Cover Art

I found my cover artist! Here are some of the covers you can find in her gallery:

Aren't these beautiful? The artist is Najla Qamber, and you can find her HERE. She was referred to me by my twitter pal @jmeyersbooks, who hasn't had the chance to use her services yet, but hopes to for a future contemporary romance. The questions on Najla's requirement form will likely take me a couple of hours to research in order to complete, and I'm leaving for Vegas for a teaching conference, so unfortunately I won't be able to start the process until I come back. Naija and I have talked to each other via e-mail, and we are going to start brainstorming my cover July 21st. By the 27th, she will have a preliminary design, and we'll go from there.

I will have a cover--or at least a cover concept--by July!!

So now I'll be able to do a cover reveal (however you do that) with a release date for my book (whenever that is) and all that fun stuff. I am so excited!

On a completely unrelated note (these are always my famous last words), Clint and I celebrated Independence Day by watching the fireworks over my parents' lake from my dad's boat. It was a lot of fun, though I don't remember the fireworks too well (my mom made Shannon and I Long Island iced-teas). I have a story about Shannon and I jumping straight from the boat into the pitch black lake TWICE, but in retrospect, I don't think it's a good story.

Okay, I'm officially gone until Friday now. Las Vegas is beckoning. Maybe I'll get another Royal Flush? *crosses fingers*

Have a great week!  

Frolicking Fairy

Trinity finished painting this last night for her great-Granny B (my grandma) for Christmas.

Not too shabby for a 13 year old!  We're still debating the title of the painting.  I said "Frolicking Fairy" (can you tell I'm a sucker for alliteration?), Trin said "Fairy" (try not to be overwhelmed by her cleverness), and Clint said "This Fairy Blows".  Um, bubbles.  Since all of our ideas suck (or blow), any suggestions you might have are welcomed.

Oh, I finished my peacock painting, which I'm giving to Teri now because she really wants it and I don't really have any connection with it.  It came out pretty, but the peacock is just standing there, posed on the canvas, when I'd like to have something with a little more energy or motion displayed in my home (like the one illustrated above).  I'll post a picture of it on my other blog later once I've recovered from the holidays.

Speaking of, I hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas tomorrow!  Sorry for this very un-Christmasy post.

Spring Break Hodgepodge

This is post #499.  I thought it would be really cool to make post #500 the very last one before switching over to the new blog, but now I'm not sure if that's going to happen.  The problem is the new blog isn't ready--Shan and I haven't worked out a template, nor have we figured out the details of a duel ownership over the new blog.  I want to avoid the dynamic of one of us being labeled the primary owner, while the other one is labeled as a "guest blogger."

Oh, if you haven't noticed yet, my sister's a lop (as referenced in certain areas of my right side-margin).  She refuses to write on here anymore because her eyes are fixated on the gleaming new blog.  "Why bother with the old one when you're just getting a new one?" is the basic premise here.  She's also resigned to letting her home slide down the mountain because they're eventually planning on getting a new one of those, too.  Okay, I might have made up that last part.

So Universal Studios was pretty brutal.  Two kids got lost from their group; one was turned into me by a security guard.  The other one I hunted down myself and found him sitting (with no cell phone) on a bench near the tram tour.  But even the wandering-off kid issues were something I could make my peace with; it was just the whole day was exhausting.  My Builders Club students are usually responsible, but for some reason, when we mixed them up with Incentive Club members, the whole dynamic of both clubs changed.  The kids were loud and wild.  The worst was the bus ride home.  I think my ear drums are permanently scarred.

The rest of spring break has been pretty awesome so far.  I've been able to take the new compound bow out three times now, and I'm starting to get pretty comfortable with it.

I was shooting at a cardboard turkey on the ground.  If it were a real turkey, he'd be walking around with arrows sticking out of every part of his body except for his head--he'd be the only one of his buddies with arrow-plumage.  Yeah, I need to work on my aim.  As long as the weather stays nice, I'll probably go again tomorrow and Wednesday.

Besides playing with my new bow, I've been writing in the evenings, but not as much as I'd like.  I'm still stuck in that editing trap where I keep smoothing out the already-written stuff instead of moving forward in the story.  I joined a writing club two weeks ago, which I'm feeling pretty excited about.  Just one meeting and I already made some great connections.  Although it's strange, because I'm significantly younger than the other members (by significantly, we're talking about twenty years).  At 34, I would never expect to be the baby of any group.  But I guess most people wait until they're empty-nesters and/or retired to pursue their passions.  Honestly, the age gap didn't really bother me.  Once you start talking shop with other writers and authors, you forget all about the age difference.  Unfortunately, the club only meets once a month.  I'll have to join a critique group within the club if I want to do any real writing.

I started a painfully easy painting of a peacock for my living room that hopefully I'll finish this week.  The problem is I'm bored with it.  It's more shapes and colors than an actual animal.  I chose this particular image for the colors, which I think will compliment my living room, but I'm not particularly impressed with the peacock itself.  Oh well, I'll finish it anyway. 

