100 Faces in 100 days! I finally finished!

Well I didn't think it would feel as though the time flew by when I started this project. I am feeling a bit surprised by my own sadness at ending this project. I am exceedingly happy to have done it though and tonight I'll be at our local thrift store that raises money for animal shelters. They are having an art walk and I'll bring my faces with me. I do love talking about this project. I have some things in the works regarding this work. I haven't really had the time to focus on it but I will now. I may take a few days off from painting, to do some much needed organizing. I tend to focus solely on painting and nothing else. hahah ..

There was a person that said they were looking forward to my grand finale. .. and I wanted the paintings to be extra special but I'm a little spent on the thinking aspect of this project. I wanted my work to be extra special and so I painted the elephant to go with all the Africa stories that I wrote about and this little guy is just so cute and my mom loved her elephants and had several wood carved elephants in her home.

I am really just so happy to push myself to paint every single day and I want to paint more and bigger and different things besides faces and what not. I realized how much I love color too and how I can use it to make me feel really happy. Some of the paintings really gave me great satisfaction. Some I realized the frustration of not being able to get it just perfect and sometimes I just had to say enough!! It's enough... and then as the days went on I painted longer and more details.. sometimes I wanted to paint less.. I'm just really glad to have made this commitment and stuck with it.. WOO HOO .. . I want to celebrate so I am guessing it will be tonight at the art walk.. by my self and with anyone else that comes over. So .. about the second painting here. I realized that my love of painting faces is the eyes. It's hard to paint the eyes or a close up of an elephant because they are so big. I really wanted to paint eyes for the end and so I lamented a bit and decided to paint a cat face with big eyes. I like how it turned out. So it's kind of a celebration that I have two paintings instead of one. I started out day one with three faces and so i'm ending with two. I think i'll go jump for joy!!!! Thank you to all of you that came over and commented and wrote to me on facebook and purchased my art. I have really been awwed by the support. Maybe one day I'll have lots more commenters but i have appreciated those that have. I'm just happy ..Thank you .. for watching even if you never said a thing. :) Its good .. it's all good.

The elephant and the cat face are both about 10 3/4 x 13 1/2 the biggest I think so far. They are each for sale for $100. If you would like to purchase one of these please email me at iwilldream4ever@aol.com. Thank you again .. it's been a wild ride and amazing. Oh and I'm not going to stop blogging .. I may do another project like this in the future. I will be making an announcement soon about what will happen with the portraits that are still available. Please do come back to my blog and see what I'm up too .. remember artists are people too and we need to make art and we need to make a living while we do it so please support artists by buying their work. It's important and it is valuable. We make the world a bit more interesting. Please help us do what we are meant to do. :)

Day 99 and Under the Sea

Today is almost over .. i fell asleep as I was about to edit the photo of this and then write the post. Fortunately, I am awake again and I still have about a half hour before the day is officially over.

I decided to paint this beautiful fish today because it reminded me that I was so fortunate to have snorkled or swam in the red sea. One day I went with my mother to snorkle in the water out in front of the hotel where we would stay sometimes when we'd go to the port about three hours away from our home in Africa. We were in a sort of bay and there was a kind of jetty with a lighthouse .. we decided to go and check out the water's along the jetty. When we got to the other side the water was deeper and the view was like a magical garden of fish and color and beauty that I could only imagine in my head but there it was right in front of my eyes. This painting reminds me of that scene. I always recall that moment as feeling as if I'd jumped into a treasure box. I'll never forget what I saw.

If you would love to own this beautiful fish please email me at iwilldream4ever@aol.com.  Thank you for your support during this experience. I can't believe that this will be the last time for me to write .. see you tomorrow in this project. :)

Day 98 and a Chameleon

Well two more days and I will have finished a painting a day for 100 days. I still can hardly believe how fast the time went by. I am overjoyed really that I have accomplished so much. Today's painting is day ninety eight and this is a chameleon.

