Monster Monday

 Welcome to 

I had a very bad weekend. In bed not doing much at all. Uuhhhhggg.

 

But I made monsters in advance so here they are.

Even the bees like the skeletons.

 

 

 

For something pretty Murmuration 

 

Have a great Monday

 

Nicole

Sunday in the Art Room 1/19/26

 Welcome to 

SITAR is about ANYTHING art. Your art, someone else's art, writing, photography, the art of cooking, the art of sewing and textiles. Sharing historical art, street art, a story about art. Do you have a question or need help with art? Write a blog post and link it up here. We will all try to help with it. My only rule is that if someone asks for critique it must be done with generosity and consideration. 

This is a place of learning, encouragement and inspiration.

 

Today I'm happy to introduce you to 

 

Diana Ali. 

 She is a visual Artist, International Independent Curator, Fine Art Lecturer, TV presenter (BB1, BBC4, Ch4) , workshop leader, creative mentor, board member Nottingham Women's Center. Not much on her plate at all. LOL

I came across her on the TV art show Draweres Off. 

 

As a Visual Artist, she has exhibited regionally, nationally at the TINAG festival, London and Site Gallery, Sheffield and solo at the Airspace Gallery, Hanley. Her international exhibitions include The Library Artspace, Victoria, Australia, The Crafts Fair in San Francisco, The Roaming Biennial in Tehran and the Other Asia’s exhibition ‘ReDo Pakistan’ in Karachi, Pakistan and has been featured in The Disarmory Newspaper in New York.

To date she has independently curated fourteen shows. National projects include ‘Up & Coming’ at the CUC in Liverpool, an event showcasing 60 emerging national and international artists, ‘Subversive Correspondence’ featuring fifty artists in London and Bristol and ‘Dialogues: A Fake Romance?’ in Swansea with thirty artists. Internationally, she has curated in countries with cultural divides; ‘A State of Un-Play’ at Atelier 35 in Romania, ‘Engagement and Entrapment’ in Israel and Palestine, Cyprus and South Korea. ‘Loss & Lucidity’ in California and Lisbon, which was her largest show featuring 58 international artists.

She is currently working with promoting and advocating the importance of creative thinking and making in different sectors outside of art. She has given presentations and workshops at the Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham University, Southwark Cathedral, KPMG, Archaeology groups (DNMGS), Haringey Council (business & Art) and schools and communities centres (well-being, domestic violence issues, EDI)..She currently works at Loughborough University and Open College of the Arts (University of the Creative Arts)

 This is some of her older art

I love the grunginess of it.  

 

These are so bold. 

8mm projector explorations

 A direct animation video records the language of Bangladesh, more specifically Sylheti and Dhakhai. The language is drawn directly onto the film and appears and disappears amongst distressed found footage.  The voice overs are of the artist conversing with her mother about politics and her uncle preaching religious fables. Having recently revisited Bangladesh, the video explores the confusion, the inarticulate communication, and the frustration of not being able to speak a native language with conviction.

You can watch the film here

What I love most about her, is that she has taken her art and not exhibited for herself but that she takes art to help others. 

 

Hope you enjoyed meeting Diana.

 

Have a great Sunday.

Nicole 

 

Joining Gillena

 

sited

Axis 

Diana Ali 

 

Taking over

 Hi Everyone!

update

Not sure why my comments were not allowed on this post earlier. I have now fixed the problem.

 

As expected the "thing" and the maga republicans are doing everything they can to take over our government. I could write a mountain of 

 information on this subject but to put it bluntly. 

 Republican states are trying to and passing voting restriction laws so your vote will be thrown out! In fact 9 states this year have made it more difficult for you to vote.

Lawmakers in Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia passed laws between January and May of this year restricting access to voting, according to an analysis of publicly available data by the Brennan Center and the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. If passed new laws in NC will be added to the list.

We all know that the, (things) agenda has always been to take over. To be king of the US. I'm sure he will change that name too. 

The very first moments of his speech on Thursday started out as just another lie. However, he laid out clearly (to me anyway) just how he will upend the midterms and then carry it through to the next presidential election. Personally, I don't believe there will be one if he succeeds with midterms. 

His insistence of voter fraud,  gerrymandering, eliminating vote by mail, ( except for him) firing the election commission administrators, and fear mongering about other countries invading our voting machines. But most of all he is preparing the stage if the midterms don't go his way.

In a report from MSNBC Tom Rogers

and my paraphrasing. 

The "Thing" will claim that the 2026 midterms were rigged and say the results can't be finalized until it's all investigated because there was foreign interference or illegal immigrants voting. 

There's something that hasn't been focused on at all called PEADs, or Presidential Emergency Action Documents. These are highly classified documents that have been in place since the Eisenhower administration.

When you hear the "thing" saying, "I have a lot of powers that people don't even know about," or, "I have very strong emergency powers," he's probably referring to those.

They've never been used. They're in place to be signed in the event of a nuclear attack, when civil society totally disintegrates and the president has to take some kind of emergency action. 

If the midterms are upended do to him, there will be riots in the streets. He will take action then with PEADs 

I think he's laying the groundwork to be able to put those into effect: arrest and detain people without trial, seize election machines. Obviously, all that would be litigated, but we know the courts move a lot slower than the administration would move in that kind of circumstance.

I think we're headed-with all this communist-threat talk of a bigger threat than World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor and 9/11-toward something that he thinks he's going to be able to turn into a major crisis to take actions like that.

