Sunday Sketches - Barn

Hi everyone at Sunday Sketches! 

Hope everyone is great! More of the same for me:

1) our NWU political current events radio show continues at 11pm EST tonight, in case any of you have trouble sleeping and nothing else interesting to do -http://www.blogtalkradio.com/solidarityforevernwuat-large/2014/10/13/howdy-howdy-lets-get-rowdy-solidarity-forever-this-week
2) helping my mother blog - to post, get more followers, etc http://artsnquilts.blogspot.com/ - does anyone know of a fun blog hop like Sunday Sketches, but for quilters? Would love to find a way to get her more traffic
3) helping raise funds for my brother's adoption fees is still going on https://www.etsy.com/shop/aliciaraya?ref=hdr_shop_menu (25% of etsy earnings go towards helping my brother & his family adopt Shiloh, an orphan from Eastern Europe. More on this adoption & his successful adoption last year of a girl can be seen here: http://www.fromhouse2home.us/) I know selling art amongst artists is like selling coal in Newcastle, but it can't hurt to put it out there - you never know when a person needs a special custom drawing, like the one above!
4) Changed blog template. Am a little sorry about this - I actually enjoyed the other colour scheme for years, but it was hard to read. I am somewhat unhappy with the current scheme, but I don't have better ideas right now & it does the job. If anyone had groovy ideas re a blogger template/colour scheme, would love to hear it! Also added Etsy widget, which seems to show the current drawing I have above 


This sketch was a commission from the custom charcoal gig - the buyer wanted a 15 x 19 charcoal drawing of her grandmother's barn. Since i live in the rural South, I completely understand the draw of rural barn landscapes. I made the drawing on Rives BFK printing paper. The best part is that 25% goes to the adoption :D

I sell other random stuff in my shop - like tarot readings, custom oil paintings, some jewelry, photography, and the wood pieces I've been making with Jim these past 3 years. So please have a look, especially as the Christmas season approaches!

Hope everyone has a great Sunday

ss waterfall

Hi to all at sunday sketches

Thanks to Alexandra for hosting


Today i am sharing an actual sketch I did at a waterfall the other day

It is place near where I live

Have a great day

Sundays sketches- wood art and civil war reenactment

Hi all at Sunday sketches!

First i want to share a piece we recently finished, made out of wood.

The message says "outside the homo sapiens ambit, predators strike almost exclusively to feed or to mate, or to assert related, limited, well defined dominion,: only humans eviscerate for vengeance,  ego, or sport , from an unquenchable thirst to acquire everything - especially now,  we must ponder how to view,  and act toward, such uselessly,  even harmfully excessive acquisitive behavior. "

Speaking of violent, acquisitive behavior, in the town we sell art in,they have a civil war reenactment twice a year. I wonder if any of you ever see stuff like that where you live?

Here are some fun pics

Have a great Sunday!

Sunday Sketches - Penelope

Hi everyone at Sunday Sketches! Hoping everyone in the Northern Hemisphere is ready for spring! It seems to have been an all around eventful winter in any event. For instance, I hope I ended up in the right place for the URL seems to have migrated.

TOday I wanted to share a quick lightning sketch based on the dear song by Spanish performer Joan Manuel Serrat called "Penelope". It oozes 70s excess, but it is dear to me as I grew up listening to it.

Not sure what took me there today, but it contains a lesson for all, I think - stories tend to, after all.

It also relates the story of Penelope, similar to Homer's take on it, but based on contemporary life. Serrat's Penelope is a woman who was left at a train station by her lover - he told her 'wait for me', and she does, for years and years. Decades. Sitting in the train station, waiting.

Eventually he does return, and he celebrates in seeing her, but she decides he's not the one she was waiting for ---

Le sonrió
con los ojos llenitos de ayer,
no era así su cara ni su piel.
"Tú no eres quien yo espero".
Y se quedó
con el bolso de piel marrón
y sus zapatitos de tacón
sentada en la estación.

In case anyone's brave enough to see some potentially very cheesy bad music, here is the video:

love to all!

PFF - SS - Love Commemoration

Radical Love Revolutionizes Everything

Yeah, I don't blog anymore so sad :( I unfortunately am not one of those people who can have many long-term commitments, or, too many things in my mind at once - mind like a sieve no doubt!

