Into the New

Celebrations 'round the world for the end of a year/decade thus welcoming the new, the unknown, the upcoming.

I want to go further in the art than I have done before. Having my first show under my belt has helped give me a few more ideas to work on, things to expand on and things that I can continue to work on for myself.

The zombie sheep caught people off guard, made them pause, made them laugh, and gave me a whole new perspective on these little baaa-uugggers.

My drip/splatter paintings were received in a different way. Several people stopped to comment on them, to admire and question and encourage me to do this or that with them. I am calm and at peace with these. If they sell or if they show, I don't care. I create them because it's what I feel when I'm creating. These paintings are what comes from my visions and ideas. These paintings tell their own stories and invite you to touch them to feel each line as it was laid down across the canvas. These paintings are my art.

May the new experiences in the coming year give me better understanding of the business side of making art work for me, give me more opportunities to create them and promote them, and find the audience they are fit to receive.

As for the zombie sheep, well, they'll be branching out on their own soon enough, given their own space to roam with a website and probably t-shirts.

Writing will keep me busy as I work for one company and develop my fiction writing skills in another. Words will continue to flow, gracefully or not, but they will pour forth and return to me as complete structured sentences. And, you know, better paychecks. Hopefully with a novel under my own moniker...

Here's to the new, here's to the unknown, here's to the possibilities. Let's celebrate and create about it.

Would YOU wear a shirt with this on it?

This is one version of the sneaky Zombie Sheep. They will eat you and convert you to their nefarious Zombie Sheep ways. Suddenly you will find yourself looking over your shoulder and laughing at sheep in a whole new way.

So to further promote awareness - we'd like to share the warning of "Don't Blink!" with as many people as possible. Would YOU wear a shirt with this on it?

a little bit o' the crazy

Partly expression, partly depression, partly wondering (aloud and in my head) what I'm doing.

The ideas and the other websites are going, slowly, but going. I'm impatient, I want it done now! But suddenly my neck launched into an allergy attack that has had me clawing at the sensitive skin for nearly two weeks. Am ever so thankful for homeopathic medicine and the wonder of the human body. Still haven't figured out what I got into, but my neck looks less like a rabid raccoon has attacked and more like I have a really bad sunburn. Still, ick.

Rob is coming in for Thanksgiving, and thus we will be spending as much time as possible together, and when we're not kissing we'll try to work on the Ride & Rub stuff.

I need to get back to writing for real, it's been too long. So, that's a plan too.

But for now - Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for family & friends & that I can finally see Rob again!

new horizons

Rob & I are working on a couple of projects together, and both can be found --> over there under my profile. Technically we're not ready to launch completely, but we're working on them.

Holidays are looming and work is crazy. So, you know, normal stress levels. We're all trying to balance a few things out with this much going on, but I'm excited for the direction we're headed in, so yea!

Leave a note, here, or over on Bunnyfly alley, or the motorcycle & massage spot and let us know what you think as we go along!

this title is yet to be determined

Here I go again, trying to type in a title for a post I'm barely beginning to formulate.

I don't work that way. I should know this by now. Really. I should.

It's one of those things, that my brain starts somewhere in the middle, or the end, and works backwards or outwards or whatever, filling in the puzzle gaps along the way. All those writing assignments in school where we had to turn in a title and outline and synopsis like weeks before the actual writing thingy was due - well, that sucked for me, because I never had a title until I was done. More often, after the reprimands & bad grades for "not completing work on time", I just made shit up. Whatever, it worked to appease the teacher who wanted a title & outline on her desk by a certain day. I figured out it didn't really matter if I changed it later after the real stuff was written.

That's how I do things. It's how I roll, baby.

That has very little to do with what I want to write about, though.

Today is the day the world holds a collective breath to see who is going to be head stormtrooper, puppet, poombah of these United States. Lots o' hype leading up to this circus, we're all tired of it.

I voted for Obama/Biden. Do I need to explain? No. I don't need to. I'll spare the stuff that you don't need to know about me or care about anyway and just say that I want to be able to look forward, not backward. I believe every person on this earth has a right to love and be loved, no matter their skin color or sexuality. I believe that women deserve far better in so many situations and am thankful a man like Joe Biden has stood up for those rights. I believe the man that Barack Obama is shines through in the way he treats his wife and family over the rest of the political dancing. The things like taxes and the war and the 'promises' do not matter as much to me as the ability to keep calm, make decisions based on how they will affect his own family as well as others instead of the quick-temper reaction that does more harm than good, a quick-temper reaction that I know all too well in my family.

