Laughing Redhead Studio

BLOGGY WOG UPDATE!!

Hey, y'all!! I'm consolidating all my sites - and this one still has more images on it, but I'm ACTIVELY BLOGGING AND TWEETING at my other blog site, http://www.LaughingRedhead.wordpress.com - you can find my Facebook PAGE  there, too - and my basic OH-FICIAL site is still the same - http://www.LaughingRedhead.com . I promise that soon this will be less confusing :-) and that you will not need a TomTom to find me on the web . . .

Blue Period

Bloggy Wog!! What a year!! Oh, my. I don't have the words. Which is highly inconvenient, when one is posting a blog.

I confess I still haven't decided which site is going to be my blog - I dunno yet. But!! I'll keep you updated. I'll Tweet you! I'll Facebook you!! I'll continue to ignore MySpace!

Anyway, here's today's art journal piece -  comments welcome. Sort of about feelin' blue and lonely - but with a good ending. Hey, I like connecting people :-) Y'all have a great day, k?

Face! Book.

Hey, y'all! Retooling and consolidating my blogs and sites! More Bloggy-Wog at www.LaughingRedhead.wordpress.com -  Posting funny stuff. Still Tweaking. Please Follow. 

 

Is There a 12-Step Group for Facebook Addiction?

By Teresa Roberts Logan

 I waited a long time to get involved in the MyFace/SpaceBook revolution. But now, I'm waaaaay in. Facebook has me. And I have it. 

 The great thing about Facebook is that it helps you get in touch with peeps you never thought you'd be in touch with again.

The horrific thing about Facebook is that it helps you get in touch with peeps you never thought you'd be in touch with again.

Your contemporary work colleagues can meet your high school crush, and your mom can meet club comics you worked with ten years ago. Your church peeps can meet your tax guy, who can meet comedy fans you met after a tough show in Idaho. Oy.

 There's that whole "worlds colliding" thing where people you never thought would see or meet each other, now have, and you feel somehow obligated to officiate, much like a good hostess at a party. But, in FB-land, you cannot keep your unsuspecting shy friend who's going through a hard time away from the over-sharing narcissist who's had too much to drink. With a click, it is done, there is no playing the good hostess and pulling the offender aside to help you refresh the hummus bowl, no shoving him outside to check out Orion's Belt. Click. Lock.

 Your familial relationships can be enhanced, damaged, or just barely maintained. It's up to you.Your teenage son can ignore you in yet another way. This is good for teens, gives them that false sense of power, while of course, you have access to their little wall writings. Not that I do that. Well, not every day. (I can say what I want here, he's a teenager, he also ignores my blog.) I'm just saying one could spy bigtime, if one were of that persuasion. You can write cute notes to your hubby. Don't make them too cute. I might have to write something smart-alecky on your wall. Because I would be compelled. You can encourage your buds, say hi to relatives, and plan various and sundry gatherings and activities.

 

"Let's have a Books and Margaritas group!"

 

"Maybe we could get the cast back together from our high school production of The Fantastiks!"

 

"Let's synchronize our watches and everybody cough at church at 10:40 this Sunday!" 

 

You could do that! Arrange on Facebook to get everyone to play a joke on the pastor, by coughing, Tweeting, or crossing yourselves simultaneously one Sunday morning. Which would be weird for me, because I'm a Baptist attending a Presbyterian church! We don't even know how to cross ourselves but for watching reruns of Van Helsing! Also, I guess I'm not a very good Baptist, or I wouldn't be starting a Books and Margaritas group! Sans Books, truth be told.

 You can create a fan page for yourself or for your book. My book had one, my publisher did it. There it was, "The Older I Get, The Less I Care." There were 2 million followers. I don't know how that happened. So proud I am. Talk like Yoda, I do. My book's fan page made me feel important and independent, sorta like a teenager with a VisaBuxx card. But, one day it disappeared. I probably hit a verboten button with my clumsy fingers.

 And the funny thing is, almost everyone I know loves Facebook. We love checking in, doing the status updates, posting pix, informing people they have a cyber-stalker. 

 Thing is, you know you're spending too much time on Facebook when you start thinking and speaking in third person, like in the Status Updates. You fill in the "What's on your mind?" question with a running third person narrative of your life.

 

"Teresa Roberts Logan enjoyed her four-mile walk but was nearly trampled to death by many frightened ignoramus deer."

 "Teresa Roberts Logan loves driving her Dodge Ram pickup and listening to Billy Idol on her iPod!"