However today I want to commemorate love, not only bc it's so close to V Day, but because the 24th is the anniversary of the date that I met my own husband, exactly 9 years ago. So... my love to him always! We both made the above wood. Actual wedding anniversary would be May, but the day we met was special, clearly! We have had many adventures in the short yet long time we've had together, and I only pray we have many more still.

Speaking of love - every couple of months, though I've quite abandoned the enterprise, I have a hankering to go back to the old haunts, and the 3 that I always took to the best were Sunday Sketches, Creative Tuesdays, and Paint Party Fridays. So I went snooping the other day.

So I find out that not only has "Mr Toast" at Creative Tuesdays closed up shop, but he has joined forces with Alexandra from Sunday Sketches!

Wow.. the things you miss when you're away!!

Their lovely union weirdly means a lot to me because, even through the roughly year and 1/2 that I DID commit to participating, I came to know both of them fairly well - just through their work, their art, and their own committment to their blogs. And though I didn't know them in person, and didn't exactly intuit it, somehow mysteriously, after I found out about it, it seemed PERFECT. Both are very dear people, sensitive, creative, hard working and disciplined - you can just tell. And both are very good looking too, so there you go! Luck all the way around. 

I also just really enjoy the whole meta narrative of it - art blogs, blogging co-ops, together in cyberland, together through art, and then in person.....and all the people who knew and followed them without necesarily knowing that THEY knew each other... and am just madly curious - how did it all come about? When did they meet? Had they always lived in Colorado together and one day ran into each other at Starbucks and said "HEY@! I Know you!!!" Or did wily fate make one move across the country to the proximity of the other? Did they meet because of the blogging, or was that just some bizarre accident, and proof of synchronicity? Enquiring minds would like to know ....

So I commemorate their union as well and congratulate them with this image of a recent art piece of ours "radical love revolutionizes everything". More images can be found at our facebook page, and I invite all who care to to stop by and say HI.

-- linking to Paint Party Friday & Sunday Sketches

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SS- Quick Sketch of Mountain Magnolia Inn

Hi all at Sunday Sketches!

On Saturday we are usually in the town of Hot Springs, NC, selling arts and crafts - we are in fact here today as well.

I like to go on walks around, and one of my favorite places is the Mountain Magnolia Inn.  Please visit this place!! Whether virtually only, or in person, it is definitely worth it!

Occasionally I like to sketch the Victorian mansion when I'm there, and Saturday was no exception. It was a quick sketch with ink on notebook - doesn't compare to the original building of course! Full of gables and balconies and all sorts of great things (photo taken with cell phone, hence poor quality). Am including the original so that folks can see below:

This image shows the opposite direction of where I was drawing.

Have a great day y'all!

SS -

Hi all! For Sunday Sketches today, I'd like to share an oldie but goodie - I may have shared this with some people in the past but I don't remember plus, I would like everybody's honest opinion about this piece, because it sparked some controversy recently.

It is made with tempera and enviro tex on top.

So, if you care to participate, please let me know your impartial & sincere opinion! Some sample questions are:

1. Do you like this piece?

2. What feelings does it evoke?

3. Would you purchase this, for yourself or somebody else?

4. What opinion would you have of someone if you saw this hanging in their house?

Thanks for playing! and in any event have a great Sunday!

ss - happy Easter!

happiness is coffee after 40 days without!

hello to all at Sunday Sketches and Happy Easter to all! I have taken a long blogging Sabbatical which coincided with the rather odd choice to take a 40 day coffee sabbatical -- I gave up coffee for Lent!!! Full disclosure: I grew up Catholic but am not particularly formally religious though I do love the doctrine & discipline which religious experiences grant. Hence, coffee.

 I've done this for the past 4 years - one year giving up cooked foods (IE going 'raw), the next year sweets, the year following cigarettes, and this year... coffee.

Weirdly, of all the things I've given up, coffee has been the worst! Re. foods, a lot in my diet is raw anyway, and re. sweets & smokes there;s always the sense that the stuff is no earthly good for you anyway (in fact, thanks to doing it last year I pretty much gave up cigaretes altogether!) But coffee, it just seemed so cruel and unusual and unesesary - and it really took its toll in weird ways, like losing all desire to blog.

