If you want a friend for life get a dog.

For me a house or an apartment becomes a home when you add one set of four legs, a happy tail, and that indescribable measure of love we call a dog. - Roger Caras

100 percent chance of rain

I'm so ready for Summer

Sunshine and bright colors

sunburns and bug bites

the whole shuhbang

But tonight it's cold and raining, and I'm painting in a poorly lit little NYC apartment listening to Beatles.

Sun sun sun... here it comes.

I totally wish.

Post edit: By the way, if you're on your way out to Pier 1 to buy a crap crapp crappy piece of crap, please consider going here instead, or really, just annnny where else.

I think you misspelled "see"... oh wait I get it.

Once in a while I'll sell a painting, then miss it a ton and try to recreate it.

Usually it doesn't work out and the finished product never sees the light of day, as it gets painted over pronto, but sometimes....

sometimes the second time around is better than the first.

That's definitely the case with one of the newest additions in my Etsy shop: I actually finished this last November for a show, but am only just now getting around to posting it cause I wanted to enjoy it for a while before possibly having to ship it of to a new home.

LOL Last November, when I got to the gallery with all my art, the curator asked me for the names of my pieces.

Names?

You mean "cute-square-painting-of-hands-making-a-heart-shape-in-front-of-the-ocean" doesn't work?

So this is what being put on the spot feels like.

Unfortunately, all I could come up with were weak puns.

Thus the name of this piece is "I'd Love To Sea You Again".

Also in the show was "You Are So Deer To Me"

And the smaller, but much loved "Wire we all just sitting around?"

Fortunately, the names weren't posted on the wall.

Unfortunately, I still can't think of good names for paintings.

The Lost Mermaid

I was doing a full clean of my apartment today, and I found this painting.

I don't think I've seen it since the day I painted it.

Sometimes things get tucked away on the shelf and fall into oblivion. Books especially, or in this case, a painting on a book.

It might not my favorite, but it is much cuter than I remembered it.

Anyhoo, it has finally made it's way into the Etsy shop.

By the way, did you notice that my old store Loveaboveall magically became my new store Cleverish?

I'm still not sure if it's going to be a permanent switch.

If Cleverish doesn't earn it's keep, it might just die an untimely death, and loveaboveall will take over again.

We'll see.

A little something to crow about.

I know you'll be shocked by this, but I have to admit...

some paintings never sell.

I don't mind this fact since painting is really just a beloved hobby, a wonderful way to spend the my spare time, an outlet for my apparently infinite amount of creative energy.

But I have to admit that I don't have the skills or time to find art buyer homes for every painting. Often, I plan on giving away paintings before they are finished. I haven't given my Grandma anything in a while, so I decided I'd make a painting based on things she might like. Unfortunately, that pretty much limits me to Elvis and cute livestock.

Originally I was going to paint her a little black billy goat, but then I thought it might be too sad since her last little billy goat (aka lawn mower) committed suicide by hanging itself from a tree.

I didn't even know they could do that, but apparently, they can.

and do.

(Moral of the story; don't tie your goat to a tree- it will jump over a low branch and hang itself.)

In the end I decided I'd paint her a cheerful rooster waking up the countryside.

With a blue border, because the lady loooooves blue. (re; blue sofa, blue curtains, blue flower arrangements, and so on, and so forth).

I'm putting it in the shop until I get to see her again (which will be months). If someone buys it, I'll just get her an Elvis collectible with the proceeds.

If I make it to Moab I'm gonna get my canteen filled.

There's nothing that the road cannot heal.
Yeah, there's nothing that the road cannot heal.
Washed under the black top, it's gone beneath my wheels.
There's nothing that the road cannot heal.
Vela grazie!
They say the sun won't burn forever but that's a science too exact
I can prove it, watch, we're crossing the state line.
See those headlights coming towards us? That's someone going back
To a town they said they'd never, yeah, they swore it on their life
But you can't break out of a circle
That you never knew you were in.
Washed under the black top, its gone beneath my wheels...
There's nothing that the road cannot heal. You can't see it very well in any of the pics I took, but the tree growing alongside the road is made up of the lyrics from that chorus.

Notice how the road looks like its a different texture than the rest of the painting?

That's because it's band aids.

And what gives the rest of the painting that spidery texture?

Medical gauze of course.

Every element of this piece is in keeping with the theme of healing.

Buy it here.

Some art just makes itself.

Some paintings just seem to make themselves.

Like this one based on a well loved verse; "I will hide your word in my heart that I may not sin against God."

One part found object (a wooden tray)

One part paint.

A dash of old wire, and a smattering of beeswax

Mix well with a heaping helping of inspiration from this lady's style, and voila- a gloriously gritty work of art.

Buy it here.

If Anne Frank could be happy...

The first time I read the line

"Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy"

in The Diary of Anne Frank I kind of went into shock. I read it over and over in complete awe at the sheer unlikeliness of it all. I mean here was a girl living in an attic, knowing that unimaginable horrors could fall on her at any moment, and she still believed there was beauty in the world, and in being happy. I snagged this fantastic old wood tray at a flea market for a song.

I love painting on random wood objects so much more than on canvas.

Oh, the textures- fantastic!

And honey the price is right!

whichever one applies

Dear Strange Men of New York,

Thank you for pointing out to me that I have paint on my (pants/shoes/face/hair). That's normal for me. No, I don't (go to art school with you/ teach art to kids/ work for a contractor). I paint murals. What kind? The kind made of paint... on walls. No thanks, I do not want to see your (mostly empty sketchbook/ pictures of your car/ tattoo). What's that? You are not interested in having a mural in your home or business. That's ok, but in that case you may not have (my card/ phone number/ e-mail). Yes, you probably will see me around because I go to this (quickie-mart/bus stop/ dunkin donuts) all the time, but I will probably avoid you in the future because you (smell/ shake like a druggie/ scare me).

