Been a long time

Just a couple of goodies to tell about. This blog is probably going by the wayside, soon. However, I am tweeting (see sidebar to follow me), and have started a Tumbler post at Sketchy Grrl. That's much more fun for me than trying to actually write about my life. Plus you'll see the sketches from my drawing class there.

Like this one:

Hope to see you there

Earth Hour

Now here's a cool idea. Light a candle on Saturday night for one hour, turn off the lights and cast a vote for earth. You can sign up here.

Big Birthday Weekend

I turned 41 on Saturday, and have the scars to prove it. It was a wonderful, busy, fun birthday weekend, and I still have two more "gatherings" to go. I love the fact that I am connected with many different people and groups; it allows me to spend time with a myriad of types and helps me to keep expanding my own beliefs and question the way I see the world.

Here's how I spent my birthday weekend-
Friday after work; a couple of quick drinks with co-workers (and friends) at a great local spot, the Daily Planet. It's a cool and funky place with great food, and fairly well-priced, especially if you eat off the bar menu. We got a surprise visit from the college president, who bought the first round! Thanks, Tim.

I ran home, showered, changed, flattened my hair for serious rock-star stylin' and headed out to meet my dear friend Ian, and another couple for dinner at Pacific Rim. It's a terrifically tiny place on St. Paul Street that serves, well, yes, Asian food. Delicious and cheap. Then it was off to Higher Ground in South Burlington! It's been several months since I've been to a show at the club there, Neko Case was my last one, I think. Railroad Earth was playing. They were not my usual fare, but a very talented group of musicians, nonetheless. Here's a couple of shots from the club.

(that's Ian)

Saturday was a bit more low-key. During the day I cleaned the house and ran a few errands, then met Mom and Dad for an early dinner at Shanty on the Shore by the Burlington Waterfront. Mom and Dad gave me a fantastic 6 quart All-Clad Dutch Oven, hooray!

The Shanty has been there since the mid-80's and is just a fun, family-friendly fish house. Nothing fancy, but if you want deep-fried seafood, give it a go. After dinner, Dad and I went up to UVM to watch the dullest hockey game I've seen in years. Go Cats?

Sunday rolled around. I got right up and moving; hit the laundry-mat and then met my friend Jennaflower and her daughter Uma to go to the Mind & Body Expo at the Sheraton. We dropped Uma off with a friend and had brunch at Penny Cluse Cafe, yet another wonderful food destination in downtown. I'm telling you, it's like I ate my way through B-town this weekend.

Finally, Sunday evening I got myself all glammed up and headed out to Koi & Eric's place in Westford for their annual Oscar Party. And let's just say here and now that it was one of the best Oscar events in a long time. Well, the party wasn't the usual crowd, thanks to the big storm that rolled in that evening. Most folks stayed home. This is a photo I took on the way back into town on Monday morning.


Yes, I took Monday off and relaxed!

Cheese Alert

Okay, this is totally hokey, but I love it!

The Wrath of God

I finished a new piece in the crow line last night. This time crow is almost missing; a tiny speck in the upper-middle portion of the painting. Crow Flees the Approaching Storm is acrylic and found images on canvas board, 16"x 20". An atomic storm? The hand of the almighty? Perhaps a bit of each. All rights reserved, please!

Flying above it all

Two days ago I finished a new painting that continues the crow theme. This one if very hippie-art inspired in my mind, but I love it. Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 16", it's called Crow's Dream.

Art from the Heart

There is a new art fundraiser happening in February at the Firehouse Gallery in Burlington.

Art from the Heart was started in 1994 by Abby Rose, and is modeled after the Harlem Art Studio in Harlem NY. Our goal with this program is to facilitate self-expression with recovering children. Our philosophy is simple and direct: allow children to grow and heal through their own creative process.

Art from the Heart's official partnership with Fletcher Allen began when it became a program of Burlington City Arts in 1997 and has remained strong ever since. Each year, the program showcases the young artists' work by producing an assortment of greeting cards that can be pre-ordered for the holiday season or a special occasion. Art from the Heart also exhibits patient's work several times throughout the year, where families of participating children, donors, volunteers and administrations from BCA and Fletcher Allen come together to celebrate the children, volunteers, and the art of healing.

Please come if you can, the even is on February 10th, 2009 from 5:30-7:00 pm. Raffle tickets are $25 and includes the price of admission. To make a donation to this worth cause, go here. For more information about the event, click on the Art from the Heart link above.

