new year's baby drives us into 2008.....

i wish you all a better year in 2008!

that time of year......

i don't know about you, but i am looking forward to the new year - i love new years resolutions, changing my comfy habits to ones of rigger, self control, discipline and,(gulp, cough, ahem), self management. ugh! i guess that is what a new years resolution is - an attempt at self management. but (ironically) i don't want to. no, no, no!
oh, god, help me pleeeease - why am i such a slob? why am i such an overfed, under exercised, tired old battle axe with definite signs of arthritis, meanness and hard-headedness? --why do i have so much change ahead of me... and why is it such an uphill battle?
what??? its my own damn fault? (i need a margarita from margaritaville)
BUT, my own fault?!?! how does that help this situation, placing fault, pointing fingers, laughing.
*sob* (heavier) *sob*, (hiccup), sniffle, groan......ugh!

ok, i'm over it - i'm going back to bed.

fortune teller

"the gypsy woman" --i admit it....i go to get my fortune read every once in awhile.....and i have been told some uncanny and hair raising stuff that has been "spot on". i couldn't retell it all here as it is too lengthy... but, i can tell you a bit about my reading of the other day.

--- i usually go to a fortune teller just before the beginning of a new year.
the first thing i was told ( all my readings begin this way) was that i am a very spiritual person and that i possess a great gift in healing or giving inspiration with my hands...(i have always hoped that this meant that i am doing the right thing by being an artist - not instead that i'm being a "misguided waste of life" because i was really meant to be a nurse!!!! oh, the hell with it).

i never tell the fortuneteller anything about myself until the end and i never see the same fortuneteller.

so she told me my grandmother had been visiting me-- that she sees her rubbing her hands together which could mean that she is trying to tell me to use my hands to create something or that she is giving me guidance regarding using my hands (grandma was a quilter). she said that i will know when grandma is visiting me because i will be able to smell her. (poor grandma, i thought, i sure hope no one smells me after i die.) she said if i ever encounter an unidentified smell, then that was probably grandma (at first i was feeling contrary, and told her that i could identify each and ever smell i have ever encountered and didn't know what she was talking about.) but then had to admit, that sometimes i smell lavender.

then she asked me "what on earth are you doing with so many wild horses?" (honestly - i don't know one wild horse) - i'm not sure what that meant. she said they represent strength....(still no clue)

then she saw me turning pages in a book, writing and drawing illustrations, traveling and writing and drawing upon my travels......(hmmm, i am going to be writing and drawing a book in 2008, and i am going to be doing lots of travel...damn she is good!)
she saw little rivers-rivulets or small running water running together and forming one stream turning slightly to the right. (beats me, but suddenly i needed to go to the restroom).

finally, she asked me if i had a question.
yes i did, i wanted to know which path i should take in 2008 to best help my career as i have so many offerings. she told me that the rivulets were all these opportunities and that they will be coming together for me - that i should write and paint about my travels and my larger paintings would follow from that. she also mentioned that there is someone who wants to act as my mentor, who has been trying to contact me, a soul from the past who lived in France--- someone whose name sounded like "cezanne", but she wasn't sure - she said she didn't know a thing about artists' names......(hmmmm, i wonder...)

well, i liked the fortuneteller and decide that she did mean paul cezanne and now i will buy a book about him from amazon.
so to sum it up, i guess my grandma wants to be around while i create, paul cezanne wants to help too, i will be writing and illustrating a book and traveling and writing about that as well. i have many choices in the coming year, but they will all come together to make a mighty stream. that's how i am going to take it --- however, i really can't seem to fit in wild horses. maybe later when i am not so tired it will all become perfectly clear.....
for now, i'm going to go to bed.
goodnight everyone - and goodnight grandma and paul cezanne, i love you.

