Festivus for the Rest of Us

 

A shift

 

Shopping out of the way, digging up old WIPs is a good way to avoid cleaning. That can wait another day. I have to remember to put the music headphones on when I run the vacuum, recognizing that the noise that sends the cats all running causes me real pain.

I caught him just in time.

Rather than wait until someone found the time, I'm assembling this bathroom cabinet on my own. It's not IKEA, but Jake tells me that the fasteners are a good knockoff of the real thing. The parts are precisely made, and the directions are as clear as anything Lego puts out, and I've had a lot of Lego practice.

Using a power drill would be quicker, but I find using hand tools to be more accurate and contemplative. It took me an hour just to unbox it and check the inventory. Then I read all the instructions to be sure none of this was beyond my physical strength. Unboxed, it was forty or so pounds.

Almost finished now, it's been most satisfying if a little hard on the hands. Just like Lego, almost no force is necessary, but there's a lot of repetition. 

I'm looking forward to the real IKEA bookcases coming after the new year. 

getting on with it

About a week ago, I ran out of excuses to avoid taking this path through a very dark wood. What started as a nightmare that woke me from a deep sleep over a year ago has finally made it to the page.

Eight pages, for now, a good chunk of it heinous, violent murder from the pov of the antagonist. A lot less will be more, but this is where I have to start--staring horror in the face.

It's a very rough draft with many edits pending. This last run-through kept me fully occupied and away from the idiocracy spewing from all forms of media, and I'm grateful to myself for kicking it into gear. 

Sophie insists that her hips fit right next to mine in the stitching chair. Kinda.

You might be sick of seeing this meme, but it nails the feeling I had when I finished writing this scene. Sublimely indestructible? God like? High as a damn kite?

Update: I just spent about five minutes on Insta and saw this meme six times. I think the reason it's so popular is that we are desperate to feel this way, even if only for the length of a song and dance. 

(In case you haven't seen it, the comedy/drama, "Your Friends & Neighbors" on Apple TV, is worth getting a week's free trial. I'm on the second watch.)

I'm still toying with the idea of this being the cover of the book in progress, only I wish the background were black  

The S and the B just touching is intentional.

And if I don't stop fooling around with AI, my fingers are going to fall off or something else dire.

 

For Winter

 

I bought these for myself years ago. A tradition I need to revisit.

I don't recall what was being celebrated, if anything. Most likely, Publix put their overabundance of roses on sale for half price. I'll keep an eye out for the upcoming Soltice. 

Not square one

 
When all else stymies me and revolts, the Hearts bring me back to calm and order.  

Online digital shenanigans have been in my crayon box since the early '90s. I have AT&T to thank for jobs with mind-warping boredom, no supervision and all the technical power and equipment at my fingertips.

I started out collecting images of commercial batik fabric. Then I learned to use them as "fills". 

All this while learning to write the machine code necessary to build web pages. Any ambition and I would have been dangerous.

Eggzgrid Here

I pulled over in the neighborhood to grab this show, and a UPS truck snuck up behind and blew the horn. 

The guardians

 I pulled over to talk on the phone and they rushed to the fence to get between me and their cows. 

At Jake's there was a kinder welcome.

Charlie and I made an apple pie from (almost) scratch if you don’t count the pre-made crust that look like rolled up play doh. 

I've never done a crust from scratch. Boxed mixes are the limit of my baking skills and the store was out.

So I peeled, cut and measured while he wrote and illustrated the steps in a sketchbook. I amended the measurements the next day. Too much sugar!

When his Mom got home, his grades were tallied up and a big milestone was met and rewarded. 

By the time I return, it will probably be completed and I'll revisit my (apparently demonic) views on gluing projects permanently. 

Even a good AI watercolor had to start with a great photo. I'm missing my 35mm a little. 

Mummies All

 In addition to the piece in yesterday's post, these favorites. But I remember feeling torn about leaning into this technique. Leaving the hand of the cloth behind in favor of the visual impact of the design.

There's still an unease about it. 

Lavanderia 24x24 juried into Artquilt Elements in Philadelphia 2012 and didn’t come home. It sold!

Savage Lands

Mesopelagic

Old Comfort
One of the stars of the fiber mummy tutorial.

As Yet Unbaptized

Some bittersweet history for this one. 

somewhere in here (updated!)

 

Now that I've researched and obsessed over this piece for a few days, I can't find the damn thing. There's a reason that I can't put my hands on it, a message from the universe that I have to ponder. Decode. 

"The Bruised Heart" is mounted on a 16x20-inch canvas, so it's not rolled up in a pile with other still-soft pieces. 

The search is on. I have a physical this afternoon, and I'm afraid they are going to find my blood pressure alarming. At least I know why.

I had to provide an artist's statement and two images for the show in January. The words were easy. Deciding which two images to represent my work was very hard. 

It did NOT run off to join the circus. 

Grateful...

 ...to have been on the ground floor of a new obsession. I can't teach him anything but the basics. Thank goodness Jake is a patient teacher, the interaction wonderful to watch.

