...and now a break from our regularly scheduled program

all day i was wondering...
are they going to cancel the opening because of the snow?
and until i was about to walk out the door, i still wasn't sure if we were going to go or not.

but we did.
and i'm glad we made it down there :)
we beat the storm too! it didn't start sticking to the ground until after we got home.

my painting "capture" was selected to be in highwire gallery's "devotion" show.

highwire gallery is in philadelphia on frankford avenue.
the show will be up until the end of february.

here's some photos from tonight...









in other news, i have the first coat of paint on the walls of the studio!!!! :D

soon comes the fun part...

i have not posted for a couple of days cause i've been working!!!
priming the walls, really...
i am the painting department, so now it'll be mostly me working and the boys can relax a little? maybe.



if you click on this pic, it will take you to my flickr photo page (i hope) where i put notes all over the place so you can see what's going on...

i'm getting so excited because all the fun stuff is coming soon!!!!
tomorrow i will be doing some final sanding on the bulk of the room and painting it. then i have to move all of my stuff to the painted end so we can work on the other side.
luckily, the unfinished side is much smaller than the almost finished side :D

i have an art opening tomorrow night, but they are calling for 6-12 inches of snow!
which is a total bummer, but we are going to have to wait till the afternoon to see what happens.

it may not get too bad till later on at night.

stupid snow.

the snow should stop sometime on saturday though, so hopefully there will be no problem with going to the OTHER opening on sunday.

hopefully.

busy.

this has been a really busy week.
besides schlepping art to galleries, and dog to vets, and domestic duties, the studio is still being worked on...

it doesn't look too much different from the last pics because it's mainly just spackling.
the lights, however, the new ones, have been put in :)
now we just need switches and we're sunshine!

i'll be sanding today, because i was told that i might be able to start priming the walls for paint on thursday.

that would be great!

i have paintings in two galleries that open this weekend, so it will be a little crazy around here, working on the studio between.

friday opens highwire gallery's "devotion" show. they are showing my painting "capture".

and sunday, the plastic club has my "mine" and "the letter".

i hope there will be no more snow for the weekend.
*crosses fingers*

newses

the bad news first.
the lights we got are not bright enough :(
my husband had put 6 or 7 of the 13 in and it was just too dark.

but he brought the ones he didn't put up back and exchanged them for others that
should be better. but now he has to put THOSE in and exchange the others.

today i went to the city to drop off paintings for 2 galleries.
when i came back, there was good news...



closets!!!

there is one on either side (was hard to get a good photo...).
one hides the electrical panel and the other hides the water pipes.
they are perfect because i will be able to store my fabric bins in there!!!

there will be a worktop connecting the two pretty soon :)



i was joking with them saying i wanted a toilet in there so i would never have
to go upstairs ;)

more spackling.
they say i will be able to paint the primer on by tuesday! :D

next weekend there will be two art openings. i am definitely showing 2 pieces in the one, and the other, i will find out tomorrow if they are accepted.
*crosses fingers*

13 is a lucky number

13 of these are going to be in my ceiling.

i counted them.

13!!!!!

i am going to be able to SEE!!!!!

ceiling!

the ceiling is drywalled! the whole thing :D




our friend, jon, who has been working so hard for us, is not coming here tonight, but i am pretty sure my husband (whether he likes it or not) will be doing some electrical work, like maybe putting the lights in? or the inthewall speakers that he got for me?
i hope he does anyway. it'd be a good time to do it...

the last of the walls that need drywall are the parts that started this whole project in the first place! there was no drywall there EVER, and i had fabric stapled up to the walls to hide it. i asked jon if he'd drywall that area and put up some shelves for me...
i think it has evolved ;)

you see that tall light in the photo? that's jon's. it is our only source of light while we are working until the lights go in.

there was yet another mishap yesterday (caused by me, of course) when i tried to put the light on. see, the thing with that light is...you have to slide the whole light bulb part UP. it's in that big clear tube. i've watched jon do it and he slams that sucker up and down.

