New Work: People Power & With Liberty and Justice For All

Acrylics & Mixed Media by Max Stone age 10 Copyright 2009

“People Power”

Acrylics & mixed media

24″ x 18″

Painting wraps around edges of canvas, no frame needed

Max’s words: I wanted to show that boys and girls, all kids, have rights and feelings about our country too. That’s why I used boy and girl paper cutouts in all the colors that people come in instead of stars on my American Flag. We all count, and we all want what’s best for our country and our world. Kids matter too.

Max is 10 years old. This work is available for purchase at the BAD! Kitty web site. Max just recently sold is painting “Block City’ (please find links at end of post)

 

Oils Original artwork by HMBT copyright 2009

 

“With Liberty & Justice for All”

18″ X 24″

Oils

Finished sides, needs no frame

 

The quote for the work: “I am leaving this legacy to all of you … to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die– the dream of freedom and peace.”

Rosa Parks

 A few words from me: I painted this work in honor of all the brave and selfless patriots that have fought and died for what they believed in, our freedom as a people and the right to liberty and justice for all; they also happen to be gay people. The right to be openly gay in our military is a right of being a human being with civil rights. I salute and thank all the patriots of this battle, the one that is still being fought now, and the ones that they have fought for and died for in the past. Thank you to all our fighting men and women, no matter who they love in private, the color of their skin, their gender, or what God they kneel before in private prayer.

Max and I created these Works, in honor and celebration of Independence Day. We both wanted to create something for the world that also resonated with what makes us great as a people and a Nation.  Dissent is Patriotic, in other words.

We are One Nation From Many. That makes us special and brave. We still have a long way to go as far as civil rights for all, and justice for all. I know with love and understanding and Tolerance of difference we can harness the American Spirit and change the world for the better for all humanity. That is our fondest wish for the world…we all count, we are all important, and we all deserve Liberty & Justice for all.

Thanks for being here today, we hope you had a wonderful July 4th.

Heather & Max

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

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New Painting- Rebellion

 

Rebellion by HMBT 2009 oils

 

 

close up

 

‘Rebellion’

18″ x 24″

oils

painted sides, needs no frame, comes ready to hang

Here is the quote that was so ugly, I had to instantly defy it:

Anybody who paints and sees a sky green and pastures blue ought to be sterilized. ~Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945)

So, I of course needed to paint a blue tree, I’ve never painted an all blue tree before so it’s a good thing. I never in a million years would have thought that a quote from the Evil Adolph, would inspire me to create, but here it is. Just goes to show that you don’t know, what you don’t know.

Then I read this quote:

A little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.

Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)

Source: Letter to James Madison, 1787

and I knew I was on the right path. Being in the studio and working like I do is an active act of rebellion! I will work my day job and do my very best to be my personal best at it, but art is my life. It is my talisman, my touchstone. It is my life line in a dark world. So…take that (BAM!) social standards, I am the BAD! Kitty and I have a mighty rebel yell, oh yeah, and I’m not afraid to use it.

I think a blue tree is just what I needed to take the edge off this sepia tinted reality. The lighter shades you see on the tree is really silver not white, it’s sparkly but only a little bit, not too much. My ability to take pictures of my work is not as good as my skills at creating the art itself.  Such is life, and that means that all my patrons say the same thing when they get their new art…”It’s so much BETTER in person!” yes, that’s because I suck at picture taking. Sheesh.

 

 I only paint trees when I am thinking about something internally, really hard. I don’t know why this is true, it just is. This tree is representational of my inner conversations with my soul.  The world I was born into, well it wasn’t that into me, you know….so, being that I am who and what I am….

I just created my own world, instead. Put that in your little red wagon. My work is not about solving problems or answering big questions or being the smartest or the most perfect….it’s about the moment, it IS the big questions, it is also my revelations and rebellions. Maybe that will mean something to you too, and if so, that’s just wonderful. Hello kindred soul, nice to meet you. If it means nothing to you, that’s no skin off my back. I refuse to continue to treat my art business as just a money- making enterprise. It is my life’s work, if it resonates with you (or maybe just matches your decor) take out your wallet and buy it. I am letting go of making money, I am embracing my real self, and that person may not sell a lot of art, maybe she will, who knows? I don’t care any more; my intellectual freedom and talents are not up for sale, just the artworks that will come from that magical place. If I make money, great, if I don’t, it does not mean I am not a successful artist, it means my kids will make a ton of cash when I am dead.

