I have a new computer. It’s still restoring all the stuff from before. It was at 12% when I went to bed last night and it’s still at 12% this morning, like no time has passed. Granted I feel the same way about the amount of sleep I had last night. I know I went to bed at the appropriate time for whatever time hell we’re in now, but I was still out of bed in the early dark feeling like I hadn’t slept. So maybe the computer feels the same way. It’s gonna be a rough week, for me and the kids.
This weekend was my 58th birthday, and I did my best not to work. There’s some level of having to pay for it during the week, but the week is already a shitshow, so I probably won’t notice much. What did I do? I read, I made art, I went on a short hike. All good.
Simba appreciated it. Maybe.
It was a little closer than I like to be to coyotes, but it reminds us that they are always there.
I did a little ceramics on Friday. I was tired though. There’s a bunch of stuff going on her arms.
Fun times. My glazes came in Friday as well, so that’s hopefully what I’m doing after a two-hour staff meeting after school. Ugh.
Friday night I finished tracing…
Four yards (just under) of Wonder Under. I spent almost 4 hours cutting stuff out this weekend…
And not a lot else honestly.
There are never enough hours in the day. I did a little yard work; I have bulbs to plant. but I quit when I accidentally trimmed a branch with a hummingbird nest and broke two eggs. Mom bird had lots to say about it and I felt (still feel) horrible, so I quit. It’s spring! Don’t kill baby animals. If you can. I was actually trying to avoid another thing that looked like a nest so it felt even worse that I fucked that up.
I had two dinners out, which was nice, and got a pile of books to read and my mom’s stash of silk ribbon, which is fun, so that didn’t make up for the hummingbird babies, but I also found out there’s a grove in Humboldt named after my Great Great Aunt Bertella who was an obstetrician, so we’re totally visiting that over Spring Break.
Government still sucks, if we can call it that. Our National Parks are at stake here. And people’s lives. Sigh.
I am coral. Ok, gotta teach and professionally develop and clay.
Woke up early because annoying hot flash caused by small fluffy dog all over my legs, trapping me. Then the heat went on because morning. And my brain rolled over into Why the Fuck don’t they understand that the LIGHT is doing all the things and not the OBJECT, and also why do they think they can just copy the notes and that is proof that they understand something. Sigh. I sense a mini-lecture coming in class today (it was coming anyway…I just spent the last 30 minutes when I could have been asleep preparing it in my head). I then spent 35 minutes on the phone with the online pharmacy trying to get a refill on something that showed refills but wouldn’t let me order it. I hate that shit. I appreciate the woman that helped me, but it’s annoying to have to deal with all that. In the morning. Have I mentioned I’m not a morning person? I’m not. Really no.
Didn’t mean to wake up early. Didn’t want to. I have the mini-lecture all noted out on a piece of paper so I don’t forget the genius I was at 6 AM.
Where am I at this week? Trying to eke out time for artmaking, often at the detriment of other things, mostly sleep. Monday, I cleaned the floor just in time for the boychild to tromp across it in muddy shoe, completely avoiding the towel I was trying to put down. Fun times. Then I trimmed the quilt.
I didn’t think I’d need kneepads for a short trim, but my knees stated otherwise. They’ve been pretty bad lately. Hoping it’s the weather. Not just increased ouchiness for fun.
I bought the binding last weekend…good thing, because I didn’t have time this weekend. I got the binding on Monday night…
And last night, I put the sleeves on, zigzagged all the seams because I was trained as a clothing sewer before I became a quilter (does everyone zigzag their seams? I just think it holds all the layers together in a more stable manner so it’s easier to fold the binding over and stitch it down.). Then I pinned the whole thing and stabbed myself a million times. Yes, I know there are clips and basting sprays (ugh) and other ways to bind quilts. I like how this looks, so I stab myself a bunch of times for the pleasure of the final product. Tonight, I’ll start the handstitching part. I’ll be working on that for a while too. But the quilt will be done in February. Not December. Not January. Sigh. WHATEVER. 2025 might be kicking my butt at the moment.
I’ve been reading (listening to) this book series and it yells out “NEW ACHIEVEMENT” on a regular basis (really long story) and I’m hearing that in my head right now. Finally made it on a hike/walk with the dog and the Man.
Finally had the TIME to do it. I think my knees appreciated it? Not sure. I’ve been doing pilates all along and regularly, but have missed the hiking (and the gym, but that’s going to be a new level to unlock when I get through the next two weeks of traveling). So NEW ACHIEVEMENT! Hiked this weekend. More of that please. And fuck the clean house. It doesn’t last anyway. I still need to clean one of the gutters out and it’s raining today and tomorrow and I raked some stuff away from the house, but I think I’ll be on the ladder tonight in the dark trying to clear this one gutter. In the rain. It’ll be fine. It’s not torrential until tomorrow.
