It is H-E-L-L to have ADD!!

I have been painting up a storm in the past week, using glaze techniques and new skills developed recently, through the wonderful book I found by Chris Cozen, Acrylic Solutions. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear, or something like that.







Anyway, today I had planned to have a studio cleanup and reorganization, which HAS to happen after each marathon painting session. But I keep picking up something and remembering what I meant to do with it, and wanting to do that right now! So I have about ten projects right in front of me that I really want to work on NOW! I definitely need an assistant.

I made some bowls with newspaper strips (learned it on YouTube) that I would like to paint. I have more newspaper strips that I want to collage as a background for a grungy painting with corrugated cardboard and some great metal pieces I have. And rusty paint effects.

And on top of that, my favorite software, Make-The-Cut keeps sending free updates... it's now up to Version 4.6, so each time that happens I want to stop and try that out with my Pazzles, where I cut stencils and masks for my paintings from drawings I have done.

AND some supplies I ordered some time ago showed up yesterday, so I am itching to try them out. But I don't want to stop my organizing and like dessert, I am trying to save the fun stuff for after the work is done. But boy, I'm losing track of all the neat things I really want to do, so maybe I'll pile them all in a box. Which I won't be able to find later. (Seems like I spend an inordinate amount of time looking for stuff.) So I guess I'll make a list at the same time.

I was sure I had some self-leveling gel and got all set up to use that, then discovered there isn't any. That I can find, I should say. I am in dire need of an inventory, ergo, needing an assistant.

And yesterday I got the catalog from Discount School Supply, and really got jazzed over some products that are so much cheaper than buying similar items elsewhere. Should I buy a bunch and put them on my website for sale? Uh... no. I really am trying to get away from retail and concentrate on painting. But I have to remind myself of that. Maybe I should make a sign for myself and hang it above the computer. No more inventory until we get a chance to assess what's here.

So, back to work.

I'm painting this week

I am working very hard this year to perfect my paintings -- or at least improve them.  I have been invited to several festivals, and I don't know yet if I will do any this year.  Maybe I need a year to develop a body of work, rather than my usual ADD approach.  Figures are my bailiwick... I guess that's where I will continue to work.

Canvas Corp Mini Gift Bags - White [1646]

Canvas Corp Mini Gift Bags - White [1646] are a great little product from Joggles this week.  Barbara's latest video features the Tim Holz distress paints which look a lot like the Martha Stewart matte paints, but I will find out the difference.  Stay tuned.

Busy busy busy

This month I have been working on paintings. There are so many festivals coming up, but I have decided to lay out for a year, maybe, and work on painting skills. This is not set in stone however. But this week I am working with glazes. I have all the Golden mediums and airbrush colors to work with, but am mixing colors and creating more glazes as I work out difficulties I have with colors and design principles. I am a "learn by doing" person, so no matter how many books I read on the subject, it matters not until I try it for myself. I am still doing art journaling with the Meetup group, but with my jillions of stencils that I have either purchased or made myself with various cutters and cardstock or plastic, I tend to just get lost doing that instead of what I REALLY want to do, which is paint paintings. (It's hell to have ADD!) Other new products I have yet to try are some metal for embossing, and some instant mold stuff to create yet more things for collage (that I don't need.) My website has a couple of de-stash sections for collage elements because I have created boxes and boxes of stuff that I have set prices for, depending on the size of the Priority Mail box. I work now with two creativity categories: painting and cutting projects are done in the studio, then at night, around 8 pm I go to my room, where the art journal is, or my sewing machine and crochet projects. I am going to make a new neck pillow for myself because the old one is worn out, and since I plan to spend a couple hours in oral surgery this week, I want my OWN pillow. So that's on my to-do list. My daughter and her girls have been out of town this weekend, so I assumed I would get tons of things done this weekend but for some reason, I get less done than I would like before I just poop out! But for this afternoon, I am going back to my painting. Right after I put another load of laundry in.

March is here already

This year is busy, but I wanted to talk a bit more about the Make the Cut software for cutters and laser engravers. The latest version is available for download, and whenever you buy this product, you get all updates for FREE! It is definitely well worth the price (and more.) The latest tweaks make it even better than Corel Draw in many ways. You can import any files you may have created in Corel Draw if you export them as svgs, you can import jpegs and trace them within Make the Cut, and you can do node editing very very easily. It automatically joins points within a certain range, which is something Corel Draw certainly will not do for you. But don't worry about it... there is a free webinar every Tuesday night, and they are recorded on Vimeo so you can access them at any time if Tuesday is not convenient for you. I have a Pazzles cutter now, and I alternate from using the Pazzles Pro software to the MTC. I think MTC is infinitely better but sometimes I have a Pazzles file at the ready and I just get lazy and use that instead. However, the latest update to MTC will now import wpc files (Pazzles files) also. If you have any cutter (other than Cricut) you definitely want to get this software.