Friday, July 24, 2026

Friday Face OFF (FFO) 7/24/26

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.

Hi Everyone!

I feel like it has been a successful week for drawing. I hope your art week has been a good one as well.

She starts like this. Actually she started with a sketch but I don't have a photo of that. 😁

Stage 2. I'm very happy with her nose.

Next, getting the eyes right and more shading.

This is my hand drawing. I do wear a compression glove for my lupus hand and it helps with not smearing the graphite. I draw on an easel with an attached light.

Here she is starting to come alive.

and I finished with this. I like how I was able to create her features. For me it's improvement.

More very old photos
1983 Alaska. In the back is me, my dad, I'm leaning on my brother Steve, in the chair is my brother Tom, and on the floor is my daughter April and my brother Pat.

I have shown this one before.

Me, April, my Nan, and my Mom.

We all just woke up but Mr. M. wanted the photo.

Me taking the shot. I'm wondering who's car is behind me, because it is not mine. LOL

Now for some features

Christine

Carol

KWARKITO

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

Thursday, July 23, 2026

GAG

Hi Everyone!

I have so much to say about the "thing" and what he is doing but I just decided to show these instead.

Spend, Spend, Spend

The US debt to date

debt held by the public $31,874,795,478,548.56

Intragovernmental holdings

$7,785,574,186,584.91

Total public debt outstanding

$39,660,369,665,133.47

He runs the country like all of his failed business .

and one of the worst things

Just saying.

Nicole

Monday, July 20, 2026

T stands for Texas chocolate sheet cake

Hi Everyone!

Today I'm joining T-Day with

Elizabeth and Bleubeard.

Not much going on this past few days. On Saturday I met up with my 3 neighbors for our monthly gathering. We've been doing this now since before covid. No I don't have photos.

But this week we all brought things for a salad. Kay, made a Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake.

photo from internet.

We were eating outside and having a good time. I could NOT eat salad due to some lupus digestion troubles so I had just a very tiny bit of salad toppings and my water. Soon it was time for the cake. Now, Mr. M. and I don't eat much sugary things in our house any more. But the chocolate frosting was calling my name. As Kay cut into the cake, I thought, "oh perfect its a thin piece of cake. In fact, the icing, more like fudge, was thicker than the cake. We each got a piece and we all moaned as we took the first bite. It is the BEST chocolate cake ever!

photo from internet.

After several hours of our gathering we all headed home. I wasn't feeling well at all as I crossed the street to my house. For the next few days I was just sick to my stomach and a diverticulitis flare. Now, I'm not saying it was the cake but it was as rich as chocolate cake can get and I'm just not used to that much sugar.

However, if you want to try it

here is the recipe.

For my drink today, just plain water.

Have a good Tuesday.

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, July 19, 2026

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

Saturday, July 18, 2026

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, July 17, 2026

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.