Goal

I have an odd, but serious, goal.
No, it is not DRAWING strength.
It is being strong.

For a reason that only a few people know - 

No, I cannot do one yet. But the muscles are getting more muscle-y. Really.
So, here be visualization. 
I have  almost two months...

Best of Luck with your Odd Dreams!

Fare-thee-well
Sue

Our next art festival will be at Shell Lake, Wisconsin the Saturday after July 4th. Time to get back to the studio! And planking....

Keeping On Track.

Sigh.
I am not so good at staying on the blogging track.
Priorities. Remembering. Keeping track. 

Too many "irons in fire" or not the best irons?

Time to consider creating more sheep - 
because friends on Facebook suggested a number of excellent Sheep Names.

Rosemary, for one.

Here is the photograph I shot at the Minnesota State Fair that was used for newest pastel - now titled "Luna."

Focusing in helped. So the above became this:

Somehow "art" happened. Decisions were made. Guesses were second-guessed. And a few last marks were decided upon. 

I do not know how YOU keep on the various tracks you are on. 
I do know that now I can leave a coffee shop and block on a few more tiny squares in a journal. 
Lose the journal - lose the life! Almost Haha.

I guess this life is about making marks - in the manners in which they might add up to living a life...

So - back up the hill - 
And on to getting back to blogging more often and with better content.

Hi-o, filling in "boxes" - away!!

- Fare-thee-well,
Sue

P.S. - We have been accepted into the Spring Green (WI) Art Festival in late June, 21018. We ARE excited!!

Tiny Goals and Larger Doings

One goal or challenge for 2017 is to blog at least two hundred times. I don't know why that particular number came to mind as this has headed into - perhaps it was not too much to make the brain anxious in January, but yet enough to be an actual challenge - as the most entries I'd ever made previously was eighty-four, back in 2011. Oddly, this was the year the health "adventure" began.

This morning there are no particularly great inspiring words to be typed. Just - Show Up. Keep Going. You can do it. That sort of thing. To self and whever might be reading. And that "You can do it" is even a tiny lie. Two weeks ago Todd dislocated his right shoulder. There are things he cannot do. He WANTS to do them, but, physically, he simply can not. Or he would reinjure himself if he did certain stuff he would really like doing. So - Show Up, Keep Going?

Or don't? Maybe sometimes it's time to STOP. Or not show up. Our days are made up of all those decisions and choices. 

Yesterday I STOPPED eating sugar - yes, again. Today my noggin feels slightly better, and the tinnitus is less "loud." Why I do not remember  this Sugar = "Louder" Tinnitus (at least in my case) all the time is still fascinating. I will make future self suffer for two days for the temporary JOY thirty-mintues eating  a most excellent white chocolate-cranberry scone at the Buffalo (MN) Books and Coffee shop. 

Today holds an art sale at Roberts, Wisconsin's Color Crossing. There WILL be excellent snacks. Pulling will from the "SuperBetter" book, my epic quest today is "Eat No Sugary Snacks." I am already envisioning NOT putting paw into M&Ms bowl. NOT reaching for a small cookie. Practicing now for real later.

Guessing that's about it. Time to gather stuff together and get the show on the road. It will be another not-Winter day here in the Upper Midwest. Mixed emotions. A friend photographed a confused blooming dandion in her town in southern Wisconsin. IN DECEMBER. Ponder this. Or not. The choice is yours.

On to the day!

Fare-thee-well,

Sue

Pins

I am signed up for Pinterest. But I might visit the site three times a year? I am not a Pinterest Type.

But others' own physical collections...? Whole 'nother thing. Here are some Real Pins!

These are some from a antique dealer's recent purchase. As far as we now, they are all from the 1920's. I covet some more than others. But I won't be buying them, because I do not covet them in that way.

Enjoy? Ponder? Learn? Start/add to your own collection?

My favorites!
(They are actually a bit smaller than shown.)

So many questions.

But "Let's Jazz"! And "Go, to It Kid"!

One more - 

And, another.... Yes, there are many more - 

Enough of this fun.

On to prepping for the art fair at Color Crossing in Roberts, Wisconsin, Saturday, December, 2nd. 

If you are in the Minnesota metro area it will be a great day for a short drive in rual Western Wisconsin! And if you are a weaver, knitter, or such, you might come home with something to bring joy and more color to your own creative efforts!

I will have a few new bunnies mixed in with the bears. Don't tell the bunnies!

Fare-thee-well!

Sue

Motivation - hahaha

I do not feel like doing anything. Much less the work this self-employed person has on the Damn it Do it list. Idon't really have a  list called this, but I should have one.

But the Daily Bun is freshly done.

Here's Step One:

Another widdle wabbit on a 7" x 5" piece of used Strathmore watercolor paper. I used a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen to semi-boldly sketch the outline of this petite beastie. With ink - well, (oops - haha) one must simply go and do the deed. One line I hope to somewhat hide with dark layer of gouache, and a longer-than-I-liked part of lip is already partially "erased" with a single-edged razor blade. Odd to think that through both twenty years making model horse tack and twenty years (over-lapped) making art the one constant has been boxes of single-edged razor blades. So it goes.

After using the above image as today's #InkTober  entry, I got out the tiny (SQUIRREL!! [Excuse me, it's breakfast time for the fuzzy tailed crew, and blue jays, chickadees, and crows]) metal box of gouache and watercolor paints and a water brush (brush with water in its barrel). A few broad swipes of a few colors - bun and background, and then settling to apply many strokes of "dirty white" mix  - mostly on the nose and rest of head. A few other muted colors were added as well. I guess a lot.

