Thursday, April 19, 2012

Same Painting . . . New Show

"American Summer"

I received notice yesterday that my painting, "American Summer" has been accepted into the Academic Artists Association Show in Springfield at AIC (American International College) which takes place April 29th - May 11th from noon - 4pm.  If you are local, I hope you can stop by and see the show -- it's very impressive - some really AMAZING work (very humbling).  :)

And just to update you on what I've been doing . . . we've had some terrific weather here in the Northeast so I've been cleaning out the studio and working on some furniture projects.  I love antiques, consignment finds, Craig's List treasures and as my friend June would say, "cheap thrills" like free stuff on the side of the road.  :)  So my poor husband has been holding my stuff up in the barn for like FOREVER . . .  however my obsession has started to pour out into the house and the studio in particular.  And everything is in need of cleaning and stripping and sanding and/or painting, etc.  So to make a long story short I've been trying to clean up some of that collection, putting things into their proper places.  One such find was a lovely rolltop desk that is now in my studio.  However that took about two days of re-organizing around a pull-out sleeper couch that needs to go (I just need to post it on Craig's List) and an old wooden booth that I'm in the middle of restoring that will go in the kitchen but until then is still in my studio.  I'm also hoping to get the free cupboard-turned entertainment center finished (my husband built a wonderful cabinet top to go on a streetside found cupboard bottom) by the weekend.  And I'm happy to report that I finished working on the mantle that will go in the bedroom.  (just a faux mantle, but it works with the decor).

Gaaahh . . . so not much painting this week.  I'm also trying to exercise.  Huh!?  What is THAT!?  Which to a normal person wouldn't seem like that big of a deal, but for me is all-consuming.  My brother and I are going to try and run a little 5k in the town where we grew up at the end of the month.  So for the past few weeks I've been working my way up to that, although I'm sure I'll still have to walk some.  (If any of you watch "The Middle" I AM Sue Heck.  Every sentence I utter is peppered with "well I've been training for a 5k" or "after my 5k training . . . "  yadda-yadda-yadda. So lame. You'd think I was running a marathon.)  And I took a crazy kick-boxing class last night with two of my former art students and I think I liked it!  I was a hideous site to see and was too embarrassed to even look at myself in the mirror, but what an insane work-out!

So that's the scoop.  Sorry for such a long post and no real new artwork.  I'll try to post something tomorrow.  Have a good day!

7 comments:

  1. Congratulations. I love that painting.

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  2. Congratulations for the show!

    Sometimes life catch up with us and it just seems hard to be productive while doing all the other "real life" stuff... I haven't been productive since April, while the weather is great I just itch to get out and hike! ...That plus the fact that I started to attend classes four days a week for classical drawing and painting... After day-long standing and drawing it's hard to get back and paint on my own in the evenings... I really wonder how Crystal does it! Anyway, you should not feel guilty for doing things that are necessary for your well being! And you are still way more productive

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    1. Sorry for the unfinished last post -- blogger somehow cut my last sentence short. I mean to say you are still way more productive than me!

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  3. COngrats on the show Kara! I do really love this painting. And geez I've had a plan to sand and repaint my dining room table for like ever and have never gotten around to it becasue every time I have some free time I want to paint ART instead of TABLES!

    Good luck with your 5K. :) I run too.

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  4. Hi Kara
    I enjoyed your presentation and style of teaching today. Congratulations

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  5. I loved reading this post! I've always liked refinishing furniture too, and I have some stuff in my garage that my husband keeps wanting to give away (or throw out). You sound so busy! Just reading it made me tired!

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Thank you so much for commenting!