I feel so much better, letting this years sales and numbers go…I feel free again, I feel like me again. I paint because I have too. it’s just that simple. If you like it, I have made it super easy to own original art, so… I guess if you like what you see…just do it.

I hope that everyone is having a great week. We just had our first salad greens harvest from our modest garden, and that was wonderful!  Keep on keeping on, and I’ll see you all in the funny pages.

Raw & Radiant,

Heather

Live your Life Out Loud, buy some art from a living artists today

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Rejection, it’s good for the Ego

Monster Suit #6 oils by HMBT available for sale on web site

Rejection, it’s good for the Ego.

“In rejecting the Beatles, 1962: We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” Decca Recording Co.

 How does one deal with the inevitable rejections that we get along the path of the creative? Well, one of the best ways to deal with rejection is to embrace it. Yes, I said embrace it. Learn to love rejection, failure and disappointments.

 Rejection is our friend; it tames the ego, creates drive and ambition, and clears the mind.  Rejection is always part of the path, for any endeavor, creative or not. You will encounter it at every turn, even if you are the most creative, most skilled and most passionate person in the world. Rejection is a numbers game. I feel pretty good when I get a rejection notice. Why you ask? Why good and not bad or self-pity? Every single NO is another no on the way to my YES. You have to accept that fact. If you allow yourself to take rejection to heart, you will die, wither on the vine of life and give up. If you fear rejection you will never succeed.

 Your ego is not that fragile, your work is important to you and the world. We take rejection because it is part of living; it is part of the equation of life itself.  It only matters what you think of yourself, your own work, and your desire to accomplish whatever it is that you are working towards. Never ever, let anyone disrupt the relationship you have with yourself; it is the most important relationship you will ever have in this world.

  No matter what we do in this life, there will be someone on the sidelines that is pointing a finger and telling you why it and you are wrong. We must have the courage to face those people with the convictions of self-love and say, my own opinion of myself is much more important than anything else. If we fail, fail with grace and grit. Learn to fail with grace. Become aware of your inner self and motivations. Embrace that you will not always be a winner and rejections and failures cease to be difficult to endure and grow from. It is just another no on the way to your yes.

 Rejection keeps you humble, keeps you motivated, keeps you striving. It is not the end of the world, just another disappointment on your path. There will be many disappointments, many bends in the road you will not see around. If you have the courage and conviction of self-love then that is all they are, just potholes to sidestep, lessons to learn, another no for the bone pile of life.

 “There are a billion people in China. It’s not easy to be an individual in a crowd of more than a billion people. Think of it. More than a BILLION people. That means even if you’re a one-in-a-million type of guy, there are still a thousand guys exactly like you.”

A. Whitney Brown

 I want to share a story, my own story. When I started out in the world of art, I started with painting recycled furniture. I did my first work and liked it. I went on to create four more works. At the time, I was sick, out of work, facing my own mortality and penniless. I was painting to keep my mind sane while I dealt with my very possible death.

 I wanted to see if my friends were just being kind to me when they told me my newfound passion for art was a latent talent. To me the only way I could find out was to try and sell the work to strangers. So, when the fifth work was done, I loaded my works into the back of my rusted out Volvo station wagon and set out to find a buyer. No plans really, I just started with the phone book and a list of galleries. Never having been to school for art and having no resume for my works I had no idea what I was setting myself up for. I did not know any of the art world rules, that galleries don’t appreciate people just walking in and asking for a showing. I did not know that I was setting myself up for a day of rejection and heartbreak. I did not know what I did not know.

  The first three places I stopped at were really mean to me. I almost stopped right then and there. The fourth place I walked into, when they said no, I asked why and what could I do better to get them to say yes. I was lucky, that gallery owner took a moment to tell me I was breaking all the rules in the book. I asked what the rules were, I said thank you and left.

