Tag: In the Land of…

Not That…

I feel like it must be later in the week than Wednesday. I was ON all day yesterday, teaching writing and graphing. Mostly OK, but like pulling teeth in a couple classes. Certainly lets you know which classes are lacking in some skills. Good thing to know. Since the standard we’re learning about requires graphing knowledge. At least knowing which line is going up faster…or whether it’s going up or straight. Sometimes I think old people thoughts like, “Back in the day, we could actually get them to do math in science.” Not so much now.

In between the 17 meetings (school and art) and trying to get my yard under control, I have been cutting things out. But first, I sorted the fabrics I used by color…168 fabrics in this quilt.

Heavy on the earth tones. Here’s Monday night…

It never looks like much…that’s more than an hour’s worth of trimming.

Last night, I cut these two crazy mushrooms…

Very satisfying to finish. Kind of crazy to contemplate.

I stayed up too late to do another hour. I had two Zoom art meetings last night and I graded through both of them…I thought about cutting stuff out, but getting the assignments done was more pressing. I just finished the last test/packet grading cycle and another one started. We did the test Monday and the packet is due Friday. Ugh.

I have a piece that was at the Rancho Penasquitos library, traveling, currently at the La Jolla library, that will go to University City library next month. These are photos from Rancho P.

It’s the quilty one in the bottom right.

I think this is the 3rd library?

Some San Diego library patrons have been trying to ban books by checking out the ones they think are problematic and then not returning them. Dick move. This exhibit is about banned books, so it’s important that it travels.

Today I’m teaching conservation of energy…another concept that might be complicated. Certainly it’s another day where I am ON ON ON all day. Then pilates after school, figure out where I put all the greenery trashcans and put them out, maybe fill some more, cook dinner, and then I get to cut things out. Hopefully. Long day. Parents are finally on their way home, so I made the last mail trip for them. Nice to have that off my plate. Looking forward to the trimming part at least. And reading my book. It’s a good one. Not written by AI. I read enough of that all day long. One art meeting last night kept talking about what they were using AI for, and I’m like, nope. Not doing that. Not encouraging that. Not destroying the planet for THAT.

Roll Into the Hole…

I really didn’t want to wake up this morning. It’s silly, because there’s no NOT waking up. There’s animals (one is barking his head off right now for no reason…OK, it’s probably something, but really…wait, that was his happy yip so the Man must be back from the dentist), there’s neighbors, there’s neighborhood noise (damn neighbor with his saw…you’d think he’d sawed all the things, but no…there are more things to saw). Really, I should go to bed at a regular time and get up at dawn and work then. Except that’s not how my brain works, especially for the first week or two after I get out of school (it hasn’t even been a WEEK)…I’m a night owl through and through. This morning shit is not fun (yes, I’m aware it’s barely morning at this point…I’ve been up for hours). I didn’t want to wake up because I started cleaning the office/studio yesterday and it’s in that stage when it looks like it will never be done and you will never find a home for all the things you’ve unearthed. I did, however, find the book I’ve been searching for since Thursday (it wasn’t in here, by the way…it was in the girlchild’s room, of course), but I have not found the frames I feel like I have somewhere. Maybe I don’t. Maybe I bought a set of 4 and will need to buy another set? Sigh.

So yes, I am still in the braindead flailing part of Summer Break, where I stare at AI-generated videos of cats diving into swimming pools and wonder why people like war so much. Like if we’re really gonna worry about nuclear capability and bomb people over it, why are we picking on the bottom rung of the ladder…

This is from a video comparing nuclear stashes, and Iran isn’t even on the list. Now, it would be stupid as hell to bomb Russia…and I don’t want to bomb anyone, but seriously, how lame is it to go after a country that was under control until the current president backed out of a deal that was keeping them under control. Idiots. Absolute idiots. But if we’re looking at this, we’re not looking at the protests and ICE and breaking laws left and right and stupid ugly bills, are we.

It’s a lot.

So I had started my next quilt drawing and began inking on Friday night…

You can’t quite see it, but in pencil, on the left, there’s a hand stopping a missile. I inked that Saturday night, after the bombs dropped on Iran.

Added an American flag to it, because it’s ours. The Statue of Liberty was already penciled in. Last night, I inked the ICE swamp…

Because that’s what it is…a swamp of people wearing masks and maybe being legal sometimes? But mostly racial profiling and who knows if some of the people out there are actually ICE or not? They apparently don’t have to tell us. Need to add some swamp trees. Decide what’s happening under the arm underneath them. Oh yeah, added a bomb and an explosion. This drawing is evolving with the current situation. Not sure where I’m going next. Into space? Seems reasonable.

I did some clay glazing on Friday. Very peaceful.

I did the red.

And some flesh.

I keep breaking the left hand off. Frustrating. It’s a level issue…it’s lower than the rest of it. I might need to make a base for firing. Hoping to be back today or tomorrow. We’ll see.

Saturday was the opening of In the Land of… at the downtown library. It’s on the first floor.

It’s super hard to photograph things in glass cases. Here’s the front of mine with part of Jennifer Spencer’s piece…

And here’s the back…

There will hopefully be a video of me talking about the piece and maybe a video of the whole show. I’ll post if I see them.

I’ve also been trying to applique all the flowers on the borders of the Homegrown quilt…

It’s time consuming. But I’m almost done with the top and bottom ones, so then I can do the side flowers. Until then…

Plus doing a lot of escapist cleaning and reading to try to manage my brain. I have a biopsy set up in 2 1/2 weeks. There were two things they found in the MRI that didn’t show up in a mammogram. Better safe than sorry, but it did ramp my anxiety up. Also, the last biopsy wound hurt for a good 6 months. So it’s fun when they say oh no, it doesn’t hurt. Such bullshit. Then last time, when I called after three weeks, they admitted, oh yeah, it might hurt for a while. But it isn’t the pain I worry about, of course.

OK, today. Finish cleaning this disaster of a room. Getting my hair cut (it’s way too long). Trying to find a dress for a wedding Saturday. I had one ordered, but it was too small in the boobage, and I don’t think the replacement will get here in time. Ugh. I hate shopping for clothes. Oh well. Whatever. Then do some drawing, maybe finally get the binding on that other wool quilt, pack up two quilts for delivery for another show coming up in San Ysidro area. Yardwork of course. Try not to roll into the hole of nuclear bombs and children dying and people being deported who came here and followed the rules.