(i hope paul cezanne averts his eyes when i dress)!!!!

home repairs

we have been having minor house problems lately...first our heater failed to work. that was discovered the first cold snap we had this year ...today we finally got it fixed.
then a few months ago, we notice our water bill being extraordinarily high.....and we could hear water running through our pipes throughout our house, upstairs, downstairs. my husband and i separately and together - both looked high and low for the signs of water damage and found none.
i consulted with Helix water district who came over and did roadside testing and affirmed we indeed did have a leak somewhere on our premises. in other words - it wasn't their responsibility.
we were forced to call in a "leak detective". i had never heard of one.
i got a name an number of one from a plumbing company.

so this very tall imposing leak detective with a mighty girth showed up at my door last week. he asked me where i could hear the leak, i mentioned several places, but he zeroed in on the washing machine area - warning that he sure hoped he didn't
need to pull out the machine to get to the leak. i nodded in agreement as i couldn't see myself hauling out the machine with this oaf.
then he said that to avoid the washer removal he would probably need to put a small hole in my wall, large enough for his camera to fit in so that he could look at the pipes in the wall.
i was fraught with worry over the possible internal wall leak and agreed to the demolition. he went to work making a hole in the wall. i guess that didn't work, so he made another larger one lower in the wall about the circumference of a basketball or the circumference of his upper arm - which is the same size....
after an hour of his probing and demolishing, he said "good news" that he could feel cold water in there, near some pipes.
then he asked if we had a crawl space under the house. "yes" i told him, i wondered why he didn't start there in the first place, but i said nothing, instead i merely eyed him for size - he would never fit, but couldn't bring myself to tell him.
he soon found out. he reported that we did have a leak and that it was under the house in one of the pipes there - he couldn't tell me which one because he couldn't fit, (i knew it) but he could tell that it was one of them -----he wrote up a bill for $225 and suggested i hire a small plumber...then left.

when my husband got home , he became spitty with confoundedness.....he kept repeating that he couldn't understand how we ended up paying $225 to a guy to put 2 large holes in our walls and only looked under the house with a flashlight to tell us "yep, we had a leak" while fixing nothing.
My husband kept starting his sentences with..."OK, let me see if i can understand this....".
and i limply answered that the guy is only a leak detective, not a plumber or a drywaller...and i honestly couldn't understand it myself why he didn't look under the house first. thank god he didn't take out our washer....we would have that to put back now too.

so we got a skinny plumber who repaired the leak under our house on xmas eve.

as i say the heater guy only fixed that problem today -- there was an additional problem that the paper schematic of the heater (which is like the map on how that particular heater works and is normally plastered to the inside of your heater grill) had gotten sucked into the house via the vent , so he couldn't see how to fix it. he consulted the internet on our brand of heater (uhm, he used MY computer, grr)- that didn't work, so he invited 3 other workers over for a conference. they couldn't tell what it was either. they consulted the internet too. (My computer, ugh).
well, anyway, they finally figured out that it was only the starter, replaced it and now our house is toasty.

tonight, i went to turn on the hall lights and they blinked, then poofed out. i went to home depot an got new blubs - BUT replacing them didn't work - turns out we now need an electrician. heavy sigh....i kinda feel sorry for our house, i think it must be going through menopause.

i had a vision.....

just before falling asleep this xmas night, i suddenly awoke to the gentle voice of an angel who questioned......
"did you remember to take out the trash?".......and so it was, i was elected, although not really willing, to carry out this mission. it had become clear unto me that i was the only chosen one to be tested and to suffer the dark, cold and smelly-leaving behind my loved ones and the warmth of the hearth. i was to leave barely swaddled in nightdress, forbidden to let the joys of christmas linger---i was chosen to labor, wheeling out barrel after barrel of garbage this cold clear christmas night --out to the edge of the earth ,er, our property, i.e. the curb.

and later, while resting my head again this night, i will be reminded that in the early morn - just after the day breaks, i will be the chosen one to drive the youth out to the clear waters of the swimming pool for morning practice. and while the mist steams up from the man-made pond as the youth chug along to the count of the stopwatch, i will be able to sip from the cup of life - er, starbucks, and recollect with wonder all the events that had lead up to that very moment and ask, why, oh, why, this vision of an angel didn't speak to my husband.

christmas eve

*****HIC****

hey, anyone know where i put my glasses?

