Impossible Possibilities

So my dear friends, I promised last time that I would stop talking about my new little puppy and start talking about art that I've been working on... so I'm hoping this post will satiate you for a while!
So I had an amazing time at Erin's wedding! But it was definitely not relaxing, and now I'm back in Halifax and have only one week left of my art school career (or at least for now...) and I have SO much work to do in a short amount of time!
For my upcoming show I've made about 40 small paintings. All portraits of my nearest and dearest. I also wanted to include some larger paintings of the people in my life who are literally larger than life.
The first one was of my sister. My first post contained an image of it unfinished. I've been trying to not show too many images of my work until my show so that the surprise is not blown! The second painting I made was of my Grandma Eaton who passed away a few years ago. The third painting that I literally started and finished today, was of my Dad, who passed away when I was about 7 or 8 years old.

 I chose this photo of him (he's in the lower left hand corner) and I soon learned that this photo was taken on his 30th Birthday. I found it really interesting to work on this painting for two reasons: Mike is turning 30 this year. And the other paintings I've worked on, most of my decisions surrounding image choice and color choice were based on what I thought were characteristic of that individual, or reminded me of that individual. This was a totally different experience.

 Because I'd only known my Dad for a few years, I've had to rely on information gathered from other people who did know him really well. I know he was a goofy guy, and many of the images my Mom had sent to me were of him sticking his tongue out (and if any of you know my sister, you now know where she gets it from!). So it seemed only appropriate that I select an image where he's making a goofy face!

This is a bit of a close up so you can see the line work in the face. I had a bit of difficulty with the mouth. I made some of the recessive teeth a bit gray so that they would fall back a bit. Let me know what you think, and if you guys think I should make any changes or if something looks off.

So my other project from this semester has been my Tactile Notebook. In my class we had to do a research presentation on an artist who maintains a Notebook practice, and I chose Danny Gregory. (www.dannygregory.com). I was really inspired by him because he also has a blog, and has inserted images from his Notebook where he's written an entry about his day, and then written again in his blog about it. His Notebook perhaps may be more personal, but I thought it was a great idea to share the Notebook, so I thought I would do so with you guys!

So these are just images of my Notebook... notice how fat it's already getting and I've only covered a third of the pages in the book! The next few images are pages within my book. I'm not going to say much about them, perhaps you can give me your thoughts, but I just thought you might like to see how different one day is from the next!

Just Me and Zoe...

So, it's been a few days since my last post, and it's mostly because I've been home alone with Zoe. Mike's brother, Daniel and his wife Crystal are expecting a baby. Her due date was March 31, and Mike had already booked a few days off to go "see the baby." Trouble is, baby's never come when they are expected! It's now April 3, and there's no sign of the baby! So Mike left for PEI on Wednesday night, and it's been just me and Zoe...
Wednesday evening went off without a hitch. Zoe and I went for a walk before bed, and because we had thoroughly wiped her out earlier in the day by taking her to a field and making her chase us from end to end, she fell asleep quickly. Now, Mike and I have been waking up (if Zoe doesn't already) to take her out in the middle of the night. We take turns, although I do admit, Mike was taking her out more than I. So, on Wednesday night, Zoe got me up at 1am and thankfully went back to sleep quickly. But when she needed to go out again at 4am, she was fully awake... and I was not.
She doesn't let you go back to bed if she's fully awake, and she'll either start whining, or jumping up on your side of the bed, chewing and scratching at your hand/arm! SO fun!
I had a bit of a meltdown that night to Mike on the phone. Having the stress of school, work, preparing for Erin's wedding and my upcoming show, and now the dog, it was a bit much for me to process on my own, especially so soon after getting her. I was told I'm not allowed to have children...
The next day was better. I'd decided to let Zoe sleep as long as she wanted without waking her up to take her out to see how she would do. She slept until 5:45am, with no incidents! That was a bit of a sleep-in for me, to be honest, and I was a bit happier in the day. The only other troubling thing was that she figured out how to get under the bed, and she'll scurry under there like a little mole, huffing and puffing while she does it!
I'm happy to now report that Zoe and I are now in a bit of a routine. It's helped that I haven't had to work all weekend, and I can take her out every couple hours, and play with her, and while she's sleeping at my feet, I can finally do some artwork, which feels like it's not really been at the forefront of my thoughts lately. I promise that my next post will be all art related, and no more doggy talk!