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Thursday, September 28, 2006

oh my aching....

.....ribcage! sternum! spine!

Guess it was a little longer developing this time around but I am going to the chiropractor tomorrow. Dang! By the time I arrived at work this morning, the whole left side of me was on fire. Old injuries, too. Well hey, at least I can still art! And I did a bunch of gleaning over the weekend, too. The walnuts are ripening right and left! There are three trees planted on the city block of 5th and Lawrence in Eugene (four miles from Springfield where I do abide). What wise soul decided to plant the kind of walnut trees that shed the kind of walnuts in pods that aren't totally slimy and near-black with it? These come out of the pods smelling SO good, and most of them are totally slime-free. And there are HUNDREDS MORE up in the trees, just waiting to fall. Into my satchel. And then, to my tummy.

Here's a little do-da I made this weekend. Several of us are passing around packets of images to one another. All of the packets we send out are filled with identical images. When we receive our packets back, each same image will be worked over by a different artist. This was a pear (yeah, tcht tcht, now it's a pair!):



Didn't manage to blog much about my weekend, but did manage to post piccies next door here and here and also right here.

Oh yeah....and I bought new shoes for winter. The gore-tex all-terrain 4WD (I'm not making that part up) cross-training kind. They are super splendid and they're available at Sierra Trading Post for only $50. Which is half and more than half the price of anything else I've been scoping out. My tootsies will stay nice and dry this winter when I bike and walkabout!!

This be them (they're called 'Wasabe' ooh! tssss! hot stuff!):



Just returned from a walk around the 'hood...the right shoe seems a bit smaller but I think it'll be okay. Otherwise, very very comfy. I'm walking on air, here.

Time for an episode. Last season of 6 Feet Under. What will I do when it's over??

Why, I'll switch to season 2 of Veronic Mars, that's what I'll do! Or maybe finally start Battlestar Galactica! Who wants to come over and nerd out with me??

Monday, September 25, 2006

what was lost......

...is now found!! The scissors were way down between the cushions of that green chair! Thanks Froggy!

May I live long to serve you and your crown.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

back in the saddle - again again



I totally biffed it yesterday afternoon on my bike. But I'm only kinda sore today, not nearly as bad as other times I've eaten gravel. You know how statistics say that most accident occur very close to home? Well they do. I was right around the corner, coming home, and it was such a little thing: traveling up from the street to the sidewalk, but there is a rather big lip and now since my tires are all pumped up proper and not one bit soft...I rode the edge of the lip instead of going up proper and spilled all over the neighbor's driveway. Ouch. I'm not too badly skinned up, just a few places....I put some all natural wildcrafted healing balm on my palm last night, you know, to aid healing? HURT LIKE HELL! Is that good? I waited a bit, maybe it was just an initial sting...no, it got worse and worse and my hand puffed up so I finally washed it off and I felt better.

I am going for a ride momentarily. Can't keep me outta the saddle, no siree. Rode over to ye olde hazelnut grove last night before sundown and gathered some nuts. Guess what I'll be shelling all winter long? :^) I love free-gotten and gleaned food.

Speaking of which, I did a little urban foraging the other day on lunch at work. Went for a walk round the neighborhood to an apple tree that made a very lot of apples a couiple years ago...not many on the tree this year, but on my return trip I helped prune a few huge bushed out rosemary thickets that some business had planted for what are clearly ornamental purposes. Hey, if I hadn't thinned the field, the whole neighborhood would be completely overrun. Mmmm, rosemary. And then lavender (but only a few sprigs of that). Looooove it. I cook with rosemary all the time.

And here, a print (ATC-sized) that I carved out last night. Believe it or not, I sketched from a picture of Bjork. That wasn't going as well or in the direction I had planned, so I turned it to my advantage and...turned it into this:





This morning, a postcard-sized print. You know my stereo/dvd player took a dive, well...I thought maybe after resting for a few weeks I could start it up again and listen to some tunes, and it worked for quite a long time before it went back to its old wicked ways and I had to shut 'er down again. But the music I listened to was the hours-long CD of Dirty Three, Low, and Thom Yorke's Eraser that I played when Chuck came over that one night.....(only he hates electronic drums, so Thom didn't get any play on that particular occasion)

drew this outta me head I did:



Into the sunshine with me I go!

Sunday, September 17, 2006

fun purple people....

...of a sort! I know where some of the inspiration came, but as for the rest...I am always amazed by what happens some days, I mean - why? where, really, does it come from? seems pretty subconscious, until I see the light of purple. The first is a lino cut (sheesh - way harder than soft block carving - especially when you have nothing to hold it steady, it's a little scary knowing there is a greater likelihood that you could gouge yourself a good one) - I made it with J Boyd in mind who sent me a great postcard last week. He's a linocutter and I love his assemblages. So I'll make the following into a little postcard for him.



