|
Paint &
Pen Blog
Archives
 Blog Directory
Add Your Blog
Blog Search Engine -Search Engine and Directory of blogs. Looking for blogs? Find them on BlogSearchEngine.com.
|
R
Friday, May 30, 2008
People Gonna Think
"To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it." ~ Confucious
Writing music and then performing it is such a wonderful process and release. I truly enjoy the journey as much as the destination. That's so important for me as I'm so results oriented.
The first song I wrote, "I Was Made to Cover You", was written about my Monkey Made of Sockies golf club headcover. I was going to license another artist's music for my music video and found I didn't have time to secure the necessary permissions. So I wrote my own music along with Teresa Widdowson who wrote the wonderful base line. I was ready to hand it over to my cousin's band for arrangement and performance. However, the lead singer got laryngitis on the day of the taping. I was on a tight deadline so I decided to sing it myself.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=e1ldDKOa8Vc
I'm so glad things worked out that way. Now I'm hooked. I'm half way through my second song and a third is lurking.
This second song was written in response to some false accusations that I overheard about myself. I've got the melody fleshed out and now I'm writing the other tracks.
I'm hoping to have the song done by the next blog. Until then, here's sneak preview of the lyrics:
People Gonna Think What They Think
Did you see that?
She’s over there
Talking to that man
Did you see that?
She got no business
Singing in that band
Did you see that?
There she goes
Golfing with that monkey
People gonna think what they think
Ummmm
People gonna think what they think
So I’ll keep wearing red
And live out loud instead
Cause people gonna think what they think
Did you hear that?
I heard she painted
A nude scene
Did you hear that?
She’s laughing loud
Must be about me
Did you hear that?
There she goes
She’s way too much for me
People gonna think what they think
People gonna think what they think
So I’ll keep wearing red
And live my life instead
Cause people gonna think what they think
Did you see that?
I heard she’s making
Some kind of movie
Did you see that?
Look at her dress
Honestly
Did you hear that?
She played kazoo
Right in front of me
People Gonna think what they think
Yeaaaaaah People gonna think what they think
So I’ll keep wearing red
And live my life instead
Cause people
gonna think
what they
think
Umm Ummmmmm
People
Gonna think
What they
Think
Wooooooooo
Labels: Golf, music, Sock Monkey Shannon Grissom
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Change of Plan(s)
"When you work seven days a week, fourteen hours a day, you get lucky." ~ Armand Hammer
I've worked really hard to be this lucky. On the flip side, I've also found when I exceed the fourteen hours a day, there's no wiggle room for life.
So this month I decided to stop. Well... that's not quite how it happened. Life threw some detours my way that made me stop.
Be back soon. Until then, here's a picture of my favorite oak tree in Charlotte, Arkansas.
Labels: art, Charlotte, Rest
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Waiting For Inspiration
If you wait for inspiration you'll be standing on the corner after the parade is a mile down the street.
Ben Nicholas
I am so grateful that my parents encouraged creativity. They didn't talk about it. It was simply how we lived. All of us played musical instruments and my Mom even sang to the dog! Dad designed countless gardens and created beautiful woodcarvings. And one of my earliest memories are of his set of pastels. Actually, I still have that set...
For me, creating is is like exercise. It's all about intention and action. Sometimes I'm inspired when I start and other times, the starting fuels the inspiration. Both states are necessary for me to get things done.
Nike's Just Do It campaign really strikes a chord with me. If you want to paint a picture, place your brush in paint and make contact with the canvas. If you want to write a book, put your fingers on a writing instrument and make contact with the paper or computer. If you want to write a song pick your instrument of choice and make contact with the air waves.
Does it all come out perfect....of course not! But it all comes out and what emerges either paves the way for the beautiful or truly is. So go ahead, pave the way, otherwise you'll miss the parade.Labels: art, music, Painting, Shannon, Shannon Grissom
Friday, February 01, 2008
What a week!
I'm glad to be back in California!
 Orlando, FL
Aloha, OR
Hollister, CA
(San Juan Oaks Golf Club)Labels: Aloha, Flight, Hollister Downtown Association, OR, Orlando, San Juan Oaks Golf Club, Shannon Grissom Cheryl Calhoun
Monday, January 28, 2008
Mile High Art
Mile High Art...hmmm...... it's not what you think. Or maybe it is!
The month started off with a trip to Orlando for the PGA show. I was home for a few days ,and then up to Portland to see my step-son, Dan. This year I am flying to many events. And if I've got any energy at all, I like to sketch. Drawing is meditative and restorative. It also helps me keep my mind off the occasional turbulence during the flight.
Here's a piece I created on the way to Chicago last year. I used to work in pencil but found I arrived at my destination smeared with graphite so I switched to pen. There are no erasures on the pen work. It's a good lesson in moving forward no matter what mistakes I've made! And in case you are wondering, I completed my crossword puzzle in pen too!
