It's all so close to you ACEO

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It's all so close to you ACEO
Originally uploaded by popcornfeet

I saw these stones when I looked down.... they were a few inches from my feet on a beach in Cape May, NJ. I almost just squashed them into the sand by walking on them and would never noticed how beautiful they were... How soft looking, how polished.... how worthy of notice.

Maybe it's always like that. Me. Life. Maybe I always assume what I want off in the distance.... and thinking what I need must be over that next hill.... and I know what will make me relax and appreciate what I have is in that newly published self-help book.

But maybe life is always like the experience with these stones. Maybe I already have within my view and reach everything I need. Maybe what's over the next hill doesn't matter because the only thing you really have is the presant... and maybe what's in that next self-help book really is the same thing that was in the last self- help book, with a new cover.

Maybe there is something to be said for living fully in the moment.

This card was done on mat board cut into aceo format. There is a collage done with art papers under the main image and its all sealed with multiple layers of acrylic sealers. I like this card, its pretty and calming.

Memories ac-Emo ACEO

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Memories ac-Emo ACEO
Originally uploaded by popcornfeet

You may not like all your memories but they make the whole of you.

In each person you know there are things you might not like but that doesn't take away from the value of the person - and the person is the sum of his parts.

As each person person you know deserves a place in your life each of your memories is worthy.

I've struggled with this.

For many years I'd assumed there were things I'd rather forget. But I can't say I'm sorry who I am, who I've become... who looks out from behind my eyes. How can I pick and choose the memories, than? If I lose this one will someone else be looking out from behind green eyes? Or will it take two memories? Or not those two but two others?

Many years later I can see the value in not fighting the memories. Coming to terms with them...letting them rest.... in peace.

The ghosts of the past ac-Emo ACEO

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The ghosts of the past ac-Emo ACEO
Originally uploaded by popcornfeet

How much stuff do we carry forward in to new relationships ? As much as we truly want to end one before we get into another I think most people keep tugging everyone they ever knew along with them...

People call it baggage but I've seen how heavy it looks on some people - I think it's stone.

Buy the ticket take the ride Aceo

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I've been thinking a lot about goals lately. Goals are good things;I find people flounder without them. But something about being goal-oriented has been bothering me a lot...

People to who focus on goals seem to over-focus on goals, there doesn't seem to be a middle ground. Either you let the wind takes you where it will and you'll end up in life where you do... or you map everything out and measure your success by each goal you meet.

To be honest - I'm not sure the first one isn't better. People who measure their lives from goal to goal achieve more in a measurable sense; that's true.... But what of the space between goals? What's there? What fills the space for those people if only the goals are important?

I can hear the goal- set saying , " The middle is important because I'm on my way to the goal..." But I keep thinking... What about enjoying life outside the goal? Your life is really what's happening around, outside, over and under you when your doing all that planning, reaching, or not reaching your goals. Your goals and your life aren't happening on parallel roads... Your life and your goals are on the same road.

I don't think having an idea about what you want next is a bad thing... it's just that I think you miss a lot of opportunities for enjoyment along your road if your always heading for something. If your always looking to a goal. An end. A way to get on the next train... To move on to the next thing.... To finish what your doing now... What are you doing?

It's sort of like buying your ticket but not taking the ride. Like being in an amusement park, paying for a ride and than instead of getting on it; walking around it to the place in the gate that says - EXIT.

It seems so pointless. And sad. And seems like the way so many people live.

WHAT IF HE WAS JUST CRAZY? ACEO

Available on eBay

I often wonder if he was wrong. I mean, no one's wrong about everything but what if he was wrong about a lot? Or what if he was just as nutty as his patients? I've read a lot about him and he was a bit of a .... well, the guy was... Oh let me just be kind and say he was a carnival of diagnosis codes.

I don't understand why someone who was, without a doubt, on the wrong side of the analysis couch is respected, revered and known as the father of modern day psychoanalysis ... while I am suspiciously eyed because of the bipolar disorder like I might start clucking like a chicken any second.

It's very aggravating.

CHILDREN HURT FOREVER ACEO

On eBay beginning the evening of May 31

I've never used the same image for two different auctions running at the same time before.

