Walking With Franny

I came home after work and took a looooong walk with Franny. The sky cleared a bit as we were walking, but it won't last.

How I Spent My Birthday

Before


After

I left my palette sitting out last night, so while I was in the shower this morning, the cats played in it. And then they got paint all over the carpet. About twenty spots in all. I pre-treated them all with Resolve stain stick (the stuff for laundry stains), let it sit for about an hour, then sprayed it with a dilution of the carpet cleaning solution, then used my steam cleaner over the entire mess. It was kind of like magic!

Tip of the Day

I use an old cookie sheet as a palette, and I usually line it with freezer paper. It has a plastic side that works well. It curls up, though. In the past I've taped it down, but it occurred to me today that magnets might be a better solution. And they are!

(The magnets are from the bottom of a shower curtain liner. Piglet removes them, so I've got a stash.)

Shameless

I came home today to find the butter dish on the floor, minus the butter, of course. The ice cube trays were collateral damage.

Thankfully I've switched to buying half sticks of butter, and the stick in the dish was half gone, so she didn't get as much as she could have. Also, I'm sure that Piglet assisted. He is a horrid, rotten, awful brat.

Little Boats

I've been making a boat a day, out of the scrap paper around my desk.  Sort of journaling via origami.  We'll see how long this lasts.

Found Poem

In succession,
each
a complete turn.
First the bloom,
raised bodily,
then the snake
alive.
A warning
on its way.

This is from an old book I found in a junk shop. It was falling apart, and I paid maybe $1.00 for it? I bought it with the intention of cannibalizing it for art, and also because of the title. Pick, Shovel and Pluck: Further Experiences "With the Men who do Things." Yes. Men who do things. How could I resist that?!

Sinks! In! Bags!

After two days of being closed due to weather, then a third due to a broken water main, the library is now open again. Only we can't drink the water. Which OF COURSE means that the water fountains and sinks are covered with black trash bags. That's how we roll, yo.

Om Nom Nom

When I got Frances, she would not eat fruits and veggies. Nothankyou, ma'am! I've kept offering them to her, over and over and over again, and she has finally decided that they are for eating. Garlic dill pickles, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, apples, and clementines. Today's success was green peppers.

Painty

I broke out the oil paints today and made an unholy mess.

Cabin Fever

The university was closed today, not that I would have tried going to work in this weather. We just got notified that it will be closed again tomorrow, too, which is just as well.

Last night I entertained myself by watching the temperature drop and watching the first episode of Arts & the Mind on PBS. Lots of interesting food for thought there. One of the questions raised is why do we consider the arts optional in US schools? We seem to understand that art is important. We know that without art, creativity, and imagination, all the math and science in the world will do us NO good. And then we turn around and cut the arts from school curricula.

So. Much. Cute.

Pollywog couldn't get any cuter.

Snowday

There is an inch of slush on the ground, it it is wintry mixing as I type, and the temperature is supposed to drop 45 degrees overnight with a high of -8F tomorrow. O gross!

So I am watching bad TV and drinking peppermint tea while surrounded by a heap of cats and one little black dog. I might not move from this spot until Wednesday

Oh. And when I shared this photo on Facebook, my brother said I look like Velma from Scooby Doo.

A Poem

Rain
from a broken sky
dance
chant
dream
a thousand times
wishes
like
water
crashing

Moving the Furniture Around

Cabin fever won out, so I rearranged furniture. The unused, wasted dining room is now art space. It involved removing and rehanging a door and trading the round dining table for my old primitive farm table.

Bloody Weather

It's -3F right now, at 10am, and my car doors are totally frozen shut. I've already damaged the seals by forcing them open, in the past, and I don't want to trash them, so I'm stuck at home. Which would be fine but I'm getting cabin fever. And things are no looking better for next week, either.

-15F?! And 4-8 inches of snow?! This is southern Indiana, not the Arctic circle! And now they're saying the snow is going start Saturday night, not Sunday.

Snow

Raspberry Canes


Snowberries


Trees in Winter

New Paintings Added to the Shop

It's taken me all damn day, but everything is photographed and listed on Etsy. All of the 22 new paintings are priced at US$50.00, regardless of size. I also renewed a few of the artist books I had listed previously.


Pear 1
4 3/4 x 3 3/4 inches
acrylic, gesso, oil pastel, and collage on canvas


Pear 3
4 3/4 x 3 3/4 inches
acrylic, gesso, oil pastel, and collage on canvas


Boat 11
6 x 6 inches
acrylic, gesso, oil pastel, and collage on canvas


Boat 12
6 x 6 inches
acrylic, gesso, oil pastel, and collage on canvas

New Art for the New Year

I spent the last two days working on a bunch of little painting. The final count is 22. Now I just have to photograph them and get them listed on Etsy.

