Smokey Mt Road Trip

xxx.

Movin' on UP!

Time to put the "Moved" sign up here now. I have consolidated my blog and website into one site at http://suzanneally.com It is just the basic structure - I still have to add my bio & paintings - but the blog is fully operational complete with functioning comment buttons!

If you subscribed to my Google email updates thru this site, you do not need to subscribe at the new site; your subscription will still work there. However if you used a different site subscription service you will need to resubscribe on the new site.

On the new site there is a link back to this old site for all the loyal fans who reread my posts all the time. ;)

So hurry on over and make a post my my new blog. "Movin' on up... to the East side... we finally got a piece of the pieeeeeee!"

Help is just a Tweet Away!

Well, the new site has all its bones in place! I have a lot of meat to transfer over to the new website and then I'll open the doors & you guys can go punch my new comment buttons to your heart's content!

For now I just want to say thanx for all the great advice you guys have given me. Kudos to Karelia Company's affordable & FUN Sandvox website app & JS-Kit for being easier than instant jello!

What made this so fun was getting to talk to peeps that own & work at these companies while I was working on the site. What you want to talk to them, too? Oh OK, just hook up on Twitter:
@Karelia [Sandvox]
JSKit:
@khrisloux
@ChrisSaad
@jskit
@JSKitSupport
@nancycole
& of course Twitter's @ev & @jack

Now I'm going to Tweet @Zappos and see what shoes he suggests I buy for spring...

Tweet ya later taters!
xo
suzy
PS. OH OK you can go poke around the web construction area, just don't trip on anything I left hanging out at the edges! http://suzanneally.com

Mustering Gumption

Today feels like a personal beginning of spring for me. It is time to muster my gumption to get the wagon rolling for all our spring projects. So a bit of cyber housecleaning seems apropos.

This is romance for 2 artists: I go out to studio in the afternoon to let myself miss Harry a bit. This morning I dropped him off at the airport to fly back to Ga. As he was pulling his bags out of the van, he told me he left some paintings in the studio for me to finish up for him. Excuse me while I tread water in these emotions.

If you are sitting there scratching your head @ this, not to worry. Our life together has always been weird. Seems like we have lived apart as much as together for more than 30 years. And when we are apart sometimes we are more together than when we are together. Absence hasn't always made the heart grow fonder but it has always made the real rise above the worthless.

Harry & I did some joint paintings at a workshop in Statesboro, GA many years ago. Mostly he painted hearts and I Xed them out.

I was the subject of his masters thesis paintings in grad school. Funny we don't have even one of those paintings now.

Harry has always had a higher perception of visuals but I have always had a keener perception of color. Off & on at times we have tried to work these together. I am not sure if we are ready now.

So on another note I have selected a software program by Karelia called Sandvox for Mac which I am using to build new websites for all of us - Harry, Mikhail, Zane, & me. I am still in a connundrum about which web server to use. Needless to say I need something cheap and yet dependable. I've already tried & decided against: GoDaddy, Hover, MyDomain, but considering HostGator & Cornerhost. Any advice is much appreciated.

I am loving the Sandvox - looks like it will enable me to do a blog via my own web server so all of you who are tired of my comment button being askew, will enjoy the up&coming fresh new spring revamp.

Later taterz!
xo
suz

iScream for iMac!

Greetings on this fine springy day! Have been getting to know my new iMac & dissing myself for not converting sooner. I decided to test out a different website creator called Sandvox for Mac. Ohmygoodness. Sweet! & WAYYYY more affordable than Dreamweaver! I am considering using it to revamp not only my website, but my blog and all of Harry's web & blog as well.

I'm ALSO in the midst of switching web servers. I think I found a sweet little owner operated biz. He sends me personal emails in response to my questions. As soon as I make sure he is PERFECT I will recommend.

Harry is here in Ohio and painting in the studio. He has a new painting that is dreamier than dreams & I'll post when I feel like it.

Go for a walk or something and enjoy your weather.
Talk to ya later!
xo
suzy

Opportunity for my Artist Friends!

Today I'd like to pass on an exhibition opportunity for my fellow artist friends:

CFA No. 3 – 2009 Public Art for Stephanie Tubbs Jones Transit Station

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) transmits herewith a Call For Artist (CFA) for the above referenced services. The procurement schedule for this project is noted below:

Sealed proposals for this procurement will be received until 4:00 p.m. Official Time, Monday, April 6, 2009, at the location noted below. Proposals received after the designated time, or at any place other than the designated location, will not be accepted. Proposals shall be submitted to:

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
Executive Department, 5th Floor
1240 West Sixth Street
Cleveland, OH 44113-1331
Attn: Theresa A. Burrage

Copies of the Call for Artist packages are available and may be obtained on the GCRTA Website at www.riderta.com and are located under Business Center; Contract Opportunities; Public Art. Deadline for questions is Friday, March 30, 2009 at the close of business.

All communications regarding this procurement, including requests for
clarification shall be directed to Theresa Burrage, at 216-566-5187, at the above address, or by e-mail to artsintransit@gcrta.org.

All necessary instructions are included in the CFA and should be followed with care.


Sincerely,
Maribeth Feke
Director
Programming and Planning

painting writing seesaw

One of the jobs I did to support myself in art school was as museum guard for the Fort Worth Art Museum. The exhibitions usually lasted a month. Once there was a solo exhibition by some rising artist whose paintings were covered with writing. A solo exhibition meant the whole museum was full of this one artist's work, so no matter in which room I stood guard, there it was again. writing, writing, writing, writing, writing, writing.

Standing in a museum doing nothing is a very very boring job. It is so quiet and so still. If I had to stay up late the night before, I was really afraid I'd fall asleep on my feet & wake up falling & fired. So I figured out games to play in my mind & soon grew thankful for the writing paintings.

Now I cannot remember what they said or what they were about, but I remember that after awhile I just started enjoying the letters for their own inherent shapes and gestures. It was about this time we were studying Jasper Johns in art history class and it clicked together; I understood. I began using letters and words in my own paintings & have continued to consider words and letters as tools in my paintbox all these years.

It was also a bit before art school that I had begun writing. There were times when out of the blue, a pageful of words would press against my brain to come out and I would pick up a pencil, turn the faucet, & let her flow. I could never arrange it to happen. It was sometimes pleasant, sometimes a relief, sometimes cathartic. It was like spontaneous emotional puking or dancing. And there was always a certain amount of water in the pipes. When it was done, that was it, I could not conjure up anymore words or message.

For several years I wrote songs prolifically, then something happened, not completely sure what, and the songs just weren't good anymore. So I stopped writing them.

Now and then I would journal my life and thoughts. Now and then something kind of interesting would come of it. At one point I seriously began writing a book of my life. I started right at the beginning of my memory at two years old. And I knew the title immediately, Looking for Black Georgia. I think I wrote about ten short chapters up to age five. Then some things happened in my life and I uprooted and moved to Ohio, but I feel like someday I will get back to writing that book.

I have a dog-eared yellowed stash of these writings that I think I will begin to digitize and share on my blog. I am starting to feel comfortable writing again. I get faucet urges even. Last week I had another faucet urge & decided it is time to start myself a writing blog separate from my writing about painting blog. [haha whew!]

So without further verbosity please clik on over to ... Suzanne Ally Writing...

xo
suzy
PS. My comments button is NOT broekn over there so you may leave comments. PLease feel free. thanx!