Reflecting On Orange

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First of all, the style of my blog has completely changed and I have no idea why. I'll fix it when I get home. Second, a quick update on my class here in Massachussets. They got a little testy these last few days since it's been fairly hot in our studio (that and the push-ups didn't help), but it should be better now that it's cooled off. I can't complain too much about them though because they've been very gentle with me and my new ... "homeless condition", they even laugh at my fire jokes (because I told them they had to so I didn't feel so pathatic). So all-in-all they are a good, supportive bunch. I will post photos soon.

Lastly, I want to unveil my new idea and get some feedback, and hopefully help. I've been wanting to paint people for a while. I've done a few figures, and some small portraits, but I have this hankering to do a whole series of small, silly faces. I figured it would be perfect for the time being since all my props were lost, and I don't have a shadow box, light, studio, etc. I want them to be cropped close and silly, kinda like my self-portrait below (reposting this in case you missed it the first time). So, if you would like to help, please send me photos of yourself, your kids, your grandkids, your friends, anyone, making a silly face. It would be best with no flash. Natural light is good, so go outside. Stick out your tongue. Get silly. Then email me the file. Thank you so much!!!

Considering Everything

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I pulled everything together enough to make it to Massachusetts to teach a workshop, which starts tomorrow. It's late and I need to get to sleep, but I wanted to write real quick and say - things are ok. My husband and I are planning to relocate to Oregon. To read more about it check out the Daily Paintworks blog.

I still haven't made it through all my email (I have about 700 more to go, and that doesn't include Facebook messages). I continue to be absolutely blown away by the kind words, stories and support flowing in. It's almost made this experience ... easy? Ok, not easy, but WAY WAY WAY better than it would have been otherwise. Ya'll don't even know how much you've helped. Really.

As I mentioned a week ago, I managed to salvage all my small paintings, so I'll post until they run out. I have an idea formulating for what happens after that, and I'll run it by you in my next post. Stay tuned ...

Before the Fire

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Today I have some pretty serious bad news. We're about 95% sure our house burned down. At around 2 this afternoon a neighbor came by and told us there was a forest fire very close and we needed to evacuate. We didn't really believe her until we went outside and saw the huge billowing orange cloud just down the street. So we grabbed a few things and hit the road.

What on earth do you grab when you think ... maybe ... your house will burn down??? I grabbed:

1. my computer
2. my purse (with new iphone)
3. some clean underwear
4. all my small paintings

My husband also had the very good idea to drive both vehicles, and pull the camper while we were at it, just in case. So now we are camped at an RV park in Austin and have been listening to every bit of news we can come by. They say our neighborhood is completely gone. So we are pretty sure. They haven't contained the fire yet, and since there are multiple other fires burning at the same time around Texas, taking up all the other fire-fighters' time, they aren't even sure when they'll be able to put it out. They say about 300 houses have been lost, so far.

The good news is, we have fire insurance. I'm trying to think of more good news, but that's all I got. Oh, I got my little paintings out, so all the auctions are still good. And I was even ahead, so I can still post for a couple of weeks. Meanwhile I'll be searching for new brushes, panels, paint, etc. Not to mention a new studio.