cobaltika

oh yuk.
two etsy spams in a row!
i was determined not to use my journal as a sales device, but i just did it - and on facebook, too!

sorry everybody! i will write something real or whine really soon. i swear….

GRAND OPENING SALE!!!
all images $10 (includes shipping) through September
(new images will be added during the month)
cobaltikaCuadros.etsy.com

ok, i did it. i built it. will they come?

i hope!!!!!

new things on etsy.
scenes from a happy summer

i’m doing pretty well at sticking to the artTable this week. discovered that playing Brideshead Revisited on the laptop at the artTable was helpful. it is so easy to get irritable and distracted and personally judgmental about what i am working on. i loved Brideshead and it is fun to watch it again. yay Library! mostly just hunkering down this week, keeping to myself, trying to spend not a penny, trying to keep focused on what i want to do, to make, that eludes me, then i wander off, hop into bed with a book (yay Library!), then just … lose it. so i am being strict this long weekend. i have taken some awful canvasses out of their pretty frames and i will re-make them. i have plenty of stuff. i can experiment and don’t need to hoard (i keep telling myself). there is a worse-than-dial-up connection out here tonight. will this go?

just a random image from the weekend! sometimes i am so surprised to find it has been a week or so since i have written here. this from a person who used to post excessively - perhaps embarrassingly so. sometimes i miss it all… last week i almost caved in and ordered home internet again, but the cable company infuriated me enough that i canceled. yay. really, it is not in my budget yet. i’m doing fine, still happy, not stressed, even though i probably *should* be, because ends don’t meet. but the TIME. god i love having the time…

i’m still selling a few books, but noticing a weirdness. i have them listed at both Amazon and Half.com, but several times i have sold a book on Amazon (once on Half) and almost immediately, before i could get into delete the other site listing, the same book sold on the other site and i have had to cancel the later sale. this seems really really strange … one person even left a negative feedback for me. because of a disappointment? that seems a bit extreme? it’s not like the book wasn’t *everywhere* and probably at a better price than mine. i wonder if there are tricky things going on that i don’t know about? oh well - the bit of extra $$ is GREAT - and i will be glad not to have 20 boxes of books to move next time. and i am glad that the books are going to someone who really wants them, not just dumped at Goodwill.

also, i have been working on an image-only Etsy store, but i don’t like it yet, so haven’t announced it. it is frustrating to find that many images look so great on a monitor, but not printed. so i have to work with them forever to find out whether they will work or not. also, i don’t like Etsy’s inflexibility for listing order and layout. i wonder if i should make my own sales gallery again on my own site? but i don’t think i am very visited, so it might not work. i don’t know!!! but i’m working on it.

the bigger work i have been attempted is frustrating. i don’t know why such terror develops when my canvas is bigger than … um … 4″ x 6″. jeez.

a pretty nice weekend with the poet in Kansas City - our favorite cheap Mexican dive that i might be a little tired of, District 9 — WOWOWOWOW — wallowing about, eating potato chips in bed, wading through dewy wildflowers hunting butterflies, wandering one of my favorite neighborhoods (by Mattie Rhodes Art Center and they bottleFence house), just stuff. it was good. and i like to come home, too. and i also like to get my electric bill and find it was only $48 last month!! even running the A/C!! wow! i have a GREAT place!

Betsy is in LA now and i hope hope hope that Margaret and i will get to visit her at T-giving. no. not hoping. PLANNING. next month i plan to visit Margaret and my familia in Texas. i am ready for a roadtrip, that is for sure. onward!

scenes from the carnival : douglas country fair
click to go, if you like!

the carnival, quiet, even in broad daylight, with no customers - still scary to me!

this is not relevant, but i like it. from last weekend, adventures with the poet. on the day we did not go to to the fair, we wanted a walk outdoors, but it was SO HOT. so we talk a “rolling hike”. ha. we meant to find the huge field of sunflowers. i thought i knew exactly where they were. but either they were not planted this year or i was wrong. so we did not see them. but we found a BEAUTIFUL dirt road through some land that was like paradise. so we kept the AC on, rolled down the windows and drove very very slowly, stopping to point and tell and make pictures. it was quite wonderful, that road. there were so many vistas and wildflowers. the wildflowers have been awesome this summer, with all the rain. i’m still messing with the nature pictures - and the fair pictures - (which i am very excited about). on the way home, we detoured through Linwood, because i wanted to see if this little old red cafe was still there. it was. an old fellow drove up in his riding cart and overalls and watched me make pictures. we all shared a few words and some nods of the head. a bit odd, but typical for these miniscule towns.

now i am in the laundromat, doing my “work” while i wash. this is going to be a rather solitary weekend, and i have some projects. the big one is re-arranging my space (already). yes, the artSpace is much too small. the sleeping space is too large. and it is affecting my energy there, i’m sure. i have been sleeping so well and LONG - far more than i need, i’m sure. although i am an artingFiend, too, i want to … expand … so … that means MOVING ALL THE BOOKS OFF ALL THE SHELVES AND MOVING THE SHELVES AND MAKING DIFFERENT WALLS!!! aaaaaaaaahhhhhh! but i will. also there are some areas that are too busy and i don’t like. i’m sure i don’t need to have ALL of my treasures out at once, right? they can take turns. more art is in progress, too. and i will go to the library for more books and a couple of films. some morning hikes with certain images in mind. it will be good.

i also want to say that i am SO grateful to people who have been Buying Stuff - books and art. THANK YOU. i am trying to let my paypal collect enough $$ so that i can go visit my Mama and my Margaret in Texas next month! i miss them so much!! if i can get there, they will feed me and give me a bed. then somehow, must manifest a plane ticket to LA to see my Betsy at T-giving time. i think i can! i think i can!

i am happy.

still summer. it seems i have been making more images of flowery stuff than raggedy old sheds this summer? ok, if you could see my image folders, you would know. i know i am not posting much. still awkward with no home connection and yep. for now, it is going to stay that way. gulp. but it is ok. i am having fun and getting much artMaking done this summer. i’m not starving or going naked either. all is mostly well. this weekend, i even made images of ANIMALS. jeez. me? my poet insisted upon the Douglas County Fair, so we made it there on the last day and there were still animals and rides and snowCones. it was very very hot. but fun.

i have been thinking more and more about stitching and cloth. mostly i have been working on new pieces with layers of old book pages - arranged artfully. heh. and then some transferred ornaments, etc. it is hard to explain. i know i could show, but they aren’t there yet. i keep working and working wondering why they are so difficult. and then i think about cloth. there is some old cloth in a plastic bin in the garage. and piles and piles of old vintage linens. doilies and stuff. i might have to get it all out and see. i love having the time for these investigations. some of the paper experiments have resulted in small pieces that are now on etsy. like this:

but on the big pieces, i am thinking - No Imagery. that is a little scary as i have come to lean on imagery. yet every time i go there, it ends up looking like an image plopped on a fancy background. for the small pieces, it seems to work, but not larger. hmmmm. so. onward, i guess!