First of all, I wrote this Friday. And then forgot to post it. If that’s not evidence of my brain fuzz at the beginning of this year, I don’t know what is. Enjoy.
I don’t know if I have a ton of words today. I’ve spent the last two days go go going for work, and now I realize why I can’t do much on school breaks…I’m exhausted. It’s so much ON. Today is more ON (3 1/2 hours of one meeting, who knows how much of another meeting…although that is only four people total) and hopefully some prep time in my classroom. Everything has to be put back and they still hadn’t finished my floors as of yesterday afternoon. I hid out in the prep room and did lesson prep. That was after the 3 hours in a sports arena where I stitched for sanity.
I listen to all the things. I just need something to counteract all the loud noises and people.
I did hang out with my core team…
IDK how many years this is with them, but it’s a good thing. 7? 8? Crazy. There’s a lot of change on our campus this year, so it’s nice to have this group as backup.
I’ve been trying to trim one yard of Wonder Under a night. Wednesday night, that was fine…here’s 2/3s done…
Last night? Not so much. I did have a stitching meeting and didn’t get home until 9 PM (after stopping by In ‘n Out and having a former student in the pay window). And then I was trying to find my middle-school yearbooks and couldn’t, because I need a middle-school photo for school. I have my school photos somewhere, but IDK where that is either. I found MY kids school photos, a nice little envelope of each year that the girlchild will treasure and the boychild will probably not. If only I had been so organized with my own photos. Ah well.
So then I only cut things for an hour (and I still went to bed late, whoops), and didn’t finish the yard.
I have one more yard after this, but I have an art opening tonight. So. Yeah. Not sure how that will go. I’d like to finish. And I don’t have to be up early tomorrow (but inevitably, the neighborhood and animals will not let me sleep). So we’ll see. Hoping to be sorting them tomorrow, then maybe I’ll try to figure out what the backing fabric will be, clean up the studio from the last quilt, and then start ironing to fabric. Maybe not all on Saturday, but who knows? I do need to do some planning for school, but who knows how much needs to happen this weekend. And if it does, it’ll be Sunday afternoon.
Sigh though. I don’t feel ready. I can do the teaching and the kids, although I’m also doing literacy and the sex ed curriculum (toe to toe with dumbassery) this year. It’s the time suck I can’t do. It should be better than last year. We’ll see what that looks like. And I have some repeat kids I’d rather not have. But whatever. Yesterday’s meeting about whatever personality test they had us do the last school year that was supposed to help us know our work style better? Y’all, I’ve been working in multiple fields for a really long time. I do know how I work. I learned nothing from the new 5 designations you’ve given me (Strategic, Input, Determination, Achiever, can’t remember the last one). Plus some are adjectives and some are nouns. That’s just damn annoying. I know what I bring to the table. So does my team. Maybe the new science teachers don’t, but they’ll figure it out pretty quickly. Anyway. I’m looking forward to a year of just one grade level in this subject. I’m looking forward to HELP this year on that grade level. I’m looking forward to a new group of kids, new personalities, new quirks (only the fun and weird ones). I’m looking forward to bringing books back in the classroom. And I’m always looking forward to coming home and making art.
Oh yeah, I finished another book yesterday. That was also nice.
Late again, lost my days. Not many left until every week is prescribed, Monday this, Tuesday that. So it’s OK that I lost one? Maybe. I was doing something else, posting for an art group I’m in…and then had to drive forever for a meeting for another art group. I have more of that to do today for another art group and some organization for yet a third art group. Volunteering is hard.
I’m still tracing, but I’m close to done.
It’s funny, because I’ll comment on social media on things, like this necklace…I knew I was making it harder for myself by drawing this, and one part of my brain thinks it’s stupid, but I know I can do it, so it’s OK, but people are like rushing to give me alternatives. It’s OK.
I know what the alternatives are. I chose to do it this way. My brain already had that conversation. I guess people just want to help…and I’m help-adverse. Independently minded. Nope, I’m good.
I traced just under 2 hours on Thursday, because we went to a concert that afternoon/evening. Then Friday, I did a few more hours.
