Deep Breaths

Well, we're managing, here. Katie seems better and then seems worse. She's made a concerted effort to try and swim and play during the day, but the truth is that it just wears her out. She's never been a kid for sitting around, and now she's just too tired to do her normal stuff.

On the up side, the tests all came back negative--that means no Valley Fever, no mono, no lupus, no thyroid problems, no diabetes--but on the down side, that means we go on to a specialist for the next round of tests.

I'm hoping for what Kelly M suggested--just some virus that hangs on for a while and then disappears into the sunset.

I've been out in the studio this morning, done a little bit of work. Nothing's finished, so I won't post it. Katie scolded me this weekend for not doing as much work on canvas lately.

Some New Work

Out in the studio again today--Katie's slept almost 19 of the last 24 hours, and seems perkier. She asked me, "Do you think I can get better by just deciding to?" and I said, "I believe you can do anything."

I've been working more with old photos, and used a tutorial by Malgorata Maj (who does these AMAZING photos--see her link in the sidebar) to work on this one. I don't like the red background, I don't think, but couldn't find anything more appropriate.

Illustration Friday Moon

Ever after that night when his pipes wailed down the mountain side, for time out of mind, a slivered moon hanging in the bronzed fall sky was known as a piper's moon...

Oh No

Katie's sick. She had the same sort of symptoms about a year and a half ago--extreme fatigue, muscle weakness, lethargy--they did tests then, never found anything, and after ~2 months, she gradually felt better and so we dropped it.

She's felt crummy now for maybe three or four weeks--not awful, just not great. I attributed it to staying up too late and to the surge of hormones that happens when you're twelve and a half. Took her in to the doctor today because I was worried--she was staying home and laying around instead of doing fun things. They took EIGHT vials of blood out of her, and are going to test for Valley Fever, Mono, Lupus, thyroid disorder, and who knows what else. So I'm a little worried. Doctor said most results would be available by tomorrow, and that he would probably refer her on to an infectious disease specialist if nothing specific came out of the tests.

So...be thinking of Katie, if you would...

Illustration Friday Poem

A young boy watches, enthralled with the magic of a nest that holds four green eggs. He anticipates the hatching of the eggs, until...

Playing with Photoshop

I've long been a believer that we learn best by playing--look how easily babies learn to walk and talk! I've been playing with Photoshop for the last year or so--reading, asking questions to my VERY PATIENT BEST FRIEND KELLY JO, and playing.

Today I haven't felt good--my ear aches (I'm going to the doctor tomorrow) and I feel yukky--but I escaped to the studio and played with some photos. This is the only piece that seems finished, so I thought I'd share both the original photograph (Katie and her friend at Halloween) and the tweaked version. Posting on my blog is the grown-up equivalent of sticking something to the refrigerator--looky here!

Lazy

I don't feel as though I've been getting much accomplished, tho I'm sure if I made a list, I'd find I've done a lot. I fixed the fountain under the kitchen sink, today, since the plumber we called on Friday hadn't yet called back. I was tired of not being able to use the sink...

And I designed a blog for Jessica, which you can see HERE if you'd like.

This afternoon I cleaned the studio some--Katie helped and probably did more work than I did. I found a stack of old photos, all doubles, and decided to play a little bit. These were altered using some of Karen Michel's techniques. I rinsed the photo (to soften the emulsion), then used sandpaper to scratch some of the emulsion off. Rinse, dry, and then work in some oil pastels--I use the cheap Crayola Portfolio ones. Sometimes I stamp on these, or glue something down on top of them. But aren't they purty just the way they are? I love the colors, and it's especially nice since these were doubles of poorly exposed pictures of Yosemite--just sitting in a drawer waiting for something to happen to them.

I have an earache, can you imagine? So it's off to the house for me--hopefully an early bedtime...

The Beach Boys

Last night we went to a retirement party for the superintendent and the associate superintendent of Richard's school district. As usual, I didn't necessarily want to go, since Katie was just getting back from her week at the beach and the party was at a casino down in the valley, ~ 1 hour away. But I went, because I like and respect these people.

We had a great dinner, and then went outside to see The Beach Boys perform, and OH MY! They were absolutely wonderful. Such great energy and fun music! Two of the original BB performed--and John Stamos showed up to play with them, as well as Dean Torrence from Jan and Dean--

These words are not doing the whole thing justice--the weather was perfect--cool breeze and not 113 degrees like it was last week. But it's more than any one thing.

