Patti Gibbons Art

I braved it through the first part of my day out of sorts from lack of sleep, and the first day of my period which is ALWAYS a bear. Usually I have a day of a nagging headache before it, followed by 24+ hours of misery. Sometimes I embrace it, others I am just plain pissy about it all. Once I got home I quickly shifted gears. My friend Ken (a network chiropractor) did some amazing energy work on me, (that might account for my feeling better too!) then off to get ready for Halloween. Alanna arrived, we donned our costume, and went into the twilight to trick and treat for the first time. We only went to half a dozen houses in our neighborhood, followed by Ginas (the massage meister!)for snacks and a sip of wine. (And goodies for Alanna of course). Last stop === the hospital to see mommy. It was poignant when we came in view of the night lights of the hospital and Alanna yelled MOMMY'S HOUSE! How do you explain all of this to a 2 year old? No word on what is going on with her b...

I wanted to get into trouble tonite. My husband was working, I was fried from a long day. My day started out with my daughter calling to tell me that she might have internal bleeding, and they were doing what turned out to be 6 hours of testing. Still no answers. Then the baby sitter quit. Another huge problem. And I had to pick up the pieces from being gone from the classroom for 2 days last week. So, a hot sake or glass of wine is not too much for a girl to ask for, no? But alas, I could not find anyone to accompany me. My friend did go w/me to the costume store to buy something for us to wear to school tomorrow, and I got Alanna an adorable outfit. It has been 20 years since I took a 2 year old trick or treating. We had some giggles, especially when I put on a rasta wig w/ huge dreads. Then this strange lady come over and asked us if we were buying it - I said no, and she said something to the effect that she would charge us then for the entertainment if that is what we ...

Today was the first reminder of what is to come. A cold brisk wind whipped most of the leaves off the trees and the killing frost from last week has turned even my most hardy plants umber and brittle. Darkness is descending like a black velvet cape so early now. I shall have to sit under lamps soon as I shrivel like the plants in the winter, devoid of heat and light. This painting is of a sunset which I captured on my way home from work, along the Rondout Creek on Abeel Street. I, like Thomas Cole, opted out of depicting the railway in my painting. Perhaps some day I too will give in and give it placement in my work. But not now. The sky and the mountains are too glorious. I am off to take some hot chicken soup to Megan. She is still in the hospital. It has been hard running my life with a 2 year old in tow and a sick daughter besides, who at 22, still very much needs mommy. I am PMSing to boot and think it is about time that I get rid of my period. I mean, grandmothers are ...

I never got to post yesterday as I was a maniac after my last post. I had baby all morning and then later on had the show at my friend's house. We always had someone there shopping; it was not a huge financial success, but the company was great, I met new people, ate lovely cheeses, sipped wine, and then had an amazingly HUGE sushi party later that evening. The one blemish to the evening was the arrival of someone on my mailing list. Bardet's items are made in South Africa which she sells. The woman have their own business which supports them in an otherwise poverty stricken culture. So this guy comes in with the opening line of "I think all poverty is laziness, plain and simple" and then proceeded to make statements about "how long are we going to support and help THOSE PEOPLE and other comments as such". It started to get very nasty as the people who were there shopping were getting irate with his comments and he was not going to quit. My friend ha...

Tomorrow I am doing a small home sale with my friend Bardet. It has been crazy from the very start. I had the wrong day, so I had to work like mad to make some new things, then this morning I get a call at 6:30 am that my daughter is in the hospital. I now have the baby tonite and tomorrow. How am I going to pull THIS one off? Part of me says, FORGET IT, the other part of me says HAVE FAITH AND JUST DO IT. I went to see Megan this morning before I went to work as I was afraid that she might go into surgery without my telling her I was sorry about our little disagreement the other day and that I loved her. She looked all sad with a naso-gastro tube coming out of her nose. I went back again to see her tonite. She was the same only more so -just with a bit more morphine pumped into her. The doctors are going to do an endoscopy to see if they can see anything wrong. Her stomach apparently has closed up at the bottom and there is some sort of blockage not allowing her food to pass ...

