I saw the Nature special "Tall Blondes" and was so enchanted by the tales of gorgeous giraffes, that I ripped off a piece of paper bag and started sketching right away. While I was painting away, I learned that giraffes actually do make noise! Amazing... I heart PBS!

Watercolour, marker, paper bag. 30 minutes.

This weekend, I'm going once again on the Mother's retreat. I don't feel like I can get away right now, but for me that's a sign that taking that time is exactly what I must do.

Here's the poster for the theme of the retreat - who knew you could watercolour on shiny posterboard? I have a small business card with this quote on it that I used to have taped up on my desk where I could look at while I worked. (I should do that again.) If you want to print this out and tape it up on your desk or stick it in your wallet, feel free.



More when I get back...

I'm this close to kissing Blogger goodbye for its inability to be able to tag posts into categories. I've tried patches and workarounds, and am considering completely moving to something else. I'm spending hours trying to learn code instead of painting.

I'm looking for someone to code a template for me using WordPress or TypePad (or if you have another suggestion, please let me know!). All I would need is the template, I would do all the design/CSS work.

Need to:
* tag my entries in categories
* carry over four years of Blogger posts
* back up files to my own server
* customize it with my own banner and navigation
* have pages show up properly in Technorati and RSS feeds
* learn enough so that I don't have to bug you if I need to change it


Will barter for a painting or artwork for your site, and chocolate-chip cookies. Interested? Contact me (take the text in all caps out of the address) or leave a comment below.

Acrylic and watercolour.

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.

Sophie's birthday was Sunday. Hard to believe my little one is three years old. (note: an adorable photo would normally accompany this post, except that I can't get any of them from the camera to the computer currently. Hopefully fixed soon.)

We had a fun day, which included Sophie being serenaded at church (and did she ever eat it up!), a huge Ernie balloon, and strawberry shortcake for desert. I was on my way to grab her pajamas out of her room when I did a quick email check and saw my update from babycenter. This time it said "About Your Three Year Old" and when I opened it, the header said "Your Preschooler This Week."

Not your toddler, which is what it usually says. Your PRESCHOOLER.

I completely broke down in front of the computer. Everyone is fond of telling me, "Oh,they grow up so fast, enjoy them while they're young, blah blah blah." I said to my mom only last week that I would like to buy my kids a fast ticket to kindergarten and that I wished everyone would shut up about enjoying them while they were young.

Now I get it.

My Sophie is never going to fit in the crook of my arm again. Never going to curl up in my lap for a midnight feeding and be rocked to sleep. She's running, leaping, jumping, twirling. I don't MISS the constant care she used to need, but I do remember all those things and how far she's come.

Sophie is sheer delight, incarnate. She feels so passionately about everything. She makes up songs, has an incredible imagination, and can I brag here, the girl is READING. She actually taught herself to read. She is the neatest three-year-old I have ever met and I love her with all my heart. I am so fiercely proud of her and I can't wait to see what's coming up for her in the year ahead.

It used to terrify me that if I died today, my children wouldn't have any memories of me. But the fact is, it doesn't matter. I have enough memories for all of us.

Tea is a magical potion even to humans; is it any wonder that unicorns find it so enchanting? I very rarely drink tea alone. It seems that whenever I begin to brew a cup, another tea drinker turns up. I had just poured a cup when I felt what I thought was steam upon my cheek. I found the soft muzzle of a unicorn inches from my face, inhaling the aroma of herbal mint tea, and hinting strongly that she'd like a cup. In this case I had to make a bit more than usual, but luckily I had a teacup big enough for my friend. We spent a quiet evening with our tea and a handful of cookies. The cookies, of course, were chocolate chip and were long gone by the time this picture was taken.

(More pictures of my adventures with unicorns are here. And yes, I need to rescan them all, larger.)

If anyone's planning on attending the NY Comic-Con this Saturday, I will be representing Mutts Comics along with Patrick and the rest of the gang. I'll also be a part of this talk, actually - um - talking. I'll be the one with the big hair and the Mutts shirt. See you there!

Wouldn't it be the coolest if you actually could make your singing visible, like the picture? I barely shut up as it is, there would be no stopping me then!

In my day, I've sung with select choirs, madrigal groups, done songleading and solos at church, and had many amazingly wonderful fun years with these ladies (play some tracks, I'm on there) that had me singing at New York night clubs, on CDs, in a PBS Christmas special, and flying across the country.

I won't lie, I miss it.

But nowadays I have something way more my speed: my church's choir director lets me sing whenever I feel like it. They leave a mic set up in the choir area and email me the song list for the month. I sing harmony, whatever harmony I want, along with the songleader in front of the church. If I don't like the song, I skip it. (HA!) If we show up late, I jump in whenever I can. The whole family sits with me, and is getting used to the fact that sometimes Mama's going to go stand over there for a minute, and if you know what's good for you, you will not make a peep until she's done (that mic picks up everything!) Everyone seems to like it, and it makes me so joyful to sing again in public but not have to sweat the small stuff or worry if I'll faint in front of everyone.

At Christmas, Paul (I met him in the choir, you know) and I sang a duet together. We first sang it 10 years ago when we began dating, and have sung it almost every Christmas since. As we sang it this year, I looked over at him, and thought, If someone would have told the two of us then that 10 years later we would be still singing it together, each with a baby on our hip, and our oldest twirling around in front of us, we never would have believed it.

Then again.... maybe we would.

If you remember this:



or the beauty that is this:



Do yourself a big old favor and get yourself here . (Sigh) Back when Sesame Street was hip.

p.s. And while you're checking things out, make sure you watch my super genius brother's animations too. 'Specially this and this.