Patti Gibbons Art

This is a new series of cards I am making in addition to Nursery Crimes, called BAD BOYS. BAD GIRLS will follow shortly. The Nursery Crimes series was inspired by an old Mother Goose book. I had broken my ankle, was laid up for a long time, and had this mother goose book laying around. In my heavily drugged delirium, I took the words out of context, sometimes jumbled them up, put them next to an image which may or may not have had anything to do with the rhyme, and I had pretty girls telling us that "Jill stopped to polish Jack's nob" or a picture of Jack jumping over a candle stick, with the words that tell the real story, the story we have surmised all along..."Jack burned his cock". See, there WAS a reason that God threw me down the stairs. I have a lot of fun with these as well as the mixed up letters of the BINGO cards that tell us to GO BI. Today, under great pressure to design and produce, I made the prototype for a new line of cards, and was in my stu...

No entry yesterday. Just ran out of steam. Had an incredible session with my therapist late in the day and that and the PT and the school day just wiped me out. In a good way though. Both body, mind and spirit worked to the max. My therapist Peg is the most intelligent amazing woman and I am so blessed to have found her. Not only for healing, but for the journey into a spiritual journey to peace, and divine inspiration. I leave feeling healed and energized to continue on my journeys. She loaned me an article she wrote on a Jungian interpretation of the Mona Lisa ---- and ironically I have been reading the book How to Think Like Leonardo and teach some of the methods in my classroom. I just love such synchronicities! So the coffee is hitting, I have Alanna today, and she is dancing and enjoying an Elmo tape I found online. We will cruise the market, go to the bank, find some breakfast and enjoy a crisp Autumn morning in the Catskills. I will feed on her innocence, her joy, he...

It is 10:30 and just walked in the door a little while ago. Had a busy day. Taught all day, then dropped off artwork for an art show, then off to meet a friend who was in town from Algiers, where they filmed the movie Ray, which is across the great Mississippi from New Orleans, or as she calls it, Nawlans. Then off to German class, and now I have heard that there is the possibility of heavy rains, so I have to go out to the studio to make sure that there is nothing on the floor that can get ruined. Things always get ruined when my studio floods, no matter how much I check it, but I will clear away books and papers off the floor near the wall where the water comes in, and throw down some towels in case it happens. AND PRAY. The open studio is next week, and all I need is a muddy mix of water to make life even harder for me. My neighbor did major yard landscaping just about the same time that my studio was being made out of 1/2 of my 2-car garage. I knew it had some dampness, but ...

The title of my blog is a song from Sinead Lohan, from her CD titled NO MERMAID. She is quite wonderful, this diva from Ireland, but since the late 90's she has produced no further CD's. I believe she is busy being the mother of a few children, and I look forward to hearing more from her. Speaking of being no mermaids, my husband and I were at the New Jersey shore last year before my accident. We paid no heed to the flags set upon the beach as we were just so excited to be on a trip together by the ocean, on a wonderful beach. He and I went in .... and before you know it, he has the look of panic spread across his face. He is shouting, I can't touch bottom! I am shouting, "well, then come back in!" and before I could finish, I too realized that I was no longer touching bottom. I guess a riptide gently swept the bottom of the ocean out from under our feet, which for me is not a problem as I am a decent swimmer, but for Larry, who hardly goes IN the water, it...

As I mentioned, I went away for the weekend and went junking in a few of my fave spots. It gets harder and harder to find good things for both myself and for resale, but I did manage to get a few things that I fell in love with. I have decided that I will only sell what I love..that way I am being true to myself. And, if it doesn't sell, I get to keep something that I COVET! I have a little geisha collection in my dining room which includes a few vintage dolls, some of which are broken but have a loving home in my display, some Victorian papers of course, and a great geisha paint-by-number. I also have a few wonderful assemblages/shadow boxes that have Asian items in there, by my friend Kitty --- who shows at the Unison fair once in a while. Her art is AMAZING. She makes shadow boxes filled with antique, and other unique and lovely collectibles. She is a GRAND woman, and wished she were closer cause we would be sharing lots of tea and whatever together. Anyway, this lovely p...

