March in Review

I'm still amazed every time I think about the fact that I've stuck with this resolution.

We all know I haven't been perfect, but I have started to make art again and people are commissioning me to do more and it just makes your heart and spirit a little lighter.  I'll cut the cute stuff and show you all of March's gems.

Day 89

I think I'm off by a day so I'm going to make up tomorrow by painting two.  That's what happens when you skip days for your birthday and vacation.

What I love: Taking a Sunday nap snuggled up next to Noah with the window wide open and wonderful spring air blowing in.  Spring is going to come, it's been rocky, but soon my friends.

Day 88

Loving the little tiny peas in contrast to the dark background.

What I love: The planting has begun.  2 inches deep and 6 inches apart.  They're going to taste so delicious.  Also, I love spending time with Rachel because she's so funny and I love getting the chance to talk to her while we work in the garden.

Day 87

A little unique perspective for you all.

Has anyone noticed that Chicago comes in like 3 or 4 colors?

What I love: The view from the plane window.  I was really sad to leave Florida, but Chicago can be breathtaking from above.

Day 86

This photo is courtesy of Aldana.  Thanks for sending me your Chicago memories.

What I love: This was such a gorgeous view of the river.  I actually loved the perspective she had in this one.  What a beautiful vacation she had here!

Day 85

I really liked the color of this one building, but it just didn't turn out the way I want.  Still can't be perfect right?

What I love: Unique crazy buildings in Chicago.  They are all over the place.

Day 84

Thanks to Hayley at Hayley.co today for the Chicago skyline. 

What I love: I'm loving how open the sky was in her photo. Sorting has to be coming soon. The sky isn't great as much anymore.

Day 83

Whew. You are really trying to challenge me. 

What I love: Today's picture is of Lake Street with a lake in it. For what reason we're not sure, but I love her response, "I can only assume that public transit in Chicago is having a really rough week." Thanks again to Harley at harleyandjane.com

Day 82

This was another church the husband and I saw west of the city.

What I love: The pattern of the brick. They also had a lovely window. I also just love when I get to drove around and spend time with the husband on Sundays.

Day 80/81

A little journal creating courtesy of Harley again.

What I love: Being creative and spending time again with friends.  It was a rough night getting all my assignments done, but we were victorious in the end.

Day 79

LS took me out to breakfast at The Bongo Room.

What I love: Red velvet pancakes for breakfast!  This place was pretty delicious, and the serving sizes were huge so I took home leftovers to the husband.  I told you LS made the day kind of awesome.

Day 78

Babysitting this evening.

What I love: Being able to spend time with kids even if they aren't out own.  This was a neat house we saw on our way home.

Day 77

This was a view from a parking garage.

What I love: The Chicago skyline really can be beautiful.  It's kind of this looming magnificent blue thing most of the time and at night it kind of twinkles like stars.

Day 76

So Tuesday started out as a normal Tuesday until after dinner when LS took me on a surprise shopping trip to Kohl's.  The architecture there is pretty typical nationwide I would say, but I love the repetition in the windows.

What I love: How awesome it was to go shopping with a fabulous friend who really made my birthday something special.  I am so incredibly grateful we ended up in the same place at the same time.

Day 75

Photo credits go out to to my friend Harley at Harley & Jane.  This one is a close up of a green line stop.

What I love: Riding the train, St. Patrick's Day parties, and being with friends.  I am still warming up to this place.  It has it's wonderful moments though.

Day 74

I've been wanting to paint this place for awhile and tried to get a good shot of what I like about it.  I finally feel like I did it.

What I love: The people here.  I went over to their apartment on Sunday, as I do many Sundays, and I just love hanging out with them and their kids.  It's always a enlightening and enjoyable experience. Love them.

ANNOUNCING

So I'm going on a trip.

I'm pretty excited, but I realized there is a slight problem.  The rule is I have to paint Chicago to learn to love Chicago, but I'm not going to be in Chicago (It's OK to announce this because Noah's not going and will serve as guard dog for our house).

However, I've still got that problem where I won't be in Chicago, so I decided something.

I need your help.

I need you to send me your pictures from Chicago starting next Monday.  You think something's cool, you take a picture and you send it my way.  This can be in the form of an e-mail, comment, text message (if you are one of the lucky to have my phone number), or however you want to send it (obviously snail mail won't work here).  I'll see what I've got at the end of the day and your picture might get painted!

**Please keep your photos PG guys.  I don't want to see any of you naked or your friend, or the guy on the street no matter how wonderful and beautiful the human body is.**

Day 73

This was a fun one to paint.

What I love: Chicago traditions like this one.  There were really a lot of very drunk ridiculous people, but also some very nice ones and everyone was having such a great time.  I was determined to participate more in Chicago this year so here's a start.

Day 72

The husband and I walked a lot today.

This is how the conversation went:

Me: That's the brown line.  We should just take that to transfer to the blue line.