t'was the night before

the night before Christmas.....

and i"m pooped!

polymer clay class

will be january 9th, wednesday, 11 a.m.- 1 p.m., $25.00
www.thestampaddict.com
619 667-5060
i don't have the address - but it is east of 70th st. on el cajon blvd. before you get to la mesa.......next to rosie's calico cupboard.

polymer clay class

in january i will be teaching this 2 hour class on polymer clay - jewelry making - for those interested-,
at the stamp addict on el cajon blvd. san diego.....i don't remember the date, or the price off hand (not too much) or phone number for that matter. and i think the number of people that they can have in the class goes by weight -i.e., if you are a big butted person, you will have the advantage of bull-elephanting off a few smaller people from your table. i think between 12 to 15 elephants can fit into the classroom--me included.

i trust if you really want to take the class you will find these things out yourself (i mean about the class, not whether or not you qualify as an elephant - i personally, don't care how big you are) or email later in the week.

i will know then because kathy olsen will remind me.

hey, kathy, thank you for my birthday lunch and presents yesterday, as usual, i had a blast!

rosie

does this expression remind you of someone?

"the little snip"

that was one of the more endearing nicknames my mom called me. if i wasn't called little miss "queenie", then i was "the little snip".
well, this name and its memories all comes to my mind because of a recent demeaning haircutting experience i had.
my hair grooming is not high science. i went to the cheapie place down the street called "the haircutters loft" that boasts of haircuts at about $18.00 a head.
i can't see spending much more for my pin-sized head of hair. they operate on a "come on in and we will cut anyone's hair" basis.
so that's what i did last friday before the swim team Christmas party. i only wanted about 2" off cut in the wedge cut i had before. the haircutter, a demolition ball shaped woman with a skunk colored stripe down the front of her hair and an east coaster mafia accent, ordered me to sit in the spinning chair in front of the mirror. once there, she questioned me again about the shape i wanted my hair. we both studied my head in the mirror as i explained the obvious. she pulled at my hair with cigarette-smelling fingers and screwed up her mouth in a hmmmm, position. she just wasn't seeing it.
finally she said, "so, you just want a couple of inches off in this shape it's in? sortof a layered look in the back and longer in the front?"

" yes", i said suddenly thinking i must be missing a grander point and vaguely regretting an economy cut.
"OK" she said and tugged crepe paper around my neck followed by a tighly fastened plastic cape. she then spun me around to indicate i should follow her over to the neck stretching, torture chamber shaped sink.
stupily, i put my neck in the u-shape and then adjusted the chair - bad idea,my body bolted forward but my head stayed in the sink. ouch.

she began the warm shower, testing it first to make sure it wan't too hot. it wasn't too hot, it was freezing - but, no matter, i thought, it will soon warm up.
i began to relax as she bubbled up my hair - there is something soothing about the sound of plastic-y clinks made by long curling acrylic nails on the sink's edge as she scrubbed and squeezed suds from my hair. that sound gives me goose bumps every time - heaven knows why. once my hair was rinsed, she lacquered my head with vanilla flavored creme, rinsed again and off we set to the cutting chair.

and so on we went to get the cut done. she seemed efficient and i could tell by the way she was sizing up cut ends of my hair next to uncut ends of my hair to then snip, that she was very likely to give me a good cut. and she did. all and all it took about 20 minutes.

afterwards, she said she wanted to blow dry it to make sure it looked OK....she muttered she wasn't sure.

i thought it looked good.

at the end she aid, "well, thats about the best i can do."
i thought it a strange comment - but i responded that i thought it looked better than i had expected!!!
we both nodded at one another in the mirror with subdued satisfaction.
"good job" i said again -partly to uplift her severe expression.
she nodded.

finally she said, "yeah, i know that cut pretty well, i have had lots of experience doing that wedge cut and it is a fun cut. i volunteer a lot to cut the hair of the homeless women and this is the cut those ladies like the best." she was walking toward the cash register as she blew this bit of high fashion awareness my way.
hmmmm. i suddenly felt like the little snip again.
i don't know why, but upon hearing that, i decided to not wear the fancy outfit i planned to wear to the swim team xmas party that night. instead i decided to wear an old red sweatshirt of mine that says "Be naughty, save Santa a trip". it matched my haircut.

i'm just thankful i can have my home and this haircut too.

