Pack Rats and My 3rd Annual Birthday Gift Giveaway

My 2nd birthday, 1966.

Several years ago when my mom was moving she gave me some boxes of things she had saved from my childhood. This was the first hint to me that she was such a pack rat, which was confirmed after she died a few years ago; the crazy stuff she still had? Yikes! For some reason I had never noticed that she saved EVERY.SINGLE.THING.EVER. Maybe because we moved nearly every year while I was a child and somehow it didn't seem like we had very much. Anyway, in one of the boxes she gave me, I found the entire outfit (including the birthday cards that are on the table, but NOT the cake, thankfully!) that I am wearing in the above photographs. And by entire, I mean ENTIRE; the shirt, the jacket/sweater thingy, the skirt, a slip, underwear (I was potty trained already? wow!), those same socks, shoes and even the blue hair ribbon which was attached to the bobby pin which still held a few strands of my hair. Possibly slightly creepy, but mostly very sweet. My mom was an unwed mother in a time when society was very different and even though things changed and became more difficult as I got older, she was at her best as a mother while I was very young. She made most of my clothes (including the whole outfit I am wearing in these photos), she was very creative and despite having little to no money, few friends and family, she always managed to put together a good day for me. Although I think this was probably the birthday that was the most fully documented, heh.

So.

Time for my 3rd annual birthday gift giveaway. I am not as crabby as I have been in the past (and if you read that post, check out the link for the previous birthday post, still my fave) so this time I am including those of you who live in Canada. I am continuing to draw the line at shipping overseas (sorry) but if you have an address in North America that I can ship to, please wish me a happy birthday here in the comment section of the blog which will make me feel terribly popular and like I haven't lost most of my readers due to spotty postings. My super enthusiastic daughter, Ginger, has agreed to draw the name again and I'll announce the name tomorrow. My birthday gift is the choice of a painting from my sales blog and if there is not currently a painting that speaks to the winner, the choice can be made at a later date. I want the winner to get a painting that they reallyreallyreally want.

Y'all have until midnight tonight. GO!

Dipping my Toes in the Water

Line of Trees, 6"x12", Oil on Birch Panel, 2010

So I guess I might be the stubborn sort. I want to keep this blog going even if I have been moving further and further away from it lately. Maybe it's all the fame and fortune it brings me that lures me back???? No, probably not that, hehe.

But there is something here, because every day for the last few months I kept thinking that I should write a new post even though I didn't really feel like it. Maybe I just needed a good long break to reassess. It has also occurred to me that maybe, and it's a real longshot, I have become totally sick of talking about myself all the time. Maybe I am preferring the short sound bite style mentions of myself and my activities that I post on Facebook. The ones that seem to fulfill the same need to express what I am doing, but take much less time and thought and get much more immediate feedback. Or maybe 4+ years for a blog is a really good run and I should close it up. Just a few of the many theories that I have been pondering in the last two months.

Well whatever the reason, here I am again and I will keep trying to find my balance in all this social media stuff until some sort of answer clunks me in the head.

Ok, so here is a brief update on life in Tracyland during the last few months:

-new hen house in the garage
-45 new egg layer chicks
-raised 40 meat chickens
-drove my kids everywhere everyday
-kids at summer camp and at Outward Bound at various times, but never at the same time
-husband out of town on our 17th wedding anniversary
-signed up to participate in a community yard sale day then bailed out because we were overwhelmed by all the sorting that had to be done
-read 'Open' by Andre Aggassi, my love
-mucho gardening but mucho problems with critters and weeds
-The Fabulous Beekman Boys
-me sending paintings to a new gallery for a try out
-me getting the paintings back after they received ZERO interest from customers
-one of my black paintings being accepted into a national juried show
-the start of a new series of portraits that I am SUPER excited about
-spending July and August preparing for a solo show in September
-a few shows added to my schedule for 2011
-and signing up to do several things I have avoided in the past which could be good but I am doing them mostly because the art business has been pretty slow again this year.

The list of things that I have NOT done this summer and should have, is much, MUCH longer.

So who wants to hear more about what? Speak up, otherwise the next post will be all about raising meat chickens. heh.

Painterchick/Chickenfarmer Girl

South Side, 2010, Oil on Panel, 24"x18"

Good thing I have gotten some of my energy back, because there is a lot going on. Actually that probably is WHY I am getting it back, I HAVE to. Anyway, I am feeling enthusiastic again about working in the studio and just finished a really good group of paintings (see above). I am planning to focus on the 'People You Know' now, as I currently have plenty of landscapes in my inventory.

