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Monday, April 30, 2007

when i grow up

...I'll probably be dead!

Well, the impetus for watercolor and ink, as you know if you read the post from earlier today, was a deco that came my way from Z in Canada. That gave me the necessary kick in the kaboos to do a whole bunch more pictures! It is the drug of choice today, yey!

First, a Mr. Cake for Haddock. The fish finally made it on dry land and Mr. Cake says, "Nice try, Hake -- but I said CAKE!". A continuation in the series of Mr. Cake shadows:



Next up, a page for a Blackbird deco:



Here's a thing I did in between everything else because, I just had to:




And finally a page in the fishy deco I made for Adamandia, which we are passing back and forth taking turns arting up (much fun, much fun):



YES!! Fish blow bubbles!!

While I drew and painted this afternoon and evening, I listened to awesome music mixes I made from last spring...right now Bjork is doing her undeniable Bjork thing and giving me chills, like I always get when I listen to her or watch her. Oh my god! She's amazing. AND, her new album Volta is out May 7.

I can hardly contain myself. I watched some interviews and stuff at YouTube the other day....I didn't even KNOW about the album, I am so out of the media loop. What a nice surprise though.

Guess what time it is? Time to floss brush do some PT and watch a DVD, which I think will be that one by Metallica, the rockumentary that received rave reviews.

OH! HEY! Hourly Comic Day is coming up, buckle yer seatbelts, grab a pen and come ON already!

breathe in....and in...and....pop!



This is for Zhenia, since she passed on to me a watercolor deco (small art journal) made for her. I haven't done an ink and watercolor for awhile - I was referencing my own self when I did a series of them last May. How DID I do that? I think I was playing more and thinking less about 'can I sell my art?'. I think I get stressed out being way too perfectionistic and goal-oriented.

I gotta keep remembering to breathe! Flow! Be one with the bullshit monkey mind! Toss it a banana every once in awhile. Pet it. No don't spank it! Well, okay.

What the hell am I saying? I'm actually sinking down into...

THE MOMENT

and immersing myself in

THE PROCESS

I've had this terrible crick in my neck and back since wednesday morning. I really messed it up sleeping weirdly, I think. But it's a constant reminder of how much I really tighten up. What am I anticipating? A blow to the back of my head? My own forehead smack? Gotta lighten up, baby.

Saw these from a Russian artist last night...man oh man he makes it look so easy! I love it I love it I love it. Check out Barandash's blog. I've yet to browse his/her website. My whole body responds to this art, it is pretty amazing how that works.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

fibery goodness



Yes, our LeRoy loves Horny Hog Flakes. I don't know what that little animal stamp is that I made, but I really like it and it deserves a place in the LeRoy Hall of Fameness in the Mail Art Annals to Haddock! I may need to do another one with that little critter. It's kind of a hedgehog, kind of a truffle-hunter, kind of an anteater.

My dad sent me a transcript of a letter/essay that my brother Christopher wrote in 1992. As I understand it, my father has just found this. It's like gold. I've been thinking about it all day - I received and read it this morning. There was so much about my brother that I don't know but this really helped fill in some gaps. I wish I knew more of his stories. In this exposé, Chris wrote about who really influenced him and why. Mostly it was our Dad. They did stuff together I had no idea...marathon waterskiing, and trips down Southern Utah. In a way, I'm envious. My life was so different with my mother. Sure, we went places, but it was...I think it was different. We moved around a lot, those were the kinds of places we went. Oh maybe it's like comparing apples and oranges. I'm glad that my brother's wish to stay with our Dad were uncontested - I think that was the best thing for Chris.

The last lines that my brother wrote were, "Finally had the bike in rideable condition, after even buying 2 cans of black paint to paint the frame while it was stripped down. Then I inflated the tires, mounted up, and opened a new door to the rest of my life." And he really did. He spent a lot of time in the saddle. I think he started riding when he was just out of high school. I remember when he sent mom and I a picture of him with his first 'real road bike'.

Kind of spooky that he wrote this thing eight years and two days before he died. None of us know how long the rest of our lives are. Why is it so difficult to understand this and live accordingly? Maybe it's because of the blessing and bane of our existence, what taoists and buddhists call 'monkey mind'.

Which reminds me...I'm thinking of setting up shop at Cafe Press and Etsy. And I am toying with the shop name of 'Simian Says'. Whatcha think? Maybe I need to go even simpler? It might be taken already anyhow....