I was not able to access my blog last night...slow servers or they were doing repairs. Then this morning my internet was down. To boot, my daughter is in the hospital with a possible blockage and may need surgery. So life is crazed right now and I will be back as soon as I can fix my computer or figure out what is wrong with it. patti

So I am sitting in my classroom during my lunch and decide to retrieve my emails. There is an email from my friend Bardet who is coming east in a few days. We had planned a house party, where she would sell her sacred jewelry and Be Sweet items, and I would sell my earrings and cards and whatever else I can pull together. BUT I thought it was next friday. It is this friday! I have to make cards, advertise, beg my boss to let me out an hour early (I get docked via personal or sick day........but I was planning to take 1/2 a day)cancel my therapy appointment, and somehow pull this all together. I know I work great under pressure, but this is CRAZY!!! I have gone BATTY. Must be the season. A short blog as I worked my 11 hours, then went out shopping for a bit as I desperately need pants for school, grabbed some sushi and then just got home. My eyes are crossing, I have so much to say, but I am off to rest! More to come---there alwasy is!. xxxpatti PS this card was sold but I love i...

What an appropriate title for tonights blog. I had the evening totally to myself and went into the studio for a few hours. I felt a creative surge go through me and I felt for a fleeting moment that all was clear and I would find the right path in my art life. I realized that Melissa was indeed right. I was going to have to make some major changes if art is what I want to do. I cannot change my full time job for now, but I can change how I concentrate my art time. I like the discipline of my blog so that won't go. I do like making my cards and the steady but small income it provides So tonites little voices went something like this: "do I continue to make my greeting cards on the hopes that I will always have a handful of clients to buy them, or do I stop making them and ONLY make art and price it higher? I could raise the price of my cards! People are getting handmade mini works of art for 4-8.00! Isn't that absurd? BUT I LOVE MAKING THE CARDS. Why? They MAK...

Right now I am fit to be tied. Perhaps it is because it is not fair that I have to deal with life so soon after going to a workshop where I made time for ME and learned how to get into a place of peace. My 22 year old daughter hung up on me after calling me and complaining about her problems and then disconnects when I don't play into her financial or emotional dramas. I am strong, but I crumble when push comes to shove. My kids have a good way of doing that to me. Or I allow this to happen. I feel so betrayed at times...I give up my saturdays to watch her baby, I take time off to sit for four hours in a cold hard court room to support her. I ask for nothing but respect, and she basically goes off on me and hangs up when she does not hear what she wants to hear. It hurts badly. But pushing that aside, I had a very wonderful day at Melissa's. I really looked at my process and art as a journey, rather than feel negatively about my painting. Melissa's input was that ...

I have to hop in the shower so I will keep this brief. I did not write yesterday as I was in the workshop all day and then attended my auntie's 76th birthday dinner up in the mountains. By the time I got home I just did my exercises and went to bed! The workshop so far has been enjoyable. We did a guided meditation, a short meditation, some discussion and then painted all day. I am still frustrated with painting. It is something that I love to do, but feel I am not talented enough in to be a good painter--never mind GREAT painter. I do like the meditation and guided visualization and would like to take that with me in my life in general, so for that it was great. And, perhaps, if it points out to me that painting is just my therapy and that I should work on what my strengths are for making money, then that is ok too, though it is a bit disappointing to realize that I may never be as talented as I wish I were. My celebrex seems to be working as I am relatively pain free all d...

It was a tough day -- for both my daughter and I had to face some demons. It involved sitting in criminal court for four hours with the case is going to trial. I knew I had to go there with her. It is hard enough to file abuse charges on someone you love, never mind sitting for hours in a very tense atmosphere, alone. His lawyer kept winking at her; it was abhoring to watch. I told her to hold her stare and stance firm. She did well. I hope she is as stong in the trial in December. It was a flash back to another life, another time which seems so distant, so unreal, where I was in the same seat as her. I told her that all these challenges make us strong women. And you know, I AM strong and I am at peace now that I no longer feel a victim. I am a survivor. I quickly shifted gears from emotional supporting mommy to graphic artist. I had to design place cards for tomorrow night's party for my aunt. She will be 76 and we don't know if she will live another year, so we are trying t...

