A recent very cool find!

This image is from a site Danny Gregory blog led me to. It is a very cool piece from video portrait artist Laurie Munn. Among other works (presidents, first ladies), she's done portraits of all the members of class of '65 from a yearbook she found. They're amazing, as is the video story that accompanies it. Especially fun for one like me who graduated about the same time - true nostalgia! Go find her!

Crayon Love

blue!
green!
aquamarine!
three crayons inside
my new box so clean
and pristine
numbering sixty and four
(safely named “pine” and
“forest” not “peasoup” or
“lizard”) waxy rainbox of color
too virgin to use.
i’ll first sniff and sort them
and then I may muse
over why in their number
is no longer raw umber,
why green-blue is gone
but blue-green lingers on.
when one searches one’s mindmap
for memories archival
can anything rival
the annual ritual meant to anoint
that bright box so yellow?
(take crayon to paper
press hard on the point
tear off the wrapper
to christen that fellow

Mine, written awhile ago, but I still like it

That's life in the big city

Today, I wanted to leave town.
Spend a week in the country.
Take books, art, iPod.
Get away, far away from everything.
Veg out.
Not wear make-up.
Be unproductive.
Everything lately seems so complicated.

Final straw to a complicated day, in a hurry to get started on my 22mile commute after a meeting after a long day anyway. Tried to give ARCO $30 cash in their machine. It took the $20, thankyouverymuch, spit out the old $10. Fussy, fussy. By the time I retrieved another from my purse, machine closed out. Well, I really wanted to fill the tank so I wouldn't have to go to the gas station again so soon - I hate getting gas. (Yes, I do miss full service. Did you know it is ILLEGAL to pump your own gas in Oregon?). Went into the ampm24hourconveniencestore there to the new owners (?) behind the counter who spoke a different language and are new to mine. It took 10 more minutes just to get through the conversation (No, I paid with a bill, not debit. No, I haven't gotten the gas yet, so I don't get 1.67 in change. Number six. Yes, I would like to add this $10 bill. Number six. May I have a receipt. Number six.) I was nice and polite, because it's hard for them, too, and we're all tired, but still - something that should have taken 3 minutes took 15. Life is very complex.

I know I'd have a limited patience for doing nothing - I figure about a week, maybe two (and, actually, doing "nothing" would last a day or two at the most: I'd have to have the books, magazines, paints, sketchbooks, too, to work their magic.) But right now I do so want to sit on a beach or in a mountain cabin or in a lovely farmhouse and sketch and read and not look at piles and piles of papers to correct - boy, am I tired of that! - budgets to work out, oh blahblahblahyou know it all because everybody knows and it's the same for everybody.

On a brighter side,I found some new sketchers today and will add them to my favorites list on the blogroll. Tommy Kane, Zooman.

A Muse on "Flesh"

Watercolor Portrait class:

In Molly's portrait class tonight, once I got there, I painted a portrait from a picture of an African-American musician. Still working on it but discovered I LOVE painting the colors of their skin. Lots of exciting possibilities. Did you know that there used to be a crayon = sort of light peachy colored - called "Flesh?" We've come a long way even if we're not there yet. I do miss "raw umber" though.

This is a definite work in progress I hope to finish this weekend. And pardon me, I didn't "see" that his one eye is "glaringly" needing work! I tried to be much looser and splashier with colors: alizarin crimson, quin gold, and phalo blue for his skin. This was great fun for me, and there's work to do!


It was, however, another GPS tragic story, another night of getting lost in a neighborhood this time with a brand new GPS that didn't help me because I forgot to put the antenna up on it. That's about six times, 3 different ones, when I really needed it, and for one reason or another, it and I didn't marry well. I'm usually not such an doofus and I generally have a great directional sense, but get me in one of those winding Seattle neighborhoods, whose names are 145th NE and NW 65th and NE 62nd St and 62nd Place SE and...well, I'm a mess. I actually had to get out the Thomas Guide. All because I went a different way than usual tonight. Gutsy broad.

Unraveling my art

I said I'd never want to be in Arizona in the summer (I hate the heat!), but here I am signing up for Art Unraveled in PHoenix. It's summer vacation from teaching, I've got friends in the area, and I couldn't resist the line-up they have this year. Sending in registration today, a few days after registration opened - we'll see if I get my heart's desires with artists Judy Wise, Tracy Batista, Jacqueline Sullivan, and some others. Probably won't do Portland Art and Soul then - there's only so much money and time around until I win the lottery.

I'm finding it harder and harder to devote time to the stuff (and stuff and more stuff) of public school teaching and want to spend my moments on art or reading or thinking about art. The economy has changed my plans, but I'm grateful for the job right now and that I have enough extra money (well, not really extra, but I tell myself so) to do some fun things.