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Showing posts from March, 2020

It's Friday! It's Friday! - March 27, 2020

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I've now been working from home for an entire week. By noon today I was feeling really antsy - after checking in with coworkers, we found that we were ALL feeling antsy. It's strange working from home - it's like being in a candy shop while on a diet. You are surrounded by wonderfulness that you can't enjoy! I'm home, but not allowed to do homey things. On the other hand, I am very grateful to be employed and getting a paycheck right now. :( At 4:30pm sharp, I closed out my email, X-ed out Microsoft teams and got off of every website that had to do with work. I turned on my glue gun and worked a bit more on my flower ball. This sucker is HUGE. I found some typing paper from decades ago - it's a beautiful texture, kinda scratchy and thick. It's a beautiful, creamy white color. I cut it into squares forever ago and had a huge stack that I thought would make a beautiful piece. It's bigger than my head, bigger than a basketball, bigger than ....

It's a Start- March 26, 2020

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Put one foot in front of the other...

Alive and Barely Breathing - March 25, 2020

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I've learned that I don't art in times of uncertainty.  Does that make me less of an artist? I don't think so. I've finished five of the twelve pieces for this kusudama flower ball. It might take a little while to get it done, but when I  do, it's going to be magnificent! 

Confusion- March 20, 2020

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Today I packed up my workplace and brought it home. Even though my library system was shut down on Tuesday, I expected to be able to come in and work at my computer since I'm usually all alone down there. No such luck. The governor's shelter-in-place edict last night changed everything. My boss gave me permission to go in & get supplies for other staff to empty book drops during the shutdown. I gathered up my things and took out 4 bags of stuff. (Yikes - imagine when I actually retire and really leave!). It's still in my living room. I set the alarm & dead-bolted the door. I've dreamed of having time to get things done & this is that dream come true. Well, actually, it's a tiny bit nightmarish... I've not understood nor entertained the idea that this situation was as serious as it's being made out to be. Will we be gone a week? A month? Can it possibly be longer? How can that be real? Sometimes I'm a little dramatic -

A Poem for Today - March 19, 2020

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Keeping Quiet Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still for once on the face of the earth, let's not speak in any language; let's stop for a second, and not move our arms so much. It would be an exotic moment without rush, without engines; we would all be together in a sudden strangeness. Fishermen in the cold sea would not harm whales and the man gathering salt would not look at his hurt hands. Those who prepare green wars, wars with gas, wars with fire, victories with no survivors, would put on clean clothes and walk about with their brothers in the shade, doing nothing. What I want should not be confused with total inactivity. Life is what it is about... If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death. Now I'l

Prep Work - March 15, 2020

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Some days all I want to do is prep work for all the work I want to do! The goal: 100+ each of 6x6, 5x5 and 4x4's. I'm about 40% of the way there...

It's 9:15pm and All is Well - March 13, 2020

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Tonight, instead of working on art, I placed orders for the ebooks so our library borrowers will have things to read when they are stuck at home. We're not on lockdown here in Kern County, but things have progressed kinda fast since this morning's announcement from the County -"business as usual except for big gatherings" to this afternoon's "hey, we need to cancel all library programs starting tomorrow" to emails and texts from my boss tonight to do some other preparations. The sunset was beautiful. My lawn is green for the first time since I moved in here 10 years ago. My bulbs are coming up! There's rain forecast for the next several days and hopefully that will do something about the drought that's been developing (again!). One of the days is forecast as "heavy storms", something I've never seen for Bakersfield. We have enough food. We are healthy. We have a support system. We have peace. Nothing bad lasts forever. There&#

Comforting the Crazy - March 12, 2020

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I don't want to remember today as the day the world went crazy, so I'm just going to talk about what I did today. I had beautiful conversations with friends. I had terrific message sessions with my siblings where we shared funny quotes & comics. It was fun. I picked up my prescription with no problem. I avoided grocery stores because they were crowded and I have everything I need (even though I really am worried 21 eggs isn't enough). Tonight I worked on paintings. I listened to an uplifting lesson on this week's Come Follow Me section. I reveled in the fact that I don't have to play organ this Sunday! (hee hee) I indexed tonight - it's not going to the temple, but it is connecting people with families, so it's what I can do now. I played with my cats and marveled at my blooming jasmine (I think it's called pink jasmine - it's pink and viney & smells weird at first and now I love it). The sky was gorgeous & didn't care

