Come On Over...

Come on over to my new blog. We are having a good time over there! You will be glad you took the leap....

A Surprise For You and Me!

Yes, you have seen this one several times before, but it was a good choice for asking you to dance on the jewelry of life with me today. I have a surprise for us. Today, I am asking you to take a chance and trust me when I ask you to click on this link to see the special treat! I am excited and I hope it is exciting for you as well.

Okay, my friends...old and new...let's hold hands and jump! I will see you on the flip side!

New Beginnings

Hello Everyone!

I appreciate you giving me some time here to evaluate and get some thinking time about what I need and want to do. I have been working on quite a few projects...some in their infancy others slowly coming to their fullness. I will be letting you in on what is happening as they become ready to share. As for now, it is this blog I want to talk about.

As many of you know I have place a great deal of emphasis on my blog and love this part of my work. Blogging is a great way to share with other artist and those who love art. I have made some decisions about Creating Space, though. One thing is I am going to be pulling back a bit as far as the number of posts I create. I have started some new work which is very time consuming. I am loving the time I spend in the studio more and more with this, or maybe I should say these, project(s), so my time is limited. As many of you know because you are doing the same kinds of things, my online presence goes beyond blogging. You can find me on my web site (which should be featuring some of my new work soon), facebook, twitter, art bistro and several venues on ning. I have also been asked to do an interview with whohub and found that to be an excellent experience. I also have some other online projects in the works which I will let you know about when they are ready. Needless to say, the computer takes more time, already, than I would like it to take, but I am really enjoying meeting all of you.

So what does it mean for Creating Space? It means my actual paintings are going to be reserved for my web site, but you will be able to find some of my preliminary work and detail shots here from time to time. I am going to be using this venue to explore the work of other artist and other venues which are an important part of my day to day life. I will be talking about things like the books I am reading, writing, art of all kinds, travel, and all the parts of my life which help bring my paintings to their final form.

The photograph above was taken during a travel earlier this year. I thought it was a lovely representation of finding the subtleties this wonderful world has to share with us and trying to learn where to place the emphasis.

I hope you will join me as I begin this new adventure. It feels right for me right now. I am looking forward to hearing from each of you. For now, I plan on the first of many exciting posts to be up later this week!

Thank You All For Your Friendship and Your Patience!

Kim

Bear With Me

Since I have not posted for nearly a month you are probably wondering what in the world is happening here. I am taking a bit of a blogging break for now. A lot of personal things are going on...which are good...and I am making some changes with the presentation of my art. I promise you I will return to this blog with a lot to share in the future. Bear with me because I will also get around to visiting you as soon as I can.

I hope all is well and you are enjoying this lovely season!

Going to New York City - Meeting Andrea

What an exciting day. I hardly slept a wink in anticipation of this trip to New York City. I was not only going to meet Andrea who had become a wonderful cyber friend, but I was going to get to see my daughter who was coming from LA.

I am taking Amtrak's Acela train at 7 am from Washington, DC's Union Station. Oh my, that means I have to be on the Metro early, early, early!
If you have the chance, I highly recommend you visit Union Station in Washington, DC. It has been refurbished and is as grand as it was when it was first built. Do you see those double doors over there? Remember them, we will see those again.

Okay, so let me see...yes, my train is till on time (nothing to worry about with Acela). So from this vantage point, if I turn around...
...I find those double doors, I told you to remember. These are the front doors to the station and if you look hard...okay let's step through them.
Okay, so just beyond the flag pole and the monument...see it there just above the trees? Yes, that is the United States Capital. We are that close.

I am going to New York City, though...gotta run to catch my train!
I have taken many trips on Amtrak, but I have to say this is the first time I have ever taken the Acela, and I am glad I did. It is fast, it is comfortable and it is clean! What is this? An electronic message saying, 'Mind the Gap'! What? Am I in England? Oh, I wish... I spend time reading, writing.

I get to Penn Station in a very short time. Ohh, New York City! I have not been here for so long. The day is beautiful, so I decide to walk to my hotel since my luggage is minimal. Before I get to the corner at Madison Square Garden, my phone rings. "Hi Mom, I am just about ready to board at LAX. I will call you when I get there. I love you!"

"I love you, too, Honey! Have a safe flight."

I make my way up The Avenue of The Americas (6th avenue) to my hotel at 54th Street! I am early, but they have my room ready. I decide to give Andrea a call once I throw my things down. I take a deep breath and make the call feeling kind of nervous. What if we do not get along as well in person? Her beautiful voice soothed my worries right away. (If you are wondering, her English with slight German and French accents is more American than British. I know I wondered.) Andrea tells me she and her husband are walking toward a place where they can take a helicopter ride and she will phone me when they get back to their room. That works out great for me, too. I can relax a bit and get my bearings here. I decide I should be okay, since I am only a block off of 5th Ave.