  I went into a coffee shop to take a rejection break and sat down. The owner had local art on the walls. It gave me a thought; maybe this is where I should start. I approached the owner and asked for a moment of their time. They were nice folks and stepped outside to my hunk of junk on the corner and peered in. They were not interested in my works either, but they were kind enough to tell me I should try a consignment furniture store that they frequented. I looked the store up and drove across town to see them. I got there filled with hope. They were not interested either, but were kind people and suggested another store for me to try. I drove back across town and tried them. No go, but I did ask for another suggestion from them, I also asked what they looked for in hand painted furniture and home décor. They told me, I wrote it down, said thank you and left.

  In this day I am now up to my seventh no. The last store gave me three other stores to try. The first two, they were big fat no’s. Now at nine rejections and counting, I was starting to loose my faith and determination. I almost just went home, but instead I steeled myself for another NO, and drove over to the last lead I had for the day. They were very excited by my work! They took me on right then and there. Five days later they called to tell me that all five of my works had sold and asked for more. My career had begun.

 I spent the next two years doing furniture and up-cycled works of all kinds and selling them as fast as I could make them. I also started painting on canvas for the first time. I took my works around to restaurants, frame shops and coffee shops and booked several shows. I started selling my canvas works just as fast. I was off and running.

 I then started learning about the world of galleries and self-representation on the web. I started a rejection pile from the galleries and at the same time I started a web site and a blog to sell my works directly. Three years later I got my first gallery acceptance, this is now five years into my working full time as an artist. By that time I had sold over 200 works so I was feeling pretty good about myself. The show was a total flop. The gallery owner suggested that I remain a “hobbyist” painter. I was crushed.

  I never let anyone tell me what I am, or what I can do in this life. I plunged ahead and kept trying. Eventually I found some success in the gallery system, but I found that I liked selling directly because of the personal connections I was able to make with my patrons. That was all 11 years ago this year. To date I have sold 557 works worldwide.

  If I had let my first 10 rejections infect my self-belief system, I would never have made it at all. Success is self-defined. If you are too afraid to fail, then you will never begin to live your dreams. That’s why I truly believe that Rejection is good for the Soul, Ambition and the Ego. Rejection is the foundation for the great things that come from perseverance and faith in self. Embrace rejection and the world will be yours.

Heather Brown Truman

BAD! Kitty Art Studio

 www.badkittyartstudio.com

 

New Art- Presenting Max Stone

Block City at Sunset, on the road less traveled acrylics by Max Stone 2009

‘Block City at sunset, on the road less traveled’

24″ x 18″

Acrylics

Finished sides, ready to hang

This Work Is Now Sold 6/29/09

Max Stone is the very first resident artist here at BAD! Kitty Art Studio. I have been teaching Max painting for 3 years now and this is his first large work that he completed without help from me, his humble teacher. Max is 10 years old, he will be 11 this October. I am very proud to announce that Max’s work will also be in the new Artist Challenge Show, The Road Less Traveled. The show is to go live on June 1, 2009. Please hit the link and check out all the uber talented artists this month that are in the challenge. (I have a work in the challenge too) Max is very excited to be a part of such a stellar group of artists and that he was invited to join made him over the top happy. Please watch this space for Max’s next works and mine too. BAD! Kitty art studio now has two working and soulful artists to choose from, and that my friends is a very good thing.

Have a great day and thanks for reading. If you would like to purchase ‘Block City at Sunset’ from Max, please email him at browntruman5@msn.com. It will soon be on his web site, his site is undergoing a spruce up and will be down for a couple of days while we do that.

With a whole heart,

Heather & Max

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Buy some art from a living artists today, we like eating too.

New Art- Max Stone-Tree of Giving & BAD! Kitty too

Tree of Giving acrylics Max Stone 2009

 

‘Tree of Giving’

18″ x 24″

acrylics, back stapled, finished sides, needs no frame

Ready to hang

Available for sale on  web site

 

This is Max’s entry for this months theme ‘The Giving Tree’ over at the Artist Challenge Site. He really was pleased with himself and in how it turned out. I am proud of him too. It’s really fun to have another working artist in the studio. Even though Max is only ten years old, he is a real pleasure to share space with. He’s always got something going on in his little corner, and the challenge site has really inspired him to create on a deadline. He’s a kick in the pants that kid. This work is bright and fun too.

