Almost done.

Electric

8 am .... just wait ....

  

Plywood 1.5 hrs later

The begining of a banjo

Banjo Making Day: An End to Painters Block

I am ready to tackle the snotty knotty piece o plywood nailed to my door. Thanks to:

Hubcap



1. Liliana the Luna Moth the holding of whom was more effective than meditation or beer.
2. Doug the Surfer who tackles piece after piece of plywood with no thought to his personal safety
3. Joan the Dancer Doug's mom who explained Doug's art, dance and life to me in a way that I couldn't understand but that made me feel really creative and confident. Doug's lucky to have grown up with this.
4. Today's youth (Holly's children) who demanded I make another banjo. Until this point I was scared that I couldn't make another good one but they made it sound so frickin easy.
5. Bill the Beautiful Savage who made my worries of the future disappear into acceptance of the beautiful & luscious confusion of the present.
6. Shanna who has had the unparalleled fortitude to not dress but rather costume up every dang day of her life.

Work Bench in  my dining room Professional Artist Studio & my dog Animal Companion.



Today I shall painteth the plywood which taunteth me.

 

Yeah. Just another day in the wardrobe of Shanna (& my son Spencer). (Martha Dyer created Da $ Shoes)








Da Other Brudda: Sage



Something to Crow About at Happymess & My Daughter and I as Men!

I would LOVE to make pictures with you! Tonight we hawk our classes at Outsiders Gallery's http://www.outsiders-art.com/events  new Happymess http://www.outsiders-art.com/happymess .


I get to teach two classes in March. One on Making Faces, which would be a great class to take as part of a pair: adult/child or date class and the other is Drawing Birds from Nature.

A little bird told me that you are harboring some great reserved creativity. This spring is the time for you to be free as a bird and let your inhibitions fly! Don't put all your eggs in one basket: we are going to begin by offering little sample classes. S0 kill two birds with one stone and sign up for a couple classes! You will be happy as a lark!

Oh and I believe that Happymess is going to start a drawing from life class where there will be models who are naked as a jay bird! Oh... I bet that would make you smug as the cat who ate the canary.

Your goose is NOT cooked: there is still time to register!

Oh... here is a special bonus for following my post:


Shanna (my daughter), Liz and I as men. And it was not Halloween. It was just a normal social gathering of  friends from  the Church of Latter Day Saints.



Talk about regional wildlife  … PINHOOK hosts the

blue tailed skinks

Wednesday February 9 @ 8pm.

117 West Main…the only place to be if you want to make Wednesday night …

PARTY NIGHT!

Come on out and dance to Old Time that aint old.

Nuff Said

Morning O Shame (by tomorrow, I promise)



Plywood 1

 


Sandee 0

 





 

HappyMess's plot to denude you down to your blathering creative underbelly

Yesterday was a secret strategy meeting of undercover artists planning a way to make you one of us, without you specifically knowing it. I have been sworn to secrecy but ... well you see how far that gets you. The truth is, in this meeting we made a pact to lure you in here (Ousiders Gallery http://www.outsiders-art.com/ Thurs. 2/10 5:30-8) and  strip you of your outer crust of pomp, civility and seriousness. We want to denude you down to your blathering creative underbelly.

On a more personal note, being with artists yesterday embarrassed me into inspired me to finally dealing with the mocking piece of snotty knotty plywood I nailed to a door in my dining room professional studio about 3 months ago. It laughs at me continually. Today is the day that I earn the respect of that snotty knotty piece of plywood.

Okay. Tomorrow I bring the finished product to you here on the web. Promise.

The Sacredness of Idahos

I put a bird on my window to sing to me when I get up.

It is all about how your personal path to Idaho is your own freakin bidness.

I am teaching the mini-session at Outsiders Gallery's Happymess today. http://www.outsiders-art.com/And I am nervous. Weird because I have taught A LOT. I founded a freakin school...   (Achievement Academy of Durham  www.achievedurham.org ) .

But, teaching art is different. I never wanted or let anyone teach me. And I know that sounds arrogant but as a kid art is all I really felt I had that was really mine. And I did not want anyone in 'there' with me. I protected this thing I did. I did not want anyone messing with it. It is the place I could escape. It is the place I could be happy.

So, I hope there are no kooks like me in the 'audience' of learners. And if there is I am prepared for them. In fact, that is why I worked so hard to figure out what I want to teach because I don't want to mess with anybody's treasure .... anybody's escape hatch.... anybody's personal path to their own frickin Idaho.

Sorting Shit & The Beauty Operators 1st Practice Tonight

The Scrap Exchange is a nonprofit creative reuse center located in Durham, North Carolina. Our mission is to promote creativity, environmental awareness, and community through reuse.