(these little guys are carved from erasers)






Here's the size of it:



What an amazing late-summer almost-autumn day. I carpe diemed big time, didn't spend much of it indoors. I did watch The Sandcastle this morning. I found it online! I first saw it when I was eight years old, at the Unicorn theater in San Diego. I have loved animation since I was really young, and this particular one made a big impression on me. I just loved it, and have looked for it forever since. I may have wrote about it before, but a few weeks ago while I was shelving children's DVDs at work (yes folks, the library isn't just about books any more) and happened to glance at the back cover of an interesting DVD...and saw The Sandcastle! So of course I brought it home and yeah I think I did write about this...smiled the whole way through. ANYway -- some inspiration for purple head and leg people, there, for sure.

Also watched some pretty incredible other animations:

Icarus and the Tree Herder

My Little Obsessive Compulsive Friend

These are well worth your time...well okay I guess you're the only real authority on yer own time but I did watch not a few animations this morning and these two really stood head and shoulders above. I need to watch Icarus again.

Then, a bike ride after some lino carving, and some reading and back out on the bike because it's just too lovely and golden and perfect temperature. I bought a new saddle and a new back tire - MUCH needed and LONG overdue. Three paydays this month, have I mentioned that?? Just a few times maybe! And a stop at the bookstore and also gathered some more hazelnuts and then went for a nice walk this evening and picked what is probably going to be the last blackberry forage of the year. One more episode of Season Four/Six Feet Under, and then for bed with me I go forthwith.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

to tired for cake, even



eh moi je suis plus fatigué

It's been a veritable rollercoaster of a week....gathered many fruits and hazelnuts earlier on my days off....exhausting run ins with coworkers (resolved nicely today though thank GOD)....hope springing eternal with a possible friendship to blossom but artists can be so damn flaky....the other night I was ravenous after my shift, it was eight o'clock, and I headed up to the break room LO! and behold! leftovers from some hoity-toity meeting! Bruschetta........mmmmmmmmm....that was the serendipitous score of the week folks. And the good and dandy news is, I have officialy put Optical Nerve to print! It's been a great thing I tell you, and as soon as ever I can, I will put it online. Submissions are welcome for future issues, email me for details!

but I...must...sleep...........

(more cake next door! chomp!chomp!)

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

definitely goat sized



Okay. Etayne wanted a picture, you got a picture of the goat-sized-spider.

Quite often I run out of room - have trouble sizing things sometimes. Ah, well. You get the idear.

nighters!


**edit! I see that I'm not alone in problems with illustrating. Check out this link on Mark Kennedy's blog. The solution follows.

I realized that I marginalized the spider and yeah...cut off the feets and hooves! I ran out of room. I'm still so slow at illustrating that I just do one and call it good. I suppose if/when I become faster/more assured with my lines, I can do three or four character sketches in the time it takes me to do one now.

Regardless, I am having much fun!

Mark Kennedy's Blog is here.

And a more finished version of this is over here, on this page.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

what rough beast...

Can you believe that this is really what I used for my buffer soaper upper in the shower?? Now you know me, truly. That is just so....OMG...so bad. But you know how you love a favorite stuffed animal to bits? Well...that's my buffer...or was...



Because for fifty cents I bought a new one across the street at the Value Village!



It's so...pink and...non-messy and...contained. I don't know if we can be friends. But I will try.

Here are a coupla prints I did today, guess I got the fever. And this is only the half of it! It's too damn late for me to go any further, I tell you.



Some folks upstate Portland from the UFO Museum sent me a bunch of whacky stuff awhile back. This one's for you guys!

And this here below...think ciao with a certain Italian flair...



I must go Six Feet Under before I am too tired to get involved with the drama! Swear to it, that show sucks me right in.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

smoke that pimento



Well, yeah. It's for an ATC swap, theme is abstract. You can make of it what you want. Of course. And by virtue of you gazing upon it, it will somehow change, according to some observer participation theory. Don't you feel....ominous? I was trying out melted crayons on black construction paper for this. By laying out a sheet of paper in a pan on top of the stove. On very low heat, mind you.

If you'd like a piece of cake, take your plate and palette over to Haddock's dining table. You can also portage yer cutlery to this banquet spottoo.

Friday, September 08, 2006

fry day, again. already!

