ubiquitous obfuscations for the deliberately obtuse

Maudlin Marionettes: Snail Skates and Exoskeletons

2009-11-22T18:58:00.000-08:00

I have all these new ideas swirling around in my head.
Sadly, they'll just have to shrivel up and die of neglect, because I also have half a dozen unfinished projects laying about that I simply must finish before starting anything new. But there's only so many hours in the day, and a limited supply of motivation in my bones. And so many other interesting things to do :P

These are two that I'm trying to finish right now...

untitled as of yet, working title is SnailSkater...
(snails instead of skate wheels make for quite a slow getaway. Or pursuit.)

They Promised Me An Exoskeleton
Haven't quite decided where to go with this one, thinking of maybe adding a bit of goldleaf??

"Where you tend a rose, my lad, A thistle cannot grow."

2009-06-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

Although, I wouldn't mind having a patch of teasel someday...

Instead, I have these:

Catalpa tree blossoms... Last year it was a bit Dr Seuss-ian, two tall thin trunks with a poofy cluster of leaves at the very tips. It's filled out a bit since I cut down some of the privets that were blocking the sun. So much so that the weight of the leaves has bent one of the trunks down low enough that I can touch it!

A few wildflowers, nasturtiums, roses...

The produce section... chard, carrots, beets, onions, cucumbers up in the planter box,
Tomato, zucchini and yellow squash, brussel sprouts, basil, lettuce, beans and peas down below... More tomatoes, herbs, squash (yellow/zucchini/white) and gourds are elsewhere...

This thing was just freakishly huge... And I'm such an idiot, I just killed it!!! Waaaaaahhhhh!!!!

I finally gave in and let the berries grow. Not sure yet what kind they are, but they've snuck over from my neighbors yard. There's another vine/branch that's climbed over the fence and through the birch tree and reaches halfway to the house. I put up a string for it to climb so I wouldn't keep walking facefirst into it... You can just barely see it in the June 09 picture below...

View from the back door out towards the yard... It's grown up a bit just in the couple weeks since I took that last picture. The sunflowers against the house are now almost touching the eaves and I had to put taller cages around the tomatoes...

I forgot to take a picture when I first moved in, there was ivy covering the back fence, both planter boxes, and about four feet out into the lawn... It took me a few months to get it all cleared out. Of course, it's still on the other side of the fence, so I have to keep an eye out for evil little vines sneaking through and over the fence. Grrrrrr...

The placement of the 'flowerbed' was determined when the bulbs came up in a swath across the back of the yard. I just moved a few bulbs to make a path up to the bench... I was debating whether to keep the lawn or not, but the thought of wasting water on it and having to drag out the weedwacker to mow such a small space just didn't appeal to me. I'd already put down weed barrier cloth and woodchips in the front yard, so I decided to do the same in the back. Then I discovered that the whole backyard already had a layer of plastic about four inches down! So instead of spending money on the weed barrier, I spent a couple of days digging out all the dirt from the middle section. Of course, the shovel ripped holes in the plastic (which shall henceforth be known as "puddle prevention perforations") so I had to dig out the whole thing with a trowel. Oye!

Brand new nasties... I went a bit nuts with them, they're ALL OVER the yard. Can't wait until they're all in bloom :-P

This is my backyard, so far... Yesterday I finished landscaping the last 5 feet of the front yard, all the way over to the neighbors driveway. I put down more weed barrier and woodchips, a few plants. It finally looks finished, no big swath of dead grass anymore. Yay!!! Pictures of it may or may not follow...

terrible, slow loveliness...

2009-03-29T21:14:00.000-07:00

To start out the weekend, I sanded and painted my new kitchen cabinet (thanks grandma) and stenciled some fuschias on it. Still needs a bit of work cleaning up the edges, the paint ran :(

But now I have a 'tea drawer', and a nice dark place for my wine and potatoes.

The sun was playing out in the backyard when I woke up.
So... I joined it.

The backyard is a bit of a mess, I'm still trying to figure out what goes where. I got some seeds planted, weeded a bit... Everything's coming back to life. Last week, the little oak tree was bare. A few flowers have come up too, tulip, hyacinth, daffodils, grape hyacinth, cal. poppies, even a couple rose buds have started.

