Requiem

My cat is dead.

I came home from the beach to find her lying in the front yard, completely mauled to death by an animal (my suspicions lead to the neighbor's dog...). She was a very old kitty--about 16 years of age, and I knew she was nearing her death bed, but god, not like this. She was such a sweet cat and deserved a far better death.

Ugh.

Nature is nature though, and really, all I can do is just accept it. I cried a good deal and buried her, then went straight to the bar for a couple mai tais. Needless to say, they helped a great deal.

Snails and Stumps

It's done at last! A happy little snail cruising through a gang of lollipops. I envy him.

After I finished the painting last night, I went ahead and began a new quick one. My muse was in full-blown creative mode. I sucked it up a week ago and bought some small 5x7" canvas panels, since I was unable to locate any hardboard panels of that size. I don't like painting on canvas, but this lil' painting of stumps is coming along so nicely that I have plans for a few more works on canvas.

I had originally drawn out a balloon scene on this particular panel, but my muse took over and painted over it, revealing a neato patterned background and some somber stumps. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that you never fight the muse...

Anywho, I still need to throw in the shadows and then get to work on painting the stumps. When it's done, I'll be listing it for sale in ye old shop! Weeee! I'll let ya all know when that'll be.

It's a beautiful day here, and I have plans to go relax at the beach after a trip to the post office (thank you Rachel and Dianne!) and a much-loathed trip to the grocery store. Tootles!

Pirates of the Caribbean

Well, hello there. :)

I hope everyone's holiday weekend is going swimmingly. I've been working at the studio, but I have tomorrow off to relax, enjoy, paint, and uh, catch up on all those dang dishes in the sink.

I also had the pleasure of going to the movies on Friday night with my brother to see Pirates of the Caribbean III. I loved it. None of these movies have dissapointed me yet (I know a lot of people hated the second one, but I actually really enjoyed it--perhaps because Davy Jones has a frickin' octopus head, so how could I not love it?). Anyway, the third installment is quite the plot-heavy movie (there's a lot of plot in this one--a lot) and I may have to see it at least once more to make sure I got everything, since there's a bazillion subplots and twists in there. And there's so many brilliant Capt. Jack Sparrow scenes that are really quite unconvential for your typical Disney pirate flick. Oh, and did I mention Keith Richards as Jack's dad? Yeeeaaaahhhh.....

I realize that it's getting a lot of weird mixed reviews right now, but trust me. Go see it. The last hour of the movie is amazing and there's a lot of "no way!"-type moments in there as well. I'm a tad bummed that they'll be making more Pirates of the Caribbean installments (3 more now they say? Ay caramba.) only because you really can have too much of a good thing, but oh well. I like pirates. I like Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack. And I'm sure I'll be seeing PotC 6 whenever that comes out as well.

Tomorrow I'm going fishing with my dad and I'm really excited. It's one of those things that always shocks people--they never believe me that I go fishing. A petite girl, with curly hair, who always wears skirts and high-heeled boots. ButI've grown up around boats and on the water, so it's one of those comfort things that reminds me of childhood.

Okay, sorry for no pictures right now, but this is meant as just a quickie update. I'm gonna go plug in a movie and do some painting before heading off to bed.

Here's to a pleasant week ahead for everyone!

New Goodies In The Store

This lil' guy is up for grabs in the store. I had a pile of walruses done and finally finally worked myself up to photograph and list them. Below you can see the next addition to the store--a nice, elegant pendant that will get listed sometime tomorrow more than likely. My dad just got back from a 2 1/2 week long trek through Thailand with his girlfriend who grew up there. I guess I got a bit inspired from it (and I didn't even go! I can only imagine how different and inspirational it would be to visit all those wonderful ancient palaces and temples strewn about over there...). Thus, I'm naming this piece "Bangkok Treasure".

I've had the past three days off from work and what have I been up to? Painting, painting, and uh, more painting. I haven't left the house once ('cept to grab some coffee). I'm in the home-stretch now for the snail/lollipop painting I've been working on--it'll be done by tonight and then I'll let it dry before varnishing. It's amazing how long it takes to finish such a small painting. I'm oh-so-happy with it though. And honestly, the whole thing came together rather smoothly. I love it when that happens!

