The Judge

Nine years ago, I birthed this amazing, witty, sensitive, intensely competitive...

Judge. 

I noticed it when he started keeping score with fair portions of treats between his friends and equaling out the numbers. He was always aware of whos turn it was for basically anything, who just had a turn, how many times it was their turn, and who is next. Very innocent, basic preschool fairness to an extreme. Then he got older and found sports, and well, the fairness went from extreme to intense. 

Now, before I go on, don't get me wrong, he plays by the rules. Even more so, makes sure that YOU play by the rules and holds all refs, umpires, judges, etc. accountable for their interpretation of the rules. 

When he was 6 (three years ago) this boy wrote a letter to a home plate umpire in a regular season MLB game over a strike out to Troy Tulowitzki that was below the knees & clearly not fair...explaining to him how he got the strike zone totally wrong. He then informed him that because he was wrong, the game needed to be replayed for fairness. 

(I didn't know who to mail this letter to and it was somewhat illegible. I felt kinda bad, but he soon moved on to avenging the next bad call). 

When he was asked to "take a break" from football and soccer at recess this year, he found four square. You know four square, that game that you basically stand in one place and bounce a ball back and forth to each other until someone falls asleep from the boredom of this game...or misses catching the ball & is out. Ya, well, this "judge" has been suspended from 4 square, not once, but TWICE, for losing his shit. Arguing over the game and it's calls. 

"(insert adult supervisor's name) was completely out of their mind today. They called me out, when the rule is that you can't do big bounces and (insert other four square child's name) did a big bounce and it went over MY head, so he should be out...but NO! They called ME out, so I was trying to explain to (Adult supervisor) why they are wrong. 

Mom, the ball WENT OVER MY HEAD! That means it was a big bounce! And those aren't allowed. They called ME out!!! It's not fair! 

That person IS NOT qualified to judge 4 square!"  

Levi (aka The Judge) 2017
Oil on canvas board 6x6

God Bless my son's teachers and recess leaders...seriously, I owe (insert adult supervisor) a drink.
But the ump, who called Tulo out...When I find out how to mail this letter (and to who)....get ready to face the Judge.
-Cheree

Stuffed Animals

As I may have mentioned, I was born and raised in a small mountain town. I was raised by wonderful parents & from them I gained some good survival skills. My Dad grew up hunting and fishing, so actually.... I didn't really learn any survival skills from my Dad. But my Mom, she grew up sewing, reading and cooking & I can do 2 out of 3. So, for example, if I'm ever starving and need to kill a wild animal to survive and in the process of doing this I rip my clothes, I would be able to sew my clothes back together & then read a story about it. So, basically I will die of starvation if left in the wild.

(Which is why I binge watch Dual Survivor with the peacock to gain some much needed skills for dooms day). 

Anyway, when you grow up with a hunter, you have access to antlers, lots and lots of antlers. I grew up with stuffed Elk heads, fish, grouse feet (that my brother and I played with...I know, I KNOW...gross) and, well, antlers as the main pieces of artwork in the living room. My Dad rotated his dead animal crap around the same way I rotate my art and furniture around....frequently. Often times my Mom could not park the car in the garage because there was a dead elk carcass hanging from the ceiling just twirling around and around and around. When my Mom made my Dad finally move the elk head out of the living room and down to the local sporting goods store, my Dad would go down and "visit" his elk head, brush it's fur and stuff. I actually had to talk my Dad out of having some of my Prom pictures taken standing with his dead stuffed Elk head. True story. 

Many people would consider this "redneck" and maybe it is, but maybe not...I'm too biased to tell. But I've come to realize that it's a dying way of life. My parents to this day will use only what they need. They don't even know the word excess...unless it has to do with getting wood for the winter (but that's a Story I already told) When clothes get ripped...they get repaired. My Dad hunts and then has meat for months and shares it with the lot of us. One year I had so much elk meat in my freezer, I didn't buy any meat for almost a year! My mom cooked and baked quite a bit from scratch and still does. I rarely had any fast food growing up & I still don't eat it (excluding Chipotle). My little goldfish's favorite dress was made by my Mom. She made my 8th grade graduation dress and a homecoming dress. This was a life they learned from their parents and these are skills that were passed on (mostly...kind-of) to me and my brother. 

Urban Antlers (2016)
Oil on canvas 8x8

Skull & Bulb (2016)
Oil on canvas 8x8

So, to summarize, if we are in a situation where we duly have to survive, I will need you to do everything, as my only skill is basically finding my way home. 

And if I happen to die, just stuff me like a dead animal, put me in my prom dress (most likely, my Mom still has it) next to my Dad's elk, so he can brush my hair and take a few pictures. 

-Cheree  

Projects-a-runaway

A new year.
Like many, I too am setting my year goals and hopefuls.
I currently have many, many, many unfinished projects....so many half done or not started projects. So many.