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happy birthday to meeeeee!

remember her? the birthday girl? she is always ready for another birthday pool party! but not for me. i like drinks beside the pool though - and i like her heels. and her cougar ear-like hair. well, and i kinda like her flotation device. and NO this is not rosie. although, rosie can look pretty close to this - this is a model named dakota rose - she is some kind of poser - you can probably find her on my space. i found her in my daughters files - naughty me. she was just too irresistible....i had to use her again for a birthday greeting. (see previous post of rosie bday greeting in november)


soooo...happy birthday to me.
nothing like living to see yet another birthday! i'm getting older and crankier. i guess i could be dead.

a lot of people die just before a birthday - both my parents did. my mom died just before her 80th - missed it by a week. and my father missed his 90th bday by only 5 days. my dad was lucid before he died and i begged him to stay alive for his bday - but he said he didn't want to. he had alzheimers and wasn't lucid that often. but he had a moment about 2 weeks before his death when he was able to tell me what he wanted. that was actually very kind of him -AND even kinder still, was his final hour when his breathing was a mere sporadic rattle -- he stayed alive until i could bring myself to tell him it was OK, i could let him go and gave him a big kiss goodbye. that done, he took his last breath.

my mom was different. my mom just slipped away in her sleep. she didn't say goodbye to anyone - i think she died to avoid welcoming the birth of her twin grandsons that came 7 days later- at least that is what she threatened to do. she hadn't been sick, she just was strongly against the birth of any grandkids. and no, she didn't commit suicide - she was hardheaded, thats all.

that was my mom, each time i told her i was pregnant she would pound her head into the table and ask god why. then she would ask me if it wasn't too late to have an abortion...!!!! she was brutal.

but she loved her grandchildren, once they blessed this earth--it was just the news, i guess, that struck her the wrong way. i think maybe she just never believed my brother or i would make good parents. it was her policy to never let us get overconfident.....i think she also feared she would have to raise the grandkids herself - god knows why she thought we would abandon our children. i tired but that never worked! (only kidding).


anyway, she especially feared twins - so her threat can true. she also warned me that she was going to check out before my dad got too old - she didn't want to look after him when he became feeble - she laughed that she was going to leave his care to me. hell, i believed she was joking.......

we will never know if she divined her own exit or not. maybe when i go i will find out. and then i will telepathically tell my brother and children.

i have always told my children to never worry about my death; that i promised to always communicate with them and look after their well-being after my death. i meant this as a way of helping my children cope with the inevitable....but for some reason this strikes my son as a horror. he always has had the greatest imagination of my three and it often gets the better of him. i meant this for him, especially, since he is the most susceptible to fret. but this news makes him fret more. i told him i would avert my eyes during his personal times- he blushed and refused to comment. jeesha. kids are so literal sometimes.

well, i didn't mean to talk so much about death on my birthday - but there you have it. what i meant to talk about was my economy haircut. but that will have to wait until tomorrow as it is past my bedtime now. i'm old, you know.
i sure enjoyed watching the final episode of "DEXTER" tonight - what a great bday gift that was. i see there will be another season of it. yay!
oh, and i love my new bracelet that i made my husband buy me. brooke brought me a beautiful bouquet of unusual flowers - she is very good at getting together a creative arrangement that i always love. thank you to my friend meredith who took me to a lovely lunch thursday at the antica and brought me 3 awesome books. rosie bought me a book on how to clean the house - haha rosie, very funny. she also filed the house with loads of birthday greetings throughout the house. jamie wished me happy bday as well as my brother and many friends. all in all it has been a wonderful day.
so, nighty-night, its been great-- from the bday bebi baby.

par-TEE

tonight was the swim team party. parents sure know how to party - especially once the kids find their way to another room - the pool room for the rest of the night. upstairs the party swings up a notch when the better liquor is brought out.