Brrrr...

Yes, very cold, with lots and lots of snow here in B-town. At least it's just in time for Christmas.

Let it snow

First real snow arrived in B-town today. I took these photos standing in the atrium space at work and looking up at the glass ceiling. hahahahaha! Glass Ceiling! Wow.




I like the first one better. Both of these feel almost like stained glass to me. Very cool.

Fresh Paint

I just finished up my first "real" painting in about 6 months. It was nice to be working directly on a stretched canvas, with nothing other than paint and gesso. I'm very happy with the results. For a long time I've wanted to do a bird painting; I've discovered they seem to be my totem animal (I have a tattoo of a Phoenix on my back) and lately I've either been collecting other work with birds in it, or using birds in some of my collage work. Prior to now, however, I've never tackled the subject head on. This piece is 16 x 20" and is titled Crow Gets Rejected. All rights reserved. It's a bad photograph, the top area should be a much brighter pink, but there's basically no natural light in Vermont anymore.

More mixed media art

I just finished a new piece, in time for a show at Opportunities Credit Union on the corner of North Street and North Avenue. Ric, from Kasini House called and asked if I would put some work up there for the months of December - February. There are currently 9 pieces of mine in the show. Stop by and take a gander!

This one is called Meet Virginia, and is 18 x 24 on vellum. Very much mixed media. Acrylic paint, found images (including that great print on handmade paper of the woman's face), colored pencil, and glitter. This was a fun piece to work on; I had actually started on it months ago, and then, of course, got busy working on other projects. Having to put up a show is great for lighting a fire under my ever-widening bottom. God, I need to start doing Yoga again.

There's a New Kid in Town

Nuff' said.

Just Because I'm Paranoid...

I know you know the rest of the line. The election is less than one week from today. I know my choice, I'm proud to say I'm voting for Obama. However, I also recognize that while part of me wants to believe that he'll sweep the electoral college, part of me is terrified of what could happen instead. What if he doesn't win? I'm not kidding, I've not been sleeping well for the last several days, and I honestly believe it's because I'm so worried about the outcome of this election.

I'm 40 years old and I've seen enough Presidents to know what I want and what's important to me. I hate that our country is so desperately divided right now, and that our economy is in the toilet and that I and a few others are actually worried about our civil rights. I hate that we are in an illegal war and that every day we go deeper in debt because of it. I hate that our current President has lied to his country over and over again, has abused his power, and, quite frankly, is less intelligent than I am.

So much of my hopes for this nation, THAT I LOVE, are riding on what happens on November 5th. Not the 4th, because I believe that people will turn up, and that most folks will vote the way I want them to. No, I worry about the next day. The day of the returns. I'm not the only one who feels this way. Mitchell Bard, writing for the Huffington Post, put it beautifully- talking about voter fraud:

The Ohio problems are not unique. Early voters in West Virginia had their computer monitors flip their Obama votes to McCain, and a confusing North Carolina ballot, which excludes the presidential race when someone chooses to vote a party line, may cost Obama, by one estimate, tens of thousands of votes. Today brought news of a flyer in Virginia telling Democrats to vote on November 5 (the day after the election), and a man in Florida posing as a worker for a Democratic candidate for Congress (but whose information was traced back to a consultant of the Republican incumbent) taking ballots from Democrats and promising to deliver them. And that doesn't even include the widespread purges of voters in Democratic neighborhoods conducted by Republican state officials.

Writing about race:

Both the New York Times (Pennsylvania) and the New Yorker (Ohio) have recently done features on rust-belt white voters, and in each case, it's clear that Obama has to overcome some pretty strong race-based biases. The Times piece features one voter saying, "I'm no racist, but I'm not crazy about him either. I don't know, maybe 'cause he's black" (the person claimed to be voting for Obama anyway), while another remarks, "He scares me. The coloreds are excited, but my friends and I plan to write in Hillary's name." When I read the last line, chills of fear and disgust literally shot up my spine. I don't know what bothered me the most: that someone would care so much about a candidate's race (the positions of Clinton and Obama are so similar), that the person would admit it to a New York Times reporter, or that the person would use the term "colored." It's 2008. How often do you, in your day-to-day life, hear that word? I can remember someone using it to me once in the last 20 years (and, oddly, it happened a few weeks ago, but it had nothing to do with Obama).