In other news I dreamt that some sort of sewer lines going into our school's bathrooms exploded, and my entire classroom filled up with crap.  I'm not good with dream analysis, but that one seems about as eloquent as they come.  I just wish my subconscious could conjure up more clever symbols to use in dreams.  I mean, sewer lines?  And crap?  Those are the best metaphors my brain could come up with?  Yay me and my beautiful aptitude for poetry.  

"Downright Giddy"

Somehow Christmas Eve is tomorrow morning, and we are so unprepared.  Tomorrow we will have to finish our shopping, which should be mayhem at its finest.  I personally don't mind last minute shopping, but Clint starts wigging out when he has to deal with crowds.  I still remember being a little girl and running around Wal-Mart at 2:00 a.m with my mom on Christmas Eve (back when they used to be open 24 hours), trying to find socks for Grandpa and stocking stuffers for my dad.  It was chaotic yet fun; I think because my mom always had a sense of humor about it.  And there's almost a camaraderie between you and the other shoppers, like "Hey, so you're crappy procrastination tendencies landed you here in the pits of hell on Christmas Eve too."

Christmas Eve with my inlaws is at our house again this year.  It will be the usual pajama party with breakfast served in lieu of dinner.  On Christmas morning, we will do our own little family-thing in the morning, and then head over to my parents house.  Again, it's all the usual stuff, but I am so, so excited.  For all of it; Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  The best (and laziest) way I can explain it is simply by quoting Kristyn in one of her recent posts:

I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas! I’m like a little kid, I love all the lights, the tree, and the pretty, colorfully wrapped gifts! I even enjoy some of the music and movies. I feel downright giddy that the day’s nearly here.... (click to view full post).   

That pretty much sums up how I feel.  I never outgrew my childhood excitement over Christmas, and I never plan to.

I am bummed out that I never sent out Christmas cards though.  It's a silly thing, but the act of sending out Christmas cards makes me feel...well, normal.  It's like laughing in the face of all the insanity being dumped on you and declaring, "Bring it on!  I'm still going to do this one traditional thing and you can't stop me!"  This year it feels like the insanity won.  Ughhhh.

Today we saw Matt and Alana!  They're up for the holidays, and we only had enough time to do lunch, but it was still awesome to see them.  We're going up to their place from the 29th to the 1st, so I'm looking forward to a more extended visit.

As promised, here's the owl I painted for my mother-in-law: 

I tried a gazillion times to take a picture of the canvas without the frame, but the flash kept turning the black paint a weird reddish-brown color.  Yet when I took the picture with the painting inside the frame, it took care of that flash problem.  I'm thinking I can just crop the frame out later if I feel like bothering with it.    

Oh, here's Elijah with the painting, just so you can see the size: 

I'm not much into painting animals, and after painting feather after blurry blue feather, it was hard to tell if it was even coming out.  But then I come across things like this on the internet and it makes me feel a little bit better:

This is a 9 x 12 oil painting being sold by the artist for $325.00.  Shan, you collect roosters...you want me to whip one of these up for you? I'll cut you a deal...I'll only charge $320.  =)

I'm sure I won't be back on this blog for a few days now, so Merry Christmas to you and yours! (and no, I will not do the weak-ass PC 'Happy Holidays' crap--sorry).

Fire and Ice

I don't know how to start this entry because I'm so behind on writing, and so much has been going on. 

I think the first thing I want to address is the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary.  Like most Americans, I was horrified by what happened on Friday. This feeling intensified last night when I came across a CNN article that actually gave the profiles of several of the victims.  Reading about little 6 year old Jenny who loved her chocolate lab Sasha, or about 7 year old Cody who was getting his first bike for Christmas (randomly generated facts, but you get the point)...it was just crushing.  On the spur of the moment I texted my principal and told her I was going to start a charity drive for the Sandy Hook Memorial Fund.  I made a giant collection box and decorated it in green and white with a soaring eagle to represent the school's colors and mascot.  During lunch this week Builders Club will be collecting students' spare change.  None of this will do a damn thing to allay the families' grief, but I just feel like my school can--and should--do something.  I'm still absolutely chilled by the fact that so many families In Newtown, Connecticut are going to experience Christmas day beneath such a black cloud.   