OK, on the one hand (Comparative Literature major here) this amuses me, and on the other…
It irritates the crap out of me, because unless you’re doing something to make my life easier right now, my shrew has a legit complaint. And she doesn’t need taming.
I love that my brain can hold both those feelings at the same time.
Today. Well, you already know I have a mini-lecture all drawn out for my classes today. Mostly they’re taking notes and I’m prepping for eyeball dissection tomorrow. And trying to finish the next unit. Ha! Not finishing. But I need a table of contents. By Tuesday. Copied. Tonight is a union meeting AND book club (I checked. I read the book. I didn’t really like it.). I don’t have to cook though (pro). I do need to get more grading done during school today. Somehow. It’s all good. I had a plan yesterday and got a whopping 2 out of 5 classes graded. Then came home and did the other 3 in like 45 minutes. Not even. Efficiency without kids in the class is AMAZEBALLS. Right now, I need a big hit of caffeine and to brush my teeth and take my meds and then off to school…it is (strangely) wear dark colors day (it’s kindness week? Not sure what dressing like a ninja has to do with that, but I’m doing it…not hard…I have lots of black).
The last Monday of 2024. Weird that. Why do Mondays have such strange power over us? I suspect if I had a different job, Mondays would be less ugh. I am a little over 1/3 of the way through my Winter Break. I still have a few things left to grade…a small pile of redoes that I can’t quite bear to look at…yet. I’ll get there. I’m in that weird molasses part of the year (break) where I don’t seem to get anything done. Although the boychild and I cut down part of a tree that was growing haphazardly. That was a thing. And I’m sure I checked some things off the to-do list, but as I do them, more take their place. It’s annoying. So then I check out and pull out a book and don’t get anything done in a day that seems really short anyway. I think every Winter Break is like this. I have a pile of labels to make and print, an art application to fill out, which means revising my resume with everything from this year…which sounds just like a lot of work. Good work. Work that needs to happen. But work nonetheless. I need to go trim some shit. I should just go do that. I’m tired, though. Trying a new medication to see if the visual disturbance goes away. It’s supposed to make me tired. I can concur. I am tired.
Or that’s just where I am right now. I also need to prep 5 quilts for shipping/delivery. Maybe later. Sounds like work.
I did restart quilting this, from two years ago.
It doesn’t take long. It’s lame that I haven’t finished it yet.
It’s Sue Spargo’s block of the month Bird Dance, which I started a million years ago. It took me through a lot of soccer games. I have about 1 1/2 columns left to quilt and then the border and then I can put a binding on it and it’s done. Then I can toss the other big quilt up there and quilt it too. While ironing another quilt together. It’s all doable. I just need to do it. Sounds simple. And complicated.
Thinking too hard at the end of the year.
Friday night, I was still trimming, but there wasn’t much left…
Saturday night, I finished…
A total of 18 hours and 49 minute of trimming…after 24 hours of ironing. I never documented the fabric range for this…but it was 189 fabrics…
I cleaned them all up yesterday, so I could reclaim enough boxes to sort the pieces…
No, he wasn’t helping.
It took 2 hours to do that. But I’m ready to start ironing together today. I’m ready to do a lot of things today; if only I had the energy.
The girlchild and I went to ceramics on Saturday…
She’s very intent on a few things. I’m making some random little things…
And this has been sitting around forever, waiting to be carved.
We’ll be back today. I did work on the big piece, in that I found a place on the drying shelves for the big one and the top of it is back on my shelf, waiting for me to figure out how to make the arms.
Finally made it out for a hike on Saturday afternoon.
Another energy thing.
Nice to get outside and exercise though. Even though my knees are complaining like crazy today.
It’s cold, y’all, but apparently not quite cold enough to cuddle.
Weirdos.
OK, I have a chonky to-do list still and it makes me feel better to check things off of it. Sort of obsessive in that way. Need to sort out some plant material…probably easier to do that before a shower, so do that first. Then shower and lunch and somehow the entire day will disappear and I’ll be at ceramics again. Seems fair. Nice to have days that can dribble away for once and not cause too much havoc.
