Blythespirited

My hero!!

2010-04-03T20:17:00.000-04:00

This afternoon, my sweet husband built a new workbench for me to use as an island in my studio. yay! Things are really starting to come together down at the Flux n' Pickle!

2010-02-11T10:12:00.001-05:00

Made with My Cool Signs.Net

2009-03-24T08:27:00.002-04:00

Twenty years ago today, our only child, Andrew, was born, and the world got a whole lot more wonderful. His prodigious gifts were apparent early on, and to this day we continue to marvel at the sweet equanimity with which he relates to the world. Happy Birthday, baby, and thank you for the best days of my life.

2009-03-17T12:13:00.000-04:00

Journal Pages

2009-03-17T12:11:00.000-04:00

i don't get to do a lot of this kind of work, but am beginning to see how it can be so compelling for a lot of artists. i could do this kind of thing all day, and i think one reason good reason to avoid it is because it scares me to see how deeply focused i become and how many hours can fly by while i cut eyeballs from the New York Times Sunday magazine section and every other magazine and circular i can get my hands on. i hope the recycling people don't look too closely at our old magazines. they would get very, very scared.

2009-03-16T13:35:00.000-04:00

I am sooo glad I signed up for the Amulets and Talismans class with Robert Dancik that Alison Lee of Craftcast set up, sponsored by Whole Lotta Whimsey! Tonight's the last class and I'm sad already -- what an informative and generous instructor Robert is. The class format has been interesting too, with a ning group set up for the class members to share photos of their work and communicate about what they've learned. Cyberclasses are nothing new in the academic world, but in terms of an art class, this was my first experience and it worked out really well. Last Monday night, I was in the midst of working with a new realtor and keeping up with my son's comings and goings on his spring break home from college, so I was kind of distracted, but Alison graciously posts the recording of the class so we can catch up with anything we missed. I understand these recordings of all three classes will be available for sale sometime in the near future from the Craftcast website, and I recommend them to anyone who is interested in introducing narrative into their work.

The pieces I've created so far are not too different from my previous work, because I have never been able to get comfortable making work that is merely decorative. I want everything I make to call upon the power of the ancestors in some way, to evoke a feeling of spiritual blessing or protection in some way. Ancient-looking surfaces and the wabi-sabi look of wear and use have always compelled me much more than a highly-polished surface of sterling silver or gold, though the high degree of craftsmanship required to produce these surfaces is certainly worthy of the greatest respect. It's just not compelling to me personally in any kind of art, but specifically in jewelry, where I like to see evidence of the hand of the maker and to feel that there is a historic basis for the form.

In college, I majored in art history and minored in anthropology, and I have always been particularly interested in the material cultures of Asia and India. A few years ago I began to explore the idea that polymer clay could be manipulated to recreate the materials of the ancient amulets and talismans I found so fascinating. This interest escalated to an obsession after I made a strand of graduated amber beads following the color recipe in Polymer: The Chameleon Clay by Victoria Hughes. I had seen many examples of the real thing and had the opportunity to closely examine some in a friend's collection, and knew I would never be able to afford a strand of the real buttery gorgeous glowing real thing. The strand I made back then convinced me that polymer clay could be used to make a very convincing substitute, and I spent the better part of a year making jade, lapis, turquoise, and coral artifacts to populate my little museum of reproduction artifacts. With each successful reproduction, a little of my resistance to the idea that "it's only polymer clay" continued to fall. The techniques I had learned from books and developed on my own convinced me that polymer clay is nothing to apologize for and is a perfectly valid art material on its own. Soon an intense desire to add metal to the pieces drove me to learn basic silversmithing skills so I could set them in bezels. This particular Buddha is set in a fine silver and sterling bezel and represents the overcoming of my last reservation about this exciting medium which continues to challenge and stimulate me to this day.

Wonderful video!!

2009-03-06T09:48:00.000-05:00

Love it!!

2009-03-06T09:08:00.000-05:00

A talisman for spring to come -- a Green Man kind of figure, except she's female -- some sort of nature goddess, definitely -- surrounded by hydrangea blue glass crystals with magically matte but iridescent charlotte seed beads. Sterling wire, silver-plated antiqued bead caps.

Well, that's a start. I'm having the darnedest time writing descriptions of my jewelry for etsy; so I'm practicing here. Photographing the etched items is way beyond the limits of both me and my camera, so that's another challenge, but I'm determined to keep learning about this camera, because I'm sure the "right" setting is in there somewhere. Perhaps if I shake it really hard like an old Eight Ball toy, I'll get the answer I'm hoping for! (like "You totally deserve a new digital SLR!")

