NEGLECTED AND IN THE RAW?

Hello friends!
I know what you are thinking.
ROB.....WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? WHY HAVE YOU NEGLECTED US??
I am sorry faithful (and semi-faithful) followers, but it has been a CAR-AZY week!
As y'all know I have been busting my hump (yes, I said busting my hump - what of it?) to try to get my "Auto Fixation" Exhibition done. And today....I can FINALLY tell you....it is!!
D-O-N-E....done!
I go in to the gallery tomorrow to hang the work....and then to get drunk!
;-)
I kid, I kid!!
So to add to the stress of getting the last works done, I had the Riverdale Art Walk on the weekend.
For those of you who don't know what it is click on the link.
Honestly, I do not want to talk about it.
I just can't.
Ok...ok, stop hounding me.....I will tell you about it.
Once a year the businesses in the area of Queen East open their doors to exhibit art.
And as part of this event, there is a group show in Jimmie Simpson Park.
In previous years, I have sweated and gotten rained on at this event. It can be challenging!
It can also be very great exposure!!
This year, I took a chance and just opened the doors on my little studio under hangman Gallery instead.
What does it mean?
Well, it means that I didn't need to get up in the early am to set up my booth.......in the rain......
and I didn't need to pack up at the end of a long day.......in the rain....
On the flip side, it also meant that I didn't get the foot traffic that they did in the park.
But we must count our blessings, an d move forward, right?
So, it was a bit of a disappointment, but I like to think of every experience as an opportunity.
And one can never be sure what effect they are having on the universe until it is done.
So, I remain hopeful for some future opportunities - that may not have happened without this past weekend's lack of 'success'?
You with me?
Up with new.....out with old....
(insert another trite, yet uplifting mantra here)
I was gonna show y'all a couple new paintings......
but they are doing 'maintenance' at Blogspot...so...not so much!
But I promise, I will post some new paintings soon!!

SHOW ME YOUR TWEETS

Dirty. I know.
Here's the thing y'all....I just joined the Borg   the collective  the cult Twitter.

Why? You ask yourself?
Simply to keep up with the times (or in this case CATCH up with the times)!
But also to help in my quest for total art world domination!!!
So, now for daily and sometimes hourly (lord help me) updates of things that I love and things that I am doing please follow me at The Twitter
(Yes, I now it is just Twitter - but I find putting a little 'the' in front of anything makes it seem more professional!! ;-)

Check out my tweets HERE!!

PAPA CAN YOU HEAR ME?

Hello alleged loyal blog readers.....or no one.....
For the longest time I have been feeling a little "What's the point?" with this blog.
Now, I am not trying to be a Negative Nancy, but this is what my google stat's say:

ok....let me translate this for you.
From Nov 17-Jan 24th (that is two months for those of you who are as terrible at math as I am)
I had 6 visits. That works out to about .75 visits a week.....or 0.09677 visits a day to my blog.
DISCOURAGING? You bet!!!
But here is the thing......I found out this week that allegedly, there are at least 3 people that read and comment weekly! So this would be like......uh........24 visits......or something like that!?
I think?!?
Now, I am not calling anyone a filthy-ten-cent-liar.....but........according to my analytics....
Not so much! (ACK!)
However the information that there is a small but loyal network of alleged readers has given me a glimmer of hope. Perhaps I am not just talking to myself. Maybe there is a chance that there are readers out there??
Are you out there readers?? (Christina? David??)
To quote Yentl (yes - that is perhaps the gayest thing I have ever said on this blog!)
"Papa can you hear me......"
I am holding out hope that there ARE people out there reading.
I was getting to the point that I was gonna star sharing outrageous stories (aka lies) and deeply personal stories about my friends and husband. It was gonna get ugly....
But now that I know that there are a couple of people reading.....I will perhaps reconsider!
I also keep hearing that the commenting is not working......I encourage you to try again.....
In the meantime, I will continue to blog, and hope that this will soon begin to payoff....in legions of loyal readers!!! (Or maybe just 5 loyal readers??? ;-)

TOP 10 FAVOURITES OF 2010

Ok. So I sort of think that creating art, is much like having children.
Each painting, like each child, is different and has it's own set of problems and blessings.
And like every parent, I like to claim that I love all my paintings equally.
That, dear friends, is a bold-faced lie.
Just like a parent, there are some paintings I am especially proud of, and then there are some I am totally ashamed of. Ok ashamed is over selling it...but there are some paintings that succeed, and others that are much less successful. And that is ok.
So, like a bad (or honest - whichever is less offensive) parent, I would like to share my top 10 successful paintings of 2010. It is a lot of pressure to put on the upcoming paintings of 2011......but that is a parents job isn't it? To pressure your child to be better than the last??
Perhaps it is good that I don't have kids! ;-)
Ok, so here we go....I am gonna start with #10.


