Cuttyhunk Island

Patrick Perrotto is my friend. He is a cool dude. One of my favorites. Someone who has been a fan and supporter of my artwork from the moment I met him. So a few weeks ago when his lovely girlfriend, Christine Rochelle, asked me to do a painting for him as her Christmas present to him, I couldn't have been more excited for the opportunity to paint something for him. To make it better, she was asking me to paint a painting of him.

Pat is a huge fisher. This past year, he took a trip to Cuttyhunk, MA to go fishing with some buddies. Many pictures came out of the trip, but the one that Christine liked most was one of Pat out in the middle of the water, fishing from some jetti rocks that are almost completely underwater. She emailed me the photo and asked me to paint my version of it. 

Here is the picture:

And this is what I came up with:

It was a fun project to work on. First off, it was for Pat. So that ruled. It was also for Christine who, upon hanging out with more and more lately, is one awesome lady. And it allowed me to be a part of their Christmas magic, which was very cool for me.

It was also a challenge. When I got the picture, at first I was like "I can do that!". Two weeks later with the canvas hardly painted and Christmas fast approaching, it changed to "Can I do that?" I knew the most important and challenging part was going to be giving life to the water. I needed it to look like the water was moving, like it was softly crashing into the rocks around Pat as he fished. It took a calming day at my parents house while watching a Law & Order SVU Season 12 marathon to get it. 

After the hand off to Christine, I anxiously awaited the report of how Pat liked it. Christine said after opening only a corner Pat said "You got a Julie painting!", then realized it was him, then walked all around the apartment trying to figure out where to hang it. I can't wait to go to their place and see it too!

Miami Dolphins Painting of Foreboding Doom

One of the larger on-going painting jobs I have right now is for a 7 year old boy's sports themed bedroom. I have 6 paintings I am working of for 6 different teams. The first completed is the Miami Dolphins.

I currently have very mixed feelings about this painting. Why? Because on my Fantasy Football team Ryan Fitzpatrick of the Buffalo Bills is my quarterback. The Bills played the Miami Dolphins today. How many points did Ryan Fitzpatrick put up you ask? Over his projected 17.56? NO!!!! 7.96!!!! What is that? Last week he only put up 4.84 out of his 22.51 projected. I didn't care so much because I destroyed my opponent last week 147.14 to 90.34 so Fitzpatrick's shameful showing didn't matter.

It's widely known in my league that my boyfriend runs my team. There are no illusion that I know what I am doing. My first week I accidently dropped Arian Foster thinking I was benching him when he was injured. So when this week Ryan felt I should leave Fitzpatrick in I trusted him. I thought I should put in Alex Smith (my other QB) instead, but no, Ryan said I should leave Fitzpatrick in because Miami's defense was horrible. APPARENTLY NOT!!!! Do I even dare torture myself and look up what Smith put up? Am I that masochistic? Well, another browser is currently being opened on my desktop...

23.38. Ugh.

Whatever. I didn't stand a chance this week anyway. Foster (who I did get back at the cost of Tony Romo and the gain of Fitzpatrick - good decision?) and Brown had a bye. Calvin Johnson didn't do me proud the way he normally does. Michael Bush was the lone star of my team this week. Lucky for Ryan, he picked Bush up for me in a stroke of genius one week. I hate losing.

Winning. That's what I like. Winning. 

Baseball in the Everglades/Strange Days

For those of you who don't know, I work at an insurance company (breaking news, I know). I was recently promoted (more breaking news... not!), and I really, really, really like my job (woo hoo!). Who would have guessed... Julie + insurance = happiness?

One of the perks of my job is that word got out that paint and I have received several commissioned jobs from various Markel employees. The above painting, is probably one of my more meaningful painting as of late. Why you ask? Well, there are 2 reasons.

First, this is the painting that got me really excited about painting again. I am very pleased with it and it was definitely a challenge. I didn't know how I would do at painting the everglades. As I glance up, I can answer: pretty flippin' well.

Second, this painting was commissioned by the president of my branch, and she has ordered 8 more paintings (holla!). This equals more money for immediately, which could not be more needed as I have decided that I am moving out of my parents house in 3 weeks. I've decided the place too, despite having not seen it yet, and I'm so set on it, I've already started packing. This better not fall through...

Anyway, I digress... The second meaningful part continues. Not only has it led to 8 more paintings, it has allowed me to network with the president of my branch, and she is a very cool lady. I now have one more person I like that I work with, but I can further make my mark on my company. She knows me and by knowing me, knows how much I like the company, my future aspirations of moving up, and knows I have a strong work ethic. Pretty cool stuff.

As I am writing this, I am sitting at a counter in the kitchen of Quincy University's Friary (which I just got mayorship of on Foursquare. I'm mayor of the home of God's advocate, can you say the same?) Many of my friends do know my reason for being out here (he's currently playing cards with my sister Martha, thus my typing now). My great Uncle J.J. is a priest who lives and works at Quincy University in Illinois, and he is dying. His doctor's have given him 2-3 months to live, so I am trying to make the most of any time I have left. Yesterday he and I had a few moments to spend alone. We discussed a lot of things, one of those being that I was sad he would not be the one to marry me. We talked about my relationship with Ryan and then he came to say that he had never seen me so happy. Something as simple as this article and him saying this and being here, I agree. I have never been happier in my life and I am grateful for every day. I hope I can always hold on to this feeling, because I can honestly say that every day I am grateful for my friends, my family, my boyfriend, my job, my hobbies, being alive and just everything. I am especially grateful to be here right now, spending time with my uncle.