I'm ready for the hope to move forward and make changes.

Personally.

Not just as a nation.

Personally.

So I bought (at least I think I did, it takes '24 hours to process') a domain name. But it's not the name we wanted, because the one we wanted is already taken by someone else. grumble. We're creating ideas & developing these lil' guys and their stories and having fun, and we want to share this with others.

But I know enough basic html to make a mess, and I'm good at picking and gleaning from other codes to figure a few things out, now I'm freaking out over the "How the hell do other people do this web building stuff?". Because I'm hard-headed (no kidding, really?) and I want to figure it out and do it on my own. Because I figure I'm capable and should know how to do this, so why don't I?

I also jumped on the NaNoWriMo bandwagon again this year after not doing it last year (something about driving back & forth from Florida & no regular internet connection & job hunting being a priority at the time, but whatever. excuses, excuses). I have maybe 600 words towards that 80k total by the end of November, and I'm using it as a chance to push myself and develop a few things.

One is the bunnyflies stories with Rob. One is the command of customer service stuff with Amber. One is an article on the boot camps that daddy & Papa Earl do for the museum. One is a piece of fiction that has been rolling around for awhile.

The best advice for NaNoWriMo is to just write - clean it up and edit later, like in December. So what if I'm using four different things to gain that word count, I'm trying to make it happen and learn about myself as a writer along the way.

There will always be some level of crazy going on. Election or not. Economy or not. Seasonal or not. Relationship or not. But I still have words to put to paper, I still have things I jump into the middle of and feel my way out of. And I'm looking forward to the day I can show off my stuff and be proud of it, because I learned something along the way to making it happen.

Zombies. And line breaking. And Asparagus.

In the weirder than normal department of my dreamscape, I woke up, heart pounding & pulse racing in the middle of the night the other night from a dream/nightmare about, well, zombies. And vampires. And a few other crazy horror movie leftovers just for kicks. It was odd. To say the least. (Odder still that I turned on the tv today to find "Shaun of the Dead", and then moving on from that put in a dvd to watch and one of the pre-view trailers was for some cowboy western 'undead' movie. Three references. Means: pay attention!)

It involved running, lots of it. It involved looking for my cellphone, finding a mini-flashlight, because you know, those do come in handy in the dark and all that, but they do not come in so handy with the fending off the undead the same way those huge hefty maglights do.

It also involved me fairly actively searching for solutions, answers, ways out, as I was aware enough it was a dream & I was trying to figure things out while in the middle of it. Doesn't mean it didn't freak me out though - I woke up and called Rob just trying to calm down. While walking back through it, going over all the parts I could remember - what I was doing, why, where, what I was wearing, etc... it posed that I've got some issues I need to get fixed pretty damn quick. For my own sanity. And apparently for my own health, with wanting to not have the life sucked out of me and all. I totally know what it represents. I totally understand that I think finding my cellphone is important, because it's like a life line. I am totally thankful that zombies don't move all that swift so that I can run off. And I'm totally wearing running shoes a helluva lot more often.

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If you haven't clicked away by now, well, then you really need to go find better reading material. Seriously. There are way better bloggers and writers out here. Some even get paid for it, so you know they're good. I just yammer a bit here and there, and even this is falling to the wayside sometimes. The writing I do for work is taking all my good words and decent thinking away, I haven't even written any good short stories in months. Oh, wait. I haven't written any short stories in months.

I'm striving for something better. I really am. I've rearranged furniture and cleared working space (sort of. it's amazing how fast it fills up again) in an effort to stir up the creative energy. I'm waiting to see how much of it works.

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This is a shout out of love for blogspot / blogger, because I've been using them for years and it works so smoothly every time. Editing is a breeze and html is fairly easy to code. AND WHEN I HIT 'ENTER' FOR A LINE BREAK, IT EFFING WORKS! That last part, the yelling there, is because I write for another blog twice a week, that is unfortunately hosted on word press, and well, word press sucks when it comes to things like line breaks and simple coding (which, admittedly, is all I can do without accidentally making the web page go in reverse or something...).

See that! Right there!^ That is a line break! One that works!