We spent the weekend camping. The district gave us another random 3-day weekend. Pro: we missed the day after Halloween. Con: Grades were due, so if I hadn’t been super over-prepared and graded everything the weekend before this one, I would have needed to grade over a 3-day weekend. Sigh. Anyway. Random days. Always fun. It was nice to not have to try to leave right after school and get up there in the dark. We did a lot of sitting around (and then moving around because it was cold. We had a great campsite…
A little isolated, especially since about half the people that had reserved spaces didn’t show up.
Why? No running water. We got the email a week or so ago and figured we’d been there before…there are pit toilets…just no showers or faucets. So not ideal, but cheap.
Canyon live oak…huge acorns. Like walking on marbles.
We had a bet that someone would get hit by one this weekend…they were constantly falling and just missing us. Definitely hit the car and the tent, but missed us. At some point, scarab beetles were also falling from the sky…Saturday night when it started to rain (water most of the time, with an occasional beetle).
It was definitely chilly…around 34 degrees the first night. Put all the clothes on and start a fire…and then draw.
The next day, we hiked. We had (well, I had) grand plans, but the Man’s back was acting up. We did 4 1/2 miles (the longest…probably a combo of elevation, his back, and my continuing viral crap). We started in Doane Valley but didn’t hike there most of the time.
We saw a weir and were supposed to see waterfalls, but access was iffy. These clouds were coming in…we knew we were getting cloud cover, but all the rain had left the forecast.
Ah well…forecasts are iffy.
Cool tree dropped in the middle of the trail.
It started raining around 5:30 PM, so I cooked under an umbrella…there’s a photo of that somewhere.
This guy hung out most of the time…
We did actually manage a fire…it wasn’t raining super heavily in the early evening, so I used the umbrella and drew…
Some election anxiety. Here’s the drawing without the blurry smoke/fire stuff…
And the other one…
I love the time to draw. It was too cold to embroider. I read a lot. It rained all night. At one point, water was dripping onto my head in the sleeping bag, so we moved everything down. It was really wet in the morning, so we just packed up and came home. It wasn’t bad…it just made the last night a little uncomfortable. We went to bed early because of it. It’s fine.
I’m still feeling off…the virus has not left. The cough is there and bad when it’s there and often not bad. Wait it out? Not sure I want to be back on antibiotics so quickly. So I’m tired…after three days off work. No surprise. Next weekend is also 3 days off (Veteran’s Day)…maybe it will help me recover.
Meanwhile, I haven’t been tracing because I finished off a bolt of Wonder Under and went to open the new one I’ve had in my stash for a while, and it’s different. The paper is much much thicker and the fusible web is very thick too, very plasticky. I didn’t have time until yesterday to go to Joann’s and they didn’t have any, so I ordered some online, but there’s a lot of reviews that say this thicker one is the new version? I’m not sure, because when I look at the label, it has “W1” on it and it came from Walmart, which has some weird versions of things. The one I ordered is a smaller bolt…apparently that’s how we make money now. Make everything smaller and charge more for it. We’ll see when it comes…whenever it comes. Trying not to add Wonder Under anxiety to election anxiety. Or to-do list anxiety.
I did fix my pants. The pockets had holes where they were attached to the pants (typical stress point), so I patched on the back, but for whatever reason, it wasn’t holding well, so I stitched them as well. It’s my brain that wants to make them eyeholes on my ass.
OK. School. I know what I’m teaching today…not sure about the next THREE days, but today is set. Not sure if I’ll have to head back to Urgent Care…holding off until I see more evidence that this thing is not on its way out. Hopefully clay this afternoon…starting something new. And if I can’t trace tonight, maybe it’ll force me to make the wings for that ceramic piece, right? One can hope.
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.
Some weekends, all I do is try to check things off the to-do list. I did mop the kitchen floor. It seriously needed it. I watered some things. I will need to keep doing that. It never stops. I tried to find someone to trim a bush, someone else to clean a pool (I’m close on that one), and a solution to the pool shed that is falling down. Not as successful on that. I need a ton more money to fix all the things. I graded two academic assignments…I’m glad that’s done. It wasn’t really how I wanted to spend Friday night, but I was dogsitting anyway and not in the mood to get up and be active, so I just sat there, bingewatched bad TV (some YA ghost thing), and graded most of them. I finished the rest last night. That’s a weight off my shoulders. That gives me some time this week. To what? I’m not sure. Get a bunch of little projects done. I might need to start drawing the next big one. Not sure what deadlines I have coming up. I entered a show. I probably will get rejected from one today, so it seemed fair. I entered with three pieces that have never been shown, and two of them are not new. I figured I should give them a chance, and if I didn’t get into the show, oh well. No biggie. Don’t have to figure out how to get to the opening! Or deliver the piece. Weird attitude for an artist who likes to have her work shown, sure.
