much to say about nothing

I've been wondering what I'm supposed to post about when I don't have any new work finished up and ready to share? I've been super busy, but due to the new (to us) house, the small kids, the dog, the snow... a lot of my creative energy has been directed toward painting the kitchen, stripping wallpaper in the bedroom and thinking through Bakugon-themed birthday party plans for my almost-5-year-old. Uncreative energy has been going toward shoveling. I'd be happy to share all of that if I thought anyone was interested, but feel like I'm "supposed" to have art to post.

Luckily, this piece I ordered from the amazingly talented Ashley Goldberg arrived today:

Other than being excited to have something to post about, I'm totally in love with the colors, the texture, the quirky houses. It made my day! (please note that the original image is cropped in this photo)

I know that one of the things that drew me to this piece is that I've used simple house images in my own work for ages. Every time I think I need to branch out and find a different subjet, I just can't find anything that says what I want to say like a house does. To me they can speak of family, safety, shelter, community, tenderness...but also sometimes secrecy, isolation and obligation. I wonder if I'll ever find a way to say so many things with a different image?

I love the way these other artists have used the image of the house...such a broad range of interpretations:

Sarah Ahearn is one of my all time favorites- the little houses sprinkled around in many of her mixed media paintings feel so sentimental.
Lucy Summers creates the most wonderful, intricate designs which she then uses to print her own gorgeous fabrics.
Heather Kirtland is someone whose work I just discovered, and I love her use of encaustics to create floaty, ethereal houses.
I've also just discovered Lily Stockman's work, and am completely blown away by her "Homestead" series. Breathtaking...so far out of my realm of ability, but inspiring me anyway. After visiting her site, I've been working on these:

A little experiment, I guess. I'm giving a go at working on a panel instead of paper, and more of a painterly approach to image making, over the collage-driven pieces I've been doing for a while. I'm nowhere near as comfortable with them as with some of my other work, but it's a good time for me to be playing around, as I have no shows booked until June- there's nothing to be making art "for", other than for the sake of exploration, I guess.

So as it turns out, I guess I did have something to say...but be warned...next post really might be all about a Bakugon themed 5-year-old birthday party!