I'm taking Robert Dancik's Amulets and Talismans teleclass sponsored by Alison Lee of Craftcast, and it's been totally worthwhile so far! Not only is his work very sophisticated -- I can't wait for his book to come out -- but he is also a really good teacher, and you can tell he wants his students to go forth and do great things on their own.

Speaking of photographing jewelry, Jen Kahn's blog post from a few months ago still continues to inspire and inform me -- not that I've found all the perfect settings on my camera yet, but thanks to her, I'm feeling less inclined to "accidentally" drop it down the nearest storm drain. And speaking of hydrangeas, we're thinking ahead to our June/July visit to Cape May, which has to be the hydrangea capital of the world. Something about the soil or the seaside weather conditions combine and conspire to promote the most spectacular heavenly blues, and if that color has the same effect on you as it does on me, well, you should definitely plan a visit to the southernmost tip of New Jersey, which also offers jaw-dropping Victorian architecture, great beaches and an astronomically high concentration of excellent dining options. Oh, and a great bookstore, too. Just about all my favorite things in one place!

2009-03-03T15:54:00.000-05:00

These etched earrings were really hard to photograph, and I just realized it took me longer to take the pictures than it did to make the earrings. Still, I could not resist adding the film grain, which seemed to suit their antique-lookingness. I'm listing them in my etsy shop this afternoon -- after I make another pot of tea.

2009-02-18T08:40:00.000-05:00

I have about a million things to do this week, so it seems only logical that I should be overcome with the desire to start a new series of paintings I'm calling Mudra. I have always been just about equally fascinated with all world religions, because I'm going with the theory that I need all the help I can get!

You just can't beat winter in New England.

2009-01-22T14:16:00.000-05:00

Connections.

2009-01-21T10:03:00.000-05:00

Etched pendants and wired chains waiting to be connected to each other.

Yesterday was blessed Inauguration Day. I spent the day right here in my own nest, wiring beads, polishing pendants, and just being so very grateful for this new beginning. The world seems like a warmer and more luminous place now, despite winter's cold, and it's going to be an exciting year as we watch the positive changes that are going to come from this new day!

Behold the Tiny Bezel from Hell

2009-01-14T20:04:00.000-05:00

Whew. I would have had better luck at the gaming tables of Foxwoods than I had today at the soldering station, but no matter. It felt so good when I stopped.

This is the tiniest bezel I've tried so far, and it didn't come out too badly...after the third try. This exercise did serve to allow me to test something I've been curious about, which is the durability of the etching after numerous run-ins with a hot torch and some wicked pickle. The backplate here is brass, and it seems to have held up well, so now I won't be afraid to push my luck on second and third tries if soldering problems present themselves again, which could happen at any time. Either the soldering gods are with you on a given day, or they are not, but sometimes, if you are otherwise out of work and either patient or stubborn like I am, they come around eventually.

2009-01-01T14:29:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!!

2009-01-01T14:25:00.000-05:00

I'm not much for New Year's resolutions, but I really do mean to post to this poor neglected blog more often in 2009.

We never go anywhere on New Year's Eve, and last night we had a good excuse with the snowstorm and all. I took the opportunity to go downstairs and do some serious hammering, sawing, etching, and bezel-ing, and here's the result -- an etched silver cross with a green turquoise oval bezel set in fine silver. Exhausted from my efforts -- I've got another really bad cold -- I retreated early to bed with my laptop and a stack of art books, and took advantage of the holiday free shipping sale at Thunderbird Supply, placing orders for more silver and definitely more turquoise cabochons. It's been a wonderful holiday season, but I'm really okay with it coming to an end so we can move on to all the good things 2009 will surely bring.

Obsessed with Etching

2008-10-29T16:15:00.000-04:00

Etched German silver cross with labradorite rondelles, jade, rhinestone rondelles, and Czech fire-polished beads. Sterling and steel wire. When I first learned how to use a jeweler's saw, from my wonderful teacher Kelly Conroy at the Worcester Center for Crafts, this archetypal Southwestern cross shape seemed like an easy one to practice on. But when I started applying the etching techniques I'd picked up over the summer to my growing heap of crosses, well, somehow the whole became greater than the sum of its parts. Photos can't pick up the rich play of shine and darkness this mysterious process lends to the surface, but I'll post 'em anyway!