Well well well! Up early this morning, thank you body, for coming conscious before being jarred rudely awake by the alarm. Yech. I'd rather wake up like this naturally:



Been doing layup and paste out. Or is that the other way 'round? For a zine! Oh yes! We are a crazy crafty bunch of homo sapiens over at Nervousness! Here's a prototype of the cover:



That optical illusion design really bugs yer eyes out when you see it in person, or if it's bigger -- I found it on the internet (natch -- what CAN'T you get on the internet? come on seriously, what?)

I keep forgetting that it's NOT summer (or, end of) everywhere in the world, and there are contributors from Australia and New Zealand. So I'm thinking I need to addendum sumthin'. Somehow. This is just way a lot of fun though. People from all over...and it's like...we are all psychically in tune or something, the themes that running through the zine (unbeknownst to each other, I didn't ask for anything specific, just doodles).

The other day I received this jolly fellow, for a buddha swap over at Swap-Bot. He's pretty happy anyway but I think he's quite jocular about sitting underneath that crrrrazy spider plant! (thank you SO MUCH Marloes! I llllluuuuuurve the lil' guy)



Speaking of spiders...there was a goat-sized eight-legged wonder hanging out in my apartment. RIGHT ABOVE MY PILLOWS ON MY BED.

NOT GOOD.

I gave a whoop and went after it with the biggest hardest pillow I could find. It rapelled off the wall and right in my direction.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I tried to smother it with the millet pillow. No avail. It scurried in the opposite direction though, and down into the recesses of...the underbed. Now, the old Victoria would have torn the room apart and vacuumed everything. The new Victoria let it go. And I even slept in the bed that night, and every night thereafter, and I am still alive and unbitten. Whenever I get up into bed (it is a very high bed, more like a loft...or a semi-loft anyway) I say, "no spiders in bed" in a very firm voice. The room is full of no-spider vibes. Completely. No room for spiders here, nope. Buddha save me.

So not much in the way of ATCs or carving the last few days, but well yes I have carved up some small stamps to use in the zine actually. I'm too tired to have any more fun tonight, pout pout. Gonna go flop and get my Six Feet Under fix. (yah actually, the fun just never ends 'round here)

adieu!

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

day after the day of labor



Last night we gathered for our bi-weekly art night over at Marsha's new house (replete with HOT TUB!!! YEAH!!!). I carved the above, Kendra worked in her journal (she finished the knitting project baby blanket, it's adorable...she said she's glad she's done with THAT, she'd rather turn bowls...seriously...and she's good at it too), Marsha knitted a cool scarf...Josie barked a LOT. Jacque was working but came later. We all ate the blackberry cake I baked. And oh yeah and yum, K brought stollen!! 'zat how you spell it? ohhh god I love stollen! Marzipan! my mouth is watering right now.

Megan and Ryan were there for a bit (M's kids). Ryan's two front teeth are gone! Cute. I forgot about that this morning when I woke up from a horrid teeth dream, where my own two front ones were missing but they weren't baby teeth to go falling out. Shite. Maybe I should make that dentist appointment today....

I love how Labor Day is a holiday.

And I love that so many people go the hell out of town. Traffic the last couple of days finally died down, after that football game fiasco (I love two miles from the stadium). Ahhhhh.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

two fer the road

That whacky pointer finger is back! Wuz ridin' atop my bicycle this morning and thought I needed another dose of creative finger pointing fever. So here, have some for yourself too.





The guys are Larry and Frederick. Larry's the guy with the gears next door I'm guessing...he's making another appearance at any rate...I guess I can better understand how authors of stories say that the characters kinda write themselves. What a trip! I love it!

I did back to school shopping today only I am not going back to school. I love office and school supplies and practically everything is on sale at Fred Meyer. Erasers for carving. Big giant markers for marking. Watercolor pads for...yeah okay you get the idea. I was in heaven. There are three paydays next month. So far I've treated myself to a pair of kick-ass speakers for my computer, extra fun nibbly groceries, and some art supplies...oh and uh...and vacuum. Um. I guess I should also make a dentist cleaning and cavity filling appointment....crud. No actually it's cool, I mean wow, insurance AND some money to get stuff taken care of?! Purty sweet really.

Hooverphonic and I wish you a time-travelin' evening.

Friday, September 01, 2006

show's on the road!

Thank god for Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan! Not only do they tell me what to wear, but HOW to wear it! Without these guru guides, I would be a lost soul, indeed.

Processing magazines every day is by turns hilarious, informative, unctious and heartwrenching.

But, it is always interesting.

There's been a lot of furniture moving next doors (mostly in this room), if ya care to use the snausage links to yer right.......