And this - is a quick screen shot of the page I just spent the last THREE EFFING HOURS trying to get to work. There really are supposed to be separate lines there. Really. It makes me want to cry. What makes me want to cry even more? The IT people who actually do the hosting talk to me like I'm an idiot, like I've never used a computer before, like "Have you tried hitting shift + enter?" Sigh. I wonder why I bother sometimes.

No wonder I'm tired. I keep trying to do things that really don't matter to make things work for someone else. I need to be doing things that matter. And I need to be doing things that work for me.

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Which gets me onto what matters. There is some story that has been passed around, somewhere, I don't know where, but I swear I heard it before - the PR or marketing sites, I dunno. Anyway, Rob & I were chatting about the things we sign up for or get signed up for, and what we believe in. Here's what I remember of the story:

There's a guy, a very busy, dedicated guy, head of a big, fancy, money making company. Who cares what company, it doesn't matter. But he was a huge, I mean a mega-huge, supporter of "Save the Whales!" He donated time and money, did volunteer work, did what he could. Soon other organizations approached him to help them "Save the Chickens!" and "Save the Asparagus!", asking for donations and volunteer hours.

Next door is a gal, a very busy, dedicated gal, head of a different big, fancy, money making company. She volunteered and donated her time and money and resources to "Save the Whales!" as well. And soon "Save the Chickens!" and "Save the Asparagus!" came asking her for donations and volunteer hours as well.

Here's what happened. The guy said "No, thanks." The gal said "Sure." He volunteered his time to paint signs and push whales back into the ocean, he donated huge checks for nice whale watching things, and he enjoyed it. She volunteered her time to paint signs for whales and chickens and asparagus watch groups, she went to the rallies and made out checks for special feed for the chickens and rehabilitation for the asparagus and never had any time to do anything else. Her work suffered, but that's not the point. We'll pretend that her company could continue without her. But if it couldn't, it would have already failed.

She was burned out. She was tired. She was very cranky. (huh. no comment needed on this, 'kthanx.) She went next door to ask the guy how he did it.

"How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Volunteer and give without losing yourself?"

"I only volunteer and give to those things I believe in. I believe in saving whales."

"But what about the chickens and asparagus?"

"There is someone else out there to believe in those other things. It doesn't make you a bad person to only believe in one project/thing/idea, you know."

Ok. That was a really long and drawn out way of saying there are some things I do believe in ("Save the Fairies!", "Save the ice cream!", & "Save the graffiti!" have my vote) and some things I don't. There is someone else out there to believe in those things I don't. (i.e. jury duty. ugh.)

I have things I'd rather be doing and working on, but right now, I need a paycheck to live off of, so I am kinda stuck doing a few things I don't believe in. And it's in danger of sucking the life out of me. Thus the zombie reference. Duh. (Oh, as if you already hadn't figured out I was talking about work.)

So. I'm trying to bring in good creative energy. I'm trying to work on things I like. I'm trying not to throw my computer against the hearth because it's not her fault the program won't work, as is evidenced by the fact that this program DOES work. And I'm trying not to go crazy while saving the asparagus from the chickens that the whales are eating. Or some such nonsense. And I'm buying a heavy-duty, head-bashing worthy maglight to keep by my bed.

6 feet of beat up wood

He told me it originally came from Denver, he bought it from a lady selling off stuff up there a good number of years ago. He used it for several projects, repairing or putting together his own stuff. Now he & his wife are moving to a smaller place and getting rid of lots of stuff (awesome old stove, but I didn't have the $995 to pay for it...)



It has this musty oil & dirt smell that I'm hoping to work out a bit, maybe sand it down as my brother suggested, maybe work in some orange oil or beeswax to help the wood. Yes, I know, it'll just get messy again. But now it's mine & I want to clean it up a bit before going to work on it.

It's sturdy. Thank you to Momma, Daddy, Lawrence & The Gina for helping with the loading, wrist twisting, unloading, and general maneuvering of this thing today!

It was a price I was willing to pay for something with history and something that will handle what may get thrown at it. It has a grinder, a vise grip, six drawers, and a wood grip. The backboard (seen leaning against the wall in the photo above) has hooks for tools like saws and hammers, and three rows of metal screw on lids for the box full of jars - meant for screws or nuts or bolts or small nick nack things. Since I have jars full of art stuff on my bookshelves already - things like beads, copper pieces, cloth strips, brightly colored condoms, confetti, my great-grandmothers knitting needles, necklace charms, and mini-nail polish bottles - I figure this will be a good place for them all!

