I Like Your Butt…

Hey. I’ve thought every morning this week was Saturday, and I was wrong about all of them. Including this one. Today is so not a Saturday; it’s like the antithesis of a Saturday. Give a quiz, then take your kids to an assembly, then do duty, then go to an art opening. Collapse somewhere appropriate (bed or couch), rouse self, grade things, trace Wonder Under, sleep. Hopefully. The dog is here without the boychild and sometimes he’s a rabble rouser (the dog, not the boychild…well, I mean, IDK about the rabble he might be rousing). Did I just use some conjugate of ‘rouse’ three times in the last paragraph? My brain must be trying to tell me something (DRINK YOUR TEA WOMAN).

Things that were awesome about this week: My teacher’s aide covered all my sciencey boards for state testing this week so I didn’t have to. She’s amazing. Really. I will miss her efficiency.

My piece from class that I made in February or March finally came out of the glaze kiln, completely fucking awesome.

I love this…even the brown splotches. I am not a perfectionist with glaze. At all. This is great. Imagine a tiny quilt in the center bit. This is awesome. I need my sewing machine. And time. Lots of time.

I love my current book, The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft. And it’s a series! Even better. Although maybe the next one doesn’t exist yet. Nope. Get writing, man.

“Strobing fistula”…that’s a quilt name. Or a band name. Or a medical diagnosis.

Progress report grades are done so I don’t have to panic for a while about grades. Also, state testing starts next week, so there’s two days I can grade while they test, plus two days I just have to manage kids and not present a lesson on something I’m unclear on. Like space. Ugh. I love space; don’t get me wrong. I just don’t know enough about it.

So I have a ceramics class tomorrow on sgraffito. Which is fun to spell. It’s less (for me) a class about the technique and more the experience with the instructor. So we’ll see how that goes. I had to go in yesterday and build something to practice on (I made a planter). It needs to be leather hard by tomorrow afternoon. I wish I knew how to predict that, but whatever. I’m excited to be learning something new.

I am also still building the world woman or whatever I need to call her. I’ve got ideas for the body cavity and ideas for adding to the world she’s standing on, and eventually I’ll start working on her upper torso, which will have to be separate until I am ready to dry her, because she doesn’t fit in my shelf. Ah well.

There’s a couple people I see in the studio all the time, so you talk. This one guy walked past and said, “your stuff is always so cute” and I’m like, WHAAA, that’s a BUTT…

And he’s like, “I was gonna say I liked your butt, but…”. Funny. Like that. The butt is a little saggy. Might be pretty real. The back needs some work. Added a whale tail.

And a wildfire…it needs smoke. I’m stuck in this place of not knowing how to glaze these types of sculptures. I’m going to have to think about it with the other female figure. She’s getting close to dry I think. Maybe. I’m doing it slowly. Anyway, this is fun. I enjoy it.

I’m also enjoying the tracing, although my thumb is sore…not sure if it’s drawing or clay or something else.

I’m up to the 600s. More than a third, less than a half.

I had to start a 4th yard. Lots of big pieces in the figures. Long leg parts.

Probably someone wants to know about the weird eye thing and the doctor. Well, it’s not my eyes. My retinas and optic nerves are fine. They are happy campers. All 10 layers of the retinas are attached firmly. So that’s good. But that means it’s my brain. In fact, we were finally able to figure out that I see it with both eyes…so that rules out the eyes anyway, because I see it in the same place and the same thing. So. I’m getting a brain MRI. Occipital lobe? Also the doc thought maybe it was a migraine aura…for two months? Apparently a possibility. She asked about stress. After I fell out of my chair laughing…well. So I’m keeping a headache diary, even though I’m not really getting headaches. I mean, I am, but they’re the normal kind that come at the end of the school year. Some of them have names and presences attached to them. All very weird. Trying not to think too hard about it. Because that’s more stress. Thanks, brain. Appreciate the message.

Yeah. I mean, not really, because I do still care; I’m just so tired of caring. And managing.

I needed to pick emojis for the next unit.

