A New Year

It's a new year and a time to again resolve to be more diligent about writing my blog.
I have spent some time re-reading my notes on blogging and pondering just what my blog is about.  I chose the title for my blog "In the Moment" to write about not just my painting, but about what I am doing, thinking, making, and discovering at any given moment.  I have spent most of my life planning the next day, the next week, the next month, but as I get older, I want more and more to just be in the moment.....to appreciate the here and now. 
Mostly my blog will be about painting, my passion.  But, I also love to knit, crochet, bake, work in collage and mixed media, and try lots of new things.  I have a new grandson who is occupying a large portion of my heart right now......so my blog can be about all of those things.

My newest project which turned out a little funky is felted flowers that you see pictured in the post.  I love the colors and curly petals, but they didn't turn out exactly as I had expected.  The movement of the petals is simillar to the movement that I capture in my paintings, so I think they relate.  I am going to work on them a little more and make pins for my artsy friends.  I hope they like them.  Check out the patttern for Lion Brand Wool. 

Beauty Trap

Chair Re-done is an annual summer exhibit sponsored by D'Art Center in Norfolk, Virginia. Each artist entering the show is asked to present an artwork that incorporates a chair in a thoughtful, provocative, instructive, engaging and inventive way. My entry is entitled "Beauty Trap".
As I looked through magazines published primarily for women, I noticed that on almost every page there was an ad, a headline, or a story for women to buy something or do something to change how they looked....be more beautiful. If only we had silkier hair, longer hair.......we were taller, shorter........had less freckles.... lighter skin, darker skin.... weighed less, weighed more.......had larger breasts, smaller breasts......longer legs......and on and on. Why do women constantly compare themselves to some ideal beauty......to fall into the beauty trap?