prison

mixed media and found objects on wood panel. approx. 24" x 32"
pretty big.

fight

mixed media and found objects on wood panel.
approx 16" square.

i'm also trying to write an artist statement.
i think these are stupid.
if i wanted to write about what i was thinking, i would be a writer and not an artist :P

i'm just a bad blogger...

so it's been over a month and i really wanted to be better at keeping up with this. meh.

i have some new paintings i wanted to post, and i'm working on a few more that will be finished soon!!!

so here goes....



climb



about 24" square. mixed media and found objects on wood panel.
the little plane in the left upper corner is a little metal toy matchbox plane, and the number 3 is metal. it's a real feather, and a real fear of heights! (i also was considering whether or not a fear of heights could be related to a fear of success...maybe in a jungian world? dunno.)


heavy



mixed media and found objects on wood panel. approx. 12" square.
i was so giddy about finding the strong man card. and he was number 3!!!
and the scale has a small 3 in the middle of the star.
the little weight hanging from the scale is a fishing weight that i stole from my dad's boat ;)
shhh...don't tell.

stay tuned...more soon!

ok, i hate them but....

more squirrel drama!!!
this one is crazy!!!

we just got back home from being at the boat.
it's a pretty far drive, plus we took back roads. that takes even longer...
dougal, my hero dog, was with us.

when we got home, we were all in the back yard.
i was inspecting these strange purple flowers that i did not plant and was wondering how they got there...
the boy was standing there with me.

the husband had just come outside and the dog was up there by him.

two squirrels were in our big oak tree, chasing each other.
they seemed to be fighting.

dougal was chasing them around the tree, and the husband was trying to throw things near them to snap them out of it, cause you know when squirrels are chasing each other, they are completely unaware of everything and anyone around them.

the squirrels went up further into the tree, and across to the next door neighbor's tree.

the one squirrel knocked the other one from a sturdy branch down below to just some leaves.
the unfortunate one was hanging onto the leaves for dear life.

the tougher squirrel dove down onto the leaf squirrel and knocked him further down, again onto more leaves.

the leaf squirrel lost his grip and fell head first onto our fence.

of course, he couldn't have fallen into the neighbor's yard, but he fell right into ours.

all woozy, he tried to slip under the fence, away from the eager jaws of my murdering dog.

not quick enough though...

dougal got him.

the squirrel struggled and was swatting at dougal's face, but dougal went right in for the belly.

he got him good. and squeezed.

i was freaking out and shouting at the husband to get the dog away from it.
i was afraid it would bite him or something and who knows if he has any diseases or whatever...

finally, the husband got dougal away.

the squirrel was there on the ground gasping for air.
i'm sure he's dead.

i know, i hate them, but...

that was SO disturbing.
(and of course i had to share it with you :P )

and once again, i skeeve my dog.
can you disinfect a dog???

squirrels are bad. very, very bad.

if you know me at all, you know well...
i am TERRIFIED of squirrels.
to the point of it being ridiculous.

well, there was squirrel drama here today!


the boy threw a jar of peanut butter in the recycling bin with no lid. and of course there was still peanut butter in it...

so i'm sitting out there and i hear all this rustling around, and the squirrel is IN the bin with his head IN the peanut butter jar.

i went over (terrified, of course) and tried to scare him away.

he was not deterred.

dougal (my loyal pooch) was inside demanding to come out so that he could protect me from all squirrel evil.

my hero!


he chased him over the fence, but the squirrel stood at the other side of the fence antagonizing him. even went so far as to climb to the top of the fence above dougal's head.


(that's the divil there. and me shooting from INSIDE thru the window)

while dougal distracted the evil one, i put a lid on the bin with a brick on it.
i brought dougal inside. (he was making a lot of noise)
the squirrel came back a few times, all annoyed about the lid and the brick.
good.
stupid squirrel.

monday...hrmph....

i woke up this morning all enthusiastic to go antique shopping for number 3's.
for a while there, i was seeing them everywhere.
now...
there is a 3 deficiency.

i made my son go with me, and we drove an hour to this place called adamstown? pa.
i assure you, there isn't a 3 in the town.

all was well though.
there were TONS of antique shops and we probably only went through 4 of them (they were BIG) in a span of 6 hours.

i heard the most stupid person in the world in one of these places.
he told his 2 daughters that "nothing in this world is free, and if it is, it isn't worth having."
i bit my tongue so as not to say anything outloud, but i'm sure something slipped out in a mutter...

niiiice.

