Framed Thirteen

acrylic and ink on canvas, Tina Fanning

For this week's Thursday Thirteen(go here to participate and read other blogger's "13's"),
thirteen things I have framed this week(at the frame shop).

1.) The painting at the very top is mine and I was able to frame it in a cast-off "floater" frame(the frame is very basic and actually doesn't cover any of the image) that was being thrown out because of a banged up corner. A few dabs of brown wood marker, and I have a frame for free(a perk of working in a frame shop). I am entering this(with two other paintings) into a show this weekend. This one is kind of the "throw-away" one of the bunch (kind of cartoony, so who knows what the art association will think of it), so not expecting that it will be accepted, but ya never know....


2. ) A Low Anthem CD Release Party poster, framed in a simple black frame




3.) Vintage 1974 poster in a black metal frame(I would say 75% of the frames we use are...black)





4.) And...yet another black frame, but a blue-black distressed style, with an added silver "enhancer" that I thought perfect for this painting(that the customer found on e-Bay for next to nothing--he collects circus art)
and had to hunt down from a warehouse in L.A.(according to the frame supplier, we got the very last stick of this moulding).



5.) Isn't this lady of long ago just gorgeous? She reminds me of Madonna...




6.) Have framed this one a few times...




Detail from Australian aboriginal art....

7.) Here's the whole thing(tried to show the frame--which I thought echoed the cross-hatching details in the painting). This one was unusual in that we see and frame a lot of aboriginal art from Australia(seems everyone has been to Australia but me!), but this one has a "cross-hatched" technique and the majority have a "dot" technique.

8.) A detail from an 1895 map of the area

9.) Lilacs oil painting by George Furbish

10.) Detail of painting(of the North Lighthouse on Block Island) by Burl Dawson(another local artist whose art we show and sell).

Didn't get to get photos of these:

11.) A boring poster for an event at the U.R.I. College of Business to discuss the state's public employee's pension crisis...framed in a ...you guessed it!--black frame.

12.) another a picture, which I was about to take a photo of because it turned out so well(if I say so myself)--a watercolor of Japanese Maple leaves on a branch with a striking blue grey mat and black and red bamboo frame. Just as I was getting it out to photograph, the owner of the art walked in the door to pay for it and take it home.
That was a satisfying job--a really good design that I and the customer were equally happy with.

13. A moldy old photo print of Mount Washington that I *think* the customer paid too much for in a junk shop, probably thinking it was worth something(just because something is old does not mean it is more valuable). He liked it enough to re-frame it(in a weathered driftwood-y frame) and we got a framing job out of it, so everyone was happy.

Last day

Listening to the near quiet of a cold "last-day-of-the-old year".

Just heard the faint sound of that whirring sound swans make as they fly over the roof,

can hear the buzz of the computer modem in here,

and also the chickadee's "dee-dee" song outside my window.

Feeling a little low today. Fight with the husband last night. Not feeling like celebrating tonight. Might start off the arrival of 2011 with some painting/drawing, which I really have not done much of since October, when I painted the wary ( and also weary?) eyed woman above.

Hop on over to....

...another Friday Fill-In. (to play along, visit here)

1. A cup of tea _____________when I come home from work in the late afternoon is a satisfying routine for me.

2. A cat and/or a dog snoozing on the couch_________ makes a place feel like home.

3. Everything has its beauty __________if you are open to seeing it.

4. Who doesn't like_____________ the taste of strawberries?

5. Art makes me ______________ feel all tingly inside.

6. LOL I just noticed I forgot ________the laundry in the dryer again.(it's been there for two days now--hopefully not too wrinkled)

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _____bookclub night,

tomorrow my plans include _____getting my hair hi-lighted (a gift from my husband--I have never done this before)

and Sunday,

I want to _____drive over the 2 bridges to the nearest IHOP! (been having my "once-a-year" craving for silver dollar pancakes and Boysenberry syrup for two weeks now)

So you think YOU'RE having a bad day?

