Mary Lindsey Edwards

Well, it turns out that the Edwards family is full of talent. Mary Lindsey is the sister of Madeline (from the previous post). She recently designed a Christmas card that was chosen by her school to be used as this year's Christmas card for Wayne County Schools! Her card is featured below-
I know I couldn't have drawn a better snowman!!!

Madeline Edwards

Madeline is a young lady that I was commissioned to paint last year, and I am so excited to report that she was on The Early Show on CBS this morning. She has entered her fabulous voice into a contest for kids, and you can view her video entry HERE. If you think her voice is as exceptional as I think it is, vote for her by clicking HERE and selecting the bubble next to her name on the left side of the screen.

A Great Quote

"If the only person I'm writing for is me - at least I know my audience will never be disappointed." - Gonzo's Chicken

More Gift Ideas

Here's a new painting that I've just added to my WEBSITE. You can purchase it for $250 right HERE.

I also want to remind everyone of my GIFT SHOP where you can purchase JOURNALS:








GREETING CARDS:








PRINTS:








BAGS:








FRAMED TILES:








CLOTHING:








and BUMPER STICKERS!(among other things)

Unique Christmas Gift Ideas

That's right, folks- Thanksgiving is over, and it's time to start thinking about Christmas gifts. I've lowered the prices of many paintings on my website, and there are quite a few that are LESS THAN $500!!!!!!!. My most recent painting, shown above, just happens to be one of them. You can purchase it for $375 right HERE. I painted this from a photograph that I took while on my honeymoon in Santorini, Greece.

A painting is a unique gift that can be cherished for many years, and the prices of my paintings, at this moment, are very low. This is the perfect time to invest in something that can become part of the home of someone you love. Many of my paintings are priced lower than $500 and are included in the link above. To see all of my works for sale, including drawings and photographs, click HERE.

If the cost of an original work of art is too high for you right now, feel free to browse my GIFT SHOP for prints, t-shirts, mugs and many other items that feature my work.

I hope everyone has a fabulous holiday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLEN!!!!!!!

If you were nearby, and if I could bake, this is the cake I would bake you! (Although, the candle seems a little too randomly placed... I wouldn't make that mistake) Anyway, Happy Birthday! ... Unfortunately, it's already 6pm, so you probably won't read this on your ACTUAL birthday- but I hope it was a good one!

I Made a Monkey Out of Clay

Here is the product of a teacher workday.

Cute Clothes

When my sister and I were little, we found immense joy in playing with pots and pans. We also enjoyed crawling in and around the kitchen cabinets; I can only hope that my future kids are so easily entertained. One day, my mom decided to do something (maybe her hair?) in another room while leaving my younger sister, Hillary, alone in the kitchen. By the time Mom came back, Hillary had pulled out all sorts of condiments as well as tupperware, but it wasn't the brightly colored Quik or JIF containers that caught my sister's eye. It was a small, modest unmarked container that just HAPPENED to be filled with powdered sugar that she took an interest in opening. Mom walked back in to see a pile of sugar all over the floor and a sticky toddler covered in white and sucking her fingers. I decided to make a drawing to remember the occasion, and here you will find it on a baby-suit. Click HERE to view this image on other items or clothing.

I Can Bite My Own Toenails

I'm thinking of doing a series of these characters, intended more for images in my gift shop as opposed to "fine art," whatever that is anyway. Click HERE to find this image on T-shirts, journals, greeting cards and more!

The Best Stories are Always About Kindergarteners

I had an interesting mishap today in kindergarten that I didn't quite know how to handle... let me know if you've got any ideas about it. There's a little boy in one of my kindergarten classes that I know can be a handful. Sometimes he behaves if I SHOWER him with encouragement, so I try to prepare myself for that right before I have his class. Well, at the beginning of class he asked if he could use the bathroom. The bathroom is inside the classroom so I didn't see any problem with that. He spent about 15 minutes in the bathroom while a couple of other students complained and danced around with crossed legs, but no amount of knocking on the door hurried him up. When he was ready, he came out and sat down at his table to work on his art. He has a tendency to put markers in his mouth and eat the crayons, so I try to look at him at least every 30 seconds or so just to keep him in check. Every time I look and he's doing his work, I make a big deal about it to the class. This is usually enough encouragement to keep him working hard.

