The Arboretum

Today it was finally warm enough to go skiing. The snow was a perfect powder. Tomorrow I plan on more skiing, an ideal way to spend part of Christmas.

Milk

Tonight we ventured out in the freezing cold to see Milk. The super talented, strangely attractive Sean Penn was Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected politician. It was a great film and informative.

Pablography's pic's

Click here to view "snow cave life" and more of pablography's pic's on flickr, another favorite of mine. He has some lovely images of the northwest.

Small Places Tour Nov 13-Dec 9 2008

Through December 9th Amnesty will be celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in British Columbia. Click here to view my painting, article 6 and more info about the event.

The Kautokeino Revolution

While looking for Mari Boine videos on youtube I found this. I love her haunting voice, and this video, which is not on netflix? It looks awesome, reminds me of Black Robe.

Steep

This is a very cool film. A great way to escape reality, informative and very well made, great shots of lovely snow, mountains and amazing skiing.

This month I'm the featured artist for Susan Weed's ezine Wisewoman.
Click here to view Winnie the Witch and more.

A friend's farm near Wisconsin Dells

I was at this farm for a few hours on Friday. It was a perfect day.

The old barn looks like a barn I would paint.

This was the horse I rode. Her name is Sarah too.

Amnesty painting

Yesterday a friend took this picture of me and my painting for Amnesty International. To my right I was being distracted by Ernie, who was getting me to laugh. Soon I'll have to send it to Canada, oh-no. There go my imaginary friends. Getting the check in the mail will help ease my sorrow, ha.

Diversity Cover

A few days ago this came to me from across the big pond. The book was written in Holland. I like the layout.

West of Madison

Over the week-end I have been organizing and cleaning... Yesterday I did have a lot of fun. Here are some pic's I took west of Madison.

The beautiful Wisconsin River , near Sauk City. It was a perfect day to be there, heavenly. Too bad we didn't have suits with us.

Blanca, my goofy dog friend. After going to the beach on the river she was given a bath and looked funnier than usual.

We met this guy on a walk. We have seen him before doing handstands at this school. He wanted me to get a picture of him on top of the jungle gym, yikes!

Help I can't get off my bike!

A few days I bought a new to me bike and I want to ride it all day.
The weather is so nice and there are so many trails to ride.

Today a book came with one of my paintings on the cover. Whenever I get my
camera back from a friend I will post the cover image, maybe tomorrow.

Next time I promise I'll have pictures. Hey women are visual too, ha.

Nancy's Garden

This is a flower from a friend's garden. Last Saturday I was there taking pictures of her flowers and produce.

Here is the painting I'm working on for Amnesty International.

This painting is 30x30 inches. It will be done this month. The painting represents Article 6 in the International Declaration of Human Rights. Everyone in the world is equal under the law, in my own words. We know that doesn't always work out, ha.

Cat Sitting

For the last few weeks I've been cat sitting 2 cats. Here I am with one of the 2 cats. They are very affectionate, they don't yet know I'm the boss, ha. Does anyone know how to train cats, like keeping off the counter in the kitchen??? I'm more of a dog person.

Corn fields

It's August and there are a lot of beautiful corn fields and corn to eat, yum.

For the next few months I will not have a featured artist on my blog.
Sometime next year I will start featuring artists again.

Stay tuned for new artwork and images from my mini road trips.

John Butler Trio, Treat Yo Mama

This is one of my favorite bands. They will be playing here in August.
Respecting women, great idea, ha. Now I want to ride a bike.

Dali Lama and Amnesty International

The last few days I have done a lot of different things, including seeing the Dali Lama give a talk in Madison. Before he came to Madison I helped get the Buddist temple ready, it was lots of fun and I met awesome people. If you are ever in Madison visit Deer Park temple south of Oregon. The temple is outside of Oregon in the country. There are murals, and lots of amazing decorative elements, it's a real gem. Above is part of the inside. The blue is gorgeous!

This month I was picked to paint an image along with 29 other artists for Amnesty International. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created 60 years ago, which is why we are working on the art. Each artist will represent one of the 30 articles in the Declaration. Mine is article 6. The art work will be displayed for their film festival in Vancouver November 13-16 and later moved to other public buildings. Later they will use the art for promotional material. Of-course I'm very happy about it and will start tonight. In the next few weeks I'll upload the painting.

New Phone Number!

Here's my new phone number (608) 444-2828. My other number is (920) 366-7130.

Move to Madison, new phone number, Ironman, Afternoon Walk...

To view more of Swamibu's photos and about the monk and tiger click here.

