Slow Draw

Six minutes. No way am I getting this written in six minutes. OK. Loaded pictures. Write when I can. Last day of training today…will be glad to be done, but I’m going right into copyediting. My choice, I know. Gotta pay for the dryer fix, which I think finally happened last night…hopefully.

Still drawing. Over 10 hours into just the drawing…

There are some things happening below.. I just haven’t drawn (and in some cases, thought of) it yet. It’s a slow draw.

Kitten is entirely unhelpful. Luckily it’s warm enough that she won’t stick around. I’m also watching a class online.

Finally got the last justice drawn and the bottom of the main legs, then started with the pedestals.

I usually draw fast enough that people don’t have time to tell me what they think I should be doing…not so much with this one. So lots of people telling me things and I know I don’t react well to that. When my daughter tells me she doesn’t like to be told what to do…and I know where she gets it from.

I have an opening tomorrow evening in the LA area. We’ll be driving up and going to one or two other exhibits and then the opening.

My piece in the show is about childbirth.

Looking forward to the opening.

I’ve continued to stitch while in the training. I really don’t focus or concentrate without that. Maybe I should teach my kids to stitch. I suspect that would cause more issues than it solves. Interesting idea though. Computer, stitching stuff, class stuff.

Same desk, yesterday, zoomed out so you can see the drawer being used as a desk on the left, plus stitching stuff on the right. It’s been crowded but it works. The light table is behind me with more class books and stitching stuff on it.

After class, I’ve been trying to finish spreading gravel back here. I was doing this early last year but then the septic fix happened and they dumped a bunch of dirt over some of it. Yes, it’s taken me forever to get to this. I also have gravel for a path that the boychild was going to help with…or not. It’s hot, sweaty work so I can’t do it for long in summer, but I’d like to get the rock piles out of the front yard.

When I’m done in the corner, Nova takes over.

She’s got that highlighter fully under control.

This is so true, especially during this training. I don’t get enough steps in during summer. Hot doesn’t help.

I had my last physical therapy appointment yesterday…he’s recommending I see a musculoskeletal specialist and get an MRI. Finally…it’s been since mid-November. Simba is getting his teeth cleaned, so it’s not going to be a fun day for him. I’ll be moving more gravel, stitching more stuff down, and drawing more. I need to test the dryer and get the pool to stop making that noise. I also need to start copyediting, write a bid for another job, and decline a third one. And then start prepping science calendars for the upcoming school year. It’s ok…I’ve got 19 days of summer left. It never feels like enough, and I certainly don’t feel like I’ve gotten enough done… but that happens every year and I just need to accept it. Until then, there are a lot of books to read and a lot of art to make.

Fight a Raccoon…

Hey guys, I just won a power tool set! As long as I send all my bank information to this janky email address! On it!

Summary of week so far: It’s hot, but it could be hotter. This drawing is slow, but it could be slower. This training has some things that are potentially helpful, but also a lot of it needs to happen in English class or Advisory. The science part can be beefed up to support the program. But it’s nothing new…we just haven’t focused explicitly on it before. We’ve tried many ways of teaching vocabulary, but we’ve never been particularly successful. Probably because our kids are such low readers…so we need to do something about that. Training though? In the summer? Always hard. We’re not even halfway through. Pros: Dad was sick and is better now, and boychild is back from wherever for about 36 hours, so Simba can get his boyfix. And I don’t have to sleep with Simba for two nights. A plus.

I’m not finishing this post before class starts. I’ll be back. You won’t even notice…well except that the post is late, for me.

Or if I totally forget that I haven’t finished this…which is what happened.

So I’ve been drawing all week. An hour here or there, mostly at night after dinner, when it’s cooler. I’m in class from 7-2:30 and then it’s hot and I’m tired, plus I’ve had an hour of reading to do each day after that. But it’s coming along. Although I didn’t start inking until Monday night…

I lied. I started Sunday night, and then as I was falling asleep, figured Ruth Bader Ginsburg needed wings, so I added the post-it for that. Some people are suggesting a halo…I’ll think about it. Not sure how I feel about haloes. There are issues with angels, angelic behavior meaning one thing vs when you look at actual stories of angels in literature…a troubling thing to think about.

