Last Minute Touches

I always try and stick to my word, and for the most part (I'd even say 98% of the time) I do. I also try and stick to my word in a timely fashion, but that's something that I haven't quite mastered. If I promise to do something, I will, it just might take a while... or a year. That was the case with this tropical fish painting. My good friend Kristy, at the perfect age of 30, decided after many years of thinking she didn't want children, that now something felt right. 

Months later I visited her at her baby shower with her big baby Ronan belly. My gift was going to be a painting for his room, but I showed up empty-handed because I had started the painting and got frustrated with it. I promised her she would have something to hang on the wall... and then Ronan had his first birthday a month ago. I know, I know, shame on me. I stared at this painting in our living room for months but I just couldn't get myself to tackle it.

After we moved into the squeeze's rents' home I decided I had no excuse and spent two days finishing it up. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and Kristy seemed thrilled so that makes me not only relieved but ecstatic that it wasn't a disaster.

This little guy I promised I would make for a (now former) coworker. He always asked me about my paintings so I offered to make something for one of his little girls. She loves penguins, so I whipped up this little 8x8 panel and modge-podged some hand-cut tissue paper snowflakes on the edges. I also promised I would have this ready for my last day of work... which didn't happen... but I'm bringing it with me when I pick up my last paycheck at work tomorrow, so I did eventually follow through!

It's been nice having so much free time recently, I've been able to catch up on a lot of art I've been putting off. Now that all my 'promises' are completed and (mostly) delivered it's time to really focus on our move. Relaxing can my stressful, that's for sure.

Ogest

This is Ogest, he was my dad's wife's dog. He unfortunately passed away a few weeks ago, at a ripe old age though. My dad's wife resides in Nizhny Novgorod, the 5th largest city in Russia. After years of paperwork and signatures she is finally able to come to the U.S. and purchased a one way ticket for August 4th. Originally she was going to bring Ogest and her second dog, a little toy Yorkie, but Ogest passed suddenly. 

I was looking forward to meeting him, over the 12+ years they have been married my dad has shown me several photos of Ogest and told me when he would travel to Russia and stay for long periods of time that he grew accustomed to his snoring. Losing a pet is losing a family member, it's something we have all had to come to grips with at some point in our lives as our pets don't outlive us. It's upsetting to accept that reality, but all we can do is make the best of our time with them and enjoy every silly animal moment. 

My dad's wife and I aren't too close, no personal reasons, we've just been an Atlantic Ocean apart so we haven't had time to really get to know one another. But I wanted to give her something when she does arrive here in August so perhaps things are a little easier. I'm sure I would have loved Ogest, how could you not with that big grin??

Ta Da

So like I promised, here they are! Take note of the spectacular job the squeeze did cleaning up the wall and meticulously painting in those purple squares behind each painting. 

The show on Food Network, Taco Trip, did their interview of Taco Escobarr last week and the episode will air in October! The squeeze's contributions to the restaurant, i.e., the outside sign and 10,000 chili pepper lights strung from the ceiling, and my paintings will be on cable TV, how exciting! We probably still won't actually be paying for cable in October as we've gotten used to surviving off Hulu Plus and Netflix, but I'm sure we'll find some way to view the episode.

Keep your eyeballs peeled! 

Bear

A couple months ago a friend reached out and told me his brother just passed away. He said he saw some of my paintings online and wanted to know if he could request something to commemorate him and their mother that passed not long before that. He told me his brother went by the nickname 'Bear' (which I think is hilarious and awesome), and that his mother loved owls. I promised him after I finished up my big "Taco" project that I would hop right on it.

I browsed the web for pictures, drawings, and paintings of bears. Black bears, polar bears, grizzly bears, you name it. I just needed something to help me figure out what to paint. I came across a sketch of a big goofy smiling bear and it was perfect. I'm sure with a nickname like 'Bear' you gotta smile a lot and have a hearty laugh. I pictured in my head what would happen if a cute little poofy owl planted itself on the bear's head, how would he react... he would probably lean his head back and chuckle.

I asked the squeeze to impersonate the bear in that moment, just to see what he would come up with. We both grabbed our sides laughing as he let out an honest and cheerful 'huyah huyah huyah!'

We both crack up whenever we look at the painting, I hope it brings my friend the same joy and entertainment it's brought us (I made sure to snap several pics so we could refer back to it if we need a good laugh)!