And life in general is particularly crazy right now. Both of my daughters have crazy busy sports schedules, one daughter is in softball with practice everyday and my youngest daughter is playing both softball AND soccer AND is also taking a Junior Lifeguarding class. And I am tired just writing this. Heh. Anyway, mostly this translates to A LOT of driving and scheduling and watching games for me. Plus we are getting into all the end of the year stuff; school concerts, dances, etc. Ok, nap time now......

Life on the farm is picking up too. The weather has been kind of wacky, and it has been really cold for the last several days which has been the perfect excuse to delay more work out in the vegetable garden. But there is MUCH to do out there and it is looming over us. I have been puttering around in the flower gardens but don't even ask me why there are a million dandelions IN the back flower garden. I need to get to that pretty soon. And this weekend we will be getting new 45 new chicks. I have decided to fully embrace being a painterchick/chickenfarmer girl and will be selling organic eggs, hopefully enough to at least pay for the organic feed. Our current flock of chickens are getting older and although they are still laying, they are slowing down so it's a good time to start a new flock. However, I am not exactly the culling chicken type, so we have decided to establish a second hen house. We have a 10x12 room in our garage that has its own door out to the yard and so Doug has been working on getting that room ready. It also has electricity which is VERY exciting, the other hen house is all pioneer with no power or water even remotely nearby. Chick pictures coming soon.

So I guess spring is a good time to get a girl out of a mild funk, eh?

Regional Shows and Often Procrastination is Good

The Weight of Being, 2010, Oil on Panel, 20"x24"

So Chair Lady was accepted into the regional show at the Cooperstown Art Association and Doug and I went to the opening reception last night. We didn't stay too long because we had to get to our daughter's softball game but we had a nice time, talked to some friends and munched at the food table. Actually, I had exactly two things and they were both so spicy that I had a runny nose the rest of the evening. Awesome!

The work in the show was good but it became clear as we saw which artists won the prizes that I probably should have entered a landscape. Well, if I was intent on winning something. Heh. I do like to win, who doesn't? But I am still glad that I pushed the envelope a bit and entered something different. And a number of people mentioned that even though mine was a figurative painting, they still immediately recognized it as my work.

But the best part of yesterday (well besides watching my daughter play really well in her very first softball game!) was getting two large Black Paintings done. I spent most of Thursday SO not sure about what I was going to do with them, but finally that night I managed to eke out a few sketches of compositions that seemed like they might work. I still needed some time to settle in (procrastinate) on Friday morning but at about 1:30pm I stepped up to the easel and just whipped out the two paintings, it's like they just flowed right out of me. Love when that happens, that feeling is one of the things that makes being a painter chick so great.

Sure don't need a prize for that!

More Adventures in Painting (The Walls)

So a few weeks ago our oldest son finally moved out and into a residential home on the campus of the school that he goes too. Due to a variety of reasons, it took years to get him into a placement (he is 20, mentally disabled and will always need to live in a supervised setting) and by the time he moved, everyone's nerves were frayed from the waiting.

But his small, dark cave of a room turned into a good project to distract us (well me, really, I did most of the work).


My daughters have always shared a room and were pretty happy for the opportunity to each have their own room. Actually, 'over the moon' comes to mind. Heh. It was decided that Ginger, the youngest, would get my son's old room and that Sophie would stay in the old one:

Which usually looked more like this:
Sigh. I know, I know.

For the longest time Ginger wanted her new room to be lime green and so I was envisioning that too. At the last minute, like the day before we bought the paint, she decided on an aqua color. Ok. As I was rolling the aqua over the dark blue walls, I thought it looked great, but after I did the whole room, I thought I was gonna die:
This picture does NOT express the full spectrum of that first color. It was like a hopped up, drug induced, blue light special version of Kmart blue/green. It was SO intense, the room seemed to vibrate. Even though the aqua was lighter than the previous wall color it was still too dark and way too vivid for the small room. I told Ginger that we would have to paint the room the lighter shade of the same color. She went all drama queen on me, but I put my foot down. That crazy color was spilling out of her room and making the whole hallway blue, I couldn't bear to look at it every time I walked up the stairs. So I did the second color and it was just right, even Ginger (eventually) agreed.


So we got her all moved in, a new rug from Pottery Barn, and a lot of shelving for her stuff (we put HER in the small room to help curb her hoarding tendencies;)) and viola! A bright, cute and shiny new bedroom in the house!

And naturally since she got a new room, the old room needed an update too. I loved the soft periwinkle/lavender color that the girls picked out when they were 4 and 6, but Sophie had visions of something different now.