Imagine if you were this clumsy woman? (this happened on Monday of this week). I can't imagine how I would feel(and scared, too, as to what could be done legally against me for the damage. Although, the museum must have some kind of insurance)if I did this:

New York woman falls, rips Picasso painting

Mon Jan 25, 8:18 am ET , Yahoo News
NEW YORK (AFP) – A significant Pablo Picasso painting was damaged after a woman attending art class lost her balance, fell into "The Actor" and tore it, The Metropolitan Museum of Art said.

The unusually large canvas, measuring 77.25 by 45.38 inches (196 by 115 centimeters), sustained a vertical tear of about six inches (15 centimeters) in the lower right-hand corner in the accident on Friday.

The museum, located on the eastern edge of New York's Central Park, did not elaborate on why the woman fell.

But The Met said the damage did not impact the "focal point of the composition" and that it should be repaired in the coming weeks ahead of a major Picasso retrospective featuring some 250 works at the museum opening on April 27.
Repair work should be "unobtrusive," it added.
Painted in the winter of 1904-1905, the work hails from Picasso's critical Rose Period, when the artist shifted from the downbeat tones of his Blue Period to warmer, more romantic hues.
The period also hints at Picasso's later embrace of abstraction with his signature cubist style.
Donated to The Met by automobile heiress Thelma Chrysler Foy in 1952, "The Actor" features an acrobat striking a dramatic pose against an abstract backdrop. It was painted on a used canvas that already contained a painting.

They're B-a-c-k...

These blooms are what's left of my ranunculus bouquet that I bought over two weeks ago.
I moved them over to my "yellow" corner of the living room, where I have hung some artwork I did a few years ago -- in black and yellow ink.

Employed

" Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude.

I like fun. "

~ Colleen C. Barrett

I took a week off from blogging. No reason, really--just spent my time doing other things and felt no inspiration to write or share anything. My week has been full of very ordinary moments(work, errands, more work, more errands) and some more memorable ones (singing the Gilligan's Island theme song around a bonfire last night with friends ~~ accompanied by my husband on guitar and another musician on ukulele!).
I wandered around my workplace with my camera on a slow morning this past week, trying to capture some of the colors that surround me there. Glass, fired clay, brass, bronze, wood, wire, canvas and paper.

What surrounds you at your place of work?

*Views? (I look out a big glass window onto a parking lot--which looks much nicer viewed through the colored glass spheres hanging in that window, and a bike path from the back door that I gaze at wistfully on beautiful sunny warm days when bikers whizz by while I am working indoors)

*Sounds? (Classical guitar playing on the radio out front, NPR radio in the work room, conversation with our customers--nothing too abrasive).

*Scents? (it ranges from from fresh air through an open door to some one's heated up lunch at my place)

*Mood? (much better these last few weeks--cooperative, genial co-workers and a happy boss--now that a certain problem-causing employee has been FIRED!)

More Sketchiness

"sketchy-ness"? Is that even a real word?
From cat ladies to "hat" ladies--some more doodles from my tiny sketch book.
First one turned out to be kind of Tim Burton-esque(would love to wear something like this on Halloween), the second--more prim and proper Edwardian lady with some kind of psychedelic explosion/hat on her head.

Wordless Wednesday-Sketchy Edition

An unfinished pencil sketch(sorry about the fuzzy quality of the quickly taken and downloaded photo of it) from my smallest art journal --3 3/4" x 5 3/4" page size.

Meet Isabel

My newest acquisition--a handmade felt crow on a metal pedestal/final type stand.
I saw her in a shop window and had to have her. Very Edward Gorey, no?

I have been moving her around in the living room. Not sure where to display her just yet, but she is a nice addition to the fall and Halloween themed decorations I now have arranged around the room.
I pottered around yesterday-setting out the few Halloween things I have and added some bouquets of the last flowers from my garden(and some wildflowers from a walk with Jewel).

So...today's plan is to make some chicken soup with rice(there is a sorry looking carcass of a chicken in my fridge) and some bread (gotta lug out the bread machine) and maybe...some brownies. I am feeling so domesticated this weekend, it's scary!

11 Signs You're Getting Older....

a blooming, "youthful" Mother Nature

another quick sketch from a slow day at the shop

***********

I find I can't make the time to blog when the husband and child are home on vacation. We are either off doing things together(R and I had a mother-daughter lunch date today at Seven Moons, for instance) or the computer(we only have one in the house still) is being used.

