Baseball season is in full swing. I’m not a huge sports fan, meaning I’m not watching every game or anything like that. However, I do support our team, the Cubs.
I was visiting a friend, walking the neighborhood and stopped in my tracks when I saw this tree. How clever. This art creation of a Cubs fan took effort. It’s so funny, looks like an older man. Profiling here, tall and a bit chubby, holding a beer, maybe with shirt too tight? We have to go older since the hat looks vintage.
Looking at the hat. What is that to the left of the “C?” Is it meant to be a drawing of a player with helmet on, bat in hand?
Maybe that hat is the colors of the Cubs, but it’s not an old Cubs hat. Any Cubs experts out there or OLD ENOUGH to know logo changes, LOL.
A few months ago I wanted to trace a photo and paint it. I needed tracing paper, so I went to the art store. The sales clerk was doing a flyer for the store, and happened to be tracing an old flyer. He showed me how to do it and exactly what I needed.
He armed me with tracing paper, graphite paper and media paper for the painting part. I had all of this in a shopping bag. I went home ready for my project. Something came up and there sat my shopping bag. Over time, I kept moving that shopping bag to different places in my office.
Since I am not an artist, I was afraid if I took those supplies out of the bag, I would forget what he showed me and how to use them. I know, it’s a basic technique, easy peasy, but for a non-artist until I’ve done it once, it was going to be a challenge.
Fast forward to yesterday. A funny coincidence happened. I decided, “that’s it,” I’m tracing that photo!! I looked in my office and couldn’t find the shopping bag. I didn’t have time to do a thorough search, but I kept thinking ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT. Where could that shopping bag be?
Last night, I happened to need a blanket. It’s cold, snow again, so went to this storage container I have. As I lifted up the blanket, there was a surprise. My shopping bag with the art supplies was there. I smiled, because I would never have looked there for the shopping bag. I remembered vacuuming one day and moving the shopping bag into this storage container. A blanket ended up on top of it.
So, WHAT was at work here?
The Universe, St. Anthony or my Guardian Angel? I’m not sure, but when I saw that shopping bag I was overcome by feelings of “Wow – I can’t believe it. I would NEVER have checked in the storage container. Thank goodness it snowed, I got cold and needed the blanket!”
How about YOU, I’m sure something like this has happened to you too. Share your story.
This weekend I was driving home from Michigan and I saw an Antique Shop. It was on the other side of the road, I had to make one of those “quick” decisions. Stop or keep going. I decided to take the extra time, stop in.
Glad I did. I found this painting. I really liked the vibrancy of the blue color of the lake with sailboats.There were a lot of interesting things to see.
Some booths had such old things. I immediately thought of a movie set director needing some props for a WWII movie or something like that.
Antique shops are interesting by area too. What you find in Indiana would be different from California, Texas or New York for example.
I happened to catch NBC 5 Chicago news recently and this segment by Vi Nguyen caught my attention. An amazing mural by Chicago artist Rich Lo. For this mural, he chose three famous Opera characters commonly seen in Cantonese opera. They are legendary warriors. Lo’s father was a rising star in the Chinese Opera. He saw his father perform on stage, so this is close to his heart.
The Chinese American Museum of Chicago donated this wall for the mural which is in the parking lot. What is also interesting is that Rich Lo went to grammar school across the street from the site of the mural. Fate / destiny at work when he was a child. Interesting how life works, right!
This is such a special tribute to his Chinese culture and family legacy to create this beautiful work of art! I’m excited about this.
It’s time for me to head to Chinatown and see this mural in person!
If you are looking for an interesting show to watch and love art, you’ll like this one on Amazon Prime: Portrait Artist of the Year. It’s a great show. Apparently, it came out in 2013. How in the heck did I miss this show? Maybe because it’s been on Sky TV.
