What I'm working on tonight

Waited last minute to work on my most recent drawing again...I had all these detailed plans written out for a series I'm working on for drawing II but I'm throwing them all out the window tonight to free style a little bit and draw my favorite sculpture (like EVER).  I'm sure everyone is familiar with the Pieta by Michelangelo.  One of my many goals is to see this in person.  Well, I'm off to work on this.  I'll make sure to post my little interpretation of it when it's finished.  

I knew I wasn't alone.

I was reading an old Playboy interview with Janeane Garofalo tonight and this quote made so much sense to me--I feel just the same.  She is so funny and honest.  


"I have self-loathing in that I am frequently disappointed in myself. I don’t work hard enough, don’t write enough, don’t donate enough to charity, don’t read enough. But I don’t have low self-esteem. I am a confident person. I don’t make bad choices in destructive relationships. I don’t abuse myself in a major way. I just grind my teeth. I have a bite plate, but unfortunately I can’t wear it. It covers the roof of my mouth and I can’t sleep in it. So I’ve wasted a lot of money on it, which causes more self-loathing, which makes me grind my teeth more. I just want to be a better person. I want to be funnier, I want to be smarter, I want to be healthier, I want to be nicer. But self-loathing drives me. I guess it’s a good thing. Better than being arrogant or being content to be a dick."

Brand New Year

Haven't posted anything in a while and I'm regret not taking some pictures through Christmas and posting.  I had a great Christmas and hope everyone else did as well.  I wish I had posted pictures of my tree at the apartment and at my mom's house...they both were beautiful (mostly my mom's though).

For the new year my boyfriend, his brother, and took a quick trip down to Topsail Island for the Keller Williams NYE concert in Wilmington.  I didn't stick around for the show but relaxed at the house instead.  Wish we could have stayed a LOT longer but it was a nice little trip.  A walk on the beach with you're b-friend is the perfect way to start the new year! Take my word for it!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and I hope this new year is wonderful and better than the last.  Christmas is wonderful but there's just something about January--all that hope and renewal.  Follow through with your resolutions, people, and keep yourself inspired all year long.  

Some basic resolutions I've made this year.

Lose some weight

Yoga

Put my art to work

A little Ben and James to warm you up!

I don't know if I've mentioned this up here yet but I am a huge fan of James Taylor and his son, Ben Taylor, too. My mom played JT a lot when I was a kid and I really wanted us to see him together someday.  We got tickets for his show at memorial auditorium in Raleigh.  My dad died a week and a half before the concert.  It was hard time for us but I'm glad we went.  I can't speak for her but it got my mind off of everything that was going on while making me completely mushy inside too.  Whatever it was, it was good.  It soothed me.  Something familiar was nice.

Well, I found this on youtube.  It's from that exact show and it shows you pretty much how the whole show went--back and forth between James's and Ben's music, both of them singing on each other's songs.  The first three minutes is a song, I believe, by JT and Stevie Wonder, and the second is one by Ben called Nothing I Can Do, which was written for his mother and probably in my top 5 favorite songs ever.

I hope if you're having a hard day, or if you're just walking around with a worry or sadness in your chest (which I do sometimes) this will make you feel at home again with everything as it should be.  Even if things are not as they should be, in time we all realize that it will be okay and that what makes us so special as humans is our ability to create art, cook food, build homes, and sing songs to each other--to lift one another up.  Hope this warms you up:

Have a great Halloween weekend!  It's the least stressful holiday of all so enjoy yourself!

just a little lazy blogging

Some words of wisdom, random thoughts, and things I've been up to:

Some people do not believe the madness part however.  Side story: B and I lived across the street from this crazy guy who would stand outside of his building eating spaghetti noodles out of Tupperware for extended periods of time in the same pose.  I'm saying I would drive past to run errands and come back an hour and a half later and he would be in the exact same position, shirtless.  B suggested that he might be making meth and would stand outside to avoid too much time around the chemicals.  I suggested it was performance art.  Big mistake..."ONLY YOU would say that!" he said.  Ha ha.  He's right, though.  Some people aren't genius...they're just making meth.  

sick of doing these awful monochromatic collages in design class.  I want to make colorful ones that look like this...

Ben Taylor's The Legend of Kung Folk album cover

Which reminds me of this song B and I keep playing over and over in the car...

Which brings me to my favorite record (need a CD copy so I can listen to it in the car) of the moment--Flag by James Taylor...

Very cool album cover (mine is in great shape--its like art!) and the inside is really cool too!

Thinking about getting an Etsy account and making a bunch of different prints to sell...is this worth my time? is this a good idea?

Speaking of prints... here's the latest

My little Dutch shoe (carved linoleum block print)

    

A more complicated version to turn in (part of my edition of 5)

It took me a good twenty minutes to find the cord thingy that puts the pictures on my computer...thinking I probably should email this to mom before I have the chance to lose it again :)

So I bought this today...and now my apartment smells realllly good...

and this little book that had some neat ideas for printmaking off the $1 table at Black Bear Books...

Apparently Black Bear has a website: http://www.blackbearbooks.com/blog/
Hate that I missed Sharyn McCrumb there a couple weeks back!

So, I finally ordered a pair of Vans for B's belated birthday...

 They should be here tomorrow via FedEx and in order NOT to miss them (I hate getting that stupid little note left on my door! errr!) we are going to make sure to stay at my apartment all day tomorrow and not leave until they get here.  I have some school projects to work on but we have planned a long movie to watch to pass the time...

Really excited about this one! Seen some of it on TV before , ready to see it all the way through finally...we've been talking about renting it forever.

Well that's about it for now.

Man, nobody reads this thing.

Oh, well.

