Don't You Just Love Circles?

I sure do! This custom ornament I made recently is all about circles. The family circle, our circle of friends, and circle of life--or is it cycle of life(?).
Anyway, this round ornament is made up of many circles, and one of them encompasses a heart.

You can view the rest of the photos (3 more) of this ornament in Flickr.

Starting with this ornament, I'll post one of the ornaments a day, so be sure to check back!
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This is Thanksgiving week and in my house, the holiday baking begins! Tomorrow we'll begin by baking some cookies. MmmMmmm

Have a great day!

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Prestigious Monday

Here are my pics for this week's Prestigious Monday!

Click on each individual item to visit each artist and see their beautiful work up close.

See you tomorrow!

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Title: "The Rut" (Whitetail Buck Complete!)

"The Rut"

Now complete and ready to be delivered to it's new home tonight! I wasn't going to post it tonight, but I couldn't wait. I really love how it turned out.

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Almost Finished!

Only about an hour left to go! Eyes are going to be burned in and background tweaked a bit.

So excited!

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Whitetail Buck Progress shot 5

Worked some more on this late last night. It's really coming along beautifully. I am very happy with him so far.

Today, we'll be going through and throwing out a lot of things in the basement, Oh joy. I can hardly contain myself from being too excited. :/

One of my shops is back online, the other will be back up today (or tonight) sometime.

Speaking of tonight, this is my favorite night for TV--Lost (8pm), UFO Hunters (9pm), Ghost Hunters (10pm). I especially Love LOST and have watched it from the very first episode!

If you are a LOST fan and are on Twitter, join in the LOST discussion during and after the show by typing #lost in your post about LOST. I use Tweet Deck and type in a search for #lost (in a new column), then I can follow the whole discussion and any @replies at the same time without having to change windows or tabs. :) Click here to follow me on Twitter .

All for now, hope to see you all tonight on Twitter.

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Visualizing Mother Earth

This is the latest update, the section of my table where I am painting Mother Earth.

Off and on I post about my dining room table and the progress that I've made. Since I'm making it just for me, I only paint on it when I can and share a photo or two of it here on my blog.

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I'm in the middle of baking and making my famous Chicken Noodle Soup which I must get back to now. :)

Enjoy your day!

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Whitetail Buck Progress shot 4

I've been reworking the face and neck as I go. The eyes in the first sketch were too big and need to be redone. It was late as I was working on them and as you can see, they still need a bit more work before I begin to burn those areas.

My shops are being taken out of vacation mode, hopefully by the end of tonight.

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Happy Easter!

Goldie and all of us in the Twisted Thicket


goldie, originally uploaded by TwistedThicket.

wish you and yours a very happy Easter!

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Current Burn

Here is what will soon be my latest burn!

I sketched this buck out last night and will begin burning it this evening, starting with the background, which will not be sketched out first. This beautiful wood oval is 5.5" x 7" so it is a relatively small piece. This is a gift for my daughter's boyfriend's parents. :)

Why it's been so quiet here lately is because this past week I started spring cleaning and have been painting my living/dining room. Not anything spectacular at all--just white. :( (That's one problem with renting) It has really affected my hands, wrists, and arms a lot. Thankfully, wearing my braces at night helps ease some of the pain and swelling.

On the slate for today is more of the same. I know the day just started, but I am already looking forward to this evening when I can relax and burn this piece. :)

Have a great day!

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Taking It Back

Have you ever lost sight of why you started creating in the first place? When was the last time you created something Just For You? Honestly, I cannot remember the last time I painted something just for me.

Sometimes we have to take it back. You know, to reflect on past works and old methods. Of course, the older we are, the more reflecting we can do. :D (I, myself, am able to do a lot of reflecting, shhhh.)

The weekly challenges from "Thursday Sweet Treat" have been an amazing way for me to fan the fire which has only a month ago been found to be only smoldering. I finished this piece enough yesterday for this weeks challenge "Vibrant, Chaotic Rainbows"(which will be posted on the TST blog sometime today. I still want to add something to this painting, although I'm not sure just what yet.

Relax for a bit with me and let your inner child loose to play around for awhile. We just might find new directions for our art and without any pressure to just get it done from outside sources. I find it inspiring, uplifting, and the perfect solution for when I find myself in a slump or when I just need to take a break.

Have a great day!

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Burning Up the Home Stretch

I've reached the home stretch now! I didn't work on this since Sunday but I did fire up my burners tonight and got a little bit more done.

Now, I just have a tiny bit more to do.

I will be working on another piece today that is due by the end of today for tomorrow. I wont reveal it until it is finished and the post is up.
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Remember this post about the Blogspot Comment Areas?

Thanks to "SimplyTwisted" It seems that the problem can be solved by going to: Settings/Comments/Comment Form Placement/Then choose pop up window or full page, do not select "embedded below post".

The embedded part seems to be the culprit. So, if you have that type of comment area set up on your blog and haven't seen any replies for awhile, check your settings to see if you have that selected. If you do, select either full page or pop up and see if that makes a difference. I believe it will. :)

All for now, tons to do! Have a great day!

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Burnt Paper Progress

Last night I burned for a few hours and this is where we're at now, Sunday morning.