i know i had a great time because i forgot my purse!

now i'm home and i'm watching the" mayweather and hatton" fight (that was on pay-per-view last week) with my husband - another true testament to my drunkenness.

there are over 30,000 crazy britons at this las vegas fight - must mean only one thing...... we (the USA) are a third world country now -if all those brits can afford to come here for a fight...then,. sheesha what is the world coming to?
and they sound like a soccer game in manchester they way they chant.
oh, i better go now and watch this fight - i am rooting for hatton.
cheers!

goodbye Max

One of my favorite paintings, "Max's Straw Hat" was sold today for a xmas present. a wife bought it for her husband. she said that Max looked to like a typical southern Californian in the 50's, in his straw hat.

i explained that that is exactly what the painting is about. the painting is of my father - one of many photos taken from his early years in san diego.
when my parents came to san diego, they had left everything behind Tennessee; jobs, friends and my dad left behind his wife and home, taking only a few possessions in his convertible car to move out to san diego to start a new life with his lover, my mom. they married and settled down here. for their honeymoon they did the typical tourist thing of driving up hyway 101, up the california coast taking snapshots all the way. these snapshots have been the source of many of my works that i show in galleries.

another painting that sold last week was called "vaguely traditional" or "house of maxwell", a piece that included 3 Maxes standing in a row with different hats on reprewenting three different aspects of his personality. that piece took first place in the del mar fair in 2006.
so farewell to Max this week. I have loved showing and sharing you in many arenas........live on forever in the homes of people who will care for you.

enlisted!

i have been working hard these last two days getting something done for the "heros" theme for somerset studio magazine. the absolute deadline is the 15th. i have finally settled on about 6 different medals i created to award one of my favorite heros - my father...or i should say, fatherhood in general, not just mine. they are stunning, i have to admit. after i finish them i will write up how i created them. sometimes, i do this just because i would forget. i know i am very forgetful, but i would forget anyway because as i work, one idea leads to another and before you know it, i have ventured off into unknown territory where no man has created before. AND somewhere i' m not likely to go again - unless the same set of circumstances present themselves in the exact same manner. not likely.
so i write out the recipe.
i can't wait to show them off. they are jewels.
but meanwhile,
in the flavor of the "hero" creations, here is a painting is of uncle earl - during world war II.

scrapiteria

i was just accepted into the awesome group!
www.scrapiteria.blogspot.com or see my dashboard for details about that blog.

sitting for finals

ugh! this time of year gives me nightmares. it's FINALS time! - even though i graduated from college in 1977! my nightmares are about the same every time....i go to the first day of class only to find that the class has been in full operation without me for a semester and today is the final! i look around the room in a cold sweat - everyone is prepared but me. i feel trapped i can't walk out, i need these units to graduate - but i am sure i will flunk - and come to think of it, i don't even know what the subject is.
i then think maybe i will be lucky and color in all the bubbles on the test sheet with the right answers.......hmmmm, i have never been lucky with that before, i doubt it will work this time.

i go to the front of the class to get my test sheet (i was late for class and everyone else has theirs already) only to discover i have no clothes on!

yeah, yeah i could probably analyse what this dream means...i know, (Eeyore's voice: i am never prepared in real life and i'm always late (bowing my head in shame)...

and i have a secret desire to run around nude. oh god, not really, ewww. i'm sorry if i gave you a visual. ewww. grossed myself out.

ANYWAY, this is a art piece i did in honor of my daughter Brooke who is taking finals NOW and has gone to class all semester----with her clothes on. she will probably get straight "A"s. She also, writes and reports for about 5 news radio stations and newspapers, runs about 10 miles a day, reads every novel known to man, is learning to speak Spanish fluently, looks after "gracie" the boy dog, and loves carlos. Oh, yes, and now she has one more thing on her plate---- she has a stalker!

some guy through radio news has written her a letter in the language of "twisted crazy" and somehow believes if only brooke didn't have carlos, they would be lovers.....uhm, AND, this is some old geyser of 70....i feel like running over to bakersfield where he lives in a trailer (probably) and giving him some shoe action. or maybe batting practice. he can meet my five sisters, if you know what i mean. (er, that means my fist of five fingers).