Okay, much needed change of subject before I start shuddering with rage again.  On Friday night Tarius (a teacher/colleague) and I put on our school's Winter Dance.  We were nervous as hell about it because neither one of us had ever been responsible for an entire dance before, and there is a ton of work that goes into them--everything from advertising, creating/selling your tickets, getting all of your approvals turned in, buying/making decorations, planning for concessions, and so on.  The most stressful part for me was the decorating.  We had three periods to pull it off, which sounds like a lot, but the cafeteria proved to be a massive space when you're trying to fill it all in with a chosen theme.  Our theme was 'Fire and Ice', and we ended up with a wall of fire on one side of the cafeteria and ice on the other.  We also had columns of balloons everywhere--red/yellow/orange for fire, white and pale blue for ice; not to mention streamers, sparkly snowflakes, garland, piles of white "snow" (made from fluffy strips of cotton), white silky fabric draped in various places, and so on.  The best part of the fire side was a huge red arch with flames coming out of it.  The best part of the ice side were the giant snowflakes (they were the size of Saint Bernards) and all of the white Christmas lights.  We had four choreographed student performances that night, and we also crowned a Fire Queen and Ice King.  The dance turned out to be awesome.  Tarius and I had both been losing sleep over this dance for nearly two weeks, so we were on such a high when everything was over--we were thrilled that we had actually pulled it off!  After the clean-up (which lasted over an hour), we went to wine night at a colleagues house (Mr. A) to celebrate.  I am proud to say that this time around, I stayed away from the red wine.

Today I got annoyed and slammed a jar of lingonberries on the counter while emphasizing a point, and the jar ended up breaking.  It's weird, I haven't broken anything out of anger since my early twenties (I broke a bathroom mirror once with a hairbrush a long time ago).  But this jar did indeed break, and at first I didn't notice, until I was flinging my hands around emphatically and I saw red drops puddling all over the floor.  I realized the jar was broken and thought the red splatters were the lingonberries, but it turned out that I was flinging my own blood all over!  I looked at my finger and it was dripping with blood.  Even beneath water and with pressure it would not stop bleeding for a good twenty minutes.  It was a small cut but it went in deep (haha, serves me right).  Trin asked me later what happened to my finger, and I said "I was throwing a temper tantrum and decided to shatter a jar."  She thought this was really funny and said "Are you still mad?"  And I said "Yes, because I'm really craving lingonberries." 

Other things I want to talk about but will have to wait for another time include:  Our new(er) Great Dane pup, an upcoming visit with Matt and Alana (yay!), another finished painting, a current bathroom remodel, and...I think that's it. 

Oh, but real quick, I want to paint this picture.  I found this back when I was searching out ideas for 'Fire and Ice'.

And I love this song.  Rihanna's lyrics are happy, but somehow the song sounds sad.  In the video, I find the scenes with the horses incredibly sweet.

5K, Easter, & Club Stuff

I'm trying not to laugh right now.  S.P. is teaching my 6th period class, and she barely started them on a journal entry when you could already hear cries of:  "What do we do again?' and "I don't have a pencil!" reverberating through the room.  Welcome to my world.  I guess it's only amusing to me because I'm currently not the one who has to deal with it.

This week has been agonizingly busy, even though it's barely begun.  After work on Friday, Clint's grandpa was visiting from Arizona, so we met him and the rest of the family for dinner at good ole' La Casita-------

Got interrupted for awhile.  Now I'm subbing for a few minutes in my friend's classroom.  Anyway, on Saturday morning I-------

Okay, now it's the next day.  Maybe I should take the hint and give up on this entry?  It's tricky writing a post when you're limited to the little snippets of time available at work.  Oh well, I'll try plucking away at it for a little while longer and see how far I get.  S.P. is leading the class in a spelling bee right now, so that should buy me some time.

Anyway, on Saturday I ran the 5K.  It was such an awesome experience and I will definitely sign up for another one in the future.  I ran the entire thing with Moo, and neither one of us stopped during the duration of the event.  This was odd to me, because every time I ran the track at my work, the furthest I could run without stopping was a little less than two miles.  The 5K was 3.1 miles, yet we never stopped.  I'm not sure what was different or what exactly changed...maybe the fact that we were surrounded by others gave us that extra push; I don't know.  I do remember that exact moment when I realized I was going to run the whole thing.  Amanda and I had just started, and she set a pace that I was incredibly comfortable with.  We had been running for about half a mile when I realized that I was breathing heavily, but I wasn't even close to being winded.  At that point, I felt this surge of excitement, because I realized I could keep going indefinitely.  I grabbed Amanda's arm and said "Moo, we've got this!" and she nodded happily.  The rest of the 5k was tiring, of course, but also exhilarating.  It definitely wasn't the torture I had been expecting.  The weather was gorgeous, and I remember while I was running and listening to my music, I had that feeling for a few seconds that there was nothing else in the world I'd rather be doing at that moment.  I know that's incredibly corny, but I don't care.  :)  At the end of the 5K, we were greeted with cheers, water, and sliced oranges.  A tiny bit of paradise.      

After the 5K we went to Teri's house for brunch.  Later that night my parents came over for dinner.  My parents rarely come to my house, so it was a lot of fun having them over.  My mom and I talked each other's ears off, and she showed me how to play "Draw Something" and "Family Feud" on my iPhone.  "Draw Something" is my favorite--such a simple, addictive little game, even though I'm really bad at drawing with my finger on a tiny screen.  Now I'm playing the game with my mom, Shan, Clint, my friend Lauren from work, and my friend James from high school.

