Time

"Time" Mixed Media

This piece went through a remarkable amount of steps for not a lot to show for it. It started as a sketch, and then I picked out some wood grain and some details in colored pencil:

My hands were shiney with graphite. Then I watercolored it to make it more wood colored, and then painted light color on top of that: I used metallic paint for the numbers and hands. Still not liking it, I layered both in Gimp, duplicated, multiplied, merged, smudged and came out with the top image.

The clock is modled after cuckoo clocks, which I secretly think are really cool. The four women are meant to symbolize the four seasons. The bottom figures that rotate were meant to represent the course of the day (evening in the red dress, morning is emerging in a nightgown and slippers). The upper figures are representative of aging, old man is emerging, and there is sort of a figure of a baby behind the fence to the left of him. The clock also has a slot to show the moon cycle.

Miss Elizabeth Bennet

Much better.

Sometimes I find that it's easier to take a picture of a painting so long as I can manage it at a good angle and without glare. My scans are always washed out and not quite right...

Flawed

"Miss Elizabeth Bennet" Acrylic

I'm re-reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time in almost 10 years. I had completely forgotten how good it is. Lizzie is a flawed character, as are all of Austen's characters, but maybe that's why they're so much fun to read about. Certainly my Lizzie is flawed, she seems to be missing a left wrist. I'm happy with the painting but not the scan, I will try to post a better version, but at the moment, it's already the last minute, once again :)

A Near Dolly Experience

Monday afternoon I got a call from the editor of the magazine I'm working on saying that she had an extra press pass to a charity event that evening and did I want to go. She said there would be a lot of musicians there, but Dolly Parton was headlining it and I could go back stage with her to get interviews. She said we had fantastic seats. I was super excited. It was my mission to get my picture taken with Dolly. She's just so glittery and adorable.

I did some research before going to find out who the other musicians were. Kellie Pickler and Ronnie Dunn (Brooks and Dunn) would be there too. I looked up pictures and infor on the ones I didn't know. I put make up on.


When we got there, we were herded into a roped off area with other press while we waited to get brought in for interviews. And waited. Rumors circulated. It turns out 60 minutes and CMT were also there...and interviewing...and time passed. By the time we got back there the big people were either getting ready to go on or had just gone on. And just like that, my photo op with the great Ms. Parton passed. But I did get to see her perform (Jolene, Coat of Many Colors, and 9 to 5 with Kellie Pickler), and to prove I was about 5 feet from her, I have this, the clearest of my blurry pictures I took at her:


Sigh.