"long red hair" and "banana hat"

just spending a few moments painting tonight.

my neighbor left for a two week trip and left us her dog to watch.  i don't mind- i love her dog.  the dog's name is "jammer".  jammer is a pitbull mix - part lab and part mastif - he should be  a total power dog, but somehow he is more like a jellyroll.

jammer never met a cat before tonight.  our cat, "miss dior" is very pretty, but she is also very aggressive and not very lady like.

when jammer went around in the house sniffing it out, he ended up in rosie's room.  jammer didn't see miss dior, smell her or notice her as she crouched under a chair and hissed meanly.  when he turned to walk out of the room,  she hissed-chased him and stuck him with long sharp claws in his heel.  he cried out. and i screamed.  the cat didn't let up, she chased him out of rosie's room and down the hallway.  i was shocked.  i have never seen a cat so vicious.  every other cat i have ever had -either  hid from dogs or jumped up high.  not miss dior - she came out from hiding in order to teach jammers boundaries.    too bad jammer didn't learn anything except that he rather stay with us in the living room.  but then, miss dior wasn't satisfied --she hissed her aggressive self  straight into our living room with an arched, flared back and tail and claws visible.  she was pissed.    too bad for her - our dog "dempsey" (or as i call him, "fang") was in the living room too.   she is afraid of dempsey and his gleaming white needle teeth.   (maybe i should nickname him "cruncher").  

boy, did she ever come to a screeching halt when she saw him lift his lips to expose some very intimating pearls.  dempsey's growl is like a low eerie warning - like a big storm mounting someplace far - and then he flashes his teeth with a pulled back mouth.  at first i suppose someone come mistake that look as a smile - but they would be unfortunate.   

miss dior was having trouble making up her mind - she wanted to finish the job she had started on  jammer - but then she would have to pass "fang".  

finally she retreated complaining to me all the way.  low to the ground stride, tall, standing-on-end hair and grumpy- meow, meow, meow.  her ears were flat and she looked like a ticked off washer woman.   i tried not to laugh at her because  she is very sensitive.

she is still pouting in rosie's room.

the house has settled now - miss dior is sleeping with rosie and the two dogs are upstairs with us.  maybe i should invite my daughter's pitbull "gracie" over to play tomorrow.  

but, miss dior will have a tiny cat sized cardiac.

  

from the fair......

seen here is my daughter with her friend, jenni, on "the crazy mouse" and two strangers.

rosie has her tongue out on the far right and jenni looks a little like a lion roaring.  looks like fun, don't you think?

well, not my cup of tea...my driving is enough excitement for most.  

the news for those who have asked about rosie's swim meet this weekend.  weeeeel,  rosie sorta bombed. in a baad way.  we all blame the weeklong surfing and the friday morning surf competition.  she was depleted - well, live and learn.   so she has another chance to make the times she needs to go to hawaii in 2 weeks.  we won't surf that week.   

its hard to enjoy summer fun while training in swimming, but we will try to squeeze it in anyway.  she goes back to school august 8th- not a long summer break. 

xxxxxx

i loooved my workshop friends on saturday.  can't wait to teach my next one.

gifts for my students today...

each participant got an ATC sized piece of art from me to remember their lisa bebi workshop experience.

as my husband always tells me, "you always are a lot happier when you teach.  I think it is good for your soul".  

i think he is right.  i do love it and i love my new friends.  so interesting and rewarding.

 but now, i'm headed for bed.

tomorrow is a long swim meet.  go rosie.

just got my advanced issue....

check out my article and hand towels on page 156.

OK all you workshop attendees, i will see you TOMORROW (saturday) at NOON at the 

escondido arts partnership, municipal gallery 

 262 east grand ave. in escondido.

if you are not enrolled - get yourself there before noon and beg to get in.  i think we can find room and don't worry i will supply everything you need.

or you could call first (after 11 a.m.) (760) 480-4101 - but just show up - its only 3 hours.
no lunch breaks. 

or just pop your head in for a little look-see.

surfing, USA....

tomorrow i have to get up at the crack-ass of dawn to watch rosie compete in a surf contest. yep, that girl learned to surf this summer and now wants her own board. and get this, she wants to teach me to surf.


