July 8, 2008

About nine years ago, due to a rodent infestation I gutted my entire house. I couldn't stand the idea of dead rodents rotting in the walls and felt the need to strip the house to it's bare foundation. Because I had no skills in home remodeling, I wasn't sure how to approach the re-construction. One day while sitting on the porch of a next door neighbor, Mrs next-door asked if I was interested in hiring Mr. next-door to work part-time rebuilding the insides of my house. Seizing the opportunity I instead paid Mr. next-door to teach me how to do home remodeling, thus the beginning of learning new skills and a friendship that still exists today.

We fell in a pattern of working every weekend. Because we both had young families at times we were interrupted by our families whose needs did not slow down and we would often stop work to drive someone or another here or there. When I waited for my friend's return I began to paint the progress of the reconstruction on a wall in the room that was at the time my painting studio. When I learn wiring I painted scenes with exposed wires and electrical tools. There were scenes of my frustration in learning new skills. At one point I ran out of wall and considered the piece finished.

I was entering my first annual show for Associated Artists of Pittsburgh and decided that I should remove the wall and enter the wall and the mural that was painted on it. We filmed the process which took up the better part of the day. Highlights of the day include using a chain-saw to cut out the wall as the sawsall that we were using broke down and was unusable.

I never got into the Pittsburgh show but was able to show this piece at the Southern Allegheny Biennial. Currently the "Wall" resides packed away in a pole barn about seven miles from my home.

Peace Always

Sharon

July 7, 2008

One more day of gardening and hopefully if the thunderstorms stop, a hike in the woods to pick more huckleberries. Three days in a row of gardening, hiking and picking is physically challenging. A few years ago I spent a week at Feathered Pipe in Montana for a yoga intensive and this schedule feels similar. It is nice after the necessary bath to fall into bed at the end of the day feeling that your body and mind has been fully engaged and stimulated. The colors of flowers are amazing as well as inspiring. I will take all these wonderful color combinations into the studio when I paint.

Today I was greeted by a new flowering in my succulent bed.It is a variety of the common hens and chicks that I picked up at a nursery locally that has many varieties succulents. A perfect combination of pink, red-violet, yellow and green-yellow with green foliage. Also interesting is the pattern its petals, the reproductive system and the round leaves of the faded out foliage of another plant behind the flower.

I haven't decided which will be the next painting I start but I have it narrowed down to one of two ideas. One a scene from the massacres that are happening in Darfur and the other is a scene I saw and embellished (a young boy, 10 ducklings, a pond and two dogs) which would be told in a story telling three part painting.

July 6, 2008

Photos by Sharon Lee
White Yarrow
Yellow Mushrooms
Orange Day Lilies




Today was spent much as yesterday: gardening, getting nourishment and hiking in the woods to pick huckleberries. The colors I noticed today in the woods as well as my backyard were beautiful splashes of oranges, purples, greens, whites, yellows, browns, reds and blues. I thought instead if writing a long blog I would post a few pictures that you might enjoy all taken today with the mindset of finding fabulous color balances in nature.

Peace always

Sharon

July 5, 2008

Photos by Sharon Lee
Sophie on Huckleberry Hill
Huckleberries

I finally got some money together so I could order some new stretchers and get started on a new painting. I have two ideas brewing but not sure which one I will take on first. So while I wait for the stretchers I immerse myself in the garden and the woods with it's wonderful perfect color balance. I'm not sure when I realized that nature's colors always compliment each other in a balanced way. The combination of red, yellow and orange of a poker flower is completely opposite its green leaves and stem.

After a day of toiling in the garden My dog Sophie and I made out way deep into the wood to pick huckleberries. This is the first year in many years that I am picking without my huckleberry picking friend and dog Jackson who passed on a few months ago. Picking huckleberries is much like painting in that I look for the color to come to the surface that is needed.

July 4, 2008

photograph by Rick Brandt, Tyrone, PA

Happy, restful, fun, exciting, passionate, comfortable, refreshing 4th of July.

July 3, 2008

Yesterday my household was without electricity. Most of the day I barely noticed its absence as I was driving to and from Pittsburgh and that stole most of my day. Arriving home just at dusk and searched the house in the barely visible light for working flashlights. I found one but nothing else so I was left with a flashlight to guide my nighttime entertainment. The night was spent reading, taking a series of photos(with incense, succulents in a flower box and flashlight) and wrote a haiku.

Can't sleep bedding rough
electricity cut off
cell says one o'clock


Peace always Sharon

July 1, 2008

Carnivale Cruise on the Cuyahoga by Sharon Lee
2003
acrylic on linen
34" x 26"

Today as I turned the calendar from June to July I glanced over the month's notes to see if I have any art shows I wish to enter this month. Whenever I get an application in the mail for an upcoming show that I am interested in I immediately enter a date two weeks before the submission deadline with the name of the show. I then put the paperwork in a file which I will go to when it's time (according to the calendar) to submit an application for a show. The two weeks gives me enough time to choose artwork to submit, fill out the application, procure a money order and get to the post office to send everything off to the show's committee. Sometimes these shows are months away and if it weren't for the pre-marked dates on my calendar I would forget about them.

This is not always a 100% fail proof system as I recently missed the deadline by one day when I carried an application around in my car for three days and never got to the Post Office. Some artists have a more sophisticated system of show entering including information on which pieces are being entered in which show. I would love to organize myself to this next level as I have on more than one occasion entered the same piece in two shows at the same time and got the same piece in both shows. When this happens the art goes to: first a show that has awarded me a prize and second the most prestigious show of the two.

When you fill out a show application you have every hope of getting in that show and on occasion will even imagine yourself winning a prize. Both sometimes happen, sometimes not. It's easiest to keep a tough skin around you and remember that most shows are being judged by a single person and the show is a reflection of what interests them not necessarily a reflection on the quality of your work.