5 minutes after he started coloring, a little girl came up and tugged on my skirt. I looked at her, and she stuck her toe up near my face to show me a large red streak across the top of her obviously BRAND-NEW, white leather shoes. Guess who did it. I called the little boy over to talk to him about it only to discover that the entire top of his right boot (suede, I might add) had red marker scribbled ALL over it. The marker easily came off the little girl's shoe, but his shoe was quite a different story.

This situation definitely warranted a time-out. I sat him down on a blue stool in an area of the room with nothing else around him. He stuck his head under the stool, laid on the floor beside the stool, crawled all around the stool, and basically did everything he could to the stool without actually sitting on it. Since I didn't want to engage in a power struggle, I just kept my eye on him and monitored the rest of the class.

When it was time to line up, I lined him up somewhere in the middle... where I THOUGHT I could keep an eye on him. I stooped down to tie someone's shoe, and by the time I looked up, I was met with something that they didn't prepare me for in any elementary education course. He was stooping underneath the hand sanitizer pump mounted on the wall. His neck was craned underneath it with his mouth wide open and he was pumping vigorously. I immediately yelled out his name. He bolted upright.... and took one big gulp.

Kindergarten Crusade

I really hate that I don't have an image to go along with this story, so I'll do the best I can to create a good image for you with words. Yesterday afternoon, I taught a kindergarten class and at the time, they were using geometric shapes to design robots. While wandering around the room, making sure everyone was on-task, I noticed that one little boy had his fingers in his mouth and seemed to be up to no good. At this age, many of them are trying to pull out loose teeth, which I try to discourage in art class because I honestly don't want the commotion that immediately follows when one of them is successful.

I made my way over to him and asked cautiously, "What are you doing?" "I've got something in my teeth!" he replied. "Well, how about waiting until you get home where you can use some dental floss. Try to keep your fingers out of your mouth because you're going to get the crayons soggy and other people won't want to use them." ..."I don't have any dental floss at home, but I got toothpicks!" "That'll work."... And with that, he went back to coloring.

After art was over, I lined them up and led them through the hallway to the library where their next class was. As we stood outside the door waiting for the librarian, the same little boy shoved his index finger only a couple of centimeters from my eyeball. Backing up to a safer viewing distance, I stared at his finger trying to figure out what was on it and why he was trying to show it to me. (I'll spare you some details by not describing it). "What is it?" I asked him, forgetting about his earlier quest. "I got it out!!!!" he proudly exclaimed.

Just a quick update

I'm still spending a lot of time unpacking boxes (as well as teaching every day and writing new lesson plans at night)... not to mention I'm sick right now and I haven't accrued any sick leave at work... so I haven't really gotten any painting done. I'm hoping that I will be back into some sort of routine by the end of this week, and then I'll be posting more regularly again. So I guess this post is just a little reminder about my online GIFT SHOP. I know several of you have already made purchases, and I hope you are enjoying your goodies.... for the rest of you- get with it! Don't you know that these shirts are the new thing! Everybody's wearing them! ....or at least they will be soon :)

Side Note: With all the ladies out there that seem to be getting pregnant these days, it won't hurt to mention the large assortment of bibs and creepers I carry. I mean, how creative would it be to attach a beguiling as well as breathtaking bib to a big bow bedecked around a beautifully wrapped baby present? Just throwing that out there-

The James River

We had a good old time at the James River today. There's an island in the middle of the river called Belle Island where people like to go to swim, hike, run and bike-ride. We parked off of 5th street and then made our way to the bridge that would take us across from the north side of the river to the island. On the way there, we saw a bunch of people swimming right off of the north shore. They were having a great time swinging on a rope tied to the underside of some train tracks. I was a little nervous watching them because the water didn't look like it could be very deep and they were climbing up to the top of the train tracks and jumping in. We even saw someone slip and fall and they were seriously lucky to land in deep water.
















After we got tired of watching them, we went over to cross the bridge. This was the third time I crossed it, but I was still pretty nervous about it. I don't think we'll ever get my mom over to the other side. It's a narrow bridge suspended in air by cables, hanging from underneath a busy 6-lane highway.
















Once we got to Belle Island by way of the bridge, I had an overwhelming urge to cross back again to the North shore by way of the actual river. We had lots of fun walking, wading and sometimes swimming to the other side.































