Goal Accomplished...

At the end of 2007, I made a few goals. I've written about them before, so I won't go in to a lot of detail here, but as we're almost halfway finished with 2008, I'm getting ready to evaluate and see what's going well and what still needs work.

2008 for me was the year Jolie goes pro with her art.. It's still scary, but I've made a lot of progress this year already. For example, I told myself that I wouldn't order business cards until I had actually made some income. Chris helped me figure out what that number would be--though it seemed incredibly high and nearly impossible, considering that I had not made one red cent until that point.

But this week we realized that I had more than doubled my expectations already--and the year is only halfway over.

I ordered business cards yesterday.

Writing this out makes me realize how amazing this is. Sometimes I think I really may be able to be a working artist. (Of course, most of the time I think this is a pipe dream...)

Either way, I'll have really cute business cards.

Is Color linked to Music?

In my studio over the past couple of days, we've been talking about an interesting system for organizing our palette. The Fletcher Palette system is based on the idea that colors and music are linked. It's a pretty complex system (for me at least) and I can't find a link online that explains it clearly, so I guess I'll attempt an explanation. Bear with me.

There are 12 musical notes and 12 colors that the palette is based on. The colors are all really intense chromatic colors, so forget about browns and beiges and grays for the time being. Think of a color wheel with Yellow, Yellow-Green, Green, Blue-Green, Blue, Blue-Violet, Violet, Red-Violet, Red, Red-Orange, Orange, and Yellow-Orange. You're also allowed to have White.

It looks a bit like this:



Ok, now in this example there are lines connecting complementary colors-- colors directly across from each other on the wheel-- like red and green, or purple and yellow, or orange and blue. The Fletcher System insists that these colors mixed together on a painting result in flat and muddy color. However, if you were to connect Orange to Blue-Green (instead of Blue) you would have a cleaner, crisper mixed color. So if you want to paint something that isn't so intensely chromatic, you would mix colors across the color wheel following a set pattern.

Here's where this relates to music. Fletcher's idea was that the 12 chromatic colors can be set up on a scale similar to the 12 tones in music. You then choose a color key for your painting, somewhat like choosing to play a song in the key of C. Once you've chosen your color key, then you mix your colors in intervals based on music as well. Another example: if you were to play a song in the key of C, then you'd play the notes C, E, and G to create a triad--or a major chord. The E note is third in the key and G is the fifth note in the key. (Chris had to explain this part to me last night.) So if you decide to paint using the key of Yellow, then following the circle around, you'd use Yellow, Red-Violet and Blue-Green which are spaced around the circle in intervals of three and five from Yellow. Look at the circle to figure this out. It's a little confusing.

You'd use those three colors mixed together to create a neutral gray, which you'd use similarly to a major chord in a song. It's the predominant harmony throughout the painting. And this system of arranging your palette allows you to have brighter and clearer colors in a painting.

As you can see, it's a bit complex. I'm intrigued by the idea that these intervals are so deeply ingrained that they can transfer from music to color, but there are a few holes in the theory for me. One, this only works with music based on the 12-note scale. Music in China, India and other parts of Asia, use a completely different scale, so I can't really buy in to the idea that this system has a universal appeal. Secondly, it's a bit frustrating and time consuming trying to mix a color that looks like Yellow Ochre when you have a tube Yellow Ochre right in your taboret.

Maybe the results are worth it. I'll let you know.

Etsy Store update...

Look over there to your right. You'll see a small list that says, "look at these, too." At the bottom of that list, you'll see a link that says, "my etsy store." If you click that link, you'll see how I kept myself busy while Chris was away. There are 18 new listings there today. They're all jewelry and they're inspired by paintings I've done.

Feel free to click the order link as well. :)

At long last, an image!

This is the painting you saw a few weeks ago. It's now finished and hanging in a group show at Gage. Hooray for a camera and for friends! More details this week, when I'm at the studio.

Maybe I should do some more reading...

A request from a friend...

These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read and italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair

The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations

American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West

The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

Rain.

Friday night was lovely. Lots of friends came and a grand time was had by all, I think. If you didn't RSVP or if you RSVP'd a "yes" and didn't come, then you missed out! Sadly, no one had a camera, so still no photos of the event. However, I did get a photo of the rainbow jello later-- so here it is.



Impressive, no?

So I came home Friday night and really felt grateful for my friends and that they were willing to come out to support me. And even stay to help me clean up! (Thanks, Kelli and Rosie!)

But then Saturday several things conspired to make it a really tough day. And Saturday evening, I just curled up in a chair with my knitting and tried to adopt the "tomorrow is another day" philosophy. But Scarlett O'Hara failed me yet again. Because Sunday wasn't really any better. For once, I really looked forward to Monday. I had a good long talk with a friend. Chris comes home this week. Painting is going well, even if other things aren't. Someone reminded me to cut myself some slack-- and I'm trying. And today has dawned bright and beautiful.

Yet I feel like this--



*Photo Credits: Jenn (Rainbow Jello) NYTimes (Rainy Seattle)

Oh, and one more thing!

