If you want an opportunity to practice your Spanish, come read Etsy en Español, {a blog created for the Spanish speaking community within Etsy, It's a whole new and fun sub-culture, the best part is all the dancing and salsa music!} 

I've been recently interviewed for the blog by the very talented Emma Alegre. The questions were really good and I enjoyed thinking about my creation process, the hard part was trying to explain it, AND in Spanish! It's been a long time since I've had to talk about art in Spanish. Must do it more often! Found Art Tuesday is also mentioned! yay!

If you really prefer English, you can read it translated, courtesy of Google Translate. Although there's a lot that is lost in translation, not to mention that it all sounds really funny. Now that I think of it, it'll be more interesting to read it with the translation!

It is really cold outside and where I come from it's much warmer.

Nunca repetimos hoy, lleno de sol y viento soy. Makes me want to dance and wear sunglasses 

Thanks you guys for all the feedback about the little video I made. I'm already thinking on doing another one, maybe this time a real video, we'll see!

I got  my new art supplies I ordered online and have been working on a few more paintings during the weekend. Like this:

I've been working from a Photograph to study the shadows, but for some reason I can't make her smile, believe me, I've tried, and I have not achieved a single believable smile. She seems to be not in the mood. 

I have been painting Frida again because I love the story and work of this great Mexican painter.  This time I'm using only primary colors and no ink pens to help me with the eyes or lips, etc. So, it's only acrylic paint with a retardant so I can work the paint more time before it dries, (the shadows have been particularly hard to do!) and lots of color mixing:

This is the first time I've approached a painting like this. I used to think it was too hard to mix my own colors, but I've been reading a lot about color and how the balance between them work, I took a class about this years and years ago when I was starting college, and there I learned about primary, secondary, tertiary, complementary colors, etc. They had us mixing our own color wheel from only primary colors and I was fascinated by this, it truly changed the way I saw color. I wanted to do that again, learn to mix the colors and get the exact shades of them. It's been an interesting experiment.

It's harder than I thought it would be, and this painting still needs a LOT of work, but I am enjoying the outcome and the process. Jafabrit had a good post about how we not always LOVE the paintings that we do, and I couldn't agree more. Every new one is a work in progress. Not to be happy with the last painting I did is what often makes me start another one, they are never truly finished. It's been rare for me to feel completely satisfied and at peace with ANYTHING I've done. I like this hunger for bettering one's self (Is this last sentence grammatically correct???) 

More pictures to come once this painting is finished and framed. 

Today is such a beautiful day... happy valentine's day, by the way, although that is not why it's beautiful, it's just one of the first sunny and not so chilly days here in NC. After coming back from Mexico I realised how green it is here, how many trees and plants there are, although we have been through a drought and yes, it's still winter, but it still looks green anyway. How lucky we are to live here.

I am back from Mexico, and Oh so happy to be back! SO ready to go and do what I need to get done, with the crazy thing of the wedding behind us, I can focus on the right now and in the near-ahead as I call it. I had a wonderful time in Monterrey, first, I got to see my Dad for the first time in about 5 years. He got to see his grand-kids for the first time, I have proof of this:
there he is, one grandfather and two grandchildren. I was so happy to see him.

Also, there was this thing called MY BIRTHDAY! in the middle of the week, and it was such a wonderful day! My first birthday I spend with my family in eight years, I had such a good time. I also, have proof of me having a good time:
And oh the cake was so GOOD! cheese and strawberries, I mean, how can you beat that?

Also, I am still not believing this, but look what I got for my birthday:
I have the coolest family ever, don't I?

And yes, we also had my brother's wedding, it was a perfect day...and ok, here is proof:

There are more pictures of the wedding and stuff in my this mexican life site.

I have not had a lot of time to make art lately, but it is on my immediate plans, so more updates coming soon! Have a chocolatey day (except for Robyn who does not like chocolate and I can still not figure out why...)

I am here trying to find my flow again, I have enjoyed taking things slowly, so bear with me while I talk non-artsy stuff, because at least I'm starting the dialogue again. I finally downloaded the pictures from our trip back home to Mexico. I love going back although I definitely feel like an ex-pat (meaning, I don't belong there anymore, not really) and seeing everything new again is always interesting.

I am aware of how different everything is over there. The traffic pattern, and the street vendors and the architecture. It is all so pretty, I am also surprised on how many angels there are on buildings. Angels and crosses. They are everywhere and not only in churches. This definitely says a lot of things about our culture. The spiritual side is always present.

Also, I notice that the buildings and houses are made of whatever they look like they're made of. By this I mean, if you see brick, then that's a brick wall,... not sheetrock covered by brick just to make it pretty. Stone is stone, wood is wood. I call it Honest architecture.

And also, a diet coke is not a diet coke, it's called Coca-Cola light, and remember those glass bottles? Guess what... we still have them, there should be no other way to drink your coke, we should have a law passed to bring back glass bottles, more recylcling, less trash. And there is NOTHING like having tacos for breakfast with a cold glass bottle of coca-cola light.  And yes, I just said tacos and breakfast in the same sentence, barbacoa tacos, to be precise. Just heaven.

I am looking for my flow, my place where I feel comfortable drawing and thinking about where I want to go with my art, I am getting there, it's a process, but I feel it coming near, as if I could see it out of the corner of my eye. Angels and crosses, and pictures of a trip, also re-arranging the studio, all this helps. I am feeling a little drizzle, not long now before it comes pouring down.

Where is your flow?

Forgot to tell you some updates about my old computer and what will be known forever as The Crash of 2007, there are some good news. Well, at least some promising news. It looks like my music is not completely lost since there's something called iPod Rip that can help me download the music from my iPod to the computer and then to iTunes again. I tried downloading the thing to this iBook but of course it had to remind me yet again that I DO NOT HAVE THE PRIVILEGE to download anything or actually make any kind of change to it. She's really uptight about it. (I am secretly thinking I am actually buying a pc again.. don't tell this to my iBook loaner because she could all of a sudden decide to withdraw the privilege to visit The Almighty Internet)

And after calling Apple tech support the other day they told me I can write an email to iTunes telling them I lost all the info on my computer and have them send all the music I have already bought back to my account (I am very happy about this) Also... I found an old backup disc I had made a few months ago with almost all my kids digital pictures! this made me do backflips around the living room.. I kid you not.

And, some links to found art artists of this week...

Robyn is spreading her found art wings

Kathy pondering thoughts about the inevitable change.

I am going to bed right now and dream about ArtFest 2008.... courtesy of Tanaya.

Have a great weekend!