Delightful Exuberance

When I paint, I'm happy.  I'm even happier when IT flows.  I don't know how to define IT, but sometimes it shows in my work.

I gave this one the title of "Delightful Exuberance"

Victoria Estacio Huckins - Delightful Exberance - copyright 2012

Is it too much?  Is it beyond exuberance?  I like it.  It is the reflection of my frame of mind at the moment.

Working It!

I've been busy working on a new series of work for my new show at The HVR Art Ranch.

New Work

A selection of my latest pieces

I heart you and you and you...

May I have more ...Sir Paul

ROSA

Something for a rainy day

A cup of orange tea

Spidey

An Itty Bitty, Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Weenie Exhibition

4" x 4" mixed media on cradled panel

One of my tiny pieces of work in the new exhibition at the Escondido Municipal Gallery on view until February 26, 2011

All sales proceeds from my exhibition will be donated to The Escondido Arts Partnership, a non-profit organization that promotes and support the arts for the city.

Sketchbook 2011 Project

I signed up for this projects months ago... and forgot all about it until it was almost due. I had a about 2 weeks to fill up my pages. It had to be postmarked by January 15th.

Luckily for me...due to the weather problems in various places ...they extended the deadline to January 18th, the three days extra days was needed. I mailed it on the 18th. Now I'm just waiting for notification that they received it.

The east coast has been hit with so much snow ...is it a cause of worry? YES!

In all the rush to meet my deadline , I didn't get a chance to photograph the my pages. But I had the foresight to order the digital version. Hopefully they received it and I will have something to share.

More details about this project.... http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject

More Baskets

Here's another plastic bag and paper clip basket.

There's a fortune in this basket.

I love fortune cookies for the fortunes.  I made this basket to hold all my fortunes.  The colors were inspired by the boxes. 

More Plastic Bag Art

Another project I've been working on is weaving plastic bags on a cardboard loom.  This started because I was researching projects for my daughter's class.  She's in fourth grade which means there's been a focus on Native American this year.

We created baskets with pine needles and raffia and I thought that we should also weave with a rug on a loom, cardboard looms are the least expensive way to go.  I try to do the projects before I teach so that I could work out the process before I get in front of 24 kids.  

I wanted to inject some color to the project by adding what I have laying around.  Remember I picked up several boxes of paper clips.  I have to admit that I went back to the dollar store and cleaned them up on the paper clips.  I need restocking right now.

Deadlines Inspire

I just had a very productive week. I had so many unfinished work just hanging around waiting for more material and inspiration. Deadlines somehow induces either total frustration or glorious inspiration. Thankfully this week it was the latter.

Since the fire, I've been working only on small pieces because I didn't have the space to work. I like the looseness of a large work surface. Small pieces are sometimes far more difficult for me. But sometimes you have to just make lemonade out of lemons.

When working small, I start one piece and would quickly be stymied. I would put it aside and start another and same thing would happen. I ended up with about 100 pieces of work in process. Thankfully they were small but it was still a real problem. I just could not justify buying more paper or canvas unless I completed some of them.

Then came the invitation to two shows, The 2009 Florence Biennual and a small group show in New York, which meant deadlines. I needed this. I went into my manic mode and painted and created like a crazy woman.

I decided to try to postpone the Florence, Italy exhibition for the 2011. They said they would keep my contact information but we'll see. I just couldn't justify spending the money for the entry fee. It didn't make sense to pay an entry fee to an invitational show. I'm still hoping for an international show maybe by next year. I wished the economy would pick up.

I am doing the group show, I only needed five pieces for that. Check out the photos on Facebook or Flickr and help me decide which pieces I should send.

San Francisco treats

While both he kids are at camp...

My summer will begin with a trip to San Francisco with my husband. Wow! I’ve forgotten how much fun it is to spend time together. The city is as magical and fun as I remembered.

We landed and easily caught the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) directly into the city and our stop, the Powell/Market station were steps from our hotel. We stayed at The Palomar, it was wonderful. They have this fantastic wine hour every night. The wine they served were not bad, a Beaujolais from France and others all of them were delicious. I must confess that were had several. The location was supreme. We were centrally located near Union Square, Financial District and most of the best shopping you can imagine. We were also within walking distance to the Embarcadero, Chinatown, and North Beach. I highly recommend the hotel.

We went to SFMOMA, which had a special Frida Kahlo exhibition, it was nice but most the work was shown at the Contemporary Museum in La Jolla a few years ago and was in fact more impressive than this abbreviated show.


My all-time favorite time was our visit to de Young. They had an absolute divine exhibition of Chihuily works. I was awestruck by the sheer quantity and mass of the work.
and I was inspired by the Jane Hammond exhibition in one of the smaller museum galleries. I loved her use of paper and construction.

I can't forget to mention the food, I think my favorite meal was when we gathered ingredients for a lunch at the Ferry Building. We got fresh baked bread, the most delicious, creamiest gouda and handmade sausage sandwich. We ate sitting on a bench on the dock watching the ferry go by.

Began in Paris

It’s been a long time since my last posting. I forgot how much time it takes to do anything.

Life has been mostly good and definitely busy. I’m been working on a series of paintings that I just installed at my friend’s office at Qualcomm. Some of the paintings have pieces of paper I started during my trip in Paris. I have another set of the series that I hope to include in a show downtown.

I've been busy.

These are some of my works in progress, in various stages of completion. Some of them are almost there, but one never knows. The gasoline can is nearby in case I need to burn them. I realize that was probably a bad joke coming from me, but sometimes you just need to keep a sense of humor. The gas can is actually my husband's for the various machinery he uses at the ranch. Add a comment to let me know what you think.