Last day to register for 21 Secrets!!!

Don’t forget tomorrow (December 1st) is the LAST day to resister for the super awesome online journaling class 21 Secrets!!!! 21 classes for the price of 1! Here’s what just a few of my students are saying about my class:

“LOVE your workshop, Sarah!!!” –Maria S.

“loved all your tips, you put together a great class with wonderful pdf file. thank you so very much… that one tip was probably worth the class fee!” –Morning D.

“Sarah,
Thank you so much for this class. I love, love it. I travel to my daughters a lot and sometimes have 2 hrs between flights. I take too much. This class has given me the best information and techniques that I have found so far. The pictures in your journal are awesome and I just love them. Thanks again for being a part of 21 Secrets and I am having a wonderful time.” -Sharon C.

“Hi Sarah, I just loved your video and your idea's…Thanks, like most of the girls who commented, I think this particular tip was more than worth the class fee.” –Ruth M.

“Many thanks for these great videos, a wonderful introduction to this amazing series of workshops!” –Deborah P.

“Sarah, I have just finished your workshop and it was awesome. Thanks so much.” –Susan H.

“This workshop was worth the price of admission, Sarah! What fabulous tips!” –Effy W.

“Sarah, Love this class! I am really excited to put together my travel art kit, this is perfect!”- Penney K.

“Hi, I just finished watching your videos and printing off the pdf. You've shared some great ideas and given me some great inspiration…Thank you so much for teaching this workshop! :)” –Sharon P.

Join us!

http://sarahwhitmire.blogspot.com/2010/09/21-secrets-21-classes-21-artists-for.html


XO

Sarah

A Tweet a Day is retiring.

Hi guys,

As most of you know, over the past year I have been doing "a tweet a day" Soul Journaling prompt via Twitter. I have so loved seeing your pages inspired by these tweets and hearing how you have enjoyed them. Lately it has been harder for me to keep up, and as we have more than 365 days of journaling ideas, I think it's time to finally retire the daily tweets. My Soul Journaling Yahoo Group moderator Toni and I have been working on archiving all of the past year's prompts and are posting them in the "files" section of our group. There are several months worth of prompts there already. So if you are a member of our group or would like to be a member of our group those will always be there for you. You can join by going here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SoulJournaling/

I will continue to post journaling prompts from time to time and give you updates on my online classes and daily adventures via twitter. Only now it won't be a daily thing. Thank you so much for your understanding.

And a huge thank you to everyone who participated in this project and made it such a success! :) See you soon!

XO

Sarah

back at Jumbo's


I have completely painted and re-painted this one 4 times now but I finally feel happy with it. I liked the composition from the start so the search was mainly for the color. I want to go back to the place and see how the painting feels versus actually being there again. Maybe try sketching from a different part of the room. I took it to class today and one of the models recognized it as Jumbo's so it does have a specific likeness to the place to go along with all the crazy paint strokes! That was what I wanted to keep the most, the energetic application of paint and strong color. acrylic on canvas, 24 by 48

Street Painting Live, Via Colori Houston

Check out www.livestreetpainting.com this Sunday for the Via Colori 'Art of Sound' Collaborative project. We are working hard to complete it by mid day November 21st.



THE ART OF SOUND

At 1,800 square feet, it will take a team of eight artists three
days to complete the crown jewel of this year's Houston Via Colori,
The Street Painting Festival. The Center for Hearing and Speech is
celebrating the event's fifth anniversary by featuring a collaborative
mural, The Art of Sound, on the back courtyard of the Downtown Houston
Public Library.

Via Colori's 2009's featured artist, Melanie Stimmell Van Latum, has
returned to contribute her artistic talent to the design of the record-
breaking mural. The largest street painting mural ever produced in the
United States, The Art of Sound was created to illustrate a hearing-
impaired child's journey to sound.

Artistic Director
Melanie Stimmell Van Latum

Panel Artists
Genna Panzarella, Lysa Ashley, Anat Ronen, Jessica Bennett, Lilibeth Andre,
Iris Vanessa De la Cruz.

