Vintage dance party

too cute not to share:

Source

Adventures

I have been adventuring and exploring and seeking inspiration.

I met my role models this last weekend

and the joy was obvious:

Find out more about this group 

HERE

Grandma of the Westside

image

 

I don't live in a particularly affluent area of town.

In fact when we first moved here, it was a roll up the windows and lock the doors sort of cruise down the avenue. It has gotten better, you only really need to consider it at night now.

 

I went to the local market down the street lovingly referred to as the ghetto market, as there are metal detectors and security guards at the front doors. The shoppers are mostly from our neighborhood, and our neighborhood has a fair bit of meth, a good mix of recovering addicts, alcoholics and nomads. There are families too, and that is what makes this section of town sweet and lovely.

 

Anyway, I went to this market to get three things, we only go to this market for an item or two, we rarely really do our shopping here because we often get fresh produce from the farm or go to trader joes. This morning was a typical visit for me, as I picked up the peanut butter and chocolate chips I watched a woman speak to herself, fill her cart and display the violent ticks of meth; her cheeks sullen and body bruised and scabbed. She saw me and quickly turned on her heels and then snapped her head to look again at me over her shoulder. I went and got my bananas, and was watched by a man leaning against the deli counter, his overstuffed and dusty backpack at his feet.

 

 

I stood in the 15items or less line and placed my items on the belt, waiting my turn, as the line grew quickly behind me. The woman directly behind me, saw I had brought my own bag and asked as she stepped out of line, unable to stand still, if I made the green living bag.

I said I had, and that it seems to get a lot of attention.

It is a small handmade tote I carry in my purse for occasions just like this.

It is red and covered in tiny colorful polka dots.

She said she liked it and it reminded her of handmade things like her grandma use to make.

I thanked her and then she told me I should start a business, I could sell them for $5 or $10 each,

but the market sold reusable bags for a dollar, so it might be hard.

I smiled and thanked her.

She repeated again that it was nice quality and was like a grandma made it,

I smiled and said, I could be the grandma of the Westside.

She liked that, it made her smile a big smile.

I paid for my groceries and the cashier mentioned how much work it was to make your own bag...

as I packed up and left I told the lady behind me to have a nice weekend,

and she said you too Grandma of the Westside, God Bless.

Oh the things I have seen!

Recently I have had the ABSOLUTE privilege to be able to see
some inspiring works of art.

Candy for my eyes and and heart...

yummy.

 

On the 4th I attended first Thursday in Santa Barbara and I chose two venues to visit.

1. the Architecture foundation to see the work of Leslie Lewis Sigler

(sadly I didn't write this fast enough and now her show is packed away)

I find her work is so refreshing and clean and warm and it invites you in....there is a familiar sense that makes it wonderfully comfortable to spend time with.
 

2. I went to see the newest adventure at Sullivan Goss: 

JUST BETWEEN US: Wesley Anderegg, Rafael Perea de la Cabada, Maria Rendon

On Exhibit from April 4, 2013 through June 2, 2013

Curator Jeremy Tessmer selected an amazing collection of contemporary artists and the result is magical and alive and mysterious!

I was only able to get a couple pics as I found myself lost in the work, when I did remember to take a picture the place was crowded with new energy and excited visitors!

"tight rope" and "Matador"
by Wesley Anderegg

a small selection of ceramic platters also by Mr. Anderegg

Encyclopedia Series 1 A to Animal Life
by Rafael Perea de la Cabada
(He painted directly on stretched book covers)

detail to show the texture of the surface....luscious

 

Sadly I wasn't able to get any images of Ms Rendon's work...it is breathtaking and ethereal...so check out the link above to view proper pictures.

 

Then this week I was able to see another true treat for the eyes!

I attended a private small viewing of SWARM at LotusLand...

I had read a lot about the show HERE and HERE so I was quite excited to have the chance to see it in person. I attended with a woman's art group I am part of and it was such an amazing treat!

I felt like quite the VIP being able to view the work so intimately

*click on any of the images for a larger version*

The group was asked to enter via the private back entrance,
so I got to stroll the grounds a little bit before getting to the meeting point!

the room where we met, the main house and first exposure to the work of Penelope Stewart
with her giant handdrawn Beeskep
Ink on Japanese rice paper

here are two smaller versions and a black glass moulded one
the lines were so beautiful !

One of I several Cynthia James paintings...lovely! 