When we lived in Africa the children would often come by our house and try to sell us things. From cactus fruit to gum to chameleons. I always thought they were fascinating and they would always bring some different color fabrics so you could see how the chameleon would change to fit the fabric colors. It was amazing how they would blend in. We would always beg our mom to buy us one but she never did. We did occasionally buy some cactus fruit but no live animals of any kind. Except for our one dog Monster. When the children would come by to sell wares' they would sing .. Americana Fay Fay .. I spelled it the way that it sounded to my ear. We would always run to see what they had to sell .. children from two very different worlds. We loved parts of theirs and they loved parts of ours.

If you love this painting which took me many hours today while I enjoyed talking with my two boys today on the phone almost the entire time I painted. It was well more than an hour, infact it was about four .. email me at iwilldream4ever@aol.com. See you tomorrow and the next day. ")

Day 97 and Jacques

Today is day 97 and while this isn't exactly Jacques it is painted in his memory. For a long time as we were growing up we always loved going to my grandma and grandpa's house. They were my mom's parents. We always had fun there and they were always loving on us. There was always good food and fun. There was also a little budgie named Jacques. And a gorgeous dog named Cookie. We loved both of them. If we were good my grandpa would let us go over to Jacques cage and open the door and put our finger out and he would hop right onto it. It was always fun to put him on our heads. He always seemed to like that and sometimes he would pull your hair. I think I remember he even would give kisses. He was never mean and always sweet. I don't know when he passed on and I don't know how old he was when he died but I always remember him being on my head and sitting on my finger. I'm glad to have thought of him and to paint this image of a bird just like him. It's good to finally get a painting done earlier than usual. Just three day's to go. :) If you would love to own this beautiful painting of this budgie, email me at iwilldream4ever@aol.com. See you tomorrow.

Day 96 and Hedgehogs

Today is Day 96 and this is a Hedgehog. I think these are the cutest little creatures. When I lived in Africa I went to school at a military school. We were fortunate to be a part of a wonderful community of people. A group of American's living in Africa. I was eleven when we left so all of my experiences there were up to that age. I know I was at least ten when I would ride my bicycle to school and sometimes I would ride the bus. If I rode the bus sometimes I would walk to my best friends house. One day on my way home we went by another friends house. We went up to her house because when we walked by she was outside on her front porch. As we got closer we saw that she was sitting in front of a box and we went over and looked inside and this is what we saw. There were two or three in there. They were so cute they looked like miniature porcupines. We got to hold them and they were so sweet. We didn't hold them for very long before we put them back. I had forgotten about them until yesterday when I saw a photo of one somewhere.. This little guy reminded me of how adorable they were. Not sure they make good pets or not but they are cute.

If you would like to own this cute painting of a hedgehog email me at iwilldream4ever@aol.com. Four day's left and so I'll be back tomorrow. :)

Day 95 and Frog faces

Well today is day 95 and there are now only 5 left to go. It's been amazing really. I really just find myself enjoying the painting and I spend a good bit of time on each of these paintings and even though I try to limit that I enjoy it so much that I put more and more into each one. Somehow the maps just seem to make a great background for the creatures that I have been painting on them. These guys have such personality with their big big eyes. and what appears to be a big smile. This is a tree frog but I've come across many toads in my life. One my dog got to messing with and I rescued it from her grip.. the toad just sort of sat there as if it were dead and then much later it was gone. I hoped that it was just resting and playing possom and that is what I hope and believe. And i've imagined it hopping away when the coast was clear enough to leave.

If you would love to own this cute frog face just email me at iwilldream4ever@aol.com. And have a great day. See you tomorrow!

Day 94 and The Northern Mockingbird

Today is Day 94 and the Florida State Bird. I did a Mockingbird yesterday but it was yellow. This one is grey and brownish. I don't know that I ever knew that this was the state bird. I love the realism of the eye on this bird. It's painted on a map of Florida that is on a book cover. I always thought that the Florida state bird was a scrub jay. There is something that seems very interesting about the size of the bird over the map.

I think that the best thing about painting this many paintings is the quantity .. and I'm excited about what will be next. I really have enjoyed most of it .. except for the late night hold my eyelids open with a toothpick nights. Not fun. I hope to have the day's to paint and I won't wait till the last minute to work on the things I love to do. I will always paint .. I don't know that I will always choose realism but I will always paint.