And speaking of October...

2008-10-29T15:57:00.000-04:00

Here's a little peek at what I've been up to lately down at the Flux 'n Pickle, the drafty but functional jewelry studio my sweet husband has rigged up for me in our unfinished basement. Faceted carnelian rondelles, steel and sterling wire, vintage Czech glass seed beeds, and a drop of jasper surround this bezel I made of brass and silver to frame a tiny New England landscape I painted en plein air this past summer at the Cape. I'm re-launching my etsy shop this weekend, or as soon as I can stop fiddling around with different banner designs! stay tuned!

Not a Ghost

2008-10-29T15:37:00.000-04:00

Alright, well, it's not a ghostly apparition, which might have been more suitable for an almost-Halloween post which attempts to bring this languishing blog back from the dead. It's the sunlight pouring through the stained glass door to my office. Today was the first time the colors and the camera were in the same place at the same time.

A poem I just wrote about not writing a poem

2008-04-30T21:33:00.001-04:00

Could I But Die a Thousand Deaths

(An epic poem waiting to be written

one line at a time,

in the space between the washer and the dryer

in the crack between the counter and the stove

in the gap where the cabinet doors don’t

hang straight

Between the ring and the recorded call.)

For quality assurance purposes, this poem is being monitored.

This helpless poem must be written against its will.

This poem will have to phone itself in — sick,

Or just stay on the line and wait to be written.

There are three poems ahead of it, but it can be assured that it will be the next to be served.

This poem is important to me.

I appreciate its patience.

Grafton Flea Market

2008-04-22T09:48:00.002-04:00

Wow, am I ever glad my husband reminded me Sunday morning that the Grafton Flea Market was up and running. We figured we'd better check it out, and it was well worth the trip -- not that it's very far. And to think I might have stayed home in my pajamas watching cartoons when these 600 vintage rhinestone rondelles were there waiting for me, or these gorgeous blue-green-purple freshwater pearls strung with 28 faceted aqua briolettes. (Snippity snip.) Along with the usual vendors of tube socks and colorful plastic household goods, there's also an astonishingly well-stocked model shop inside the flea market building, and I got all kinds of goodies for jewelry making in there -- not all of it pictured here. The owner is very knowledgeable and helpful, and I'll definitely be a regular customer there. He's got everything, and I want it all!

Come look at my etchings

2008-04-06T13:43:00.003-04:00

...well, not quite yet. I've been trying this metal etching technique from Stephanie Lee's blog and it's sort of working, but my results are not quite ready for primetime. I'm not sure if I'm not leaving my pieces in long enough, too long, or if the various mystery metals I've tried are to blame, but the nickel silver squares I cut, filed, and stamped do show just enough of the desired effect to keep me trying!

Old and rusty. That's my personal manifesto of beauty, always has been, so as I approach the new-to-me metal arts, it just seems right to take lovely, shiny, new materials and do whatever I can to make them look like they have been buried in the ground for a couple of hundred years. When I made quilts, it was the same way. I would finish the quilt top, sewn only from reproductions of antique fabrics, quilt it by hand, apply the binding by hand, and then systematically perform various nefarious aging processes on it to make it look like a timeworn, beloved antique. A psychologist would have probably had a field day with this behavior, which may seem inexplicable since I was trained to be an art historian and curator, pledged to preserve other people's antiquities, which I guess I did, but for my own work, it's always been all about recreating the past. So though I am not entirely sure what I'm doing, I'm turning my attention this chilly spring afternoon to etching and aging metal, and it's pretty exciting. Ineffective so far, but exciting. The great results that Stephanie Lee, Jane Wynn, the O'Briens, and all the other people who've published variations on the etching techniques lately are just so beautiful, I have to keep trying. Wish me luck. Pictures, hopefully, to follow!

Welcome Spring!!

2008-04-03T20:37:00.000-04:00

2008-04-01T18:33:00.000-04:00

2008-04-01T18:32:00.000-04:00

Nesty

2008-04-01T18:28:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm back, and apologize for letting my poor blog languish so pitifully. You see, like Elmer Fudd used to say, I've been sick. Shanghai-ed into a four day hospital admission by well-meaning ER docs and a negligent office staff -- don't ask -- I've been out of the hospital for a week, and freedom never felt so good.

