cobaltika

another fairly dreary morning. needing more coffee. man this is a rough week. and SO COLD. why is winter so long this year? this morning ice pellets falling, overslept, *had* to wash my hair, late, stomping around, finally my poet offered a ride, now scratchy-eyed and lumpy with extra clothes that i didn’t need after all in the office. ready for lunch. baby food in a can today - Annie’s Cheezy Ravioli. hey, it’s easy to bring and very cheap. i’m trying to be so much better about bringing lunch. i don’t like messing about with food in the morning AT ALL. it’s nauseating. the best parts of life lately are the artTable, despite the freezing floor, and daydreams of trips away. california and the NW are coming soon and i could not be happier! i don’t even care if all my ebay sales flop and we have to sleep in the car at campgrounds!! and eat power bars!! margaret has been scheduling the college visits and we almost have a plan. then in april, to boston and betsy. YAY. i love my girls so much and miss them like crazy, but i am so glad they are off having interesting lives. last night we watched Rest In Pieces (Joe Coleman). it wasn’t what i thought it was going to be, because i didn’t really know who he was after all, but it was strange and GOOD although i had to close my eyes at times. and i saw the eclipse. is it lunch yet?

very very sleepy this morning. my eyes are sandy and blurry. i wish the professor who makes coffee was here today! if i try to make it, in the office pot, it will taste so nasty, i know. i can only make it in my own pot, and then just barely. not enough this morning though. need more. a little cranky. last week i was looking at tickets for Boston, but was not quite sure of the timing, so did not buy. today i look, ready to buy, and they have gone up $60. shit. oh well it is only money, right? i am having much fun being an online entrepreneur, i think. now that i have kind of settled on small art for etsy, my hands are busy every night and new things appear as if by magic. i am finding old bits that i loved and saved and it is fun to use them now. it seems magic when they sell, too. i even like the packing and mailing part now. i just wish i knew a way to become more visible and desirable. the pieces are sweet, small and very reasonable. i don’t like the term “cheap art manifesto”, but i do like the idea of making pieces that can give visual pleasure and be affordable. especially in these days. i am also enjoying the eBay stuff now, too. i like answering questions and watching the bids and feeling like something that was taking up space and no longer useful in my life has great value to someone else. i have now washed many quilts that i made 15-20 years ago and stored away. not fancy wall kinds, but for babies - non-traditional babies, of course. no pink and blue here. on the weekend i will be able to photograph them in the daylight and then i will list more things. i am getting into it! and my scuffy old fluevogs, too, maybe! it is definitely work, though. but remember, i am escaping into art and work now! not red wine and trashy mysteries! (at least not to excess) my hips ache today. i hope i am not getting arthritis, too. maybe it is just from clomping up and down the hill in lumpy ice and biting cold weather. winter can be done anytime now. where are those little yellow crocus? i’ve been looking…

some new things on etsy: hanging objects & more prepared books
lots of good things!

… and …

i have finally started listing many random, interesting and useful things on eBay. starting today with cameras, lenses, filters and flamenco shoes (which are doing very well, don’t laugh!) i am selling Miss Jemima, my Lomo, my Smena8M and my Diana+.

go see if you like?

hopefully tomorrow i will start listing some vintage textiles and clothing and yet more random, interesting and useful things. god it is a lot of work though! setting up photo shots, then listing, thinking of what to say, jeez, then packing and sending. but i MUST. there is so much stuff in this house now. what will i do with it all when i go off to the Peace Corps???

ok, enough advertising. it is rainy and cold and my back hurts so much. i want to start new pieces, but i don’t think i can tonight. my body only wants to lie in a clean flannel nest and read a book. then sleep. mmmmm.

what i did yesterday. no. not wandering around with a camera. i just didn’t want to go OUT.

instead i finished a gob of prepared books, that have been sitting around in assorted half-prepared states for months. now they are ready for someone else to finish and make into art objects. or me? i can’t do them all, i’m sure. besides, i am realizing that the preparing is the part i like best. (mostly) so i am thinking that if i can make myself sit here, at the scanner and computer, for the next few HOURS, then i might list them on etsy to see if there is any interest. they won’t be cheap, because even the preparing is quite a bit of work, but they could be lots of fun for the right person, especially those terrified of the blank white page. there are no blank white pages here. anyway, we’ll see … it is cold and rainy today, so it is definitely a staying-in day, maybe the scanning would be a good task for part of it. you can be sure i am not watching a football extravaganza today. the end.

it is turning into a releasingClearingout-type day here. the paintings that i thought to rejuvenate, i have decided to deconstruct. the good parts are cut out, the rest of the canvas removed from the stretchers and into the black trash bag. not all of them. some i decided to keep. one i am contemplating. the others though … GONE. it really feels good. i have also released the domain name “reconstructed-mind” which was my old whiney journal for 5 years. i still have all the archives, of course (safely stashed away). what else? oh!

etsy. i am going to be doing some clearing out there now, too. so if there is anything under consideration, one might want to go for it. i am going to unlist everything i don’t feel completely pleased with. and then add more things, that i have been shy about listing, thinking they were too big or costly or otherwise deemed “Not Right”. i am going to try to steer away from making objects “that i think will sell”. that doesn’t feel right, even though i do like making small things, i would like them to be more complex and elaborate, thus more costly. i stop myself about halfway through sometimes, thinking “no one will buy it!”. funny. then they don’t sell anyway. i like to make elaborate small things - photo objects, etc., big paintings, smaller waxed paintings … and books. both prepared and finished. so i am going to do that from now on. hear me roar? heh.

so there. now back to it. i’m not stopping until that black trash bag is full and out of the studio. then back to the magazine. and still another day off!!! wheeeeee!

these became so much fun. the first set is now up. the next one should go up tonight. and then??? i guess as long as my stack of hopeless polaroids lasts! (trust me. they are *not* worth tearing the collage off to see what image is secretly hidden!) they are good for Valentine’s or any loveOpportunity that might arise. i will even mail them to your crush! with a short message that you choose on the back.