Turns out stairs are really hard to do. Somewhere between the beginning of a step and the end of the step I get lost.
Anyway, here is today’s offering. I went back to doors and windows cause I couldn’t find my cloud photos. I will find them however.
It was a strange day today. The sea and sky were both grey, no wind, totally still. And kinda warm too. Strange but also nice. Lainee and I had a short walk on the beach and I collected a ton of sea glass. More than on any other single walk. All the waves lately have obviously brought it out.
Lainee is once again having bursts of diarrhea. One night she woke me up 5 times to go out… that was after I gave her leftover rice from the chicken korma I made. I didn’t give her any korma itself, but she licked the plate and that might have caused it. I don’t know. She’d never been so sensitive before. She used to be able to eat anything I gave her without any trouble.
She is better again now, but it looks like its gastrointestinal dry food for the foreseeable future. Poor Lainee. And poor me. Ugh.
I’ve always loved the idea of painting clouds, but had never tried it.
So today I thought it was time to give it a go.
This is how this painting started:
And this, of course, is it finished:
I am actually quite pleased with it.
I even started searching for other photos I’ve taken of cloudy skies but couldn’t find them. Hopefully I’ll find them tomorrow so I can try another one.
Its been a really busy day, and a very frustrating one at that.
I hate technology… I’m one of those people who hate getting a new phone/computer etc cause I have to set it up.
Computers and smart phones are meant to make our life easier, but things keep changing and every update and upgrade seems to make things more complicated.
It might be my age speaking here, but I remember this being an issue when I was much younger and working as a graphic designer. You’d just get used to a program and they’d upgrade it and things which worked fine didn’t work any more, things got moved to different places, new things (which were usually good) appeared and you had to re-learn everything again.
Or they stopped making a program you knew off by heart and you had to learn a new one.
I kept up. I did my job. Then.
Now, it seems every time my computer or phone runs an update things are different. Facebook keeps changing. And everything is somehow connected – which you’d THINK would make life easier, but it doesn’t.
Today I spent time trying to set up a Facebook/Instagram shop.
Its not the first time I’ve tried. I’ve spent hours on this in the last year or two. I did set up my Junk4Joy page as a shop initially but never did anything with it, then they changed their shops and added Meta and now its so much more complicated.
People keep saying ‘read this’ or ‘here’s a link’ etc. I’ve done all that. I’ve read stuff, I’ve watched Youtube videos. They’ll say ‘click on xxx and then select xxx’ etc but nothing on my computer, in the app or on my browser, is in the same place where theirs is!!! Even the wording is different sometimes.
Please tell me I’m not crazy.
All I want to do is streamline my FB accounts/pages, match up my Instagram account names, and have a shop where I can sell my stuff. Is that too much to ask?
Maybe I should just go open a Shopify shop, pay for it, maybe they’ll make more sense.
Mind you, that doesn’t solve my different accounts.
I need a fairy god-IT-person. Or a 10 year old.
Whatever.
I’m tired.
What I did manage to do today was close my Etsy shop for good. It did well when I first opened it, but kinda died.
Even that was a nightmare. In order to close the shop I had to first pay the AU$1.98 I owed them. Which I tried to do using Paypal… But Paypal won’t let me log in without sending a text to a phone I haven’t had since leaving Australia. There is no other way to log in. I can answer my security questions, which I did, but then they want to send me a text to the old phone and they don’t even give you the option to say “Hey dudes! I no longer have that phone so I can’t receive any texts! Is there another way, like, say, for instance… send me an email?”
No. That would make too much sense.
And unless I want to call Australia, I can’t get in touch with them. There is no ‘chat’ on their site and no way to email them with a problem. I can do a search for an answer in ‘the community’ but I can’t ask a question without logging in!
Can you say ‘vicious circle’?
I managed to close the shop by adding a new credit card to my account. How does that make sense?
I still have my CafePress shop, but I’ve barely added anything new to it in years, so its barely selling. I should close that too, but eh, it doesn’t cost me anything since they’re a print on demand company.
Remember when I wondered how you can be an artist and have an online shop/commerce site and manage all the posts and ads etc? Well… this is where I’m at. About ready to give up.