I talked her out of red, then out of black (!) and we settled on orange. She picked out a color card and I ok'd it. After our experience with the first version of aqua, I was a bit concerned that the orange was going to be prison jumpsuit or traffic cone orange once it was on the walls, but it turns out that is was a food kind of orange. White trash food, to be specific. Heh. Depending on the light I was thinking Velveeta, Cheetos, Cheez Whiz, Orange Creamsicles, etc. for the several days that it took to paint this room. And omg, I thought the painting in there would never end; it's a large room, about 17x17 and had four windows plus the doors. Lots of edges! And it turns out that that periwinkle was more intense than I thought. I had to paint three coats of the orange before it finally stopped showing through. Which means three times around all the edges. Gah!!! I guess I should have primed the walls first, but I still would have been painting that room three times so that wouldn't have made much of a difference.

I spent a whole day cleaning and sorting through the rubble that had been left (we are instituting new and very strict 'clean your room' rules), and rearranged the remaining furniture. Found a nifty new rug (at Target online) that reminds us all of the Yellow Submarine animation and viola! A second bright and shiny new room!

I am incredibly glad that this round of painting is over, there were no injuries, only a few pulled muscles, no major paint spills and no footprints or pawprints tracking the splatter throughout the rest of the house.

But now I notice that the kitchen could use a bit of brightening up too.......

And PS. Read here for what happened when I repainted my old studio/new living room. And here is the room all finished.

A Nothing of a Post

Right Through There, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 12x16

Sorry, folks, this is a real nothing of a post today. This last week was almost a complete wash in my studio. Yesterday, our oldest son, Kurtis, moved into a residential home on the campus of his school and my studio time was interrupted almost every day by meetings, packing, shopping etc. And during the few chunks of time that I did have to work, I found that I was too distracted to do anything that looked even remotely worthwhile.

So I have about five underpaintings sitting here, waiting for their color and I will try again first thing Monday morning. I am posting a larger version of a 6x6 painting that I did a few weeks ago. While I do often paint the same barns and scenes many times, I usually take some time between each version. However this time I found myself working the same images simultaneously. Not sure if I will do that again, or maybe I will do it all the time; it seemingly made no difference in the outcome (other than that both pieces are pretty similar in color), both paintings are fine, the small one sold right away on my other blog (thanks Bridgette!)and this one was shipped to The Harrison Gallery> last week.

Ok, well, looks like I managed to eke out two paragraphs about nothing much today. Huh. How about that!

Another Link

Just a quick post today to let you know about a website that a friend of mine has set up.

Some of my long time readers may recall that my mom used to be a fixture in my comments section, much to my embarrassment, usually! Then she was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 2007 and died in August of the same year. She and I had a difficult relationship but a few years before she died I felt we had resolved the past and put it away. Unfortunately after she died I learned about some of her activities (concerning me) that frankly put me into a bit of a tailspin. I have worked through much of it but it's been hard because she is gone; I can't yell at her, we can't have the big fight and I can't find out if she really understands how much she hurt me.

So this site comes along and I have been given the opportunity to write what I would like to say to her, and to say it out loud. Well, sort of. I feel like it is just the right time to wrap it all up and move on. So thank you to my friend, and I hope some of you might benefit from reading through the site and maybe even from participating. It is really such a beautiful concept.

Pumpkinfest 2009

So funny! I sat down to post some images of this year's Pumpkinfest and then thought I'd add some recent photos taken around the house. Then I looked for my past posts about the Pumpkinfest and found one from 2007 with the same set of photos-a batch of huge pumpkins and shots around the yard including Penny, our awesome dog!

Every year we try to see at least one part of the Pumpkinfest in Cooperstown. I prefer the contest on Saturday, but watching Sunday's pumpkin regatta on the lake is always good too. Hard for us to get to both events every year, but sometimes we do. This was from last year's regatta.

So here is this year's version of life in a small town.

When you have a contest to see who can grow the biggest pumpkin:


You sure need to have a few of these on hand:


Ginger is still my go to kid, always willing to pose in front of a huge pumpkin. My other kids cannot be bothered anymore.


Penny, relaxing in a bed of fall leaves:


My Black Eyed Susans are still blooming:


Still pretty excited to have this step down from the patio door; took us 4 years to get it built! And love the piles-of-dead-leaves-scattered-around look.


Still a lot of green on the patio though:


And even a fall flowering shrub:


The burning bushes are flaming red, right next to our grill which, I suspect will sit in that exact spot until next spring, just like last year, heh.

I Oughta Be in Pictures!

Right Against the Trees, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 30x40

I have been pretty busy with a variety of things for the last few weeks, mostly involving shuttling kids around, touching up the paint on our house's interior, rearranging and sorting through closets and drawers, and lastly, when I have some free time (ha!), working in the studio. I am hoping to get things, house things especially, squared away before school starts so when I get my days back I can really get some time in my studio. Ever the optimist!