Speaking of moving forward, these pieces have really taught me to let go. For as soon as I'm told to put my tray table in it's upright position, I sign the piece and close the book. No looking back. OK well maybe I look back but I don't touch them again.
Below is a sketch I created en route from Portland to San Jose. Notice the difference in energy in this piece. You can tell the flight to Chicago was a lot smoother...
I'm going to dig up some of my sketch books and post more of my mile-high pieces from time to time.
What's next? Most likely Chicago. As for the subject matter, that depends on my mood that day.
So the next time you find yourself in the sky, get out your pen and doodle or sketch. It's a great way to pass the time.Labels: art, Eagle, Flight, Graphite, High, Mile, Pencil, PGA, Shannon Grissom, Sketch, Woman
Friday, January 25, 2008
Letting Go-Again!
The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. Charles Du Bos
I heard that Joe Montana wanted to play basketball before he became a football star. So when I see the merchandising side of my business take off faster than the fine art, I smile and realize it doesn't matter how I get there as long as I enjoy the ride. I'm having a ball!
As I worked on my business plan for the year, I thought about three things:
1) Where am I?
2) Where do I want to be?
3) How can I get to where I want to be.
First I listed everything I do each month. Wow, it made me tired just creating the list. Next I listed everything I need to do to achieve my goals. Finally I combined both lists and attempted to plug them in to my schedule. Umm, not going to happen. It was clear that my calendar was expanding even greater than my waistline after Thanksgiving.
I manage my time well yet there was not enough time to accomplish my goals. Something had to give. Actually, a lot of things had to give. I couldn't reach for more with an arm full of stuff.
Here's what I'm keeping:
Painting Subjects:
Sock Monkeys and Golf
Television:
Give Your Walls Some Soul, the Series
Special Projects
Teaching:
Via the Television Show and Private Lessons
Licensing:
Community Service: Culinary and Hospitality Foundation, YMCA, and CMAP
Writing:
My second Monkey Made of Sockies Book
Soon you'll be meeting my support staff. (Admins, both virtual and physical, agents and more!) With my new team in place, I'll be achieving some phenomenal goals this year. Pigs fly in this studio! May pigs fly in your realm as well.
Happy New Year,
Shannon
Labels: Change, Shannon Grissom
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Give Your Walls Some Soul Turns 50!
Success follows doing what you want to do. There is no other way to be successful.
Malcom Forbes
This month, Give Your Walls Some Soul celebrated the taping of it's 50th episode.
If you watch the show, it seems pretty simple. Just me, art supplies and a camera or two. Yet it takes a lot more than that to produce a show. (For details on how I got started and what it takes to put a show together, check out the article I wrote for Art Calendar Magazine a few years back at the end of this blog.)
Usually I supply the crew with sandwiches and cookies. This episode however, I went all out with delicacies from the Inn at Tres Pinos. And normally I never eat before the show. (Hey I don't want food in my teeth or to have to reapply my makeup. ) But this time I just couldn't help myself.
The menu was this:
Sauteed Calamari Strips with a Vine Ripened Tomato and Balsamic Vinaigrette Grilled Italian Sausage with Cream Laced Whole Grain Mustard Sauce Portabella Mushroom "Pizza" Roasted Portabella Caps topped with Zesty Marinara, Basil Pesto, and Melting Mozzarella Chocolate Mousse...
Our crew is SO worth it! Month after month, year after year, they show up, do an excellent job, and make the process fun. The people behind the scenes that make Give Your Walls Some Soul possible are:
Director: Jan Janes
Technical Director: Jan Janes
Production Manager: Shawn Mulcare
CG: Dee Guerrero, Amanda Marshall-Kapp, Alma Mathis,
Audio: Bruce Lee
Lighting: Shawn Mulcare
Camera: Larry Talbot, Ron Winingar, Jesus Avelar, Robin Egbert, Charisy Mathis
Dubs: Cristina Lee
Over the course of the years, just about everything that could have happened during the taping has occurred. You see the show is filmed live- to- tape. That means there is no editing. No "do-overs". Once the camera is rolling, we keep going until the show is done. To quote Geraldine from Flip Wilson, "What you see is what you get!"
Most of the time I pride myself on my professionalism. I'm usually able to go on with the show and pretend like nothing is happening when:
-a crew member is belly crawling on the floor towards me and proceeds to move my pallet table while I'm mixing paint.
-a camera person has to leave the set due to the stomach flu. (I promise I won't go in to details on that one!)
-a boisterous. deeply inebriated individual is knocking on the studio doors to gain entrance.
-an audience member decides he can no longer be silent.
-my easel is held together by duct tape because I left an integral part at my home studio.
