Ancient...

Grew up a few blocks from the Worcester Art Museum. When I was a kid I was all about the modern section. It was bold, full of color, and wild stuff. What I didn't like was the room of ancient Greek and Roman heads and vases. I had no problem with the ancient and stunning mosaics in the museum. But the vases... bored me.

It's funny though.... the way things stick with you. Even if you didn't like it... especially if you didn't like it.

When I saw the word ancient I thought of old medival spoon head art. But that was just old. Ancient made me think of those Greek vases.

So here's the thing. Why would I think of two things I don't particularly enjoy? And I was excited by the idea of doing a spoon head drawing. What is it about nostalgia that mixes up the good and bad and timges them both with longing. Anyway here it is... ancient.

Three and a half...

Three and a half…. go on and take a guess at what 3.5 means.

It could be anything. Inches, yards, miles, days, months, years, candy bars, drawings, pages, novels. The prequel to Eight and a Half.

It’s hours.

It’s hours of yoga I did today. It’s the most yoga I’ve ever done in a day. It doesn’t sound like much does it? But it’s a lot to me. I wish I did I more everyday. Maybe it’s the number of hours I should do yoga. It’s a lot. I feel exhausted but great. I’ll sleep well tonight.
I helped two Iyengar instructors with mock assessments. Each was 40 mi
nutes but we did 20 minutes of warm ups. So hours of yoga. An hour and forty five minutes and then my regularly scheduled 90 minute yoga class. It was Nadja’s first day back. And I couldn’t miss it. I love Nadja, she’s so great. I brought her flowers to welcome her back.

Carin and Cathy were doing mock assessments. And I participated in both. They were exhausting and exillerating and more nerve wracking because Patricia Walden was the one assessing them. Yes THE Patricia Walden. She is incredibly intimidating to me. She’s very beautiful and very kind and imperious in a way that is charming and commanding. She had us sing happy birthday to Rhanni (whose studio we used) and gave her a warm hug. She observed us during the assessment. She observed me. I can’t begin to express how that felt. I was nervous but focused, and I tried to listen and pay attention to the details of my asanas.

I f***ed up my shoulder stand on blanket that slid out from under me. There were comments that I rushed my set up. But I didn’t. I don’t rush that and I lined up the edges of my blankets evenly, In my class I help new folks with this. When I lay down to adjust my shoulders the blankets slide and when I went into plow pose I slid right to the floor and had to come out. I was frazzled and it took me a while to figure out the blankets has slid. I barely touched into what is normally my favorite asana.

The next assessment I used different blankets. I went up easy and it was fine.
Patricia commented. “You were much improved on your second shoulder stand” But it didn’t come out like that. It came out like “ Yoooooooooooou were muuuuch improooooooved on your second shoooooulder stand” It was imperious, it came out like a royal proclamation. I hastily explained my blankets had slipped. She said “But you improved on the second one” Yeah I used grippy blankets. And it really hit me that I had practiced in front of one of the great yogis. It felt great and a little horrible and I felt proud and humbled. She commented to another girl about her neck and another her knees. I felt I got off light. She’s amazing, she’s over 60 and I’ve seen her to a series of 30 plus backbends that were so beautiful I almost cried just observe. And she seems wonderful but I’m so intimidated. It was quite the experience and it renewed a certain energy to my spirit.

Cling...

The word was cling and I thought of being soaked and clinging clothes... and clingy men and starfish.

Theater...

I have three active blogs. One is in strictly for Illustration Friday images. Images that I often repeat here. One is new... its over at Tumblr I'm trying to post an image a day but slip up now and again. Often the images are old and have been posted here too. This one is the catch all. And oddly the most neglected. It's probably my favorite too.

So the image is theater. It's an old IF word. I'm trying to work through some of the old ones in between my active Illustration Friday Blog.

What a dull post. I think I'll go to bed now.

Wild...

Sometimes I think my wild ride needs more animals. I'm not sure what the tiger is talking about but clearly he is disgusted. Maybe he's upset about deforestation or global warming or what someone was wearing at the Oscars.

I'm sad about this...

Teddy Kennedy died last night. We knew it was coming, it's not a surprise and I sit about a mile away form the Kennedy compound feeling sad. I'm sad for the people of Massachusetts. I'm sad for the Kennedy family. I'm sad for the lack of privacy they have when they mourn. I'm more sad about that than anything.

