydid sound mixed up with other insects, but once you hear it, you'll know the sound I'm talking about. Summer is my absolute favorite season, even in North Carolina! And what better sound to herald in summer than the katydid. Dad was the one that really instilled in me my love of nature - even the snakes and spiders. The katydid was a kind of an 'aha' moment.

(#6 and 7 on the playlist are the ones I'm talking about if you go this site)

I searched for the word "katydid" to find pictures of katydids and of course I found lots of pictures and sounds of them. What's interesting was that I also found an art forum that I browsed. I knew immediately that this site would not provide me a katydid picture, but I was stuck. The artwork there was gorgeous! I was instantly hooked on the website, drinking in the images and trying to absorb the techniques.

As I sat by my computer, I didn't really join in the discussions (another thing I got from my dad - I'm a great listener, but not a great talker), but I became more and more fascinated with the medium and started to try it out, and slowly started drawing more. After 10 years of not doing anything with art, I found other artists that found the time, either full-time, part-time or not enough-time. There were others out there that could squeak out time to do something and I was inspired! I joined a local art group (Art&Soul Studios) and SLOWLY, I've been adding to my dusty and out-dated portfolio.

So, to my father, thank you for leading me back to my passion.

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