It's Not Easy Being Green

So, do you remember while back when I mentioned that there is a mom at my favorite little artist's school who sends her children to school with garbage-less lunches? Well, guess what...I now also send my favorite little artist to school with garbage-less lunches...well very close to it anyway :-)

I thought it would be hard but after conversation with my sister and a look at how I packed up her lunches, I realized it was do-able. All it really required was a shift in thinking. For instance, I so hate plastic shopping pages so I use re-usable bags, yet I would use plastic sandwich and snack bags everyday for lunch. Do you see the hypocrisy in that? So, lunches are now packed with all re-usable containers and it's not very hard. In fact, it is easier in some respects and now sandwiches never get squished.

So in honor of my breakthrough on the being green front, here is the picture for today, although it was done a few weeks ago, called "It's Not Easy Being Green", mixed media, 10"x12". However, the irony is that it is not as hard are we may think.

So make a little change for Mother Earth...reduce, re-use, recycle. And with that I step down from my soap box. Happy creating!

It's Friday!

I cannot believe that it is Friday! This week and last have just been a blur and to top it off I haven't accomplished everything I wanted. However, this week marked the beginning of a new beginning...I am no longer "in transition"...woo hoo. I started a new position on Thursday and am once again part of the gainfully employed.

Everything happened so fast and I am still trying to wrap my head around it. One thing I do know is that I need to continue to work on my art and building GarnetOriginals. My small little business must survive! There are some good things coming together for GO...professional pictures will soon be done and then quality greeting cards will be printed. It will be exciting to have an inventory to work with and see if any local stores will carry the cards.

Tomorrow will be an art focused day once soccer mom duty is over. My favorite little artist and I are looking forward to some quality time in the art room.

This Sunday I will be at the Bayside Arts Festival which should be lots of fun. If you are local I hope you will stop on by.

Last but certainly not least...my wonderful friend made it through her surgery and is a breast cancer survivor. Don't forget...October is breast cancer awareness month so get your pink on!

Love to all and happy creating!

Monday, Monday

It is a dreary, rainy Monday...it was not quite as dread filled as I imagined but the day is not over yet. I meet w/my favorite little artist's teacher in about 20 minutes... I hope we can come up w/a good plan and get my girl on track.

I am happy to say, I started a new mixed media piece for my Green series. I am optimistic about it and the colors are very autumn-ish...orange & green. Oh, get this, one of the moms at school sends her children to school with trash-less lunches. I am totally impressed and in awe. The most amazing thing about it is how casual she is about it, like everyone has clothes napkins to send their children to school with. But seriously, it is a great thing and many kudos to her. What a fabulous example, Ed Begley would be proud.

Well gotta run...more tomorrow and happy creating!

Mixed Up Crazy Day

Today was a bit of a crazy day, well actually the last two days have been hectic. My favorite little artist started kindergarten yesterday and we are adjusting to a whole new routine since she is taking the bus this year. And since she is the second stop in the morning the bus comes early (well for us anyway), 7:45. So every morning I wake her up at 7:10 so she can get ready and be on time for the bus. Once she is safely aboard her bus, I wait until just after 8 and drive over to the school to make sure she arrived safely and she knows where she is going. Now, please know the school has a whole system for making sure each child gets to her/his assigned class safely but until I know for sure she knows what to do I will meet her at school.

Today, after leaving the school I got myself together for an interview in NYC. I left plenty of time for traffic since the location I was headed to was easier to drive to then to take the bus/train. It took me longer to get there and get home then the interview lasted. I am not optimistic that they will call me back and oddly I am really ok with that. However, feeling that you will once again be rejected just puts a depressing damper on the day. It was beautiful and sunny but I still felt sad that is until my favorite little artist climbed off her bus and was home!

The rest of the day was very productive from an art perspective. However, I will have to wait to post the pieces completed today since it was too dark to photograph them. But on the bright side, here the mixed media piece I did yesterday, "Go Green", 10"x12". I have to say, I really have a lot of fun creating these mixed media pieces. I don't know if it is just the fact that it is something new or that I get to pull apart documents that made my life (and the lives of some others) a living hell. No matter which it is, they sure are a blast to create.

