“Movements of Joe Activating His Phone” - 18×18″, acrylic on stretched canvas. 2008

Sometimes I just sit down and paint whatever moves. We had a couple friends over. Our friend Joe - the guitar player - made frustrated movements in front of me for at least fifteen minutes while talking to the phone company.

(I am a weirdo. Yes, I paint everything.)

I worked on the piece from time to time over the next week until it looks the way it does now.

I’m working on a concept piece that’s almost finished, and it’s the same size as this piece… but otherwise nothing like it. I’ll post that when it’s completed. (It may be a while until I catch up on freelance tasks and otherwise adjust to working outside the home again. Note: I have no desire to get a cellphone.)

I’ve been busy lately and feel like I should update you on what’s up since it’s been so long since I was posting every week. (Previous entry excluded.)

I need to redo both of my traffic box murals. Don’t get me started. Just don’t. I’ll explain everything later… later this year we’ll laugh about it…

My work was featured in a show in East Sussex, UK at Phoenix Gallery called Press and Release, which gloried in a wide range of self-published artists. [Someone approached me about using some of my work featured on my myspace. Images were printed onto paper and then hung on the wall in the show.] I would have loved to see this show in person if I were not on the wrong side of the Atlantic.

My Tugboats piece was featured in a month-long show at FRED here locally. It was a show of all artists included in the Halifax Art Map. If you live in Nova Scotia, you can pick one up at tourist kiosks, art galleries and art supply stores in the region.

I got a job as a Web Developer / Graphic Designer at a software company and am working outside the home again for the first time in four years. I love it, but I’m still getting used to the change of pace between working all the time at home and getting up and going somewhere (I have a nice office) and then going back home again… goodness. How exciting, eh?

My art is featured on the front of an album by American country singer Penelope Torribio. She contacted me half a year ago asking if she could use You and the Cat as the artwork.

[My cat Wunjo is posing in these photos with the CDs for you. Apt, since she’s the cat that I used as a “model” for the painting used in the CD art. She’s a brown marbled bengal. The name of the Album and song is Treat Me Like Your Cat. Here is the painting I did that was used on the cover and CD.]

The song is apparently available on itunes and other places. There’s a sample clips of the songs on Treat Me Like Your Cat here. Enjoy!

 I was featured in the Chronicle Herald again on Saturday.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/ArtsLife/1055037.html

There is a strong possibility I’ll have to redo part or all of both of these murals due to a reaction between the metal of the traffic boxes and the primer I used. (The city is going to get a paint expert to figure out what’s wrong. I need to find me a metallurgist… different types of metals need different types of primers. Also, I suspect that at least one of the two boxes has a vandal-guard coating that is complicating the process and rejecting the paint I put on it.)

Whatever it takes, I hope to get these murals fixed up to a point where they will remain permanent installations.I am waiting for word from HRM before I continue towards that goal.

I just want to see these murals completed and somehow enhancing the local area with a splash of colour. I’ll keep you posted.

If you want to do a legal public mural project of your own and you live in HRM, be sure to talk to Kate MacLennan! maclenk@halifax.ca

http://www.halifax.ca/corporate/Graffiti/CommunityArtProject.html

She’s the one organizing a bunch of these projects. (I did my Coal Train mural through her as well, as you can see in behind her in this photo from the Chronicle Herald article on Saturday.)

To read about the coal train mural, see these past entries:
http://sharonhodgson.com/art/?p=244
http://sharonhodgson.com/art/?p=326

I think I’m finally done this one.

I’ve been meaning to update this for the last few days but I have been so busy running around, pulled in several directions at once. [I suppose I’m happiest in this state, honestly… despite all protests to the contrary.]

Today is Ian’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Ian! (He’s the one who kindly took these photos for me. He and I are two years minus six days apart.)

I worked on the mural at Windsor and Kempt more today. I might just finish the thing up tomorrow.

I’ll post more pictures soon.

“A Year Later, Painting at the Cafe” - live painting at Shake It Dance Cafe. 2008. Visit the cafe to see several of my paintings and other works by local resident Halifax artists. This cafe always features warm, cozy conversations, live open mic sessions, and it is a great place to meet other artists and get your work shown.

I went to Leslie’s cafe last night. She had an open mic session.

Leslie is supportive of the local artistic and musical community. Definitely support and patronize this local venue. There will be a neat ’20s period musical/dance production put on there throughout May. You don’t want to miss it - I will post more details soon. I’ll probably be painting at least one of the nights of the performance.

More progress on the traffic box mural at what I’m sure is the smoggiest intersection in town.

More progress on the Windsor & Kempt mural.

More to come soon, weather and smog permitting.

[Detail from traffic box mural in progress at the corner of Windsor and Kempt, Halifax, Canada.]

I have been working on my second traffic box mural. I will be back there a few hours a day this week (weather/smog-tolerance permitting)