Project #1: Lets start with my wonderful thrift store chair find (this is not an uncommon occurrence, as I frequent 4 thrift stores regularly and add in a few drive by's). Now, I bought this chair and it screamed PROJECT, so I bought it and it's been sitting in a corner with a giant plant on it ever since (because there are screw ends sticking out of it and it's a "hASSard") I have plans for a wonderful mosaic top influenced by some tables I saw in San Antonio, but yet it sits. It sits with the bedroom dresser I have planned to strip and refinish and a side table that needs serious TLC or a recycling center. All sitting, collecting dust and looking anything but on fleek.

Project #2: The going on a decade quilt. Yes, I started this quilt 10 years ago, as a gift for my husband, before I had any children. I used a pattern from this book I borrowed from my aunt, please note the title "For the weekend quilter", which is clearly misleading. The peacock is still waiting for it & most likely will continue to wait and wait and wait for his gift. It currently sits in my closet in a Tupperware container, next to the box of fabric with other "weekend" projects.

Project #3: The Balcony mural. We have a solid wall across our entire balcony that is begging for a mural and has been since we bought our place 12 years ago!! The problem with the balcony mural is that I can't even  make a decision as to what I should paint there. Old timey Denver? A star wars landscape (and which one)? Monet waterlilies? It quite literally taunts me when I even venture into planning it. I can't even display it's picture  right now because it has several bike rims (another project in the waiting) leaning on it...and it's dirty has hell...moving on to...

Project #4: The never ending abstract. This one will most likely never get done! Just when I think I'm done, I hang it up....then decide it needs to be "fixed" and then it goes back to hogging up my attention on the easel. It has some serious attention seeking behavior issues.

Oh and lastly, Project Exercise: I believe that one speaks for itself. That one is standard every year...but for some reason always seems to get bumped. But this year I mean it.

So, as I venture into 2017, I am going to finish some of my damn projects that really need to get done, all the while starting new ones, spending time with the family, working, Netflix bingeing....Oh and exercise. Can't forget the exercise this year.

-Cheree

Dress Threats

Every first Friday of the month, all the galleries on Santa Fe art district and RINO open for the public. It's called first Friday art walk and it's craaaaazzzzy. There are masses of people, food trucks, lines and yet, for one big reason, I decided to bring the little goldfish with me this past month. Now, this is not a venue I'd usually take her to because she is a crazy chicken who ramps it up a notch with any form of chaos. But The Colorado Ballet is located in the art district and they were performing 30 minute samples of their upcoming Nutcracker....and... well, I wanted to do a trial run before I bought tickets to the real thing.

We started off by taking the lightrail down to the art district and walking up 5 blocks to the ballet. When we got there, the line was long & we waited for about 45 minutes to get in. She did very good with the wait only climbing on one thing, laying on the ground kicking her feet for only about 5 minutes and running around the lobby just twice.

We finally took our seats successfully passing the snacks and gifts with only a few "pleeeese Mom I reeeeallllly need a snack"...."I'll be reeeallllly good with my snack" and sat down next to another Mother / Daughter pairing.

When the lights went down and the dancers came on....the look on my daughter's face lit up with pure delight and excitement and this moment will forever be burned into my memory.
...and that's where it ends, because after that, she noticed the little girl next to her bouncing back and forth in her theater seat. Up and down, in & out of the seat. You name it, this kid was doing it...flips, spins, jumps, leaps...ok, maybe not leaps, but still...it was chaos, so interest was perked in my little one to show off her own theater chair moves. This musical chairs routine got me mad, it got me frustrated! Thirty minutes!!! Thirty frickin minutes! "You sit down right now, or I'm taking away ALL your dresses!" (it should be noted, that my little one LOVES dresses more than air or candy or a theater chair, so this is how she knows we mean business...it's our go to threat...it usually doesn't work).

This is an abstract created with the feelings from this night with my little one. Tutus, chaos, toe shoes and theater seats.

Delight and Excitement (2016)
[OR Sit down before you lose all your dresses]
Mixed Media: Acrylic, ink, oil pastel and graphite on canvas paper
Not sure if this is the final version, I'm still deciding. 

And because I'm an optimist, addicted to the ballet, I bought 2 tickets to The Nutcracker & I'm planning to bring both my dress threats & some duct tape to insure success.
-Cheree

Break the Ground

The past few days, I, like many others have been completely obsessively engulfed in the election results.
For me, it did not go the way I wanted.

What do I do now? Where do I go now? How do I make sense of it?

I could go underground and deny to accept reality, but I fight forward and live from my heart, advocate for those who can't, create with courage, express with compassion. Turn fear & anger into beauty and action.

Not too long ago, The Denver Art Museum had an exhibit: Women of Abstract Expressionism. This exhibit was one of the best I've ever been able to view. These women were painting abstract in a time when it was somewhat taboo for them to be doing so. They were expressing the world through their art, putting their feelings, their anger, their joy, fear, and the uncertainty in the world on canvas. I went to the exhibit a few times because it was truely inspirinig. I can't even imagine the struggles these women went through for their voice in the art world to be heard. Ground breakers.