there's a little lever that you have to pull out in order to slide it. i pulled the lever out, holding the top little knob eversocarefully with the other hand, and guess what?
the whole top broke off!
how can he slam it and not break it, but i touch it and whammo!?
i felt so bad all day.
he wasn't mad at me though...

i have everything wrapped in plastic and ready for the spackle dust that will ensue any day now...
it looks a lot like that scene in E.T. when they come in and try to take him away...


i've been on the computer for most of the day...looking for ideas on how i want to paint the floor. it took me forever to paint those tiles on there and i sort of hate the idea of having to paint over it again. especially because i will have to do it in sections with all of the stuff i have still in there!

hopefully there will be lights for next time so the photos aren't so dark.
till then...
ciao!

the insulationator

now, you may think i look quite ridiculous, but i am indeed protected from the deadly insulation fiberglass bits that make people very itchy.

this is a tested insulationator suit, and it works very well.

what you need for full protection is:

1. long underwear. this is necessary for double protective leg coating. besides, it's flippin' january.

2. jeans. these are to cover said long underwear and are not as absorbent for the fiberglass bits.

3. long sleeved t-shirt

4. hoodie. and this is important...WITH the string intact. you will need the string to tighten the hood as snug as possible around your chin.

5. bandana of your color choice.

6. safety goggles. unfortunately, after great physical activity (which means if you are height-challenged and are installing insulation in a ceiling), you will become quite warm in your insulation suit, and your goggles will fog up. you may want to take a break when this happens. perhaps out of doors where you can breathe fresh air.

7. rubber gloves (preferably purple)

8. face mask. please note that these type of face masks are not made with bumpy nosed individuals in mind, and the mask will hurt after long periods of time. it will also leave a giant imprint upon your bump.

i finished putting the insulation up. drywall completion is due this evening...

and then there was trouble...

maybe i shouldn't be left alone...
unsupervised...

i was supposed to go down and move my stuff to the already drywalled area so they could drywall the rest of the room.

20 minutes in, all of the power in my house went out, so i worked in the (almost) dark till it came back on an hour later.

the power came on (and i swear, it was the storm and not anything i did to any outlets!)
and water started to seep in from our neighbors side (we are in a semi-attached house or a twin, like they call em here)
i had to move a bunch of canvases and stuff in a big hurry before they got wet :(
it normally doesn't happen unless it REALLY REALLY rains a whole big LOT!
but it really sucks when it does.
we have a french drain and a sumpump (is it a sump pump? or a sumpump?)
on the other side, but i have no control over what happens on the neighbor's side :/

THEN i started to smell some sort of gas. it was a propane torch that the boys were using for the pipes they had to move in the ceiling. the top musta got jostled. i wonder how long i was breathing that in?

what else?
OH! and there was something dripping from our boiler oil heat thing... i had to call the husband to come home from work and check it out!!!

and i pinched the bejeezus outta my finger with these death pliers my husband owns.

but i cut down two of my big shelving thingies so they aren't so tall. i think it makes it look less huge and looming...they both fit on the smallest of the new walls, and i think i will make them sort of my collections area ala mutter museum style.

:D

maybe i'll make the whole basement mutter themed :D
haha!

i still have moving to do, but i think i still have all day tomorrow. phew.

i'm not very good at this...

but i've keep being asked where i'm going to put what...
i measured and stuff, and i made this quicky (bad) pretend studio.
whatcha think? is there a better way???



please ignore the misshapen closets and things...you get the idea ;)
and if you can't get the entire image on your screen, you can click the photo. it will take you to my flickr. :)

REAL walls

it's getting there!!!!



where the yellow wires are sticking out, i'm going to have recessed lights :D lots and lots of lights!!!!



spackling. so messy...

walls!

so excited! they started building the new walls last night! a late start, but they are starting early this morning. they are already down there sawing and stuff :D

i'll have quite a bit more room since the one wall was moved back a few feet :D
i will have to repaint the floors...but that's ok :)

and on the 3rd day, there were wires...

or is it the 4th day? nothing special happened to the studio yesterday, but i did work on my website which i think is almost ready to launch, as soon as i find a good parking space...

so whatever day it is...the wires are in and tidied! and there are metal boxes and other things that i have no understanding of...

but what i DO know is that it means i will have LIGHTS!!!

