Fabric Is Calling

So where am I at in the Thanksgiving Break/recovery from school and a sinus infection? Ugh. On new meds…they’re working, but slowly. I occasionally breathe normally. But still sound like (what did my PT say?) Zooey Deschanel. I do not think this is true. I think I sound like someone whose head has been filled with snot for 5 weeks. Not pretty. I’m still sleeping a lot, napping, resting. I did pilates this morning for the first time in 10 days. I did OK. I napped this afternoon though in response. That seems fair. It does seem like a hike is not happening tomorrow morning, as is my Thanksgiving preference. Hmmm. We’ll see. I might feel more energetic tomorrow morning. Right now? Not so much. I have finished four books (to clarify, I had already started and was ensconced in three of them, so don’t freak out). Wait. Shit. I finished five books. OK. So there’s that. I finished cutting out Wonder Under, which wasn’t that hard, because it all happens sitting in front of a television…

It took 10 hours and 4 minutes to do that. Not bad. I started Friday and finished Monday night. No, I wasn’t feeling well for most of it. Good choice to be able to do that. Last night, I sorted all 1606 pieces (there’s more because I missed numbering some, but I didn’t count those…they’re all ‘a’s of other numbers))…

Sorting took an hour and 15 minutes. Now the next step is ironing to fabric, which requires me (a) to clean my office, which is a fucking disaster of partially done ceramics pieces and fabric that needs to be put away), and (b) to be able to stand for extended periods of time. Questionable today. We’ll see. I might have a run of energy later. Right now I’m in nap aftermath and it feels tiring. Tired. Headachy. There’s meds for that. I should take some. I am So Tired of taking meds.

I also started grading (finally!) last night. Not a lot. Just a little. Nothing hard. Ugh. I don’t want to not get the hard stuff done now, when there’s a lot of silence and time to space out…I don’t want to have to do it in December, when things are loud and rushed and overwhelming and stressful. I realize I might not have a choice.

I have this video of my two pieces in Glendora at Citrus College…

Thanks to Lydia for taking the video. Not sure I’ll be able to get up there when the college is open.

I managed to make it to ceramics on Tuesday morning, finally…9 days of not doing that. I picked this sweet pot up…

I also worked for a couple of hours on this thing…which is a beast.

It’s big and heavy and this is only the bottom half. Or third.

It’s time-consuming. And delightful because of that. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to go back…holiday season is complicated. Maybe Saturday? We’ll see.

Also I have another piece in a museum in Florida…

It’s on the far right behind the coat. This is Ft. Pierce, Florida. The other piece I have in Florida is there through December 20, I believe, in Miami. All good. More work than I’ve ever had in Florida at any one time, I think.

Requisite photo of girlchild and Simba…

He is very good at laps.

That’s my lap. Good dog.

I’m currently having a messaging argument with my cable company who offered a higher price service that would still be intermittent instead of giving me a solution to the problem. Give me a discount assholes. Tell me what the problem is and when it will be solved. Don’t offer me hotspots…I’m on a damn desktop. WTF. What if I were fucking disabled? What would you do then? Not everyone can take their device in the car to another location. Stupid companies. This is not getting better in the next four years. It’s not.

OK. It’s not worth the irritation. Make tea. Consider your views on climate change.

I love Greta. I don’t love Amy. I really don’t want to make another Supreme Court quilt y’all.

OK. Well. Make tea, try to clean office/studio enough so that I can start picking fabrics. Wait. I don’t have a background big enough. Or do I? I might. I’ll have to clean to find it. Maybe I should go read my 6th book instead. Or take another nap? Not sure. I should definitely post this before the internet disappears again. Tomorrow is the Man’s Fam’s Thanksgiving, where I just show up and try to be coherent (questionable right now). I do need to get my turkey into the brine soon. Our Thanksgiving will be Friday. I’m in charge of the turkey and the green beans. And not much else. Ugh. Take headache meds. Drink the tea. Fabric is calling.