Seemed fair. The sex ed unit was harder…I’ll let you guess (and no, I did not use an eggplant, although I thought about it for a good long while).

Simba is a good boy.

The bear vs man thing is hysterical…and then so not.

It would be lovely to live in a society that listened to women. And believed them.

Ending with this…Faith Ringgold’s quilt on the cover.

Such amazing stuff. Wish I’d met her.

OK. Really. I can do today. I can. It’s easier than yesterday. I might need a lot of tea. A LOT of tea.

Write Fast

Up early, another doctor’s appointment, this one to figure out what this weird thing I’ve been seeing in my eye since March is…probably not an optical migraine for this long. So that’s been worrisome. I’ve had one batch of scans/dilations/bright flashlights and look at my ear things, and they found nothing, but it didn’t go away (they never do, y’all), so I got leveled up! And it’s a 3-hour appointment plus some other thing, and I can’t take a whole day off at this point, so I’m going in to school for the second half. Hopefully the eye dilation will be toned down by the time I get in. Anyway, it means I have to leave in 24 minutes, so write fast!

It’s OK, all I do is work work work (8:30 PM last night, 6:20 AM this morning) and make art (hallelujah). I did work on the clay thing on Monday, but as often happens, I forgot to take photos…I’ll do it tomorrow. The quilt is just being traced…it’s big and complicated, so I guessed about 20 hours…

It all pretty much looks the same, day after day.

I’m still on the second yard of Wonder Under…that will change.

I found a numbering fuckup…I managed to skip backwards 20 pieces and had to add ‘a’ to all 20 because I’d already used those numbers.

Good times. Rolling toward 1700 pieces.

I’m just about 400 pieces in, so less than a quarter of the way through…and just over 4 hours, so that’s impressive. I do usually estimate 100 pieces an hour, but it’s rare that I make that. I figured 20 hours for this…we’ll see.

In house progress, here’s one old fix from the previous owners…

That wood has all been replaced…

Then we realized there’s about three different colors of brown paint. Ugh. Picked one. Suspect no one (but you) will ever notice. Certainly I haven’t for years and I live here. They are slowly moving around the house and getting this bit done. Putting gutters in will hopefully permanently solve the problem of the water damaging the wood down there…that and digging out a trench around the edges. Fun summer project there.

From The Hexologists, the book I’m reading for book club.

Not that my anxiety needs any support in that. It’s well-versed in arming itself.

OK. Doc. Uncomfortable eye things. For a long time. School…teaching lunar phases again…yesterday’s lab had me walking them through each step…the instructions say, for the lower grades, you may need to walk them through this. 8th grade, y’all…not so lower. It’s OK. It was fine. My voice is shot though. Then pilates, then sleep. Oh wait. I might have to do some other stuff first. Like work, eat, trace. All good. Not the work part. That can fuck off. I had my final observation/evaluation review yesterday. I did fine. Wasn’t really worried about it. I don’t have to have another one (unless I get a psycho principal…had those before) until the year I’m hoping to retire. That’ll be a fun one.

Art. Meditating on Wonder Under later.

Did I Say Ugh?

Chaos weekend. Grades are done though. Last progress report of the school year. Hallelujah. Today is the day all the kids panic because they realize what their grades are and that they didn’t do anything in time to bring them up. Ah well. Learning experience. I can say it every day and it falls on mostly deaf ears. Moving on.

Today and tomorrow are lab days; not preferred to have them run right next to each other, and there’s a fire drill or something today I think that wasn’t on my list of things to avoid, so we’re gonna figure that out, but with a doc appointment Wednesday and some portrait thing for all of 8th grade on Thursday, there was really no way around it. Ah well. We survive.

I did do some art stuff this weekend. Friday afternoon, I did some clay stuff, getting the figure up on the world and making it look more worldlike, although the continents are a little wiggy.

I draw them wiggy too, so I’m OK with it.

The butt sticks out too much. Hopefully I can fix that. It looks good from the back, but the side view is a bit much. I also glazed this…

I was overthinking it. It’s not precious. I can always make another one with the 17 million ideas rambling around my head. I could make hundreds of them if I wanted. Or not.