Here’s what Friday night looked like…
Lots of nervous Annie with Bowie. When Annie gets nervous, she gets very close or in my lap. Bowie was not impressed.
I graded things that looked like this…
This one actually made no sense for the question. I did have some that made more sense in the drawing than in the explanation. Sigh. Had to reteach what evidence was because of this assignment. It’s fine. I even graded all the kids who transferred to the new section on the other team. Cuz it would be mean not to.
The Man had a long wedding on Friday that his band played for…the last wedding they’re doing is this Saturday. These things are kicking their butts…so much prep and then so much waiting around. I don’t go to the weddings…no desire to sit through that. Saturday’s is at the beach, though, so I might wander down there and sit on a chair with my stitching or a book. Or just go for a walk. I don’t know. Bring the dog? Not sure dogs are allowed down there. ANYWAY. It has sucked for us…he’s exhausted on the day after, so I took the dog for a walk without him…both the dog and I needed it. Honestly, I think he needs it too…more exercise would be good for all of us.
Simba was definitely out of shape. But we did 2 miles.
Artwise, I tried to find a better finish for the bug quilts, something that took less time so the price would come down, but that would still look nice. So I got some 8×8 canvases and painted them…
And then attached the quilts to that…which is always a pain in the butt because the wood framing is inevitably in the way…
But it worked! I need to finish three more before the 12th? I think? Easy peasy. And I think I can finish the other two pieces for the clay the same way (minus the canvas)…but I need a diamond tip drill bit too. Home Depot trip. If I remember.
I drew at dinner Saturday night…
A bit better than all the car drawings I saw the night before.
Yesterday, the Man’s dad had a surprise birthday party at the Jazz Lounge over by San Diego State. It was a nice couple of hours…mostly listening to music.
Jazz isn’t my favorite, but this was mostly old classics, so I knew most of them.
I came home and worked, because it has to happen sometime. Today, at our staff meeting, we get to ‘debrief’ the poverty simulation from last week. Not sure what to say about that. Did I gain new understanding? Um. Not really. Empathy? Already had it. I guess it’ll be interesting to hear what they think we should have learned. And then we get to make phone calls for an awards ceremony. I totally love the awards part, but wish there were staff who could make the phone calls…there are so many translation issues when we call parents. I’m sure it will be fine, and it’s for a good thing for once.
That’s always me. Gotta prep a lab today for Wednesday. Gotta plan next week…and next week…and next week.
This is too real.
OK. School today…watching a movie…Bill Nye. It’s where I’m at. Vocab and preteach Newton’s second law tomorrow, then lab Wednesday. We have Friday off…random 3-day weekend. I’m using it to get my labs done, two vaccines (because you can’t get in to a nurse for a vaccine before or after work…it’s 8:30-3:30 only…like WTF?), and a blood test or two…fasting…so that’ll be fun. And a smog check! What a day. Maybe ceramics if I’m lucky. Gotta do some stuff at home too. Always. That shit…I never get caught up with that. My goal is to get the hallway done before the boychild comes home. I have 3 more weeks. I might get there. Nice to have a deadline I guess.
OK, we’re back to feeling like nothing got done over the weekend. I remember this feeling. It’s frustrating. I crossed off some things, but more magically appeared. Or I made more just by existing. This morning, in the shower, I remembered things for school that I should have done Friday. Oops. Oh well. It’s either happening this morning once I get there or it’s possibly not happening.
I did do some art this weekend. That’s the plus, I guess, is that I push and shove to make time for that. I ironed all three nights, although not more than an hour each night, really. Friday night (with exhaustion)…
I had labeled the original pencil drawing with the flag colors and country names, and then photographed it, because I erased all of it to do the final drawing. I printed those photos Friday night to help me remember what I’d drawn in June.
Here’s ironing all the flesh of the minor characters…the warring factions.
Russia and the Ukraine, the US (embarrassed), Palestine, Israel, and Hamas. I’d like my country to stop providing weapons to wars…it’s complicated, though, because the Ukraine needed it to protect their country from Russia taking over. It made sense to help them. But Israel? Not so much. But not Hamas either. That whole conflagration…we should just be providing medicine and food and persuasion to knock it off and be peaceful. Not helping Israel kick Palestinians out of their homes…and killing innocent people. It’s a fine line, maybe. Anyway. This piece is about war…and how to stop it. Read Lysistrata.