Here is my entry

Tangled Hope oils copyright HMBT 2009

 ’Tangled Hope’

24″ x 18″

oils

back stapled canvas, finished sides, needs no frame

Ready to hang

Available for sale on my web site

‘Tangled Hope’ was a work of healing for me. A real bear to paint out, with much fretting over the hand itself. I really like the way it turned out, and because this healed a place inside my mind, this work feels alive and powerful. Its fun having it on the studio wall for now. Here is the quote that goes with it…I hope you enjoy.

“There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer; no disease that enough love will not heal; no door that enough love will not open; no gulf that enough love will not bridge; no wall that enough love will not throw down; no sin that enough love will not redeem . . . It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble; how hopeless the outlook; how muddled the tangle; how great the mistake. A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all. If only you could love enough you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world . . .”
~Emmet Fox

Thanks for being here today we sure appreciate you stopping by.

Heather & Max

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Support living artists

Live out Loud and

own Original Art Today

I wish I’d chosen marijuana and biscuits over real life.

 

'Shift Happens' original oil painting by HMBT 2009 available for sale on web site

Quote in the title by ~Jeremy Clarkson

I have some stuff on my mind, you see this is how it works…I think, I read, I write, I paint, and then I have to figure out what and why and WTF?

OK first to set the mood:

“Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even in times of greatest distress.  It is wrong then, to chide the novel for being fascinated by mysterious coincidences, but it is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life.  For he thereby deprives his life of a dimension of beauty.”

~Milan Kundera

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

***

First, I have been asked by a friend to join an artist challenge group. The theme is set every month and there is a deadline and everything.

Now, enter stage right the BAD! kitty…OK, I want to be able to do stuff like this. I want to be told on some level what to do and reach inside and see what the hell I can drag out. I want to embrace non-control, letting go of the little ego (which I need to stay alive BTW, not a bad thing) and plugging into the larger God Head Ego. The One. The Big Sea Of Universe. Basically I like plundering around inside my head, hey it’s mine and I don’t have a social life so why not? Thing is…I have to have a fire lit, I have to WANT to Know something, in order to have courage or convictions about actually completing something tangible.

I am essentially a person who rejects rules, if I don’t see that they apply to me. That is not the kind of thing that makes me a player, a joiner, a person who wants to be in group settings. You’d think it’s because of my health/body issues, or maybe because of my geography, or maybe because I’m some kind of ego maniac, or some other thing else, how do I know what you are thinking?  It’s a little of that I suppose, but it’s also a huge part…of being alive for me right  now…I am immersed fully. I can’t hear you..lalalalalala…I am working over here. I am thinking I don’t believe in coincidence,  I am thinking I am master of my fate and destiny. I am reading other peoples blogs….and finding myself all over the freaking place. People just like me who are writing to the unknown, exposing themselves in the virtual world. How much bravery, honor and true humanity I see  and the equal amounts of fear, darkness and weirdness. I am a voyeur. I am a witness. Yet I am neither. I AM, the center, expands into the God Head.  I am inspired. I joined the group. I was immediately rewarded with the total quandary of figuring out what “unrequited love” meant to me.

OH Shit.

***

Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how.  The moment you know how, you begin to die a little.  The artist never entirely knows.  We guess.  We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.

 ~Agnes de Mille

***

So, I don’t know what Unrequited love is. I mean I really don’t know from a romantic sense. I’ve ever only really loved the person I am in love with now. Rejection sure, I know that one…that’s different though. So, I have been thinking and reading other peoples blogs to see if I could find this…unrequited love.  during this time I have been experiencing huge bouts of anxiety. Generalized Anxiety Disorder is what the doctors call it. I don’t normally have this issue for more than a day at a time when it happens at all. I thought it must be about the whole “joining” thing with other artists that I feel are “better” skilled, better in all ways.

 OH Shit.

***

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.”