But I thought I would hop on and at least do the Ten on Tuesday list.

***** Ten Signs You Are Getting Older ******

Very appropriate for my mood today after the ugly shock of seeing my jiggly self in the mirror when I attempted to try on swimsuits at a few stores. Lets just say I have for the first time in my previously skinny life gained some noticeable pounds. This past winter, I really got into cooking and trying out new recipes and I think I must have been sampling too much of my usually successful edible concoctions.

It's not so bad...I am okay with being a little more rounded and will need to accept that I will from now on be choosing clothes in a slightly larger size. And that my lazy self needs to exercise more and not slack off on the stomach crunches.

1. I can't comfortably read the font and typeface at Facebook--too dang small!

2. Have been visiting the dentist the last few years needing crowns and fillings replaced. At least I am outliving the warranty. ;-)

3. I like to go to bed early and get up early (slowly reversing from what I used to do when I was younger)

4. Don't know the names of most current singers or even know the songs on the Top 40 list(maybe there isn't even any such thing anymore) other than what I have learned from my daughter, and mostly listen to NPR radio all day instead of music.

5. a noticeable weight gain for the first time in my life(aside from when I was pregnant) at my last doctor's visit(and visibly in evidence in the dressing room mirror today). I don't mind too much because I figure it is only natural and I kind of like the more jiggly me! But the whole bathing suit shopping experience is even less fun now.

6. a grey hair or two(I have not seen them, but have been told by my daughter that they are there!)

7. If I sit too long in one position(in front of the computer, for example or cross-legged on the floor doing an art project) I am all stiff and creaky when I get up and try to walk. Now, that really makes me feel ancient!
8. I only get out to see live music maybe once or twice a year now(this is somewhat related to no. 3). At least I know I'll be going out to see Jonathan Richman in June(already have my tickets), will see Guster in August and actually went out AFTER ten o' clock to a club a few weeks ago( and felt quite all right the next day)--maybe I am staying a little more youthful?
9. I HAVE to put on a moisturising eye cream morning and night! But, again, I really don't mind the little extra crinkly wrinkly stuff--it is only natural and part of the process.
10. I accept things more(such as my own imperfections) and find I have more patience. I might just be growing up, finally.

....and a no. 11:

I also have to admit to being a cranky older lady sometimes when people are rude or the world changing so much(newspapers fading, for an example) and sometimes can feel myself becoming a dinosaur along with all the disappearing things I love.

Just another ...

Pink Peach Tree In Blossom, V.Van Gogh

..... Manic Monday:

Do you enjoy brain teasers or do you find them frustrating?
I am pretty lazy when it comes to that kind of thing--especially if it has anything to do with mathematics. My brain freezes right up. Trivia and literary and historical stuff, I usually know and I DO like doing crossword puzzles.

Do you have any unusual collections?
Probably my hedgehog collection. I also have a huge basket full of postcards--I have kept every one I have received since high school. I also collect bookmarks and have little piles of stones, pebbles and seashells throughout the house...


What do people notice about you within the first hour of meeting you (other than appearance)?
I have no idea. I am often afraid to think what people think of me...are my mannerisms annoying? Do I repeat certain phrases?

**It happens to be Vincent Van Gogh's birthday today. Said so on my calender and I found a good video paired with Jonathan Richman's Vincent Van Gogh("the baddest painter since Jan Vermeer..!")--perfect! So, here ya Gogh:

Crowded

Helen Morgan, 1932

Somehow or another I stumbled upon this site last weekend and spent close to an hour looking at each and every one of the black and white photos of women(as well as reading the info about each one). They were all takeN by Carl Van Vechten, whose name I was vaguely familiar with but thought he was a writer of some sort. However, he began an interest in photography when he was a boy in 1890's Iowa and continued to take photos all his life, but interestingly, never for money.

"Van Vechten never took commissions, he never sold his photographs, he only granted permission to publish them when he was assured of the quality of reproduction in periodicals and other news organs, he never photographed anybody he didn’t want to photograph, and he gave away his multiple copies of his prints to their subjects and to friends. Moreover, the scope of sittings varied widely: he made four or five photographs of Myra Hess, but over a period of years he made four or five hundred photographs of Alicia Markova. A few years later, he began to establish impressive photographic archives to accompany his gifts of books and manuscripts to libraries, and he continued this activity until his death."

