Happy New Year!

In the last few hours of 2013, I am patting myself on the back for keeping up my resolutions of last December: I started this blog, set up a facebook page, got involved in the charity fundraiser Big Egg Hunt Dublin, read a slew of books, re-booted my dream journal, and kept up a daily notes journal (suggested by, you guessed it, Austin Kleon in Steal Like an Artist!). While I plan to keep up everything from last year, and of course keep painting, I am planning to start work on my writing again. It has been a long while since I have actually set pen to paper to work on prose or poetry but it has always been in the background niggling at me. I have another list of books which are waiting for my eyes, and with the recent acquisition of a large piece of black leather, I have at least 5 gift books to make. Recently a woman at the office where I work part time, has kindly and patiently begun teaching a group of us how to crochet on our lunch breaks. So I will be starting a new crochet project in the new year too! 2014 will be another exciting and busy year and I would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy and safe New Year!

Signs

 The late 50s does not seem that historically long ago to me, and I remember my father telling me about a sign on a hospital door in Toronto (where he was a new immigrant) saying "No Irish" at the end of an advert for a job.

So when I was a kid in 1971, it was no wonder I loved the anti-establishment song "Signs" by the hippy Ottawa group Five Man Electrical Band. In their song, most signs were a bad thing, as they usually had a negative aspect about them.

Since then, however, I have come to enjoy various signs which catch my attention for their good advice - as in this manipulated sign which appeared in Austin Kleon's book Steal Like an Artist,

their positive affirmation (though this may be graffiti - I am not sure as I found it on the Cass Art facebook page),

charming double meaning (this is a road sign at Nice airport taken out of context, but appropriate to my recent bad experience with French train service),

and/or just plain old surreality! (I know I posted this Dublin sign before, but couldn't resist doing so again.)

The eggs are gone, so now I have been catching up on other stuff!  I finished reading The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (contemporary and friend of Charles Dickens), a whodunnit that I thoroughly enjoyed.  I have also just finished reading Steal Like an Artist  for the second time in 30 days!  I have been preparing images for the update of the lorjames art website, including the following:

The above is entitled Chicago Thumb Wars from the Moments series of paintings on raw canvas.  I started this body of work last year (for more details go to ART link on right bar).  Below is Auspices -- both of these paintings were inspired by our visit to Chicago in 2010.  I'll be starting back to work on this series next week.

Ready, steady, go!

One of my xmas presents to my husband was Austin Kleon's book Steal Like an Artist (link in sidebar), which both of us read very quickly and were inspired by. For the new year I decided I would follow some of his recommendations. I have been making sketchbooks for friends and family for about 20 years, so finally decided to gift myself one I made a few years ago. I always find it daunting to start a new sketchbook, especially one which seems like a precious object, but I will start it this week! I have also started a point-form journal -- it's a French date book which was picked up in the local recycling centre. It has fabulous pictures from around the world and I am actually able to translate the textual blurbs with what French I have.

I am also getting myself more involved in the outside world (I'm a bit of a creative hermit) but more of that next posting!