Re the drawing for Sunday Sketches, this is one thing I did manage to accomplish - finish a drawing I had been owing people for ages now (LOL!!) still have to cut it up and mail it, though! It's the sort of drawing that coulda taken another 5 years to complete, so I finally decided to just give up the ghost & call it DONE.

Hope all are having a magnificent weekend!

Sunday Sketches - Last Fiverr piece

Hi all at Sunday Sketches!!

This is the last installment on the Fiverr Sherlock Holmes story. As seen, an elderly woman on a bed is supposed to be lying on a bed sleeping while an empty bottle of wine lies at her side. The doctor and our spying friends look on, puzzled.

These were all completely done at the 'client's' behest and, as stated earlier, I do not know fully the whole story behind it all. All I DO know is that, after this, I am taking that gig down. It gets a bit too much to handle after a while!

I want to know if anyone had any New Year's Resolution? I don't know if I officially had one, but I have been becoming fitter, All really since Jan 13th vs Jan 1st - all just in time for that Saturn Venus transit as it turns out! Doing it by exercising once a day for a 1/2 hour, looking at Jillian Michaels videos on YouTube.  Ha ha, I never though I would resort to that but the weather does not allow for long walks. And it's been neat I mean, I had never managed to do real bloody push-ups in my life--- till right now!! Got to count for something..... have also given up most carbs, something which has been easy - except for right this second. For some reason. We'll see how it goes.....

Hope all are well!

Sunday Sketches - Fiverr Holmes piece

Hello all at Sunday Sketches!

THis is another of the fiverr installment pieces - another piece for the Sherlock Holmes.

It's not exactly a collaboration - an author contacted me via the site fiverr to see if I would do these few illustrations for her book which I assume she's going to self-publish. I have been asked to do 5 in total, and this is the 3rd.

As can be seen here, the indefatigable friends are wandering through a cemetery, and see a mausoleum with the statue of a fellow with an outstretched arm on top.

While making this I had a chance to view a fun old movie by the Beatles - you can see the whole thing elsewhere but meanwhile, here's  a segment -

Hope all are having a great Sunday!

Sunday Sketches - Fiverr, Holmes playing Violin

Hi everyone at Sunday Sketches!!

This week I wanted to share one of my Fiverr pieces. Every once in a while the gig is dormant, but every once in a while I will still get them in.

These are apparently to go towards a book about Sherlock Holmes - have already done 2 and possibly will do more.

As can be seen, this scene shows a standard view of Sherlock playing the violin while his sidekick Watson reads a paper nearby.

Speaking of which, does anyone know the relationship or deal with Watson and Holmes? How did they get to be friends? What do they do aside from solve random mysteries? What's the back story there? I have never actually read any of the books - maybe I will someday.

have a great weekend!

Paint Party Friday - Ponder Panel Wood Burning Drawings

this pic shows only 1/2 the length of the piece of wood

Hi all at PPF!!! Sorry to miss everyone last week - had to diagnose a broken chainsaw (long story...) Hope all had a good holiday, mine was stupendous!!!! Firstly, it is near my birthday so I received a double dose of gifts and greetings :D

Among these are things I have been really wanting, like a food Dehydrator and a Wheatgrass Juicer !! But for sure the most exciting one has been a new smartphone!! THe main reason I am so excited about this is that I can now take pictures and upload them to google all the time! It was always a big problem for me to find the space to take and upload photos with Jim's professional camera, and this generally meant I could or would not participate in these things, but now, though the image quality may be questionable, I can basically guarantee I can join up every single week. Funny how a small technology upgrade can make one's life so much better!

All the images posted are from one of the ponder panels we make - I have drawn all the illustrations on this piece of wood with a woodburning tool. A great thing we have had from  Colwood for a good 2 years but finally it broke - so a Xmas gift to ourselves was a new one ($80!)

In any event, the theme is varied and, due to the size of the wood piece, I had lots of room to do lots of different sorts of illustrations. The text that runs along the wood is about the dialectics between ruler and ruled, us v them - hence, some battle scenes and signs of nature encroaching on so called human progress.

Speaking of nature, this is my new favourite animal, the liger!! I find it incredibly cute and huge. Apparently a hybrid between a male lion and a female tiger, it somehow experiences unbounded growth due to weird genetic mishap. Our friend can grow to weight 900lbs and stand at 5 feet while on all fours!!!

here's the liger:

More images of my artwork below. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful new years!!!

