Monday, July 27, 2009

Chelsea FC vs Club America at the Cowboys Stadium


My first visit to the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas happened to be a soccer match between Chelsea FC and Club America. It turned out to be a championship game in this tournament, which made it all the more fun and exciting.

We showed up early because Ben wanted to see the teams warm up. We also wanted to watch the Inter Milan vs AC Milan match on the big screen. Later, the huge screen really distracted me from watching the game on the field. It's so freakin big!


The rain started when everyone was leaving. There's not much you can do when you have a bit of a walk ahead of you. At least it cools everything off. We needed that!

I've never associated country music or Jerry Jones with soccer but anything can happen in the Cowboys Stadium. Garth Brooks did the coin toss and Jerry Jones handed out the trophy. I thought this was quite hilarious.

The stadium features a retractable roof but we didn't get to see it open. I think the rain might have had something to do with that.

This is me being all excited, taking pictures of myself in Ben's convertible. The rain had yet to begin.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Paintings by Lizardo Art: Gray Areas::Gray Area Heart

image of gray white painting heart lizardo artGray Areas by Lizardo Art

For my newest paintings, available for sale here, I used white enamel for my hearts and then used one of my favorite techniques to add texture. These paintings are small, 8" x 10" and there are three in this series so far.

image of gray white painting heart lizardo art
Gray Area Heart by Lizardo Art

For some reason, graffiti fascinates me. Especially in places where nothing is done to control it and everything you see has some kind of tag. The idea of tagging, covering it up, tagging it again and that continuing cycle inspired the aesthetic behind these works.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Some Questions Never Get Asked::New Abstract Painting By Lizardo Art

image of grey brown copper abstract painting by lizardo artAbstract Painting by Lizardo Art

The texture in my painting ::Some Questions Never Get Asked:: brings the grays and dark browns to life. A copper drip finishes the artwork, adding interest and dimension. The work measures 8 x 10 x 7/8"

With this work, I intend to explore the idea that some questions are better off
un-asked. Sometimes the answer will be more hurtful than helpful, therefore it is more kind to just leave it alone.

Lately I have been pondering the idea of being nice. Are you really being nice when you do something you don't truly want to do? Is it possible that doing nice things can be a way to manipulate others into liking you?

If you are a nice person who "just wants everyone to be happy", do you find yourself wondering if people like you or the niceness?

For me, the copper represents a melting away of the facade and the fear of what will happen if you say no to someone.

This painting is currently available for sale: Lizardo Art Abstract

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Shout Out! Cut Out and Collect


Thanks to Cheyne Little at Cut Out and Collect, I was able to have my first solo showing at the Coffee Haus in Arlington, Texas. She runs the show over there and does a damn good job!

When you walk into the coffee shop, there is a great little area to the right full of fun items...necklaces, purses, pouches. It's awesome! My friends ran over as soon as they saw the purses and went crazy.

So, check out Cheyne's shop for well made bags with fun prints!

Liz

P.S. She also did a fun feature of me for the Etsy Dallas blog. You can check it out here!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Lizardo Art @ The Coffee Haus Downtown


Last night's reception at the Coffee Haus downtown went well. It was pretty low key and that is totally fine with me. This is also my first solo show so I feel like I have reached a little milestone in my emerging art career. Thankfully, Ben was on hand to take pictures and I was able to talk about my work. It's getting easier for me to talk about my art. I guess that just comes with practice.

I'm also excited because Ben has been taking video interviews at all of my latest shows so he'll be putting something really cool together. I'm looking forward to being able to share my personality a little bit with all of my internet friends. So, thank you Ben!
image of liz ballard lizardo art
image of lizardo art coffee haus show

Friday, July 17, 2009

Painters need to paint

image of paintbrushes lizardo art

It's so easy to get caught up in marketing, promoting or general worrying about how you are going to sell the next painting. I am convinced that my path to sold art is taking trips. I have sold a painting before the last four trips I have taken. (I'm going on another at the end of the month, in case anyone planned on purchasing art from me!)


Anyway, today I took some time to just paint. And it felt really really good. Soon as the paint dries, I will share some of my latest work!

Liz



Thursday, July 16, 2009

The Short List

image of tree at Fort Worth Botanical GardensA couple of days ago, I received a nice little e-mail saying I am on the short list to *possibly* have the photograph above included in an online map of Fort Worth, Texas. They found me through Flick and apparently they do a new one every year. I'm not exactly in yet but I do feel flattered. And I love to feel flattered!

Liz

Cleaning House

I am on the rampage! Well, maybe not but I have been cleaning house a little bit.

When I first joined Etsy I did all of the Twitter lists and follow my blog lists and now I am kind of regretting it because I follow a lot of blogs/twitter streams that I am not interested in. And then I feel kind of mean because I am not interested. However, there are so many people in the world and I think it's just better to go where you feel good.

Oh, and not feel guilty about it!

This may sound kind of strange but I have learned how not to be nice at my current job. By nice, I mean, being a people-pleaser. Okay...I still have a lot of that going on but it is not nearly as bad as it used to be.

Mainly because I realized that you will never be happy if you go against your own wishes. And if you are unhappy you have nothing to give anyway!

So, cheers to being happy and true to yourself!

Liz

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

SF Pics

image of Lizardo Art at Stem SF
image of Lizardo Art at Stem SF
image of Lizardo Art at Stem SF
San Fransisco was hotter than I expected to be but still a lot of fun. Due to some airline drama, I only had one night there but I made it to the show!!! I will definitely be going back sometime.