I'm completely wiped out. My house has been filled with the screaming and fights that can only be had from three children under three who are testing their limits, teething, have had their naptimes changed, and who are coming to the sad realization that they have to actually SHARE Mama and Daddy and are fighting it tooth and nail. I have been frazzled and anxious to the point of almost throwing up. Thinking of painting anything, or being creative, is a joke.

I feel like I want to give in to the glorious weather - I want to wear all spring-y clothes, but everything needs to be washed (don't even get me started about the kids' laundry). I want to rip apart old tshirts and make halter tops for the summer, but my sewing machine needs attending to. I have lots and lots of ideas for things I want to do and paint, and after I've put the kids to be and the screaming dies down, and I'm done going in over and over and over again, I have lost the will to do anything for myself. All I want to do is veg and eat potato chips. Or sleep. Sunday night - the sacred Art Night - I went to bed at 8pm, practically crying over the wasted time but too exhausted to do anything but crawl up the stairs.

On top of it all: an art show I desperately want to be a part of but am afraid I have nothing decent to show in it, and major health problems for two family members that make my piddly concerns seem, well, piddly.

Exhaustedly yours,
me.

Back in the day, I talked about respect for artists and their work, and how it looked like I wasn't going to have an Electric Company tshirt.

Well, children, good things come to those who wait, and what goes around, comes around, and all that other stuff about being rewarded for being nice.

I couldn't be more excited to see that The Electric Company's brand-spankin' new official site has IRON-ONS!!!! I will possibly be making all 6, and extra "I am cute very" shirts for the kiddos.

There are lots of audio and video clips on the site as well... when you click on the video clips, you can see "I am cute very" (That's Mel Brooks), "Letterman" (starring Joan Rivers, Zero Mostel, and Gene Wilder as Letterman), the ever popular "It's the Plumber! I've come to fix the sink!", and the sinister but catchy "Golly, a Lollipop is Following Me" song.

What are you waiting for? Go make yourself an Easy Reader shirt!

ps ~I have had major email issues this past week, and have lost ALL new mail. So if you sent me anything since last Friday, I didn't get it, and please try again. (Unless it's junk, spam, or has an attachment that was 17MB. Thank you.)

A watercolour doodle inspired by the book Medicine Road by urban fantasy writer Charles deLint (one of my all-time favorite authors). There were deer girls and crow girls and even a jackalope in the book - but my mind wandered to imagine what these shape-shifting characters' "cousins" might look like from another continent. (and yes, again, on a paper bag.)

Back cover I did for the CD, "Fine Whine." A concept that involved lots of grapes, and feet squashing them.

(Note: I was running out of room on the server, so I had to take down all the CD art that I had posted previously. You can check out the cover and hear the music here.)

A post from Penelope (3/10) recently echoed something I've been thinking lately - it's time to be nice to myself and stop being so super-critical. Among other things this past weekend, I needed a new photo for my work's new website. I'm not photogenic, and I've written before about how disappointed I've been when I get pictures back from an event I thought I looked pretty nice at only to see how goofy I look in the pictures. So. To start out with a proper attitude of self-forgiveness, I gave myself permission to take lots of pictures, and to retouch the photos if I wanted to. HA! Let the airbrushing begin!

When I finally had all the new photos up on the screen, I could barely look at them - it felt so odd to me to be staring at myself. When I get ready to go out somewhere, I usually only have 5 minutes, I put on a little makeup, and it usually ends with me sighing at my reflection and saying, "It'll have to do" and running out to the car because we're late. So scrutinizing my features was very, very uncomfortable to me, and I tried to work through it because, sheesh, you should feel comfortable looking at a picture of yourself. And maybe even liking the person you see there.

So I tweaked levels and airbrushed out some molding from the wall... and realized that I didn't actually have a whole heck of a lot to do to the actual picture. So here's what I changed - and what struck me most was that these are all such TINY things, all things I can do something about regardless.


Recognize the necklace?

1. Got rid of the dark circles under my eyes from no sleep. I thought, HELLO, there's actually makeup for that! I should get some! Also added in a little eyeliner, because what I had on was from the dollar bin at Drug Fair (God forbid I should spend money on anything for myself) and wasn't showing up in the photo at all.

2. I realized that most of the time we take pics with a flash. A bright light shining in my face is not my friend, and thankfully, most of my life I am viewed in natural light. There's a reason they call it that. Natural. Natural is good. So here's to more pics sans flash.

3. Brightened my teeth - also fixable in real life. I was completely tempted to go get someone else's smile and stick it on there - someone with perfectly straight teeth and not so much gum, but I bravely resisted. And actually, "perfectly straight teeth" is possible, once I win the lottery. So, not beating myself up over that one.

All in all, not such a horrible experience. Now, if I could just learn what to do with my hair and actually have time to do it, we'd be in business.

Watercolour on paper bag.

What better way to celebrate Michelangelo's birthday on Monday than by some good old-fashioned driveway chalking?










The note we left for others (Paul's students coming for their lessons) to draw too.

Today, March 6th, is Michelangelo's birthday! To celebrate the birthday of one of the world's most inspiring artists (and my personal favorite!), I invite you to participate in this project.



What you do:
1. Do something creative today. It can be something you love to do, something you've forgotten how to do, something you've never done and always secretly wanted to try. Here's your excuse! Some ideas are:
- paint/draw/collage
- sculpt (like the master)
- write a poem, a short story
- take a photo
- visit a museum or art gallery
- sew
- cook something exciting you've never made before
- see an art film, foreign film, or movie about an artist


2. Come back here and share your experience!
Post a link to your creation, write about your trip or creative process - share your creative story with others. How creative can we get?

3. Link back with the above graphic if you've written about it on your site.

4. Have fun, for goodness' sake! This is not about being perfect or creating the best piece of art. It's about embracing your creative side in whatever form it happens to take.

Extreme closeup of a butterfly.

ps~ Today is Michelangelo's birthday. If you're coming here from Illustration Friday, click to see how you can get extra-creative today.

Petey and Angela from waaaaaaaaaay back in the day.

Peter and Angela turned two today! (For those of you who are new to all this, Sophie and the twins are one year and 5 days apart.) They are tremendously fun and endlessly entertaining. I love 'em like crazy. I will have a full Petey and Angela report soon, but for right now...

I have been spending every spare moment on projects for them - painting, glueing, wrapping, writing, staining a rocking horse for the three of them - many tales of angst go along with that, including me putting a final coat of paint on yesterday afternoon, in the basement, during a blackout, holding a flashlight. If that ain't love, I don't know what is.

I have also been painting for ME, although they're too big to scan, and we're still having the can't-get-them-on-the-computer issue, which better be resolved this weekend so I can put up a gazillion party pictures. (Three kids. One party.) Anyway, I'm loving the paintings; I have them propped up around the house so I can keep sneaking fresh glimpses at them and deciding what to do next.

Besides napping, that is.


ah, memories:
Peter and Angela's early photos: they're 76 days old, but considering they were preemies, by the time they got home they were just the right size. :) "I asked you for a PONY!" is one of my all-time favorites.

Daddy's report on what happened that night...and what a long, strange (and wonderful) trip it's been.