I just finished dinner; it is near 9:00. I so wanted to soak in a hot tub, my body hurts, I have worked too long, and I yearn for some down time after a long day. But I remembered, HEY, MY BLOG!!!!!! Got to finish off the evening with that! Tonite's pic *IF IT EVER LOADS* is a work in progress. A photo taken in New Orleans before the Hurricane. A host of ghosts walking down the street in the evening. It is not finished, only a bit of space on my hard drive for now, but an image all the same. It is autumn and the light is fading and I slip away into a mood....the smell of autumn, the beginning of decay in my garden. Dead tomato plants with little cherry corpses strewn about my patch of land that I farm in my little city. The basil is still struggling; it is closer to the house than the tomatoes. My mesclun is frozen at 1" tall for weeks now. I have not seen any snowflakes yet, but I smell them in the air. They are coming. They are just waiting for the right time....

LISTEN TO YOUR STUDENTS and you will often find the path and inspiration of the lesson plan. I was emailing one of my students back and forth. Friendly chatter. I have had him for 3 years and am now his senior advisor. He is a fab kid and I have learned much from him. He is in my Photoshop class..it is a class that I am teaching for the first time. He suggested that I give kids a disposable camera and have them take it home for the weekend and shoot pictures for them to scan and make their own collages as I am strict about copyright infringement. I figure, might as well teach the Generation X now! I needed a lesson plan however to tide us over till I got the cameras, gave them to the kids, developed the film etc. I had to come up with a quick lesson and we both agreed that doing scanner art might be fun. During class we searched Google images for "Scanner Art" and looked at what examples we could find. We found quite a variety, and were inspired by some of the self-...

I spent some time in my studio this afternoon, hell bent on making a painting, no matter what it was. I got out the paints, laid out the palette, got a canvas panel, and just painted. No thought, no plan, just paint and see what comes of it. It is always a learning experience in some form, whether it be a color discovery or time that I get in touch with my child who plays with paint. Tonite's painting must have been influenced by the season. The cool nights, the leaves changing color, the shorter days and ever so dark mornings. Perhaps I have caught my students anticipation of Halloween even though they are teens. They still have the excitement and the playfulness of the younger children, only they know they are getting to old to partake in the door to door trick-or-treat festivities. Before delving into my paints, I went on a nice walk around the perimeter of our local track and wistfully enjoyed the sights and sounds of the football team drills, the track team coming in fro...

Been playing around with Photoshop again as I need to complete a page for one of my fat books which I am participating in. I am having some program problems, and need to figure out the whys of it. I don't understand why some of my tools will just not work sometimes..like the eraser on various layers. I posted the image I made last night (the reason of no blog posting...got too aggrevated and tired to post) It is not a done deal as I am having issues with it and will bring the files to school to play around on that computer and see if there it works there. But I thought it was fun anyway, even in its imperfections. Also am posting a link to Duane Keiser on my blog. He is an artist who paints a small painting a day and links them on his blog to ebay. He has quite a following, and his work is lovely even on the internet ---- which NEVER gives our art the justice it deserves. Take a moment to check him out and you can subscribe to his announcements when he posts new paintings ...

I guess this is a dedication to Andre week. As her memorial approaches, I find myself looking through the things Julie asked me to scan for various purposes. It is amusing and whispers stories to me of a creative little girl who never forgot how to write stories all her 85 years. This page is one from a handmade Valentine book Andre made for her mother in the 30's. It is precious. The illustrations are wonderful and have a naievity about them. I wondered who litte Neil was? Did "the then repulsive Neil" change? Andre must have been at an age when she thought all little boys were repulsive. Come to think of it, I don't think I ever thought boys were repulsive. I remember having MAJOR crushes with boys in my 1st grade class and writing letters to them. My one true love was Gary. We acutally wrote love notes back and forth. Then one day he disappeared for a long time. I heard he had an accident with fire crackers and got hurt. When he came back to school it wa...

I have been writing all evening in response to a series of exercises I am doing with a group with Eric Maisel ,who is a well known creativity coach and author. I am enjoying it for the most part, except when I have to think too hard about existential creativity and other prompts that just wear me out. Perhaps if I did it in the morning I could think clearer but I got a bit behind and just finished up a few hours of heavy reading, thinking, and writing. Soon I have to head upstairs to read an article by my therapist (whom I adore in case you have not read my previous blogs) that is a Jungian interpretation of the Mona Lisa. I have to return it to her tomorrow, but I do look forward to reading it as I have studied Da Vinci a bit and am intimately familiar with a few of his works. So for tonite I thought I would share this parting shot, a good laugh for the day. It is a picture of my friend's mom and siblings. Check out those bloomers and pants!It is a picure of innocence and cur...

