The battle for Christmas rages on...

Some Shrinky Dink pins that I made for Tracey...

I'm heavily into Christmas production mode. Making lots of stuff.

I'm making books and the usual but I'm also doing some new things - jewelry, sewing, and embroidery. I know. Like I needed more hobbies!

I'm having an arts and crafts day at my studio tomorrow to socialize and help everybody get all their unfinished craft projects done.

Little wooly caterpillar at the TWU pond a couple of weeks ago... I don't think I've ever seen one of these around here before.

Yeah, long time, no blog. I won't make any excuses.

I went to Kansas over Thanksgiving to visit Larry and family and to see Colleen and family. I went back and forth over whether I should go or not. I could have gotten a lot done with Sam at his dad's, but in the end I decided to go. It was good to get away and see everybody again. Although I've been there so many times this year, I think they're all sick of me by now.

Colleen indulged my art geekiness and we went to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. I wanted to see the new addition. It's super cool (I'll post pictures one of these days). Colleen's job was to keep me from licking the walls. My job was to keep her from flicking paint off of this one super smooshy oil painting. I told her that the oil paint could possibly still be wet in the thick spots and she wanted to find out...

We also went over to the Kemper. I really like that museum. Colleen found a blinky sculpture that she wanted to lick. Or steal. I forget.

Then we had some yummy Italian food, some yummy dessert, and we hung out at her house for a while with all the boys.

I went with my mom and stepdad in the Suburban Assault Vehicle. Interesting, I always remember them calling it "Suburban..." in the movie... Weird how that happens. According to the internets, a Chevy Suburban is a Mormon Assault Vehicle!

I've been doing a little painting, making some more collage boxes, and now I'm into holiday production mode. I'm going to be making gifts again this year. Sorry, everybody.

While I was making those boxes, I listened to a bunch of my backlog podcasts - specifically This American Life. In one episode, Meet the Pros, David Rakoff talks about how he loves to make stuff and he wonders if he could love it as much if it were his job. He makes things for his friends but that it must be like having a fitness-loving friend come over and do 25 push-ups in your living room and then say, "Happy Birthday!"

I'm afraid that might be true. So, again. Sorry.

I do love it, though. I was making some stuff today and I forgot to eat lunch.

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Now playing: Wilco - Hate It Here
via FoxyTunes

What a busy week I'm having. I drove to Sherman on Monday evening to do an encaustic painting demo for the Sherman Art League. It went well. I think everyone enjoyed it and they all seemed enthusiastic.

Yesterday evening I went to the Boys and Girls Club to talk to them about volunteering by teaching some art classes for the kids. I was a judge for their art competition last year and I really liked the woman who ran the place. She said that they were desperate for someone qualified to teach art, so I kind of put it in the back of my mind and finally contacted her when school started.

I think it's going to be fun. I met one little boy yesterday that I immediately fell in love with (but not in a creepy way). I think he's in 6th grade and he was telling me about his art classes at school. He looked just like Mike Sebasto, who I had a crush on in 6th grade.

I just got back from delivering some paintings to the amp gallery in Fort Worth. The opening is this Saturday. I'm excited that I'll get to see my friend Jennifer. My friend Kate is also in the show but she went and got herself a real live boyfriend and will be visiting his family instead.

Tomorrow I'm going to go to Dallas to work on the collaborative piece with Allison and Brett. We're doing an altar for a Day of the Dead show. I have no idea what we're doing. I'm just going to take a bunch of stuff and hopefully it won't be ugly. It'll be fun to work with them.

Holy moly, and then Friday I'm going to go to BFE/Cedar Hill to talk to some people there about possibly doing a workshop. On the way back I'm going to try to hook up with Julie for lunch.

I scheduled a workshop for Saturday but I don't have anyone signed up, so I guess I won't be doing that. Then I guess we'll be going to Fort Worth for the reception. Sunday I rest.

I'm also doing volunteer stuff for the PTA, my part time stuff for VAST (which I've been neglecting lately and need to work on tonight), and working on proposals for teaching and for getting more shows. Oh, yeah, and I started a new series of paintings.

I finally sat down and read The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik, which apparently recently won a National Book Award. It was so good! Trish had recommended it. It's sort of a graphic novel but not really. I loved it. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is gripping and very sweet.

I also recently bought I Am America (and So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert. It's quite hilarious.


My favorite part so far - this part about mothers, in the chapter on The Family:

Females need to nurture constantly, so they hate any time alone where they are left to think, shower, or sleep. For a Mom to be happy, every moment away from her children must be filled with the soul-wrenching thought, "am I a bad mother?"

The answer to that question is a resounding "Yes." Scientists have proven, one assumes, that every flaw in a child can be traced back to a mistake made by the mother. As adults we're all imperfect, so that means all mothers are incompetent. But some mothers are worse than others. Take women who work. I don't care if it's CEO of a major corporation or three hours a week as a teacher's aide, if you work outside the home, you might as well bring coconut arsenic squares to the school bake sale.

A mother needs to be in the home even when the kids aren't A messy house sends a coded message to children: "I'm not loveable. Otherwise Mom would dust."

