Tic Tac Toe

This is one of my all time favorite pieces of art that I created. The title is "Tic Tac Toe" and it now lives with a wonderful couple in Chicago! I ran into M&J again in Chicago this year and they told me they had moved and showed me the photos of their new place. I asked them half jokingly when I could move in. WOW, is all I can say. Plus, I am a little biased when I say....I think my art looks fantastic in their new abode.

They have also bought a few Daily's in the past two years and this is how they had them hung. I like the grouping. But, it reminds me that I need to go and paint so off I go.



www.spillarstudios.com

Silent and Live Auction 2008

I am proud to be donating this painting to the Silent and Live Auction 2008 which will benefit The Center on Halstead. The painting is titled "Mist" and the dimensions are 20x20. So if you have fallen in love with this one, click here to find out how you can place a bid.

A little known fact about art donations and why I rarely donate my artwork unless it is a superior cause....As an artist I am not entitled to deduct the full value of a painting on my taxes. I can only deduct the cost of materials. This does not include my time or the true value of the work. But if you owned one of my pieces and wanted to donate it you could deduct the full value of the art work.

The current status of H.R. 1524 is that it has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. The Senate also has S. 548

I finally upgraded computers and I am so happy!!!!. I filled my Mac Mini in less than four years and it was so slow because I blogged it down with painting images and music that I must have to paint with. So I have this new baby and it is FAST FAST FAST and I am in love! It is the Mac Pro ( yes, we are a Mac house since the early 90s) and I added a 1TB hard drive. I should be good for awhile on my storage needs. Verne still reminds me that I made a mistake in not buying stock in 1994.

I AM off to go painting again....just wanted to take a quick break.

PS. Yes, I already have some paint on the keyboard and mouse. What do you expect from an artist whose computer is located in the studio.

And the game continues....vote November 4

OK....I did not find this. My friends Pat and Jon had it posted on her blog. I had to have it too so I took it. Go check out Pat's blog. I bought one of her boxes and love it!

Jessica.... The "J" Painting

In October it will be three years since my beautiful and amazing niece was killed in a car wreck. She was one week shy of turning 14 and all I can say is that the world lost a shinning star that day. She had a way of lighting up the room when she walked in. My sister'in'law Tina, asked me to paint a painting titles "J" to hang in the room all of Jessica's furniture is now in. This was the hardest piece I have ever painted. I had Parker and Anaïs add a touch of color on it so it came from all of us. Parker, Anaïs, and I picked out the colors together. Each color has a specific meaning.

I am delivering this to Tina right before Labor Day. She has not scene it yet, all she asked of me was to use J's favorite color...blue.

I had many tears while painting this. I added the lines with the antique bed springs from my Dad's bed. I had to walk away after I did that. It was simply to much to handle for me. I miss them both very much.

I am so honored that Tina trusted me with this very important piece. I only hope that I have lived up to Tina's idea of what she would want for Jessica.

Favorite show of the Year

Well, I am back from my favorite show of the year. I took this night shot on Saturday night. I should have waited until it was a bit darker out but I love the look of it. Oddly, I liked the blue of the trash can so I did not edit it out. It was great to see friends and patrons from the past and meet new ones. This is the only show that I get spoiled at by my patrons. I not only had tea delivered, I also had a bottle of wine delivered to my tent!!! Thank you all for such a great weekend!

And the fun begins.....Vote in November

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Uptown

I just got back from Minneapolis and had a lot of fun at the Uptown art show. I came home with a fantastic painting by William McCarthy. His booth was across from me and I feel in love with his work. The funny thing is I am not normally drawn to that style of work for my home but his pieces were so incredible I feel in love with them. The icing on the cake was, when I found out he also under paints his paintings in red like I do and signs most of his work scratched through he paint as I do. We are doing a trade. He really liked my "Line Series" so I am going to paint him a 12x12 and ship it to him by November.