Sunday was Easter, of course, and we did our normal Easter stuff.  This year it was at Moo's house, and she did a great job hosting.  Everything was very cute, from the food to the decorations to the elaborate treasure hunt she provided for the kids (complete with paper clues).  Next year Easter is at my house.  I already warned everyone to not expect the same quality as this year's.  My version of an Easter egg hunt pretty much consists of throwing eggs in the backyard amongst the weeds and dirt, and crossing my fingers that the dogs don't gulp too many of them down before the kids find them.

Last night, my Builders Club joined forces with three other clubs and made blankets for kids in homeless and domestic-violence shelters.  For the first hour we all ate dinner (spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, and cake), but after that we got to work.  In about an hour's time, we had completed thirty blankets (we were divided into groups, and each group completed three to five blankets).  We did this same project last year, and like then, it was a lot of fun.

Today is Trin's birthday, so we're taking her out to dinner tonight.  Friday night she's having a slumber party, which is always sheer insanity.  I thought it would be nice to have it on Friday instead of Saturday, that way I could still have the rest of my weekend free.  But when I made her invitations, I completely forgot that  I have Community Clean-Up Day (CCD) with Builders Club on Saturday morning.  In October, I did CCD the morning after the dojo's Halloween party, so I had the wonderful experience of picking up trash in a desert with a hangover.  This year, I don't plan on being hung over (although a little bit of happy juice probably wouldn't hurt), but I know I'll probably be completely thrashed from having to monitor half a dozen girls all night.

It just now occurred to me that I'm living the same life, year-after-year.  I just now wrote about three different events that I wrote entries about last year (slumber party, blanket making, and CCD).  It's like being stuck in a time loop, except for by some ironic twist of fate, I'm still aging.

Okay, well this next thing is different.  Me and "A" met in Ontario on Monday night so that I could deliver her painting.  She offered to drive to my house to pick it up, but she lives all the way down in Hollywood, so I thought it was only fair to meet her half-way.  When I gave A her painting, she over-paid by $70.  I told her that she had given me too much money, but she refused to take it back and told me to keep it as a tip.  How great is that?!  I'll post a picture of the final painting on my art blog, but I probably won't get to it until next week.

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Now it's 7:24 p.m.  Guess I should publish this entry before it ends up spanning for an entire week.

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Yikes, now it's 8:15.  I was getting ready to post entry when one of my student's parents came knocking on my door.  It's a long story.  Okay, I'm clicking the publish button NOW.

Ocean Reaching for Burning Sky

I don't have time to write a post.  I'm only on here because it's been too long and I'm sick of seeing the acronym "BFF" at the top of my screen.  I'm trying to think of a picture or something I can plaster on here to take up a bunch of space.  Oh, here we go:

So pretty.  I'd love to paint this someday.

Two Different Worlds

It's been a pleasant weekend so far.  On Friday night I went skating with my Builders Club. We're all going to Universal Studios in a couple of weeks, but I wanted to put together an informal field trip for the kids who couldn't go to Universal.  The club voted on skating, which thrilled me because that's one activity I'm really comfortable with.  We ended up having an incredible time.  Toward the end of the night we played this insane game of tag (to loud music, beneath a disco ball in the dark), and at one point I swear there were about a dozen of my students "it" with me being their only prey.  It was fine with me though, because even though I'm "old," I'm fast on skates.  The only almost-accident I experienced was when a little boy cut me off.  I was speed skating and had no way to stop or swerve in time, so I ended up picking him up right off the ground before colliding into him.  I carried him long enough to slow down (about eight feet or so) and then set him back down on his skates.  I told his mom I was really sorry, but she was cracking up.  I guess it must be a little weird when some crazy person on skates plucks your little kid right up from the floor.

Yesterday the kids promoted in karate.  Well technically Trin can't promote anymore until her black belt test this summer, but she still participates in all of the ceremonies.  Elijah promoted to a brown belt, so I'm really proud of him.  Unfortunately his promotion ceremony was really boring.  I think my eyes were starting to glaze over.

Today we went to church, out to lunch to this Chinese restaurant that I love (I always get shrimp in lobster sauce), and shopping.  Once we were back home, I painted for about two hours.  I'm finally making some headway on the commissioned painting.  It's actually pretty fun to paint, even though it's not my style.

We're getting ready to go to Clint's parents house for pizza, so I better sign off..

This is not my painting (I wish it were); this is an image I came across online yesterday.  I just find it interesting.

Inspiring Author and Commissioned Art

Okay, get ready for a shallow intro here: Stephanie Dray is following me on twitter!  See, one day she stumbled upon one of my witty tweets (haha) and thought, "Wow, here's a clever tweeter.  I should follow this person." 

You're not buying that story?  Okay, fine.  *sigh*  Here's what really happened.  I @mentioned her in such a way where I hoped she'd notice my existence and maybe click the follow button.  And she did.  Hey, I didn't say I was proud.  Satisfied?  Yes.  Proud?  No.  Well, maybe a little.
 
Oh, in case you don't know who Stephanie Dray is....

