Speed Update

- Got the Promotion!  Was driving to the Iron Maiden concert and they called me on my cell to tell me the news. I now get 4 to 5 times the number of emails per day and spend my life in meetings.
- Garden is doing well, though I don't think I'll ever have any lettuce, because it seems to be the first thing to get eaten by.... whatever is out there.
- Sewing and other craftiness is on hold because I'm PAINTING!  I was without printer ink and thus reference photos for far too long, but the problem has been remedied, in no small part because I can now afford to buy ink.
- Rachel and I are both spending a lot of time getting back in touch with old friends.  It's killer.  It seriously feels good to have my week booked up with various shenanigans with different people.
- Working out is going very well.  So well that I think I'll have to buy some heavier weights very very soon.
- SD card for my camera died at the Iron Maiden concert, so no photos for a while.  For anyone.  :(

Afraid to Make Art

Rachel and I each have a talent.  She is a wordsmith extraordinaire, and I paint.  For some reason, neither of us seem to want to put our craft - our love, what we want to make into our lives, the one thing we would go crazy without - to any use, or not very often.  Part of the problem is that we've been under a considerable amount of stress from life in general, and the other part I think is fear.

Making art of any kind is risky.  It isn't just something you've made and put up for auction.  No, it's part of yourself.  Though a person's work may not be autobiographical, or revealing in the gossipy sense of the word, it exposes everything that artist is.  It shows you our thoughts, our beliefs, our skill -or lack thereof.  It can tell you our place in society, and whether we care about it.

For visual artists, it is terrifying to pour yourself into a piece that your average viewer will spend three seconds on.  Yes people, count them, three.  Three seconds for your entire being to be absorbed, chewed up, and spit out like a bite of stale bread.  I wish this was an exaggeration, but it is not.  If your work does not get someone's attention in this time, it is staying home with you, forever.

For a writer, and I am only speculating, the fear is whether people will even pick the book up.  It seems like very few people read for pleasure anymore, or are unable to finish any book they begin.  And even if they do purchase, read, and enjoy what you have to say, will your readers understand it?  These are daunting concerns, and we have no choice but to pretend they don't bother us, and press on.

So we must remember this:


Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything
-Eugene Delacroix

Let go, and dive in!

Update in the Art World

My paintings are coming along nicely.  I have yet to add to the completed first damask background, because I have been so focused on the second background.  It turns out my "eyeballed" measurements were not quite accurate to the original, so I had to improvise a bit, or start over, and we all know that was not about to happen!

I finished drawing the pattern, and had to choose colors for it.  In order to do that, I had to choose what animal I was going to paint.  The wonderful thing about sea creatures is that a great number of them have unique and specific instinctive behaviors, so I really can't go wrong.  I thought of a creature that would stand out against my pattern, and I thought the mass of the clown fish would be nice to balance out the fine line work in the damask.  The clown fish also provides an opportunity for the subject matter to interact with the background.  I am beginning to think that will be necessary of each piece.

I want to reflect the natural environment of the animal portrayed.  For the seahorse, I pulled background colors directly from the reference photo, so I chose to do the same for the clown fish.  After digging through pages and pages of photos on the web, I found one that struck me.  The fish were in their anemone homes, but the light was cool, and set off the orange of their scales beautifully.  There is my color palette!  The background is a lovely indigo, the foliage designs a warm medium value lilac, and the flowers are a light bright blue with peach centers.  I just could not choose between the two colors for the flowers, so I had to use both.    It is hard to pay attention to the piece for very long, but given its requirements, I got quite a bit accomplished yesterday.  I will have to work on an animal and a background at the same time to make good use of my time.

Also in the artistic world, my dad and I made some screen printing stations so that I can make shirts.  These will be commissioned, and will also appear on my Etsy account! (Coming soon!)  I have not set up shop yet, but I intend to sell prints, sewing projects, and anything else I have, really.  The fact is I have a way of collecting supplies, making stuff, and it piling up in my home. Hopefully other people will invite them into their homes!