I decided against just having her hair hanging down and instead have started to put a crown of twigs and little flowers on her head. She is also wearing two feathers.

Once the burning is complete on this card, I'll be adding light touches of color here and there in about the same way as I did "Serendipity" below.

All for now! Have a great day everyone!

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Burnt Paper

I'm burning paper now, trying to finish up the lost work that I just found in the previous post.


I worked on it late last night and it's coming along nicely. I'm not sure yet what I am going to do with her hair, but the ferns are there to stay. :)

I'm going to be burning for the next few hours so, I'll be sure to post an update to this card tomorrow.

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Ghosts Maybe?

ACEO Pyro Progress, originally uploaded by avision4.

I don't know how it happened...but, I'm so thrilled to have found it again! The art card I was working on around 10 months ago, according to Flickr dates, showed up on, actually, in my desk yesterday!

Somewhere along the line I put it on the small shelf with my CDs, just above my burning system. Then it vanished! *GASP* Of course, I forgot all about it, since I have AADD (Artist Attention Deficit Disorder) and have so many different projects going at once.

I was looking for something else and found it inside the desk's cupboard along with my copier paper. I had totally forgotten about this card! I'm going to try and finish burnng it this weekend. So excited!

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Beating Winter Blahs

During the winter here, in the great white north, everything melts together in shades of grey-white. It can have a devastating effect on your mental health if you're not careful. One great way to beat the winter blahs is to surround yourself with color!

For BlogFire's Blog Carnival this week, the theme is Rich Colors and it couldn't have been set at a better time, as we are under a Winter Storm Warning for this afternoon and Friday.

Here are some colorful, beautiful pieces that will brighten the darkest of winters by some of the very talented artists on ArtFire! You can go right to the artist's shop by clicking on their images.

"Original Abstract Painting" by FidoStudio


"Her Secrets- Print" by EmilyBalivet


"ACEO Original Watermedia Zinnias & Flowers" by SharonFosterArt


"Colorful Butterfly Greeting Card" by WITHOURHANDS


Hope you all enjoyed this tour today. I know I did. :)

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Being Selfish?

Do you ever feel the need to just pick up your paints and brushes and paint something, anything, just for you? I do. I need to let myself go and paint without boundries and time constraints. It may seem selfish, but I find it to be comforting. Also, as I paint away, it brings inspiration for other projects in the future, which I note in my art journal.

One of my personal projects has been to paint my dining room table. It needed to be refinished badly or junked so I decided to paint it--it is, after all, a blank canvas. :) I work on it off and on since there is no real hurry to get it done. So, because there is another snowstorm creeping up on us (it should hit tomorrow), I decided to dedicate tomorrow to working some more on it.

I worked a bit on it late last night till 2:30 a.m. and had a great time! I'm tempted to haul my airbrushing equipment upstairs from my shop to do some detailing. I'm still undecided on that as my compressor is very loud.

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Music + Dance = Color

It's Thursday and that means it is time to share what I created for the "Dreaming in Color" challenge put out by "Thursday Sweet Treat"!

This is the first time I've taken part in one of Natasha's challenges and I had a blast!

I entered two of the four paintings that I created for this challenge. This first one (above) is an abstract/line drawing of Michael Jackson caught in one of his steps in "Smooth Criminal".

Here's a video of "Smooth Criminal" (Incidently, the photo of MJ at top of the page is from a different video than the one I used.)

[note: when I made my submission, I had put that it was from "Dangerous", it should have been from "Smooth Criminal"] I created three of these types of paintings of him, all in different poses from 3 of his songs. I am only showing the one here for now. I have three more in progress. :)

The second submission I call "Musical Dreams". This symphony of color is in constant motion. Listen to it, enjoy the dance. :)

These paintings were done with acrylics on canvas board.

All for now! Have a great day!

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Burning

Here are some progression shots of a custom ordered gourd ornament that I just completed.

The first two are in grey scale. Look at all those teeny, tiny dots! I love stippling! :)





Here all of the little details are burned in and finished, the stem cut, and the eye screw put in place.








I added a transparent red on the large hearts and a lighter shade of transparent red on the outer rim. At the time of these last two photos the ornament has been given 2 coats of finish. I didn't take these in a light box, so forgive me for the glare.



This is it for today's post. I'm still fighting that broken, abscess tooth--can't wait to get it pulled on the 18th..

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New Piece Listed!

Here is my newest piece that I just listed on Artfire yesterday!

I am in a rush right now, going to be gone most of the day. When I come back I will post a bit more on things. Still have to get the Prize gourd listed here so you can all see it (for the drawing)!

You can read about the drawing here!

My ride will be here shortly, so I've got to run!

Till later...Have a great day!

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New Gourd Art in Progress

group in progress, originally uploaded by avision4.

Just a quick post here to show you what I've been working on lately. The largest gourd in the photo is one that is going to take the longest. I'm having a lot of fun with this one though!

I'll be posting later today, the details of the Giveaway!

I've been trying to figure out how to go about adding a "Follow this Blog" widget to my sidebar without much luck. I am using a classic template, which is where the problem starts. I sure wish blogger would offer a three column template so I wouldn't have to use the classic option. It would make life a lot easier!

All for now...

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