A good mother cooks, cleans, drives, organizes charity events so her children earn community service points for college, and expects nothing in return except love and breakfast in bed one day a year.

So, a word to all you Femin-Idi-Amins: Stop "liberating" moms by trying to make them join the workforce. They're already doing the job that God put them here to do: Everything.

He includes little notes on the side that work sort of like the bullets in his "The Word" segments. Funny footnotes, too. And stickers!

I haven't watched last night's show yet but apparently he announced that he's running for President. That's going to be awesome. I can't wait to see what kind of shenanigans he pulls.

You're right, Trish - "shenanigans" brings the funny!

That reminds me - Trish and I saw Across the Universe the other day. I thought it was good - not great. Parts of it were great. But it was about 30 minutes too long and as Trish pointed out, it seemed like they were just trying to fit in as many songs as they could. I do have an aversion to musicals, so that could have been the problem. The music was good, though...

I couldn't help comparing it to the Sgt. Pepper's movie from the 70's and how it's sort of a time capsule of the big stars of the day (Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees, Steve Martin, etc.). And I wonder if this one will seem like that in 30 years. That movie was definitely just a cheesy excuse to show as many big stars as they could singing as many Beatles songs as they could...

Check these out:
Unfortunately Placed Ads (I love the kitten/Jesus hug)

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Now playing: Lori McKenna - Confetti
via FoxyTunes

OK, based on John's comments:

"I think the gangsta name needs to be re-thunk a little. "Dreamsicle Snickerdoodle" doesn't sound very gangsta to me. I guess "Frisky F-150" doesn't sound very much like a rock and roll name, either."

And a quote from Trish's email:
"2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie): Coffee
Heath Bar Crunch Oreo
this was doomed from the start. Ice cream and cookies do not a gangsta
make."

I think we need to brainstorm on a better method for obtaining our gangsta name. Ideas?

Here's a funny generator:
http://gangstaname.com/

This is what it dubbed my ass, depending on how I typed in my name:
Broken Tang Chasa
Fly-ass Cop Killa
Dances with Canadian (that one doesn't make much sense, but I like it)

Oh, and I have to admit that I picked colors and animals that would sound good.

John also asks about the Magenta Mojito's superpowers.

I'm not sure of the specific powers of the Magenta Mojito, but it would be strong, refreshing, and minty fresh.

I found this meme amusing:

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car): Callie PT Cruiser

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie): Emily's Campfire Marshmallow Tollhouse

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name): D-Woo

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal): Chartreuse Dolphin

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born): Ruth Houston

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first): Woo De

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2ND favorite color, favorite drink): The Magenta Mojito

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers): Cecil Cayrus

9. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names): Kay Eugene

10. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5Th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): McCone Malibu

11. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower). Spring Tulip

12. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”): Banana Tanky

13. HIPPIE NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Chai Willow

14. YOUR ROCK STAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour” and the year): The Wax Tornado Tour 2007

Now, you...

I took this driving through Lewisville, I think back in June. A scary storm was rolling in and I happened to have my camera. The clouds were scary but really pretty at the same time.

I'm very tired of summer. We keep being taunted by cool weather every now and then but it gets back up into the 90s. At least it's cooling off at night, which is very nice.

I got an email today from my Provincetown gallery - they sold another one of my paintings (the third this summer) and have people interested in 2 more! Woo hoo! Let's hope they close the deal before the summer season ends.

Trish and I are going to see a documentary tonight about Donkey Kong. Really.

I'm mostly excited to see her new shorter hair and hear all about her midlife crisis. Aren't men supposed to have those?

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Now playing: Caitlin Cary And Thad Cockrell - Warm And Tender Love
via FoxyTunes

At the lake on labor day...

Tonight I went with my friend Karen to Fort Worth for fall gallery night. We ate at Gloria's and went to a couple of galleries and complained about our kids.

Sam and I have been doing indoor rock climbing and enjoying it. We went yesterday after school and he climbed the wall about 18 times. I'm not exaggerating. He's getting pretty fast, too. I call him SpiderSam. I have to go by myself when there's someone there to spot me. Either way I get to wear the attractive wedgie-inducing harness!

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Now playing: Shiny Toy Guns - Le Disko
via FoxyTunes

Shadow.

This is one of the kittens that have adopted us. Shadow and Pouncy are still around but Cotton Candy doesn't seem to have made it. Mama kitty has disappeared and I'm afraid she's off having more kittens.

I definitely need to call those cat wranglers...

Let's see. What else is going on. Well, tomorrow's our last day of summer. Not weather-wise (unfortunately) but school-wise. Sam heads off to 5th grade on Tuesday. He gets to meet his teacher tomorrow night. He's very excited.

Trish and I went to see a great movie the other night called Once. I realized about halfway through that it was a musical. But I liked it anyway. :-)

I have Showtime for free for a month so I've been recording some movies and watching a few. Last night I watched SherryBaby. It was good. I still have a girl crush on Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Trish recommended a really great book called The Great Good Thing. I loved it. I read the sequel, Into the Labyrinth but it wasn't quite as good.


