The Elephant and The Cat

So! Guess who got a shipment of wonderful artwork from her friend, her pal, her favorite blogger, Gary? Oh yes, ME! And here it is in my office. Do I love it? Yes, yes I do!! Thanks, Gary!

First, the elephant and her baby... is this too cute or what?

Then the cat with its fish... don't ya' just love that face?

On the credenza:

A different angle:

Again:

The "bonus gift" that I just CANNOT get a good photo of, but adorable:

And, who could leave out the resident crabby clam? The pics in the background are mine :)

You should just head on over to Gary's blog and shop around - well worth it!

Thanks again, Gary, I love my new art :)

Breathe

Breathe

I did this a long time ago... I am not sure if it has ever been seen by anyone other than me (and those people who happen to reside in my house)... Happy Thursday!

And She Was

she began to rise

like a movie

There are times when a song will grab me and not let go. Oh, it can be an old song that does it. My work posted above is of two images that flowed through while I was addicted to the Talking Head's, And She Was....

Don't get me started on U2's Mysterious Ways...

Love Is Love When You Give It Away

On occasion, I have shared my artwork with those of you who happened to pop in and those of you who, to my amazement, continue to come back. So, I am going to share another with you today. This is entitled, "One Spirit," and was done a while back, but is my personal favorite.

This piece created itself. I started with a yellow background and smeared some dark red...each child flows into the other and each is of another ethnic background. Thus, connected and one spirit.

Isn't that the way it really is? Or how we should see one another?

I am continually amazed at how art truly creates itself...I feel like I am just a tool from which things flow once in a while. Of course, I know what I like isn't necessarily the cup of tea of another, but if you would like this print, I would love to share the love!

So, about now, you're wondering if I am going to ask you to post a notice on your blog, click your heels together three times, or enter more than once for more chances. Wrong-o! Leave me a message (include your email address so that I can contact you if you're the winner) and I will pick that winner on January 30th.

If you want to, tell me one of your Random Acts of Kindness - I could use some fresh ideas!

On The Limb For A While

Yep, it's Art On A Limb... I don't have anything new. Since we adopted Nicole, life has slowed me down a bit, but I thought I'd share a couple of my works "just because" and I rarely do. No reason, really. So, here you go:

REM

Maggie
(I had just read The DaVinci Code when I did this one... A little Holy Grail moment)

She Began to Rise
(the Talking Heads part II)

And She Was
(the Talking Heads part I)

Approval

(Seal Of, of course)

And there it is :-)

Cosmic Truckin' Child Of The Universe

It's been a while since we had a Colonel update. It's only 8:30am while I am typing this and he's been here a grand total of 12 minutes, but it's begun.

What?? Well, he has turned on his computer and radio. Whined about how it rained last night. And crept down the hall to get some bathroom water for coffee.

Today is another sales on-the-phone conference with his trainer and fellow students. As I mentioned before, he was a week to 2 weeks behind everyone. Yesterday he said he had caught up in the materials (reading, writing, etc...) but that he was just SO FAR behind everyone else. Two weeks??

This is all rehash. Sorry. I still just can't believe he has this job and has had it for so long.

Then, I feel bad for posting all this here. After all, he's ...

"...a child of the universe

no less than the trees and the stars;

you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,

no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."

Wow! Now, if you're in my age range, does that quote ring a bell?? I remember when Desiderata by Max Ehrman was on a poster in every bedroom. And they were sooooooooooooo cool, groovy, hipster, and far out.

And, this little gem was frequently seen:

This Peter Max was on my notebook...

Holy cow, the Colonel has sent me into the nether regions of memory. For the love of Pete! Or maybe that's the love of Peter Max. He's still cool in my book.

And here we come full circle...back to our Kentucky Colonel (bestowed honorarily) who is about to begin another seminar. I'll do some eavesdropping and see what kind of excuse-making ensues today.

Keep on truckin' people!

Giving It Up!

Ok, I am a big, fat liar....

I told the truth about all of my three things in the previous post.

1. We adopted our daughter on her 14th birthday. We got her at age 13, and if you have ever wondered about adopting an older child, I HIGHLY recommend it and would happy be to discuss it with you!