All in all, we had a great day that ended with Subway (their oatmeal raison cookies are awesome!) and wet, dirty tennis shoes. Here are some more of the pictures we took:

The Adventures of Living in a Hotel

This is apparently what happens when you put dishwashing SOAP (as opposed to dishwashing detergent) in the dishwasher.

Acrylic Flower #2 and #3

I've been messing around with acrylic paint because I have a whole lot of it, but I have to admit that I don't enjoy it all that much... so don't expect to see too many more of these. They are both for sale on my website for $40 each and you can purchase them HERE

Aces and Sevens

You can purchase this drawing HERE

or

You can find other products featuring this image in my GIFT SHOP.

Inside the Christmas Tree

You can purchase this painting HERE

or

You can find other products (such as Christmas Cards) featuring this image in my GIFT SHOP.

Paintings Under $500

I've added a new page to my website that combines all of my paintings that are under $500 and you can view this page HERE. All of my drawings are already under $500, so this new category only exists under the "paintings" link. Several people have asked me how I price my paintings. I keep a log of how many hours I spend on every work of art that I make. I spend thirty hours a week actually creating art and at least 10 hours a week working on my website, photographing my art, or promoting myself in various ways. Since I'm only actually getting paid for 30 hours of work per week, I have to charge $20 an hour to make some sort of living. If someone commissions me for a painting, I charge $500 per square foot. This usually equals right about $20/hour because I spend a lot more time on commissions to make sure everything is exactly how the client wants it. Lately, I've tried to develop a faster painting style without losing any quality. I am beginning a new series of acrylic flowers, so check back later to see those. I have finished three new paintings and two new drawings, but I haven't been able to photograph them yet. I am waiting until this weekend when I will be able to solicit Jeff's help during the hours of the day when the light is best so check back on Monday for new work!... I might try to put up a picture of a painting in progress on Thursday.

Sunday Morning (oil painting)

You can purchase this painting from my website!

You can also view this image on different items in my gift shop!

Painting in Progress

Hyperhidrosis

Most of you that know me know that I have hyperhidrosis. For those of you that didn't know this, hyperhidrosis is a condition where different parts of your body can sweat (profusely) at any given time. I happen to sweat on my hands, feet and armpits the worst, but in the past couple of years, I've developed compensatory sweating (trunkal hyperhidrosis). Certain Dry has cleared my armpits of this problem, but I've tried multiple products on my hands and feet to no avail. However, I recently discovered antihydral, a cream I can put on my hands and feet. After a few days of using the product, I've discovered that it works fairly well. Unfortunately, every time my hands get wet (even if it's only a minute) they look like this:






















So.... I have one question- If you were interviewing someone for a job, would you rather go through the unpleasantness of shaking a hand that was literally dripping wet or would you rather shake a rough, wrinkly hand resembling that of the crypt keeper?

For more information on antihydral, CLICK HERE.

Frog on a Wall

I have been inspired to work with colored pencil a little. I enjoy painting with oils, but colored pencil can be a more affordable route for someone looking for an original work of art that doesn't cost a whole lot of money. You can purchase this drawing here.

Or you can view this image on a variety of items in my gift shop by clicking here.

Villefranche

I tried something a little different on this one, and I think I'll do a few more like it eventually. I worked up most of the painting fairly realistically, but chose a few things to draw in a more childlike manner to see how they might exist in a more realistic world. You can purchase this painting HERE!

To view this painting on different items in my gift shop, click here.

Dietes Iridioides (oil painting)

Another new painting - To purchase, click here!

Sunday Morning (Shaded Drawing)

$150
2006

Here's a new drawing that I finished recently. You can purchase it from my website here.

More Shameless Advertising

I've updated my gift shop! I have several new images by request...


The pen and ink drawing of the girl on a fire escape requested by Hillary



The oil painting of a plant in the parking lot of the movie theater requested by Dody







and of course let's not forget a drawing of a jar of mosquitoes- Just for you, Glen








And I've also added these two:


































And I spent some time working on a logo that might look nice, but also serve as more advertisement- you'd be surprised at how well this looks on some of the t-shirts... you should check it out.








However, I thought the guys might need something a little less feminine, so I came up with this as well:








Click here to visit my gift shop to view these new items!