Hope for the Best

OK. I can do 5 days. You can do 5 days. The kids can’t do 5 days. Even if they know they have 9 days off after 5 days, they still can’t. Well, some of them can. Next year, the school board is giving us the Friday of the week before Thanksgiving Break off, which I think is idiotic. We already have a week. It’s already hard on both sides of that week. But whatever. Just because you’re voted in to a school board position doesn’t mean you know shit about how to teach kids. In fact, these days, it kinda guarantees that you know nothing. Am I looking forward to the 9 days off? Yes. But my to-do list is a little nuts. It always is. There’s family and food and doctor appointments you couldn’t fit anywhere else. And fixing cars and cleaning and yardwork and whatever else you haven’t had time for since August 9, when we started back to school. Kinda nuts. But you still have to plan and grade so December isn’t hell on wheels. So I spent a large part of my Saturday banging through one academic assignment. I have another one for this week, but odds are, I won’t get far. This week is already a little nuts. Plus I’d like to have all of December planned before going on break, and I’m not sure we’ll get that. I’m gonna try anyway. I’ve taught this stuff before…no need to reinvent the wheel completely.

Artwise, I did a bunch of tracing and a little bit of ceramics.

I’m still aiming for an hour a night and mostly falling short.

Grading until 9:30 PM and then starting…I don’t always start on time. I did get some extra time in on Saturday afternoon, once I’d finished grading. My brother was in town and I went out to dinner with him and then took him to see the Man’s band play. No photos. I’m lame. So I traced before all that. Good plan, because I was too tired after. And last night, I graded during a Zoom meeting, so then I started tracing around 8:45…so I got further, up into the 1000s (only barely).

Definitely more than halfway. I’m tracing all the weird shit I see when I close my eyes. That weird thing they still haven’t identified. Fun times. I’m on the 5th yard of Wonder Under. Why does that matter? They used to sell 20-yard bolts…now they are 10 yards, so I can see one big quilt basically taking almost all of a bolt. Annoying. Because they’re about the same price that the 20-yard bolts were. And harder to get…mine came from Florida and took a week. Nothing available locally. I just need to plan ahead. Ha! I try so hard to do that. And I suck at it.

I meant to go to clay on Friday, but had to stay for a bunch of stuff after school, and then we were going to dinner at the parents (again, forgot to take photos), so I wasn’t going to have time. Then I thought, Saturday? But grading it all was a priority. So I went Sunday at 4 PM, after finishing stuff. It was easier because I didn’t need to cook last night. So there’s no pressure to come home and do that.

I had a partner this time…

Bartholomew is a semi-feral cat they’ve been feeding. He came in with me and I fed him. He was loud for a while, hung out with me for a while, and then wanted back outside.

I added the other foot and shaped some things…added more to make the top mostly level. I have ideas for what to do next, but we’ll see how it goes. It’s big. Takes up most of my shelf. I can’t go much higher, so I’m back to needing to figure out how to stack parts. It needs carving and details added. And a decision about the inside. Which I think will be fabric. Making in clay and making in fabric are two very different things.

I also underglazed a small pot I made, and I forgot to take a picture of this bisqued before I put the clear glaze on…

It looked good. Hopefully will also look good in the end after the glaze fire.

I think I’m going back today after school. The rest of the week might be messy.

My piece Heart-Shaped Box was at a special SAQA exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Contemporary Craft Show this weekend.

It looks like it had a pretty good location in their booth.

Nice to see it in video anyway. I have two pieces in another show right now, and probably three videos have been published and my two pieces are not in any of them. It’s always a little frustrating to not be able to see your stuff when you can’t travel to the show.

Nova love…she was drooling at some point.

And Bowie being a dork.

Some political leanings…

One of the reasons I made that Supreme Court quilt last year. Although they left out Alito.

From the book I just finished reading, The Dictionary of Lost Words…

Which I really enjoyed.

OK. Today. Is a lab day. Demos and stations. I’ll be demonstrating ripples all day. I haven’t really thought through how that’s gonna work? Because we made three stations and IDK how they’re going to move through them. Because it was a little chaotic last week. Hoping for less chaos this week. Today’s staff meeting is now shorter than it was supposed to be (hallelujah) and then hopefully clay afterwards. Although I have to cook tonight. And grade. Because class will be 100% on all day. Yikes! Tomorrow is a little easier, although we need to make some things during prep today. Double yikes! OK. Deep breaths. Go to school. Do the things. Make some art (and some dinner). Hope for the best.

