Fall

The weather has changed rather abruptly from hot, sticky summer to fall.  It's chilly and gray now, which I love, but will be totally sick of by spring.  I've had a lot going on in the past few weeks; my sister had her baby, a little girl named Fern, and I'm so stoked to be an aunt.  I got what seems may actually be a permanent job at a retirement home in Wilmette teaching arts and crafts classes once a week, which is going well so far.  I got into my first group gallery show at Petroff Studio Gallery through the Lucid Artist Co-op.  The show starts October 5th.  I'm really excited about that because the Co-op has their own PR person, they put out ads and send out emails all over Chicago, and one of my paintings will even be on a postcard! I'm going to put about four or five pieces in the show but I don't know which ones I want yet.  The problem is that almost all of my paintings are in cafes right now through the end of September, and I don't know if I'm going to sell any there, so I don't want to commit any of those paintings to the Petroff show.

I know for sure I'll put this one in.  I just finished it recently and because I have it on hand this one will go on the postcard:

Tarsier Skull
Acrylic on Canvas
9"x9"

This painting is on a gallery profile canvas, 2" wide.  The edges are painted green and the purple gears continue onto the sides.  Tarsiers have some of the most primitive traits (as opposed to adaptive traits, as we have) found in primates, making them a good candidate for what our very early ancestors may have looked like.  A lot of their features, such as the big bulging eyes with an open socket behind them, have been selected against, for the obvious reason that it would be really easy to poke their eyes out.

The Great Plains
Acrylic on Canvas
6" x 8"

Flies
Acrylic on Canvas
12" x 16"

I feel like my work is slowly evolving.  I don't know if it is maturing necessarily, or if I'm just getting kind of tired of my old subject matter and moving on to new things.  I was doing a lot of birds, jewels, deserts and hearts, all of which I'm still interested in, but I'm mixing in new environments and new characters to my repertoire.  I get kind of obsessed with a certain environment- such as the southwest, and have to paint it.  I have a certain way I paint the southwest.  But I'm also into the north- like the Yukon territory in Canada.  And the Great Plains (see my little buffalo).  Also, I'm trying to break away sometimes from doing landscapes, per the Tarsier Skull.  It's good to have some variety.