 

John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873)

Source: J. S. Mill: ‘On Liberty’ and Other Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought

***

Well in this few days span of time, we suffered a huge ice/snow storm unlike anything I have ever personally lived through. Kids home 24/7 and batshit crazy bored. Never a moment alone to think, to write to paint. Then all of a sudden, the issue of unrequited love was solved for me. It came in a twitter of all things, which I also just joined about a week ago. It was from my Aunt Coni, my Fathers sister, someone whom I have not spoken to for more than 10 years. 

OH Shit.

***

no matter what your spiritual condition is,
no matter where you find yourself in the universe,
your choice is always the same:
to expand your awareness or contract it.
 

~Thaddeus Golas

***

OK, I say to myself…what will this bring? I had no one but myself to ask, so I did what I have always done. I responded. I live in a transparent world, you can see me, you can read my thoughts, if I write them, you can intuit meanings from my paintings and stories. Transparent, out in the open, everything good and bad, it’s all in these past 1025 blogposts. But, you can not touch me. You can see me, but there is a thin sheet of glass between us all really. No one can get inside, not unless they know the top secret password, handshake and have a plain white envelope full of something I might want to know or have. Or Came from my screaming womb, that’s a sure bet forever VIP pass, backstage even.

 

  She wanted to inform me of Family News.  These are people who have not been connected to me…well I’ll be 40 this year, the last time I had any real contact with them I was 26, and between 16 and 26 I had only brief contact at all.  I was written out and off. It was my own mouth, my own choices, my own need to not follow rules, my need to be seen and heard for myself…not an extension of them and their way of living/seeing life. OK, so there’s news…there’s two sides of that funky ass coin for sure. OH Shit.

***

“The Meaning You Give” is both a choice and All-Powerful and “The Meaning You Give” is the true reality of your life.  Therefore, the true reality of your life is what YOU decide it to be by “The Meaning You Give” each situation.

~

Laura Teresa Marquez

Source: Early Morning Conversation

***

OK, so I chose to dive in, why not, WTF…

We email…I get news. Dad is dead, I knew that one, because I “accidentally” saw the obit last August. No such thing as coincidence.

My GrandFather, My Real Father, is also gone. He died in December. They both died from Cancer that was quick and deadly. I loved that man, even though we lost our connection, when I think of happy “father” times, he’s the Man that gets that spot. Ouch. That one hurt (s).

My younger Brother, Michael has had a daughter. I am an Aunt. He is 7 years younger than I am. They named her Lilly and I LOVE her. I may never get to know her, or even see her face…but I LOVE HER. Just as I love my little brother who is now a grown man with a family of his own. Make no mistakes,  Our family is FUCKED UP. But as individuals we all have graces and goodness. Or I would not be who and what I am today. A grown up woman with a fulfilling career, a life mate, a mother of three sons, the oldest will be 20 soon. A human that reaches and reaches not knowing what I will grab. Just reaching. And trying my best to break every chain I was born with, given, and beaten with. I am a chain breaker, and I am not a coward.  I don’t need any stinking rules. I figure it out as I go.

OH Shit.

***

“We didn’t miss it. This is it. C’mon. You wanna go home?”

~Lorene Scarfaria

Source: Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist

***

I now have what I needed to create many works about unrequited love. Indeed. Nope, I do not feel anymore anxiety either. As soon as the twitter came to me, another voice out of the dark past, finding me here, in front of millions, billions of possible readers..you, in front of you. Finding me hiding right here, in the open…I felt the unknown anxiety go in a flood of detachment. I got news, somehow I knew was coming a week before I got it. And I also did something to get ready  for the overwhelming flood that was to come not three days after my rash choice to join things that are out of my control. (unrequited love theme, artists that indemidate me with their skill, but if you are going to hangout with people it might as well be people I admire and WANT to learn from and with) Doing Things I didn’t know squat about, exposing that to these other artists that I think so much of and wish I could do what they do…and also to the world, because it all comes out in some way, blog, or paint, or make music…you see how it’s all fitting together, right?

I was offered an opportunity to build a dam with the art challenge. I didn’t know what the theme was going to be and when I found out I was immediately set to the internal task to find it’s meaning for myself. In that time I got the news, the flood began and I was building my own life raft, while white water rafting. (it’s a specialized skill, I am good at getting fat from fire too) All during an ice storm, with two rebel yell children strapped to my hip, and at a shortage of everything I needed.