I’ve Run Out of Limbs

Oh hey. Do you know what it’s like to work in a profession that is nonstop? I’m a little tired of mine right now. The nonstoppedness of it for sure. The ‘here do this because you have plenty of time’ part of it. The ‘I don’t understand why you can’t do all the things we’re asking you to do’ part of it. The ‘we need to know when the kids go to the bathroom and return and that is more important than what you’re teaching’ part of it. And I don’t know if the nutkook who will be in charge has announced his education crony yet, but if any of his other uneducated, inexperienced choices are a sign, we’re gonna get worse than Betsy WTF ‘just give them a pencil’ Voss this time. It will not be four years of sanity. Not in my district anyway. I wish y’all luck wherever you are. I’m currently juggling too many things and need to juggle more but I’ve run out of limbs.

So art is even MORE important. I kamikazed from school to ceramics yesterday and built (most of) two legs and feet. Well, one foot.

It needs work. This looks a bit like my Thanksgiving turkey at the moment.

Hopefully it’ll look better soon. The right foot (on the left) does not exist. All of it needs work. I ran out of time because I also had pilates last night (but late), so I did that too. And graded stuff. And then traced…

The lead I’m using does not write as darkly on the new Wonder Under. It also doesn’t rub off as much. I’m not sure why. Strange. It’s the same pencil I always use. There’s more resistance and yet less. Not sure how to explain that. There’s less resistance from the fusible underneath, which sometimes was bumpy enough to move my pencil lead to one side; now there’s more resistance from the paper I’m tracing on. Yes, I am thinking way too hard about this. I made it into the 500s last night, which means I’m close to a third done. My goal is to be ironing to fabric over Thanksgiving break. So I probably have another 11 days of tracing if I continue at about 100 pieces in an hour, and an hour a night…so that’s a week from Saturday. And then I have to cut them all out, which is probably 6 hours or so and then family arrives so I’m on crack. I might be ironing by Thursday, actual turkey day. Uh huh. Well. Oh well then. Maybe I’ll do some this weekend? And grade and lesson plan. Ha! Fuck me.

So yeah. Today is a lot of direct teaching, I think. Tomorrow will be less so, then Friday back on it. We’re teaching lessons we’ve never taught before, which is always stressful. I haven’t finished Friday’s worksheet yet and I don’t have any for next week. Although we found the academic thing for next week, so that’s good. I really should make a video to explain the current assignment that kids aren’t finishing. Not sure when I will do that. 2 AM? Possibly. Just after I train kids to use the new signout system that didn’t work yesterday. Yaass.

OK, also so many union meetings today. Gonna go do the first one, teach, then do the second one. Maybe go see my brother, who is visiting my parents. Then cook dinner and grade and trace. In that order. I think. I might grade WHILE cooking dinner. Not necessarily the best choice, but…

Freedoms…

‘Tis Veterans Day. Thanks to those who protected our freedoms. Hopefully you’ll keep doing that, even against homegrown incursions. It’s ironic. But not funny. It’s a day off for teachers, also appreciated. I needed an extra day to decompress…aka read another book, do some gardening, get to the ceramics studio. Hopefully get healthy. I think the cough is wandering (very slowly) off and the sinus crap might not be far behind. Although still not well well, better.

Friday night, all I had in me was reading. So I did that. With Nova…

And then Simba…

I was cold, I felt like crap, I was tired. It worked. The Man was still on soft food, so I ate leftovers. And then I sewed a handheld tornado together.

Like you do. I spent a lot of time looking at memes and cat videos. Also like you do when you are trying to get over all the things. Friday…was a lot of things…I had to sub my prep (Math! Anathema) and then stay after school with my co-teacher because we hadn’t figured next week out, and I needed to get my head around it.

I copied stuff for Tuesday and then was too tired to go to ceramics…in the dark.

So I did that Saturday afternoon instead. In the morning, I lounged, I entered two art shows, I did some accounting-type shit.

