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April 02, 2012
March 06, 2010
Getting Organized
I am taking Alyson Stanfield's "Getting Organized" class for a 2nd time around. You will see why when you look at the pictures. Since I moved I needed to reorganized everything so what better than doing a refresher course of this class.
Following are some "Before" pictures. Stay tuned for the "After" pictures in about 3-4 weeks.
These 2 pictures are of the closet in my studio/office. There are so many things that I can't even close the door. The containers in the closet shelves are either full of photographs or belong to my son who can't take them because he lives in Manhattan in a much smaller place than this.
To the right of the closet I have bookshelves full of books plus papers which I'm not sure if I should get rid of. Let's call this side the "office" side.
Still going around to the right of the whole wall of book shelves is
some other kind of shelves where I keep many things. Then comes the
shredder and a little table with drawer where I keep all my camp
things. Those 2 big blue & green bags are actually binders with all
the emergency forms signed by the parents.
Hanging from these shelves I have These very cool colorful organizers (not sure what they are called) which I planned to use for my mail and other things but have not used yet. These shelves are in pretty good shape except for the top one.
The pic on the left is what used to be my desk chair which I now use to put things on because I don't an "actual desk" in the room and if I have to sit I use the big red ball which is supposed to be good for my back.
On the left you can see my printer cover with papers which I haven't gotten rid off and next to it is the file cabinet with the scanner on top and a box of something on top of that. But...if you look on the shelves under the printer and the shelves to the right, I have all the printing paper organized.
Since I don't have a desk anymore I got this computer desk on wheels witch I can take around the apt. It was the best solution for now.
So moving on to my studio side you will see that everything is much better organized and labeled. The picture in the middle has all my encaustics things. That black thing you see is a griddle which is used as my palette.
The rest are a few pics of the studio side. Everything is a little cramped but...this is the room I have.
Here you can see my easel and table which I use for encaustics and watercolors.
And remember...Stay tuned for the "After" pictures in about 3-4 weeks.
December 02, 2009
Holiday Specials!!!
and get a pack of 5 note cards for free.
I am offering reproductions of my original paintings at an affordable price.
They will make a great gift for the Holidays!
Reproductions are printed with high definition inks on 8 1/2" x 11" Matte Kodak Premium Photo Paper.
Gloss paper is available at your request.
The print is archival, water-resistant, fade-resistant, and has true colors.
Please note this is a signed art print.
It is a reproduction of an original painting.
I sign all prints on the front and title, sign, and date all prints on the back.
Your print will arrive packed in a padded envelope with a stiff backing for support.
Please email or contact me with any questions. 215-680-0922
Some of these prints are available as original paintings on my website.
To order prints or cards go to the "add to cart" button under the set of prints/cards
that you are interest in. Click on the arrow, choose the one you want and hit "add to cart".
At the end there is a button that says "check cart" click on it to check your cart or to check out.
Remember to email or contact me with any questions. 215-680-0922
Holiday Cards are also available following at the end of this post.
Little Poppies 3rd Street Greetings
Caminito Colorful Night Colorful Place2
Heidi's Plants Hope Dazed and Confused
Meetinghouse La Boca Tall Poppies
Little Houses Living in colors Sunset
Red Poppies The Garden Southwest Dreams two
Luquillo Tulips three
Winter scene
Daybreak The Still of the Night The Pond
Orange Sky More colorful spaces Blue Poppies
Colorful Living Four Pots
Under the Sea Purple Mountains
All of these prints are also available as note and greeting cards.
They come in packages of 5.
If you would like a package of 5 cards write the name of the painting that you want in your cards
Note cards with envelopes 4 1/2 x 5 1/2: $15.00
Greeting Cards with envelopes 5x7: $20.00
Holiday Cards are also available in packages of 5 for $12.50
These cards are also my creations.
The Following three cards can be used for Interfaith families who celebrate all holidays.
Holiday Snow KIds Happy Stars
Following are Christmas, Hannukah & Kwanza cards
Happy Tree Santa Peace
Hannukah Snow Happy Hannukah
Happy Kwanzaa
The images on doraficher's blog are copyrighted © and all rights are reserved. Copying without expressed permission is not allowed.