i guess i could learn to surf in my grannie suit and stringy gray hair, boobs down to the board, yelling yippee-ky-o-i-a....too bad for rosie i had her near my menopause years.

so,


surf's up. i guess.

you don't have to be a star, baaaayyaabee...

to be in my shooooow.

yesterday, the del mar fair. or the san diego fair, which ev - i had a great time demo-ing in a tent in the plaza in front of the art building which is really the paddock during horse race season. i loved this giant robot (at least 15 feet tall) that came by us few times (i believe alberson's sponsors him) and made funny comments -sometimes even insulting comments to everyone. some times he even tried to pick up on chicks. what a laugh. he sang sinatra too. he came over to artist midge hyde who was demo-ing in the tent before i did and had this long conversation about art. he is purple and she was using purple in her chalk drawing. he patted himself on his back for having a wonderful artistic eye.
we couldn't figure out how a man could be inside this robot suit because his butt was so small. finally i asked an "in-the-know" fair person if she had seen the guy in the suit. she said (chewing gum) "yeah, he is like this really short guy with glasses; a total nerd, kinda like plankton on spongebob squarepants... he like, totally stays to himself."
hmmm. still, it was hard to image how anyone could be that small to fit where the robots joints bend, that area is so small....hard to explain.
earlier in the day i saw an act of young cirque solie (sp?) types, curling around a high ring - great act, and then came the pie eating contest - pies from coco's. they started with kids aged 7 and 8. i left before the puking started.
I took rosie and she brought a friend. I unleashed them at the fun zone early with unlimited ride wristbands and $20.

When i saw them again, after my demo - they look pretty tired, sunburnt and puky themselves. they had been on every ride - even the most unnatural opposite gravity ones. the "zipper", "hi-miler" and one awful one called the "tango", one called "extreme" too. Lots of plunging, jerking, whip-lashing --and then there were the rides themselves!!!....(ok, i made a joke).
but, ugh. i never liked those rides. but they did and they had fun lots of fun. they ignored the carnies who wanted them to try to win grossly oversized stuffed animals. rosie and jennie kept responding by saying, "no, thank you, I already have a full selection of giant stuffed farm animals at home."
so much fun they had......
until later last evening, rosie complained that she still tasted the deep fried oreo cookies, deep fried twinkies, australian fried and battered potatoes, smothered in some thick, gross looking white sauce...hearing this almost made me puke. she said that she wished she had eaten something nutritious like the deep fried frog legs......(er....ok). i think she was also a bit sun sick. SO! it was a successful and satisfying day at the fair!!!

I had a huge crowd watching me paint (i got a little shy, but talked myself through it) then i impromptu -ed an area for kids to have at it - painting. they loved it. i don't think anyone got paint on their clothes. which is always a plus.

San Diego Fair..

i demo tomorrow in the art building from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.. 

previously i mentioned i would be there from noon to 4, but now it has changed to only that one hour.

cats in aprons............

just a few cards i created for somerset studios - as part of my artist on call work for them.  these are cards of cat heads atop of (stamped image of) dress forms and then adorned with little aprons.

they were very fun to make.  like dress up dolls with cat  heads. 

also,  i loved using up the different fabric i found in my stash doing nothing but waiting to be used up.

feels good.

here kitty-kitty.

past ailments....

although (previous post) is personal - i will talk about it, especially to those who have autoimmune disorders and are struggling mentally as well as physically with the complexity of these issues and frustration of miss or no diagnosis.

in my case, my eye doc - saw the cloudiness in the backs of my eyes and could see that i had a profound problem - when the first doctors said nothing was wrong with me, she became my advocate and called and pressured the gen. pract. doc to send me to a rheumatic doctor, who finally through tests saw that my kidneys were failing and sent me on to the nephrologist - who "happened" to know what it was after a full day of scary tests.  i have to admit, i also needed to be treated for shock while in the hospital that day- i did not have a clue my kidneys were the issue, nor that my situation was so dire.

cycle of life.....

on facebook tonight, one of my friends asked me how i coped with my deadly illness of a few years ago.  

i rarely mention my illness because it was/is particular to me - it was a rare illness, so why tell the story - no one will benefit from hearing about it.  in fact, it will probably bore readers.  plus it is a real downer to talk about illnesses.  but my friend made me see that he would benefit because, although he does not have the same disease, he does have a debilitating one and wanted to know how to cope.   how. to. cope.  this is a good question....

