Anne Leuck 5/4/08 Anne Leuck 5/4/08

Bullseye II

Bullseye II...30"x30". This recently completed painting chronicles the pain of my typical migraine headache. My pain is generally targeted behind one eye. I developed the sketch for this one back in 2003 for an annual migraine art contest the National Headache Foundation used to sponsor and finally got around to painting it full size. The NHF gave me a merit award for Bulls Eye I, and you can see a few more of my migraine paintings here.

And this one: "Below the Blade" is also migraine related. That little circular saw blade over her neck signify's wanting to chop my head off...a lot of pain and stiffness radiates through my neck & shoulders during these headaches too. I feel very fortunate that over the years I have found medication and a combination of things that make them much more manageable for me. The sketch for this one was not as happy go lucky as this painting appears!

Anne Leuck 5/2/08 Anne Leuck 5/2/08

Using My Art to Help Our Furry Friends

Tree House Animal Foundation has their Annual Stray Cat Strut on Sunday, May 4th. I created the design for this Annual Fundraising Event. These folks know kitty cats and they do such good work to find homes and improve the lives of so many of Chicago's homeless felines and other animals too.

Chicago Animal Care & Control Will be using my banner design again for Be Kind To Animals Week, May 4-10, 2008. The banners will hang at Chicago's City Hall in the Loop.

Other Pet Welfare Events Going on this weekend:
Bark in the Park the Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society's 5k Walk & Fundraiser.

Last weekend the Humane Society of Berks County held their annual Art for Arf's Sake charity art auction. I donated this Smiling Black Dog Mounted Print:

Anne Leuck 5/2/08 Anne Leuck 5/2/08

May 1st

Our 112 year old frame house finally has insulation! They actually blew it into the walls from outside...only took one day.That hose is pretty wild, you could see as the fibers shot through it and all the pictures on the wall shook as the walls filled up. It's already quieter in here and now we won't freeze from all the drafts in the winter and hopefully avoid sizzling in the summer. Better conditions for making art!

Anne Leuck 4/30/08 Anne Leuck 4/30/08

Artists Found on FLickr

I just found another wonderful artist..this time on Flickr. This ceramic piece "large head with avocado" is by Kim Murton of Washington state. She also has great illustrations and 2d work on her Flickr site. I found her on a flickr group...yes, I'm finding that all these sites have multi-layered networking capabilities.

It's one thing to know there are many talented artists out there but now with sites like etsy and flickr you suddenlty realize you have no clue...you are just skimming a little corner of an endless, awesome pool of amazing talent, creativity and cleverness. And those are just the sites I'm referencing...there are a gazillion others that I

don't even know about as well as all the amazing illustration artist sites (but that's a whole other post). Here are some I know about and a few I belong to:

Do you have any favorites that you would like to share?

Anne Leuck 4/29/08 Anne Leuck 4/29/08

Art Girls Pot Leuck April 2008

Last Wednesday I hosted the monthly Art Girls Pot Luck or Leuck as I call it when it's at my house. It was a lovely evening with great food and fun conversation. It was also Mary Laskey's birthday which we celebrated with a yummy cake brought by Eva May from the Swedish Bakery! (yes that's silly Eva with her tongue out!)

See more photos from the party on my flickr page.

Old Izzerloo getting love from art girls Eva & Stephi, my dear friend who owns the delightful and delectable Angel Food Bakery.

Anne Leuck 4/28/08 Anne Leuck 4/28/08

Red + Pink

I had to get a picture of Kate in her pink and red outfit with Dot (the handmade/hand stitched character I made that one day you will see in a book!)...they match pefectly! Art work on the left ...kitty cat "Yoda" by outsider artist Cher Shaffer and a piece from art girl pal Mimi Damrauer's Bulls Eye series.

Anne Leuck 4/13/08 Anne Leuck 4/13/08

My Gardener Hard at Work...

I may have mentioned before that I had hopes of my thumbs turning green. My Mother is amazing with plants and flowers, I was hoping that gene would show itself by now...nope. Lucky for me my wonderful husband has suddenly turned into an urban farmer. Rich started all these plants from seed weeks ago and today started his garden in our yard. He had to move all my 'garden art' ...some rebar sculptures I made in college and that's one of my clay figures from the 90's - she looks very excited about the chives...I do get credit for those, they came from Mom's garden last year. They sat in a bag for 2 weeks before I put them in the ground...hearty little greens aren't they? This bird was hanging out with Rich, anyone know what kind he is? Hope these plants don't get to chilly tonight! It's supposed to be in the 70's mid week...