artists who passed away in 2006

Sometimes I struggle a bit for something interesting to blog about. Today I knew what I wanted to blog about - major events of 2006...and to find out which events will really stick in your mind about the year as it goes...So I typed into the search field on Wikipedia "Events of 2006" and the list was huge. Shrugs - there goes that idea.

Looking at the long list of great people who passed away in 2006, I noticed several artists. A couple of them (Alex Toth, Karel Appel) I had heard of, some I hadn't. All the artists definitely deserved a deeper look into their lives and art. Of course, there are many actors and musicians on the list, but since I am a 2D artist, I thought I would just keep this to the type of artists who do sculpture, art on paper and canvas.

It may seem grim, but I read obituaries. I like to find out what made a person what they became.

Here are the artists who died in the year 2006. I linked their names to their Wikipedia articles in so you can easily check out their lives and work. I'm sure the list leaves someone out, if you know of someone whose name should have been included, please let me know.

Jim Gary (American sculptor)
Mauri Faven (Finnish painter)
Dave Rose (American artist)
Edgar Valter (Estonian Illustrator, Cartoonist)
Karel Appel(Dutch painter)
Alex Toth (American comic book artist & cartoonist)
Dave Cockrum (American comic book artist)

after-Christmas shopping

My daughter received a gift card to Kohl's Department Store for Christmas. Against Clark Howard's advice that we wait until after New Year's to go clothes shopping, we went. The gift card was burning a hole in her pocket.

DD1 was still at her friend's house after spending the night, so it was just DD2, myself, Little Man and Little Guy. I wasn't really in the mood to go - I have been fighting migraine headache for a couple days and heck, I'm hardly ever in the mood to go anywhere...I'm very much a homebody. But once you drag me out of the house, I have fun.

I'm glad I had the good sense to get some lunch before we braved the store. Mmmmm...O'Charleys...don't know if you have them where you live, but it was a 20 minute wait to eat but still worth it. I had the Chicken Parmesan and a Pepsi.

When we got to Kohl's, I looked and looked for a shopping cart...none in sight! Guess where most of them were?...people in the Returns line were using them so they wouldn't have to hold the items they were returning. How about saving a few for shoppers actually coming in to spend money?!? (grumble grumble grunt). I felt every bit of Little Guy's 27 pounds in my arms.
I figured he could walk some and I could carry him some of the time. "Ugh my back! " "Oh well, I need to work out anyway" "that's it...this place is going on my LIST!" were some of my thoughts.

Oops! - you don't know what the "LIST" is, do you? I'll explain. When a business ticks me off, it goes on an very real, but invisible mental list of places to which I will not return. Often, if the business goes on the "LIST," it never has a chance of getting off the list and back into my good graces, but sometimes it's just a momentary irritation like the lack of carts. The dearth of carts wasn't totally the businesses' fault in this case, so Kohl's is back off the dreaded list. As if the CEO of Kohl's is really losing sleep tonight over whether they're on my list or not! R-i-i-i-ght.

Now, the fracas that ensued at the checkout was the result of someone cutting in the line. It was tense but interesting daytime drama. You should have seen the sparks of fury in the woman's eyes. I was glad they weren't directed toward me. I wondered where the "goodwill toward men" of the season was. I guess the lady had been stepped on for the final time that day. All I know is, there's never been anything in a retail store that I would want so much or I would have to checkout so quickly that I'd need to be that hateful acting.

Well to sum it all up, Little Guy was greatly admired by a lot of the ladies in the line, until he noticed so many people looking at him, and he burst into hysterics. I was really grateful to be at the front of the line then, and so was everyone else.

I learned my lesson. I'm staying out of the stores until 2007.

Singin' them post-Christmas blues

I spent a few minutes today looking at some of my friends' blogs, and I feel pretty incompetent now. They've been cooking gorgeous foods, going to parties, doing beautiful crafts with their kids, cleaning out entire bedrooms, donating items to charity. They've been whirlwinds of activity and I feel like I've just been trudging through every day.

Not only could they accomplish all this great stuff, they were able to take wonderful pictures and had the time to blog about it! I did manage to get 2 batches of Christmas cookies made and I've stayed (mostly) well this holiday season, so I guess that's something.