 "Teresa Roberts Logan jumps on carbs like white on rice! HA!"

(Yes, you can even laugh at your own Status Updates.)

We'll know it has gone too far when we start speaking, out loud, with the royal "We."

Oops.

 

Teresa Roberts Logan is a comic/cartoonist/writer whose standup has been featured on "Thou Shalt Laugh", "Bananas", "Evening at the Improv", and  Comedy Angels." Also a cartoonist and an artist, she is typing this quickly so she can check her Facebook page and renew her Status Update. She has done a kabillion greeting cards, and still loves doing it. Her website is www.LaughingRedhead.com and her book of cartoons is "The Older I Get, The Less I Care," published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. It is available at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, on your Kindle, and sometimes at a table after my comedy shows :-)

 

 

 

Procrastination R Us

So, I've decided, my New Year's resolution is not to procrastinate. And to post more on my bloggy wog. I'm sure I probably owe you a phone call. But, I am very involved in planning a buncha stuff* and painting and cartooning right now, due to a big painting commission (two 3x5 foot collage pieces!) and my regular day-to-day of writing humor and cartooning and sich. Right now, I'm on my planning break at the school where I teach art to little adorable giblets on Wednesdays, but since I'm all planned and good, I can buh-log to you. (With you?) *The "stuff" to which I refer is an Art Trading Cards workshop at Walls Alive on Thursday the 28th from 6-8; ARTS Jam! - a summer fine arts day camp for kids; and my 3 book pitches. (They are freakin' GENIUS, I promise you!!)  Plus, my graphic novel which is from a zombie dream I had t'other night. It was awesome. It was scary. It was complete! So far, I confess, my "graphic novel" is just some rough sketches on fine paper. Okay, in a composition book. Okay, the one in my head. But, that's where it all starts, no?

Oh! And, good news, I will be on display in a window at Utrecht Washington (DC) from July 7th to July 13th. Not "on display" in a Charlton-Heston-in-Planet-of-the-Apes way, more in a "hey-lookie-what-artists do-in-their-studios way! I will be doing an art demo there on Sunday the 10th from 1:30-3:00. Sans manacle. What a fun opportunity! I hope y'all will stop by, ogle, and bring me lattés.

Have a kick-boo-tay day, y'all :-)

Back in the U.S. of A.

Hey, y'all! We are back from the Muse Cruise, as of today. I'm still doing laundry and washing sand off my Tevas, but I want to THANK each and every one of the awesome people who signed up and supported our Muse Cruise. It's not easy to launch a new (ad)venture in such tough economic times, and more than once while planning it, I thought, what the heck are we thinking?! Well, we built it, and they came! The trip was wonderful, educational, and inspiring! I'm soooooooo glad we have launched MUSE CRUISE, and I'm thankful for the support! We are already brainstorming for 2012! Nova Scotia? Costa Rica? Barcelona? What will our next workshops be? Stay tuned. I feel really blessed, optimistic, and in awe of the women who came - what a diverse and awesome group! I haven't laughed that much in years. And Maya ruins to boot!! All amazing. I will post photos - but meanwhile, here's a quick cartoon diary I did. Pagina Uno. paz, teresita

It's Awards Season!!

Last week, I found out that I'm up for a Reuben award!! This is the award the National Cartoonists Society hands out to those sun-starved individuals like me, who are usually holed up in our studios thinking and inking and generally entertaining ourselves, in between slamming ( your choice: coffee, Diet Coke, Red Bull, 5-Hour-Energy, Hydroxy Cut), and watching vampire and zombie movies. Or werewolves-fighting-vampires movies. Or heck, making those movies. (See "I Was A Zombie for the FBI," Cult Classics, Netflix, Art Director, Teresa Roberts. Well, I was one of the ADs. I think they let me do it because my mom worked at a meatpacking company and I could provide the pig guts. But I digress.)

Anyway, sometimes, when we find out that someone has taken note of our work, it TOTALLY ROCKS!!! 

I get to go to an Awards Banquet, which means, I get to come out of my studio! Like Punxatawney Pete (I've renamed him, for the purpose of alliteration), I come out of the dark recesses where I'm busy making art with my funny-ness! I get to dress up and go have a fun weekend with a lot of other cartoonists and merry-makers. I hope to win an award, but (and here it comes), it really IS an honor to be nominated. By the way, if you are one of the judges, VOTE FOR ME VOTE FOR ME VOTE FOR ME VOTE FOR ME!!! Just sayin'.