so we are all pooped out and head home.
my car started acting funny and the temperature gage was going up and up and up :(
it had that funny anti-freeze smell too!
yikes!

we rang my husband who told us to TURN THE HEAT ON!!! and it might go down.
well, it's 90+ degrees out there today!
but we did, and sure enough the temp went down a little...
and we made it home.

now i am 3less and carless...
and very hot.
:P

"see"

new painting. just finished the frame this morning.
it's mixed media and found objects on a wooden panel.
about 16.5" square.

i really have room for improvement on my carpenter skills :P
i must have redid that frame 3 times!
it's always the frame that gives me trouble :(

anyway, hope you like!!!

saturday road trip

so, every chance we get, my husband and i get on his motorbike, and try to find interesting places to go for a day.

yesterday, we went to a town called bethlehem, pa.
i had wanted to check out this place...
the banana factory...

http://www.bananafactory.org/


the banana factory is an art center. there are artists studios, galleries, classrooms, a big glassblowing workshop...

i had heard about it a while ago, and was interested in seeing it...so off we went...
(it's always good to have a destination...) it was a great atmosphere. i really wish there was a place like that closer to where i live...

the best thing about going places on the motorbike is that we go all around on back roads and see things and places that we wouldn't normally see driving in the car on a highway.
(it also takes a LOT longer to get places this way...but that is the fun of it ;) )

we found an architectural salvage place that we stopped in.
it was like a big old barn FULL of all sorts of cool stuff!
i got a couple of small things, but really, it was sort of expensive there.

we also stopped at this "antiques and oddities" shop.
i got a few things there too!
i have to be really selective and buy small things to travel with, which is sometimes a bummer when i see something really cool! and i always swear i will go back to get it in the car. haha.

bethlehem is a way bigger town/city than i thought!
it seems to be split by a river in half.
there is a big steel mill there that closed down. it is still standing there...and it is GINORMOUS!!! but they put a casino in it? or somehow made part of it a casino.
i dunno.
we just drove past, and i wasn't able to get a photo...
but we'll go back.
here's a link to some really nice photos of it though...
shaun o'boyle photos

musikfest was going on there, which seemed to take over the entire town!!!
people everywhere, tents, music, jugglers, food, everything...


i don't know what i was thinking, but i didn't take many photos this trip at all, and the ones that i did aren't very good :(
sorry.

the one thing i keep thinking about from this trip was when we stopped to eat our packed lunch in the park, there were 3 homeless guys sitting just down a little from us.
the one came over to us to ask my husband for a cigarette.
he had been drinking (everyone seemed to be with the musikfest there)
but...
he seemed to think we were homeless too.
he invited us up to this spot in the mountains where there were "others" and we'd be "safe"
i thought this was really lovely, and i never had an invitation like that before
(but, to be honest, i was wondering what the state of us was like for him to think we were homeless)

he also thought i was 22 years old :D
maybe it was the drink ;)

he went back to his friends and came back a few minutes later to give me a little bottle of shampoo.
said so i could wash my hair.
that i gotta keep my hair clean.

i felt sorta bad taking his shampoo, but we were a little, erm, short for words here...
and he seemed so happy to be giving it to me.

he was telling my husband that he was unemployed and all of that...
which made me feel bad thinking of all of the people that worked at the steel mill before and now were out of work.

i hope they are safe up there. very nice fellas...

i'm thinking now...where to go next?

"mine"

another new painting!
mixed media and found objects on wood panel.
8 1/2" square.

more to come soon :D

the letter

just finished this today! it's mixed media and found objects on a wooden panel. about 12.75" square.... hand built the box part...hope you like!

fireflies

lightning bugs...whatever you callem....
i made this for people who don't have them.
sorry it isn't better....

my robin

back in june, a "juvenile" robin was attacked (we think) by another bird and happened to land on my porch. my son was still in school, and as he was leaving to catch the bus, i saw the little robin lying there. i thought he was dead.
i went over to him, and he was still breathing.
my son, who loves all animals and birds, was very anxious.
he had to leave for the bus, and said to me, "mom! you have to do SOMETHING!!!"



i was worried cause our not so nice neighbors have a cat who likes to hang out on our porch (i sometimes wonder if they feed him...)

i didn't know what to do.
i mean, i like animals and birds and wildlife stuff, but to actually handle one? i'm a big chicken.
so i sat and sat and sat there with this poor bird.

i finally decided i had to do something ELSE, so i called my dog's vet.
they gave me a phone number to a wild bird rescue lady.
i had to leave a message and wait.