The unrequited love of my life may well be of my own flesh and blood and spirit. My family of birth, still my greatest wealth of inspirations for my works, my understanding of the world, the universe, my place in it all.  I have been gifted with a self awareness alarm (anxiety without cause) and a system of internally dealing with the familiar flood of personality and memory that comes from any contact to my past life. 

 I have something to do. I need meaning, give me some place to stand and I’ll own it all. I need something…That’s all I need, really. I need something to do or my body will go nuts.

I have a body but I am not my body. I have all these feelings, but I am not all these feelings. I have these desires, but I am not the desires. I have these thoughts, but I am not my thoughts.

OH Shit.

I’ll let you know what happens next. I have painting to do. Feelings to explore, music to listen too and more blogsto read…for the more I read the more I find my answers inside my own head. Thanks to all who freely write about their lives, many of you without ever getting to know, how you have helped me build this life raft…all out of nothing at all really, and yet everything that there really is.

“In Heaven you get it all back, In Heaven it all comes back.” ~Laurie Anderson

Best to all,

Heather

http /www.badkittyartstudio.com

Shop Local and Save your Own Freaking World

  Update on this post: Below is the painting I did finsih for this work, and I’ve been going strong over at the Artist Challenge now for months. I’ve gotten over my BAD! self and have given into learning and embracing what I do not know. It’s great. Hit the link and see the challenge site, all the terrific art and my progress, if you wish. Or hit this link ‘Unrequited Love: Loving Kathleen’ to read about this work. It is currently on sale over at my Etsy page, it’s on the web site too, just not at the sale prices.

Thanks for reading, I hope you all have a great weekend.

Heather

Loving Kathleen

oils

24″ x 18″

Original available for sale

New Art- Sign on the road less traveled

oils original art by HMBT 2009

 

‘Sign on the road less traveled’

24″ x 18″

oils

finished sides, ready to hang, needs no frame

Here is the quote that goes with the work:

“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult – once we truly understand and accept it – then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.” -M. Scott Peck

Of late I find that I am struggling a little bit, to make the connections in my mind that used to come so easy. The economy is basically making me focus on making money, not marketing, making and selling art. Let’s be honest, no one is buying art right now and that may not change for awhile looking at the reports. So, I have choices to make, do I hang it up? Do I just throw myself into my day job as a intuitive life coach in order to keep the bills paid? Do I give up making art so I can save money on the costs of making art? Well after much thought and some tears too, I have come to a conclusion. I don’t give up anything. I can’t give up art making, it would be like cutting off my own arm to lose weight. That’s just dumb. I work hard at my day job in order to feed and take of my family, sure that’s a no-brain-er. I may sleep a little less, I may eat a little less, I may make do with supplies and find a challenge in that, and all that is okay to do. What I must not do is let my circumstances dictate my actions. I have never had a year that sales were so bad, but that is not because my artwork is failing, it because no one has any money to spend. That is something I can not control. I wait it out, I keep calm, I carry on.

 I painted this simple little painting to remind myself and others that the end is not near. This is temporary,  it may last longer than I would like, but it is still temporary in the scheme of things. I’ve been full time as an artist for 11 years now, I can’t stop or walk away from my true calling or my passion, it would be easier to just stop breathing. This is my life, suffering allows a soul to grow and offers challenges for the spirit to overcome. This isn’t a problem, this is a challenge to grow, to explore, to innovate, and to learn a new form of endurance and faith in self.

I hope you like the painting, that would be nice. But you see, I have never painted for the now, or the people outside my studio. I paint for me and if you find resonance or something that fits your style and decor that’s the bonus of living out loud for me. That super, that’s great and I live for those connections I am privileged to make with my patrons; patrons that I can talk too, get to know and be inspired by. If I sold my work through the traditional gallery system I would lose that one to one connection and that would make me sad. I love knowing my patrons, I love the friendships and connections I get to make. You inspire me, yes, you. So, everyone far and wide, stay calm and carry on. This too shall pass.