So, yes, I'm having trouble falling asleep at night. But at least I'm not the only one thinking about it.

Flu Shot Drama

I ran over to my Doctor’s office for a 5-minute flu shot.

Waiting for a spot in parking lot to open up: 5 minutes.
Waiting to be called: 5 minutes.
Shot’s potentially lethal side effects read to me: 4 minutes.
Shot given: 1 minute.
Explanation of the fact that the nurse somehow got a spot of my blood on her finger: 2 minutes.
Coaxing of patient to allow them to draw blood to be tested for HIV, Hepatitis B & C: 3 minutes.
Patient sits and waits for paperwork and needles: 15 minutes.
Patient has to sign release form and give out life’s sweet nectar: 5 minutes.
Patient is allowed to leave: Priceless

Life In A Jar

Irena Sender and her daughter, 1950. Photo from Irena Sender.org

I just found out about this, and thought I'd share the news:

Two performances of Life in a Jar, the heroic story of Irena Sendler, a Catholic social worker who saved 2,500 Jewish children from certain death in the Warsaw ghetto will take place Sunday, October 19 at 2:30 PM and again at 7:30 PM at Ohavi Zedek Synagogue, 188 North Prospect Street. This play was written by three girls from a poor, rural high school in Kansas, who found a brief reference to Sendler's heroism while doing research for a school history project and were moved to use the story. Governor Douglas has proclaimed October 17th as IRENA SENDLER DAY to honor both her legacy and the Life in a Jar students, who rescued Sendler's remarkable story from obscurity. The performance is suitable for all adults and for children in middle school and high school.

Six Kansas students and their teacher, Norm Conard, are coming to Vermont to present the play in Montpelier, Middlebury and Burlington. These Kansas students have performed their play in the U.S., Canada and Poland. Their presentation highlights the legacy of Irena Sendler, her belief in the worth and dignity of all people, the need to respect all people and the power of one person to make a difference in the world. Due to their efforts, Sendler, who recently died at the age of 98, became a national hero in Poland. In 2007, the President of Poland and the Prime Minister of Israel jointly nominated her for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The local performance at Ohavi Zedek Synagogue is sponsored by Christ Church Presbyterian, Merchants Bank, The University of Vermont Carolyn and Leonard Miller Center for Holocaust Studies and the University of Vermont Hillel Center. Tickets are only $5.00 apiece and are available at the door.

She's Crafty! (again)

I managed to do it; make things. I've started making jewelry using scraps left-over from all the collage work I was doing. So far just a few simple earrings and some pins. So far, I like the pins best. I have ordered some beads, however, and will be testing the waters and trying to make some bracelets and necklaces.

Here are a few images from the test runs:

Summer of Love earrings


Wild style earrings,


Modern girl pin, and


Virgin pin.

The Gwiz! name I am using for now, but that will probably change. I'm meeting with a few folks to talk about where to try and sell these, and am starting to think more about what I want my "look" to be. Pop art meets vintage? Yes, but how to pull it off... sigh. For a complete view of what I've documented so far, go here.

Education Change

Theresa is a good friend of mine.

Inside/Outside

I just finished reading a very interesting book by Greg Bottoms, who is an English professor up at UVM. It's titled The colorful Apocalypse and is about visionary Outsider artists. I looked up a few images, and it's really amazing work:



This is Idolatry by William Thompson and Norbert Kox (who is also a VA), and this image:



I'm calling River of Jordan (since I don't know the title) is by Howard Finster, who did the cover of the Talking Heads Album Little Creatures.
Bizzare and cool.

October 15, 2008

Blog Action Day will take place on October 15, 2008. On that day, you are invited to post about poverty in any way, shape or form. You just have to think about it.

Go here for more information.

More about the book

The book is getting close (I think) to finishing. At this point I have 25 images created. I dropped it off at the gallery on Friday after work, and Ric is deciding whether or not we continue. It is taking me much longer to create the images than I thought it would. I'm worried about their production schedule, and Ric's worried about the artistic process; which he wants to have be the driving factor, not when they need to publish by. I love him for that.

I had a last big push to finish up 4 different images, and here are the results:


Polar Choices,


Past Desire,


Wishful Thinking, and finally,


Some Choice. All images, all rights reserved.

One other thing- I found this in the stairwell at work after lunch today-


Seriously, they need to be reminded to turn in the lotto tickets?