in the meantime, i went in to get a box in case i had to bring the bird in.
when i came back, the bird had perked up a little...



now, here comes the part where i'm a weirdo.
i had been working on some paintings where i was using a bird (or feathers) to symbolize...well, sort of me. but NOT flying. like i'm stuck here.
so in my head, i had to save this bird...or else i might be stuck forever!
it was too coincidental that it was happening RIGHT THEN.
(my husband thinks i'm a complete nutter)

the lady rang back and told me to put the bird in the box and bring him in.
i was really scared to pick him up.
we have friends who own birds, and i like them and i will hold them, but they are not wild birds, ya know?

my knees were knocking and everything...
but i did it!
i brought him in and i rang back in a couple of days to see how he was getting on.
she said he was doing much better and eating and everything on his own.
that made me really happy :D

she also said that they try to find their way back to where they came from.
so, again, being a weirdo, i imagine this robin to be the same robin who built a nest in our big oak tree, and sits and looks at me in the mornings when i'm having my coffee.
(my husband thinks i have completely lost it.)
it's sometimes nice to pretend :)



not a great pic, but this is the nest...



yesterday, i found a bluejay feather on the ground.
i was thinking on putting it in my new painting.

this morning, having my coffee out back, i heard all of this rustling in the tree.
the robin was chasing the bluejay away from it's nest.
that bluejay was relentless.
i sat there for ages watching. i even tried to scare the bluejay away myself.
just then, the daddy robin came and teamed up with the mommy robin, and the bluejay flew away.

cheers for the robins!!!!

anyway, i will still use the bluejay feather because it now means something completely new to me.
it may be even better!

boats

distressed
Originally uploaded by susarto

my dad has had a boat forever. well, at least well over 40 years. which makes it older than me. which means that i pretty much grew up on that boat. i love to go down there! i am a "boater girl".

this weekend, i was down there looking for some good finds around where they fix all the boats, and i was noticing all of the textures and colours on the bottoms of the boats that are naturally made by the water, sea life, time...

i think they look like paintings :)

see more here

capture

capture
Originally uploaded by susarto

i finally finished this!!!
it's taken me forever, but it was something i had to make.
it was a huge challenge working with so many different materials, but it was really fun to do!
i hope you like it :)

you can see more details in this photo set: capture set

weirdos!

i am known to many people as "the weirdo lady" though, i'd much prefer "girl". ;)
it must be a long time i've been making these because it seems i have thousands of photographs of them.
i made a little weirdo movie of weirdos i made over the last couple of years.
i've been on a movie kick lately... ;)




music by: the cure - perfect girl

the big catch up...

barn goodies
Originally uploaded by susarto

jeez, i haven't blogged in an age.
i have been up to some new things :)

recently i went to an old barn that was full of stuff.
as a barter, the lady who owns the barn let me take pretty much whatever i wanted :D

this was a happy day!!!

i've been using some of the stuff already.

also, recently, i've been going on motorbike rides with my husband.
we try to find off the beaten path places, and back roads all the way!
i've seen some pretty cool things!!!

here's a little video of our 4th of july cruise...




last week or so, i was on the lookout for bird feathers for a project i've been working on...
i made a little video of that too ;)



it was a pretty cool place. that is, if you like birds...
i don't think i've ever seen so many different kinds of birds all in one place before.

i guess that's all i'll say for now...i have more...i'll blog again soon.
i'll try to be a better blogger...well, i always say that...but i really mean it ;)
xo

new painting abandoned: lambertville high school

so, from our last adventure, here's my new painting.
Abandoned: Lambertville High School



see my last blog for more details and click the link above to see the listing in my etsy shop.
thanks for looking!
cheers!!!

the next adventure

yesterday was a pretty nice day. almost spring-like :)

i collected my husband and kid and we went for a ride out to lambertville, nj which is not too far from us and only over the bridge from new hope, pa. it's really lovely out that way, and they are both quaint little towns for shopping and gallery browsing.

however, i had a mission...a new adventure!

lambertville high school was erected in 1854. there was a fire there in 1926, which is rumored to have killed 150 students. i still have to find out how true that is...
there was another fire not sure when. there are different stories, but maybe sometime in the 70's. i'm also not sure when, exactly, it was abandoned.

it is featured in the book weird n.j..
there is a lot of talk of hauntings and creepy things, including some really cool chalkboard paintings (engravings?) these are from the weird n.j. link. i've read that they were spray painted on (why???). we didn't find them while we were there, unfortunately. maybe they are gone?