so, the story is.....

 i nearly died of acute kidney failure in 2003.  i am OK now -my kidneys are stable, functioning at 30% which is enough for me.  i hardly think about it now.

but what happened? i hardly know, see, i had been working non stop for about 3 hours on my artwork one day, when i looked up and could not see clearly.  everything was fuzzy.  i had the light bulbs changed in my studio, but realized that was not the problem.  so, i went to the optomistist - she examined deep in my eyes and found i had uveitis - inflammation of my irises...which meant, she explained, that i had some sort of overall body inflammation, signaling something like an autoimmune disorder.

and so it was an autoimmune disorder - my body suddenly an without warning attacked my perfectly good kidneys and rejected them.  also, my eyes were attacked and my intestines were inflamed to boot.  i had been feeling fine - well, sort of, i was feeling tired, run down and a bit stressed..., also i was not very hungry and began to lose weight (i liked that part) but it turned out i was anorexic - not so good.  the problem worsened because i was not diagnosed immediately.  there was trouble identifying what was ailing me.  finally a topnotch nephrologist at scripps in la jolla figured it out.  the disease was called TINU (tubular interstitial nephritis and uveitus) meaning- inflammation of the back of my eyes and kidneys - which meant - my body was killing itself - identifying my eyes and kidneys (and intestines) as alien or foreign bodies and thus it needed to destroy them---- and rapidly went to work doing just that.  

medical book wise -  only 12 adults in the world have ever had such a problem! or i should say only 12 had been recorded.

 fortunately for me, my nephrologist had remembered such a case he had seen once in an emergency room or somewhere and was able to diagnose it in time to save me.  (he was vague about how he knew actually).  i was not a candidate for kidney replacement since my own good kidneys were being attacked - transplants would never survive....(but  deep, deep thanks to daughter brooke and brother danny for offering) .  i underwent 2 years of chemo - lots of prednisone 60 mil a day i think and the anti-organ rejection medicine called cydpro (?sp).  i did not, could not have dialysis because my situation was too dire.  instead, the prednisone began to work and stopped my body from attacking itself and started to allow some swelling to recede so that my kidneys could begin to function again.

god, i was so sick.  i could not move my head from the pillow.  my days were morphed into a different dimension - i viewed the word through tiny slits of eyes - i would blink and there would be my daughter (9 years old then) talking before her daddy took her to school, then blink and she was gone, blink she was back but it was bedtime......days, weeks - then months passed.  the dog stayed by my side at all times.  he knew.  i really love my dog for that.

prednisone has some horrific side effects.  one is-- it deforms you - giving you a moonface and swollen back and arms, weakens your thighs since it feeds off your large muscles.   plus, it makes you crazy.  for me, it had the queerest side effect -it compelled me to clean the house!!! that was totally uncharacteristic of me, as everyone knows.   when i started to feel better, i would try to buzz around with the vacuum cleaner - ah, but mostly my strength failed me and the house stayed a wreck.

so how did i cope?  well, i didn't have to cope, i was too sick to know i was sick.  but when i began to feel better, i cried and fought and was angry for my body failing me.   i freaked out a lot.  since i never felt it coming and it hit so fast -for years i was on edge worried that any little sign could mean death.  i  remained on constant vigil with my body.

 then i went through a long period of feeling embarrassed that my body failed me.  i could not speak of it.  

and finally, like all struggles in my life, i began to try to forget about it.  buried it, so i rarely talk about it.  this is not good either - it wreaks havoc on my memory.  (glad neither of my parents were alive to witness this).  not exactly great coping guidelines for my facebook friend, i'm afraid.

so, i try to acknowledge it - it is part of my physical history.  this brings us up to date.   so there you have it - my story of my rare disorder.....if you ever wondered why my output of art seems to be at a maniacal rate, it's because i have been too close to the other side - i feel i was giving a second chance do fulfill my passion and that life is short - all those cliches.  

and personally, i blame it all on peri -menopause - that stuff is shit.

*** this painting was creating about 2 years after my trauma - this painting  is about mankind -small, but many as in  fish  roe and my deceased dad (many of him) raising up on the left side like hooked fish and above middle is  my mom as the lure to the "other side".   it is entitled "fisher of men". 

