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!

Yes, that's all you get for now. WIPs...

WIPs ... Works in Progress...
Took this shot as I left the studio late last night. Yes I took it with my cell phone. Yes you can't see detail. Yes, that's the best I can do for now. Take what you can. Don't you know it's humble time? [not hammer time]
xo
saucy soo

ps. pls click title of post to leave a comment.

Two Tweets & a FB in a rare tree.

I have been doing a lot of networking recently via Facebook and Twitter. I don't watch TV and rarely watch the news or read a newspaper because I believe most of it is someone[s] else[s]'[s] attempts to get me to do what they want me to do. The same does happen on Blogs & Twitter but it seems possible to weed out the ones with MLM type or propaganda type intentions. Anyway this is a side topic currently being discussed on Twitter. Check out http://twitter.com/mediaphyter - look for her tweets about the topic of "ReTweeting" also known as "RT"

I wanted to share someone else's blog entry for today. I found it on Twitter, thus I disclose my reason for above paragraph. Here is the link: http://www.artmarketmonitor.com/2009/02/18/4053/
It is an article about Basquiat. It explains to me why I love his art so much. In case you don't know, this is a painting by Basquiat called "Notary". I will cut some quotes from the last paragraph of this blog...

".... colleagues who dismissed him as “not a proper artist”. By which they meant he wasn’t following in the modernist tradition of the almost complete removal of the artist’s personality from the artwork in the manner of say, Donald Judd or Richard Serra. But Basquiat understood the context in which he was operating. He was on a mission to breath life back into art: to save it from itself. Like the impressionists of the late 19th century, he wanted to paint expressively to counter the sterility and formal rigour of the existing art establishment."

I have read several blog posts from http://www.artmarketmonitor.com and follow them on Twitter. If you enjoy good reads about art I suggest you do too.
http://twitter.com/artmarket

Twitterfully Yours,
Suzy

Chuck Close videos

A few Chuck Close videos to enjoy..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkOyZQymJ2A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoyeBeQrTs0&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzyuHcnj8uQ&feature=related

What Happens After the Crash? A New Creation?

Been working on Harry's web pages and doing gallery biz stuff. Also been Tweeting and reading a lot of articles suggested by art tweeps. Here is one I could not help but share from the New York Times entitled "The Boom is Over - Long Live the Art!"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/arts/design/15cott.html?_r=1

Below are several of my favorite lines from the article. Each one presents a topic I would love to explore further in discussions with you guys. Several of them I'd like to put in a neon lit sign on my rooftop. I love this article because it goes beyond the typical Eeyore wa wa wa news reports pummeling our ears. It draws on history to present the whole view, that is, when something dies, something new and fresh is born from the ashes:

"The trend reached some kind of nadir on the eve of the presidential election, when the New Museum trotted out, with triumphalist fanfare, an Elizabeth Peyton painting of Michelle Obama and added it to the artist’s retrospective. The promotional plug for the show was obvious.

"Art in New York has not, of course, always been so anodyne an affair, and will not continue to be if a recession sweeps away such collectibles and clears space for other things. This has happened more than once in the recent past. Art has changed as a result. And in every case it has been artists who have reshaped the game.

"Everyone treated the city as a found object.

"An artist named Jeffrey Lew turned the ground floor of his building at 112 Greene Street into a first-come-first-served studio and exhibition space. People came, working with scrap metal, cast-off wood and cloth, industrial paint, rope, string, dirt, lights, mirrors, video. New genres — installation, performance — were invented. Most of the work was made on site and ephemeral: there one day, gone the next.

"At the same time, if the example of past crises holds true, artists can also take over the factory, make the art industry their own. Collectively and individually they can customize the machinery, alter the modes of distribution, adjust the rate of production to allow for organic growth, for shifts in purpose and direction. They can daydream and concentrate. They can make nothing for a while, or make something and make it wrong, and fail in peace, and start again.

"But if there is a crisis, it is not a crisis of power; it’s a crisis of knowledge. Simply put, we don’t know enough, about the past or about any cultures other than our own.

"I’m not talking about creating ’60s-style utopias; all those notions are dead and gone and weren’t so great to begin with. I’m talking about carving out a place in the larger culture where a condition of abnormality can be sustained, where imagining the unknown and the unknowable — impossible to buy or sell — is the primary enterprise. Crazy! says anyone with an ounce of business sense. Right. Exactly. Crazy. "

I hope you will read the entire article and talk to me about it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/arts/design/15cott.html?_r=1

xo
suzy
Please click Post Title to Comment or Read Comments

Arts Stimulus

Arts Stimulus - please help support it for the sake of all your starving artist friends....
http://capwiz.com/artsusa/issues/alert/?alertid=12652716&type=ta
Thanks so much with mustard on top!
suzy

Art Blog Award

I just received notice that Camille Olsen has passed on The Art Blog Award to me! Camile is a very gifted artist living in Austin, Texas. Please visit her blog @ http://imaramblingal.blogspot.com
I take it to heart that such a gifted colorist would take note of me. Thank you, Camille.