I guess a lot of women probably feel like me - we have the pressure on to create a 'perfect' holiday, and of course there is no such thing. God willling, I have about 50 more Christmases in my life to chase the dream.

Dear Baby Jesus, please help me to be more organized in 2007!

o tannenbaum

Here's our Christmas tree...not sure what kind it is, other than green. LOL! I think maybe it's a spruce, because it's the kind that is soft. I like that in a Christmas tree. Less toddlers getting their eyes poked out the better I always say.

It was also marked down from $85 (gasp!) to $50. Funny how the Christmas tree selling guy can suddenly find a way to reduce the price when you start walking away from him.

I know this is not the prettiest Christmas tree you've ever seen. Our tree doesn't have a theme - I know some people go with either a color or concept theme every year, and you'd probably think that an artist would do that. And even thought this sounds corny, I think what our tree has is heart.

Most of the ornaments have a special meaning to someone in the family. I love the reindeer ornaments that were lovingly crafted from popsicle sticks, felt, and googly eyes by my daughters. So many of our ornaments are homemade, and I think they're the best kind.

gripes about sites

My website is not perfect, it's a work in progress...I do it myself and I am not a website designer. But over time, I have learned a lot. Here are some of the things that bug me about websites and make me leave really fast. I base what I do on my website by what I like to see in a website, so if you have some constructive comments about how I could make my website better, I would love to hear them too. I would like my site visitors to stay a nice long time and enjoy looking at my art and hopefully ordering some of my artwork, without being annoyed.

Excessive underlining - Those sites that underline almost every phrase. If you want to add emphasis to a phrase, please just put it in bold or italics. Underlining stuff just makes us think it's clickable...and then when some things are clickable and some are not, then we have to run the cursor over your entire webpage to figure out what to click on.

Contact links that go right into email. When I click on the words 'Contact Us' or 'Contact' on a site, I really prefer it to lead me to a page with their address and contact phone numbers and then a clickable email link or a contact form. I hate it when it goes right to opening up email. I don't contact until I know who you are and where you are. I guess it doesn't matter really where you are, but I just like to know first.

Music - if I wanted music, I would have turned on the radio. Yes, Candle in the Wind is a pretty song but I don't want to hear it in tinny midi format 5 times in a row.

Busy and dizzy - I can't stand sites that are gaudy and make my eyes hurt. My MySpace.com page is a good example of that...it's awful I admit it. Probably the tackiest Internet page you'll look at today. The background is so busy it's hard to read the page. I would change it, but I am myself too busy.

Forms - when I fill out a form, I like it to bump me to a page that says the message was sent successfully. I hate it when I click Send and I end up on the same page with no message....leaves me wondering if it worked. It's not a nice feeling.

Payment - I like to have choices. I want several different payment options and payment processors from which to choose. I am very excited to be able to now offer Google Checkout on my site in addition to PayPal, personal checks, and money orders.

Flash-y - Sites that go on for 10 minutes with a grandiose Flash presentation. Some give the option to "Skip Intro".... they are the ones that take too long to get into the site to even figure out what the company does. I feel like they are just trying wayyyy too hard to impress me.

Well that's all I can think about tonight. So if you wouldn't mind visiting my website and giving me a review, that would be great. Just use the Contact Form on my website to let me know what you think. Feel free to be brutal about whatever bugs you, and if I'm able to fix it, I will.
My site is http://www.pencil-portrait-drawing-artist.com/

We have been fighting some sickness this week.
Good news is, we got the tree up and it's beautiful!

I'm finally short

I made a total elf of myself. You just upload a picture of yourself, adjust it a bit and you're ready to go as an elf. See my elf self and then make your own at ElfYourself

never a dull moment

Priceless moments this week with my 3 year old:

• My son comes to me with a big wrapped log like the one above in his arms...he plops it down on the table and proclaims "I wanna eat THIS!" (I explained it's not a humongous candy bar).
  

• While walking into the grocery store with him, he sees the Salvation Army lady with the hanging metal bucket ringing her bell. Little Man points out the bucket to me with his middle finger. I quickly explained to the lady that he is only 3, even though he looks twice that age - so he didn't know, and no insult intended. She laughed and said she understood that he wouldn't know the importance of one finger over another at his age. I'm sure my face went white when I saw my son flipping off the Salvation Army volunteer!