What I finished Saturday night…
More than an hour. It was nice. Last night? Not even an hour…but a lot of little things got ironed down…
And I picked the fabrics for the central main figure…I just didn’t iron them down. I’ve done all the 0-100s and the 300s and some of the rest. I don’t think I have a lot left. On a small piece like this, it’s easy to bounce around and do all the missiles and bombs, then all the fires, etc. I suspect I’ll be done tonight or tomorrow night.
I wanted to do ceramics Friday after school, but I staying 90 minutes to set up for today and also to do seating charts. And then I was way too tired, so I went to the studio on Saturday instead.
I cleaned up the girlchild’s boot vase and forgot to take a picture of it again. It’s basically drying slowly. I then cleaned up the not-paper bag…
It had a cracking issue in the base, so I fixed that, but it’s also probably ready to dry. Then I worked on my mug…
I’m going to do a combination of relief and sgraffito, I think. We’ll see.
Normally I’d go in today to work in there, but there’s a 2-hour staff meeting and then book club at 7, so I don’t have time. No worries; I’ll go tomorrow. Maybe I’ll remember the glazes too.
I also got this one out of the bisque fire…
The top part is still drying. Color is pretty true to vision at the moment.
I haven’t decided how I’m going to handle this…whether I’m going to leave it bisque? I think so.
This one got glaze fired…some interesting things happened with the skin color.
Needed another coat? I don’t dislike it, but it wasn’t expected.
The back seems to have been glazed, even though I didn’t glaze it. It stuck a little to the ceramic cookie. Doesn’t really matter…this is meant to go on a garden stake. Interesting to try anyway.
We hiked 3 miles Saturday. It was cooler and nice.
We really have flailed on hiking this summer. Too much to do, too hot. Working on remedying that. Although the Man has so many music shows, it might just be me doing this.
This one…still up way too early in the morning, claws out.
Ugh. Sweet but psychotic. OK, I need to go to school, make more ice, figure the rest of Friday out, copy stuff, figure the rest of grading out, grade a thing, input grades, sit through that 2-hour meeting. I’m teaching energy today, ironically on a Monday when I don’t really have any. It’s OK…it’s not that kind of energy. And maybe the tea will kick in. Got some work done yesterday…finally caved and spent a few hours so this week won’t totally suck. Really trying to limit it though. Walked away with more to do. There’s always more to do though.
Straight up, I started this yesterday (well I downloaded a bunch of photos and cropped and resized them) and then totally forgot about it in the overwhelm of doing things. I thought I had written it…or at least part of it…nope. None of it. And I need to leave in like 10 minutes to go work on ceramics until my doctor’s appointment. And there is no way I’m finishing this before I go. I still need to finish the closet (that damn closet!)…we got the doors shortened (thanks to my ex) yesterday and back in…I was going to paint them outside, but installing them was enough of a pain in the ass that I will be painting them in place. Let’s not discuss the hallway, or the fact that I will be at school twice next week before I have to be back for real, and I have to be back in 7 days. And I am (as always) so incredibly not ready. I got 17 emails about required videos I have to watch (again. for the 22nd time…oh I guess sometimes they change over the years.) and who the new hires are districtwide (APs and principals). My principal’s email will probably come later today…or not. I’m not sure it matters. It only matters in how many meetings I’m going to have to attend. So far, one hour, plus a morning of professional development, plus another day of who the fuck knows what. And prep time. Although I didn’t have to take my room apart this year, so prep will be pretty easy, I think. Maybe. Y’all know the copier will be broken no matter what.
Anyway, I got home from San Francisco late Tuesday night and spent yesterday trying to be functional…kind of like all summer. Here’s some of the San Francisco stuff…back to PIQF…a few more things I didn’t post before…this by Carmay Knowles.
This bug is a detail on a piece by Ann Horton…
OK, I guess I’ll show you the whole thing (although the bugs were my favorite part).
There was a whole series of older pieces by Marilyn Bedford, created from paintings she had done.
And I know I posted some of the Social Justice Sewing Academy quilts earlier, but here is one of my blocks…I only did the embroidery…
There was another one but I didn’t notice it until someone else posted the quilt. I think I’d seen it before.
My fabric haul before Britex…mostly African textiles and aboriginal prints.
I was hyperfocused on owls and feathers apparently. Plus some kantha samples. Not sure why. Don’t question the artistic brain. The boychild sends us fire photos sometimes…although there’s no actual fire here.
