Stuff......

......that's undone - story of my life I guess but I see that as a good thing. It means I started something. In this case it's many somethings. Many projects are underway. Little pieces with papers collaged and texture gels added are waiting patiently for paint. These are heading for the Etsy shop when finished.

This is a bigger one - 48x36 oil on canvas. It's part of the series on adoption.

The next one in the gold sky series is also underway.

I hadn't done one of these larger textured abstracts in a while so I was in need. I have it started and I have no idea what I'm doing with it next but that's the fun of doing it.

TA DA! Something done! This one is for a special project that I'll be announcing later. This is colored pencil with mineral spirits on cold press illustration board. So, I'll keep you posted on how all these projects end up.

Go and be creative!

Carlynne

Birthday Wishes

Birthday Wishes 3

8x8

Acrylic on canvas

Birthday Wishes 2

8x8

Acrylic on canvas

SOLD

The holiday weekend is over, over way too fast in fact. It was a lovely peaceful weekend and I had time to spend in the studio. I'm working on the next piece in the Silent Voices series. This one is about the Magdalene Laundries - tough topic but I have most of the image worked out now. I'll post when I'm a little farther along.

For now what I want to show you are the candle paintings. In a previous post I showed you the the large piece with the 3 candles and the first mother's names with dates in the background. I'm continuing that theme with these small pieces. The reason for this is to support an organization that is working toward reform in the adoption industry. Origins-USA works to increase public awareness of how adoption separation affects mothers and to bring about legislative changes to protect the rights of mothers to nurture their children. Adoptees also suffer as a result of adoption. There's a lot to be done to lessen the pain of adoption and being a first mother myself this is an area close to my heart. I'm selling these small original acrylic pieces for $30 and donating half to Origins. I will personalize the painting with the first mother's name and child's date of birth if requested and I can also customize the candle color.

Please visit the Origins site and see what they're doing. If you or someone you know is interested in helping or if you just have a thing for birthday candles, leave a comment or send an email.

Peace,

Carlynne

Birthdays

Hi folks, been making progress in the studio. Here's where I am on the birthday painting. The journey through this series is an emotional one. I've gotten great responses from first mothers - 9 of them wanted to be included on this canvas so their names and baby's date of birth is up there. My daughter's birth date is at the bottom with my signature. I really wanted this to have the feel of people writing all over this canvas so there's no perfect lines or letters anywhere.

If you're unfamiliar with what I'm up to..... I'm working on a series of paintings about adoption from the birth/first mother perspective, particularly during the time that is now known as the Baby Scoop Era - between 1945 and 1973. Although my daughter was born in 1980, the treatment of women still hadn't changed. Many women are now coming out of the closet and learning to heal. This series about us.

Time to put the brushes away for the day and get ready for a BBQ. We're having the Gem and Mineral society over for the end of year get together. Yep, we're rock hounds. We have rocks in the house, the garage, the shed, the yard, our heads. Guess where some my abstract designs come from......

Hope you're having a lovely Sunday,
Peace,
Carlynne

Making Progress

Expectations

48x36

I got to spend some time in my studio this past weekend - my favorite thing to do - second only to spending time with Amazing Hubby and my kids! Last week I finished the first piece in the new series. You saw it in an earlier post, well now the web pattern is gold leafed and I brought some of the strands over the lily.

Here's the start of the second piece. I got 2 of the candles in, some detail stuff to do on them yet. You should be able to see where the 3rd one is drawn in. I'm still working out how I'm going to do the additions to the background. I'm going to add dates - many birthdates representing adoptees. If you're an adoptee or a birth/first mother and you'd like your birthdate included just send me a message or comment.

Hope you're having a great start to this new week,

Peace,

Carlynne

A new series, a new venture

Wow, where have I been? Hard to believe it's been since the 8th that I've posted. Where did May go? I've either had my nose buried in a book or I've been at the easel. These are good things!


In the last post I mentioned the new series I'm working on about adoption. The above piece is the beginning of that series. The canvas is 3' x 4' and I'm using acrylic, collage and gold leaf. Since I took this photo I added the gold leaf to the web pattern. There's still much to do. There's some issues to work out on the flowers but for now I'm going to continue layering on the background - right now there's bible pages attached but I may add some other elements too. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Mosaic 10

24x24

Now this one in the Mosaic series is one of 4 pieces that is being included in Bentley Publishing Group's summer line. They will be on the Designer Services website around mid July. They will be available as giclees on paper or canvas. This is a new venture for me so it's very exciting! Of course now, it means patience. It's time to just focus on new work.

And it's time to turn up the music to drown out the sound of my neighbors and their lawn mowers and blowers. Why can't they just let their yards be wild and free like mine.

Have a great weekend,

Carlynne

Do we need another holiday?

Happy Saturday folks. Did you know that a new holiday has been invented? It's called Birth Mother's Day and it's today - the day before Mother's Day. I had two thoughts when I found that out. My first thought was - oh, cool - we have our own day. My second thought was - hey, does that mean I'm not good enough for Mother's Day? My second thought is the one that keeps coming up. Back in the day, 30 years ago, when I was becoming a "birth mother" I felt exiled from society. Now I feel exiled from Mother's Day. Birth mothers ARE mothers and should be celebrated with all the other mothers on their day.

This is a topic that's way too huge to go into here and now. I don't want to hijack this art blog and make it something else, besides, I don't think Kelli would appreciate it. So, that brings me to this........... I'm in the very beginning stages of starting a new series of paintings about the adoption experience from the birth mother's perspective. I've been doing a lot of reading, sketching, note making and I've begun the first canvas (hence my reason for not posting much lately). Now I'm wondering if there are any birth mothers reading this who would like to share some of their story with me. I haven't worked out the details yet but I would like this to be not just autobiographical, but to give a voice to other women who've been silenced by her birth mother status. If you or someone you know is willing to share please comment or send an email.

So, in case I'm not on here tomorrow..... Happy Mother's Day to ALL the mothers out there.
Peace,
Carlynne

What was in your Easter basket?

Happy Easter, whatever that means to you, and I mean that in the nicest possible way! I'm not a religious person so it doesn't have the same meaning for me that it may for many of you. Right now my thoughts simply go to my children and family. April is a special month for me and as you saw in Kelli's post yesterday I decided to celebrate in a slightly unusual way - by getting a tattoo. It was kind of hard to see the actual design in the other photos so I thought I'd give you a close up - I know, don't do you any favors right?

Years ago this would've been the farthest thing from my mind but things change. Big events in your life have a tendency to make that happen and I wouldn't do something this permanent unless it had big meaning for me. Like Kelli said, going through the whole cancer thing was certainly a big event and makes you think about a lot of things. There was also another big event - it happened 8 years ago - I found my daughter. I'm a birth mom, a member of the adoption triad. She was born in April and she was 22 years old when I found her so basically I spent 22 March's dreading the April's. It meant remembering a lot of painful stuff and was very difficult to deal with. Well now of course I get to celebrate her birthday and let me tell you, seeing my 3 children together for the very first time was one of those life altering moments that's impossible to describe! Now my daughter has 2 moms (thankfully she sees that as a good thing) and I have all 3 kids in my life. So, in honor of the power of "3" there's the triquetra for mind/body/spirit and my 3 children's initials winding through it. I had Amazing Hubby help me with the design - he's a genius with Photoshop.

Getting a tattoo on Easter weekend (or any time for that matter) may seem like a really nutty thing to do, but for me, having a design that Amazing Hubby and I did together to commemorate life and reunions was the perfect thing to do.

Have a beautiful day,
Peace,
Carlynne

PS: have you ever microwaved a peep?