Heading Home!

I wanted to write a quick post before we leave San Francisco today, because I've been thinking about things that I've missed from home and things that I have enjoyed so much here. Things I've enjoyed here:

• Good food and a good variety of foods
• Lots of time with my family
• Rediscovering how much I like to draw
• Sunny days without the fog
• plants that grow here and the flowers
• watching my daughter morph into a city girl (she loves to ride the city bus)
• easier sleep - my insomnia has eased up a good bit
• not having a To Do list!
• reading more books

Things I've missed from Home:

• our friends
• our bed
• our dogs
• our Keurig coffee maker
• my Mini Cooper
• my studio and my clay
• watching my daughter launch herself into our pool
• the sound of summer bugs

There are other things to list as well, but time is short and I have a plane to catch! I'll be absent for a few days while we get our lives back in order at home, but I am anxious to dive back in!
Talk to you soon~ Kelly

Journal page- Woke Up This Morning

I've been working on this sketch for several days now. It's all graphite and colored pencil and I love love love the softness of it. I tend to work slowly with colored pencils, going lightly and taking my time with the shading. It is a peaceful practice for me, if I let myself relax and take my time. I love how her "hair" turned out - there are nasturtiums growing everywhere here in San Francisco. I think they must reseed themselves and grow naturally, because I see them all over the place. They are so pretty, I thought they would look nice for hair. I did a sculpture a few years ago with a girl who had poppies for hair, and I've decided that I like that. Perhaps I will keep going with it.

I should also tell you that I couldn't decide what text to include on this one, so I actually posted her as a Work In Progress on Facebook, and I got some great feedback and ideas! It was all rolling around in my head, and then this morning I was flipping through my notebook, looking for quotes/relevant words/journal entries, and I found an entry that I wrote one morning upon waking. I had just had a very realistic dream about my mother (who passed away last year) and I described that dream, in all it's details, in this entry. As the tears filled my eyes, I knew that this was it. This was the meaning behind the drawing. So now you know. If you gave me feedback on Facebook, I didn't ignore your ideas, I just had to use this one.

My mood has changed from my last journal entry that was done in all bright blues, purples and fushia. I had so much fun working with those bold and lively colors! But now my mood has softened and I've turned thoughtful. I have some Beethoven playing and the house is quiet. Hope you like the journal page and I am wishing you a peaceful weekend.

Love, Kelly

Sneak Peek Friday

Jennifer, over at Studio JRU, thought that we should all join up and show our messy studios and what we've been up to. I think it's a fun idea, and everyone is always curious about everyone else's art studios. It's not exactly perfect for me to join in, since I'm not in my studio right now. Here in San Francisco, I've taken over half the dining room table (we eat in the kitchen) and the other half belongs to hubby. Since I've brought limited art supplies, the mess is not as big as it would be at home. I still manage to trash the area, though, and I even had to find a cabinet to hide some of the stuff in. I guess you grow to fit whatever area you have, right?!? In the first shot, I especially love the coffee mug and the baby monitor. Two things that are standard in my space, since I normally settle down to work, with a cup of java, while the baby is napping. I also just finished that sketch in the journal in front and you can see that in this journal post. It took me days to finish this one thing, since I have only been working during naptime, if naptime actually happens. The second photo shows the backside of the computer, where I stash more of my junk. That is the only safe place on the table that I can put my paint pens and markers so that the kiddo can't reach them. As it is, I already have to grab my colored pencils out of her hands, since she loves to run through the house with them. That's not exactly safe! This photo shows the cabinet where I've stashed some of my other goods. Not all that stuff is mine, but I'd say about 90% of it is mine. :) On Monday, I will be going to UPS to ship a lot of stuff home so that we don't have to travel with all of that. I can only imagine what the airline would say if I showed up with all of these gels and paints and things in my carry-on! So anyway, I don't think I will participate in next week's Sneak Peek, since my whole house will be in shambles after we return from this trip. Hope you all have a great weekend!

American Craft Council - San Francisco

Yesterday we went to the American Craft Council show at Fort Mason. It was so fun to check it out and compare it to the ACC shows I've done on the East Coast. Fort Mason used to be a huge army base, and the show was held in an old warehouse on the water. It was a cool setting for a show, and they had lots of natural light, unlike the ACC in Atlanta that is held in a huge convention center. I think it gives the show a much different feel. When I first walked in, I spotted a pottery booth that I wanted to hit. Beautiful, salt-glazed work, which I've always liked. It was Insomnia Pottery and of course, that name struck home with me, since I sometimes suffer from insomnia too. But her work was awesome, and we bought two mugs and two bowls. Click on the link to go to her website.
The other booth I really like was sculptor Elizabeth Franks, who started with Aspen wood, and created a mixed media figure out of it. Her figures sometimes had wings made of old hardware and super long legs. I couldn't seem to make an image of hers work,so you will have to follow the link to her website. I know you will like her work!

So I did apply to do this show for next year, and you never know what the jury will think of your work, so I'll have to wait until September to find out if I have been accepted or not.

This morning, I'm off for a run. Eating all this good food and not enough exercise is starting to catch up with me! Have a happy Monday!

~Kelly

"Doorway" journal page

Today I was playing in the journal, just having a little fun while the kiddo napped. I wanted to share it with you all, since I've been a little absent lately. We've got friends in town from home, and we've been showing them around the city for the past few days. So here's my sketchbook page. I like the flower petals. They remind me of my mother's paintings from back in the day when she worked in oils. Miss you, mom.