This is where I’m at…in the mid 1700s, so about 300 pieces to go. I’ve finished the justices except for Ruth and all of the Supreme Court building. I’m up into the goddess and all that stuff. Almost done. Maybe today? Who knows. Today’s to-do list is massive.
One of the things I need to do is get this piece of a jade plant that broke because it was too heavy into the ground, probably in pieces.
Poor thing.
Annie getting pets after being peed…
Only a couple more days I can do that I think before I go back.
I walked Simba one morning, but it was already too hot.
I had water, kept him in the shade as much as possible, and kept it short. He was so excited though.
I also want more walks but am too hot. Not as hot as he is though. So I’m careful with when and where I take him.
Nova guarding the Wonder Under box.
Also there’s a breeze up there on the light table.
Simba excited about bedtime for some reason.
Or maybe just excited to be him.
So the concert we went to was Danny Elfman…
Yeah, he’s old. And it did show in what he could do, but it was still fun. We were invited by the Man’s brother and SIL to join them in box seats, which were pretty awesome.
Space around us, nice padded seats, drink service, etc. Nice touch. I’ve avoided the big stadium-like shows for years, but this was very nice.
They played some Oingo Boingo, some from his new album (which was eh), and lots of musical scores from movies and TV shows, with clips, which was cool.
I didn’t realize all the things he’d done music for…
I really want to watch all the video behind him again…there were some truly inspirational things going on, very surreal, sometimes not so nice, but some very cool stuff. I’m sure they’ll make a video/movie/doc and I can watch it again then, right? Anyway, we had fun, but I think we’re still tired from it, two days later. Because we’re old. And I don’t sleep.
OK, it is Saturday. I’d like to walk the dog (and ourselves) later. I need to get that jade plant in the ground, and then get some things crossed off the to-do list. I have a quilt guild meeting first though, so I should do that, with more caffeine. This is my last Saturday before I go back to school. I don’t feel like I have it in me this year, but I’ll figure it out. I never get particularly rah rah about going back anyway, but it would be nice if it didn’t take me 2-3 hours to fall asleep every night. Yeah. Wishing that for myself.
Oh hey. Hi. School dreams every night. Can’t fall asleep for a good two hours, even though it’s midnight. It’s not even that hot. The dog is in the bed, my body hurts, my brain won’t shut the fuck up. All good. It is August. So school is on my mind. Heavily.
Yesterday was the first day I didn’t have copyediting. I had to deliver some art, but it was trouble-free and relatively quick (come to our opening at the downtown San Diego library on August 11!). Today I had my eyes checked (all good). I try to keep the last few days before school starts relatively open, so I can introvert myself into a pillow fort coma before all hell breaks loose. The to-do list might kick my ass. So yesterday, I had about 3 1/2 hours of online training for school (sexual harassment, mandated reporter, pest management, blood-borne pathogens…was that it? Nah, forgot cybersecurity…ironically.). I still have 45 more minutes on active shooters (as opposed to inactive shooters?). I also panicked about the planning calendars for this coming year. My co-teacher sent an email out and I thought, oh shit, newbies are gonna look at these, and I hadn’t touched them since June, so I touched them. Fussed a little with 7th grade just for the first few months…I’m not teaching it this year, but there were a few things that needed fixing. Then took a look at 8th grade. Oh yeah. Fuck. So I fussed with January through June. I’d done some stuff with December already and then stalled on August through November. I had COVID last year for the first 8 days of school, which was a clusterfuck, and the calendar reflects that. I’m hoping the new 8th-grade teacher is ready and willing to plan. Most of the issues are in February and on, but the 2nd unit needs something. I think. I have more to do on Unit 1 today and tomorrow, but I now have a better handle on what I need to do. Maybe. Until I don’t.
So. School. Need to order some supplies. Need to do some stuff with documents. Need to be ready for next week…going back. Not ready. Nope. Nuh uh. Never am.
So I also traced yesterday and Monday…progress! Still fucking slow, y’all. But I’m getting there.
This is what it really looks like when I trace. I usually have about 2 yards of Wonder Under out, one for big pieces and one for filling in with all the little pieces that need to go somewhere. I hate to waste Wonder Under. I blame my grandmother, my raised-in-the-Depression grandma who saved everything. And my mom who was raised by her. Hence the pile of hard, cracked rubberbands I tossed out at work back in June. It’s a thing. I always have rubberbands somewhere that should be tossed. And I never toss a paperclip unless it breaks. Or it’s inexplicably sticky.
