Thank you for your patience

 So now that I have your attention

thank you Elle for breaking barriers and allowing a man to grace your cover.

Apparently, he is the first man to be on the cover of the magazine.

I personally don't think he is too horrible to look at.

(swooning at those lovely deep eyes)

Plus, on another note, his tattoos seem to work, nothing bothers me more then a bunch of tattoos that seem totally chaotic and mismatched and scattered. I guess it is the OCD that lives inside me, when I see his sleeves they work...organized chaos.

OK, enough eye candy.

I want to soap box for another moment here:

Swim suit season is around the corner.

One of the worst parts about living in the land of beautiful people,

is that anyone who is not a yoga instructor or a professional personal trainer

 is shunned from wearing and or feeling good in a swim suit.

I am not sure why they are called these, because of the people I know who have them, they do not use them to swim in...or bathe in...so they really should be called sun suits.

Ok, so I include myself in this group of sun scared, shunned, and sun suit phobic women.

I own one again, finally...for years I refused to own one because

I didn't like the way I looked in one.

Then we went to a lake house with friends and I decided I would not explode if I had one and someone besides my reflection saw myself in it....and it was hot and I would be glad to have something skimppier to wear.

This being said, a fashion blogger was recently featured on a morning news show because she posted her "fatkini" photos and then other women sent in theirs to her.

You can see the whole thing HERE

I applaud it and find it interesting what women see as fat within themselves and what we have been taught to think is fat or thin or normal or freakish.

So I guess the whole point of this post is still lost to even me,

but it seemed really important to talk about.

I am fearful of the sun in general, if you have seen me in "real life" you will and can attest to the fact that I am pale, paler then pale. In fact, when we went to Hawaii or that before mentioned lake I hide in the shade. I love being outside, but fear the sun.

I got burnt A LOT as a teenager so now I am in a constant state of fear that my whole body will be covered in cancerous moles or something...

so instead, even when I fantasize about a getaway in a beach chair with a huge umbrella shading everything but my toes....but cancer can even grow there.

So maybe my full shaded chair can still be on the beach or lake and a nice cool breeze on a warm day....hell I could even use a lemonade or a iced alcoholic something with a paper flower or something.

Ugh, I think now that this post is really just insight into my current mental state.

Scattered.

but colorful

Moral of this rambling:

 wear sun screen, dream big and don't be afraid of sun suits

or how beautiful and wonderful your body really is.

Once a wise-crack, always a wiseass

So some time ago in my far off youth...I went to A LOT of concerts...at my first Lalapalooza I was dehydrated and excited and slathered in 50 sunscreen, while being a style icon in a tank top and over-sized pinstriped overalls. 

Anyhoo,while waiting for a band to take the stage, my BF (hubby now) and I browsed the stalls of vendors. 

There was mostly drug paraphernalia: pipes, posters, food, stickers and ballots to be signed.

I was mildly interested so I continued to seek out water (there was no outside food allowed and I remember it being like 4000 degrees) 

I stumbled across a man selling his posters. 

I made the choice to buy a $10 poster instead of a $3.00 bottle of water.

I bought the one that spoke to me, it turns out that this man is now exhibiting at the MET and now I want to find my poster....I think he even signed it.

I had seen these posters in San Francisco while visiting a friend, and was very wrapped up in all the drama with the NEA and the Mapplethorpe exhibition , and conditions that were being placed on artists.

I walked around the festival with my poster; wilting in the heat but carried by my political stance and willingness to display my dissatisfaction.  

Well, mine conveyed thru the eyes of this poster artist.

Needless to say, the act was lost on my parents....I was such a rebel

I guess I always will be in some way.

thank goodness

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday is dress up day here in the studio and a perfect day for procrastinating.

Today's inspiration:

Nancy Upton

photo by: Shannon Skloss

if you haven't heard about this, here is one of many articles 

and

 here is another

about why I love this woman!

My ode to Nancy:

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful today that I am not so distracted by bullshit and gossip as to ignore a massive crisis.
I have been listening to the news these past few days and weeping.
People are so hungry and in such dire straits that they are entering war zones in hope
to find food and medicine.
There is no reason for famine, we are an educated people.
We are a compassionate people.
We are sadly, also a people of short attention span.

Our government would rather split hairs then do a job,
and once they have done a half-assed one,
they go on VACATION!

Meanwhile there are people right outside their doors, loosing their homes, struggling to find money for medicine and fighting to have a life.
We have a NATION of starving people who are helpless and we have a responsibility to help those that have fallen or are in danger.
As humans, nothing more.
No agendas, no politics
simply compassion and desire for the good of all
take action HERE
No one will knock on your door, call your home or bother you...
add your voice in hopes to stop a famine

Get The Horns-Soapboxing

In light of this barbaric and horrible festival

Daniel Ochoa de Olza- photographer

After being bullied, tormented, scared and stabbed this would
seem like the natural reaction for the bull.
My patience has run out and that tormentor needs to be thrown out of my way.

Sadly, the bull died anyways

the bulls always die

I have never understood why this seems like an expression of manhood(traditionally)
tormenting and taunting an animal to death is a thing of beauty?!

I have a painting of a bull goring a matador...it is one of my cherished items.

I will forever cheer for the bulls, and hope, that one day,
 they win
and
all this 

absolute craziness ends.

Let Love Rule!

FCKH8.com Straight Talk About Gay Marriage from FCKH8.com on Vimeo.

Heart grows fonder

So nothing like a swift kick in the heart! A poke in the eye....?

Art is so subjective and personal that it seems unrealistic to judge it....but the life of an exhibiting artist is just that, judgement.

The artist makes something, loves it, cries at it completion and then shows it to someone else. That person in turn either says "I love it " or " I don't get it " or simply " I don't like it".
Where does that leave the artist? Is what they just made nothing, or something no one can relate to, or simply bad. Should they believe the outside perspective or ?

Then you have the factors that are at play....Did the person really look at it? Do they not like that color today? Does it bring to mind some horrible childhood memory....or do they simply not know your name or what is involved with the process.

My rejection letter left me raw....I wanted to be juried into this group badly. I wanted to start my spread into the Los Angeles basin. Instead I was faced with the feeling that my process was not a familiar one, or a traditional one. Solar plate has only been around since the 70's and so the desire to use it as a tool for a more traditional method of printmaking was clearly a sign that the method of making solar plates was not a familiar one to the jury.
Solarplate is pretty cut throat, the exposure time is a one shot deal. I do not make test strips to check for timing, instead I take the whole enchilada out into the sun and let magic happen. I guess on exposure and timing and when I return indoors with my plate it is not until I start the water bath do I know if I made a good plate or a dud. There are no do-overs or lets just put it outside again deals. It is done and if it is bad, there went 10bucks.

In response to the letter, I went crazy (a little for real) and made three large plates on a very tricky day. It was a "peek-a-boo" sunshine day...so there was no consistent sun and I went out with a $15 "one-shot-is-all-you-get" plate.

I made three very pretty images, I think this will complete my show images for September.
I also took photos of the whole printing process for those of you who have been asking about how I make these images....nothing like a little hand of the artist...so there LAPS!