He’s still at the Park Fire today…33 days? I’m not sure. By the way, I did start this in the morning, went to ceramics, was manhandling the top part of the piece to make sure it would fit in the bottom part, did fine, until it slipped and the damn left arm broke again…in a different place. Fixed that, painted more of it, set it to dry slowly, and went to the neurologist. Interesting that. No, he doesn’t know what the visual disturbance is (but he’s calling it a hallucination, so I am crazy, right?), so I’m getting more tests. One of them requires me to sleep only 4 hours the night before and we are starting school and there are only appointments Monday-Thursday AM. So I do the thing and then go teach on 4 hours of sleep? Ah shit. OK. Fuck me. ANYWAY.
The girlchild had made me a dog water bowl (the cats are enjoying it) in her ceramics class…
She didn’t want to ship it–afraid it would break–so I took it back in carryon. It’s cute!
More street art.
I love all the murals.
Saturday, we went to MOMA…I posted a bunch of stuff on Instagram, but really enjoyed the Kara E-Walker installation, even though two parts weren’t working.
The Zanele Muholi exhibit was also amazing…great photographs, but I did really love the bronze piece.
I had never seen any Yayoi Kusama in person and there were two, so that was cool.
Also, I was really bad at taking pictures of people, so if you know the girlchild (or her SO), there they are.
The tunnel was by Olafur Eliasson…
Definitely prettier on the way back. An interesting version of a flag…by Marlon Mullen.
I really enjoyed the 15-20 minutes we had in this…
I almost went back on Monday, but got kind of stuck in Golden Gate Park (mentally stuck really). It was very cool. Plus here’s a video of a Bruce Nauman neon piece…
Monday, I had some plans. Girlchild was back to work, so I was on my own. Headed out to see some contemporary quilts in an office building in the Financial District…I do love Margaret Fabrizio’s work…
Fun to look at.
There were two other artists, Joe Cunningham and Adia Millett; I posted pictures on Instagram of those too. From there, I shopped at Britex and then headed to Golden Gate Park…I wanted to see bison in the city.
They were pretty far away and very much not mobile at the time. The girlchild had recommended the Japanese Tea Garden, and I knew the DeYoung Museum was in the same area, so I headed in that direction…this is part of how I hit 9 miles of walking that day. Yes, I did figure out the bus system, but there isn’t always a bus. The park has a golden mile that is longer than a mile and has bits and pieces of art along it. A series about California climate decisions…this is the bad choices direction; the good choices had that sequoia living to 250 years old.
Meanwhile, the Park Fire is raging.
This piece was part of a series…I never saw the artist info, but this was my favorite…
Also the favorite of small children and teenage boys. When I got to the garden, I decided to buy the gardens ticket and go see all of them…I thought the botanical garden would be the best, but it ended up being the one I got lost in (should have gone back for the map); the Japanese garden fed me lunch at 2:30 PM…
Damn good tea…also, yes, I did read my book for a while.
And the conservatory was the most interesting, with all the carnivorous plants, mostly Nepenthes…
And like I said, botanical garden…take the map…
I realized my phone was dying and I needed to meet the kids for a soccer game (I wasn’t playing; they were)…
So I mapped things and there were locked gates where the map told me to go…
So I mapped again and got some chai with a plug in the wall…
Got the phone back up to 50% (yes, I have a charger brick thing, but I couldn’t find it…read back to the post about moving everything out of the bedrooms into the living room and there’s a bunch of stuff I still haven’t found)…then ran (not really) for the bus…if it had been on time, I would have been 30 minutes late to the game, but it was early, so I ended up in a Lyft.
I do still love watching her play.
I do not miss 4 games a weekend though.
It was a long, exhausting day. I packed up all my crap and stitched for a bit…
This is Sue Spargo’s Rooted block-of-the-month…I had appliqued everything down last year (it was easy to do that), but hadn’t done any of the embroidery. My stitching friend said I should take 6 blocks with me; I took 3 and barely worked on this one. I’m still appliqueing stuff onto the center block borders for Homegrown, so it wasn’t ready for embroidery.
I was up early the next morning so the girlchild could drop me at the train station…I went south to visit a friend who happens to own some of my quilts…I had never seen them hung in her house, so that was cool.
Very colorful hallway…
Nice to see them again…
We hung out all day and ate and talked and walked…and then I flew home. And it’s taken me all day to get this post done. Yikes!