Monday night, I added the wings and two of the justices…

It was slow. I also did some more pencil work, trying to figure out what might happen where. I’m adding things as I ink, so there’s some staring into space happening.

I did better last night…

I went to the gym in the afternoon, exercised, read a lot, got my head in a better place, and the things came easier. How to picture this or that. There’s a lot of this drawing that doesn’t exist in my head yet. Tonight will probably be the justices on the other side. We’ll see. There’s some confusion over there too. This is 8 hours of drawing so far. Not done yet.

Monday, I drew a little during class and then found that stitching stuff down lent itself to being able to listen and think and even take notes but not fall asleep.

Here’s the drawing…

Nova took over the space at night on Gecko Watch…

(There is no gecko in that picture)

Right now, I’m trying to type this with Kitten’s butt in the way. Annoying furry beasts.

Mr. Sad before the boy came home and cuddled him.

And then Kitten decided she needed to bring me red fabric…

She makes this strange yowling sound when she brings me fabric. I do then have to put it all away later.

I’m reading two books at a time. Because I can. This one is Margaret Atwood’s collection of short stories, Babes in the Wood. I liked how Orwell referred to us living folks.

I need that to be a quilt title at some point.

And this might be me at the moment, minus the getting drunk.

I can fight a raccoon any time.

I’m tired. I have 2 1/2 more hours of training today. I have a copyediting job, but they haven’t given me the files yet. I have another hourlong chapter to read. I might need a nap. Who knows. Oh yeah, pilates. And drawing. Still. Lots of drawing.

Backup Tea…

There were all these things I was waiting for info about on Friday and absolutely NONE of them were solved on Friday (of course), but they all came in by this morning. Ugh. I know I sign up for some of this, but then I second-guess myself, and now I will be dealing with it. Also, this is like school schedule, except a little tighter. I like a leisurely morning of shower, feed all the animals, eat and wake up, drink the tea, then drive to work and function. Well this week, it’s that, minus the drive to work. And I don’t really want to wake up an hour earlier to give my brain time, because that feels even more awful, so I’m going to do professional development on very little sleep and probably a lot of tea. Although it’s unknown if I am allowed to get up from my chair and MAKE tea or, possibly more importantly, pee, so I may not have more tea, unless it magically appears. That would be a useful superpower, y’all.

So I have 11, no 10 minutes, to finish this, my breakfast, taking my meds, making a backup cup of tea? Is that a thing? It could be a thing.

I’ve been drawing…it was going slowly and then Art Brain kinda kicked in yesterday. On Saturday night, I had a bunch of penciled-in stuff…

Basically, I did a bunch of Supreme Court Justice research the night before and then started drawing their faces. Didn’t finish. Faces are hard.

And what to do UNDER their faces is also hard. But at some point on Sunday, things started to solidify…

Sometimes drawing is easy. Sometimes it’s a slog. It’s been a lot of slog. You can see on the right side that there is still some thinking happening. There’s pedestals with just words and nothing else. It’s OK…the brain is processing.

Ugh. I don’t think I can finish this before I need to be in my Zoom class. I get a 15-minute break at some point…hopefully I can pee outside of those breaks? Things teachers constantly have to think about. Sigh. Although my mailperson the other day needed to pee really really bad as she was getting postage due from me. So there’s that. OK, back in a while, not that you’ll notice.

Yeah. Ugh. Not awake. Listened to a lot of talking. It’s hot in that part of the house, where the internet is consistent. In here is not so bad. Ten degrees cooler. This was my workspace yesterday.

Today there is a computer there.

Nova likes UNDER.

My new workspace bookshelf for stacking shit. My whole house is a repository for stacking shit.

Reading Margaret Atwood short stories…this is about pre-cellphone times.

“Space-time is denser.” True that. OK, so gotta go back to the computer for another two hours before I’m allowed a longer break. Fun stuff. Still need to find a rubberband. They didn’t tell me I’d need a rubberband.

Whenever That Is…

Um I still don’t know what day it is. Problematic sometimes. I’m pretty sure I have a class all next week and will need to keep track. Challenge for Sunday night, whenever that is.