TEN: "Spring Chicken" Acrylic and mixed media on board. 16" x 20". SOLD
        I built this whole thing around the name. Which is a first even for me! The chicken        
        (painted on metal) on the right is attached to the painting by springs......GET IT?? 
        I love the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, so they were fun to paint. I also like the guy punching 
        the other guy in the background. And of course the quote is killer!! 

 NINE: "Time Rocket" Acrylic on metal and board. 30" x 40". AVAILABLE!
          I love to paint the streetcar. For Torontonians it is a quintessential image for the city. I 
          liked the overall feeling of this painting. When I took the reference photos, it was a warm 
          rain-stormy night. I used a lot of the warm colours. But tried to balance them with purples 
          and teals. I also like the retro side - it looks better in person......and is has a nice shine!

EIGHT: "Cut the Crop" Acrylic and mixed media on board. 30" x 40". AVAILABLE.

           I like this one for it's environmental message. I also like this one because it is my 

           Grandfather's barn (which has seen better days!) I did a demonstration of painting this at 

           The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. I had it originally planned as 'harvest the crops' but 

           then I rethought it whilst painting it! Clever, no? I love the colour palette of the rotting 

           barn boards. READ MORE ABOUT MY GRANDPA'S FARM HERE!

SEVEN: "Two Wrongs" Acrylic and mixed media on board. 16" x 20". SOLD

           I like the colours on this one too. It has very bold colours, but still doesn't overwhelm the 

           senses (because of the white) And the quote is fantastic!! I REALLLLY got into riveting on 

           this painting. I also liked using the scrabble tiles and circuitry.

SIX: "Scarlet Women" Acrylic on canvas. 25.5" x 21.5". AVAILABLE. Why? I DO NOT KNOW!
       This one was a lot of fun. It was for my Arcade Exhibition. I got the idea from the old 
       posters that Pinball manufacturers would send out to promote new machines! I loved 
       painting all in pinks for this one. Ok, there is a lot of innuendo in the text but I think it is 
       still clever without being inappropriate. Read more about this painting in my BLOG .

         

FIVE: "Monkey Business" Mixed media. 6" x 9". ALSO AVAILABLE = craziness!

        This one is from my Mixed Message Series. I love it! It is super cute! This little shadow box 

        has ink and paint embellishment and taken from imagery from my catalogue of completed 

        paintings! These little jewel boxes are suer cleve- if I do say so myself! READ MORE

FOUR: "Snagged" Acrylic on Metal and Board. 10" x 30". AVAILABLE.

        I like this one, and I think it is colour related. Teal is my favourite colour and I use it A 

        LOT! I also like message on this one. The retor- metal part worked out super well on this 

        piece, and I enjoy the little metal fishy too!

THREE: "Rocket Ride" Acrylic on canvas. 25.5" x 21.5". STILL AVAILABLE. 

       I think the composition on this one is TOP-NOTCH. I like the line that is made from the 

       streetcar. I think it is effective and attractive! Also painted for my Arcade Exhibition inspired 

       by pinball promotional posters (or the PPP to those of you in the know! ;-) 

TWO: "Space Cowgirl" Acrylic and Mixed media. 36" x 48". JUST FINISHED = AVAILABLE
         This one is my newest, which might account for it being my 2nd favourite. AGAIN....just 
         like children, no?? (I was the last born in my family - can you tell?) I love the lines and 
         colours in this one. I also enjoy the lady. A LOT. Super fun to paint! See the progress of 
         this painting in my older post HERE.

OK....DRUM ROLL.......my number one for the year..........is.......










ONE: "Space Voyage" Mixed media. 43.5" x 23.5". SOLD
        This one was the centrepiece of my Arcade exhibition last year. This is number one for 
        several reasons. One....because it was s giant step forward in my artistic development. It 
        is made from reclaimed materials including my rollerblade wheels. It lights up - which is 
        fabulous. I think the colours are great and the imagery is very nicely appointed. It really 
        looks like an old pinball machine. Which is awesome. You can read all about this series on 
        my website or on this blog! I also made a movie of this whole exhibition and you can check 
        out the movie HERE!

Well. That's it. My Favourites. Like them or hate them, that is how I see them this year!
Love it? Hate it?
I love to hear from you guys.
Tell me what you are thinking!!
C'MON!

CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY

It is time for another blog entry about one of my many vacations.....

Here are some pictures from Bronners.