brooke and i have always been prone to attracting stalkers....well, me not anymore, but until i was about 40, i always had weird gropey men problems. i'm not sure why we attract them - we are "stalker magnets" and of course we hate it. that is probably a little more than half the reason my husband and her boyfriend, both, look like bouncers. and the mafia connections helps too.


so damn. what a stupid interference to have in your life...ya know? she doesn't have time for this bull-oney.

so anyway, brookie darling, don't let that bad man bother you - go ahead and ace your exams, mommie will take care of that awful shithead loser of an asshole who is a malicious, deranged, swiney, greasy, grubby old git.

goodnight honey. sweet dreams not dreams about your exams and no clothes
oxoxoxxo

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cold snap

i don't know about you, but i am fricken cold. i couldn't warm up last night and i am STILL cold tonight. we put the central heater on and even turned on the oven - still cold. i'm wearing woolly socks and sheepskin slippers and i could place a side of beef in my shoes and it would keep until next month!
i guess i shouldn't be complaining, we have been having unbearable heat all summer -( well, actually, what am i saying? - it was hot just a few days ago....) ....wacky weather --- the dog is even shivering. i suppose it is time to buy an electric blanket....but then i really hate to have to store the huge thing the rest of the year, which is most of the year. we poor southern californians have our own weather related problems too. like, what to do with the big king-sized electric blanket during most the year.

today, I attended the xmas party for the Women's Caucas for Art...a great national organization with a local chapter here...it has noted members such as Faith Ringwald.....
the party was great and took place at this cool little restaurant in la mesa called "ciao bella" - a restaurant that features tango lessons on its menu!!!!! thats right - i have lunched there while the tango lessons take place. there is a wooden dance floor smack in the middle of the restaurant.

when there are no tango lessons going on, the tables are placed back on the wooden dance floor. the food is outstanding because it is all fresh - i think Chef Ramsey would agree! nothing frozen and nothing microwaved. and for lunch it is cheaper than say jack-in-the -box - if you get a couple of large slices of pizza, salad and a drink.
the WCA is a wonderful warm - very welcoming group. i completely enjoyed myself.
tomorrow is another meeting and party -- with east county art association. man, everyone seems to have party fever - swing it, old artists! YEAH, baby! (austin powers)

that's all for tonight. i'm going to go see if i can get warm - maybe extra layers of sweats. a hot toddy tonight......ah, just kidding you old buzzards!
well, the truth is a don't have any toddies to have hot!!!!
i really only want hot toesies!
when i get nestled into bed tonight i will read a novel called "returning to earth" by jim harrison....i like it. i just finished "a long way down" by hornsby...i seem to be picking up novels with a downward falling theme that goes on in them.

and lou gehrig's disease (or ALS)...("returning to earth" is told in the voice of a guy dying of ALS and i just read "tuesdays with morrie" which is about dying from lou gehrig's disease also). i hope i'm not jinxing myself on that disease - uh-oh time to see dr. hot -( see previous posts regarding dr. hot). dr. hot always blushes when i call him dr. hot!!!! so cute.

In between, i read a book on how to write a children's book by joan aiken. that was one of the best books i read this year! not only was it very informative in a practical sense, but i learned a lot in general about life by just understanding what children love to read. i know it seems a strange connection - but, once i understood what children like to read, and what they can tolerate in storytelling - a light came on in my head. i was able to see back into my past and figure out a bit about the way i was wired - why i loved my first books - why did i cherished so much the story of the "boxcar children" and "scruffy, the tugboat"? i loved adventure...but why at age 4? i also liked the idea of running away - i don't know why, i had a pretty healthy uprbring. i'm mean compared to some.
i suggest anyone who likes to read self-help books (which i normally don't) read that book to learn about human nature ad maybe even clue you into your own.
by the way, i am no even contemplating writing a children's novel - i just wanted to know how it is done. OK nighty-night oxoxoxoxox

studio reception

(the "Q" stands for "queenie" a nickname my mother gave me - see previous post about 2 month ago).