I am also having a delivery of my BUG. Micheal Cole has this amazing image of a locust and I have always wanted this photo of his. I am going to hang it in my kitchen. I told the kids about it and they are excited. You know, anything bug related is always cool to a kid.

I met three most fabulous and fun guys in Minneapolis. They made my weekend and I hope to see them again. Sorority Sister, if you read this, I must tell you NEVER to take the bus again. Aryln and Brandon told me it broke down. I hope you found a great drink ( or two) to swallow down. The Thai food was great and hope to meet up with you all again. I wish you all lived in St. Louis!!!!

My zoo........

I thought that we had enough pets but apparently, I am wrong. Yesterday we add three more for a grand total of eight. I think I stuttered when I tried to type that number. Anaïs has inherited Bumble a hermit crab and thought it was lonely so we picked up two more. She named them Fuzz Ball, and Shelly. They are rather fun and she keeps them in her room with Flicky her fish.

Anaïs is certain she had trained her fish, Flicky, to come to her when she calls him. I am under the impression that the fish really is trained to come up for food. She bought Flicky with her own money and washes his bowl every week. She takes very good care of him. If only she cleaned her room as well, I would be very happy.


Then in Parker's room we have Speedy a uromastyx. Last year Speedy got loose in the front yard and after many hours searching we thought he (or she) was gone for ever. It was a bad day in the house. Parker was mad at his sister for loosing him and I was mad at Verne for letting Anaïs take Speedy outside. Well, the anger was short lived because three days later he was found in the garage hiding behind a broom. He was happily returned to his sandy tank.

Then my two amazing cats. I am a cat person and I have had these two babies for YEARS. Homme is 20 this year and Kato (Homme's son) is going to be 18 on Labor day. I am not sure how much time Homme has left. It is going to be very hard for me to let him go.







Last but not least is Clifford, our rescue dog. He has decided that he must not ever be more than a few inches from me almost all day. He is lovable and cries at the top of the stairs if I do not let him come downstairs to the studio with me. This is how I am usually painting, in my PJs and with an 85# lab curled up next to me. I try to get him to move but he likes to be right next to me. Sometimes he gets some paint on him. In this photo he was painted with Dog Safe food coloring. The kids thought he needed some color.

Water Series....brought back

I thought I was done with my "Water Series". I loved it and at the time I was painting the series it had great meaning and an amazing calming effect when I needed it the most. The series was born right around the time Verne was laid off. I needed to paint it and it helped bring back a sense of being I was so very much lacking. I sold my last piece, "H20", and was happy to see it go to a good home.

Very early this year, I applied to a juried show with paintings from my "Water Series" and just found out that it was accepted for a very big show. Therefore, I am having to dust off the series and bring it back for the show. I am very happy with how this latest piece came out but it brought back those horrible memories of trying to keep the family afloat during that 2.5 years of no long term work, CRAPPY under-insurance of the self-insured, and never knowing if we would have enough to buy food for the week.

So I present "Aqua" in a very bittersweet return of a series. I only hope I can reclaim the feelings the series originally brought me

A death in my studio.....

Yes...it's true my favorite and only palette knife I paint with snapped today while I was cleaning it. I must have let out a very load "Oh No" because my kids came running in and asked if I was OK. I have at least 20 different palette knives that I use to grab paint, mix paint, but I never paint with them. They did not have the same feel and therefor were never considered worthy of using.




So I took my broken friend to Artmart and tried to find something that could replace my lost treasure. I felt like I was Goldilocks in the the three bears. Papa Bear's handle was to large for my grip. Mama Bear's handle was to soft, and baby Bears was just not right. I ended up buying all three to try them out. If I find a suitable replacement, I am going to go out and buy a duplicate so when it breaks ten years from now, I hopefully will not go into a panic. So far I have tried all three and am not too happy. The angle from the handle to the knife edge is different than my fallen friend. For all my fellow painters out there, I know you understand my pain. Because loosing a favorite brush feels just as bad.

