ready? set!?! GO!

It's Friday night and I feel like I am about to drop dead. Had to work the AM Shift this morning - which means getting up at 2:30am. I am not a morning person at all - that shift is for zombies.

I took a small nap after getting home, but now I feel like that said zombie. My head is killing me, I am hot as hell and grouchy. But, after sitting here staring at the baby computer (it is a mini-laptop - love it and it has been named baby computer. Just like my phones - work phone and baby phone - this name calling started when baby phone was ringing one night at work several years ago and I was singing about the phone being small and it was a baby - I know strange thought but I had to share) and I got the urge to go to the art supply store. I hate that supplies cost so much. I bought a few little canvases and some texture medium and markers.

The markers are an idea. I am an obsessive doodler at work. When I am on the phone, in meetings anywhere - I am always doodling. I can't seem to focus unless I am doing several things at once - and doodling is my thing. My work notebooks over the years could be there own art show. And sometimes I really really like the way my doodles come out. So, I am going to doodle at home and see what happens. If it works like the picture I see in my head - I will post the finish product.

In addition to the art work I am beginning, I am writing too. I had a friend here in Tampa, after telling him a story, convince me to "write it down". So, I have written it down. It is very crude right now and I have to re-write and add to it. I don't know if I will ever have the courage to show anyone it, but the layout and thoughts are on paper. When I complete it, I may show it to a few people. But, I have always thought I am a terrible writer...so it is going to take some time before I show anyone that and it is also about something very personal - it was hard to write, during most of my time typing it out, I was a crying mess. So, we will see.

BUT ANYWAY, experiments begin tonight! If I don't pass out first.

some examples

I have a goal. I want to have 15 pieces made before the end of September - in addition to the piece that I am about to start for some friends.

Here are a few of my pieces...the picture quality is not that good, used a camera phone. The one with no color is the first piece I ever made using words. It will never be sold or given away and is very very special to me. Every word used in it, means something to me - is about me and the way I feel about myself.

The one that is red and orange is a very small piece I made, I like the colors. It was an experiment. The orange is actually acrylic paint that I laid out on plastic, let dry, peeled if out and worked it like clay into the shape it is on the canvas. I don't know if I like it that much, but I was trying something new.

The piece that I am making for my friends, I am going to experiment with different other textures and I am excited to get started.

random thoughts

So, I have finally decided to start a blog. I have had this space for a while and had no idea what to go with it...what to write about...what to say...should it just be my general thoughts? Things I'm doing? What I am working on? Just a public dairy?

A little bit about me. I work in television news and have been in the business for over 10 years now. At heart, I am a wanna be artist. I want to write, I want to paint, I want to work in films, anything that lets me be creative and expressive. I have of recently started writing and have continued working on my paintings. I am a mixed medium painter...I make pieces using words. With my career, I can not be creative. It is a job where you have to research and uncover the facts and present them in a balanced way. I have always enjoyed working in news - I love researching ( I think it is my nosey nature - always wanting to know more and learn more)...but I try to make up in my free time, with art.

I am about to start a new piece for a couple of friends of mine, they want a big piece to put in their sitting room. It is a challenge to focus a painting on someone else. I have jotted a few ideas down on paper and now need to get the supplies and see if I can start this thing. I know where I want to go with the piece, I just need to figure out the starting point. I think that is the hardest part for me. That first stroke of paint and where it is going to take me. Sometimes, I can have a blank canvas staring back at me for weeks before I can even start and there is a collection of old canvas behind my frig, that have been re-painted so many times the paint is thick and the canvas is heavy - I need to throw them out, but I hate wasting the canvas. I had an art teacher tell me once that when you draw or paint there is never a mistake. Take that line and make it into something...and I have always followed that thinking. My hand is taking to somewhere, just continue to let it flow. I have decided that if I ever win the lottery that I am moving back to a place I love and I am going to open an art gallery/production house. I want to showcase and fund all of my friends art ( meaning paintings, movies...etc.). I can only dream at this point in time.

Right now, it is Sunday night, I am tired and really wishing that I did not have to go to work tomorrow. I had to work both yesterday and today for a few hours and just want a little break. My schedule there is all over the place for the next few months. This week I am working Monday - Thursday dayside, Friday - am show...then I am off on saturday, sunday and monday and work nightshift on Tuesday. I worked in an extra long weekend, and was hoping to go to Birmingham for the weekend, but it was pay my power bill or buy a plane ticket. The power bill won. But, I think it is a good thing, I found out today that a 2 friends of mine that live out of town are coming in this weekend, so that makes me happy. I love seeing old friends especially the ones, that are your closest friends thought know everything about you!

I tend to write in random thoughts, maybe I should re title this thing "Random thoughts of a single 30something".

I don't know who is going to be interested in reading this thing, but right now, it is going to serve me as an outlet, which I believe I need right now.

Cheers for now and good night.