We knew this day was coming but I couldn't help but gasp when I saw that he died. PBS had run a program on the Kennedy's a few months ago. It was a love letter to Teddy. They talked about how Teddy was very like his Grandfather Honey Fitz, the former Mayor of Boston and avid Red Sox fan.

Teddy the only Kennedy I ever met. Everyone in Massachusetts seemed to have met Teddy. He was everywhere.. he really was. If you ever wonder why we love Kennedy's here its because they were everywhere.

On the street where I live..

I have lived on my same street for 11 years. It's a small and lovely street, it's green with beautiful old houses... it ends with a church. I have often marvelled at the beauty of the street where I live. But it took me 11 years to notice thate there no telephone phone poles on the street that I live. There are tall street lights but no electical wires. My street is so small that they run the lines on live trees in the back yards. It's a wonder that we don't have more power outages. It only took me 11 years to notice that they weren't there.

Dr. Horrible is sweet!

No really, check it out at Cake Wrecks!

Wrapped up...

So the IF word was wrapped... and I knew I wanted to do an apron scene. I love aprons, in a bizarre way. I love all types of aprons. And there are so many cute aprons in the word! They are sassy aprons, sexy aprons, baking aprons, prison aprons, aprons for working with different substances, dyes, metals, glass, fire... the list goes on and on.

Somehow when I tell people I love aprons they are shocked. It goes against my feminist view points in their minds. I love my prison apron, you know the type dark blue heavy canvas one poket made in a prison? It's my favorite.

So I couldn't resist puting an apron on this poor fellow.

Regal...

The word was regal. I thought of being a kid and trying to make yourself regal, the sheet for a cape, the paper crown, the thought that macaroni would make it more impressive. Regal...

Vintage...

Pan Am has been haunting me lately. I should rephrase that Pan Am has haunted for years. Ever since the collapse of Pan Am in 1991, Pan Am has haunted me.

I always wanted to fly Pan Am but we never did as kid. We flew other defunct airlines, like Eastern. That was back in the day. I took an enormous 747 to Florida, from Boston. That's big plane to go to Florida in. They save those for the over seas flight now.

I love the Pan Am logo, and those beautiful Pan Am travel bags. Actually I was big fan of the Easter Airline's logo too. It was so simple, but I liked it. Apparently I liked their colors too. As I seam to have stolen them in my image.

But Pan Am has a certain romantic allure and the romantic history. Not to mention the classic advertising and the quintessential tropical poster. Not to mention happy planes :) But what plane it that tropical poster that's right it's the Honolulu Clipper. The old Pan Am Clippers, the Boeing 314 is the one that caught my fancy. Because I have a thing for flying boats. Note my love of Tales from the Gold Monkey and Jake flew a Grumman Goose, I love that back then, in the beginning there weren't enough runways, and this was the way get around it. You just needed a bay, some water... it was romantic.

I while back my pal Ellen lent me her copy of Night Over Water by Ken Follett. It's really a terrible book, it's hopelessly predictable, a romance novel, and very light and fluffy, but it is about the Yankee Clipper, it is utterly adorable, and it is perfect beach reading. So when I found a pristine hardcover at the thrift store, I could hardly believe my luck.

I thought Pan Am is haunting me again. Not a week later I was at the Christmas Tree shop and there was a Pan Am Clipper DVD I had to think Pan Am was haunting me. I bought it and was thrilled and disappointed. It was great, because it's Pan Am propaganda from the 50's and it's beautiful and fun to watch and see how priorities have shifted. And the planes! The lovely planes and services and sleep berths! But it's not about the clippers that I wanted to see. I loved it anyway.

Which leads to my image of vintage:

The idle rich...

The word this week was idle...

I wanted that lazy look of doing nothing in particular. Time is such a luxury and idle time even more.

I wanted something pretty and simple

I came up with a mermaid looking at some fish. Eh. Good enough.

Tango Tango Tango...

The word was tango. And it sure killed me today when I added color. First I spaced and didn't save my changes. Then I saved and closed it as a low res file. I recolored it for the third time and am afraid to every open it again.

Tango, tango, tango.

I thought of going military with it...

But I did military last time with the word hollow.

I had fun with that one.

Shaky...

This is over on my IF blog too but... the word is shaky. I look this a lot when I try to work on my Illustration Friday stuff. I do the whole shaking leg thing or I rock on my chair.

And speaking of shaky what is up with Sarah Palin. That was a shaky move. Does she really understand what a lame duck is? She kills me.

