Jauary 9, 2009

Photo by Sharon Lee
Shadyside, Pittsburgh

Am acquaintance once was talking about art as having two subcategories before all others; "High" or "Low". I've always disagreed with this sort of pronouncement as I know the creativity behind the "low"art is done by the same caliber of artists as tackle the "high" arts-both groups are blessed with good and bad artists. Myself, the distinction is unclear. Having worked on a feature film, several commercials as well as paining as a "High" artist I use the same creativity skills to accomplish the task.

Peace Always

Sharon

January 8, 2009

Photo by Sharon Lee
Black Moshannon, central Pennsylvania
Ice fishing

“I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood.”

Bill Watterson quotes (American Author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, b.1958)

January 7, 2009

Breaks from the easel offer opportunity to be creative in unique ways.

Cooking is one way; a bit of science, bit of art and food. A potentially inspiring source of creaivity. Today I attempted a vegan version of nacho cheese for an open faced tortilla, combined with lentil and black bean dal and salsa. Worked better than I expected-results will be repeated again.

Some time was spent creating a faux fur coat lined with cotton printed with "hippie-style" mushrooms and flowers for a miniature Pinscher friend.

Finally for the photo of the month group I belong to on Flickr I took out my new camera and shot some pictures of ice. Nothing remarkable just me getting used to my camera.

Peace Always

Sharon

January 6, 2009

Jackson and Meagan
Photo by Rick Brandt

We are truly enveloped in the winter season with heavy clouds looming overhead all day spewing a delightful mix of ice pellets, snow and the kind of rain that freezes on contact. With this particular array of precipitation comes cold temperatures making my studio just on the under side of comfortable.

With this in mind i decided to head to a warmer space and write a second book in the Adventures of Sophie Series entitled, "A Walk in the Woods". The story line involves Sophie and her brother, Jackson who is based on a recently deceased canine who was blind, energetic and an over-the-top loving Vizsla. The background of the story is a walk in the woods with more writing and non-fictional info on the flora and fauna of the central Pennsylvania woods.

Peace Always

January 5, 2009

Car Ride
2005
acrylic on canvas
36" x 36"

Today was the making of a painting.

If the Ups delivery person had looked in the window of my daughter's apartment, they would have seen nothing more than a black and white dog sitting guard and two women folded around each other wrapped in faux cashmere blankets, sitting in front of a lap top surrounded by 1/2 empty Chinese take-out cartons.

Today my daughter and I traveled the world researching a fantasy trip we plan to take a place that feels unique to where we live. First we open a page for the currency calculator and starting with "a" any country with a good exchange rate was further researched. Our next screening was if there was a traveler's advisory that country was 86th (sorry countries). Next was food. I am a vegan and my daughter is getting very close and can't eat gluten so we have to go somewhere that has some options. Kazakhstan was removed because of their diet of strictly meat, bread, dairy and fish. I was willing to go to a veiled country my daughter not so much and the wars in Africa make her nervous and we discarded the options to visit the entire continent. Maybe some other trip. I said no to the Bahamas because of their negative attitude towards gays as well as another country-forgot where. They had a penalty of life in prison for homosexual activity.

Most likely it will be a small vignette, part of a larger story, larger painting...but maybe not.

Peace Always
Sharon

January 4, 2008

Through a series of events starting with the uncovering of an 8 mm tape from 1979, I have rediscovered an album from 1982. The album was "Utopia" an honest attempt by Todd Rundgren to market a band that was brilliant musically. listening back this week the masses missed this altogether. The band consisted of Kasim Sultan, Roger Powell, Willie Wilcox and Todd Rundgren. The songs were all potential pop hits but none never panned out more than short little blips on the music hit screen.

What I love most about music and I realized it while listening to this album was how I remember the lyrics even to songs that seemed unfamiliar.

Love music.

Love this album. Dig into the past and have fun and give this album a listen

B.T.W. the uncovered 8 mm can be seen on You Tube. The artist is .
db7247 is a professional cinematographer and has been for the past 25+ years. The videos on Youtube of Utopia, were taken standing on chairs after waiting 9 hours in the sun and rain in the summer of New York City .
1979 Central Park and 1989 Dr, Pepper, New York City


Peace Always

Sharon

January 2, 2009

Photo by Rick Brandt


I'm at a standstill with my book, "Adventures of Sophie". The type has been edited and laid out (I used Pages). Not such an easy task for a luddite but I managed to muddle my way through with the help of the tutorials. The original art is being photograph and will then be processes into TIFF files which I will take, clean up and layout besides the type. All in all things seem, thus far, to go smoothly. That's leaves me with no art projects and time to think of the ridiculous. Such as Black Ice.

Why is Black Ice so terrifying?

My mother calls regularly to ask if I have seen any, my neighbor heard a newscaster talking about it with the same alarm as finding Anthrax in the Postal System. It kills, it maims.

Black Ice...fear it!

Peace Always

Sharon