  

Fall Favorites

Fall is just about here and I'm thinking about the shift my wardrobe needs to make.  It's time to dig out all my cozier clothes!  I can't say how much I love this time of year...there is a freshness to it (even more than spring i think) that feels like a brand new day!  I love dressing for fall.  Here are my staples:

A slimming pair of cords. 

 

These are from Anthropologie but my two favorite pairs came from Kohl's (Chaps RL) and, believe it or not, Kmart (Route 66).  The Chaps pair is the most recent (bought them last fall) and are chocolate brown, stretchy, and give me a really great shape with their high waist.  I'm keeping an eye out for colored ones from Levi's this fall. 

Oxford Shirts.

    

    

As you can see this can go so many different ways.  With basic oxford shirts (the kind that brands like Ralph Lauren and Brooks Brothers are know for) you get a really ivy league look, while flannel is more rustic and casual.  A tuxedo or ruffled shirt is something that's more polished achieves a sophisticated, sleeker look.  I love all these looks, they're so effortless.  Wear them fitted for a tailored look wear them over-sized (raid boyfriend's closet) for an artsy, casual look.  However you choose to wear them make sure to add feminine touches to balance the masculinity of a button-up.  

Clogs, Flats, Riding Boots, and "Something Utilitarian."  

I'm a life-long lover of the clog! I wish I had a gazillion pairs.  Right now all I really only wear a pair of brown Danskos (and a really embarrassingly old pair of Birkenstock-style things).  

   

Moccasins, ballet flats, loafers, whatever! Just make sure they are special to you and bring some style and poise to your outfit.  That way you're feet are comfy, and you're not wearing sneakers (not a big fan of sneakers).

  

Riding boots--a no-brainer! Looks great with super slim pants (reminiscent of riding pants) or leggings (cheaper and, to me, a little less pretentious).  I mostly wear mine with skirts of any length but they look so cool with a skirt that hits you about an inch or two below the top of your boot!

When I say "something utilitarian" I'm basically referring to duck boots.  Another one of my favorite things are making a comeback!  They're comfy, warm, and keep your feet dry, but really cute too.  They come in a ton of colors and you can even get super-feminine slip-on and ankle styles.  Mine are traditional navy Western Chiefs, but Sperry Topsider and L.L. Bean sell these too.  Also I'll mention Hunter wellies, even though I'm personally not a wearer of rain boots, lots of folks wear them with tights and skirts with sweaters or tucked into jeans.    

Tights and leggings.

  

I'm one of those girls that needs her dresses and skirts even when it's cold out.  I wear opaque tights a lot skirts, dresses, boots, and even fuzzy moccasins.  I also like wearing leggings under a slinky dress or just as pants with one of those men's shirts I was talking about previously.  One thing I want to do this fall is wear plush corduroy shorts or jean cutoffs with tights, flats, and a turtle neck.  My mom dressed me that way when I was little and I never got how cool that was until I was older.  

Mini Skirts.

The colder it gets outside the more masculine and heavy a wardrobe can get.  Balance all the dark colors and neutrals and warm sweaters with a pretty little mini skirt to show off those stems (with tights because it's cold out there, you'll catch pneumonia!).  

More things I love for fall.

    

      

Creative living

The last time I talked to my daddy on the phone, he told me that when I got home next we'd have a talk about my future.  I never got to have that talk with him.  It breaks my heart but I know what he was going to say.  He had told me before and my mother confirmed this...What he saw for my life's work was making art.  He always thought that's where my future was.  He thought that I'd be good at simply making things and selling them.  He always wanted me to keep weaving baskets...thought that I had this capacity to market and sell.  It has worked once before for me, with the DMB posters and this idea gives me such a rush.  Well, he was giving my brother and me a pep talk once about us being lazy or bored or something.  He said you can't really do anything of worth without passion.  It probably didn't stick with John but it meant something to me.  I'm coming into that idea finally...that you have to feel strongly about what your doing or you will fade away.  I don't want to fade away.  He wouldn't want me to either.

So now this is the goal...to express a lot of things inside of me that very few people have ever seen from me.  I have a reason, a place in this world, even if it is small and unpublicised.  I feel the strong need in the pit of my stomach to be something, to make him proud, to have passion, and to be a legacy in a world that forgets him or maybe never knew him well enough at all.  My dad was an artist and a really sensitive guy.  So funny and warm, and so susceptible to sharing. I know that he felt everything so strongly because his blood runs through my veins, and we are so similar.  I really do feel that a creative person's senses are so much stronger than anyone else can comprehend.  This is how creative people can manipulate a medium so well.  We are those kids that are just so affected by things...more than the other kids.  We are those people that seem sad a lot but we "do" happy so well.  Every sensation is heightened and they're are all these layers to life that can be so hard to get through--just a mess--but you can't replace that excitement and variety and quality to life with anything else but those messy layers.  We often have a hard time but it's worth it to me to be present (ask B, this is a very big thing for me) and see the good and the bad in a way that only I can see it.  

I really just want to start working so that I can show the world as I see it.  No one else can do it the way you  do it--not quite the same and sometimes the smallest, strangest perception makes a huge difference to a stranger, your family, or just yourself (for your well-being/development).  EVERYONE is capable and everyone is different--this is one way I know God is real and still working among us.  

                                                                                                   

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." -Maya Angelou 

Just a few fun things to look at...I've been going through this really basic nostalgic phase.  Concepts like childhood, home, education, magic and miracles, probably just because it’s that time of the year when we all sort of get like that :)

Chris Van Allsburg, Author/Illustrator of "The Polar Express" and "Jumanji"

The Morton salt girl--almost 100 years old!   Thinking about carving her into linoleum and making lots of prints! Blank cards in interesting color schemes, maybe?