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Now playing: Lori McKenna - Swallows Me Whole (Live)
via FoxyTunes

I was going to submit this to stuffonmycat.com but never got around to it... "Stuff" courtesy of Sam...

Catching up - I wrote on my other blog about being overwhelmed by having so much to do. This blog has been a victim of that, too.

So here are a few things I've done recently that I haven't blogged about:
Trish came over the other day for lunch and we made Shrinky Dinks. She assured me that a couple of single 40-year old women making Shrinky Dinks on a random Thursday afternoon was NOT weird or pathetic. We invited Sam to do some, too, but he was busy playing his Gameboy.

On Saturday Jenna and I went to IKEA and then ate at Blue Mesa (yum) and went to Trayc's (latest) solo show opening. The place was cool - in Deep Ellum next door to a tattoo studio. The location was an improvement from the last gallery show she was in - which had no AC - what were they thinking? And I was also excited to see that the most awesome (and dangerous) paper store, Paper Arts is next door. They move every couple of years and I can't keep up with where they are... So now I know.

After the reception we stopped at Kathleen's Art Cafe for some crazy delicious desserts. We were mildly disappointed that they don't really seem to have any art anymore, except for the stuff that we recognized from IKEA!

Sam is at my mom's tonight. I'm going to help hang a show tomorrow so he's going to hang out with her and maybe see Underdog.

I bought some storage and organization stuff at IKEA, so I spent the last couple of days cleaning my office. I'm trying to be more brutal about getting rid of stuff. I'm way too much of a packrat.

Last weekend I watched Factory Girl, about Edie Sedgwick and her friendship with Andy Warhol. It was good but sad. And it made me hate Andy Warhol.

Sam and I saw the Simpsons movie. It was funny but I think most of the funny parts were in the (numerous) previews. I still laughed a lot, though.

I'm done with all the chick-lit Shopaholic books and now I'm reading a kind of art-chick-lit book - Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him. The main character is a "gallerina" - a receptionist for a Chelsea gallery who has an inside view of the New York art world. It's really good.

All the rain seems to have stopped and now it's heating up to normal Texas August temps, which make me say repeatedly, "Why do I live here?"

I was wanting to go to the beach but after Shark Week last week, I might be happy with the boring old lake for a while.

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Now playing: Coconut Records - Summer Day
via FoxyTunes

Some pictures from the Bad Art Party. It was fun to watch the kids do their own thing and just make whatever they wanted. I think they had fun. Weird how all the girls made jewelry and clothing. Oh, and frog houses...

Sam and I went to the Harry Potter party at the local Barnes & Noble. I'm still amazed to think that all those people were there (and stores like it all over the world) for a BOOK. Is that not stunning in this day and age?

Some interesting people there. Some people (as in adults without kids who dress up as wizards...) are just WAY too into Harry Potter. I did see at least one great t-shirt, though. It said: "Spoiler Alert: Hermione's a Dude!"

Sam's not letting me touch his copy, though, for some reason. I've read all of the other ones to him (mostly - he would read some parts on his own, too). So I'm going to have to wait a long time to be able to read it. So don't tell me anything!

Yeah, wish me luck with that...

Tonight I watched Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. It was weird, of course. But interesting. I think they were trying to imagine how she found her inspiration and why she was so attracted to what most of society thinks is freakish. She seemed to find beauty in it.

I'm helping out with the member's show for VAST (the local artist's group) this week.

I'm going to start on the last of the Shopaholic books. Total chick lit fluff but I'm completely hooked.

I also need to get some more boards to paint on. I've got an idea for a new series and want to get started on it.

bored in the car...

We had fun on our trip to Georgia. I decided to drive straight through on the way out. Mapquest said the drive was 12 hours but it took 14. We didn't really stop that much, either, so I'm not sure why it took so long. We left on the 4th, so there wasn't much traffic to deal with.

civil war cannon and the old miss - the mighty mississip in the background

We stopped in Vicksburg - Sam was oddly excited about seeing the Mississippi river. I had to suppress the urge to be Clark Griswald. I wonder how many dorky people like me do that (or want to) when they cross that river...

My mom and stepdad drove out, too and we saw them once on the road before they stopped briefly to gamble in Shreveport.

We stayed with my aunt and uncle while we were there. Somehow I didn't get any photos of them. Just my cousin's youngest daughter:

She was really funny. This picture cracked me up. She looks like a spoiled little princess here but she was hilarious.

My aunt and I were trying to figure out what we should call each other - how exactly are we related. So thanks to wikipedia, I learned that Madison is my first cousin, once removed. Your first cousin's kids are your first cousins, once removed. Their kid's kids are your first cousins, twice removed.

Oddly enough, my aunt is married to her cousin, so this creates all kinds of interesting problems when trying to figure out how we're all related. Don't worry they didn't have any kids together - it's the second marriage for both of them...

Second cousins are more distant. They have the same great-grandparents but different grandparents. It's very confusing and I'm not really sure I understand it. And who knows if wikipedia's right about it, anyway...