Today in school my friend and co-worker, Stephanie, said to me "your blogs are getting too heavy Patti", "I can't read them!". I thought about it for a moment, trying to remember the last few blogs, and thought, she's right, time for a fun story. A week ago I mentioned that my friend Bardet was in town. We have quite a history together, having done many craft shows and flea markets, hiked, danced in the fields of Wittenburg, gone on road trips with fighting kids, had one crazy night of dancing together till the gallery threw us out and our dates wondered if perhaps they should just leave us behind.... Once Bardet fell off the mountain while rock scrambling and called me the next day. She needed a ride to the docs. I said, heck, no problem, and went over to her house which was in a refurbished chicken coop on a piece of land owned by a European sculptor. I was not prepared for what I saw. Bardet looked like an old lady, banged up and bruised, her arm in a s...

We just got back a little while ago from a wonderful weekend trip. If any of you live in the northeast, a wonderful area to visit is the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Only 1.5 hours from us, it is a journey full of lyrical landscapes, farms, and tempting shops. We stayed at The Village Inn in Lenox. Reasonably priced, fun people to meet, and comfy rooms with a pub downstairs, made it ideal for us. You can walk into town and eat at any number of restaurants and shop in the galleries and shops. Some I can't afford, but they are fun to look in and search for the bargin or unusual object d'art that you have to have! We are book fiends, and with my addiction to paper, a stop at the Book Barn in Hillsdale was a must, along with Berkshire Books. I found some really cool ephemera for my art, as well as some things I am offering on Ebay. Over the years I have become really select in what I buy. Not only for my work, but for sale, as it gets harder and harder to find things that...

Long day today, full of teaching, lectures about ancient Egyptian art, meeting with the seniors, Physical Therapy, stopping to see my son...... I decided to go to the tanning booth to try and keep a bit of my tan from Mexico for an upcoming wedding, and I fell asleep within 3 minutes of lying down. I was only in there for 12 minutes, and I went out cold FAST. I am still not well, and have not slept decently in over a month, so I passed out in the warmth with middle of the road rock and roll playing in my ear. Before I drifted into lala land, I was thinking about something that bothered me in last nights movie. There is a scene where the mother, after being alone and presumeably celebate except for one heart breaking fling for 10 years, has hot, hard sex with a runaway slave. A Brazilian woman and a black man. Her daughter, who is about 10, comes upon the final throes of their lovemaking and hides under a table.....angry, confused, with her mother reaching out to her, in a haze of...

It was our 10th anniversary and Larry and I skipped over the bridge to Rhinebeck for some light fare at the Bistro at the Terrapin, then to see the movie House of Sand. I had the cream of garlic soup, which I LOVE, but now I am regretting it as I forgot how it my body "processes it" and that might be ruining our chance for any romance for the rest of the evening. The movie was a well done and artful movie, though eerie, sad and poignant, but thankfully had some redemption in the end, unlike House of Sand and Fog which morbidly depressed me for days. This film was full of strong surreal images, as it was filmed in the sand dunes of Brazil (who ever knew Brazil had desert and sand dunes?) and had an air of overall desolation, loss, depair, and the strained and sometimes painful but loving relationships between three generations of mothers and daughters over a span of 60 years. I don't want to tell too much here, as I hate reviews that do that. It starts out with a mot...

I had a visit with my dear friend Bardet who is here on the east coast visiting from California. We have known one another as friends and artists for about 14 years now, and being an interfaith minister she married my husband and I 10 years ago tomorrow. She has been one of the most important influences in my life, and we have helped one another through some pretty tough times. We were laughing over some of the rough times tonite. Like when she was hiking near Mohonk and fell off a rock cliff, and severly broke her shoulder. That is a story for another blog..and I hope that I remember to tell that one. Perhaps tomorrow night. It is a chuckle. But we can ONLY laugh at it some years later, as back then she was pretty damaged and needed some intensive surgery. Then there was the time I fell and impaled myself on a 2 x 4" and she walked in as I was lying on the floor gasping for breath and cut on the head...... Good friends can pick up where they left off, whether it be 3 week...

If you read yesterday's blog then you know what this part II is about. If not, then give it a read, and this is the final part to it. Subject matter… I love the landscape. I am frustrated that I can’t do figures well, and collage has given me the medium in which to express the human figure without having to draw/paint it etc. I would like to change that, but that, like anything else, takes time and work and practice. But if I could paint the landscape, develop a voice in that, I can still collage a means to express myself in other ways. I would rather pick one thing and learn how to do it well and find or create MY style. What I would like to get out of this weekend. …. I am looking forward to the spiritual part of the workshop in addition to learning technique. I have never meditated, but I yearn to go to other realms of reality and to explore the universe, the brain, and how to connect with it all. I am a spiritual person, and look to developing that even more. I am a...

