My second Donut Date was with my friend Cheryl. Originally we planned to meet at our favorite local coffee shop on "Onesie" day, back in January, but we both ended up being too tired to go. We rescheduled for a couple of weekends ago and I planned to get her favorite coconut donut from a bakery near her house. I showed up to her house late and with a coconut donut from a different bakery and she still welcomed me in her onesie with a smile because this woman is like no other friend there is. There is no way to reduce the friendship I have with Cheryl down to a few sentences but I will try. We have so much in common from our love of everything 70's, to donuts, to our artiness and new adventures in food and beverages...but it is so much more than things in common. She gives the best advice, knows pretty much everything or can figure it out, cares deeply about people, is the most positive person I know, has a nutty side (hence the coconut donut) that pops up at the most random times (insert the random stache tattoo), and would do anything and I mean anything for her friends. I have the worst memory and she will write things down that I need to remember on post-it notes and keep them in her pocket and text me later. She texts me every week when our favorite shows are on to remind me to watch them and then we proceed to watch them at our own homes texting each other the whole time. She surprises me with the most thoughtful gifts at the most random times just when I need them. But most of all, I think she is the first friend that has truly loved me unconditionally. She has shown me the most patience for my randomness, forgetfulness, weirdness, and lack of attention span of any of my friends before her. I can be "me" with her every moment without worry and her with me. I'm not sure what I did to earn a place in her life, but I hope I keep earning it for the rest of mine.
I've spent the 2nd part of spring break working on Donut Date #2. It's my friend Cheryl and I can't wait to tell you all about her and this work. I'm at the the stage where you live with it and decide what changes you need to make but I think it is fun to look at the progress from the first layer until now. Watercolor and graphite on Claybord. More to come. Back to school tomorrow
If you want this artwork to just be about delicious donuts, stop reading now. If you know me at all, you know how much I love donuts. I talk about them way more than I actually eat them. In keeping with my "and the world will be as one" series inspired by John Lennon's song, "Imagine", I began to look at donuts like people....or people like donuts. When you go to the bakery to pick donuts, most of the time, they are behind glass and sometimes even behind a counter behind glass. You can't touch them or taste them ahead of time, you make your choices based on looks only unless you have had them before. Meeting people is the same....we can only see what they want us to see. Like donuts some people wear all of their goodness on the outside like icing, stripes, glaze and rainbow sprinkles. What is on the outside attracts your attention and you take a leap. Other donuts and people are plain on the outside....no icing or just white or brown icing, but on the inside they can be filled with a goodness you can't see. Only once you take a chance on them, will you find out what is inside. The most underrated donut is the glazed donut....what you see is what you get. It's not even a little flashy, there are no surprises waiting on the inside, but it's loyal. You can count on it to always be there and to be good. Every now and then you find a donut that has icing, sprinkles, and chocolate chips on the outside and a surprise yumminess on the inside. When this happens, you feel like you hit the lottery. When I go donut shopping, I definitely have my favorites, but I always try new ones. I make a few selections and then tell the person behind the counter to mix and match to reach a dozen. I then like to cut them into smaller pieces to try them all because they all have a quality that makes them unique and depending on the situation my favorite. Sometimes, donuts are even a little nutty....so are people. Wouldn't it be great if we gave all people the same chance we gave donuts? If we took chances on people to find the goodness inside? I have met a lot of donuts that at first glance I did not think I would find appealing but color, size, shape and preferences don't have to keep us from living as one.
Hello peeps it has been forever since my last blog post. I had committed to twice a week and then my website went down getting me out of my routine and it all went downhill from there just like any exercising routine. I have been working...not as much as I would like but I have. Mostly on this piece which is 36"x24". It has taken a crazy amount of time. Even with the small scale donut studies I did, these lil tasty treats have been giving me fits. I do a combination of photo transfer, painting and graphite in my work. Getting all of these different mediums to work together is sometimes super easy and other times like trying to get a puppy to sit still right after feeding it 53lbs of sugar. My reasoning for using all of these different media is about more than just being mixed media, it plays into my message for this piece that hopefully will be explained in the final post for this piece soon. I plan to finish it today before and after an appointment I have. I plan to work a lot this week so stay tuned for updates! P. S. I had my second donut date but I haven't started the piece yet....any guesses who it is?
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AuthorGood art isn't about matching your sofa, but about the conversation it starts. Archives
August 2021
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