It’s been hot here, if that helps explain it. Not even as hot as it often gets, more often in September than July, but hot enough to sap energy and brainpower. I’ve finished one quilt and started another. Although I may toss another one in the middle…still thinking about an October deadline. Because the one I’m drawing will be relevant no matter what. Unfortunately.

So I did go buy binding, but my dryer still isn’t fixed…so this is currently set up in the driveway for laundry…

Luckily that warm weather means things dry pretty much instantly. And no, I didn’t just buy the binding fabric. I don’t know how to do that.

Wednesday night, I got the binding sewn on and started the hand sewing, which I find very meditative.

I spent most of Thursday stabbing my middle finger with a tiny needle. But also got the binding done and used that laundry drying rack for a photo…

This weekend, hopefully it will be off to the photographer.

I had already done some preparatory drawings for the next quilt. I copied it at 250 and 300%, then taped it together. I knew I didn’t want to use it as is, but as a draft, so I cut paper for the actual drawing and laid that over the drawing. My computer is tuned to the SAQA Art in Place conference going on this weekend. Some great info about artist residencies and how artists work. I’ve enjoyed the videos, although it was hard to concentrate on drawing while listening to this.

I did some tracing and some drawing last night…still thinking and processing how I want to picture things.

So it might change again. A lot. Who knows.

The Torrance Art Museum posted this picture of the upcoming show Art & Med, opening July 22 from 6-9 PM.

I’ll be at the opening. My piece is on the right side.

Cat antics…Luna doesn’t like the heat.

And Nova is a little whack.

Bee update…they did finally leave.

I waited a day and then scraped the honeycomb off and then cleaned it with hot water and soap to hopefully remove the pheromones that attract them.

Boychild is at a fire up in Riverside again.

So it’s still hot this week coming up. I’m hoping to get the drawing to the ink stage, at least, or getting there. It’s big. I don’t like NOT working on something, so yes, I’m not taking a break. It’s summer so the other options are yardwork and housework. Eh. Screw that. Make art.

Wears All Black…

You know, as a teacher, I often put off repairs until I have a break from school, just because the time and effort (and sometimes need to wait around for a professional) isn’t something I can do during the school year. So I’m sitting here waiting on a dryer professional because we tried to fix it and the Amazon part failed almost immediately. It’s OK. I haven’t had a working dryer since June 25th or so. It’s hot and dry here, so we can put things out on the line. It sucks for towels, but works for everything else. At least this isn’t happening during the school year, right? Meanwhile, the house requires other fixes and improvements and I’m trying to get those taken care of. Broken and leaking hose faucets, need to replace some lattice pieces, plus putting in a pathway. At the moment, though, I’m dealing with a bee swarm issue. They gathered in the backyard composter while I was gone, but I managed to get one of the guys responsible for my stuff to pull the lid off and they left. They didn’t go far…to the composter in the front yard, and by the time I noticed (and was home, honestly), they were pretty well established. I waited until nighttime and pulled the lid off, hoping they’d leave…but it’s been over 36 hours and they are still there. Sigh.

That might be more money out of pocket for the summer. When I don’t get paid. Fun stuff. I do have a possible copyediting project coming up, but it will only pay for the dryer fix. Which is insane and annoying, but whatever. I’m also doing a professional development next week that will give me a chunk of money, but I don’t know when I’ll get paid for that. Probably the end of September. That’s the way it usually goes.

I needed to get this quilt done this week. So I got the quilting started on Sunday night and finished yesterday.

The outlining wasn’t too hard…

The background…well, I started with a super tiny filler background and then had to continue with that. It wasn’t too bad…

But it took longer than I thought it would…

It took a little over 4 hours for the stitchdown and a little over 8 hours to quilt it.

I finished around 6 PM last night, so I didn’t have time to buy binding. I don’t have enough of anything here to bind it with. So I need to go buy fabric today. As soon as I finish this and the retirement webinar I’m listening to. And then wash the fabric and hang it up to dry. It’ll dry fast today…supposed to be in the 90s.