Bowie in the tent, playing…
And this…yes this…
I did quilt for a while during a Zoom this afternoon. I am going to go patch the holes on the closet doors so I can either prime them later tonight or tomorrow morning. Tomorrow, there is nothing…oh no, I lied. Pilates in the AM (not my favorite day or time, but the only time I could get) and dentist in the afternoon…I think one of my crowns was loosened during surgery (breathing mask instead of tube). Eye doctor on Monday. Then school stuff Tuesday and Thursday, in for real on Friday. So I need to finish quilting this weekend and figure out what binding is going to work. I also need to do a couple of school-related things (ugh). And yardwork and painting…because the hallway still isn’t painted dammit. Ugh. UGH.
But this evening, I have a lovely artichoke for dinner, plus I’m going to quilt some more and read a bit and maybe paint. I don’t know. Painting in the dark is difficult for me.
I have appreciated this summer…although we didn’t really go anywhere and camp, and I did have to deal with a lot of house stuff, but I did lots of ceramics and fabric and reading. I got to hang out with the girlchild, which was cool. I didn’t work. I was so burnt out after the last school year. I can’t say I’m ready to go back (I’m not; I never am), but I am hoping this year will be less of the bullshit and more doing what I know and am good at…we’ll see if that’s how it rolls. Also I need to change the damn calendar to August.
A blackberry/pistachio croissant…but no chai. Ah well…only so much sugar at once, right? Not sure how long it will take to write this. Maybe in more than one coffee shop today. Pro of traveling: I can sleep in because no dog/kitten in the AM. Also I’m trying not to fill every moment, which tends to be how I roll…mostly out of necessity, although maybe choice.
Yes, I’m still in San Francisco…and if you’re a friend of mine and I haven’t contacted you, know that I am trying to be present with my kid…she’s been here for over a year and it’s my first visit. That said, I did go to PIQF on Friday for a few hours…and promptly ran into 3 San Diego folks. There were a few quilts that caught my eye…
Jan Soules’ Finding Neverland #7: Fanfare…I had just read an article about her Neverland quilts, so it was cool to see one in person.
All the Social Justice Sewing Academy quilts…two of the blocks I embroidered were there, which is always cool to see (2nd row from left, 3rd down).
I actually didn’t see the other block until someone else posted it. Not sure I photographed it. This blogpost is just gonna get written in pieces all day. I’ve finished my croissant and tea and am moving on to an exhibit of quilts in a random building. So I need to figure out how to get there. My kid and her SO were good about bus training me (so much easier than San Diego’s public transport)…so I’ll head there and write more later. Or I’ll write on the bus!
I found a few good vendors for fabrics I find difficult to locate at home, so that might have been the best part. I did see a few more quilts I liked, but my iPad is ancient and doesn’t like to load photos, so this is all you get.
Friday night I met up with my daughter and her boyfriend, and we had dinner and drinks out, with a giant hike up Divisadero in between (Uber and Waymo were too expensive…totally got a workout there). None of us woke up early on Saturday, but eventually we made it to a farmers’ market and then MOMA, which was really great. More pictures on Instagram, but here’s me with the girlchild and some of Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkins…
We only had about 2 1/2 hours…I’m considering going back today to listen to the whole Ragnar musical thing, but probably won’t. It was beautiful though. The girlchild cooked Saturday night, fresh from the market, so good. I’m staying at an Airbnb that’s about a 10-minute walk from her, and they are nice enough to walk me home at night (something about not sending me off alone into the dark).
Sunday we hiked up in the Tennessee Valley, drove across the iconic bridge and hiked out to the ocean.
Hopefully I’ll get a better picture of the bridge today…although it’s cloudy and delightfully cool again. Can’t complain about cool weather in July.
I needed a nap after that (and really good pizza…pizza, then hike, then nap). We had great Indian food for dinner and then I drew and read and watched some show.
Can’t explain the drawing, sorry. There’s a headless cat in there. Hoping to do some drawing today as well. I did a little embroidery Saturday, lots of reading. I’ll see them tonight for soccer and dinner, then hanging out with an old friend tomorrow and home tomorrow night. I love hanging out with my kid and getting to know her SO better. I also love not having a work/home to-do list at the moment. Getting off at the next stop…saving the draft!
I managed to see this exhibit in the Mills Building in the Financial district….first…no second stop of the day
I love Margaret’s work, especially how she incorporates existing items into the pieces, such as the umbrella in this one.
Joe Cunningham’s work has really interesting lines throughout, whether quilted, painted, part of the actual fabric, or as a thin strip of meandering fabric…
And I was introduced to the work of Adia Millett here too…
I love that a local business building is celebrating quilt art. OK, I’m going to post this now from the Financial District. Got more tea, planning on Britex Fabrics (0.2 miles), maybe some bison, maybe a boat ride. Not sure what else. I would like to finish my book….with lunch? And maybe draw somewhere. We’ll see.
