In a Matisse State of Mind

Matisse Milk Can © Beth Stafford 2012

We are having a hot time of it here lately - not much activity out in the yard (or here in the house). Cassie did manage to do a little work on the door, even though she's been a bit under the weather lately. She doesn't like the heat at all - woke up one morning to find her like this - guess the blanket was too much, even with the AC!

 

Anyway, I wanted to do something different with her marks this time, so I outlined them first, filled them in with solid color, and then cut and pasted them into a blank "canvas". Then I decided to do the same thing with the background, using the porch railing outline and the old milk can. It was virtual collage - lots of fun - and then I applied a cutout filter and different color gradients until I got this composition with its echoes of Matisse. Still playing with colors, so it's not an official print yet - might wind up as a large-scale painting (or who knows what?). Lots of possibilities there...

New Pendants, Rehab, Etc.

Wow - get a little behind on this, and everything changes! I've been so busy trying to catch up on everything I got behind in while my hand wasn't working, there's been no time for updating here. Since I still am pretty stiff when it comes to handling a brush or stylus, jewelry a la PiCassieO has been the only art coming out of the studio - found a different way of mounting the glass which makes it a lot easier on me. The results look like framed art for the neck! Photo is of the collection so far. I plan to list them at our Etsy store soon.

Cassie has been having a lot of trouble with her hips lately - we even went to a rehab center for an evaluation, which wound up giving her more problems due to their attempts to force her to lie down and roll over. Those ninnies should have known, you don't force an Airedale to do anything! We did get a list of exercises to strengthen her legs, most of which we were already doing. Don't want to go into how much it cost for that experience, but at least Cassie is doing somewhat better after recovering from the visit, with help from another round of prednisone. The only exercise she really likes is her cavaletti (parallel poles on the ground - helps her pick up her feet), mainly because she gets a Cheerio every time she makes it from one end to the other! That's how you motivate this Airedale!

Unlucky Break

Whew - so much STUFF happened since the last post. Sunday morning, February 22, we had a chilly rain, and somehow I managed to hydroplane on the dog ramp and landed on my right hand. Broke my radius and had surgery to put it back together. It was hard enough to take care of my creaky dog - especially getting her up and down the stairs- but I finally was able to handle it fine with my left hand. The tumor was another story, though; it got crusty since I couldn't clean it properly. My vet did find a clinic with a cryogenic probe - but I couldn't drive for an hour to get her there, and they wouldn't do it without sedation, which defeated the purpose anyway, so I hoped we could postpone dealing with it. Oh nooooo- Cassie managed to whap that tumor really good and bled all over the place before I could get it to stop. That was the last straw - I told my vet it had to go, and she had the surgery Tuesday. He did a great job and she's been a good patient so far - I wish I'd had it done months ago. Since she is really ornery about being handled and restrained, I had the vet to do X rays and an ultrasound exam while she was out. Now we have a new problem to deal (or not deal) with: a large hematoma on her spleen. No way of knowing when it happened, except it had to be in the last eight months. She's great at self-destruction; my guess is she whacked her spleen in that floor-shaking tumble she took last summer, or got hurt getting in and out of the car - always traumatic. She's been limping all week from the damage done on Tuesday. Any way, I don't know where we go from here. At least I got out of my cast yesterday and into a brace, so I can be a little more useful. Now, if I could just figure out a better way to get Cassie up those stairs, so my 80-year-old mom wouldn't have to bring up the rear...

Did manage to finish my Twitter art the day before I fell! It's already in Norway - I think the exhibit opens next week. You can check it out at David Sandum Art

Yellow Spots © Beth Stafford 2012

This postcard-size acrylic abstract came from the PiCassieO print Cabin Fever. Glad I finished it before break-time!

Cyrosurgery and Cabin Fever

Cassie was one happy dog when she found her way out from under the tablecloth at Christmas dinner! What you can't see in the photo, thanks to PhotoShop, is the large Meibomian gland tumor under her eye - not malignant, but a real nuisance! I've spent so much time in research on the best solution for this problem that not much art is getting made, but boy have I learned a lot! Best finds along the way: Preparation H facials, Visine for red spots, tincture of cannabis for tumors (debatable, but my vet and I had a good laugh over that one). Best solution: freezing it off with a cryogenic probe. Unfortunately, it's not that easy to find a hospital close enough that has the equipment. Still working on it.

Life has to go on, in spite of distractions. My friend David Sandum in Norway is doing another Twitter Art Exhibit this year (read more about it at David Sandum Art ) , so I am working on a postcard-sized painting to be included in the show. It's PiCassieO-inspired, of course, and is a tiny piece of Cabin Fever, which is a print from last February. Seems appropriate - lately it's either rainy and damp or cold and damp, or just DAMP; cabin fever is really getting to me! Cassie is quite happy to spend the day feet-in-the-air on the couch, but I need a little more outdoor time.

Cabin Fever © Beth Stafford 2011

"What - me worry?"

"Singin' in the Rain"

Singin' in the Rain © Beth Stafford 2011

Cassie is now off her meds and getting her hair back after getting a few bald spots from the months on prednisone, but her joints are too creaky to let her jump in her chairs to paint the windows, so the front storm door is her only "canvas" now. When I got ready to photograph her latest work, there were a bunch of parallel wavy lines that didn't look like my dog's usual style. Upon closer inspection, I realized that they were on the outside of the door. We've had a lot of rain lately, and Cassie has a "raincoat" made out of a large trash bag (she hates to get wet!). When we get back to the porch, I take it off, shake it, and hang it on the door handle. The bag must have blown around a little and created lines that look like music bars. Cassie had added her own wild notes and lines, so I used the stylus to "write" Singin' in the Rain - a symphony in primary colors. Fun!

Thank goodness we finally got some sunshine - Cassie likes to lie at the door during the brief time it comes in, this time of year. She's either contemplating her next stroke of genius, or thinking about a nap!

Back to Work!

As you can see, Cassie is hard at work again after being sick most of the summer (she's dreaming up new art, I'm sure). Actually she stayed quite active at the front door, which is the only place she can really see what's going on out there since she can't jump on the furniture anymore.

Both these photos came out dark online, but I think the energy in "Crossing Off" comes through anyway. The marks reminded me of someone counting days; maybe she's counting down until she's totally off the meds - me too!

Crossing Off ©Beth Stafford 2011

Lost in "LOST"

Blame it all on Cassie - she started me on this evolutionary journey into "LOST" art. From her original door markings, I created the print below as the series was nearing the end and titled it "Lost: Going Home", reason being that all the mysterious marks seemed to be heading upward toward the light spot in the upper left. Eventually I zeroed in on that location and did a tiny abstract for a pendant, liked it so much that I enlarged it to a 7" x 5" panel size, painted it, and then applied gold leaf to the marks for a more metaphysical quality.

Lost: Going Home

Pendant Abstract

7 x 5" panel with gold leaf

Next Phase: when I tried to photograph the panel, one photo was blurry but interesting, so of course that sent me on another tangent, and I got three more "Lost" prints with a totally new look.

Lost Abstract No. 1

Lost Abstract No. 2

Lost Abstract No. 3

THEN I just had to put one of the prints behind the old glass brick, and got four more interesting and increasingly metaphysical prints in the "Lost" series!

Lost: Black Hole

Lost: All That Remains

Lost: Redemption

Lost: Through Time and Space

About the time I finished the last ones, Cassie injured her back and got sick simultaneously, so I've been her intensive care nurse for the past month. Happy to report, she's getting better, though still not well, and is still making art! All these prints are available, though not listed anywhere but here. Interested? Contact me in a comment!