So anyway - I installed my show at the Douglasville Cultural Arts Council. Their art center is an old house, so the show has a different feel to it. I think it seems more intimate to see it in that kind of setting.

installation view, The Tornado Show - Seeking Shelter, Douglasville, Georgia

While I was installing they went to Stone Mountain. I might have been there when I was little, but I don't remember. Sam and Madison had lots of fun there and wore the grown-ups out.

On Saturday we went to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. It was so crowded. We had gotten tickets online the night before so we were expecting an easy time of it but we had to wait in a line for security, then a line for tickets, then a line to give someone our tickets and then another line to get the tickets for the movie that we had also gotten advanced tickets for... And then there were long lines at every exhibit. They need to make their viewing windows bigger or something... But they had some cool stuff - whale sharks, jellyfish, beluga whales, otters, seals, stingrays...

beluga whales

whale shark

jellyfish

Those are all my favorites...

The opening reception was on Sunday. It happened to coincide with their ice cream social (the whole cone thing worked out nicely) and the entertainment was a barbershop quarter. I'm not sure how that happened...

The reception was very well-attended. Another cousin came by and my uncle's daughter (who I think is actually my second cousin...) was there, too.

We left on Monday morning and headed to Philadelphia, Mississippi. My mom and stepdad and my aunt and uncle were staying at a casino there that night, so we stayed with them to save on a hotel. Sam thought it was the coolest place he'd ever been in his life. He desperately wanted to play a slot machine. I have zero urge to gamble, so to me it was just tacky, smoky, and sad. But I shouldn't complain since it was free...

The drive home was still long - 10 hours. We didn't hit any rain until we got to Carrollton where it rained buckets.

We've had a family of cats take up residence in our back yard. Maybe because I've been feeding them. :-) There's a mama, 3 babies, and the dad - weird for the dad to be hanging around, I know. Sam has named them Mama (mama - tortoise-shell/black), Grayson (dad - gray and buff mixed), and Pouncy (just like mama), Cotton Candy (orange tabby), and Shadow (darker version of mama).

I saw them this morning but they weren't here the rest of the day. Mama and the babies are cute and I wish they would let us pet them. I'd also like to get them fixed... Grayson might have been pretty at one time but now he has that tom-cat look to him. He looks like a bruiser...

Anyway, part of me wants them to move on and part of me wants them to stay. The kittens are so cute.

So we're going to be around for a while, I think. The show in Douglasville closes on the 17th. Hopefully my aunt and uncle can meet us with the stuff halfway...

This weekend I'm going to teach a workshop - actually one each day. Saturday night my friend Trayc has some work in a show and I think Trish is going to go with me to that.

This makes me laugh every time I watch it:

I've been wanting to blog about my recent trip but haven't made the time for it until now.

I went to the Salem, Massachusetts area for an encaustic painting conference last week. It was a lot of fun.

Dennis gave me a pass for Southwest, so I had to fly standby, which is scary to begin with but a little more scary during peak travel times. The conference started on Friday evening but I had been invited to a reception on Thursday evening, so I had to fly on Wednesday just in case I got stuck somewhere and wasn't able to get there in time. I made it to Manchester, NH late Wednesday night.

I was originally going to take a flight from Dallas to Chicago that stopped in Little Rock and then I'd catch another flight to Manchester. Unfortunately the flight out of Little Rock was full, so I got bumped and had to wait there for 5 hours. I finished my book (The Sweet Potato Queen's Book of Love - hilarious). I had brought another book (Off the Wall: a Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg) but it was very slow and hard to get into, so I went to the bookstore and bought Shopaholic Takes Manhattan. Trish had mentioned the series and said she liked them. Fluffy chick lit, but perfect for the plane.

I finally got on a flight to Baltimore and then got right on one to Manchester. I ended up getting in around 9:00 and then had to drive to Salem, which is about an hour away.

I had actually been to Salem when I was about 10. We lived in Rhode Island for 2 years and visited a lot of places while we were there. I remember visiting the Witch Museum and The House of the Seven Gables (although I have to admit that my memories of the House are mixed with my memories of that episode of Bewitched where Samantha is teased by the haunted bedwarmer or something or other in her visit there - yes! I looked it up - it was a bedwarmer...).

On Thursday, I drove to Lexington (that whole "shot heard round the world" thing happened there) to meet my cousin Rebecca and her girls. Rebecca is from the Atlanta area but lived in Providence, Rhode Island for a few years. She met her husband and they got married there but moved to Georgia after the wedding. They just moved to Massachusetts about 3 weeks ago.

Rebecca, Jenna, and Janelle

It was fun to see them. I hadn't met little Jenna. She's very cute and very busy.

When I got back to Salem I considered taking a nap but decided that I should go out and see stuff. So I walked around near the harbor and went into some shops. The weather was gorgeous - in the 70's and low 80's. One shop owner asked me where I was from and when I said Texas, he said, "Oh, then you're used to the heat." I said, "This heat? Are you kidding?"

