A Tiny Bit of Today

First, you must know that once upon a time I was pretty much Completely Shy. Leave me be. I will do the same with you. No, I do not wish to talk.

Times have changed.

Today, after seeing the movie "Gifted' - go see it! - Todd and I did a little suburban retail loop.

I managed to:

* chat with a lady in a large box store about food allergies and  major preservatives in mini muffins (I "had" to tell her of our adventure with storage unit muffins of same make and manufacture, that appeared perfectly soft and tasty - after sitting in an opened plastic container in a storage unit for over six years...) She wasn't going to eat the ones she had in her cart as she has wheat allergies, but was getting them for the church congregation, as she did on a regular basis. Yes, we even managed to talk about other things as we wheeled our carts down the concrete aisle. 
* discuss the prices of Romaine lettuce hearts at various retail stores with a woman debating getting a large, reasonably priced bag of same.
* wait silently for long long time outside of changing rooms at local Savers. Two of us were waiting waiting. The young slight woman and I had no idea if anybody would ever leave one of the little cubbie holes. We just looked looked at each other from time to time - calmly but semi-amazed at how long we were standing there.  A door opened! She had been there before me, but quietly said, "You go." Thanks, quiet, young woman. I went. And bought three new-to-me black, of course, tee shirts of various styles.
* be advised, very quietly, by a check-out clerk at large big-box store that perhaps I should wait a bit longer before renewing a certain membership card as she had heard that one's "year" might be effected by renewing "early." She leaned in to say that she could get in trouble for telling me this. O.K? Secret's safe with me? I thanked her and took her advice. And had more money to spend at Trader Joe's!
* have a quick solid gardening talk with the lady checking out our Trader Joe's purchases. We both are wishing for more sunshine and warmth. We laughed a little at how our seedlings are begging to get outdoors. She was asked by local niece if niece could plant petunias outdoors here now. The lady said that, yes, she could, but, no, she probably shouldn't. I agreed. Team Wait Till it's Warmer! No, I don't remember how this discussion got started. Yes, my spirit was lighter for having had that little talk.

That's about it for now. One little outing. Five tiny chats. Five contacts with humans I will probably never see again. But meeting real people dealing with small portions of our day.

I am the better for the doing.

Strangers are a tiny bit less strange.
And the tomatoes are still waiting to play outside.

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

PS: We will be participating in Our Creative Routes Art Tour this last weekend in April. We will be exhibiting goodies at Color Crossings in Roberts, Wisconsin. Come visit!

www.surowe.com
Facebook Page: Sue-Sue-Studios

This and That

The days are again hinting at Spring. Compared to the past two years our April and May have been almost balmy and snow-free, but lately lots of windy grey damp and dreary days are laying the spirit low.

Baby basils and tomatoes are doing their best to raise up my low soul. Weeding and raking in the vegetable garden help, too. And today I type while looking out at BLUE skies. blue skies are not to be taken for granted, nor are the mild, wild-weather-free weeks our part of the Upper Midwest is experiencing. Thoughts and prayers go out world-wide to the folks dealing with weather conditions way beyond their control. Mother Nature is often cruel and humbling. "No wire hangers!" "No thinking you're free from earthquakes (blizzards, flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc, etc.)!"

Maybe this why the latest "goofing off" pastel is called "Dancing in Edges." Our days can seem to be as smooth as glass, when, CRACK, all underfoot is splinters and shards.

Decision time. I, of course, step baby step by baby steps through the sharp edges, wishing I had steel-toed boots on. Others say ,"Woo hoo! Time to dare cavorting in the beauty of the cracks, refelctions, and refractions!"

     

  "Dancing in Edges" (work in progress - but almost finished)

I often ask my bears to do what I dare not. Dancing bits of chalk across some Canson paper is so much easier than trusting that my own arms and legs might  find some sense in musical space.

It IS odd that a person can be BRAVE in many instances,  yet totally insecure in others. I chalk it up (haha) to Human Nature, and though I have tried for years to understand the Brave versus Fear I have yet to crack this code. If any body has a clue, feel free to type!

I will go bravely and wimpily on - and, No, not doing the Best that I can do. A major flaw in personality. But fumbling forward and groping and stumbling. Not giving up, but not feeling much forward progress. Dreaming Tiny Dreams, or no dreams at all.

Weird. Yup. But aware of the weirdness.

Thanks for letting me ramble. It's time to get back to filling greeting card orders,  and, perhaps, dotting a few more spots on the above piece.

If I knew who I was perhaps I'd know what to do. Lalalalalalala.

On to the second half of May, 2015.

Good Luck with yours! If you see somebody muddling through the month, that muddler might be me!