In addition to being the writer of two intriguing novels ("Lily of the Nile" was her debut), she's just an altogether nice person.  We went back and forth a few times on her blog last year, and she doesn't let the fact that she's a published author get in the way of having ordinary conversations with 'ordinary' people.  As far as authors go, she's really becoming one of my inspirations.

In other news, I sort of alluded to this in a previous blog entry, but now it's official.  I've been commissioned to do an oil-painting.  It started because Shannon posted my oil paintings on facebook.  One of her FB friends saw my artwork and asked Shannon if she could pay me to do a piece for her.  Shan went ahead and referred her to me, and the rest is history. 

This whole situation has created a few miniature dilemmas.  The first thing I had to decide was if I even wanted to do a piece of art for payment.  My dream is to be a writer--not a painter--so I can't really see what benefit there would be to taking up a project that would probably cause me more stress than it was worth.  Also, my customer (for lack of a better term) wanted me to paint an image that I found disturbing, and that was something I really wrestled with (hence the question I posed on a previous post regarding compromising your taste/style for the sake of selling a piece).  Shan helped me to settle the first dilemma by telling me "Sell one piece, just to say that you've done it".  Well, the conversation went a little deeper than that, but that was the gist of it. Then a friend of mine helped me to solve dilemma #2 by explaining to me that selling art is a matter of economics.  If I don't feel any passion for the project I'm working on, then it's up to me to decide if the money is worth the exchange of my talent and time, minus that passion.  In a way, here's where art becomes a "job" rather than a pleasant way to spend your Saturday.   

The customer in question--let's call her "A"--has been really awesome to work with so far.  She decided to meet me halfway on her picture choice, and exchanged her first image with one that was much more palatable for me.  It's still not my taste, but doesn't leave me morally unsettled like her first choice.  And with the colors, shapes, and shadowing it involves, it could actually be fun.  I'm charging 'A' $115 for an 18x24 painting, which is nothing when compared to my daily teaching wages.  Shan and I figured that I should go cheap for a first sell, and $115 breaks down to 25 cents a square inch...can't go much cheaper than that.  Now I know where the term "starving artist" comes from.  Better not quit my day job.

Adjustment Bureau, Grading Depression, etc.

Last night I watched "The Adjustment Bureau" for the first time (I had avoided it previously because the title sounded boring), and wow, what an awesome movie.  It's suspenseful, romantic, thought-provoking...why didn't someone recommend this movie to me a long time ago?  I love the philosophical nature of the movie and the complexity of the characters; how the so-called bad guys *spoiler alert* aren't necessarily as evil as you might anticipate, and how you're not entirely sure through the entire movie who you should be rooting for.

Today I started grading papers at about 9:30 this morning, and I didn't finish until 3:00.  That was with Clint helping me to input the scores into my gradebook, or else it would have taken me all day.  I'm relieved to be caught up, but I'm starting to feel depressed by the quantity of grading I'm taking home every weekend.  I don't mind busting my ass Monday through Friday; I can totally live with that.  But I want my damn weekends to myself.  Last year I had three really great T.A's to help offset some of the work load, but this year, my T.A's, although very likable and sweet, are a little clueless when it comes to grading.

After conquering that insane heap of papers, I worked on my Japanese Maple painting.  It's just about finished, so I might be posting a picture of it tomorrow on my Glazey blog.  Once it's touch-dry (which will take a few weeks minimum), I'm going to give it to Shannon.  I didn't originally start the painting for her, but she saw it the other day at my house and really liked it.  I still plan on painting something else for her in the (distant) future that's especially meant for her, as this one was just sort of a "whatever" project.  Last night I sketched out my next painting.  I'm really excited about it, but don't know if I'll be able to pull it off.  It involves an underwater scene, and I have no clue how to accomplish that look. 

Next weekend I'm going to Vegas with my entire family!  I am so excited!  My parents really know how to have a good time in Vegas, plus my mom, Shan, and I get really silly when we're together anywhere.  I still remember going out to dinner with them for Mother's Day over a year ago, and they were scolding me in slightly inebriated, over-loud voices for using a toilet-seat liner when I went to the restroom (haha, TMI--sorry).  Apparently this made me some sort of freak-germaphobe.  And I, of course, was yelling at them for not using one.  Meanwhile, fellow diners were looking at us like...well, the way anyone would look at some crazy person who's carrying on about toilet seat liners in the middle of a crowded restaurant.  But these are the types of conversations we end up having anytime we're all together (especially if liquor's involved), and it is what it is. 

Ughhh.  I feel so blah right now.