The past couple weeks I have been taking one of my weekly art classes, this time a class about Exploring the Language of Abstract. It's taught by a wonderful abstract artist, Karen Roehl. Right now we are doing a master study. I've done these before and I find them incredibly helpful. A master study is when you take a painting you love and you basically copy it exactly. It's sounds easy, but it's not. In fact, it's really quite difficult, especially to capture the feeling of someone else's abstract. The goal is to try to understand how the painting was made and you basically spend the time frequently asking yourself...

What do I do now? Where do I go now?  How do I make sense of it?

Below is my master study of Perle Fine's painting "Summer"

This is mine

This is Perle's     

 

I don't feel you ever really know all the time what to do, where to go, and how to make sense of it. You really just keep painting, dancing, writing, acting, laughing, singing, sculpting the world around you with the fire in your heart and the grace in your soul...all while the ground is breaking.

-Cheree

Write, Rot, Read, Repeat. (and some painting too)

It's been a little while since I wrote a blog. My go to of an excuse is that, "well, I have children and they are busy and want my time." While this is true, the cut-the-crap, reality is that I have been TV bingeing on Transparent, Stranger Things, Mozart in the Jungle, Raiders of the Lost Art and American Pickers...Not to mention I have writer's block (since July) and more so, a major lack of motivation towards writing (also since July, because TV is rotting my brain...kind of...I should mention that I have been counteracting the rot by reading several good books as well, this includes: A Marriage of Opposites, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Fat Artist, The Miniaturist & one other one I can't remember right now, but it was good). Despite all this bingeing and rot counteracting, I have continued to paint my little still lives and a few other new projects (which I really do plan to blog about, as soon as I finish bingeing on Good Girls & reading In The Not Quite Dark). 

I'm hoping that just by getting back on to the computer tonight and posting some of the little still lives; it will get the rot out of my brain & the writing ideas going again.

So without further ado, I present some more exciting little still (creative) life (savers).

Ready for the Cut (2016)
Oil on Gesso board 6x6
Buy

Peppers (2016)
Oil on Clay board 6x6
Buy

And now, it's time for me to get back to rotting.....

-Cheree

My thought process of PoorTraits

I have a backlog going right now (some paintings done & no blog). It was a quick, busy summer and then school started for my children, so blogging and painting went a little by the wayside. I often will overstretch myself with things I do (except exercise...which I need to get better at including). I have an addiction to volunteering and "signing up" for lots of activities with the thought of "that's way in the future, I have plenty of time to figure out the details of making it all work"....and then I procrastinate, panic, and ultimately get anxiety and then stress out the angry peacock, making him super angry frustrated...(who by the way is an engineer by training & therefore uses logic and planning in his thought process, so you can imagine his frustration with my lack of foresight & planning) I ultimately am a master at creating a perfect storm.

Not too long ago I "signed up" for a portrait class several months before it was set to begin, therefore leaving plenty of time to get ready for this class. Plenty.
My thought process went a little something like this:
1. This class looks awesome, I should sign up. (Overstretching)
2. Crap it's on a Tuesday night & the peacock won't like that (but it's only 4 weeks, that's not too long) Plus, I have 2 months to figure out the details. (Anticipated procrastinating)
3. So I call the peacock and let him know my desire to take this awesome art class (Frustration begins)
4. I mention that it's on a Tuesday night for 3 hours (The perfect storm is now in full formation)
I should mention here that Tuesday nights are sacred work nights where the peacock continues his work until late, in order to get things done and be ahead..It's still the start of the work week!.....I have known this for years! YEARS!
5. I explain to the peacock that I will talk with our troop of nannies & work out the Tuesday nights.
6. Mention that it's only 4 weeks and then it's done and stress the awesomeness again!
7. Then, this one was key...State that I WILL NOT take another Tuesday night class until the children are self sufficient! (Frustration somewhat averted, but there are still some far off storm clouds)
8. Therefore, it was a Yes....reluctantly.

So, I took the 4 week portrait class. The goal of the class was to paint 3-4 portraits, small 6x6 size, one each week...

...And I completed one, yep only one. My goal was to paint 3 total; one of each kid and then the peacock. Once again my lofty goals, poortrait procrastination, & complete lack of logic playing their parts to the fullest. The first week we sketched the first portrait to be done. The second week I missed class, as the peacock got home late with a deadline at work (I should mention here, that he had agreed to take Tuesday nights and watch the kids himself, while I went to class). Third class I played catch up and was technically suppose to finish the portrait by the next class, but instead I ended up only staring at it for a week trying to figure out what the heck was wrong with it and why it looked "creepy". So the fourth week of class I came in and finished my portrait. I guess part of my process is embracing my inner creepy. Interestingly, I was not the only one who was still painting the same first portrait, a class of either procrastinators or perfectionists.

Lilah (2016)

6x6 Oil on canvas board 

 

As I write this, those far off storm clouds seem to be creeping in....I am looking into once again taking this Tuesday night class, because I at least need to get the other child painted.

I'm wondering if the fact that my 8 & 3 year old know where the snacks, water and bathroom are qualifies them as self sufficient.

-Cheree