In a few months I should have a cascade of little nasties :)

Thora was very disappointed that she couldn't join me outside. I'll have to put the cat-run up soon so she can come out and play with the birdies...

The catalpa tree (seen here being fondled by the neighbors birch tree) has the most gorgeous flowers in summer/fall.

There's a whole swath of these little white flowers (possibly a pushkinia or scilla?) across the backyard. Buddha seems quite happy with them.

So now I'm a bit sore, but the yard is a little more organized. When I weeded the flowerbed, I also planted a few more things, and made a border out of the privet trees/branches I've been slowly exterminating.

Pandora continues...

2009-03-27T00:28:00.000-07:00

Almost done!!! After several weeks away, I'm finally back in the studio. This time I worked on the box, the gold designs, her face and hands... I still have a bit more to do on her hands and maybe a few other details, but for the most part she's done...

'Air à danser

2009-03-07T04:00:00.000-08:00

Pandora's current incarnation...

2009-03-05T02:05:00.000-08:00

Finally getting somewhere with this. Still contemplating what to do with her robe and the background... then I have to get to work on her face and hands, and the box...

Here's a photochopped pic of the direction it may be heading...

**note** the woodgrain across her face/hair isn't quite so conspicuous in real life, the scanner tends to highlight it.

and so it goes...

2009-02-11T16:29:00.000-08:00

Pandora's coming along nicely... nice and slow... frustratingly slow, if you must know. all those little cloudy bits are a bit time consuming. But I'm having fun with it, also doing a couple other pieces on the side...

It was supposed to be Pandora letting all the little evils escape, but then I realized that they're not quite 'evil' enough, so it must be hope escaping... Or is hope evil too?

P is for Pandora. And Pomegranates.

2009-01-14T15:05:00.001-08:00

I've been working on this off and on for the last month while I was in Michigan. It's going to take a while to finish, as all the subtle ones do. I'm thinking of going all Klimt-y on her robe, deep dark red, with a dark indigo for the background.

So I started another, just to finish something. But this is going to take several days too. Oi.

*update* here it is finished:

YES!! Michigan

2009-01-11T17:20:00.000-08:00

A brief summary of my trip to Michigan:

Weekend 1:
Braved whiteouts and -6 degree weather to visit cousins north of Chicago (including this new little guy)

Weekend 2:
Saturday, 8am, awoke to thunderstorms. I could see the lightning through closed eyelids. I went down to the basement to make myself some coffee (my dad has renovated an espresso machine or two, they're in the basement awaiting placement in the new addition) and stepped in a big puddle and got my socks sopping wet. The drain outside the basement door had flooded yet again, from the rain and melting snow. The thunderstorm was caused by a heatwave (yes, 40 degrees is now considered a heatwave) coming through, the warm rain melted all the snow and there was fog rising up from what remained of the drifts.

This is the view from the house, looking off to the west towards what will soon be apple orchards.

Weekend 3:
The highlight of the trip (sorry mom and dad) was getting to see the Siegel-Schwall Band. Hands down the best concert I've ever been too. My dad listened to them in his teens, and their first album was the very first record I ever owned (the second was the Flamin' Groovies).

I gave in to peer pressure and got a picture with Corky Siegel. (the bald guy on the right was their former bass player, who sat across the aisle from my dad and got up to play a song with the band)

The main purpose for my trip was to help put in the ceiling in my parents new addition (is there a limit on how many years it can be referred to as 'new'?)

we had a lift to get the sheets of plywood up to the 18' ceilings

Marc, me, my dad, putting a sheet on the lift

the scaffolding, viewed from the loft

I manned the lift while the guys screwed the plywood into place

Then my dad passed the last of the insulation up through a 1'x4' opening to Marc and me

It was three feet high at the top, sloping down from the peak... Which eventually caused a small encounter with a roofing nail...

I lost.

and here's the moon and Venus at sunset...

Then I came home.

going back to the land of ice and snow

2008-12-16T21:25:00.001-08:00

Whilst the sleeping tempest gathers might

2008-12-06T18:57:00.001-08:00

Yay! Finally finished this thing.

Scanning this just doesn't work, too many reflections from the gold (as seen here).