Piglet Percival Smith

Glamor Shot

ETA for comparison, the same photo uploaded to Flickr. Whatever Blogger does when it compresses photos is NOT attractive.

Pear 2

Pear 2
oil pastel, acrylic, and collage on canvas
6 x 6 inches

Pear

Pear
oil pastel, acrylic, and collage on canvas
6 x 6 inches

Mother-wings

Oh, beautiful half-fledged
thoughts of mine
peeping out
from the mother-wings,
mad as a hare,
and should be in chains

Crows

Every winter, the crows come to Bloomington. Thousands and thousands and thousands of them, all over town. This small group was congregating near the lot where I park my car.

Sleep deep sister star

Sleep deep sister star
dream dark
in the circling night
and remember me

Ella Wheeler Wilcox's Inner Goth Girl

I started working on this book months ago, then got sidetracked when Harried died. I've started working on it again. I haven't scanned any of the new pages yet, but have been photographing the poems as I finish them. Mostly so that when a cat inevitably scatters the pieces, I know how to put them back together.



Forget all these dead
still
ever and always
Who sit down, uninvited
And make a nightmare
of solitude.



This is what the carcass of the donor book looks like. I mostly took a photo of it because book abuse makes people cry, and I'm a total jerk. But honestly, I think I'm making it better! Ella Wheeler Wilcox is just plain awful, so I like to believe that helping her get in touch with her inner goth girl is adding value. Right?

Spying on the Neighbors, Wayback Edition

Miss Harriet Brown in 2007

It's a weird sort of continuity, when I watch my new dog doing the exact same things my last dog did.

Totally Unrepentant

Some day I will learn not to leave tempting things in the living room trash.

Spying on the Neighbors

Miss Nosypants. What's funny is that I have about a zillion photos of my last dog, Harriet, doing the exact same thing.

Best Frenemies

The original Grinch cartoon was on. It's my sole Christmas concession. While watching it, I was joined by Frances and Piglet, who decided to snuggle on my lap.

I really lucked out with Franny. I've had her nine months, and I still feel like I should pinch myself.

My Boots Are in Case I Need to Kick Your Ass

My new favorite coffee mug. It's going to work with me, oh yes, it is.

Tree in Winter

A Tiny Poem

I see the stars above me,
world on world
ghosts
come out of the gloom.

Water, Water, Everywhere

It warmed up, and now it's raining. And raining, and raining, and raining. I don't think I've ever seen the back field this flooded. And it doesn't look like the rain is going to let up until morning.

Snugglepig

Sometimes Piglet stops being a jerk for five minutes and deigns to snuggle on my lap.

We rise up

We rise up tangled
with the night.
Down shadowy lanes,
across Strange distances
We have come
ready for the fight.

Winnowing

Trending: People Are Poor

From in.gov.

Ashamed Bear Is Ashamed

I'm sure this is not how Coke would like its brand to be depicted.

Stay Assy, Facebook

So this happened. I posted about Frances getting locked in the bedroom today (don't know if maintenance came in and shut her in the bedroom or if she somehow closed the door herself). She has confinement anxiety and totally freaked out, including exploding from both ends, all over the carpet. O gross! But mostly I was feeling awful that she had such a horrible, terrible day. Poor dog.

And then Facebook thought it would be just awesome to insert a carpet ad into my post. Totally inappropriate, I think! And there's no way to flag the ad, so I'm complaining loudly about it on my Facebook page, and now here, too, because WHAT THE HELL, FACEBOOK? Are things so dire that you have to make a few pennies off my sick, scared dog?

Braille

This was a gift from the Big Giant Head, who retired a couple of weeks ago but is still in the process of cleaning out her office. It's a sheet of Braille text created by a visiting book artist.

Oh My Darling, Clementine

The Ball

This ball came from the shelter with Frances. Somehow she's managed not to destroy it. Yet.

Crankypantsing, AHOY!

My Wordpress blog got hacked AGAIN. I'm beyond pissed off, not least because my web host was not at all helpful. So because I was pissed off, I deleted the whole damn thing, database and all. I should probably have had a margarita or two first, to cool off, but it's done now. That blog went back to 2005 and was basically my online diary, and it's gone. I did back up the database, but unless I want to start another Wordpress blog, it's not going to be very useful.

So. Here's a photo of a ridiculously cute dog being ridiculously cute, because ridiculously cute dogs make everything better.