So now my knife is sitting on my computer desk. Many a fine painting it has produced. So RIP my beautiful little paint covered friend.

A bird in my tent

Sunday morning I came back to my tent to find this cute but very scared bird in my tent. It must have been trying to seek shelter from the evening storms. See post below and you will some of the destruction from UN-weighted tents and poor ezup owners whom did weight but the water dumped their tents.

After I took off my front wall and put up the awning, it finally escaped. I only wish I could have gotten a better photo. It kept flying from place to place and would only land for a second or to.

Weights and Ez-ups ( and all similar tent ez designs)

I thought nothing could frustrate me more than an easy up with out weights but....I have found something that agrivates me more. The information tent, that is manned and put up by the show directors themselves was not weighted. It is very fortunate that the tent did not wipe out the very nice woodcarvers tent. It landed only a yard away from his tent and would have surely caused a lost wall or a bent frame.

The cardinal Rules for ez-up easy down owners.

1. Invest in clamps - theses will help you in a rain storm
2. Always take your art out if there is a possibility of storms
3. WEIGHTS WEIGHTS WEIGHTS
4. Unique things that due work for rain - hula hoops - pool tube floats - See number 1. for the easiest soulution. Anything that will pull your tent top taught so water does not pool. The water fills up the top and drops your tent.

This seasons weather has been insain and anyone doing shows in the midwest have scene tons of distruction. Even the more heavy duty tents are going down. Please everyone ban together and demand your neighbors tent is weighted. Personlly, I can forgive a weighted tent for running into mine but an unweighted tent is unforgivable. Check out my bottom picture. They did not weight this lite-dome and it broke the poor neighbors tent. Sadly, most of their work was ruined.

I just got my happifeet ( heavy duty tent weights) and love them all except they were not designed for pro-panels in mind but I will figure out how to make it work. So if anyone is interested I will sell my PVC/concrete weights at a bargin price.

Art Fair

I just returned from a art fair and I had a great time despite the pouring rain we set up in. Yes, I said we. My son Parker got to come along with me. He has begged for years to come and I told him he needed to be 10 before he could come. He is actually a great help and I love the company. We had tons of laughs on the trip.

I had three different people come up and ask me about the red painting I had hanging on my front wall when I was there in 2007. After looking at records I believe it is the one pictured above. It is titled "Good Night Nin" and sold a little bit later in Louisville, KY. I really should start taking pictures of my booth at each event but I am sure that I will forget to do it or forget to label where it was taken.

It was great seeing some of my clients from the past and meeting new ones. I met a wonderful couple again. The husband is still sad about a painting that got away. I was fortunate enough to visit their house and see their fantastic art collection. I loved hearing about each piece and what captured their eye about it. There are so many people that want the art to match something in their room with out ever thinking outside of the box and seeing that yes, a red painting would look good in a predominately tan room. Or hearing that they love my work but their style of furniture is to traditional for abstract art. For the later, I usually ask them if they have ever looked at a Architectural Digest? I have scene so many images of a wingback chair with a Pollock, Richter, or other equally non-objectional abstract painting hanging above it and they look great together. So thank you Matt and Judith for being the type of collectors that let the art speak to you and could care less if the art matched a certain throw pillow on your couch!!!


PS.........I changed the photo out. A client of mine took a picture of it last year and sent me the jpeg....Thank you- Jack!

the new iphone

I bought my iphone in April this year and I love it. But, I am a little ticked off that the new one came out for $199 and I paid $399 back in April. I contacted the At&T store the same day the new price had been posted and they said that they would not give a rebate or trade for the new iphone.

New Painting from my line series

I am finally trying to catch up with photos on my art work. I had a ton of fun with this. I love it and hope you all do as well. It is simply titled "Lined". This is a beginning of a new series based on a commission painting I did for a wonderful lady living in the Sheraton Hotel in St. Louis. She loves color and had a large majority of art that carried hearts in them. I came up with the idea to do a large heart all out of multiple colors of lines out of twelve 12x12 canvases. I cannot wait to see where this series goes.