I swear, if Greece allowed street markets, I’d just sell my stuff at a stall. But there are no street markets in Greece. Only the farmer markets (laiki) in the cities and those are not for art and craft and handmade items.
Its been a busy, social day today. Lunch with friends and meeting new people. A great way to spend a Sunday.
On the art front, its more dilapidated and abandoned buildings, boarded up windows and remnants of lives lived in in the house, with the clothesline still in place.
I’ve begun to use photos I’ve taken of old doors, windows and buildings on Paros as my inspiration for these small paintings now. I’ve been taking photos like these for years, may as well do more than just save them.
Soon I’ll be able to share some photos of my childhood too! A good friend of mine is scanning dad’s slides and I’m seeing photos dad took for the first time. Dad didn’t print out many of his slides, only those he chose to print so he could send them to relatives in Greece, so most of my childhood was recorded on slides I’ve never seen.
I had a slideshow/preview today and I’m excited!!
All up dad left about 1000 slides. I sorted through them while in Athens last and I tossed out a ton dad had bought of buildings in places in Asia he’d visited – they were just postcard type slides. And others which were landscapes in Australia which meant nothing to me, no identifying features. But I’m slowly going to get the rest scanned and sorted and put into some printed photo books. That way I’ll have a book to share with mom and other family.
It’s all very well to have everything in digital form, but sometimes you like to look through albums… However, I much prefer photobooks.
During COVID I put together some photobooks, one for each year pretty since the books I’d made in Australia, from photos I had on my computer. I still have to do 2020-22 … and of course now I’ll have to do the early years in Australia.
Probably the early years of mom and dad from before they met too. And our early years in Greece…
So much to do!!! And they’re not cheap. But I think its worth doing, just one at a time.
A lot darker than my usual stuff, but I love the way this turned out. It reminds me of a charcoal drawing I did at art school – the assignment was to paint light. I painted a dark room with sun streaming in a window. I’m not sure where that is now, but it hung in my house every time I moved till I came to Greece.
This piece is once more on the smaller matboard pieces my friend Antigone gave me (offcuts from her framing shop). I like the slight texture of these boards, not as rough as the canvas paper I used yesterday. And the small size means its easy to do in a day. Larger pieces, like the one on my easel currently, need a lot of time spent on them so they’re more a long-term project.
Today I woke up feeling like painting, which was great, so I took advantage of that getting straight into it after my morning coffee.
The original plan had been to deal with the basement store room in the morning – otherwise known as ‘the rat house’ – but I painted first!
My next door neighbour and I had got the local handyman to clean our store rooms and fill all the holes the critters were getting in through. He did a great job. He moved everything out of our units, sealed all the holes, put mesh on the louvre part of the doors, and swept and even mopped using bleach.
Needless to say, the broom, mop and bucket he used are being put in the bin and will never see the inside of my house again.
Today we went down donned in rubber gloves and masks to tackle our stuff. Some was put straight in the bin. Other stuff had to be re-wrapped cause the old bags were covered the rat and mouse crap. Everything was washed down with bleach and put back in neatly.
Its not so scary going down there now. I mean, its still damp, being underground, and I hate putting things in storage there, but at least they’re no longer covered in poop. Eww. Even the smell is much improved.
Now I think I may even store stuff down there and visit a bit more often to keep an eye on the rodent situation. If I see so much as a tiny hole being gnawed into a pipe or wall I’ll get onto it immediately.
They’ll still get in, I’m sure, but hopefully our store rooms are no longer superhighways in and out of the place.
I really had no inspiration today and had to force myself to sit down and paint. Took me ages to decide what to paint, and in the end I went with another window.
Its not totally finished yet, but the paint needs to dry. I layered it on quite thick this time… I figured you’d forgive me for posting an unfinished piece… at least I did something! I was so tempted to just give up.
This piece a wider than the first ones I began the month with, but approximately the same height. So not very big. And its on canvas paper instead of board.
That’s about it for today. I’m very uninspired. More tomorrow. I hope I get my mojo back.
The last of the little squares… and on to other things tomorrow. I wonder what they will be…
I decided to do eyes again today, knowing my cousin will likely want them for her studio apartments. I mean, why not?
