Witty Picasso

In April I had a chance to see the huge Picasso retrospective at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. There was a lot to look at--I avoided museum burnout by concentrating on the found object assemblages. There were only a dozen or so. We were lucky to have guest passes, so I didn't feel obliged to look 3x at everything to justify the high cost of admission.

There was a narrow room set up as a photo gallery. Unfortunately it was so crowded (on a Monday yet) that we didn't spend much time there, but seeing photos of old Pablo hanging around in his nautical t-shirt doing South of France things gave me a little boost.

 Here he is with his good friend Jean Cocteau. From left to right: Pablo Picasso, his son Paulo, Jean Cocteau, Georges Braque and Françoise Gilot, in front of Picasso’s studio, Vallauris, 1953

The Picasso quotes scattered around the museum were a nice touch. Here are a few of my favorites---  

Give me a museum and I'll fill it.

My mother said to me, "If you become a soldier you'll be a general; if you become a monk you'll end up as the Pope." Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso. 

When I haven't any blue I use red. 

It is a well-known fact that we see the faults in other's works more readily than we do in our own.

Unless your work gives you trouble, it is no good.   

A View into the Studio

A little hello just so you know I'm still around! I've been finishing up lots of things in my studio and just generally getting organized. As trumpeted on this blog for the last several months. I'm starting to be a believer in publicizing one's intentions, since I'm actually getting more done.

Coming up soon, a new Etsy shop or two with a gradual phase out of my current shop. Notecards and digital prints... Summer and hot weather... My daughter's college graduation!

Always Learning

 This week I've been listening to the  Creative Souls Telesummit recordings. It's for people (like me) who have a hard time making choices because they have so many interests and passions. The topic is getting clarity and focusing on what you want to do creatively--I found the last two recordings the most helpful. Next week they're going to talk about making a plan of action, then the third week is how to turn your creative fire into financial flow (eff yeah, money!!). You can listen to these recordings for free, up to 48 hours afterwards. Can't go wrong with that.

One of the things I learned about is a technique that's been around for awhile--EFT or Emotional Freedom Therapy. It involves tapping on 8 acupressure points along energy meridians when you are faced with a blockage and helps move energy around to get some much needed clarity. There are lots of places online you can find videos and charts--it seems pretty simple to do and if you're at all attuned to meditation or yoga, it uses the same principles of moving chi, or life energy, around the body.

Happy Earth Day

Baby pink azalea

 Dogwood

 Lily-of-the-Valley

Wisteria climbing up a tree

Thank you, Earth for the wonderful life you let us have here at your expense. We are grateful you spared all the beautiful trees in our garden, as well as our home, from the EF3 tornado that came within a half mile of us while we were away last weekend. Happy Earth Day!

Starting with Vacation

At first glance you might wonder, "why blog about an Eddie Bauer display?" This just points out how knocked off and ripped off anything authentic has become. None of the pieces in this cabinet are fake or in a big box store.

This little shack is the "real deal". No faux finishing here, no decoys Made in China. They have been selling decoys on Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for over 40 years. It had a blue and white diamond painted floor that was naturally distressed.

In China, they must not have found a way to mass produce this type of swan decoy--wire armature covered with painted canvas-- cheaply enough to be able to flood the market. This is actually new to me!

Decoys are super expensive, the man who runs this shop told me one sold recently at auction for $5.5 million! He remembers buying them back in the day when you could get truckloads at $6 and $7 a piece, which was a goodly sum then. Apparently that's when he constituted his stock, which is now selling at around $300 for one like this or $900 for a canvas swan.

It makes me wonder what's left that's affordable to collect. I somehow seem to find random stuff, but almost everything has already been "the next big thing". Prices tend to stay at a certain level once this happens. Not that I was planning to collect decoys--country is not my style! Do you collect anything unusual? We'd love to hear about it!

Blog Giveaway Alert

A little note to let everyone know about a cool giveaway of a very intriguing book at Plush Possum Studio as well as some surprise extra goodies. If you don't know this blog, you're in for a treat. Rose and company very generously provide wonderful images of vintage photos and ephemera for your photoshopping digital collaging pleasure.

Though her blog is relatively new, she's already celebrating her 100th post! Rather puts "lazy" bloggers like myself to shame.

Beautiful Tribute

I wanted to share this video of Sion Milosky, a big wave surfer from Kauai who recently passed away while surfing Mavericks in Northern California.

You can read more here.