I am taking a workshop with Melissa Harris and am looking forward to a new experience. You can access her website by clicking on her name that is in blue...I have made it a link. The title of this painting is Margaret Mary and is an oil on paper. Melissa combines meditation and other methods of going deep within ourselves with art. I have known Melissa for a long time and have purchased her work. She is a successful fine artist and business woman to boot. Plus, her work is infused with spirit, peace, and beauty. All the things that I desire so dearly to become a way of life for me and for the world. Visit her website and read about her workshops and appearances. Oh, and I asked her permission to include this image on this page! She recently sent out a questionaire so that she can prepare for the October workshop. After writing it, I thought that others might want to read my responses over the next few days on my blog. I have shortened the questions a bit, but not the answe...

When I was a child, I had arachnaphobia. BAD. I would see a spider and scream for my mother to come and get it. She would get this evil look on her face as she grabbed a tissue and pretend she was going to drop it on me. I know she was sort of joking around, but that is not nice to do when your kid is freaking. I also remember that science fiction movie about the giant spider. I can't recall its name, but if you were born earlier than the 60's, you probably know this movie, the black and white movie with the giant hairy spider that knocked over cars and sent people screaming in the streets? No one made me watch that movie, I just had this sick fascination about the very object of my fear. One day when I was about 5 or 6 I did something really bad and my father took me outside and made a bed in the garage out of cardboard. That was to be my sleeping spot for the night. I was horrified only because I KNEW there were spiders in the garage and they were out to get me. I was...

Just got back from my friend Rob Hacunda's opening in Poughkeepsie at Albert Shahinian's gallery. Rob's website is at Artroof I am pretty sick and can barely think nevertheless talk about art, but his work is etherial, pensive, his use of color amazing and I wish I had one of his large paintings for my meditation space. I don't have a space yet, but I will make one soon. I have one of his sunsets in the Catskills which remind me of Frederick Church's work. It is much more impressionistic than Church and creates more of a raw mood, a snapshot of a moment in time. He paints more than just a beautiful picture. Rob's art deserves more than I can give right now. The picture on my blog was one of the pieces there. If you live in New York, Poughkeepsie is not far from NYC, and the train station is within walking distance to the gallery. As an aside, the Wailers (of Bob Marley fame) were playing down there tonite. Too bad I did not have enough energy to stay......

I am too sick tonite to get into anything long, heavy, or intellectual.Larry has made me MORE giner tea, I am drinking a bit of vodka, and had chicken soup for dinner. I have gotten the proverbial BACK TO SCHOOL cold. My students have not been trained to cover their mouths, and cough and sneeze all over my room. (they are teens no less). I am sure that lack of sleep, the stress of going back to work, and my family life has weakened my immune system which is usually strong. I sneeze more than I talk, and am into the package of dinner napkins as my tissues are gone. I used my last bit of energy dancing to the Scisson Sisters with my granddaughter who thought the line "take you mama out all night" was something worth repeating, and had a blast dancing and spinning. However, a few minutes of that, and I was spinning myself. This print is a great print by Gustave Dore which can be found on the Etsy -- link to the right. It is titled Fairy Godmother and is from the 1800...

Every day I put up a different greeting card or artwork. I try and make it relate to the topic at hand. Sometimes I use a piece from my antique paper collection, but most of the time it is something I have made in the recent past either as a painting, a collage, a card. This blog has become my cyber journal of my thoughts, my journeys. The main focus of this post is a book review, but I thought the verse from a card I made this afternoon which came from an old nursery rhyme made a lot of sense. This book is about the passion of journaling in its many forms. They are as individual as the artist. "Water won't quench fire" is a good analogy for those of us that must make art. That art can take many forms, and without art they are dead, lost, unfulfilled. The passion for art is unstoppable. When I speak of art I speak of the act of creativity, whether it be painting, writing, or dancing. The book Drawing from Life: the Journal as Art, is by Jennifer New and is publ...

People might wonder why monkeys show up on my greeting cards on a fairly regular basis. Monkeys have been a family joke for a few generations now. You just can't shake the fact that a gibbon is a type of monkey, and my last name is a troop of them. When I was in first grade in Catholic school, one of the many mean girls yelled at me and said "I am going to look your name up in the dictionary!" and gleefully pointed out to the class that not only was my name IN the dictionary, but I also had my picture in it...a funny looking kind of ape-like creature. It destroyed me for years. At some point I figured if you can't beat them, join them, and I practiced walking on my hands and screeching like the monkeys on Wild Kingdom. One crazy night after a long night of dancing and partying, I entertained a bunch of people with my well practiced calls. That is a moment I am NOT proud of. Now my sister and I send each other monkey cards, monkey magnets, stuffed monkeys, monke...