Sorry about the photos. Most of the time I’m working late in the afternoon and taking photos on the stove with under-cabinet lighting, hence the reflections. Not ideal photography conditions.
I’ll try to do better.
I was a busy beaver today – firstly I had a grumpy, bitey dog to groom and managed to do it without an anesthetic (which apparently the vet they took her to last time they had her done did…). Not sure if its good or bad that I’ve got a reputation of being able to handle naughty dogs…*
(*a topic for another day)
Then I visited a friend and we made a carrot cake together. Yum.
I re-did the rock I’d painted and dropped and smeared. Nothing too exciting. Another stylized eye. I have no photo of that yet.
I also started framing. I started with two bought frames to see how they would go. I’ll photograph those tomorrow in better light.
Now it’s time to get ready for quiz night, so I’m off again.
No rest for the wicked. Or even the slightly naughty.
Mid-way through the month. Time sure is flying by.
I wonder what I’ll do when the month is over? Will I continue to paint on a daily basis or will I get lazy and let life, work and responsibilities take over as they invariably do?
I read an interesting article today about that very thing. It was about taking cold showers and the benefit of them, but the main point of it was about forming a habit (which everyone says takes 30 days) and then maintaining it. The big thing is maintaining it. The woman writing the article said that it was easy enough to form the habit, and she was able to stick with it for a year, but then it became harder. She wrote that willpower and habit will only take you so far. You need something more to keep a habit going.
That something is the feeling you get from the habit.
By concentrating on that, there is no need to rely on willpower or force to continue. It’s something you want/need to do.
Sort of like drinking coffee in the morning.
I remember that’s how I felt years ago when I became addicted to the gym. I was like so many people, going through the motions 3-4 times a week, working on a program written for me by some gym instructor, getting nowhere.
One day a new instructor was taking me through my new 3-month program and he stopped halfway and said, ‘This program is doing nothing for you. What do you want to achieve?’
I said what we all say: ‘I want to firm up and lose some weight.’
He said my program was simply maintaining me pretty much where I was. What did I REALLY want?
So I pointed to a poster on the wall of a woman who was feminine but muscley and said, ‘I want to look like that.’
He looked me up and down and said, ‘You can do it but it will be hard work.’
I said, ‘I’ll do it, but I warn you, if I don’t see results in a month, I’ll get bored and stop’.
Well, I saw results. Huge results in a month on his program which involved me going to the gym 6 days a week. It was hard work, but I loved it. In fact, after a month I was addicted to it cause I felt so good. I craved the feeling of sweating. And the gym became a big part of my life.
… Oh boy I wish I could l get back there again. It really was a great feeling. I did for a few months before I left Tasmania to come to Greece. The secret (for me) was to find the right gym. One where I felt comfortable, challenged and liked the people.
Anyway, this post was meant to be about art… and it is.
I love the feeling I get when I’m creative. Sometimes I become frustrated when something isn’t working for me, but when it is and I finish something, it feels great.
I love the feeling of achievement, and even more I love the feeling of wonder at the things I create sometimes… its almost hard to believe they came out of my hands.
That feeling is worth sticking with it for.
So here is today’s art – I was bored of flowers, so here are some vegetables. Red ones!
I love the vibrancy of these images and I wanted to keep them sort of limited in their colour scheme. But I added a splash of yellow and green for the pop. I think it worked.
One more square frame and 4 more pre-cut small cardboard squares to go!
Yes, you are seeing the same thing I posted yesterday, but with one addition.
Turns out I couldn’t find a ready-made frame to fit 3 little paintings, so I bought these square frames which fit 4 of them!
I chose to paint an orange flower to finish off the set, on a purple background. That way they’re all connected by colour.
I may have to paint the frames black, but I like the light wood. We’ll see on that.
I haven’t chosen the correct layout for them yet either, but I painted the cardboard edges black and got some black card stock to mount them on when I frame them. They really pop on black. I’ll share photos of the finished product when its ready.
Meanwhile, the wind continues and the weather doesn’t encourage too much time outdoors. When the sun comes out its beautiful but windy. When the sun disappears, as it has all throughout the day, being chased by clouds, its chilly. Eh. Its March. Traditionally a windy month on a windy island in a group of windy islands.