Saturday, April 28, 2007

satyr day



Hola and good morning-o. I survived All Staff Day. Actually, it was even a little bit fun. Even though I couldn't really eat any of the food (soy lurks in EVERYTHING and besides other euwey things it does to my hormones...I would not want everyone in the rooms to smell my worse than dog-fart farts after eating, since most prepared/commercial food contains soy in one form or the other)...even though I didn't eat any of the food, I still obtained plenty of freebies. Like, cool pens and markers and post-its, pads of paper and such. And a screaming monkey. Since we are 'Bananas for LRCS' (library recreation cultural services). No I am serious. It was great. All of our lanky stuffed monkeys (that you can also slingshot and make 'fly') were screaming all day long. What? Of course there will be videos!

But not right now. This video is from Ze's site, in his interactive toy area. The design differs every time you log in, and responds to sound. Here's one called Meditation Flowers, with some of my sounds:




He is a total nutjob, in the best possible way. Lots of good stuff over there (some of you may have already tried out his Scribbler toy)!! (I just watched the 'how to dance properly'...I'm dyin', here, soooo funny)

Incidentally, Frank Ze is going to write the forward for Stefan Bucher's forthcoming Monsters Book!! Of which I and all the other story-writers for each of the 100 monsters will be a part of. We'll be in print! The book is slated for release next February. Here's a peek at the cover and some other newsworthy news:

100 Monsters Book

I gotta get my tookus in gear. Work today!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

everything's zen



This is a postcard sized very very very mini-zine! Okay it's a very very very mini comic. Encapsulating all you will ever need to know about the way of the sputtering wu-li master and enlightenment. I drew up four little drawings, went for a hike, and after settling back in, I carved for...what?...two hours? About a half hour per stamp, yeah that's about right. They're the size of erasers. Because they are carved from erasers.

Tomorrow is All Staff Day. Did I mention this? It means we meet as a Group to become Enlightened in the ways of Communication and other nonsense. A bunch of lame workshops that our City Division comes up with and we sit around all day listening to a bunch of lip service. Some of it is well-intentioned but honest to zen, it is NOT a thrill ride. So I'm wondering how surreptitious I can be sitting in the back row, scribbling 'notes' while I am actually writing to my pals overseas. I'm due for some letter-writing that I did not accomplish this weekend! I'll be toting along a wee sketchbook, too.....wish me luck. I'm riding my bike home so hopefully that will be my saving grace after sludging around in a seat all damn day.

two's day

*yawn* Where has my energetic self gone? Must be a drop in barometric pressure. All I wanna do is sleep. Well no, not really. I wanna move mountains. Well, no...not really.

I did a little zine with some gals over at Nervousness. I mean, I finally did my pages so that I could print the little sucker up and send it out. It's been months. Ack.

So I'm just sitting here at the computer desk, facing out and watching a fluffy-tailed grey squirrel dig around in the freshly mulched front 'yard'. I did a video thing but it's kinda boring so I'll skip posting it. The squirrel was really active but then when I pointed the camera at it, it went stone-still. How could it see me all the way over here? That Canon Powershot has a kick-ass zoom lens on it!

Got some wonderful (irreverent - snicker) mail art from Los Haddock.

Here comes the fat grey cat who likes to bring the boys twigs. I happen to have a picture that I snapped last week, of said cat with a mouthful of dead vegetation:



For all his fatness, he is still very graceful. When he hops up on the bridge railing again, I'll post a video if he does those crazy acrobatics.

Here's the other fat cat, but his belly is not so splendidly displayed to its full advantage. Trust me, it's there:



Here are a couple more LeRoy's!





I just slurped the most delicious smoothie. Frozen pineapple, papaya, and a banana (not frozen) with some sugared milk and ice cubes. WOW. My friend Kendra moved to Germany (Koln) for several months and gave me food from her freezer, fridge, and larder. Among all that was frozen fruit and yogurt and I've started making smoothies in the afternoons that I am home.

oh yum.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

making dough

I made bread; in fact, I made a VIDEO of making bread. I did have to help the breadmaker this time. It's going crapper. See it

HERE NOW!

Virtual Tour

I just posted some pictures of my new apartment, you can take a look around over at this page.

I'm gonna try out my new camera later tonight I think, and hopefully post more pics then.

LeRoy has landed



He's takin' the high road.