A little background on the message. These words are taken from a WWII poster that I found. It was plastered all over Great Britain as the bombs fell everyday on the populace of London. The words were bold on a pink background. I thought it was perfect for the conditions we all face right now, around the globe.

So my friends, Keep Calm and Carry On, we will make it through this crisis and hopefully be better for it. Love, live,  laugh, and most of all stay true to yourselves.

Raw & Radiant,

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Support living artists, there is no unemployment or bailouts for the starving artists, & we like eating too.

Wait…do you smell that?

 

BAD! Kitty Art Studio

***

I get up this morning, cranky and stumbling down the hall,

carefully trying not to spill my coffee and drink it at the same time.

Super pooch is wiggling and blocking the hallway with his furry and very large self, very excited that his people are awake and… in his mind ready to lavish the dog with kisses and well deserved attention.

I sit down at the computer without wearing any of said coffee.

Meanwhile big furry beast is trying on his “I really am a lap dog” act and trying to talk me into letting his 100 pound self into my chair.

I sit down and ignore the dog.

Then the smell hits me…

“What the holy hell is that smell?!”

Mate man: “what smell?”

The kids come running from their rooms: “What smell?”

Me: “I smell poop! Can’t you smell it?”

Others in the house: “No…wait…yes!”

The search for the smell starts.

The whole population of the house fans out into

every corner looking for the pile that

the horrible smell is coming from.

The dog follows me from room to room,

obediently sniffing for said smell.

He is very helpful my dog.

No one can find the source of the smell.

The kids: “We can’t smell it anymore so it must have been a fart.”

Mate Man:” I don’t smell it anymore either.”

Me: “I am swimming in it ovaah here, what the bloody hell do you mean you can’t smell it? I can’t get away from it, it’s everywhere!”

The dog sits at my feet looking at my free hand waving around in the air…waiting for it to come into pet the dog range.

We all look at the dog.

He stands up.

The smell hits us like a hammer.

My dog never, ever has accidents in the house.

Ever.

His very furry back end is wiggling like mad.

It is also covered in the smell.

Me: “O.M.G.!!!”

The kids: “EEEWWW!”

Mate Man: “Shit!”

Everyone starts running in different directions, suddenly remembering a very important task somewhere far away from the dogs ass.

Thus starts the morning.

Memo now on fridge…

shave the dog, save the world.

Heather

www.badkittyartstudio.com

Daily Art-New Work- Name your Poison

‘Name your Poison’

8.5″ x 11.5″

Laminated paper collage

Will need a standard frame to display

Now available at the Artists Challenge site as a ACEO, limited edition only three to go around, now only 7 bucks! See  all the art HERE.

Also available (full size) on my web site in the art under 100 bucks gallery, check it out. (link to web site at the bottom of post too)

Here is the quote that helped the inspiration:

“People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.”

James Baldwin (1924 – 1987)

***

This work is paper on heavy card stock then laminated. I am working on a large canvas mixed media work, have been for a week or more now. I also was finally able to unpack all of the studio boxes full of the paper I hauled across the country. Gave up space in the trailer to make room for a few boxes of paper, vintage pictures, collected fine hand made paper, vintage magazines, snips of pictures, pages ripped out of books because I could only afford so much weight in the trailer for my enormous book collection. In sorting, and sorting I have been collage/mixed media crazy. It’s so fun to pull out the bags and tins that I carefully sorted and packed so many moons ago. This one small collage came from the sorting effort. I needed to create, had little time, and a small box of pr-cut images. The laminator got unpacked…and that’s all she wrote folks. It came together pretty quick and in the moment.

This work is a little about anger, a little about family life, a little about humanity, a little about not enough love, a little about fire in the belly, a little about fear, a little about personal power…a little about me.

I love collage and mixed media for the effect that it has on my brain. I can’t think beyond does this fit? Is that right? Is this what I want to say? Ohhh, can I fit that in? I love it.

I hope everyone is enjoying their day in the world today,

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

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A new BAD! Kitty Art Video & I did it all by myself

So, I have not figured out how to add music yet, but I did manage this little video all by myself. I am so proud.

I hope you enjoy, let me know what you think, or if you can add advice to make my mini movies better, I’d appreciate the feedback.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com