Where did it go!!

I was motivated a while ago and it has been completely erased from my mind. How do people do it!!!!???? A question I have been asking myself for a while now. I hope that with a new easel I will find it again!! My easel will be done shortly and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I can have a handle on things.

I am staring at an empty canvas thinking and making excuses......a la Selma Hayek in Fool's Rush In..."Excuses, excuses, excuses!!!!!!!" I hear her voice loud and clear!!! I need to channel her voice from a different movie...Frida! LOL

Book

The past two days no painting has been done, but I did write. My whispers have been telling me to write more and more. I continue to edit my book that I started about 2 years ago. It has been coming along pretty well, or so I thought. Little did I know I would be changing the entire thing!!! Do authors go through this...change 80% of the book. I changed a good part of the book but with the same message and the same idea, just the main character was changed!!

It's getting harder and harder!!

Well needless to say, it's getting harder and harder to stay focused and have the creative energy flowing through my body!! It's been kinda busy with the boys and just living the everyday life. So my schedule is as follows, I get some TV time early in the morning, where I get to watch the one or two TV shows I DVR'd the night before, then play with the boys, snack time go for a walk or shopping, lunch, play then start diner and somewhere in there Lucas takes a nap!! :)

Book in the works!

I have been thinking a lot about the book I have written and what to change in it to be more appealing to the masses. It is a bilingual book about a little Taino Indian boy who finds a treasure in El Yunque (Puerto Rican rainforest) and tells all his animals friends in the forest. At the end there is a surprise!! I can't spoil it for everybody. LOL

I also have another idea for a book, somewhat in the same lines as the first, but I don't want to say too much... hey you never know who is reading this post...copyright and stuff ya know!!! but I highly doubt that would happen but I don't want to take my chances!! :)

My whispers are calling out to me.....write, create,empower yourself!!!

Let the crying begin!!!

Call me a stay at home mom/football widow/struggling artist!!!!!!

Yesterday was my first day at home with the boys as my husband headed off to work and then football practice afterwards. Not a good day, my oldest son Owen got time out about four times and Lucas my youngest was good all in all it was a stressful day. I love my boys and any opportunity I have with them is great whether it be when they are crying or when they are smiling!!

On the painting front I got two leaves done on my painting which should have been done a while ago.

I found a sketch I did last summer when I was away from home for a week and my husband had to cope with the boys (Lucas was just 2 months old)...my whisper is telling me how much I cherish and love my boys!!!

Where do I start!!!

As of right now I am having some troubles with time issues and a little depressed I don't have a job...but maybe this is what I am supposed to be doing...painting, creating, drawing and writing...did I tell you I have two children's books in the works. (in my own world that is...no publisher yet, jut the beginnings of two great books!!)

This is a painting I started a couple of days ago.

First sketch on canvas. First coat of paint, showing where the shadows are...done with the flowers...notice the coqui in the center atop a hibiscus bud...

Mr. Demille's close up of the flowers.

Everything in life is a work in progress!!!!

Time Traveler's Wife

I went to see the time traveler's wife and all I could really see in this movie, that was dragged out and slow, is the fact that Claire was an artist!!! I took that as another sign! her garage was her studio and she created her art. I literally said OMG in the middle of the movie all the high school kids texting in the row in front of me must had said, RUDE!!! LOL

Signs all around me!

I was walking into Wegmans (our local supermarket --GREAT SUPERMARKET--) and saw a poster. A poster of what you may ask...well let me tell you it was a sign, well not an actual sign but a sign from a greater power calling my name...anyways...it was a poster for the Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts 2009 which takes place this very weekend. I am planning on going and getting some information for next year, for me to be a seller/exhibitor!! I know OMG!!

I picked up a Festival booklet too at the cash register and I walked out of Wegmans (I love everything Wegmans!!) with my head held high and my heart pounding telling me that I need to do this!!

I came home and painted a new piece!...pictures coming soon! It is almost done and I can't wait to have another finished painting in my collection!! YAY!!

I'm taking flight!!!

I received my book yesterday in the mail. With the kaos of the day it has been passed from the dinner table, to the coffee table, to the side table, to a chair. It is quiet now, both boys are sleeping and I finally get a chance to open it's cover to read and to look at the great artwork inside.

"I'll share with you the whispers of my own heart, how I ignored them for most of my life, and how once I started listening to the language of my yearnings, buried dreams became unearthed and creative joy exploded into my life. I'll share how to listen to the whispers, the callings of our heart, can lead the way to a rediscovery of self, a more creative life and a set of your very own wings" CHAPTER 1 Taking Flight by Kelly Rae Roberts

I found this very first page to be very intriguing and oddly enough....INSPIRING!!

Pairs!!!!!

I finally finished a pair of paintings that I started about four months ago. Starting a painting is amazing but finishing it, is even better. The ideas for these paintings came and went, I basically had the main idea down but just really getting motivated to finish was the hardest thing to do. I'm really glad that I decided to create this blog, it really helps me have the motivation that I need, that swift kick in the rear!!! :)

My paintings are a kinda Georgia O'Keeffe with a Puerto Rican flair!!

