OK. Midweek. No kids yet…they start tomorrow. I’ve sat through a ton of meetings, including a really stupid school board meeting that is gonna cost thousands to fix (why are we passing things that are against state law?). Plus I had an EEG with sleep deprivation…26 electrodes stuck onto my scalp, then got to go back to work after that. Yesterday was LOOOONG. I was up at 4:15, per instructions, at work by 6:15 (I worked here first because the alarms at school were on…and maybe I set them off yesterday, because now they’re telling us a later time. Whoops! I searched through my email and found an earlier time, so who the fuck knows what happened there.), worked until 11:30, when I went for the EEG, came back, worked some more, went home and showered gel and crap out of my hair, then to the school board meeting. Home. Cooked. Ugh. I remember how hard it is to get up off the couch after all that and DO something. But I did. Because I do. I packed up the big quilt to deliver to the photographer tomorrow. Had to iron it and dehair it and wrap it up. THEN it was 10:10 PM and I still wanted to do real art, like something besides paperwork and gruntwork.
So on the art front, I’m going to have a piece in an upcoming show about women’s rights, called We Got the Power, based on the story of Lysistrata. The CAMP Gallery in Miami, Florida, has been doing an annual show of art related to literature, called Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse and this is this year’s version. I did a drawing back in June/July and was accepted based on that. But now I need to make the actual piece. It’s small. It’ll be easy. Well, but it’s complicated, because…me. It’s got about 390 pieces in it I started tracing Monday night…
I forgot what it was like to do this with a kitten in the house. Luckily, it’s small. And Bowie mostly listens to ‘no’. With Luna, I just had to wait for her to be asleep to trace.
The pieces are small too, so it’s going pretty fast, although most of this was Monday night. Last night, I got about 30 minutes after getting that quilt ready to go.
Much easier when he’s asleep.
I’m somewhere in the 200s. Not very far in. Tonight I need to pick up the girlchild from the airport, plus I’m fucking exhausted from yesterday, and kids start at school tomorrow, so I have to be awake, alert, and not cranky. First day. Yikes. All that to say, I don’t think I’m getting this fully traced tonight…it’ll probably be done tomorrow night.
Monday, I went to ceramics and put two things on the drying rack, after finishing this up last week. There will be some glaze added after the bisque firing.
And some iron oxide. I also started a mug. Like a real mug. To drink tea out of. Both my mugs (the ones I like to use) have cracks in them. In fact, there might be three with cracks, now that I think about it. So I am preemptively making a new mug. We’ll see how that goes. I have a few non-artsy things to make and this seemed like a good time to do that…finish up the little bits of clay I have before I pick a new type to try. Not sure when I will next be able to go to clay…maybe tomorrow after school? If I’m alive? Oh wait, no, I’m delivering a quilt. Ha! Well. Maybe Friday or Saturday.
There was a fire near where we often hike…
They stopped it, but there’s only one way in and out to the area that I know of, so they were having people shelter in place. Scary. I don’t think it burned the actual part of the reserve we hike, but we might need to go up and hike it. Once it’s safe.
This amuses the crap out of me.
Seriously. I wear all black all the time. When I’m depressed or not. It’s just easier than colors. I know, ironic when you look at my quilts, but black always goes with black. Although there are different shades of black, but they all go together! OK, I know some fashionistas would argue with me, but whatever.
OK. Today currently has three meetings, plus I really do need to get all the school stuff done. Well or do I? Because then what would I do on my prep tomorrow? I know all my preps will be buried eventually, but not yet. I am tired. Really tired. The beginning of the school year is always like this…tiring, sort of anxiety-making, too many meetings, lots of discombobulated rushing around and trying to remember to do things. Plus coming home and realizing you have no free time anymore. I hate that part. But I gotta pay the bills, so that’s how it rolls. OK. More tea. That’s a given.
Kathy Nida 