Am I awake? Sort of. I’ve been UP for 5 hours, showered, fed most of the animals, drove to a news station, and did a live session about an art demo I’ll be doing at the Oceanside Museum of Art on Friday evening. Here’s the TV thing…
I’ll be doing my demo from 6:30-7:30 PM…it’ll be the bugs! I have some I’ll be ironing together (LIVE) and some I’ll be embroidering (also LIVE). That stuff is way easier than standing in front of a camera. Then I came home, changed out of real clothes, ate breakfast, moved some more furniture (endless, right?), and wrote some stuff. My plan is to iron stuff together until I need a nap (all the others are already napping)…
Simba was napping until the kitten (still nameless) grabbed his butt.
OK, it was obviously a busy weekend. Quiltwise, I finished Why. Not. after quite a few months’ lag.
It’ll go to the photographer once I finish the other one.
Then Friday, I made some bugs…cut out some Wonder Under, ironed them to fabrics…
I left one as just Wonder Under to use in the demo. I also made two of each, one more realistically colored and one colored for San Diego Pride Weekend…
I’m saving some to iron down at the demo on Friday, but I did iron 5 of them…
Yes, that’s 4…I think I hadn’t finished the outlining on the 5th one yet. This was Friday’s finish. Saturday morning, I outlined the 5th one and then quilted all 5.
The rest of their legs will get embroidered on at the demo (or after…depends on timing).
Then I finished one all the way with a binding and a sleeve…
Note to self…easier to embroider legs before the sleeve is on. And last night, I embroidered this one’s legs…
They seem like they would be really easy to make (they are), but they are still time-consuming. That sweet little bug took 2 hours and 19 minutes to make. So yeah. Not sure they’re saleable…but they’ll go on Etsy eventually. I’ll post all of them when they’re done. If you’re local and want one, don’t wait for it to go on Etsy. Just a heads up.
Here’s all the fabrics that got used on the bugs…
ANYWAY. So that was bugs. Not on the Bingo card for Summer 2024; neither is the microwave dying, and that’s also definitely happening.
I finally started ironing the Crones quilt together on Saturday…my goal is to have it done this week…which I have now lost Friday, so Imma do it quick.
The bottom was full of some fussy tiny pieces, which look awesome when done but are a fucking pain in the ass to iron.
Gaza war on the right side…
Loss of reproductive rights on the left. I have about 4 hours in and I’ve done about 250 pieces. I’m planning to do a bunch over the next 4 days. And also move furniture, do yardwork, paint things, possibly sleep, read my book, and maybe eat. I’ll be ironing as soon as I finish writing this thing.
I did do clay on Sunday…picked up the four finished clay pots for the Man’s bog garden. These two were pretty basic, although the glazes didn’t do what I thought they would (they never do).
These two were a test of a satin glaze, which turned out much better than the first test run.
So I’ll probably do this on the big sgraffito piece that’s on my shelf at the studio right now.
Meanwhile, I finished underglazing the bottom half of the next sculptural piece…
The colors will change a bit in the firing.
Flesh colors are always fun.
This is drying out right now, getting ready for the bisque fire. That sea monster is hysterical.
Here’s video of the whole thing…
Hopefully I’ll be underglazing the top this week. And working on that other sgraffito piece. Gotta schedule clay time into the ironing time.
We also hiked Saturday…it’s been warm, but not AS warm…and that’s the first deer I’ve seen at Sweetwater.
I’ve seen their prints in the dirt, but never the actual animal. So that was cool.
This California horned lizard was not AS cool…because it was unfortunately dead…but a good-sized one.
Oh yeah, Imma need more caffeine today. Lots more.
The older ladies are still unsure of the little beast.
There was some play yesterday and today, with a lot of consternation involved.
Not from him. He does not give a shit that they are all bigger than him. He is a sweetie, very loving, very people-oriented. But also a scratchy hyper demon. No name still. We have until tomorrow (self-imposed deadline).
I gave my SIL such a card for her birthday.
I hope she’s better at it than I usually am.
Also, need to go to this national monument. Put it on the list.
OK. Drink LOTS of tea today. Also maybe nap. Iron a lot. Maybe go to Home Depot…I was gonna go Friday night and then just didn’t (it’s open until 10 PM…avoid the contractors and go late). Contemplate the state of the union. And 20-year-old boys with automatic rifles. And crazy-town conspiracy theories. Consider the future of my country (that’s a big one…a scary one). But mostly iron. Looking forward to communing with some fabric.
Kathy Nida 