Happy Father's Day, Daddy.  oxoxoox, forever.

as for rosie's dad - i hope he will share his gifts of chocolate and aged whisky with me.

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del mar fair demo......

wednesday, june 24 from noon to 4 p.m. come to the art building, i will be in a room (don't know which one) at the san diego (del mar) fair -
come one, come all.  i am demo-ing for an organization i belong to called WCA  women's caucus for the arts.

pretty little maidens.... all in a row....

sometimes it feels good to paint a ton of little paintings. i painted this tiny series to put together to give away at my workshop this month.
these are so fast and easy - i will be teaching this technique at the workshop june 27 saturday at escondido arts partnership, (north county san diego)
(760) 480-4101 - a few spaces left. plus attendees get a free tiny original painting signed by me!!! my tiny giveaways are now collectibles.

**********************************
i have to admit, self promotion sucks, i hate it as does every artist - but it is a necessity - until one gets a representative - then you are at the mercy of the agent. "go here", "paint this"...."i needs several more like this one...." life as an artist is not easy. there is no easy way to get out there.
still, it's better than being stuck behind a desk wishing you had time to paint.

somerset studio workshop 08....

for those of you who have asked where they can get hold of my 30 page article and gallery on paintovers.
it can be found at www.stampington.com - publications - look up 2008 spring -somerset studio workshop - you may order it there.
also, if you click on "search articles" and type in my name, you will get pages of references of all my articles, interviews and features with all of the somerset studio magazines.

girl of the sea.....

today was rather uneventful - i swam and got out before the little peepers came screetching in..(see previous post). i am used the to the time change of the pool hours now. my mood is a little better.
i did the walk up the hill fighting with the dog the whole way again - except on the way down - he is always fine with that.

i need to get more med.s for the dog at the vet. turns out he has a bit of a thyroid condition. ha! what about the rest of the family - we're all overweight - well not rosie..just gastone, me and the cat and now, of course, the dog. he also needs to visit a dog dermatologist. i'm talking about the dog, (not my husband- in case you got mixed up). its amazing the conditions these pets can get. he has acne. (the dog) i secretly think it is the expensive food my husband has been feeding him. he gets select organic foods from a special farm - somewhere - god knows - but the food with fish - well, the fish are not farm raised at all - they are fished from real streams in the wild.............. or should i say the fish are wild found in streams - and the ocean too, no doubt.

i caught the dog trying to help himself to that chicken carcass from the wonderful rotisserie chicken i prepared last night. he was nosing the trash bag as it was on its way out to the outdoor trash. i called his name sharply, he looked guilty and annoyed at once. he can only outsmart me sometimes. not everytime.

well, so another day closes - it turned out to be a lovely day too. it rained a bit this morning - but that was hard to remember by noontime.
tomorrow is another day. for something.



the rest of the day as spent running the swim team - i will be glad when her coach gets back from his mom's funeral.

a day of cleaning...

OK, OK, i didn't really clean the house much today - still i did some stuff--- cleaned the refrigerator, washed the dishes, looked into my workroom and turned around and walked out again. i just can't face cleaning that room up. i really have to force myself. i need to start soon before the summer heat makes it impossible to do.

rosie is in summer school - she gets out at 12:20. i like to swim before i pick her up. my local swimming pool opens up for lap swim at 11 a.m. until today - the pool changed its opening time to 11:45. so i swam, but it was fast - i had to do it all within 25 minutes. ticked me off. but got it done. sortof. the muni. pool has kid swim lessons during lap swimming. the lap swimmers are in the deep end and the kids are in the shallow. i was in an irritable mood today (caused by the inconvenient time change) and the noise of the kids was wearing on my nerves. after my swim i stepped into a shower stall in the ladies room to shampoo and cleanup before getting dressed. i was in the furtherest possible shower stall away from those newly arriving screechy kids. after i peeled off my swim suit and lathered my head, i turned around only to be met by 3 pairs of little eyes - mouths gaping. the little shits were lined up to peek through the crack in my shower curtain. grrr. i was so annoyed.
and there was some fumbling old grandma in the background saying "now girls, help grandma get you dressed for your swim class- what are you doing over there. come back here and help your old grandma." ugh! i wanted to shout, "come get these little shits you call grandchilden". but i didn't. they were only about 4 years old. i knew better. but still. i had tried so very hard to stay clear of them and yet, there they were-- like freakin' peeping tom magnets, ooo, i was in a bad mood. and now i was fuming too.

