A Day Off…

I don’t usually write on Tuesdays. I have a routine…set it up when I realized after blogging for a year or two (started in 2004) that I wasn’t very consistent, so I made it like a journal for me, documenting the art but also everything else, exactly what they tell you not to do, but I didn’t care…I was doing it for me more than for others. I had a crazy couple of years when I was blogging every day, more to keep my sanity than anything else, and then I went back to usually three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Last week on Friday, I was driving toward Joshua Tree National Park, so that didn’t happen, so I blogged Saturday because that’s when I had time. Then yesterday, I just lost time somehow, well, bad lunch planning for the week. Time consuming in the morning is not a good thing for me. So here I am. It’s Tuesday of a three-day work week (oh hallelujah). I finished grades Sunday night and spent a couple hours yesterday afternoon planning science, since we lose that time this week. I really miss the daily plan time with my co-teacher. It’s making things harder to get done. But that’s what the last two years have been like across the board: Harder to get done. A 4-day weekend will have some work in it…but hopefully it will mostly be art and hiking and yeah, cleaning house and catching up with all the shit I can’t do while I’m teaching.

More pictures from Joshua Tree…

It’s hot and dry, even in November. I’m pretty sure I’ve hiked this exact hike three different times in the last 20 years.

It’s different and yet not every single time.

Dinner had some art…

And then I had a blissful hour to draw Saturday morning.

I’m finding it so hard to find time to do that. It was all the things I was thinking and feeling in the desert, in that space. I need more of that time. But when I do have time, I try to finish whatever project I’m working on. It’s hard to find the extra time to just breathe and draw.

Cindy Zimmerman’s Rain Grotto at the Desert Dairy. A beautiful space in a dry climate…

It was also fun to hang out with other artists for a while. That cow ended up in my drawing.

We made pizzas one night and hung out and talked.

Fire is always fascinating.

We also toured Mojaveland, the wonderfully funky, homemade, artist-filled mini-golf experience Anna Stump is creating. Linda Litteral has an installation there as well…

It was a good way to spend a weekend, even if I’m exhausted now.

We saw an art show too, but I’m going to have to wait to post that…I’m running out of time here before I have to leave for work. I always feel like I’m running out of time. I worked on these in the car on the way back for a little bit.

And last night, after a 5-day hiatus, I finally tried to get my head back into choosing fabrics for the next quilt…

I kind of lost it in my head for a while, the colored-in image. But it’s back now. Hopefully I’ll get it all ironed to fabric over the long weekend. That’s my goal anyway.

OK, off to school to teach the hard stuff. Got a new batch of 6th graders. Ugh. Not sure how I feel about that, but we’ll survive. And no more complicated morning lunchmaking. That’s a mistake. More tomorrow, if I get back on schedule. Who knows if I will…

From the Ranks of the Freaks*

I need to go back and read blogposts from previous months of March, to remind myself that this month is a slog…through grades and assignments and trying not to look ahead to Spring Break, because if you do, you’ll forget about the 7 meetings you have this week. OK, I’m not up to 7 yet, but it’s getting there. And two of them are 2 hours long. I just checked. I’m at 6. 6 meetings. Ugh.

My birthday was Friday and I have to admit it was a rough one. I have a friend who always takes her birthday off from school, but her interactions with kids are not as a teacher, so I think it’s easier for her to walk away from it for a day. Ours requires lesson plans and a hope that shit will actually go the way you planned. The kids singing Happy Birthday was alternately awful and heartfelt. I got lots of hugs. But it was still a lab day…and those are hard. I’m not a big birthday person anyway…I just like a little acknowledgement. Middle school is probably too much acknowledgement.

So I decided that I was not working yesterday. I did do a little work, but mostly I quilted. Which was the right thing to do. My brain is still not happy, but art brain had fun.

Really all I’m doing is outlining. It’s the drawing line brought back in…

It was a rainy day anyway…

Sure, I had errands I could have done. I could have graded tests. Ugh.

It was way more fun to finish the outlining. Besides, I had a plan of getting the binding fabric on Saturday, because we have a thing today that will take up some of the afternoon.

So I just kept going. It’s meditative. It lets my brain relax.

I haven’t quilted the outside part yet, but that’s tiny and won’t take long. I finished the shoe about an hour before the quilt store closed, kamikazed over there, and picked out two possible binding fabrics (I’m not good at deciding sometimes)…

Came home, threw the fabrics in the washing machine, and then headed out to two art openings in the rain. I feel like when it rains, the artists need even more support, because fewer people go out in it. More on those shows later this week. I’m way behind in posting about where I’ve been.

This is Friday night, though. I was waiting for my dinner companion to show up, so I was tracing Wonder Under for the next piece. I didn’t quilt Friday night, because I was tired and that’s when I make mistakes. So I traced. Except Satchemo was pretty convinced it was dinner time (it wasn’t).

Kitten came out and sat with me for a bit. You can see the reflection of the light table in the window. I love my light table. It’s my favorite piece of furniture in the house.