Andre was one of my best friend's mother. She celebrated 85 years of life, most of them as a veterinarian, and later as a playwright. She was one of the first pioneers to encourage the neutering of pets and was known to chastise those who let their animals breed at a time when few thought about unwanted cats and dogs. She also wrote many plays, some of which were performed in an old show boat called the Driftwood Floating Theater in Eddyville, New York, a town which was the last stop on the D and H canal before you headed out to the Hudson River. I always said there were more bars than residents, and it is the town where one of my husbands made his residense in the Mad Anthony Saloon. The old showboat was sadly burned down by two teens some years ago, but I got to see one her plays in the old boat, lined with velvet curtains and seats, and vaudvillian entertainment. She raised four children in the Hudson Valley of New York, and I was lucky to have befriended Julie, one of her ...

I don't know where all my readers came from all of a sudden, but it is heartening to see that people have breezed through my blog. I share bits and pieces of my life..which has been and still continues to be intersting---to me anyway, and is full of art and living---even in the quietest of moments my mind races and thoughts come spilling out. I have some REALLY interesting stories, but alas, because I am a public servant, a teacher no less, I cannot tell all. I might be accused of being immoral or a tart or something like that, so you all have to fill in the blanks on that. Or bear with me until I retire when I can tell all. The phrase I used above (Even in the Quietest Moments) was the title of a Supertramp album I think. They put on one of the best concerts I have even been to...in the early 80's, in Springfield, Connecticut in the Civic Center. They had a video showing during one of their songs. I can hear the song, it had a great beat, but alas, I can't remember ...

I am taking a break to blog while simmering my wild mushroom soup which I am making for my dear friend Julie. My friend Leah is a wild mushroom expert, and I am graced with gifts of morels, chanterelles, and tonite hen of the woods. I have gone "shrooming" with her for morels, what a great time that is. It is like a treasure hunt, only the last time I went I ended up with poison ivy so badly for a month and looked like a burn victim. I love to make soups so tonite's fare is Creme of Mushroom soup, and homemade Pesto. Even the onions are from my garden that I put into the soup! I don't have much, but it is amazing that I can make a dinner from what grows in the woods and in my little piece of paradise. Julie and I go back 20 years. I had left my husband with a two year old and a 3 month old. Our lives were in danger and we packed all we could fit in our VW Dasher, and lived in the mountains for a while, chopping wood to keep warm during the worst months. At nig...

The tour is over. I am exhausted from cleaning, working, and talking. Today was much busier than yesterday, though most of the people who stopped by were my friends who always show up to say hi, see what I have been doing, or pick up some cards or such. A few neighbors stopped in while on their walks, and a few people who were on the tour stopped by. But for a mailing of 28,000 in the local paper, an art memebership of 500+, the amount of people that came from that was very few and I wondered why? I noticed cars would slow down, look, and then drive by. I had lovely flowers outside the studio, signs, and even had to door open which I was told enticed one person to come in. Some people told me that perhaps it was because I was on the outskirts of town, that people focused on going to studios that were close together in the same neighborhood and they could walk and see several at a time. I am not off the beaten path, but you did have to drive a few minutes to my neighborhood, whic...

In my backyard is hidden a concrete Buddha. Different flowers bow before him, depending upon what has survived or been planted for the season. Pink Oriental poppies are in bloom now. They were supposed to be white, but I gracefully cherish their soft pinkness amidst the oranges and red leaves that are starting to spot the yard. Larry is more upset that they are pink as he yearned for white, and is also upset that the moonflowers that we bought turned out to be pink morning glories. It must be the year of pink for him. I bought Larry that Buddha for Larry one father's day, many springs ago. There was a fabulous statuary supplier in the woods up near the Ashokan and we would go each spring to pick out a piece for our garden. He fell in love with this piece, and it has lived in the yard and become one of the focal points. One summer afternoon I sat and painted him, and just the other day decided to make the little painting into a card. It had been sitting in a box for a while ...