But it also meant a minor moment of “holy shit what am I working on next!?”. Don’t panic. I already sort of know what I’m doing, but I need to copy and enlarge an existing drawing that needs major reworking, but it’s a start. Also gonna do that today. It’ll be a big one.

I’ve been doing some of this each evening…

These blocks are complicated, but I enjoy the stitching.

I also did some stitching on this…it’s been sitting around for YEARS…

All the things need to be stitched down. These are from Anna Maria Horner’s applique packages. I like the freedom of just randomly cutting bits out and putting them together. I have a ton of them and I am lame about getting them done. Limited time to make things…I have to make decisions about priorities. And the big art quilts get that priority.

It’s gecko season.

Nova loves this time of year.

Love this tree…

Don’t have room for another tree on this property.

Yeah this is me. I should rethink it. I’ve been living in shorts and just transitioned into no sleeves…I was holding out because of my laundry issues. Today, underwear is an issue. Sure, I could just buy more, but that would mean storing more. Trying not to do that. It’s fine. The boychild is here and can help me put the laundry dryer rack out. It’s heavy. For now, I’ve got another 30 minutes of this webinar (my brain is exploding, but I think I have my retirement date…even though I will need to continue to work after that), and then I get to commune with fabric and maybe my book…speaking of books, while I was quilting, I was listening to a book on Audible (I suck at this…have to rewind pretty continuously) AND reading a book on the iPad. I don’t usually do two books at a time because confusion happens between stories, but it seemed to work in this situation. This task is this book. Everything else is the other book. So yeah.

Read, bind, launder. Don’t think about work.

Amusingly, I walked away from this and forgot to post it…so most of the errands are done, but one that wouldn’t fit in my car…and I forgot the other one, so I’m gonna go do it now. It’s hot.

Reminder of the Line…

So I have about 27 minutes to write this. Not really true. I have 27 minutes (26) before I need to leave, and I like to finish things before leaving. We’ll see how that goes.

We got back Friday afternoon, the most trouble-free trip I’ve ever taken. Uber, then light rail, easy TSA, flight was not delayed, flight was easy, got off, picked up baggage right away, walked out front, and there were my parents, ready to pick us up. No problems on the way home, walked in the front door. Ahhh. It’s nice when it works out.

I managed to do some stitchdown on Friday night…

Kitten spoke to me clearly about how she felt about my being gone for so long…

Not pleased. Saturday I had a short meeting that I stitched through…

I feel like I will never finish this.

Then it was the Man’s birthday and he wanted a short hike/walk and dinner with a good burger, so we wandered through some trails I’d never been on at Balboa Park…

Had dinner at the Balboa (good burger, weird drunk guy)…

Selfies are not something we’re good at…

But this one wasn’t bad. Getting older and having birthdays is weird. This one was pretty quiet and chill. He says he was OK with that. I get it. Plus we’d been gone for a while and were just tired.

There was a confused bird…probably a fledgling or a mom trying to take us away from the nest…

I stitched more that night and got close to the end, but finished it up Sunday afternoon.

The last views of the back…

Before it gets shut up into the quilt…

A reminder of the line drawing…

Then I pieced a backing, found the batting, and had to clean a floor and wait for it to dry. So I cooked a complicated dinner that I never have time/energy to cook during the school year, but that I like to eat, then watched a show with that and finished one June Homegrown block…

And started another…

I finished about 1 1/2 blocks on the trip, compared to the 7 I brought with me (wishful thinking). I also brought 4 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of jeans, a pair of leggings, and a sweatshirt that I never wore. Plus a pair of shoes I only wore once. It is what it is. You never know.

After dinner, I laid it all out, sandwiched…

And pinbasted it.

It’s not a particularly big quilt, because I had a deadline.

And then I started quilting it last night.

My goal is to finish quilting today, bind it tomorrow, have it done Wednesday. We’ll see how that goes. Then turn those two Supreme Court drawings into something usable. Combined with what’s in my head.

Sleepy Kitten. But first, I have to pee a puppy and go to lunch with a friend, and maybe figure out a dog walk in the afternoon. We’ll see. Certainly the dog needs it. I probably do too.

