Archive for June 2012
the yellow rose of Texas
This will be the only time you will ever hear me say this, but…this painting was inspired by Texas. Being a bit of a arty-farty-weirdo, Texas and I have a hate-love-hate relationship. But, its history has some interesting characters. This is a painting of the Texas heroine Emily Morgan, often called “The Yellow Rose of Texas”. After hearing about her story and determination, I thought she might make a cool painting.
So here’s your herstory lesson for the day: Emily was an indentured servant of Captain James Morgan. Emily was captured by Santa Anna’s troupes 1836 (during Texas’ battle for independence from Mexico). The story goes, that during a key battle Mexico’s general Santa Anna had forgotten to post guards or any defense of his camp. The Texas army came in and won the battle in less than an hour, it was a huge turning point in the war.
The reason behind Santa Anna’s strange, distracted behavior? Ms. Emily Morgan. No one knows for sure how the cunning and charming Emily distracted Santa Anna from paying attention to his troupes, some say she drugged his food, others say she used her womanly wiles to enchant the general. Either way, it was her who helped turn the War for Independence in Texas’ direction.
Unfortunately, during her capture by the Mexican Army, Emily lost her papers that declared her “free”. So even after helping to win the war, upon Emily’s return she had to fight for years to win back her freedom from slavery. Total and complete BS, but she eventually declared free again, and was able to return to her family in New York. That is determination for you.
She’s pretty much a bad-ass. If I had learned about her in Texas State History in school, I might not have fallen asleep so often!
postcard time
Would you like a mini Sarah art to hang on your refrigerator or office bulletin board? I have a bunch of extra postcards left, so send me your address and I’ll mail you one. Please send addresses to: foxsar at gmail.com (I wrote it funny so the little internet robots won’t use my e-mail for their prescription ad dumping ground). I promise to not sell your address to any advertisers or anything crazy like that. First off, I have no idea how to do that, and secondly, I’m pretty disorganized so I will most likely loose said address after postcard mailing.
the blank canvas
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! You can’t run, you can’t hide…it’s BLANK CANVAS!!! or, maybe that’s just how it feels for me right now. Sometimes I dive into paintings head-first with no fear or procrastination. Other times (like now), I do everything in my power to not start a new painting. I frame all of the old paintings that have been sitting for months un-framed, catch up on blogging, regretfully purchase Diablo III, and even paint art-sticks:
To be fair, I do kind of dig the art-stick (she’s 5 feet tall and her name is Cotton-Candy). But the point is I have been doing everything in my power to NOT start my new painting this time, and I have a theory why. So my last painting, I was really, really happy with (something that doesn’t often happen to me). I thought it was successful from a visual and art-theory standpoint. I thought it had nice color, movement and is one of the favorite pieces I have ever, ever done…and that has scared the shit out of me. I can’t speak for all creative-types, but for me I think there is a deep-seated fear that paintings like that last one are big flukes. That the next one and all of the following ones will be crap, or at the best mediocre…because where that last one came from, I’m not sure.
I’d love to hear some other creatives weigh in on this. Do you think it is harder to start a new piece after a success or a failure? What are other people’s experiences with the blank canvas?