There is a little bit of business going on now though. My work has been included in an interesting project in Boston. Several months ago, at the suggestion of one of my galleries, I sent Lanou Fine Art in Boston my info and while they seemed to like my work ultimately it was decided that there wasn't a spot for me in the gallery at that time. But then a few weeks ago I received an invitation from the gallery owner to participate in a new project related to the gallery. You can read more about it here and visit my page here. It will be interesting to see what happens here, film and tv placement for art is certainly an appealing direction for me right now.

Well, off to go buy school supplies with the kids now, maybe I will be able to get some time in the studio tomorrow......

Happy Anniversary to Me and Doug!

Horizon Lines (41), 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 36x48

Well today, August 12, is an interesting day, in that it a. is mine and Doug's wedding anniversary and b. has been exactly one year since my youngest daughter was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes.

Because both events happened on the same day last year, it is easy for me to look back at the whole year and see and hopefully come to some sort of understanding about it all.

Last summer my sales began to really slow down and the first of several galleries closed, leaving me with very few projects on my studio schedule. At first I enjoyed the extra time, I had grand plans to paint other subject matter (I did that, but not to the extent that I had hoped to), totally reorganize my entire house, clean out our barn, begin working on a neglected flower garden on our property and any number of other things that I had always wanted to do but never had time for because I was so busy in my studio. But when Ginger got sick last August, I began to get lost. Gradually I gave up many of the things I draw energy from (painting, knitting, reading, gardening) and spent way too much aimless time on the computer and worrying. I was in such a funk!

And of course this affected my relationship with Doug. We have now been married 16 years (together 21) and every year but two have been amazing and wondrous even. So when we hit the rough patches, we both tend to overreact, from shock, maybe, because mostly we are so happy together and have always been a great team.

Anyway, I am beyond thankful that we are back on track even if we aren't actually together on our anniversary, for the second year in a row. He and Julien are out digging fossils at his quarry in Wyoming (last year he was on the same trip but cut it short when Ginger was in the hospital), they only had a short window of time to be out there this summer and this was the week. But that's ok, I went to the mall today and Doug bought me a new stereo with an iPod dock for my studio. Heh.

And in the last month or so I have been nearly brimming with a new energy for everything. I am excited about some new work I have been doing and have been working in the studio almost everyday, my gardens are shaping up despite the slow start last spring (while I was wringing my hands) and I am busy with all the little projects around the house that I have been ignoring for so long. I think I have read at least five books in the last few weeks and yesterday I pulled out some yarn for a new knitting project.

The only thing that still escapes my day is posting here more often, but I might have to blame Facebook for that. Well and maybe Bush too, because he is a very handy scapegoat, hehe.

I guess this qualifies a bad year for me, but it could have been way, WAY worse and I am very thankful that it wasn't. Ginger is fine, my marriage is fine and I feel like I have a slightly improved version of myself back. I think I have learned a thing or two about a thing or two.

So it's all good......

Things Are Fine Now

So just a few days after I took a big gulp and finally mentioned here that Doug and I were separating, we decided to give it another go. Why, I don't feel foolish now at all! Heh.

Looking back, I think things began to improve on the Fourth of July weekend when we went to an Open Studio tour in a nearby town, Treadwell, that seems to have an extraordinary number of artists who live there. Including Julian Hatton, who was a visiting artist when I was at the Vermont Studio Center in 2008. Our paths have crossed a few times since then and we totally enjoyed visiting Julian, Alison, his wife, their studios and talking shop. After months of tension between Doug and I, we were still able to enjoy that day and discussing the art and the studio environments that we toured.

Much of the tension dissipated after that, but we forged ahead with the legal stuff anyway, thinking it would still be best if we separated.

But then we took our trip to the Hamptons to see the Pollock Krasner House. We had a great time and I think we both realized that that was something neither of us could ever imagine doing with anyone else. Art has always been a big part of the bond between us and we needed to be reminded of that again. Or maybe it was just the walk on the beach on a perfect day. Either way.

We still have much to sort out but the separation has been called off and the house is off the market too. Which is really good because not one single person called to look at our beautiful and perfect house (stupid economy) in the 2 months that it was listed. Guess we're stuck with it!

Thanks to everyone for all your kind words of concern and support, I can't even tell you how much it all meant to me.

Away We Go!

The Barn Next Door, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 12x6

Well, I have actually wanted to post over the last few days but things have been crazy here! Between finishing up the last minute details on the work for my show, getting my daughters all packed and off to summer camp and getting things ready for a short trip this week, it has been hectic.

