Sweet darling daughter Anna asked today how the preparations are progressing for the house art show on April 8th. My answer to her started with, “On Friday, I noticed that one of the neighbors had a big pile of sandy dirt in their front yard with a sign stuck in it that said ‘FREE DIRT’….”

In typical fashion, because of the FREE DIRT, I’ve started a particularly big, yet completely unnecessary project, considering all of the other things that need to get done in preparation for the house art show. Because of the FREE DIRT, I thought it would be a great time to re-design the front footpath — the path that leads guests to our front door, which, of course, has created extra work, which, in effect, had already been done, but now…I’m doing again.

The DIRT may have been FREE, but it’s costing me.

It seems as if painting’s in limbo
my brain and paintbrush all akimbo
don’t know what to do
besides crying boohoo
or try painting (again) just this once mo.

From whence shall come more inspiration
while spring is all springy elation?
You’d think it’s be easy
new flowers all tease-y
(I think my brain needs a vacation)

So instead of painting, I’m baking
and cooking while thoughts are gestating
I sure hope this slump
is no more than a bump
in the road to a muse re-awake-ing.

The Amazing Reese helped chaperone for Yellowstone Academy’s rodeo field trip this year. Of course, all the kids loved him. The first thing one of the kids said to Reese when she saw him was, “Hey! Down here. You’re tall.”

They loved Reese for protecting them from the scary kids (aka baby goats) in the petting zoo.

They loved Reese when he gave them piggy back rides.

They loved talking to Reese, and climbing on him, and they loved eating ice cream, too.

They had fun planting pretend seeds and watching them grow and “sort of” learning about farm life.

These two kids were NOT afraid of the kid goat. His fur was soft.

Getting to share a few hours with these kids was a delight. Of course, Reese being Reese made it fun for all of us. My favorite things….holding hands, laughing, eating and sharing a turkey leg (and funnel cake) with the kids, and having Reese there to share the whole experience. After we all devoured the turkey leg, we saw a live turkey, and one of the kids said, “That’s what you like to eat.”

And to top it all off, on the bus ride back to school, one of the girls looked at me and said, “Your hair is grey, but you’re not old. You’re young.” Bless her heart.

As mentioned previously, while preparing for the house art show (April 8th, 6-8pm), I’ve been painting black edges around unframed paintings and putting them on the floor to dry. I’m also reworking several paintings for the show (such as the ole rooster.) When working on a painting, to gain perspective, I walk backwards away from the painting on the easel to get a feel for how the painting looks from a distance.

Yesterday, while backing up and looking at the work-in-progress-painting on the easel, my foot planted right in the middle of one of the drying-the-black-edges-paintings on the floor. Thankfully, it was a painting that wasn’t completely stretched tight, and the canvas surface gave a little, instead of ripping.

The whole absent minded incident freaked me out a little bit (just kidding…but not really.) It’s just a painting. Life, health, safety, eternity….none of those things were compromised in any way. It’s really just a painting.

The old 1993 Buick Roadmaster has been on the blink for well over a month. And because things have been rather tight at our house financially, there just hasn’t been money in the budget for the luxury of having two working cars. On most days, it’s easy enough to live as a one car family. But this winter, it’s been cold and rainy, and riding a bike to the grocery store and church just isn’t as much fun in bad weather. Not that I’m whining….I enjoy a good challenge, and coordinating our schedules around the one working car has been a kind of game.

But NOW, thanks to our friend Mike, who actually enjoys working on cars and helps others out of the generosity of his heart, the car is completely and totally fixed. (It was the starter.) And even though I love riding my beautiful yellow 1973 Schwinn 3 speed, it will be awesome to run errands in the car today, especially since it’s dreary, drizzly, and chilly here in Houston.
(My task was to stay close by…..so that 911 could be called in a hurry….in case the car fell on top of them. That’s the Amazing Reese on the right, and our friend, Mike on the left.)

On the advice of someone much more experienced than I, the Hazel Art Open House Show has been changed to April 8th, from 6 – 8pm. Refreshments will be served.

On that note, I’m very busy getting the paintings and the house ready for the show. Sweet daughter Anna suggested painting the outer edges of all the unframed paintings black. This gives them a finished look, in spite of being unframed. (It a fairly common way to go about preparing paintings for a show. If memory serves, there are even paintings in the Menil Collection with this type of finished look.) It’s slow tedious work, and requires no creativity, though as precise as I am about details (in certain things,) it’s good that it’s me doing the work, and not someone else. In any regard, to finish a painting this way is contemporary.

I am a contemporary artist.

Other than feeling ancient, the Critically Caroline/Massive Collection Show opening was quirkily fun. Shannon Duncan did a great job curating the exhibit considering the wide variety of art produced for this show. Street signs and bike parts were placed next to photographs and spray painted found objects. There were several paintings, mine being the most “traditional” in the sense that it depicted a general representation of a “place” discovered in my bike wanderings around the city.

