These Small Hours

16" x 20" x 1.5"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas
SOLD
Velvet giclee prints of this and all my original artworks are available.

I wanted to capture these flowers in a fresh light and try a different color scheme than the current bold and bright palette I've been using. Because this painting seems calmer to me, it makes me think of quiet moments. I love working out in the studio, spending peaceful time with my unborn son. In three weeks he will be with us and life will change forever. But for now, I am treasuring these last few days of my pregnancy and enjoying the opportunity to spend these small hours with him.

This is my last painting of 2009. I look forward to what 2010 will bring. Happy New Year, and many blessings to you and yours!

"These Small Hours", Rob Thomas
Let it go,
Let it roll right off your shoulder
Don't you know
The hardest part is over
Let it in,
Let your clarity define you
In the end
We will only just remember how it feels

Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders,
These twists & turns of fate
Time falls away,
But these small hours,
These small hours still remain

Let it slide,
Let your troubles fall behind you
Let it shine
Until you feel it all around you
And i don't mind
If it's me you need to turn to
We'll get by,
It's the heart that really matters in the end

All of my regret
Will wash away some how
But i can not forget
The way i feel right now

Follow Me Home

12" x 12"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

"Just living is not enough," said the little bird, "One must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower." Hans Christian Anderson

I enjoyed adding birds to my poppy "surrealscape". I think they will be making some repeat appearances.

Love is the Answer

8" x 10" x 1.5"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Gallery-Wrapped Canvas
SOLD
Velvet giclee prints of this and all my original artworks are available.

I was working on a looser style of poppies in this painting, and I love how when my sister took a look at this she saw the poppies as hearts. My family and I were listening to one of my favorite Jack Johnson songs, "Better Together", the evening I finished this painting. My favorite line from the song is, "Love is the answer at least for most of the questions in my heart," which is where the title of the painting comes from. That song always reminds me of my sweet husband, who told me he really liked this new work. I think this painting is going to make a perfect Valentine for somebody.


There's no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard,
No song that I could sing
But I can try for your heart,
Our dreams, and they are made out of real things,
Like a shoebox of photographs,
With sepia tone loving,
Love is the answer
At least for most of the questions in my heart ,
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy,
And sometimes life can be deceiving,
I'll tell you one thing, its always better when we're together

MMM, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, we'll look at the stars when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

I believe in memories
They look so, so pretty when I sleep
Hey now, and when I wake up,
You look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time,
And there is no, no song I could sing
And there is no combination of words I could say
But I will still tell you one thing,
We're better together

I Updated My Website (Finally!)

Dear friends,
I just published an update to my website. Take a look! I've been tinkering around on our Apple, this will have to do until I get it professionally redesigned in the Spring. At least you can go here to see a cohesive body of my artwork. Have a great day!

web.mac.com/utopiapkwy

Three Flowers

6" x 6" x 1.5"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Wood

“Love will inspire you to become a patient person. When you choose to be patient, you respond in a positive way to a negative situation. You are slow to anger. You choose to have a long fuse instead of a quick temper. Rather than being restless and demanding, love helps you settle down and begin extending mercy to those around you. Patience brings an internal calm during an external storm.

No one likes to be around an impatient person. It causes you to overreact in angry, foolish and regrettable ways. The irony of anger toward a wrongful action is that it spawns new wrongs of its own. Anger almost never makes things better. In fact, it usually generates additional problems. But patience stops problems in their tracks. More than biting your lip, more than clapping a hand over your mouth, patience is a deep breath. It clears the air. It stops foolishness from whipping its scorpion tail all over the room. It is a choice to control your emotions rather than allowing your emotions to control you, and shows discretion instead of returning evil for evil.”

- Excerpt from The Love Dare

Illuminated

20" x 24" x 1.5"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

This is a continuation of my current series entitled "Surrealscapes". I made that word up--it's a hybrid of "surrealism" and "landscapes"--to describe the style I am working in with my trees and floral paintings.

"And of all illumination which human reason can give, none is comparable to the discovery of what we are, our nature, our obligations, what happiness we are capable of, and what are the means of attaining it." Adam Weishaupt

I Heart Artisan Style Gallery

I am so thrilled to have representation at Artisan Style Gallery. It's the perfect fit for me! Sixteen of my paintings are featured at this Gallery and Gift Boutique in Uptown. The up-and-coming art gallery is in a beautiful historic Victorian building in the heart of the Uptown Arts District and the dynamic owners, Brandon Lynch and Steve Iha, have done a fantastic job packing the walls with bold, colorful, contemporary art--all at an affordable price. The gallery is so dynamic and every time I go in there, there is something new and wonderful to see. Dallas friends, please come in and take a look!

Artisan Style Gallery
2417 Mahon St.Dallas,
TX 75201
214.468.9095
www.artisanstyle.net

Baby, Light My Way

16" x 16" x 1.5"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

Listening to U2's Acthung Baby in the studio--I forgot how great that album is-- and I was inspired by the song, "Ultraviolet". This is the latest in my poppy series and I had fun experimenting with a different color scheme. My unborn baby is certainly making my worlld a brighter place, hence the title.