Sculpture and Beer

Sitting in an airport again. Listening to boarding assignments and the high-pitched squeals of an obviously tortured child. Got food and caffeine in me (never enough of the latter). We had a good trip…wish it would have cooled down more so we could’ve hiked at least one more day, but so be it. We never made it to either of the National Parks, so we’ll have to come back anyway. We were constrained by how long the dogs’ bladders would last…speaking of the two dogs, Gracie and Betty are bed hogs.

These two drawings are still only preliminaries for some idea developing in my head. This smaller one was done in two different breweries we walked to…

The bigger one was done in the evenings…

The basement was cold; hence the Christmas socks.

A view from the second walk…warm but mostly shady.

We also did some wandering in the Fremont area…

Can’t miss the troll…and Lenin…

His left hand appears to be dripping blood.

We also went to the Olympic Sculpture Park, which did engage the Man, but I enjoyed it.

I remember Richard Serra’s Wake from the last time I was here.

And Alexander Calder’s Eagle, which I think looks like a dog.

Love & Loss by Roy McMakin…or at least the ‘&’ part.

The Man looking reflective.

Probably wondering when we can stop looking at sculpture.

Part of Mark di Suvero’s Schubert Sonata…

Part of Seattle Cloud Cover by Teresita Fernandez.

And Echo by Jaume Plensa. It’s ok, I rewarded the Man with a brewery visit.

So we’re glad to be going home…I’ve been gone 11 days, so I will have a very needy cat and probably some dead plants, based on the boychild’s texts of doom. Hopefully the bee swarm is gone. Next week looks busy, but I’m definitely finishing that quilt that’s been waiting for me. That gets priority. That and the dryer. Thanks Seattle for the break. May the next trip be sooner than 8 years from now (that’s how long it’s been since I was here last). May it also be cooler.

Tourist Day

It’s been a long time since I’ve been gone this many days. It feels weird. Am I more productive? Making more drawings? Stitching more? Nah. I’m reading a lot, zoning out some. The drawings are unfocused. I’m tired, but that might be because its light at 4:30 in the morning. I’d sleep better if the room were dark, I think. Reality check: I never really sleep well.

But it is nice to hang out with the dogs. It was nice to see the niece. She has continually improved with age.

Yesterday was the 4th, Independence Day, problematic across the board, both as a nation (god DAMN we’ve fucked up a lot of things in the last year) and personally (we flailed on fireworks watching, and ended up standing on the trampoline, the deck, and in my brother’s upstairs bedroom to see bits and pieces. It’s OK.). We cooked some food, played a game, I drew some…working through something I started a few days ago but much bigger now.

Obviously not done. I did some embroidery yesterday too, not a lot. Sitting outside…it’s hot and humid, but OK in the shade.

Today was our tourist day…we went to MoPOP, which was cool. Jimi Hendrix drawing…

Also by his girlfriend, Kathy Etchingham…in 1967…the year I was born. The year Kurt Cobain was born (Nirvana exhibit).

Good holiday photo there.

Creepy scene in The Walking Dead with all these zombie heads in tanks.

Lots of cool exhibits in MoPOP. From there, we went to the Chihuly Museum.

Glass is fascinating. The reflections in the glass, the reflections of the glass, light bouncing off the glass. Amazing.

I have a friend who works in glass and sometimes does one-on-one classes. I’ve thought about it, but the heat and sharp glass stuff freaks me out. Maybe someday.

Dorky selfies all over Washington.

We’re back at the house, the dogs are peed, and we’re relaxing. We have dinner plans tonight with a friend of mine from San Diego who moved to Portland and whose son lives here in Seattle. Talk about reaching out! Tomorrow, we may walk the dogs on a longer walk (although it’s still gonna be hot), who knows? And then Friday, we come home. I need to do a copyediting bid. I turned one down that was a little out of my wheelhouse…but this one would work. I’m always thinking about money; it never feels like there’s enough. And summer has no paycheck, so that’s part of it. I’ll get paid for my week of professional development, but probably won’t see that until August or September. The mortgage still needs to be paid in August. With magic money.

But for now, I can just write a bid, stop thinking about the bee swarm in the composter at home, don’t worry about getting that quilt done or what the next quilt will be, don’t think about how the dryer needs fixing or the computer that isn’t behaving and probably needs to be replaced (desktop or laptop?). Too much. Stare at the greenery and read some more… Take dogs for a walk. Draw.