I started tracing the big crones quilt. Nova was watching…perturbed by the big paper coming over the couch.

She’s scared by the weirdest things.

When she was little, she’d do everything she could to go under. I’d have to wait for them both to be sleeping to be able to trace anything.

I graded a good chunk of Saturday. It wasn’t fun. I don’t recommend it. I’m not really planned for this week yet either. Saturday’s dinner drawing.

It was also trivia night, but we sucked at that. Mostly. We weren’t planning on trivia night. It just happened while we were there.

Ah, grading middle-school boy work.

Nice udders.

Need more milkweed…

Tried to get some a week ago but it was hella expensive.

My haul from the neighbor kids throwing fruit into my yard.

There was another tangerine, but it was deep in a bush, so I left it.

I had an art meeting yesterday and they had this cool flower…

Fascinating things, plants. Finished stitching this during the meeting.

One more house to go.

OK. I need to get out of here. Construction people are here to tear up the outside of the house where it leaked. Fun times. Teaching gravitational pull today, plus apparently another lockdown drill? Ugh. I’m really done with school. I finished making all my test review docs yesterday. Just need to check them and then get them printed, do sub plans, post all the crap for this week, decide what the sub can actually do, then write an academic question. Plus clay and book club. I think. Ugh. Did I say ugh? I did.

Could Be Not…

Hey Friday. This week has been confusing. Doc appointment yesterday meant I only taught half the day, got up first and worked, then went to doc, then to school. It was tiring, but being at school all day would have been as well. Just a different tired. Worked a lot of hours despite the half day. Grades are due Tuesday and I’m trying to get caught up. Always. Always trying to get caught up. This weekend is crazy busy, though, and that’s without putting grading time in. Ugh. Last progress report of the year though. That’s finally happening! Woo hoo. Getting to the end will be sweet. I hope. Gotta survive the chaos before that.

Speaking of chaos, I finished numbering the big drawing. Took two nights…

and almost two hours…

Numbers in a circle are because I couldn’t fit the number in that particular part, so there’s a line going to it…

OR the piece continues…there’s usually an arrow to tell me that too, to look for the rest of the piece.

There’s 1644 pieces. Actually, there’s 1647 pieces…I have two ‘a’s’ and one ‘b’ because I missed something as I was numbering and I wanted those pieces to have numbers close to their neighbors.

In the past, I have double numbered pieces…somehow started counting 40 or 50 pieces below where I was and had 40 or 50 ‘a’s’. I’ve also skipped pieces before, up to 200 of them. So you never know what my brain will have done at 10 PM on a Thursday night. Could be logical. Could be not.

I do know that now it’s time to trace…and I’ll be here for a while. Maybe 20 hours? There’s some big pieces in there. They take longer to trace. But there’s also a ton of little pieces. Because I’m me and that’s how I roll.

There are 34 days of school left. Four of those are testing, one is graduation, there’s one field trip to Belmont Park, and I’ll be out for two days. It feels doable and yet the longest stretch of time possible to endure. And my surgery will almost definitely be the first week after school gets out. Sounds easy, quick recovery (knock on wood), good odds there will be no nasty surprises. The house is finally getting fixed from January’s flooding…the drywall looks great. So painting the hallway and doing carpet is on the summer to-do list, maybe painting the bedroom as well, but that might be a bit much for me. I’d like to relax, read books, and make art too. Plus visit the girlchild. That would be nice. Hoping to do that in late July. We’ll see.

Nova loves geckos more than they love her.

Actually, they seem to ignore her completely.

OK. Teaching planets and gravity today. Debating how to go about it. Thinking more independently than not. I think that’s the way to go for my mental health. I’ll do the notes with them, and then they can go do the slides on their own. Easier on all of us. I can get some grading done and they can go at their own pace. We did that yesterday and it was pretty chill. I’m up for more chill, especially with two labs next week. Which ended up two days in a row because of my eye doc appointment and some crazy photography shit we had to shove into the week at the last minute, plus there’s an assembly. Crazy week. It’ll be fine.

