I am having a good week this week - eating Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Every other day eating works for me. Every third day eating I start losing too much weight!

Lon: Good for you! I usually only eat on Mondays and odd Fridays when I rent my shoes to another artist for the afternoon.

Life as an Artist: I haven't yet resorted to selling my own blood....but it's been close.

ReNae,

I work full time as an artist, and for "balance" I work on websites. I do my own website, my brother-in-law's website and my church website. The 3 websites keep me thinking in a whole different realm. I also like to curl up with a good book in the evening.

When I get to my studio the next day I am ready to create. Well, sometimes I'm not ready, so instead I drink coffee and chat with the other artist that I share a studio with. Hopefully after chatting a bit I am ready to start painting.
If I am still mentally "out-of-it" I just paint anyway - perhaps work on a background or clothing - usually that does the trick to get me "in the flow" and I am ready to work on the portrait's face.

When all else fails there is always paperwork to do (Yuk).

Mary Reilly

Mary, thanks for the post.

I too have done web design. I actually took a full-time job doing it for awhile. I found that the design part I liked, but the coding and all the server side stuff was not my bag.

I love your paintings of cats. It is funny, I never really considered myself a cat person but I always seem to keep at least one around (or they keep me). Funny thing, when I was in college in Philadelphia I had a studio in what was known as the old town part of Philly. I used to leave the door open in the summer and I picked up a stray. I never really fed him or anything, but he would just sit in the sun and watch me all the time, and I would talk to him when no one was around. "Lucy of Old Town" made me think of that stray. From the picture on your site, Old Town, Manassas, VA looks a lot like the area of Philadelphia I lived in. It was old 18th century brick row houses and shops.

Thanks for the compliment. I find animals fun to do, but wild cats are actually my favorite.
Old Town Manassas is a wonderful little town, and although it is technically not an "art town", there are 3 other fine artists in town and also a large pottery studio with about 30 potters. It is so inspiring to me and I love having my studio there. We use to have a cat store in town (selling all kinds of cat items) and Lucy lived in the store 24-7. She would sit in the window and watch people walk by and that was my inspiration for the painting "Lucy of Old Town".