Sunday Sketches - Drawing Update

Hi all at Sunday Sketches! Nice to see everyone again!

This is an update on the large Epic Drawing I was mentioning earlier. As can be seen, this section got a bit crazy and chaotic! I am actually pretty ashamed because I was supposed to finish this drawing literally 6 months ago, and cut it up and send it to different people (those affiliated with my Epic Painting Project - wow, what a long time ago that was!!!!) I have had trouble finishing it (an understatement!!!!) but hopefully when I finally finish it and send of the pieces, everyone will understand.

Well, the holidays are approaching, and along it, a birthday for some of us. My birthday this year will be particularly eventful, as it also will fall on the alleged Mayan Doomsday Event (that's right.... Dec 21st). So.... we'll see, won't we? Would love anyone to post their opinions on this epoch changing event (LOL!!!)

Sunday Sketching - Naval Scene

Hi all at Sunday Sketches!

The fall and Thanksgiving season wraps up apace. Hope all here in US had a jolly THanksgiving break? I know those in Canada had it earlier than that, a month or so!

I had a good time with family, etc. They are moving up here and we have spent time doing the Thanksgiving thing, but also the visiting thing. Overall, nice to have them close by again. Completed these drawings there, once again affiliated with my drawing project.

 I did have something hysterical happen today though... a local innkeeper whom we have some affection for as being the fellow whose place we got married at, was someone I visited a few days before the holiday, since we go sell art in the town where he lives.

Just to make conversation (as so many do this time of year) I asked if he/they had any THanksgiving plans. Now, since i already had THanksgiving plans and since I didn't particularly feel OWED anything by this individual, I am pretty certain I asked with a straight face. But I got a weird shifty eyed "no, nothing special, nothing much happening." I was surprised since it seemed a bit odd & sad. "Really? wow, OK. Am surprised, no guests, anything etc" since I can still remember not many years ago spending some money to have a Thanksgiving meal at this person's inn, thus I know it's nothing for which there is no antecedent, both in terms of expectation or curiosity. But no, apparently not this year.

And then today at our art booth we had a conversation with someone who works at this inn - someone we've also known for some years - and he started out saying "how was your Thanksgiving, etc" and we "oh, you know, with my parents and y'all?"

And then he states that they all, at this Inn, had a potluck, a big nice THanksgiving potluck, with 18 or 19 people, most of whom we know and are either friendly with or at least civil with (sometimes it's more than enough LOL)

So I am thinking all of this is pretty funny because it can only mean one of 3 things:

1) I came across as weirdly desperate, or in general come across as weirdly desperate for free dinners in this community - scratch that, not free, it was a potluck - and thus have to wildly edit my entire conversational approach - God forbid, for instance, random men to whom I ask the time really end up thinking I am wanting to go to bed with them

2) everyone hates the food we cook - maybe the yummy spongy cornbread we make is nowhere near as yummy or spongy as we think it is.

3) a corollary to #1, maybe poor Elmer thinks we are too woebegone to have something to actually DO on Thanksgiving, as in, something that we might actually prefer doing than, say, hanging out in the back porch snapping at the scraps thrown our way by the uber elite & uber exclusive enclave of folks from Dinky Mountain Town, NC.... yeah, it's possible, but... probably not

My only response to all of this is... get a grip, man. You should never (unless you're Sigourney Weaver or Barack Obama or someone actually possibly 'important' or 'famous' like that) think that you are so... solicited that you have to shield your every activity from the common hordes of unwashed humanity or whatnot. The steps are quite simple

1. answer honestly "yes, I am having a thing"
2. push back only if pushed "no, you are not invited"

simple!

hope all liked my little tale. 

SS - Vermeer & Friends

An oldie but goodie

I had to link this so as to send it to a possible art contact and since I'm oh so formal about doing everything I figured this was as good a day as any - possibly some of you at Sunday Sketches have seen it already

THis large 4-part painting was really in essence a school assignment - paint the same view (in this case the living room) 4 times in 2008, copying the styles of different painters.

So, from top left, clockwise - Vermeer, Chagall, Van Gogh, Bracque.

The most successful one (re. fulfilling similarities) I think is probably Chagall or Vermeer. Vermeer would win save it doesnt have enough layers - IE wrong colours. The most hopeless one is Van Gogh I'm afraid LOL... I love Van Gogh as much as the next guy but I could never get behind his aesthetic enough to really 'reproduce' it.

