Art Update

Well hello everyone. I wanted to provide a quick update on things that aren't school related. In the middle of midterms and finals I had my first "solo" show at a real live gallery. It was a blast. The feeling of walking into the room and seeing only your work hanging up just cannot be described. The work is all framed professionally (or looks like it is). It's just amazing.

Here is the link on the gallery page for me

Just having a "bio" is pretty wild.

Here are some photo's from the show. They aren't great photo's because that's not my thing but I think you get the point. They are mostly just to give you a feel for the space and how things looked hanging there.

Tuesday Fun

Hi guys
I'm going away to Maine for the next few days and wanted to update before I went. Let's see where should I begin?

Let's start with the most important thing shall we. JUNIOR WON THE RACE ON SUNDAY! Yes it was a fuel mileage win - but I don't care it was a WIN. He hasn't won since May of 2006 but now that he's on a decent team and has great equiptment (Thank you Mr. Hendrix!) he's having a great season. He's third in the points and I'm predicting he'll finish either 1st or 2nd before the chase. Someone needs to get that punk Kyle Bush out of the top 13.

As I mentioned I've been reading like a madwoman - I just finished another fabulous book. It's called He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not by Trish Ryan. It was recommended to me by EX in this post. Since she wrote such a great review I'm not going to repeat it. Safe to say this book gave me a lot to think about...ALOT.

I'm so happy to be going to Maine. I lived there for 8 years and miss it all the time. I don't doubt that at some point I'll move back there - I just love it. I stay in Kittery in the house I used to live it and it's fun...lots of fun.

Tom Petty was just in town and I didn't get to see him...it's ok really I've seen him live about 10 times but still. The reviews were fabulous and I wouldn't expect anything less.
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OK enough with the niceties:

I live in a 30 unit building things have been really good here lately. We have a new plow person for the winter - the last remaining "problem" people moved out at the beginning of the month - I have a new parking spot which isn't next to the dumpster and doesn't suck and no one has been parking in it but me (that's a total switch). But I just had a smallishly disturbing thing happen. There is a young woman who lives down the hall from me - I think she's around my age (40). I like her but she's a bit of a know it all. She's a good "building friend" you know what I mean? So instead of asking the post office to stop my mail for the next three days I asked her to pick it up. That's not the problem. She lives in one of the biggest units - it has two bedrooms and a huge living room. Our condo docs state that you can only have as many cats as you have bedrooms and absolutely no dogs. Well this woman has cats - like four of them. Frankly, I don't care because it gives me an excuse to not go into her place. The problem is you can smell them from the hallway when the door is closed. I had noticed it before but had kind of chalked it up to it being a bad day for her or something. But today when I knocked on her door and she opened it I was almost KNOCKED DOWN by the smell of cat. And then I see not only two or three adult cats but SEVEN kittens - yes I said SEVEN. Now they are cute but they are smelly little cats. I don't see how she doesn't smell it. To top it off her house seems to be that kind of dirty that's not messy but dirty. Floor needs to be swept and mopped dirty. Do you know what I mean? She has to smell like that all day?

Oh I know what else - to top it off she has allergies.
NO SHIT. I have severe asthma and allergies. I'm highly allergic to most animals but mostly cats and horses. I don't ever put myself in a situation where I would come into contact with either. My poor nieces who own a horse know that if I'm coming over and they've been at the barn they have to change clothes and probably shower. It's a pain in the ass but it's better than a trip to the hospital - for me. So when this woman tell me that her allergies and asthma are killing her excuse me if I don't have a ton of sympathy. I mean where is the common sense? I know people get attached to their pets but if you are allergic to something why would you get it as a pet to begin with?

Ok I was going to post about my ideas regarding testing people before they are allowed to have children - but I'm going to let that slide. I will however show you this - which disturbs me greatly. I am all about cute things on babies - I really am. I buy things for my friends Kim's baby Lucy all the time and they are cutie cutie things but there is something about this that feels wrong. I'd be happy to hear other opinons.

Back On Track

Well after taking an unscheduled but apparently much needed hiatus I'm back on track. The past month has been interesting. Lots going on...lots going on...

First of all I'm unemployed. My job ended a week ago Friday. Since I didn't take any time off in between my last two jobs I'm looking at this time as vacation. I should be more worried than I am but I just can't seem to bring myself to stress about it.

