A Piece of Artwork for my own Prickly Shell...

Well, Boy is gone for the week. He left at 6:45 with Dad, who was going to drop him off at the school. He talked on the phone last night for at least an hour and a half with The Girl Who Is Not a Girlfriend, Mom, We're Just Really Good Friends and That's All (hereafter referred to as TGWINAGMWJRGFATA--well, maybe not). She was number thirteen on the grades list, apparently, and isn't getting to go on the trip.

When I taught art in his class last week, the kids were going to do a first text/texture layer on their canvasses, so we took five of my pieces to show them the concept of creating texture with background text and with tissue paper. Boy went to his room and brought out this piece I did for him when he moved into the guest room. The big text at the top means approximately "Forever 13" and hidden at the bottom are the words "future" and "one hundred years to live" (as in the song).

I don't need to explain the prickly shell, right?

Amazingly Enough...

I actually did get some heavy duty housework done today! I cleaned out and defrosted the freezer after grocery shopping. Katie and I spent about an hour cleaning out the garage (which has turned into a disaster zone since I built my studio) and I thoroughly cleaned the big throw rug from Joel's room. Cleaned up kitchen and did four loads of laundry, too. Woo Hoo!

Took Joel shopping to get the stuff on his list for the desert field trip--that was pricey, but Katie and Jenny will be using the same stuff when their turns come. It was nice to go down to town with just the two of us. On the way down we argued for about fifteen of the twenty minutes it takes to make the drive--mostly him asking 'why won't you buy me (fill in the blank)' and me responding 'I wouldn't buy you (fill in the blank) even if I had the extra money, which I don't'. I'm a very unfair mom, not very generous or understanding, I guess. I'm really trying to teach them that life is not about STUFF, but I guess that's not what he wants to hear at fourteen years old. Five years ago this was not an issue for him--who'd have guessed he'd change so much? Once I told him I wasn't going to discuss it any more, things got lots better. We had a nice time, and even went and had a soda and a burger at McDonald's after we were done(don't scold too hard, Housewife, I know it's bad for us, but it was nice to just hang out with him.)

Turned hot here today (95 degrees!) so I jumped in the pool--it's still take-my-breath-away cold since the nights have been so cold here this spring.

Hubby took kids to the rodeo that's here in our little town. It's a big event, and somehow it's turned into a tradition for him to take the kids and for me to stay home alone. I'm not complaining, as it's hot and sweaty and dusty at the rodeo. The kids like it that it's something special they do with him.

I'm going to go and make myself a hot cuppa tea and then sit and read until everyone gets home. I already fed the Phoenix the goat his bottle, so I can just relax.

Boo Hoo

To add to the already difficult week, hubby's truck croaked, at least temporarily, on Wednesday, so my trip next week is off.

What trip next week, you say? Well, let me tell you.

At our school we have many wonderful teachers, including an amazing 6th/7th/8th grade science teacher. Every spring, a two-year-long competition culminates in a trip to a research station in the desert. The students who have the top twelve science grades for 7th and 8th grade, cumulative, get to go on this week-long trip, full of hiking and learning and fun. And, of course, some lucky parents get to drive and chaperone on this trip. I've wanted to go for years; Joel is my first eighth grader, and he is getting to go! And, hooray, teacher needed someone to drive a car full of kids and stay for the first two days, as the mom who had promised to go can't be there till Tuesday night.

But, alas, we are (temporarily) a one-car family, and as hubby has a job interview with one school district on Monday afternoon and meets with the school board of another district Monday night, I am grounded. I'm okay with it, though a little bit disappointed. Nothing like sweating in the desert with a bunch of hormonal teenagers to make my week (I'm serious there. I love kids and learning and outdoors, and this would have combined it all). The upside to this is that it solves the problem of how to juggle the girls, and hopefully I'll get to go with one of them when it's their turn.

Joel, of course, is thrilled. He didn't want me to go in the first place. I'm embarassing. (That is my job at this point in his life. I know that. But it's hard not to be his very favorite person anymore. Of course, he's still one of MY favorite people, and I guess that's all that matters.)

So next week I will be a VERY VERY VERY stay-at-home mother of two instead of three. Hopefully I can do some heavy duty housework (ha! not likely) and make some cool art. I sold a painting today, so that's always exciting. I also made some very cool pillow shams for Katie's Euro pillows in her bedroom. I'm on a roll.