Crushed By the @#$% Wheel - March 11, 2020

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I can actually feel my blood pressure thumping in my temples at work. It will be so nice when some of these projects are finished! In the meantime,  here's an oldie that I finished up tonight. Oh, in weird news, I found out today that Danielle Donaldson and I went to high school together (ish). She noticed it on my fb profile (total fangirl moment) and I checked my yearbooks tonight. Yup. Same school, same interests. It's a small world with social media... (she was a year ahead so we didn't hobnob)

Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel - March 10, 2020

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The other day it hit me like a ton of bricks that I don't take certain things seriously enough - important things. It kind of freaked me out - I thought I was doing "ok" with life & spirituality. I listened and found some suggestions on how to focus better and prepare my heart to pay attention to important things - to not be casual. The past three nights I have set myself tasks - I wanted to work on family history, do art and set up my shop on Society6. I figure those three things will have good consequences - art & family history will center me. Uploading artwork to S6 will ... do something. Don't know what yet. I'm proudest of that folded book photo. I only wish it was bigger (file-size-wise). I'd have a poster of it if I could. I sure do love my little houses. They make me proud of my art.

Preparation- March 8, 2020

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I hope this country gives this time change thing every six months the boot because it makes me sleepy! Scribble hearts are deeply satisfying to make and I can do them in the few moments I have left at the end of the day.  THIS is what my crowning achievement was today:  128 pieces of watercolor paper,  torn into 1/16th sheets, all ready for neighborhoods,  villages, towns, cities and metropolises of little houses!

Back in the Saddle- March 7, 2020

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I have opened up my shop on Society6 again! Search by my name or click here to find my paintings available in prints or a ton of other things (barstools anyone?). Everything's on sale right now! It's a bah-gain... Several years ago I had a successful Etsy shop. At the same time, I was working fulltime at the library which was undergoing fiscal challenges, working part time as an online adjunct instructor for a local college, dealing with stepchildren and the drama that sometimes happens in that situation and the regular day to day of life.  I'm embarrassed to say that I became mentally and emotionally fragile to the point that every interaction with Etsy customers gave me horrible anxiety - and nearly all interactions were good, but I reached a tipping point. I gave notice at the college and closed the shop, both endings coinciding with changes that would have made life more difficult.  For the first time in years, I could enjoy the holiday season without worry

Want - March 5, 2020

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I want to get back to painting houses (that sounds like a book I saw about mobsters(?) called  "I Hear You Paint Houses") but have to cut more paper. I don't have time for that until Saturday so I'm working on a huge stack of partially finished paintings just so I feel like in doing something!  There are 28 of them ranging from "you call that started?" to "hey, you already signed that, cheater face".

Frankenstein or the Monster? - March 4, 2020

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I cut apart my scribble hearts and mixed and matched them like Fashion Plates ! I fizz with happy when I look at them. There's something there & I love it. Today started out ominously with my particular personality quirks causing a problem with a coworker.  Luckily I was able to fix it and - BONUS - figure a possible way of overcoming that particular quirk. 😶 In other news, someone reached out to me via social media asking to buy my painting from last night. I keep hearing that my little houses speak to people. I think I've learned enough from the experiments with the hearts to bring something new to the little houses... stay tuned.

Helping Hand - March 3, 2029

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I'd paint except my cat drank all my water before I could even dip a brush.  Instead, I reworked a painting from 2018. More outlining took it up a notch!

A Study in Scribbles - March 2, 2020

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Yesterday I posted a pic of a bunch of hearts that I'd scribbled on. The response I got from people on IG was really positive and made me want to try some more scribbling. I love the delicate lines and the curves & loops. Tonight I practiced on a few paintings that were misfits because there would be no loss if it all went bottoms up - and they turned out very interesting - I like how they look. For work today I was with a group of library staff and we started going through a 40-foot container full to the brim with boxes of books. The library had a problem and it got closed very suddenly. It's been shut down for remodeling since last May & we weren't sure if the books had survived. They did! We planned on spending 5 Mondays going through the books & weeding out the damaged ones. We are going to need a million Mondays... oh. my. gosh. If I sit too long, my whole body stiffens up. I'm going to sleep like a rock tonight.

Divine Meaning in Art & Me- March 1, 2020

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Josie Lewis posted about artist types (cliches) today and I had a great learning experience. Here it is, told in screenshots:  That's it! My art doesn't (intentionally) have deep or divine meaning.  All this time I've thought I was a failure,  but maybe beauty for it's own sake is ok.  I am going to go make something pretty.