Before the paint dries again (metaphorically speaking)...

Hey there! I'm back giving it another go. 

This time I'm feeling significantly more normal on a cognitive level so I'm going to start entering blog posts as I'm able, again. LOL

As the saying goes: You may see me struggle but you won't see me just quit.

This last year, I've had five paintings commissioned, two of which are posted below. 

What you see below is the latest commission I'd rendered in artist's grade acrylics for someone's new office wall. It's a 24'x30" gallery wrapped canvas, titled "Peace". 

And this one was for the client's spouse. It's slightly larger at 24"x36" in size, also rendered in the acrylics on gallery wrapped canvas, and it's titled "Joy".

In general, I am not an abstract painter, but like so many things, I am enjoying figuring out a new addition to my skill set. What really matters is the clients were thrilled and love how peaceful and explosive each piece looks. That's the best success in my book. Enjoy the photos. :D

Catching up!

This is long overdue, I know. So, here we are in March 2014 (edited to add August 2014). It's time to catch this blog up and then attempt to be more regular. I apologize for the dead link for the Dresses as Canvases album, by the way. It is now working again.

**If you're not interested in medical issues, stop reading here. This is just to raise awareness for those suffering from rare forms of vertigo. Some people have found helpful info for their loved ones.**

Where I've been:
During my time away from this blog, I finally was able to get answers for my symptoms and it is considered a rare form of vertigo: Mal de Debarquement Syndrome or MdDS. (Syndrome meaning they don't actually know what 'it' is.) Watch the videos and read the articles at the links below for a better understanding. My symptoms set in after an 18 hour road trip, driving in a small SUV, at higher Interstate/freeway speeds. In the past, I've never had balance or motion issues of any kind from travel. I still, often wonder, "What changed?".

Jane's story: (3 min.)
http://youtu.be/hjPUsu-T6Qs

Terri and Mike: (9 min.)
http://youtu.be/eglbhkrbRRg

"Rare disorder makes people feel off balance for weeks or months" (or years)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/15/AR2010031502016
There should be more awareness of this condition because I believe it is more common than is being reported and goes undiagnosed a lot of the time. I'm hoping this will help someone else. Since the link above, to this article keeps changing I've copied and pasted it from the Washington Post archive:

"Rare disorder makes people feel off balance for weeks or months"
By Diane Daniel
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, March 16, 2010; HE01 

When Claudette Broyles tries to describe to friends how she feels, she likens herself to a balloon on a string, tied to a post.

"I'm constantly rocking and swaying, but the level changes," said Broyles, 60, of Woodstock, Va. "If I'm having an average day, then it's like I'm a balloon in a mild breeze. If I'm having a bad day, it's like it's really windy."

I hadn't heard the balloon analogy before, but I could relate.

Broyles and I suffer from mal de debarquement syndrome (MdDS), an uncommon balance disorder that one researcher describes as "motion hallucination." For weeks, months or even years at a time, we feel that we are rocking, bobbing, swaying, even though diagnostic tests for balance, hearing and vision show up normal. The name for the illness is French for "disembarkation sickness," so called because it most frequently occurs after being on a boat.

Of course, many people have experienced the swaying sensations that occur just after a boat trip. But for those with MdDS, that feeling doesn't let up; it persists with varying degrees of severity, causing everything from clumsiness to the inability to walk without some kind of support.

Just how many sufferers there are is unknown, says neurologist Yoon-Hee Cha, who this year launched a study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, the first time federal money has been used for research into the syndrome.

"We don't know how many people suffer from MdDS since many people are not able to get the right diagnosis," she said. "Until there is more widespread familiarity among physicians, we won't know for sure." She isn't sure who gave MdDS its name, but she believes it was first diagnosed in the late 1980s.

Cha, of UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, uses neuro-imaging to try to identify the location in the brain affected during MdDS episodes, with the hope of finding a treatment and a cure.

"It's a real disorder, even though patients don't look sick. It's still very under-recognized among physicians, so a lot of patients are educating their doctors about it," she said.

Broyles is going through her fifth round of MdDS in 28 years. Most episodes, she believes, were triggered by boats, but the latest occurred after a turbulent flight from England. The first two subsided within a few weeks, and the other two within six months. Her most recent? It has lasted eight years -- so far. The disorder prompted her to move from Fairfax to slower-paced Woodstock and has altered her life in many areas, she said.

As for me, I'm on my third bout in as many decades. This time, my brain has been at sea for half a year.

Mercifully, the symptoms disappear when we're in motion, so driving is usually a relief. But they worsen in confined spaces -- for example in a shower, where we have to hold on to walls and bars to stay steady.