Though the combined effects of costochondritis and mesenteric adenitis -- and the short-lived amusement of wondering which came first, and how in the heck I managed to catch either one -- are indeed inconvenient, I am now in that happy state of grace between being well enough to venture into the studio, but obviously far too ill to undertake any housework beyond, say, lobbing wads of wet laundry from the washer into the dryer. Small wads. My poor husband was really a saint through this whole scary episode, and I intend to make this all up to him somehow, and soon. But today, I was determined to finish this piece I started before the wheels came off my personal health bus.

"Finished" is a very powerful word to me, because it's one I don't get to use very often. Merely completing a task I start is remarkable enough, since I have been starting several new projects a day for decades, but to say a piece of art is finished is to imply that it has a certain, well, gestalty completeness to it, and though I know it when I see it, I don't see all that much of it. That's what happens to art history majors who cross over to the dark side of making their own art. Spend your whole life looking at the good stuff, and your own efforts, no matter how sincere, are bound to fall short of the mark. Way short, in my case. So a project like this, which straddles the fence between art and craft, is where I feel most comfortable, like the little pearl egg in the nest. It is awfully good to be home.

Stormy's Dahlias

2008-03-05T13:06:00.004-05:00

This past September I took a plein air painting class with Mary Giammarino through the Provincetown Art Association's fine museum school program, and stayed across the street from this gorgeous cottage with its incredible dahlia collection. This is my first attempt at coloring a black-and-white photo, which I was strongly inspired to try by Angela Cartwright's newish book, Mixed Emulsions. I've always loved antique postcards, with the way the images seem to capriciously dance between color and black-and-white, and am really excited about trying these techniques for myself. So here's my first effort -- lots of room for improvement, to be sure, but I'm just so excited about finally trying this technique, I just had to post it here.

Tibetan Beads

2008-03-03T11:34:00.000-05:00

I am counting the days until the big spring bead show in Marlborough, MA, so I can get more of these gorgeous Tibetan silver-capped chalcedony beads. Last time, I didn't get there until the third day of the show, and they were almost all gone. THIS time, I'll be there when the doors open!

Get together

2008-03-01T14:26:00.000-05:00

Five inches of snow this morning, the kind with the huge fluffy flakes, and not a breath of wind stirring -- so beautiful and still. I don't think I ever noticed before this morning how this group of pine trees across the street from my house seem like a group of friends clustering together, leaning in towards one another -- a hushed, intimate moment I just happened to glance up and see. Hope they're not embarrassed.

Booklover

2008-02-28T19:09:00.000-05:00

Rowan just loves to curl up with a good book. Who doesn't?

In the mail

2008-02-28T12:40:00.001-05:00

Off it goes, my submission for Monica Magness' Pink Artist art doll project. What an amazing collaboration she has undertaken. It's a privilege to be even a small, two-inch square part of it! Thanks, Monica!! Breast cancer has impacted my life most directly in the loss of both my mother several years ago, and of my dearly loved friend, one of the sweetest-natured women who ever lived, Darlene Roberts, founder of Quilting Books Unlimited. So in their honor and memory, I'm sending off this little Zuni fetish bear, symbolizing the power, strength and courage shown by all who fight with and against this awful disease.

Storm at Sea

2008-02-27T16:06:00.000-05:00

2008-02-25T14:55:00.000-05:00

Vintage clear glass beads with antiqued sterling silver wire...I made these last night. Diamonds and rust. Now I just have to summon the courage to put them in my etsy shop. The pictures aren't great, because they were taken with the world's oldest, and probably heaviest, digital camera. I think digital camera years and dog years are about the same.

Kitchen corner

2008-02-23T19:34:00.000-05:00

The plants are winning. The glass dangly things are winning. The books are winning. I used to think it would be so great to have a sunny corner like this that I could fill up with plants, but the thing with plants is that even if you semi-ignore them, they grow. They're like art supplies that way.

Tag, you are it

2008-02-23T18:58:00.000-05:00

Obsessed with that gothic arch thing about tags, each one is a little shrine to me, and I can't stop making them. I could've painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for the amount of time -- and paint -- I lavish on each one, but each to his own obsession, I say. Houses, arches, nichos, shrines: places where the spiritual might abide for a moment in the material world, so bring it on. Little altars everywhere.

Lacks Focus.

2008-02-23T18:43:00.000-05:00

This picture of my studio shrine to my two current favorite books and one all-time favorite color is a little out of focus, but that's probably how it should be. Following up on Ali Edwards' one little word challenge, my word for this year is gonna be "focus." That's my well-thumbed and slipcovered edition of Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg. It's a tiny little chunky edition which doesn't fit well on a bookshelf and that's good, because if it's lying about on a table I'm more likely to snatch it up and read a few pages at random.