2. I rode in a submarine in the Cayman Islands. It descended approximately 150 feet and the view was amazing - we went in both the day and night. Incredible!

3. My artwork has been used on two CD covers. One, unfortunately, I cannot remember the artist's name - isn't that awful? It was very obscure - the music was dark as was the artwork, which I still have and will share with you. The other was for Richard Orange and the Eggmen (great name, huh?). He still has a credit to a photo I manipulated for one album. The cover has changed, but I'll share that artwork with you as well.

I love that the most chosen "lie" for me was being an older mom. Psych!

This was for my obscure artist:

Carried



This was for Richard:
Falling Star

Monday, Monday

It's one of those days where I got up needing a nap. Here I am at work - no napping allowed...it's just not right.

Once upon a time, I titled my blog, Art On A Limb, and there hasn't been any art displayed. So, speaking of naps... here's one of my pieces I did a while back:

Off The Clock (aka - Napping)

Now, I am going to drink coffee and pretend to work for about 30 minutes....

Starting Over

Well, what do you know? You CAN lose your blog. I had a blog that I maintained for over a year (same name) and left it unattended for about two. With a little inspiration (thanks, Kerrie) and reconstruction (thanks to free templates), you can reblog.

Why am I calling this Art On A Limb? You can read all that in my profile. I'll share some of my art at a later time.

Why did I abandon my first blog? Easy! We became parents... of a teenager! Our daughter came to us at age 13 and we adopted her ON her 14th birthday. She's 16 now and life is finally settling into some sort of routine. We have issues, lots of them, and we're all learning as we go, but we have some really good experiences as well. Over all, she's a fantastic kid and we feel blessed to have her. She is, however, a teenager, so we are discovering how much into the fire we jumped. Send good vibes, thoughts, and prayers our way.

If you've ever considered adopting an older child, I'd be happy to discuss it openly and honestly with you. Before you think I will be negative, let me assure you, I encourage it! I will, however, not sugar-coat the experience.

Since this is my second first blog, I'll share a little about myself and see where life takes these posts.

I was employed at a major auto finance company for (almost) 24 years when I got laid off this April. This meant losing a lot of perks - a decent salary, five weeks of vacation, and good friends acquired over a long time. The friends, of course, remain, but we just don't see each other on a daily basis anymore.

Anyway, my job was so industry specific (auditing car dealerships), I was afraid I would have to go into general administrative work. I wasn't against that, but loved what I was doing.

God is good - all the time! Before I was through at the first place, I was offered an amazing job by one of our contractors. This isn't a contract job - I am a full time employee doing similar work for what may be the best people to work for. They are headquartered in California and have no full time people working anywhere out of that state - until now! At the exact time I was being shoved out one door, my current employer was opening a satellite location right here in Houston. So, now I have my own office overlooking a beautiful parkway that I share with one other employee, the marketing manager. I couldn't be happier in my work situation.

Jerry and I will have our 19th anniversary in November. We've been together since 1981, so we've shared half our lives together and we're still best friends. That's a really good thing.

Our daughter, Nicole, will be a junior this year. Unfortunately, she thinks school is strictly a tool for socializing. We're hoping she'll buckle down a bit this year, but we'll have to wait and see on that one. She recently got her driver's license and now we don't see her too often.

One thing we've required of her is if she is to have a car (she has my old one), she is responsible for the gas. Gas is at $3.90 a gallon here in Houston as of today and that's a lot of money to a teen. She has a summer job babysitting for her aunt and uncle four days a week. She's making $120.00 each week - saving $30.00 to savings and $30.00 for the new Sprint Instinct phone she wants to buy, so that leaves about $20.00 for spending and $40.00 for gas. We're finding she's needing to do extra "work" around the house to earn more spending money, but that's good for her.

We have two dogs who are members of the family, Gordy and Georgi, so they may be mentioned from time to time as well. They're really very funny.

Nicole and I attend the local Unity church and Jerry is Catholic. We have a spiritually diverse home, but it works for us. I am certain I'll be writing more about this over time.

I intend to also include some lists of favorites - books, movies, etc.... later.

Yep, it feels good to be back and I look forward to cultivating regular reads.

Thanks for reading my first new post. I will return the visit.