My house should be known as the "House of Broken Chairs". Only 2 out of my eclectic collection matches, and probably about that many have stable, glued joints. I have old T-backs, 30's chairs, Windsor repros, a beautiful Captain's chair, and a few turn of the century hand made chairs. They all have character, but they all have a problem of some sort or another. It all started when I was married to my first husband. We had a party, and as usual in those early 80's party days, it got to be a bit out of hand. Hormonal young bucks started pushing one another around, and one of them landed in my goose neck rocker, smashing it to pieces. I loved this rocker I might add. I found it in the house when I bought it, brought it upstairs, promptly cleaned it up, recovered it, and nursed at least one of my children in it. I left ridges in the carpet from rocking in that chair while waiting for my ex to come home from his nights on the town. Sometimes I rocked all week...

It's been a long day. Teaching, then finishing the jewelry job from hell..you know, one of those art jobs that you take on that ends up COSTING you money?! I was supposed to go to the Jewish Federation Art Show/Auction tonite, but my friend Lois was sick, and cancelled, and I was just thankful that there was one less thing on my plate. I took Alanna for a walk, made gazpacho, some popcorn for the her and my daughter, and am ready for bed. I have to figure out what to teach in a few of my classes tomorrow, and I will most likely do that while trying to wind down for the evening. Or get up nice and early and sit on the toilet with a cup of coffee or take a LONG shower to get inspired. Don't YOU get inspired in the bathroom? LOL. It is one of my favorite places! This is a card I made with antique paper this week. It is listed on ebay along with some very cool antique owl cards and a few Halloween and Thanksgiving cards. Fall is around the corner and I want to be ready for th...

Though a small picture, I love how the little boy is climbing up this dirt hill to get what I assume to be is a look at the cow. Or, he is hiding from it. Either way it is a funny picture and one I am putting on with a quick blurb before I go to bed. It was quite a shock getting up at 6 AM. I slept fitfully for yet ANOTHER night. My chiropractor says all the stress that I do not acknowlegde or feel is coming out at night and I tend to agree. My body ached today more than it has in weeks, partly because I was sitting in meetings all day, partly due to the crescendo of anxiety I was feeling about the first day back at school. This is my 15th year of teaching and you would think by now it would be old hat. But it is always the same. The gnawing feeling, the nightmares that start about a week before you go back. You know you won't be sleeping in late anymore, or staying out with friends as long as you can stay awake. NO more long vacations and every free moment becomes preciou...

Last evening was the opening of our local art society's show Anything Goes. An open members show, it was diverse in styles and medium. The weather was not great, but we escaped only with intermittent showers all day long, not the flooding rains we were expected from Ernesto. There was a nice breeze, and it was cool. The only things we were missing was the colors of a rainy Autumn day in the Catskills. The preparation I made in my studio which can flood in the event of heavy rains was for naught, but it is better to be safe than sorry! I have to thank God, the universe, Buddah, and those involved in the process at the society, for all the publicity that I got for the show, from write ups in various venues, to the show card and poster. Early on it was a slow but steady trickle of people, and as it got later, beyond the announced hours, more people came. I feel like I am a bride at a wedding at an opening; I spend much time talking with many people, and not getting to enjoy my visual ...

During spring break last year LoLo and I went to New Orleans. It was our first adventure together out of NY state. We went online a few days before my Easter break from school to see what we could find. We discovered a great deal--New Orleans for 5 days 4 nights in the French Quarter in a 4 star Hotel, The Monteleon for 465.00. Airfare was included in that price from Albany, NY. How cool was that?! It was the week between Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest, and prices were low for that period. We had a great time. The weather for March was splendid; warm, sunny, vibrant. We spent 5 days wandering New Orleans, shopping, going to the many bars and restaurants. We visited a friend in Algiers, across the river from New Orleans. Algiers is this splendid little island where part of the movie Ray was filmed. NOTE: the carousel bar at the Monteleon is one of the best bars I have ever been to. Fun people to meet, great drinks, and I love how it slowly turns, making the trip BACK from the bathro...