I walked by The House of the Seven Gables and looked at the harbor.
I'm still amazed at all the history there. There were lots of houses that had these signs on them, listing the builder and the year they were built.


So much history, culture, and natural beauty... but of course I wouldn't last a winter...

That night I went to a reception of encaustic artists that was really great (I'm blogging about the conference on my other blog).

I need to process the rest of my photos in order to continue, so...

to be continued...

Just a quick post, since my fans (well, Trish) have been clamoring (well, mentioned it once) for one.

Trish came to my studio the other day and we played a bit with wax. That's her above...

Sam and I drove to Kansas on Saturday. We drove to Manhattan and spent the night. We took a scenic drive off the highway and it was really pretty. We drove through a couple of cute little small towns. They reminded me of Melissa, Texas, where my grandma lived for a while. The kind of town that you miss if you blink when you drive by.

We packed up my stuff on Sunday and then headed to Overland Park to stay with Larry and family. I hope they're not getting sick of me - it's the 4th time I've seen them this year and the 3rd time that I've said, "Hey! I'm going to be there tomorrow, can I stay with you?" They're good sports and are willing to put up with my last-minutedness. Is that a word?

Got to see Colleen for a while, too, and the boys played together. I took my camera but completely forgot to take pictures.

One evening we went to a park and got to see a few ducks and lots of geese, including some cute little baby geese.

Could they be any cuter?

We discovered that the adult geese will hiss at you if you get too close to their babies. I managed to catch Mrs. (or Mr.) Goose above in mid-hiss.

My dad and stepmom are visiting this week and we've been hanging out with them. Today they took a tour of the studio. After they left, Sam and his cousin did some painting.

It's so fun watching them play around with it.

I'm going to be busy this weekend packing up stuff for the art league's show. I'm going to start in the morning for a couple of hours.

I was supposed to do a workshop this weekend but nobody signed up for it. I need to figure out how to market those book workshops better...

I'm also doing some editing of some Word documents for someone that I know that works at UNT.

...and I need to prepare for my book workshop on Monday in conjunction with the book show at TCC.

Oh, and I'm going to get together with Trayc - she finished up her Waxy Buildup work. We're going to work on a proposal and figure out where to send it.

Schwew! Busy...

I posted some photos of a couple of Sam projects on Flickr. The paper plate popup book of the Texas Revolution and an action-packed comic book, The Adventures of Bob and Rob.

You can also see photos from Trish's graduation celebration last week. We had fun watching Trish get trashed!

Oh, and check out the installation shots of the Beyond the Scrapbook show at Tarrant County College.

This next week is Sam's last week of 4th grade! He's ready for summer. He's going to do a bunch of camps in June and go with my mom and his cousins to Palo Duro Canyon for a week. He's going to be busy.

Tonight I'm going to Trayc's 40th birthday party in Dallas. Tomorrow I think I'm going to hang out in my studio. I need to figure out what I'm going to paint next.

Sam's class went to the Fort Worth zoo last Friday. Here's a picture of Sam and one of his classmates in the petting zoo. It was fun but would have been better if there hadn't been 4000 other field trips happening there at the same time. It was a nightmare - so crowded! It took almost 2 hours to get there because of all the traffic, so we had to practically run through the zoo. "Look! An elephant! OK, let's go!"

I had borrowed my mom's car to make the trip to Kansas. Before I left I took my car to the shop so they could try to figure out what was wrong with it - it would occasionally just die while I was waiting at stop lights. Not all the time, though...

So they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it so I picked it up on Friday afternoon. I drove to Dallas on Saturday night for the spring gallery night but when I got to Lewisville my car just stopped accellerating. I pulled off the highway and stopped in a parking lot. It wouldn't start again, so I called AAA and my mom rescued me and I borrowed her car again.

Turns out the timing belt broke. It was going to cost more to fix than the car was worth. So I'm going to buy my mom's car from her. They were planning on getting a new truck soon, anyway...

I complained to John about the car but he said he wouldn't give me my money back. Rude! Oh, well - I guess I got my money's worth out of it.

We had some crazy weather yesterday. I was driving around when the first storm hit - buckets and buckets of rain. I had to pick Sam up during the second storm. Streets were rivers. It was crazy. While I was driving (the low-to the ground PT Cruiser) through the rivers, praying that my brakes would work, I was thinking, "This is so scary!" At the same time, Sam yelled, "This is so cool!"

The drainage ditch behind our house overflowed and flooded some of the houses behind us. Luckily our house is up high enough that we didn't get flooded. It was scary. They showed video from Denton on the Today show this morning...

But it's a gorgeous day today! Weird how that happens.