Stephanie Wilde's work " Golden Bees" was intricate and highly detailed, so much so, we were offered magnifying loops to view her incredible brush work.
She uses a single hair to paint...it was much like a sand mandala for me.
The ability to see single grains to sand
So beautiful and meditative

detail through the looking glass

more detail for another work

Ethan Turpin and Jonathan Smith's bee cell room
 and Rose-Lynn Fisher's electron microscope photographs
illuminated under spot lights

inside the cell looking up with some fellow art and bee lovers

the full installed Penelope Stewart beeswax room
1000lbs of wax was used to make this room
the different colors reflect what the bees were feeding on, as wax was shipped from all over the united states
You can read her process HERE

detail of the reproduced tiles and pineapples

 

So inspiring and so alive, I think this year will offer many surprises in the art scene.

I am very much looking forward to seeing new works from friends and creating some myself.

You still have time to see  "Just Between Us" and "SWARM" (the garden is not too shabby either)

 if you are able, I whole heartily endorse it!

 

Shaking things up

I am working on shifting things in my life....picking things that feed me creatively, giving myself the gift of space to think and breathe.
It has been four months since my surgery, and I am methodically working on creating a new to-do list and ditching the stuff that shouldn't matter any more.

 

 

Step one:

Get back into the figure drawing open studio class.

It is a two hour period, and I have access to a model, and can just sit and draw.

No teacher telling me if this or that is right or wrong.

Just me in a mind space of drawing and no judgement.

A gift of time to do or not do whatever comes to me.

I have been in figure drawing classes since I was in high school. A couple friends and I had special permission to leave school to take college drawing classes and then return to school for the rest of our classes. It was a great introduction to the freedom outside the high school walls and we felt far more mature than our classmates. After all we got to sit and draw naked people for credit.

Before heading into the lab, I texted a friend that I took classes with back in the day, telling her I was anxious about drawing...she sent back a text

" just like the ol' days, watch out for the crazy penises"

***

 

Let me explain:

In one of the first classes, a male model sat down in front of me,

spread eagle and posed for an hour.

Some would say he was simply sitting....I think he was showing off.

I was taken aback and was acting as cool as I could.

Sharpening my pencil, looking for the right charcoal...looking at lines of the body...

but I could hear my friends giggle behind me and we were all trying our best to be

mellow and all copacetic with the scene, you know...

OWN the fact that we were there for a reason and a purpose.

 Well I drew, and as I got to his crotch his penis moved.

Not huge amounts like a sword battle, more like it rolled this way and then when I came back to that part of the drawing it had moved another bit...so I erased the first position and re-drew...well this went on for another half and hour.

Needless to say, by the end of the pose, it looked like something exploded in his crotch.

my poor drawing.

My instructor just smirked and said nothing.

I was mortified and vowed to never sit that close again...I never have.

Needless to say, that day created a reputation for myself amongst my peers and NOW we all joke about the penis with the mind of its own.

I have a million figure drawing stories...that one just mostly set the bar for the next 25years

The figure model at my most recent class; she works at my local grocery store and spent a good portion of the time chatting while posing.

She had been stacking apples all day.

Wordless Wednesday

I have a bunch of posts coming up but for today, I am sharing a laugh:

thanks Ellen

Lovely Blog Awards

 

 

I am so lucky to know so many amazing and interesting people!

I feel honored that I have received this Lovely Blog Award.

Per the conditions of winning this I am suppose to reveal 7 random things about myself, and pay it forward...so that is what this post is about!
Super fun

My 7 random things:

1. I am incredibly superstitious. So much so that sometimes I will not let you say certain things at certain times. See I can not even tell you what that is and why! See, I have incorporated this so well into my life that I barely know that I am doing it anymore!

2. I often have the desire to honk at random people for random reasons. I drive a lot and often times when I pass a car that has someone picking their nose, or talking on the phone or if someone is just walking down the street I want to honk my car horn at them. It is like the least used thing in my car... I barely use my horn. I wonder if anyone has ever had to replace their horn from overuse?!humm

3. I LOVE the smell of wet earth, maybe it is from all my gardening, or that it evokes childhood memories, but I find it so very comforting. If they made a spray of that smell I would spray it on my pillow so I could smell it as I drifted off to sleep.

4. I am convinced that there are ghosts in my house. I wake up almost every night thinking that someone is in my bedroom watching me sleep.

5. When I get dressed up, I spend a good bit of time putting on make-up (this might be because I really don't know how to do it so I am teaching myself at the same time) and then after looking at myself, wipe it off with my hands leaving my face in a state of half made up/ half back at square one.

6. I watch home shopping channels to see how people talk for so long about light bulbs or other things like that. I am training myself to be able to talk to anyone about anything!