2008-02-23T18:17:00.000-05:00

Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

2008-02-23T18:15:00.000-05:00

The finished background canvas sat, stood, or hung around the studio for over a year before this lordly image of a Hindu deity appeared in the New York Times last spring. I didn't hook them up right away, but kept the page torn out of the paper, thinking I'd collage it into a separate work, not ruling out the possibility of just taping it to the wall as it was. When I re-organized the studio last summer, the general upheaval brought these two unrelated unfinished objects into close proximity with one another, and synchronicity kicked in. Note to self: save everything no matter what.

more ocean dreams last night.

2008-02-23T17:36:00.000-05:00

Painting waves again. Must be this book I'm reading, The Sea, the Sea, by Iris Murdoch. An eccentric loner goes to live by the ocean after a busy life in the theatre. He thinks he will write, and he makes a good start of it, but pretty soon the wheels start to come off the bus. I'm reading this really slowly because a) I don't want it to end, and b) it is starting to scare the bejeezus out of me!

Tamsin Barraclough, waiting for spring

2008-02-23T17:18:00.000-05:00

Between Two Worlds

2008-02-23T16:40:00.004-05:00

Painted this a few weeks ago. I had stopped by our local Panera Bread, which is adjacent to a huge hospital complex, and was just so deeply touched to see this chemo patient in her housecoat in there, looking so haunted and far away, like she was literally existing between two worlds.

Chemo patient

2008-02-23T16:39:00.000-05:00

Blue-greenness

2008-02-23T16:27:00.003-05:00

Made a terrible mess in the studio this past weekend, sitting on the floor making collages around a specific color theme. I think I'm finally getting past my inner critic. Working with the most basic materials -- acrylic craft paint, rubber stamps, charcoal pencils, and last week's New York Times retrieved from my recycling bin -- seems to get me past the preciousness of working with "good" art materials and frees me up to just create without any assumption about the worth of the outcomes. These collages will get cut up and combined into other things, but I figured I'd scan them first before I started whacking them apart!

2008-02-23T16:27:00.000-05:00

Annie Cappuccino loads the dishwasher

2008-02-23T16:07:00.003-05:00

Ooh, looky what I just got!

2007-08-22T12:48:00.000-04:00

I'm really psyched about the new Zutter Bind-it-all bookbinding system, and I just got one on eBay. Now I can make my own little sketchbooks and journals, and use whatever kind of paper I like. It's not even here yet, but I'm already cutting up some Arches watercolor paper for pages. I'll post a picture when it comes! It's so cool!

I used to work in an office that had a plastic comb-binding machine, and have lusted after one ever since. That one, however, cost a lot of money and was constantly breaking, and you could only cut the holes in a few pieces of paper at a time, and even after all that tedium, those plastic combs looked pretty cheesy and couldn't be disguised too well. But this Zutter system uses handsome wire combs, and can even punch holes through chipboard, so it must be pretty sturdy despite its small size. Stay tuned. I plan to waste a great deal of time with this baby.

Speaking of wasting time, alas, I did not win the auction for mass quantities of Golden acrylic paint, which ended up going for way more than I was able to spend. Note that I said "able to spend," not "willing to spend." I admit I was willing to spend a great deal, because a recent trip to C.C. Lowell in Worcester, the only place around here that sells Golden products, confirmed my suspicions that all the paint in that auction would have retailed for well over $500.00. Good paint is mighty expensive, and all the paint in the world isn't going to help me if I don't put the time in teaching myself about color by mixing it myself. If only I were as talented at art as I am enthusiastic about eBay!

I did, however, console myself by winning a large box of Grumbacher oil paint for a very fair price, and I've made myself a promise to use it alllllll up, to paint, like Emil Gruppe advised his students on the rocky coast of Cape Ann, "like a millionaire." He observed that his students were often extremely frugal with the squeezes from their costly tubes of oil paint, so he suggested that they buy less food and use more paint: "Eat like a pauper, paint like a millionaire." Sounds like pretty good advice to me!

In the Night Kitchen

2007-08-18T09:41:00.001-04:00

Who says money can't buy happiness?