He doesn't care if his neck is thick
Or if his beak's big
Or if all he'll be able to ever see is out sideways of him.

He's LeRoy and that's all that matters. Two walking feet and hips that gyrate like aliens. What more could a LeRoy really want?

I was just cleaning out my iPhotos. Lots of photos I took of me, for models so that I could draw the various zines and prints. The photos span several months, from late last summer. It's interesting and not too painful at least today, to see how my body swells and shrinks...and swells.... I wonder if I can just be okay with that. What if I am always a compulsive eater? I mean, it's been like that for me, with various bouts of anorexia and bulimia, since I was about 12. Focusing more on just feeling good, healthy lifestyle, and recognizing that I eat when I'm emotional and not punishing myself so damn much seems like the way to go. I just get so tired of trying to control everything, but this impulse to do it jacks up again and there I go.

I bought some bigger shorts and trousers yesterday. I figured that I would like to be comfortable instead of feeling pinched and miserable, and not feel like shit for needing to go and buy bigger clothes. At least I don't feel panicked and I haven't totally rocketed into a massive eating mode, like I tend to do when I feel bad.

Humans are so weird, complex, and perplexing. The whole guilt/shame thing is carried so far in religion. Religion, mostly, in my opinion, really fucks a person up. Don't get me wrong, there are the plus sides, but on balance, I think it's messy. Normal to want to believe in something and feel safe and secure, but....c'mon....a God who is Male? Females are the ones who give birth, for starters...

So now, I may have several dozen fewer blog readers. ha haha hahahahaaaaa, like there were ever that many to begin with! Talk about HUBRIS :)

I'm going to go rub my thighs together. That means I am going to walk around and do some odd chores around here, and then maybe go for a nice hike. But because I WANT to and oxygen feels good in my body, not because I need to burn calories and maybe lose some weight. FUCK THAT, OKAY?

It's kinda weird and depressing working with magazines every day. I mean okay, I realize that it's all photoshop and airbrush, but it reminds me of all the hours as a teenager that I would feel so bad about myself because of the never measuring up factor. Here I am, closing in on forty years old, have read a gagillion self-help books, seen my fair share of therapists, and still the residual feelings crop up. So I'm venting out loud, maybe I can remind myself that it doesn't matter how many orange-peel spots I have on my body, or stretch marks, or saggies.....that is a really skewed way to view self-worth.

Belief systems can be VERY DANGEROUS.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

dy-no-mite!

I'm just gonna go with it.





All this falderol is a nice foil to the hormonal hell. Damned if I'm not going through The Change earlier than the average gal. I totally snapped at someone today, a stranger...I went back and apologized, but oh my god. What the hell. I'm just glad that she hadn't boarded the bus, and the bus hadn't gone on its merry way. I still wanna cry some more about that one but I gotta just...breathe it on out, man.

Anyone got a suggestion or two for Cake's Kissing Cousin's name?

Leroy and El Roy come to mind right away for some reason. Earborn. Potsy?

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

easy street

I drawed this yesterday:



For Haddock!

heh, heh. He inspires me, what can I say?

Here he is again tonight, wanting some more limelight - but I think I like him better without the chin :)




Image and video hosting by TinyPic



(you may be seeing double at some point......no pictures are showing in the blog even though I can plainly see the html that Blogger has assigned to it, so I did an upload to TinyPic too)

ACK! WTF?! A bunch of my pictures have disappeared!!

Is it The Nothing? Coming to devour Everything??

BOLLOCKS!!!

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

push the button

Hey! I made some more art! Surprise! My camera is funky and so is the light, but does anyone have a preference on colors of paper? Maybe if the yellow was a little more orange...or..something. I like them both though. I bet somewhere out there someone has come up with this, but I haven't seen it so...it's original to me!!



This Just In!

Jacque sent me pics of what those kids (including her) have been up to the last couple of mornings: MONSTERS!! After seeing Stefan Bucher's Monster a Day they've been wanting to try it out too. Jacque found her inks, so she helps stave off the squabbling by getting creative with Ryan and Megan (brother and sister). I posted the pics to another blog, to spread the love around, and also mete out the kilobytes. We only get so many per blog ya know.

GO HERE NOW!

