Did I just break up with my job?

I just broke up with my day job.  Completely.  It's happening.  I mean - crap- it HAPPENED!  It was more than a day job.  It was a career.  One that many good hearted, non-squeezy, Dental Hygienist hopefuls fight for a shot (hah dental pun) at.  It was a well-paying, flexible, and social career, and I broke up with it.  Woah that's giving me relationship flashbacks, "... He was such a good guy... The sex was great... He was so clever…Great on paper…BUT…”

Here's the thing - it was great.  But to be honest, it just wasn't right for me.  My last straw came in the form of one new sheet of paperwork.  When I felt an irrational emotional surge (OK- near meltdown) over a single piece of paper, I knew it was time to for a chat.  My boss knew all too well, that I was tragically born without two things:  an inside voice and a poker face.  I was nervous to come clean to her - yet it just came out.  But she was a step ahead and already knew.  She was wonderful, understanding, and even excited for me to move on and follow my passion.  She immediately tried to help me new (now, career) pursuits by taking me to photograph (and ride) polo ponies!  I couldn't have been more grateful.

So, oops!  I am a full time artist (...and full time art student)!  It’s like I always say, “what could possibly go wrong?!”

Serving beer and warm dogs is in NO way bellow me if I get myself into trouble.  But, I have waited long enough and it was time to sack up and take this risk.  The most encouraging email met me in my inbox from my mentor Terry noting, "Joseph Campbell repeatedly said, “Follow your bliss” (and the universe will conspire in your favor) I found this to be true, time and time again."  I am excited!

So, speaking of universe conspiracies... I am dying to tell you Dad, Terry, and discerning adventurekateers who have found this blog (who are you by the way?  Let me know in the comments!), THE event of 2016!  But, I'll save that for the next post...   haha see what I did there?  Tune in next time!

Art Critique

Abruptly transitioning now to the crit Terry gave me after my last post so that you may benefit from it!  He encourages me to keep listening to the Watts gang suggesting I continue to work on the 'big sculpt' paying attention to the skeleton and then the sculpt of the features after that, integrating them properly.  Anatomy, a lifetime pursuit!  He makes some good notes on Landscape as well. 

 "Remember, you have to decide before you start painting whether to take the impressionist color approach, or more of a tonalist approach. With the Impressionist color, you paint high key so you can push color in the shadows. In order to emphasize the color of the secondary light (reflected and ambient) you have to have a situation where that light is strong, illuminating the shadows. If it’s strong enough to illuminate–you can actually see color and information in the shadows–then the value has to go up. You can’t see anything in the dark."

Terry recommends studying the method of one's teacher.  Though he adopts more of a tonalist approach, Ben Young, my plein air teacher at Watts, probably works more into the colorist end of the spectrum.  From Ben I am also trying to learn good design and edge work.  Watching him work on cloud forms the other day, it was amazing to see how he would move things forward and back in space until the design was appealing.  This is so hard!  Especially when our reference is lacking, and it requires invention.

Terry liked seeing my backgrounds evolve, and after I painted 'Bella' he wrote, "This one has the background that I’d been waiting for you to do! The totally intentional mark-making, and the thoughtfully muted colors without making it dull. Nicely executed!"  Yay!  I have also been continuing to try and think more about shape design as it relates to form, and by the time I was wrapping up my biggest  and most recent Dog Portrait, 'Sir Butters,' I heard from several teachers including Tom Babbey, Terry Miura, and Jeff Watts that they thought it was my best one so far!  Here's to trying to stay on this trajectory!  

And NOW!  My latest pieces...

Blue Roan

6x6" oil on canvas $300

available here

Sunset Cliffs

8x10" oil on canvas

sold 

Raven Study

6x8" oil on canvas, $245

available here

Abraham

12x12" oil on canvas

commission

Dexter

6x6" oil on canvas

commission

Lucy

6x6" oil on canvas

commission

Georgia

8x10" oil on canvas

commission

Bella

6x6" oil on canvas

commission

Madison

8x10" oil on canvas

commission

Sir Butters

20x20" oil on canvas

commission

These client pics make me SO HAPPY!  Had to share ;)

Please leave a comment and say hello!

New Year New Adventure!

Welcome to Cardiff-by-the-Sea

The obvious post-move question we all ask the Universe: "What the hell did I get myself into?"  After two separate trips to U-haul to upsize the truck, dragging my car behind it all the while, my patience was waning.  And that was before the movers showed up.  The movers:  I selfishly admit I pictured them as huge, young, strong, patient, and kind with a great sense of humor.  Reality hit me in the face as I opened the door. My movers were nice, but more like Blue in Old School. I'm sure their co-workers were back at the moving office planning their retirement party at that very minute, and there was no sign of reinforcements.  They walked through my apartment to assess my bounty and sent me back to U-haul for a 3rd time, and even bigger upgrade.  Even my overly enthusiastic brain was forced to acknowledge this was an official set back. Gulp. This is what I get for thinking I could move mid-week, right before Christmas when friends and family were unavailable.  If my mom hadn't sent cash in her stead, and two dear friends hadn't come by earlier in the week to help me pack, it would have been a true disaster.

