This last week has been a struggle. I’ve been feeling especially low on energy and trying to finish up a commission for a freind of mine. It looks goo but it’s coming along far more slowly than I’d like. My limbs all feel like they are full of cement, and despite being very tired I can’t seem to fall asleep easily. Hopefully ythis doesn’t last too long.

I love smells. I can’t go into a shop that sells candles, soaps, or anything scented without deeply inhaling each one. I can’t pass a perfume counter without trying one or five out. There are not too many scents out there I do not like. Just the obvious ones like garbage, rotten eggs, dirty cat litter, perm solution, that sort of thing. I even like some smells that many others find objectionable. Tires. Gasoline. Wet paint. Chlorine. Potting soil. Fertilizer. I particularly like that musty old smell that accompanies the more porous antique and vintage items. Sometimes it just smells like dust and damp attic or basement, but sometimes it has that mellow hint of decades old cigarette smoke too, which I just love! Well that is enough odd confessions for now.

I found Oreos at Walmart with dulce del leche flavored cream and they are rather addictive. At least a few times year I must have some raspberry pie. I also love Nacho Cheese Cornnuts. They’re crunchy and cheesy! Last year around Christmas they had Peppermint Roca (like Almond Roca but with peppermint instead) and if they sell it again this year I am buying as much as I can find of it.

This is another sketch for a painting I am going to do. The idea came to me the other night when my six year old daughter was looking through her messy room for her teddy bear’s other slipper, and all of the drawers on her dresser were open. As I sketched it out the parody grew to include more and more elements from Dali’s paintings, such as The Persistence of Memory, and The Temptation of Saint Anthony.

My daughter thoroughly enjoyed the sketch. She offered me five pennies for the finished painting, and while I was unable to grant that request, I did promise her she could have the sketch when the painting was completed. She accepted that offer on the condition that I color it in first. She’s such a Capricorn.

This is a pencil sketch for a painting I am going to do. It’s very loosely inspired by Joan Miro’s El carnaval de arlequín. I didn’t intend any meaning behind it when sketching it out. I sort of just made it up as I went along. But now that I look at it, the message seems pretty evident: kids drive me crazy. Oh, and I’m the little mechanical wind-up toy.

Doing portraits frustrates me so much because I turn into too much of perfectionist and I cannot leave them alone. I never really feel like they are just right. And when I’m doing a portrait for somebody’s loved one I really really want it to look like the person I am painting. There are things about this one I’m not happy with, but I think I’m going to have to accept that I’ll never be happy with any portrait I do and just move on. It really did turn out pretty good by me.

I have been procrastinating badly around here. I just finished one commission the other night (the bedroom scene) but I have two more to finish in the next week or so, and I have to do my paintings for the show in November. So far all I have done is sketches. I also have 100 paintings to do for art-o-mat and so far I’ve only finished 13 of them. Augh!

I’ve been looking a alot at some of my favorite surrealists’ art for inspiration for the show. I have two pieces sketched out, and one almost finished. So far I have a Salvador Dali parody and a piece that is more loosely inspired by one of my favorites from Joan Miro. I am also thinking about parodying a Hieronymus Bosch but I’m not dead set on that one yet.

I’ve found that I get things done more quickly if I set deadlines for myself. They do have to be realistic ones, but it gives me the push I need to work on things and get them finished. I am giving myself until the end of the day Sunday to finish the comission I am working on today.

I now have a profile up on ArtWanted, and a lens on Squidoo.

I managed to get a lot accomplished today on two of my comissions, plus I’ve finished three more paintings for Art*O*Mat. I’m feeling pretty optimistic right now.

It’s so hard to find the motivation to work on long term projects. You would think that being broke and needing money would be enough motivation, but for some reason it just isn’t right now. I WILL work on paintings tonight. I’m going on record with this. I’m accountable now.