Sincerily, La Sha

IF...

IF... you were to

take the E or F train to the Union Turnpike stop,

then get on the Q46 bus (which stops just outside the subway station by the way)

and ride until you get to the Parsons BLVD stop

which is just in front of St Nicholas of Tolentine Catholic School

and you were to walk into the school's cafeteria

THIS SUNDAY FEB 8

between the hours of 10-4

Then you would find lots of artsy goodness at the Queens Market!!!

(which currently means a trillion paintings, some fantastically cute aprons, and many of the valentines I made this year.)

folky + vintage = what's new

If you haven't been by my shop in a while you might be surprised by some of the new things living there.

Some prints have moved in as well as some hand stitched cards

and there's even some new originals!

Actually, maybe I shouldn't call them new... since they're on vintage wood pieces (i.e. antique chopping boards)

new in oh-nine

Here's what's coming your way from the old blogaroo in the new year-

a weekly (ok, probably bi-weekly) featurette about artists I love (newnew ladies this means you!)

"Broke In The Big Apple" - I was going to start a new blog for this idea, but decided I'd rather incorporate all my cash saving creativity into my trusty rusty old blog here!

"Things I Love About..." will be brought back in oh-nine, with a VENGEANCE

'cause there are lots of things I love.

and of course you can expect continued exercises in my unabashed narcissism which automatically tells me you'd be interested to know what I did over the weekend, what I cooked for supper, what hilarious thing someone I know said, and of course, lots of pics of my paintings.

That is all.

Do you know what I love?

Getting commissioned to do paintings, that's what. With my hours at the flower shop dwindling I couldn't be happier to have people want my art. I haven't done many commissioned pieces in the past, so I always get very nervous because I want what the customer wants, and what I imagine (and am capable of) to match up so SO so badly.

Lucky me... I've had nothing but happy customers!

Remember that thing I used to do...

Remember that thing I used to do where I mixed up paint and put it on canvas or wood or something until it kind of looked like something?

Well... I still do that... and the result is still up for grabs at

my shop

What's a sugar glider?

I've always liked to keep unusual pets- for ten years I had a pet turtle. (I gave him and his incredible custom built terrarium to a local kids museum when we moved to the Caribbean). Now my new favorite unusual animal is the sugar glider. They're native to Australia, but they're starting to become popular over here as pets. They're kind of like flying squirrels, except much smaller. When fully grown they're about the size of a chipmunk. I almost bought one of the adorable little critters, but then I found out that they're hundreds of dollars. Also it pooped on me when I picked it up. I made this little painting of a sugar glider meeting a dwarf rabbit. I call it "You're Strange, But I Like You". Either of the subjects could be the speaker of the title. I imagine a tiny rabbit might be strange to an Australian flying squirrel. I adore this little scene, but I've been told it's a waste of paint, that I should paint over it and use the canvas for something else. I posted him for sale in my etsy shop (www.loveaboveall.etsy.com) so maybe someone will come and prove mom wrong.

Moving vs Storing

Since we're moving in less than two weeks I am really getting quite desperate to sell some paintings- mainly so I don't have to make the decision between whether to leave them behind or sacrifice some of our very limited car space to move them with me. So, with this predicament in mind you would think I would have stopped painting, but no. Stressed out as I am about everything that's going on, I find myself nearly sleep painting at 3 am. Fortunately my classes aren't very time consuming, and there's not much I can do for the move just yet so my penchant for putting on head phones and drowning out the world in pretty swirls of color doesn't do much harm... except that now I have several more paintings that I'm torn about what to do with. I've changed the etsy prices from rediculously low to rediculously high and every where in between, but I think the problem is that my page just doesn't get much traffic. I'm just not very good at marketing... which is frustrating because I constantly see really crappy stuff sell on etsy- things the "artist" couldn't have spent more than five minutes on, but the paintings I spend hours and hours and sometimes days and days on won't even move for $40. I am so frustrated! Make me an offer!

But aside from all that I really have been enjoying painting a little extra lately. It is so consuming. I don't know if any other artists out there have ever noticed, but to me at least, painting feels very similar to praying. Both have a tremendously calming effect.

I have to thank Jane DesRosier for one of my favorite new things to do, which is use gel medium. It adds so much texture, which I really enjoy. It really adds another element to art when there isn't just color and composition to consider, but also the texture. Here are a couple of my favorite paintings that make good use of gel medium- they're not very figurative like most of my paintings are- they're really just color studies of hot and cold, with a bunch of gel medium swirled in.

Night Owl (cool) Summer Sky (hot) Seriously, no offer will be rejected if you want one of my paintings. Go to www.loveaboveall.etsy.com or e-mail me @ a_bedealia@yahoo.com

The Tenth Time I Saw Shawn Mullins And The Last Time I Visit Pendergrass

Things went fairly well at Pendergrass, but I don't think I'll be making an appearance there again. I just don't think it's a great place to try to sell art- knock off Abercrombie maybe, but not original art. It's just more trouble than it's worth. I was surprised (pleasantly) when my mom showed up to help out. Not only did it make time go by faster to have some company, but it also allowed me to eat and and take bathroom breaks (not simultaneously). I guess I hadn't thought that far ahead- it would have been a pretty long day if I'd have had to hold it all day considering I started at sunrise and didn't leave until 5:00.

One of my favorite singers, a Georgia boy by the name Shawn Mullins, came to town last week to perform in the series of shows held for free at the old Gwinett courthouse. He's honestly not much of a showman, but man he can sing. Seriously, I could listen to him all day long. I was surprised how packed the venue was since it was an outdoor show, and it was kind of rainy. Like everyone else we just pulled on our raincoats and sang along. Hey look! It's Shawn!