I've been checking out all the link lists on my favorite blogs and have realized I need to update my own linklists. So much good writing out there, so many nice and interesting people!

Illustration Friday: Remember

The little girl is my mom, circa 1930. This is one of a series of heirloom collages I did for people. The text reads

find your way, little girl
find your way through the past
to me, here, today

The dictionary page highlights "inventive," "intuitive," and "invaluable" and I included a page from a Catholic hymnal as she attended Catholic school from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

I think about her every day and miss her lots.

Finally, Some Work

It's been a kinda tough week around here. I ran out of my Zoloft prescription last week on Thursday, and what with one thing and another didn't make the long drive to town until Saturday morning, only to find the pharmacy closed, even though the sign and the automatic refill answering machine said they'd be open. So I assumed they'd be closed on Sunday, too, and didn't get my medication until Monday morning. By that time I was not functioning all that well. I boo-hooed at least three times Monday morning alone.

But I'm feeling better now and actually got out in the studio to play. The little portrait is an experiment and not finished, and the postcard is just one in a long line of, well, postcards.

An Update on the Goats

I knew you were all waiting to see more of the goats...

Illustration Friday: Polar

These seem to get tougher every week! Took awhile for me to get polar bears out of my head and think of polar graphs and coordinates.

School Art Show

This year I'm the 'visiting artist' for two classes up at the school. The eighth graders are doing collages--first on kraft cardstock and then (next week) they're each going to do a collage on canvas. I was trying to figure out how to mount the cardstock collages and I think that I'm going to use this method. I mounted these 4x6 collages onto black cardstock--it's simple, not too expensive, and I think it sets off the artwork.

I'm working on a more abstract canvas for Katie's room using the same method of printing and then over printing that I used for these pieces. This is a very fun way to work, very intuitive and playful. The only problem I have is pushing past the "what if I ruin it?" stage--I keep reminding myself that I can't ruin it--after all, I can just paint it all white and start over!

Couldn't Sleep

I couldn't sleep last night; probably a combination of coffee, stray dog in the yard, big puppy on the bed, and hubby gone on business... but I did a lot of thinking about the tragedy at Virginia Tech while I lay there in the dark.

Pissed Off Housewife says to not have the knee-jerk reaction of 'we need stricter gun laws.' I agree in the respect that gun laws will never, could never, would never prevent this type of tragedy. The shootings that happened in the classrooms at Virginia Tech were premeditated; no one has that much firepower on their person without planning to do a lot of shooting.

For me, though, lying awake in bed last night, yesterday brings up a much, much bigger issue than gun laws. Where are we as a society when someone has such a huge void inside them that they must kill others and themselves in an attempt to fill it? Where does such despair and rage come from? If this were a completely isolated incident I could attribute it to one very messed up individual, but this has happened regularly enough that I have to look to our society. I think perhaps we all have a hole somewhere inside that needs to be filled; that each of us fills that hole with something different--religion or food or drugs or sex or work or mindless activity...but that for some people the emptiness inside is simply too big to be filled.

In one of his books, Daniel Quinn makes the analogy of the frog and the pot of boiling water: if you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water he will jump right out, but if you drop the frog into cool water and gradually raise the temperature to boiling the frog will simply float blissfully until the last moment, when of course if is too late.

Is the water finally boiling? Is that why we seem to see tragedies like yesterday's more and more often?

I don't believe legislation could ever solve the problem that causes this type of massacre, because I believe that this is bigger than any law could ever be.

What happened yesterday really doesn't have to do with guns...

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As far as guns go, I'll be honest and say I don't like them. I know how to shoot a gun. I've been hunting. I eat meat. I have seen exactly what a gun does to a living thing--and I still eat meat. This is not a protest against hunting. My dad was a hunter and owned guns all while I was growing up. He still owns guns, as do most of the people in the community where I now live. My children have participated in shooting sports through the local 4H. I believe absolutely in the right to own a gun, though I don't believe I will ever have one in my home because I don't like guns.

But--while I don't for a moment think that stricter gun laws could have prevented this tragedy, I do believe in strict gun laws, and here's why.

The first reason has to do with impulsive behavior and human emotion. An angry person should not be able to run out and purchase a gun. Yes, yes, I understand that regardless of gun laws, someone who REALLY wants a gun will find one--my point is that it shouldn't necessarily be easy.

