Scratchboard Demo Round MountainArt Group

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of demonstrating Ampersand Art scratchboard to a lively and highly creative group of women. I love teaching and even more, watching others discover how much fun scratchboard board is. Everyone has a different take on it...I think my next class may have everyone doing the same design, just to see how different they will all be. I'm so happy to be associated with this product, I never get tired of scratching away.

Yesterday I spent the day doing plumbing repairs at a rent house that I invested in with a few friends. This is a brief, really brief, return to my past life. After 30 some years of doing various home repair work, I can say I really prefer making art. Even on the bad days (and there are so few of them) when I'm blocked or not able to do what I want to do with an art piece, I can't imagine wanting to go back to the construction life. Although, in this situation, I'm glad I can do the repairs myself and save the big bucks.

Today is the seventh anniversary of the death of my father. I'm missing him, and yet, as they say, time does help to heal the loss. Fitting that I'm spending so much time this week on plumbing and fixin' as he was a brilliant plumber, and as it turned out, a pretty great human being. Two of his sisters, my aunts, died this month and it is hard to lose those connections to the family. It is a reminder to continue to live in this moment, doing what makes me happy and whole.

I'm off to build a wall, install a toilet, paint ceilings and put up ceiling fans.

I hope a few of you enjoy reading this blog. I'm still not sure if anything I'm saying or doing is beneficial, or adds anything to this crazy world. It's still a work in progress for sure. I'll just keep scratching through...

Scratchboard Demo at Round Mountain!

This is one of my older scratchboards...called 'Comma Monkey' (of course!) Besides making the art, one of the hardest things for me is coming up with a title. Thus, I usually just assign a descriptive title. I'm working on this. I sometimes let whatever gallery it's in make one up. Sad, eh?
Today I'm scheduled to do a scratchboard demo sponsored by Ampersand Art www.ampersandart.com at the Round Mountain Art Group here in Fayetteville Ark. Should be a fun, fun day. I've got at least 10 people signed up and I'm looking forward to bringing more converts into the fold. If there are any folks out there in cyberland who are part of an art group, or know of a great retail spot that carries scratchboard, and would be a good prospect for a demo/class, let me know and maybe we can book something in the next few months. One of my resolutions for 2011 is to do more classes, and make and sell more art. So, help me out here!
Concerning the above image...what can I say, this is from about 5 years ago, and I am so much better at this now. Really! Good golly almighty, this is such juvenile work! Thank the gods for maturity. I mean, I still make many, many, monkeys, many, many BETTER monkeys!

Best Of The Web Pocket Change Become.com

Hey, check it out...this blog is listed on the Become.com Best Of The Web today. http://pocketchange.become.com/2011/01/best-of-the-web-be-home-16.html I'm in with some very good blogs, oh my! I hope you'll take a look at them and explore the whole site, there's lots to see. Good stuff. I'm pretty amazed that I'm in there with the others, but I'll take it! One of my New Year resolutions is to learn more about the online world and make it work better for me. (yeah, we'll see if that happens, right?) I've got to get better at this blogging biz. I will stop at nothing less than world domination by Scratchboard! Check out the products at http://www.ampersandart.com/ If I can't have the world domination thing, how about at least a pretty good following of folks who like to scratch out art? Ok, I'd best calm down now. Way too much caffeine for me today. I would put up an image if I could get it together. My laptop (a very sweet blue and black Toshiba) is sitting at Best Buy waiting for the Geeks to fix it and I'm using a brand new equally sweet little Toshiba netbook right now, and so far, loving it. It's almost small enough to tuck in my back pocket! More postings and artwork to come in the next few days.