Several days ago I moved to Madison and am recovering from driving and lifting heavy boxes. This move was better than the last move, where I had to go to the hospital after a painful injury, ha. To get over my aches and pain I've been walking a lot, like the tiger.

This month or week I'll be getting a new phone number the 920-969-9812 will be replaced by a 608 number. I will be keeping the 920- 366-7130.

If you haven't seen Ironman, it's worth seeing. It's a far fetched fantasy. There was a lot of action and suspense and some humor. There were a few things I didn't like about it, but overall I liked it. Robert Downey Jr. was made for the role.

More about what I'm up to will be posted soon. There is an exciting project I'll be starting soon and waiting to hear back from them any minute, there's more...

Octopus in Madison

After the fourth of July I'll be moving to Madison,
where there are several of these Octopus car washes.

I am both happy and sad. Soon I will be starting a new job
and in the fall taking classes too. I have a pal/exercise partner
there, so we will pressure each other to be active and do a lot more
than go to work, how dull.

For awhile I will not be working on any paintings. Though I'm sure
after a couple of months without I will pick up my paintbrushes again.

Artist of the month, Dan Hardin

The artist for this month is Dan Hardin, a musician from Kentucky. He has a hauntinng voice and is an overall nice guy. Check out his videos on youtube
To view one of his videos on my other blog click here.

Jason Mraz, I'm Yours

My favorite Jason Mraz song, cool video too.

3 New Paintings on Etsy

Who's the lucky guy catching me.

Little me facing my challenge that seems out of reach.

Me floating down the river, while my friend plays in the sand.

Artist for June is Cathy Nichols

The painter Cathy Nichols is the artist for June. Click on the title to go to my other blog. To learn more about her go to her website: cathynichols.com

5 Useful Things to Know if You Want to Be an Artist(5 more coming later)

Here's a new video I uploaded on Youtube today. As I go along I'll smooth out the rough edges. Why is it so grainy, and my hair so dark? It didn't look that way on my camera???

5 Thing to know if you want to be an artist

Lately I've been thinking about all of the misconceptions there are about being an aritst, so I wrote down 10 things that I learned the hard way. Well I was naive about the whole thing in the beginning, but learned as I went along. Some people have a negative opinion and others a more romantic one about being an artist. With all of that in mind I've been working on a video to talk about these things, but have taken a time out from my camera, not doing what I want it to do for me,ugh! For now I'm writing these 5 down. There will be 5 later, cause that's how I planned it on the video.

1.Rejection, get used to it. Unless you are well connected, really lucky or a
marketing wiz, you'll get a lot of rejection.

2.Persistence, you must be persistent. This bussiness is more about hard work
less about talent. Like anything you must keep at it.

3.Bussiness and marketing, learn as much as you can. Read books, take classes,
talk to people, ask questions...

4.Write down your plans, what are your goals? How will you get what you want?
This can always change along the way, be flexible.

5. Have a website, start small, have pictures and a short bio. If you don't have
your own computer get one today.




Enough words, let's look at a pretty picture. It's another curious cow, they are the same everywhere.
Click here to view more of gardawind's pic's.

Lost e-mails

Last week, sometime before Thursday all of my e-mails were lost because of a power outage, ugh! If anyone sent an e-mail last week, please send it again.

Krazy Kat

Lately I've been looking at the drawings/paintings of an artist I love George Herriman. From 1913-1944 his Krazy Kat comics were published in newspapers throughout the US. These amazing comics about unrequited love are funny and sad at the same time. In his drawings unrequited romantic love happens between species, hmm? I love the rich colors he uses too and landscapes. For more about him click here.

negative artist stereotypes

This week on a sitcom one of the character's was convinced to be an artist, (this deep thought occurred while getting stoned,ha) instead of doing some real work. Over the years I have seen many of these negative stereotypes about artists on TV and in films. So I looked on the web for information, but didn't find much on the topic. There was a website with the artFBI, which ended last century sometime. If anyone has any info about this please e-mail me.

New prints

These 2 prints are from my recent original paintings. Today I added them to my Etsy shop. They are based on childhood memories and fantasies I had about having a tree house.

matted giclee prints and sale

Today a couple of gilclee prints I had matted were added to my shop. A handful of giclee prints are on sale through July 1st. Click here to view my shop. Soon original paintings will be added.

This sexy cow is on sale as a print. The original was given to my Dad as a joke for Father's Day. He loves it.