This is the most important-- it deserves it's own post.

Mary is 16 today! Happy birthday, Mary Monster. Chris and I are really proud of you and hope you have a great day. You're an amazing, funny, smart, beautiful and fun to be around. We love you a lot! We're looking forward to celebrating your birthday properly in a few weeks with an ice cream tour of Seattle!

Still...

I know I keep whining about this, but it's really hard to come up with something to post here when I don't have a camera to show you what I'm talking about.

However, good things are happening. I had a terrible afternoon Wednesday, but then went for sushi with a friend and managed to salvage the day in to something quite nice. Then the rest of the week has been devoted to getting things ready for my open studio party tonight. It's just a small get together to celebrate my work this year, but I'm still excited about it.

And finally, my amazing husband was mentioned in a New York Times blog today! I'm really proud of him! Only 5 days until he (and the camera) get home! I'll be really excited to see both of them!!

How did it get to be Wednesday already?

Really? Wednesday?
And I haven't posted yet? Well, I better get on that.

So this week...

Well, I made the Rainbow Jello that I linked to last week. Here's what I learned. It's really pretty, but it's a lot of work for something that still just tastes like Jello. I don't really like Jello.

I also made oven-dried tomatoes. That was easy and satisfying. I am all about things that are easy and satisfying.

And I painted. I still can't show you what I've done, but I think I've cleared a new hurdle with my work. I've talked before about how I seem to hit a wall, when I'm ninety percent finished with a painting. Last week, Gary offered a cumulative critique of my work from the year. As we talked about my work as a whole, I was able to see the consistent weaknesses and, more importantly, how I could fix them. So since then, I've been working on details. Straightening edges, smoothing transitions, sharpening perspective lines, adjusting value shapes... it makes for a better painting, but boring blogging--especially without a camera. Sorry.

I love this...

oh, my! How complicated-- but it's soooo pretty.

http://adventuresofafoodslut.blogspot.com/2008/04/rainbow-jello.html

A story... and a reminder to myself.

So, I was 9 before I learned to ride a bike.

Yeah, I know. Most people learn around 6. I had a bike, but I was too busy trying to learn to tie my shoes--or learn to swim--or cut my own food-- uh... wait. I didn't really learn to tie my shoes until last year (it's a long story), I'm still more of a floater than a swimmer, and I became a vegetarian mostly because I'm not so good at cutting meat. Ok, so I don't really have a good excuse.

Anyway, for whatever reason, I couldn't ride a bike. It wasn't that I didn't try. It wasn't that my mom didn't run behind me for hours holding the back of the bike, it wasn't that I didn't know how to pedal. I mean, every member of my family spent hours in the driveway with me, but I just couldn't get past the training wheels stage. Finally, I just started to feel dumb, inept and ridiculous. It was frustrating to me and to everyone else. The bike with its streamers went into the garage and stayed there for months.

Then we moved to a new neighborhood. It was quiet and friendly and a perfect place to spend hours riding a bike. But I couldn't. I just walked or stayed home. The bike stayed in the garage. Eventually, someone noticed. At a cookout one evening I wanted to go with the other kids, but they were all on bikes, so I sat with the adults and looked bored. Our neighbor Richard asked me why I wasn't out there. As I hung my head in shame, my mom gave a long and embarrassing explanation while all the other adults proffered helpful suggestions.

"Yes, we tried that, but she still can't ride it."
"No, it didn't work."
"I just didn't know what else to do."

Richard spoke up. "I can teach her."

"Really? I don't know. We've all tried..."

Richard looked at me and said, "Meet me in our driveway tomorrow afternoon."

I was afraid, but I walked the bike over to Richard's house the next day. I was fully expected to fall, to fail, to disappoint another adult and embarrass myself yet again. I was afraid this was going to end in another visit to the dentist or the ER. Worst of all, I was afraid that Blake and Michael-- Richard's teenage sons-- would make fun of me.

But I got on the bike. After a few falters, Richard said, "Jolie, when you feel like you're going to fall, turn the handlebars in the direction you're falling." Huh? But, if I'm falling that way, then don't I want to go the other way? That doesn't make sense. "Just try it and see what happens."

Fifteen minutes later, I was riding a bike down the biggest hill in the neighborhood with Richard running behind unable to keep up. It is still one of the proudest moments of my life.

I still remember that--"turn towards the way you're falling." There's probably an important life lesson there. But the thing I remember most is that someone believed I could do something, even after I had given up on myself.

Thanks, Richard.

Sock evangelist...

This morning, I was on the bus early. Chris left before 5 to catch the bus to the airport (he's on his way to Easter Island, if you're curious*) and since I was awake, I decided to just get up and go to the studio. So I'm on the bus, the sun is shining and I'm knitting an orange sock. Because it was so early, there were several empty seats, so I was surprised when a lady sat down immediately next to me. She was obviously on her way to work and I was a little annoyed when her laptop case invaded my personal knitting space.

She watched me knit for awhile and finally turned and said, "So I followed your advice. I'm on my second pair." Huh? It was early, I'm not a morning person and I'm generally pretty wary (with good reason) of social interactions on the bus.