Sometimes i feel like i don't know
Sometimes i feel like checkin' out
I want to get it wrong
Can't always be strong
And love it won't be long...

Oh sugar, don't you cry
Oh child, wipe the tears from your eyes
You know i need you to be strong
And the day is as dark as the night is long
Feel like trash, you make me feel clean
I'm in the black, can't see or be seen

Baby, baby, baby...light my way

There is a silence that comes to a house
Where no one can sleep
I guess it's the price of love
I know it's not cheap

Baby, baby, baby...light my way

I remember
When we could sleep on stones
Now we lie together
In whispers and moans
When i was all messed up
And i had opera in my head
Your love was a light bulb
Hanging over my bed

Baby, baby, baby...light my way

Fortune's Flowers

16" x 20" x 1.5"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Gallery-Wrapped Canvas

This painting got its name because tucked inside its many layers and rich texture are a bunch of fortunes I have been saving up from Chinese take-out meals gone by. I love opening up my fortune cookie after eating Chinese; it's a ritual that's almost as good as the meal itself. I hate to throw them away, so I've been collecting them in the studio with the hopes that inspiration would strike, and lo and behold, it did.

My friend Lara saw this painting and commented, "Gina, I think it's so cool how your work went from so brooding to so joyful as you get further along in your pregnancy (maybe a coincidence, but I am all about this fetus-as-muse theory!)." I totally agree with her. As the prognosis for my son gets more and more positive, so does the tone of my artwork. Even though it's hard to walk these days, moving around comfortably is a joke and my clothes don't fit, I am so overjoyed that in a few weeks we will get to take our son home from the hospital that I want to paint flowers for everyone!

Snow Falling on Birches

Snow Falling on Birches
10" x 10" x 1.5"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Gallery-Wrapped Canvas

This painting is a part of a series I am working on about the changing seasons, see also "Autumn Rapture" on the blog or in my Etsy shop. Huddled next to my space heater in the studio (my students always refer to it as "Mr. Toasty") this painting just came to fruition on its own. Of course we never have this much snow in Texas, but we don't have many birch trees either, so I guess my mind is in another place right now. I love to include a lot of texture in my art, as if by reaching out and touching the landscape you can actually become more a part of it.

"There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself." ~Ruth Stout

COLLISION 3!

Thanks so much to everyone who came to the art show this weekend! It looks like they'll have a healthy donation to give to Arts Fighting Cancer. I went with some of my girlfriends, had a blast and hope you did too. It was hard to get any good pics of my artwork, because the band was drawing such a good crowd, but I was glad my pieces were displayed behind the band because they got such great exposure. The top pic was from the show director's shots, I love that one. My paintings are the green diptych and brown ones on the top row. I took the bottom pic, all four of those paintings are mine--and I have no idea who that lady is! What can I say? I'm a painter, not a photog. ;)

COLLISON 3 - Tomorrow night!

COLLISION 3
When the Arts Collide

Please join us on December 5th for an evening of Art, Music and Fun to benefit Arts Fighting Cancer.
COLLISION is a renegade art show that helps generate money for Arts Fighting Cancer while promoting local art and music. Arts Fighting Cancer provides assistance for local cancer victims right here in Dallas. This event will help raise money for AFC and it will promote the art of over 24 local artists along with 2 great bands and 1 DJ.

Music Performances by
The Happy Bullets
The Felons
DJ: Miss Flowerette

Featuring work by 30 local artists

Saturday December 5th, 7pm-Midnight
$5 suggested donation

Rorschach Gallery
518 West Davis #7
Bishop Arts District
across the street from Gloria's Restaurant
Dallas, Texas

Fort Worth Contemporary Art Center Works on Paper Show

River of the Dawn
10' x 10"
Watercolor and Mixed Media on Paper

Connected Disconnect
7" x 14"
Watercolor and Mixed Media on Paper


To all Fort Worth friends, come see these paintings and three others this Friday night (and the whole month of December)
"9 x 12 Works on Paper Show"
A group show featuring original works on paper for $100 each.

The Fort Worth Community Arts Center will be hosting this show for the third year in a row, and its success and scope grows every year as patrons and art collectors discover this treasure-trove of small art.
This year’s exhibit features artwork from most of the United States and several other countries.

December 4 - 26
Opening Reception: Friday, December 4, 6 - 9 p.m.
Fort Worth Community Arts Center
Fort Worth, TX 76107
817.738.1938

Fragmented Memories

9" x 12"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

Sometimes looking at pieces is better than looking at the whole. Isn't that what happens anyway? We look at little pieces and then the bigger picture ceases to exist.

Autumn Rapture

10" x 10" x 1.5"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

Here is one of the most comforting, wise quotes I’ve ever read:
“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer…”
- Rainer Maria Rilke