F2 - artist's book - installation view from Seeking Shelter at the Manhattan Arts Center, Manhattan, Kansas

installation view from Seeking Shelter at the Manhattan Arts Center, Manhattan, Kansas

installation view from Seeking Shelter at the Manhattan Arts Center, Manhattan, Kansas

Had fun in Kansas. I drove up on Tuesday and had a fairly uneventful drive. I was wondering how many times I've taken that trip up I-35. When I was little and we lived in Kansas (between the ages of 3 and 7 and then again from about 10 to 12), my maternal grandparents lived in McKinney and Melissa, so we would drive down to visit them. Then when I was in high school, we moved here and we would drive to Kansas to visit Larry and Ellen and Colleen. I'd estimate that I've made that trip maybe 15 times. I don't know. There are so many things that are so familar about it. Frontier City in Oklahoma City. The Horseshoeing School somewhere in Oklahoma (I can always go there if the art thing doesn't work out), the Flint Hills along the Kansas Turnpike, the big Coors beer can at the northern end of the Turnpike (which is either gone or I missed it this time), and the curiously located Knute Rockne memorial. Oh, now I get it. If I had stopped to actually look at it one of those times maybe I wouldn't have been so confused...

Anyway, the trip always takes 8 hours.

I stayed with Larry and Ellen, who were nice enough to live with all my boxes for a couple of weeks. I had sent my work to them from the last show in Iowa, since the art center in Manhattan didn't have room to store the stuff.

On Wednesday, I drove to Manhattan, which is about 2 hours from Overland Park. Larry helped me stuff all my boxes into the car. I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't all fit. Well, it fit, but I couldn't see out while I was driving. I had to use the force the whole way. It was stupid and very scary.

I realized later that when I had fit it into the car before (plus two additional long paintings and Trish!), I hadn't packed everything for shipping. This time the smaller (14" x 14" x 14") boxes were packed inside larger (18" x 18" x 18") boxes. I also had my house sculpture and the wooden circle in boxes this time. So it all took up so much more room. Had I realized that earlier, I would have taken the smaller boxes out of the larger ones. Which is what I did once I unpacked everything. I broke down the larger boxes and brought them back with me. When I go back to pick it all up again, if anything doesn't fit, I can always ship it back home.

Manhattan is a really cute town in the beautiful Flint Hills. They call Manhattan The Little Apple. It reminded me a little of Denton, since it's a college town.

Colleen went with me to the reception. We were worried the night before since they were predicting 3 inches of snow in Overland Park and 5" in Manhattan. It rained and snowed Friday night but nothing really stuck, so we had good travelling on Saturday. We stopped in Lawrence to eat at one of Colleen's old college hangouts.

Not many people came to the reception but we had fun, anyway. Afterwards, we went to a cool restaurant near the K State campus - an area they call Aggieville (K State is a big agricultural school).

It was a good trip.

So this is my first full week of being an artist. I'm freaking out a little but it's OK.

Last night I went to a meditation class at the local Unitarian church. It's lead by someone from a Buddhist center (temple?) in Arlington. I enjoyed it. I've been wanting to try meditation and wanted to get more information about it.

I was supposed to go to Houston this weekend to teach a workshop but they had to reschedule, so I'm not sure when that's going to happen. I'm kind of glad that it's not this weekend, though, since I was gone so long last week...

Check this out:



How fun is that?

Do your own: Spell with Flickr.

My new iPod case. Lucky for me my stepdad is a tool guy. He cut the holes for me. Thanks for the tin, Trish!

I bought a sheet of craft foam and cut it to fit the inside. I cut a couple of pieces for each side of the iPod so it wouldn't slide around. I need to cut a piece of foam for the top to keep it from flipping around inside when it's closed.

Well, I guess a lot has happened since Pi Day. I had been thinking about it for a while but I finally gave my notice at work. I go through phases where I'm really excited about it and think it's the best thing I could have done and other times when I wonder what was I thinking?

You can see all my justifications and ruminations about it here.

Right now I'm in an excited phase.

Oddly enough, as soon as I gave my notice, I got really busy at work. Go figure. Next week will be my last week. I'm staying an extra week to help them make sure my position gets posted and to help out with an event - one of my bosses is coordinating a guest artist lecture next week with Lauren Greenfield, photographer and director of Thin, an HBO documentary about eating disorders. I brought a copy of the DVD home to watch this weekend. I'm afraid it's going to be hard to watch...

I was going to have a garage sale tomorrow but it's raining like cats and dogs right now and it's supposed to rain in the morning, too. Maybe next weekend...

I'm going to go with Trish to Fort Worth for her friend Bill's birthday party tomorrow. Then we're going to hit a few galleries for spring gallery night. Yay!

3.14

Happy Pi Day!

I've been spending way too much time playing in the ORG lately. Ze Frank's last show is this week. Kind of sad. Check out this episode - combines two great things - Ze and Jonathan Coulton. If you haven't been watching The Show for the past year, it might not make any sense... If you join the ORG, be sure to quack at me. I'm enchiladaplate, of course.

Jenna came over on Saturday night and I stir-fried some shrimp in my wok. It was edible! Jenna brought some of the new Ben and Jerry's flavor - Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream. It was very yummy. The "sweet taste of liberty in your mouth." Indeed.

Speaking of which... it's almost time for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report...

Krispen (on the left) with an admirer.

I had a great art weekend! The reception on Friday night was good - got to see some people I hadn't seen in a while.

I worked in my studio for a few hours on Saturday, working on my new stuff. You can see it here.