In other news, finally finished a book it took me practically 3 months to read just cuz it was so dang hard - no, it was not Tolstoy or Wittgenstein or anything crazy like that - it was simply How to Read & Understand the Financial News by Gerald Warfield. Even though it was written basically 20 years ago, it was a good primer in terms of understanding all the Wall Street stuff that happens. I always feel funny when I am completely ignorant re/ sthg that at some level affects every aspect of my life and that of those around me. Hence, the book.

The real interesting thing about this book (aside from the fractal-complexity subject matter) was the author: he was originally a classical music guy - a composer - and his first published books were music theory textbooks! Then he went on to publish finance books, and now is trying to publish fiction. Funny to think about what people end up doing with their lives.

Would love to know what books people are reading, if any.

Sunday Sketches - Turner project drawings

Hi all, have not been around for a long time! Been spending my time in pursuit of art fairs.

Update: I recovered my painting after all! Thanks to all who expressed support during my challenging time. Did so 2 weeks ago or maybe only one - times runs together for me lately.

Also been having technical issues. I am sharing this as another Public Service Announcement since it is an issue which undoubtedly is of great importance to art bloggers. If you have the patience to read through all the semi technical stuff, read below today's post! If you don't I will just state it in 30 words or less:

Do not use a Wordpress.com blog for your art blog! They will pull it offline unannounced if you dare place a link to a fundraising site such as IndieGogo. If you have a Wordpress (non self hosted site) back it up immediately.

As far as these drawings, they are part of the long-overdue rewards I offered folks who helped contribute to my Kickstarter campaign. It started out based on images that the donors suggested in relation to the question "what is your earliest memory?" I have read that this question gives one great insight intoa person's character and life outcome. The link specifically is the book this idea comes from.

The idea is to create a large joined drawing out of all the disparate pieces others make. I had better images of the entirety elsewhere but can't find it right now so hope all can enjoy this one.

Have a great Sunday! Will strive to visit everyone this time which is sthg I'd not managed recently - one reason I'd stopped blogging. Nice to visit Sunday Sketches again.

More re web troubles:
(for those interested/concerned) I think its kind of funny that lately am having all these bizarre misadventures that are allowing a didactic approach to blogging LOL  - well, hopefully others are more careful, etc than me

This is all related to a blog called marshallcommunityarts.com that I have had  through wordpress.com (NOT self hosted) and with the purchase of the URL upgrade. This was the blog I used to document a lot of the work that Jim and I do re. art and whatnot in the area.

My relationship with Wordpress officially terminated last night, when I decided to do a blog update  sharing a bit re upcoming events for us, but also where I decided to put in a plug for a random local guy who's trying to raise funds for a TV project here in Madison County. I have since reposted that post here. He's using the Indie GoGo platform. After posting it, I found that the wordpress dashboard seemed to freeze up, so I went off to do other things to wait for it to do whatever it felt it needed to do. I came back and found that my account was no longer viewable, and that every time I tried to view it thru my URL, I saw "this blog has been suspended due to violations to the TOS".

I was unable to access my dashboard at all, so i chose to rebuild the entire site from scratch by cutting & pasting off google cache (c. 5 hours & loads of fun at 4am). When I was finally able to access it this morning, the message I got was the same, with the additional caveat of "if your blog is designed to promote affiliate links, get rich quick programs, banner ads, consists solely or mostly of duplicate or automatically generated material, or is part of a search engine marketing campign, Wordpress.com is not the place for you." 


Most of the above is preposterous in relation to my humble little art blog I've been updating quasi religiously since June of last year. So the only 'charge' worth looking at is that of "affiliate links" or "banner ads". I placed one banner ad for my Zibbet store, and mentioned said store in one post - this was weeks ago, and received no problem or reprimand. I have also mentioned fundraising campaigns. Aside from my Kickstarter one, I once mentioned a fundraising campaign (months ago) for our own stuff, and most lately, I posted a link to the guy's campaign.


Wordpress' immediate reaction (automated banning of my blog) to my post re Indie GoGo's campaign leads me to believe that Wordpress has somehow flagged Indie Gogo campaign links from appearing on wordpress sites. Big mistake, especially in reference to an arts blog. If, aside from any indie gogo things, putting one measly banner with my arts store is somehow unacceptable, then Wordpress is probably not the way to go.


