Tag: Collective Retrospective

Owls Are Back…

So in totally awesome news, even though we trimmed the shit out of the trees, the owls are back! I finally got the camera up and working and there they were! I was so happy. I thought I’d heard them, but not the young one I’d heard before for the last 9 months…that one left after the tree trimming. We would hear it every night, going out to hunt. This must be one of the original parents. Much quieter. The male parent last year was loud as hell too. But so far, these are quiet.

It’s the weird little things that make my days.

This weekend was rough…I don’t feel like I got enough of any one thing done, unfortunately. Crunch time for school plus a lot of art things going on. I got a little bit done on the piece I’m doing with a partner…just some tracing done on Friday and Sunday night…

I think I had a whopping 26 minutes last night…

I was speed grading before that. I’m in the 200s…just about 150 pieces to go. I could finish it tonight, but I have a baby quilt that needs to be done by Saturday. Ha! Well. Hopefully.

I put borders on it Friday, then pinbasted it Saturday morning.

I did a little quilting on Saturday after buying an insane amount of thread, because I didn’t have the right kind.

I didn’t get any more quilting done all weekend unfortunately. It won’t take long…I just need to do it. Hopefully more tonight. But grades are also due and that’s stressful. So yeah. I’m trying to do all the things.

Saturday was the pop-up opening of Collective Retrospective, a show with a current piece and a piece that’s at least 10 years old. It started on Instagram. I only had the old piece, and it will be 30 years old in October.

This is The Cold Cement Basement of Our Love from October 1994. It’s a screenprint that I then drew all over with Sharpie…some things never change. Lots of words and DNA and a cup of tea. And sciencey things going on in the body. Before I ever taught science. I did work in science though.

I absolutely sucked at pictures of this show…I do know this is Judith Parenio’s piece…

And this is Berenice Badillo’s piece…

I got a picture of her speaking (there’s video of her rousing words on the Insta link above)…

Except this is before she actually talked. Cool things happened. But I was there for like 3 1/2 hours. Time. Sigh. There was a beautiful sky though…and friends came by to see me and my art.

The Man stopped by at the end to help me load my piece into the car and then we went to dinner…

He had a show the night before that I was supposed to go to, but he texted me while I was driving that they had stopped letting people in; the venue was full. So I turned around and went home and graded instead. He didn’t get home until almost 2 AM, so we’ve barely seen each other this weekend. Yesterday was two art Zoom meetings plus trying to grade.

Anyway. So I’m quilting this week, hopefully tracing, obviously grading and lesson planning. Listening to owls. Reading when I can. I’ve got my second ceramics class tomorrow…already have ideas. It’s coiling. I love coiling. Busy weekend coming up. Again. Lots of art going out, which is good. Wish I were making more of it, but it’s here. I’m getting there. After a staff meeting today, teaching pedigrees…actually, letting an assignment teach them. I did my part. It’s time for them to do theirs. Ha! Hopeful anyway. First full week of teaching since January…with holidays and COVID and doctors’ appointments. It will be weird.

Read a Damn Book…

Where we at, y’all? We are FRIDAY. Before a 3-day weekend. I’m right here, ready for it. Although my extra day has 2 doctors’ appointments. Nothing bad. That’s today. I had to take a half day today to get the boob rescanned and twisted (you ever had one of those mammograms? We gonna take your boob and twist it, and then put it between two pieces of plastic and make it flat as a pancake. You OK? You’re breathing funny.). So sure, it’s nice to skip the last three classes of the day, but not to sit in radiology and do all the things, and then do them again because the radiologist can’t see what they need, and last time, they actually came in and directed the tech…directly…so I was there for about 2 painful hours. Not looking forward to it. The odds are that it’s nothing, that everything is happily benign, but the mental prep is still a challenge at the moment.

So there’s that. But I might actually get to HIKE this weekend (it’s been so long) and make some art and read my books and not think about work (I’m gonna have to think about work…I’m only fully planned for next week…then it turns into a clusterfuck). I’ve been slowly cutting out pieces…

Slowly because I’m not getting much time in because there are too many other things I’m doing. I copyedited all of the slide presentations and student worksheets for the sex-ed curriculum because I couldn’t stand to see all those errors. It took me about 3 hours and I know it will make ME feel better to have done it, but other people are telling me I’m stupid for working for free. Yeah maybe. But it’s for my own sanity. ‘testicals’ was one example. Nope. Uh uh.

I also entered two art shows in the last two days and that takes time, so that’s part of not having enough of it to do things, plus book club.

Nova is a sweetheart. Also it’s cold. I did finish my book for book club literally one minute before the Zoom started. It was good. The book. And the meeting. So yeah. A mystery starring 60-year-old women…Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn. Definitely recommend. Fun. But murdery.

So more trimming of the fabrics will happen this weekend, plus I need to start the one for that other show. I have some shows coming up…one at Oceanside Museum of Art that opens March 30, with Allied Craftsmen. And one pop-up show at Art Produce on February 24…one day only!

Come see a non-quilt piece of art from me, dating back to the early 90s. Crazy!

Have you seen Nova upside down? She is still cute.

OK. Today. Will be short for school and kind of painful.

This is from that book…and it’s interesting, because I get this all the time, not that I want to hurl myself off a cliff, but it just pops into my head…mostly when I’m driving over big bridges. It’s terrifying. Now I know there’s a word for it.

I guess I want to survive. Well, I know that. I’d just like it to be less about getting through one day at a time for a while. I could use some of that. There’s 126 days until I get to the end of this school year. Not short.

This one is probably a better plan.

Thanks y’all! But no thanks. I’m done. It’s been a week. The chemistry unit for 7th grade started and it’s a bitch and a half to prep and clean up, but I’m buried in it, fucking BURIED, and I’m not even teaching 7th grade.

Anyway, with any luck, I’ll be home early…maybe I’ll even treat myself with a cookie or something after the big squeezy. Once I deal with Friday traffic from Mira Mesa. Yeah. That’s not fun. I am taking my book with me. For when I’m lying there half naked, waiting for the radiologist’s proclamation, or for the time after the one thing before the next thing (can’t remember if ultrasound is first or mammogram is). I can READ A DAMN BOOK. Yeah. Then tonight, cut some stuff out with that adorable kitty and probably a puppy. Do some drawing this weekend. Go outside. Those are good times, y’all, good times.