I’ve been going through my clothes, trying to be way more organized than I have been. Thrifting some, sending some to a recycler, organizing the rest. We’ve banned the cats from the closet because they cause so much damage. I have clothes with holes from Luna catching them on her kamikaze way down from the top shelf and everything is covered in fur. So I washed a lot and will hang them back up and leave the doors closed. She doesn’t like it. Oh well.
This tracing stuff is hard on the eyes…
This was me tracing through all the trainings…
See tiny computer? Yeah. Well. I’ve heard some of these videos so many times I can ace the test the first time through. I feel like if you pass the test, you shouldn’t have to sit through the videos. Whatever. How about just a brief update on what changed? Nah.
I’ve got 4 yards mostly done and I’ve started the 5th yard of Wonder Under…
I’m 15 hours into the tracing and on piece 1199. So more than halfway. About 830 to go. I’d like it done. But IDK if it will be before the weekend. I have most of the rest of today, but need to do school and yard and house stuff too, tomorrow is wide open (I think? Oh wait, no, have a concert to go to and we’re leaving incredibly early), and Friday is a clusterfuck. Same with Saturday. Ah well. We’ll see. So it will probably be 8 or 9 yards of Wonder Under and 22 hours of tracing. That’s my semi-educated guess.
As part of cleaning out clothes, I tossed a few of my old school shirts, put three in a pile to take to school (I never wear them…one is just the wrong shape for me, so uncomfortable, and the other is polyester, and we are not friends). But I found this white shirt that WOULD fit just fine, unlike the new one I got at the end of last year, but I don’t wear white. I just don’t. I don’t even own bras that won’t show through (they’re all black, what can I say), and I just don’t like white. Ugh. Stains. Makes me even pinker than I already am. SO. I put it in a pile to tie dye and yesterday I decided not to wait any longer and did it on the dryer.
This is the before picture with the one glove I found (yes, the other hand has two blue fingernails right now). I’m letting it percolate and will pull it later today. I’m hoping for awesomeness.
As part of the yard work, I was trimming in the backyard, and was tugging on some ivy taking over one of my trees. I heard a ‘whoosh’ and saw one of the barn owls move to the eucalyptus.
It was STARING at me, like lady, that tree you’re tugging on is my daytime nest. Knock it off. And it makes sense, because we hear one of them vocalizing from the backyard and then around the deck almost every night. So yeah. I still have a barn owl in my yard. All good. There’s also a cat on the roof. We haven’t seen it anywhere else. I haven’t seen it at all. The Man is standing on the deck at night, hears a noise, looks up, and there’s a cat head silhouetted against the night sky. Twice now. Weird, huh? I moved my yardwork to the bougainvillea next to the bedroom window, where there is probably a skunk living, and at least two bunnies that I’ve seen, so that’s safe, right? The reality is that this yard is overwhelming on a good day. I’ve made some progress this summer, but not enough. It’s never enough. Pile of gravel is still there, although I’ve made it a little further around the corner. Ah well. Can’t do it all.
With that in mind, I have a list for today, and once this is posted, I will have done two of the things on it. Plus the eye doctor and Kitten’s meds because she’s not eating. Which I didn’t put on the list because they were on the other list. Hmmm. Don’t have multiple lists. Bad plan. So I’m going to go pee the ex’s puppy…all my wounds from her have finally healed. Then come back and eat lunch maybe and do all the other things on the list. Well maybe not ALL of them. There’s always too many things. Might be a mistake. Plus trace for a good long while. That’s pretty important.
WTH July? Where are you going? STAAAY. It’s OK. We can do more things, hike on the beach, go to a wine bar, sit outside and read our book. You don’t need to leave. PLEEEAAAASE. Yup. Here it is. August. In your face. Though the school district has never stopped sending emails. Ever. Nope. Hasn’t. Stopped.