I've been drawing since I was a giblet, and let's face it, we all start out as cartoonists. Some of us are just childlike enough to keep doing it. Picasso said, "We are all artists. The problem is, how to remain an artist once we grow up."

I'm sure Stan Lee has said something just as profound on his Real Heroes show, or whatever that show is called (and you'd think I know because I LOVE that show! Did you see the rubbery-armed guy?! Or the guy who eats glass?!!!! Wowza! I thought it was amazing just to be able to down a Kashi Fiber/Cardboard/Packing Materials Bar!!!)

I remember when I was a little girl, doing a whole book called "Snobby Models." I just thought models must all be snobby, because they are always posing with their noses in the air. So, I made up all these characters, and they had über-cooooool outfits on, jewelry, bags, shoes, everything. I also remember writing a poem and illustrating it with various polar bears, crayons, and other things which I thought related. I cannot believe that thing was never published. (Though, you may have seen the reality show. Tyra hosts it?)

 I wrote and drew and colored all the time, through high school, through college, whenever, wherever. And, when I got out of college, I did greeting cards! And, I drew cartoons on those, too. During these years, a few people found me funny. So I started doing stand-up comedy. I liked that, too. 

So, I have made my living at humor for more than two decades, and - well, I'm not rich, but I love what I do. (And, since I have nothing against being rich, I will continue to work on that, fyi.)

Funny is fun.

Rich is good.

Cartoonists and comics are very fun people (and an honor) to hang with.

VOTEFORMEVOTEFORMEVOTEFORMEVOTEFORMEVOTEFORME

peace, y'all

 

trl

Alexander-the-Pretty-Okay?

Alexander was more than pretty okay, I think. I think he mighta been "great."

I wanna encourage you to take on some inspiration - from wherever you can get it! I love learning from other artists and taking inspiration from unusual sources. Which is easy, when you are a recycling maniac like I am. The kids I teach do projects from toilet paper rolls, Altoids tins, old egg cartons - you name it, we've probably used it, or it's in the queue to be used sooooon! I don't mind taking inspiration from all sorts of places. I use teabags, reclaimed billboard vinyl, labels out of donated clothing, ribbons which secure a sweater to a department store hanger (but only after I actually BUY the sweater, I should note). I like Oprah magazine, it has lots of good pix and funny little sayings (besides the fact that sometimes reading too much Oprah can make you feel you need to fix yourself - BEWARE THE MESSAGE THAT YOU ARE ALL MESSED UP AND NEED TO BE "FIXED!" But, back to the mag. Oprah Mag pages Mod Podge down very well. Nice quality, good strong color, not too many wrinkles. Which is what I'd like to be, but I digress. The cheaper mags smear, wrinkle, and show through the back . . . and sometimes that's a good thing, but you just gotta know it might happen.

Last night, my inspiration in my workshop was a small picture of a bust of Alexander the Great. So, I was thinking a couple of things: "Wow, he was HANDSOME. And apparently, also GREAT! It sez so right there in his name!" So, I Mod-Podged that puppy down, and I built a little page around him. Random, yes. 

With Art Journaling you wanna be free - you gotta be free - and you need to know that there isn't one way to do it - or NOT to do it! You don't have to be an artist - you just have to be willing to make a fool of yourself - even if you are the only who will ever see the journal pages (and THAT'S your choice, as well!)

You have to be inspired by the silliest of things - or the most serious - and just go with it. Don't judge, don't edit, just journal. 

I post my stuff . . . almost without exception. But, maybe that's because I've done comedy and art for enough years, that I have fallen many, many, many times. In front of sometimes very large audiences. But I've managed to get back up. Lots.

As the old Japanese proverb says, "It isn't how many times you fall down. It's how many times you get back up."

Fall down, make a fool of yourself. Enjoy making your art journal!

peace, y'all.

