Cabin Fever!

Cabin Fever © Beth Stafford 2011

The title pretty well describes the mood around here - lots of gray, damp weather, and mud everywhere, which limits where Cassie and I can walk (when weather permits). Yesterday I tried to soak up the few hours of sunshine we had, to store it for the week ahead. Feels like the supply is already running out...but at least there is plenty of COLOR in my art to brighten the day! Cabin Fever is the result of Cassie's markings on the storm door during January. I drew over them with the stylus and then used several filters before applying a custom gradient for the color. I've used the gradient before, but the results were a total surprise - I really love the purple and orange and black combo. No subtlety here, for sure!

See Creature?

See Creature? © Beth Stafford 2010
Digital Art Print, 7" x 7"

Still PiCassieO, but once removed! I was printing Lost: Jacob's Weaving (another entry) and got a paper jam, which meant a redo. The square portion that printed had such wonderful colors - it was too good to waste, so I taped it to the back of my favorite toy (a glass brick that I found on a sale cart at Lowes) and photographed the distorted image. It turned out beautifully, after being worked over in the computer! There is definitely an underwater feel to it, and suggestions of fishy critters - couldn't resist a little fun with the title. I will be offering this one in my Etsy store soon, in both a limited edition version and an open edition.

Cassie is OK with me putting my name on this one, since she's not doing much artistically lately. She won't give up deer chasing, which means she's too stiff afterwards to do much "painting". She's like a lot of my former students - they get to a certain age, and choose sports over art!

Laughing Lion!

Okay, we're a little silly here today (and those titles are still hard to come by), so I give you Laughing Lion, and its relative Laughing Lion 2. These two were almost forgotten, since I have over 1000 photos on my computer (got an auxillary hard drive but am still reluctant to delete anything). After I cleaned the front door last time, Cassie did some serious marks about something out there. On the clean glass they really stood out against the porch background (including the famous milkcan). I love the bright colors in the first one! Couldn't resist calling it Laughing Lion; the marks remind me of something out of Chinese theater. Beats Milk Can August, anyway.

Of course I had to keep experimenting with it; it's amazing how a new color scheme can totally alter the feel of the work. This one is more subdued and dramatic, even though I can still see that happy "lion". I have a backlog of proofing to do, but sooner or later these prints will be available, either here or at our store (or maybe both).

Comments (in English, please, and relevant to the ART) are welcomed! You can subscribe to this blog in the upper right to get the latest posts (once every week or so - I promise not to flood your inbox).

Looking Backwards, Moving Forward

Most of my art lately has been focused on the PiCassieO Pendants; there is nothing quite as much fun as digging into older work and coming up with these little jewel-like abstracts! The source for the three above is in the archives somewhere; for a real challenge, see if you can find it! Hint: one of the three is taken directly from the original and the other two have been altered. The resulting pendants are turning out beautifully and will be listed shortly at our store.

The sun's vacation from our piece of the world is hampering my development of new art, so I'm glad I have such a wealth of material to fall back on! Cassie is semi-hibernating; when it's so gray and cold out, I feel like following her example and just sleeping until the sun comes back. Can't do that - I have to keep working to buy dog food!

December Door

The storm door has taken a real "licking" this month (or maybe "nosing" is more accurate), and the sun is finally angling enough for me to photograph Cassie's energetic efforts. December Door has a very different palette than our previous prints - much more subdued, and softer. It's probably the total absence of black, which may be added later. It almost looks like Cassie has been studying Chinese in her spare time! Any translators out there?

Walking In the Air

The title Walking In The Air came from a song on a Christmas CD. I liked the way Cassie's marks sort of march across the window in this one, although the colors and feel of it speak more of fall than winter. Right now in NC, it feels more like winter than fall! Wet and nasty for several days now - but Cassie is happy because there was finally a deer in the yard this morning. Now I have some new material to work with at last - we've been having a dry spell artistically (but not weather-wise), due to lack of wildlife. Our quince tree is presently dropping its sour fruit on the ground, so there should be a little more traffic out there soon. How anything can eat that stuff, I don't know. They smell good, but have the effect of green persimmons! Ugh.