If you haven’t seen the show, each episode has three famous sitters. There are four portrait artists per sitter. They have four hours to paint the portrait. Once completed, the sitter chooses one of the portraits to bring home. After that, the three judges review ALL of the portraits and they choose a winner. They have competitions in a few different cities, a winner from each. THEN the four finalists come together to paint another portrait. The person who wins the FINAL competition, gets paid a commission to paint another famous/well known person. As you see, a lot of painting is going on.
PHEW – I hope you get the premise of the show. It’s really amazing. One sitter and four artists have such different approaches to painting their portrait. Love this show, so inspiring!
The weekend is here, you’ll be hooked. I see binge watching in your future!
I saw this art recently. My first thought was of someone walking the plank. I was surprised that it was put on this building. Then I wondered if this had to do with Peter Pan and Captain Hook.
So, I decided to Google the artist.
His name is Hubertus von der Goltz. This art installation is called, “Encounter.” Visit his website to see his work.
The problem with the above art is from my angle, I ONLY saw one piece of the art, not the entire art piece.
Take a look…
Big difference to see the entire art installation; however, I am still not a fan of seeing people on top of a building looking like they want to kill themselves. Maybe they need to be in bright costumes, so they look happy, but in all black it does not give a happy image for me. FOR YOU, you might like it.
The beauty of analyzing art is that we can all have our own opinion.
Recently, I walked by an art store. It was actually open, so I went in. I’ve always loved colorful markers. I immediately went to the marker and sketch pad section. After being quarantined for a few months, it was refreshing to be in a store and see all the beautiful marker colors.
These Tombow markers caught my attention, because they were dual brush pens, which seemed like fun. Also, they came in different packs of colors. I liked that idea too, rather than buying individually.
This was going to be an investment toward COVID creativity. The markers are expensive, but testing one out made me feel HAPPY, so why not give it a try. If we need to be at home, why not touch on our creative side, right. Also, I smiled to myself, now that we have to wear masks, women can’t wear lipstick, so money saved on lipstick, goes toward markers. An even exchange!
I did a quick YouTube search and found a great video of an “experienced artist” showing the versatility of these markers. I didn’t realize they could be used with water, so they become like a water color pen. I’ve always wanted to try and paint with water colors, so I’m getting my feet wet, starting out with the markers.
It’s been FUN, I have to say.
BUT, now I need MORE colors. We KNEW that would happen!
On to the next drawing. One day soon, real water colors.
A friend of mine sent me a picture of this Buddha Board. She knows I have been practicing drawing, but also focused on a zen lifestyle.
Founder and CEO, Eric Thrall, created the Buddha Board to give children and adults a fun, relaxing and quick way to “be creative” and “in the moment.” With the Buddha Board, you draw with water, within 10 minutes your drawing fades away. So, you don’t have to be perfect, instead you are FREE to be as creative as you like.
This would make a great gift. Also, be wonderful at the office. We have a candy jar and employees come by for a treat. I bet if we had a Buddha Board by the candy jar, people would enjoy being creative.
When I was young, we all had an “Etch A Sketch.” We LOVED drawing, even though it was a bit cumbersome to use, we enjoyed it. The Buddha Board is modern and allows for more freedom in drawing and a lot easier to use. I’m excited about this, I want to try it out!
I was at the Post Office this week mailing a package. I was almost done with my transaction when I asked for some stamps. GUESS WHAT — the Post Mistress brought out these stamps for Lunar New Year! She asked, “Would you like these?” Why, of course!
I believe the Year of the Rat starts off the 12 zodiac signs. If that is true, looking at the sheet of stamps, it appears the Post Office has their next 11 stamps set up for the next 11 years. We will see.
This illustration of the Rat is really beautiful. Personally, I think it looks more like a jaguar than a rat. However, as I keep looking at it, this rat clearly has a magical look.
I realize I am a little late, but better late than never!
A friend of mine sent me a picture of this Buddha Board. She knows I have been practicing drawing, but also focused on a zen lifestyle.
Brilliant Viewpoint 