It’s good I didn’t go earlier, because they had a class in the morning and it would have been crowded. I’m loving this new clay, B-mix…it holds up much better than half and half. I built up…

And it held! This was fun.

We’ll see how much it held up when I go in today, yeah? It seemed pretty stable. I only have an inch or two before it’s taller than my shelf space though. Again. There is going to be a top half. But now I need to decide how I’m handling the rest of it. She needs legs. And for me to decide if the inside is going to be fabric. I think it is.

Saturday also included a dinner drawing (the Man ate solid food!)…

Plus I sewed some clouds…

My machine kept pausing to tell me there was too much fabric under the needle and I just kept telling it to forget about it, keep sewing, it’ll all be OK.

I also built a tiny house out of balsa wood. I need at least two more of these.

They are a rancid pain. I sewed cars on a cloud too…trying to decide if they need painting. I think they do. But they are already sewn on. Ah well.

That Fuentes idiot and everyone who follows him…

I’m loving hearing about the 4B movement in South Korea by the way. Reminds me of the play Lysistrata and the movie Chiraq, both inspiration for the We Got the Power exhibit I’m in that’s currently showing in Florida. The timing of all this.

I’m honestly confused by the majority of married white women. Is it really easier to give up your power? I don’t get it.

I get that too.

Sunday…went by too fast. All of a sudden, it was late in the afternoon. In an attempt to save (remove from house) a large gecko, I had moved a bunch of stuff off a bookcase…two days later, I actually found the gecko and rehomed him outside. But I had to clean off all these books and tins and find homes for them, and I found this.

There was no disk inside. I kept the tin because, remember when you could cover them and then put a magnetic thing inside and it would be a needleholder? Yeah that. That was what I’d saved it for. It’s OK…I’m sure my mom has 10 of them. I tossed it. I also got rid of some books. And threw out a file folder filled with recipes I’d cut from magazines that I will never ever look at again. It was good.

I’m actually fairly reality-bound, unfortunately.

The other good thing was that the Wonder Under I’d ordered a week ago showed up. It’s still not the same as the old stuff, but it’s not as heavy as the stuff I had in my stash. I was still worried about the heaviness of the paper and the plasticky feel of the fusible, so I decided to test it out on something small before I committed to using it on the quilt I’d already started tracing with the old stuff. I was so freaked out about the change…they’ve changed the formulation before, but not so drastically.

Good news…it actually seems easier to use. The fusible is less bumpy, so it’s easier to trace over. The heavier paper probably helps with that too.

And it peeled right off…usually I have to wait at least 24 hours to peel, but this was immediate and worked well.

Done. Only issue is that the bolts are half the size they used to be and I can’t find them locally, so I have to ship. I also have two full bolts of the thicker stuff…don’t know what I’ll do with those. I bought them quite a while ago. Not sure why they’re so different, but they have a slightly different code on them.

But it means I can start tracing again. Ahhhh. Such a relief. Video of Annie greeting me when I went to pick up Simba…

This dog is a freak. A loving freak, but a freak nonetheless.

OK. Today. More yardwork (watering mostly…it’s been very dry, warm too)…maybe some digging and removing plant matter if I have the energy. Totally going back to ceramics today. Also grading more stuff. I’m almost done with the Unit 2 packets and I need to input some grades at some point. I’m trying to get caught up so Thanksgiving Break is not all grades. I did some lesson planning last night and got stuff made for every day but Friday. Friday is started at least. I need to copy stuff tomorrow. I need to build a couple more balsawood houses and paint them and the cars. I need to figure out what I’m doing with the wings and test drill some ceramics so I can get some stuff attached. I need to read my book. I need to write a blogpost for one of my art groups. I sat down to do this one and it’s taken forever. Not sure why. And then I’m going to trace Wonder Under. Happily. Short week of school, brother will be in town, hopefully continuing to get over this sinus infection and bronchitis. Trying to come to terms with half the country. I’m not sure why voting for someone who only has rich people in his sights ever makes sense if you want things to be cheaper. But it’s what we have. No shortage of artmaking ideas for the next four years…I guess that’s the plus. Retirement plans? Aaugh. Try not to think too hard about that. I’d like to hike, but I’m not sure I have it in me. We’ll see.