well, i tried to stay sober for you....(see yesterday's post) -*hic* -

ah, people who know me know i don't drink as much as i make out. i just think it is funny. I think a few fussy art association old ladies quit reading my blog because of all my talk about drinking. to me, thats even funnier. where did they all grow up, anyway, in a southern baptist church? i didn't see any of them hangin' around the barn.
humf.
ANYWAY,
tonight's reception, like most affairs where i feel a little put on the spot, i do tend to gulp down the wine too fast on an empty stomach. and, i don't eat, cuz i worry about crumb trails on my face and down my shirt.
or something nasty getting stuck in my teeth-- then i begin to suck on my teeth like a common hick "in case" there might be something nasty stuck there. i never know for sure, so the sucking continues for the duration of the reception.

of course, i could look in the mirror to see if there actually IS something in my teeth; except i still can't stop questioning whether or not something nasty crept back in - so i take no real comfort seeing that i have nothing to worry about.

AND, i have seen myself in the mirror with that look - the "sucking in on my teeth" look....... it is damn ugly.
so i don't know what is worse, the nasty thing in the teeth or the sucking face.

i guess i could have both. will it ever end? - see what i mean, i am better off drinking!

ALLLLLRIGHTY THEN. (sorry about that bit of derangement)

well, wine and all, i had a great time tonight. the rain kept the throngs away -but SOME REALLY COOL PEOPLE braved their way over (up) to the studio and said hello.
nearly everyone who came in bought a painting- 5 sold, and someone is "thinking" about one more. it was a holiday special - which i never do, offering the paintings at about 1/2 price. i know and they know that my paintings are a good investment as my work is growing stronger in the market everyday.

BUT, what i know and no one else knows (except my publishers) is that my work and i are going to be main features in 3 major publication (international) in the coming year. the work for them is finished, approved and "put to bed" - a done deal-they will start to be distributed (at B&N, et al) around april 2008 - just about the time i come back from the paris, france workshop. SO now you know what i know.
so good for you, collectors, for being smart and buying now-----
THANK YOU for coming out tonight in the horrible rain to the studio that was like a refrigerator..... i hope you all enjoy your pieces forever and have a wonderful christmas.

and now, time for a nightcap!

OK, RELAX granny, you old, (f)art association lady, have a nightcap yourself and chill. (nightcap, honey, not nightCRAP - that you do just fine, i'm sure.) jeesha.

fooling around with backgrounds

recently i have been fooling around with acrylic paints, matte medium and alcohol (rubbing alcohol, not drinking stuff). I spontaneously created a full tablet of these background papers. my daughter rosie, loved this one so much, i gave it to her. (i'm not crazy about the stickers of eggs and a feather).... what i am planning to do with these... is... to cut them down and make little miniature art pieces from them. maybe make them into small pendants for a necklaces. we shall see. i'm excited about these colors. (of course, i'm easily excitable)
i might have to add a person wearing a cone hat though. whaddya think?

xmas peeper

i'm not done with this little piece - but it is called
"the holiday peeper". both my daughters
love to eat
easter
"peeps" -
well, somehow
my wires got all twisted up and wacky and i ended up creating the "xmas peeper".
---just one of the little gems i will give away to my guests that come to my studio tomorrow night.
so come on up or down to escondido:
Joan Irving Studios
451 east valley parkway
5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
i'll try to stay sober for you - .
there is a lot of other downtown xmas cheer going on - sleigh rides and open pubs and whatnot. you won't be bored.
i will have to step out for a second to go to the awards ceremony at escondido arts partnership as one of my paintings got a prize! that's another good place to visit tomorrow night - great art.
but the best sale in town will be at our studio.

paris workshop

just another view of the
workshop/apartment
that we artists will share for a week. don't worry it is not communal living, each floor has its own bedrooms/ bathroom.
we have just two rooms with queen sized beds left. so we could have two more couples/close friends.