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

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

Clean Hard Fast: 1

CLEAN: part of the living-room floor that had been covered by greeting card stuff, drawing books, and       misc. papers. Now to KEEP IT CLEAN! Dusted under card racks in studio - yes, all the way to the wall.

HARD: to believe how quickly tomatoes ripen once they put their little green head to the task. Have made sauce, tomato basil soup, given some away, & yet a number lie rotting on the ground. Will harvest more tomorrow, and probably give them away - hooray!

FAST: how that first three-mile hike in a long time went. Radio headphones helped hide the head's constant ding ding ding. Got to walk with Bach for a while. Can't go wrong hoofing along to all those great and lovely notes. Made it back before dark. High-point of walk was an in-shape dude striding along in white muscle shirt and red shorts, sporting a really good mohawk haircut, and  accompanied by a gorgeous black German Shepard Dog.

We're prepping for River Falls, Wisconsin's "Art on the Kinni" - Sept. 7th. Because The Grand Hand Gallery in St. Paul have hung so many of our originals I've been "forced" to work on new goodies. Yes, I know it's a good problem. I don't know what will be done by this weekend, but we have five more shows in following weekends so the work will be shown SOMEWHERE. And it's been fun to play with acrylics and mono-prints. Might have to frame the large rabbit drawing done during rand Hand event a week ago. It should hold it's own against the bruins!

Here are two of the small mono-prints now part of a Fine Print Show at the Stillwater Art Guild. These are made by layering acrylic paint on plastic, flipping plastic onto printing paper, then burnishing paint on to paper. Some images printed easier than others, and I kept adding more paint where it seemed to be needed. Darned judgement calls! But I'm excited with the technique and plan to do some larger pieces soon.

Colors included black, brown, and the Magic Touch - GOLD. Can't go wrong with a golden dancing bear. But I still love the shapes of sitting bears, so had to play with one here. Playing with a brayer created the large area of dark on lower center bear. What to do? What to do? Why press a gold bruin over the area. Yay for Play!

Now it's time to watch live-streaming of U. S. Tennis Open and cheer on Rafa Nadal. AND keep working through the competition. Little yellow balls and little golden bears.

And don't forget the tomatoes....

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

Summer Color

Summer Greetings on the Last Day of July - sigh.

I want way more July, and even some bits of May and June back.

Here we are not hurting for water. 

I almost feel guilty typing this.

The sunflowers tower.

The basils and tomatoes grow wherever the pumpkins allow them space.

And every so often I allow some time to play with art supplies.

This guy's name is "Big Bob."

He is pretty much an acrylic finger painting.

On a thick wooden board.

The owners of Ely, Minnesota's Mostly Moose and More shop bought him during 

the Ely Blueberry Festival.

He's probably had his fill of almost everything.

Eat or nap? Eat or nap?

Anyway.....

Here, we are back to dealing with tomatoes. 

No time to nap.

Volunteer tomatoes gone really wild!

Yes, almost too much of a really good thing.

Like the garage-sale supply of paints and drawing implements.

So a bit of early morning harvest, and then back to making art.

Art  fair season is in full swing - 

and we are happy, busy, and tired almost all the time.

We appreciate our many customers!

The stories, suggestions, new ideas.

THE LAUGHS!!

But now it's back to making "product."

If the tomato plants can do it, well, so can we.

Produce something today!

On to it - 

And Best of Luck to all hard-working Olympians. 

May your mistakes be minute, and may you be judged and timed fairly.

Fare-thee-well,

Sue

Old Tomatoes

Shortly, yes, shortly the huge mounds of snow will melt, mud will happen, and green will appear in our backyards. But I want to pick ripe tomatoes NOW.

In honor of a pretty good, for me, gardening year, and with hope of having those last green tomatoes turning red and yummy, I saved four of the little rascals and watched to see what happened. In time they did fight the good fight, sort of turned to a reddish hue, and then just became kitchen decor.





Recently I took a small nibble and realized that in this case redder was not better...... Sigh and sigh. But I just couldn't toss out these four pieces of last year's fun quite yet- they deserved a tiny bit of honor for hanging in there and trying their best. Out came the camera and on to tomato inspiration!






Now they sit inside of the computer, all warm and cozy and ready for their close-ups. We will return to them shortly and dare to find ways of making these little orbs even more immortal. Mere old tomatoes - ha! They're the best we've got for months -

Artists - appreciate your own versions of "old tomatoes" - boxes of family photos, stuff in the refrigerator, the scene right outside the window. If it's dull or icky - well, not too icky, that's O.K. Simply use what you've got to take your mind, pencil or paint somewhere even just slightly new.

The first week of the new year is behind us - TO TOMATOES.... AND BEYOND!!!

Fare-thee-well,
Sue