There it is!

The 2007 exhibit brochure from Maryhill museum, with a picture of Fatherland in there! I've sent off a query to see if I can get more copies. They got the date wrong; I did it this year (2006) in the spring, but it's labeled as 2003; I don't suppose that matters too much.

This today was balanced out by my rejection from Beaverton Visual Arts Showcase which arrived at the same time. I don't have very good luck with this show, I've been rejected 3 out of 4 times that I've entered; I think maybe I'm just not their thing. Every year I think I won't enter again, but the next time it comes up, I waste another $20. Hope springs eternal I guess. For the record, these were the 2 pieces they rejected -- Look at Them Girls in Their Pretty Brocades and The Three Vanities.





Collected some materials that I might use for the Monkey/King piece. Can't work on it tonight, I'll need to do it outside (for ventilation); so if weather permits, tomorrow.

Naps are good for somethin'...

More napping today, but while I was napping, I figured out what I was doing with the Monkey King piece. Yes, from weeks and weeks ago, the one I was thinking about cutting into 4 pieces; I now have a better narrative for the image. Given that my Monkey King was already modernized and was wearing Nike shoes, why didn't it occur to me earlier his similarity to another monkey/king of sorts who's wrecking havoc on the world's stage, due to his hubris and naivete? Spent the evening mocking up the image with a few handy things...the map on the bottom is a stand-in for maybe a book like object. Figures on the finger tips might be Buddhist images, or maybe they'll be contemporary images. Don't have anything concrete yet...more naps might be necessary.

Cough, cough, nap, nap

OK, so maybe going to the movies last night was a mistake. I coughed all night and then napped half the day away. Hardly got up and finished breakfast before I got back into bed and slept until 2pm. Then I had to deliver a painting for a show, and after that, I napped until after 7pm. Had dinner. I'll probably crawl back into bed, or sofa, and read. Got the new Art News today, so maybe a little of that, and a little of the Eliot Pattison mystery.

Horse, pig, goat, cow, frolicking in the snow

Ooops, separate incidents. We had our first snow today, big flakes but there wasn't much to it. I stood right at the front door and snapped this.



I could barely stay awake in the morning. Had some breakfast, read the paper, and had to take a nap. The throat is worst than yesterday, but my head isn't congested. In the afternoon, finally got back to the studio and back on Giao's painting after many days absence. Today, I decided I must choose among the options I was considering and just go with it; and so I did.

Sketched in the 4 animals with charcoal:



Roughly added some colors:



And scrubbed it in a bit:



The movie tonight was The Fountain. A very romantic idea but the movie really didn't work. If you've seen the trailer, you've seen the movie.

Washed my hair...

Sigh...well, what I can say, I did almost nothing today. Got the go ahead from Alice to upload the newly revamped web site on her web host, so I did that...Washed my hair...Drank lots of hot water with lemon juice. Went to add some honey, only to discover ants had found the honey. Did I mention that we've been having ant trouble? Had tickets to the play tonight, and decided I was feeling up to going. I did have a couple of coughing fits, but I had throat lozenges with me, and water, both helped. Made it through the play without having to leave. A couple came up to me during intermission and introduced themselves and said they had visited my studio during Open Studios and really enjoyed my art. So that was very nice.

Under the weather

The bright shinning moment of the day! Check out these persimmons. I gave maybe 20 to Diane the other day, and I think there are still 15 or so on the tree, a bit too green to pick yet. We finally had a dry day today, and it wasn't too cold, so I decided today was the day. Also picked the rest of the quince. Well, almost; later I noticed that I left some behind.

I'm definitely coming down with whatever Mike had. Made further changes to Alice's site per request, and did some research on the shadow project. Now that I might already be getting a care package of unwanted eye shadows, I'm getting excited about the prospect.

Almost out the door

Put together the final details for #20 issue of Pudding, duplicated the technical notes, cut & folded, stuffed, stamped and licked all the envelopes. It's all set to go to the post office. Made more changes to Alice's web site per request. No movie tonight, but just as well, I think I'm finally catching Mike's cold.

Quest for Immortality

Had a quiet Thanksgiving (actually, we didn't celebrate it). The museum was open, so we saw the Quest for Immortality show, which was pretty good. Glad I got the audio tour, too. Mike is still sick so we didn't see anything else at the museum; got a cup of coffee and came home. Wrote up the technical data for this issue of Pudding; I'll go try my luck at Kinko's tomorrow (yuck, at Washington Square II, it will probably be crazy).

And it's another movie tonight, two nights in a row. Well, it is a holiday. Little Children, which I really wanted to see, so I was glad that the coin turned up correctly. Although the other choice tonight I really want to see as well (The Fountain), maybe we'll make it three nights in a row. Anyhow, it was excellent.

New issue of Pudding

Finally printed the fall (10/2006) issue of Pudding. I'll need to write up the technical notes and get to Kinko's, and I should be finished with all that on Friday. Hopefully, everything will be out in the mail on Sat. See goccoing on for what the new issue is about.

I must've overdone it on Monday (driving and walking around all day without my boot). The foot's been pretty sore today and yesterday, so now I'm back in the boot again. Everything goes so much slower with the boot, can't walk very fast, can't move very fast, takes 20 minutes to walk around the block a few times.

The movie tonight was Casino Royale. It's the best Bond movie in a long time, and Daniel Craig is the best Bond. Ever. Better than Sean Connery...yes, now I've said it (and what's more, I never liked him). Craig was definitely sexy; in the first scene with M, I thought he was positively going to give her a passionate kiss (that'd be Judi Dench)! The only glitch was that his declaration of love to Eva Green didn't ring true, and I think he was supposed to have been sincere about it. Her change of feelings towards him didn't feel right either. I thought for sure they were setting each other up for something.

Shadow looming

Before I forget, there's 'capturing shadow', the Chinese phrase for photography, and eye shadow. I like the 'eye shadow' idea, it can easily be both humorous and serious; I bet I can even score a ton of unused (and no longer wanted) eye shadow from people...hmmm, I think my project just took a whole different turn than what I intended. But I should definitely see what unused eye shadow I can pick up on freecycle.

Spent the morning helping Diane with her dollar bill project. It's really improved a great deal since she first started trying the gocco printer with it. Each time she changes her drawing and ink mix a little, it gets a bit closer to what she had in mind. I think today she got a lot closer to what she had in mind. It's starting to look pretty good. Then she took me out to lunch at the sumo place.

Cleaned up the house a little, the boot contraption tracks in a ton of needles and leaves and the place was just a mess. Then I started to set up for printing the next issue of Pudding, which will be No. 20! It will see which of the gocco inks contain carbon and will actually flash through the screen if the screen is stained with that ink. I flashed a partially used screen a couple of months ago, and it had previously been printed with an olive green. Where the screen was stained with the olive green, it flashed through. So needless to say, the original design on the screen is no longer usable. So I've made little ink stains and labeled them, and tomorrow, I'll flash a screen with it and see which colors flash through. There's something about the little sheet of labeled stains that looks so sweet...