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Friday, August 31, 2007

fiddlesticks

Will Victoria ever eat even the tiniest piece of fresh hot red pepper from the garden, even though it doesn't SMELL hot??

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mouth.

It burns.

But, earlier:

Some drop-off art for Free Art Friday:

art on the street, yo

a little closer

IMG_1605

And on lunch, drawing with my new Sharpies (two 8-packs for eight dollars! what a deal!!!):

who's the grub

Well, our new schedules at work are now official and yesterday I bade Charity goodbye. I was not a little sad, truly. They yanked her away to another library for full-time, ostensibly until January. What a poor decision. Today I worked alone; next week or maybe the week after, I'll work with She Who Must Not Be Named.

Oh well. It's only a yob, and I yub it anyways.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

who goes there

who goes there?



friend? foe? something was trilling and rustling around in the dark a few moments ago...I've no idea what. I'm glad I'm on the second floor in my bedroom/studio.

Things can turn nasty real quick out in the wild.

kiss it!! kiss it good!!

Did I mention that upper management are a bunch of (*&#^$_#_O)*($???

Let's see what the goiter girls have to say about it!!

kiss my goiter!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

yo, Joe!

I finished this for Jack who I met through the i got wood project. I asked for suggestions to name this guy, and he said Joe. Joe is his first name; there are others, and more postcards to draw!



In other news......upper management at the library continues to shovel out the shit and demand that we eat it. In short, they suck. I'm getting over tonight's uproar by reminding myself that they can't take THIS away from me, eh!

Aaaand it's latening, I must kill that fly and go to bed.

aaaand in this corner

And I say again, have I brushed my teeth or waterpic'd them today? I do not recall! I do not think so! I have been harvesting and preserving food like a madwoman over here. And doing art! I've got to pack my panniers soon and ride ride ride (my monday at work) but I thought I would at LEAST say helloooooo and post some pics of the things I've been doing lately in the studio, yo!

Some altered page action:

enchanté centerfold

so then

Some stencils:

(this one I hand drew on sunday sitting in J's shop; Jacque and I rode over to her house....10 miles from here!....harvested from her garden, and did art together - you should SEE the box she is making)

put a clamp on it

And three last night/this morning, messing around with designs:

three for the road #1

(the above is actually a three-part stencil and yes I hand drew it all! yey me! I'm drawing!)

three for the road #2

three for the road #3

(having fun with a 'fro)

zooma-zoom-zoom

oh wait! uurrrrrch! There's another i got wood! stint from yesterday morning!

and I made stickers! USPS Priority comes in QUITE handy....

grub's day out


muzak

(the peeples next door switched from country music to the Eurythmics while I was drawing this!)

zucchini gone bad

(my brush was loaded with ink - I needed to cover a bunch of solid black and this is what happened)

Saturday, August 25, 2007

whut ah did today

ride to work? yes

floss three times? yes

water garden, be nice to customers, plant art for free art friday, buy sesame seed oil, help myself to more free priority mail stickers at the post office, and

make a video?


i got wood!
YES, a resounding yes!

But did I waterpic my teeth? NO! I was too busy doing all that other stuff!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

spinning

Hey! Where have you guys been??

I just noticed something new on my editor bar for composing a post - we can add videos now, instead of uploading to another host and linking to them! Well coool!!

So yeah, been a bit busy. Garden! Harvest! Preserving food! And the omni-present art mania. I'm totally hooked on stencils. Some of this guy, whose name continues to grow as people give me suggestions (Joe Rudolph Erronious Syngin-Jones so far, I'm stacking one name after another):



patron saint of blunt funkitude? Otherwise known as Joe.

joe blow

(I'm into stickers now too, ye can make them yerself)

sickers!

that's whut i said

prototype




And this morning, I concocted this!!!




frayed

It's from a photo, check out Marazipan.

I must go to horizontal now.

Monday, August 20, 2007

half

half

Last year I carved a stamp out of an ordinary hi-polymer eraser (1 x 2.5" or 2.5cm x 6.4cm). Tonight, I made it into a stencil and tagged the inside of my sketch book.

This is my second stencil! I'm going to keep counting, like a little kid until.......until I stop counting.

Mmmmm....paint fumes!

howl

keep on......

I did another - he needs a name. Any suggestions? This one goes out to Haddock. I think I'll walk over to the post office. I'm itching to get out-of-doors now......my trip to Bi-Mart included purchasing two cans of spray paint, one of which I just put to very good use, tagging one of my art cabinets.

howl

I'm addicted.

And, did I say OWW!!!!!!!!!!!!! again? I was stung by another wasp! Grrr.