After school, I get some clay time (I earned it), plus tracing at home. Apparently cooking dinner. Then get through the weekend, getting as much done as efficiently as possible. Which is mostly how I roll. When I roll (read, hike, sleep should be part of this). Come back next week and do it again.

Meditation by Numbers…

OK, my art brain finally kicked in a little stronger. Not sure why? But I appreciate. Monday after school, I went to the ceramics studio and made a base and the start of the next piece. I really wish I had my sewing machine so I could start the fabric bits of the ceramics that are done, and I wish I had the brain power to figure out how to glaze the bisqued piece (too many decisions), but for now, I just wanted to start something new. I had an idea and there was a bowl in the studio to help me out, so now I have this…

A possibly much sturdier base than the previous one. I hope.

Then I started this…

Needs work…

Also needs to stay under 17″ so it fits on the shelf. Also has paper towel wadding to hold the butt up (it started to sag). So we’ll see how that worked on Friday, when I have time to go back.

Meanwhile, parts of the drawing were slowing me down…the one side on the left, for reproductive rights, and the bottom, under the women’s feet. I did add body bags to the right.

Monday night, I added the crouching woman with the man pointing at her, then last night, the rest popped in.

Thinking of women dying because they’re denied basic healthcare related to pregnancy, thinking of unwanted children or children born into families that can’t afford them because they had no choice, thinking about men who spill their sperm and are never held to the same standard as pregnant women, never have to be responsible. Society places all of that blame on the female. So yeah. I guess I channeled some of that anger. Then the base wanted a magma chamber underneath it all. Seems fair.

Here’s the whole thing…

The drawing is 42″ x 70″. Not small. Good though. I’m happy with it. Good thing because I’ll be working on it for the next three months probably. Time to draw it? Well the original drawing of the women was about 90 minutes to 2 hours (I don’t keep track ALL the time), and then drawing full size, which I do keep track of, was 6 hours and 12 minutes. Not bad. Lots of staring at blank paper though. Looking forward to making it. I’ll number tonight…hopefully.

I love when these things pop open. They’re so weird looking.

Nature is whack.

The book I started reading last night (that almost kept me from going to bed) had this great Author’s Note at the beginning…

I love that. I just need to know she’s gonna be OK.

Speaking of being OK, I have an eye doc appointment next week for the weird swirling black hole universe I see in the dark. They keep warning me about flashes of light and going to the ER (ah, retina detachment), but the last doc didn’t know what it was…he couldn’t see any evidence of what I was seeing (good? or?). So I got leveled up…to a 3-hour appointment. Woo hoo! Another morning off school. Ugh. Tomorrow is the boob surgeon. Next week, eye. Or is it eyes? I don’t really know. It seems to be the right eye, but I’m not sure it’s not my brain. So there’s that.

All fun times. Today? Teaching embryology (fun) and comparative body structures (also fun unless you have the kneejerk creationist class) who just refuse to see any of it. Whatever. I’m not in charge of you people. I’m doing my best to show you the things. And next week, with the doctor appointment and some picture thing the 8th graders have to do, I’m not sure where to put the lab I was gonna do. Ah well. Things will happen when they happen. It’ll be fine. Then pilates after school and book club (not sure which book, but pretty sure I read it). Then numbering that beast. I’m guessing 2000 pieces. And I’m OK with that. Meditation by numbers.

It Might Be Easy Next Time…

Hey Monday. Be nice.

So I was productive this weekend; always feels better than when I’m not. I got all three of the big plants I bought planted, although the first one was such a challenge that I thought the next two would be horrendous too, but they were easy peasy. Nice that. Don’t give up! It might be easy the next time. Am I done planting and weeding and trimming? Never. I met this guy…I left his weed standing so he could continue to shelter sort of under it.

It’s OK. There’s lots of weeds out there. I left a bunch. My protea is gonna bloom nicely this spring…

I have two volunteer tomatoes…one is inside (it’ll have to move) and one is tiny…

They’re both compost tomatoes. Best kind. I let the mice eat them really, they’re so tiny. Must have been cherry tomatoes.