Just got back home from Parent's Night at school. For me it was a low turn out. With our poplulation of kids, we don't often get many parents. Some don't have cars, some can't drive, some are better off not getting in the car to drive. Yet it is always a pleasure meeting those parents who do care enough to come and vistit their child's school, and they are usually the parents of the kids who are doing well. My 7th graders finished their hats which will be auctioned off this weekend. The benefits will go to children who live in shelters still in New Orleans. Those same students go to school in the very shelters they live in. Many have no clothes, supplies etc. We hope that the benefit is a success. I am wrapping up the lesson with a Powerpoint presentation of pictures I took when I was down there last year, between Mardis Gras and Jazz Fest. I had a wonderful trip and fabulous memories of the margaritas in Pirates Alley, the visits to the Vodoo shops, the Fr...

Groan. The tour is less than 2 days away. There are still piles in the studio and tables cluttered with art, art supplies, glasses, and more. How am I going to get it done by 12 noon on saturday while teaching, attending open house, making labels for the art show...and anything else? I am resigned to the fact that I am wearing one of my old dresses to the wedding, as well as figure out what pair of shoes that I have that will go with it. There is no time to shop unless the Payless store down the street has a cute, comfortable pair of shoes that these broken feet can wear. My girlfriend even came over and bought 2 dresses for me to try on, but one was too big, and the other too long. Maybe I will get really sick and not have to go. I am going alone as it is, because Larry has to work the CPW auction and I will be going alone to a wedding for perhaps the first time in my life?! I mean, who goes to weddings ALONE???? Especially when they are married? Oh well, chalk it up to ano...

Working two jobs and doing 12+ hour days is not conducive to cooking. I won't even BORE you with the details of my long and tedious day, but at 8 PM at night Larry wanders into the studio and asks "what are we doing for dinner?" and I hand him the list of possibilities that exist. Leftovers from DAYS ago (most I have eaten in school for lunch), a sandwich from the local deli, or sushi, but OH, I FORGOT, not in the budget this week. Tonite we opted for the sandwich and a few salads. today's card was actually inspired by our recent eating habits. I am not going to bother listing it on ebay as I am having the sale this week, but if you are interested in it, drop me a comment. All we have in the garden by the way, are tiny little grape tomatoes that are still managing to ripen. They don't fill up Alanna, never mind us. Think we ought to go shopping? Till tomorrow, patti

I have a black dress like this. Too bad I am 15 pounds too heavy to fit into it. It was a runway dress for a Paris fashion show. It hangs on my door, rhinestone straps and all...to remind me of a time when I was thin and angular and could have been a model had my parents let me. When I was 15 I worked in a private French restaurant in the mountains. The owner did all the cooking and had the likes of Jaques Pepin come to give her lessons once in a while. I was a bar back, a prep cook, a waitress, a chaimbermaid all rolled into one. I had lovely red hair, weighed 100+ without dieting, and was 5'8" or so. I learned much about life the few years I worked there. About love, lust, fabulous French cuisine, great wine and such.... My boss had been a model in Paris and wanted to take me to NY to visit her connections at Ford, but it was squashed immediately as my ex-Jesuit (well he ALMOST became a Jesuit) father saw it as a life of debauchery and sin. Heck, I was doing quite a b...

Since yesterday was BAD BOYS, tonite's entry HAD to be BAD GIRLS. I can't WAIT till I have more time in the studio to make some more for these two lines. Right now I am finishing up a few internet orders, and still have not cleaned for my open house next weekend. How can one have a clean studio while working? I say it is IMPOSSIBLE! I went to visit my two aunts today who are like the Collyer brothers. They have 3 houses which are all filled with wonderful antiques and prints, along with bags full of magazines, mail, newspapers and lord knows what else. You can barely walk through the one I have been to tonite, and the one in Queens...well, I am afraid to go there. I understand your feet never touch the floor. It is an illness, something like OCD. I fear every living moment of my life that the disease will hit (they weren't always like this) and I too will be handicapped with the inability to throw anything out, telling everyone that "I might need it for art"....