It Happened Last Night

Last night I had a few minutes to play with Cassie's latest effort on the west window, and boom, Confetti appeared! It's a really joyful explosion of almost-Pointillist color (due to all the dust and grime on the outside of the window), with Cassie's wonderful marks shining in the foreground. I haven't printed it yet so there may be further tinkering with the color. This process is a lot like doing ceramics - you apply the glazes, but don't really know what the end result will be until that kiln is open. Colored light on the computer screen is never quite the same as ink on paper - but I keep trying! The results are always gratifying, nevertheless.

Now, for a commercial: I am no longer offering "editions" of PiCassieO works, since they are actually one-of-a-kind due to being printed one at a time. Ink levels vary, cartridges are changed, and new paper comes along. I will continue to sell them at $30.00 each until December 31, 2008; then the price will be $50.00. To purchase works shown here, contact me at beth@bethstafford.com .

And, here's another: don't forget our store (http://www.cafepress.com/airedale_art )! Some of our brightest and most colorful art is offered there on a bunch of fun stuff! It's a good remedy for gray days and tough times - check us out.

Happy Birthday, Picasso!

I almost forgot - today is Picasso's birthday! That's "Picasso", not "PiCassieO"!I've gotten so accustomed to the latter that it takes an effort to write the former.

Anyway, in tribute to an artist who was almost as energetic and playful as an Airedale (!), we give you Jumpers: not Guernica, for sure, but one of Cassie's better ones, IMO.

It's also International Artist Day, so if it's not too late where you are, go find an artist to appreciate!

And, it's late on Saturday night and I don't know how to fix whatever is going on with the type arrangement here, so I quit. Good night. Cassie and I are going outside to chase things.

Underwater World

Maybe this one should be titled The Under Sea World of Cassie Cousteau! As I've said many times before, I don't write down the steps involved in making these images, so I'm clueless as to how the colors happened (hey - it was last year, anyway!). Cassie must have hit the window full force to make some of these marks. Her nose is really tough.

As a kid, Jacques Cousteau was one of my idols (no rock stars for me). Vicariously I traveled the seven seas with him and fantasized about being the "cabin girl" on the Calypso. That didn't happen, but I did finally become a sailor, and have spent many wonderful hours on (and in) the water. Since my territory is the "Inland Sea" (aka Lake Norman), I'd just as soon not see what's under the water. Who knows what lurks in the "Hot Hole" where the water from the cooling towers at the nuclear plant comes into the lake - maybe something akin to Cassie's critters!

Green Spot

I can't believe I missed this one - it was from last fall, when the sun is so nice coming through the west window. Cassie usually starts the morning sitting on the back of the couch, looking out that window while I'm getting ready to go downstairs. Unless I get out on the roof to clean it, the window accumulates dust and waterspots on the outside to serve as background for Cassie's markings on the inside. The green spot was actually a sunspot that showed up unexpectedly. There was fall foliage in the mix too, so I got a lot of interesting colors and shapes to work with.

The light is right at the moment to photograph Cassie's latest effort - she's outdone herself, this time! I'd better get on it, while the gettin's good. And then I think we'll go out and enjoy that wonderful light firsthand.

"What Sit Means to an Airedale"

I think I mentioned this the last time, and actually found it again. For a good laugh from Cassie and me, here's the link:
http://airedaleterriers.org/articles/sit.html . Enjoy!

As soon as Cassie moves out of that sunny spot on the couch, it's mine. Having a nap attack, here! Hope your Sunday is as bright and beautiful as ours.

Crazy Quilt

Back to new stuff: this came from Cassie's favorite window (the one with the blue chair in front of it, for her viewing pleasure), looking east towards the pear trees. I call it Crazy Quilt because it reminds me of that type of quilt, with bits and pieces of colorful cloth sewn together at random angles. The colors are brighter and more distinct in the printed version, but you get the idea. I like it so much that I'm using it on a bunch of new items in our store (yep - still pushing it!), including dog tees (are you 'dales out there listening?). I did design for many years, so this new venture is really a lot of fun for me, especially since most of the "PiCassieO" art can be resized without sacrificing the artistic quality. There are four or five different versions of Crazy Quilt, including one for a clock face which is really eye-popping. It'll probably show up there tomorrow if I have time to work on it, at http://www.cafepress.com/airedale_art .

Sit! Stay!

Not in the mood for "serious" art today! This is another of those funny characters that appeared on the west window. At first I called it The Prophet, since it looked a little like a hooded figure warning of impending events. The texture and color in the background were appealing, even though they originated from bad cleaning on the outside of the window! Sometimes the transformations are truly amazing. Anyway, the quirky little figure seemed too whimsical to be prophetic, so it became a dog trainer instead. Cassie and I do "Sit, Stay" pretty well, for a few seconds! Sometime I'll have to go back and find a hilarious essay titled "What Sit Means to an Airedale".

Oh, yeah -in case you haven't visited yet, I need to put in a plug for our store (http://www.cafepress.com/airedale_art ) . We now have three ornaments and some really wild pet bowls and baby bibs, in addition to all the other stuff. If you happen to go there and find all the print blacked out, try again in a little while. I hope to get everything organized into sections sometime this week, but there's a bug in the system that blacks out the print when changes are made, so the template has to be reset. Very aggravating, as is almost anything else involving a computer, but the end results look great!

Well, sometimes they look great. When I published this entry, it looked fine on the preview, but good grief- I apologize for the really loooong spacing up there - don't have a clue how to fix it, so it stays as is.