I'm not in love you but... I like you an awful lot.

Do you ever have those moments of connection with celebrities? You know the ones. Where you suddenly have that little thing in common and while you may have been fond of them before this opens up a world of possibles. When they reference something and you think... they may be all right after all.

Maybe you already liked them... like when I realised Wes Anderson and I share a birthday. Or how Joss Whedon watched Veronica Mars. Or when Patrick Rothfuss is not only wearing a Serenity shirt, but signed his post Later Space Cowboys.

Right enough Patrick Rothfuss.

Even I'm getting sick of me talking about Patrick Rothfuss.
Hadley would appreciate it.

How do I feel today?

It has been such a cold wet and rainy June… I think this image pretty much sums up my state of mind. I also threw it up on my cafe press site, just for kicks.

Larger than life...

This was for IF. The word is drifting.


A while back it hit me. That thing they always tell you about your artistic style. That you don’t need to find it. That it’s already there. So don’t go looking for it. Just keep practicing and it comes. It’s true, they’re dead on, and most of the time someone else sees it before you do. And that’s okay too.

I’ve never been overly fond of my drawing style. It’s just way the I draw, I don’t really have much choice over it. Yeah there are techniques you can learn but there is an underlying footprint that is your stlye. I nicknamed mine “stumpy”.
We could use the same pencils and paper but compared to some of my friends and their overly talented sisters my work looks like it was made with broken crayons by an animal in spasm, possibly missing thumbs.

But it’s okay. Because I’m starting to really see my style. And it may be a little stumpy but it’s mine and I like it.

Today I started drawing something and realized that I wanted it to be bigger than the paper I had. For a minute it seemed like it was just a small portion of an enormous drawing just waiting to come out. And I wish I had the time discipline and space to make this enormous drawing. But maybe it will come together piece by piece. I see a wall in my mind with 30 or 40 pieces of paper taped together.

I’ve always worked smaller than I thought I should. I think everyone has a natural size that they draw or paint or whatever. It’s convenient to work small, it’s portable, its less expensive but something inside of me has always known I’m supposed to work larger than I do. I drew this pretty large. It started on a 11 by 17 page but I ran out of room and the parasol was on a another page. I shrunk it down to color it on my computer and to post it. But it was fun to work a little larger on a single image. And it doesn’t look all that stumpy.

Things unfold...

I had my Improv Grad show last night and the night before, but this is not an illustration of that event. Thsi is my IF entry for UNFOLD.

I get the feeling that the girls on the edges might have mixed up their paper chains.

The girl in the pig tails looks a little like me.

So back to improv. We had our shows and we did well. I would have liked to have done better.

The one thing I was proud of was my role as the monologist on Monday. Which was a mix of terror, exhileration, and giddy euphoria or simply put it was thrilling.

I don't know what to do next in Improv. I made it through the 5 levels of the classes and I just don't know what comes next. I love improv and I want to do something with this.

A little late to the party...

So I missed an illustration Friday deadline, and I'm a little miffed with myself.

But better late than never.

The word was CRAVE, you can see it over at my IF Blog too.

Why two blogs I don't know. But I've made a third blog, this one is for my sister's wedding.

I made this Save the Date for the happy couple too!

Dad's Birthday Letter...

Dear Dad,
I can’t believe it’s that time of the year again. I never thought it would last. I never thought I would keep writing to you on your birthday. It surprises me a little every year. What is this, 13 years? It’s a long time. I miss you, I love you, I wish you were here.

First and foremost I have to tell that Beth is engaged to John Marshall. And we all love him even Chardie, especially Chardie. He was my coworker. I’m laid off now. He was my friend first, and he loves her. And I love them. Brian hasn’t met him yet but I know he’ll like him. We all do.
I did a portrait of you this year, in my new style.

I’m writing and drawing a comic book. It’s about dreams and where they come from. And I don’t know if it is any good or would ever be published or if it’s even something that will lead to something but I really want to complete it. I really feel like I need to. It’s slow going and I’m plagued with doubts. I don’t know how you wrote your novel. I can’t get through mapping out the story for 32 pages. I did however hit the ¼ mark the other day. So that’s something right?
I keep at hoping that this wisp of a dream pans out. But it’s something I need to do. I think you would respect that. And I think you’d like the story so far. I don’t want to go into on my blog though. This will go public when I’m ready.

