Still Painting...and making Dolls!

Barbara De Pirro

I'm still reading artist bios and books on brain function and creativity. Completing a painting...never as good as I would like, but good enough to stop, so I can start the next one, is like solving a puzzle...how do all the pieces go together, and how can I make it have some interest...and something of the character of the person I photographed originally. 

Brain Pickings is an extra treat on Sunday mornings, a treasure trove of thoughts about writing and creativity...and everything in the world. Milton Glaser (famous designer) talking about how exploring new ideas keeps him young.

Shiley and Johanna, owners of Akamai in Port Townsend

I decided I needed a long-term painting
project for the 5 years until I can afford 
to retire from my "regular" job at 70, and I find that there is a certain amount of 
freedom in setting parameters for myself in making art. I'm working on a series of 
100 portraits of Hot Flash (inspiring) women, planning to stage a large exhibition when the series is complete.
 For now the portraits lean against the walls in my home, but I probably have at least 40 paintings now, mostly from the 
last 2 years. 

Sculpture, too!

 I see other people my age (65) using their children or grandchildren as a focus to keep their lives vital, so this is my grand child equivalent...a reason to be excited about what may happen when I get to work.

“What I feel fortunate about is that I'm still astonished, that things still amaze me. And I think that that's the great benefit of being in the arts, where the possibility for learning never disappears, where you basically have to admit you never learn it."  Milton Glaser in Brain Pickings.

What gets you excited these days?