But now the girls are at camp, tucked into their tents in the woods, my work was delivered to the gallery yesterday, and before I get started on cleaning the house and packing today, I thought I'd put up a quick post about our upcoming trip.

Ever since I saw the movie 'Pollock' and then read the book it was based on, I have always wanted to visit their house and studio out in the Hamptons. It's quite a hike from here, at least a 6 hour drive and so Doug and I kept putting off plans to go. But now since we are separating (yes, it's true, no further details available, but I will say it's been the reason for my difficult time earlier this year and also that it is an amicable split. I promise;)) we have decided that we should take this trip with each other, NOW before we put it off again. Neither of us can imagine seeing the Pollock-Krasner home without the other and so off we go tomorrow.

I will be back on Monday with a full update!

Ginger Baby Is 10!

Another birth story.

Ten years ago today I woke up around 5am with pretty consistent contractions. Like all my babies, this one was over due by at least a week, maybe more, but unlike the others, I hadn't had days of on and off contractions. Somehow though, I knew that this was it. I woke Doug up and he helped me get our room ready, changing the sheets, getting out the baby things etc. He also got the kids up and called our awesome friends Kristin and Jason who came and whisked the other three kids away for the day (by that time we had adopted our nephew and so all of a sudden we were going to have four kids!).

And after awhile we called our midwife, who came up about mid morning. It was a beautiful hot and sunny day (nearly all summer days in Utah are hot and sunny) and after walking around as much as I could, I finally laid down on my side and enjoyed our peaceful, light filled bedroom. Doug and the midwife sat on the bed with me and between contractions we laughed and chatted. It was so wonderful, relaxed and peaceful. Finally just after 1pm, my breathing changed and even though I had noticed it too, I remember still feeling surprised when our midwife told Doug that I would soon be pushing! Oddly I was surprised that the baby was actually going to be coming out!

By this time my uterus and cervix knew exactly what to do, and so this little baby just easily came right out after about ten minutes of pushing. Even though we had chosen not to have an ultrasound during the pregnancy, I knew this one was a girl too (my instincts were right with all my babies) and sure enough I was right. The other thing I knew within moments of holding my baby was that she was the last baby we would have! It would not have been unusual for us to have another baby, or three, hehe, we were living in Utah after all! But when I looked at this baby I knew she would always be youngest in our family. It was a most interesting feeling and I still recall it to this day.

Of course some of that may have been due to the horrible hemorrhoids I had in the last few days of this pregnancy! The pain of all that even almost had me questioning my firm intent to not induce labor!!!

Anyway, we had a few names on our list for this baby. Annie, Rosie, Ramona (my favorite) but within a few minutes of looking at her, I told Doug, this is Ginger and he agreed. Our son had mentioned the name a few months earlier because he knew a girl in school named Ginger, but we didn't really think about it again until we saw her.

Ginger was in perfect health, but within an hour or so, she started humming. It was the cutest thing, but our midwife was a bit concerned and kept checking her stats and breathing. She even gave us some advice about how to handle the situation at the hospital if we had to take her in (the local hospital wasn't too happy about home births and most of the doctors wouldn't talk to the midwife), but since Ginger seemed totally perfect otherwise, she finally decided we didn't need to take her in. We all surmised that the humming was just Ginger's way of settling into her new life outside of me and we sat back and enjoyed it. She hummed for well over a day, even while she was nursing and sleeping, and eventually it tapered off. I missed it a little bit when it ended, because it really was so sweet!

Around dinnertime Kristin and Jason came back with the kids and the first thing Sophie (she was two at the time) said when she came in was "give me my baby" and she got right up on the bed and held her little sister. I still get teary eyed when I remember that. Of course eventually she bit Ginger's fingers a few times, poked her eyes and now they fight and yell and pull each other's hair fairly often but when not doing all that they are very close. heh.

The other thing that the kids talked about for years after the day Ginger was born, was how they spent a good portion of the day cleaning out our car with Kristin and Jason. I was horrified to learn they had done this because man, that car was so filthy!!! But I can't deny that it sure was wonderful to get into a sparkling clean car with my new baby. And every time we cleaned the car after that the kids talked about how much stuff they found under the seats on the day Ginger was born.

And of course Ginger has grown up to be quite the character. She keeps us all hopping with her bubbly energy and enthusiasm for everything. She has had a few close close calls too, including the time she fell out a second floor window when she was two (she broke her wrist and had a skull fracture) and of course now her Type 1 Diabetes keeps us on our toes too.

Oh and the other thing I loved about Ginger's birth was how I just woke up one day, had some labor, gave birth to a baby and went to sleep that night at my usual bedtime. The others were practically all nighters and I was always so tired from being awake for so long which was way worse than giving birth!