the flights will be cheaper because it is in march, 2008..... for one week including room and half board and kitchen use, shopping with an amercian who speaks french, two full days of workshops, one day with renee small metal working (bookmaking or altar making) and one day with me collage and painting (small) - materials supplied. also, a side trip to galleries for only $1,100. nothing is cheaper.
anyone is welcome, well, except criminals. we can't deal with criminals. or bitchy people - i don't like bitchy people very much. ......or too bossy - they can kill a good time.
OK only nice, fun loving people who would like to do MY art and shop and drink wine --- lots of wine... are welcome. your art ability isn't important - the wine takes care of that. if you don't drink, then you are a party pooper, but you can still come. i hope you like to eat good food.
well, i'm excited!

if you are interested, email me lisabebiart@aol.com.
we will start booking right after xmas. so ask for workshop money - ask for euros! for xmas.

other option: you could stay at a different hotel and just hang with us. - both workshops, plus extra work time is only $200 total.

alone in the desert

remember when our parents wore their Sunday best to go on a Sunday drive --- to drive way the hell out to nowhere so that they could get their photo made next to an enormous Joshua tree? Sundays and Sunday drives were days reserved for discovery - new frontiers - claiming new, fresh sights.
i bet you have family photos like this too.

i would love to paint them...............

for those who read my blog routinely....i'm going to be uploading new paintings soon - bear with me. i know i have repeats.
i have tons of new paintings - i just need to get them uploaded. it is amazing the amount of work there is to be done to survive in the art world.

merry chris- fish

its time to think about sending out xmas cards....a few years ago, this was my xmas card - the christmas fish - or merry chris-fish.

i thought it was funny.....i don't know who, if anyone, else did.

i am relieved that one of my friends (let's call her "mary") who underwent an angiogram today came through with flying colors. she will still have a few more tests, but i think the idea of this particular test frightened her the most.

so, exhale, "mary".

that part is over and now the doctors have a much better understanding of why you had a (minor) heartattack a few months ago.

AND atta girl. you will be back to swimming like a merry chris-fish soon. and i promise to join you.

OK..... back to painting up some fish.
oh, and by the way, i cooked dinner tonight....my family survived it. i made tacos - very easy - at least i use ground sirloin instead of ...well, i don't know what.

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dunce quartet

yeah, this is one of my favorite paintings.

i suppose not too surprisingly, a woman bought this painting because she said that three out of the four dunces reminded her of her ex-husbands!!!! i sure didn't envision that sales angle. (she only had 3 ex-husbands, i suppose she is still looking for the fourth).

speaking of husbands - i have to give praise to mine tonight; not only did he make a killer lasagna , but he brought out one of our better bottles of wine from our cellar - er, ok, not a cellar - i think he dug it out from under a table somewhere - not important.
i guess we are celebrating....
celebrating what you ask?
well, having lasagna, of course.

the reason he made lasagna is a testament to our great family dynamics.... i said that i was going to be making it. this caused the child to riot as she knows i'm no italian...so it went:

"dddddaaaadddddddY!!! momma is threatening to cook again."
the expert in him woke up, saluted and reported for duty.


that worked out well for me - as i never really feel like cooking anyway. i rather paint dunces.......

meet the gutmans

i found this photo of my dad and his siblings; my uncle leo and aunts lillian and lucille. my dad, max, is the one without glasses.
nice looking family, eh?

i am sorry about the youtube not working out last night. blogger says it will upload videos from youtube - but it didn't work for me. the girls were beating each other with sticks, marking each other with sharpie markers and finally putting hot cheetos up their noses (ok that was only my daughter doing that)all without me looking up from my artwork. i knew what they were doing - just i'm so used to them doing that kind of stuff.

what's that got to do with the gutmans? nothing, except i'm sure they wouldn't believe what kids can do these days..... use a camera to film themselves, then put the video on the computer and then broadcast it around the world!

except, of course on my blog.

try this youtube

maybe this will show up in this blog window.........
i can't believe how much i can ignore ---- i had no idea!
this is an awakening.
i didn't think i was good at anything until now!
yeah, i'm proud!