...AND it means GOODBYE fluorescent lights!!! i will not miss you!


and it also means that we are all ready for the drywall tomorrow!!!! wheeee!!!! :D
see you tomorrow with my new walls! x

studio. day 2. ruh-roh!

i thought i'd surprize my husband today and tear down all of the paneling from the studio so he would only have to worry about the electrical stuff and whatever it is that they are going to do...but you know...so they can GET STARTED!!!

this is the ugly paneling (that i had painted) that i mentioned in the last post...





you see those little window things? they were for projectors i think. the old fella that lived here before us had it all set up down there like a big multi-media room....only it was all done in the 70's. all brown wood paneling...
he had this little wall thing built that you could walk behind because it held a t.v. and a stereo and stuff, and i think he had a big screen you could pull down to watch movies from the projectors (dirty movies, from what my neighbor tells me ;) )

i think i have a polaroid i took of it when we moved in. i will try to find it...

so this is what it looks like now...



and the side wall...



so i was at the last piece of panel. and, you know, i had to unscrew all of the electrical outlet plates and fiddle with the thing so it would go through the paneling to get the paneling off.

that last piece was trouble because it was/is behind the radiator.
so i nearly had it, when all of the sudden... POP!!!! sparks came out of the outlet and now everything is dark! :O


(the culprit)

i rang my husband (mr. electrician) who was less than happy with me for trying to do this all myself (which i should have known, but i am perfectly able to do things myself...well, almost.) and warned that i should now leave that alone and wait for him to do it.

my internet was actually what was plugged into that outlet before so i had to get a big extension cord and run it all the way upstairs to plug it in ;)

i did try to organize all of the stuff better and put plastic sheeting up...

(see how it's dark down there now? hehe)

now i s'pose i should take all of that old paneling out and get it ready for the bin.

wish me luck for husband arrival time and that i don't get in too much trouble ;)

su-su-studio

well, here goes.

the studio tearing apart has begun. i was instructed to move everything i could along to one side of the basement so that the main part of the new walls could be built.
i have done all i can by myself, so the boys are going to have to start helping now with the heavier stuff...

this is basically what my studio DID look like before i tore it apart....even though this was taken a while ago, and surely it was even more cluttered...



can you see that back wall there? it isn't really a wall at all. i just stapled fabric onto the beams. there is insulation under there. it was ugly.

also, all along the wall on the left (that you can't see) is this ugly paneling that i had painted. that is getting torn out and drywall put up everywhere.

i need to put plastic all over all my stuff so it doesn't get the dreaded spackle dust all over everything....

i will take photos along the way. i can't wait till it's finished!!! :D

trains and gypsies

two new tiny ones!

"reading" is a square one. i love old trains, and we are lucky to have a sort of "train graveyard" nearby where i go often to take photos and stuff. they have a running steam engine that takes people out on a little tour (it's the one pictured here in the painting). i wish they still made them like that.

anyway, the painting is approximately 5" square on a wood panel with as much stuff on it as i could muster ;)



it is for sale in my etsy shop here.

the second one happened because i needed to draw something. it's been ages (seems) and sometimes i just gotta do it.
anyway, her name is "vadoma"
and she's on a wooden panel that is approximately 5" in diameter.
she's made with acrylic and ink and i used brass nails and upholstery tacks for extra fanciness ;)



she is also for sale in my etsy shop here.


