Blog
Posted on 6/9/2026 10:35:23 AM
By Susan Gainen
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IN ODD AND TROUBLED TIMES... I need an escape plan. My passport (currently in an undisclosed location), has probably expired, Middle Earth has no air conditioning, and my non-English skills are limited (menu Spanish, "Je ne parle pas Francais" and "baguette"). Thus, I find myself in my living room studio surrounded by hundreds of whimsical creatures, abstract paintings reflecting an active imagination, hundreds of cookbooks, and a 5-foot tall wooden flamingo adjacent creature who monitors all activity and reports daily to Max-the-Cat. This is a #safespace.
IMMERSIVE ART PROJECTS I've found that immersive art project like this one (20 inches in diameter) can take me away. Inspired, in part, by the discovery of a stash of 14-inch rounds purchased years ago from the ever-excellent #WetPaint in Saint Paul, this was imagined as part of a series of molecules, solar systems, or galaxies. Unable to stop and having run through the stash, I found a piece of very large 300# paper in a drawer, and using a complicated compass, and #fiskars scissors from a paper-edge set to make this round.
PAINSTAKING EXUBERANCE I continue to celebrate #tinyshapesandtinyspaces. Beginning with a pencil drawing covered with #Liquitexcleargesso to avoid smudging, I painted inside the lines with a #PrincetonSelectNumber1RoundBrush, and acrylic ink. Now in the home stretch, I'm outlining each piece and making the connecting lines with a black #Micron03pen (I bought 10 for this project).
EVER THE OPTIMIST I will get this framed in time to enter it into the #MinnesotaStateFairFineArtsCompetition.
