sketchbook: window of the soul

A sketchbook where everything gets dumped into it, images of things, words, poems, etc. Maybe a window to the authors soul? I suppose that depends on the owner of the sketcbook and the perception of others.

I thought it hilarious when my neighbour from glasgow told me she had never heard the Geordie version of tell tale tit (it isn't like we live thousands of miles from each other and come from

I'm so sexy it kills me! & Xmas Tree Art

More INFO



Don't you ever watch the VS angel ads and say to yourself, "oh yea, I always walk around the castle grounds in winter or come down the grand staircase in me bra and knickers all the time." Ah those seasonal ads!






Sketchbook doodles : the art of a tree



Remember the fad last year for hanging xmas trees upside down. It isn't exactly a new fad, goes back to 600 Ad thanks to

YES! That Elusive Art Muse

came to me last night just as I drifted off to sleep. I thought, "wow what a good idea". Then I spent the last few seconds desperately telling myself I must remember what my muse said, must remember! must remember! This morning I remembered and I wrote it down in my sketch book that was on my nightstand. I have no idea what it means or relates to, but heck I am going to work on it.


Meanwhile

Using Photographs in Art

Someone said to me about this painting, “it looks like a photograph” and I responded, “oh, no it’s an oil painting.” At the time I thought she meant it looked like a collage or something, but later I realized she was perhaps questioning whether I had done it from a photograph.

There have a number of discussions on various blogs and art sites discussing the use of photographs by painters

gannin to the Baltic

Newcastle Quayside



This is when I was back home in September and mum and I went to the Quayside. I'm on the top floor of the Baltic Center for Contemporary Art. I remember it when it was a flour mill (that's going back a few years). Was wonderful to see it transformed into an art center. Would have loved seeing this exhibit, "spank the monkey" coming up sept-jan 2007.

They say: "This

Emporium Exhibit: ugly pretty things

"Homage to Frida"

oil on wood







"I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head

without any other consideration. "
Frida Kahlo







If you would like to see more of her work and life, please visit here.



My exhibit is up until the end of November at the Emporium in Yellow Springs, Ohio.









Hope

art motivation

Anna Seller's asked what is your art motivation? Hum! I had to stop and think for a minute since I seem to be blocked at the moment and rather obsessed about that. I am working around it though :)
What motivates me:
Well it certainly isn't the money LOL! (bless gallery owners Mike and Sheryl for their support despite that wee problem). I suppose it boils down to a very basic need to create or be

dolls and stones

I get a real laugh everytime I go to the Emporium because the staff there started adding things to the ugly doll, first a leather jacket and now a hat.



This is called "chat room" and will be in the Emporium Show,"ugly pretty things" in Yellow Springs. The formation of the stone lent itself well to the image that ended up looking like Peter Lorre (not intentional) , in the movie "m" by fritz

The Art of Tombstones and Churchyards

I often used to walk through churchyards growing up in England. Nothing to do with being into the spooky. They are places full of history and interesting tombstones. This is one of my favourites. I used to see it when I cut across the churchyard to get to the bus stop on the other side.



It is called Haddon's Tomb (c.1717) and is located in Heworth Church, St. Mary's, "was probably founded by

Stick Men & Cheese on Toast

And what have stick men and cheese on toast got to do with each other? Nothing! I just love art and food and wanted to talk about them both on the same post.



Okay so there is a woman in the bunch, so technically speaking it isn't stick men,but stick persons, people :) These are the sticks that will be going into the "ugly pretty things" exhibit at the Emporium in Yellow Springs in November. 

Strange Creatures

I used to love getting off work (who doesn't) and hearing the church bells of St. Nicholas as I stood at the busstop on the Newcastle end of the Tyne Bridge. As a teen and young woman I used to walk around the cathedral, the quayside (no not picking up sailors you lot) and exploring the area, but for all the time I was there I never saw THIS.