in other news...i was NOT one of the 10 winners of the contest that i submitted most of my "survival" paintings to. they picked 8 (!!!) sculptors/installations and only 1 painter! there were over 2,100 people who entered, so i'm not too heartbroken, but i now need to find somewhere to show all of this work (besides my living room!)

also, i am bartering with a friend who is going to remodel my studio!!!! in exchange for some artwork. :D :D :D
construction starts next week, so i will have to move a lot of stuff out of here so he can tear my walls down and put up new ones.
he will make this room bigger and put up shelves, cabinets, and build a BIG work table! yay for bartering!!!!

i do not know how much work i will be able to do while this is all happening, but i will bring my computer and my sewing machine upstairs at least ;)

ciao!

getting back to it...

the new year started off a little wonky.
i had some sort of weird cold thing going on...
but i've been feeling a bit better, so i made this:



it is for sale here where you can see more pics in the listing.

i also bought a new coat, that i think needed a lil' pin. so i thought...
i'll make one. like a little painting. because people ask me what i do, and i can just say "i make big ones of these" ;)

i made 3. to try it out. i messed one up a little (but i think i may have fixed the big problem) so two are alike (but different)

they are approximately 1.25" square, so the actual painting part is about 1" square.









i think that working tiny is very difficult, but for some reason, i continue to torment myself. go figure.

STUFFED magazine

was supposed to be out in stores on jan. 1st, but i'm hearing that some people have found it already! (barnes and noble)
it's the winter issue 2010...

there are weirdos in there!

two tiny paintings

i wonder if it's all the running around, and being busy with holidays that makes me want to just stop and make things...
but i'm glad it's over, as nice as it was. and i made some new things.

"pork"

this little painting is called "pork"
it is approximately 5" square (13cm), and is mixed media and found objects on a wood panel.



you can find it for sale here

"fool"

mixed media and found objects on wood panel
approx 4.5" square (including beads)



you can find this for sale here

i have more of these small ones in the works. i hope i can show them to you soon :)

to the nice man...

today, who bought my weirdos. i gave you the wrong change. please email me so i can give you the rest.
thanks!
i hope you see this :)

damaged

this little painting is called "damaged"
it's approximately 5.25" square on a wood panel.
signed (very tiny) on the front. (the watermark is not on the image)

felt is adhered to the back, as well as a sawtooth hanger.
it is ready to hang!!!

it is for sale in my etsy shop SusanMoloney


i found this little doll in an antique shop. i fell in love with her. she looked so sad and helpless there in the case.
when i asked the woman to open the case so i could have a better look, she said,"oh, i'm afraid her eyes are gone."

i said, "i know. i want her, please."

we're all a little damaged, aren't we?

"sound"

one more painting for the survival series...
i was going to stop at 10 but i think 13 suits the series...
so one more to go...



this is listed in my etsy shop SusanMoloney

you can see more details here: sound

two new ones

"torn"



mixed media and found objects on wood panel. approximately 16.5" square

"the burbs"



mixed media and found objects on wood panel. approximately 19.75" x 25"

i think i'm submitting this stuff today.
a bit nervous :P

dirty laundry

i had done this first as a photograph because i was just trying things out to see where they'd go, but the photo was initially done as a "sketch" for this painting.
but now that i've looked at the photo for so long, i don't feel like this is a "new" painting. but it is.
i just finished it.
just now!

so, here it is, anyway.
i hope you like it :)



i used a larger photo so that you could see the details. the figure, the clothes line, and all of the dresses are raised off the panel so they cast shadows.
here is an angle view...maybe it helps to see.



and a detail of the grass...
i have to show you this because i cut out and glued every single teeny tiny triangle on there, and it can't be all for not anybody being able to see it! lol!!!!
i don't think i will be using teeny tiny triangles again any time soon.


so that's that.
i've had a bad cold all week, but i'm really trying to continue working so i can submit these into a contest, type thing...
i have one more to go. they are looking for 10 images...
but i think i will still make more.

thanks for looking!!!!
x

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?