Big Announcement: Our Etsy store is up and running! We have a dozen prints for sale, and I'm adding pendants and ACEOs ASAP. In case ACEO doesn't ring a bell, it stands for "Artist Cards, Editions, & Originals". You collect them like trading cards and can house your collection in an album. Really affordable art! Visit PiCassieO often and see what we're offering!

Milk Can May #2 (I think!)

Help - I just can't stop! There's already a #3, plus the plain old Milk Can that was posted first. This one prints beautifully, as have the others. It's becoming more and more like painting, especially with the "hands-on" involvement that the stylus affords. I salute my new medium! Have to admit, this form of my art is not getting the reception that my earlier paintings did; I'm hoping (and do believe) that attitudes toward "computer art" are changing, and that pretty soon it will be accepted as just another medium of expression. Thoughts on that? or anything else? Let me hear from you!

Cassie is blissfully unaware that a haircut is impending. So far we've had three ticks between us, so the woolly one is going to get buzzed. If you aren't familiar with ticks, I want to move wherever you are! This wet, sticky weather is their favorite, and they're out for blood. Double ugh.

Storm Door April, #2

I liked #1 so much that I decided to play with it some more. This is the first alteration - a different gradient was applied, which totally changed the feel of the work. The printed version really glows!

Summer has replaced spring here with a vengeance. It's probably 90 out there at the moment; when it's that hot, Miss Cassie prefers snoozing in the AC to doing anything outdoors. Until evening, that is. I can't believe we have a yard full of toads already (minus 2 last night!). Since the dog is now 10, I seriously doubt she'll ever learn to leave 'em alone. It's going to be a looong season.

Cassie's Nose Garden, Updated!

After a few days of extreme winter, it's suddenly spring again; we're talkin' tee shirts and flowers here! Cassie's Nose Garden has been here before, but I like it so much I decided to revise it a little and post it in honor of the season. Now I see more that I'd like to change, so it'll probably be back again.

The deer have been running all over our property and Cassie has been working hard at her "window painting." Lots of new material there - but the light this time of year is not cooperative for photographing it. At some point I'm going to be forced to clean the glass so we can see out!

Spring Song, Second Verse!

Here we go again with more wishful thinking! The wind has been so cold for the past three days that my right thumb has cracked again - gives a lot more meaning to the old phrase "sticks out like a sore thumb." Not a good thing for an artist, or a dog owner for that matter! Anyway, Cassie drew this on the east window a while back and I'm just now figuring out what to do with it. It would be so easy to just stick to a formula with these works, but that would take all the fun out of it (and the challenge!). For now, I love the new colors and textures that are happening.

Cassie doesn't like the cold much, either. When we walk, her nose starts running and she puts on brakes, then makes a dive between my knees to wipe it. She regards me as her personal Kleenex. One of these days we're going to wind up in a tangled heap on the road!

Spring Song

Time for a little change of pace - we're looking for spring here! Cassie has been working overtime on the east window while I've been trying to figure out Facebook and YouTube. I'd say her time has been spent better than mine has! Here's our latest effort: reminds me of warm days and perfumed air, coming soon! Not today, though; it's still chilly and windy out there.

Cassie went "crackerdog" while ago: there was a strange dog trotting through the yard. From the racket I thought it must be a deer out there! You can see her doing what she does best on our video (link in last entry), "PiCassieO At Work".

Storm Door, February

I should call it Stormy Weather after the morning I've had! Absolutely NOTHING I've tried to do on this computer has worked, due to a bunch of snafus with Facebook and YouTube - and Blogger. There are bugs and glitches and gremlins everywhere - not my fault this time! For a while it looked like this blog was inaccessible, too - that was about the last straw. Really drove me to tears (no kidding).

Anyway, we're still making art, so life's not all bad (not by a longshot). Storm Door is another step in our artistic evolution: instead of trying for little detail in the background so Cassie's strokes would be isolated, I recently decided to use the objects outside as part of the composition. Most of my art before 2000 had a lot of straight lines in it, from buildings mostly. Then I got bored with the rigidity and switched to flowers and other organic shapes instead, and THEN Cassie took me beyond all that. And here I am, using lines again. I wonder, does this mean I'm going in circles?

All these technical difficulties have me running late - "Cassandra, Queen of the Universe" is needing a walk. I hear and obey.