My moving fantasy, still intact, pictured us spending a couple of happy, energy-filled, whistling hours loading the the truck, an unadventurous, traffic-barren drive to L.A., arriving during that magical time after rush hour, but before dark.  Instead, my reality involved the old fellas needing repetitive breaks, a surprisingly expensive lunch, and poor judgment.  Against my begging and pleading, they insisted on saving the largest and heaviest pieces till the end. That special moment happened in the dark, down three stories of rickety, old steps.  

Queue my breaking point:  It was after 8 pm, I conceded far more cash than originally estimated as well as defeat.  I knew exactly what I'd given up to pursue this opportunity. I walked away from a great job and amazing friends I've made over the past nine years and had to accept a new long distance version of my relationship.  I called my boyfriend and immediately start to cry.  He delivered the perfect motivational speech, and we laughed together when he finished with "It's not supposed to be easy!"

 I tucked in for one final night in Sacramento on the hardwood floor of my empty apartment, with my cats sliding off my sleeping bag all night.  I woke  before dawn ready to get the hell outta there.  After going through the trash to relocate all the tweaker-bate* items to a safer receptacle**, a few properties down, the good steward Alley Bob slips his number into my pocket so I can confirm my survival at the other end.  I hug him hard despite the fact he has literally just had both hands in the trash.  

He checks my blinkers and sends me off!  I'm F-ing doing it!  The cats are not happy, but desperate wining abates after about an hour and by the time I hit LA, I'm feelin good enough to snap this selfie!  Right, I hit LA at 3 pm on the Friday before the holidays so even though I only have a couple hundo miles to go, this is like the halfway point.  I pause my pod cast, 'Serial,' for a hot second and reschedule the San Diego movers to the next morning, but in just 13 hours, only stopping twice for gas I MAKE IT TO CARDIFF!

*basically Bob empties the entire contents of the bin since tweakers are not carefully looking to extract the recyclables, they are just tweaking, which apparently requires tossing trash all over the parking lot.

**because it’s a dumpster so they cant tip it over.

Check out the rig!

27' truck with car on the dolly!  I now have sweet dolly skills, totally took my car off that thing by myself.  Walked tall.

Check this out, my new roommate, who I just met, had the sweetest house-warming gift for me!  Not only is this a very thoughtful selection, he got Steve Pressfield to sign it!  What a guy!

Notes from Terry's last critique

Terry writes that my self-critiques are right on, and so I am encouraged to keep taking my own advice!  Nice.  He continues, "Your value control is getting better, but you may be responding too much to what you’re seeing in your reference material. You’ll want analyze why Sargent made a value (or color) shift where he did, and strive to describe the form not because Sargent made a value shift, but because the depiction of form demands it."  This eloquently sums up my feelings of frustration when I've got stuck trying to replicate a master's stroke with out understanding it.    

The prescription is to study Asaro's planes of the head.  I suppose the head isn't just in my apartment to keep an eye on the cats while I'm out...time to learn it.  The goal is to learn to superimpose the planes in my mind over the actual head of my subject. 

As for the beer series you may ask?  "Great job!" -Terry Miura.  Enjoying that for a moment.  He sees more love and intention in the treatment of the backgrounds and adds, 

"Remember, rendering something realistically is the easy part. Designing a compelling image is the hard part, and designing requires that you pay attention to all parts of the composition. I like how you played with the strokes, colors, values, edges, opacity, texture. It all looks very much done on purpose, which is what you want."  Now, to bring that to the heads!

Christmas Commission Dog Portraits!

Knowing full well I should have been purging and packing, I took on a couple commissions right after the brewery show and right before Christmas.  That's what you do when you cut your hours to be an artist, go to work!  This was another good test to keep up quality under a bit of pressure.  It also proved to be too much for Tico the cat.  Two of my favorite in-progress pictures capture Tico's own frustrations with attention deficit.

Tico Staging a Sit-In

And Again

 'Dillinger'

8x8" Oil on Canvas

'Dutch'

8x8" Oil on Canvas

Two pairs of buddies!

'Ida'

8x8" Oil on Canvas

'Woody'

8x8" Oil on Canvas

(thought it'd be nice to through in one framed image for the full effect)

I hope everyone's New Years Adventures are off to an exciting start!

Thank you to my very special guest editor Betty Nelson!