The second reason has to do with education. No one should own a gun unless they know EXACTLY what the gun is capable of when it is used on a living thing. Two hundred years ago when our constitution gave us the right to bear arms, everyone in this country knew what happened when a bullet was fired into living flesh because people killed their own food. I remember the first time I saw my dad shoot a partridge: it was standing in a clearing in the forest. In my memory the sun was shining, the gun fired, and my world changed. I believe that many people who have a gun in their home don't truly understand what it will do. When I see a news article about one child accidentally shooting another, I think 'there are parents who do not understand what a gun does.' Again, I hear some of you saying that not everyone would follow a law requiring gun education classes. That's true, but many would follow the law.

Let me reiterate: I believe in the right to own a gun, but I also believe in gun laws, even though they would not have prevented yesterday's tragedy.

Illustration Friday: Fortune

Dug out this old scrapbook I bought last year at a second-hand shop--had some great photobooth-type pix and other ephemera. This girl looks to me to be on the brink of something big! I hope all her dreams came true and good fortune came her way...

Made this last week--not really sure if it's done, but it's been sitting on the mantel in the house and I like the look.

Today I have to work on the pool--we took the cover off yesterday and partially drained it, and it needs some attention! Whoever thought putting a pool underneath an oak tree was a good idea should be shot.

Illustration Friday: Green

Spent some time last evening messing around with digital watercolors and made this lovely green experimental piece--when I came out to the studio this morning, the computer had evidently hiccuped during the night, as it was GONE.

Here's another. This one is digital from the get-go. Usually I start with a scan of one of my collage backgrounds--not today!

Today I want to work some more on the PS book by Katrin Eismann...

Stooge Number One Says Hooray!

finally got the internet hooked back up in the studio, so it's easier to get online while I'm working.

When hubby mowed backyard last week I had to disconnect the L-O-N-G extension ethernet cable that I had running from the house to the studio (yes, I really have had an ethernet cable coming from under my house, across the back porch sidewalk, through the grass, down the hill, to the studio, and to grandmother's house we go. I am not joking when I mention stooges.)

Of course, once I was disconnected and thoroughly itchy from wading through the stinging nettles, I couldn't reconnect until mowing was done. And of course, then the mower ran out of gas. THEN I thought, 'well, since it's all disconnected, I'll run a PVC pipe under the sidewalk and then bury the cable like I originally intended. After all, how hard can it be?' (You should be hearing ominous music playing in the background at this point.)

I've seen them put PVC pipe under sidewalks on those home improvement shows: "And we'll just blast the hose under there to make room for the pipe; yes, now we'll slide the pipe through, and Bob's your uncle, we're all done!" I am here to tell you that IT IS NOT THAT EASY. They don't show all the mud spattering wildly back at the person holding the hose (that would be stooge #1, since stooge #2 is laying on the couch inside watching sportscenter at this point), or the immense surge of backed up water engulfing stooge #1 (see above), or the PVC pipe getting STUCK, or stooge #1 trying to figure out how to unplug the pipe once it's through but full of grit and stones... The list goes on and on. Bob Vila I am not.

But--

I'm back online and can happily paint and blog in my studio! so the story has a happy ending.

I've been tagged

I've been tagged by Housewife.

What are five things that give you physical pleasure?
1. A really hot bath
2. Clean sheets on the bed
3. Ice water when I'm really thirsty
4. That wonderful radiant heat from a fire on a cold night
5. Snuggling with all my kids in the morning in bed

What are five things that make you immediately angry?
1. People who belittle others
2. People with vicious dogs (there's more to this one)
3. People who defend their own incompetence
4. People who habitually lie
5. People who have their own personal agenda and don't care what they have to do to see it come to fruition.

What are five things that make you automatically happy?
1. Smell of old-fashioned roses, lilacs, orange blossoms, paperwhites and gardenias.
2. Real hugs from my kids
3. Reading something that's really well-written
4. Walking on the beach
5. Being completely absorbed by art in the studio

What are five things that make you automatically sad?
1. Lonely people
2. When I snap at my kids or hubby
3. Kids hurting other kids' feelings
4. Seeing someone who's given up
5. Hopelessness

I'm tagging Tammy, Kelly, Katie, Rosie and Joel.

What are five things that give you pleasure, make you happy, angry, and sad?