While I am at it, I peer out the window...here is the view:

Did I say I wanted to relax? That did not last long. I realized I was only one block away from one of my favorite stores! I have to go all the way to Georgetown in DC to get to a Zara! So I am off...

I talk to my son and my husband. I touch almost everything in Zara :-), then I get a text. Andrea and her husband are back in their room. I can't call her from my cell as I do not have international service. So I head back to my room and call her at her hotel. We agree I will walk to meet her at the Edison. As I walk, I am so nervous, again! Whew, the butterflies are amazing. I walk into the hotel and pick up a phone.

"Hello, I am here. Yes! I am by the phone bank in the lobby. Mmm, I am round and not too tall. I am wearing a black skirt, a teal shirt, red sandals and have sunglasses on the top of my head. Yes, dark brown hair! See you in a few."

I recognize their loveliness as they step out of the elevator! Oh, how great it is to finally meet Sweet Andrea! Now for those of you who are wondering - she is even more delightful in person than on the blog. She has a beautiful smile, a friendly face so full of wonder and delight. She is truly a beautiful person in every way. With Andrea is her kind, handsome and very French husband! Within moments, I feel as though I have known them for years. Bye-bye butterflies!

We decide to find somewhere to go. Andrea decides the German girl is ready for a beer. I think a glass of wine sounds good. Our lovely French escort says he has to keep us both straight and has a Diet Coke...most likely he knows it isn't the beer or the wine which means he might need to keep us straight, but probably the fact we are not paying any attention to anything else at the moment. At Jake's we find a nice quiet table to talk and talk and talk and talk. I tell Andrea's husband she is a blog celebrity. He thinks she should be as she works all the time with some part of her art or the other. We talk away a few hours before my phone vibrates - a text!

My daughter has landed at JFK and will be making her way on the subway to our hotel. "I'll meet you at the hotel, Mom."

Andrea, her husband and I talk more on the walk towards our hotels. We go our separate ways on the street with kisses on each cheek saying we will connect tomorrow.

I arrive back in my room and five minutes later, my daughter knocks at the door. The sight of her brings tears to my eyes - five months is just too long and Los Angeles is so far! She used to live in the city, so her knowledge base is going to get me to places I have never been before.

First of all, we need to find dinner since neither of us have had a meal and only a small snack all day. Ohh, there are people waiting here...darn, it looks good, too. What? You can seat two? Great! We are so hungry, but take our time and enjoy a long meal together while we catch up on all things girly!

After dinner, we decide to walk. We are near Columbus Circle, so we head up there. We find an underground Whole Foods and think we might get a few snacks for the room. We change our mind, but before we left, we found this and I had to share it with you:
No, I don't like eggs at all, so we will not get these. Those are chicken eggs there beside them! Cool, uh? I guess they would make an omelet to feed a few!

The night is lovely, so we decide to walk down 5th Avenue to near where my daughter worked at Norton Publishing (beside the New York City Library). It is nice to walk.

On our way back towards the hotel, we decide to stop at Rockefeller Center. These tulips were beautiful:
Here is my lovely daughter who is so knowledgeable about the city.
Oh, I couldn't resist sharing this beauty, too.
Of course, I couldn't go to New York without grabbing a shot of a shop window, right? Who could resist Teuscher Chocolate...just for you. It seemed to be the perfect spring window.
This is the end of my first day in New York City. We were very tired so headed back to our hotel for a good night's rest. Tomorrow is going to be a busy and exciting day!

Unfurling Two Bits Today!

Unfurled
acrylic on 40 x 30 inch gallery wrapped canvas

I unfurl my life for you to see. I lay my soul open, you take what you want, then walk away. I still have more for you.

I want to share something with you about one of our fellow artist. Julianne Richards has had some health issues which have had her hospitalized for three months. As you can imagine this is a tough time for Julianne, and she will be dealing with this issue now. If you have a moment, she explains on her blog and maybe a quick comment would encourage her strengthening.

US readers, I wish you to have a very nice Memorial Day Weekend. Non-US readers, I also wish for you a wonderful weekend...even if it is a bit shorter.

Another Frottage Bit!

This is a frottage piece of acrylic on rice paper. I have found, if I do not use the plastic for the cover sheet, the rice paper makes a good alternative. Okay, so one of the reasons I like to use the rice paper is it is strong enough to be used again for something else or stand alone. What do you like to use when you do this technique?

I rather like the way this turned out with the swoops and swirls. I also like the balance of light and dark which is sometimes a challenge for me. Of course, it is one of those pieces I have no idea what I am going to do with it....so it will hang out with me a bit or for a long time trying to decide.

As I look at this piece, I like to think of it as a trail of playing in a pool. Several people are interacting, then swim away from each other only to come back together to talk or play again. It is about interactions.

Are you making time to create?