7. I sometimes can not see the defining line between people and animals and so when I look at animals, like baboons, I only see a being, no different than you or me. It is amazingly beautiful when it happens. It is like seeing a rainbow appear.

image via Flickr

 

I have had to adjust the conditions a little to maintain anonymity of my gifter (per their request) 

So I am going to give BIG shout outs to some amazing blogs that are well worth reading: 

 

Here are the blogs I read the most/ favorite blogs:

 

Such beautiful writing,

like a combination of dreaming and deep thoughts with sweet swirls of humor and whimsy:

Middle of Life

 

A wonderful working artist friend, her blog is an inside peek at her studio and work.

Always interesting and colorful:

Pentimento

 

 Eden always has me laughing. She is the Guru that started NaBloPoMo many moons ago and
got me to try blogging more often and with purpose:
FUSSY

Love this blog, everything is pretty and snazzy, it is wonderful eye candy and has GREAT tutorials:
Casey's Elegant Musings

Another dear friend- we all love supporting those dream chasers and makers!
She is a talented painter AND a talented graphic designer too
Monteve Clay's business and soon to be arriving blog:
Spider Monkey Design
send her some love

OK until I get a new bee in my bonnet that is today's post!
Love them all!!

 

I'm here, keep your pants on....

OK so I have been busy...really busy, filling my head with images and sounds and sights...

I will share some of them with you now....

OK I ate this in the town that the Twilight boy was spotted in nursing his broken heart.
I kind of wanted to see him, even though I am not a twi fan...but I just had a lovely conversation with my sweetie instead



Here is the Edward Hopper painting that made me weep
at the SFMOMA.
(Click on image to see it larger)

Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Untitled (Rat and Bear, Sleeping), 2008/2009; installation

This is a piece called Rat and Bear Sleeping...that scared the shit out of me...they breathe...well look like they are breathing and I was afraid that they would get up and grab me.
I think I am still a little traumatized from it.

I got a head cold...I slept on the couch so I could sleep sitting up...it is not pretty.
I am giving you real life here people!

I completed my edition of bookplates for this show

This is a neighbor showing off his ocean caught fish...

much to the delight of the neighborhood girls.

The fish was horribly embarrassed

This is what I saw last week in TJ's, little girls in 4.5inch heels...

I am not sure I have moved past this either.

The wall of yet sold artwork from the local art auction.
It was hot and packed and there was loads of tequila

building next door to SFMOMA
click on image to see it larger and discover what I saw

More words in my next post...

Social Pressure

After much social pressure and hearing " you MUST read this"

 I was handed a copy of the 50 shades book.

I must say I had ZERO interest in reading it and after it sat on my bedside table for almost a month, maybe in a continued silent protest... I finally picked it up as I needed to return this book to the person who was kind enough to loan it to me.

PLUS I needed to give it a shot, after all it was "just a book"

Well, it is a book...and it has sex in it and in all honesty, I started reading it much like any other book I pick up in the bookshop....open to a random page, read a paragraph and see if I could see reading it any further....

 I figured there wasn't a lot of character development towards the front, so that is where I flipped it open...after reading for about an hour in bed alone.

 Hubby came in to check on me....

***

Stop reading now if you liked the book or don't want to hear my soapbox moment about sexual freedom and liberty.

He started laughing, saying I didn't look too happy.

"what do you think of it so far?"

I looked up and said, well my first impression was that he was a REALLY bad lover.

He told me to give it some more time.

At that, I handed him the book and he started to read and then roll his eyes and then laugh.

We both laughed a lot reading the book.

He agreed, the writing was bad, the story was silly but, we were both thankful for the laughs.

Sadly, this was not meant to be a comedic book.

I must say, the amount of "oh crap" and "see how wet you are" made me cringe, and I was bored out of my head from the email exchanges.

Now I know other women LOVE this series, and I think that is great for them but...

it really made me wonder why?

I know we are still struggling as a gender to find ourselves, to act on our sexual impulses and

be OK with wanting and needing sex.

I guess the fervor this book has caused with women maybe just highlighted for me that a majority of women are still not asking for what they really want or need sexually.

I guess I am a lucky girl, for my lover just wants me to be sexually over the moon, and he is willing to do anything to make that happen.

Demand that from your lovers ladies!

Demand that for yourself!

Then you can write a really hot novel and we can all be smiling from our one handed reads.

***

(stepping off the soapbox, and putting down my megaphone)

Some other women I know have said they refused to read it because of all the hype.

I told them I would report back.

Here I am reporting:

It is silly, the guy is creepy and self centered. The female lead is self deprecating to a level of annoying at the beginning and then just boring after that.