Then I headed out for Lawton. It took about 2 and a half hours to get there from Sanger. It was a nice drive, though. It's weird how it goes from super flat around Gainesville to really pretty and hilly all of a sudden. When I was approaching Lawton I could even see what looked like small mountains (or big hills) in the distance.

The gallery there was super nice. I was surprised that the place was totally packed. Krispen sold 2 paintings right away and 4 more at the end of the night. Pretty good.

This is a piece by one of the other artists showing there at the same time, Steve Hilton. This is called Tea for 48.

I headed back and got home around midnight.

Then yesterday I headed to Fort Worth and met Susan and Kathy at the Modern. We had brunch - awesome food - I had the mediterranean frittata. Yum.

We totally lucked out because the first Sunday of every month is free, so we didn't have to pay to get in. Bonus. We saw a show called Pretty Baby. It was different artist's views and interpretations on childhood. Most of the work was really creepy and dark. Kathy asserted that if you do work about children and you want it in a museum these days, it has to be dark. Probably true.

We walked around in the permanent collection a little bit. I had to worship at the Rothko altar for a minute...

Then we went to Starbucks for a snack and to get a little fresh air since it was so nice outside.

Sam's at scouts right now. Since it was so nice tonight, I decided to walk around the neighborhood rather than go to the gym.

I'm looking forward to the time change so it'll stay light later. And also the clock in my car will be right again. I've managed to change it before, but this time I just couldn't remember how to change it. I'm surprised I'm not an hour early to everything...

A ceramic snail - by Sam.

It's art weekend for me. I went to a reception in Dallas last night - a couple of my friends and fellow former grad-students were in a group show.

Today I'm going to go to my studio and work on my new stuff. And then tonight I'm going to drive to Lawton, Oklahoma to see Krispen's show. I'm supposed to have a show at this gallery next year, so I'm also going to check it out.

Then tomorrow I'm going to meet some friends at the Modern in Fort Worth for brunch and art-looking. We might venture over to the Kimball, too.

Yay, art!

Sam's eye is much better. He complains about it hurting every now and then, but it's only when he doesn't want to do something. Weird how that happens. I took some pictures of it but I'll have to get his permission before I post them.

He said that he told his friends to call him, "Scarface."

I forgot to mention the freakin' weird dust storm we got on Saturday. I looked out of my studio and noticed that the sky was kind of pinkish orange. It was very strange. Apparently it was dust from west Texas. It was super windy, too.

I kept hearing Prince singing, "When I woke up this morning could have sworn it was judgement day. The sky was all purple, there were people running everywhere."

OK, so it wasn't purple... but still. Weirdness. And then I partied like it was 1999.

I had sort of a traumatic day on Saturday. I was teaching my workshop - very casual this time since I only had one student - and Dennis called to say that they were fine, but that he and Sam had been in a car accident.

They were leaving the gym where Sam has karate class and were still in the parking lot, stopped right before turning onto the street, when someone ran into them on the passenger side. Dennis drives an extended cab Nissan pickup and the car that hit them was a full-size pickup.

Some glass must have hit Sam. He had a bad cut on his eyelid and a few smaller ones on his face. Dennis was just sore from the seat belt. The paramedics checked them over and recommended that they go to the minor emergency clinic. Dennis' wife, Melody, took them. They looked at Sam and said that he needed stitches and needed to go to the emergency room, so Melody took him there.

In the meantime, I was trying not to freak out. Dennis assured me that Sam was fine, just a little shook up. I wanted to be with him but then I also wanted to trust Dennis to take care of him. I don't know if that makes any sense or not.

Anyway, when Dennis told me that Melody was taking him to the emergency room, I decided to end the workshop early and go be with him.

I think he was mostly scared. And he freaks out when he knows he's bleeding even a tiny bit, so I'm sure he was really freaked out after the accident. The doctor said that he had two options for stitches - the dissolvable kind (with risk of leaving a scar) and the regular kind (that have to be taken out in 5 days). Sam opted for the dissolvable ones, which I would have chosen, too, I think.

The cut is on his right upper eyelid. He also has a small cut on his nose and a few little cuts on his forehead. They said he'd have a black eye, but it's not too bad right now.

I was trying not to look at his eye while the doctor was messing with it, but before he started stitching, he said, "Hey, look at this - this is really interesting..." Dennis wisely just sat there where he couldn't see (he's very squeamish), but like an idiot, I looked. I have no idea what the doctor said after that point. Something about it being amazing that something didn't do something... I don't know.

But Sam was really brave during the stitches. The shot to numb him might have been worse than the stitches, actually. I think he ended up with six stitches.

Before he went to sleep that night, he said, "I'm really tired. I had a rough day." I agreed. He said, "This is the worst day of my life." Poor baby.

Oh, and on the way home from the hospital, he said, "Life comes at you fast." Indeed.

Last night he said, "My dad used the f-word at that other driver." I told him that was understandable.

So we're very thankful that everybody's OK.

Sam's a little self-conscious about his eye, so I told him to tell everybody that he got attacked by a shark or a tiger or something. I got the usual response, "Ha ha. Very funny."