Another fine tool - literally - is the Signo Uni-ball ink pen in White. This was used to add more whiskers and also highlight a few areas. I tend to go back and forth with the various pens and brushes till an image yells, ""Yes! I'm finished! Please STOP!!!" (There have been times when I have not stopped...

Here is the final image. (SQUIRREL!) I remain thankful to the person who painted the original areas of color in this paper, and to my hubby who decided not to toss the watercolor block away. Minor miracles are better than none.

**********
Oct. 7 and 8 are Stillwater (MN) Art Festival dates. Our Booth number is 113. Due to flooding this year's fair is in a different part of downtown. No booths in actual park. But we will make this rainy start of weekend work. 'Cause that's what art fair artists do. I am thankful that we are not the artists awaiting yet another hurricane. A number of artists are doing that...

**********
Now, on to trying to make brain and hands and rest of body do the Real Work. Good luck with YOUR doings of the day!

Fare-thee-well,
Sue



www.suerowe.com
Facebook: Sue-Rowe-Studios

Stuff

Days are still chilled and damp. Some garden plants are depressed but carrying on. I am trying to follow their lead.

Some plants are over-exuberant in this weather. Some of these are in need of restraint. So I've been digging up certain ferns, pink Lilies of the Valley, and a few hostas and giving them away or transferring them to other parts of back yard. Some pots, hanging baskets, and other containers remain empty. but I try to remember that "summer" is June, July, and August, so am not giving up hope yet. I do feel for the farmers still dealing with standing water in some midwest fields. It's hard to plant ponds that should be land.

Firsts and new-to-me attempts are still going on - 
A few, not in any order:

1) purchased fennel plants
2) purchased a dahlia plant
3) sampled cucumber soup earlier today. Cold soup on a cold morning wasn't in my plans. However, with the addition of some salsa - on advice of soup maker - it proved quite tasty. We agreed that it would have better had the day been warm and sunny.
4) used child's watercolor set to paint abstract patterns on paper napkins at a coffee shop in Hudson, Wisconsin. A friend and I were having our month Art Cheerleading Meeting. It was fun to talk and play at the same time.
5) had a grilled turkey burger during the family get-together on Memorial Day. It was delicious. 
 There were more doings, but I am too lazy to think of them.

The June Personal Challenge has been decided upon. As my spirit has been more down than up of late I was surprised to have Happy Bears flash into mind early this morning. Next it was One Hundred Happy Bears. O.K? Then, well why not do the deed in one month? So on to it. Even if I am not feeling all "haha funny funny," perhaps drawing bears who ARE happy might lighten the mood. 

Friday we set up our first outdoor art/craft fair of the season at New Richmond, Wisconsin. The first one of the year is primarily a test-run for equipment  and set up. I have no expectations for this event. But it will be good to put on the art fair smile and see what happens.
I still have to frame and/or wire several pieces. And prep the business stuff. Once the season is in the swing the weekdays and weekends sort themselves out into a rhythm that is hardly notices - except to note where to point the van. And it is amazing that I drew that first small hear head twenty years ago! One never knows what will change ones life. (Quite the wide-ranging paragraph, this.)

On to paying attention to a discussion with Stephen Fry on YouTube. 

It has been a day.

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

www.suerowe.com
Facebook Page: Sue-Rowe-Studios

Not Proud

Several weeks ago I "had" to finish a piece for the Members' Show at Hudson, Wisconsin's Phipps Center for the Arts. I'd been playing with some long narrow canvases (12" x 36). Painting rows of colorful frolicking bears... They were turning out nicely. So I got bored.

Because I like paper even more than I like paint I seldom toss out scraps created when making work.

And I DO want to use up art supplies (hahahhaha).

So I knew that a collage and paint piece was the way to go for the Phipps" show.

Here is a photo of early progress.

It got better.
And then it got worse.

When the piece returns at exhibition's end I plan to make it Batter  - or at least Very Good. Even now it is not Awful, but it is not Wonderful.

I prefer Wonderful Art.

To be continued.....

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

P.S. - We will have one of the long acrylic paintings at the Brighton Beach Art Festival this Saturday ( August 1st). Come visit us at this small yet lovely and WELL-attended art fair just north of Duluth, Minnesota.

Re-starting Over Again Again

Six long short week since posting? Time Happens/

Here is a started pastel for to add color to page:

"Dancing In Edges"  (work in progress)

I'd been painting with oil paints and had been BUST with business doings. But that early morning the scrap box of pastel pieces was nearby, and we all know that in this house PAPER is never far alway.

This is an image from the second go-round with this work. We'll see how it goes. I'm trying to go quickly and slowly at the same time. Wish me luck! Failure is always so close at hand.

Today finds the bears and me out in Wisconsin farm country. We are part of the "Our Creative Routes" Art Tour. We will be at Rhodes Farm and Pottery, outside Woodville, Wisconsin. Plowed Spring fields, chickens doing what chickens do. Street address: 1080 245th Street, Woodville. Weather is forecast to be in LOW 80s!!!!! There is almost no excuse for not taking that lovely "drive in the country."

So, ever onward, AGAIN.

Happy May 2nd, too!

- Fare-thee-well,

Sue

www.suerowe.com

Facebook  Page: Sue-Rowe-Studios

We do have an Etsy page but it hasn't been updated in a year...

(baby steps baby steps)