Husband: Let's just walk until we hit the blue line.

Me: OK...

(An hour later...)

Husband: We're almost there.

Me: I don't like you right now.

What I love: Going on dates with the husband and having adventures, even if they make my feet hurt later. This is from a photo I took on our walk.  You can't really see how it was because of the photo, but the sunset was so beautiful.

Day 71

Today was kind of an ordinary day where I spent my day working and my evening doing graduate homework.

What I love: Having a job until the end of year.  Hopefully I can make some friends here too.

Day 70

Ugh, stupid pen, too much water all at once.  I've learned my lesson.

What I love: I loved the blue and it was right by those houses on my home from work.  I've always loved the rounded turrets.

Day 69

Another cool one from the drive home and utilizing those crisp lines.  I'm interested in exploring this more.

What I love: This cool clock on the way home from work.  Man, I love this architecture.

Day 68

I was driving and I saw this scene and I thought it would turn out cooler.  It was pretty cool, until I drew the tree.  Dang tree.

What I love: Sometimes you're driving and the Sears Tower just looms in the distance and it's kind of misty, but it's just so impressive at the same time.  I remember one morning I was driving to work and the sun was just coming out and the Sears Tower was golden and pink and blue.  It was so beautiful and I had spent so much time being grumpy I almost missed it.

Day 67

Yesterday was the beginning of Daylight Savings. It's a terrible tradition no one likes, but no one gets rid of except Arizona.

In honor of my lost hour of sleep I present to you...

What I love: The snow started melting and their were puddles everywhere, but I was wearing my sweet rain boots.  It means that spring is coming and I feel very hopeful, even though it's going to snow tomorrow evening.

Day 66

We're going a bit more abstract on this one.  Playing with line and color and basically just doodling.

What I love:  Today we celebrated my birthday with the in-laws.  It was a lot of fun and they all gave me something art related.  A notebook of more watercolor paper, a watercolor brush that is filled with water designed to travel, and a mini watercolor palette with professional quality paints designed to travel too.  I got so excited I pulled out my paints and got started right away.  I love that we're so close that I get to hang out with the family.

Day 64 & 65

I got behind again and now I'm all caught up.  Whew.

I really liked how the last one turned out so I decided to incorporate some of the same elements in these 2 paintings.  I feel the second was a lot more successful.

What I love: Lines and patterns are so cool.  I love also the Garfield Conservatory where the painting on the left is from and where I didn't actually go on Wednesday, but I went grocery shopping and I just was not really feeling painting the outside of Costco no matter how much I love what we call the $200 store.  The second one is of a delicious Mexican place off Belmont and Elston.  It's kind of a dumpy looking place, but oh boy that chicken taco I had was delicious.

Day 63

This has nothing to do with Tuesday, nor does it have anything to do with architecture, but I kind of love it and it didn't take me very long.

What I love: The Garfield Conservatory has these beautiful flowers in bloom and this picture was from the 14th when I took a trip there with a friend.  I decided to pull out the photo and get to painting.

Day 62

And here's another church.  I keep seeing them.  This one I told the husband I would do "fast and furious" style so that we could get to bed (when you live in a small apartment like mine you have to go to bed at the same time).  So here's a quick painting, but sometimes you need a quick one to focus on other things like I'm loving the line and pattern here.

What I love: Chicago has to be religious in some way because there are churches on every corner and while it's not like Utah where they're all the same church it's neat to see the religious diversity and the gorgeous architecture.  This particular one I saw driving a friend home and made her lean out and take a picture.  Thanks W!

Day 61

Quick one, but still good.

What I love: This church.  It's not my favorite one in Chicago, but it's mine and that's what makes it great.  Visit us here or here.

Day 60

Meh, not the best, but I was having an intense discussion so I wasn't paying super attention to detail.  Next time.

What I love: This is a church I've always kind of loved because it's not a church.  It's a house.  It just happens to be one of our goals in life to convert a church to a house.

February in Review

Is anyone else amazed that I painted this many paintings?

I spent the last few years of my life just focusing on everything else and I guess looking back I was kind of mad at art.  I had this one professor who just always gave me C's in his class.  Why I continued to take his class beats me, but it really made me feel like I was mediocre and that I didn't really have any potential.  This project has made me see that really what it is is time.  I needed time to find a niche and while I don't feel like I've found one yet I feel like I'm falling in love with art again.  Watch out Husband.

Done blathering, enjoy this month's paintings.

*Yes there are only 27, one day I made that pillow.  It just didn't fit neatly in the picture...

Days 57, 58, & 59

These get grouped together for a good reason.  I see these little houses on my way home from my new job and I couldn't help taking a picture.

What I love:  The first house that drew me in was the middle one because it was so unique, but after looking at the picture later I just loved the placement of the three all in a row about the same height.  You don't really see it here, but I'm just loving the variety of building materials that you can see in Chicago.  Everyone's got their own style and I like that about this place.