-security decides my van must be moved during the middle of taping and they keys are in my pocket.
Speaking of pockets, it was that very container that got me in to trouble during the last shoot. Crew member Larry Talbot's birthday fell on the same day of the shoot. So during the taping I played Happy Birthday to him (and the show) on my kazoo.
Well in to the show, Shawn Mulcare shows up in my periphery with a white- board sign that says, "TAKE THE KAZOO OUT OF YOUR POCKET!" It just struck me funny and I burst out laughing. In my head I heard it spoken in the manner of, "STEP AWAY FROM THE CAR!"
I tapped every pocket I had with the palms of my hands.
Thankfully, the director always makes sure the camera is on something other than me during these situations. But there was and is no disguising my laugh. And I laughed even harder when I realized it must have looked like I was frisking myself. I can't even tell you what I said to the audience. It's all a blur.
After the show I learned there was some strange audio disturbance and the crew thought the source might have been my kazoo. But my kazoo was not in my pocket. It was near my sock monkey. Maybe he was playing it! Our search was in vain. We never did discover the source of the audio issue.
So how did I get 50 shows in the can? Same way I get everything else done. I set a goal and every day move in the direction of my dream. Here are some pics of the people who have helped make my GYWSS journey possible:
Director Jan Janes at the helm in the control room.
Jesus Avelar, Robin Egbert, Ron Winingar and "Birthday Boy" Larry Talbot
Today they are running cameras, however they are capable of anything. Did I really say that?
Cloth napkins are a rarity in the studio. This one is courtesy of The Inn at Tres Pinos. (We ate the fantastic food before I could get a picture!) Robin Egbert serves up smiles.
Larry Talbot hiding behind, I mean running, camera 2. By the way this is the "Shannon's Eye View" as I'm shooting the show.
Jean Talbot, Jesus Avelar, Jan Janes, Robin Egbert and
Larry Talbot right before the show.
Larry Talbot, Ron Winingar, Jan Janes, I love being behind the camera for a change.
Yes, we do have fun.
Shawn Mulcare and the sign that made me lose my composure.
Dee Guerrero and Jane Janes in the control room.
Bruce Lee running the audio board. Bruce does
Marvin the Martian imitations to get me to laugh before the show.
If your eyes are not glazed over yet, check out the article below that was originally published in Art Calendar Magazine. It documents my the initial stages of my public access journey:
Gettheeontv.docLabels: Bruce Lee, Dee Guerrero, Give Your Walls Some Soul, Jan Janes, Jesus Avelar, Larry Talbot, Malcom Forbes, Public Access Television, Robin Egbert, Ron WIningar, Shannon Grissom
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Runnng Down a Dream
Yeah running down a dream
That never would come to me
Working on a mystery
Going wherever it leads
Running down a dream
Tom Petty
Recently, at the YMCA benefit golf tournament, I was the high bidder on a Wild West Tour Package to the Pinnacles National Monument provided by Jim West. Talk about widening your horizons! We (Jim, Sheril, Dwight and Me) travelled in style in an open Model A .
I love to travel Highway 25 . In fact, one of my favorite drives is from Hollister to it's terminus at Highway 198. The beautiful scenery and isolation helps clear my head. Each time I drive, it's a different view. How much I actually see however, depends both on external conditions, and my state of mind.
That crisp fall day, our destination was the Pinnacles. Once you get up to speed, conversation in an open car is difficult at best. That suited me fine. I just wanted to absorb the experience, not talk about it. I would have grinned the entire way but I was soon reminded that I had no shield from the bugs. So I grinned inwardly, with my mouth closed. OK well most of the time.
Right now, the tarantulas are on the move. And though we saw few that day, this time of year you can see them in packs crossing the road. (Do they call them packs?) We thought there was some major migration/ homing pattern going on. However the ranger at the Pinnacles explained that they were simply looking for mates.
Oh.
Once at the Pinnacles, we had a great lunch catered by Victoria's Italian Deli. Victoria creates wonderful dishes just like Noni used to make. After lunch, Sheril suggested we take a hike and we all agreed. We chose a trail that took us to the caves and reservoir. A decent hike but not too strenuous. It was a perfect day for hiking. not too hot and not too crowded and wonderful, wonderful company. There's a special bond that develops between people when you spend time in nature together. The four of us became fast friends.
On the way home my thoughts drifted toward the Culinary and Hospitality Foundation. People who don't know me are wondering why on earth I am devoting so much time to this Foundation. Old friends and family see this as a really good fit. You see long before painting, there was food. And somehow, I've always worked with kids. Remind me to dig up those photos from back in the day when I taught pre-school and they called me Miss Shannon...
