there is something really satisfying about eating home grown vegetables. my hubby is doing such an amazing job with the garden. we have carrots to last us all winter. they will only get bigger and sweeter as the weeks pass.
i think that the garden is my first metaphor for 2010. it needs tending, it produces amazing things if you care for it properly [or sometimes even if you don't], it changes - day by day, season by season, it is fulfilling and hard work....
we had a bit of a sad ending to our year.
we had to say goodbye to our kitty chinaski [you can read about him in this old post]. the above photo kind of sums him up. even sick he would purr and talk back if you talked to him [and his purr was this motor, luscious, vibration]. he would always outstretch his paw to touch you if you came near.
all pets are special to their owners. but chini - he was also special to our neighborhood. everyone knew the three-legged cat. he was best friends to major [i hope they are hanging out together now eating popeye's chicken]. people would come and talk to me about how much they loved him. the mayor of our block. a once in a lifetime cat.... such a trooper. such a good good soul.
at the end and beginning of years we reflect so much... i keep reading wonderful summations of the year past. i can't seem to package each of my months nicely in a few memories. in some ways the days and weeks and months have become one long blur - and yet in other ways there are distinct and clear moments of joy, excitement, sadness, newness, fear - of being ALIVE. i can't help but think that it is these extremes that keep us spinning, and as we see saw from one to the other we get to dance a little in the space between - reflect in moments of calm, and catch our breath for the next bit.
a happiest of new years to everyone. may 2010 bring exactly what you want and need and are capable of handling.
a new blog! a bunch of us crafty gals put our heads together and came up with sew green. it was really sparked by shash , and then as these things do - it's organically grown into this whole other idea.... i'm really excited and hope that you all go to check it out ....
also - don't forget that shari is hosting the documentary project today - i can't wait until i have a moment to see how she responded to last week's word :: delicate
we've been having glorious weather here... many hours were spent in the yard the last few days [i took my computer and grading outside!] we also had our first official BBQ. yum.
and i had to show you this:
tilda learned from garbo that eating grass can be fun in the sun.
happy monday!
Labels: documentary project, pets, sew green
{cough}{cough}. you'll have to excuse my voice. my foot has been rammed so far down my throat that i think i've forgotten how to speak a bit. it seemed to have gotten really lodged when i looked to my right and said hello to mr. rock... and looked to my left and said hello to mr. hard place. or more precisely mumbled hello as they proceeded to help me contort my foot even deeper down my esophagus. in a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation why the hell not DO. i mean in the most simplistic terms.... you are either living or dying and since i'm not dead....
this morning i awoke before the sun was even up. the above image is from the inside of my foggy covered car window. i guess there is some beauty to be had at some ungodly hour. the pink light as the sun rose was pretty nice too.
today was the first day of drawing one. i had 24 on my roster and over 50 in the class. yes. 50+! i am trying to make it hard for them to get me to add them. they must email me, show up on monday and basically plead their case. holy cow. i couldn't even talk to all of them once if that was the class. there was a really loud fan going too - so i was standing there yelling at the top of my lungs "this is not an easy art class! i'd rather have you try something and fail than not try! why are we drawing upside down?!"
i came home and spent the whole afternoon framing. framing and more framing. thankfully i cut the mounting papers the other night. i could hear a voice in my head going - oh this is so tedious. and then the teacher voice in my head saying - would you like me to play the tiny violin for you? yes please! a very lilty mozart song would be nice. thank you. i'd like to feel sorry for myself for 10 more minutes. all the inedible cupcakes are being framed! tara and i start installing monday [well she's doing phase I of the floor painting on sunday]. show opens next friday at mama buzz . i hope we can pull this off - we have grand ideas w/ lots of paint involved....
matilda would like some sympathy. she got spayed on monday. she's not too keen on the elizabethan look, but has no choice in the matter. she no longer looks like a kitten, huh? but she's still little. maybe she'll stay little. she was trying to help me frame. maybe i can do a whole series of pieces that incorporate kitty paw prints.
this polaroid reminds me of anne . i think she's really busy and probably won't even see this, but....
so since i'm just all over the place might as well tell you that if you are in LA and want to see some art this weekend you should to go the los angeles art show . if you poke around there just might be some work of mine there.
{cough}{cough}
update... i just got to see shari's take on record and she's done an amazing job verbalizing the process. puts me to shame... if you haven't already you should definitely check out her take!!
so.... today shari and i reveal our project together. perhaps you'd like to know a bit of history? basically when i finished the drawing a day series i knew that i wanted to do something else on a weekly basis and i thought it would be more fun to do it with a friend. through that project i discovered that the guideline and discipline of doing something regularly is really rewarding [oh look! i alliterated!]. i kept returning to the idea of what's around me and how i choose to really "see" it or not. then i started thinking about how language can really influence what you pay attention to - or how you interpret [or re-interpret] something. thinking that i wanted to "document" who better to start a project with than someone in documentary studies? so i approached shari.
the premise of the project is this. each week one of us picks a word. and then we both interpret that word in any visual means we want. drawings, photos, mind maps, etc. perhaps shari will even bust out with some sound [hope so!]. we reveal the fruits of our labor on mondays. it may be a single image - it may be multiple.... there are no limits or guidelines on that end.
this week's word was :: record. a great word since it can be interpreted more that one way... dictionary definition here . immediately i thought of my husband's record collection... and then the red "record" button on stereo equipment... and then i thought to do this:
making a record... [on my favorite type of graph paper]. anyone want to venture a guess as to what i was counting??
what i love about this project is how open the interpretation is.... you can go anywhere. it's funny what words pop into my head as possibilities. the word for this week is mine - but you'll have to wait until next monday to learn what it is.... thank you shari - for doing this with me... i can't wait to see how this unfolds and develops week by week. [it's sort of like the compound word project but longer.... :)]
it has been so so cold here [for us calif wimps it's cold]. here's proof. all the pets huddled together:
and i leave you with a poloaroid - which could relate to record.... recording the light thru my studio windows in the way only expired poloaroid film can:
Labels: documentary project, pets, polaroids