As stalled as I sometimes feel on this project, it’s been nice focusing on the creative side of things again. I needed this break to recharge. I can breath again, I don’t panic when I want to draw something. Or sometimes I panic, but not as often or for as long. It’s easier. And my confidence is building in subtle ways that I don’t notice now but will later. It’s the way I draw casually again. When I have an idea, or want to express something vague in my head. Don’t laugh I know that’s how it’s supposed to be! But it’s not. I get drained.

It’ll be two years of yoga this summer! Twice a week. It’s still great, but man oh man my hips will never open! They just ache in and refuse to move in class, I have the hips of a 90 year old woman! It’s terrible. But I keep at it. I am hoping to be part of Nadia’s assessment class this winter. That would be an honor. We love Nadia, she’s in India right now, studying at the Iyengar institute. She’ll be there for a month, and then she’s adopting a baby and will miss the next two months. Which is pretty exciting. But we’ll miss her. Bec however (our Tuesday teacher) will still be there.

We had our first family vacation in years! For mom’s 60th birthday we all went to St. Johns. You would have loved it! It’s so beautiful there. Like paradise. With such beautiful turquoise water and a magical drink they call the lime and coconut. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? You put the lime in the coconut and shake it all up, with a nice virgin island rum! It’s brilliant. Of course Brian and I got into a vicious fight the last night but we patched things up the best way we could. This was not unlike the fight we go onto when he was home for Chris’s wedding. We get along fine on our own but you add another person and it’s shrapnel to the hand grenade. Let’s see how we do at Beth’s wedding ;) I’m just kidding, we always last until the after party.

Barack Obama is president now. He’s doing the best he can. The call this the great recession. It’s pretty bad though. I’m nervous being out of work and all but what can you do? There have been some scary and surreal moments. The other day Obama cam on the air to announce GM going bankrupt, and citing Chrysler’s recent bankruptcy and merging with Fiat (of all companies) as a shining example of hope for the future. It was very Atlas Shrugged. In fact right now everything is very Atlas Shrugged. Which surprisingly isn’t me nay saying Obama. Despite how it sounded, and he certainly didn’t expand on this, the Chrysler Fiat merge could be great. It would give Fiat a bigger foothold in the global market, as they compete with VW, and it could bring some of the fuel efficient Fiat line to America which will provide, us with cars we actually want to drive. So I see how it could work. But it’s still not a good sign. And he’s kept message of hope. Which as it turns out I’m fan of. It’s the fireside chat of the day. Hillary is Secretary of State, and you don’t hear as much about her.

I still dream about you. You still don’t talk in my dreams. Deadmen tell no tales. And I had a dream that I made a piece of art of you. I’m debating whether that will come to fruition or not. I mean it was a little weird and kind of in a way cross dressy as it was a drawing of you as the statue of liberty. I don’t know that that’s how you want to be remembered in life but… it tickles me a bit.

Times have changed Dad, cross dressing is a little more popular and accepted. I had a dream that a handsome man in was wearing a kilt. And I very much desired to uhm… talk to him in my dream. I real longing to talk to him. But alas he eluded me, mores the pity. Anyway, Hadley asked me if he had been wearing eyeliner. I hadn’t noticed in the dream, but In my head I thought, he is now! Because guys in eyeliner and shirts are apealing. Yeah I know, it’s the artist in me, thanks for sharing. Why is it that every time I write your letter I put something in to bother you. I guess it’s to show I haven’t lost my sense of humor.

And the movie recommendation is… Man on Wire. Because it renewed a sense of hope and belief in me. And despite my lack of organized religion, I think everyone wants something to believe in. Whether it’s a sports team, or a politician, or hitching your wagon to someone else’s dream… we all want to believe. It’s about the Frenchman who strung a wire between the twin towers, and walk across it early one morning. It was a classic heist movie, with a hare brain idea and some friends in on the game. But it’s a story told well, with charm and great music, and vision and I suppose some history.

I’m going to Dana’s wedding today. I did the invitations for her wedding, and soon I will do Beth’s invitations. I never thought she’s want a wedding, Beth, not Dana. I was excited that Dana was getting married on your birthday. I thought it was a good sign. It’s a good day.

I really wish you were here right now. I could really use your advice and your unrealistic confidence in me, and your unconditional love. I’m scared and sliding and failing again. And I just want a hug from you in particular. I love you, I miss you! Happy Birthday Dad.

Love,
Kate