All my life I believed that shopkeepers acted cheerful, because they had to, but that in truth they were bitter and jaded like most of us. But yesterday when I got to be a shopkeeper I was happy! I liked the kooks who brought in shit and the kooks who bought shit. I liked the bosses. Everyone who works there and everyone who shops there makes stuff out of this shit. I was cheerful and it was genuine.

I Like Sorting Shit

 You see the banjo in the picture at the top of this blog. I made that out of shit when I was one of the kooks who shopped at the Scrap. It is made out of a hubcap.

Tonight the Beauty Operators get together for their first practice. We are going to Frickin rock Durham. More tomorrow!   

Creative Reuse.... I got the job o jobs!

I got the Green Job of my dreams! I wanted green but if you know me you know I wouldn't be that good at installing solar panels. In this green job I will get to sort shit junk, meet kooks creative people, show my shit my art pieces, and totally enjoy life and art at its best in beautiful Central Park located in Durham North Carolina famously known as the Paris of France.

I will be employed by the creative re-use industry at our very own, very loveable Scrap Exchange http://www.scrapexchange.org/news.html I love, all of us Parisians Durhamites love, the Scrap. 

I have to go because me and the dogs need to take a long walk before I begin my 7.5 hr training! Today I go from kook to kook server. Wish me luck.


Puck & Sophie Sit & Stay




Waiting for a Walk
1 hr. later still sitting but bored



Art Class Musing; Beaver Queen Aspirations

All art requires courage. (Anne Tucker)
And going for the Beaver Queen crown requires a hot beaver & knowing your way around a squeeze box can't hurt.
(Sandee Washington)
In the midst of clamping my brain down on the challenge of planning the art mini-session I received a call from Beaver Lodge Local 1504 asking if I would be interested in going for the crown this year. 
http://beaverlodgelocal1504.org/  
Humble as I am I would ordinarily pass on vying for any kind of crown. But, when I received an invitation from Beaver Lodge Local 1504 I thought twice. The truth is, this has been a long lonely winter and my squeeze box is burning up from all the solitary play I’ve been subjecting it to.  There is nothing like the push of a too hot squeeze box to get you yearning to mix it up with other hot beavers. I’m in! (I will keep you informed on my progress in this endeavor.)

And the class! My goal is for students to see a face for real. And I don't have much time: 20 min. What has come to me is that the best way to begin really seeing a face may be to shut your eyes. The face is too familiar and to begin to be able to draw one we have to get past the 'knee-jerk' familiar. So as I woke up this morning I got it!!! The students will work with partners and they will close their eyes. Their partner will make there face into some expression and the drawing  



 

My Neighbor's Granbaby (I used acrylics and got to know the baby!)

partner will feel their face with their hands feeling the expression (and this has a double meaning because really you have to be empathetic to draw a human face well because you have to feel what the person in the drawing feels and if you are doing this right if you don't feel what they feel you will by the end of the drawing. You and the face you drew will be wearing the same expression! Really.) So, the person, with their eyes closed feels their partner's face and then opens their eyes and draws what they felt. 'Good' drawing has nothing to do with this. This is about feeling. TADA... the mini session and I can't wait!!!

My First Blog & My 10th Accordion



 Of course, I am on to something else but I am going to miss that guy. I put so much into him and he made me very happy.  I just heard that he is living with a woman who loves him.  Pamela Gulton, the sparkly, effervescent yet totally deep, owner of Outsider's Gallery, www.outsiders-art.com, told me yesterday that she sold the banjo to a wonderful woman "who loves him" and that makes me very happy.

I've always made stuff. It is how I have survived since ummm... birth. I've snuck  making art into everything I have every done. My life's work was helping people heal from trauma and move on to a better life. From personal experience I know that we people heal through creation.  So, in my work we made art! We created freedom from anything we could get our hands on.  

And when my three tornado, intensity kids were little ... The minute I got them all into bed I would grab a beer, grab my brush and start painting more pictures on the walls. (How could I be upset with them when I found that they had drawn insects on the furniture?)

But now, with my kids having amazingly (and beautifully) grown, with an empty house and with the end of the demands of a strict 8 to 5 job I realize that can focus on my secret world: on making art that appears to make other people as happy as it has always made me. http://www.sandee-washington.com

It is exciting to have this opportunity but like any real change it is scary too. I am glad I have you to share this with. Thank you for reading my post and let's see what happens next. I would so appreciate feedback from you!

Oh ... I believe that I am going to have an opportunity to teach art classes soon... and trust me they will all be about the artful magic of escape ... My favorite reason for making art.  Making art makes any day beautiful.

1st Accordion



10 Accordion