Here's the first one:



And here's a pull-back view of the cabinet:



My new friend:



Love the name - it's perfect, is it not???

Sunday, August 19, 2007

zambo mania!

zambo

a chap who lives in augsburg, germany, and rolls out some pretty tight music besides!

Zambo!

ye gods what a great day - the rain lifted those rain smells out of the earth and the air was mild and soft. The girls and I went for a long walk around the neighborhood looking at roofs since Marsha needs a new one. We came upon an intentional sustainable living community, a plum tree that brought Jacque out of a potential hunger coma, and a bed and breakfast with heavily draped and ornamented interior within/pedicured gorgeous landscape without. Who knew the neighborhood was so cool? Well, it is, but we didn't know it was THIS cool.

anudder

I try again :)

anudder

My first cow was a cat-cow - I mean, lookit those teats. Cows are in the back, eh.

I didn't quite finish Mr. and Mrs. Smith last night, I was soooo tired, but it was definitely not for lack of interest! It's surprisingly good, and the cinematography isn't your standard fare either. Sure it's action packed, scenes switching perspective fast enough to induce seizures. But there is a quality to the film and filming that's a notch above the usual. And the dialogue is snappy - Jolie and Pitt work well together in this film. Another film I recommend for witty dialogue and fun surprises: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Another pleasant surprise. I laughed heartily.

Pears are dried! oh yum. Tomatoes are in now. Ooh yeah!

Rain! Rain! Rain! No watering the garden today. Everyone's happy. This winter will be nothing but easy, methinks: there are so many windows in this place that even when it's overcast, cloudy, or rainy (usually all three occur simultaneously), there is so much light in here. It is practically a solarium. yip!!

Saturday, August 18, 2007

de udder

de udder

a quick 'n dirty postcard for someone

The girls dropped by this evening to whisk me away! Down the road, Jacque discovered that one of the local farms also sells ice cream. In big waffle cones. A lot of ice cream in one scoop. For one dollar and forty-nine cents. Talk about bang for your buck! We all ate Marsha's combo of bordeaux cherry, and this fudgey brownie chocolate, layered on top of each other. Joy!!!!!!!!!!!

and I'm off to maybe, really, actually just sit down and watch a movie?! I might even make it through the opening credits before falling asleep......if I don't do that in the shower first (despite the sugar in a cone).

(ps - those weren't asian pears in that tree, they're yellow plums, and they're not very sweet, but they might be once I dry them which I plan on doing tomorrow....I picked an obscene amount on my way home from work)

Friday, August 17, 2007

cress-oyed

I'm so tired I'm seeing cress-oyed :) But I must post! I must! Some mail art for Haddock, sent yesterday:

it's that guy again

I love greens, and lately, especially the bitter ones like collards, mustard, and broccoli. I stir-fried a mess of them this evening and ate two bowlfulls (bowls full?) for dinner.

I've been eyeing up this asian pear tree, it's parked outside of a row house down by the river. I see it every day when I bike to and from work. I want to knock on the door and ask if they harvest from it - looks like they don't. If not, I wanna pick a bushel or four and then slice and dry them. They taste REALLY good that way.

oh yawn and more yawn, good night

day of fry

Seen pasted to the outside book drop:



I am gearing up for some stencil graffiti. Just you wait.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

when the bough breaks

Happy real birthday, Christopher! This is when he visited us in Maine - I was about 13, so he was a few years outta high school. He biked from Boston to our place; we lived in a really small town outside the capital of Maine (Augusta). That was the best summer. I do believe that he is looking at his birthday card!



And here is another for FAF.



Yes, a bookmark. Guess where I'll put it? Heh. I'll press it between two sheets of cold laminate first though.

God what a night! Some intense dreaming.

Man pees on mattress: check
Kendra arrives from Germany and I'm too tired to realize: check
bus crash: check
(but I did save the library books)

I'm exhausted.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

hangin' out

I made a magnet for Free Art Friday. When inspiration strikes, hesitate not!

hanging out

peeps for prez

I planted more greens this morning. Day. Afternoon. Some out in the garden, which I then erected stick fences around, big ones, and added some suckers from the apple tree that's going down one of these days - for shade purposes. The spinach and baby pak choy can't withstand a lot of direct sun right now. Then, greens and spinach and choy in the garden in front here. Fortified, natch. So far, everyone looks really happy and the ones who were wilting have perked up too.

hoo
ray!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

comme ci, comme ca

again with the late hour! I sound like a broken record! Just gotta squeeze every possible moment of our short-lived summer, I guess.

comme ci comme ca

I visited some old stomping grounds today, campus area and market. The gardens over there look sooo great; the students at the university run their own classroom garden and it's a beaut. I bought some more fodder today at the nursery.....this time, a sort of asian basil, some spinach and other greens. I'll plant in the morning. And build more fences for them too.