Gift for that special person you want to freak out.

Fake product boxes....put the real gift inside...I could really get my daughters good with the Build Your Own Umbrella Kit...looks just like the educational junk I tend to give them! My brothers in law would probably be disappointed that there really isn't a USB toaster in the box!

You get all three boxes, and I guess you could use them over on new unsuspecting folks.

Text from the site (who should not sue me, because I'm helping them make money, not me!): LOL

"GotchaBox™ 3-Box Set

Real Boxes. Fake Products. Give that special someone a gift that will confuse, disappoint and possibly anger. Give it to them in an Onion GotchaBox™. These special gift boxes, printed with fake product graphics and descriptions, hold your actual gifts inside. The victim/recipient will congratulate you (eventually) for providing them an utterly perplexing and wonderfully humbling moment.

Your GotchaBox box set includes one each of the following:

(1) USB Toaster,
(1) Make-Your-Own Umbrella Kit
(1) Salt Of The Month Club

visit the Onion Store

Video of Little Guy pushing his playpen

If you recall this earlier post, 13 month old Little Guy has found a way to deal with his playpen, he just moves it with him. Unfortunately for him, a wardrobe malfunction in the elastic in his pants and miscellaneous junk on the floor impedes his movement this time. When he's older and has to push start a car, he'll already have a lot of good experience.

CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO

Click here if you need to see the earlier post

Click here if you need to floss.

Pencil art animations

Weird Al Yankovic's new album is called Straight Outta Lynwood.
(do we call 'em albums anymore or just CDs?!?)

One song on it, Don't Download This Song, has a music video featuring the pencil drawings of Bill Plympton, animated. It's pretty cool. Be advised that some of the things on his site are of an "adult" nature. When you visit his site it's pretty evident where you want to click or don't want to click, depending on your own tastes...

Click here to see video for Don't Download This Song by Weird Al.

See more art by Bill Plympton by clicking here.

See video of White and Nerdy (this one has no pencil art in it, it's just funny). You'll thank me later...or not. I did find out I'm pretty white and nerdy myself LOL.

I have liked Weird Al for a long time. I used to listen to him on the Dr. Demento show on the radio.

Check out the pencil animations and let me know what you think!

Dick Blick Art Supplies - Drawing Supply Discount Offer Codes

Today DickBlick.com art supplies is offering a discount code, and since it's art related, I'll put it here in the art blog for anyone who can use it...

• Save $10 on orders of $75 or more
• Save $15 on orders of $125 or more

Use Source Discount Code BBVG to get either of these offers.
They expire on December 8th.
SHOP at DickBlick.com

Rockwell painting found hidden behind wall

There is a story behind every artwork.
Amazing news about this Norman Rockwell painting. The man who bought it from Norman Rockwell... Trachte, was the illustrator of the Henry comic strips....

"Breaking Home Ties" became a centerpiece of Trachte's collection after he bought it for $900 in 1960. He made a replica of the painting in the 1970s, displaying it in his home while hiding the original behind the fake wall.

"I think he just wanted to tuck these in the wall for his kids," his son, Donald Trachte Jr., said when the discovery was made in April.

Experts said Trachte probably made the copy in about 1973, when he and his wife were going through a bitter divorce. The settlement let him keep the Rockwell.

Trachte died last year at 89 and apparently never told anyone the secret about his prize painting, which had appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in 1954 and was voted the second-most popular cover in the magazine's history.

The canvas shows a father and son sitting on a truck's running board as the boy leaves for college. Scholars of the folksy painter consider it one of Rockwell's best works.

Experts and Trachte's family had puzzled over inconsistencies between the Post cover and the canvas they assumed was the original. Among other things, the coloration and boy's face seemed different, but experts blamed poor preservation and sloppy restoration work.

The original was discovered while his two sons were scouring their father's studio. David Trachte noticed a gap in the wood paneling, and as the brothers pulled it out, they discovered the real Rockwell and other paintings.

Boy, what I wouldn't give to find a Norman Rockwell painting behind one of my walls. He's one of my all-time favorite artists. I'd never be able to auction it though. I'd love it too much.

Related Links:
News Article
Norman Rockwell art books
Rockwell art prints at ArtprintCollection.com