New Art- 3 new works!

'Drowning Pool'

24" x 36" x 2"

oils on thick gallery wrapped canvas

Ready to hang, needs no frame

Available for purchase on my web site in the 2010 gallery.

I am continuing to push forward on the abstract works. This is the largest one so far. Lots of texture and color, I wish I had gotten a better picture of it. These colors are a little bit difficult to show online, with perfection. These were the best pictures in the 2 dozen or so that I took. My neighbors probably think I am crazy, because I was hauling this painting all over the front and back yards trying to get the best light. Sheesh! LOL They are used to my crazy artist antics by now, I’m sure…but I was wearing my PJ’s, paint covered smock and fuzzy slippers while doing this, so now they know for sure that I am nuts and have no shame at all. Oh well, it works for me.

'Unification'

16" x 20"

oils on flat canvas panel

Will need framing or stretching to hang

Available for purchase on my web site in the 2010 gallery.

'Thick and Thin'

20" x 16"

Oils on flat canvas panel

Will need framing or stretching to hang

Available for purchase on my web site in the 2010 gallery.

I’ve been busy pushing myself in the studio. These are two of the three that I stared this weekend, the third is still on the easel, I’ll share it soon. I’m switching to Un-stretched canvas for the time being, just for storage concerns. With the slow down in sales and shows over the last two years, I’ve got a storage problem in the studio. For the time being, I can paint all I want and store them easier in flat files. I can stretch them or frame them at a later date if I need/want to. The bonus to my patrons is that I can sell for less, and the shipping will be super cheap to any where! Woot! FYI: BAD! Kitty Studio always offers free shipping on every work to any where in the world. Who loves ya? ;)
Anyway…I’ve just been playing around, letting go, having fun. It’s been liberating and fun I hope that shows in the works.
Let me know what you think about the new works,

I just love hearing from you all.
Love to all,
Heather
http://www.badkittyartstudio.com
Support living artists, buy some art today.

Daily Art- New Work- Atomic Age

‘Atomic Age’

24″ x 30″

oils, acrylics, vintage inks, collage and mixed media

Back stapled canvas, finished sides, ready to hang

***

The quote on the work reads:

“In this era of world wars, in this atomic age, values have changed.

We have learned that we are guests of existence,

travelers between two stations. We must discover security within ourselves.”

~unknown

***

‘Atomic Age’ is a work that started as a collage with acrylics. The more elements I found that I liked within the collage, the more paint got added in. Near the end of the work, I wanted a deeper, more textured feeling, so I switched to thin layers of oil glazes, reds, purples, yellows, and golds. When that was dry I applied a fine crackle finish to some of the elements and let that dry. I intended to come back over the crackle with some shoe polish, but thought I liked it as is. The color in this work turned out to be hard to capture on digital because it’s deep and ever changing, I used interference powders in some of the layers. I have at least 20 layers of transparent colors within this work, and the textures are subtle, so it really glows in real life. I mean it GLOWS and Shimmers, it’s a must see in person.

Of course, this work is about my need for security for myself and my family…in this insecure world. We can’t find job security, costs of living are sky rocketing, with no increase to family salaries. For some of us we don’t even have the security of people in our lives, we have become fractured to the point that families don’t stay together through marriages…let alone generations living together to raise whole units of healthy people. We have human warehouses for our elderly, we have single parents trying to be everything to their children while under employeed, we have no health care, we have debt that is a never ending monster, we have children raising themselves in a world that tells them, “you will be fine, if you just sell your soul, and don’t try to think too much.” and we have the global environment’s crashing down upon our ears. Many of us are thinking that Y2K was a warm up for what is coming down the pike. Many of us are questioning things like, Will I be able to continue to afford to go to work when gas costs 5 times what it does now, in the next five years? Will I be able to afford food when it costs 5 times more and my income has stayed the same? What if I can’t find/keep a job? Will I be ready for those real possibilities? We as a family have planted a garden, we are loosing one of our vehicles because we can’t afford it, we are reducing and re-using everything we can, we are buying and eating less food, we are planning for an unknown future. It’s hard and we are all dealing with it in some form or fashion. Each of us, collectively. It’s reality.

