Tag: art

A bit of Sugar

Today The Brides are making a quick run to Austin to deliver Lindsey’s, Jennifer’s, and my paintings to the Creative Fidelity exhibit. They’ll be back this evening, but Margot, Guinness, and I get Sugar’s company in the meantime. This is always a treat. Yesterday, Tim and I shared custody of Minute, Sparky, and Paco. Paco was my best friend until Lynne got here for dinner, then he was through with me. Faithless beast.

On their way out of town, The Brides were kind enough to drop me at the post office so I could ship review copies of novels to Italy. Since I’d taken allergy medicine before I left the house, it was actually pleasant (the weather is GORGEOUS) to treat myself to lunch out. Then I did the thing that any writer with a new computer and an entirely different operating system might perceive as ecstasy: I purchased a brand new and current edition of Microsoft Office. My word processing software since 1987, I stuck with Microsoft through the Word Perfect craze–until Microsoft Word emerged victorious. Installing it this afternoon has made me almost giddy.

Or maybe that’s the allergy medication.

With a little help from my friends

Letting you know in advance: This post has several links. All are work safe.

Back when I was working on the True Colors paintings to show at Té House of Tea in February, several people asked to see the paintings. All eighteen paintings are now viewable online at True Colors.

Art can be expensive, I know, but the small paintings on my One Word Art site are not only affordable, but a percentage of every painting sold goes to an AIDS/HIV assistance organization. The specific organizations I support are listed on the True Colors link above.

I’m slowly developing a new series, an abstract look at one of my obsessions, windows. The first in this series was a gift to Lindsey for her birthday:


Untitled, No. 1

The second in the series is the painting I talked about last week, “Every Moment Is a Window.” It will hang in Austin during the week of March 16 as part of Creative Fidelity: A collaborative art exhibition examining themes relating to emotional work–artwork with elements of desire, passion, exciting creative energy and innovation. This installation has been arranged by Stagira Studios as part of SxSW.


Every Moment Is a Window

I’m very grateful to everyone who’s been supportive of my fledgling efforts to move to larger works and be more public with what I paint. For those who went by Té during February, including Alan and Amy, thanks! Lindsey arranged a quick meet-up at Té at the end of February, and not only did Houston artists Jennifer Mathis and Gilbert Ruiz attend, but Lindsey’s good friend and TJB reader Kramer was there, along with The Big H and the President and CFO of Hanley, Inc.; Tom, Timothy, and Rhonda (needing a good tea pick-me-up after an early-morning softball game); Lynne and Lila, looking like one of my Top Models with her bold choice of mod apparel and multi-layered tulle skirt; and Super Couple John and Matt. I had an inkling that Johnny and Matt were hoping for a glimpse of Summer, so I was pleased when she put in an appearance–and so was she, when she got to meet their friend Valentine.

Hump Day Happy

I’m not so great at updating lately, and you know what that means. It means I’m doing plenty of stuff that I could talk about, leaving me little time TO talk about it. Cowboys, collaboration, cleaning and organizing: These are the things preoccupying me.

Yesterday, Lindsey talked about three paintings she sent in response to a call for submissions. Because she’s Lindsey, she always shares opportunities to be creative with others, and she encouraged me to submit some work to this. It’s funny how my painting process mimics my writing process, but I won’t belabor that. I’ll just say that today, I’m happy because I did meet the deadline for submitting, and now I can go back to the other project that’s been devouring my time.

I want YOU to be happy, too, so if you’ll comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, I’ll tell you what the happiness book offers. And if you’re interested, a photo of my painting is here. You can also see a tiny bit of it below.

Hump Day Happy–Artist’s Edition


Sorry to be so late with this today, but I have been, as my mother would have said, out ratting the streets. Errands to run. Happy ways to indulge myself. And especially enjoying another gorgeous Houston day before we either get dreary weather again or jump right into summer.

To compensate for being late, I photographed the happiness book in front of someone’s (not my) in-progress painting. Since it’s only a tiny fragment of the whole, I’m hoping she won’t mind. In any case, I know she won’t sue me. She’d be afraid the court would award her two wienerbrats.

If you want something to be happy about from this book, please comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25. I’ll start dinner while I’m waiting for you. =)

Hump Day Happy


One of my new favorite places at The Compound: Tucked into a corner of the window seat, this box holds watercolors; charcoal, colored, and graphite pencils; sketch pads; angel books for coloring–one crafting location for those hanging out with us to get happy by indulging their creativity. If you want some happiness, too, please comment with a page number between between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, and I’ll give you the answer from the happiness book.

