What's a nice girl like you doing in a recession like this?

For a painter, totally reliant on my income from art, I am having what amounts to way too much fun these days, when you consider that we are in the worst economic downturn since God was a girl. The galleries that represent me have all gone a little limp and sales are sagging like an old brassiere. One of my galleries is throwing in the towel/bra altogether, after over 20 years in business.

Some folks say the art market may never quite recover. But as Gloria Gaynor put it so eloquently in 1978 when I looked like this and had just burned my bra, i will survive. And how I will do that is through diversification....which loosely translated means 'a girl does what a girl has to do'. I am painting smaller works and getting them out to folks via my web, holding my own art shows in the homes of friends who will let me, and producing mixed media speaking events which I am taking on the road.

Yes, it's true, this recession has turned me into a one girl band...but the music never sounded sweeter.

earliest known blog entry

This is me in 1953 getting comfortable with a typewriter which I am certain weighed more than me. I was very short at the time, so several pillows were pressed into service to bring me to a better height. This was before we knew about ergonomics otherwise they might have had me stabilizing my tiny core by balancing on a ball. I don't know why the little measuring spoon is so close at hand unless I was planning to add a dash of irony to the entry.

sigmund, we have lift-off

Today a very old friend (she's not old, but our connection is) emailed me a photo of us from 1955 when we were classmates in kindergarten. I guess it got into me somehow. I know this because the painting I worked on shortly after getting the email shows Sigmund Freud as a bird, lifting off. I was originally thinking of having him in a housedress and turning him into a wife from the 1950s; something I am sure he would not have approved of. But instead he ended up flying. If I were on the couch today, he would no doubt have something to say about all of this.

Barbie Love Tryst

This is a decidedly non-Mattel approved Barbie configuration. They had been minding their own doll business and then the next time I looked, there they were, together. I wonder what sort of brain activity would show up on magnetic imaging.

Strange Factoid

Apparently, if all the Barbie dolls purchased since 1959 were laid out end to end, they would circle the globe 7 times. I think this is as serious a problem as global warming.

Location, Location, Location

Here we are at the 3rd day of 2009 and I am up to my knees in papers, files, post-it notes etc, trying to make sense of 2008, well really, if I were more honest, I would admit that I am really avoiding going into the studio. It's a time-honoured tradition of mine, especially after I have had a break from painting. But I have had enough experience to know that I will eventually settle down enough to grab a brush and make a mark, and then another mark, and another mark and before I know it I will be off to the races. It makes me think of the saturday night bath that I had such aversion to as a child. Once I was in the hot water, I quite loved it. It was the getting undressed part that troubled me. I suppose painting is a lot like that.....getting undressed.

Christmas turkey almost behind me.

The last of the turkey has been turned into soup and I am having my customary year-end, seasonal hard time getting my pants done up. This is where elastic can be a girl's best friend.
I'll soon be heading back into the studio to rummage around in my psyche. I will have to do a lot of other odd household tasks first...sort of like when a dog circles around and around before she lies down.