Festival of Spring

On Saturday I was a vendor at The Festival of Spring at The Paine in Oshkosh Wisconsin. The weather was great, neighbors friendly, I had good help, plenty of exercise and it was fun overall. The Paine is a mansion/castle tuned into an art museum. For more on The Paine click here. This was my first outdoor festival. My next one will be in July.

Sara Smile

Ooh, a love song for me, love the thought!
Except that's not how I spell my name, ha.

Artist of the month, Annette Ellis

The artist of the month is Annette, who has many cool photos to view on flick.
View her pic's on my other blog. Here is one of her many skull images,
reminding me of The Grateful Dead.

Learning to Fly

Here is a new painting that I listed as a print on my Etsy shop
Lately I have not been on the computer much getting ready for art fairs, rummage sales, decorating the house... May 17th, this Saturday I will be in a plant/craft art fair at The Paine Museum in Oshkosh called Festival of Spring.

Garda Lake

Recently I have been painting birds for some upcoming shows. More on that later this month. While looking at images of birds I found these amazing swans by gardawind. His images are so rich, I love em! He loves nature, me too. To view more images he took click here.

My paintings at St. Claire's Hospital.

A couple of years ago I sold these 3 huge
(huge for me, 32x42 and 32x26) paintings
to St. Claire's Hospital in Weston Wisconsin.
This week while in the area I took this video.

Walls of Wittenberg

This week I went to Wittenberg Wisconsin to view the murals. Here are some pictures I took. On the road trip I swung by Weston and made a video of my paintings at the hospital there. It's on Youtube and under a minute long.

Flickr photos, so cool

Here are a couple of photos by Chris (archi3d)'s that I love.
Click here to view more.

King Corn review

Last night I saw King Corn. Two guys grow an acre of corn in Iowa and learn
about how much corn is grown in this country and added to cheap foods
that we eat. There's more to it. It's well made, informative and worth seeing.
Click here for more about the film.

King Corn

This documentary will be on Public TV Friday night on Independent Lens, depending on where you live.

Picking Flowers and more giclee prints listed on Etsy

3 new giclee prints were added to my Etsy shop. Here is one of them. Click here to view my shop.

New Paintings

Here are 3 new narrative paintings: Castle in the Woods, Deer Isle and What is and What Could Be.
Later this month I'll have prints and cards made of them.

Newly listed items on Etsy

Here is one of my newly listed paintings on my Etsy shop click here to view more prints and paintings.

From Asparagus to Zucchini

In a couple of months, hopefully, fresh produce will be available in the midwest. To get ready an excellent book to read is, From Asparagus to Zucchini. First published in 1996 in it's third edition with over 420 recipes for fresh produce. More than a cookbook it includes essays on sustainable agriculture and more. You can buy the book at the Local Harvest website click here for more info.

Escape to the Tropics

Last night I went down a water slide, it's part of my job, ha. It was fun and reminded me of warmer weather and swimming outside again. Here is an image of a warm tropical place, nice fantasy. Click here to view more of Hussain Jinan's photos on flickr.

Oprah Winfrey Lookalike

This is so funny. It's an over the top exaggeration of her. I love it.
Hopefully Oprah would think it's funny, cause I love Oprah and her show.

Melvin McGee, April featured artist

Click here to view the featured artist for April Melvin Mcgee
on my featured artist blog.

Featured Artist and New Art Work

This week I will be posting the April artist of the month Melvin McGee.
I'm also working on new paintings that I'll post later this month, stay tuned.

New giclee prints on Etsy shop

Two newly listed giclee prints on my Etsy shop.

Dark Hallow

Love this version of Dark Hallow, sung by Dan Hardin.
It reminds me of part of my childhood
staying with family in Kentucky.

featured artist, YouTube video

Today someone sent me an e-mail to inform me that
I'm the featured artist on imagekind click here.
How did that happen?

Right now I'm busy with several projects,
and on a semi-vacation, dogsitting.
The vacation part is having
2 weeks off from my other job.

Yesterday I worked on making my first video,
which is on youtube, click on my name, sarahsolie7.
It's called basement tour. The next one will be
better and maybe I'll post it here.

Angels & Demons

Angels & Demons click here is a group I belong to on Flickr.
For Easter I'm adding these 2 images.
The Devil inside is my painting and danse masabre
is by annette62, click here for more of her cool pic's.
I love her skull images.

Ramble On

Love this video, the music and clip were made for each other.
The only problem, I caught a split second of the
dangerously sexy Viggo Mortensen, wish there was more, ha.

New giclee prints on Etsy shop

2 new giclee prints
from my original paintings
for sale at sarahsolie.etsy.com