later today, i walked to the top of our hill - which is a 10 minute heart -pounding endeavor. its very long and very steep. i make the dog and my husband do it with me. my husband is OK, but the dog hates it. he tries to pretend to be interested in everyone's front door along the way- he wants to go in their houses to lay down on their cool marble floors. i practically have to drag him up the hill by his collar - as though he were an ass. he is the size of one. damn dog - guess i'm still in a bit of a bad mood.
anyway, i should be losing some weight if i keep this up............i roasted an organic fed chicken on our rotisserie for dinner....the george foreman rotisserie we bought about 10 years ago - its still works very nicely.
oh man, am i boring and bitchy today. sorry.

ok, not much to report tonight. i gonna put this blog entry out of its misery. night all.

beautiful day for a swim....

today was a nice day - we went to my friend kathy olsen's house to help them celebrate their daughter, stephanie's graduation from UCSD. stephanie did it in 3 years. she is kinda a whizzkid. (they had bbq from phil's)
many of their friends reminded me that they knew my name from stories kathy had told them of our trip to NYC. tis true, when i had an art show in NYC i asked kathy and stephanie to come along. it was us 3 girls on the loose in the big apple. i don't think i have ever laughed so much for so long in my life. poor stephanie - with the two of us. but she did OK we ended up going to the apple store near central park and she got an iphone just when they first came out. i remember she was reading the ny times while we waited for dinner that night. that was very cool. but now just a couple of years later - this is no big deal - even my sprint phone has this feature.

finally the sun came out today. it was lovely - after the graduation party gastone and i hit the gym - after that rosie and i went swimming. i don't know why i am still awake after all this activity today. that sure was good bbq ribs from phil's at the olsen party. gastone is still talking about it too. er, he would be if he were awake.......aw jeez, its past mid-night again.
night.

nice reception....

thank you everyone for coming to the reception tonight. i hope you all got something good to eat and drink.
(thank you terese, painter of nurses, for coming from so far away and bringing a friend). it was a nice night. i apologize for dressing like a slob. i just couldn't find the right clothes at the last minute...why i waited for the last minute -god knows--- well, you see, i was painting right up to the final hour. naturally.

so actually i have about 6 large paintings almost done that i hoped to get done for tonight....but, ya know...i'm only one person---there is always next month.
if you came and saw the show and saw my "swim school" painting, 3 of those fish were me as a 12 year old. cool disguise, huh?
speaking of swimming...i have been intrigued lately of these 1940's swim suits. i was reading an article recently about swim suit trends - i am amazed that it was only in the early 1910's that ladies began to reveal their ankles - so these 1940's swimmers were pretty risque. wow!! 30 years- what a difference. no wonder my dad loved to hang out at the local swimming pool. he used to show off by diving off the high dive! i think he thought he could pass for errol flynn. dive bomber.

well, its bedtime for me now. the house is very quiet, except for the dog chopping his paw. allergy season.

holy skirts....

is a  novel i have started reading and so far i love it.  it takes place in 1904 germany burlesque shows and culture.  it's so very well written - 

also a novel i am nearly finished with is called "the help". 

anyone out there read either book?

i just want to take a second here and shout out to ted, my high school boyfriend -  to wish him a happy birthday.  its only been what? 40 years?  i just can't believe how fast time flies.  happy b-day ted.

mother/daughter day

my daughter brooke spoiled me today with a cool surprise - i got to have a european facial today at wendy ox in pacific beach.  i also got to have the facial microdermabrasion treatment -- where a little power tool was used on my face that sand blasted it then sucked up the mess all at once.

it is really a wonderful thing to have done - it doesn't hurt, feels great kinda tickles and you radiant for hours afterward. 

this painting is in its beginning stages.  i will bring some of the facial features back to these two.

new book by a very cool artist

katherine streeter.  i love her.

just got my copy from amazon today.  i'm in heaven.