Oh, Dennis called yesterday to check on Sam and he told me that 10 minutes earlier someone had rear-ended Melody's car. He said there wasn't much damage. I told him to stay home for a few days. It's amazing that with all the commuting he does, driving to Dallas every day for 9 years or so, that he gets into 2 accidents in town, in one weekend...

The Found Art Tuesday theme this week is inspiration. I've been getting inspiration from reading recently, so I thought I'd include words as well as visuals.

This is an empty Whitman's sampler box collaged with odd images.


The inside of the top lid has a piece of paper with, "what inspires you?" over and over. I glued a little glass bead in the center.


Inside the box are 6 cards with inspirational quotes. Well, one of them is from Jack Handy. I think no collection of quotes is complete without a Deep Thought...

Oh, in my quote quest today, I discovered that Oscar Wilde said this, "We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars." Chrissie Hynde just sang it. And then I had that song in my head the rest of the day.

I created a little slip sheet thingie for the title. In small letters underneath it says "(i made this and left it here for you to find)". Last time I actually put my email address on the piece (haven't heard from anyone), but this time I think I want it to be more mysterious.

I don't know where I'm going to leave this one...

This is the start of Sam's Bioniclicious room. I'm not sure how far we're going to go with it...

We're going to go to IKEA tomorrow to get his new loft bed. Exciting!

We went to Temple last night and spent the night there. This morning we got up and went to the Railroad Heritage Museum. Sam had a lot of fun. You can see all the pictures in this flickr set. I went a little crazy with the macro setting. Sam wouldn't let me take any pictures of him, so I was getting excited about numbers and rust and gears and valves...

On the way down and on the way back, we found ourselves in West. I ate some kolaches for you, Jenna. I should have just eaten the ones for you but I also had some for myself.

I'm worn out, so I think I'm going to hit the sack.

Found Art Project

corazon, originally uploaded by enchiladaplate.

I've been carrying this little painting around in my purse, constantly forgetting to leave it somewhere.

The subject for this week is love, of course. The idea is to create a piece of art with that theme and then leave it somewhere for someone to find. Rosa Murillo introduced me to the idea. I've been following her blog for a while and finally got my act together and made something. Now if I could just remember to leave it somewhere...

I also got tagged by Nancy with the 6 Weird Things meme.

So here goes -

Six weird things about me:
1. I hate things between my toes - flip flops, toe socks, or toe rings. No thank you.
2. I love the smell of sawdust. And freshly cut grass. And dirt.
3. I don't like normal things that everybody else likes, like coffee and beer.
4. I like weird combinations of food - like butter on bologna sandwiches or macaroni, chili, and fritos (not that I indulge in those things much any more)
5. My closet is arranged by color
6. I can't stand wet socks - if any part of my sock gets wet, I must change them.

I'm supposed to tag 6 people - I think Colleen's done this one (but if you haven't...), so I'll tag Jenna, Trish, Jessica, and those are the only people I know that read this particular blog...

Now I need to go take my cat to the vet - she has a hurt foot. Poor kitty.

update:

The cat's fine - just has a sore on her foot (most likely from a fight). She got a shot and has to take medicine for a week. Fun for me!

I left my little painting in the art section of the library.

Didn't get the job.

It's OK.

Now I can just concentrate on the art.

And you can find me a millionaire.

The snow that didn't last long...

OK, still haven't heard anything on the job. I'm thinking it's a bad sign.

I still feel bad today but not too bad. I was able to muster some energy to paint half of Sam's room yesterday. I would probably feel better had I just stayed in bed, but I'm glad we got started. For a while I thought we were going to need to do 2 coats. You can't imagine my despair. But luckily it dried OK.

Oh, and Sam helped, too, so he was excited about that.

Last night I watched Thank You for Smoking. I really liked it. Aaron Eckhart is great at playing a jerk.

I think I forgot to mention that I watched The Last Kiss the other night. It was OK. I do like Zach Braff, but the movie was just OK. It reminded me a tad of High Fidelity, which did it much better.

Fun stuff:

Here's something fun to do next time you're on a plane.

I find this jewelry to be alluringly creepy. Of creepily alluring...

I made this piece for Marlys. Late Christmas present...

I think I might have gotten Sam's flu. Thanks, Sam! I started to feel a little icky yesterday and I feel really tired today - I slept most of the day. I had wanted to start painting Sam's room this weekend, but just couldn't muster the energy today. Maybe tomorrow we can start on it.

Cathy and I saw The Queen last night. I really liked it. I thought Helen Mirren was great - she really became her. Sometimes they were portrayed as unfeeling but sometimes as slaves to tradition.

Fun stuff:
You have to check out the Caveman's Crib. Be sure the help him get dressed... Don't use the microwave, though.

I'm so excited to have found out that Michael J. Nelson and the boys have been hard at work, making fun of lots of new movies! I've missed them so much... That reminds me - I think I have one episode of MST3K on tape - The Mole People. I'll have to dig that out and watch it.

I love remixes. Here's a great one, transforming When Harry Met Sally into a horror movie.