The camera worked a little better; but the gold always exaggerated every stray ray of light, with a dark me-sized reflection in the middle. I finally figured out that all I needed to do was cut a little lens hole in the middle of a sheet of drawing paper to block out my reflection and get an even reflection, and angle it in a slightly north-easterly direction about a foot behind a cloud-diffused ray of southern sunlight. Whew. I need to get a better photo setup.

Still had to photoshop it a bit, but it turned out more or less looking like it does in real life. Well, it's way cooler than I could capture, the dragons scales reflect the light as you walk past it. Oh dear, don't tell me I'm going to start posting videos of drawings :P

Deliquescent Glow

2008-11-24T22:40:00.000-08:00

3.25"x4.5"

Another gold leaf piece. Varnishing sometimes enhances the contrast and saturation of the coloured pencil and wood, so I wanted to see how the gold reacted to being varnished. Not too bad, doesn't change the surface too much. If anything, it brings out the colour and contrast of the body so it's not overpowered by the gold...

Back to the dragon...

Gold is worse than wood!

2008-11-24T21:16:00.000-08:00

11"x14"

I've been working on this piece for a few days (in addition to finishing one piece a day, I'm trying to have a larger one going at the same time). I found my old stash of gold leaf and thought I'd try it out on the wood. So of course, instead of doing some test pieces first, I dive right into this behemoth. A bit big for an experiment, but I love the challenge of figuring it out as I go along. Especially when I don't really know if it'll turn out or not. Keeps me from getting bored with the whole process. Still needs a lot of work, but the hardest part is done. Although I'm not sure I'll try gold leafing individual scales again any time soon.

So, the birch: If you don't go too thick, the coloured pencil sits on the top of the woodgrain so the picture seems to move as you move past it. Different colours fade in and out, shadows deepen, highlights vanish and then reappear. If you look at a piece straight on it may look dull and flat, but take one step to either side and there's a face bursting out of the wood at you. That's one of the main draws for me, the reason I love working on wood.

I've kind of figured out how to photoshop the birch pieces so they look at least similar to the originals, but this goldleafing... Hmmm. It does the exact same thing, multiplied about 10 times. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the way it's turning out, but it's going to be a bitch to photograph.

How the hell do you take a straight-on photograph from a 45 degree angle???

The edge of the moon

2008-11-23T15:19:00.000-08:00

4" x 7 "
coloured pencil on wood

Like a sunset going down

2008-11-21T21:18:00.000-08:00

6.25" x 8 "
coloured pencil on wood

two trees on a hilltop

2008-11-17T23:10:00.000-08:00

3" x 4.5"
coloured pencil on wood

After that last one, I needed a change of pace, fresh perspective and all that... and so, a landscape

closing your eyes (won't make you blind)

2008-11-16T23:57:00.000-08:00

3" x 4.5"
coloured pencil on wood

Not sure I like this one as much, this cheaper wood (not the birch I prefer) gives a courser look...

Shift

2008-11-16T23:46:00.000-08:00

4" x 12 "
coloured pencil on wood

That's What Keeps Me

2008-11-15T23:04:00.000-08:00

5.5" x 9"
coloured pencil on wood

With this one, I stained the wood before drawing on it. I like the look of it, the way it brings out the woodgrain and warms it up. I think I'll do more.

a little more each time I crumble

2008-11-15T15:15:00.000-08:00

3" x 4.5"
coloured pencil on wood

I was going through my old life drawings thinking I could use some of them, and found a sketch I'd done back in Chicago. I transferred it onto a small wood panel, and coloured it in... The background of circles/bubbles/cells/stones is something I've used over and over in my work.

More to come...

And so it begins...

2008-11-13T23:39:00.000-08:00

I am, at this moment, filling out the application for Art at the Source, "an open studios event sponsored by the Sebastopol Center for the Arts and focusing on artists based in western Sonoma County". Yay!!

So, I need to greatly expand my portfolio, to pad it with less intricate and time consuming (ergo, less expensive) works. With this in mind, I have set myself a goal of making at least 5 pieces each week priced under $100. This is the first, to get the ball rolling

On the calm black water where the stars are sleeping

2008-10-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

Did a bit more on her face trying to get the proportions just so.
Not quite there yet.

