Patti Gibbons Art

I have been busy dealing with the promotion/marketing part of my life. I teach all day, then go home and work on profession no.2 - artist. That could entail shipping, or to the art supply store. More often than not it means going into the studio and doing as much as I can do before I run out of "art" steam, and head into the house to do one of my many jobs....cook, clean, organize, do some computer work in the way of selling, marketing, blah blah blah. 1/3 of an artists time is supposed to be doing such s----, thrown in with a few political emails to my beloved cousin, who LOVES to do battle with me, and I can't resist the challenge. (yeah, I still love ya Jim) Today's cooking challenge at 7 pm, was to save the bag of hen (or chicken?) of the woods wild mushrooms that my friend harvested, cleaned, and it was up to me to cook. So while I was designing, thinking, and advertising, I was cooking home made chicken soup with mushrooms, and sauteing said mushrooms for th...

From time to time I look up words online to make sure I am making proper usage of the English language in my blog. I have always been a word hound. As a child I would pull out from the stack of magazines my mother's Readers Digests and read "word power". When I got to junior and senior high, I practiced my words within great literary dissertations on The Iceman Cometh, Ethan Frome, McTeague and MacBeth. After spending a few years trying to learn English words in German, and German words in German, I decided to give up my battle with the nuances of a foreign language, and learn the words I don't know within my own language. So today's word was irony: the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning, or an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected. I learned that there are different kind of ironies. Socratic irony which is pretended ignorance in discussion, and dramatic irony which is irony that is inhere...

The past few days I have been - how would you say it - off. With the flurry of the show, I think I repressed the signs from my body and head. My only focus was work, prepare, and show. Friday night, after setting up, I went out to meet my friends for a bit at one of the places we converge on a payday Friday. I had a Cosmo or two, then went home. I did not care if I ate, and went and crawled under the covers, and watched TV for a bit. No, I did not want to go out for dinner. I wanted to listen to my body and play turtle. I worked all day Saturday doing the show, then went out for a bite to eat, and came home. I found myself battling with the "ick, I don't feel right so don't touch me syndrome". Larry had to figure out how to get around that one. Sunday I went to do my yoga, and broke down the show. By 2:00 I was antsy to do something. "GO SEE LEVON HELM" the little voice said inside my head. "NOW" I mentioned my little voice to Larry, and he w...

Yesterday's show was wonderful - it felt more like a party than a trunk show and many came, shopped, jiggled to Motown, and giggled while sipping wine (and cider). Thai dinner afterwards, and today the largest amount of energy I expended was going to a yoga class, where we did yoga for 1.5 hours with our eyes closed. A challenge for me as I don't know all my yoga positions, and I am a visual person, so I had to concentrate even harder to listen to the directions. But as always, so very good. On such a beautiful day, I relished the rides I took in the countryside. As I was driving on the way to yoga, I saw that on the rail trail, a place where many bike/skate/walk, was a group of people getting to ride their horses. I was glad I was not out on the trail today. What DO you do when a group of horses comes up behind you while you are blading with Nirvana or Beethoven blasting out of your Ipod? And when they pass you, you try not to fall because you are totally surprised and frea...

No writing yesterday as I had nothing left to give, and I am writing now as the coffee kicks in, before I am going to be gone for a day of showing and selling. My WTF anxiety/frustration state reached a crescendo yesterday when I was undermined by a co-worker. The Scorpio came out full force, and I let those know who needed to know how unprofessional it was. It is a fine line between being vindictive and standing up for one's self. Most of my life I laid down and took whatever the abuse was. Now I stand up for what is fair and I am learning how to do it in a level headed manner without poison or being downright mean back. Ah the lessons we still need to learn. Oh and an aside re: the dog blog, I did go speak to one of the kids a month ago about the dog, explaining the leash and barking law. I was very kind and nice, and the dog warden did drop off a pamphlet backing up my info...just sort of stuck it in the door. Obviously, those efforts have been ignored. So, as I am packing...

I think because I have been working two jobs since I got home from Kentucky I am fried, and as a result my patience for things that otherwise might pass me by is minimal. This morning I awoke to WTF running through my brain, and having fantasies of hatchets and police cars, which was too early in the morning for me. I had just finished my meditation and my second cup of coffee had not kicked in. Life is now very different in this once quiet sleepy part of our city that rates 5 on a scale of 1-10 for violent crimes. *a FYI aside* I have new neighbors. They have four teenagers. And a giant black lab. At 7:30 in the morning I know that someone has arrived next door to pick up one of the three teen girls to bring them to school. It is a young person I presume as the stereo is turned way up and the base is rattling my windows. Larry is miraculously sleeping through it, and I wonder if Megan and the kids will also sleep though a car stereo that is literally 15 feet away from her ears. The...

I am going to leave you with a picture of a collage I did on a journal. It is countdown time and I have to have all of my art and cards ready by tomorrow night for Saturday's show. I am surprisingly calm, and figure I have done all that I can do, and I look forward to seeing some people that I have not seen in a while. If nothing else it once again gets me out into the public eye. Today a friend told me that she heard an ad on WKZE, which is a really wonderful station out of Red Hook, NY and Salisbury, CT, and it mentioned my name! I wish I had heard the ad, but I am excited that it is being advertised! So do come down and meet me at BECKON on lower Broadway in Kingston if you are a local. Check out Maryann's wonderful store, have a snack/libation, and I am the strawberry blonde (is that what I am?). Till tomorrow Patti O Artist