So artwise, I got this one out of the kiln and now have to decide on glaze…

She’s from February and is meant to have a tiny quilt hanging inside her.

Then I got this one together and onto a shelf.

Hopefully she holds up. I changed her a little, moved the mug. Now I get to start something new…although I should figure out glaze first on that other one. Two drying, one bisqued.

Then I worked on the big crone drawing…

Added a barn owl and some bombers…and a cat.

Then sketched out what’s next down below…

Hopefully I’ll draw that tonight. And I did more up top…

Oh, I forgot, I framed this for a FIG show that will open next Friday at Liberty Station at the Dance Place hallway gallery.

My co-artist used this for a digital piece she made that I haven’t seen finished yet, and then I made that smaller quilt from another digital collage she did. So we’ll have four pieces hanging together in the show.

We also went on a hike Saturday…lots of flowers…

And one big coyote that kept traveling toward us until it found its way up the hill.

So one of the thing that has needed to be fixed for about 6 months is my stained-glass side window in the entryway. The supports had come loose and it would wiggle and make noise if the door was closed too hard. It’s been there since before we moved in, so probably from the 80s. The previous owner made it. The wood around it has been an issue too, so with the repairs related to the January flooding, I had asked for the wood to be replaced. It took a while to find a glass expert…

But he had a plan for it…enclosing the art glass in layers of tempered glass to protect it and weatherproof it and stabilize it. Sounds good.

So they leveraged it out of there on plywood…and now we have this lovely view for 4-6 weeks.

It has a tiny gecko door in the bottom left. The cats are excited. The entryway is also very dark now.

Saturday night’s dinner drawing…

They forgot about us so I got more of the drawing done. It’s been hard to finish one lately (and this one isn’t finished); they bring the food out so fast.

OK. So drawing tonight, clay this afternoon, staff meeting with homework (ugh). Teaching today is an assessment of what we did for most of last week. We’ll see how that goes. The previous assessment was eh. So many kids didn’t turn it in that it made it easier to grade. I did that this weekend, all but one class. So hopefully I can get through that class today as they’re doing the next assessment. Getting closer to the end…one more short unit, then test review, egg drop, sex ed, and I’m out! OK. That’s a lot. This week is a lot. Getting there.

Working Brain Power

Ugh. Tea. More tea. I don’t know what’s up with my sleep these days. I can FALL asleep, which is nice, because that used to be an issue, but after about 2:30 AM, it’s a crapshoot as to whether I’ll STAY asleep. Or toss and turn. Lie there watching the light increase, feel everyone fussing around me, wonder when the alarm will actually ‘wake’ me up. Huh. Could do without it. I get to the end of the day and feel like a mack truck rammed me.

Some drawing has been happening. Not a ton, but some in the last two nights.

OK, maybe that is a lot. I drew a crone; she’s part of a tree, like a Mother Tree overhanging this group of women. She is holding onto war, not because she wants it, but to protect the women from it. I stared at pictures of really old, wrinkled people when drawing her.

Hence the knuckles, which I’m really excited about. This arm is not done. It needs things.

But I’m in love with the hand.

Not so in love with war. The effects of war…on families and children especially. I’ve taught too many kids from the Middle East to ignore the effects of war on kids. Just stop. There’s a lot of anger in the world right now, a lot of people trying to grab a bigger piece of pie instead of trying to make peace. I’m not a fan. So if you’re killing kids or kidnapping people or bombing hospitals or destroying people’s homes? I’m not for you. I may have empathy for things that happen to you or your people; I may want you to have a home, somewhere safe that is yours, but not if that’s how you’re handling it. And I realize sometimes you feel you need to protect yourself (Ukraine, I see you), but I’m not sure that’s legit if you are killing kids or aid workers or health workers in the process. That’s me, though. I’m one person. But this quilt has some war in it. Some aftereffects of war. It’s also going to have some reproductive rights in it, because that’s another kind of war. Another place where I don’t think what people are doing is legit, putting women’s lives at risk, even the aftereffects of forcing pregnancy on one gender and not the other. I wouldn’t choose to force it on anyone…again, I’m thinking about the kids…I want them to be wanted, to be loved. I’ve seen what happens when they’re not.