This work bench is not made of mdf board or a kit. This is heavy, thick, sturdy wood. I am in awe at the find and everything fell into place for me to get it. And! When we went to pick it up, there were about a dozen small blue & grey butterflies flitting about where we parked in their yard. To me, that is a good sign.

Now, well, now I have to figure out where to put it, get the wiring fixed (cause it's severely old and shredded and looks like it was made before the light bulb was invented), and then actually start using it. (hmm, I almost typed 'losing it', but that makes as much sense because I do tend to pile things on top of things and never see them again... let's try not to do that with this...)

Oh! I also have this little round thing, almost like a stool, no more than a foot across and maybe five or six inches high, with three little feet on the bottom, that I picked up at an antique store last year for 3 bucks - turns out it was an ice cream blending board from Blue Bell. Crazy. Can perch this on the work bench too!

Ok, so I like the wood. (totally not meant to be an innuendo... seriously. really. but if you actually know me, well, then... you know...)

Enough. Have also been clearing things here and there, and am now to the moving of things around part. Sorta. It's getting there. But I'm giddy at having a new (to me) work bench, and the ideas and thoughts that come from the creative freedom to think of what I want to do next!

quick stitching between the tactile and the visual

The pillows now reside in their new habitat, my dad's office at the museum, for those rare occasions anyone will actually sit still during their meetings in his office.

I've made one for Rob and sent it to him, as a hug across the miles. He seems to enjoy having it tucked behind his head while reading! The tye-dye green/red one I'm keeping here and have used it to tuck under my knees when working (as I tend to work on the floor while at home, you know, all spread out, things everywhere).

Amongst my twitter wanderings and stalkings I found this diy on figure making via this guy from his comment to someone else and I decided to follow him. Can I say I'm not alone in this networking and commentary that is the twitter-verse? I've found some great and inspiring blogs and writers, artists and industrialists.

And so that diy link up there ^, well, that rattled my creative juices a bit in the direction I think I may be going.

Oddly vague, I know. But until I get the feel the way I want it, I feel that sharing will be ...

....

oops.... things going on again! (good distraction there, huh?!) Gotta run, don't wanna just save as draft because who knows when I'll finish. so - art ideas with pillows and vinyl figures, and I'm writing again - for reals - and it feels soooo good. I'll get to that later when I do have time.

..... the phone again, gotta run!

making marks

I'm looking into more options in the realm of art - one includes engraving, but I'm not as sure of how steady my hand would be. Now doing the carving into wood is one thing, I go with the flow of the grain and let it happen - so goofs or not, it turns out pretty anyway.

But polished stuff, like these guys at corporate plaques, well - there's a reason they do what they do and I do what I do, I think. I mean, they have the shiny tools to make precise and clean cuts and designs.

So, methinks, that maybe way down the road, you know someday after I get around to learning glassblowing and such, then I might brush up on working with metals...

(p.s. that company is giving away freebies, if you're interested - Customized Engraving, 'cause I don't mind helping promote someone else with a bit'o'marketing.)

two weeks later than before

I'm going to try to catch up a bit here, it's been a bit crazy for me these past two weeks, and I realize that if I don't at least attempt to catch up now, it'll probably never happen.

Let's see, after many goodbye kisses and leaving a handful of notes for Rob in the apartment, I left Jacksonville at 9am on Wed, March 26th.


I made decent time across Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana into Texas - down to Galveston to stay with my parents on the beach - altogether a 15 hour drive, about 848 miles. I was tired, but it was sooo nice to see my parents after nearly three months.

I went to lunch with Momma on Thursday, we wandered the square for a little bit, getting ideas and looking at all the pretties. Then I went to a job interview for a marketing position with a rally - I was impressed, I liked the position and was very inspired by even having an interview! He offered me the position, if we could move to Galveston, and let me tell you, after nearly five months of job hunting, that felt nice!


Since Daddy was in town for the TAM meetings, I tagged along to the museum tours that night with them. Texas Seaport Museum - where they handed us bags of popcorn and cups of Shiner! That alone made it nice to be back in Texas! -



Then to the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Museum - seeing the difference in drilling out there in the gulf compared to the drilling out here in the dirt.

Last stop was the Lone Star Flight Museum, after the bus driver took us over the bridge into Houston and back again, you know, the scenic route... A band played, a good number of planes in the hangar, a chocolate fountain with marshmallows (see what sticks in my mind, huh!)