Painting, Health and Five Birthday Cakes

Things are really picking up around here lately, workwise and otherwise too!

Work: I have 6 new paintings for the show in August, plus a few I can pull from my inventory. I have 12 small painting (that are relatively affordable, I hope) in progress:
I hope to pretty much finish them over the weekend, or by early next week at least. I may do another 6, but will decide about that next week too. The 4'x4' painting is still sitting on the easel for 2 reasons. One is I am undecided about what to do with it. I made some adjustments to the pink swath across the field (thanks Lou!) and while it looks better, I am still not sure it has the ooomph that I want it to have. The other reason, um the main reason actually, is because I have been too lazy to drag the panel downstairs to sand it down. Anyway, I will resolve the issue this week too I think. Busy week for decisions coming up, eh???

Other: I officially got fed up with myself last February and started to see a hypnotherapist to help me with my food and health issues. I went to her thinking I was a crazy out of control sugar addict, but she seemed to think not, that my issues had more to do with self worth. So she treated me accordingly and voila! I started eating less like a crazy person and more like the health conscious person that I am actually am deep down inside. Heh. So far I have lost about 30lbs and because I am still a self conscious girl person I will refrain from posting photos OR from mentioning how much more I would like to lose. However, I will say I have more to go.

And along with all that of course, is exercise. I have always been reasonably fit underneath the extra weight until the last few years (I blame my computer heh) and so I am working on getting that back on track too. I started out by doing my 3 mile walk around the block each day, then alternated that with a 3 mile walk up a pretty steep hill every other day. And then when I reached a weight loss plateau a few weeks ago, I began to add a second workout several days a week. I still usually do the walk every day, and I vary the other workouts. I've been doing swimming, spinning, elliptical machines (I hate treadmills), weight training and a few core strengthening classes here and there. Some time in the next month or so I will probably get the nerve to do the other fitness classes at the gym and I may even try Zumba at some point. It looks fun, but I suspect I will look totally ridiculous doing it and so I definitely need some time to gather myself up to do that one!!

So between painting, all this damn exercise (which is making me feel really good, btw) and kids at home all day now, things are busy. I am making an monumental effort to not bail on the exercise though, like I usually do when I am busy preparing for a show.

PS. I forgot to mention that we are in the middle of birthday season-three of the kid's birthdays, one each week for three consecutive weeks. And because the tween girls MUST have a party we are talking five cakes in three weeks. So far it's two down, two coming up tomorrow and one more next weekend. Blech! And it is SO awesome I can now say that about cake!!! Double blech!!

Sophie and the Sun

So twelve years ago today I woke with pretty insistent labor pains. It was my second pregnancy and even though my first baby fooled me into thinking he was going to come out every day for a week, I was pretty sure it was the real thing this time! When the contractions were closer together called our midwife Chris and she got to our house within about an hour (she lived about 45 minutes away). We all hung out on the bed while she monitored me, Doug and I and our son who was 2 at the time (we hadn't adopted our oldest son yet) as we were thinking he might be old enough to watch. But in typical fashion, after Chris was there for about an hour, everything stalled. She waited for awhile longer before leaving and we agreed to call her if the contractions started up again. We decided to go about our day and since the plan had been to go to the local arts festival, that's just what we did.

By the time we got there I was having contractions again. They were fairly irregular though so I just kept going because I knew the walking would be help move things along. I was as big as a house, hot and sweaty and so naturally I saw everyone I knew there. I think most people were afraid to talk with me too long though for fear that baby was just going to fall out right in front of them!

Doug and I debated about buying a few things but not surprisingly we were distracted and couldn't make a decision, so we finally left without buying any art. Later after we were home Doug decided to go back and buy an iron cut out that we had liked. I always tell Sophie that we bought the sun for her on the day she was born.
After dinner I still had the contractions and was also feeling kind of funny, so I laid down on the sofa for a bit and then, whammo!!! Things were in high gear all of a sudden! I got myself upstairs and Doug tried to get things ready again, while I, um, spent a lot of time in the bathroom. Heh. A friend of ours who had assisted in Julien's birth came over but by that time things were getting a bit hectic and she seemed overwhelmed. Finally, we called Chris. We actually waited far too long, mostly because and get this: we didn't want to bother her since we had already had her come up earlier in the day!!! Are we polite or what?