It’s a crazy mixed up world…and this work is about putting those feelings into a work that uplifts, gives hope and reminds you of your own personal happiness…that it is your responsibility in this life . Not your partners, your friends, your families, not the worlds, not your past experiences…not your therapists. No one is responsible for your personal well being and happiness but you. You won’t find it out there [in the world, it's things, it's addictions, it's shiny, shiny things, we can not save ourselves through consumerism, we can not buy our way out of this recession] you find it inside yourself. Personal accountability is hard to do…it requires a constant vigilance and commitment to living in the moment. It ain’t easy folks, but it can be done. Yes, it can be done. This work is about letting the addiction of living in either the good old days [or the bad ones] and also not living in the future fantasy days that we are positive thinking about all the time. It’s time for real change. We can not find world peace unless we start with creating peace within ourselves. Then it’s like a virus, peace and self love, healthy inclusive love, it can spread.

Change happens. It’s up to us to make the most of it. One person can change the world. Let it start with me. Let it start with you, in this atomic age, let the change start with us.

***

I hope you all have a happy Friday, thanks for reading.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Support living artists

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Daily Art- New Work- Behold! Modern Man

Behold! Modern Man

24″ x 60″ (including the tail)
Canvas itself is 24″ x 30″
Finished sides, needs no frame
oils, mixed media (lots & lots)

Behold! Modern Man is a multi-mixed media event.
A work of art it is, but it is also an event unto itself.
It’s a work that you must see in person, you need to touch it, you need to
see the shadow the kite tail makes against your wall, you need to see how
the prayer flags move in the slightest stirring of air currents, you need to
know what they have written upon their frail surfaces.

Honestly I have found things that over the weeks as I have worked this
message in a bottle out of my head, that I don’t remember putting in.
It all done in, flash moments, work came together.

I found the vintage toy paper flag at a tag sale years ago.
Folded and mostly intact.
Aged, used, saved and loved.

The vintage, real not copies, ration stamps from the world war years came
next, they too had been saved, stored, kept and horded; themselves still a
symbol of some faceless person, of their fear for and love of those in their
care.

The clay project rejects came out of a box a few weeks back, I remember
when I was packing them, why are you taking up limited room for rejects?
Because I am a lover of rejected things. Simple.
Now their use is clear, of course they were headed to the bluegrass in a
brown cardboard box; their truths to be told here in this event. Proud they
are not the side show; the freak tent; they are sculptures of symbolic
meaning, sacred totems, not rejects, no not at all.

Toys, I love small plastic or otherwise toys.
Pocket stuff.
I collect it every where I go.
Mementos of lives lived.

****
To Read more about the work, and see more pictures of this work including lots of close ups, then CLICK HERE.

Have a great day!

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Support Living Artists

Buy Some Art Today

Daily Art- What I want

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'What I want'

20" X 16"

Oils on canvas

Finished sides

(painting continues around onto sides)

$55.00 + Shipping

Please Email me HERE for Purchase and a free shipping quote to anywhere in the world.

***

The text on the painting reads:

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.

I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself.

If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

***

This is just part of one of my favorite poems,

this is only a small part of it, here it is in it's entirety:

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for

and if you dare to dream

of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.

I want to know if you will

risk looking like a fool

for love

for your dream

for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets

are squaring your moon...

I want to know if you have touched

the centre of your own sorrow

if you have been opened by life's betrayals

or have become shrivelled and closed

from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain

mine or your own

without moving to hide it

or fade it

or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy

mine or your own

if you can dance with wildness

and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes

without cautioning us to

be careful

be realistic

remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.

I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself.

If you can bear the accusation of betrayal

and not betray your own soul.

If you can be faithless

and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see

Beauty

even when it is not pretty

every day.

And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure

yours and mine

and still stand at the edge of the lake

and shout to the silver of the full moon,

"Yes."

It doesn't interest me

to know where

you live or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up

after the night of grief and despair

weary and bruised

to the bone

and do what needs to be done

to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know

or how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand

in the centre of the fire

with me

and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom

you have studied.