Oh yes and Chris' birthday is actually the 16th. But he died on April 11th, hence the mix-up in my mind. My dad sent me a photo I'd not seen of him before - I think he looks to be in his late 20s or very early 30s here, and I can see the resemblance between us, at least in the legs....at least when I weigh less :)



On second thought, maybe even younger than that - he was perming his hair when he was in his 20s though, I know that for sure! Crazy guy. Love it. And his face looks rounder than I'd ever seen it, except for when he was really young.

say wot?!

dancing with myself

last year's print, with a bit of watercolor for mail art sendings.

wot?

postcard mail art! for shmuel :)

This morning I found that a cat had shat in my front entryway garden. What did she do, eat the lettuce and then take a dump? Looks that way. Dammit! At leat it was only one (poop load, and lettuce baby). That makes two little lettuces in the six-pack that didn't make it (the first one died from heat exhaustion). Fortunately, the chard and the winter mixed greens were unharmed! Soooo....my morning went like this for a couple hours, erecting and fortifying barriers:





free the worm

You can listen to Freeworm's streaming audio music online too. Purty good stuff.

Went for a night ride after dinner; I'm so glad I did. The air was still warm even after dark. A perfect summer's eve. I live for these days.

Made a mess of pesto this afternoon, too. It's beyond good. Basil from this garden, and garlic from over at the girls' place.


13 aug

Sunday, August 12, 2007

my brother finally flies



Last night when those geese flew overhead, I sat back on my heels and wept. I was wishing that my brother and my mother could witness this beauty and I regret that there was a certain lack of closure with each of them before they died. I found myself missing them each. But, the missing feeling was good too.

My brother was named Christopher Robin and I was told by my mother that he thought if he ate birdseed, he would fly. He wanted to, so badly!

It wasn't until this morning that I really remembered that yesterday would have been his 45th birthday. My body, and I guess my subconscious, remembered last night in the garden though.

Sunflowers were his favorites. I was sitting under the umbrella of a huge one last night too.

Happy birthday, Chris.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

I will survive

Well today, I can no longer burn an entire iceburg on my thigh. It is, however, deepening to a nice burgundy color. Yeesh.

I bought some starts tonight at the local organic gardening center! Rainbow chard, a six pack, and a onesy: purple kale. Oooh they're beautiful. I hope they'll thrive. So exciting.

As I pruned the basil, a chevron of honking geese flew low overhead. It was so terribly beautiful.

I ate a large garden salad for dinner, followed by ice cream with warmed zucchini-banana bread.

My life is so good.

The other night, I dreamt that Kendra came back from Köln! I'm so looking forward to seeing her next month.

Friday, August 10, 2007

whew

People blog about the damndest things, don't we? But, I'm all for garnering sympathy from every quarter. Thanks you girls for the extra special sympathy about the wasp sting. Jacque and Marsha even obliged me last night: I stopped by on my ride-way home after work. They were great. And Jacque (well Marsha too but Jacque's culinary prowess definitely at work here) made a MOST excellent stir-fry with this ginger spread stuff, it's sweet, but it mellows and then.....ohhhh my god.

This picture does the thing no justice. Like, for instance, just how swollen my upper thigh was. Like Mt. Vesuvius. Still is, over two days later. I think I should carry Benadryl with me now, maybe one of those anti-anaphylactic kits too, just in case my body decides to become even more allergic.



Ice is great. Shoulda done that first thing. Instant relief, as long as it's right on the skin. Lesson for everyone: treat wasp stings asap! A poultice of baking soda works good too. Vinegar is great, although I didn't get that far. You know that apple cider vinegar cures every damn thing. 'Tis true. For example, I've never developed lumbago.

Here is some more mail art for Haddock. Sperm whales, I think. The kid looks not-happy. Hee hee. Maybe the poor child was bitten on the toe by a crab.


I stopped at another garden on my way home tonight. Oh god! I just remembered, Marsha called me the polyamorous gardener! I told them that Deborah invited me to her garden again ("oh, it's DEBORAH....De-bor-ah....." they teased me). So I harvested corn, beans, kale, and loads of tomatoes. A couple of beautiful squash. Tonight I ate a stir-fry with broccoli and cabbage in it, too, and roasted potatoes. Everything came from our gardens.

I.
Love.
It.