For those of you who have never traveled to Frankemuth (Michigan's Little Bavaria) you have missed out!!! The little town is SUPER CUTE. And just outside the town is the largest Christmas store in the world. Bronner's operates year-round, the building is 7.35 acres (29,700 m²) in size with landscaped grounds covering 27 acres (109,000 m²). Outside the entrance are three 17-foot (5 m) tall outdoor Santas and a 15-foot (5 m) tall snowman. Inside, there are approximately 800 animated figurines at various locations throughout the store. Some 100,000 lights illuminate Bronner's half-mile (800 m) long Christmas Lane in the evening. Michigan designated Bronner's as an "Embassy for Michigan Tourism" in 1976. Bronner's employs over 500 people during the holiday season (between October and Christmas). Fun facts? Bronner's electrical bill averages US$900 per day! If all the light sets sold in one year at Bronner's were stretched out in a continuous line, they would span approximately 530 miles (850 km). THAT IS A LOT OF LIGHTS!!

Bronners..........putting the CHRIST in Christmas!

Balls, balls, balls.

A good game for the kids......count the Santas.

At the half way point it is sensory overload!

Christmas Circus. LOVE IT!

**Not life sized

Nothing brings children together like Micheal Jackson,
Sorry. That is terrible!

This house (which was life sized) was priced near $22,000!!!

COLOUR FOR DUMMIES

Ok, today only a short post.
You know how people are always trying to match their art to the room?
C'mon. You know you do it!! I DO IT!
But what, and now hold on to your hats folks, if you matched your room to your art?!?
CRAZY, I know, but seriously why not??
Now, not everyone is super-dooper with colour, and is not able to see what colours match.
I have to solution.
Ok, actually it is not me, the solution is from KULER

At Kuler, you play with colour. For example, let's say you wanted to decorate your room around this painting:

("Out of this World", 48" x 36") which incidentally is available for purchase in Ottawa at Terrence Robert Gallery, has a bunch of colours you could choose.
All you have to do is import the JPG into Kuler and whamo-blamo....instant choices.....
It will give you a range of colours that you could choose based of a few 'moods'.
I plugged it in and here are the results:

This is the MUTED mood...... 

This is the COLOURFUL mood...although it doesn't really do it for me!

This is the BRIGHT mood, which I like a lot. Lots of variation in it!

Or, if you just none of the moods fits YOUR mood, you can make a custom palette. 

 So, there you go. A stroke of brilliance!
There are lots of other options to create your own colour scheme on this site, and hundreds of already built schemes that could help you too. I encourage you to check it out!!

LEARNING THE HARD WAY!

Gather 'round children, it is story time!
I know you love a good yarn! Actually I think a yarn is another word for tall tale.....so it is not so much a yarn as it is a True Hollywood Story. (and by Hollywood I mean, Toronto)
So, earlier this week I posted about this piece:

and I promised the long and sorted story. So here it goes.
Many moons ago, I was approached by a poster company, let's call them Screw-You-International. (the name has been changed to avoid further incidents.) So, Screw-You-I just loved my work. It was 'fresh and new" and they had never seen work like mine before. So it was nice to hear that at the beginning of my career. So we had a bunch of meetings. It was decided that I would do a series of SIX paintings for them that they would turn into posters. It was so exciting! They really laid it on thick. I was told that I would get an advance on sales, and then after I made that back, I would get 10 cents on each poster sold! It sounded great because another artist was there the day I signed my contract, and she was picking up a $5000 check from them. WOW! That could be me! So then the design began. So I started doing drawings...lot s and lot s and lots and lots and lots of drawings. Soon after, I was given a palette of colour to use. I was not impressed. I mean that is some SERIOUS ART DIRECTION. To make it worse, the colours were all jewel tones. They were the colours that their big sellers stuck to. So, I followed!
MISTAKE #1. When you are forced to use ONLY the colours that are not in your regular palette, the result is often disaster!!
MISTAKE #2: I kept sending works with quotes that spoke to me. BUT they were considered to 'risque' for them. The end result was totally lobotomizing my work. ACK!
MISTAKE #3: Once I finally finished the work, I was not pleased with how they looked. They were stiff and lifeless. It made me mad to look at them. But we moved ahead and I got paid. One might think that would be the end of the story, alas, no.
A few months later, I called them to see how sales were. They were not good! In fact they were abysmal.
In the proceeding months I would get these monthly sales sheets. Each month they would track the sales and subtract the sales from my advance. 10 cents at a time.......for months and months and months. A couple years in, I called and was told that I still owed them over $700!!!! Needless to say, I stopped calling. It was really hard on my delicate ego!!!
What made matters worse? When I googled my name I found 16, count them SIXTEEN websites, all selling those posters. It should be good news, but they were selling my poster as a 'print' for $30-$300......depending if they were framed.....and I saw only 10 cents of that money! BRUTAL!!! And to add salt in the wound, I saw my work at Walmart. Which does not bode well for my cache as an artist. It kinda is not good news to be a Walmart artist. (It may have been less offensive, if I made nay money from it.....alas!)
The worst part is that to this day, when googled, those terrible posters come up for pages and pages and pages!! And when you are not happy with what they look like, it is not good news!
So that is the story. Boo.
Here are the paintings:

What do you think of them??