So... I have decided to migrate to Blogger. Have never had even one small problem with Blogger, and in fact I prefer it since all my other things are on Blogger anyway. I recommend anyone who has an art blog to be very careful with what you link with Wordpress, or how you use that blog platform, period. They seem to take no prisoners, as it were. We put way too much work into our site for someone to just pull it offline with no warning, and for no legitimate reason.

SS - more mountain ocean sketches

Andes Mt

Torres del Paine, Andes Mt

Pier valparaiso

Vina del Mar, beach town

HI all at Sunday Sketches!

I am continuing to show the sketches I am using to plan & finish a large painting of the ocean I am to do. An continuing to sketch out different scenes of areas I have been to in the past, and some that I have not.

These mountain and scene sketches are from Chile - from the North areas, through the South. Vina (the last image) is from a wonderful city we loved to hang out in the summer - parties, swimming in the ocean, arts vendors, mimes, etc ---

Reminds me a bit of where I live now I suppose (Asheville) only... minus the ocean

I wanted the moment to state that it takes courage to be an artist - I'm sure everyone understands this! Not only because expressing oneself expresses vulnerability, but because one has to always confront one's own ineptitude and failures - I have painted 4 watery things (no photos yet) and each was very frustrating and failed - but the last one was more rewarding.

Confronting one's own fear in the hopes of getting better takes courage.

Also have quit smoking for the 13th time in 3 years - so far am 3 or 4 days along, and the result is something like a permanent state of PMS - eating lots of crap & being in a horrid mood. The most I've remained quit has been 3 months - wonder how long it will go this time?

I was hoping to win this blender at a sweepstakes, but it didn't work out :( Ninja Kitchen System - Gifts for Bride & Groom (Google Affiliate Ad) maybe next time

Hope all are having a great weekend!

SS - JITS

Hi all at Sunday sketches! This is another fiverr piece, which essentially ended up being a logo. It was one of those involved images that cost client more than $5.

The company was a Jujitsu magazine - so one can notice all the small little details related to Brazil, martial arts, and fitness.

The hardest thing (as in time consuming) was the type. I had to measure and very carefully draw. After that, filling in (using various models off the net) was pretty easy.

Hope all are having a great Sunday!

Sunday Sketches - possible Fiverr piece

Hello all at Sunday Sketches!! As I was stating earlier, now that I have finished the EPP, I am happy to go back to other artistic pursuits, such as.... fiverr!!!!!

This was an on-spec thing I didn't spend much time one but a possibility of being chosen is to get to illustrate someone's vampire ebook. Eek!

That would be cool indeed, we'll see what happens. I'm not anywhere near 1000% thrilled with these drawings but that's just the way it is sometimes - at least on the bright side was working without a model! That for me is pretty HUGE - it's very difficult for me to do anything quasi coherent/convincing unless I am, essentially, copying - either from photos or real life. So in that aspect... am pleased.

Hope all are well at Sunday Sketches! Will come round towards the end of the day so as to grab as many ppl as possible.

Sunday Sketches - and drawing as therapy

This is pretty interesting - it showed up in my inbox. The article relates 'the healing power of drawing'.

"When we learn that we have a serious illness, we may be overwhelmed with emotion and barely able to think straight. Bernie Siegel, MD, who wrote Love, Medicine & Miracles, a groundbreaking book on the power of attitude and outlook on healing, suggests a strategy that can help us cope. He says that we should get out our crayons and markers and draw—yes, draw. This can help relieve our fears and anxiety—and may even give us insight into feelings we are not consciously aware of."

The rest of the article shows things that one might analyze when looking at art through the prism of health.

And now, for Sunday Sketches, I submit some freeform sketches, of the type that would lend themselves to some sort of therapeutic analysis due to the meditative state through which they were sketched.

I will strive to get to as many participants I can btw late afternoon sometime tomorrow and Monday- and encourage all to do the same! Always great creativity on display in this 2nd year anniversary they are celebrating.

As an aside, I have a question re. comments features on Blogger -

I see that some blogs have the capacity to respond directly to a commenter. My blog does not seem to have that. Is there a workaround? Any insights appreciated!