Work in Progress

This is a work in progress but I think I'm going to be gluing it down tonight. Any feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks for looking.

Where Have I Been?

I can't believe it's been two years since I posted something.  Since my last post I hate to say it, but I ended up going through a divorce.  I think there are earlier blog posts that refer to my "wonderful" husband, so you can all just scratch that.  LOL!  But, after going through the heartache and pain of being dumped (by the way, he left for someone he went to high school with 40 years ago and hooked up with on Facebook.  I'm not liking Facebook as I hear this has happened to many people.  But of course you can find me on Facebook and lots more pics of art!!).  I'm also a new grandma and probably will not be able to resist posting pictures of the new grandson.  He just turned 1 on Friday and is getting so big so fast.  I'll try not to post too much though since this is my "art" blog.  :)  But I digress. 

I am now back in the studio and creating more art than ever.  I'm really happy with the direction that my art is taking, and so I hope to post more often pictures of my work, and maybe some works in progress, as well as supplies i'm using, problems I run into, etc.  I always enjoy seeing how people create their pieces, so I'm optimistic that people will enjoy mine as well. 

To get started though, I'm going to start with these two small 5x7s on canvas panels.  I had previously painted the backgrounds some ugly shade of green, and then one evening these pieces just came together almost by magic.  I'm really liking these.  Apologies in advance for the crappy picture taken on my phone in a dark basement studio.  Would love some feedback!  Thanks for stopping by.  I'm determined to post more often from now on.  :)  Have a great day!

 

What Am I Up to Now?

Good morning everyone!  It's Tuesday, May 17, 2011 and in Columbus, Ohio the rain is still coming down daily.  The temperature here went from in the mid-80's last week, down into the 40's this week.  Crazy Ohio weather.  Like they say around here, if you don't like the weather just wait 10 minutes.  LOL

Just a quick mention about a show this weekend in Columbus.  It is called Agora 8 and is at the Junctionview Studios.  You can see the website here.  They used to put the artwork on their website but for some reason are not doing that this year.  Anyway, I have one piece on the show and my husband has two.  You can see his work here.  This is the piece I have in the show.  I think I may have posted it before but you can see it again.  :)

The exciting news this week.  I'm taking a day off from my day job and heading down to Springfield, Ohio to the Clarke County Fairgrounds for the Extravaganza!  Yay!!  I love flea markets and this is one of the biggest ones I have ever been to and I think one of the biggest ones in Ohio.  Here is a link to their website.  I'm so looking forward to going.  I think we are going to go on Friday and then again with my daughter and her boyfriend on Saturday.  I can't wait to see what we find and I plan to get some pictures of our junky treasures and write another post to show you what you all missed.  LOL

© 2011 Julia Williams Art

The above five images are more from my 4"x4" collage series.  They are $25 each and come matted to 8"x8". 

Thanks for stopping by and stay dry if you live in the Midwest!  I'll be posting again soon about a fabulous artist who does art journaling and broadcasts live on Ustream.  Have a great day everyone!

The Man and the Eagle

I just received an email about this story.  It was really quite awe provoking to me.  I think it's a great story and the Eagle is so awesome!!


THE MAN AND THE EAGLE. THIS IS BEYOND, AWESOME !

Not many people get a picture of this proud bird snuggled up next to them.


[For some reason I am unable to copy the pictures in here.  Will edit post if I can get the pictures.  In the meantime.....see http://www.sarveywildlife.org/]


Freedom [the Eagle] and I have been together 10 years this summer. She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings. Her left wing doesn't open all the way even after surgery, it was broken in 4 places. She's my baby.

When Freedom came in she could not stand and both wings were broken. She was emaciated and covered in lice. We made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vets office. From then on, I was always around her. We had her in a
huge dog carrier with the top off, and it was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lay in. I used to sit and talk to her, urging her to live, to fight; and she would lay
there looking at me with those big brown eyes. We also had to tube feed her for weeks.

This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still couldn't stand. It got to the point where the decision was made to euthanize her if she couldn't stand in a week. You know you don't want to cross that line between torture and rehab, and it looked like death was winning. She was going to be put down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon. I didn't want to go to the center that Thursday, because I couldn't bear the thought of her being euthanized; but I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone was grinning from ear to ear. I went immediately back to her cage; and there she was, standing on her own, a big beautiful eagle. She was ready to live. I was just about in tears by then. That was a very good day.

We knew she could never fly, so the director asked me to glove train her. I got her used to the glove, and we started doing education programs for schools in western Washington. We wound up in the newspapers, radio (believe it or not) and some TV. Miracle Pets even did a show about us.

In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I had stage 3,
which is not good (one major organ plus everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of chemo. Lost the hair - the whole bit. I missed a lot of work. When I felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would also come to me in my dreams and help me fight the cancer. This happened time and time again.

Fast forward to November 2000, the day after Thanksgiving. I went in for my last checkup. I was told that if the cancer was not all gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then my last option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they did the tests; and I had to come back Monday for the results. I went in Monday, and I was told that all the cancer was gone.

So the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and take the big girl out for a walk. It was misty and cold. I went to her flight and jessed her up, and we went out front to the top of the hill. I hadn't said a word to Freedom, but somehow she knew. She looked at me
and wrapped both her wings around me to where I could feel them pressing in on my back (I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she touched my nose with her beak and stared into my eyes, and we just stood there like that for I don't know how long. That was a magic moment. We have been soul mates ever since she came in. This is a very special bird.

On a side note: I have had people who were sick come up to us when we are out, and
Freedom has some kind of hold on them. I once had a guy who was terminal come up to us and I let him hold her. His knees just about buckled and he swore he could feel her power coarse through his body. I have so many stories like that.

I never forget the honor I have of being so close to such a magnificent spirit as Freedom.

Hope you enjoy this.

Jeff

Website is Live!

I did get my website published over the weekend!!!   Yay!!  Please take a look at http://www.juliawilliamsart.com/.  I'm happy with it and hope to get some tweaking done on it today or tomorrow.  Please let me know if the website looks ok, and works ok.  If there are any issues please please let me know so I can fix them.  I really appreciate it!!

Have a great day!

Two New Paintings......

Just a quick post today.  I had several paintings that were sitting in the studio.  They were at the point where I liked them but knew they were not finished. They were at that point where you are afraid you will mess them up if you do anything else to them, but you know they aren't done!  I finally had looked at them long enough (2 years???)  I just picked one up and started.  Wouldn't you know, in just a few days I had 6, yes 6 finished pieces!  wow!  Here are 2 of them:

© 2011 Julia Williams

They are both 16" x 20" acrylic and collage on canvas.  I'm pretty happy with them and would love some feedback!  Thanks everyone!

Good news!

I'm so happy!  My website is just about up and running.  I have some tinkering to do on it but it is just about ready to hit the publish button.  There will probably be more tweaking needed once I do publish it, but it should be in pretty good shape and I hope it will be live by this weekend.  You can check it out at http://www.juliawilliamsart.com/. 

Otherwise, I'm still busy making my small collages and I'll leave with you a few to look at..  Today's collages are purple!!  :) 

Thanks for reading my blog and have a great weekend!!!