The photos at the Extravagant Crowd on line exhibit are all women, shot by Van Vechten during what appears to be the years between 1932 and 1955(which is the period in time that I am a little obsessed with). What struck me at once was how contemporary these women seem. Check out the image of Carol Channing, even.

I love the stories about each one, such as the notes about torch singer Helen Morgan (shown above):
"Today, Morgan is perhaps best remembered in the role of Julie in Showboat, a part she played on Broadway and in the 1936 film. It was in this role, after an evening performance, that Morgan became one of Carl Van Vechten’s first photographic subjects. Already a little drunk when she arrived, Morgan asked her chauffeur to bring a bottle of brandy from her car after Van Vechten had taken only a few pictures. They drank and talked and Van Vechten photographed Morgan well into the night; “Helen did not depart until four-thirty in the morning,” Van Vechten’s friend, Donald Angus, remembered, “but during the interim Carl had captured both the bitterness and the ebullience of the story of her wretched life, which she told at length as the time passed and the brandy dwindled.”

Slow And Easy Wednesday

It has been so boring at work lately--very few orders. It is a combination of the economy and the slow time of year (in the best of times). So I ended up drawing on a scrap piece of matboard with crayons there today(there is a big box of them in a drawer, left there by a former employee). And instead of sticking it on the refrigerator, I am sticking my drawing on my blog.

Little signs of spring everywhere today.

I saw an osprey's head in the nest on the pole by the beach when I drove past this morning. So...they're baaaack.

Kids on the fields playing lacrosse, baseball, soccer.....

Chalk drawings on the sidewalk.

Passed a house when walking the dog this afternoon and noticed a woman behind a fenced in garden, sitting in a lawn chair reading a book.

Sat in a lawn chair myself, later and read the mail, instead of a book.

I don't think I am going to continue with Ken Follet's "The Pillars Of The Earth". I read so many glowing reviews and it seemed like a book I was missing out on and should read. So....I get the nearly 1000 page book(for free from Paperback Swap), read a few chapters and find myself hating the writing style(very simplistic and not in a good way) and story. I am going to pass this one on or swap it for something else. I wonder why sometimes I end up clearly not liking a book that everyone else says "you must read this book--I couldn't put it down!" Like with the "Da Vinci Code"--I couldn't even finish the first chapter of that one.

Valentines Day themed collage I made.
The Queen Of Hearts

Housebound

The Red Cloak

Miss Violetta in her Parlour

*********

I stayed in my house all day yesterday. Never set foot outside once! I don't know if I have ever done that before (other than those times I have been sick). And I was perfectly happy!

I thought I was going to have another round of cabin fever, but I got my paints, pen and inks and pencils out and filled in some blank pages in my sketch book. Made a huge mess of my table. Ignored all the "should-do's", like cleaning, going to the grocery store. I let R take Jewel for her walk. I might even do the same thing today--although we do need some food in the house and it is supposed to be pretty warm out, so a walk on the beach would be good.

Lately, I've been drawn to using the color red. Above--two of my little paintings (6" x 9") from yesterday and below, yes....yet another Blogthing.

You Are Cranberry Red

Peaceful and philosophical, you are almost always at harmony with the world. You're not very social, but you always enjoy a deep, complex conversation with a friend. It's possible that you've been disappointed a lot in your life, but you've gotten over those disappointments quickly. For you, each day is new and glorious. You wake up refreshed and happy, even when things aren't going your way.

What Color Red Are You?

Sunday Collage

I was looking at the black and white world

It seemed so exciting

If you'd only put me back to back with that girl

When the night's inviting

With just a little lighting

There'll never be days like that again.......

**

But you're never gonna feel a fraction

Of the way it used to work on your imagination

When you were looking at the black and white world...