The sex is mild, and if you haven't had some saucy/kinky sex by now, get cracking, because this is not saucy/kinky sex....you can think of far more interesting sex...trust me, I know you are creative!

In the end, I thought it was beyond boring and disappointing.

but hey, we all beat off to a different drummer.

Friday Already...

It is Friday and as of late, it seems to be my personal quest to avoid all of my pending deadlines.

(I will meet them or make them early, I just like to turn up the pressure it seems) 

Don't get me wrong, I really want to be doing everything I have signed up for; but at the same time I am having a really hard time deciding which task to handle first...so while I let my brain sort out those sorrid details...I decided to play with the camera.

Inspiration:

While I was doing a little guerrilla gardening this morning (our HOA has a gardener, but our sprinklers have never really worked on a regular or in a predictable way so I have taken it upon myself to create our little outdoor space) anywho, while adding new mulch this morning I saw our neighbor leave for work or errands. She had her hair all natural and full and it inspired me to see how far out my hair would go if I brushed my hair. My mother is ALWAYS saying that my messy head of hair would be far more manageable if I simply took a brush to it (she has strait hair) regardless how many times I tell her curls don't work like that.

OH My!! here is the results of my playing:

On a side note:

I am also TOTALLY overrun with zuchinni and have begun pickling it.

Using the squash instead of cuccumbers seems to be working out REALLY well.

Below is the recipe I use in case you are overwhelmed too:

Spicy Zucchini Pickles

oh, FYI don't pickle just any green cherry tomatoes unless they are literally right about to change color. Not all green tomatoes are alike, trust me I learned it the hard way. A green tomato doesn't mean just a green tomato, it means shy of ripe: green tomato.

Otherwise you too will have a sour, evil bomb of nastyness in your mouth that you try to chew just to be brave while your 3year old nephew watches horrified of the faces you are making.

 PLUS, that flavor lingers for far far far too long.

Another Muffin day

view from my kitchen this morning

I had to get up extra early today as hubby needed to get to work even earlier then normal.

It was quiet and I got to watch the sun rise and change the skies colors.

it was a treat...

the recipe called for orange zest...

but I could not bare the idea of dried zest so I opened my eyes wide when handling the mandolin and paid close attention.

I mean making muffins usually doesn't have an element of danger; stir and fold seems to be common place ...but zesting is a whole new level and packs the possibility of shedding blood and or skin.

Needless to say, I paid attention to my actions at this early hour.

The muffins needed to bake a little longer then I expected and the end result is a little dry. 

I am pretty sure I know what needs to be changed. Once again I took one of my trusty loaf recipes and made them into muffins. 

Another yummy hit with tea or milk...but you do need to drink something with them.

Today's muffin:

 Orange Cranberry Walnut

no fingers were harmed during the making of these muffins

Eye of the beholder

This is how I think I look when I work in the studio

This is what I really look like, usually with an inkspudge on my nose to boot!

My Goddaughter

My beautiful goddaughter is almost 5 years old....she is a daring, bold, curious, joyful young lady.

I had plans yesterday to go down to Manhattan Beach to attend the first board meeting for the Los Angeles Printmakers Society. I was sad because this meant I would miss my goddaughters birthday party at the local skating rink and I had yet to see her roller skate.
I woke up yesterday with out the alarm clock I had set and realized I would never make it in time for the meeting....but I could make her party!
I looked at my husband and said " I'm going roller skating with Gabi !"
What was going to be a disappointment was now a joy !

I have a history with roller skating that only a few people really know about, I practically lived in my roller skates between the ages of 7-12 years old.

The visit to the roller rink was AMAZING!! Those places never change, thank goodness...the funny carpets and loud music, the crappy food and prizes and the sweet sweet sound of wheels on the hardwood floor!

My husband was afraid I would break a wrist or hurt myself, but once I hit the rink it was his jaw that hit the floor. According to him I pack some "mad ninja skills on the skates"

My goddaughter was excited, I was excited and her sister Sierra was there with a friend and it reminded me of days gone by:

Sierra and Emma were a little nervous on the wheels with that loopy sense of balance

Now being super model height I was ready to hit the floor....I handed the camera over to my husband and he took a few pictures:

hitting the rink

He asked me to pose and stand still...with the number of tumblers around me I was afraid to cause another accident. (point in case)

I got Sierra off the wall and after convincing her that I would not let her fall she allowed me to take her around the rink

skating backwards as the girls learned to skate forwards

The birthday girl was a natural and it was a blast to see her with her best friends enjoying her party!

Happy birthday little goofball!!