Hurdles and Crunches

Hey Friday. I’m glad you’re here. This week has been cool in terms of kids learning and doing stuff (except for the 5 who aren’t). It’s been a physical hurdle due to the crap in my lungs and sinuses. It’s been a time crunch that is continuing…I was woken up at 4:45 AM by either a cat or the dulcet snoring tones of my partner, and then my brain wouldn’t let go of the fact that only one day next week is planned and 48 things need to happen before Tuesday and I don’t know when they will be happening. Minor issue. Plus many people want things from me and I just want to finish my book (I did that last night…it was well worth it).

Also an earthquake/fire drill on a lab day, when they moved where we stand (I’ve stood with my class in the same place for 16 years…I understand half the move, but the other half was idiotic…and yes, I told them so. I am so unapologetic in my ancient years…oh hell, I haven’t even come close to ancient yet. Hold on to your hats.). It’s OK. It’s done. Today will be OK. I hope. Still need to get most of that period done with building because they couldn’t do it yesterday because we spent half the period doing other stuff.

What are we building? Roller coasters…a quicker, faster, easier version than what I’ve been doing for the last two years…which is awesome.

Insulation tubing. Way easier than the paper stuff.

So much better. I may hate grading the paper part of it, but I’m OK with trying it. So that was cool.

I’m still waiting on Wonder Under. I’ve been working on parts for the ceramic sculpture…

I made tubing for the tornado rope. It’s long and is taking For. Ev. Er. to pull through.

Here’s day 2, when I found the big tweezery things…

Still not done, but closer. And I need more fiberfill or stuffing or whatever. Maybe I’ll remember that after school today. We’ll see. I also want to do clay but can do that tomorrow as well.

First not-very-fair response to the election…

Not fair because where I live is actually in California and red. So there’s that. Certainly a lot of people are going to better understand tariffs in the next 4 years. I guess it will play out and we will yell a lot and hopefully the world will not end. Will it affect my retirement? Almost certainly. Unfortunately. Ah well. This might be more relevant.

And then there’s this…

I wish that were totally true, but I guess art and books are my forest.

OK. Survive today. Take all the meds. Hopefully get some planning in and some clay in. Still fending for myself on food because the Man had a tooth pulled and is still on a liquid diet. And cranky about it. I guess it would be rude of me to go get a burger tonight. Hmmm. I’m personally tired of leftovers. Looking forward to getting my Wonder Under tomorrow. Looking forward to a 3-day weekend. Another one. Yup. It’s all good. More sleep would be lovely, if that’s an option. It may not be. Snorers and cats and dogs…

The Monsters…

America. I had hope, you had hate. It’s not all of you. My social media shows me that. But too many of you do. Hate for my students, hate for my friends, hate for me. I dodge a lot of it by being a white woman, but an artist? A teacher in a Title I school full of immigrants and refugees and kids of color? Sigh. I’m…there’s got to be a better word than disappointed. I’m wearing all black today…ninja teacher, ninja artist, ninja liberal. My plan to retire in 2029 may be thrown by this. When the orange monster was in before, my med costs went up, my taxes went up, my expenses went up. They all relaxed during Biden. I’m not rich enough to get the benefits of a GOP ruler. Ah well. We fight the monsters, y’all. And the monsters are half of us.

My art is sort of stalled…or waylaid? Or on a different track. I started a new clay piece…loosely based on my The Way Out quilt. Same shape to start anyway…

Gotta figure out how to piece it together so it fits on my shelf again.

I also brought stuff home that looked cool that I forgot to photograph. Oops. And one thing is drying, getting ready to bisque. And I had a tiny bit of the old clay left and I made a pot shape. I always need more pots for plants. Anyway, it will start to look more like something eventually.

Then I started with the ceramic winged woman (who still doesn’t have wings). She’s all about climate change, which is going to get worse because of who y’all voted in, in case you were unclear about that. I made some shapes on paper and picked some fabrics and decided to try to build a tornado…like you do.