So all that is in my head as I draw. Clay this afternoon…gonna try to put her back together. We’ll see. I have about 78 things I need to do this weekend, so if I have to come back and do that later, I will, but the goal is today.

Those illustrations are too real. This week was a shitshow. It’s not over yet, but I am only teaching half of today, and it’s independent, shut up, I explained it yesterday, I need you to do things on your own, you’re going to high school in four months for goodness’ sake. I realized I’ve been ON, direct instruction, ALL week, and that is part of the tired. Also revising the curriculum from day to day. Yesterday, I stayed after school for 90 minutes just to get ready for being in a literacy meeting this morning. I had to make a video for the absent kids. I had to copy seating charts, write sub plans, I forgot to put the pens out (I’ll do that this morning), and because I had no projector for two days this week, everything was off. Plus we got voluntold for something next week that thoroughly fucks everything up, and today I get to tell the literacy coaches I’m not doing any more of that for the rest of the school year. I’ll do these meetings and try to plan for next year, but I’m not taking any more time from stuff my kids need for state testing. Sorry. Not sorry.

I don’t need to be violent. Just not tolerating your shit.

Simba misses the boychild. This is his bedtime side-eye. You? I have to sleep with YOU? He does like me. He even cuddles. But there’s not enough room for all of us (cat, dog, two people…luckily the other two cats are staying away at the moment).

OK. Literacy AM. They’re gonna want decisions about next year and I don’t have the working brain power for that right now. And I’ll let them know that. Then teach in the afternoon…should be pretty chill, but you know how that goes. Stand on a corner for afterschool duty. Then go play with clay. Come back, cook dinner, prep art to be delivered tomorrow. Read my book. SLEEP. Although it’s still the SAQA conference, so I’ll be up early. Ugh. No sleep for the weary. At least it will be a weekend.

But That’s What I Saw!

Oh my. This week is coming after me with a vengeance. My counselor used to tell me that I lived for stress, that it propelled me, and I don’t think that’s true, but it is true that I can rise (and fall) to the occasion. By the way, if you’re worried that I’m not doing fabric things too…I am. I sewed a label on Monday night, and last night, I did some drawing on the next big quilt, which I might start before I finish the other two. Oh wait, I’ve already started if I’m drawing, huh? So yeah, let’s do the fabric-related stuff first. I taped the big drawing together on Friday or Saturday night…can’t remember. Then I’ve been letting ideas percolate in my brain. I’ve got this whole crone/Mother Tree thing reverberating as all the crap comes in from the states banning abortions and letting healthy women get sick before they deal with miscarriages etc. I’m so angry about that. Nah! Medicine is stupid, right?! I tell you, we deserve to die out at the moment with some of the stupidity that abounds. So somehow all that is gonna get into one drawing. OK. A challenge. I need a challenge that takes my brain off work right now. So last night, I cleared everything OFF the drawing, then penciled a crone and a tree in (which you can’t see), but also finished all their legs and feet (which I didn’t photograph), and started with missiles.

The thicker black line is from the original drawing…the thinner is what I was adding.

Like I said, missiles. More to go. Now I have a plan. I only had about 25 minutes. After dinner and doing computer stuff to totally revise what I’m doing because my digital projector bulb at school went out Monday morning and they still haven’t found a replacement so I’ve been teaching without one and/or in the library, which is killing my hips for some reason…standing in there is just really bad on my body for some reason. I’m wearing different shoes today and trying to remember to sit down, but it’s a shitty setup in there, my kids all try to sit with their friends and then talk, which they won’t do in the assigned seats in the classroom. As much. Let’s be real. The worst part is the lack of communication from the district and our IT person. Literally no one answered the emails. It wasn’t until yesterday at 9:45 AM, almost 24 hours after the first email went out, that I knew we didn’t even HAVE a replacement bulb. Because why would we keep those around? Because teachers can’t teach without them? I did make a comment to my principal about feeling sick leave coming on if one didn’t show up for today (it won’t; hence my revising last night at 9 PM, fuckers). So. Yeah. My legs are already pissed at me. SCHOOL. Also don’t ask about literacy, the sub plan I don’t have for Friday because IDK what I’ll be doing or how far I’ll be or even what room my poor sub will be in while I’m doing literacy, so I guess I’m writing that Thursday night? Or next week’s stuff that I didn’t ask for. I’m not sleeping again. Grinding my teeth.