Not a skerick of progress has been made on an online shop. I think I need to get up and sit at the computer and focus on that alone for 2 or 10 hours or so… Sometimes I really hate all this online stuff. It’s very necessary, but it takes up so much time! Just maintaining an online presence (for grooming as well as my art) is so time consuming, and I know I don’t do close to enough.
How do people do it? Manage to run an online business and still be creative?
Today the wind outside my front door is so strong I thought it would take Lainee all the way to Naxos soon as I opened the front door.
Luckily, I had her on a lead!
Anyway, thought I’d try something a bit different today.
Having spent yesterday morning cleaning up the outside areas of my little palace, I decided it was time to pay some attention to the inside. (That’s not the something different I mentioned above, though the way things have been going lately, it is rather a new thing for me…).
I finally unpacked my suitcase and sorted the mess off my kitchen table/desk. Basically, I moved most of it to the kitchen counter, but I did actually sort out a few things into a ‘I’ll never use these box’ to get rid of/give away. The idea is that I’ll go through every corner of my house, sorting and tidying as I go. Slowly. Like one day at a time…
I also varnished the two trays I’d finished before going to Athens, so they’re ready to sell if I ever when get some kind of online shop happening.
As I went through some drawers I found these little squares of very stiff cardboard I’d cut up for a project long ago and decided to use them to create tiny paintings that could be grouped together.
They’re okay, though the brilliance of the pink just doesn’t come through… I don’t have that colour in my palette. And flowers really aren’t my thing. Still, they’re sort of fun and cheerful. In a small frame, they’ll probably brighten up someone’s kitchen or hallway.
I think I’ll try something different next. In the fauna category rather the flora one. Or maybe food. I like food…
Now I gotta find a frame to put them in… hm… I’ll have a look online otherwise I’ll have to make something myself. When the weather is better. I’ll get blown away out there right now. Its already knocked over plants I tidied up yesterday.
Yeah, yeah. Too much socializing is bad for this daily art thing.
Today I had a great day. I spent all morning, a gloriously sunny morning, doing what passes as yard/garden work in my tiny little place which has no dirt, just pots.
I trimmed off dead bits on plants, moved plants to different spots so I could clean behind them, and killed a ton of snails which have been chewing on my plants and am now facing being doomed to the fires of hell for all eternity. I did manage to save a whole lot of earthworms, however, by relocating them so hopefully managed to balance my karma somewhat.
I gathered three big rubbish bags of pine needles, dried up olives and other debris which falls onto my patio and tiny courtyard from surrounding trees. And I took a few cuttings off a fig tree on the hill behind me which has amazing figs… I hope at least one of them takes.
Then I went for a drive around Paros with my cousin Katerina and visted a few beaches she’s never been to, walked Lainee on the sand, and ended up in Alyki for lunch. Alyki is/was a fishing village so is famous for its tavernas and sea food. Everyone was there today. Every single person who lives on Paros was there for lunch. Not a table to be had at the ‘better known’ tavernas, but we ended up having a very nice meal in a quiet little place at the end of the road.
So, a lovely,, though pretty much unproductive, day.
My cousin has asked me to make her a stone with an ‘eye’ for her reception desk at her studio apartments. When I got home I sat down and made three so she’d have a choice. I’m sharing two of them. (I dropped the other one and smeared it and I have to start over. Ugh.)
These are both stylized ‘eyes’ to basically ward off the ‘evil eye’… something a lot of Greeks believe in.
The evil eye is a supernatural belief in a curse brought about by a malevolent glare, usually given to a person when one is unaware. The evil eye dates back about 5,000 years. It is found in many cultures in the Mediterranean region as well as Western Asia and Central Asia with such cultures often believing that receiving the evil eye will cause misfortune or injury… The idea expressed by the term causes many different cultures to pursue protective measures against it, with around 40% of the world’s population believing in the evil eye… The Greek evil eye talisman specifically protects against malevolent gazes.
So, aren’t you glad I did something borderline arty today? You may have learned something new!
I really have to stop galivanting and get myself back to working! I’m having withdrawals…
junk4joy 