At this point I was getting a bit flustered, the contractions were way stronger and harder than my first labor and I kept having to use the bathroom. I felt like I was screaming (I wasn't) and I made Doug close the windows because I didn't want the neighbors to hear me. He told me later he thought I was cold (I wasn't). He was also talking to Chris as she was driving up and I think she was going 90 miles an hour through the canyon (we lived in northern Utah) after he told her I was using the bathroom so often. I didn't realize it at the time but I was ready to push, this labor was so different than my first that I didn't recognize the feeling. Meanwhile, Julien was getting a bit worked up seeing all this hubbub and our friend took him downstairs and parked him in front of the tv to watch a video of about 20 episodes of Little Bear (his favorite show) that we had ready for just this situation.

Just after that, and while I was leaving the bathroom yet again I vaguely recall seeing Chris coming up the steps, pulling on her gloves and when I sat down on the bed, my water broke, I pushed about twice and there was our baby girl. She came out so fast and furious and I was breathing like I had just finished a marathon! As soon as I calmed down I saw our baby was blue and Chris was rubbing her back (I had missed seeing her unwrap the cord from around her neck) and as she pinked up, she started crying. Oddly, I wasn't worried about this at all, I just had this feeling that everything would be fine and then it was. She nursed within minutes of her birth and showed off her healthy lungs many times that night!

Julien came upstairs within minutes and was very excited to see a baby there and when we told him that her name was Sophie he kissed her and said "hi soapy". So of course that was her nickname for years!

A few other bits of info:

Sophie was born at 11:34pm on the first day of summer and it was also a full moon that night which we thought was pretty special and good luck too.

We saved the placenta in the fridge for a few days then Doug buried it in the flower bed in our backyard. More good luck.

And Chris told us years later that we still held her record for her closest arrival to the birth without going over. We like that!

I love to tell Sophie about her crazy birth and she used to love it too, but now it is highly embarrassing to her. I look forward to her enjoying the story again someday but in the meantime I will just tell everyone else about it. heh.

More Panel Prep

Often Repaired, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 6x12

Well, I was planning to get back to my usual chatty posts, today, however I ended up being out all day due to several meetings. And tomorrow I will be going to Syracuse for Ginger's 3 month check up at the diabetes clinic. She is doing well, although Doug and I are exhausted after finally realizing that chasing the right blood sugar number every day, every hour is a never ending race.

Today I am posting a photo of the 40x60 panel that I am in the middle of prepping. So lovely to be able to do this in my roomy new studio! I always had to spend a day moving everything around in the old studio in order to have enough space for a panel this size. This will be the last painting for the show, although I do still have two other larger paintings that are in progress right now. So close!

Now if I could only figure out what the heck to paint on the thing!


I'll be back on Wednesday with a good long post, 'k?

Friday, Day 5 **Edited to Add**

Into the Shadows, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 16x20

Whoops! Didn't get much done in the studio yesterday! I did begin to prep the large panels and was puttering around, getting ready to paint, when the kids got home early from school. I might have planned for that had anyone actually told me that it was only a half day. Hmmm, wonder what else those kids aren't telling me?

Anyway, I will be working hard today to make up for the lost day. I have four 18x24 underpaintings ready to go and even if it kills me, I am going to get them done today.

Have a nice weekend, all. I will be holed up in my studio while Doug is on meal, house, kid and chicken duty. Heh.

PS. The above image will be on the postcard for the upcoming show at The Harrison Gallery.

**If you'd like a postcard email me and give me your snail mail. Don't worry about me sending you too much junk mail-I am TERRIBLE about getting stuff into the mail.

Chicken Eggs

Just stopped in this morning to post a photo of our beautiful fresh eggs. Lisa Call has really been jonesing for more chicken info and this is the best I can do right now. The chicken house is still surrounded by snow and muck and so they are still housebound, poor things. As soon as the ladies can get out to free range I'll take a few pictures of them. The chickens do look wonderful and so refreshed after their recent molting induced makeover. Heh.

I will be going to Albany this weekend for my daughter's swim meet which I am looking forward to. I get to spend time with my very cool 11 year old, plus I get some chat time in with the other parents, while we sit and sweat in a sauna like pool area waiting for our kid's events. However I am a bit worried about missing a few more days in the studio. I have a number of paintings ready for my upcoming show, but I sure would feel better if I were further along. I am really going to have to buckle down and crank out some work in the next few weeks.

Also, I just wanted to thank all my lovely readers for such nice comments and support during the recent anonymous comment hubbub. I am grateful to have such wonderful friends and fellow artists here. Thanks!

And have a good weekend, all!

Winter Break Update

Long Lines Late in the Day, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 12x24

Here's what's up this week:

1. The kids are home all week for winter break and just to insure that I don't get much of anything done, Doug scheduled a business trip for this week as well. Actually, he didn't do it on purpose, usually I mark the vacations on the MASTER CALENDER and he is supposed to check the MASTER CALENDER when he schedules a business trip but I missed this one for some reason and so he has been gone since Sunday, returning tonight, thankfully. I guess I shouldn't complain because this snafu is definitely my fault.