To end on a happier note, and at my cousin Jennifer's insistence, I want to share a moment that we had this morning, and all surrounds a movie that Jennifer and I found in the Friary last night. Everyone here pretty much goes to bed around 8/9. For us, who stay up a bit later, this is boring. So last night we went to the TV room and tried to find a movie. The Priests' and Brothers' collection is a strange one: Existence, Saw, a copy of The Green Mile and Ali which have not been opened, the entire Golden Girls collection, The Shawshank Redemption and last, and most importantly, Strange Days starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, and Juliette Lewis. Jennifer and I decided this seemed like a semi-decent cast and after reading the back covered, we decided, why not? If it was bad we would turn it off after 5 minutes.

We watched 20 minutes of this film. In those 20 minutes of film, this movie was nothing but sex, violence, and drugs, and it was terrible! Why did we watch 20 minutes you ask? WE COULDN'T TURN IT OFF! The entire 20 minutes we were just ripping on this film, and it was hilarious. Why was this in the Friary? Why was this one of the opened films? How many times had they watch this? Why did Juliette Lewis get naked for this film? Why did she roller blade in her underwear? Why did her character roll topless over to this sink and splash water on herself seductively? Is this a move men like? Why was this movie made? As reviewed on IMDB, was the statement that there were "at least five climactic scenes toward the end, which must break some kind of record" true? You can see the many moral and life changing questions we were confronted with. Ellis chimed in with many a hilarious comment, stating that if he was friends with any of this actors, he would continually invite them to hang out to watch Strange Days, saying it was his favorite movie. We postulated that the people involved in the film must regret this and have started a campaign to retract and destroy all copies of this film, naturally overlooking Quincy University's Friary, because seriously, why did they have this film?

This morning, Jennifer brought this up to JJ. We had to know why they owned this film. JJ pleaded with us not let anyone know of this blight against the Friary's name. Amidst laughter, he charged me, as Mayor of the Friary to keep the PR up and not let this leak out. But as Mayor of the Friary, I can not be derelict in my duty and not inform the world of this horrible movie.

All in all it was delightful morning of laughter shared with our family, with our Uncle JJ. and one of the memories that, if I were Ralph Fiennes, would use that weird drug S.Q.U.I.D to recall later.

In closing, I'm pleased with painting and, why was Strange Days in the Friary?

Adventure Time!

 8 by 16 Inches, 2011. ADVENTURE TIME can be purchase from my Ety.com account - PURCHASE HERE.

I've been trying to finish this painting for at least 6 months. Last week, I was on vacation and planned to do nothing with my time. Just sit on the couch and veg. I had been so tapped out with painting, having consistent commission jobs since March that I just needed to walk away from painting. It wasn't fun anymore. I felt as though I left one job to come home to another. I was so against painting for a while, that I haven't done write ups on any of them, and the one write up I did was completely half-assed and I couldn't have cared less. It is most likely full of grammatical and spelling errors, and I just didn't care to re-read it.

Being on vacation and on break from painting for a while was great. There was no pressure to complete a single painting by a certain day. Apparently that was all it took. My desire to paint returned almost immediately. I finished a painting for Ryan that I have been working on for at least 8 months (the Mets logo). Then I started a new painting. And then I sat down and finished the long awaited (possibly be me only) Adventure Time! painting pictured above. It helped that the painting I had finished, Florida Gators, kind of rocked and can be checked out HERE.

I am ready to get back to painting. I have 8 more commission paintings in line. And several owed paintings that I would like to start on. However, I need to approach these differently this time. I have a job. I have a life. Priorities change and events you can not count on pop up. The enjoyment that I get from painting, I refuse to ever compromise that again by not giving myself the time I need to complete a painting. I want to always want to paint. It was a scary couple months. I really was not enjoying it anymore. Luckily my last commission painting, which I will do a write up on shortly, kind of brought it back. I'm ready to move forward and to find new inspiration and motivation. 

I also plan on doing more Adventure Time paintings, cause this one kind of rocked. And I do love Marceline the Vampire Queen!

In The Jungle, The Mighty Jungle

 

Yet another of my Markel commissioned painting. These paintings were for my co-worker Melissa who is currently my #1 customer by a long shot. After these 4 paintings her total commission number is at 12 paintings. She has been a huge supporter of me over my carreer at Markel. When she wants her child's room decorated she thinks of me. She appreciates a part of me that is so important and she helps to foster it by continuing to commission jobs from me. As I said, very cool. I like that I can have these relationships with people. That we can touch each others lives' in small and different, but highly profound ways. 

I'm not really in a writing mood at all today, but wanted to get this up. These paintings I did based on this label for Cocalo Baby Nali Jungle Removal Wall Appliques. I think I may have found my niche - children's painting.

Got kids? I can't paint them something!