4 Generations

We in Ohio have been blessed with really good weather for a change.  We have not had much snow at all, other than a tiny dusting here and there - that is - until today.  Today I think we got nearly 10" and there is supposed to be a little more on the way.  It is January after all.  But somehow I had this irrational hope that it would hold off until, oh, say...about APRIL!  And then, be SPRING!  Ha-ha!

I've had a lot of little changes in my life this fall and have had to come to terms with some health issues, but overall, I'm a very lucky lady.  And I even found a little time to make some art before Christmas - most of which was gifted to others.  I did the little 8" x 8" painting here - done in acrylics and mixed media.  I gave it to my sister Carrie (who is a writer) and while it isn't an accurate snapshot of the women in our family, it is perhaps more "representational" of them.  I really love that primitive, flat-dimensioned look of the paintings done in the early 1800's so was going for that sort of look, but they were meant to depict, L-R, back row - my mom Patricia Louise Strachan Ryman, her mom, Mildred Elizabeth Irvin Strachan and HER mom, Carrie Minerva Mitchell Irvin.  The front row is, L-R - my sisters, Cynthia Lea Ryman Newsome and Carrie Ann Ryman and me, Diana Louise Ryman.  It was a lot of fun to work on and I think my sweet sis really liked it.

In 2012 I'm hoping to focus on more de-cluttering of my art stash, painting a room or two in the house and the more fun type of painting - on canvas.  I've always admired the looser, more "painterly" style some artists such as Mystele and Sharon Tomlinson, achieve.  So I plan to teach myself how to paint this way too.  I feel like my work is too up-tight and controlled.  One of my friends, Jean Field, recently suggested that I "use a larger brush" to help me achieve this look, so I'll start there.  Sounds so simple, doesn't it?  Ha! Wish me luck!

Enough is enough!

Have you ever had to have "the talk" with yourself?  No - not the S-E-X talk.  The S-T-U-F-F talk is what I mean.  That's when you have to tell yourself (sometimes repeatedly) that you have enough STUFF already and you don't need another pencil, pen, tube of paint, bit of ephemera, or whatever the stuff happens to be at the moment.  I've had this talk with myself over and over this year.  Expenses are higher, income is smaller (lost my PT income).  But the real breaking point for me is there is just no more space to put the stuff I keep bringing into this house!  And I live alone in a 3 BR house with a huge attic and full basement so there just is no excuse for this.  Also driving this new clarity for me is that I've been working all year, a little at a time, on cleaning out parts of my parents home in preparation for selling it.  I'm seeing the detritus of 50+ years in one home and while I'm tickled to find things my mom saved, like our letters to Santa, written 40 yrs or more ago, there are things that I'm wading through that just didn't have to be saved all these years.  Like every bill they ever paid.  Like every old DayTimer filler from 30 yrs. of business calendaring.  All this sorting through the bits of a lifetime is making me take a long hard look at my own home and the things I choose to save.  And, as  I discovered this afternoon, when I removed the cartoon-y band aid from the site of my flu shot, and I thought - "hmmm - I should use this in a journal layout - it would be cool to have this little bit of my DNA immortalized along with my thoughts for the day" - then I realized, ok kid, you definitely have gone OVER the edge if you are thinking about keeping a used band aid as fodder for artwork!  Yes, I know - EVERYTHING can be recycled or upcycled and everything is fair game for our artistic creations.  But enough is enough!  So tonight I am having "the talk" with myself, yet again.  Sigh.  I'd be interested in hearing how (or where) you draw the line on the "stuff" you choose to keep for your art.