The story is sometimes when I'm making a card I will try it two different ways. Most times only one will work and the other will be awful. Or if the second isn't bad... it's not good enough to list. But in this case there was something about both of them that was tugging at me.

I intended to use the image to describe eating issues. It's what I was thinking when I worked on the picture in the first place but as I looked at this card it seemed to be saying something different to me. That happens sometimes. Art sometimes takes on a life and meaning all it's own... and I'm just the vehicle.

When I looked at the card this morning I decided to list it even though there is a card with the same image already listed because this card is about something else.

This card is about how when you hurt a child you change them. They change the second they are hurt...they change who they will be and they change the way they look back at themselves. In a sense people who hurt children change not only their presant and future...but their past as well.

So much is gone. Their voices... their smiles... their frowns... their kisses.... and a way to tell their secrets.

Hurting a child is a terrible thing.

HELP ME ACEO

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This aceo is based on one of my earliest drawings. It was originally done in marker and there is really nothing on it but bold dark color and the word help...small and in yellow at the bottom of the page. The word is even hard to see because at that point the world is dark and closing in...and your pushed down by it... Your faded and fading.

I've tried to use this image before - I know I've had failures but I can't recall if any of them worked as well as this one. Something about it works for what I was feeling that day. And feel everytime the world is foreboding. The days I feel translucent, pale and like I'm not on Earth anymore. Like I don't have the weight anymore, the mass, to be on earth... Gravity isn't keeping me here... and I'm just dissapating into some sad pale mist.

The card is done on mat board cut into aceo format. It started with a background collage with multiple art papers to enhance the main image. The main image is of a peice of art work I did several years ago.

An avocado in Mrs. Brady's Kitchen

This is a work in progress. Found myself doing another retro style painting. An avocado in avocado and orange - How poetic!

It's on 5 x 7 masonite.

I'm digging it

available at the arts unbound gallery in new jersey

THREE ORIGINAL PAINTING ACEOS ON CANVAS

There Aceos are available for sale on eBay. They are all done with acrylic paint on aceo sized gallery wrapped canvases.





Zen Landscape Aceo








Retro Pear Aceo








Still life lemons

For anyone who doesn't know how small ACEO cards are here is one scanned next to a splenda packet!

Abstracty pear work in progress...

So. More pears. I like them. They are pretty, have a cool organic shape going on...lots of great colors and seem

to lend themselves to tons of styles of art.

So this is the first shot of the pear as a work in progress on 5 x 7 inch masonite.

Here is shot 2 of pear work in progress... Getting there!

available at the arts unbound gallery in NJ

MAKE LEMONADE PAINTING -ACEO

AVAILABLE

And now for something completely different.... In the past I've only listed ACEO cards based on my art and photography. I used mat board, collaged with art papers...print my photographs on regular, photo, and some pretty darn unusual things ...than put it all together and make a complex card attached to an emotion, feeling or experience.

The simple things in life are beautiful as well... Things with visual simplicity. One thing...Two maybe...just a few colors... No art papers... Something you can put a story to, instead of me.... I paint. I rarely list anything on ebay that isn't an ACEO card done in the manner I described above because...well, frankly they don't seem to sell very often. (Just keeping it real!) There are wonderful artists on ebay and perhaps my selling just the cards...or just paintings...without an attached emotion isn't the same. Maybe people would rather I stick to what I was doing but I had to try... I have this thing in my head... My artist-self - how I see myself as an artist - is wrapped up in my abilty to paint...or not.... and well, if I can, I am, if I can't I'm not...and...oh man, I didnt mean to make this listing a therapy session!

Enough of that! This card is done on a teeny sized gallery wrappy canvas. How do they make them??? Its 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches and I even took a picture of it with a spenda package so you can see what your getting if your not familar with how small aceo's are. The other picture shows it from the side and you can see there are sides :) I have since painted the sides a bright blue like I paint my larger canvas paintings. I have signed it on the front with 3 bars... and on the bottom with my last name. Its sealed with a matte acrylic sealer. As much as I try to get colors correct, its hard in photography... and all monitors are different as well. It may be different when you get it but no matter how it looks on your monitor...I promise the lemons are shades of yellow and the background is shades of blue.

If it doesnt sell... well, thank you for looking!! I have other aceo's listed... My usual kinds as well as a few more like this!

