more coasters...

house on water

hello kitty meets the stodgy men

drunk on syrup

reminds me of the block party

I'm one big autobiography. My paintings tell the same stories over and over and over. But sometimes I cannot explain what those stories are. I'm so glad I am old enough to make what I like and not care (too much) what others think. If what I make pleases me, today that is enough.

G. is getting ready to go to Florida for two weeks. While she is gone I am going to set myself a goal of going thru the rest of my stuff and finishing up the studio so it's really ready to run. No distractions for two weeks except animal care for 16 little paws total. (four animals is a lot of feeding and walking and petting and for Simon med giving).

As usual it's too late and I must go to bed. It continues to be unseasonably cold. Had a fun time tonight at the jello art show and out to dinner with A., M., and T.,. Much fun. Then we ate brownies and watched music videos. Really fun with an 11 year old! Lucky me.

Friday!

I love this photo of Simon, aka Fuzzball. When I was a photographer I wouldn't have appreciated this out of focus "soft" image. I just turned in "Vitamin P: Perspectives in Drawing" after renewing it from the library 3 times. It's a book full of ways to draw, many different ways to make marks that evoke emotion. (Thanks M. for good tip to get this book). Well, not much to say, the sun has come out after two bouts of hail, and I'm going to walk the dogs before it starts again. It's spring: rain, sun, hail, sun, rainbows, more rain and on and on, all in the course of an hour. I like it lots.

Color

Tuesday evening: G watching dancing with the stars and commenting loudly down the hall. Dogs asleep on the bed. Me checking my blogs and doing my best to stick with my ten pm. bedtime. (It's amazing how much better I feel at work when I have had enough sleep!) Just the everyday tasks of life. I try to remind myself to be in the here and now and be grateful.

Loose

Keeping it loose is the ultimate challenge. Being flexible and watching for the unexpected... when I start out with a painting I am often happy and wild because I know the first few layers don't mean anything. But then it happens. Something catches my eye, looks good and as my art teacher used to say "becomes precious". It can just be a small area of paint, but the longer I focus on it and work around it the worse the overall painting gets. Tighter and tighter and wound up. And at the end, that precious something usually gets painted over and everything makes sense again. These coasters are two of my favorites because they never got tight.

Now if I could figure out how to adjust my attitude in the same way...

My studio is evolving and I'm really happy with it. It now has a nice desk for my computer separate from the paint table. I'm tossing stuff I don't need and it feels good.

Monday's on it's way...

Chef K. Martini outdoes herself!

Friends who cook inspire me. Perfect Huevos Rancheros, and in the oven roasted veggies and lemon and herb chicken. Yum. Maybe this weekend I can do more than my usual uninspired fare.

It's been a long day of teaching and I'm wiped out, but I am really excited about the weekend. Time to work in the studio and see my girlfriend.

Yawning again, more soon

Go Gocco!

I have wanted a Gocco printer for years and years. I finally bought one a few months ago, but haven't had a chance to use it. This little silkscreen printer comes from Japan. Before the advent of computers they were really popular in Japan, especially for making New Year's Cards.
They seem toy-like, but are really an amazing system by which carbon-based inks are heated by flashbulbs to expose a screen that you push the ink through. (ok, I know that doesn't make sense)
My much loved friend K. has lots of confidence and helped me figure out how it works!

Photos from the top:
K. watches the funny Gocco how-to DVD.
Applying ink to the screen
G. giving helpful advice while wearing stylish sock monkey pajamas
Ready to print
Finished print!

We made prints with multiple screens which turned out pretty well for a first try.
I loved it. It was so fun.

On the mend

Simon is better. We have baby gates and barriers everywhere so he won't climb up and down stairs. (too hard on his injured neck). Check out his little shaved ankles. I have been telling him he has a poodle cut! Thanks for everyone's kind words about our little fuzzball.

It was a weekend that felt mending for me too because my dear friend K. came to visit. She is a superb chefetta (my word) and made us yummy breakfasts, herb chicken, pasta and on and on. Our stomachs were happy. It was good to talk and talk about everything and we initiated the "Print Gocco", which I have had for a while and hadn't used. New mechanical things usually stump me, but K. jumped right in and it was way fun. Photos to follow.

Off to bed as I worked a 12 hour day teaching. I have this nice warm spot in my heart that my friend filled up. Happy. I love you K.