Hammie in purple

Hammie in purple, originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

Photo by TV

Tom got a lot of painting done on Hammie this weekend. I helped as well. Still lots more to do…

I tried out Martha Stewart's Milk Paint Recipe and it failed miserably. I used non-fat milk. Isn't that what skim milk is? Anyway, gonna try another recipe. I bought lots of colorful pigment paint and I want to use it. Lots of things are happening. I'm putting together an Artist Business Circle. I'll have more details on that as I put that together. There's a new salon in Rockridge that wants art. I have a fun idea for an art piece around their theme "7" involving aluminum.

Tom painting Hammie

Tom painting Hammie, originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

Kiss Me You Fool

After cooking a fabulous risotto (we make it vegetarian and substituted white balsamic vinegar for the white wine) Tom and I were trying to plan when we could next paint Hammie… Tom suggested just painting his bright red lips and orange mouth, such a difference just to start something and so much you can do in 15 minutes… I enjoy tracking our progress as well.

I spent a huge amount of time organizing the studio/garage over the weekend and it felt really good. Still have more to tackle but I'm grateful for Tom's acceptance of my process as it comes together.

Savannah Memories

Lots of stuff on my mind. Thinking about our Savannah trip… I found some of my notes for our trip. Still working on cleaning up the office… We had the best croutons on this salad from Alligator Soul. Tom also had an amazing vegetarian dish. Our server gave us the recipe for these amazing croutons. Make white grits, add Parmesan and let them get hard, probably in a square pan would be best, cut them into cubes, dust with flour and fry them (or you could try baking them).

The Shop SCAD store was one of my favorite places in Savannah. Some of the artists that stood out to me were: Rebecca Walker and Claire Teschel as well as Monica James and Robin Miller.

It's getting late… and I need to head off to work. I want to move over from Blogger to Wordpress… want to learn more about coding and have more flexibility… plus, I'd like to make my website and the blog interconnected. Big project but fun to think about.

I''m trying to add an image but for some reason I'm unable to… no photo this time.

Mornings, etc.

DSC_0185, originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

The mornings are generally FULL of potential for me, probably even when I'm in bed, dead to the world. Lots of stuff in my head. Looking forward to Wednesday's AIGA Design Shorts.

There is so much I want to learn. My photos are cut off when I post them from flickr but I'm glad that they are the length of the text. It's minor stuff but I obsess about it a bit. And then how do I post multiple photos from flickr in the same blog? And then what's the best way to organize my photos? And what size? And when I take them in raw format, it's such a hassle to save them down to jpgs, should I even be taking them in raw? Learning, learning.

I lost 20 pounds prior to my wedding and someone noted that it was really quick. It wasn't quick for me. It took six months with Weight Watchers and was such a process. I kept going up and down the scale, little bit up, little bit down, until I levelled off. And maybe that's a more realistic way of looking at things, if you step back and see something from a different perspective. Not so close.

This photo is a close up actually of a tree on the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill, North Carolina from our honeymoon. Great murals too.

The process of Hammie

Hammie 2, originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

Tom and I put on a coat of primer on Hammie today. Such a warm day and after looking at art at Pro Arts Open Studios it felt good to do some painting myself. Those pots in the back are wanting some paint as well. Signed up for a flickr account tonight… Trying to figure out how this all works… Tom and I are working on organizing the garage. It feels really good.

Morning Rant

Tired, this morning… wanting to design this blog layout so that it looks different… don't have half-n-half… having decaf tea instead… have a lot of things I'd like to do… wanting to buy a typewriter… am enjoying Michelle C. Moode's artwork, she had a piece with something typewritten on it, very sweet, I'm inspired to take a printmaking class, gotta think about that one…

I picked up a a ticket off the ground yesterday for a Castro Valley high school dance, it brought back such memories of me and high school dances… I thought it would be fun to tear up my yearbook and make art of my memories, could be pretty powerful…

Reminiscing about our Napa Getaway

The paint recipe that follows has been on my mind since Tom found it on our Napa getaway. I'm looking forward to painting some pots in our backyard towards the end of the month. Speaking of Napa, these photos are from a Napa house that was for sale. The owner was gracious enough to let me take some photos and then on top of that took us in the back and showed off his backyard as well. So much fun! Oh to have seen the inside! Looking forward to seeing the insides of San Francisco homes on this AIA Home tour in September.