Another sufferer, Marilyn Josselyn, 73, of Audubon, Pa., has had only one episode, but it has lasted a dozen years and counting.

Hers set in after a week-long river cruise in Russia. "When we got back from the cruise, I was rocking in my head and was off balance, and I couldn't concentrate," she said.

While I can still push through a work day, both Josselyn and Broyles can no longer muster enough concentration to hold jobs.

Josselyn felt fortunate to not have to fight her way through layers of uninformed doctors, as many have.

"I went to my family doctor, who sent me to a balance clinic. I was lucky because I saw a doctor who had heard of mal de debarquement. A lot of doctors still don't even believe in it."

Thanks in large part to Josselyn and her husband, Roger, that is starting to change. In 2003, they started the nonprofit MdDS Balance Disorder Foundation and an associated online support group. Through donations and grants, the foundation is also funding research in hopes of finding a cause and cure for MdDS.

Using the online support group, sufferers, who are often misdiagnosed, are sharing information about symptoms, possible treatments and doctors who are knowledgeable and empathetic about the syndrome.

One of those is David Zee, a professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who treats patients with vestibular (inner ear balance) disorders, including MdDS.

"This is one condition where it's more common that the patients diagnose themselves and then tell the doctor," he said. "It's a fascinating disorder where the brain is trying to figure out: Am I moving, or is the world moving?"

Two signs that a patient has mal de debarquement, he said, are if they feel a rocking sensation for weeks or months starting after a cruise and if they're fine when driving but not when standing, walking or sitting.

"In most cases, the symptoms are so stereotypical that it can't be anything else," Zee said. Furthermore, most sufferers are women, many between ages 20 and 50, leading some to believe hormonal levels are involved.

Some sufferers say they have gotten relief from their symptoms by taking clonazepam, a long-acting benzodiazepine used to treat anxiety, but there's no definitive treatment.

"The good news is that mal de debarquement usually subsides on its own," Zee said.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that most sufferers feel the rocking for a few weeks to a few months.

Melissa Choate, 32, of Fairfax, fits that description. Her first case of MdDS began three years ago during a week-long Caribbean cruise. Within six weeks, the rocking was gone.

Choate's second and latest episode, which subsided after seven weeks, started during her honeymoon in Aruba in early January.

"One day we went snorkeling from a catamaran, and the next day I felt the waviness. It was minimal, but later it got worse. For a few weeks, it was like I felt a G-force, where I felt my stomach drop and the sensation of being pulled backward."

She worries about recurrences and has an appointment with a balance specialist in Baltimore.

"What scares me the most is if you've had it once, you're more susceptible to having it again, and each time it gets a little longer," she said.

That's what happened to Broyles, the five-time sufferer, who only recently learned about the online support group.

"It's amazing how all our stories are alike," she said. "I feel like I'm not crazy a
fter all, that there are people out there who understand it."


Daniel is a freelance writer based in Durham, N.C.

PDF file with more information, from the MdDS Foundation

Dresses as Canvases

I thought it was high time I got back on here and posted something about the work I do for Designs by Lyn. Below is a link where I have posted a batch of photos of most of the gowns I have had the pleasure of painting on. There are a few that show how they turned out after the Swarovski crystals were applied to the painted parts of the gowns. They always turn out stunningly beautiful after they are crystallized. You can see them at this link.                                          Dresses as Canvases album

My favorite and most fun gown was this mermaid gown that was briefly called the 'miracle gown' amongst us. The inserted photo-link of this gown, as well as a detailed shot of it, are what you're seeing below. One day, I went to the shop to find work and found this gown on a shelf with other 'bagged dresses', where they end up when no one can think of how to progress with them. However, when I took the gown out of the bag an idea immediately came to mind...I 'saw' what it needed. I painted the bold and bright geometric design on it and when I brought it back to the shop everyone was like: "Dee, it's a miracle! We didn't know what we were going to do with it!" You can see how it looked with just paint on it, in the album linked above. The decorators ("stoners" as we like to joke about it) applied crystals to the painting and the seamstresses added the bright feathers to the skirt hem, which finished it off beautifully. I'm always so impressed with what we come up with in our team efforts.        

This is a detail photo of the crystals on the paint along with the necklace created just for this gown.

I hope you take a few minutes and enjoy looking through the photos of these gowns.

Trip to Bolivia in 2006

In 2006 I spent ten days in Bolivia to teach basic drawing to small children in the Haven of Hope Orphanage, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The purpose wasn’t just to bring them creative fun but by learning to draw these orphans could illustrate on paper the trauma-causing events they’d experienced. This served to aid the psychologist working with them to better help them with working through their personal struggles. In the past I have taught basic drawing in a small class setting at my college, and since then tutored home-educated students privately, in their homes. I'm not in the classroom photos because I was taking the photos while my team helped translate my instructions and showed the kids what to do on their worksheets.