November 30, 2009
Phish Concert with my son
My wonderful 25 yr. old son Jonathan invited me to a "Phish" concert here in Philly.
We went last Tuesday, Nov. 24th. I have to say that I did have a good time! I believe that I was probably one of the oldest people there...reminded me of my concert days back in the 60's & 70's.
I really enjoyed the lighting of the show! The lights person is very talented. Each set of lights looked like a piece of art.
Photo from the show which I turned into computer art
November 05, 2009
Art Exhibit
The Opening of "de colores" exhibit happened
on October 18th at Gratz College.
Heidi Schifferli, Lonnie Beer, Dottie Leonard, Julie Hastie and me
The exhibit did very well! Five of my paintings found
new homes.
I had a
good turnout in spite of being a wet rainy Sunday afternoon.
My
awesome son Jonathan set up the whole exhibit for me.
He has such a good eye, I guess you need one to be a photographer….
He made everything look good
even on top of the dark brick walls in the gallery.
Dodi klimoff, Lonnie Beer, Dottie Leonard, and me
Some
really wonderful things happened as well because of the exhibit.
The day after
my paintings went up I got a call from the director of the Olitsky Art Gallery
located in Congregation Beth Or, Maple Glenn, PA. She expressed how
much she liked my paintings and asked me if I would like to exhibit in their
gallery.
I accepted and will be showing my work there in January.
The Opening
will be on January 8th and the exhibit will be up
until February 4th. More info to follow!
Ann Alberts, Gretchyn Hansen, and me
My work is now up at Culture Hair
Studio
in Mount Airy.
You can get all the information at Mount Airy First Friday
and Mount Airy focus on
local art.
Here is a list of participating
artists.
Following are photos of the paintings that went to new homes in this exhibit.
"Colorful Night"
"La Boca"
"Little Poppies"
"Long Poppies"
October 09, 2009
How growing up around color influenced my paintings
Why do I use bright colors?
I have been taking another one of Alyson Stanfield’s stimulating online classes. I always get very inspired and motivated while I take her classes. I meet new artists, and I start to see my art career in a different way. Alyson is so knowledgeable and the information she gives us is invaluable.
One of our lessons was to interview
ourselves and respond to our questions. We had to come up with about 10 questions. After thinking
about it, I came up with one at the moment. More will follow.
There are so many colorful feelings I have about my
childhood memories in Buenos Aires. One example is the color of the sky. It is deep
blue. I remember clear blue days with not a cloud in the sky. It’s a different
kind of blue than the sky here.
I’m not sure why, but I still see it every time I go for a visit.
You
can see every color possible when you go to their
markets. But where you most see it is in the people. Buenos Aires is
one of the cities that never sleeps. Walking around you can see the
coffee houses full because everyone loves to go for a "cafecito" (a
little coffee) any time of day or night. Porteños
(name given to Buenos Aires natives) love to dance, eat, hang around
book stores and art galleries till the wee hours. This happens any day
of the week, not only the week-ends. They are always dancing away with
their colorful personalities. Buenos Aires Market. Photo by Jonathan Meter
Buenos Aires doesn't have a White House...it has a Pink House. That pretty much sums it up.
"La Boca" watercolor
Following are some of my latest "colorful"paintings
I have done for my Art Exhibit called "De Colores"
September 13, 2009
How the summer enables me to be an artist
My life feels kind of opposite from most people. Summer for me is a time for long hours of work outside of my home. Much fun but long hours. What is summer to you? Time for vacation, to relax, slow down, right? For me summer is my "day job" that allows me to be able to spend autumn, winter and part of spring being an artist. Well, actually I'm always an artist, that's who I am. So to rephrase, it is when I am able to do my art. So thanks to the summer months I have the freedom to create, explore, paint, post on my blog...and be the artist I want to be. There are two difficult times in this backwards living: the transition between working in my studio, doing it on my own hours, no alarm clock, to all of a sudden getting up at 5:30 am and working 12 hour days outside of my home. As much as I like it, it is definitely a shock to my system.
