Here are some more in progress works…. Some shapes have found new lives, as beehives or vessels.  I’m working through some of these on a really free-floating, subconscious level, but then when I step back, I see so many connections.  What it all means?  Not exactly sure, but I think that’s the fun of it.  Not knowing, but trusting that it leads somewhere.  Of course, one doesn’t need to go to far before the metaphor of vessel becomes bodily.  Body as container…etc.  All very interesting, as I am truly and forever stymied by the very nature of us and … all of this.

Simple, and satisfying.  Looks like a beehive.

Tree rings…..thought it would be cool.  Ten hours later, not so sure.

And then there’s the nice getaway paintings.  They are my warm-ups now.  I also just learned how to crochet thanks to my gal friend Ramona, who needs to come back and help me as my scarf is shrinking and shrinking, as I keep going and going!?!  Wha?!?  I don’t know what I’m doing but it’s starting to curl?

A big thank you to CoolRanchStudio for including my print in your hopelessly romantic treasury today!  That state of mind suits me oh so well.  Now I must paint!

I have been busy in my studio lately, preparing for my thesis show, which will happen in April, and just wanted to share some in progress works I’ve been hanging around with.  I am pretty excited about all this studio time and I am definitely having a full-on, I can’t believe it’s been 13 years it feels like we just met, love affair with oil paint.  LOVE it!

And students, and everyone else in SoCal or the Riverside area, there are low-income programs to assist you.  I have been applying for all these programs recently (and used to be on them in Long Beach) as being an artist and a student sometimes just doesn’t translate to economically sustainable.  I was always a little perturbed that because I don’t have dependents, I don’t qualify for health care and other assistance as easily as people with children, but there are still things out there to help you childless citizens.  I have rounded them all up for you, one easy stop:

California Lifeline offers low-income assistance telephones.  I had to cancel my telephone service with Charter because they couldn’t get an application out to me, and kept giving me the corporate run-around, so I went with AT&T.

Riverside Public Utilities assists qualified low-income residential electric and water customers with their utility bills and deposits with their SHARE program.

Southern California Gas Company has the CARE program which offers income-qualified customers a discount of 20% or more off their monthly gas bill. Plus they have a one-time assistance of $100 starting in February 2010.

Also, I just found out that Bank of America, who has been steadily beefing up my Cash Advance balance every month with their sneaky 19.99% APR, is changing their policy the end of February, where now any amount you pay over your minimum balance will go directly to paying down the Cash Advance balance.  Before, it only payed your Purchases balance, which for me has a much more respectable APR.  So come March, pay those suckers down and get out of debt for reals!

No matter where you live, seek out assistance as it is there for income-qualified residents.  And if you’re an artist or a student, surviving on student loans and or credit cards, that is YOU!

My good friend and fellow artist Christine is teaching some classes coming up at OTIS extension and if anyone lives in the LA area, check them out!  They are sure to unleash the artist residing inside you.  Ok I’ve been watching those Paranormal shows all day long since I am sick with a dizzy head cold, and I was relegated to the couch with my felt sewing and now I’m all about ghosts.  How does this tie into the art classes, you ask?  Creativity is a lot like the spirit world, and parts of our imagination might be trying to communicate to us, and it is up to you to learn how to open up and direct this more elusive, immaterial state of being we all call: IMAGINATION.  And art can do that!