 

There were a lot of questions for Google because I never really played, just had an idea of how it was supposed to go. Play makes me tense and sweaty and I've lost five of six games most often because I forgot the Tiger lurks.

Rules, history, tradition. Culture. It's like visiting another planet.

Charlie Tuesday

 

Yeah. It took my breath away to see what he's going to look like as a young man. 

I have a lot of opinions about AI, not many of them good. I'm already seeing reader backlash against authors using AI to make book covers. Readers are making the assumption that what's going on inside those covers is also AI-generated and some pretty rank tripe. They are right.

As for image manipulation, I've been using computer graphics editors since you had to load your computer's operating system from five floppy discs.

In the 90s, I became a master of monkeying around with images using free programs that, with a little bit of hacking,  were every bit as good as the ones people paid hundreds of dollars for. (Does anyone remember warez and catching malware from going there? I do.) I still have a laptop that I keep for the sole purpose of running Paintbox 5 by Jasc.

The AI editing feature in Messenger, which I stumbled upon by accident, offered these enhancements to the pictures I took.

 I can draw the line there and not mess around with anyone else's images.

Change of scenery

 

This will be my first extended absence for these two. Colin will dole out extra love and attention.

The house is very quiet right now. Jake and Charlie are off to get his cast removed!

I've brought this and several others with me to work on fitting sleeves and backs. 

In a few cases, after many years, I'm changing the orientation completely. I can't decide if it's cheating somehow, but I'm happy with the choices.

After I return, there will be a new "cinema" wall painted in the living room, and I'll use it to take a bunch of new photos and update the gallery. 

Charlie and I played four blistering rounds of checkers last night. I went easy on him in the first game. In the second, scorched him. No quarter. He picked up on the limited strategies and beat me in the last two games fair and square. 

We both decided that learning Chess is going to be on our agenda this week.  I think that Rookie and Never Really Got the Hang of It are on par, skill-wise. 

The details

 One or two a day. Pressed, backed, and sleeved. Picked over for cat hairs and cooties. The mountain will be moved a teaspoon at a time.

We will not discuss that the fancy label is upside down as I reconsidered the orientation. 

Spirits call

 

Really, muse?

It's 1:30 in the morning. 

Was it the wierd dinner? (A big bowl of cantaloupe chunks, pomegranate arils, topped with broken gingerbread cookies)

Maybe saying goodbye to Littlefeather? My Singer Featherweight has been languishing too long. As part of my Reconnection project a perfect destination was revealed. We'll be at FedEx later today. 

(Open yourself to change. Come down from your walls. )

Maybe it was this. I finished Vigil today with the intention of letting it go (if chosen) to the show and beyond. 

This was the piece I worked on during Jim's last weeks. Sweetie here is gone now as well.

Today marks twelves years without Jim. I take comfort in the knowledge that I've still had more life with him than without him.

Restless, strong spirits remind me of the business of life. Push the Wheel. 

States of mind

 Some are deeply concerned. 

Others have no fucks left to give.

Confounding the auto-wankers

Using up mostly blank pages in an old notebook just to spite data scrapers.

The chaos continues.

Now that I have an idea of what the exhibit space is for the show in January I have to choose a very small handful of pieces to offer the curator of the show.

I've unrolled a couple of these and thought, "What the fuck was she thinking?"

 And a few others have lifted my spirits and flown me away.

This is my Swedish Ivy, unhappy about having to come inside now that winter is here. 

 If I'm going to do this notebook thing on a regular basis I'm going to have to work on my penmanship. And I apologize. I just felt like annoying some data scraping program with an image that can't be parsed.

Full Moon

 "Instead of dinner, they might climb to the rooftop, hungry. Wine was poured, and various spirits were toasted. They lay on the mound of white, sun-warmed sand and conferred with the heavenly host. Stars and planets, and the names of the constellations they rode, were noted. He reached up and cupped the moon’s ass, captured it in his hand, and brought it down to her lips to be kissed, or perhaps bitten."

Slash & Burn (right now, I am suffering through a complete rewrite. Square One.)

The night was so soft and cozy that I decided against building a fire and just sat in the darkness, waiting for moonrise. I had forgotten how familiar the night is, how comfortable I am wrapped up in it. For my entire adult working life, I chose the night shift for many reasons. The night life was not always about the boogie. 

The great water oak in the front yard blocks a clear view, but this was enough. My tarot and I got a good dose, and the next morning, this view testified to the glory of the hours before the dawn.

With many, I am cautiously celebrating the blue wave taking shape, gaining strength. Keeping my warrior stance and attitude because there is so much damage to undo. Heads must roll. 

Cards speak

 Yesterday was my Mom's birthday. I don’t give her nearly enough credit. That creative Scorpio was wild at heart but had to operate in the social framework of her time. Before she was wife and mother, she was Rosie.

~○~

This was last night just before I went to bed. (Sigh) Yes, duty. Yes, Responsibility. Yes, I have Strength.  Can do. But.....

today, I'm taking the Four of Pentacles advice. Rest, recharge and bring a new perspective. Shit's gotta get writ.

It's supposed to hit 70s today. I'm out.