Monday, April 16, 2007

land hoe

Okay look. Will someone please tell me what just happened? I lost an hour. Last time I checked, it was 9:30 and I was feeling so confident that I would actually get to bed before midnight. Now it's ten thirty and I've not done any PT, or teeth cleaning. No seriously, those two things combined take a good half hour. Ahhhh well. Hurry up and blog, Victoria!

What a great day. I stayed indoors alll day long. Felt crappy yesterday, 'cause I bonked, hard. Took me HOURS to recover - but a great day, since we did breakfast and the kids were fun to be with and we mowed and weeded and bought stuff for a garden, and planted...I think I'm overrun with pollen. So I stayed in today. Felt a bit woozy today too. Lots of catching up on miscellaneous art projects. A nice, slow day, and...quiet. Soooo quiet. No shrieking tires on pavement, or unmuffled mufflers, or shouting people at the bus stop. I really like my new digs up here on the mountain.

Here's a page in a cohort's small art journal I made, after spending considerable time just doodling and then carving several very small stamps (they're one inch by one inch):



Me like!

And, I am now the proud owner of some Graham Annable. Dude that writes and illustrates some of my favorite graphic novels (Grickle, Stickleback). I found some really amazing deals on eBay.

Also, more Haddock!. Now he's on my bus route, and I'm on his! That pretty much rocks right there.

I'm catching up on posts for my Mail Art call, too. That feels good.

Froggy landed in Oz. Won'tcha say hello to her? You can if you go here. Her pics on Flickr are pretty damn cool, too. Brave Froggy!!!

I am sure looking forward to all the harvesting once the garden is established (chard up the wazoo!!). We may do one up here, too. And there is potential for a third. Oh yeah baby.

Wait a minute!! Where am I gonna get the time to do all that stuff?

Friday, April 13, 2007

Cake Comic Jam

Canyabelieveit?! I finally finished the second panel of the Jam that Haddock and I started way back in the day. Knocking out some projects that have been piling up the last several weeks.



First panel is on this page.

Schweet!

La Linea

Anyone ever watch La Linea/The Line?

Usually I don't embed videos but I think I will tonight. Here's one video from La Linea's creator, Osvaldo Cavandoli:



Now do you recognize it? I love it! I mean, really brilliant. So of course...had to pay tribute, Mr. Cake style:



Wanna do some art before I fall over sleepified!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

somewhere

I just hafta say that all paths lead to Deerhoof. Keep running into these guys.

Oh man! That's crazy!

Hey. Kurt Vonnegut and my brother have the same death-day. Kinda cool. I mean, well you know. Fare thee wells.

past present

So more on the shadow theme that's popping up lately in my art....it can be a brain-tickler for me, with the perspective. Here are a couple that I like, for a swap with the theme "Green Only". The cards are ATC (2.5 x 3.5") sized:





And then this evolved. It's 3.5 x 5", postcard-sized. Title is 'The Cut-Up':



Ha!

I am now officially released from PT. Although I'm still to do my exercises. Until the twelfth of never. Naww, only until my wrist isn't so stiff and I feel like I need to. Apparently the whole healing process takes about a year. Having experienced the type of break and serious damage/bruising, I can see why.

After PT on tuesday I biked over to Oregon Art, bought several sheets of paper, and used their cutting board and blades and stuff. Nice! Wow, that is some serious time to do all that. Like, over an hour. You'd think maybe fifteen minutes? Noooo. Great that they offer that space and the tools though. I liked being in one place for a span of time. I do that at work, at home, and at friends, but not in any other public places that often. I like observing the rhythm of things, and how other people spend their days in their worlds.

I bought some bright colored railroad (poster board, basically) to print on, after being inspired by a print that fellow mail artist Pablo Wright sent me. You can check out his impressive and interesting site right here, at the Anti Robot Inundation Army. These saturated colors are inundating my apartment. It's great.

I'm outta here! Time to work at the libary!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

R.I.P.

My brother, Christopher, el oh vee ee deed Monty Python. He would act out the scenes and get giddy as hell. It was pretty intense - manic! Especially the bit about shrubbery in...I dunno, Life of Brian? Or was that Holy Grail? Well there's one scene in Holy Grail where the pointy-hatted coroner and his cronie are walking through the streets, clanging and calling, "Bring out your dead!" This one guy's not even close to dead ya know..."But I'm happy! I'm happy!"