Broken by Lifehouse--Photo Rendition

I'm too lazy to write about my life right now, plus it's been awhile since I posted a song, so that pretty much adds up to a quick and lazy "music video post."  Although technically the clip below is not a music video.  The official video for this song actually has much better sound quality than this does, but I opted to post this instead because the little artist in me loves the way the producers combined music with expressive photography (although I wish they had opted for a less gaudy intro and concluding credits).  I did have to laugh at the title of this song though, considering that I just posted another song by the same title ("Broken" by Seether) about a month ago.  I wouldn't be surprised if readers thought that I was chronically depressed by now.  I swear I'm a happy person...93.7% of the time, anyway.  At any rate, here is a photographer's rendition of "Broken" by Lifehouse (you may recognize the song from The Time Traveler's Wife).  Blogger doesn't enlarge video clips, so if you want to view it full-screen on You Tube, click here.

         

Mary Had a Little Weedwacker

No time for a "real" post, but here's some quick rambling:

We got a lamb today! Her name is Lily. She is soooo cute. We pretty much bought her as a glorified weed-wacker. The dogs just adore her. They follow her around everywhere, and then she turns around and follows them everywhere. If they leave her alone for more than a few minutes, she baaahs unhappily and goes to find them.

Yesterday I finished reading my fourth novel from the Bookworm Challenge. I think I might actually stand a chance of conquering my list this year. Now writing the reviews, that's a completely different story. If I decide to actually write them, they'll probably be special, "one-word" reviews. As in, this book was "awesome," or "mediocre," or "sucked royally" (I might have to bump it up to "two-word" reviews for some of them).

Small group on Monday night was fun!  We stayed up pretty late that night, and then I couldn't spool down afterwards, so I wound up with virtually no sleep.  But sleep-deprivation is a standard for me at least a few times a week, plus I love entertaining, so I really didn't mind at all.  Steve told us this entire story of how he and Becky met, but he did so in such a "story-teller" fashion that it was almost like listening to a light-hearted, romantic little novel, complete with the exposition, rising action, and so on. 

I haven't painted in nearly two weeks.  I miss it...a LOT...so I'm going to set everything else aside and paint some more on Friday.

Clint built a split-rail fence around our yard.  He also put in this arbor-thingie.  We still have to paint everything white this weekend to make it match the neighbor's fence (not exactly the kind of painting project I wanted to do), but once it's finished, I'll try to post a picture.  You can see part of the unpainted fence in the background above.

Well, that was all very hodgepodgy.  Goodnight.

Wicked Game

I had completely forgotten that the song below ever existed.  Until this morning, when I was suddenly accosted by its stirring lyrics and haunting melody as I got ready for work.  I just now watched the music video for the first time, and damn is it erotic.  Especially considering it was produced in 1989.  Now I'm trying to decide whether it's erotic in a sensual way, or in a raunchy way (somewhat reminiscent of the "Art or Pornography?" entry I posted last year).  I skimmed over a few articles about this particular video, and was surprised by the majority-perspective.  Most people view it as not only the all-time sexiest video of the '80s, but they see it as a beautiful piece of art; a masterpiece, even.  I've watched it three times now, and I'm still not convinced.  On the one hand, the way the music flows with the sensual movements of her body does seem almost artistic.  On the other hand, some of the model's movements (stroking of her breasts, tossing of her undergarments, etc.) seem almost too cliche, turning what might have been an impassioned, seductive dance into a cheap strip-tease on the beach.  One YouTube commenter put it best:

I'm pretty sure this is how it [the video] happened:
Record Exec: "K Chris we need to make a video for Wicked Game, what do you want to do?"
Chris: "Get me the hottest model, get her topless, and let me fondle her on the beach for 4 minutes."
Record Exec: "Alright, but isn't that too racy?"
Chris:  "Just make it black and white and don't show any nipple, this way we can pass it off as art."
Record Exec:  "Alright, lets do it!!"

Here is the video, so I'll let you judge for yourself.  I will say that, regardless of whether the verdict for this video is "art" or "glorified lap dance," the song itself makes me feel twinges of...something...inside.  And isn't that what art is supposed to do?  But still...hmmmm....

Goodbye to Spring Break

I haven't written in a week, which for me feels like eons.  I've been on spring break, and for some reason I have no desire to blog during breaks.  But my sabbatical from middle school mayhem is now officially over and I'm back to work tomorrow.   Even now I feel no inclination to talk--or write--about anything, but I feel like I'm letting my blog lurkers down when I go too long without posting.  So this is for you, blog lurkers.

Spring break was good, but would have been better if it wasn't gray, windy, and cold the entire time.  I celebrated the last day of my break today by finishing a novel from my book list, Replay, and working on a painting of a Japanese maple tree.  I'll try to write a more detailed entry later about break when I'm in more of a writing mood.   

At this moment Clint is trying to decide what job he wants to "bump" onto for this week (he's been struggling with this for hours, because whatever he chooses, he's stuck with for a month), and he just cried out in frustration, "Help me to make this decision, woman!  That way I can blame you if it sucks."  Hmmmm.  As appealing as that sounds, I think I'll let him work this one out on his own.

Okay, that's all I have the motivation to say for now.  Sorry to leave you hanging for a week and then give you so little to chew on.

