Patti Gibbons Art

I can't even talk about it right now. The fear. The sorrow. The angst. The heartbreak. I received bad news as I headed to New York for a quick but wonderful break to spend time with dear friends.  Friends who know how to nurture the sorry souls who arrived at their doorstep.  Brave but fragile. I got bad news about my daughter on the way to NY. News that felt like a kick to the gut. These photos taken on the ride home tell a tale ....  thank God for art...for the distraction and solace it provides.  Thank you Larry for teaching me how to see.  patti o

I have been quite handicapped not having a computer,  and though I have a Droid, an iPad, and an old laptop, I was not able to do the graphic and business work that I usually do on my desktop machine. Bad New: swollen capacitors, and a fried graphics board. The poor Mac finally fried, and it had been telling me for a while that it was on its way out. and I had not backed up all of my files.  Good news: I have found a Geek god who was able to get my files off . All two years of music, photographs, art, etc. (Lesson REALLY LEARNED) But within the week I managed to get the data retrieved, do my research, and traveled to the Albany Apple Store to buy a new iMac - with the L A R G E  screen.  What a joy to be able to open up multiple windows which makes multi-taking so much easier.  And the timing was perfect - a long awaited retro raise payment was added to my paycheck, and I had enough to get myself back up and running, though I had NOT figured in this expense...

Today's painting lesson was in Trompe l'oeil, which is an extremely realistic form of painting that takes objects that are relatively 2D, painting them on a 2D surface so that they look 3D.  I have never tried that style of painting as I am a landscape painter who has done only a handful of still life work. Unlike my log painting class a few weeks ago,  I jumped right into the work.  I wiped out the sketch a few times as I had difficulty getting an accurate portrayal of the objects and their relationship to one another.  This is the under painting and I have started to work into it in more depth; each week I will post its progress. Though it has been uncomfortable at times exploring regions that are unfamiliar to me, I have realized much growth.  In facing the fear of the unknown, I have been able to approach my work with a freedom and gusto that I did not have before.  I think less about what I am doing, and JUST DO IT.  Soon I will post a lesso...

For the past 10 days I have been going through IRS hell. As someone told me, "the IRS is an organization which can strike terror in the hearts of a person with only one weapon - a letter." I got a letter basically saying:  I made income that I not report to us in the year 2009, blah blah blah with lots of things about payment plans, interest, etc. When I first saw the word "dividends"  I thought "oh shit, that 35.00 dividend that I may have not reported has come to bite me in the ass".   When I looked at the form that the IRS was referring to, it was for a staggering amount.  185,775.00.  When I asked an investment banker how much was invested to earn this dividend, he answered: "oh, about 20-30 million" To keep it short  I made many phone calls to the IRS, to banks in NYC and found out that my social security number is the same as the EIN of one of the largest corporate investment banks in the world.  The only thing that keeps me from my m...