Patti Gibbons Art

Not a good start to the day. I thought the workshop started at 10. At 9 am I double checked online. It started at 9. I live 1/2 hour away from the center. In my rush to get leave (sans breakfast) I hit the portable dishwasher, which knocked over the bottle of wine, whose top was not on, and spilled all over the wall and behind the stove. The timer also fell, which I promptly whipped across the room and broke into a half a dozen pieces. I am not proud of this. I know I snapped. I have not done so in such a long time.I am a total hormonal mess, and this can't go on. On the way to class, I thought "great. I am just like one of the kids that I teach. I am going to class a total mess, and ready to have a meltdown". In that reflection, I understood how my kids must feel, some of them on a daily basis. I knew that I needed a cry, to be left alone to dive into the paints and get myself back into a human state. I have no excuse for this. I don't have any stressors in...

It has been a REALLY tough teaching week, and I have not been well physically. My hormones are making me really sick and playing Russian Roulette with my brain and my body. It is probably the last big party before they head out, or at least I can only hope. If this happens again in 2 or 3 weeks, I am abandoning my body. Or heading to a warm Caribbean island. Below is an excerpt from my art blog. In addition to work and physical frustrations, I came home to "the letter".... "I had spent 135.00 to join an elite art organization, and another 20+ for the fee to have 3 pieces submitted to a show that was curated by a Bard College professor. By now you know how deep my love for the Hudson River Valley region runs, and how it is reflected in some of my art. It come from a very spiritual place inside of me, and I love the work that I produce from my experiences spent hiking, photographing, painting, and being one with the region. 200 pieces submitted, 47 accepted, I sent in ...

Tom has been working on my house...he was still here when I got home and we chatted for a bit before we both had to do other things. He is a faithful (I think) reader of my blog and was talking to my daughter online about where I was last night. "You mom must have had a bad day. She hasn't been online at all and she still hasn't written her blog". She agreed, and they wondered what was up. I have had worse ones, but the days on end of cramps got to me and I hauled poor Annie out to Ugly Gus's for A drink. I had only a thimble of wine left in the house (I put a lot of it in the bean salad - and am still feeling the effects of from the day before). Needless to say, we met up with other people, and one hour turned to three, it being so easy to sip on our drinks and share stories and discuss our lives. Finally I realized that I had to get home to write and tidy up the house a bit before another day rolled around. Back to today and Tom. He is running speaker wire ...

I meditate each morning for 8 minutes. I have it down after doing it since October, at least on work days. I have to get better about it on the weekends, but at the very least I do it before work as I know that is the time I need to be calm, be in the moment, and have a sense of peace before I start my day. The alarm goes off at 6 AM. I lie in bed and dream, think, snuggle, or stay warm for another 30 minutes. I tear myself away from the warmth of the bed and of Larry's curled up body to get up, put on sweats or my robe, and go into my little meditation room. At 6:30 or so it is still dark, a faint light coming through the open blinds. I know in another week the clocks are turned ahead an hour and the room will be softly lit with early morning light. It does not matter; I close my eyes. I never know where my meditation will take me. I try and have an intention every day. Sometimes my mind goes all over the place, and I have to let the thoughts come in and let them go. Today I ...

First of all, my friend sent me a fun thing to do on Facebook, which I am going to post here for all of my Photoshop savvy readers. My "random" results were quite interesting. You take a bunch of random links through which you get the name of a band, and the name of an album, and an image, and put it together. The photo I posted tonight was my band and album, and what a hoot. Here are the directions if you want to play: 1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random...or go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band. 2 - Go to http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. 3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover. 4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together. I just got ho...

I love historical books and movies, whether they are biographies or historical fiction. I wonder why I have such a passion for it as there was nothing in my life that would have influenced such a greedy hunger for it. Perhaps it is the little girl or pre-adolescent deep within me working through my fantasies of knights in shining armor, of being rescued, or treated like a princess or a queen. Or maybe the artist in me yearns to don gorgeous dresses and jewels. And let's not forget sordid affairs, cuckolded husbands and the such. Though I only read 35 of the 100 greatest fiction books listed by the BBC, (and I am sorry, but The DaVince Code should have NEVER been on that list) I have also read countless books on subjects such as Marie Antoinette, Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots, Edward VII, Jenny Churchill, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Cleopatra,etc. I have watched also lots of movies that are also of this ilk, and as I sit and type here, I suddenly have a flashback to the fi...

So I pretend I am a code writer. I try and make one of my logos link to my Catskill Paper blog, the one that has all of my art on it. I copy code from another source, and blindly try and write my own. I post, review my blog, and horrors, instead I lost all my blog writing. How I did that, I have no idea, but the combos of periods, forward slashes, words, etc. made all of my writing go away. Everything else was fine, but instead of my cute little picture that was supposed to link to my other blog, blogger went bonkers and poof, my wonderful (or for some of you -- not so wonderful) words of wisdom vanished. Fortunately I got rid of the code- once I found it, and decided that I really need to consult with someone about my marketing ideas, my coding etc. Let's face it; I am not a professional graphic designer (though I am not too bad at some of it) and I have MINIMAL HTML coding experience. And widgets, aren't they cousins of midgets? So, I have found someone online whose wor...