And here’s back in time to Thursday night, the opening of #MyVoice/#MiVoz, the 11th Annual Dia de la Mujer exhibit at The Front in San Ysidro.

This piece was fascinating…the three parts kept turning, so it was hard to photograph, but I tried! This is Hidden Treasures by Paola Viola, 3rd place in Emerging Artists.

Another view as the pieces keep twirling…

And people are hiding behind, reading the pieces…

This is Hurts Like Hell by Michelle Montjoy.

This piece is by Kim Niehans, a fellow FIG member. I was tired, so I was bad about photographing the labels, so I don’t know what it’s called. Luckily, I am computer savvy, so I went to her website and checked…and she is so good at posting her work! I love artists who realize they need to post stuff. This is Self Evident…

This is Gail Schneider’s Sally Yates.

More fiber! This is Will Work for Free by Cat Chiu Phillips…made of fabric from designer bags.

And one of my favorite FIG artists, Bhavna Mehta’s work in paper and embroidery, Resist with your voice #3.

She’s got crazy talent…

I saw the mural at the San Diego Art Institute for this, but love this print too…this is Arzu Ozkal’s San Diego Women in Resistance.

Detail shots…

It’s a beautiful piece…

This is another FIG member, Judith Christensen, and her piece Women’s Work 2015-2018.

Each piece is part of a list, lots of groceries and other stuff. We all make lists.

FIG member Anna Stump won 1st prize for Established Artist with her Another Fucking Princess piece that was in our Don’t Shut Up exhibit last year (my piece in this show was also in that exhibit).

This is a detail of Ingrid Hernandez’ Make America Great Again (MAGA)…

Ah yes, Donald Trump on toilet paper. A classic.

This piece was resin and leaves, very interesting…Mara Nasland, winning 2nd place in Emerging Artist, with her piece Rising from the Ashes, Stronger Than She Ever Was…

Intriguing structure, glowing with light.

So that was Thursday night. I think I have 4 other shows to post about, but not now. Now I need cat food and breakfast and a plan for groceries and maybe a revised birthday sometime in the future. Like a day where I redo it. Redo’s are good.

*Aimee Mann, Save Me

Let Me Hold My Broken Parts*

Yesterday I was efficient and on track and yet frustrated as hell and then incredibly inefficient. Sleep makes one inefficient. But apparently I needed it.

So the app I use to keep track of how much time I’m spending on tasks in my quilts did not update with the iOS update, and instead of just working slowly and inefficiently, it’s completely inaccessible…along with all of my data. Fuckers. So I think I can cobble most of it together from my blog (which means reading through and trying to find that info for the last few months), but I’ve lost some data from older pieces that are in flux at the moment. Frustrating, yes. I found a new app and hopefully the developers will continue to update it and I won’t lose shitloads of stuff because of an update. And maybe I will remember to download all data before I ever update again. OK, that’s unlikely. I think I’ve picked one that keeps data in the cloud instead of on the device…at least, that was the plan. The problem with these apps is that they border on a business app, so the developers want to charge a million bucks for aspects I don’t need with the Pro versions, and the free versions sometimes don’t have the save in a cloud feature. OK. They never do. Frustrating as hell.

Anyway. So that was some moments of my day yesterday. I did finish a big chunk of the grading on Friday night, which is why I did no ironing Friday night. I think I in fact fell asleep on the couch, brain fuzz fully in gear. But I got up at a reasonable hour yesterday and refused to work on school shit all day, so I got 5 hours of ironing done and then went to an art exhibit and out to dinner (and fell asleep on the couch again…aaargh!). Must have been tired still.

Walked the little dog on Friday night…lovely skies…

Kitten doesn’t like it when I close the door on her…

Simba needed knots combed (and cut) out…this is his bitey face. Y’all love his bitey face because you are just looking at a picture of it and not trying to keep him from biting you while you cut knots out of his incredibly badly designed butt fur.

Ironing begins…this thing is BIIIIGGG.

I’m using two teflon sheets to try to iron the entire width. Straight up, it’s a pain in the ass, because it’s heavy and keeps trying to fall off the ironing board. There’s my cup of tea and cat in the background.

I did try to keep this piece relatively simple (for me), but spiderwebs crept in…

The bottom with roots…this piece has a lot about roots in it…our beliefs rooted into our behaviors…or vice versa. This notion of what it means to be an American seems so deeply rooted in some that they can’t see sense or have empathy.

Working on the female figure…the two margarine containers are being used as weights to keep everything from falling off.

The heart…complicated…always…

Her torso is done, although there’s another arm out there…

I got the other arm down, although the sun is shining on the hand so you can’t see it. I can’t remember how wide this is, but it’s not small…

From there to octopus tentacles. I wanted her to be able to reach out and hurt him, but not with a weapon, per se. I only wanted one real weapon in the piece.

Yes. That is a cat. In a box.

Third tentacle done just in time for leaving for an art exhibit…

So I got into the 300s yesterday…next up is her head and stuff behind her. More of that tonight, I hope. Less sleeping on the couch…more art. I say that but I know I did a lot yesterday.

