That's Just How I Do It

Rooster, yet to be titled, 30x30, collage on wood panel

In a recent blog post from my dear friend and fellow artist Robin Maria Pedrero talked about how she accomplishes everything she does. I found this post to be so refreshing and interesting as Robin and I often speak about balancing family and work.

Robin talks about keeping a positive attitude, mentoring and teaching, learning from her mistakes and managing her time. She goes on to share a typical day in her life, and it resonated with me. I decided to borrow her idea and share with you, my readers, a day in my life. I do this because like Robin, everyday people say to me "I don't know how you do all that you do."

This week I am teaching seven fifth grade classes the art of collage and the profession of being an artist. I am at Sabal Point Elementary school every day this week except Wednesday, which is early release day. Yesterday was Wednesday.

Tuesday late afternoon the corporate director for the Grand Bohemian Gallery which carries my work nationally asked me if I had any new work. Since I have been working on my Noah's Ark Series I have not had new work to give her for a while, and I am feeling badly about answering that question with "no" because my answer for most things is usually "yes."

I Always Give it My Best
Vanessa was looking for a large scale rooster piece and had hoped to install it in the Asheville gallery. I told her I'd do what I could to get one done for her.

sketch with beginnings of underpainting

Late Tuesday night I sketched up the rooster onto my 30x30 panel and coated it with multiple coats of clear gesso. Wednesday morning at 6:30am I blocked in the green background before waking the kids for school. 

Multitasking is Key

While the kids were showering and getting ready for breakfast I pulled on my sneakers and ran three miles around my neighborhood. When I returned I checked on the kids progress, took a quick shower and cooked breakfast of eggs, toast, sausage and fresh fruit (Every morning is like Sunday at our house). I ran a load of laundry and put away the dishwasher. Before they went out the door to catch the bus I packed them both healthy lunches and kissed them goodbye, wishing them the very best day!

Slightly off  Center

Back inside, I quick changed into my gym clothes and headed off to lift weights. Exercise is my relaxation, I enjoy pushing the limits of both my mental and physical strength. I find my center and calm my mind through exercise every day. Before I clean up, I dash out to the studio to block in more color on the rooster, completing the underpainting. This will need to dry for a few hours. I'm moving so fast I think I'm still burning calories!

underpainting progresses with more blocking in and

establishing a decorative background 

Keep Moving

I head into the house and put the laundry in the dryer, shower, check my emails and design an ad layout for a health and fitness club in Baltimore, MD. Today I have set aside some time to have lunch with a friend since it's early day and  I am not volunteering at school. We enjoy Greek food and catch up conversation and then I head home and back to my desk. I design a tri-fold massage brochure for that same Baltimore client, field more emails, make changes to some fitness posters for my Orlando based Sportsplex and before I know it I can hear the beep-beep of the alarm as the kids come in the garage from school.

I take the kids for frozen yogurt so we can spend some time together before dance and swim team. We head home and on the way drop my daughter off for dance at 4:00. I encourage my son to do a bit of his homework before we have to leave for swim team at 5:15. Take a few minutes to check social networking, email and waiting for the underpainting to dry.

Head to the aquatics center with my son for 5:30 and back to pick up at dance for the break from 6-7pm. Arrive home, make spaghetti and organic chicken sausage. Back to dance for 7-9pm and pickup Connor at the aquatics center at 7pm. Typically I have help with the driving buy my husband is out of town on a photo shoot this week. Hit the post office to mail DVDs on my way home.

Balancing Act

Get everyone back and forth and settled with homework, then I sit and read for an hour with the kids and the dogs until DANCE MOMS comes on TV at 10pm. It's a repeat and so I tell my daughter I'm going to pass and head out to the studio to work. They are engrossed in TV as I head to the back yard with the dogs in tow. I pick up some papers and try to organize my work area a bit, put on some good music and start working in a sea of reds for the rooster waddle and comb. 

In the groove when 11pm rolls around, but I have to check on the kids and make sure they don't stay up any later than DANCE MOMS, head inside, say goodnight, clean out lunch boxes for tomorrow, and rotate the laundry again, dogs in tow. 

darkness has settled in as the sun has been down for hours, 

but I'm still going strong

Head out to the studio after everyone is in their room for the night. This is the witching hour, it's when the magic happens. Put my favorite Pandora station on, take the glue brush out of the water and I am quickly back in the zone. Share a few fun texts with my friend and Dog A Day painter Kim Santini who tells me she's turning in for the night. Stay in that zone for as long as I possibly can before the yawning starts around 12:30. Keep working until 1:00 am and sit for a minute to evaluate my progress.

Head in for a few hours of sleep with visions of paper tidbits dancing in my head like sugar plum fairies. Sometimes it's hard to get to sleep when my brain is moving so fast, even though I am tired. Tonight I get to sleep about 1:30. Some mornings I wake at 5:00am with my mind working away wildly at collage solutions and techniques for future subject matter. 

Do it All Over Again

Up at 6:00 am to varnish the now dry rooster head piece. Head out to evaluate the night's work and be sure I like it as much as I thought I did. Apply varnish and head back inside to making breakfast and start the day. After the kids go, I hop on my bike for a 20-mile ride and along the way I stop to take iPhone collage reference photos of the cows on the bike trail as they are at the fence and I have not seen them there in weeks! 