This is what 30 looks like.

2008-09-28T06:47:00.000-07:00

Just a wee bit of grass...

2008-09-16T01:29:00.000-07:00

K and I went out painting last week, down by the Laguna, found some cool grass by the edge of the water... Above is what I did that day.

And this is what it looks like after working on it in the studio for a bit. It's about halfway finished, I think.

**update**
Finally finished:

A couple loose ends...

2008-09-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

Not sure what this thing is. A few years ago (ok, closer to 5 yrs) I was experimenting with collages and image transfers. This a collage I transfered onto a piece of wood. Because the wood was dark and only the ink transfers over, the whole thing was really dark. I just went back in and added some shadows and highlights and blues in coloured pencil...

And I finally got around to finishing this piece:

Not much of a change, a few shadows, a bit more detail in the eyes... And finally got a more colour-accurate picture, after a bit of photoshopping...

Can't think clearly enough to write coherently at the moment, tired and listening to Firesign Theatre... Gonna go to sleep now.

A penny-farthing rodeo

2008-09-10T05:50:00.000-07:00

And it only took 6 hours... I got to watch the sunrise (quite rare for me)

I've been listening to eastern european surf music all day, and thinking about getting the shrine ready for the Handcar Regatta. Hmmm...

I also figured out what to do with my backyard, pictures soon...

Spinning The Thread of Life with Thought and Memory (unfinished)

2008-08-09T04:20:00.000-07:00

(oil paint, pen, coloured pencil on pine frame)

Another piece that I've had sitting around for a while. Originally, it only had the figure, straining against the sides, trying to escape the 'box'. Then I added the string and the crow on the bottom holding the end of it. After I drew it I felt really bad at creating this world where a crow was being jerked around, like I'd tied a REAL crow to the end of a string. So I stopped and stuffed it in a box... Until last night...

I added a second crow and continued the string past the bottom crow, giving them both a more 'active' role in the situation. But then I needed to do something at the end of it...

__________________________________________

Lately I've been reading more Norse mythology and a bit of it seems to have worked its way into this piece.

The most logical choice for the end of the string was a spool or spindle. The Norns are Norse demi-goddesses of destiny, dieties who "spin the threads of fate" of both gods and men.
The crows turned into Odin's two ravens, Huginn and Muninn (their names mean 'Thought' and 'Memory') who fly about the world delivering messages and gathering knowledge. At night they return and perch on Odin's shoulders and whisper into his ears everything they've seen and heard.

So this is turning out to be a Norn spinning the thread of someone's life, deciding their fate, with Huginn and Muninn watching closely (and maybe lending a foot or two) so they can tell Odin all about this new person coming into the world... But even as she's spinning she's getting tangled up in the thread as well, maybe losing a bit of her objectivity...?

I love it when these things happen. This thing has just been sitting for the last 6 months because I couldn't figure out how to finish it. Then everything just falls into place. Stuff I've been reading, pictures I've been looking at, all just seem to fit together perfectly to make it complete.

---
norn=woodsprite? The woodsprite was my consolation/therapy piece for not being able to finish this one when I started it.

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

2008-07-27T02:45:00.000-07:00

I've been toying with this idea for ages, finally decided on the right figure and composition this week.

Now that I have the room, I decided to take advantage of the space and use my overhead projector for the first time - almost four years in storage, it's about time I used it. But the smallest it would get (and still be in focus) was still too big for the canvasses I had. So I went to the hardware store and picked up a few sheets of 2'x4' birch plywood. It's the largest painting I've done in a long time. Eek!!

I've been making it a point to stop periodically and take pictures of each stage. I've never done it that way before, since I generally like to finish paintings in one sitting... I have the feeling that it's going to take me a while to finish this one.

This is just the underpainting to get the colours and shadows figured out before I start the real painting...

waiting... for what...?

2008-07-24T02:50:00.000-07:00

I have been bouncing off the walls of my skin for days... weeks now... vibrating with the urge to create something. It's the most frustrating thing in the world, this all-consuming need without the inspiration to temper it. To make it useful. To make it more than just this paralyzing itch that is always moving just ahead of where I'm trying to scratch with fingers I have no control over.

I've started several pieces mostly just as busywork to keep my hands occupied, if not my mind. Even finished a few.