Border Team Artists
KIPP Houston lead by Rebekah Tee

In Honor of National Stand Up to Bullies Day---Two Stories






      The first is a simpler story of the playground in elementary school. It is a tale of triumph. The second can 
can be found in the last photo, if you click on it to enlarge. It is from my book published for my exhibition in 2004, Insomnia (Awakening), about human on human cruelty. This story as well, 
 although a story of greater terror and longer term consequences, has in it an element of triumph, in that certain intentions were thwarted.

          A word about the text on the page of the book: I wrote the first draft of all text in the book in pencil. I wrote second drafts in ball-point pen. Third drafts were written with black sharpies. I then typed several drafts on transparent paper on an old typewriter. It was a first book, with myself as editor, and no computer. I read from the book at poetry open mics in the year following it's publication by Meridian PressWorks, a limited edition of 100 in color, 100 in black and white. Each page of text is accompanied by a photo of my art work. As I read aloud to the public in that year each time (five times I was feature reader) I used the same copy to read from, each time I edited further. It was a first stab at writing for me, and was intended at first as a catalog for the show.  How I wish I had not been in such a hurry to publish; while the text itself is art, clearly further editing was needed. Even with this blog I have the luxury of amending again and again, and I do.

            When I was nine, I had a classmate named Mary Ellen Weingarten (not her real name). She made fun of the "clodhoppers" I wore to school--- practical, all white oxfords---saddle shoes without the saddle, far from the fashion of the day. I had no choice, these were the shoes my mother chose for me. Mary Ellen was twice my height. I was the better athlete, small but wiry, and I was very fast. One day while the class played in a softball game, I was able to hit a few home runs, and  I was able to tag several members of the opposite team on which Mary Ellen played with the ball, before they got to various bases. I tagged Mary Ellen for the second time before she got to first base. She lost her temper. She ran at me, grabbed my hands fast and hard, interlaced her fingers in mine, and before I could protest, my fingers were being bent back, torturously slow. I thought my fingers would break. I was in pain.

      I bent my right leg at the knee, raising it and my leg as high as I could behind me. With all the desperate furious adrenaline fueled strength of my tiny but fierce little body I could call forth. I let her have it with the full force of my clodhopper clad foot: a lightening fast kick aimed and landed square in the center of her bare shin (we all wore dresses to school back then).

           Soon enough I was being called into the principal's office. Mary Ellen was in there with Mr. Reid. She was crying, a huge red welt obvious on her shin. He looked at me sternly, inquired if I had done this to poor little giant Mary Ellen. One arm's elbow akimbo, teapot style, other hand gesticulating my sense of justice, I explained the situation in no uncertain terms to Mr. Reid. His jaw dropped to witness such articulate power in a very small girl. He dismissed us both, no punishment to either meted out. My first political battle won, I had successfully stood up to two bullies in one day!

          While you may notice I used no actual names in this story, except for the name of the principal, it is a testament to the terror that is still in me over the Insomnia story, that although I know the names, they are not used. That is the triumph of the even greater brutality that that narrative portrays. In some measure, there is always some degree of silence. The best and only way to fight sometimes is to break the silence.




vista hermosa park




I went out yesterday with fellow plein air painter Jose de Juan for some plein air at a favorite spot of mine, Vista Hermosa Park. It could not have been a more perfect day for a perfect view. Here's my stab at it, a 30 by 24 oil on canvas.

adventures in web traffic


wow! I am a fan of Max Keiser, I think he's funny and right on about the present global economic disaster we are in. I once heard him use the term 'suicide banker' and for fun I quickly made a satirical humorous image inspired by this and sent it to him, it's Lloyd Blankfein as a crazed economic terrorist. He liked it and posted a link on his site of our exchange and I'm getting hits from all over the place. so welcome! buy silver and buy art! ahahah! I'm a perfect "buy low/sell high" opportunity because I am still as yet "undiscovered", I have a proven track record of consistent painting output of high quality and imagination, a great exhibition history, lots of stories and yet since the light of the 'art world' has not yet shone upon me, prices are very affordable! it's all for sale, make me an offer. :)

Live 3D Street Painting at University of Arizona!