I bought that rope during the beginning of COVID to do something with. Last night, I cut the pieces out and cut an appropriate piece of rope…

I have tiny people, and there are tiny cars coming, plus balsa wood, because apparently I’m going to build a house? Or am I? Hard to say. Wonder Under isn’t arriving until Friday. Need to entertain my art brain.

I’m also grading things…

It’s slow. Nova thought this one smelled nice. It’s a nice kid. I’m slowly getting through these packets. I spent two hours at Urgent Care again yesterday for the cough that was getting worse. Acute bronchitis and a sinus infection. Fun times. More meds. Hopefully will kick it though, because I’m tired of coughing violently for no apparent reason. It’s kind of exhausting. Much like my country.

Those cloud things are going in those smokestacks on the top of her head. Then I’ll work on the wings. Slow and weird process for me, but I like it. It’s different. Different allows our brains to grow and develop. Some of you should try it.

OK. Teaching roller coaster parts and design still today. Fun to watch the kids work together (or not). One pro is the super-psycho didn’t win school board. The semi-psycho incumbent did. He at least understands laws and tries to follow them. Although there’s another psycho coming in. Sigh. I guess watch this space. My art will continue in the political realm…how can it not? My job will continue as long as I’m allowed…or until I can’t stand it and can actually afford to retire…all up in the air now. Things will still need fixing around here (two hosebibs today, finally), trimming, watering, painting, digging, etc. Cats will need petting and feeding, dogs will need the knots combed out of their fur and their bellies rubbed. Kids will need to learn how to be humans and productive members of society, even if they don’t figure it out in 8th grade. Some kids are awesome and will continue to be so, and I will rejoice in their existence and that of my friends who support all kinds. The monsters can fuck off.

All Art

IDK why I thought I’d have more time today to post about Visions…ah well, maybe Friday? I have 12 minutes now before I need to leave. Let’s keep it short and sweet…all art.

I have two things that came out of the kiln…this, where I was trying out a different way to glaze/carve…

And this, where I was trying to make a usable mug…

Where if I tried to make it to sell it, it would cost about $300 because of the amount of time I put into it.

I don’t do fast art, I guess.

Both of these need a glaze on top and the mug needs some inside so I can actually use it.

It’s smaller than I like, I think. Not sure.

I have a really hard time visualizing mug sizes. As shown here…

Way too big to be a mug.

I think this is almost ready to dry.

I bought more clay. So I can make more things.

The drawing is progressing.

I worked on the tree…

The ground is really all that’s left, unless I want to put more things in the sky.

I’m always staring at the blank spaces.

Close, but not there yet.

Maybe tonight? Probably not.

I’m fighting a cold; don’t feel well. Luckily get to spend all day today in a training. (lucky?)

Working on this.

and this…

And this is way too true…

OK. Me and cold meds going to school. Feeling yuck. Canceled stuff after school today preemptively. Have a lab I’m doing the next two days, so I can’t be out. Fun times.

Drawing at the End…

Hey. Wednesday. You never feel like far enough into the week to be a relief. Sorry. I know it’s not your fault. It’s the 5-day workweek thing. Lots of people think of you as hump day, and maybe that’s it…once I get over the hump that is you, it will feel like a slide (it’s never really a slide if you’re a teacher…unless it’s a slide like those cheese wheel races down huge hills where you’re just rolling head over heels trying to beat the wheel down the hill) into the weekend. This weekend is the Vision opening…so member opening Friday night, artist talks Saturday at 1 PM, then artist dinner at night. Lots of art things. Hopefully cool. We’ll see.

Not a lot of art happening…at least it looks that way. Monday night, I had to label and pack two quilts for a show up in Glendora that’s coming up. I won’t make it to that opening (it’s midday on a Wednesday? or something like that). I still need to pack up the Quilt National quilt…I was going to do that last night, but didn’t feel like it for the second day in a row. Ah well. I did do ceramics on Monday…picked up two fired pieces…

They look pretty good, yeah? Well there’s this…

It ran like crazy, stuck to the biscuit. It’s OK. I’m going to glue it back together and then put it outside. Maybe bury it in the ground even, just a bit. The boot turned out fine! All ceramics is a guess sometimes. I even wiped this up a good bit…but not enough. You learn some; you lose some.