If you would like to own this bird face please write to me at iwilldream4ever@aol.com. See you tomorrow and for the next four days after that .. woo hoo.!!!

Today is day 92 and the Baltimore Oriole

Today is day 92 !!!  Almost there and today my life feels a little more normal and I am painting again in the MORNING!!! yes I have discovered the time of painting joy yet again!!! I decided to paint this bird because everyone .. lots of people love the birds. I love nature and I love birds too. This is painting is on a map that I have sewn to an old photo folder the ones where they open and have a paper mat for a  photograph. This one probably had a family portrait in it at one time but more then likely was put into an album and my mom decided to keep the folder. The map is of Virginia and Maryland and Washington D.C. Two states that I lived in. Virginia was a little town near Haymarket where I went to school and the other in Maryland where I graduated from High School. SO the Orioles are Maryland's state bird. They have such beautiful orangish yellow feathers .. so lovely. This is a young bird. I like the background of the map and I loved living in both states. We were close enough to visit the wonderful museums in Washington D.C. I spent many trips going to all the art museums there when I lived in both states. Maryland is where I lived my art.. I entered my portfolio into scholastic art awards and got my portfolio picked for judging out of many that were entered. It was the first time that anyone entered portfolio's at our school and three students entered and all three of us were accepted for review. Two of us won something we were told. We would find out at the awards ceremony. One was for a full four year scholarship to an art college of our choice. I couldn't sleep for a week. Sadly I didn't win. I think it would have changed my life and the course that it took over the next 30 or so years. I do still wish I had won but I am who I am because of all that happened. When I paint .. i try to paint my heart and soul right there, no matter who or what I'm painting. I'm really very grateful to be painting every day for the last 92 days and there were some bumps in the road but I've kept true to my commitment. I am amazed when I see all the work there in front of me that I haven't sold yet. I have eight more paintings to do .. and I'm just going to have fun with it..

If you would like to own this painting today of a Baltimore Oriole bird face please email me at iwilldream4ever@aol.com. See you tomorrow .. !!!

Day 90 and 91 Abu and Coconut

Today is day 91 and yesterday I got home late after finishing pricing everything in my mom's house. I went and bought some groceries and came home completely spent. Even writing this here I had to think if it was last night that I actually went to the grocery store because at this moment it feels like it was days ago. That's really how my brain feels. Yesterday seemed to be more difficult with just hearing the ladies talk about my mom's things. It has been a great learning experience and I'm even getting paid to help ha ! But if I do this again for another sale I'm glad it won't be with my own family's stuff. So last night when I got home I managed to fix some dinner and sit down to do the daily portrait. I actually got started on this painting here and was so exhausted I fell asleep .. I had no chance of doing it in the morning because I was gone early .. So i made a decision to finish it up today and so I did paint each face on each day. I don't know where or why I decided to do this portrait but I'm guessing that it's because tomorrow I am talking to a friend and my life coach Theresa Pizzuto who is part owner of IOP and her own coaching business. I don't ever really talk about this but I have been working with her for a while now. I really don't want to explain it but feel free to contact her if you would like to know more about it. I guess the best thing I could say about her work is that she helps me be me .. and the best me I can be. This is a good thing. She lost her cat Abu who is the gray cat in this painting. It was a tragic sort of loss for her. I am doing some other artwork for her but I wanted to give this to her just because I'm grateful for all she's done for me. The other cat in the photo is Coconut and they did seem to love each other very much. Abu looks a lot like my own cat that died a long time ago .. 34 years ago. I miss that cat. So here's to Theresa and all her fabulous work as a coach and a diversity consultant doing good work to spread love and a listening ear to all who are in her life! I'll mail this off to you in the next day or so.
oh and this was painted on a piece of scrap wood from my dad's house. :)
See you tomorrow!

