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Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Harkers Island Fish Trip


Saint Lucia


 A Catholic School wanted me to paint St Lucia for a festival they are having. They sent me the picture and I called back. "Do I have to paint the eyes in the bowl?" Yes, they said, " St Lucia was was an innocent girl killed for her faith and her eyes were poked out, so that was her "offering, or sacrifice." At first I was a little creeped out, but then I thought of all the places in the world- today- where Christians - young children- are being killed, maimed, & held in prisons for their faith. Although this young women lived many years ago in today's modern world there are other ways in which people sacrifice their life for the life of another, Police Officers, Moms and Dads, Firemen, the Military.  Scripture says " Greater love has no man than this- that he would lay down His life for His "friends." God intends for us  to love others before ourselves. We are called to love those who are different from us, to love those who do not believe what we believe, to be merciful and kind. God is love.
This is painted on 1/4 inch wood and cut out, the back is painted gold and I created a prop for it in the back so it could be set on a table with poinsettias around it  
I decided to show 2 photos because the one with the white back ground ( which is from where I sat the painting in my white shadow box ) does not show that it is a wood cut out. I included of the photo of the painting  on the easel so you could see that it is not on a canvas. 

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Charleston SC Cove


Harkers Island NC Light House Horses

This is my husbands favorite place in the world to fish. He works hard from sun up to sundown  7 days a week. He is lucky to get that rare day when the wind is not blowing and the waves are not too rough and everything lines up just right at work. In the past 35 years I generally would not go with him because he leaves at 4 in the morning and also the waves can whip up choppy quickly and make for a scarey ride.This particular day I decided to brave it and was so glad I did. The ocean was like glass and the horses were out getting a early morning breakfast.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Rainy Day on the Corner of Jackson & Grant: China Town, San Fransico


   This by far took the longest of any painting I have created.
 It was like a puzzle, every day I put it together piece by piece. 
I was afraid to do the Chinese lettering because I know how easy it 
Is to make a mistake and then who knows what you just wrote in Chinese? 
My fear is grounded on reality. 
Many years ago we had some Spanish speaking employees for our business  I had
 a little hand book  on learning Spanish and was trying
 to learn a phrase or two. They put up with me . I could say "¿Dónde está Phillippe ? 
( Where is Phillip?) and they 
would point me in the right direction. Then one morning I was on my way to work and
 I hit a cat that ran in front of my car, and I wanted to tell them. I thought I remembered 
what the word" dead" sounded like, and everybody knows cat is gato so I went into work
 and said " El gato es una mierda." Then I made little hand motions 
and charade signals to relay the story of the cat. They nodded solemnly. I figured they
were feeling pretty bad for that cat.
 Later that week I was with a group of friends one of whom could speak fluent Spanish, 
so I told him what I said to the
workers about the cat. He laughed until he cried. I was puzzled-"
"What?" I asked, "What?" He said between gasp of breath..
"Tammy, you were so close, but you said, "The cat is shit." 
 If you wanted to say the cat is dead you
should have said...El gato está muerto. 
HUM
 El gato está muerto - El gato es una mierda." ..
.. it sounded the same to me. And so, it is true, close doesn't count
...........except in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Psalms 23 Trilogy


The women who commissioned this painting said she did not want art that came from a store or off a shelf. She wanted to be a part of the design and wanted an original painting in her living room by a real artist she knew-( me!)  She gave some serious thought to what she wanted to say and the feeling she wanted to convey .  When I finally met with her and she  told me she wanted to talk about a trilogy of  the Twenty Third Psalms I was really excited. These paintings are each 18 x 24 inches and I put the brown border on them to show how they would look when they were framed. One of the things she loves are poppies and so we did some research and found out that poppies do grow in the Holy Land so I put them at the foot of the mountain in the final painting of the sheep being rescued.  I read a book on shepherds and his care of sheep before I began and we discovered that there are  blue flowers that can make the sheep sick so I used little blue flowers in the painting where Jesus is looking for the lost sheep. We decided to go with a sky that was yellow and looked moody. It was early morning when  I delivered them and she was very happy with the results of all our collaboration. Her husband was sitting in the living room drinking his coffee  and in front of him was the blank wall  that would soon give him a peaceful scene to enjoy ... 


Thursday, May 15, 2014

Quick Trick Book Stack

I still have a plethora of books hanging around. My kids love books and as they got older the books accumulated. I wanted to do a still life one afternoon so I decided to put them to use along with some pansy's from the yard. I stacked them all in my shadow box and adjusted the lighting, it took a few tries to get it all balanced and looking the way I wanted it to look and some where along the way I began to call it a "Quick Trick Book Stack."

Friday, April 11, 2014

Bella In Black and White

Commission Dog Portrait: Bella is a proud mischievous little Shih-zu who, had she been human would have been a great little runway model. She posed very prettily for her photo shoot and we had a hard time choosing the one to be painted because they all came out so nice. This is because Bella is still young enough to  look good all the time .

Monday, February 24, 2014

Floyd: The ECU Pirate Dog

Floyd was a special commission for  "Jennifer" a little girl who was in my 2 year old class way  back in the day.  Jennifer grew up to be a lovely young lady and Floyd was her pet. About the time Jennifer got pregnant with her first child  Floyd passed away. Her mother called me and asked me to paint a picture of Floyd so they could have it on the wall for the baby to see as he grew up.  They chose the Photograph of Floyd with this big OLE grin on his face enjoying the sunshine. Jennifer was my absolute favorite two year old way back then before I had any children of my own and it was a special treat to be a part of her life again.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

After School Bible club

This week I decided to work on my blog by adding a few community things. I am glad I did, it has been nice to stroll through memory lane.  I am sure now that maybe I am ready to retire and let the world spin on with out me. 

Looking back at this bitter cold wet day  in 1996 I remember the thankfulness I felt towards the men who showed up to pour all that concrete that the Sunrock company delivered for free. That side walk these men  labored over was at least 350 feet long, they were wet and tired but also set up ten heavy concrete picnic tables that were donated by the area churches and they  did it all in good humor.

Sometimes we rescue.
Sometimes we need rescuing.
That was a day I was rescued.
I am forever grateful that I am not a man.
It was hard work
I am forever grateful for men.










The kids made cement walk way stones.



Saturday, January 11, 2014

Nap Time For Ricco: Tricolored Light Beagle

Ricco is my brothers dog and he was delighted I choose to paint him one day when I had a rare break between commissions. My brother was really happy I wanted to take Ricco to some art shows and let him be a star.