***

"Black And White World" ~ Elvis Costello

Post Christmas Fill-In

I am still feeling a Christmas glow, a day later. And unlike previous years, I don't have the day after "Is that it?" feeling. I think it is because I have the day off and my house is neat as a pin, still, and it really looks beautiful in here with the decorations and the bright sun shining in. I just downloaded some Ian Dury songs, so have "Reasons To Be Cheerful (Part 3)" playing and it puts me back in time, as if it were the day after Christmas 1981.

Also, aside from no new book (I never ever seem to get books as presents anymore), I got everything I could have hoped for this Christmas. Really.
So..since I have not done this in a few weeks, here's Janet's famous Friday Fill-in~~The Boxing Day Edition:

1. I must _____ get to Scotland before I die.

2. You can't stop _____ hope.

3. I wish I never had to buy _____ scissors again. They mysteriously disappear in this house. At one time, we had four pairs, and yet only the dullest one remains. How does this happen? We must have a scissor happy house elf.

4. Being diagnosed with A.D.D. in adulthood_____ has helped me change my life.

5. I know the ________"Oscar Meyer Bologna" song by heart. (also, I can sing the Armour Hot dogs commercial jingle all the the way through, too. What this says about me, I don't think I really want to know.)

6. If I weren't so afraid, I would _____ like to put on a one woman show of my art/illustrations in a gallery (maybe this should have been my answer for no.1?)

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _____ getting started on reading "The Rottweiler" by Ruth Rendell, tomorrow my plans include_____ working half a day and then going to see a movie(Doubt?) with the husband, and Sunday, I want to _____um, I really have no idea! I can't think that far ahead at this point, but it is great not having any plans for once.

This is almost a "oh-woe-is-me", cranky Sat. morning entry. I was asked to come in to work today and even though I of course was looking forward to not being at that place for two days (especially after a crazy and exhausting Friday on the job), I said "why, yes I would come in."

i need
more time..more time to get things done here at home and more time in general.

i want
a job where there isn't so much drama sometimes. Not having to deal with the general public might be nice for a time, too. (yeah, yeah...I know deep down that I am lucky to have a job in this economy...but....gotta complain anyway.)

i listen
to silence on a Satuday morning. No birds singing, everyone else asleep...only the hum of the monitor.

i feel

drained and lifeless today--not the best way to begin the day.

i watch
it becoming lighter outside-- the sky a gentle baby aspirin peachy pink behind the trees

i play
not so much lately--being on the internet for a half hour this morning is as close to playing as I might get today.

i read
Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress by Susan Jane Gilman--got through two chapters only so far and nearly dropped it in the tub last night.

i eat
some Trader Joe's boxed granola cereal and milk--not as good as I had hoped. Need (more time!) to make some granola from scratch...

*Update:

I am now at work and determined to be in a better mood. As I drove in, I listened to a radio account of living conditions in North Korea and the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe. Makes my pitiful complaining seem pretty lame.

The Queen has left the building....

The Queen is in the counting house..counting out her money--no-Wait!
The Queen has been extremely busy and has been a delinquent blogger again.
Actually, I am not "queenly" at all (and how I wish I had a counting house and stacks of money--shopping for school supplies and a new refrigerator has left me very poor) but this has been the ONLY sketchy thing I have painted in my art journal for weeks. There has been so much going on. I need a snowstorm or something--that will keep me stuck in the house for days.

I did want to thank everyone who left a comment and had such kind words for me about my grandmother's death. It hasn't been a devastating loss--just a sad mood to my days. Oddly, it hits me at the strangest times that I don't have her in my life anymore. Like one slow day at work this week when I was tidying up the greeting cards and saw the "Grandmother's Birthday" card and started to cry because it hit me then that I would never pick out one of those to send again.

Sunshine

Not really anything much to say (I could go on and on about how blah I am feeling lately about my work and how I feel like a robot, but I don't even want to go there, hoping this will pass), and not much time to say it.

So...I'll talk about the weather! it's been absolutely gorgeous today, after what seems like weeks of hot and sticky days. Of course, I didn't know it was so nice out since I was inside working all day. As soon as I walked out of there, I felt a change come over me instantly.

It's sunny, but the kind of sunny where you want to sit out in it. I just ran in to say that. Now, it's back out to my deck chair with the dog and a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream. (No one else here at the moment and I have just gotten in from work, and it's pretty nice being alone for a while)