While there are no photos of me with my first painting, there certainly are photos of me with my early culinary creations. I just found a great one of my Grandma with her homemade raviolis. Grandma was quite a character. We had a putting green in our back yard and I can still see her putting in her high heels. But I digress, that's another blog...
Mentoring children is so rewarding. Their fresh approach to life is inspiring. I'm happy to help them gain focus and life skills and am grateful for the Culinary and Hospitality Foundation for providing vehicle to travel that road.
I'm engaged in running down my dreams. I want to show our youth that it's not only possible but vital that they follow their own.
No the dream doesn't come to you. But you can go to it. And listening to it's direction is important. I never could have guessed that the focus of my art business would be licensing, television and books but there you go. My canvas just gets bigger and bigger. The Foundation shows the children that there are infinite possibilities.
Other than sock monkeys, I've done more paintings of food than any other subject. And like the finale in an orchestral piece, I can see all these subjects merge together in my future to create a fresh new symphony.
Enjoy the visual accompaniment...
Me 1977
Yep, I'm a brunette! Think I need some work on my presentation skills!
Grandma and her Ravioli
(Pauline Cordone)
Jim and Sheril
Jim, Sheril and Dwight emerging from the caves.
View from Jim's Model A on Highway 25
Another view of Highway 25 from Jim's Model A
Labels: art, Culinary and Hospitality, Dream, Eric Maisel Ten Zen Seconds Shannon Grissom, Jim West, Painting, Television, The Pinnacles, Tom Petty, YMCA
Friday, October 19, 2007
the Permission Seeker's Guide Through The Legal Jungle
This blog is for all my friends out there who are authors, TV producers, publishers, visual artists, musicians, filmmakers, website owners and software developers. A fantastic resource for clearing copyrights, trademarks and other rights literally fell in to my lap!
Author Joy Butler found me through one of my "So You'd Like To" guides on Amazon.com. She offered to send me a copy of her book and asked only that I consider adding it to one of my guides.
Joy Butler's The Permission Seeker's Guide Through the Legal Jungle arrived promptly and I was blown away. The guide expertly covers rights, clearance issues, how to obtain clearance, minimizing risks,. It also has a section at the end for resources and forms. Butler enables the reader to navigate through complex issues with ease. Her style is comfortable. You can pick it up and read straight through or skip to the sections that are of immediate concern.
This book should be required reading for all of us creative industries.
Visit www.guidethroughthelegaljungle.com or email admin@sashaycommunications.com
(ISBN 978-0-9672940-1-8, Published by Sashay Communications, LLC)Labels: Copyrights, Entertainment, Joy Butler, Media Productions, Shannon Grissom, The Permission Seeker's Guide Through the Legal Jungle, Trademarks
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Sideways
Sometimes, life comes at you sideways. Not forward, not backward but sideways. I spent a couple of days trying to turn things around. This morning, I realized that I lacked the ability to make certain changes, help was unavailable, so I just had to accept them as they were. I'm just grateful I let it go relatively soon. Progress, not perfection...
Mirroring my life at present are the images I attempted to upload in this blog. When I open my files, they are right side up. However, when I import them in the blog, they turn sideways. I have decided to just let them be what they are. Here's trick I learned from my friend Theresa Martin; If the computer is not cooperating by rotating the images, rotate your computer. Hey just pick up your lap top or monitor and turn that puppy sideways! This girl doesn't just think outside the box, she has no box!
So what follows is the month in pictures. Because right now, I'm having trouble with the words. And though the pictures may be sideways, they are at least here!
Just a couple of the pieces I did for The Inn at Tres Pinos. I'll save the rest for when I finish the project. It's worth a blog or two on it's own. Camera shy: Mike Howard...
Theresa Martin.
Dwight, Bob and Me at San Juan Oaks Golf Club. Bob's been patiently working with me and Dwight. Thanks Bob for being a great and kind teacher! I'll admit I'm addicted to golf. You know golf's taking over when you find tees in every room of the house and the only TV I watch is related to golf. I spend the equivalent of my lunch hour hitting balls. Lately, golf shows have trumped the decorating shows. (Ask Dwight, that's huge!) Golf's gonna have to be a future blog.
A scene from Theresa Martin's Harvest Party. Here's Alex Kiner and me making carpaccio from buffalo. Alex is amazing! He went out to Theresa garden, picked all the fresh ingredients and put together a fabulous dish. I had fun helping him make it look pretty.
This is the chair decorated for the Hollister Downtown Association 20th Anniversary Party. The chair was auctioned off and the proceeds were split between the HDA and the Culinary and Hospitality Foundation of San Benito County. Thanks to Sheila Stevens of She's for her generous contribution to both groups. Sheila you rock!
 Well I ran out of time. I'll see you next time!Labels: Culinary, Foundation, Golf, Hollister Downtown Association, Hopsitality, Shannon Grissom
|
|
