Cosmic Dance Video
Cedar July 9th, 2008
Enjoy!
And the YouTube link, if you wish to email it to people: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCXO-dMdbvE
Cosmic Dance
Cedar July 8th, 2008
My new painting shows the rising sun burning away the darkness of night. It embodies the concept of balance in the universe–yin and yang. Sun and moon, day and night, heaven and earth, fire and water, hot and cold. For fun, I have included the constellation Orion, (can you find it?) and a shooting star.
I painted the sun and moon in such a way that they could be allegorical characters, so looking at their interaction may conjure thoughts of epic myths and creation stories. The swirling colors bring to mind the incredible photos of galaxies and nebulae taken from satellites in outer space. Whatever you may take from it, it is an inspiring image.
Because this painting implies the enormity of the cosmos, and is full of dynamic motion, it is titled “Cosmic Dance.”
Acrylic 36″ x 42″
What it looks like in a room:
Details:
The psychedelic qualities of this painting made me recall a poem I wrote when I was 16, called “Psycho Sunrise.” Despite its obviously being written by a 16-year-old, its descriptions are vivid. Click here to read it.
In other news, my painting “October Hawks” is currently on display at the HoCo Open 2008 show at the Howard County Center for the Arts. The reception for the show is from 6-8 pm on July 22. Unfortunately, I’ll be out of town on that day, so I won’t be there. But if you live in the area, stop by and check it out–the show includes 100 pieces of art done by local artists. (And, by the way, as the gallery installer for the Arts Center, I am the person who hung all 100 paintings.)
The exhibit will be up until August 17th. The address: 8510 High Ridge Road, Ellicott City, MD 21043
The next month and a half are going to be crazy for me. My husband and I, between the two of us, have six trips planned this summer. The shenanigans include two family reunions, house-sitting in NC, visiting friends and scouting out galleries in Ohio, contra dancing in Indiana, and white water rafting in West Virginia. Kevan will also be going on a road trip with his cousins.
So if I appear to drop off the face of the earth for a little while, that’s why.
Russet Leaves Video, Daisies
Cedar June 27th, 2008
A couple years ago, I did a painting called “Emerald Leaves,” from a photo I took of an old, stately tree in a city park in Venice, Italy. Our trip there was a college graduation present to myself and a second honeymoon for my husband and I. “Emerald Leaves,” as you can guess, included an abundance of leaves in several shades of brilliant green.
The painting I finished yesterday is the same tree, from the same angle, but during the fall. The leaves of the tree are now shades of brown and warm orange.
This painting is going to a brand new gallery out in Utah that is opening in August!
40 x 30″, Oil on Canvas
Russet Leaves
Here’s a video of me painting “Russet Leaves:”
The YouTube link, for you to share with your friends: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCoYrvfixLo
Also for the Utah gallery, I made a near-copy of my previous painting “Daisies.” This version has more vivid colors and a slightly darker background than the original “Daisies.”
18 x 24″ Oil on Canvas
Daisies II
The painting demo event at the gallery last Saturday went great! I got a constant stream of curious visitors all day long.
I’m so grateful for all the people who stopped by to see me–besides the crowds of passing tourists, I was visited by a friend from high school, an employee of the North Carolina Arboretum who suggested I have an art show in their gallery, and a fellow artist, who until this point I had only met online!
At one point my entire family showed up and filled the gallery with boisterous laughter for a couple of hours.
Good Times at Twigs & Leaves
Cedar June 20th, 2008
I’m in sunny Asheville, NC, having a great time with my family.
Tonight was a “Meet the Artist” event at the Twigs and Leaves Gallery. I am one of their 2 “featured artists” this month. The other artist is a jewelry maker who works with silver. She’s very nice and does great work.
Here are a few pictures I took tonight.
Me next to my paintings:
As you can see, they placed my work in a prominent spot, right by the window! Several times I saw people walking down the sidewalk outside pause at the window when they spotted my paintings, walk in the door, and make a beeline for them to get a closer look! This made me happy.
This is one of the most beautiful galleries I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of galleries.
The spacious rooms, tasteful colors and great lighting complement a staggering variety of original artwork, jewelry, pottery, sculpture, housewares and furniture–all handmade by artists and artisans.