Yes, it is a vampire bunny and it is located

Gannin Yem-Travel Journal Pages

I am hoping I can take my little journal on the plane. I am putting pics of home, family, recipes (texas ceasar salad -YUM) for mum and sis, and small sketches and observations as I travel. This is a photo of my back patio where mass quanities of tea are consumed and the mosquitos enjoy a bloody feast on my husband (they really seem to like his blood the best). Gannin Yem means going home and

Stone Mad

Studio is cleared and ready but I can't concentrate or start new work because I am too excited and distracted about my trip home to England (in a couple of weeks). So I am just doing bits and bobs and had fun printing out some of my work to decoupage on stones, some of which I will take to England.

Art out of Necessity

NOTICE

Dear Visitor
Thank you for visiting my blog and my apologies.
 Unfortunately due to the continued infringement, mining and exploitation of my images by individuals, spammers and companies I no longer have the incentive to show images on my blog.


These were my very first stone portraits, which I put in a show in the Maryland Federation of Art in Annapolis. I was very encouraged because

Portraits on Stone

I used to find a lot of really cool stones by a river in New Jersey and paint them. I haven't found any around here that are irregular AND smooth to paint so instead I just do decoupage or quick one's for found art.
That fella with the stone is Chuck Close. In the bowl is Orson Wells, Chuck Close, and Edith Sitwell. Can you tell which one's? These are the stones for found art.

There is a

But he's such a nice man! He wouldn't do anything like that.

"Operation Candyman"




is the codename for the FBI’s nationwide crusade to sweep the Net clean of child abuse and child porn. This is oil on a poplar wood panel. The surface of the painting has been distressed in reference to the distressing character. The body of the man purposefully left ambiguous. The focus is on the face and perceived qualities and draws the eyes away from the area of the

It offends thee?

A week or so ago a person using the men's bathroom told a member of the Chamber of Commerce they felt Ken's painting in the Chamberpot Gallery could be viewed as blasphemous. A few days later the painting was ripped off the wall, damaged and tossed in the trash. It is too much of a coincidence to believe that it was anything other than a deliberate act. It is always sad that any artist's work

The Child: Part Three

Do I want to represent the child in the story, or the horror a child faces. Is it all going to be on one painting on canvas, or wood? Oil or acrylic? I decided that the painting is about feelings that transcend one incident, but how to depict raw emotion. I remembered an incident I faced at sixteen. I was on the 3rd floor of a car park and standing by the elevator when a man grabbed me by the

Genesis of a Painting

I long time ago I did a small study on canvas of a part of a Lucien Freud painting of Francis Bacon. I found it a few weeks ago and didn't want to put it back in the cuboard hidden away, so I decided to use it. I stitched it onto a canvas (28"x28")and left it for a couple of weeks to let the muse tell me what it needed next. I then painted a face around it. After the painting was finshed the

Stick Men

Emporium, looking down on the coffee drinkers saying: " Hey, we are cool dudes and like hanging around here". I think they like the open mic poetry nights, but they won't admit it.





I really don't have a story about these mixed media sculptures. I was inspired by funerary sticks of africa and it led to this. It seems as I do them they have their own story to tell. I envision them all (

Street Fair

An outdoor festival coming up June 10th in Yellow Springs. A visual, auditory, olfactory, culinary feast for the senses. Strawberry Festival at the church, belly dancers, clowns, hippies, incence, tie die shirts, funnel cake, arts & crafts, poetry, music and so much more.
The mural is behind the Winds Cafe and painted by Pierre Nagely (who paints murals all over this village-including a

A bug just for you

I thought you might appreciate this one w.j. st.christopher. I remember those roaches in texas and it isn't an exaggeration to say that some could be almost as big as a mouse eeeeeeeeeek!

Cockroaches

Don't ask me why I spent hours decorating rubber cockroaches. Okay ask!!! I guess I was intrigued by the idea of making something ugly look pretty and I wanted to play in the studio. Anyway JAFA is going to leave one somewhere today hee!hee!hee!

So who's the egghead?

My son bought me a ceramic egg for christmas that you crack open and grow thyme in. I watered and watered for a few weeks and thought to myself, " gosh this is taking a long time to sprout." So my daughter is over and asking about it and I tell her, "I keep watering it, but nothing is happening." she says, "did you put the seeds in it?" errr, OOPS! Duh! the seeds were in the box that the egg