I am to list 7 things I love, and then tag 7 artists whose work I admire.

1. I love my mother who encouraged my coloring before I even knew how to say the word.

2. I love my husband who seems to be the happiest when I am making art.

3. I love my sons who have enlarged the meaning of art to me.

4. I love to color of course.

5. I love my friends who help me banish the shoulds.

6. I love my friend and Alexander trainer for being the color of my mother.

7. I love God who seems to be using all the above to show myself & Himself to me.

Seven artists I tag for this Art Blog Award:

1. Annette Cargill

2. Nancy Shuler

3. Jordan Hart

4. Ron Hart

5. Paul Shuler - this artist uses sound as a medium

6. Zane Ally [nepotistic I know, but hey, I think he's really creative]

7. Mikhail Ally [ditto]

Congratulations!

and the Winner of the SNOWMAN CONTEST is.....

by the Twiss Family
Caleb, Ethan, Adam, & Abigail!
hope they enjoy their prize!

Floor Drip Paintings

A bit better photo of the floor drip paintings [WIPs]

Soft & Hard

Both 30x30"

Hard to photo these two, but if you click to enlarge you can see a bit better. People seem to like to touch my paintings. The first one in particular is very soft and hard at the same time. Like a smooth stone maybe. The second one is not quite finished. Both paintings make me feel like I am diving underwater for larimar. Larimar is a crystal gem found mostly in the ocean near the Dominican Republic. It is sometimes called the dolphin stone or the Atlantis stone. It is a symbol for new beginnings. Harry gave me a larimar pendant two winters ago. I think it worked. We took a watery dive and discovered a solid jewel of a new beginning.

Valentine From Mama

WIP.
For now I call it
"Sanded Wall".
40x40"

This painting has been thru so much. [reminds me of me.] First it was a flower painting, then a dark tar non-objective, then all the colors all over the place, now sanded and the various layers show thru.

The pink one is finished. I know because it told me some things. When a painting can talk and tell you things you didn't know before, it is done.

Rose Mama
24x24"

My mother loved Valentines Day. It always creeped me out every year she would send me a valentine saying "Be Mine" or something ikky. Now that she is gone I miss getting the ikky pink hearts, so I guess I made one for myself. It is hard for me to look at it for long. I feel like I am seeing into something I shouldn't be seeing. It is so my mother. But shhh don't tell anyone, I think it is so me, too.

If you are brave, click to enlarge.

Ultramarine Sapphires

I think this one may be finished. Notice I say "may". I am learning about how to decide when a work is finished. Or rather how NOT to decide. The way to do it is to rarely declare a work finished. It will declare itself. No really it will. I think. Maybe.

Sapphire Square
30x30"

And here is an interesting shape in progress.
Ultramarine blue.
24x8"

Cobalt Ink & Tar 30x30"

Some WIPS:
First one here has been through many stages already and I think many to go.

& a detail shot of my favorite corner.

Colors Snow Me

I always wanted to live where it snowed a lot and boy howdy, now I have my wish. I actually enjoy shoveling snow tho I have to do small areas at a time or my back gives out. This last snow was so bad I had to literally dig my car out to go to the store today.

If you live in snow, you know the problem that snow plows cause. When the city plows do your street they make it harder to get your car out. There has to be a solution for this. Any ideas?

Harry says he hates shoveling snow - it makes it seem like SURVIVAL. I love that. Makes me feel alive. I have to get out there and sweat under my woolies plowing snow so I can get to the store before I starve! Arrrrrr!

Hare wanted me to show some photos of the house in snow so he could see what a good time he is missing. He is in south Georgia where just standing still makes you sweat. And then there are the roaches... don't get me started.

Anyway, it was sunny today - aren't the colors amazing? The last photo is looking down the little snow path to the studio. Sometimes I get intim- idated walking that path. The colors are so gorgeous - why should I waste my time picking up a paint brush? God always outdoes me! HAha! OK so I just won't compete, how's that?

snow sleet and snowmen

More on the Snowman contest.
Send digital snapshot of your Snowman Contest Entry to:
snowmancontest@suzanneally.com
If you win, you will be notified by email and your teeniney wee prize will be snail-mailed to you.
Advance Note: the snowman contest will be judged by Lilybell and Streudel, the totally biased and opinionated old elf sisters.