Back to the hotel, sleep and back on the road Friday morning - heading up through San Antonio traffic into Fredericksburg to interview for a couple of massage therapy interviews - both went well, both would be great jobs too - and finally on to stay with Amber & Bobbi in Menard for a couple of nights.

Now, for me, this is a perfect escape. Usually.

I don't have any cell phone signal down there, none at all, which is usually nice and perfect for hanging out and chilling with Amber & Bobbi, and playing with the boys. But I'm quite fond of Rob, and missing him lots, and am putting my texting and phone minutes to good use with him, so limited communication for a couple of days is kinda tough.

So we girls hung out, catching up on everything, and we spent Saturday in Brady shopping.


We wandered a little antiques store where I found a heart-shaped cookie cutter, where we giggled at the animal print purses and the camouflage print bedsheets, where we ogled all the pretty shiny things that caught our eyes.


Then to the store to find things to throw on the grill for dinner that night, things like corn on the cob, mushrooms, bell peppers, sausage, steak, chicken, - oh, almost everything except the roadkill possum, thank goodness! ;) We decided to cut the corn into half-inch slices, but as Bobbi and four different knives can attest, it's not easy! But it's very good when grilled!



Amber made grapefruit margaritas, consumed while making dinner, while watching Austyn playing outside, while giggling and telling stories.





Dinner was wonderful, we chatted into the night, ummm, nearly 3am, right? We discussed life and work, past loves and past regrets, hopes and dreams, wedding dresses and hairstyles, all sorts of things that I'm glad Rob wasn't there for! The hanging out with my two best friends was the best part.

Headed out on Sunday, back to Odessa, back to cell phone coverage.

Let's see - since then I've had several interviews, and have several more lined up in the next week, here in Odessa. We're trying to find Rob work out here, to encourage his moving out here. I'm hoping, but am well aware of his commitment to the Army Guard in Florida, and am dealing. But for this Texas girl, it's nice to be home. I'm feeling better, but still taking medicine in hopes of getting over this mess soon. I've finished my taxes (finally!) and am now focusing on finding a job that will work best for me while here.

Gina and I are going to be looking at Papaw's old building on Andrews Hwy later this week, if by some miracle things work out financially, Lawrence can use the office for his business and we can use the rest for an art gallery and art workspace. At least having the space here to work I can pick up where I left off on the carvings and paintings, especially since there's not a whole lot on tv worth watching!

Allrighty, it's late, and I'm tired. Next post I'll try to have some art stuff up.

back to the art stuff

Since I'm sure that's what you came here for.

This one is an 11x14 pre-stretched canvas, picked up at either Michael's or Hobby Lobby, since those are both relatively easy to find and procure canvas' like these.

It started off as white, really.

I had picked up a remnant of wine and blue colored fabric and some wine and blue colored little woven roses, miniature ones that come in a little bunch for like a buck.

Gina had told me about this magazine, Cloth Paper Scissors, and I was a little inspired to try out this form of mixed media. Sorta. In my own way.

So I have a canvas, some fabric, some roses, and some 12 inch dowels... oh! and some muslin, can't forget the muslin!

Of which I have glued one edge across the back of the fully painted canvas. (Note: when painting the front and back, it is not advisable to be like me and try to accomplish both sides at once, because this ends up with wet paint somewhere- hands, knees, carpet... Best to do one side at a time so something is dry when you lay it down.)

Anyway - I painted the whole thing with black, with squirts of wine and blues to pick up the colors I plan on using. Glued the muslin on one side on the back, in preparation for attaching other stuff to it. I've made a four inch cut in the center - opening it up like doors.

The plan is to roll the "doors" onto the dowels - attach the dowels to the canvas with wire or glue and ribbon, open up the center to show the layout attached to the muslin behind it. Does this make sense? It does in my head. Hopefully it will in reality...

and there was this one time...

I'm finished with the painting of Bubbles - I need to seal it, if it ever stops raining long enough. The sealer won't work with humidity, go figure.

Have a handful of other projects am working on - need to get photos of them for this. One is a piece of wood with a lattice type stencil I'm carving.

The other thing rolling around in my head is hardened resin in a particular shape, but again, does not work well in humidity, so this may have to wait till I'm back in Texas. Also working with this stuff needs plenty of ventilation, and there's not much of that here. Anyway - I also want to use barbed wire for this particular piece - probably easier to get in Texas than in Florida...

Anyway. Carving, sealing, and finishing a few other small projects. Will post pics again soon!