I head back to work tomorrow, which means the end of my hermitism. Sigh. It felt so good too!

Printer Woes...

Oh god. It's that time again. Yes, siree.

I'm on the hunt for a new photo printer.

This is easily one of my *least* favorite things to do in the whole wide world. Printers are a lot like real human beings that you have a serious relationship with. And you go through all those emotional highs and lows with 'em as well. There's lots of giddiness and excitement when you get the thing in the beginning and it's perfect, and there's also lots of screaming and arguing later on down the road (it never fails). Tears of sadness along with big, proud smiles. I've hit every emotion with printers and in every way possible, I find that I really do have a relationship with them. I wish they just always worked beautifully and never had any problems (kinda like the perfect man). Sigh. Tis not the real world though...

Anyway, despite my touch-and-go luck with Epsons, I'm getting another. I know all about the weak printer head issues and clogged nozzles Epsons get if not used regularly (which is, in fact, why I have to buy a new one) but I tell ya, the print quality on those buggers is beyond amazing. Beats my old HPs over the head with a stick (no--a baseball bat). And I've found that it's all in the papers. Shell out the biggo bucks on nice, Epson paper and you won't be sorry.

I've nailed it down to the Epson r1800, which has amazing reviews for its price. I'll be buying through B&H, my absolute fave camera/digital store. They have great prices, splendid service, and bottom of the heap shipping (free for my printer). The printer is a large-format one that can print up to 13x19" (hoorah!).

So what does this mean for you?

Prints! At long last, I'll finally be able to sell some prints of my artwork in varying sizes on bloody-amazing museum-quality paper. I wrestled with myself for the longest time about whether I'd do the prints myself vs. getting them done through a print shop. In the end though, I'd rather just do them myself as I'm very finicky about colors and print quality. This way I can run test prints affordably 'til I get the perfect colors.

I'm super excited! I have to wait a while before getting it as I can't afford the whole thing yet (I'll be buying the expensive paper with it, which will easily add on another $100) but soon. Very soon.

And, I do believe I'll have a couple new goodies for the shop tomorrow (at long last). Stay tuned!

A Painting Date

I'm working the evening shift today at the studio, which means I've been painting this morning and am looking forward to a coffee outing a little later with my mom (coffee meets are the best, are they not?).

Usually while I paint I have either the tv on for white noise (limited cable for me, so it's usually on the channel that plays MASH 24-7. And I've actually grown a bit fond of the show...Sad, no?), a movie I've seen a dozen times playing (Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Pirates of the Carribean work really well for this), or my trusty iPod attached to my ears. Today I painted the background shadows on my latest painting of a snail wandering amongst a gang of lollipops. Thus, I had your hero and mine, Stravinsky, going in the background. "Rite of Spring" has always been one of my favorites, and it really makes excellent shadow-painting music.

In the upper corner you can even see my green painting swamp water--yummy... I often get too lazy to clean out my painting water because I get so absorbed... The smaller wood plaque in the bottom right corner will eventually hang underneath this painting for an added punch (just like the eyeball & peppermints painting done a while back, which I have yet to assemble).

I've also begun lining the paintings up on the mantle to get a feel of how they're looking together and for general unity. It makes me happy seeing them hanging out like that.

Lastly, I thought I'd part with a look at the photo wall collage I set up recently in my livingroom.

It's so fun staring at old photos...The old wooden framed ones are two of my fave old family pics I own. The left one is of my grandmother and the bottom right one is of my great aunt. Mixed in are a handful of old images from the 70s of my dad (he looks so young here!) and my mom, being cute as always, along with a couple of myself and my brother when we were youngins. There's also couple pet shots and views of Seattle and the Hood Canal in the 70s (my, how times have changed...).

