An early portrait

Forgive me the title on my last entry. It should
read "wild" not "wid" -- corrected now (whew!).
I barely had time to write my blog last night, and
obviously didn't proof it.

I got home from art class at 10:30 p.m., and scurried to get
ready for school. In between commercials on Jon Stewart
I ran (cla, clump, cla clump) (I can't really run yet) up two
flights of stairs to photograph my painting, write the blog,
and publish it.

And today I had the nerve to talk about precision with my
students, while my huge typo sat out in cyberspace.
That's ironic, and funny.

watercolour self-portrait
at nineteen
11" x 14"

I'm showing you a self portrait I did when I was at
art school and 19 years old. I like it because it shows promise,
and also something I see so often in the young people I
teach. I was a very pretty girl then, but didn't know it --
so I painted myself in an eerie, elongated, red eyed, raw way.

When students tell me they're ugly, I tell them that
the tragic part of that assumption is that when they are
(much) older they will start to feel great, and know that
they're good looking, no matter how they look.
Even if the rest of the world doesn't see it, they'll
probably feel just wonderful. And they'll look back
at photos from their college days and wonder what it
was they thought was so terrible back when.

Have a loving-the-kid-in-you day.

Painting for Mary

Tonight I was working on this little painting
to show you -- a painting of pansies when
my friend, Mary called.

She is pretty funny, so I decided to keep
painting while I talked to her, and I think


it shows in the painting so far. This is
about 4" x 6", and probably not finished yet.

To paint it I:
1. Painted a canvas red with cadmium red
medium (one of my favorite colours).
2. Waited for the red to dry while Fiona
took a nap.
3. Drew an outline of my lush giant
pansies in a little cream jug with

black
indelible marker.
4. Started a painting, and kept painting
while I talked to Mary. I like a sense
of humour in these little paintings, and
Mary and I go way back with the laughs.
I decided the red alone was too strong for
my deep purple pansy, and voila. Ta da.

Tomorrow I may do a few things to it,
sign it and glaze it. We'll see. Another
busy day happening.

Have an adventurous and funny day.