I’ve been doing a pretty good job ignoring it though. I needed the Visa bill to post before I could afford to order stuff for school. I don’t think I need a lot, luckily. Just folders and some minor stuff for me to start the year. I don’t get paid from the end of June to the end of August, so it’s a stretch getting through that period. Always. Although it’s been OK this year so far (knock on wood). Getting close to the time I need to think more seriously about school. Some planning, some copying. Ugh. Not in the mood. Don’t have to be yet, but it’s coming.
The copyediting is slow. Mostly that’s because of me, I think. I ran a bunch of errands yesterday that needed doing, and I was supposed to go BACK to the copyediting after, and I didn’t…I entered an art show instead. I have two more to enter in the next few days.
So I started tracing Wonder Under on Wednesday night…
Not fast. Uh uh. Not sure why. Bottom pieces are bigger…they take longer. Landscape stuff takes longer. Maybe. I got through 100 pieces in almost two hours. Man that’s slow.
Last night was no better…my goal was to finish tracing the swamp and I did that…another two hours for about 100 pieces. I think.
Three hours and 46 minutes in, got to piece 206. SLOW. Everything is slow at the moment, though, except the days and the weeks and the damn month. Getting things DONE is slow. So I have about 1832 pieces to go. I had to add 8 pieces because I forgot to number them. Wait. Actually. I think it’s 9. or maybe 10. This is why I stop keeping track. I’m barely in the 200s. There is no actual point in counting right now. I need to finish copyediting so I can do more of this every day. Ha! Yeah. Well next week has a bunch of stuff, appointments, meetings, etc. So I am way less efficient than I’d like to be. How is it Friday already? Damn.
I’m hoping to be done with the tracing by next weekend. I figure that’s plenty of time. We’ll see. I also need to clean out my clothes, but I feel like that’s gonna take a big chunk of time, so I need to finish copyediting first. I just don’t feel like it. It’s haaarrddd. God I’m whiny. Gotta go pick up the dog; boychild is back to real work. Then shower, then copyedit until the cows come home. Whoo!
I had my stitching meeting on Zoom last night and finished the third June block of Homegrown.
It’s cute. I started the last June block. So then there are only 3 or 4 houses left after that, and then the center and the borders. I might finish in 2025. Maybe. I was supposed to finish quilting the Bird Crazy (not its real name) quilt this summer, or maybe even over Spring Break. Nope. Not done. It’s half done. I really should just do it, but it’s hot and the damn thing is wool. So I would quilt even faster!
I don’t really want to be extinct. I just like paintings where dinos are yelling at each other. “Did you vacuum today?” “No, dammit, I was playing with my dinner!” Someone needs to vacuum. And clean the kitchen floor. And put a bunch of shit away. Seriously. Summer is never as productive as I need it to be.
OK. Dog. Then shower. Might wake up. Copyedit. Lots. Then trace. Pro: it was cooler here yesterday afternoon. Lovely clouds. The really hot day next week, I might just take the work computer somewhere air-conditioned and do some schoolwork there. Like SCHOOL. Summer school is out of my room finally. Pros and cons. Until then, ignore that job. Do something else.
Mmmm. No class today. Well. I say that and I signed up for a different kind of pilates class, just because I wanted to try it out and that shit’s harder to do during the school year. But I like pilates and it’s actually an exercise class, which is good for me. No more literacy class this week…I did learn some things, but more remembered that we need to do more to boost reading, and that takes time, and time is something we may not have a lot of, so there’s that. But with two+ teams doing it all together, hopefully we can make some progress with the kids. Here was my setup on the last day, with everything back in the purple bag, which will go to school, plus the stitching I did to help me focus.
I put away all the highlighters and pens and post-its. Now I officially don’t have to think about school until…the next crazy email comes from that one teacher who apparently has nothing to do over break, no books to read, no relaxing beaches to lie on (I don’t really do that anyway), no giant-ass drawings to finish. Oh wait, that one’s me. I’m hoping to finish the drawing today. In between pilates, laundry, cleaning, moving gravel (got a whole ‘nother pile of it that needs moving), keeping the pup from licking his shaved foot (he had a dental cleaning on Friday and is notoriously bad about licking a sore into shaved areas)…all the things. It’s supposed to be hot all week, so that will be (not) fun. Not sure what my plan is for that. The boychild is home but going to training all day and then leaves again on Friday for his regular shift. Exhausting. I guess I work all week, but not like that. Gotta take days off…he had yesterday off. At least he has the pup in bed at night, so I have some chance of a decent night’s sleep.