Organic Skin Care and Beauty in the Midwest

Living in the Midwest is not perfect, by any means.  While the general perception of it is skewed in some ways, it is slow to catch on to the latest trends in... well, anything.  For this reason, we miss out on movies that come to select cities, we get fashion seasons too late, and organic and natural skin care and makeup is very difficult to find!  I went looking for some chemical free sunscreen, and could only find Burt's Bees.  It's a fine sunscreen, but does not wear very well under makeup.  All we have in the way of natural makeup is Bare Escentuals.  Some of the high end stores carry more, but not much.  Because of this, I think I am going to start trying to make my own.

Last week, I met a friend of a friend who is now my hero.  She and her husband make their own soap, toothpaste, shampoo, laundry detergent, grow their own food, raise rabbits to use their manure as compost (this was fascinating!), even brew their own beer - and let me tell you, it's good!  Not to mention that they are super geeks, like myself.  I was inspired, and started looking for different recipes for making your own beauty supplies.

One of my favorite sites, I found some years ago.  It is called MakeYourOwnCosmetics.com. Their focus is not so much on organic product, but a great deal of the ingredients (sweet almond oil, for example) is easier to find in an organic produce store anyway.  I found some wonderful scrubs here.  Try the Vanilla Honey Sugar Scrub or the Coffee Sugar Scrub for cellulite.  It is no cure, but it does help, surprisingly enough.

For hair care, you might also try the Long Locks Hair Care Cookbook.  I have yet to try these things, but I am planning on getting supplies very soon.  Most of it is simple as can be.  For example, to treat dry ends, rub a little olive oil on them and let it soak in before you shampoo.  Sounds too easy, doesn't it?  Long Locks also has plenty of hair jewelry, and tips for growing your hair and keeping it healthy.

Other than that, it seems like the best option is to order online.  There are any number of products, but the trouble is that you can't talk to someone about them, or test anything when you order it online.  However, if in making the cosmetics, you spend a lot of money on gathering all the supplies and don't care for the end result, you're no better off.  It's a tricky situation, for sure.  In any case, this weekend I believe I'm going to try the deep conditioner from long locks, and I shall let you all know how it turns out.  Avocado and mayo!  Yum! I hope my head doesn't smell weird...

The Pen is Mightier

Rachel and I had a discussion this morning about learning fun new words.  The word she provided was "antepenultimate."  It sounds rather impressive, but simply means "third to last."  And when I read that, it became abundantly clear that the common use of "penultimate" is completely incorrect.  Now I hate to be the person to make someone else feel bad by correcting them.  I spent a lot of time in my younger years doing that, and all it does is make people intimidated by you, and does not get you dates.  However, I think there is a serious problem with a person not only pretending understand a word (and admittedly I do this from time to time), but then repeating it the way they think it is used. 

It is my not-so-humble believe that we should own up to our ignorance, and take advantage of the chance to learn something new!  That doesn't mean do the word of the day thing.  I have tried that, and those words would neither come up in conversation, nor be understood if you used them.  Not that I am against it, because I did earlier hunt down this glossary of fun words.  Rather, when you're reading or in conversation with someone and a word or concept that you are unfamiliar with surfaces, ask about it.  It does not make you stupid.  More often than not, people will appreciate that you didn't just try to pretend you understood.  Not to mention, it will save you the embarrassment of getting caught faking your knowledge. 

So here are my fun words for the day:

absquatulate: to flee, make off
callipygian: having a shapely buttocks.

Seriously, people.  If we have a word to describe someone who has a nice rear, shouldn't we use it?!  Goodness knows we have plenty of opportunity!

I've also been a long-time advocate of bringing back penmanship.  I have argued this with a number of people, but the fact of the matter is if your handwriting is illegible, it's rather hard to communicate.  Having a firm grasp of the language and knowing how to project it via your own hand are each an art in their own right.  I think I am going to join IAMPETH.  It's basically a society that loves calligraphy, the teaching thereof, and wants to reinstate this sort of education in the classroom.  Think of the discipline and skill to be gained!  I was just excited to find that I am not the only person out there trying to preserve this dying art.  One day, maybe I'll be an expert penman like these people.   

