SITE UNDER RECONSTRUCTION! I am changing my shop so that 1. ALL paintings are matted AND FRAMED, no matter what their description says...I'm in the process of getting those descriptions changed to reflect the new policy. And 2. ALL paintings sold from this shop will have 100% of profit (after materials and shipping and Etsy fee costs) go to the charity FOW-USA--Friends of Ostomates Worldwide, USA office. I have an ostomy and it is my dearest wish that people in poorer countries could have access to the necessary supplies that are easily available here in the USA. You don't have to do anything--well, you could visit their website to see what ostomies are about and what FOW-USA is doing to help people worldwide, www.fowusa.org (link provided below)--but know, that when you buy a painting from me, someone without means in another country will have access to clean ostomy "diapers"--something indispensable we take for granted in the USA.

Now, the rest of this "About" section is current. Thanks for your patience, message me with any questions through Etsy. I hope you find a nice gift here for yourself or someone you are good friends with. Barbara

ABOUT ME:
According to Mom, I started drawing when I was eighteen months old--I penciled a "kitty on a fence"--with round blob body, round blob head, but also ears, tail, eyes, whiskers, and a couple of lines for a fence. I was already observing the world with an artist's eye for details. Being the kid of alcoholic parents, I was also watching EXPRESSIONS carefully, learning to read people. My kid scribbles continued despite early Art Teachers trying to mold me to their own styles (if you're an artist, don't you HATE teachers like that--"No, Barbara, the tree should be green, not blue"...) I also chewed my erasers off, forcing me to draw by putting only one or two contour lines down and thus be done with it--no going back and rehashing lines over and over again, or erasing and erasing in a futile search for perfection! So my style is this: put the pencil or the pen to paper and let fly. In thirty seconds or less, I've got a face, or a cat, or a man walking, whatever. I can add watercolor washes to that afterwards, or I can toss it.

I'm managed to maintain this scribble style throughout my life, though I had a crisis in my twenties when I realized I was never going to sell my art; I opted then to study and learn pottery from a master potter instead. So for thirty years I spent my time creating hand-thrown pots, with my own glazes, after studying with master potter David Stewart, and his master, Marguerite Wildenhain of Bauhaus fame. At the end, I I was selling pottery regularly at Earth Spirit at the Albuquerque International Airport and here on Etsy.

But my back forced me to retire, and I've returned to my first love, creating watercolor and ink (or as they are sometimes called, line and wash technique) sketches. I thought it would be nice to sell my smaller work on Etsy--5x7s, matted up to 8x10 frames. It's a perfect size for your bathroom--I'm not kidding, that's were most women hang my work, the stuff they personally get a giggle out of. Not in the living room where you gotta "impress the friends," right? They are also often given as gifts. Strangely, most men don't seem to "get" my art, although a few do.

As for my ostomy background, I had a deadly reaction to a chemo treatment for breast cancer that ruptured my colon and threw me into septic shock; fortunately I lived, and woke up in the hospital with a surgeon-created stoma or hole in my abdomen, which would become my new a$$hole for the rest of my life. Since "Tommy" (short for ileostomy) doesn't have a sphincter, she kinda squirts poo randomly 24/7, like a baby. I have an adhesive disposable "diaper" system which catches the poo but I need a regular supply of fresh diapers. Like a diabetic needs a supply of syringes. It's pretty sanitary for me, but when I saw a photo of an African man lying on his blanket with a WalMart grocery bag duct taped to his abdomen, my heart just burst with compassion. Thus I've become a supporter of Friends of Ostomates Worldwide (USA office), and now donate all my profit from my artwork to them. They get donated supplies (called appliances, not diapers) from ostomates like myself, as well as financial donations to cover the cost of shipping these supplies all over the world. And yes, they've been shipping to Ukraine lately...

ABOUT MY ART:
So, my "Familiar Faces"--I sit down and let fly, and in seconds I've got someone staring back at me, or slyly glancing away. All with attitude. All with character. All with something to say about people's reaction to their lives. Then, I listen, and they tell me what their names are, and it's as though I kind of know them already! Now I start out with nothing in my head. No models, no portraits. But they arrive, and then they seem like an Agnes, or a Raul, or a Gloria. Okay, sometimes cats come out. Or birds. Or cartoon monsters, sometimes things that are best described as critters. I used to do horses a lot when I was a girl, and sometimes a horse will still visit me on paper, flying through the air. I then apply a quick watercolor wash to them.

As for the landscapes, I really love clouds, and I want them to be realistic. I'm still struggling with this different style for me. These take a lot longer than a minute, but I will be done with them within hours. Same with the barns. My flowers don't take as long, and that's where I can cut loose with glorious colors!

If you've read this far, I must ask you to "Heart" my shop so that others will find it through the Etsy search engine that analyzes these things. It's easy to be an artist, I was born that way! But I know little about marketing, and could care less. I hated doing live art shows. Too many people... too few sales. I am just now learning about "how to attract more buyers" to my site. Sigh... So here are some plugs, so that the Search-Engines-That-Be might smile more on my shop:

You may follow links below in the "Around the Web" section, to "Website"--to Friends of Ostomates Worldwide-USA's website. Clicking "Facebook" takes you to FOW-USA's FB page. The one marked "Blog" takes you to my Amazon book that I wrote about Pottery and life in general. It will give you a deeper understanding of the Real Me who is the artist in whatever medium I'm using. Thank you!