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Church emergency?

12/22/2022 4:54:51 PM

Church Emergency!! (ok, not really, but will you humor me?)

Would I paint an angel? Pastor Travis would be teaching about angels this Christmas season. Wouldn’t it be cool to have an angel at church to go with his teaching?? This is the e-mail that I got from Julie one day.

As soon as I read her email, I was nervous. Seriously? I generally paint SMALL. I LOVE big paintings, but it’s not my usual mode of operation. BUT, the DRAMA… Instantly, my brain’s gears started cranking because that’s what they do. Lol

Julie and the rest of my church family would probably chime in right about now and remind me of the murals that I’ve painted, but SERIOUSLY, they weren’t in a realistic style, ok?

What could I do? My brain went bananas trying to figure out what I might do because OF COURSE I am going to put all my energy toward making this happen. Might not be able to pull it off, but I’D TRY.

AND, we’re thinking that this angel needs to be life-sized… How long will this baby take me? 6ft x 4 ft = 48”x72” = …. It could take me several months. YIKES!

This, of course, doesn’t stop me from grabbing my husband Army Strong and rummaging like a band of raccoons in our church’s basement.

--> insert dark and claustrophobic picture here<--

I was looking for plywood – I love LOVE painting on wood panel. Could I find a big piece to paint an angel on? I did, but it was HEAVY. No way that this would be practical. BETTER would be the huge sheet of Styrofoam insulation that we found down there. YES, I did. LOL

Army Strong was able to drag that sheet up the stairs and into the bed of his truck. Dragged it home, figuratively speaking, and down the stairs to our basement. And there it sat … what was I going to do??

MAX out this sheet of insulation!! It was 8 feet tall, so the angel would be…. 8 feet tall!!!! YES. (I am a Drama Queen!).

Quickly, I grabbed some chalk and went to work. Large and in charge! Then paint – going white with some gold cut a LOT of stress and decisions and time for me. Thankfully, Pastor Travis was NOT phased at all by my artistic license.

It was a little odd seeing this angel behind Mary and Joseph at church. Realistically, I thought he would be on his own. Ah, well. That’s what makes life interesting!

Do you ever leap before you look?

12/15/2022 6:54:23 AM

o you ever leap before you look? à I like to push myself with my art. It keeps things interesting.

When I stopped into 200 Main Art & Wine to drop off artwork a few weeks ago, Sean suggested wine-inspired art. The sparkle in his eyes showed me he was excited. NOT one to just ‘jump in’, I told him I was interested…. And left to go see the Eau Claire Public Library’s art exhibit. Lol.

Aaaand the entire drive down there, I thought – wine-inspired is okay, but I want it to be Sean’s wine – wine that he’s hand-selected from his collection. It needs to be SPECIAL.

I drove back down to 200 Main and explained myself to Sean. Yes! He loved the idea and loaded me up with all sorts of wine and corks.

The glitch? I don’t drink wine. HENCE – I have no way to open the bottles of wine. XO THAT is what I had to explain to my neighbor Susie when I got home and couldn’t open anything. Susie showed me an electric bottle opener that demonstrated that she DOES drink wine. Ha! – gotta love a good neighbor to help out in a pinch.

TONS of photographs later – and I had to toss most of them. The lighting was horrid. I didn’t have the skills with my camera yet, so that was an issue. BUT --  there were a few gems. Gorgeous pieces that I just hoped I could paint in a way that made them outstanding.