One really cool feature of the exhibit was a giant wall map of Houston’s inner loop pinpointing the exact locations (and names of the artists) where inspiration occurred for the created works of art in the show.

It was glaringly obvious that I was the oldest artist showing in this exhibit….probably by, at the very least, 15 years….maybe more. Any other person in my age range who was at the opening was a parent or close loved one of the fellow showing artists. My heart and spirit still feel young, but by night’s end, both Reese and I had aching feet, misaligned backs, and were generally exhausted. That said, had “art” happened at any other point in my life, I wouldn’t have had the time or emotional energy to devote to it. Therefore, in spite of being more advanced in years (especially in this show,) the timing and pursuit of art as a “career” still seems right.

Come join us at Caroline Collective on February 27 from 6pm to 9pm for the opening art installation, titled Critically Caroline / Massive Collective. The event is open to anybody who would like to come and, as always, refreshments will be served.

This show celebrates the artwork of Houston Critical Mass cyclists. All installed work has been inspired by the act of bike riding in Houston’s Inner Loop, and is pinpointed on a large-scale map. Artists Chuy Benitez, Kira Black, Oliver Bludworth, Matt Bower, Lindsay Burleson, Brittney Connelly, Claudia Cruz, Shannon Duncan, Osman Galindo, Christa Havican, Sarah Hazel, Corbin Hughes, Marian Ochoa, Smitty Regula, Kyle Silverstein, Nick Teel, Matt Tremble, and Ervin Valdez explore mediums including found object, photography, painting, video, drawing, and installation.

The show is curated by Shannon Duncan, organized by Ned Dodington, and sponsored by C2 Creative, LLC. The exhibition itself will be open from February 27 to March 18 and may be viewed during Caroline Collective’s regular business hours (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm). You can also call the team at Caroline Collective at 832.429.6867 to see about scheduling a private showing if you can’t come during regular business hours.

(Entire content copied with permission)

It should come as no surprise that on some days, inspiration is nowhere to be found. So, while the basics of life are perfectly poised and the studio neat and tidy, there’s still a general lack of oomphf with regard to creativity. What is to be done about it? Today, the house is clean, the studio is organized, there are no distractions, and there is nothing…nothing whatsoever being sparked in any way, shape, or form as creative revelation.

Usually, on days like today, I just DO something, just start something, try something, anything. And usually, that works well enough to get the creative juices flowing again. But not today. All my efforts and attempts to do something were wasted….thrown out with the trash.

I think I’ll go for a walk.

Earlier this week, there was a lovely article in the Houston Chronicle blog that jolted me a little bit. This depressed economy has been challenging for Reese and me financially…and quite honestly, we’re struggling. The ends just aren’t meeting. In all of our talk at home about ways to bring in some cash, I had casually mentioned to an art friend that one of the ideas Reese and I were considering was having an open house with the hope of selling a bunch of my paintings in the $50 – $400 range. We were just throwing around ideas. Word travels….because stunningly, in the third paragraph in the above mentioned article, there’s a statement that says….

Following this event, Hazel’s art will next be on view at a retrospective exhibition of her work in April.

Wow. Um, well, I guess it’s time to make it happen. The whole city of Houston (and beyond) is invited to our house, 2315 Addison Rd, on April 9th from 5 – 9pm. Y’all come buy some art (and whatever else isn’t nailed down.)

One of the tasks I’m doing in preparation for the Hazel Open House is — surprise! — painting. For quite a while, this ole rooster has been fussing at me to re-paint the background. (He was originally painted in 2006.) It took forever to decide how to re-do the background, but here it is.
People ask me all the time how long it takes to finish a painting. For this rooster, the total amount of time spent creating the painting is now is, give or take, almost 4 years, though, according to Einstein, (this is from WikiAnswers)

experiments to define time on its own were a waste of time because time is actually a dimension of duration in covariance with space. Thus we have the timespace continuum, not the “time and space” continuum.

And this 16″ x 20″ custom framed oil on linen Sarah Hazel painting could be yours for the low low price of $325, (unless, of course, there’s a bidding war.)

Feel free to make an offer on the house as well. It’s a great house in a great neighborhood with wonderful neighbors. We’ve loved living here. It’s the kind of house that will perpetually need TLC, but totally worth it. (I’ll upload some photos on Zillow soon.)

Also, recently I had a give-away for one of my apple paintings. For this open house, I’ll add all the names already entered in the last drawing, and everyone who attends the open house can enter their name (or re-enter as the case may be) and another painting will be given away by 9pm on April 9th. But wait, there’s more: 5% of the open house night’s proceeds (excluding the sale of the house) will be donated to Yellowstone Academy.