No wait, the other thing: tedious.

Since moving back up, my art making unfortunately took a back seat to everything else going on in my life.  And now, more than ever, I know it is a very important part of my life.  I simply can't survive without it.  Recently, my muse has returned and I am making the time to create.  I have missed it so.  I thought I would just give you a small glimpse of what I'm working on.

This is going to be a series that will serve almost as a study for my other pieces.  However, I do believe they will make a strong body of work on their own.  I am hand drawing damask (a stylized version of something organic, which is usually mechanically reproduced), and I will find some way to make creatures with some sort of unique and specific instinct interact with it. 

This is the background for some seahorses:

It was my first attempt, so I tried to keep it simple.  I made a stencil, but it did not yield the results I was hoping for.  Then I realized that it would only support my concept to hand draw it, which is what I am now doing.  This however, takes a long time and is very tedious.  Plus, the second pattern is much more complex. 

I first mapped out my design with a grid, and some basic visual guides.  Then I drew in the central flower motif throughout the panel.  This pattern's size worked better with the size of the panel, so it is not square with any of the sides.  Rather, it seems to continue off the piece.  I am debating on whether I will attempt to continue the pattern to the sides.

I am now in the process of elaborating on the flowers.  This is the main part of the pattern.  Next, there are a few more things to be added to connect the motifs to each other and make the design more fluid.  This is the current state of the piece:

I'm certainly learning patience and more focus working on this series.  Oy! 

Car Camping

I believe it's time to tell you about our weekend mini adventure.

Saturday night (at apparently 11:04) we made the decision to drive on down to Rachel's homeland.  It has been a haven for us, in times when life gets too hectic.  Most would think it's crazy to leave for a long drive at such an hour, and it's certainly not in my nature to do such things.  However, I appreciate spontaneity, and so we set off.  We made a road trip music compilation, grabbed the few things we'd need (pajamas, dog food and leash, bedding, caffiene.)

While the ride is beautiful, there's not much to see but darkness driving at night.  That's part of the charm though.  There are few places where there isn't any light pollution, and to be able to see the stars whizzing by from the car is soothing.

When we got there, we parked out at one of our favorite spots on the lake.  There happens to be a big parking lot, so that's where we made our camp.  Now, we've learned a few things since the last (only other) time we tried to sleep in the car.  Our creation was fairly comfortable, although cramped.  Maybe that's why we only slept for about three hours.  Poor Hazel didn't sleep much either.  Either way, here it is:

We took the head rests off the front seats, and reclined them as far as they would go, while moving the seat part up as far as it would go.  We draped our legs over the front seat, and it was the best sleep in a car I've ever had! 

We left the windows open, and it was a perfect evening for such a thing.  And not a bug bite to speak of! 







We rose early, to this beautiful scene:

It's a large lake, but this is the first glimpse you get coming down the hill from the parking lot. 

We came down here at night once, and sitting on the dock, under the full moon, it was not hard to imagine there were strange creatures just under the surface of the water, waiting for the right moment to attack!

Did I mention I have an overactive imagination?

This is the view from the dock.  Serene doesn't begin to describe it.









After a quick stop at the local grocery for some world-class hot dog sauce (that makes it so even I can eat one), we headed back home.  Rachel spotted this guy on the road as we drove by, so I told her to turn around, and we'd help him out.  Thankfully there's not a lot of traffic at 6 am on Sunday morning on this stretch of road.

He might have been scared, but it was better than squished!  This was the first time I have ever seen an orange turtle!

We were confident that he was trying to get to the pond, so we set him down here. It's funny how good a simple thing like that can make you feel.






And so, though it was a brief visit, we got ourselves re-attuned to nature, and returned feeling much more centered, and recharged, and very, very sleepy.  Poor Hazel was so happy to be home that she started HOWLING when we pulled into the apartment complex.  I love my family, and our little adventures.