I did these figures months and months ago, but couldn't decide what to do for the background so I just stuck it in a box and left it for a while. I'm still not sure if I finally figured out that this was enough or if I just gave up and did what I could to correct previous missteps:

Having such a simple background, on one hand feels like sort of a cop-out, since I didn't really even think about what to do, I just did the first/easiest/simplest thing that popped into my head just to get it finished. But I think it keeps it from being too cluttered.

There's still a few things I want to do to it, more highlights/shadows on the rocks, shading on the leaves... strengthen a few outlines... Need to find a title too.

Out of the Rolling Ocean - still splashing in puddles

2008-07-17T23:22:00.000-07:00

My last "studio" was definitely getting a bit claustrophobic by the time I moved. Working in such a small space I'd started to produce very small pieces, didn't have room for anything I couldn't hold in my lap... So when I moved I chose a place where I could have more space to work on larger pieces. I get this nice big (relatively speaking) studio and what do I do?

I keep working small!!!

1.5" x 2" !!!!

I gotta stop doing this!

I was born cloaked in the absent sea

2008-06-12T00:18:00.000-07:00

I have a studio! I have a studio! I have a studio!
And I finally used it!!!

Instead of watching a video, or wasting time online, or unpacking more boxes, I decided to spend the evening making something. I'm paying for the space, I'd damn well better make use of it. The only thing I've done in there since I moved in is make pillow covers for my couch. So I dug through my boxes of sketches looking for an idea.

I've had this sketch laying around for several years, just this body curled up on the ground. One arm, no head. I didn't know what to do with it, I could never figure out what to do with her head. Then it dawned on me. Waves! It took a while to make them look like both hair and waves.

I had to finally hook up my scanner, since I can't find the cord to hook my camera to my computer. (It's odd, when I first moved in, I knew where the cord was, but not the camera. As soon as I found my camera I lost the cord.)

It was so nice to actually be in the studio.
Aaah. Makes me smiley all day long :)

Ivy is Evil!!

2008-06-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

I'm not talking about poison ivy, just yer plain ole Hedera Helix. It was completely covering a huge chunk of my yard (if you count the planterboxes as 'yard'), the wood underneath is soft and most likely won't last too much longer. So far I have filled three huge trash bins to overflowing with the ivy I've pulled out of my backyard. My neighbor generously offered use of his last week. And I still have at least one more bin's worth to go. But I did get it out of half of the planterboxes, and off the fence. I transplanted my zucchini and yellow squash there, along with a couple watermelon, since it gets good sun most of the day. One of these days I'll get the rest of the ivy out...

(that entire back part was covered from the top of the fence, across the 3' planterbox, down the front of that, and had grown about 3 feet out into the yard.  The newer part of the fence didn't have ivy on it, since it had been torn off when the fence was replaced not too long ago...)

But instead, I've been cleaning, unpacking, figuring out where things go... I made the most awesome covers for the pillows on my couch. Pictures coming one of these days.

I let K talk me into having a game night/house warming party this weekend while my mom is out visiting, so I have to speed up the unpacking process a bit. Last weekend I finally got something up on the walls in the kitchen, doesn't look so bare now.

On the back wall (on the left of the pictures) I put a little hanging shelf, the perfect place for my glass polar bear collection.  I just need to get some sticky stuff for their feet so they don't go on walkabout while I'm not looking...  On the other wall (on the right of the pictures) I put my grouping of little mirrors, mixed with some small artwork...  Better for a small space, I think, than one big piece.

This is directly out the back door (you have to go through the garage to get to the backyard) Last weekend I also got most of my succulents arranged, and up off the ground. They seem to like it better here.  I'd dug up the onions I'd grown from seed and brought them from my old place.  They immediately started blooming the day I moved in and have been in full poofy bloom ever since :)

From the garage door, looking out towards the backyard.

And since I had to leave all my other sunflowers behind, I bought some... Because every house needs sunflowers.

Not the best pictures, I know.
My camera is still packed away in some box Ihaven't gone through yet.
I'm going to have my mom take some pictures while she's here.

And it's driving me absolutely batty to have a studio and not be in it making art!!! There's just too much other stuff to do first. Have to's before want to's. That's what my dad always said. Which is good for actually prioritizing what 'needs' to get done, but.... I've been trying to quelch it by doing 'interior decorating', and sewing, but... but I want to paint!!! Oh yeah, I did a little screen printing on one of the pillows though. More on that later.

The use of seat cushions as flotation aids should be a last resort.

2008-05-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

But if my living room ever floods, I won't drown.

Yes, I finally got a brand-spanking-new couch!!!
Having only one chair was a little inconvenient. So I caved in :)
I was planning on getting a futon or pull-out couch, but when I went to look at some, none of them were quite up to my standards. I expect that they at least be halfway comfortable in both seating and sleeping positions. They were neither. So I went to Scandinavian Designs, fell in love with this little brown lump, and adopted it right there as my very own. Brought it home in the back of L's truck, sticking out about a foot and a half...

"A leopard sprawled in the crook of an acacia tree, rising now and then to bite on the remains of a gazelle he had tucked away in a nearby branch, as one would get up from a couch to find some inviting edible in the refrigerator."

When I'm good, I'm very very good...

2008-05-07T14:01:00.000-07:00

And 27% evil. Hehehe.

www.olava.org is 57% evil. Who knew?

But I am now 100% moved out of the old digs, into the new!!! K and L helped me the first weekend, then I borrowed my grandparents van to finish up. And my grandma and cousin and her new hubby helped on Sunday. But I'm still only about 30% unpacked.

I'm still sort of in awe that I found this place. It's got two bedrooms, which means I finally have my very own studio!!! And it has wood floors, central heating, a bathtub, closets, and a 'real' kitchen!!! With dishwasher, cabinets, and room for a table!! And a garage (with washer/dryer) for my car! No, the washer/dryer aren't for my car, the garage is! Well, it's full of boxes and plants at the moment (actually got most of the plants outside yesterday afternoon) but I'll be able to park in it once I'm unpacked. I have a hall closet!!! I have a HALL!!!

Way more than I was initially looking for or even thought I could find in my price range. I almost went for another studio, twice as big as my last place, but still a studio... But K told me to hold out for what I really wanted, with a separate space for a studio. She was right (yet again, that girl's invaluable). I really wasn't counting on them offering me this place, because there were a lot of people at the open house, and one was even a former student of the owner.
But I guess they must not have behaved themselves in class, cuz now it's MINE!

And there's surprising few places for rent in this area right now. They're either total dumps or one bedroom apartments/studios (with no yard) for about what I was paying before, or 6 bedroom 'estates' with rent more than my entire income! I don't have many criteria, but those I do have are non-negotiable. (Has to allow a cat, and have room for a studio and a garden all my own.  And it couldn't be a soul-less box in a huge complex...)
Since I found this place (second week of April) I've kept an eye on what else is out there, and there's absolutely nothing that I would even be remotely interested in living in! I was actually even considering the possibility of having to live in an apartment, or moving to Santa Rosa or Rohnert Park. K tells me that I live a charmed life. She may be right.

So now comes the monumental task of unpacking.
I even got everything out of my storage unit, mostly art supplies, tools, books, records...
I'm setting things aside as I unpack, so I can have a garage sale this summer...

Here's my new living room, from the door to the kitchen:

It's a work in progress. I finally, finally, finally get to have my records with me again!!! That's them on the right, in the bottom of the glass shelves under the window. Which also happens to be the perfect spot for my orchids. So far. They're still alive after two days, we'll see if they still like it there in a few months...

Next on the agenda is finding a sofa. I need to get a pull-out, or a futon, so people don't have to sleep on an air mattress on the floor when they come visit. I kind of need more than one chair for people to sit on. Fights have almost broken out over that chair, because nobody wants to be the only one on a chair when everyone else is on the floor. Might be kinda funny if it wasn't so sad :P

It is quite a spectacular chair though, don't you think? It's Swedish, and won a design award. Mine has a different fabric, due for reupholstering soon. And my stool is in pieces at the moment, need to reassemble that too.

