Stuff Wars

Recently we had begun to notice that our humble home was slowly and surely being insidiously taken over by Stuff.  Stuff began appearing in places I swear there wasn't any Stuff before. Stuff was beginning to ooze out of the closets and make it's way onto any available adjacent surface.  Old Stuff was making it impossible to put any New Stuff away, and Just Plain Crap was getting in the way of everything.  And then people kept giving us more stuff (thank you, but seriously, if we get any more pillar candles as gifts we'll be able to turn this place into a working monastery).

So to keep ourselves from inadvertently starring in an upcoming episode of "Hoarders", we decided to do a top-to-bottom, complete and utter Domicile Purge, which has kept us insanely busy the past several weeks.

And of course, now that we have donated our first Huge Pile of Stuff to the local charity, in about two weeks I'll find myself needing one of the donated items.

Not having time to paint or post the past several weeks has made me grumpy, jittery, and itchy (in that order).  Today I was determined to get a painting fix and ignore the still looming Sea of Chaos around me.  Normally, I'm a glazing fanatic, happily adding layer upon layer of glowing transparent color.  But today called for a Fast Fix, so I did a quick study using only direct painting methods.  

Kookaburra study

7" x 5"

Acrylic on gessoed paper

© 2010, Lisa Walsh

I love birds with attitudes, and crows, jays, ravens and kooks are some of my favorites.  All of them exhibit some of the "Bad Bird" persona that I find endearing and amusing.  A Laughing Kookaburra was the first bird I worked with that drew blood.  And of course it was my own blood, dripping down my face from a wound neatly speared into my forehead from that impressive bill.  I harbor no ill will, you can't blame a girl for defending her nest any way she can.  

And she kept her nest completely free of any unnecessary Stuff.

My Muse is still packing boxes.  To habitability, and beyond!