Maria Sanchez

evening sky in cali

"Acucucho" it's a hard word to say, but I love saying it. It means "piggyback" in Salvadoran slang. Been reading writings by Salvador Salarrue and they always take me back to my childhood. His writing is hard to understand, but if you read it with the mind of a child then it makes it easier. (give it a try... click here to see some of his writings) What's even funnier to me is one of his main characters in El cuento del cuento que contaron , is named "Chepete"... which happens to be my older brother's nick name...Chepe... I think I will start calling him Chepete. Even though we didn't grow up in El Salvador we did pick up the slang from our parents, tios and tias. One of my dreams is to illustrate a story of his, someday perhaps. "Acucucho" 11x14 inches, acrylic on canvas. 2010 #8

New small painting called Primavera Duerma. (Spring Sleeps) With all the blizzards and snow and grey weather it made me think of how spring is just waiting to be woken up... but for now it seems she sleeps.

I spent this past weekend taking lessons from Frida. She teaches me about color and about grey tones. Here is the start of a new series.(3 done so far) All are listed in my etsy shop.

Finished her last night, listed her this morning and she's already SOLD. Wow I love it when things happen like that. I am so grateful for the many friends and family that continually show their love and support of my crazy artist dreams. I will make prints available on Etsy and Zazzle.

Tim's alarm clock went off at 5am this morning... aargh drives me nuts when it goes off. Normally he's good, turns it off and that's it. But today he just kept hitting the snooze and every 10 minutes it went off. I counted at least 4 times! Since I was awake I figured I might as well get up and do some painting. I've had that itch to paint Frida again. So I went into my little room and started this. I'm really looking forward to getting home tonight and finishing her.

I don't always have time to paint big images, but I do try to fit in spurts of painting even if only small scale. They are like mini escapes for me. Painting has always been my way of stepping out of my role of wife, mom, daughter etc. etc. and carving out a little space that is just for me, a paintbrush and some paint. A mini vacation, always helps clear my mind.... maybe it's color therapy? Well whatever it is .. it works. :) Here is a little slideshow of recent mini escapes (ACEOs') I recently painted, all are available in my Ebay store this week. Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR .