Here is a picture I snapped of Asha today as she snoozed in the sun streaming in through our front door. Poor baby has a badly broken tooth and is scheduled for surgery next Thursday to have it removed. In the meantime, she is on antibiotics, pain pills and antihistimines for her allergies. I need to pick up some Ambesol to put on that tooth as well. Asha, chillin in the drugged zone.

Here is another one of the ATCs for the pick a theme swap. The designated theme was Icarus.

I had some source photos to use for one of my PAT theme cards, but ended up using it to do this card instead. It is totally off theme, so I doubt I can use it for the PAT swap. But, I do like the blue on black paper. Again, it is not a good scan. It looks softer in real life. 

EDIT: I’ve decided to go ahead and use this card for the PAT swap for the gothic raven king. I am hoping this fellows looks regal enough to fit the theme. Eraserqueen, I hope you like it!
 

Let’s Play!

… do you insist on taking my picture when I so clearly dislike it?

Asha, Thanksgiving 2007

I have several art commitments, not to mention my cards and gifts for family and friends, that I really *should* be working on. Yesterday, I went into the studio with every intention of working on one of my art commitments. As typically happens, something caught my attention as I was trying to tidy up and here I am, twenty-four hours later, with only this to show for my weekend. It is a sheet of 24 2×2 inch artistamps. I sewed perforations into a background made from a wallpaper sample, punched circles out of some of the lovely, hand-marbled book liner paper I acquired online, and printed off scans of my hands that I took over a year ago. I printed the hand scans onto brown paper bag paper and then I spent many hours cutting out the hands, inking around the edges and trying out different arrangements in the squares before adhering them to the paper. Then I inked some more. Voila, another weekend gone and I am no closer to fulfilling my obligations or reaching my goals. Oh well, maybe someone will say that I am “handy” to have around. My scanner did not get the entire sheet, but you get the idea. I am calling this my “grubby paws” artistamp set.

I took my trash out back to the alley to put it in my trash can and discovered that the color and ambience of that spot was really quite lovely. There is a sense of altered reality that occurs when one is underneath certain trees as their leaves change color in the fall. When standing underneath this tree’s branches, the air is diffused with a golden glow which is delightful. I went back out with my camera and took some shots from underneath the tree. Of course, one cannot  replicate the “aura” of this spot, but I like the pictures anyway. They are not artistic by any means, but that’s okay by me.

I was telling my friend Joyce about my sweet potato vines, how they go crazy, require so little care and keep that lovely Spring green color throughout the hot summer. I said I would take a picture to share, so I went out today and took a few shots. By the end of the summer, it is hard to even get into the house. The only reason they do not extend over the sidewalk in front of the house is because I mow them when I am cutting the lawn. I just mowed. Can you believe all this started from five small plants?

I mowed the lawn yesterday when I got home from work so that I did not have to worry about getting it done over the weekend. So now, I can dispose of my time as I see fit. An early morning romp with Asha, a little grocery shopping and a little time in the studio. Bliss. 

This is a quick drawing I did before work yesterday. It is of my mother as a young woman. The photo I used as my reference source may be  viewed here.

This is a facial study I did in graphite. It is ATC sized.

The time has come for this roof to go. On Thursday, the roofers are supposed to come and replace it. It is starting to get blustery and the forecast says rain is in the offing. I hope not, because this needs to get done. This is my before picture. Hopefully, by next week, I will have some wonderful after pictures.

Another postcard…

Another postcard.

It has been raining here for days. My dilapidated roof has finally started leaking into my attic and down into my ceiling. My time has run out and I must get the roof fixed. On top of that disaster, I have found myself with an unexpected houseguest. 

Last night as Asha and I were upstairs in bed, I saw a truck drive slowly down our street and the driver was calling out some name, the way one calls a pet. I assumed the person was looking for a lost dog. As the truck passed my house, I saw a creature run out to the street towards the truck and then sit and look after it as it drove away. I went downstairs and opened the front door. Sitting in front of my door was a little cat. I went outside and snuggled it for a while, hoping the person would drive down our street again, but the person did not come back. The rain was pouring down and so, there was nothing to do but bring the cat in and make it comfortable. She isn’t very excited about meeting a big dog and has been hanging out down in the basement. I must say that Asha has been great and has been very polite about not rushing up to the cat and scaring it even more when I have brought it upstairs. I am now leaving the door to the basement open in case the cat wants to come upstairs figuring that she will do so when she is comfortable; but, so far, she seems content to sleep and relax on a table where I have my clean bed linens and throws stacked. She seems pretty healthy and not too thin, but she hasn’t eaten any of the cat food I put down for her. She does not have a collar, but my sister (who has several cats) says many people don’t put collars on their cats.

I have placed fliers in the surrounding blocks hoping that she has an owner who is looking for her and I called the humane society and the nearby pet’s office in case someone calls in looking for her. If no one comes looking for her, I will try to find her a cat person’s home to go to; but, failing that, I may have just added a new member to my family. A cat really isn’t in my life plan, but sometimes one just has to suck it up and do what one feels is the right thing. Leaving this poor little thing out in the rain was not an option, and turning it over to the humane shelter is not one either, because it is a kill shelter. There is a local cat adoption/rescue organization around that I may call, but I’d be willing to bet that it is full to the brim. So, I will try to find an alternate situation for the cat; but, unless it is a safe place where the cat is wanted, I guess it will remain here. She is sweet, loves to be stroked, petted and held, but bites a little (not in a mean-spirited way though, just kind of playfully).

If there are any cat people out there who are experienced in how to help a cat overcome a fear of dogs, any advice would be appreciated.  

*edit*  Well, my sister and her boyfriend stopped by and my she is a he.  Duh.  Sometimes, these things are hard to find. 

Last Sunday’s early morning romp with Asha was at Gage Park.  It was a beautiful morning. More pictures may be seen here.

The playground in a local park is filled with fun creatures made of cement. Yesterday, on my early morning jaunt with Asha and a friend, I took some photos at this playground. The rest of the photos may be seen here.

I did a couple more quick watercolor studies yesterday. The first one is of Asha and is postcard sized (4×6). The second one is ATC sized (2.5×3.5).

I finally finished a hand drawn postcard for someone I agreed to trade with a month or two ago.  It is done with watercolor pencils on watercolor paper.  The scan turned out a little rougher looking than it looks like in person; but, you get the idea.  It felt good to do a little drawing. 

It was a week ago today in the evening that I managed to get myself to the hospital emergency room in extreme pain and vomiting violently. I spent another five hours of lying on the bathroom floor of the ER waiting room and I am sure I totally grossed out the other ER patients who were waiting to get help by forcing them to listen to my awful wretching. Finally, I got in and, after they tried and failed multiple times to get an IV into me they gave me a shot of morphine and something to ease the vomiting. I was admitted to the hospital at around 2 in the morning and at 9 am I was in the operating room having my gallbladder removed. As it turns out, I was lucky, because my gallbladder was infected and ready to burst. If it had burst, I’d probably still be in the hospital now with weeks of care ahead of me. My, what a painful ordeal. Happily, now the offending organ is gone, I feel only a minor amount of pain and fatique from the procedure, and I am taking it easy at home for another week or so.

I must say that emergency room staff must be the most blasé people on the face of the earth. What an awful place to have to be when you need the most help.

Today, Asha and I went on an off leash romp at the Kansas Historical Museum; or, actually, the trails around the museum. We were joined my our buddy Matt. I have to give Matt credit for getting up early on a Sunday morning so that he could meet us at 7 am for our adventure. He also took me to lunch today to celebrate my 50th birthday. More pictures of our adventure may be viewed here:

http://pics.livejournal.com/couchart/gallery/0007rp7b

When I am at work, I usually have National Public Radio playing in my office. Since NPR is mostly news and classical music, it doesn’t usually distract me from concentrating. Yesterday afternoon, I found myself  roused from the details of my stock holdings table by sounds that invited me to what I can only describe as…life. I found myself mesmerized by the piece I was hearing and found myself moving in my chair. After the piece finished I went to the radio station’s playlist on the Internet to find the music. It was Boccherini’s Quintet No. 4 in D Major, G. 448 “Fandango.” This music haunted me all day and so, when I was at home last night I found a version of it on iTunes and downloaded it. Not being a wordsmith, I cannot adequately describe this music, how evocative it is, how joyful, how quixotic. All I can say is that it makes me wish with all my heart that I were a dancer. But I AM a dancer in the confines of my own living room and, if you were a fly on the wall, you would see a heavy-set woman. totally lacking in grace, pirouetting, clacking invisible castinettes and leaping to the best of her limited abilities.  How wonderful to be introduced to something so joy-producing in the middle of a long work afternoon, after a long week of working late nights. How I LOVE art, whether it be sound, images or thoughts. It can make me feel that life is totally worthwhile. This piece of music makes me feel joy. I don’t know about anyone else; but, I can’t knock joy.

Over the past few months, I have been purchasing pieces of art off of ebay. It takes a while to sort through all that is out there, but whenever I take the time to do it, I invariably come across some little gem of a piece that I would love to have. I really like the idea of supporting other artists directly, the ones who don’t go through the gallery system to sell their work. I don’t need a gallery to tell me what is good or important art, or to take a big chunk of my money while doing so. I have purchased pieces from galleries; but, I really would prefer to deal directly with the artist. The Internet makes doing so easy, for which I am glad. If you want to see some of my recent purchases, follow me.

 I decided to start doing some straight painting again, and by that I mean to use only brush, paint and canvas.  Although I have always preferred oil paints to acrylics, I am not set up to do oil painting right now and I am not sure I could tolerate the requisite exposure to toxic substances like I used to do. So, since I have a few tubes of acrylic paint around, I decided to give them a shot. I am not enthralled with the results in this piece; but, as the intent was just to get back into the practice of using strictly brushes to paint, it got me started towards that goal. This piece is 4 inches by 6 inches in size.

For many years now there is a movement of sorts here in Kansas called the “Rails to Trails” initiative. The idea is to take abandoned railroad pathways and convert them into nature trails where people can walk, bicycle and ride horses. In the newspaper last week, I saw that a new section had opened up near Topeka called “The Landon Trail,” so I decided to take Asha out at first light yesterday morning and check it out. During the work week, Asha and I do two walks a day, once at around 6 am before it is light and another when I get home from work. Because it is usually dark out and I also don’t have as much time, we confine these walks to our own neighborhood during the week. Although the neigborhood we live in is a very pleasant walking neighborhood, a full week of twice daily walks in it do get a bit boring. On the weekends, I like to take Asha to some off the beaten track where I can let her off leash and she can run, zoom and explore the environs. 

Our trek yesterday morning was fun, although parts of it were still pretty icy, which made for some slipping and unsteady walking. The coolest part of it was that a very large number of what I think were geese were holding some sort of convention in a field next to the trail. We stood for a long time and watched as more and more geese came from afar, drifted and soared, circling the field and then slowly descended onto the field, completely still until they were a few feet above the ground when they would slightly flap their wings to slow themselves into a very easy landing. How graceful their flights were and how wonderful it was to see this from so close a perspective. As one group circled directly over our heads, I could hear the the sound of their wings. It was such a treat and I was so very glad we were there.

More pictures may be seen here.  I love my weekend treks with Asha.

I took my doodled mutant birds and made them into artistamps. Of course my issuing authority could only be “Poste Ashaz.” Asha is Postmaster General.

There must be a convention in town. On our pre-dawn walk this morning, Asha and I saw seventeen snowmen!  That’s a lot of snowmen. We had a big snow on Saturday night. On Sunday morning I took Asha to a big park nearby and she got to run around in the deep, fluffy snow. She kept looking for things to chase; but, it seems that all the wild critters were snug in their holes, dens or whatever else they call home. Asha would stick her nose under a bush and come back up with her face covered in snow. Too bad I didn’t take my camera with me as it would have been nice to get some pictures of Asha frolicking. I took a hard fall onto my knee and nearly took several more (wild flailing that must have been amusing to any onlookers). One of the things about getting older is that falls and knocks are harder to take than when one is young. I know that this is only going to get worse as time goes on. 

I watched a movie, “The Libertine,” which I found rather interesting. It had some very good performances by the cast, the music was excellent and I liked the cinematography (although it has been panned by some critics). It was definitely not a “feel good” movie, in fact, it was quite depressing really; but, I don’t mind that in a film at all. 

I did some doodling today with a graphite pencil.  I think I ended up with what can only be called “mutant birds.”