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Sunday, June 24, 2012

Party of One

Party Of One
Oil on Wood
(8x42)
Yep, It's been forever. Some paintings take forever because they just take hours and hours of work. Some because the outside world is an intrusion, a constant intrusion. 2012 has brought seemingly stable employment along with months and months of persistent, intense physical pain. A little good a little bad. All of which has made time at the easel quite the challenge. Sometimes you just gotta battle through. I had intended to post this with a written companion, but the written piece is a convoluted mess hampered by all the starts and stops of getting "Party of One" finished. I'll spare you the tragedy. 

So here it is: A victim of starts and stops and mistakes and mistakes while correcting mistakes, but I'm pleased with the final outcome. The best part is that my mind and easel are free to start something new. ©2012 Cindy K. Shaw All Rights Reserved

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Changing Minds


The last several weeks...months have been a flurry. I had a significant step up in contract work that started in August of last year. Then juggling this with some part-time work at the local LGBT community center. All this juggling of various part-time work came with long hours and a crazy schedule. Lots of work. Some money. Now, full time engineering work. More money. Lots of engineering brain time. Not much rest. Not much easel time. Not much artist brain time. And yes, it is as difficult as you might think to shift from my engineering brain to my artist one, especially when stress starts to run amok. Changing minds is never easy. 

Anyway…I started a piece while working on Requiem. Steps 1 and 2 were great and had me excited about where it would go. Steps 3 and 4 basically fucked it up and left me stumped. I spent weeks staring…trying to find a pathway to rework the disaster zones until I finally resigned that I just needed to paint over the trouble. So I did, but that tub of white paint I grabbed wasn’t primer. It was bright enamel. A fuck up to correct a fuck up that took several layers of paint to get back to a workable…paintable surface. We won’t discuss the other two items that were improperly “primed”. Those await my attention for a later date. 

So, I promise a finished piece is coming soon. I’m down to the nitty gritty details and am happy with how things are progressing. The photo is a little tease…a proof of life if you will. 

©2012 Cindy K. Shaw All Rights Reserved