Whiskey or Tea?

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The second part of this title, which I thought of when I painted it (weeks ago) is "No Contest." But that cherry's already had enough, don't you think? The rest is for me.   : )

We finally made it to Oregon. Check out our New Beginning blog to read about it and see photos.

Folded Stacks

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Did I mention I found one cup in the rubble? It's the middle one in this stack. It's a little scorched, but I'll be glad to add it to my new collection.

Meanwhile, we are near Sacramento tonight. Read about getting here on our New Beginning blog.

Pink Ribbon, Blue Nose

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I've started a new blog - A New Beginning - to post about our trip to Oregon and restarting our lives there.

Meanwhile, I'll keep posting here every few days with the remaining paintings I have from before the fire. Here's one of a pig I am very sad to have lost. I didn't even find the pieces of him in the rubble. Hopefully I'll find another one day. I hope to be up and running with the silly faces project by the 6th. If everything goes right we'll close on the new house on the 5th. I've gotten some really fabulous faces already - thank you to everyone who's emailed them!

A New Beginning - a blog

I just started a new blog - A New Beginning - where we will record our trip to Oregon, and beyond. I'll post links  here sometimes and I'll put a permanent link over on the right. More soon ...

Pushover

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This lovely wooden duck (gone now) was given to me by my buddy Don, in California. I enjoyed painting it. And speaking of gifts, I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you who have sent art supplies, gift cards, books, music, emails, etc. We are so incredibly grateful for the support. I can't say it enough. And many thanks to all of you who've sent funny face pics already. We've been running around tying up loose ends, and will be until we leave, so I won't be able to paint again until the 6th of October. But I can't WAIT to get started on my new project. I have so many wonderful images to work from. Please keep sending them.

Yesterday we went to visit the old "house". I posted some photos on the building my studio blog - the last chapter of that one. I dug through the ashes and found a few still life objects - none useable except maybe one cup. I also found my little travel turp can, shown below. It was sad but we are glad to have seen it. It proved good closure for us. Now on with the adventure!

Orange Overflow

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I have a lot to report, but I'll start with a recap of the workshop last week. It was good for me to be busy, and as I said in an earlier post, my kids were very patient with me. As a thank you, I promised them I wouldn't complain about them. So I'll complain about driving in MA instead - it's crazy! I got lost more times than I can count because of my stupid, borrowed GPS, poor signage and bad directions, and almost hit another guy in a rotary because he was being an idiot. (breathe) Here are my kids being awfully studious:

Below are my first couple of demos. I had to borrow all the props, panels and medium (thank you guys!), but in the end everything turned out ok.

Below are my kids and me in the middle. You guys were fabulous - thank you so much for everything!! (more below)

I am home now and have started fixing my blog. I decided to run with the lighter background. I even put in a new header - check it out. I haven't retrieved all the "stuff on the right," and I'll need some help with that (more later). Also to report, while I was in MA last week David (hubby) was in Oregon finding us a new house, in Eugene! We will be leaving this weekend with the camper and car. It should take us about a week to get there. I'll post pictures when I get there. Tomorrow we'll be seeing our old "house" for the first and last time. I hope to find some little memento in the ashes. We'll see. More soon ...

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 ...

Update

We have been stumbling around like zombies for the past couple of days, gathering up the essentials for living, after hearing from a neighbor that his friend went out to confirm our house is completely gone. And so many others as well. As far as we know the fire is STILL burning. We are incredibly fortunate to have a "home" still, even if it is 24 feet long and about 8 feet wide. And as so many others have said, we are incredibly fortunate to be alive, and to have each other.

David and I (and Jacob, 6, who is fine, by the way, and has been a real trooper through this whole thing) have been blown away - more than words can express - by the emails and comments and phone calls and offers of support, and not to mention the generous and completely unexpected fundraiser ... I have tears in my eyes just writing this. It means more to us than I could EVER express. We feel so incredibly loved.

As of now we have a place to live, and all the essentials. I will be teaching in Massachusetts next week and then we will begin figuring out what "next" means for us. We are seriously considering abandoning this tinder box we call Texas. I will keep you posted.

Again, thank you all SO SO SO much. Words cannot express how much your support means to us through this hard time.

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.

Bowl of Sunshine & Tomato Lover

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UPDATE: Unfortunately the painting below is no longer available - I didn't take any of my larger paintings before the fire...

The painting below is 12x12 inches, on gessoboard. I am putting it in the Daily Paintworks, Help the Children of Africa auction. They say hundreds of thousands of children are starving because of the current drought. I know it's half a world away, but children are children. If you can help by donating or bidding they would be very grateful!

Chaperoned

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See, the flower and the apple are in love, but they can't be trusted alone, so the brown bottle is chaperoning. And what's the fork there for you ask? Uhhhh...