Really, the garden is absolute first on the agenda.
I felt kind of bad leaving my old garden as bare as I did. But not really. It's not as bare as it was when I moved in. I left the grass and less than a dozen plants (not counting what was already there when I moved in)... but since they're selling the place, I figure they can just plant one or two plants, throw some bark on the rest of it and it'll match the rest of the yards 'landscaping'. (see pictures below)

Move-In, July 2006

June/September 2007

Move-Out, May 2008

It just seems bare now because I had so much planted. I didn't realize just how much until I had everything out in pots. Yikes!!! I took almost everything I could reasonably expect to live through replanting. I lost the first wave of rosebuds in the move, but the plants are doing ok, and should sprout new buds in a month or so. Everything else is doing great so far.

I just need to get things in the ground now. There's planter beds along two sides of my new yard, but at the moment they're overrun with ivy! Kind of pretty, but if I want to plant anything else, it all has to come out. But after two weeks of going nonstop, I just don't have the energy or strength to pull it out right now.
I must have mentioned it to my boss when I was telling her about my new place, because yesterday she came to me and asked me if I wanted the empty planter boxes and barrels on the back deck at work. I guess when they were in this building years ago they'd had a 'garden committee', and had a bunch of flowers planted in them, but now they're just old wooden boxes filled with nice fluffy dried up dirt. So I took 5 home yesterday, and got my tomatoes and squash replanted in them. They'll need to be replanted as they grow bigger, but it'll do for now, better than the little plastic pots. There's a couple more small boxes that need some work before being used again, the metal band holding the bottoms together is gone, and I'll need help getting the two wine barrels from the front porch... But that can wait a few weeks.
I also got some plants in the ground out in the front yard yesterday, a couple little rose bushes, lavender, a patch of crocosmia, a couple Heuchera (ok, I'll quit being nerdy, 'Coral Bells') a couple other bulbs that might be Amaryllis? Only a few more still in pots that need to be planted soon. The rest can wait until I get the beds cleared.
As soon as I get the plants stable (and off those pesky life support machines) I'll get started on the studio. Can't wait to start painting again! I'll be able to set up a still life and not have to move it to have room to eat dinner! It's been a while since I had an actual studio, I'm still a little giddy about it :)

The downsides (so far):
No free internet.
The ivy in the planter beds.
Afternoon traffic noise: it's right on the corner next to Bodega Ave.
My neighbor smokes in her backyard (right up against mine)

But overall, I'd say the plusses far outweight the minuses...

Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.

2008-04-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor. ~Hubert H. Humphrey

In this case, the two have worked hand in hand.

I've lived in the same place, a (less than) 300 square foot studio basement apartment, for almost two years now. I won't go into all the details, but apparently my neighbor doesn't like my landlords... So, I have to find a new place to live. Of course, I found this out only days after building planter boxes and getting my garden planted. My new home will be bigger, better, with room for an actual art studio. Working/sleeping/eating/living in one small room just isn't working well for me, so it'll be nice to find a new space. A bit nerve wracking though, there's not very many places available that meet my requirements. Damn these high standards and low budget.

I did find one place, the most adorable two bedroom duplex (complete with garage, backyard and hardwood floors). I'm waiting to hear back from the owners right now. I hate waiting. Especially when she told me she'd checked everything on my application, and my references and everything was 'just glowing'. What does that mean?!? I'm hoping that it means that by the end of the month I'll be figuring out how to afford $300 more than I'm paying right now.

How hard it is to escape from places.

However carefully one goes they hold you -

you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences -

like rags and shreds of your very life.

~Katherine Mansfield

To Pass The Time 'Til I Return

2008-03-26T13:17:00.001-07:00

The sun is back! The grey rainy days are fading away and the last few months of hibernation are almost over... Just in time for all of my spare time to be taken up with everything but what I want to be doing... Where'd those lovely lazy weekends go??

I sometimes worry that I won't have time to build my planter boxes and get my garden in the ground in time. Of course, there's plenty of time, but there's so much to do...

This little beauty came up at the edge of my lawn again this year. One of these days I'll look it up and give it a proper name. For now, it's stuck with an improper name :P

In gardens, beauty is a by-product. The main business is sex and death. ~Sam Llewelyn

BTW, it's "Arum palaestinum", native to Isreal... AKA Israel Black calla, Solomon's lily or Jerusalem lily...

Do birds contemplate their own mortality?