EAST BOUND AND OUT PART 2: ODDITIES

Well, I mentioned all the great scenery I got a chance to see. Unfortunately, I was driving, so there were not a lot of pictures from the road. (And I was told it is  kinda dangerous to take photos while driving. WHATEVER ;-) So here are some more highlights from my trip. Enjoy and comment! No, seriously, i love to get comments!!!!!

Hotel Art. This was AN ORIGINAL! It looks like a Bob Ross......but the signature is different!

Lavender car. Cool huh? It gives a new meaning to 'driving the lavender car'. Ok, not even sure that is an expression.....

Seen one creepy lobster catcher, seen 'em all.

This carved pig was outside of an ice cream place. It really spoke to me! (not actually spoke - metaphorically spoke) 

2010 was the year of the dear for me!!

110 km/hr!!! It was miraculous! I do LOVE to speed!!

The reversing falls. I know you cannot tell, but the water is going uphill! It was something to see! Look at the jughead that is out in the crazy current catching fish. What a maroon.

My cousin's backsplash. YUM. And check out the tin ceiling! Why can't I have anything good. WAH!

I like any place with the word 'spam' in it. Let it be known the residents don't enjoy it  being called 'spam'.

Ok, so seriously, NO ONE lives around here.......why is there a fire hydrant??

Look out for Moose.

Evidently, there is a real moose infestation. A Moosefestation if you will.

The ONLY moose I saw my whole trip. And it was carved!!!!! 

DIE VAMPIRE, DIE!

Recently I had an interaction with someone about my art. I left the conversation feeling like crap. Thankfully, when I am down, I have Musical Theatre to make my day better. I would like to share with you excerpts from the song “Die Vampire, Die”, from the Broadway show “Title of Show”. I think this songs lyrics can be inspirational to all sorts of creative types!

There are some people in the world who say that writing stories, or composing music or dancing sparkly dances is easy for them. Nothing interferes with their ability to create. While I celebrate their creative freedom, a little part of me just wants to punch those motherfuckers in the teeth. This song, is for you guys and for all the rest of us.

You have a story to tell, a novel you keep in a drawer.

You have a painting to paint, but you lazy like an old French whore.

You have a movie to make, Shrinky Dinks you can bake,

but you best grab a stake, ‘cause…

In sweep the vampires, in creep the vampires, knee deep in vampires,

Filling you with doubt. Insecurity, ‘bout what you art should be,

in sweep the vampires, die vampire, die!

You sketched that turtle you saw in an ad on late-night cable TV.

But your fourth grade teacher said ‘you can’t draw’.

Aww, those vampires just won’t let you be.

Fuck you Ms. Johnson, Word!

And when they come run like hell, see those bats in your belfry, then call on Van Helsing.

In swoosh the vampires, in a whoosh, in the vampires, ooh, all the vampires. 
Filling you with thoughts of self-consciousness, feelings of worthlessness. They’ll make you second-guess. Die vampire!

A vampire is any person or thought or feeling that stands between you and your creative self-expression, but they can assume many seductive forms. Here are a few of them!

First up are you Pigmy Vampires. They’ll swarm around you head like gnats and say things like:

Your teeth need whitening. You went to state school? You sound weird!

Just tell them, Die vampire, die!

Brothers and sisters, next up is the Air Freshener Vampire, she might look like yo’ mama, or your old fat-ass, fat Aunt Fanny. She smells something unpleasant in what you’re creating. She’ll urge you to spray it with some pine fresh smell ’em ups. The air freshener vampire doesn’t want you to write about bad language, blood, or blow jobs! She wants you to clean it up and clean it out. Which will leave your work toothless, gutless, and crotchless but, you’ll be left with two tight paragraphs about kittens that your grandma would be so proud of! You look at that Air Freshener Vampire in her fat ass, fat old fuckin’ face and you say Morte Vampir Morte.

The last vampire is the mother of all vampires and that is the vampire of despair. It’ll wake you up at 4am to say things like: Who do you think you’re kidding? You look like a fool. No matter how hard you try, you’ll never be good enough!

Why is it that if some dude walked up to me on the subway platform and said these things, I’d think he was a mentally ill asshole, but if the vampire inside my head says it, It’s the voice of reason.

You have a story to tell, pull your novel out of that sock drawer!

You have a painting to paint, you best paint it and then paint some more!

Oh baby, you must escape and grab it by the nape of its neck, by the trachea, fuckin’ break it, go on drive a stake in, yeah there’s no mistaking, now you’re shake and bakin’.

Die, vampire. I said, “Die, vampire”. I said, “Now die vam-pi-re, die!”

In fly the vampires, oh my the vampires, then die the vampires,

filling you with life, creativity, all that you heart should be, out go the vampires. Die vampire, die vampire, die vampire, die!