Day 89 and Kitten

Well today is day 89 and I missed it all tonight .. too tired after pricing stuff at my parent's house for the estate sale. I ate dinner and fell asleep and then painted this kitten. Not my fav painting but it's cute. Reminds me of the time I got a kitten for Christmas.. i named him Christmas Kitty. I loved him .. he was definitely my cat. That's all i want to say about him. Makes me sad though.

If you love this and want to purchase .. email me at iwilldream4ever@aol.com

I'm going back to sleep now.

See you tomorrow.

: )

Day 88 and an Indigo Bunting

Today day eighty eight. Just twelve days to go to reach 100. I am really just so thrilled to be painting every day for this many days.. I LOVE doing this !!!

Today I am still in the process of clearing out my mom and dad's home. I got to spend the day with the Estate sale people learning how they set up an estate sale. It's really amazing to watch them transform a house full of items into something that looks inviting. I will be there again tomorrow. It's been really good to be a part of it. However I seem to be unable to be present when anything sells. I feel this stab in my heart. It makes no sense to me .. I have no attachment to the items that are there but none the less I feel nearly overwhelming heartache when someone wants to buy anything. Then I saw one of the people ask if there was anything good? or someone else put on a hat and say something about the hat ... it all became rather personal. Even though none of the stuff was mine it was my mom or dad's. I was curious to see what people liked. Each person had items that they liked to collect. It was interesting to see which items they felt were the most valuable. So I found it all informative at least. IT seems that estate sales is a growing business here. Several of the estate sale people are booked for months. So ... today I painted the Indigo Bunting because so many people loved the Red cardinal from yesterday. Atleast my eyes are not needing to be held open with toothpicks.

Ok if you would like to own this beautiful blue bird .. email me at iwilldream4ever@aol.com. See you tomorrow. :)

Day 87 and Cardinals

Today is day 87 and this is a fabulous cardinal ... i should have started it this morning .  I didn't but I did thouroughly enjoy painting this one.

I am again late posting this but atleast I have an hour more since we are in Eastern time and our clocks were set back last night.

I am too tired to write much more .. i just love this cardinal though.

If you would like to own this cardinal send me an email at iwilldream4ever@aol.com.  see you tomorrow.










































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































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Day 85 and the Red Robin babies

Today is day 85 and this is a Robin and her babies.

When I lived in SC my house was in the woods in a beautiful setting. The house was old and falling down pretty much. I tolerated a lot but I loved where it was so much that I didn't really notice the things that most people did. Over a window in the center of the house was a nest. I watched it being built. And it was amazingly wonderful. There was enough there that the egg's were in a safe nest. When they all hatched it was incredible to watch the mother bird go out and come back to feed the little babies. I loved it so much. They all yapped and she was always trying to teach them to fly. They got so big in the nest and there were five of them two more then the ones in the painting.! They were so big that they had to sit on the edge of the nest. Then finally one little bird sat on the edge flapping his wings and I thought it would be soon that they would leave the nest. They were all gone sometime in the next day or night. I loved watching their progress.

This portrait is available to you for $85 and it is about 9 x 11 and it is painting on a file folder. Thanks for stopping over and I'll see you tomorrow. :)

Day 84 Muffy

Today is day 84 and i don't seem to be able to do them on time .. so maybe I am lagging. Just doing the best I can .. i keep falling asleep before I get them done.

Today was moving heavy stuff at my dads so .. I'm sore and still tired .. ha .. i am looking forward to not being tired.

Today's portrait is of a maltese dog and she is Muffy. Her official full name is Muffin Michelle. She was a sweet sweet girl that my mom originally bought from a breeder in Virginia when we first moved stateside. Her close friend wanted two of them and so she bought them and we had to take care of them for a while before they could be shipped overseas. I think something else happened too but I don't remember what it was. But what I am quite sure of is the fact that we had two maltese puppies and they were so adorable and so much fun to have that my mother was not going to do anything but keep them for us. We loved them .. Muffy lived for about 12 or 13 years. She was tiny .. about four or five pounds but she was fearless and she never was afraid of any animal no matter what the size. Most times other animals would run from the tiny fluff of white fur and barking this high pitched bark at them. I think that Muffy and Beau slept with my mom and dad most of the time but sometimes Muffy got to stay with me and my sister. I hadn't thought of it before but I have now .. i wonder if they are in heaven with my mom. I'm sure she would love to be with them and pet them and love them. Makes me think there should be a song called all the pets I've loved. Or maybe i'll just write a book .. All The Pets I've Loved. I love Muffin Michelle and Beau Brummel Bianco. Sweet dogs ..