I'm starting school in the summer as opposed to the Fall. I can take 6 credits starting in July and get those out of the way. I'm not sure that it will help me finish my degree any sooner but it may help me finish my coursework sooner and that's always good.

I'm still not sure where I'm living in the Fall and hope to have that figured out in the next week or two. If I'm not living at Simmons I need to get on that and come up with a suitable alternative.

Things have been fabulous artwise - I have a bunch of my stuff up a gallery about 1/2 hour away and my stuff is being bought by people I don't know. What a concept! What I mean is that when you have a show and invite all of your friends your work tends to be bought by people you know....makes sense right? It's a whole different thing to have your stuff bought by strangers. I quite exciting actually. It's even more exciting when the gallery wants more of your stuff and they are handing you a check. It makes you feel like a real artist.

Another thing that makes you feel like a real artist is a commission. That's when someone pays you in advance to create something for them. Usually it's something that have specifically in mind. In my case being an abstract painter this can be very very stressful. Usually the directions are usually something like. I like green - can you do this one in green? (as they are pointing to something I've already done). Or I get a picture with a request to recreate something.

The latest commission that I am working on is a three panel (18x36) abstract which is based on something that this person saw on ebay and didn't win. He wants enough changes that I feel confident in saying it's not a copy of the piece it's more of a replica of the artist's style. That's something that is done all the time. How many people use Pollock's spatter style. Exactly - ton's.

The hardest part of a commission is that even though you tell the person paying over and over "My feelings won't be hurt if you don't like it" you can't be sure that they believe you. In my case it's totally true. Abstract art is not for everyone and just because you like one thing doesn't mean you are going to like another piece. And as I told this person - I can probably sell these at the gallery if they don't work for him.

So now I have to get this done - my plan is to get it done this week. With no job I shouldn't be driving around too much (the price of gas is ridiculous) so should just settle in and get it done.

When it's done and hung I'll post a picture for you all to see. In the meantime this is one the pieces that sold at the gallery. Apparently it sold to a therapist.


I'm also working on some abstract pastel's. As soon as I have some pictures of this I'll post them.

Busy...Busy...Busy

Lots going on these past couple of weeks but the biggest news I have is this. I am very excited about the opportunity to show in a place with other artists and even more excited about the exposure this gets me. As it says in the other blog I sold something pretty quick to complete strangers. I can't even describe the feeling of having someone admire your work enough to want to purchase it - its' crazy.

I have to say a special thank you to Kim and Julie for putting my work up and for making it look so beautiful. Thank you guys!

I went to see Eddie Izzard last night and he was fantastic. So freakin funny. He's not dressing as a transvestite this time around and he looked extremely handsome. Here is some old stuff

Work is crazy due to the fact that I work at a university and it's "final grade" time. So every problem student comes crawling out of the woodwork.

More soon...

Daytona & More

I have always loved that the biggest race of the year is the first race. The buildup is great and this year is the 50th anniversary so they had all of the living winners there for various things including giving the command. OK so you aren't a race fan and you are wondering what the command is? C'mon - you know..... "Gentleman start your engines!"

So of course lets talk about who I really want to talk about....Dale Jr. He has had a hell of a start to his season with his new team. He won the Budweiser Shootout, which is the actual first race of the season but it's and exhibition race. Yes racing has exhibition races. Then Jr. went on to win his qualifying race. Not a bad start for the year I think. He is currently running fourth but he's unhappy with his car. He thinks he may have a loose lugnut which would suck. His crew chief is letting him know that two of his tires were blistered when then came off the car at his last pit stop. This may not be a good sign either.


Before the race started I was watching Eddie Izzard. Eddie is a transvestite commedien out of England that I happened upon one night when I couldn't sleep. You may also know him as the lead male charachter on The Riches on FX
If you haven't seen his stand up try to find it. Right now he's been on BBC all afternoon - and he's freakin hysterical. He has the droll English humor and he makes fun of America in the most benign way. He really pokes at the country for our ego - it's laugh out loud funny.

So this weekend I'm house/dog sitting. I've talked about this house before but the best thing is they just got a new tv and it's 65 freakin inches big and has surround sound. It's like being at Daytona -without having to deal with all the idiots.

Ugggghhh my professor just called with her comments on my last draft - so it's back to writing.

Have a good night everyone!