Thank you!

Because of the interest some of you have expressed, you can see a few photos of my “True Colors” paintings hanging at Té House of Tea by following this link to my Flickr set. After February, I’ll have a link in my sidebar to a better view of the canvases. Of course, if you’re interested in purchasing one or more of the paintings, I’ll e-mail you clearer photos RIGHT NOW! =)

Like all paintings, they’re more vivid in person than in photos–so you Houston folks need to go to Té! It’s on the corner of Woodhead and Fairview in Montrose, and you couldn’t ask for a better place to chat with friends, write, knit, play on the Internet, eat, and drink tea. I’ll be spending a lot of time there this month, and if you want to hang out, let me know and we can arrange it.

The photos include shots of Tom, Tim, Lindsey, and Rhonda doing all the work. They, along with Lynne and Kathy S, have been the best cheering squad ever. Thanks, y’all!

From my artist’s statement, this explains what I was doing with the series:

On each of the 18×24-inch canvases in the “True Colors” series, one 4×6-inch section is a solid color that gives the painting its name.
Though the other seventeen sections are different, they’re connected by repeated colors and patterns. In this way, the paintings remind me of human diversity: We’re different, but we’re all connected.

I chose the name “True Colors” because I believe those of us living during the decades beginning in the 1980s will be judged by posterity not for our technology, our wealth, our art, or our governments. We will be judged by how we responded to first sufferers and fatalities in the AIDS epidemic: those people marginalized by poverty, color, and sexual orientation. It’s through either the manifestation or absence of our compassion that we show our true colors.

We are different, but we are all connected.

Random with photos

Meesh posted her look for Project Runway’s burlap challenge here. Check it out! Her model from last week, Merisel, has a lot of personality. I wonder how she and Figaro would get along?

We had such fun on Thursday night–with a birthday dinner here for Lindsey, followed by watching Project Runway amidst much snarking. This season is so much better than last season. Yay, PR, for getting your groove back!

I failed to take a lot of photos, but thought you might enjoy a few of the ones I managed. Afterward, Lynne spent the night, so I got to hang out with her dogs Friday while she was at work. (If you’ve been reading me, you already saw their photo in my Photo Friday submission.)

Tom also held up all my paintings one by one for everyone to see. This is the first time anyone’s seen all eighteen finished. I think it’s best not to put them online until after Té House of Tea exhibits them in February. I’m not planning on an “opening”–it’s very hard to schedule things with such busy local friends–but I do hope to spend a lot of my time at Té during the month and will let people know via e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook just in case anyone wants to stop by while I’m there. It’s such a cozy place to read, write, or just explore the Internet on my laptop–plus they have GREAT tea and food. They’re also cooking with locally-grown fresh food on Saturdays. What a jewel they are in our neighborhood.

My designs are done and ready for me to photograph and post tomorrow. I just need to finish Ragtime (such a good book) and cook chili to fight back against the cold snap.

Please click here for photos.

Hump Day Happy

I skipped Hump Day Happy last week; sorry. I’m hoping doing it this week will make my headache go away because I have too much to do to put myself to sleep with drugs. I suppose it could be paint fumes causing the headache.

Regardless, making you happy makes me happy. If you comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, I’ll give you something from the happiness book.

Rainy Friday

My choices for lunch included:

  • Making a chicken sandwich using leftovers from a hen I baked.
  • Boiling some pasta to go with delicious leftover spaghetti sauce.
  • Reheating leftover roast beef with potatoes and carrots.
  • Bacon and eggs. Or a BLT. Or bacon in any shape or form.

Know what I went for? Triscuits and the evilly delicious dip I made at Lynne’s last night. THAT STUFF IS CRACK! CRACK ON A CRACKER. After eating scrumptious steaks and chicken that Lynne’s son-in-law grilled, along with all the other tasty stuff Lynne put on the table, everybody was too stuffed and tired to play cards and snack. So half the dip came home with me.

It was great to see Nick (just back from a job in Iraq) and April, along with Jess, Laura, and Lila. Some photos:

Remember these?


The lemon coasters. They went back to Laura. Happy birthday, Laura!

It’s drizzly, but I walked to Té House of Tea and back so I could talk to their event planner, Lindsay (not the same person as LindSEY, a/k/a smoness). If all goes as planned, I’ll be showing some of my art there in February. More details to come.