Still doing this…

A peaceful couple of hours working on this…the orange ran like crazy, so I had to fix some stuff…not sure how to make the underglazes less runny once they are.

I’ll be here for another couple of hours before she’s done. And I bought more clay finally…gonna try a new one. I have ideas. I always have ideas.

Last night, I was supposed to go to the gym, but I ended up running late finishing stuff at school, then doing more work at home to try to catch up and maybe get ahead, and then I bathed the old lady cat. She’d gone to the vet because we thought she might have a UTI (accidentes), but it doesn’t look like she does. She hasn’t been cleaning herself well for a while, and I worry about stressing out old ladies with baths, but she needed it. She’s so much cleaner now. I even combed her a bit, which she likes…until she doesn’t. She’s still cranky as shit…and probably was the source of random poops all down the hallway last night (sigh)…but she’s still kicking. When I had finished making dinner (and next week’s lunches coincidentally), I just wanted to draw. I love drawing. I miss drawing more. I just can’t fit it in. Either I draw or I read and even that is a fight…always work is calling. And the house. So much stuff. Ugh.

So I drew.

There’s a rough pencil drawing of the body, just because it’s hard to get everything on there and semi-proportioned right…for some definition of right. Then I stare at it and decide what I want to add. I know what this piece is focused on (everything?), so I think about how that can be portrayed…you can’t see all the hands on her thigh from here. It’s still in pencil. Anyway, hopefully I’ll be communing with this most nights for the next week or so, trying to wiggle an image out of a tired brain. It’s where I love to be. And though there are other things that need to be worked on, for now, this is it.

Is 9 the average women’s shoe size? I do always feel like I am huge-footed. Maybe not? Seems wrong.

OK. School. I’m doing a lab that I’ve only done once and it was two years ago. I don’t remember HOW to do it. I’m sure it will be fine. Pretty sure I made a video. I have pilates after school. I’m tired already. I don’t have to cook tonight. I do probably have to grade things…or prep things. Last night, I recorded things, so there’s dogs barking, cats meowing, men coughing, and timers going off. Like normal. Then more drawing hopefully. Plus reading. I’ve been reading at lunch instead of hanging out with my team. They are stressing me out, I guess. Probably I need to check in up there. Plus I had to set up a lab yesterday during lunch. So that took time. Whatever. Drawing at the end.

Under Control…

OK. So my butt is wet. The cat did something on my chair. This is not a nice way to start Monday. Actually, I started with randomly low blood sugar. Always fun. The cat is old. I’m hoping it’s not…fuck…I’m pretty sure it’s pee. Sigh. She’s looking pretty irritated right now. Maybe because I’m accusing her of peeing herself. I guess I need to call the vet. Sigh. She’s old, it’s true, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready for her to be gone. She has been getting worse…unfortunately.

So artwise, I finished all the bugs. Except I need to repaint one for like the fourth time. I delivered 4 to Visions Museum on Saturday. The rest will hold for a bit (maybe?) and go on Etsy (maybe?). I took official photos of them; I’ll put them on the website later too. Here’s the last one though…

With the one that needs repainting in the background.

I finally started drawing the next big one…it’s been in my head for well over a month.

Not that you can see much, and the boobs might need redrawing based on this. I just get the general shapes with the pencil on something this big. I don’t usually use pencil on the smaller drawings. Here’s a pre-drawing for it…done in two restaurants before dinner came…

Not quite all there. But a vague idea of it. I drew this too, with no purpose…

On Friday, I did some underglazing…

This stuff takes forever…

But it’s relaxing…

Apparently two of my pieces came out of the glaze fire, but I couldn’t find them on Friday. Ugh. Maybe today.

I also finished the center panel of Homegrown…

So now I can piece all the houses around it and spend another year making the borders. It’s also relaxing, but in a different way.

My piece Stop the Murder Madness made it to Miami for the opening…

A fellow artist took a picture of it for me…

Her name is Eden Quispe and you should go look at her work because it’s amazing. And I appreciate her recommending this show to me in the first place and sending me photos as well.