Autumn Trees and Angels

Today was a nice, relaxing Saturday!  We went to the movies to see Beastly.  It was a pleasant and romantic little movie, although it didn't really offer anything fresh or innovative to the "Beauty and the Beast" stories of the past, plus some of the characterization was a little generic.  After the movie, we went out for Chinese food.  Between the cream-cheese wantons and all of that buttery popcorn I ate, I'm pretty much feeling like a plump chicken now (I'm not sure why "chicken" came out...you'd think I would've gone with "cow" or something instead).

Once home, Clint and I pulled out our paints and spent the rest of the day painting.  He continued to work on the autumn tree project that he is making for his mom, and I worked on my desolate angel.  His painting still has several more sittings to go before it is finished, but once it is, I will definitely post a pic (or a link to a pic).  My angel is finished, although now I'm contemplating going back in and painting her other hand resting on her knee, since right now that hand/arm isn't visible.  Here she is:

I just realized I never posted my completed "Child's Play Tiger" on this blog.  Oh well, that one isn't one of my favorites anyway.  My next upcoming projects include a sort of fantasy-themed white tiger (just for the fun of it), a waterfall for Madi, a green and lavender fairy for my baby niece, and something for my sis, although I still have yet to figure out what I want to paint for her.  My mom now wants a small painting too.  It sounds like a lot, but since oil paint takes so long to dry, it's almost mandatory to have several projects going at once.  Thank goodness we have a large laundry room, since it has pretty much converged into a very odd-looking art studio.

Pretty Cupcake Syndrome

I deleted my last post because it felt too braggy.  I really have issues putting stuff out there like that.  My mom wants me to post my artwork on facebook for my grandpa to see, but I pretty much hate that idea.  A friend of mine likens this to the whole "pretty cupcake" phenomenon.  That is, you get those people on facebook (mainly females) who constantly post pictures of the dinner they made, or the pretty cupcakes they created, or whatever. Inherently there's nothing wrong with this.  I remember sending a picture to my husband of an over-easy egg I had cooked, just because I was so damn proud that the yolk was still intact.  But when you do this ALL the time; constantly bringing attention to your piddly little accomplishments, it gets to be a little egocentric.  And boring.  I once created a page on facebook called "I don't care what you ate for dinner!" simply because I was so tired of seeing the barrage of pretty casseroles and perfect homemade pizzas.  I felt like saying, "Look, I'm glad you're nourishing your family with your stellar cooking skills, but your other 247 friends really don't give a crap that you made something 'yummylicious'.  They're only pressing the 'like' button out of pity."  Unfortunately that made for a long page title.

What was I talking about again?  Oh yeah, artwork.  I don't want the few amateur paintings I have created to become the proverbial pretty cupcakes, hence the reason I keep them off of facebook.  I don't need a bunch of comments on the stuff I paint; I just want to paint in peace and post my work on my little art blog that no one knows exists.  I might someday put them on FB for the sake of family, but if I do, I will just quietly create the album and leave it at that (no "sharing," no posting to my wall, etc.).  For now, if Grandpa wants to see my paintings, he'll have to settle for an e-mail attachment.

P.S.  I take it all back...if I had actually created the cupcakes shown in the above-photo, I would be posting it all over my wall!  ;-)

Weeping Fairy

This was a completely unexpected project.  I pulled out all of my paints today so that I could continue working on the tiger for Trin's room, but when I began, I quickly realized that the previous black sketch I had applied was still wet.  I was feeling bummed because I really wanted to paint something, and that's when Trin said "I love your fairy sketch, Mom."  I was so confused.  What fairy sketch?  And then I saw what she was pointing to.  I had sketched out a fairy about a month ago inside a pad of canvas paper, but I got frustrated with the complexities of it and decided to go back to painting flowers and trees.  Once I looked at the sketch again today though, I started thinking "Hey, maybe I can make this work."  So I started to paint it.  The above is my final product.  I've decided to name her "Out of Tears." 

On a somewhat related note, since this newfound art-interest doesn't seem to be fading, I decided to start an art blog to keep my paintings and related-prattling in one place.  I'm still going to show completed projects on this blog, but I'm going to use my art blog to display the different stages of unfinished projects, not to mention ramble on about what techniques I used or what new things I tried.  I have comments closed on that blog, because I don't want it to be yet another social networking burden on myself or anyone else.  I just want one set place to focus on art.  There are a few posts over on my other site right now, but it's a little deja vu, because I imported all of my "art"-labeled posts from this site to that one.  Oh yeah, I guess I should provide the link.  I named my new blog "Glazey".  Glazing is an art technique in which you apply a very thin pigment on top of a base color to create an entire new color (or to add shine)...something I have done with every single one of my paintings.  But I like how "glazey" reminds me of eyes being glazed over...the way I start to get when I've been painting for too long, or the way you probably get after reading long-winded entries such as this one.