Time for coffee! :)

Sunshine, Inspiration, and Good Finds

Ah. What a fantabulous day it's been. I had the day off from work and decided to take a nice day-jaunt over to Port Townsend, which is about 45 mins. from where I live (and about 3 or so hours away from Seattle). I *love* that town. You know how some towns for some unknown reason seem to have stumbled upon a time warp and you swear it's 1964? Yeah, this is one of those. So slow, old, vintagey, and inspirational. Whenever I need a boost of creativity, I head over there.

So, that's what I did today.

Spent about 45 mins at the PT Goodwill (by far one of my favorites, I always find something there) and snagged 2 old hardcover novels with wonderfully aged canvas covers that I hope to paint on sometime, one softcover novel to read once I'm done with my current book, and 2 large cuts of nice eclectic fabric. One is just a nice navy cotton while the other is some ultra strange nautical print cotton (and it's super thin--the best kind!). I see a cool layered skirt coming this summer...

After the shopping outing, I went to the local grocer, bought a banana and a most delicious turkey/cheese/pesto panini (by far the best I've had--and I've been to Italy) and spent another 40 mins at the beach by myself. Eating, reading, and feeding the cute seagull that hung out with me nearby. All-in-all an absolutely terrific day.

Also finished some paintings this week. After a long struggle, I'm quite taken with the deep sea tube worms. I had some serious doubts about that one, but I feel much better now that I see it all finished and aged and glazed.

I'm doing a bunch of miniature paintings for the series as well to spruce it up a bit (I'm goin' for a kind of sweetshop-meets-strange-nature sort of vibe). So here's three so far.

Yea for chocolates! So sorry about the insanely blurry image (this is what happens when you're too lazy to break out the tripod...). Each one is extremely small, measuring just a little over 2" high. I think I'll also do some jellybean ones and some peppermint birds...

Well, I'm off to enjoy the sunshine in the backyard. I have a few more goodies for ye ol' shop, but just need to work up the motivation to varnish and photograph them. It appears that my brain seems to be stuck in painting-mode, thus the current lack of listed items for sale. But fear not! More are a'comin...

Tag, You're It!

As mentioned earlier, I've been tagged, so I'm gonna let out 7 things about myself that you don't yet know about. This should be fun...

How To:
1.List seven random facts/habits about yourself
2.Choose another seven bloggers to tag and list their names in your blog
3.Leave your seven tagged bloggers comments to notify them of their tagging and to direct them to your blog for tag instructions.

Here we go:

1) I have super thick, curly hair. When I was young, I was convinced that I had straight hair and brushed all the waves and curls out every day to force it to be straight. The result? A long, thick, frizzy mess. When I look at pictures of myself from back then, I find it terribly embarrassing. It wasn't until I was in high school that the little light bulb went on and I realized that whoa, my hair was curly. I've been living with it and loving it ever since.

2) I collect many things but one of my favorites is my collection of autographs. I have a nice binder filled with them and it's always fun to flip through it. I've since stopped, as I have too many other interests. Most of the ones I have are from, I kid you not, Star Wars actors and production artists (yes, Star Wars will always have a special place in my heart). And I even have one from Peter Jackson, from many many years ago--I had written him a long letter about my dream of doing art for films and he actually wrote me back a very inspiring letter about WETA. It's really neat.

3) One of my greatest phobias is a complicated fear of water depth. It's weird... I'm not necessarily afraid of deep water, I'm afraid of objects that poke up from the seafloor (or poke down from the water surface) and visually give me an idea as to how deep it is. I have no problem swimming in the middle of the ocean (and have done this many times despite the cold Pacific) but if there's a piling right there? No freakin' way. Swimming next to pilings scares the living bejesus out of me. It's all rather odd because my dad used to live on a sailboat and I lived a good portion of my childhood on boats, yet there ya go. Another interesting note? My brother has the exact same phobia as me.

4) My career dream is to work in the creative art department at a movie studio--drawing, painting and sculpting my ideas for their latest films. I've always worshipped Industrial Light & Magic.

5) I don't really like ice cream.