I NEVER SAID THAT! ACEO

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How many times have I said to someone, "I never said that...." and they swear up and down I did? I go back in my memory looking for a picture of that conversation... Or what is really a reflection of that conversation like the treeline in water ... Sort of the same but not quite as clear. And I think back and I'm still pretty sure and I say... "I never said that."

And again the person swears I did. And I go back and look inside again and this time I not only see the reflection of the conversation but the wisps of time cutting across the image obscruing some of my recollection. And this time I say I never said that but not with as much confidance because memory is an odd thing. As much as I want to trust it... it's flawed.

Recall is a flawed thing. And in the grand scheme of things taking a stand is rarely a good idea. Once I've drawn a line in the sand - who wants to go back? It's so much easier to just say, with a smile, "you might be right"....than it is to say, "I was wrong."

This card was done in standard ACEO format of 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inchs on heavy mat board. It started with a background collage with multiple art papers to enhance the main image. On top of the main image are thready pieces ....

HOW MUCH STUFF DO YOU NEED? ACEO

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How many times a day do you say 'I need.....' Need? Need is a necessity. Need is something like clean water... Food....

People don't need cable TV... I don't need cell phones... Face it, I don't really NEED and internet connection although my life would be very different without one. I'm about to find out what it's like to not need a car what with the price of gas and the state of my junker. But I've managed to find a bit of peace about it... or maybe resignation, karma...peace....
People look at things like dry cleaning... renting DVD's.... take out dinners... like they were a necessary part of life. Sorry, oxygen is a requirement. Dry-cleaning isn't even in the same time zone.
I'm getting a bit sick of consumerism telling me what I need. The store display windows (which is what this photo was of)... the non-stop commercials.... the coupons that come in the mail everyday... Even my phone rings with offers that are "too good to pass up". I'm feeling manipulated, like I don't even know what I want anymore... Like I only know what I've been told I need.
Who started this?

This card was done in standard ACEO format of 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inchs on heavy mat board. It started with a background collage with multiple art papers to enhance the main image.

FETAL SET OF 4 ACEOS

Fetal Set

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I've worked with this image before because it tugs at me. Calls to me... It's special to me... It's simple and sad and nurturing at the same time. It's about caring for myself. It's about taking care of my wits and my sanity. It's how I survive when all I have left is my body.

I was drawing like this in the summer of '97, months before I was diaganosed but I was symptomatic. At that time I was more concerned with quickly getting feelings down on paper and I don't think I had started using colored pencils yet; I believe when I did this one I was still only using markers. They were fast to work with, had blazing, sometimes shocking, color and they suited everything I needed at the time.

These cards show the image broken into a set of 4 cards. I've never broken the image before and I've had it for months before deciding to sell it. I didn't know if having this image broken was right but together they make the whole. The is about when it's all - everything and everyone - it's all just too much. How at some point you can't take a thing more - a good thing, a bad thing...anything.... not one thing more. And you know all that works to make it better is collapsing in on yourself. Curling up. Not hearing or seeing anything else until you are ready...

Each card was done on a base of mat board cut into ACEO format. Through the main image you can see the base papers and I think that that gives even more of a feeling of vulnerability... The figure is not only curled into a fetal position but you can almost see through her...or partly...like she's fading away.

This card was done in standard ACEO format of 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inchs on heavy mat board. It started with a background collage with multiple art papers to enhance the main image. I'm starting it at the same price I start one card but the auction is for 4 cards.

Moved on from fruit to people and water...

In an effort to move on to things I have difficulty with I decided to tackle two at one time.

Water and people...

I ended up with a swimmer. I like it but it's still a work in progress. The water isn't watery enough and the swimmer isn't people-y enough... Well she looks like a people but her shadows are all off....or something.

5 x 7 inch acrylic on masonite

May 22, 2008 Update

I reworked my swimmer to take out some of the greens and some of the business in the water.

Playing with light....aceo and 5x7

I've always liked paintings that played with light. Not the Thomas Kinkaid light thing but real light...Misty light, foggy light...Low light...Unusual light.

I decided to try a bit of it this morning and see how it went.

This is a work in progress. It's little. 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches... I'm painting on itty-bitty canvases... Since I'm just starting out I don't know if that makes it harder or easier but I can tell you it sure saves on paint!