Everyone's an Artist

Apparently I am surrounded by artists!  Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration...I would hardly consider two being "surrounded."  But still...I have found myself in a state of perpetual awe over the talents that are emerging around me from the most unexpected sources.  The most recent example of this would be from our friend Matt.  When we were at the hotsprings, Clint and I told Matt and Alana how much we were enjoying oil painting.  At one point in the conversation, Matt mentioned that he had always wanted to try painting on cardboard; a sort of unique, urban-esque style he had seen in the past.  After our conversation, Matt felt inspired to give it a try.  Here is his first painting:

I love it.  The vertical streaks and the enclosing black give it this ripped, despondent quality.  You just know it's all over for that poor, hopeless tree.   

And then there's Clint, whose painting skills have now far-surpassed my own.  Here is his latest:

This one is on a 16 x 20 canvas, so it is obviously much larger in real life.  It is really interesting to look at in person.  I love how this vengeful tiger ferociously emerges from the clouds, transitioning from wispy and abstract to more realistic.

But this next one is my absolute favorite:

Again, he used a 16 x 20 canvas, but what's special about this one is that he didn't just model after some picture from google images.  Well, he did to a degree; most of the background came from google.  But he found ways to make it his own.  There was originally a wolf in front of the moon, but he decided to remove the creature and replace it with the silhouette of a female-figure instead.  In person the white cherry blossoms pop out against the blue, and the whole thing has a sort of eerie (yet strangely serene) mood to it.  Clint decided to create a blog to post his art work, but right now it's still pretty empty and only features his first two paintings.  He is planning to add these ones on tonight. 

So all of these paintings, and none of them are mine.  *spoiled sad face*  I have had to take a break from painting to work on Teri's scrapbook, which I promised her would be finished by this Friday.

I was planning to write a little bit more about our hike on Saturday, but I think I'm going to postpone one more time...or maybe two...(hopefully it doesn't fall into the same hopeless vortex as my yet-to-be-written Rose Parade post).

Monochrome Lily with Rainbow Drops

Finished!  Well, barring a few wet spots.  I actually finished it a couple days ago, but I was waiting for it to dry completely before taking a picture.  HA.  Did you know that oil paint can take up to a year to dry?  

I like this painting okay.  It was good practice working with all of these different colors.  But I will admit that I liked the unfinished version better.  It was just so much more simple and clean.  At least I took a picture of the unfinished version before proceeding to glob on more paint.  I did discover that I won't be able to take that oil painting class.  It's two days a week from 10:00 a.m. until 12:15 p.m.  That's an awful long lunch to explain to students and staff.  I'll have to settle for the Dummy book, which should be arriving by tomorrow.

On the non-art frontier, I had a really good conversation tonight.  Last month, in the wake of some personal issues I was going through, I wound up lashing out at someone who had nothing to do with the dejection I was feeling at that time.  My words were so damaging and hurtful, and unfortunately that's not something I can ever erase.  But we did talk for the first time tonight, and it was a very sincere, honest conversation.  I'm not sure what the future holds for our friendship--I highly doubt we will ever be able to reach "friend" status again (some things just have permanent consequences), but I did feel like we reached an understanding.  At the minimum, we decided that we can actually both attend the same functions (i.e. birthday parties) without a big ole' elephant sharing the space with us.

Just another Week

I want to post something but really don't have much to talk about.  Work was pretty easy this week.  On Tuesday I had to go to a training with all of the other language arts teachers at my school.  I was feeling a little tired that day, which made it hard to concentrate during the lecture portions of the training, but it was still fun to hang out with my colleagues outside of our little middle-school holes (aka: classrooms).  The highlight of the whole day was lunch.  Niecy, I, and two other friends went to this little diamond-in-the-rough Thai restaurant that I had never eaten at before.  The food was delicious and the proportions were monstrous.  The rest of the week went by pretty smoothly, except for the fact that one student stole Axe Bodyspray from another student's backpack and then proceeded to spray it, which for reasons still unclear to me led to a bag of chips exploding all over my room.  Yesterday I took my students outside all day to do Socratic Seminar.  I love doing this with them.  It is amazing to see seventh-graders debating about topics with the sophistication of adults.  Plus it was gorgeous outside all day, so that was an added bonus.  Last night was the Celebration of Education, and I had planned to go and enjoy the festivities, not to mention save the surviving goldfish (again), but I ended up getting a stomach ache, plus a nearly crippling case of laziness, so I never went.  Now I really regret this.  It makes me cringe thinking about all of those fish being dumped down the drain.

Today I did laundry, cleaned my master bedroom (see, I told you I had nothing to write about), and finished painting my lily.  I don't really think it's a lily, but I don't know what kind of flower it is, and I'm tired of calling it "flower" because that's like calling a dog "dog" instead of "Brutis" or whatever its name is, so I'm going to go with lily.  I'll take a picture of it hopefully by tomorrow.  I'm waiting for it to finish drying so I can apply the varnish.

So my sister is writing this amazing, likely-to-be-published dissertation while she stuffs more kids into her house which is sliding down the mountain, and I'm folding laundry and painting a stupid lily.  Why does anyone read this blog again?