I want to know what sustains you

from the inside

when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself

and if you truly like the company you keep

in the empty moments.

© Mountaindreaming, from the book The Invitation published by HarperSanFrancisco, 1999 All rights reserved

by: Oriah Mountain Dreamer

***

It's simple, I just want to know.

Have a great Friday.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com/

Support living artists

Buy some art today

New work and reflections on Motherhood

BAD! Kitty Art Studio

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New work: Quiet place series #3 'the Urban OM'

24" x 30"

Acrylic

***

The quote that inspired the work:

" We put thirty spokes to make a wheel: But it is on the hole in the center that the use of the cart hinges. We make a vessel from a lump of clay; But it is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful. We make doors and windows for a room; But it is the empty spaces that make the room livable. Thus, while existence has advantages, It is the emptiness that makes it useful."

~Lao Tzu

***

Above...my newest work. Painting an empty spot...I have this series of quiet place paintings...they are a place internally that I visit and sit and listen to nothing, feel nothing, want nothing...just really quiet places...lately when the world gets too fast, and dirty I have been going to this little spot in my mind's eye...a slightly beat up, warm and almost grimy urban spot where I can look at a bare patch of wall space and think of nothing. For some reason I have been picking this place in my head...and to me... is welcoming because of this vibration of the world and it's spinning and moving and grooving...all except in this little spot in the sun. It's a really magic spot...I can hear the world spinning, but in this little corner, this bare patch on a side street in my mind...it's quiet, imperfect and full of peace. I don't know I just really have been digging it, so I painted it out with my own favorite graffiti too...I need a peaceful place sometimes.

***

Mothers day at the house of Testosterone.

I am the only female in our home. I have three sons and Mate Man. Being the girl is good. Mother's day has always been a frugal Mom's dream day for me. We have been a less than spectacular in the money department household. I am a practical Mom. That means that Mother's Day is the one day of the year that all the young Men in the house get to tend to my woman-ness...because for the rest of the year...I am one of the guys. So, this year the guys asked me what I wanted for my Mother's day present...being that most years it's things like...I want to have the furniture re-arranged without any complaining, or I want to go for a hike all day in a place I have not seen before, I want to stay in the studio all day, without talking to anyone and when I come out I want to eat a nice meal in a clean house with no fighting, name calling or hitting involved before, during or after...or at least not that I can hear...or the dreaded...I want to go garage sale shopping all day with everyone and not hear one time "do we have to stop at this one too?!".

Ok so, this year it was stuff...I really don't often ask for stuff. There was shock and awe amongst the males. They all had a passing look across their faces for a moment...of "Oh shit is she going to ask for something girl-ish?" Which was replaced with a look of great relief (on the little men's faces, the big one just grinned because he knew all along it would be fun), because of my list.

This is the list of things I want:

1. One bucket of pre-mixed drywall mud.

2. A new fancy trowel for spreading present #1.

3. More industrial size two-part Resin.

4. 1 sheet of 1/2" plywood.

5. A new fancy long bristle with a tapered end, 1" house painting brush.

6. For them to all leave together to go to the hardware store to buy all this stuff, and for them to get something to eat, and have a good "guy" time of it, leaving me alone in the studio on a wonderfully warm and sunny Sunday Morning...my one day off a week.

So...Mother's Day pretty much rocks around here, and I love this holiday. Being a human replicator machine is good...at least one solid day of every year. :)

Happy Mother's day to all you Mom's out there.

I'm off to enjoy some Me time.

Heather

www.badkittyartstudio.com

New work started!

BAD! Kitty Art Studio

***

New work started...something new from my brain pan, I've been looking at a lot of fast selling folk art and loving it, and well... I don't do folk art, but I got inspired from looking around and well...here she is...I guess I am currently addicted to trying new things... this work will have a lot more details than what is currently going on, a small abstract school house in the background, a path going up behind her leading to the school house, some crazy lollipop trees, and something in her hands too...I am stuck on the colors for her dress and the birds. Well anyway...what what do you think? Any suggestions for the colors, or anything?

Have a good day all,

Heather

www.badkittyartstudio.com