I think I would find it funnier, now that I'm closer to my brother's age when he died. Today, seven years ago, he went down when this blood clot lodged in his lung. So how about that shit. I didn't grow up with him but we got to know one another a lot better in the year prior to his death. Which is really cool. His very last email to me was like two lines, and he emailed me either very late the night before he died, or that morning. "I haven't heard much about your artsy-fartsy stuff - what's up?"

Well here ya go, Chris. In memory of my big bro, who woulda been 45 this year. Trust me, he would appreciate the morbid humor.



I printed so many trials on this one, the most ever. And it's still not the greatest. I swear to god, it was like.......trying to raise the dead, to get a satisfactory print outta this!

Sunday, April 08, 2007

bacon and eggs

Ah yes, here it is again, waxing towards midnight and I'm pretending to be nocturnal. Aaaaany second now, I expect to crash. Especially after the sugar intake tonight. Supper with Jacque, Marsha and the kids (AWESOME lasagna, Marsha.....plus they gave me leftovers! Schweet!). Ginger brew afterwards, then strawberries over angelfood cake with cream.....and then chocolate (but of course? how could there NOT BE CHOCOLATE?). And in the middle of all that, Jacque and I did some inkblot monster doodles inspired by The Good Egg, Stefan Bucher and also an easter egg hunt. I forgot today was one of those holidays. If it weren't for the kids.......why, I'd not have scored all the chocolate I did!

Weird holiday things. The whole holiday thing is weird, I tell you!

My neighbors are turning out to be SO very cool. I dig it mightily. There is a couple next door (she is pregnant....please be a happy baby, please be a happy baby...) who were looking at some flowers underneath a tree, out front. Justin goes, "Hey did you see the rattlesnake plantain growing under the duh-duh-duh (lost the botanical name of the tree it is growing under)?" And I say no....oh! Yeah! Those are so happy looking I saw some over there and we go talk-talk-talk.

The next morning they knock on my door (my curtains are open when I'm awake) and say, "Hey, that flower is actually a white faun lilly." Well thanky for the update, neighbors! I mean really. That is too cool. Stacey on the other side just moved in too (we're all three households new in the last month or so) and did I mention, she's my physical therapist's secretary?? (also, they happen to be brother and sister) She made cookies twice last week. So again with the score, she's been gifting me the gift of chocolate chip cookies.

Been working on some ATCs for a 'Things That Fly' swap and this is what I've come up with:







(it's a one-armed, one-horned flying purple people MEETER...or Greeter)



And here's another print. I was trying for a chinese new year thing, since it's the year of the pig ya know...then for some reason I thought about Space Hogs...and it morphed into 'when Pigs Fly'.

What I love about my new place:

- no more defrosting the freezer!
- the sound of rain on the roof and the fan vents
- no second-hand smoke stench oozing out from under the sink from downstairs neighbor Eva

- Very nice and roomy entry-way, with linoleum, and a big closet.
- trails galore right outside my front door
- did I mention it's quiet???


So there you have it. And I'm for bed.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

oh, all right

Three ATCs for an April Showers Swap. The obligatory cuteness factor follows immediately:





trio

To recap the week in images, more or less:



Another serving of Cake, who says, "Yer just a cherry tart poser wannabe!"

And then these guys. I tried to put heads on backwards, which usually wouldn't be a problem, since my drawings are all scritchy and funky lately. But when I tried to make the head look totally on backwards it looked like just a plain ol' turned head.




...this one looks a little more ass-backwards:



And the band plays on.......

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

first print



First print in the new studio :-)

This time I'm doing a little water/color action in there too.

Yes, it's been an intense week. What is new? But this one takes the cake. Sometimes I wonder just who am I really, because my moods shift and present themselves unrelentingly and there is still a part of me who can stand back and witness all the cacophony.

I'll post more art later, since I've actually been doing art this week! What a freakin' relief! And I've been savoring a Hickee. The website is run by a bunch of artists whose graphic novel/comic compilation I'm sucking on. One of those artists is Graham Anable, who authors Grickle, which is absolutely brilliant. So all of this informs my own art, of course. Which I will post later, like I said at the outset.

Cue theme song:

Time to do physical therapy and go to bed.

Monday, April 02, 2007

no foolin'

I just posted my entry for this month's Hourly Comic Day.

Maybe you'd like to join in burping that baby?

My digital camera is fubar. It sucks all the power out of new NiMH rechargeable batteries after about ten pictures. It sucks all the power out of any new battery I put into it. Dammit.