No one seems inclined to dust or vacuum or mop…even me, it seems. Oh! I also need to copyedit. I put my editing service back into vacation mode, declined all the other offers I’d gotten, so I’m down to the one. That’s the one I can handle. I have two weeks to do it, and it’s not very big, but I should actually start. Yeah. This afternoon. I will.
So the drawing. The drawing has progressed. My Art Brain has been engaged, now that it doesn’t have to think about Latin roots and spelling rules. And pretend teaching those. So Friday night, I drew the swamp. It was in my notes…and I’m realizing, I need to write a post that just documents all the stuff I took notes about and was thinking while I was drawing, because it may not be so so obvious from just looking at it. But here’s the swamp…
I hid a Swamp Thing in it.
Then what did I do next? Oh yeah, started working on the pedestals under the swamp justices.
Finished those last night…
So Gorsuch is all corporation instead of individual, so he is standing on individual people, who are sort of compressed by him. Alito has had some issues with a fishing trip and possibly some other money-related things, so he has the fish and the money. Roberts is a mess, with money clouding any decision he makes. He also seems to make decisions completely against his own race…he seems race-blind to me, or maybe if he does that, that’s how he gets the money. So I added a few chained slaves to his pedestal, because I’m not sure he remembers…I would like the Court to have more people of color, all colors, to make the decisions more diverse, more pro those groups who need support. I don’t think he does that. Kavanaugh likes beer. He also has some sexual issues of harassment in the past that popped up (ha!) before his confirmation, but it’s OK, because boys will be boys, right? Sigh. Let’s not use that as an excuse for bad behavior. Please. Amy. Oh Amy. Coney Barrett has People of Praise behind her. She claims she speaks for all people, that her religion doesn’t shape her decisions, but like the other swamp judges, I don’t find her trustworthy. Religion is fine unless it’s making decisions for a bunch of people who don’t subscribe to that religion…and reproductive freedom is something all five of these judges have voted against. Four of them have penises, so they have no right dealing with a uterus…and the other one thinks LGTBQ marriages are a sin. So should she be in the Court? Nah. I don’t think so…not representing the people and not interpreting the law appropriately for ALL the people.
So why is Roberts on the other side? Well, it was getting crowded on that side and occasionally he votes like a sane person. OCCASIONALLY. He’s also skating on a slippery slope. He has the key to the Court (being the Big Guy, the one in charge). I still think he’s pretty swampy, but…so I’m probably going to have to copy some of this into a Court post. I’ll do that. And go back and explain some of the other decisions I made. You may not agree. I’m OK with that. Unless you think we shouldn’t have rights, like all of us, then I’m not OK with it. Feel free to limit your own rights. Then get out of my face.
I’m still working on the left side. Literally and figuratively. But I need to go to class, so I’ll be back. You won’t even notice.
So the other thing we did on Saturday, which was a little nuts, was drive up to Los Angeles. I had an opening in Torrance (which wouldn’t have been as bad), but there was a show in LA that I wanted to see that closes in a couple of weeks, Faith Ringgold: A Survey, at the Jeffrey Deitch gallery in LA.
I know I have Faith’s Tar Beach book somewhere in the house. I loved her people flying in the sky at night. In looking at her website, I might need to buy more books.
I also love her mix of paintings with quilts. Although here is one of her prints, also very cool.
The handwritten words on this one…
Very powerful seeing her work in person.
Strangely, the same gallery had some work by one of my university painting instructors, Judy Baca. She has created some fairly awesome murals in Los Angeles over the years.