And speaking of light - whats up with photographing art? No matter what I do I can't seem to make the photos look like that art? In the case of the ACEO the painting looks more misty and gentle... And definitely not so GREEN. In the case of the 5 x 7 below I couldn't even get a reasonable shot without taking it way way far away... And even than it's much choppier looking. The picture seems more muted and subtle to me.

Heres another attempt but it's still not good... It's rough looking.

I'm still working on this...

Satisfyingly Lemony Deux

I got some insightful suggestions from wetcanvas.com about the lemons yesterday and I worked some more on the lemons this morning.

Tried to play with the light on the lemons, especially the back one. I wanted to make the shading on the whole lemon a bit more graduated but it didn't work out quite like I'd planned.

I changed the background a bit too. It's vague but more solid across the bottom, more varied and light across the top.... and I changed the color of the shadows in general.

I'm happier with this verison. I'll keep working with it!

sold

Tazzy ACEO cards on eBay

Contact tracyreinhardt.art@gmail.com for purchase information of these or similar cards.



Tazzy at the mac machine











Tazzy in space









Tazzy takes a nap








Tazzy has a rose





For many years I've supported animal shelters and bird sanctuarys. Sometimes by adopting; sometimes by donating or sponsoring (cyber-adopting) a pet.



One of the saddest sights is the number of unwanted and abused birds in bird sanctuarys. They are especially harmed by years of poor living and some never recover - physically and mentally.



For many years I've supported animal shelters and bird sanctuarys. Sometimes by adopting; sometimes by donating or sponsoring (cyber-adopting) a pet. One of the saddest sights is the number of unwanted and abused birds in bird sanctuarys. They are especially harmed by years of poor living and some never recover - physically and mentally.



My current bird - a wonderful cockatiel named Taz - called to me from a pet store. Literally. I walked by her cage and he ran back and forth and back and forth screaming for attention. Poor thing had no tail feathers, the worst wing clip I'd ever seen and no crest feathers. My little love, Noodle, a 13 year old cockatiel had died about 2 weeks before and I didn't know if I was ready to bond with another bird but in a week or so I went back and got my sad-looking somewhat featherless buddy.



I have to say Taz took to being loved like a champ despite never having been held - ever. She loves nothing better than having a head scratch, 24 hours a day if I would. Her tail is back and so are her wings. Her creast is another story. While other cockatiels wear their crests proud and tall, my Tazzy, has quite the mohawk going and seems to like my son's punk rock music.



I call her my punk rock-a-teil!While I do alot of crafts, lately I have been doing alot of pictures of my little punk rockatiel and making bookmarks for friends. They seem to like them a lot so I thought I might try some ACEO cards.
A portion of any profits will be donated to help homeless, abused and abandoned pet. I currently sponsor two little parakeets with the money I make from my Tazzy things :O)

Cape May Sky in the abstract

This is a mixed media 6 inch by 6 inch piece I just finished! It's called Capy May Sky.

Even though it appears simple doing it was a time consuming process. First I applied mulberry paper to gessoed masonite and than painted the

background. The clouds came last.

I guess you could call it an acrylic mixed media painting on mulberry paper on masonite... although that is a mouthful.

The image was based on a photograph I took a few years ago. I kept drawing drawing it and each time kept simplifying the elements. At some point it didn't really look like a sky anymore and that is where I liked it best. From a distance it's 'sky'... up close its color and shape.

Chairs to infinity at sunrise

ACEO AVAILABLE

I took this photograph in Capy May, New Jersey. These were the chairs on the balcony at the Grand Hotel... There was something about this photograph I've always liked.

There is something beautiful in those chairs. I can imagine myself sitting there resting, gazing over the railing... and it's quiet. Even though there are so many balconys and so many chairs no one is outside. No one takes time to stop and sit anymore... to just look at what's there.

I think about my life and I don't take much time to stop and sit either. There is always a call to make... a phone to answer... a bill to pay.

I must have missed so many beautiful sunrises just sleeping when I wasn't really tired...

ACEO 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches on heavy mat board. The card was done in two steps. First a background collage was done to compliment the picture and than the photograph was attached. I used several acrylic mediums, the last one glossy.