Tacos

Guess what I'm doing right now? A happy jig because I finally completed the Taco Escobarr wall commission! I know, you're probably raising an eyebrow thinking these look familiar and that I'm not on my game today. They are the same paintings from a previous post, but I had to add three more; the scorpion, arrows, and shrimp, so technically you're right. It's a huge relief though, not to mention I'm looking forward to not having wooden boards littering our living room floor. I also can't wait to see them up on the wall at the restaurant! It'll be a nice feeling to leave something behind that's memorable in our hometown, I'm hoping it gets a lot of positive feedback from taco lovers and margarita sippers alike.

What's your favorite? I'm partial to the skull, because, well, I love to draw dead things. That sounds a lot more morbid than I mean... I just love skulls.

The squeeze is going to help out and bring the wall they will be hanging from back to life, it's been displaying several varieties of artwork for First Friday over the months and as a result looks like a slice of Swiss cheese. It needs a lot of TLC and spackle to say the least. So after some filler and a fresh coat of paint, up they go!

I will definitely take a picture of their final resting place (pun intended) once everything is set up.

Skulls and Roses

I can officially and happily say that I finally finished the painting project our friends commissioned me to do.

*breathes huge sigh of relief*

I always feel like I have a million and one things looming over my head to begin with, so when I added this project to the list I was a little overwhelmed. But that's how I am by nature, easily overwhelmed. So one day at a time I chipped away at it, only in the recent past couple of days did I really tackle it full force. I turned into a little couch monster covered in paint, I took over the whole living room with my neon acrylics and take-out food. But alas, it is done! I know you're probably thinking 'hey, those are pretty simple images to get all hot and bothered over,' and they are. But I'm painfully a perfectionist, so sometimes things take a little longer.

Here's to the next project!

Rally

This is the hood of an old Miata. Why is it covered in confetti and a winged T-Rex duking it out with an evil unicorn you might ask? Well, because car rally. Short of a few minor details, that really is the answer. 

There isn't a very large 'car scene' up here in Maine, let alone many fellow girls who are interested in Cars and Coffee kind of gatherings (in TX I hear C&C is a big thing). Back in 2013 I met a couple of female car enthusiasts on a Mitsubishi forum, we all happened to live in New England - one in CT and the other in RI. The three of us became pretty close and visited the others' home state. Through the forum we heard about this New England Rally that was happening in the summer, it was a Poker Run of sorts and spanned the course of three days. My friend from RI and I signed up and handed over the hefty enrollment fee, but after the experience I can say it was well worth it! We were the first all girl team they had (which they gave us a goody bag for), we called ourselves The Lulzers. We both drove Mitsubishi Lancers, which were referred to as Lulzers on the forum.

Back to the hood. The person in the forum who introduced us to the Rally asked me to custom paint his Miata hood. He literally asked for technicolor dinosaurs and unicorns. The goal was bright and obnoxious. So when it was rally time we showed up to our first destination, and from a mile away I could see the hood I painted! It was a big success, due to the sheer ridiculousness of it all. After the Poker Run was over, they continued to drive around CT with the hood covered in neon, stopping at small car meets along the way. For a brief stint people would reach out saying they saw it around. I think they've since parted out the Miata and sold it, the hood may be hanging on a wall in the garage.

If you ever have an itch to do something outrageous to your car, let me know.

Poppies

This is a painting my former boss commissioned me to do as a gift for his wife, she was graduating from Maine Law and he wanted to give her something she wasn't going to expect. I had to give him credit, thinking outside the box and such. The Mrs was thrilled about it which made me very happy, it's always nerve-wracking when you create something for someone else, the fear of them not liking it always lingers in the back of my head.

I painted this last spring. Sadly, I haven't painted a single thing since then. An artist with an art degree not making art? What would happen if butterflies stopped being butterflies? There would be fewer poppies in the world to paint. These days I'm simply too busy for my hobbies and interests. Even monarch butterflies make the time to pollinate before traveling to Mexico for the winter. The squeeze gets on my case about letting my beautiful easel he purchased for me collect dust. He's completely right.

My goal since the new year has been to pull my paints and brushes out from the cobwebs, I haven't been very good about this goal but perhaps this is the opportunity to start.