Honestly, although her art and achievements are impressive, she was (for me) not the most present professor. The rumor was that she was working on a mural in Los Angeles the semester I had her, so the teacher’s aide ran (ha! he did nothing) the class, and then she would show up maybe once a month and berate many of us. I have some serious painting PTSD from her class. Maybe not all artists should teach art? I don’t know…your mileage may vary. Maybe it was a bad year for her. I just didn’t really paint after that class. I still don’t think I CAN paint. That said, a lot of the art classes at UCIrvine were just show up, get an assignment, and go make something that meets it. There was very little technical instruction. We were often just left to our own devices…so there’s pros and cons to that. I do appreciate the time to mess around and fuck with stuff, but sometimes, a little more technical know-how might have been useful (exploded my ceramics final in the kiln, which I don’t actually think was MY fault, but I made do…glued all the parts to a plywood board…most were whole and the ones that weren’t, I glued the pieces and then the shards and quickly rewrote my statement). Sometimes I think I’d really like to go back to art school now just with a stronger, more confident state of mind, but then my adult brain slaps my face and says NO NO NO, we are NOT getting another degree. But maybe more art classes would be fun.
Also in the Deitch gallery was Karon Davis: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, which was very powerful. I didn’t photograph the whole thing, because I couldn’t figure out an angle that showed how large and dominating the judge and flag were in the face of this figure of Bobby Seale during the Chicago 8 trial.
I had been scrolling through Instagram the day before we left (like you do when you are supposed to be listening to someone talk about teaching vocabulary) and saw an artist whose work I love post that her stuff was in a show in LA…hey, I’m going to LA…I could stop by if it’s close. It was close to the other gallery, and on the way back to the museum in Torrance, so we headed for a small gallery, the Seis Gallery. The show was called The Horror…
I took a tufting class from her before COVID, and it was fun, but crazy lots of work. I say that knowing full well my stuff is also a crazy lot of work…it’s just what do we want to do more of. Anyway, it was cool to have a chance to see more of her stuff in person.
Straight up, traffic going to LA was horrible. It was a long day. We saw good art, but were exhausted by the end of it.
I have another LA opening coming up in September. Makes you think about driving to these things. We spent over 10 hours going up, going to three shows, eating dinner, and coming back. And we were exhausted the next day too.
So the Torrance Art Museum had two shows, one of which I was in (hence the original reason for all this). Art and Med, curated by Ted Meyer…
Here’s a video of the whole thing…
I did take a few photos, but was mostly (as always) overwhelmed. Plus I forgot how to smile, so a lot of the photos of me look psychotic. A good look for the summer. But here’s my piece, Here Comes Life…
And here’s Bhavna Mehta’s beautiful piece, I Found a River in My Body #3…
With a detail of her embroidery…
The other show in the museum is Body Politics…
Which also had some beautiful work…Liz Young’s Skinning Spilling Soiling Swelling Stuffing Balls.
I did Google this one because I wanted to know more about the thoughts behind the piece. I really liked that the Art and Med show had explanations with the art, and I can see the point of having the art stand alone, but…I don’t know. There must be a fine line there.
Sherwood makes a lot of work highlighting disabilities, having had a cerebral hemorrhage and having to relearn the process of making art with her other hand. Her work was wonderful, incorporating brain scans into the paintings.
I’ll try to post more art from these two shows later this week. I know this post is already LOOOONG…all in all, though, a good art day. Though tiring. Says Nova.
Also here is my brain at the moment.
Or always. Not sure.
Friday night, we also found this in the yard.
It has flashing red lights, presumably so it can be found easily, but it made me think it might be a drone, so I left it there. Like I’m not bringing that crazy shit in the house. The Man stomped out there and then left it on the deck after talking to it, also thinking it might be a drone. But it doesn’t seem to have a motor. Just flashing lights, which can be turned off. You might think, just throw it back into the yard it came from. Well, we have kids on all three sides, so it could be any of those houses. So IDK what to do with it. I might text the houses above and below me, and if they don’t claim it, toss it over the back fence. Seems like a lot of work.
Oh yeah, forgot this psycho. Annie. Sweet pup. Has scratched the hell out of my arms. Still love her.