You can see a photos of the children and their work and other photos of the trip here: Bolivia trip_2006

Im a blogger newbie...

  Hi! This is going to be my blog for talking about art I make and those things directly or indirectly related to it. This page is under construction for now while I learn how to use it.
If it makes you confused or just plain blank...well so am I.   :-)

   To begin with, I'll include some things about my background and experiences so you can get to know me a bit better. Having spent 16 years, cumulatively, in Europe while growing up, I was exposed to a great deal of art ranging from very old to very new: mostly of the old master painters, old world architecture, statues and woodwork on a frequent basis. Such quality craftsmanship and talent was my main inspiration and influence, early in life. Mostly, I have developed my skills on my own with little formal instruction. It seriously began with the "Paint by Number" kits I used as a kid. Somehow, my little child's brain figured out how to blend between the lines on those paintings and make them "look more real". I was so proud of myself. LOL. My dad always said..."If you can read and comprehend well, you can learn anything you choose to"...and I’ve been doing just that. Thanks Dad.

    The "art" classes I had in high school and college did not educate me with the information about the painting skills and color theory that I needed to paint in a realistic style. I had discovered after-the-fact that they were not actually qualified in teaching the methods of the old master painters that I was looking for. In all fairness, in my own ignorance, I also didn’t know how to find what I needed since I didn’t know what to look for. Mostly I learned to do what they called ‘modern art’ and handcrafted-type work.

    Painting in a realistic style is something I had to mostly learn from my own research, practice, and tips from intermittent conversations and friendships with fellow artists, over the years. The most influential being Tracie Thompson http://www.traciethompson.com/ and Greg Biolchini http://www.biolchini.com, both of whom had actually received good instruction on a range of fine art skills. This link https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10202743116957205&type=1&l=3266ccd71c has several from the last 6+ years, alone.

   My other experiences include having taught a recreational, beginning drawing course as a freshman in college. I have three children whom I home-educated and who are now all serving our country in the U.S. Marine Corps. During that time I taught other home-educated kids how to draw and their families helped my kids in other subjects such as middle school math, high school math and some science.

  In July of 2006 I traveled to Bolivia and spent ten days at the Haven of Hope orphanage teaching the orphans to draw. See my blog post about it here: http://dee-deeott.blogspot.com/

This gave them a creative, therapeutic outlet for their emotional distress and in turn helped the attending psychologist better understand the kids traumatic experiences.

Brenda, Carlos, Hernan and German are some of the children I worked with.

Haven of Hope Orphanage Bolivia

    Around the same time frame I began working for a ballroom dance gown designer and former champion ballroom dance competitor, Lyn Wallander. My position as gown decorator included creating creative crystal designs for and applying Swarovski crystals to the gowns and then was moved into gown-painting designs. The link below contains several of the gowns I've worked on.

Dresses as Canvases album

 
Since then: I have submitted a few pieces of my work to the Arts for ACT annual fundraiser auctions, where live auction items are auctioned off by a celebrity guest auctioneers. Past guest auctioneers have included Jesse Metcalf, Niecy Nash, Joan Rivers, Tracey Ullman, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Lauren Hutton and Sharon Stone. It is a not-for-profit gallery from which the proceeds go to the Abuse Counseling and Treatment center for battered women and children here in my city. I've experienced some of those things in my life as a child and as an adult, so their cause touches me on a personal level. I started making art as a child and found it to be a safe place to express what I was feeling while I was going through those difficult times. I enjoyed passing that ability on to the kids in Bolivia. “Arts for ACT” is a good charity to support. http://www.artsforactgallery.com/index.html

   Currently, I am overcoming a four-yearlong bout with vertigo-like symptoms which have made me a medical mystery of sorts, and therefore difficult to diagnose. Recently, I finally found a treatment plan that has caused me to improve slowly, but it IS improvement, nonetheless. In the meantime, I have continued to create art during those four years even though I’ve been symptomatic 24/7 the entire time.
(Edited to add: this is why MdDS)

   On my better days, I make art, albeit ever so slowly. Most of the pieces you see posted at the Artist- rising site, dated between Dec. ’07 and today’s date, were made during this challenging time in my life. I feel good about the fact that I have not made excuses NOT to make art, because I really could have made them and they would have been a legitimate, within reason. I had to see if I could do it and when I did it was a tremendous morale boost. Life was not totally on hold for me, after all.  =)