outstretched beneath the tree


even though poison tree is now complete and riding it's wave on etsy. i am absolutely disappointed with my photo quality. there is no justice in florescent midnight apartment light, even the martha stewart sheer curtain morning pale is dull. i fear that i may take 'reel' film photos just to get the perfect shot. it's not a fear of taking manual shots as much as a fear of suffocating the audience with a thousand photos of the tree. i'm ready, more willing to lie outstretched beneath the tree and drown myself in the "hit me of over the head" color blobs. unfortunately, meager if no attempts have been made on my part in the last couple of evenings to move forward with new projects. i started three new pieces, last week, that are a good deal smaller. but i'm stumbling over the tiny tree-bush concept. i believe the color pallette choices are throwing me for a loop as well. i wanted to do dark...purple, silver and such, yuck you maynaysay, reminds me of prom vomit. like the plastic faux champagne glass filled with purple and silver sequin dust, etched forever "a night to remember."

reflection is sincerely beside the point. my prayers, haphazardly speaking, are for a collector and wealth to absorb some of this effort. realistically i have little to moan about considering my greatest art success with the mojo show. my crazed feelings emerge with the mulitude of opportunity though. it is choosing and motivating and breathing before showing, framing and hanging all of my work. i have mentioned legacy and wish i had the work it took to show-do a festival but i feel a gap, a lack and therefore i'll let the event pass, probably. i'm less interested or something and cannot exactly put my finger on the blahblah. may be it is the money, the funds it would take to enter...i mostly just want to make art all of the time.

i mostly am encouraged by thoughts from you guys on flickr. there's nothing like it in all of the world, i like it most of all. it's my addiction. but did you read about the non-selling rules on flickr. i did. i think it's good, just remember not to price things or try and sell things via flickr. just link up your stuff to your blog/etsy, whatever the case may be.

bside: i haven't said much about my time in atlanta...still thinking on it all. wondering and letting reflection sooth any discomfort i feel. i took a stock of pics that came out and the botanical gardens were delightful! the time was unbearably short and sweet. it was a race and i hate races. but it was all my fault. dynamics are different and i'm isolated in a few ways, not by choice but by circumstance. i (feelings aren't always an indication of the truth) have very little to offer, except boring single life behavior and selfishness. i love my dear best friends, each distinct, unique and inspiritational. i am angry, not knowing why, and so my eyes find pessimistic corners and jaded edges to rest on. i'm not angry at them no, not at all, honestly. just frustrated with my own issues. oh and this is not a bemoan me session, that would be disgusting. i cannot change my life and rearrange past details. but when truth hits, it's like a baseball bat to my senses, painful. i am challenged to get involved. and will be asked about it soon-thankfully i have a mom picking up between the lines to balance out the ditch digging. i had better start acting before being alone is all i am. unhappiness is not where i'm at. because i love curling up in bed to read before i sleep, really. and going out with carolyn to get coffee after work is well yummy. and driving wherever. and buying nothing or something when i go to target. i really like solo-living, but right now there are more questions than answers. so...yeah my chin is up. there is not negativity just wonder. and word-e ness that i'm embarassed by, but mostly hope for a better next hour and day or night.

no waste wednesday


i have been meaning to bring no waste wednesday back, though i'm not certain it means a grand amount or that other's would designate a day. many of you don't have the time to explore links provided but it is such great fun to promote and acknowledge other work and product.

1. hypehopewonderland just found via beautiful decay

2. in new issue of domino there's an article i've not read yet but one that looks of interest-succulents, ironically here's my pic version.

3. can you say aaron kraten? this work excites my like no other. it's this style that i'm crazy for and about-behind my freezing tree pieces that aren't anywhere near the quality/depth. honestly i couldn't have told you who this guy was until today but heck it is beyond worth sharing, shout about it! every single piece of his is color rich, line savvy, simply sick art is out of this world! KATE!!! (i will buy his work someday: dream of the day)

4. and friend chris @ chrimmons

in re: to above photo. this one could go with the wire of my ledge photo really. the attraction is to line and the barren tecture. what do you all think, i mean who knew the wire below my office desk could, look at least through my eyes, so swankyswell! i'll be out for the next couple of days, heading down to the atlanta and probably won't be back until monday or tuesday next week.