2007-08-17T17:24:00.000-04:00

http://tinyurl.com/yvuscg

Even I'm surprised how much time I've wasted this week shopping for paint. It's refreshingly mind-numbing to troll through eBay looking for deals like this one. I've even won some, though I'll probably get outbid yet on this lot. At nearly $12.00 each retail, it would be pretty wonderful to win this auction!

The Road Ahead

2007-08-17T15:02:00.000-04:00

Okay, no way will I concede to the Empty Nest Syndrome thing. My nest empties out this Sunday morning, when our only child flies the coop to go live in the dorms at his first choice university, which gave him a hefty Presidential Scholarship, and he can share a room with his best friend. I want to be so cheerful and wish him happy landings. I hope at least he's convinced.

You'd think I'd be thrilled for the kid. WPI is only nine miles away, but it might as well be on another planet, for all the emotional stuff I'm feeling as this week draws to a close. This is due punishment for all the times when I scoffed inwardly as I listened to older women moan about how empty their lives were when their kids moved on. I don't get away with a thing.

Yesterday was kind of a low point for me. As Andrew washed his new sheets and towels, and neatly folded them into a box with a meticulousness I've never noticed before, it hit me that not only does he not need me to do these things, but he does 'em a whole lot better than I do. He's going to do just fine.

Like I said, I ought to be thrilled, but instead, I was surprised to find myself in tears -- not the usual way of things for this pragmatic Jersey girl. Fortunately, the tears didn't last long, because suddenly I remembered something I'd read somewhere which said that grief is an old person's emotion -- not that there's anything wrong with old people -- but that grief is usually about regrets, and regret is really all about the past. Of all times, this is the time I should be excited about the future, so I guess it's kind of pointless to give in to this grief if I can avoid it. I think I can. I think I can. Gulp.

Not that I'm sure that I can avoid it all the time, of course, but when it does rise up again, I'm going to try to remind myself that I don't actually regret a thing about how Andrew turned out, and not for a million bucks would I deprive him of the opportunity he has earned for himself. I can honestly say without boasting -- because we take no credit for this -- he's a remarkably sweet-tempered, level-headed, brilliant frugal neat freak, and if I can't feel good about unleashing a kid like that onto an unsuspecting world, well, at least I can pretend to feel good, and then maybe I can even talk myself into it.

So I made myself a list of ten fun things to do next week. Sure, I have to work, but since I work at home and make my own schedule, I ought to be able to squeeze in some good times for myself. I've never been the kind of mom to claim a lot of "me time," as they say, because nothing seemed like it was more fun than hanging out with Andrew, a remarkably engaging little companion who started talking at five months old. We've been in more or less constant communication ever since. Through five moves, we've gotten to be a pretty close family, and the habit of backburnering my projects for one thing or another has become such a firmly ingrained habit that I hardly even start projects anymore, let alone finish any of them. But now that my favorite distraction-excuse is outta here, maybe I can re-program myself to a whole new set of habits which will support me for the next half of my life, or at least until Andrew returns to the nest at the end of first quarter in October.

The list:

1. Clean the whole entire house. It might not be fun to do it, but it sure feels good when it's done. To this end, I've issued invitations to a Sunday brunch in two weeks. I do ever so much better at this housecleaning thing when company's on the way.

2. Join the Painting A Day group online, and summon the courage to post my work.

3. Play with my new and as-yet practically unused embroidery machine. God, I love to sew. Ditto, my nifty electronic knitting machine. Ditto ditto, my stained glass grinder, and the tons of gorgeous glass I've been buying, but haven't had time to cut into yet.

4. Take a class at the Provincetown Art Association.

5. Ditto the local art museum.

6. No more skipping Pilates at the gym. Face the pain.

7. Sew a fantastic artsy coat for this winter, like a Blue Fish design kinda thing.

8. Take the extra time to shop at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's instead of just blasting through the regular grocery store because I'm short on time.

9. Make something wonderful for dinner every night. Nothing fancy, just something interesting.

10. Master Photoshop Elements, or at least figure out how to open a *&^#$ file.

Henri Matisse said, "If you want to be a painter, cut out your tongue." What he meant, of course, was that a sincere artist shouldn't waste a lot of time blabbing about her artistic ambitions. (And to think he said that a hundred years before blogs were invented.) Therefore, this aging art history major shall refrain from yakking about her big plans to spend hours in front of the easel until she's at least got something to blather about -- but suffice it to say somebody is running up a pretty substantial bill on eBay in the paint category. Stay tuned. This empty nester won't be picking twigs out of her feathers for long.