cobaltika

it seems spring is coming

has it really been a week since i have written? oh my.

(actually, i wrote this yesterday and posted in livejournal, but felt odd putting it here, because this is supposedly my “visual” journal - but - i’ve been slacking on the visual a little…hmmm?)

i am almost not writing now, because i don’t have a pretty picture to show. i haven’t been making any. i don’t seem to be the person who wanders around with a camera lately. i am even thinking about putting Miss Jemima on ebay. maybe i would rather have the money? sure, i did carry my babycam on the weekend, walks with the poet. we hunted daffodils. and found quite a few! but for some reason i am feeling a little tired of capturing all of the sameness of my surroundings. and i haven’t been going on any solitary adventures. if i don’t look out, i will get that old agoraphobia again.

the last week must have gone quickly. in the office three of the days, to the dentist one of the afternoons, to be crowned and asked for more money, mailing lots of pretties out - that was fun! thank you friends! i believe there was also some messing around at the artTable but it is still not coming easily. i haven’t worked on my novel in forever, well, a month. i know all of the revisions that need to be made, but i just can’t seem to make myself sit down with the manuscript and do it. i don’t want to stop though. i know it is a good story (ha ha. once one gets past the tedious shit. the stuff i keep apologizing for, but like. argh. who should i please? me or you? anyway…)

the weekend with the poet was very sweet. we always have a pleasant time. *finally*, The Beaches of Agnes has come to the US and i had Netflix deliver it before i left, so we could watch it together. WONDERFUL. i was so delighted by Agnes Varda - and enlightened - of course she was a photographer first. her scenes are so beautifully composed, so careful. and i adore how she does so much with so little. then we decided we needed to watch one of her earlier films, so we rented Le Bonheur which was stunning and more complicated and challenging that one might imagine. i did not like the judgments that arose in my mind at all, the puritanical thoughts. i’ve been fretting, as i consider myself very open-minded. we also went to the bargain matinee to see Ghostwriter, which was fabulous. crisp and clean and classy. i can’t figure out how Polanski got to Martha’s Vineyard to direct, though. did he sneak into the US? hee! i hope so.

what else? we did some dirty work in one of the rooms of the house, listened to music, had lunch at Cancun, cooked tuna steaks and pancakes (not at the same meal) on the hotplate, found a new wilderness (sort of) with lots of small lakes and black cormorans passing through, probably other things that i can’t remember now. i woke up too early. 4:30. yuk.

i wonder what today will be like. (it was pretty. spring is definitely here.)

massive spring cleaning sale!!!!

i am in the process of jamPacking my etsy shop with many new and old items and most are going in to the sale section - if you haven’t checked in a while, you will see lots of NEW THINGS!

the prices are ridiculous. i have been reprimanded enough about this, i know the work and my time have far more value, but at this point, i honestly am more excited about seeing the pieces go to new homes. sure, i like a little extra income, too, but i don’t need to rake it in with these pieces that have been sort of my … therapy … for the past few years. they deserve more than being stacked up in plastic boxes! so come rescue them!

every day there will be MORE, until it is all listed. i know i know. my fees are going to be enormous, but so what! i want these babies to GO!

thanks!

it is snowing today. a LOT. i went to my friend traci’s open studio/artHouse, even though i knew i couldn’t buy any yarn or good art stuff thanks to the dentist and the car mechanic, but she wasn’t expecting a crowd (thanks to the weather) and she would be glad for some company. so i got a chance to see Her New Book!!

i felt kind of hesitant. of course, i am really proud of her. i know how hard she worked on that book! but the thing is, i am just not a big fan of “craft books” and the like. i used to enjoy them more, but now i am tired of them, especially the ones who offer the reader a chance to make cloneArt, just like the author. pretty pictures, nice people, sure, but … ho hum. so although i was impressed to see it For Real, on the table, i worried i might have to enhance my enthusiasm a little…

traci and her book!