6) I have an odd love/fascination for the common slug. Perhaps because everyone hates them and thinks they're slimy and gross. I think they're utterly adorable and have been known to pick them up (despite the looks of ghastly horror I often get).

7) I'm a very shy person and don't make friends easily. Although I'm very nice and friendly, it takes me a while to really get to know someone and feel comfortable enough to trust them. I really wish I were more outgoing.

Okay! There you are. Now I'm supposed to pick 7 other bloggers to tag... Here's my list:

mellowbeing
sweetestpea

estasketch

Studiobenben

Pavoreal

littleputbooks

Emily Gross

And now I'm off to do a bit of painting and varnish some walrus charms...

More Spring Cleaning Finds

More random spring cleaning findings. I love stumbling across things that I've completely forgotten about. This time, I've completely reorganized my computer area. My four boxes of books that had been hanging out in the garage for over a year now are currently empty of their contents and all the books are sitting pretty above me. I mixed in a bunch of smallish clay figurines I had made many moons ago and the effect is a colorful bit of eclectic chaos. Me likey very much.

Anywho, I next moved onto the ever-so-daunting task of cleaning out my computer files (yes, even computers need a dose of spring cleaning). Once I got going, it was actually quite fun. I found a folder of files containing all sorts of odds 'n ends for my grad school application I sent out a year ago (ended up not going, but I'm actually seriously debating whether or not I should apply again and go through with it...). The top scan you see is of a page of real quickie kitty and doggy poses I sketched out a good deal ago. I just love looking at old sketches!

Below you'll find a sculpture I did in college based on a character sketch I made up on a whim. Her name is Agatha and she lives in the year 2121, hence her futuristic, protective copper dress (complete with old, patina screws and joints). She's also blind and relies on her trusty dog (a robodog, of course!) to help her get around.

Kinda goofy and fun but I really love her. She's about 5" tall and is completely made of clay, which was then painted. She can actually stand up on her own, since I built her a nice armature, but due to her *cough* rather rotundness, she's very prone to keeling over. One of these days I need to get her stationed down on a stable base or something.

Also, I've been tagged by Marmee Craft to divulge 7 deep, dark secrets about myself, but I've gotta think about this for a day or two (the pressure! oh, the pressure!).

Good days ahead for everyone, I hope! :)

Awwwwww....

I was going through boxes of photos today, doing a little spring cleaning, and came across this black and white photo I took of my pomeranian, Caramel, a few years ago. She's such a goofball, but certainly knows how to be cute.

Ye Couch Hath Arrived

Ooh! I'm so diggin' it too! Please mind my silly photo--I rarely take pictures of myself as I always feel so awkward. Yes, the couch was quite the blow to my credit card and yes, the pattern makes your eyes bulge with all the optical illusion-ness but oh how I love it so. It's not too soft (a *huge* couch pet peeve of mine--give me a hard couch over one that sucks me into its darkest bowels any day) and the dark walnut wood legs are the perfect match--I'm very glad I spent the extra moohlah to get the wooden legs. The only thing I have to worry about are my two white kitties (see Snowflake, aka "the queen", below--she's turning 16 this year). Both have outgrown their furniture scratching phase, thank god, but still love to hang out on the furniture. I guess this means it's time to get a throw or something to ward off cat hair. On the plus side though, unlike some of my other furniture, the fabric on this couch seems to coexist nicely with the cat hair--meaning I can easily get it off with a lint brush. And in this house, that means a lot.

I've been painting up a storm today too. I suppose the typical Northwest spring days (pouring cats and dogs one minute, sun breaks the next) get me in the creative spirit. Currently working on another sea critter painting--this time of deep sea tube worms. Oh what a nerd am I. I worked on a nicely painted polka dot background for it last week only to come to the realization when I was done that, no, it just would not do. That's the worst feeling. Two hours of painting, all down the tube. So, today I repainted the background and am so happy I did--it looks way better.

Also bought a couple books recently--"The Walmart Effect" and "Brave New World" (my favorite book, but alas, I've never owned a copy). Can't wait to dig into 'em!

Here's to a happy, creative, and exciting weekend for all!