full time pull of war


by now we may all be sick of seeing the poison tree progress but here we go again. over the weekend i attempted to add what you might call a sunburst-like area in the top right hand corner of the piece. by doing so the piece balanced itself out a little, because the tree was weighing the right side down so. in addition i began adding a little bit of paint at a time. first it was blue to accentuate the tree and then i had to go back over it a little with some white. then i had to splatter some yellow and some green which you can't see from the photos because as you can tell there are not green and yellow splatters. and then some more white, even now it looks different. but i've almost had enough. the learning experience has been a vivid, quite wonderful this go around and i've started four new smaller pieces, using the same techniques. the ideas have finally become concrete and poison tree seems now more like an encaustic and less like a collage. i am so very fond of layering, i want my audience to really be fooled by what they are looking at, fooled by how it was actually created. i have always enjoyed making my paper art look and feel like it has been created using computer programming tools, now i feel more than ever that i'm showing these sorts of thoughts off. i have found the right medium-paper, paint and mod podge-i know that this piece is full of color and yet in the last week i have felt extremely dark. often i find that my deepest feelings, my darkest thoughts are not reflected in my work at all. it's odd but so very true. i'll be putting the poison tree up on etsy within the week. a couple of peeps have inquired, so...

sunday was full of family times at my aunt's home. i spent the last hour walking around her home taking photos of her land, her gardens, her flowers, her moss and my family members. i have got a whole slew, not stew, of new pics creeping onto my flickr. i usually cannot stand a nature shot, love flowers and things like that but can't stand my pics of those sorts of things. i'm looking forward to getting through the first part of this week to thursday. planning a day and overnight to the onethousands for s.c. reunion of sorts. our plans: botanical gardens. our conversation: catch up, art, kids, and such. our faces: all smiles.

i should beable to find some emotional peace soon.

when to the gyn this past friday. in two thousand two i weighed in at his office at 153. two thousand three: 161. two thousand four 168. two thousand five: 151. two thousand six: 142. dr. a. jones congratulated me, told me now i have to work on my smoking...eeeKKK! i'm thankful for my youth and my health. god is still at work in my hear-blah and i am more free than i used to be. the chains are slowly falling away from the burdens i have chosen to carry for oh so long. i do see light, rarely but yes. the light fades and then reappears. i fight the simultaneous nature of being. my motto seems stale and stretched out like a crusty rubberband. SCREW- "your greatess weakness=your greatess strength!!!" well okay so i'm better at least i think i'm better at preaching it, than i am taking it all to heart-proactivally taking charge. i'm trying to be bold and less emotionally clingy. or something. and i'm not feeling that terribly bad about things it's just...well you know. just looking forward to an uplifting time with good very best friends.

aunt to be


so far in my life i am a daughter, a sister, a sister in law, a niece, even a friend or best friend but i am not yet an aunt. at least not yet! on sunday my brother and his wife announced that they were starting the grand process of adopting a little baby boy from kazakstan! this is only the best news a girl like me could get on a day full of work and weariness. i was exhausted but felt beyond uplifted by the exciting news! i feel so fortunate to have a growing family. a family willing to go to great length's and miles to grow itself. we are so happy, so inpatient, so wishing, so eager to see the little boy that god brings into our lives. do i look like i could be an aunt? it's kinda of a new phase of life, you know? my best friends have had children and so these feelings of attachment aren't new ones but it's a little different knowing there is going to be another "collier" in our midst. yikes!

i had such a good time at the ryan adams show, he played sylvia plath and lucy, lucy my gal, you know that song? a bunch of new music i hadn't heard exactly but what about this great rock n roll? kate and joel were so thoughtful to ask me to come along, and well we just wished for others to be around with us. the last time we saw ryan was at rhythm and brews (ugh! probably about 8 or nine years ago maybe less) and there was only about 20 or so people there. we were yelling out all kinds of songs and he played the ones he could, later the boys caught up with him and talked for awhile. at the time i was too shy or bewildered, always around these semi-hot musicians. i felt the same way when i saw conner oberst from bright eyes.

my friends and i are on track for a day trip slash reunion of sorts and i have all of that to look forward to. i'm also excited about a small new york adventure i will be taking in early november with my two snl's. i don't know yet if i'll be visiting with friends or not, but i'll have 4 days to do whatever, and the flights have been booked and bought. so nyc here i come! my mom's brother from new jersey is down for the week and i'm not working this weekend, maybe i'll clean. i've got an vaccum cleaner that i cannot find new bags for. unga bunga!

cleaning is the last thing i want to do but i'm living in a jungle of neglect right now, much like i think most bachelor's live (question).

dream today: a mac5