trl

Page-A-Week

Last week, I taught two of my PAINT YOUR HEAD workshops, one on Thursday in Williamsburg, at Walls Alive, and one to Art Teachers (talk about preachin' to the choir!) in Norfolk, at Old Dominion University. Winter Workshop time for Tidewater Virginia Art Educators! It was a blast. I always learn from others, and it is such a great time to be able to share knowledge, methods, media, and inspirations, not to mention, the biggie - ENCOURAGEMENT! In that vein (see how I work vampires into almost everything?), I am going to start posting a PAGE-A-WEEK. An INSPIRATION page. I will still post my usual yammering and updates, and artwork and art journal pages, and works on wood and ATCs -whew, baby - BUT, I thought this would be a great way to start sharing some idea starters for those who'd like a jumpstart for their projects. Or heck, just some eye candy. Here's the first one - I was thinking about how we can use our trash for treasure, and grouping together things I've saved which most people throw away - teabags, candy wrappers, stamps, Starbucks cards, hotel keys - and somehow I can sit down and make them all relate. You can, too. Try it! Gather a bunch of stuff you've been saving (or, start saving this week), and sit down to see how you can group it either by subject matter or color, or theme, or style . . . and do a "tour" through your piece. Everything in today's piece relates back to the beginning, in that you can find more than one piece which contains several things in common with other pieces on the page. It's sorta like that game where you have to take the last letter of the last person's word and start a new one - from the Hershey wrapper I got dark chocolate, red, silver, and gold, and found it in some beautiful papers I had in my files . . . and from those your eyes can jump back to the birds, to the Santos art, to the turquoise jewelry stamps, to the Starbucks card . . . you get my drift. Enjoy! Hope this gets your juices going! This collage work I've done in my own art journaling is informing all my gallery work now - and given it a texture it didn't have before. peace, y'all - trl, aka The Laughing Redhead

Paint Your Head!/Workshops

Last night I taught another of my "PAINT YOUR HEAD" Art Journaling workshops, and it's always a fun time. I have some participants who have taken the workshops two or three times, at different locations! That's really fun, we can add new techniques and tricks each time, to enhance everyone's experience, no matter how many times they take the workshop. We did a show-and-tell last night - everyone participated in that, and it was fun to see how everyone painted what was on their minds and hearts yesterday . . . memories, wishes, dreams, philosophies were all worked in to different pieces.  I'm looking forward to my next scheduled workshops.

On Thursday, February 10th, at Walls Alive in New Town (Williamsburg, Virginia) we will be doing another Paint Your Head workshop, and again on Thursday, March 10th.

On Thursday, March 24th, we will launch our "ATC JUMPSTART!" "ATC" is short for Artist Trading Cards, little 2.5" x 3.5" original works of art, which you create and trade with other artists! 

Then, on March 27th, I head out of Miami on a ship, of all things, taking PAINT YOUR HEAD to the Caribbean, on our maiden voyage MUSE CRUISE to help you free your Muse! I'm joined by Cindy Miller Hopkins (photographer, her credits include National Geographic and permanent display in the Smithsonian), and Vicki Kuyper (author of over 50 books, and thousands of hilarious greeting cards!), in leading the group of awesome women who have signed up for this. And what a group! We have artists, an architect, two jewelry designers, several homemakers, two comedians . . . writers, photographers . . . does it get any better? The only way this would get better is if you could go to some Mayan ruins or go snorkeling or kayaking . . . oh wait, we are doing that! Okay, then, the only way this could get better is if you could throw in Johnny Depp! Which I would do, if only I could! 

This week, we launched ART JAM at school, for the 4th-7th graders, and we had a great turnout, and shall I say, a substantial level of energy - which we are channeling into making our own books, which will become art journals. 

Peace, y'all. 

And, happy art-making!

:-)

trl

Paisley Practice

I'm on the road in the midwest this week, doing some comedy, visiting some dear friends, and my old stomping grounds at Hallmark (fun memories), as well as meeting with my publisher. Kansas City, here I come!

I always take a little Moleskine journal and some pens and pencils with me, even when I'm just running around town - and sometimes I just work on backgrounds, doodling, paisley practice . . . I use those in my journals, in my greeting cards, and in the scratch-in on my big oil paintings. 

I will miss seeing my students this week. The kids have been working on Fruity Faces, a lesson plan based on the Arcmiboldo fruit-and-veggie faces from the 1500s, doing drawings and clay faces. There's a great Arcimboldo exhibit at the National Gallery of Art (in the Contemporary Wing for its Surrealistic qualities). It's a beautiful exhibition, and the Gallery gave me a pile of brochures for my students, so we could study the pictures. I talked with the students about how amazing it is that this 500-year-old art relates to Davy Jones and his band of CGI fish-faced crew in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." They, as usual, have come up with some wonderful art of their own. 

I am thrilled to say that we've been awarded a Target Field Trip Grant to take my 6th and 7th Graders to the Smithsonian. We are going to go to the American Art Museum, the Museum of the American Indian, and The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. We are jazzed!

Attaching a "paisley practice" background I have started in my mini-journal. Happy Art-Making :-)