Me with Carrie Keith, one of the gallery’s owners. She is as sweet as she looks!
Tomorrow, (that’s Saturday, the 21st) I’ll be doing painting demos from 10 am to 5 pm at this gallery. People will get to see me in action at the easel, and I will get to answer all of their burning questions about art.
I’ll let you know how it goes!
More Sunflowers & My Dad
Cedar June 11th, 2008
I am really enjoying painting this series! This should be it for sunflowers, at least for a little while. There are other things on my list of things to paint that I really need to get to.
Again, these are all 16 x 16″, oil on hardboard panels.
Moonbright
Russian Mammoth
And, I think my favorite one so far out of the whole series is this one:
Italian White
Here’s what this artwork looks like in a room:
I just got a new page up on my website that will be helpful to a lot of people. Before, interested buyers had to click on every thumbnail on the gallery page to see which paintings were sold or not. Now there’s a page where all of my available artwork is shown in one place!
Go to ArtByCedar.com/AvailableArt.php
And for Art By Cedar at clearance prices: ArtByCedar.com/Clearance.php
Father’s Day is this Sunday. This year I will actually get to see my dad on Father’s Day! This never happens because we live so far apart.
So much of who I am came from my dad (my looks, my values, and a big chunk of my personality), and I just want to take a moment to explain why he is so awesome.
He is a natural teacher. When I was growing up, he taught me countless skills, including how to read, cook, drive, think critically, and be resourceful and enterprising.
Unlike most fathers, my dad was self-employed for most of my childhood and was therefore able to work from home. When I was little, I took it for granted that he and my mom were both always around, always available and attentive. Now that I’m grown-up and understand that this is not the norm for most American families, I see what a huge gift this was to me and my four siblings.
My dad is charismatic. He has a loud, booming laugh that is so distinctive that anyone who knows him can recognize it immediately from across a great distance. My dad has an abundant sense of humor that has infected us all. We laugh a lot in my family.
One of his defining traits is his creativity. He builds cool things. He comes up with innovative solutions to annoying problems. His mode of thinking is relentlessly creative. One of the things my dad taught me, mostly through his own example, is how to think creatively and follow through with a creative plan. How to solve problems as you go. If I had grown up in another family, I probably would not be an artist.
Case in point: here is a picture of my dad’s mailbox, a giant amanita muscaria mushroom, which he made.
Here’s a poem I wrote back in college, about how fun it was as a child to have a dad like mine:
————————————————–
The Theft of the Golden Banana
Daddy took us to Allan Brothers Coffee Company
where beside the hot bronze bench outside,
a golden banana, (embedded into the cement sidewalk,
we guessed, by a whimsical construction worker)
sat wedged, a gleaming delicious jewel.
We conspired, giggling anew with each visit,
about how we would steal it. How we would arrive, 3 am,
rapidly like black bats, leap from the car with crowbars,
and deftly chip our prize from its rocky bed,
how in Daddy’s hands it would light up the night.
We all knew that really the golden banana
was not something you could steal. So we got
a real banana, soft, perfectly arched, and Daddy used it
to make a mold, filled with our own goopy mix of cement.
That afternoon on a piece of plywood in the supple grass
we broke the banana out of its plaster shell, sanded it down
and misted it with shimmering gold spray paint, smoothly,
three coats each side. Daddy and us brought it
to the Allan Brothers Coffee girl, pony-tailed behind the counter,
and we told her, grinning, that we stole it from the sidewalk.
“See look,” and we held up Daddy’s crowbar and the girl
round-eyed, aghast, said “Oh my God you didn’t.”
And we erupted into gleeful rolling seizures, Daddy loudest,
with people turning from newspapers and conversations.
Other dads played catch with their kids, maybe watched movies.
“Sometimes you have to make your own golden banana,” Daddy said.
Now friends smirk at me, amused, and say “Why are you so weird?”
——————————————————————
More Sunflower Art
Cedar June 9th, 2008
Here are 3 more in my Sunflower Series.
They are all 16″ x 16″, oil on hardboard panels. The paintings continue onto the sides, which are 1 1/2″ deep. These are all Red Sun sunflowers, one of my favorite varieties because of their brilliant deep red colors. I have some of these growing in my garden right now!
