Digital Painting

Inspired by the digital artwork of Israeli artist, Ish Gordon, I had to try my own hand at digital painting. Of course, as all my artist friends know, I experiment, always, by using a pear as my subject. And here is, Pear Number 1, a digital painting.

Pear Number 1, available at Society 6

The image below is my inspiration, 

Tangled Romantic, by Ish Gordon

Obviously, I have a long way to go! :D

Just Me, By Myself

"Orange" - Enhanced Digital Photo
I guess you can see that I'm peeling myself open like an orange.

I've begun a new chapter in my life. It's thrilling. But not everyone in my life is thrilled for me. And not all of my blog followers will be thrilled, either. Although this blog has primarily been about my art, I call it "a crabulous life" because it was always my intention to write about other aspects of my life, as well.

Ending a marriage, especially a long one, is never easy. It's easy to point fingers and the desire to blame is great. But . . . everyone has their demons. Ours just did not play well together.

Life goes on and new chapters are always being written. Remember that old Carly Simon song, "That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be"? There's a phrase from that song which has long haunted me. It goes, "I'll never learn to be just me first, by myself."

That line is significant. That is an important step in life for all people. It's nearly impossible to contribute to a relationship when you don't even know who you are independently of another human being. It's a step that I missed in my life and as I learned more and more about myself during my marriage, we pretty much discovered that I was not the woman my ex hoped I would be.

So now I'm on a quest to be "just me, by myself," and I feel a need to share it with the world. Don't worry. There will still be art. Art and creativity is all a very big part of me. But, there'll be other things as well.

~Kristeena

Tangy Zoodle #104

Tangy Zoodle #104

My sister TAGG members all know that when I start making "pear" art, that I'm transitioning. 

Tangy Zoodle #103

Tangy Zoodle #103

Retrospective Part 1

"Two Pears" - pastel - 4x5 - 1996

I'm currently visiting with my mother who lives 650 miles from me; so I don't get to see her often enough. Being the supportive mother that she is, she owns the world's largest collection of my artwork. This collection covers the gamut from my very beginning days until now. It's always great fun and a great education for me to review these pieces whenever I'm visiting and it has inspired me to create something of a retrospective exhibit within my blog.

I was 39 before I discovered that I had the ability to draw. I was never one to take art classes in high school and I really never doodled or dabbled in art. But, I've always been an art lover, a frequent visitor to art museums, and a collector. Finally, one day, I just had to see if I had the ability to create anything of my own.

My first foray into creating art was learning to draw with charcoal and pencils. Unfortunately, I don't think any of these early works are in existence. I was over zealous in cleaning out my studio one day and... whoops!

After spending time just honing my drawing skills, I stepped up to using color. Pastels. The little piece above is the very first pastel I ever did. When my new box of Nupastels arrived, I broke them in and practiced using them by creating pears. Ever since then, whenever I try something new, I almost always experiment by using pears as my subject. My art friends tease me about it being my favorite fruit. As far as I'm concerned, the shape and countours of pears allows you to fully experience the extent of the capabilities of a new medium.

Shortly after the pears, I painted the image below from a photo of my parents' back yard.

"In A Southern Garden" - pastel - 18x24 1997

This was probably my first attempt at flowers and you can see I had a tough time with them. I love their silliness. I became much better at flowers later on.