In the meantime have any snow quotes to share? My favorite snow quote is Diane saying to Woody Allen, "Here, Boris, have a bowl of sleet for dinner." You had to be there.

I'm coloring & I can't stop!!!

As you can tell from my Tweets it snowed here quite a bit more than usual. If I hadn't shoveled my porch before I went to bed at 2am, I would not have been able to open my door when I awoke [at 10].

I love the snow because of the way it reflects light and plays with colors. I have been especially absorbed with painting the past week or so and come upon some realizations that have simplified and freed up my paintings. I just love to color. Haha! See? Simple as snow!

Here are some photos I took real quick with my cell phone last night before I dragged myself to bed. In the 2nd one you can see how I have begun placing canvases on the floor at the foot of my work tables. As I work on a painting on the table top, paint inadvertently drips or splatters onto the canvas on the floor. I am trying this because... well you should see my floor; it is more gorgeous than any of my paintings. Come visit! OH, wait till I plow the path to the studio again!

Hey if anyone makes any snowmen, please send me photos. Maybe I will have a contest. Yeah that's a great idea. Email me your snowman photos and I will award a wee prize to my fav snowman!
WooHoo!
snowmancontest@suzanneally.com

Serious Art Selling & Exhibiting

Just came across this site which at first appears to be just for goldsmiths, however it has a goldmine of helpful downloadable docs that I highly recommend for any artist who seriously wishes to exhibit and/or sell.
http://www.snagmetalsmith.org/Publications/Professional_Guidelines/
Study well, my artist friends!
xo
suzy

Harry Paintings

This just in from Harry's Georgia Studio.
The Painting wall Jan 2009...





and a small drawing:

Two more WIPS...

A very nice zone...
just painting my heart out...
more WIPs...
click to enlarge...

WIPs

Been very busy in studio. Building up many many layers before declaring a painting done. A few WIPs for you ....

What's up with Magazine Street???

A satin bridal gown travels better than me, nevertheless I continue to find myself continuously traveling or just returned from traveling and recuperating. After the New Orleans trip I felt like fried cat po... oh nevermind... I had to rest up big time. Today I began sorting thru paperwork and stuff and yippee here are a couple of snaps from New Orleans...

Here is Hare at his new gallery the Soren Christensen @ 400 Julia Street in the Art Warehouse section.

And here is Hare on Magazine Street.

We are not sure the meaning of this but somehow it seems to be ominous in a positive way.

Before Harry came to OH for xmas he kept telling me about this intriguing movie called "Love Song for Bobby Long" with Scarlett Johansson & John Travolta. He also was reading the book from which the movie was made which had "Magazine Street" in the title. Something about the story had grabbed his fascination and wouldn't let go. So the mystery of Magazine Street, New Orleans, and Bobby Long was a frequent topic for our month of December together.

Then suddenly the last week of Dec we got the call & POOF we found ourselves driving a cargo van load of paintings to New Orleans! After we unloaded the van we took a wee walk to try to revive ourselves from the driving fog, walked a couple blocks, looked up and saw we were crossing Magazine Street.

We are not sure what this means but together with the little NPR story [I shared in previous blog post] we feel sparked. Of course none of this may mean anything but I will share one last thing.

Here is a photo of John Travolta in the movie [he is the gray headed guy in the red bathrobe]. Am I imagining it or does Hare look a tad like him? Haha. Oh well at least life is fun, eh?

Oh another thing... right after we returned Hare got an email from a dear old student Maria who was so bummed she missed seeing us in N. Orleans... She lives on Magazine Street!

That's it for now... need another nap!
xo

New Orleans ART is ROX!

Just returned from a last minute trek to New Orleans to deliver paintings for Harry's exhibition with his newly contracted gallery, the Soren Christensen. Arrived home, flipped on NPR, collapsed roadworn exhausted on couch doubting our sanity at driving a cargo van of paintings 2 days over and 2 days back to New Orleans, only to hear an hr-long interview with Dan Cameron telling about the success of Prospect .1 New Orleans Biennial and all the successful support for not only New Orleans, but the artists & galleries exhibiting there; if you are an artist or an art collector you want to be in New Orleans right now! Somebody up there in the airwaves knew we needed to hear that!
If anyone knows how to find that broadcast please help me out; all I could locate was a 4 min broadcast from Oct 2008, link below.

More info later, but for now check out:

http://www.harryally.com
http://prospectneworleans.org
http://sorengallery.com
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96344510