On a different but related note, my favorite gallery in Brooklyn, The Greenpoint Gallery, is having another salon show. I am so excited to submit my two new mixed media pieces for exhibit. I'll be sure to share more information on the show.

Have a wonderful evening and happy creating!

Cars, Cars and More Cars

Since I am unemployed, um, I mean in transition, there was no formal vacation this year. It was a real bummer since normally where we vacation is full of inspiration for me. So we kind of did a mini-vacation...an overnight in Parsippany, NJ. I know sounds super exciting now doesn't it?? Well, all sarcasm aside, it really is a good time if you like classic cars and the 50's. We spent two days at Lead East with family and friends. There are hundreds of classic cars to look at and lots of vintage items as well. I grew up with a car enthusiast for a Dad so cars are in my blood. My very first car was a 1964 Thunderbird, what I would do to own one again... In all honesty, the one I owned was very worst for wear. Oh well, maybe one day :-)

It is hard to believe that summer is almost over. School starts on Tuesday and my favorite little artist starts kindergarten. She is looking forward to taking the school bus and meeting her new teacher. We did the first time bus rider program on Thursday so I have a good idea of the route and am happy to know that there is an adult monitor on the bus. Oh, how different our days will be once school starts.

If all goes well, tomorrow, I will have a bunch of pictures to post. I have been busy working on my hand-painted greeting cards which I have nicknamed "The Littles". Reason being, the painted image is only 3"x4.5", small and sweet. As much fun as The Littles are to do, I am itching to do a large piece. Well, relatively speaking since my works are small to begin with but usually larger than 3"x4.5".

On a different note, I received a message about a possible job interview so please cross your fingers for me.

Well, that is all for now. Happy creating!

Blue Angel

I decided since there are so many people out there who love angels, I might as well do another one. So now I have two angel designs to be used for cards, journals, etc...

Golden Angel belongs to my cousin but Blue Angel (shown here), 7"x9", acrylic, is up for grabs. If you like her let me know.

Happy Creating!

Two Almost Complete Paintings

Here are the two pieces referred to in this post.

Today was a good art day. Other than applying the gloss medium, I did two paintings. The gloss medium I lent to my sister and I will pick it up tomorrow. Once glossed, I will photograph and post both pieces. It was wonderful to spend some quality time in my studio. It is a good break from the monotony of searching for a full-time job. Supposedly, the economy is getting better but I don't see it. All I find is that the same jobs are reposted repeatedly. There is one position that has been on the jobs for over ONE year! Is the employer really hiring? With the amount of unemployed individuals I find it really unlikely they haven't found a qualified individual to fill the spot. Especially, since the position isn't one that requires rare skills.

Tomorrow, I will continue my search and hopefully will find something that will match well with my skill set. I also hope to go to the library and start a new green mixed media piece.

Happy creating!

Green is Good

For anyone who knows me, I have some green tendencies. Mind you, I am no Ed Begley, and I could certainly do many things in a more green focused way but for the most part I do try and be environmentally friendly.

A couple of months ago I received a packet from a prior employer. The amount of paper contained in the packet was appalling and really uncalled for. What is worse, if I was still an employee of the company the packet would have contained even more paper! Now, understand that there are federal laws and regulations that require employers to send employees certain information, however, it does not always have to be in hard copy. In fact, my colleagues and I tried desperately to avoid having to drown employees in this much paper. Unfortunately, we lost the battle to one very stubborn individual who pulled rank on us.

I really hated the thought of putting all this paper in the recycle bin. But what could I do with it? The answer...create a mixed media work. So today is the unveiling of my first mixed media piece which incorporates re-using a small portion of the mound of paper received from a past employer. The work is called "Green is Good", 10"x12", decoupage and acrylic.

The title comes from a tag line that I include on all my e-mails. To be honest, I copied it from a wonderful woman I used to work with. It is short and sweet and hopefully reminds people to think before printing e-mails, etc.

I hope you enjoy today's piece. Happy creating!