a little something...

this is one of the smaller paintings that I'm working on in the studio these days. I'm completely immersed in the use of the metalic leaf as it's very fun to experiment. And since my work tends to focus these days on horticultural themes: trees, fruit, branches, vineyards, orchards, whom should I find perched there? Birds of course.

just checking in...

I don't want to succumb to what might be known as some type of bloggers block, so I thought I'd just write with a few updates.
The hand has been to p.t. a few times now. Or rather I've taken the hand to p.t. where I am likely to experience in no particular order: ultrasound, massage, pushing/pulling some type of playdough like substance, time in a tank (just the hand) with some hot air and ground up corn husks. There's more but already this sounds weird as I write it so I'm going to move on from here.
Does my hand feel better? Short answer, no. It feels like it felt before surgery. But I accept the fact that it is healing and healing takes time. I just have a habit of wanting things now. Don't we all.

It's a good thing

people needing paintings, that is. Well, actually it's all good, but I'll stay on message and just speak of my painting.
Everyone knows by now that I'm getting ready for the much anticipated open studios here in Napa valley. I'm a fairly organized person, so I've got it in my head weeks ago what I'd be showing, what still needed to be painted to "round out" what I'm showing with an eye toward a good assortment. ie; easy to buy and put in one's trunk, yes?
Things are going along just fine (ok, with a diversion to surgery on my hand) and then I get an email from an account of mine in SF who needs some older paintings of mine swapped out for new. Great account, absolutely will bring you the paintings you'd like and by the way, will have very few left for open studios.
But this is a good thing, is it not? I remember my grandmother saying "crying all the way to the bank"
So, I'll clean out my inventory, and start anew for the show- which will likely turn out to be the best thing, as I've already got some good ideas in my head of what other work I'd like to do and show that I'd otherwise not gotten to by September.
Onward!

did I say no painting this week?

I just had to come back and post that i not only did paint, I painted for about 45 minutes. I even experimented like
Renoir did in his later days with strapping a brush to his hand and forearm, but alas, I was able to hold a brush in my hand, albeit clumsily and not with any type of confidence of brush stroke but just used the moment for some loose brush work and more mental therapy than anything.
Just took my bandage off to let myself see the frankenstein like cut in my hand and stitches and all the green yellow purple bruising that goes with it. sometimes it's necessary to look at something or face it head on and not baby it so much.
really glad i painted today.
k

it's cuz I love ya...

yep, 5 days post surgery on my hand and here I am blogging as best I can because believe it or not, I do have a small (ok, itty-bitty) following of peeps that do find it helpful to keep track of me through this blog.
Ok, here's the freekish thing:
we all know i"ve got a website in which I show my art, right? and we all know what my last name is right and that it has the word "friend" in it, right?
well, here's what everybody wants: I'm getting hits on my site from people all over the world that are looking for a friend. Yes and it's not the kind of friend ya want, ya know? Oh, brother. When I back track on their searches it's for googles like
"dating, girl, friend", "find,friend, girl", and my favorite, "poem, girl, friend".
Oyvey people. These are not the hits that me wants on me site.

Now when I go to my name on these searches, it sounds like I'm running a dating service. Trust me when I say I'm not.

Picked up a paint brush with my left hand, put it in paint and attempted to work on a piece that I just started. No... don't think so, at least not this week. More work on the physical therapy before I can get back to art for now.
your FRIEND,
k

ouch!

I said to Dr. B as he zapped, yes with electricity and everything. About 15 of those zaps into my hand, three needles into my hand so as to make actual contact with nerve. Geez, aren't we all under the impression that modern medicine has advanced just a teeny bit more than this torture-fest is? Dr. Jekyl, uh I mean Dr. B is enjoying this quite so much.
Seriously, it HURT. Like more than just the italics would do, I had to go all the way to caps.

Then as he's studying his computer screen, looking at my flatlined nerve readings (there are supposed to be blips, like a heart beat) here I am, getting hot, hot hotter still. Betcha don't know I'm a fainter. Yes, it's true. Luckily, he's got me reclining on the exam table and getting me a glass of water before I can say "thud" . Whew. Don't care for the faint if R's not around to catch me, you know?

Ok, official- severe carpal tunnel. Surg's tomorrow a.m. Four days with hand bandaged and elevated as if to be in a constant state of inquiry. "uh, I have a question..." Monday stitches out. Four weeks of 2x week p.t.

In the meantime of course, I've been trying to get as much done on painting as humanly possible. Leaving odd stuff like papering the backs of paintings for later- when I'm less able, I suppose. Just trying to plow through what I know are the beginnings of paintings so that I've at least got a jump forward.
That sure blows all the myths about artists and all this creative energy that is channeled at exactly the perfect moment to put the paint brush on the canvas and create masterpieces. I'm in there, pushing pushing. Creative energy? whatever. I've got to get this done!
love to all of you, wish me a fast recovery, won't you?
K

Back to art already

Nothing like a impending surgery to get one motivated to complete a few tasks, say, in the studio? I'm in the final crunch on time before my hand gets cut open, so I'm really getting some canvases ready for their next steps and it has made an already efficient painter (me) even more so. the studio looks even more what my friend D once called an "art factory" as I have about 20 paintings leaning against any available surface, all in some form of doneness.
I must also say that when one starts blogging about patios on their blog, the blog begins to be littered with patio ads. Yuk.
So, I can't type that P word anymore, dearies.
If you recall from previous posts, before I became obsessed with a P, I'm actually a working artist, so I'm going to get back to business and put the business of my hand on the back burner as it were.
In preparation of said surgery, I've been practicing using my left hand in various tasks, some more successfully than others.
Eating, check.
brushing teeth, check.
.....ok, the list isn't that long, but I can eat and brush my teeth. Oh boy. Still working on the other stuff, like writing and painting.
Recovery time is about 4 weeks, the first one to two the most critical so of course typing on the computer isn't going to be any picnic. The horror!
Stay tuned for my "left hand" period of art. Who knows, maybe I'll tap into a part of my brain unused and find a new "voice" to paint by.