When summer starts, the first thing I do as soon as I leave the house is go to Starbucks and get a "Venti" (the largest) cup of coffee. This to summer transition takes me probably 1-2 weeks. Little by little I get used to being up at the crack of dawn and about my business. In case you are wondering, I have (together with 2 other teachers) an awesome camp called Fun in the Sun which I have been doing for 20+ years.
So all this lasts for about 12 weeks. Wonderful summer days surrounded by amazing, fun, creative, children of all ages. Campers from 4-13 and counselors from 14-30ish. We go non-stop 7:00AM to 6:00PM+ from the very first day of summer break to the Thursday before Labor Day.
And then...it's back to the studio with out any prior "Getting ready to....". So here I am, back and feeling overwhelmed and a bit at a loss. No alarm clock (and still wake up at 5:30) get up and not sure what to do. First of all, I make my own coffee (OMG), not sure if I remember how to do it.
Then I have to figure out how to get back on facebook, twitter, update my blog, start painting, getting ready for a show...and I feel more like the little kids looking around on their first day of camp, not knowing where to go. "Me"...trouble with transition? I guess so! It's been a bit more than a week and I am finally, well kind of, getting back to my "art" mode.
Where are all those wonderful children though? There is no one around...Up to two years ago I used to go directly from teaching to camp to teaching to camp, so I did not have a break to think about the transition, it kind of just happened. But now I have the privilege to go to my studio and create. I feel blessed & happy. At the same time...I feel like my painting," Dazed & Confused".
May 18, 2009
My son, my hero
Are your children your heroes? Did you ever stop to think about that? Has your child ever done anything that motivates you so much that it makes you rethink if you are doing what you want in life. Have you ever told your kid to follow his dream and to do what he “really” wants and not what someone else wants him to do? Did you ever realize that you told your child to do this but that you are not doing what you preach?
I tell you that I can answer “yes” to every single one of those questions. My son’s name is Jonathan, he is 25 yrs. old, lives in New York City in the East Village and I am happy to say that he did follow my advise. He is doing exactly what he dreamed of doing.
I remember back when he was in kindergarten I guess, 5-6 years old he was a dreamer. Anywhere we went he stood in the background admiring and checking everything out before jumping in to join the crowd. He is an observer and picks up every detail of what he sees. I think that is the reason he decided to do what he does. During T-ball at that time he would get bored of waiting for the ball so he would sit on the grass and look at the flowers, the bugs and forget that he was waiting for the ball. When I tell him this story now he laughs because he became an incredible athlete all through school playing soccer and wrestling.
He graduated from Friends Select high school here in Philly and since in 9th-10th grade he knew he wanted to go to The University of Pennsylvania. He is a city boy. He applied early decision to Penn, got in and got the “Mayor’s Scholarship” which they give to several kids who live in Philadelphia to go to Penn. When he had to choose a major he was very confused and decided to go with Political Science and Fine Arts Photography as a minor. He thought he would go to Law School after graduating. At that point he started working for the school newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian” as a photojournalist. He became a staff photographer very quickly. He absolutely loved it and took some amazing photographs for the DP. He had been into photography since he was 10.
During his junior year he was involved in a very bad car accident with 3 of his friends on Oct. 22, 2005. He was not able to go back to school that semester because he had to have two surgeries. He did go back to school in January and graduated a semester after all his friends (Dec. 2006). During his time off he lived at home so I could take care of him while he recuperated both physically and emotionally. We had long conversations during that time when he realized that he didn’t really want to go to Law school. He just thought that Law School would be ok because he would get a good job. But having gone through a traumatic experience (talking from experience, but that will be another post) made him evaluate what life is all about and he decided to pursue his photography. He has been working for himself free lancing ever since. He started out in Philly and then moved to NYC where he lives with his girlfriend whom he met at Penn and who also wanted to go to Law School. Worked in a firm for 2-3 years and is now in one of the NY Culinary schools studying to be a chef. They live in this wonderful pre-war apartment where the shower is in the kitchen, how cool is that?
So, why is he my hero? He is doing what I wish I would have done back in my 20’s but didn’t have the guts to do. Watching how Jonathan is doing gave me the courage to do it. He is following his dream. He is a professional photographer in NYC. Taking cues from him, after much soul searching, I retired from teaching and am now following my dream.
