One World One Heart 2011

Welcome all new comers and of course old comers :-). This is the 5Th and final one world one heart event, this is my first time in this event and I am pleased to be here. Click on banner to link to where this all started.

Hi, my name is Annie and I am an artist who lives in Taos New Mexico. I am a painter who works in mixed media and a ceramic artist who works in porcelain. Making art is the love of my life. I am single and I have 2 cats, Spike and Max and 1 dog, Zeus who are the other loves of my life. Art, nature, animals, books, movies, friends, family, and spirit, these are the most exciting and important things to me. Look around and get to know me and I will be doing the same as time permits to get to know some of you. I will be giving away this porcelain pendant (1 1/2"x 2" on an 12" red suede cord) that I made as a door prize, to win just leave a comment on this post (only comments on this post count) and I will be drawing all the names from a hat on February the 17Th. This contest is open to all bloggers worldwide. Please be sure there is a way to link back to your blog and a way to contact you if you win, I will be sending the winner an email on February 17Th and I will be posting about it that day.

I look forward to meeting some of you and perhaps forging new and lasting friendships.

Happy Monday! XOXO

The drawing is closed.

The doorprize has a winner, go to my latest post to read all about it! XOXO

We Have a Winner!

The winner of my giveaway is the wonderful and talented Silke. A round of applause please. I am going to pick something from my ceramics and will be sending it off soon. Thank you all who entered. Love you. Happy Thursday! XOXO

LOVE SALE and a Giveaway!

I decided just for the fun of it I would have a 10% off all items in my ETSY shop for the next 3 days (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday), a love sale. How it works is there will be a coupon code thingy that appears at check out, just type in LOVER and you will get 10% deducted.

I also decided that it was time for another giveaway, that will be a surprise, but it will be one of the porcelain pieces, just leave a comment and you will be in the hat, drawing will be Thursday. Happy Monday! XOXO

Blessings

I thought I would share my new banner for my ESTY site. I also thought that I would give you a run down of what has been happening and what I have been doing, if only because I use this blog as a sort of diary. It has been a wonderful week and that after a terrible week. I won't dwell on the terrible week, especially not after the great week I just had :-). First, this week I took my Spike to the vet for his 6 month check up to see if the stone in his bladder had grown and to check on his kidney's (he is the cat who had kidney failure 1 year and 2 months ago) and we got great news, the stone has not grown and his kidney numbers are almost normal, an improvement since his last tests. This had me doing the dance of joy :-). Next, I went to the place I have my ceramics fired and when I got money out to pay, the owner said that someone had come in and paid 100 dollars in my name, so I had a 100 dollar credit! How wonderful is that. Then today I found a 20 dollar bill! Tomorrow I am going to Santa Fe with a friend, so who knows what other wonderful things are in store. Have a Happy weekend! XOXO P.S. I almost forgot, my darling blogger friend from England, Melanie sent me the most wonderful gift, a bag she made along with a lavender sachet, when I get pictures taken I will show you! Thank you Melanie!

Following Your Heart

Here they are. I hope you like them, 7 out of ten made it. I am pretty happy with that. They started out small, but got smaller as porcelain shrinks when it gets fired. Three are really tiny, but I love them that way. For two weeks I have been painting and not liking the results, so I plaster over it and try again and after a week of this I finally realized what was wrong. The little vases are calling to me and while I have missed painting, right now the vases are what my heart is calling me to, so I finally gave up :-) and made more yesterday, slightly bigger, and I will make many more until my heart is satisfied :-). Please let me know what you think and if you want one let me know, I will be slowly listing them on my ETSY site this week. Happy Tuesday! XOXO

Vases in the Raw

My little bud vases are now glazed and being fired as I type, I will be getting them on Tuesday and if they make it I will share, but thought I would give you a look at them, raw before they were fired or glazed, you can get a little better look if you click on the image and enlarge it.

I have been very busy this week and more social than usual and then there is the book (see post below) so I have not posted for an entire week! I am at the moment waiting for venetian plaster to dry, I did a painting and did not like it, so I just plastered over it and now I am off to make a new banner for my ETSY site and of course read (I am on page 64 now :-). I love Sundays! Art day, relaxing day, catch up day. Love and hugs and Happy Sunday! XOXO

BOOK LOVE

Yesterday I bought a new book "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace, I have been reading short stories and essays of his and decided it was time to read his masterpiece. I had heard it was hard, so I had been putting it off, but I finally took the plunge. I was shocked to find out how large the book is , with footnotes (and there are many) the book runs 1079 pages! In the forward, they say that many people buy the book, but few read it, now I was really scared, but I
gathered my courage and began, and I am in love. Can a book be challenging and funny and sad and smart and witty and odd and wonderful, all at once, Yes! I want to know if any of you out there have read it? I am only on page 33, they are large pages with tiny print, and I do not read fast, I savor every word, so it will likely take me many weeks to finish this book and I am in no rush. I will paint today before I start reading, though I must confess I snuck it back to bed with me this morning for an hour. "Infinite Jest" is not for everyone, it is strange and obsessive and genius, I love it more than I can say. How I wish David Foster Wallace was still with us to write many more like it. I will keep you posted on how this adventure goes. For those writers out there, this is a must read! Happy Monday!!!! XOXO

Tracks in the Snow

I love animal tracks in the snow, thought I would share.

Busy paintings, so gotta run :-). Happy Saturday! XOXO

Animal Wednesday (Ravens!)

These ravens were in the grocery store parking lot. Finding junk food to eat. Aren't they wonderful!

Nothing going on here as I have a %#@!* stye n my eye. I can't see out of the eye and it makes it hard to do much of anything, what an irritating little thing it is! It makes it hard to see to type, so if I am not leaving comments on your blogs, you know why :-). Thankfully they only last a few days. This is my first and I hope the last. Happy Animal Wednesday! XOXO

Exquisite Bliss

I can't help it.

I stayed in this world of childish wonder,

I think that a lot of creative people never grow up.

I am certain a real man would not paint any pictures!

Or wonder about the universe

Or believe in dreams.

Or think that trees sometimes look at him.

Willem de Kooning

This quote of de Kooning's (my #1 all time favorite artist) always makes me dreamy and inspired. I thought I would share. I am up to my eyeballs in art projects and ideas, I started with making 10 tiny and small porcelain bud vases, I loved making them so much I can't even express it in words. Exquisite bliss. I will give you a look at them if they make it through the firing and glazing process. It was enough though to form them, each one a different surprise.

Next up is a new painting or two or four or 10 :-) and some drawing and then some more vases and maybe some bangles. This is a very yummy way to start the new year. Happy Sunday. XOXO