so, we went. the place seems to have gotten worse since what i had investigated online, and it did not seem safe enough to go inside anywhere...especially with my kid in tow (even though he is now bigger than me), i didn't want to risk it.
but it was a great time and it was fun looking around.
we took a lot of pics and some video.





afterward, we parked over in the cute little town of lambertville and decided to have a walk down by the canal. there is the deleware river that separates lambertville from new hope pa, and each town has a canal. mules used to pull barges through there...

i had been along the canal many times in new hope, but never in lambertville, and to my happy surprize, i looked up to see this!



i was so excited! i had to get over to the other side. but because my husband wouldn't dream of walking all the way back to cross over the regular bridge, we walked on to the old train bridge ahead. we were getting over there no matter what!


seeing that the train tracks were so overgrown from the other side, that bridge hasn't been used for a gazillion years!!!! it was sooo scary walking over it. some of the planks were missing and little scraps of wood that someone nailed down were all we had to walk on...that, or the rails themselves, but i would have surely fallen.

i squeezed the bejeezus out of my husband's poor hand while my son skipped over the thing without a fear in him.

i made it!!!

and we investigated the old train.

this was the side we could see from the other side of the canal...

then we went around...

it was all colourful and bright!

there was absolutely nothing inside except for a few empty paint cans and paint splattered on the walls like some bad 80's t-shirt. jackson pollack style...





what a great day!
i wonder what's next!?!

adventures of a cellar dwellar....

so!
i have found a new interest and something to do that doesn't involve me always being in the basement! about time for me! haha...

a few weeks back, a friend and i were discussing old abandoned places...i think stemming from my train paintings and some old photos i had taken from eastern state penitentiary back in the early 90's.





he told me about a place called pennhurst that sounded like a pretty cool place to check out.
that started it all...



pennhurst has got to have over 20 buildings grouped together...all abandoned since 1987. it was originally made a school and hospital for the "feeble minded and epileptic" it was built in 1908. it gradually gained more and more patients, so that it was overcrowded, and understaffed...many problems resulted from that, which caused it to be closed down in 1987 for neglect and abuse of patients. it is privately owned and you're not supposed to be there at all, but we decided to risk a few photos. i'm glad i did. it was a great experience. since then, i have read so much about the place from el peecho's link above, and in writing to him, he gave me permission to use some documents he had on his website in a painting that i did...


the listing is here...it is in my new shop:
Abandoned: Pennhurst


now, i have been looking into other places to discover and make new art from.
my feeling is that i'm having the experience of being at the place, learning history about the place, and having some connection to it...making the paintings are like keeping a piece of something that may soon be gone with out a trace...

...but i was there....

momentum

some artist friend once told me "momentum is everything". i think she has a point there.

i'm trying to keep up my momentum, but quickly running out of supplies

i have some new things to show you though!!!

muscles of the face



this was inspired by both duchenne's photographs and the mutter museum in philadelphia.

also new is the counting of the crows


i love the little counting thing...i have to learn me the magpie one too!
was just experimenting with stuff in this one

and finally, himself i had been working on this here and there for a while now. thought it was about time i finished it!

these are all listed in my new etsy shop http://SusanMoloney.etsy.com
i hope you like!
cheers!
xo

new shop new look new stuff

hello!
i have been very lax with my blog. it's embarrassing really...
but i do have sort of an excuse? (that is stretching it...)

i have opened a new etsy shop for some new paintings i have been working on!
i have been using found objects and collage. i am having a great time with it too!
i will post some pics here, but you can see the whole shop at http://SusanMoloney.etsy.com
if you haven't seen my "old" shop, that is http://susarto.etsy.com
when i work, i've noticed different cycles that i go through. sometimes i need to paint in oils or just draw an awful lot...and sometimes i need to be really messy...other times very precise (or as precise as i can be)
but collage/assemblage is exciting for me because i have to actually FIND the stuff that i want to put in it...or i will find something and a whole new idea will come from that thing.

i also want to try to use things i have made myself as much as possible,such as the drawing elements, or paint...or use photographs that i took myself instead of using found ones. the stuff i find i want to look used...well loved, as they say, or has seen many hands before mine.
we'll see what happens.

i recently went to an old train station nearby where i took photographs of old trains. i don't know why i love the old trains so much. there is just something about them. maybe it's that traveling on them allows you to take it easy, read a book, have a coffee in the dining car...better than flying with white knuckles wrapped around the armrests.

here are my train pieces.



i hope you like them!!!
i wish it weren't so snowy and icy outside or i would be out walking around looking for more stuff to appear on the ground :D
spring is coming??? soon????