If you would love to own this portrait please email me at iwilldream4ever@aol.com. This is about 8 x 10, sewn cards.  See you tomorrow.

Day 82 Shambell

Today is day 82 and I did start this earlier and came back to it this evening. It's been a week that feels a bit like a fog because I've been so tired emotionally and physically. Today felt more normal than usual haha. This is good.

Tonight I decided to write about Shambell. I may have talked about her before when I talked about riding horses when we lived in Africa. I learned to ride at the British Consulates. My mom used to take my brother and I when we first started going. We always went with a guide and we always got to run the horses sometime and if we weren't careful they would run back to the stables on their way back when they knew it was time to go home. I always rode Shambell. She was a beautiful black stallion. I loved this horse. I loved her. When we left Africa I was just eleven years old. By the last year or so my brother and I would walk to the stables by ourselves and ride with the guide .. it was fairly inexpensive so I was often asking my mom for money to go horseback riding. It was incredibly fun. I always wanted to brush the horse when we got back. I was always grateful to the horse for letting me ride her. This is painted on a childhood storybook that was oddly enough Black Beauty, it's what got me thinking about Shambell. This experience always had me wishing for a horse as I was growing up. Sadly, there was never again any horseback riding in that way ever again after coming stateside. Except for one time when my uncle who had horses on his cattle farm rode with me on a horse to see if any babies had been born one morning. I had told him that I was comfortable riding a horse. When he saw there was a new calf he decided to stay and watch him for a bit and asked me if I wanted to ride the horse back to the stables. I excitedly said sure! He was something of a joker and decided to put me in my place and hit the horses rump and yelled "Get!!" and of course the horse took off and ran like a race horse all the way back to the stable. I held on for dear life and had to duck to get past a door threshold going into the barn. I was lucky I didn't hurt myself .. my Uncle thought it was funny .. No matter what, I've always loved horses.

If you would like to own this horse painting email me at iwilldream4ever@aol.com. This painting is 7.5 x 11.5. See you tomorrow!!!

Day 81 SHE

This is Day 81. I can hardly believe that there is less than 20 days till I will be done with my project. This past week has been really difficult to paint and post. My dear friend Judy has been here with her two children since Saturday and tomorrow she is leaving. I have had a wonderful time seeing all of them. Today my portrait is painted on a piece of masonite with a horoscope on it and I found these wonderful stick on letters so I used them to create the word SHE. I found this quote and thought I'd write it here. "A woman is like a teabag, you can't tell how strong she is till you put her in hotwater." I feel like I've been in hot water and right at the moment I don't feel so strong. So I'll be optimistic and pretend I will find out later that I am strong. The next few days I plan to sleep .. haha .. I only have a few things left to take from the house and I will help the estate people but I'm not sure I can be in the house when the actual selling of the items left takes place. So here is the first portrait with this much text on it. I like it.. and here I am again a few minutes past midnight .. sheesh .. and I am having a heck of a time trying to stay awake.

If you would like to own this portrait please email me at iwilldream4ever@aol.com

See you tomorrow. :)

Day 79 and Feeling Transparent

Today is day 79 and I have been feeling rather transparent.. to tired to explain . .. just suffice it to say I am here . you can see me and sometimes i feel like you see right through me ..  ..                                                                                                                 If you would love to own this portrait just email me at www.iwilldream4ever@ao.com/See you tomorrow..