I managed NOT to work most of the weekend (on school stuff), which I think is pretty healthy. We walked the dog on Saturday.

I also blew leaves off half the roof, terrified of being up there, trimmed a bunch of stuff, dumped plant matter in greenery trashcans, finally rehung the art in the hallway…

Drove to a sketch location and bought a recliner for my kid, who may or may not actually want it because he was in Pinnacles with no cell service. Long weekend. I finished a book! That was good. Wait, I actually finished two. So even better.

For some reason, all the animals were giving me judgy looks this weekend. Here’s Nova.

Bowie…

You already saw Kitten up at the top…and Simba…

Luna avoided me mostly, so I guess I didn’t wrong her too badly.

I’ll finish up with two new skull finds…

The one on the right is a new type…I don’t think I’ve seen it before? I’ll wait for nature to clean it up a bit. We get a lot of rats and mice…this is not the right shape for that. Wait and see.

OK, today is teaching speed and velocity…pretty easy stuff. Then a 2-hour staff meeting about literacy. I’ve been prewarned that the scientific content is factually incorrect (oh good), so I’m prepared to be irritated. Then to clay, to hopefully underglaze some more and find my two glazed pieces. Then back here to pack up three quilts for shipping. Fun times. And more drawing, hopefully…get those boobs under control. On the drawing. Those are the only ones I can control.

Check for Zombies

Well hey. I wish I had slept more last night, but the little dog made me get up once to check for zombies and there were definitely other barky moments when I was like, “it wasn’t zombies LAST time, so no, I’m not getting out of bed”. He’s definitely in need of something these days. A long walk…a cuddle with his boy (who still has 10 days of training to go). He is a grumpy old man (the dog, to clarify…although there are other grumpy old men in my vicinity, for sure). What it means is that my brain is a little fuzzy (when is it not?) and my eyes a little crusty, and maybe I’m drinking this whole cup of tea quickly so I can get another one down? Ugh. When my doctor tells me to improve my sleep, for health reasons, I want to explain to her that I’ve always been a bad sleeper and that has not improved with age and there are many factors affecting my sleep, most of which (zombies) are out of my control. Oh well. Doing my best. Mostly. Nah, I could do better. If I had more sleep. Maybe.

So I’m still slogging along on bugs. I stitched the edges of the last two on Monday night…

And last night, I painted all five canvases…

Last time, some of them needed a second coat, but hopefully there’ll be a couple ready to stitch down tonight. I also need to make labels for the back.

I did some carving on Monday as well…

Just for fun planter…

In video…

I’m just gonna work on this here for a while. I need to buy more clay for the next batch of projects. Not there yet.

After dinner, I’ve been working on the centerpiece for Homegrown.

I think I just have that last flower on top to do and then I can piece the whole quilt together and start the borders. I’m ahead of schedule! I thought I wouldn’t finish the center until next year. I figured 5 flowers, 5 months? But I’ve been faster than that for once. Mostly because I’m trying to get work done before I leave school and then leave it there. Much as I can. I did last night, anyway.

This is the face of a cat spying a gecko on the window.

I was reading a book the other day and they used the term ‘sanguivore’ for vampires, and turns out, it’s a real word (I love learning new words) for things like vampire bats and mosquitos (bloodsuckers), so my co-teacher and I thought it would be cool to add this word learning to our 7th-grade curriculum when we do trophic levels (carnivores, herbivores, etc), adding this one to the mix and then having kids make some up…I came up with ‘cerebrevore’ for zombies…

Makes sense? Right? We are supposed to be teaching literacy.

This is relevant as I get closer to the Quilt Visions opening, where I will have to explain my work in front of people…

Sometimes it’s a challenge. This quilt is actually easy to explain and way too relevant these days.

This is another word I like.

Unfortunately, I think if I do that today, kids aren’t going to try to learn…they’re just going to copy each other and then Friday’s test will be painful. So I will have to interact with them. And I have a union meeting after school, so that’s more people and talking. When I just want to read my book in silence. Not happening. Tonight, I’ll be sewing little bug quilts on canvases and/or repainting some of them. All good. I will read my book at some point though. It’s required.