So in response? I’ve been claying more. I was so pleased on Monday…I finally got Her Weirdness done…

The holes in the arms are for hanging fabric wings of some sort. The tubes on top, fabric hair of some sort. If I ever sew again.

I’ll sew again. No worries. The back is not as exciting. And then, when I was trying to get her on a drying shelf, she tumbled. Sigh. She didn’t tumble far, but far enough. Ceramics is breakable and a pain and melts when it’s hot and is sometimes unpredictable and cracks and shit happens. I remember that. And it’s OK. It really is. She tumbled because I’m short. And now I know how tall the tallest lower shelf is and I will plan for that. Maybe. Really. I’m not good at following the rules anywhere.

So I started reassembling. Monday was really going to be putting the head on, triumphantly putting her on the drying shelf, and then finishing the planter that was going to be a mug but that was too big. Ha! That’s a no. So I went in yesterday too, just because I didn’t want to leave it until Friday and have parts drying all over the place. And first, I finished the damn planter to get SOMETHING on the drying shelf.

I know. Not fancy. Just a planter. I do have plans for some pretty utilitarian stuff.

And then I started in on her. There was one person in the studio when I started and he left pretty soon after, and then it was just me and that damn fly that wouldn’t leave me alone. I fixed both hands and the head, which had a crease in it, and then the cat, the poor cat, who is still missing some leg parts and her tail (that’s Friday). She looks angrier, which is acceptable…

That one eyelid. I thought about fixing it but I kind of like it. Yes, she separated in the middle, so I’ve been rehydrating that join on both sides, but everything else was so fragile, I didn’t want to try putting her together again yet. The left arm broke in half with part of the supporting wing, so I had fixed that on Monday, and did more repairs on it yesterday. It’s missing part of the bottom, so that’s a Friday fix. Can’t do it now, because it’s lower than the rest of that part. Can’t have it leaning on that. Then on the bottom, I fixed the snake head and tail, plus that weird lip the cat stands on. Those need to solidify before the next step.

I had this whole moment of ‘this is why clay is annoying; it breaks and shit happens’ and then I remember fabric has its own issues of dyes bleeding and machines refusing to stitch and looping thread nests, and I’m like, all these are solvable problems. I have the expertise and the knowledge. I can fix things. So I did. I can’t say that I didn’t cry a little bit on the way home, but that’s more a Holy Shit Can the School Year Just Fucking End thing than desperation because of clay breaking or no sewing machine or no projector bulb or Please Pile More Shit on Me school crap.

Big deep breath. Today is a mess. Tomorrow is a semi-mess. I will do fabric-related things both days while trying to plan school crap. I have so many things that need to get done that are not happening. Friday I will put Her Weirdness back together and get her on a shelf. Then I get to start something new in clay. Which sounds nice. Maybe something less than 17″ tall so it will fit on a shelf. Good plan. Today is all the things. In the library. (with a knife? or a bulb?) Then union meeting, late pilates, dinner, work(?), then draw. Sounds nice when you get to the end.

This is too real…

They forgot 7. Draw random scribbles that don’t look like anything and then gaslight your teacher by proclaiming, ‘But that’s what I saw!’. Yeah.

I’m concerned about the baby owls. We definitely had two. We could see them in the hole of the box in the videos. Then there was a lot of screeching Monday night. Last night, I never heard a baby. There is video of mom or dad(?) dropping food off. Maybe mom is laying another egg and babies are quiet because she’s in there? Hopeful. Don’t remember any quiet nights in the last two years though. Hoping everything is OK. Last year, there was one, then it went quiet, and then it was about three weeks before we heard another one. And we found one skeleton in the box. So yeah. Hope on.