Above photo: Jonathan and Jessica (his girlfriend)
Photograph by Jonathan Meter
Check out his website: www.jonathanmeter.com
And his blog: jonathanmeter.blogspot.com
May 12, 2009
Author of "Eat, Pray, Love" Elizabeth Gilbert: A different way to think about creative genius
"Eat,Pray,Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, is one of my favorite books that I have read in the past two years. It made such an impact on me that I gave it as a gift to everyone I know. I even bought copies in Spanish and gave it to my friends and family last June when I visited Buenos Aires.
I have been wanting to write about this book because after reading it
is when something clicked in my mind realizing that I needed to pursue my dream to do my art100%.
The funny thing about all this is that I met Elizabeth Gilbert back when first her nephew and then her niece were my students in kindergarten, She use to pick them up after school sometimes and we would talk about the kids. So to me she was just the aunt of these kids. Well, the kids moved on to the next grade
so I saw her more infrequently now. Just at school events or around the playground after school at times. At the same time my book group decided to read "Eat, Pray, Love". We had the best discussions about the book, It was one of the first books that we all agreed on many of the issues. As I read it and finished it, I had no idea that the Elizabeth Gilbert was the the same woman who I saw at school. To me she was just the kid's aunt. So when I found out, I emailed her and asked her if she could come to our book group. By that time she was so busy that she emailed me back and said she was very sorry but she was not able to put one more thing on her plate, which was ok.
So, why do I love the book: because Life is too short. After reading it, I felt I needed to make many changes. The biggest change I made was to retire from teaching and do feed my creative spirit. In other words I started creating via a pencil, a marker and a brush.
This book has changed my life. Reading Gilbert's text is a meditation. As you follow her on her journey, you begin to look at your own life, your fears, your dreams and hopes. Maybe we can't all travel the world to heal our wounds, but this book has healing power. It asks us to dig down deep, to go places we're not sure we want to go, and then it asks us to move on, changed. It is clear that Elizabeth Gilbert wants her readers to experience pure joy, to live our best lives; she cares that much about each and every one of us. The gift she give us is this: as we finish the book, we realize that we care that much about ourselves.
Following you can see a video which I found on TED Great website by the way. Check it out.
The above painting is one of my new oils: "Colorful Spaces"
“If you have any experience with "Eat, Pray, Love" or with Liz Gilbert, we’d love to hear about it! Just click on Comments below to add your two cents.”
April 29, 2009
How Doodling Helped Me Focus
I am totally enjoying this blogging class! It gives me a great challenge. We even have homework. Yesterday's homework was to list at least 20 ideas for blog topics. The 1st topic I came up with was about my doodling. I am a doodler. Are you a doodler? Do you know some doodlers?
Being a dreamer (non diagnosed add maybe), focusing was always a challenge for me as a child. I remember being in school looking out the window, looking at the blue sky, the clouds move, and having no idea what was happening in class when suddenly I was asked a question. Have you ever experience that? It's one of those huh? Am I supposed to know what's going on here? Well, that was the story of my childhood. As I got older, I realized in one of those "aha" moments that while I was doodling I was listening to what was going on. I was actually focusing instead of dreaming about something totally unrelated. All of a sudden I was able to answer a question if asked. This goes back many, many years ago, probably back to middle school. Guess I made it through college and beyond with my doodles. My best ones in the last few years were done during our weekly faculty meetings while teaching. I am including some of them which I later used as my card designs or to inspire me in some of my paintings. The one above (on the left) started out as a doodle and moved on to becoming a note card (above at right). Following are a few more doodles.
President Obama is a doodler. Although I bet it is not to keep him focused.These are doodles he made while he was a senator. Can you tell who he was doodling? Check this out and find out: President-elect Obama's doodle in Shore collection
Adding to this post I will upload some of my work that came directly from my doodles. I painted them with art markers and scanned them to the computer. I used them for greeting cards and for prints.
“If you have any experience with doodling or doodles, we’d love to hear about it!
Just click on Comments below to add your two cents.”
Dora
I am an artist, born in Buenos Aires and live in Philadelphia. My artwork reflects the joy and radiance of life.
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