Love is in the Air

I love Valentines Day but it has been years since I've had a love interest to share it with. So why do I still love it?  I LOVE PINK!  And Red! And White!  and girly things, lace,  vintage papers,  and candy.  Most of all I loved the sweetness that emerged in the classroom around Valentines Day. This year, I missed that.  But then... I had time to make this....YUM!

Seriously... I only ate one piece.  Really!

This month's Blog Circle topic is Love and I'm interested to see what all the other bloggers have to say on the topic.  For me love is all about Family,  appreciating what I have and being able to do what I love.  I have SO much to write about that one would think I'd blog more often.  Well, here is an excuse in the form of a whine:

  For this post I had one picture I really wanted to share... It is a 12" square piece and the largest my scanner takes is about a 9 x 10.  Hmm.  I was determined, because it is a gray day and my camera would not to it justice.  So I scanned it 4 times... side to side, up and down.  Then I got into Photo Shop and worked at PhotoMerging to stitch the 4 parts together.  I KNOW how to do this, but is it easy? NO!   After merging there was one corner that got left off and was just a checker box that looked like a missing puzzle piece.  When I tried to fill it in, my computer said...sorry, you are OUT OF MEMORY.  No can do.  I had tried this a few months ago and forgot that this was how the story ended that time too.  I fully intend to get to the Apple Store and remedy this memory thing because I do not like glitches, or slow computers.  So you get to see a PART of that picture.  I really * Heart * her.  Sometimes, things show up on the canvas that take me by surprise.  Like "Hello, there! Where'd you come from?"  Some artists have a story for every piece of art.  I'm not good at that.  My stuff just emerges.  She is what she is and the story of her is in YOU!  What do you see?

 For this piece I was playing with the loose strokes of artist, Katie Kendrick.  She will be my teacher mentor at the upcoming Artful Journey retreat in Los Gatos, CA. ( can't wait, can't wait)   I've bought her book, Layered Impressions and love her whimsy-style. 

A side comment... when I was loading this picture onto PicMonkey.com  (to resize it!) I got a pop-up message that said "Whoa, this picture is Hindenburg huge. Please resize it to bla-bla and try again.  Thirty minutes later and I'm still trying to open it.  TOMORROW I will go get the new memory for my computer.  (can I buy some for me too?)


I've been trying out some clayboard for my substrate and loving the smooth surface it provides for paint.  It does beg me to just paint on it rather than layer it with mixed media, though it would work perfectly fine for MM too.  But the smoothness of it just beckons my brush.  Isn't she fresh faced?  I'd like a haircut like that, methinks.

And finally,  I made my first finished journal page.  I never thought I wanted to do any art journaling, but I'm thinking again. A whole book of fun pages might be a real keeper.

This page does have a story.  When I was a little girl, my brother had a pet parakeet.  That bird sometimes flew around the house and one day he scooted to the floor just as my father was taking a step.  It was not a pretty sight.  I was not acquainted with death, really, but what stands out in my memory is the anguish that my father suffered from that incident.  I don't remember worrying about the dead bird, but I was quite impressed by my father's sadness.

So, circling back to love, my Papa was a prince among men.  He was a gentle man,  loved unconditionally and asked for nothing in return.  I light the torch, this Valentine's Day, for him.


Next blog post on the circle is my writer friend, Becky Cavender in Burma.