And a detail shot of the flowers...


Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far and getting some much needed rest!

Here you go, Birdie

HI again!
I'm back from our short trip to Napa, and we had a fabulous time. No cell phone, no internet, and no TV! We were staying at my hubby's cousin's house out in the middle of no where, and no, I didn't take pictures. Not much view to capture, just a lot of trees pretty tight against the house. I am not a talented photographer, and I wasn't sure that I could capture the landscape properly. My hubby's cousin is just awesome, and he and his wife are so generous about sharing their space with friends and family. It's all very relaxing; you read books, swim in the pool, take a walk down the driveway, paint each others' toenails. (There wasn't a man at the house that didn't have orange or purple toenails!) You barely shower while you are there, and no one gets real riled up about cleaning either. Just ignore those dead bugs in the corner. :) It makes for a wonderful, relaxing and peaceful weekend. So, so nice.

But, I seem to remember promising you guys another journal entry. It's not my favorite, but I'm not redoing it either. There are things about it that I like...but mostly, I love the memory that goes with the saying in the middle. It came from a day last week when we were sitting in Union Square, in the shade of a tree, watching our daughter feed the birds. She kept saying "'Ere you go, birdie", and so it burned into my brain. And I'm so glad it was. I hope to remember that day forever. Wonderful.

Heading to Napa!

Hi everyone!

We are off to Napa Valley for the weekend, so we will be out of touch til Sunday night. No internet and no phone...can you believe it?? In some ways, it will be nice. I'm taking my journals and supplies so that I can work while I'm there. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get my piece for the Color Challenge posted on time, so I'll be sharing that here sometime next week. But I do have another journal page to share, but I won't be able to do it til Sunday or Monday. So have a great weekend and we will talk again soon!!

Love~ Kelly

Journal Page

I've been working in my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project and I've wanted to share a page with you. I've been playing with drawing girls' faces a bit and I always love my stamps. The other material I've found I love are the Caran D'Ache watercolor crayons - they are the best! I am so glad I brought those with me to San Francisco. They travel well, and are nice and clean to work with.

So, in this journal page, I was thinking big picture things: life and dreams. I like how her face turned out, but I do think it's interesting that most of my girls in my artwork look you in the eye. Maybe it's the whole "eyes are the window to the soul" thing??? The actual page has a much more buttery color to it, rather than a bluish tint on her face. The iPhone camera is pretty good, but there are some limitations to it, I guess.

In other news, I tried to go to a super cool gallery today (SculptureSite) and they weren't open. Darn! They are in the middle of moving their location and lots of things were in crates. I was still able to window-shop some of the pieces, but I was pretty disappointed. That was one place I REALLY wanted to go. So we went to the Merrell store to look for shoes instead. :) Check out the link for the gallery if you are curious...

Hope you are having a great week so far!

~Kelly

Taking Time Off

You know, I think I must be a little crazy. We have 6 weeks here in San Francisco and my brain is of two opinions. Half of my brain thinks that I should take time off, relax, read books, draw, nap, and generally just play while we are here. The other half of my brain thinks that I should be using this time away from my clay to tackle things like re-doing my website, posting blogs all the time, and connecting with galleries. Generally, doing all the things that I struggle to find the time to do at home. So far into this trip, I've pretty much been doing the first part and loving it. Only a small piece of my brain has been trying to make me feel guilty. Don't get me wrong - I am SO grateful and stoked to be here. We've been doing lots of sightseeing and reading and taking the kiddo to fun places. We've eaten a lot of good food and my insomnia seems to be easing. These are all good things. So, I'll probably continue to do what we are doing - playing - and loving it, with only a small fraction of me feeling guilty. I'll just ignore that part. :)

Be Open to Change

In San Francisco, they stamp the concrete with the street name. Obviously, the guys couldn't find the L when it came time to stamp this one and had to improvise. Love it!

I can't believe that we are 3 weeks into this San Francisco trip! Before we left, I was looking ahead into this trip and thinking that 6 weeks sounded like an eternity. What would we do, how would I keep myself occupied, creatively, for 6 weeks away from my clay?? The first week, we were settling in, figuring out the bus system, finding grocery stores we liked, and trying to adjust to the time change. Blink, and then 2 weeks have gone by! We've done a lot of sightseeing and caught up on some reading, which has been super nice. I have really enjoyed this time so much to downshift and look around me. Do some thinking. Think about life and friends and big picture stuff. My sleep habits have been better (even though it is now 4:00 am as I write this) and I've taken time to sketch, which is something I haven't done in a long time. I'll be showing you some journal photos soon, I just have to add text to them...

But anyway, all of this - this big idea to take this trip - started with the realization that life is short. We all get wrapped up in our lives and we get used to things as they are. One must remember to be open to change! It is so beneficial to break out of the box and try something new or different or to have to improvise. One big thing for us is that this was our first time on a big trip with our daughter. There's nothing like traveling with a 2 yr old to scare the daylights out of you! But she has been great and I have SO enjoyed watching her take in all the new sights. I never really knew about the sheer joy and wonder of watching a kid experience something new; I don't have the words to describe it. But I know this trip has been great for the whole family and I am so thankful that we were able to do this trip!

Love to all of you~
Kelly