2008-01-13T11:43:00.000-08:00

A recent jaunt to the coast turned up a few treasures...
This is just a 'sketch', I'm not sure what it'll end up looking like.

Autumn sprite

2008-01-05T12:20:00.000-08:00

“Autumn wins you best by this its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.”
Robert Browning

Fristelse

2007-12-27T20:53:00.000-08:00

This year for christmas, B got me a crafting tool with a wood burning tip. He didn't even know I'd been wanting one for ages. So of course I had to try it out right away. Not bad for a first attempt, eh?

More of the same, but different

2007-12-22T12:21:00.000-08:00

Almost done! Added a few nibblybug holes in the leaves, still have some details to work out (mainly shadows on the face), but overall I'm pretty happy with the outcome...

passion, pre-decay...

Wallowing in passion and decay

2007-12-14T15:05:00.000-08:00

Ooh, two posts in one day! How'd you get so lucky?
Just thought I'd throw in my real 'lastest' piece.
(Yeah, I lied in that last post)
It's probably about a quarter of the way done so far. Slightly Lord of the Flies, I think? (should that be 'Lady of the Flies'?) I was thinking of adding a couple bugs on the passionflower. Hmmm. I still might, if I can make it work. And maybe a few small holes eaten through the leaves. Raw passion as decay.

Because of the way the wood interacts with the coloured pencil, you can see more of the highlights at an angle. That's one reason I love the stuff. It changes as you move around it, you see new things, little details that you wouldn't see standing even a foot to one side or the other. The woodgrain plays with your head :) Doesn't necessarily translate that well into a photo though... Oh well. Who cares?

Embla on the First Day

2007-12-14T14:02:00.000-08:00

Behold, my latest masterpiece.

I took the torso (shoulder blades to ankles) from a sketch I did in figure drawing. (Need to go back there, haven't been since before Turkey day). And I've had this picture for years, of an old drawing or print of branches, that I've been wanting to use. And they somehow just fit together. I had to make a lot of it up, good reference pics are hard to find, especialy when you're looking for something specific, not just topic but style as well.

"In Norse Mythology, Ask and Embla were the first two humans created by the gods. Odin and his brothers, Ve and Vili, took two pieces of driftwood from a beach and gave them human shapes. Odin then gave them the breath of life, Vili gave them wit and emotions, and Ve gave them senses and speech. These two people, Ask ("ash"), the male, and Embla ("elm"), became the progenitors of all humanity."

So basically, the Norse equivalent of Eve... With a bit of Daphne (sculpture by Bernini) and Pygmalion's statue thrown in...

It took several weeks to finish, the longest my attention span has lasted so far. I tend to prefer 12 hour marathon sessions, where I stay up all night hopped up on caffiend and good tunes and throw off my entire schedule for weeks afterwards. This time I tried something different, working on it for a few hours after work, all day on weekends, and actually encouraging a symbiotic relationship between my art life and my work life. Whoda thunk it? It actually works!

I took a picture of it half way through, when I had just the outlines done. That was the easy part. It just flowed, each part fitting perfectly with the next... She just wanted to be :)

Then I added colour.

Eeesh!! You'd think I'd have learned by now not to torture myself with such large pieces. Painting big is one thing, coloured pencil is horrendous. Just to get the richness and saturation I want I have to press so hard my hands ache for days afterwards, and my knuckles swell up and my thumb and two fingers go numb every time.

But I think it was worth it this time. I could have done it better, but at least it doesn't suck.

Over and done with

2007-12-13T11:09:00.000-08:00

So, I'm fighting my severe aversion to all things blog. But I thought I'd try it out, put up pictures of what I'm working on, kind of have a record of what I'm doing...? I've only been putting finished work on my website, and need a bit of incentive to take pictures of the process... But I'm not putting pictures in this first one, because I don't have pictures of my latest yet..

The chaos of the last few weeks is finally over.

Everything kind of ganged up on me at once, work, play, preparing for the show. It's so nice to finally be able to relax. I have time, now that I have my place cleaned up again, to sit down and actually think about what to make instead of cranking out anything I could do quickly. I started a new piece last night though. I've had this picture sitting around for ages that I couldn't figure out how to use. I can't wait to see what it'll turn into.

That's all. Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.