A swift kick in the rear is what I need everyday, not just for painting but for pretty much a lot of my life!! :)

Trip to Michael's Craft Store!!!

So today was my first trip to Michael's craft store in months I don't even know, probably years....SO SAD!! I went there and was a kid in a candy store...but felt like Charlie from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory...only ONE Wonka bar please!!! All the art supplies I could want and could only walk out with a few things, no job = no money for those types of things...but I still sneak a couple things!! hehe...

I bought two canvases and gesso!!! I am definitely on my way...I came home and turned on my computer to find some references on the computer for my paintings, JUST MY LUCK...I had a folder full of them and the stupid computer froze and erased all of them...MORTIFIED!!!!

Anyways...keep my chin up...I finished one sketch and tomorrow my goal is to paint!!! YAY!!!

Wish me luck!!

Taking Flight

I just ordered this book!!!!!! I can't wait to start reading it!!!!

Taking Flight: Inspiration and techniques to give your creative spirit wings.

Bobcaygeon, Canada

I was on vacation all week and I got a half of a sketch done. Well this is the deal, we drove up to Bobcaygeon, Ontario in Canada (eh) and had a splendid week of relaxation. I mean REAL relaxation, floating on a tube in a somewhat cold lake, ate like a fish, there was food everywhere, and watched my two boys have fun playing in the sand and interact with other kids, it was amazing. So I have had two great vacations back to back.

I took my sketchbook and little got done, I feel that I have no time to draw but I did have a lot of time to THINK!!!! I stared at the night sky, at the amazing constellations and the shooting stars as marshmallows roasted and hot dogs cooked on the fire. (and by the way heard some amazing hilariously funny jokes...If you see me ask me about them, nothing is better that sitting by the fire eating a marshmallows and laughing so much you have tears running down your cheek!!!!!)

I though about where I want my paintings to take me....All I want is to be recognized as a good artist and have people like my work and maybe buy some of them. To be recognized as an artist that found her inspiration in all the right places (still looking for the right places...it's hard)

I haven't written in a week and I have a lot flowing though my head!!!

As the thoughts, ideas and inspiration flows so will the blogs!!!!

Thanks for reading!!

Hello!!! are you there INSPIRATION!!!!

So I have been up for the last couple of hours thinking and not sleeping (FYI it's 4am) and thinking of where an artist gets their inspiration from. That has always been my downfall, do I even have it? I'm sure I do, I'm just looking in all the wrong places. I have always thought that my heritage is my one and only inspiration (for those that do not know I'm Puerto Rican) so I have always been drawn to that culture and history. I feel that I fall back on that too easily and I don't think of the big picture. How do some people make or get really simple ideas and it's OMG the new dawn of the decade has arrived? I don't get it. Here I am a person who has been drawing since I can remember, taking art lessons from private teachers and I feel, that I am a person who knows how to draw and not an ARTIST!!

Confused yet...stay tuned for more!!!!

Don't get me wrong I love my heritage with a passion, maybe I'm just psyching myself out.

Sooooooo difficult!!!!!

To sketch a two year old as he is kicking you and trying to take your pen because He wants to draw You. It was hard but I got a pretty good profile of Owen, again as he struggled to stay sill!!!! :) I need to wait until he is sleeping if I want to sketch some body parts (hands, feet, legs, ears nose...)

Lesson Learned!!!!! :)

side bar--- I really need to invest in a scanner so I can scan my sketches as my ideas keep flowing!!

Dusty sketchbooks!!!!

I must have about 10 sketch books around the house hidden in closets , moving boxes, or the attic. Pathetic!!!

I found one today, and I am always amazed to see what treasures are in it. This particular sketchbook was from about five years ago when I was studying to get my certification in Art Education. I have observation notes from art teachers I had to observe in Buffalo. The most interesting part of it is that in the center of the book there were sketches of a series of paintings I wanted to do...and don't you know about a year ago I painted two that are very similar to the sketches....I must be on the right track!!

I need to go on a scavenger hunt for dusty sketchbooks!!! Blow off the old dust and draw some new ideas!!!!!

Where to start!!?

As a child my mother encouraged me to draw, paint become some sort of artist. She saw that talent that I had as a child. I lived in Puerto Rico at the time and she would take me every Saturday, to Old San Juan to the Liga de Arte (Art League) to take art lessons, which I had to take with adults because I was too advanced to take the child classes.

She would take me by bus or by car, but somehow we got there. All her hard work, to get that talent refined and I have not done anything with it. My goal is to write my struggles of raising my two beautiful children, work full time, and be a full time wife, while trying to get a series of paintings finished so I can finally get a art show.

I just returned from Puerto Rico, our first family vacation (two kids and a double stoller...what a life saver!!!) and we stopped at the Liga de Arte where I once took classes, to take this picture we stopped traffic...LOL there was no where to park!! :)