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calendar reminders....

learn the high points of the paintover technique.  my workshop will be the last saturday of this month at the escondido arts partnership - the municipal gallery.  you must call to reserve a spot - the class is limited to a small group.

also, come meet san diego's famous glass artist, joan irving (sd airport glass) and me this saturday at the escondido arts partnership's reception - the second saturday event 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.

where: escondido arts partnership
262 east grand ave. escondido - both events.

(760)  480-4101.

upcoming article: water transfers on cloth

i have been busy, busy - writing articles.  i am currently writing an article on painting a memory (not from memory) but instead describing on canvas what a memory looks like.  i feel very philosophical right now...but i'm not really - its just the way i'm wired.

this is a picture of a technique i developed where i use my art and transfer it to cloth using just water as the vehicle.  this is a different article.  i have mentioned this before.

the water transfer to cloth article is set for the next  -SS art quilting studio magazine. 

 people ask me all the time, when is that article coming out on this or that technique you are were working on.

the truth is, there can be up to a year or more lag time.  in the beginning - when i was new to publishing, this used to freak me out.  i thought my articles had somehow slipped through a crack (perhaps they do for a while), or maybe the publisher had a change of heart about my work.....then suddenly, an email message comes - please send your article electronically.  this is the point when i actually write it.    i'm not sure how other artists do it,  but this is how i roll.

sometimes, the publisher has to send me a snapshot of what i sent in because i can't remember it.   this is bad practice, i try to remember to at least take the picture myself before i send it in.  and yeah, i probably should write the entire article before i send it too.  but by the time i create something new, prepare it to send off - (which is not an easy feat - i often do step-outs which means i prepare the same thing over and over, but adding a new step each time) --  i feel kinda exhausted.  luckily,  editors always give me ample lead time to write once i get notification which publication the article will go in.  so i do it then.  however, sometimes i wake up in the night to write it - like today.  er, this morning.  

why do my best ideas come in the night?  why can't i have a normal work week?

ok, i'm rambling here - i better go back to bed.  i just thought you might like to know how i work................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

call for pet photos.....

i have put out a call on facebook and now here to you for pet photos.  i am acquiring pet photos to paint for publication.  

so if you have pet photos of a favorite or less than fave pet - send it my way with permission to use it.  the pix can also have human family members in it - just, i must have the permission to use them because  of publication.......

send them via jpeg with decent resolution to : lisabebiart@aol.com.  i will let you know if i will use them. 

 (pictured here is my dawg dempsey)

i will be collecting them until july 10, 2009.  

what a show tonight!!!

i had the best time ever at the show in the house with the frightening stairway.  i loved it.  it was in my neighborhood, so i got to see lots of my friends - it was like a party, but i didn't have to clean up my house!!!

i was looking in my computer files for a picture of a painting called "blue twist" but i can't find it.  i think it is in the other computer.  but anyway, i had to say goodbye to blue twist tonight.  so sad, but so glad too.

so i'm off to bed now.  thanks all who came, there was no parking and of course the angry stairs - but it was worth it.

it's ON!

be there or be square. tomorrow.

and stop complaining about it already ---oh, sorry that was me.

cheers.

the show must go on!!!

OK, i have been talked into going ahead with the reception and show for friday in la mesa.   just call me skitz-crazy.

please watch your step on the stairs.  of course once you have had wine, etc. you won't notice the fall on the way down!

also the parking sucks cuz its at the end f a cul-de-sac.  

but my art and i will be there 5p.m. to 8 p.m.

4521 westview, la mesa.

the veranda is very nice.  and i will be handing out small art  pieces.

don't come friday!!!

CALLED OFF this friday in la mesa.
i am sorry to say that i have had to cancel the show for this friday because the stairway (the only means to get up to the house) is in too poor of condition. its just unsafe.

instead come to my reception in escondido ( at the escondido municipal gallery, 262 east grand ave.), saturday, june 13 from 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. which is completely safe!!!!
i will be there in my gallery space with my dear friend, joan irving, san diego's finest glass artist - her work is all over the san diego airport (the large plate glass image upstairs near terminal check in....looks like a long dancing ribbon).
she will be there to meet and greet you with some of her wonderful glass art. she also just finished doing all the glass in the lobby of the empire state building in NYC! come meet joan and me on saturday, june 13th!

and bring your party hat - there will be lots to eat and drink! and i will give away some of my handmade and signed trinkets.
see you there!