Lots of Green

Yo. Still in Seattle. I have not moved here. Winter weather scares me. But the trees and green and flowers are nice. I will never get those in San Diego, it’s true.

I didn’t write this morning because it was day 2 of get the fuck up early and get out of here to beat the crowds hiking. We were pretty successful at that. I haven’t done much else: read a lot, stitched a little, drawn a little. Too many distractions. Too easy to zone out. Plus lots of driving. And hiking.

Did you know Seattle has a sugar tax? Weird but intriguing. Not sure it would stop my students from buying soda. They’re pretty hooked.

So what have I been doing? Damn good question. Graduation party for the kid of a friend (really proud of him for getting through). Hanging out with the niece (a bit) as she gets ready to go back to a dig. We set up two tents and determined that (1) her new cot would not fit in the smaller tent and (2) my bro has a way nicer tent than I have. All good.

I drew a little more on the second drawing, not much.

There was a dog in the way. I turned around and turned back and then there was no more drawing.

I also drew before dinner last night…didn’t finish, but this is a rough start to the next quilt.

Needs to be bigger. And more complicated.

Sunday morning, we were up early and headed out to Little Si for our first hike. It was good we got there relatively early, because both parking lots were full when we got back.

This wasn’t a hugely long trail, but there was some up. We are out of shape…two people in physical therapy at the same time for a variety of ailments…

Hiking in Southern California is so much hotter and browner and drier. We appreciate the green, the ferns, and the moss.

Wait. Look. It’s us. We think that’s Mt. Si behind us. We didn’t hike that one. It was too high.

Lots of green. And a bench.

5.12 miles. Lots of up and down. Lots of people. It was nice though for most of it.

Then today we got up early again to hike to two alpine lakes, Talapus and Olallie. This was a longer hike, 6.25 miles.

Lots more trees…not as hefty a climb.

Cool bridge.

Cool lakes…

Olallie…

And Talapus…

That is not the same log jam.

Also, a toilet with a view.

So tomorrow we are taking a break from the hiking, I think. Maybe spend the day drawing and stitching, with a walk down to the water for fireworks. Maybe a longer walk with the dogs.

We are trying to relax. And get more sleep. We suck at the latter.

I feel like we need a down day. A book day. A drawing day. Also, though, I need more milk.

Dumplings of Fury

Still in Seattle. Trying to be relaxed and all. Apparently I suck at that. If you know me, you know that already. I have been drawing…at first, just a little bit every day, just because there wasn’t time. But after everyone left, there was more time. And normally I would have written yesterday, but I’m off. No clue what day it is.

Wednesday was graduation chaos.

Wednesday night (?) I managed some more on that drawing…might have been in the afternoon, now that I think about it. I stitched a little on the Sue Spargo Homegrown block at graduation. I finished one the day before, and then started this one.

I worked on it yesterday too…I feel weird sitting in the house when the cleaner is here, so I sat outside and stitched.

I finished the bottom part of the house…still need to do the roof and the tree, plus I missed a flower. Whoops. Not sure how much of this will be happening over the next week. I don’t usually draw when there’s an audience…I can handle the Man, but not a lot of other people. So once they all left, I could draw. So here was what I added Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday, everyone left except me, so I planted myself on the couch and realized that’s where the dogs like to be too, and I drew some more.

I also went for a walk…

It’s so light here, late at night, at 4 in the morning. I’ve been sleeping with a pillow over my head.

This drawing isn’t done. There’s a blank space in the top right. But another one popped into my head, so I started drawing it yesterday.

Also not done. Summer break has had some issues so far that make me feel like I’m somewhat out of whack, maybe even incompetent or out of of it, so working through that? In drawing?

Saw some friends last night…and this place…

Dumplings of Fury. Perfect.

So today is my friend’s son’s graduation party (she’ll tell you it’s her party), so we’re going to that. My niece will be showing up at some point to pick stuff up. We’re planning hikes for the next two days before it gets super hot here. Not sure what happens after that. Hikes? Touristy stuff? We’ll see.