OK. Laundry is going (fixed dryer yay!). I need to eat lunch. I need to fold all the laundry I didn’t fold. I need a long-term solution to my clothing during the school year…not sure what that looks like, but the piles I currently have are not working. I need to finish that drawing and do some copyediting. It’s supposed to be hot all week, so honestly, the drawing part of the house is hot as hell for a goodly chunk of the day, although better after noon. The office part is cooler in the morning, as long as there’s a breeze. And honestly, I’m still on break. So there should be some reading and maybe a nap. I took a timed nap yesterday and Friday and I am pro. It’s still July. I’m still on summer time.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Well today is already crazy and that will continue for a few days…I leave in a few hours for Seattle to hang with family and then the Man. My nephew is graduating high school, which is the ostensible reason for going, but it’s also nice to have a change of scenery in summer. This house needs so much work. I’ve filled so many green trashcans with weeds and trimming and there is so much more to do. Things keep breaking and needing a small tiny part and more hand strength than I have to fix them. That said, I have been making art and reading books for my sanity…plus making wontons, because I never have time during the school year and I like them. Actually, I think I like the sauce more and the wontons are just a delivery system.
I’m not fully packed yet, because some of my pants are in the sun drying right now. Although the Man fixed the dryer, the part has already failed, so yesterday’s laundry got put (late, unfortunately) out on the line…which used to fit by the garage but someone (me) needs to trim the bougainvillea for it to fit now.
Doordash was probably amused. Not me, the boychild. I’ve never doordashed.
So I’ll be packed in an hour, whether my jeans are dry or not. I’m also trying to finish a book, an actual physical thing, so I don’t have to take it with me. I have a 900-page book on the iPad for my airline perusing. I dropped the parentals at the airport earlier, stopped to get my labs done so my doc will stop bugging me, then picked up Katie (the parental dog) and all her crap and delivered it here, put a bunch of stuff away, dealt with the greenery trashcan, watered some (still need to do more). Yeah. It’s been a little chaotic. It’ll be fine. Although I have to wear my hiking boots through TSA and on the plane because they won’t fit in my luggage. The Man can’t fit his hiking poles; mine fold up into thirds and his only half. It’s OK…my brother has that shit in Seattle.
Change! It’s weird. Good and hard all at the same time.
I did get the quilt to where I wanted it…Friday afternoon, I finished up Venus and started on Earth.
Who is up here and upside down.
I haven’t honestly decided which way is up, although now that I’ve said that, y’all will chime in. Just know whatever decision I make will be because I see it, not because you’ve voiced it. I’m not one of those who does the whole art critique stuff or group decisions about my stuff. I have a vision in my head and when it slots in correctly, my brain tells me. Art Brain doesn’t care about the rest of it.
That’s a Mars Rover on her hand…
Saturday was an art meeting and then we wandered up to the Phes Gallery to see this show…
That is Dinah’s Green-Eyed Dog piece…
And this is Nancy Lemke’s piece…forgot to write names down. Wait, the internet is my friend…this is The New American Crucifix…
Yeah. Disturbing. It’s a good show in a nice space. I didn’t take many photos, oh well, you should go see it anyway. It’s open until July 9, I think. Check the website.
Then we came back and I ironed Mars…
Which left putting it all together on a background last night…
Yup. I like it. I’ll finish it the week I get back.
I’m taking my sketchbook and some stitching with me. Hoping to solidify a plan for the next piece, hopefully a big one. If not, I have some smaller drawings that are already numbered and could step in to be made until the big one materializes in my head. So many things to consider for the next one. Maybe it will be another conglomerate of topics.
I’ve been mindlessly appliqueing pieces from Sue Spargo…can’t remember the name of this block of the month…Forest or Tree something obviously.
It soothes me to do this.
This poppy pod was fascinating.
I may add it to a drawing.
Still waiting for the caterpillars to move in to the milkweed meadow we made.
Most grown from seed. I have more in the fridge to be planted in early August. They won’t self seed here…doesn’t get cold enough for long enough.
OK. I have 84 pages of this book to finish, lunch to eat, packing to finish, watering to finish, and then I’m out of here, leaving the cats and dogs and plants to the whims and vagaries of the men. I’m looking forward to seeing most of the fam (niece is at a dig somewhere in Oregon?) and getting some stitching, reading, and drawing time in without the pressures of being at home with a dryer that needs fixing and weeds that need pulling and neighbors yelling all the time. I will miss the dogs and cats and probably my bed, but also looking forward to hikes in all new places.
Kathy Nida 