January 22, 2009

The Toothache
2002
acrylic on wood cutting board
24" x 18"


Sorry school all day / homework all night leaves little to say on this blog. Photo is of my daughter studying (we were having a study session last night together) Painting is called Toothache but expresses how over my head I feel/am back in school.

and of course.....some more Penn State Fishes.


Peace Always
Sharon

January 20, 2009

Salt Water Fishes at PSU
Impromtu Gathering in the Hall


Photos by Sharon Lee


Another day at University for me. Recommend all adults try a semester of school to meet face up and personal the next generation. Interesting bunch from noshing in class to having discussions about environmental economics and watching the inauguration in the hall of the Arts building thanks to a student who set up an impromptu screening on his laptop. Great stuff.

Peace Always

Sharon

January 19, 2009

Just Another Fact of Life
2005
acrylic on wood
20" x 22"

One of the fun things about being in school is projects. as a kid I always loved projects. While others would be dismayed I always like the challenge of a presentation. In my environmental science we need to write down all our possessions. Not an easy task. I have yet to tally the final room (root cellar) but I have found some interesting things from this project. First off I live in a relatively small house frugally. I have not moved in 22 years. Keep this in mind as you look over some of the numbers

books 293
bowls 21
plastic buckets 10
CD 425
chair 19
clothes hangers 67
clothespins 104
cooking utensils 27
curtains 63
drill bits 37
hair bands 21
kerchiefs 23
magazine 87
magnets 33
pants 44
shirts 133

lots more stuff for a total of 8281 things in my house

Gasp!

Peace Always

Sharon

January 18. 2009

Photos by Sharon Lee
Ken
Broken Pipe


Homage to Ken

Many years ago I was fortunate enough to have a neighbor willing to take the time out and teach me skills that are necessary to maintain a house without the continual expense of calling in the "experts" every time a repair or improvement is necessary. This was no easy task for either him or I as my "fixing" skills were non existent and I struggled often to understand the simplicities of structure and repair, many times accompanied by tears of frustration.This past week we had a severe cold snap and as a result I had frozen pipes.

Thanks to my friend and neighbor I calmly assessed the situation, defrosted the pipes and made necessary repairs with no more stress or anguish that going to the grocery store and picking up a few things for dinner. Clearly I was able to see the problem, knew what I needed to do to solve it and even knew the necessary language to describe the part I needed.

Many thanks to you Ken, my house maintenance guru. I restored water to my home and can now flush the commode and take a bath.

Peace Always

Sharon

January 17, 2009

The Dishes Hadn't Been Done
1998
acrylic on metal tray
15" diameter

I thought an extremely cold day like today could use the warmth of a painting.

Enjoy!

Peace Always

Sharon

January 16, 2009

Photo by Sharon Lee

Today i had an "ah ha" vegan moment. I was talking to a friend who told me that she was burning her ex-husband's clothes. I stopped her mid sentence and asked if any of the items were wool as I wanted to use the fabric from old wool sweaters and assemble a pattern of sorts to make a wool hat, sized specifically for my large head. Although I no longer purchase any animal products at the time I thought it fine to use these sweaters as they would be wasted in the fire. My feeling was by using the wool that was to be disposed of I would be "honoring" the sheep by wearing the sweater. After all they had already suffered for it that suffering should not go to waste. It then occurred to me that wearing the remnants of suffering did not honor the animal in any way in fact it was a constant reminder of the suffering that had occurred, was only about me and left the sheep's best interest out of the scenario completely.

Peace Always

Sharon

July 15, 2009

Photo by Sharon Lee

I decided some months ago to go back to school, finish on a long discarded path to a degree and hopefully hone some of my skills with the goal of enhancing opportunities to make a living off of my artwork.

Today was a typical "bad day at school", starting with a sick kid, late for 1st class because I dropped her off not wanting her to walk in the 11 degree cold. Came into class with way more noise than I wanted to taking off vest, headphones, scarf, sweatshirt, gloves, backpack, trying to sit in the back of the room so as to lessen the disruption but was escorted by a very kind grad student to the absolute front of the 300 person class where there was a seat front and center, late for second class (on extreme ends of very large Penn State campus), next class I realized I was in the wrong class and had been for the first two days of class, cold soup for lunch (Yesterday I made miso soup with tofu, seaweed and kale expressly with the purpose of bring hot soup for lunch), unexpected book purchase ($125.00). Spent the day looking especially "who did it and ran" with my out of control hair and the help from a hood and scarf. Oh yeah battery was dead in my camera which I took especially to take more photos of the Salt Water tanks.

Oh well.

Peace Always

Sharon