I smiled through the whole concert. To quote the Beach Boys, it was FUN, FUN, FUN.

Illustration Friday Discovery

She always dreamed of endless staircases. They arose from nowhere, reaching starkly into the sky. She had no choice but to climb them.

Finished my 'zine

I've been working on a little 'zine for the last week or so. I've been thinking about meshing my writing with my art for some time, and I've finally gotten around to doing it.

The 'zine is called "Didn't I Tell You?" and is a single sheet of paper, bound into an 8 page booklet, and features six original 'story collages.'

If you're interested, you can purchase it using the paypal button on the left. Cost is $3.00 and shipping is free--

Experiments

I promised I'd share some of my digital experiments--my new digital montages/collages aren't done, but I want to show you what a scanner can do!

Flatbed scanners come in two types. If you have a scanner with a CCD photo cell, then you can use your scanner as a camera to take very detailed, well-lit pictures of three dimensional object up to an inch or two in depth! If you're like me and you don't have your scanner instruction booklet handy, you can just experiment like I did. One of my two scanners works, one doesn't.

I laid a bunch of seashells down on the scanner glass, left the lid open, and scanned at 600 dpi. All the scans came out with a nice black background since the scanner light didn't shine all the way to my ceiling. There's no need to put the scanner lid down.

The smaller of the two pictures is the original scan, reduced quite a bit detail so that I could post it here. The one with the blue background is my cleaned up, masked version. I also down-sized this one--the original is incredibly high quality!

What will I use these for? I'll use them in a photomontage, someday, probably. I've been scanning all the 3d objects I can think of, including some ceramic Easter bunnies, some small carved wooden animals, vegetables, dolls, and rusty nails/washers/etc. I found one site where they catch dragonflies, refrigerate them so they don't move, scan them, and then let them go after they've warmed to room temperature!

Some galleries:
Photovinc
Photographical.net

and some articles:
Photogalaxy
Carl McMillan
X-bit Labs

Illustration Friday Geeky

Frank always felt, well, different from the other kids. He never could quite put his finger on it, but he never felt like he fit in. They called him 'Geeky Beeky,' and he felt sad...

Oh My It's HOT

And if I could add little animated flames, I would!

Richard checked the temperature this afternoon and it was over 110 degrees. I won't even tell you what the thermometer actually read, because it's too ridiculous.

Of course, the old air conditioner in the studio stopped working two days ago. And of course, every new one we looked at needed a larger opening than the old one. We got an inexpensive new one, and the Two Stooges installed it this afternoon. We had to cut the drywall, cut the stud, and cut the siding. And of course, we did not have the right tools, BECAUSE WE ARE THE TWO STOOGES. But it's done, and the studio is gradually cooling down, and my computer didn't fry...

Katie leaves early tomorrow morning for the annual trip to the beach with her friend's family, so she'll miss the heat here. She's packing jeans and jackets along with shorts. Joel, on the other hand, has baseball practice tonight for the All-Star team, and a tournament this weekend in the blistering heat--it's supposed to get hotter during the next three days. He got sick after catching most of a doubleheader on Monday night, so we're trying to make sure he's well-hydrated.

I'm working on some new digital pieces as well as continuing to try and paint faces. I've also been experimenting with using my scanner as a camera, scanning 3-D objects and taking advantage of the incredible light and focus for about an inch or so.

I'll post some of the experiments tomorrow.

Goodbye Jessie

Jessie, our sweet, smart little black dog, died unexpectedly last night. We've no idea what happened; it appears that she just laid down on the grass and went to sleep. Joel and Richard found her when they got home from baseball last night. We're all heartbroken.

This picture is a good one. Jessie was a one-ear-up-one-ear-down kind of dog. When the kids were littler we used to call her our circus dog, since she was so smart and sociable and funny and brave. She's the one who was torn up so badly by our neighbor's two vicious German Shepherds several years ago. She had four Penrose drains stitched into her for six weeks--lots of stitches for an eleven pound dog! But she survived and continued to charm everyone she met until the very end.

I know there are worse ways to go than to curl up on the lawn in front of the home you love and go to sleep forever, but we will certainly miss her.