but WOW! traci fooled me!! Print and Stamp Lab is NOT just about how to make art that looks “just like traci’s”. nope! it is a book to inspire you to open your eyes and go hunt down some crazy stuff and use it to make art. sure, she gives you TONS of ideas and even instructions. then she shows you how *she* used the tools she has created and in the most interesting ways. but *you* will instantly have a thousand more ideas. i know i did and i didn’t even have my glasses on! i definitely want to try some of that stuff! some of it i had never considered and i thought i had a pretty clever mind. but it doesn’t stop there. now i feel INSPIRED to try making some of my own printing devices, too, like traci’s, and then go have the excitement of discovering my own weird tools and uses. so much fun to be had.

also, the book is really handsome. the graphics, photos, layout and feel are awesome. as soon as i have recovered from the dentist and mechanic, i might even … gulp … BUY IT! and i seldom buy books these days, so that is a big deal.

go have a look! i’ll bet you will want it, too!

then when i left, i got stuck in a snowy, muddy ditch (i was trying to leave the “good” places for her customers … sigh) and traci and a customer had to spend almost half an hour helping me get out. it was really ugly. but THANK YOU! so much…

i have been on a roll at the artTable this week. lots of things coming together, little things i was working on, pondering, etc. now they are done. now they are on etsy. now you can have them. for a bare song.

my tooth is getting well and i feel much better. even though i don’t like antibiotics.

i went to the city to see my poet and that was good.

then yesterday i went to take tinaMerlot for her oil change and checkup (*finally*) and ended up spending $500. not so good. but oh. she sounds like she would like to drive across the country right now. she is nice. but i still think a car is a lot of responsibility and money. sigh…

the best thing about taking her was walking to and from the good ole boys’ mechanic shop in north Lawrence. i took my camera. then after i picked her up, there was sun, and i drove further north to go fast and see if she still jittered when i stepped on the brakes. nope. i saw an amazing flock of crows. i stopped to watch them in the cornfield and then they flew right over me. it was enchanting, like a spell. especially because not even one of them messed on my car.

it was good to see some things.

at the house of the tiny elephant : kansas city : winter 2010

and i’m off to the city again this weekend. sometimes i wonder what it would have been like if i had found the right place to live *there* instead of my airy garage apartment loft *here* last summer. i’m sure everything worked out as it should, but i can’t help but wonder what it would be like to live there and commute here on my working days. oh well. i love the place i live in, even though i’m tired of this town. i know when things start to change to green, it will look interesting to me again, for a while anyway. i love the change of seasons.

so the tooth mystery is resolved finally. even though it never hurt, just felt weird off and on, until the big swelling last weekend, i had a molar cracked under an ancient filling. since i have (finally) given up popcorn as a primary food group this year, the dentist agreed that it could have happened during the fall on the ice, since i hit so hard and even my headBones clacked. root canal, temporary crown, lots of money (most covered by Delta Dental thankyoubabyjebus), penicillin … and i will soon be all better. i guess i could think of some things more fun to spend my state tax return on, but sigh … at least i had it in the bank.

in other news, NOT MUCH! winter is winding down and now i have to get over the slight agoraphobia that occurs when i spend so much time indoors. still trying to figure out what is wrong with my artHands, why they won’t do what my artBrain wants. want to make more pictures, but bored of the environments available. and so on… sort of plodding, i guess, letting my hair grow.

the weekend had enough sun and warmth to make wandering around in the alleys downtown with a camera rather pleasant. i looked for new “art”. but didn’t find too much. also finished LOTS of prepared books, which i already advertised, and starting putting my book up for reading and commentary, which has also already been advertised. so there were good things. interspersed between the badness of a creepy abscess thing or something growing in my gum, a broken refrigerator and the fact that my Betsy has not called in approximately one hundred years.

well, i guess the thing in my mouth must not have been that bad, since it didn’t hurt enough to warrant as “emergency” and i can’t even get it looked at until Thursday morning, which doesn’t matter, since it mostly went away last night. my tooth still feels funny though. but doesn’t hurt. i wonder if i cracked it when i fell on the ice? after two days of bringing bags of ice from the quikshop, the refrigerator man (a little old fellow, just like a maytag advertisement!) came and fixed the thing in half an hour. but i wish Betsy would call. or email. or *something*. sad mama.

spring is probably coming. i saw crocus.