Morning

Good morning. Or morning, as I prefer. I mean, maybe if I looked out my window and saw endless forest vistas and no humans, maybe that would count as a good morning, especially if I could roll over and go back to sleep, but that’s not really a common occurrence for me. Unfortunately. There are 43 days of school left. I did not accomplish much of anything this weekend except spending time with visiting family, which is a good thing…so there’s that. But I have no lunches prepared for school for this week (yet), I forgot to defrost my breakfasts so I’m eating cereal (at least I have that), I graded one assignment and posted one assignment, no two (it’s fine; I can do it during class), and I planned nothing for next week. That worries me a bit, but I’ll just have to work more during the week to get there. I also lost my mat cutter somewhere in the house, and I need to cut two mats. I don’t want to buy another new one. I know how to cut mats without it, but it’s a pain. So there’s that.

So WTF did I do? The Man’s band (Radio Thieves) had a show on Friday night…they opened, so I was home by 11 (good thing really…I was exhausted)…

I did not go to bed right away, though, because that would make too much sense. I taped more of the drawing together and added paper to the top and bottom for more drawing.

Went to bed way too late, then got up way too early (for my weekend brain) for the online SAQA conference. I did the morning coffee meetups, then took a shower, drove to the ceramics studio, and listened to all the webinars…well, in between people trying to talk to me. I did put a neck on the head and forgot to photograph it (I’m really bad at remembering to photograph things there)…then added grass to the bottom of the planter.

This was going to be a mug until I realized how big it would be.

All my home mugs have cracks in them right now. I’m waiting for them to leak. So far, so good. But I wanted to make a mug of my own. And since I don’t throw on the wheel, handbuilt is how it’s gonna be. I’ll get there. But this is a planter.

After ceramics, I putzed around the house a bit, trying to get my brain to function, then headed over to my parents’ because my brother, my SIL, and one of my nephews were in town to visit colleges, and we were gonna hang out. Which is what we did…both Saturday night, and then Sunday night, with a hike on Sunday afternoon as well. Lots of family fun and arguments about nipples. Don’t even ask.

Saturday night, after we came back, I finished the binding and sleeves on this…

It just needs a label and hanging slats and it’s ready for delivery on Saturday…but I need to frame the drawing; hence the need to cut the mat, so that’s a thing to figure out this week.

Here’s one hike picture…

And one nephew picture, with Simba…

Last night, we got home later and there was no art happening. There wasn’t much of anything happening except folding my laundry. So there’s a hefty to-do list this week, but it was worth it. Not sure how Kitten feels about it.

Yeah. I feel that way this morning too. Fill up the teacup a little more.

This sucks. I’m glad I was able to see some of her work in person in Los Angeles last year.

Her work was some of the first quilt work I saw that wasn’t traditionally pieced and seemed to tell a story. She was an amazing storyteller. The world will miss her insights.

Leaving you with this…

Am I the only one who wants to know what’s under that black rectangle? There are a lot of pictures of emotional support sharks on the internet. Who knew?

OK. School…kids are finishing up an assignment from last week that does not require a lot of my input, except for all the kids who were absent half of last week for Eid and other excuses, so yeah, that’s fun. I can hopefully plan some space stuff for next week (if the other teacher answers me) and post things for the rest of this week, plus write sub plans to be out half a day for literacy on Friday. Fun times. Then a staff meeting about state testing and hopefully ceramics studio time, plus yardwork, making lunches for the rest of the week (it would be nice to have something besides random food I found in the freezer), starting to iron that one quilt together or drawing the next big one. The sewing machine is awaiting parts with no estimate of when they will arrive. Frustrating, but I will survive. No, I don’t want to borrow other people’s machines. I hate trying to sew on other people’s machines. I will just do other things until I get mine back. Thank you. I’m so tired, y’all…I guess this is how we do the next 43 school days.