2. And I really shouldn't be complaining at all about not getting any work done this week either as the kids have been totally doing their own thing and while they have been coming up to my studio quite a bit with various issues, physical ailments, and their side of the story concerning the most recent argument, overall I have been able to be in the studio everyday. I haven't been terribly productive but it's been ok. The KIDS should be really bored, but they don't seem to be. I guess it's nice for them to take a week and just do some quiet relaxing things, like reading, art projects and watching tv, as normally they have pretty busy and full days when school is in session.

3. Part of the reason that I haven't been terribly productive is that I fell off the wagon and straight into a river of chocolate! I was doing great with the no flour/no sugar thing (still no flour actually) but I had a few Lindt truffles which sent me spiraling out of control and back into a full out obsession with procuring and eating chocolate. Dang! Will be spending the next few days trying to get that back under control again.

4. Mr. Wilson is feeling better today after his return yesterday from a night at the vet's office. He had um, a procedure, and is now, well let's just say he is more neutral about things. Lately he has been driving us all crazy with his doggy adolescent behavior, panting and whining all the time and humping Penny's feet (he's short, she's tall, it's all he can get to), the cats (they were not happy about that) and even the furniture legs.

PS. If you are opposed to altering pets and feel the need to write to me about it, save it. I already know the pros and cons of this issue, plus I am also a little crabby today so my response might not be pretty!

5. And while I am at it, I may as well give an update on the chickens too. They stopped laying eggs in September or so. I figured they were molting, although I was a bit surprised that they were all doing it at once, since some of the hens are a year younger that the others. But after talking to a few friends that also raise chickens I learned that often the whole flock goes at the same time. I could have messed with the molting by supplementing their light to get them laying again, but our chicken house is pretty rustic, no power, no water and so getting them extra light seemed like way too much work. So I let the chickens have a rest from popping an egg out everyday. Anyway, we really suffered without our daily eggs, it was a sad day when we started buying them at the store again. Even the cage free organic eggs were disappointing. Not as fresh as what we are used to I guess. The chickens look beautiful now though after their rest, they grew back all their feathers (some of them were almost completely bald before they began molting, they looked VERY scary) and they seem more friendly too, although I might be imagining that. They gradually began laying eggs about a month ago and now we are overflowing with eggs again.

6. I have five landscape paintings finished for my upcoming show (one is kind of iffy, so there might just be four), and also have four underpaintings ready for color. If I work on those this weekend I will be able to get right back on schedule. I am really enjoying getting back to the landscapes. After a six month break from painting the landscape I wasn't sure if I would feel good about them again, or stifled.

7. Am still working on the People You Know series, today I plan to work on the two larger panels that I started a few weeks ago. I worked on one yesterday, but kept getting sidetracked, but I will try to finish it up soon.

8. Oh and I missed my blog anniversary again. It's been three years (as of February 10), 635 posts, and over 200,000 unique visitors since I started this project that has nearly ruled my life! I am still enjoying all this but also sense that some changes here in Tracyland may be coming too.

Well, I guess that's it, that's all I have going on. Even though I have much work to do, and am making progress with it all, I still feel like I am floundering around in a haze.

I blame the chocolate.

Monday, Monday

Aunt Bettie Looks Just Like Margaret Thatcher, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 16x20

Wow, I have been a bit neglectful concerning this blog. Not intentionally but the last part of last week got pretty hectic with a variety of different things and I just didn't have the time or energy to come up with anything for you folks here. Will try again this week to get back on a more regular blog writing schedule. Not only for all you lovely readers but also for me, I tend to feel a bit out of sorts if I don't post regularly too.

I have also actually been pretty busy in the studio. Soon you will be seeing landscapes here again, I have several that are nearly done and will start posting them as soon as they are photographed. It was actually quite nice to slide back into the landscape work. I hadn't done any (with the exception of the very small pieces for my sales blog) in over six months and so really wasn't sure what would happen. But it's all good so far; only one for the sand down pile in this batch, not bad odds really.

The above painting is the most recent portrait in the People You Know series. It was looking a bit blah until out of desperation I added a transparent green glaze and then: zowie! Pulled it all together and gave it some zip to boot. I still have two larger portraits to add color to and hope to get to them this week.

Might be tough though, as it turns out that this week is winter break (I learned that fact last Thursday-obviously there was a glitch in my Master Calender procedures) and so the kids are all home, all day, every day. They have however, agreed to sit quietly and watch tv for at least part of each day so that I can get some work done anyway. We'll see how THAT goes. Heh.