Monday, February 16, 2015

Back to the blogs! Mariachi Bands and Bullfighting.

Hope you all had a good Valentine's Day!

Michel and I are still waiting for word from the Immigration Department, as to when he gets to come to the US, so we spent Valentine's Day apart this year.  The further we get into this process of getting him into the country full time, the more I have to wonder how the US Government gets to wield so much power.  That's a whole blog in itself, though one I'll probably never write, as it tends to anger me to no end....  All the hoops we've had to jump through, the papers of ours they keep losing, the endless waiting, how hard it is to get anyone on the phone to talk to about all of this.....  Plus all the ways I'm penalized in the meantime for being married to a foreigner that doesn't live in the US.  The biggest two being paying much higher taxes due to not being able to take several deductions, and not being allowed to take advantage of Obamacare until he crosses the border, so I'm paying a fortune for health insurance now, while being saddled with a huge deductible.

Michel and I had a nice skype date on Valentine's Day though, since we couldn't be together this year.  We talk pretty much every day.  Chat, phone, skype, etc...  And I go up to Canada as often as I can, since it's easier for me to take time off.  Hopefully the paperwork gets all sorted out soon, and he can come here to Arizona.  We have lots of plans in place for growing Dizzybear Creations, and our life in general, but we cant start anything until he gets here.  If by chance anyone reading this knows how to speed things up...  I would be unbelievably grateful to hear from you.  It has been pointed out that I've been too optimistic in thinking the government would make this happen quickly, so I often find myself disappointed, with each and every setback we've encountered since beginning the process 13+ months ago.  Hopefully he'll be here before this time next year, as we've promised to celebrate Valentine's Day next year in a big way.

Here's a silly animation I did for Michel this year.  If you read the blog about "Winter Wonderland", you know I cant help but think of him when I see foxes, and obviously the bear is me.



Speaking of Valentine's Day, thank you to everyone who participated in this last giveaway!

Both winners of the "WIN FREE Artwork on Valentine's Day giveaway" live in Arizona, which is unusual.  While a large percentage of the people who have participated in the numerous giveaways over the years live in Arizona, up until this drawing, there have only been three other winners from AZ.

I started to throw Teri's name back in the bucket and pick a different name when I saw she won the second prize.  I put the names of everyone who participates in the giveaways by Liking, Sharing, and Commenting on the posts, but if I were ever to pick Michel's name, or my mom's name, I would draw another name, because as family they can get prints from me whenever they want.

Teri is almost like family.  I have known her since grade school, we used to clog dance together as kids in 4-H, she plays in the same hockey league as myself, and she dates my best friend, both of who traveled up to Montreal to be in the wedding party at Michel's and my wedding.  So it's kind of fitting that she received a print of the painting I did that depicts the first time I met Michel.

Teri is one of the luckiest people I've ever met in drawings and raffles.  She wins every kind of drawing and raffle constantly.  It's really remarkable how often she wins.  Come to think of it, it's really weird she hasn't won one of my past drawings.  If she gets picked again in future drawings, I'll still give her the prize as a gift (as if she was a family member), but I'll pick another winner too.  ;-)


The Grand Prize winner, Homer, lives down in Tucson.  While I've never met him in person, I've been chatting with him for years on the computer.  I cant remember where I met him online, but I used to follow his blog religiously as it was always a fun read.  I saw him once at the big Day of the Dead Procession they have down in Tucson every year, but at the time I didn't know it was him.  His face was painted up with makeup to be a skeleton man, but he stood out to me because he had painted around a big handlebar style mustache.  I realized it was him several days later when he posted a picture of his costume online.  This picture isn't from the same year, but it's a great one of Homer.

Congratulations to both Homer and Teri, and thank you to everyone who participated.  I'll be doing other giveaways when I begin releasing the new paintings in mid-March.  In the meantime I'll be continuing the weekly blogs and writing about the older paintings, and offering the featured paintings of the week for discounted prices at the Dizzybear Creations Webstore.


The first of the two featured paintings of this week is "The Mariachi Band".

After I finished “Winter Wonderland” I drew a blank on what to paint next.  I lined up all nine of the paintings I had done up to that point during my stay in Montreal and realized that I was beginning to stray away from the cultural theme of “Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos.”  I decided that my next painting needed to feature something with a Hispanic/Mexican theme.

Living in Arizona, I find many opportunities to go to a variety of Mexican celebrations:  Cinco de Mayo, Mexican Independence Day, Dia de los Muertos, Las Posadas, etc...  While the celebrations differ, depending on the time of year, and where they're happening, there's always one thing I'm a little disappointed if I dont see, a Mariachi Band.

