An Update on the Art for Animals Project

Why is this lady smiling and is that my hand holding a painting of Bingo?

Click on over to my other blog to find the answers and read other stories that will make you go, "ahhhh....".

An Eye Witness Case Study

This is  not necessarily a composite success but an answer to a question I received recently about eye witnesses.  It's true that some eye witness accounts can be skewed and unrelieable but there are many things to help people lock in a memory.

I was asked to work with a victim who had been attacked.  She was living in an apartment alone and was probably being cased by a sexual predator.

He had taken off the screen windows of her apartment and forced open a sliding window.  He confronted her while she lay in bed and commanded her to "Shut up and roll over."  while he brandished a crowbar.  She screamed where upon he hit her on the head with the crowbar and fled after doing so.

The detective on the case had got leads on a possible suspect and arranged for the victim to look at a photo line-up.  This included a photo of the suspect that was on file from a mug shot taken  a month after the incident.  She was not able to pick him out of the line-up.

The detective, undaunted found out there was an earlier booking photo of the suspect closer to the time of the incident.   A month of starchy jail food had not been able to have their affect on his facial features yet.   

He showed a line-up of photos with this image and she was able to pick him out from the group of six photos and then later was able to do the same with a stand-up line-up in jail.  

A detective's perseverence was able to convict this suspect and give the victim a little peace of mind.

I don't know how I would be able to remember a face in the middle of the night, awakened from sleep, in the dark with someone ordering me with the threat of a crowbar but I think she did pretty well remembering his thin eye brows, average nose and prominent chin.  His eyes are a little bigger in the composite probably because of his state of excitement during the incident.  

DSFDF Challenge

So I was showing my 11 year old daughter the Different Strokes from Different Folks blog.

She told me she wanted to participate.

I think her multimedia 10x8 painting turned out so much more interesting than my 6x8 oil on canvas board.... *sigh*  [okay I'm just a tad proud too. ;o)]

First Pet Depot Commission

So I've let you know every step of my trying to make this art thing a new career.  Here's my first commission through the Pet Supply Store.

The customer read an email from the store and brought her daughter and several photos of the pooches she wanted a painting of.  These dogs [Rocky the Bichon and Louie the Dachshund] were her husband's babies.  She wanted to give him a painting for his birthday on April 4.

She had seen the sample of the Bichon I had displayed at the store and liked the style.

So you see one of three photos she had for me already bless her heart.  The other two were a photo of Rocky without his fluffy fur in his eyes and a closer photo of Louie.  I asked what color background she wanted and she said she really like the blue in my sample.  I told her I would send her a jpeg to make sure I was going in the right direction and another jpeg for the final painting.

I sent her the first image of the painting to make sure the composition was okay.  I sent it a day after we met and she said she thought I was almost finished because she thought I had already captured their personality.

I was unhappy with all that space on the left of Louie so I thought I would break it up with grass and because the customer and her daughter were obviously the masterminds on this I called and asked if it was okay if I painted ladybugs to represent them.  I also asked what kind of toys Rocky and Louie liked to play with so I could fill in some of the open spaces.

They sent me photos through the email of Rocky's lamb, Louie's ball and a toy they played tug-a-war with.  They also asked if I would paint bumble bees to indicate here husband and her son.

The first rendition had bumble bees hovering over Louie's head.  If anyone remembers the Saturday Night Live skit with John Belushi as a rebel bumblebee you would know how silly they looked.  Of course they were not happy with this and I changed it to the final rendition that they were satisfied with.  

I'm sure I brought on most of these snags on myself.  Any advice from seasoned commission artists is truly appreciated.

11x14 oil on gallery wrapped canvas

Helping Fight Hunger

My fellow Bay Arean Chris Beck featured this project on her blog.

Bread Art Project is a joint venture between the Grain Foods Foundation and Feeding America.

Got to the website and have fun either by toasting art onto a slice of bread or making a bit of animation if you're patient enough to do so.

For every slice of bread art saved into their bread art gallery, Grain Foods Foundation will donate a dollar to the Feeding America organization!  This is my second slice I've submitted.  As of last night, there were just over 980 submissions.   I know just my blogger friends can get that over $1,000 in a couple of days.

It's fun, it's for a good cause, doesn't cost you a penny but helps feed hungry families all over OUR country.   Hugs....

You folks are too too sweet.

I'm extremely honored to accepted this wonderful Award from an artist I love and admire.   

Arthur Simo is a very talented young man with one of the most creative minds and the artisitic skill to share his stories and visions in drawings.  Please visit his site and I hope you enjoy and join in the adventures he takes us on during his magical trips through fantastic lands.

This time, I will list the seven things I love and then think about the seven other artists I would like to tag with this lovely award.

1. I love life even though it gives me curve balls and potholes along the journey.  I just makes me appreciate the sunshine and grassy meadows all the more.

2.  I love kissing my kids and tucking them in bed at night.  I know there are only a precious few years left to be able to do this.

3. I love that every day is an opportunity to make my life, my community , my world a better place.   I don't always accomplish anything significant but I feel by looking outside of myself does help me in the end.

4. I love making friends and seeing all the beautiful art, writing and causes my fellow bloggers create.   With this web thing,  it boggles my mind that I get to interact with people in my Bay Area and South Africa!

5. I love to bake and cook.  I think it's another creative outlet that I can enjoy with all my senses.

6. I love to love.  Even when your heart gets broken, it heals with time and maybe grows a little stronger. Maybe when things settle down a little more in my life, I will find that special someone who will want to spend a little time with me as we journey on the adventure called life!

7.  I love still being able to  be in awe of  the simple things in life.  A sunset, a bird that visits my yard, the way the clouds hug the hillside and all the other wonderful and fantastic things that are out there if we take the time to look.

Hugs to all  [I love hugs too, can you tell?]

Tiny commission

My 11 year old saw that I received a couple of samples when I ordered ArtBoard for the first time.  ArtBoard gave me four 2"x3" boards with different finishes [gesso, oil primed linen, Arches Hot Press and Acrylic primed cotton]

She took one of the samples and asked if I would paint something for her.  She didn't know the name of the flower but after describing it and looking for it on Google images, we confirmed it was a calla lily.  She was very explicit about describing the color background, the certain lily image she wanted the bloom in and how she wanted the stem to gently bend to the right.  I suggested one composition and she shook her head vigorously  "no".  This young lady knows exactly what she wanted.  

I painted this lily and when I asked if this is what she wanted.  She studied the painting for a few moments and then asked, "why is this purple?"  pointing at the shadow at the top of the bloom.  I explained I wanted to show the shadow and thought the dark purple would be good for this.  She thought about it and then indicated she was satisfied with the painting.  I'm grateful this young lady knows exactly what she wants and is determined not to settle for anything less. I'm also grateful this painting was not any bigger than a couple of inches.  I just pity the boyfriends she'll be involved with in the [hopefully far] future.

oil on 2x3 inch oil primed linen on ArtBoard