Dear You,
I have not one, not two, not three...but FIVE new paintings!
This is "Buggin' Out", which represents August, in my Very Dreamy Year series.
Amber was a very outdoorsy girl. She loved nothing more than going out into the backyard and lying in the grass and staring up in to the puffy white clouds polka-dotting the brilliant blue sky, enjoying nature and daydreaming the day away. Until, that is, one day, while doing so, she got bitten by a spider and her whole arm swelled up and she had to go to the emergency room and get a shot. For a few months after that, she stayed indoors, unhappily watching television programs, and skittish about venturing outside again.
One day, bored, she went to the library, where sitting out by itself on a shelf, just like it was meant for her, was a book called How To Talk To Insects.
"How silly!" Amber thought. But she sat down and started reading, anyway.
Within two weeks, Amber was quite fluent when it came to speaking the secret language of bugs. When a spider came near, she politely asked it not to bite her...and it listened, turning away and meandering off in another direction. Amber once again returned to her outdoorsy ways and quite enjoys communicating with bugs -- even the spiders, since now when they get a be intrusive, she can request that they not bug her and they understand her wishes and 9 out of 10 times are cooperative (except for the mosquitoes, who tend to do what they want to do, regardless.)
This is "Patience, which is for September, the month where lots of kids find themselves, like Tara, waiting for the bus to come whisk them off to another year of school!
Tara was terribly impatient. She wanted what she wanted and she wanted it now (or five minutes ago, if possible). And what she wanted at this particular moment was for the bus to come and take her to school so that she could see the friends she hadn't seen since June! She missed them so.
She thought she heard a voice, chirping at her: "Sometimes we must wait...." but she was fairly certain that that was just her mother's words, which she'd heard many times, echoing in her head.
She ignored it, thinking: Hurry, hurry, hurry.
And it was quite a shame that she didn't pay attention, because had she only turned around, she would have seen that it was a little birdie speaking to her -- and what a story for show and tell that would've been!
And this one, of course, is for October. It's called "Family Portrait".
I had this idea in my head for so very very long but thought it would be too complicated to do -- but it really wasn't and was such fun to paint. I love the little mummy baby!
All three of these are in the shop as originals & prints. The originals are 9" x 12" ("Buggin' Out"), 8" x 10" ("Patience") and 11" x 14" ("Family Portrait").
Originally, back last December when I became determined to do the "A Very Dreamy Year" series, my goal was to, at the end of this year, to produce a calendar. I've at this point in time decided not to do that this year. I'm a perfectionist and I don't want to put something together haphazardly -- and I've just not had the opportunity to figure out a way to produce a calendar in a quality and cost-effective way. 2009 has been a rocky one for me and also filled with new opportunities (like designing the rubber stamps!) as much as I want to offer new products, like calendars, I'm just going to try to finish out this year getting as many new paintings done as I can and keeping things simple. I would love, love, love at some point to be able to offer them as a set of mini-prints, if nothing else.
I do have big plans (as always) for all sorts of things in the future, but one thing this year has taught me is that sometimes we just have to do as much as we can possibly do...and when it's the right time for bigger and different adventures, they'll happen. Sometimes, like Tara, we just must wait. :)
Wait...that's only three paintings!
I do have two more, but this is insanely long already, so they're going to get their own adventure.
Love,