I must have looked pretty confused, because she said, "Oh-- you don't remember. I was on the bus with you last month when you were knitting the red and blue striped socks and you told me I could knit socks, too. You told me you could barely tie your shoes and so if you could do it, then anyone could. So I went out and got the yarn and Googled the pattern and now I can knit socks, too. You were right." And then she pulled out her sock to show me.

Another one brought over to the wooly side.

*Note: The camera is on its way to Easter Island with Chris. Don't ask. I'm so annoyed with myself that I don't have any pictures to show you. A solution to this camera craziness is simmering-- stay tuned.

ARGH!

I forgot the camera again. I'm a doofus. I have nothing more to say!

Sugar cookies and... what else?

Last night I made a big batch of sugar cookies. I cut them out into heart shapes. They were really good. Chris ate more than 10.

I'm going to finish knitting my socks this week. They are pink and orange.

Umm...

I'm just telling you this because I forgot the camera again today, so I can't show you the paintings I'm working on. That's frustrating. I guess I'll just tell you about them.

I've done two small landscapes this week-- more views from my bedroom windows. One is the view from my porthole on the Anastasis. Well, sort of. I had so many different views, that I chose to paint a view of sailing. I also painted a night scene, because that's how I remember the view from our bedroom on Water's Edge Lane.

I've worked more on the monumental still life, correcting angles and sharpening edges. And I've started a new landscape--it's a memory of something I saw last fall. The moon was rising through the trees here in the neighborhood and there was a lamp in the window of a house across the street. The brightness of the moon and the lamp in the window were a lovely contrast and I took a picture with my cell phone. And then forgot about it. This week, when I was transferring stuff to my new phone, I found the picture-- so now I'm painting it.

Ok, tomorrow I'll really try to remember the camera to show this stuff. Meanwhile, I'm going to eat a few sugar cookies.

Well, I'm 31.

I guess it's time to take off the birthday crown and get to work.

This weekend was lovely. Jaymi at the Frye made a cake for me, then Chris took me out to dinner, and last night the girls at Hysteria brought cupcakes (thanks, Kiana!). I had many happy birthday wishes from strangers (that's what happens when you wear the birthday crown on the bus) and the weather was beautiful.

Today has dawned cold and grey, though and it's a reminder that it's time to settle in for another week and get to work. Pictures tomorrow, when I have the camera with me.

29 of 30 complete...

One year ago I began an adventure. I made a list of 30 things to do while I was 30. I put some wild and crazy things on the list, and some challenging things, and even some small triumphs. I wasn't sure I would get any of them done, but Chris had more faith in me. He started the year by helping me accomplish three of them on the first day.

This year I have been to the Symphony, had Veuve Clicquot champagne, been to the Grand Canyon, jumped rope, learned to tie my shoes in under 30 seconds, rode in a hot air balloon, climbed a mountain, skied down a hill (sort of), copied a masterpiece, swam half a mile, sang in public and had a fondue party.

I also knit a sweater, drove a stick shift, made bananas foster, made chocolate mousse, learned to kayak, read a short story in French, sang in public, went to New York City, grew my own vegetables and cooked with them, painted a portrait of Chris, read The Message, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

And I made both of Chris's favorite desserts, published something, sold a piece of artwork (I actually sold three!), mostly conquered my fear of dogs, was mostly honest all the time, and made a quilt (that wasn't even on the list).

This afternoon on my lunch hour, my friend Kathy is going to pick me up, I'm going to meet Chris and we're going to ride a roller coaster at Seattle Center. It's the last thing on my list and the perfect way to welcome 31. Chris says this year is going to be even better, but I'm not sure. Then again, he was right about 30. We'll see.

Out of the ordinary

I'm at the museum today and I normally only post when I'm at my studio, but I think I'm going to shift some things around over the next few weeks and I thought I'd start with this.

It's a gorgeous day out today-- I sat in the sun and drank green tea and ate vegetarian sushi for lunch. I've had a low key week. Lots of painting and getting back in to a rhythm with life. I've been a bit out of my groove for a while now. First I was sick for nearly three weeks, then Chris was away which always throws me for a loop. Then my sister's wedding and the trip to Alabama. I'm hoping for a bit of quiet and order for awhile now. I know I paint best when there's a certain pattern to my days.

But-- warmer weather is coming and Chris is already planning is next big adventure, so I know this respite won't last long. Soon I'll be back to crazy-ness and uncertainty. It's all part of the fun that is my life. I like it that way mostly, but for now I'll enjoy these few mundane days.

Monumental Still life project

A new painting... the idea here is that you paint the still life objects with perspective that makes them look much larger in scale. So rather than having objects look like normal cream and sugar bowls, they look as if they are the size of buildings. A bit disconcerting and not my usual thing, but I decided to be daring. What do you think?

Now showing...part two

And a few more...

Now showing...

Here are a few photos of my show-- most of these paintings will be familiar to you if you follow the blog, but it's nice to see them on the wall.