Day 78 and the Shisa Dog

Day seventy eight and this is one of two ceramic dogs that I was given from my mother's home. They are terricotta ... not sure this is my favorite portrait but there is something about these dogs that is appealing. They are part of Okinawan mythology. They put pairs of these on the entrance or gates to their homes to ward off evil spirits. From reading some believe variations of this same thing. They give gender's to the dogs with mouth's open and mouth's closed. I liked where I read that the mouth open was female spreading goodness.  While other's say the female is the one with the mouth closed to keep in the goodness. I guess it is each to his own in how they interpret or were told were their previous loved ones beliefs regarding a Shisa dog. My mother had several of these around her house. I think she really just loved the looks on their faces and that they depicted the culture of a place she lived and loved. Yes my parents lived in Okinawa for a few years after their nest was empty. Yesterday was a long strenuous day and today I will be back at it again and then someone else will step in and sell the contents that is left. There is still so much left.. many items may not have sentimental connections it's just still letting go .. and then there are still the clothes that I am insisting on keeping. I have no idea where I will put them...so ........i'll sigh and go get my boots on and get busy dealing with all that will happen today .. if you happen to take a minute to read this .. send me a thought of strength and love and compassion for myself and my loved ones that are going through this process with me.. we are all impacted by this good bye to stuff and a house .. a beautiful house with a beautiful garden and beautiful plants and a fabulous view..

As for my portraits .. this one is definitely diffferent and I don't really care how realistic it does or doesn't look .. it's where I'm at today.. if you would like to own a shisa dog email me at iwilldream4ever@aol.com. see you tomorrow..

Day 77 and Good Grief

Day 77 and I titled this post good grief because I know that grieving is a process and when you can do it, it's good. But sometimes it just seems to hit you and kick you in the butt. Right now we're in the end stages of closing up the old house that my parents lived in for the last twenty five years or so...it's difficult. Now there is every nook and cranny that has to be cleared out in the house .. NOTHING can be left there and so the reality of it hits hard and all the stuff has to be sold or moved or thrown away .. etc. And there is this sense of anxiety .. should I keep this ? How do I feel about this?

I will be glad when this is over...

It's just difficult.

The face today is a pouty sort of face .. that is how I feel .. sad and pouty. It will get better .. I will survive this load of grief and sadness ...




Send me an email if you would like to own this portrait which is painting on rusted fabric and has stitching on it. Iwilldream4ever@aol.com. See you tomorrow.

Day 75 Mending my heart with Stitches and Tears.

Today is day 75 and woohoooo .. it's not midnight and I'm still tired but .. it's not a torturous attempt to get the portrait done before the clock strikes twelve and I turn into a pumpkin again....

I have done stitching on faces before but I really want to try to combine two things here .. actually three. This is rusted denim that I have painted a portrait on and then I have stitched threads in sashiko style stitching. I really love how this looks .. and so this marks my three fourths of the way through. I have only twenty five days left to paint portraits. It's amazing really that I have gone so far .. and I have learned so much.

A note to my self..... I see you.... .. I hear your heart and I know that you are having a hard time saying goodbye to things.. that held the happiness and love of a mother .. the things that she surrounded herself with to make her happy.

What I notice is that my dad has built a new house with no sign of my mother. His words are there is nothing feminine. He misses my mother, he feels strange in the new house, there is something missing... no longer the touch of his wife. No longer the things surrounding them that she loved. Her energy is not there.. he misses the familiarity of his old home. The sunshine on the river water .. even though he didn't sit and gaze at it.. it was always out the window. I notice that it is never expected all these feelings that he struggles with. He didn't think this would happen. He thought it would make it easier..but he doesn't feel her presence in the new place .. not that things embodied her but that you saw her in the color of the pillows.. you saw her in the arrangement of the art. You saw her in the flower's that sat in every corner,  on tables and over doors and windows.. all of that is gone. I don't think we think about that.. I really don't know for sure what causes these attachments to things that I struggle with my self. We are selling a lot of things .. and I have a looming sense of fear that something will go away that I should have taken .. or that I should not sell.? Where does this come from? I don't know .. it's holding on .. .it's pain. All I can do is cry .. they are just things. They are just things ... I know she is in my heart.. Perhaps that's the mending in this portrait.. Mending my heart with stitches and tears.

I may not part with this portrait either .. but if you would love to own this one send me an email at iwilldream4ever@aol.com. Thanks for stopping over and I'll see you tomorrow.