Catch me here...10am -6pm all 3 days.



This exhibition explores the basic math and design principles that artists have utilized for centuries. It is designed to help the layperson develop a vocabulary to approach unfamiliar works of art. By learning about the basic elements of art and seeing how the application of these elements enhances a work of art, the visitor will be able to recognize these principles and perhaps have some insight into art that otherwise seems incomprehensible.

The exhibition starts with line, space, shape, and value -- and then moves on to more complicated principles such as time, balance, movement, perspective, golden ratios, tessellations, fractals, color and optics. Illustrative examples from the UAMA's own collection make these concepts come alive. Along the way, visitors will experience spinning a color wheel, drawing with a camera obscura, watching colors separate into different depths with Chromadepth © glasses, and learning how light affects the color of an object.
On opening weekend (November 12-14), the maestra Madonnara (street artist) Melanie Stimmell will create a 3-d anamorphic work in extreme perspective on the Museum floor that will remain on view throughout the exhibition.

monkey


I've been working on an image for my friend Nick Griffin's next comedy cd titled Bring Out the Monkey. This is a real multi-media piece, and it was fun to make! I wanted the image to walk a line between cute and crazy, right and wrong, for the monkey to be a haphazard tumble of brushstrokes defined and sort of compressed by the contour. I'm pleased with the result! By the way if you click Nick's link you'll see a portrait I did for him a little while back.

Street Painting In-Flight

So, this post is long overdue. I've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to blog but I figure it'd be nice to have it online regardless of how late. Continental In-Flight Magazine interviewed me for their October 2010 issue. I have full page article and photo in their 'Advance' section.
They sent a wonderful photographer named Lisa Wyatt to my house and she took some great shots of me on the asphalt and in studio.



The Article also talks about the upcoming Via Colori street painting festival in Houston, TX for which I will have designed an XL Collaborative piece titled the Art of Sound. The 30 x 60 foot painting will illustrate a child's first moments of experiencing sound & will be painted by a team of 8 artists, including myself, Genna Panzarella, Lysa Ashley, and 5 female artists from the Houston area.

Part of my proposal for this project included the collaboration between children as well as professional artists. So, the Art of Sound will be finished with a beautiful border designed and painted by young artists from KIPP, Houston.

Stay tuned for an update in the next day or so....Something cool will be happening!!!

Jumbo's Clown Room


I was live painting at Hangar 1018 on Friday where there was a costume party with music, dancing, painting good times and I used the energy of the event as an excuse to block in a painting based on my composition from Jumbos. The costumes were awesome, people really got into it, (I was a zombie Bob Ross) the music was great and it was fun to dance and paint! I used acrylic which I've really gotten into lately, but I use them like I use oils alla prima so you can't really tell the difference, which is nice because I can make a seamless transition to oils when I want! The speed of the acrylic drying makes experimenting with glazes and transparent paint fun too. There's a little more "stuff" to bring with acrylic, but it's kinda worth it. with this painting at this stage I'm most interested in getting the canvas covered and establishing the overall "grand scheme" value structure so everything is "approximately right on" which you can see when comparing the first digital sketch and the painting so far. From my first sketch, I could go and get models, pose people in just the right place and angle and eyeline, take photos and reference shots for the figures and details in the composition and head in the direction of painting ever more realistically... but I feel like who cares? How is that going to make it better? I like a certain amount of 'rightness', especially in the feeling of light, and I absolutely love to paint/draw/compose from life, but I just can't give up my love for and pursuit of physical expression through paint and painterliness itself. This seems to condemn me to a life of broke fascination! hahahaha! Here's the painting at the moment, 24 by 48

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