authors

author is a funny word the more you look at it.


i'm just after making some new bookmarks in my shop with author's quotes...
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=108334§ion_id=5041851


i hand paint these on acid free heavy watercolor paper.
it's really fun looking for the quotes to put on...but i get distracted and spend hours just reading different quotes!

they are stamped on letter by letter, and embossed.
the edges are lined with metal tape that i put impressions in, and the beads are strung onto embroidery thread.

i have a couple that i have been using for myself and they are pretty sturdy...even when i have lost them in the bed under the covers!

lucky.

hey, so...i'm on the etsy plush street team...which is a bunch of people who make plush toys (like me) and sell them on etsy.
you can go here www.plushteam.com and see.
anyway, there is a new project that came up where we re-create one of our favourite childhood toys...

i was really excited about this, (as you might know) since i just was having a toy crisis recently, and buying all my old toys up.
(i think i'm still going thru it...i just bought two unazukins )
anyway...

i just finished my project today.
i guess i'm somehow supposed to put it on the plushteam blog, but i don't know how ;)
anyway.
here's lucky.



that's him with lucky on his head.

his body is a bit roundy and not so sharp edged (as the plastic or the wood luckys) but then again, it is plush and not plastic or wood...and i also don't really know how to sew (shh...don't tell anyone.)

here is plush lucky on his roundy-own.


i don't really have a good ending for this blog.
i just wanted to show him to you to see whatcha think....

bye.
xo

Unazukin

Unazukin
Originally uploaded by tamaravdp

i'm really questioning my sanity.

i have been going through a major toy crisis these days.
desperate to get back some of the old toys i used to play with....

i even bought a few.

today i was putzing around on etsy, when on the front page i saw a plushie doll with these little weeble type dolls behind it.


i fell in love.
(not with the poor girl's plushie, mind you :( sorry...)

i searched frantically to find out what they were and discovered that they are not so easy to find...

AND!!!

i discovered that not only are they really, really cute, but their heads nod "yes" or "no" when you ask it a question...sort of like the magic 8 ball, but MUCH cuter...

I NEED ONE.

i did buy one from a website today, but it does not let you pick which one you will get.
and i am SO partial to certain ones.

but i got one anyway.
(shhh...don't tell my husband)

i begged him to buy me one that i really want from ebay.
:/
where it costs twice as much!

i hate how sometimes ebay just has you by the cojones...

anyway.
i cannot wait to get it, and if you'd like to know your future, i will be taking questions for the great unazukin ;)
xo

wii wii wii...all the way home.

today was my 13th day on my wii fit regimen.
and i think it's going pretty well...



and i think i actually like doing it.
it's just the turning on the thing that needs work ;)

i never do it at the same time everyday, which i should...and get a routine going...
but i HAVE managed to do it everyday for a week.



i think it's impressed. ;)

i thought i'd make an update now and then to see if this thing is really working...

the more things you do, the more you earn...so if you keep working, you unlock new exercises, PLUS you get more wii credit in your piggie.
i have found a couple of the yoga exercises to be favourites...a couple of strength (mostly for torso and abs) and the step and the boxing.

these are just my favourites, as i completely suck at any of the balance games.
i haven't even tried some of them because i'm just that bad.
although, when i started out, i think i could only get 5 soccer balls with my head.
and i think my personal best now is 80? of course pat's is over 300 :P
he's got to rub it in...

but while he was away on a motorbike trip, i got really good at boxing...(well, for a beginner, like....) and tonight he tried it (i suppose because nobody else can be winning ;) )
but he was awful! haha!
and a poor sport too cause he turned it off in the middle of it, so his score wouldn't be kept.
tsk, tsk.
sore loser.

and of course i have to gloat because i NEVER beat him at anything!!!

(insert sinister laugh here)



also, i'm trying to figure out if what you're wearing effects your bmi stuff.
it asks you when you begin for the day if your clothes are light, heavy, or other...whatever other is...but i've been trying all the different ones.
i think when i say i have light clothes on (shorts and a t-shirt) it seems to always say i gained a little.



i like that you can see the chart of your weight and that it tells you every time how much you have till you reach your goal.



i'm going to keep at this.

it took me 4 months to get like this, so i guess it won't come off so quick, eh?
btw, for the record, my "normal" area is looking a little bleak....
i mean if i gain just a couple of pounds, i'll be in the overweight area!

and you KNOW i can't have a pudgy wii.
i'll never hear the end of it after the slagging i gave pat! eep!!!