Red Sun I
Red Sun II
Red Sun III
Like all the paintings in this series, they can be displayed together:
Or individually:
Either way, they will brighten up any room!
I’m going out of town this weekend, to bring new work to my gallery down in NC and to participate in an event they’re having. I have a lot to do before I leave, so no time to write more now…
Sunflower Art
Cedar June 4th, 2008
After looking through seed catalogs and getting interested in sunflowers, I’ve started working on a series of sunflower paintings.
These are all 16″ x 16″, oil on hardboard panels. The sides are 1.5″ deep and the painting continues onto the sides. These paintings can be framed, but they don’t require it–they have a bold, modern look and are ready to hang as they are.
Each painting’s title is the variety of sunflower shown. (I love their names!)
Autumn Beauty
Pacino
Velvet Queen
These are painted in rich jewel tones. Hanging art like this is a great way to bring a dash of vibrant color into an otherwise neutral room, instantly adding an interesting focal point.
I am applying the paint very thickly, and I love the resulting texture. Like all art, these paintings are so much better in person than in photos.
Blessings
Cedar June 2nd, 2008
I just got an order for 7 paintings from a woman in Utah who will be opening an art gallery in the fall. In the past year, and in particular the past several months, I have been blessed with sales of my artwork. The most extraordinary thing about all my recent sales is that almost all of them were made by people coming to me–finding me, through word of mouth, through referrals from my collectors, and through the Internet. I don’t have an explanation for this snowball effect–I feel like I really haven’t done much to deserve it.
I keep an Excel file with information about every painting I do, whether or not they are sold and who bought them. Some of the buyers are anonymous mystery collectors–customers of my galleries that never had any personal contact with me. But I have the names of a lot of my collectors too. I’ve only been keeping good records like this for the past 2 and a half years, and regretfully, I never kept any information about paintings I sold before then, or who they went to.
In the past 2 and a half years, though, 41 people (or households, I should say–some are couples or families) have become collectors of my art. 12 of these collectors own more than one of my paintings. I know that some of my paintings have been purchased as gifts for other people. I have also given my art as gifts to many of my family and closest friends. So, I have no idea of the actual number of people in possession of my art, but it’s a lot more than 41.
In the past 12 months, I have sold more than double my sales from the previous 12 months.
If this trend continues in my career, I see my dreams coming true. I will be a success story in a typically brutal and thankless industry. For this, I feel more grateful than words can express.
The moral of the story: if you’ve been on the fence about whether or not to buy a painting from me, do it now while I am still relatively unknown to the public and while my prices are still low. I tell my collectors that art is always a good investment, because they’re getting something they can enjoy every day of their life forever, even if its value never goes up. My art is a good investment for this reason, and also because its value will go up. I am too tenacious for it not to.
I grow my garden with the same tenacity that keeps my art career going, and like my art career, it is now more bountiful than ever before. One of my first harvests of the year: sweet strawberries and crisp white icicle radishes:
More bounty–mulberries from a tree my husband and I found in a local park while walking our dog. The tree was bursting with ripe ones, so we took some!
I’ll have new paintings to show you soon!
Artist in Recovery
Cedar May 30th, 2008
Wisdom tooth extraction. Not fun. However, the extreme anxiety I felt about this beforehand ended up serving me well. Because I imagined it would be so horrible, compared to what I expected, it wasn’t too bad. (Click here for details.)
Three days later, I seem to be healing well, and I’m feeling okay. This weekend I’m going to attempt to get some light work done around the house and yard, and by Monday I expect to be back to normal, working in the studio and offering new artwork for sale! Thank you to everybody who has wished me well.
Benjamin
Cedar May 23rd, 2008
I’m out the door to pick up another load of horse manure!
But I just wanted to share this new painting with you. I’m really happy with this one.
Benjamin
Acrylic on Canvas 24 x 30″
Detail:
Detail:
This is going to hang in the client’s dining room, which is decorated with a lot of green and gold. With a gold-tone frame, this painting will look fantastic in that room!
I have been really on top of getting magnet shipments out right away, so if you’ve ordered magnets you can expect to get them soon.
Have a beautiful weekend–I’m going to get the most out of mine, as my wisdom tooth extraction is on Tuesday. Wish me luck…
