Also please check out my second blog, The Painting Archives to see older (pre-2004) paintings for sale.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
new painting
Not so much time to paint or to post lately, with holidays and sons home from college. Still, I am finishing out the year with this one, Vertical #16, completed on Christmas Eve day (please note: I did spend most of the day in places other than the studio.)
The next bit is art-related, but I thought I'd share two great websites as a little holiday gift to my readers.
The first is FreeRice, a website that features a very compelling (perhaps addictive) vocabulary-building game with a bonus. Correct answers earn rice that is distributed by the United Nations World Food program to hungry people around the world. The program builds local economies by buying the rice from area farmers whenever possible. As you rack up correct answers to the multiple-choice questions, featuring ever-more obscure words as you reach higher levels, you can see your donation increase. It's kind of a weird combination of goals, but as my husband says, there are plenty of games you can play on the computer that don't help anybody--so why not gain some vocabulary and provide food aid at the same time?
The second website is very helpful when you receive those alarming emails that warn of some impending terrible thing--NPR will soon be shut down, your cell phone number is about to be given out to telemarketers, a vicious computer virus is heading your way. You read and wonder, and probably doubt. But plenty of people are still concerned enough to pass the info on to their entire email list, as these messages generally urge you to do. Here's where Snopes.com comes in. Instead of forwarding the message, enter the key words into Snopes' search box, and you will get the background and status of the claim--most of which have been around for years and are totally fraudulent. Then if you wish to enlighten the person who sent you the email in the first place, you can link them to this explanation page. Which can be rather self-righteously-satisfying.
And now that I've given everybody more reasons to hang around the computer, I'm tearing away from mine and heading through the snow to the studio... ¶ 10:02 AM
Not so much time to paint or to post lately, with holidays and sons home from college. Still, I am finishing out the year with this one, Vertical #16, completed on Christmas Eve day (please note: I did spend most of the day in places other than the studio.)The next bit is art-related, but I thought I'd share two great websites as a little holiday gift to my readers.
The first is FreeRice, a website that features a very compelling (perhaps addictive) vocabulary-building game with a bonus. Correct answers earn rice that is distributed by the United Nations World Food program to hungry people around the world. The program builds local economies by buying the rice from area farmers whenever possible. As you rack up correct answers to the multiple-choice questions, featuring ever-more obscure words as you reach higher levels, you can see your donation increase. It's kind of a weird combination of goals, but as my husband says, there are plenty of games you can play on the computer that don't help anybody--so why not gain some vocabulary and provide food aid at the same time?
The second website is very helpful when you receive those alarming emails that warn of some impending terrible thing--NPR will soon be shut down, your cell phone number is about to be given out to telemarketers, a vicious computer virus is heading your way. You read and wonder, and probably doubt. But plenty of people are still concerned enough to pass the info on to their entire email list, as these messages generally urge you to do. Here's where Snopes.com comes in. Instead of forwarding the message, enter the key words into Snopes' search box, and you will get the background and status of the claim--most of which have been around for years and are totally fraudulent. Then if you wish to enlighten the person who sent you the email in the first place, you can link them to this explanation page. Which can be rather self-righteously-satisfying.
And now that I've given everybody more reasons to hang around the computer, I'm tearing away from mine and heading through the snow to the studio... ¶ 10:02 AM