When Michel came to Arizona for the first time, we did a 10 day road trip all over Northern Arizona, Southern California, and Las Vegas.  He left the planning of that trip pretty much up to me, and one place I wanted to go explore better was San Diego, more specifically:  Balboa Park.


I had only been to Balboa Park once before, but it was such a rushed visit, that I didn't get to see much of it.  The park is a 1,200 acre cultural park, with many open spaces, vegetation zones, gardens, walking paths, has several museums and theaters, the San Diego Zoo, and also has a large section of historic, Spanish style buildings, which I was very interested in spending more time exploring.  The building are absolutely beautiful, with very intricate details built into the architecture of nearly every building.  I took hundreds of pictures, and based the background for "The Mariachi Band", on several of the pictures I took while there.


A little over a year ago, we were driving around Montreal and saw a sign for a Mexican Restaurant.  "Mexican" food in Montreal, typically isn't the same as Mexican food in Arizona.  It's fancier, more ingredients, more of a Cuban/Spanish flair, but we decided to give this place a try.  We walked inside, the restaurant was a cute, little hole in the wall sort of place, that we quickly discovered was run by a large family.  A very small place, maybe 12 tables packed in tight.

As we were enjoying our meal, several people walked out of the back of the restaurant, in full Mariachi Band costumes, carrying instruments.  Most of the family that run this restaurant, play together in a Mariachi Band.  Twice a week, 4 or 5 of them get together and play music for their patrons.  Every time I've been back, it's been a different configuration of family members, but no matter the night, it's always been some of the best Mariachi music I've heard.  And the food has always been amazing.  If you ever go to Montreal, be sure to check out Casa Figueroa on rue Beaubien.

"The Mariachi Band" hand-signed print, matted to fit a 5x7 frame <click here>

"The Mariachi Band" hand-signed print, matted to fit an 8x10 frame <click here>



The second of the featured paintings this week is "The Bullfighter".  This was the third Day of the Dead painting I did with a Sedona background.  It's also the forth and final painting I did based on some cute Day of the Dead figurines I found in Jerome, AZ.  I dont actually have a lot to say about this painting.  I was still working on improving my painting skills, but I never really quite connected with this particular painting, except for the bull.  Doing still life style paintings was starting to bore me, so this was the last painting I did with a three dimensional object sitting in front of me.

The one thing I do like about this painting though, the bull, I did a sketch while looking at a book of animal skeletons, and then worked from there on, by only looking at the sketch.  It made the painting more fun and challenging.  I wanted to paint more skeleton animals right away, but didn't get the chance to do it again until "The Chair Man", which will be the featured painting in a couple of weeks.

"The Bullfighter" has several of the same problems as did the "Cigar Smoker" that bug me when I see this painting:  perspective problems, odd shadows, too much, or too little detail, but it's not quite as bad in this painting.  Of course I'm my own worst critic, and there are many people who do like this painting.  Just as I did with the "Cigar Smoker", I retired this painting and had stopped selling prints, but have brought it back for a short time, due in no small part to the constant requests from the owner of Sedona Green to bring it back.  It will eventually be retired one last time and replaced by a different bull fighting painting that I have sketched out to do in the future.

Prints of all the paintings shown here in this blog are available at the webstore. 


"The Bullfighter" is on sale this week for 50% off.  It is available as a series of specially reprinted, limited edition, hand signed and numbered prints. Limited to a series of only 10. 
You can see the other limited edition prints by clicking here or visiting http://dizzybearcreations.storenvy.com and clicking on the "Special Edition Prints" link on the left hand side.

"The Mariachi Band" is available in 3 different sizes and is also discounted for one week only.

Two more paintings next week. Thank you again for sharing my artwork/posts with friends that you think would like my artwork, on your social media accounts:  Facebook, twitter, blogger, pinterest, tumblr, ello....   

And thank you to everyone who participated in the Valentine's Day giveaway.  It is INCREDIBLY helpful in getting my artwork out in the world, and is greatly appreciated. 




As a little thank you to those who've been reading this blog, when I start releasing the paintings in March, I'll be beginning a trivia contest, asking questions that you'll be able to find the answers to in my blogs.  There will be more details coming in March.  

If you have any questions you'd like to ask that I can answer in a future blog, you can either post them in the comment section below, or send them to my email  dizzybear73@gmail.com  

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