From there, we headed out to the Perfect 10 exhibit at La Bodega Gallery…

Everything is supposed to be 10″ square…

Below are Kristine Tran and Natalie Bessell…just a note, I link when I can easily find one and it’s obvious it’s the artist I’m showing…sometimes I can’t figure that out. Which maybe is a commentary on artists who need to have a better presence online? But if you know you have a good link to someone you see, I’m ready and willing to fix this. I do want people to be able to go look at their art and maybe even keep an eye out for it or buy something. I wish I could buy more, honestly.

This is Skindiana Bones…I love her stuff…

Mario Chacon…worshipping pizza with cactus heads…La Sacred Piksa, he calls it.

Jennifer Cooksey…with some badass 3D work…

This is by Hyper Helix…

Luchuk’s stabby eyeball…

Another Spenser Little wirey piece…

I really like this Karen Ramirez piece…’twas all shiny and frightening…

David Van Gough…the lighting was hard to get around, but incredible detail…

Optimus Volts…they look like spray cans all cut to pieces…

Iwatsumi…the lighting was changing as I watched it…sorry for the crookedness. There are always lots of people at these exhibits and it’s hard to get straight-on views sometimes.

Turns out I follow this mural artist on Instagram…this is Shiva Trump by Celeste Byers…crooked to try to beat the glare…

Hers was the only piece with a statement…

Anna Stump with one of her beautiful nudes…

Teenah Clemente…

Chris Farrington…

TEM…

Lauren Grant…

Buffalo…

An interesting show…with that much small work, you’re bound to find something you like.

With that, I need to do a bunch of schoolwork today before I can get back to ironing…plus it’s time to get the week on track with food and other crap. I love having a day off from all of it to just do what I want…I need to plan more of that into my schedule, of course…always.

*Ingrid Michaelson, Be OK

It Was a Lot of Art in One Night…

So first day of my Winter Break starts with a 6 AM wake up call. Apparently no one has explained to the dog’s bladder that I’m on break. OK. I can handle this. 6:02 AM finds me with my head leaning on the door, waiting for the dog to come back from outside, my eyes closed. I know she’ll whine to come back in, and she does. But it’s OK, because I have a lot of days to sleep in. Twenty three of them, I think. Well, I have training one day and will have to be up early for that unfortunately, but otherwise, I sleep. Sleep is good.

Yesterday both kids came back. I missed their noise and presence. Girlchild went right back to leaving dishes and trash on the counter though. Sigh. Boychild make himself an egg and turkey tortilla hash for breakfast. Useful skill. They both cook better than I did at that age. I hang out with them in the morning, because I can. And then I go off and run holiday errands, because I have to. I have three drawings looming in my head at the moment. I need the time and mental space to get them out. Maybe this weekend? Maybe not.

I did cut things out last night. They went to bed before me, both still on Eastern time. I didn’t get very far…

I was very very tired. Still am.

The tree is slowly getting decorated. I need to be home to do that shit.

Maybe later this weekend.

I have 6 assignments to grade over break. I have an art quilt to finish, a baby quilt to make, one quilt to make as a gift, and another art quilt to start. I need to clean house and organize shit. I need to finish Christmas shopping and wrap everything. I need to ship a box to my brother’s family.

That’s it. That’s all. And enjoy the kids for the short time they’re home and other people too and oh yeah, make a plan for the exhibition in February that gets installed in January. What’s going there and do I have hanging stuff for all of them (of course I don’t). Not a lot. Right? I know the art will rule…I’ll spend more time making art than doing other stuff. That’s OK. Right the balance a bit maybe.

Here’s some more pictures from that Star Wars exhibit from last weekend…woodburning tool used on this one, by Jorge Piña…

Some attitude in Star Wars Kids, by David Russell Talbott…

Quilling at its best in Quilled Storm Trooper, by Iwatsumi.

Raz Holly‘s piece…

Gmonik‘s Rebel Alliance on the left and Ashley Gallagher’s Rebel Princess on the right…one of my favorites.

Although I also love this one by Keith Greene, Rebels, Blast Them!

Then I headed over to a mentorship show in the area at Gallery D in Barrio Logan. The show is called It Takes an Artist: A Show about Mentorship. I’m not entirely sure who did what pieces, because I think students did some of them, and there were numbers on the walls, but the book with all the information in it was in someone else’s hands…so here are some things I liked from the show…I didn’t photograph everything I liked because people were in the way! I know.

There were many of these small origami frames with photos inside…

Then I went next door to my friends’ studio…here’s a wall of Anna Stump’s current work on animals and bones in terrariums…

And a few of Daphne Hill’s pieces about STDs and the like.

Then I went across the street to the Glashaus to see Dripping Glitter by ManRabbit…

Kind of glitzy and decorative…

ManRabbit is two artists who work together.

Anyway. It was a lot of art in one night, but enjoyable enough. I like nights where I’m bombarded with art.

Protected: Gift Opening at Mesa College