We'd be naive not to think so.

Just my thoughts and opinion for the day.

Nicole 

 

 

 

Friday Face OFF. FFO 7/17/26

 

Welcome To Friday Face OFF (FFO)

This is the place to show off your face art.

You know, ANY type of face, nature, the face of a flower, photography, drawings, paintings, AI. There just needs to be a face in your blog post, a link back to my blog and please use the image below. 

Thank you.

 

I hope everyone has had a good week. I have. Even though lupus wants to linger I am about 75% back to my normal self. What a relief.  Thank you very much for all the well wishes. It means everything to me. 

 

For those of you who have been with me for a long time, you may remember that I used to paint quite a bit. Like, everyday. Some portraits. 

This one I actually sold.

 

 

I also painted lots of abstracts

 

 

and a lot of landscapes.

 

 It has been at least 2 years since I have picked up a paint brush. 

A few days ago I thought I would take up Mr. M's. challenge and paint a portrait. I gave myself 2 hours to complete it. OMG!!!!!! What a mess. 😁 

So much so that I an NOT going to show it here. It is true that if you stop using it you lose it. I wrote all of that to say, don't stop creating! I'm kind of stuck, or in love with graphite but that shouldn't stop me from painting, or using colored pencils or whatever other medium I want to play with. That leaves us with the time element in our lives. I saw a wonderful video the other day that said, ditch the phone, turn off the TV, make your art space something where you have no distractions. Turn on some good music,  or what EVER makes you get into the zone for creating. Just create, you will be happier for.

 

Here is what I created for FFO.

 She starts like this. This woman had a forehead that was longer that a mile and a lot of bumps and marks on it. I gave her bangs to calm it down. That's the joy of art, you can change anything. 

 

I did enjoy making her hat or whatever it is called. I used my electric eraser on it. 

 

She ended up like this.

 

Instead of AI today, Mr. M. found these two photos while he was going through a box of old photos.

My Nan, in 2003 at 98 years. She lived to be 104 years. It's the one thing we have in my family, good hair. 

Me in my late 30s. I was an avid bow hunter. This is land connected to my land at the time. Nothing like fresh grouse for dinner.

 

 

Now to see some features.

 

Elizabeth and Bleubeard.

 

Louise (Fundy Blue)

 

Jeanie

That's it for now 

Be sure to join in for 

Sunday in the Art Room 

 

 

I will be joining Gillena 

Now it's time to show me your face.

Nicole 

T Stands for Tuesday

 Hi Everyone!

 

Today I'm joining T-Day with 

Elizabeth and Bleubeard. 

 

Today I ask, do you watch art shows? Not youtube but art challenge, art history or just painting shows? Of course I do. In fact these shows have helped me go from this

 

 

to this

 

 

To what I'm creating now.

For me there is an improvement.

 

 

So what art the shows I have been watching. Of course number 1 is 

Portrait artist of the year in the UK.

 

I enjoy the entire show. The format is excellent. I also have connected to all of the judges and the host.

 

There are 12 seasons and I watch it on Prime.

 Along with this there is Portrait Artist of the year Australia. 

 

I will say I have NOT connected to the judges of this show, but I watch for the art. 

 

I also watch this on Prime. 

 Now there is Portrait Artist of the year in Norway and Denmark not available in the US.

 

Other art shows I watch are

 Tai-Shan Schierenberg, who is one of the judges on PAOTY UK has a show called Artist of the year masterclass.

On Prime 

 

Kate Bryan another judge on PAOTY UK has several youtubes but TV type shows of the history of art. They are magnificent.

Here is just one.

 

There are other shows too like, Landscape Artist of the year. 

On Prime 

 

Extraordinary Portraits 

is an inspiring BBC TV series that pairs unsung heroes and everyday people who have overcome adversity or achieved remarkable things with some the UK's top artist to have their portraits painted, drawn or sculpted. 

It is a fascinating art show.  On Prime.

 

 However, while I was sick in bed I found this gem. And yes it is on Prime.

There are only 2 seasons. The first season I found so much fun and enjoyed very much. For the second season, they changed the format and it is not as fun for me. But let me explain the show. Season one, amateur artists have one hour to create a full body (from life) portrait. Each one of the artist take a turn at being a model. Some of the artists have never created from life before. The model chooses the winner. 

 

Diana Ali is the art mentor on hand that gives advice to the contestants. 

I'm featuring her next week on SITAR.

 

When Mr. M. saw a glimpse of the show, he says, "you could do that." ha ha ha, he has so much confidence in me. Then I thought. If I take a photo of the model off the TV, then I could create along with the show. That would be fun.

The second season is totally different. Diana Ali did not return as the on screen mentor. The show was  revamped to remove the expert advisory role completely. More on that on SITAR.

Season 2 is actually named  Drawers Off (subtitled The Big Naked Painting Challenge. The contestants no longer model and the people that do model are as stated, Naked. 

This was the first model season 2 episode 1. Yes, he is butt naked. The artists also now get 90 minutes to finish their creations.

Each contestant votes on the art and the highest number wins. The grand price is £1,000.

These are just a few of the shows I watch. Let me know what you watch for your art adventures.

 

My drink this week is,

I put a Coors light in the freezer and drank it iced. 

This is not my photo.

Hope you enjoyed the post.

BTW some of these shows are on Tubi. 

 

Nicole