Lewis Black

OK OK OK.... I cannot believe it. I love Lewis Black and have been waiting forever to see him. Well, he has finally made it to St. Louis and I will not be home. The only thing that is making this better is that I will be in Chicago for my favorite event of the year. If it had been any other event I would have canceled to see him.

Since I cannot make it, I ask all St Louis people to go for me. The way I figure it is if he gets a huge St. Louis audience he might come back again sometime. So buy tickets here and then let me know how great it was.

The Fish

Well....I do know the fish have nothing to do with my art. But, I like them and after hours of debating what my blog redo should look like and looking at thousands of templates I came across these fish. They made me happy. In a way, they are apart of my art. I paint best when I am happy so fish it is.

I also like that the picture poses a question. Are the fish jumping to a glass that is more than half full or are they jumping to the glass that is half empty? The optimist in me believes they are jumping to freedom and their glass is half empty.

So what do you think of the fish??

Comission Titled "Reflection"

I am very excited about my latest commission piece for a very nice gentleman named Tom. I met him at a show in Birmingham and we planned out this piece. It is five panels and the dimensions of each are 30x10. This painting will be hanging in his foyer with in the week.

I ended up having to put two coats of my high gloss on there and it looks fantastic. I had thin spots on my first coat. Sometimes that happens and I can kick myself for the mistake. The gloss I use is very expensive and little mistakes really cost me. But I do have to say the painting looks FANTASTIC with two coats on it. My family loved it. But since it was on the dining room table for a few days while it was finishing curing, they had no choice but to look at it. So in a way, I am glad they liked the piece or I might have have not been happy with the comments all week.

I spent way to long constructing a box for this piece. I hate making boxes but I did not have anything that would fit the dimensions of the painting. The box looks frighting but it will do the job. I dropped it off at Fed Ex on Monday and should be arriving at his doorstep on Wednesday.

We went camping for a few days this last week. It was a very nice change of pace. The kids (with life jackets on) played in the river for three days, we hiked, and had some great food prepared over the fires that Parker built. Verne's favorite meal was the couscous with sauteed mushrooms and asparagus and the kids I am sure would vote for the smores.

Rain Rain Windy Wind.....not the best weekend

So I was all excited about my latest trip. Everything was in place and off I went to Milwaukee with a smile on my face. Well, it didn't last long the rain came in, 50 mph gusts, two separate tornado warnings, and flooding of my booth. It was so crazy outside that not only was I weighted down, I tied my tent to a huge metal post. My tent did survive but not thanks to my neighbor that had an easy-up and wouldn't tie it down. I even offered to give them rope and tie it for them. After a bit I noticed that my tent was being pulled in one direction. I was afraid that my poles would twist and break. I came out and looked and the people next to me had tied their tent to my weights and when the wind pulled theirs it was pulling mine as well. I was not happy. Their tent ended up breaking and I felt bad for them but come on buy some weights. The moral of the story is NEVER EVER tie two tents to one set of weights. You are asking for a disaster.

After Friday's tornado warnings and rain, Saturday's severe rain storms, flooding, and a second tornado warning, I checked the weather for Sunday and it looked bad so I pulled in and broke my tent down in a 8" puddle of muddy, stinky, water and left the show. I am glad I did, I checked the weather and they got hit again very badly. I am lucky I did not loose any artwork but I certainly would have if I had stayed for Sunday. There was no way I could have got my art safely back into my cargo van in the storms that were going on.

The one good thing about all the bad weather was that I got to come home one day early to see my kids. Anaïs made a huge "Wellcome ( that's how she spelled it) Home early Mommy" sign and decorated the dining room. Parker came running into the driveway and grabbed me for a hug even before I could get out of the van. I am one very lucky women.

I am back in Chicago for a show this coming weekend and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I have sunny skies!!!!