Return home and put another varnish coat on before heading for the shower. Today I'm volunteering at school again so I likely will have to bring the rooster downtown to the gallery tomorrow morning. I'll put the hanging wire and final varnish coat on this afternoon. 

And that's just how I do it. 

Dynamic Duos

click to enlarge

The oversized postcards for Dynamic Duos Celebrations Gallery arrived and they look great. Many thanks to Jackie for putting my collaborative piece with Robin Maria Pedrero "A New Take on Cake" on the top left!

Robin and I shared our detailed process and the works here on the blog and on facebook. One of several collaborations, but our first time to actually have worked on the sames pieces.

 

If you live anywhere near Pomfret Center, please stop by the Gallery and Shoppes, they have recently opened a beautiful tea room on the premises where you can sample some unique blends and sweet treats. They are offering monthly themed afternoon teas from 2-5pm and reservations are required.

click to enlarge

Collaboration for Celebrations Gallery

"We Stick Together", Robin Maria Pedrero and Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson

Robin and I have worked together in the past, and this year we decided to do it again as part of a collaborative show at Celebrations Gallery and Shoppes in Pomfret, CT. Ironically, Robin grew up in CT and now lives in FL, I grew up in MA and now live in FL. Robin and I have been friends and fellow artists for years, in fact it was her encouraging the folks at Celebrations that got me in the door!

We started out the birds piece with Robin taking the blank panel, painting a layer of her resist technique including branches, leaves and two silhouetted birds, and then handing it over to me. I added two more birds and branches in collage, some flowers and some postage stamps, and gave it back to her. She was then inspired to add more leaves, fruit and even a very subtle house in the far background. I love it! She gave it back to me and I was so happy with it that I just photographed it!

"Let Them Eat Cake", Robin Maria Pedrero and Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson

The Cake piece was started by me with a blank panel. It was Robin's idea to lay out a grid and have us each work in every other square. I covered the background with old recipes tinted with acrylic stain before laying down a pencil sketch on top of that. I did my underpainting of the cake in all of the squares, but I only collaged in every other. I then handed off the piece to Robin who added paint, charcoal, birds and branches and painted her panels to be harmonious with mine, forming a complete cake image. She mimicked some of the collage patters in her squares to keep the continuity, this work super because the piece looks like a complete image and not a checker board. Our work is interacting with each other!

I truly enjoy working with Robin, it was fun collaborating and even having lunch once or twice to discuss the project! 

Collaboration for Celebrations Gallery

©Robin Maria Pedrero, stage two

Robin Maria Pedrero and I have embarked on yet another collaboration! I'm very excited because last time for "Chalk, Paper, Scissors" we both created the same artwork image in our own style and medium and they were exhibited side-by-side. We were also in a two-woman show at Seminole State College Fine Art Gallery. For the SSC show we produced a catalogue that is still available on Lulu.com

Robin and I are great friends and we are both from New England. Robin introduced my work to the folks at Celebrations Gallery in Pomfret Center, CT and the rest was history. Now, not only are we both represented by this lovely gallery, but we are ready to jump in and participate in their call for artists to create a collaborative art project!

Over a Greek lunch, we decided that we would each start a piece in our own style on a 18x24 cradled birch panel, and then we would swap and finish each other's work. Robin's stage two is so beautiful that I'm afraid to touch it!

©Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson, stage one

Here is my stage one, it's cake recipes glued down to the wood panel which was primed with clear acrylic polymer. This is a different way of starting off for me, I'm experimenting with our project. I plan to put some brown stain over this to tone down the papers, prime it again with clear gesso to give it tooth, and then sketch a birthday cake on top of the recipes. Robin and I once had mirror images of cupcakes in our "Chalk, Paper, Scissors" show,  but this takes the cake.

Landfill Hubcap Art - A Project for 2011

Ken Marquis of Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania has created a widely popular eco-friendly art project that has captivated the world, Landfill Art Project. He has convinced artists to turn hubcaps into canvases and do what they want with them! He's sending out hubcaps every day to artists in this country and around the world. Today I received my hubcap.

Thanks to my friend and fellow artist Robin Maria Pedrero for encouraging me to take part in this project. She has already painted her own hubcap.

I am looking forward to collaging my metal canvas, although I have NO IDEA what I'm going to do!

Cherie's Progress

I visited Cherie on Wednesday, as I do every week. I'm happy to say that she has art cards taped to her walls and had a great big smile on her face when she mouthed (she cannot speak due to the tracheotomy and the ventilator) "I am getting TONS of great cards, THANK YOU!" We had a great visit. I'm happy to report that she was in good spirits and looked much better than last week. She was smiling and "talking" to me for about an hour.

What more could you ask for? One card of note that was pinned up was my dear friend Robin Maria Pedrero's work in pastel. Many thanks to all of you who have taken the time to send a Random Card of Kindness to Cherie, you are making her smile!

They have gotten her up into a wheelchair a couple of times and she's been able to sit and be disconnected from the ventilator for a few hours at a time. Shepherd Center in Atlanta has accepted her for rehabilitation after evaluating her in person last week. Now we just need to get a Medicaid approval for an extension of benefits (they limit the time in to 45 days, Cherie's accident was September 30 and she has been in ICU since) as well as an approval for FL state benefits to extend to GA. Shepherd Center is on of the best spinal cord rehabilitation facilities in the country. They will teach her how to adapt to her limitations with specialized equipment.

Please keep Cherie in your thoughts and keep the cards and notes coming!