Martha Stewart's Milk Paint Recipe:

Milk paint is an organic material that gives surfaces a distinctive color-washed finish. As the name suggests, milk is a principal ingredient in the material, acting as a binder for pigments the same way polymers do in latex paints and oils do in oil-based ones. People have been mixing milk paint for a long time; it has been found on artifacts dating to ancient Egypt, although it's perhaps most commonly associated with colonial-era furniture. The fact that the material doesn't give off noxious vapors (often called VOCs) accounts for its continued appeal within today's green building community. Craftspeople, meanwhile, value its saturated colors and translucent finish, which can be used to give wooden furniture, terra-cotta pots, and other textured surfaces an antique look.

You can't, however, simply mix milk with color pigment and spread it on the walls. The following recipe will yield enough paint to cover a bureau or other large furnishing:

Milk Paint How-To
1. Mix the juice of a lemon with 1 quart of skim milk in a large bowl. Leave the mixture overnight at room temperature to induce curdling.

2. Pour it through a sieve lined with cheesecloth to separate the solid curds from the liquid whey. Add 4 tablespoons of dry color pigment (available at art-supply stores) to the curd; be sure to wear a mask, and stir until the pigment is evenly dispersed. Artists' acrylic paint also can be used in place of powdered pigment.

3. Add it one drop at a time, and stir constantly until you achieve the desired hue. Whether pigment- or acrylic-based, milk paint will spoil quickly, so it should be applied within a few hours of mixing. Rest assured, its sour smell will disappear once the paint dries. If you prefer, you can purchase milk paint rather than make it yourself. One source is Old Fashioned Milk Paint.

Hammie

Hammie (the Hamachi) is our latest project… Tom and I found him at Urban Ore and are very excited to begin painting him. He'll be emerging out of the ground in our garden. We have an early August deadline so that'll get us moving and I'll post our work in process.

Organizing

I'm organizing my files. I'm thrilled, it sounds crazy but there's something about getting organized that is very soothing for the soul. I have my office I'm working on and then I'll conquer the studio garage. Tom and I've put some dates down on the calendar for an open house party and some get togethers, so it'll be even more helpful to get the house in order. A big part of this inspiration is thanks to Alyson B. Stanfield's I'd Rather Be in the Studio recommended to me by Bonnie Randall Boller. Alyson has a very direct, action-oriented approach, that really helps me become more aware of the excuses I've been making.

Another soul-soothing thing I've been doing lately is going to Alice Joanou's Loka Yoga. Besides the great workout, the slowing down and the peace I feel when I'm there, the atmosphere is great as well. It smells really good besides.

There's always more to write. Earlier, I was shredding 2003 phone bills… I'm going to now change my current phone bill to an electronic version!

Daily Practice

One of the benefits of blogging is that you get to meet and interact with people with similiar interests. Tom brought home some old law books that he thought I might be able to use. He suggested I could make books from them and ErinZam posted some recrafted law books on her blog which further lead to this inspiration posted above.

I get a lot of pleasure out of reading Michelle Maule's blog about her daily practice. I aspire to write daily, at least during the week.

On a different note, Tom and I discovered Autobody Fine Art in Alameda. Pure pleasure. It's a beautiful gallery: youthful, emerging, a little "rough" in a good way and brings it out excitement in me. I had a great therapy experience around this as well. Instead of thinking that this gallery is "outside" of me, I can actually relate to it as being "me" and "take this pill" whenever needed to bring that excitement back to my daily life. We had lunch at Burma SuperStar in Alameda. Super yummy and we'll be back!

Alameda Women Artists Group Show Friday

ALAMEDA WOMEN ARTISTS presents A VISUAL WORD
16 Artists at the new Alameda Free Library Meeting Rooms Gallery
1550 Oak Street, Alameda, CA | June 6-July 19, 2008
The Artist Reception is the First Friday, June 6th, 6-8pm. LIVE MUSIC.
Exhibit hours: Mondays-Saturdays 10 am-4 pm, Sundays 1-4 pm.

This is just one of my pieces that's in the show entitled "Rhymes with Pink". I've been collecting aluminum cans (thanks especially to Cheryl and Stephanie) and I'm looking forward to developing more pieces for this series.

Lots of updating on my website tonight. Some photos from Savannah from our honeymoon, one in particular of wine bottles in a garden that has me starting to collect bottles now. I would love anyone's help in this process.

Tom and I are talking about painting a big concrete sculpture that we'll put in our front yard. It'll be obvious that our place will be the neighborhood art house. I'm looking forward to that!