Dispatch From LA

my kettle wants to boil

 

sunday...will be over for me in 4 hours.  i crammed a lot into the last 48 hours and i'm feeling good about it.

lots of work on a special project.

which.  if truth be told, may delight you much less than it delights me.

we'll just have to see about that!

i stayed outside from morning until about 20 minutes ago.  while i waited for special project things to dry i sloshed paint around in the visual journal.

at times i feel like i don't have enough time to work uninterrupted for long stretches of time.  i need long periods of intense creativity to get big ideas out of the head and into the world.  day jobs, no matter how fulfilling, prevent full throttle art making.  the creative kettle is hot, but it can't reach the boiling point when you're nursing a day job.

i find this frustrating.  but i make do.  we all do.

 sometimes though i take long delicious mental journeys to a world called early retirement.

 and imagine a life that revolves around full-time art making.

i wonder dear reader, what sort of mental journeys you go on?  what other sort of lives are being imagined inside the cocoon of your heart?

~

yes i am!

i finally found the app that instagramers use to make the little mosaics.

!!!

and it has a corner rounder.  huh?  NO WAY!  yes way.  it's true.

picframe.  you might want it.

i tried a few others but didn't like...

 i thought this video was d e l i c i o u s.

 lisa bengtsson 

 

tomorrow is sunday and i am going outside first thing and staying out all day.  yes i am! 

if you pop over for an impromtu visit you better knock on the back gate.  cause that's where i'll be!

you might be put to work clearing brush up on the hill in back.  you don't care do you?

somehow i made it all the way to here.

home sweet home.

morning

dawn light this morning.   everything washed clean by last night's soft showers.

i almost never take photos this early.

and maybe never from the bathroom window.

but i wanted to collect this small moment.  a little time capsule of a sleep-filled morning.  when i'm just coming awake.

i was not the only one who was watching the story of morning unfold.

the epiphylums that bloomed overnight were also on alert.

and looking so FRESH.  so radiant.

i will never ever ever ever in a bazillion years get tired of watching these giant petals open.

3 blooms opened last night while i slept!  

also while i slept... a band of racoons frolicked under my window.  they got so loud with their screechy calls back and forth and growling I woke up in the middle of the night, leaned out the window and scolded them.  they ignored me.  but i drifted back to sleep anyway.

i like being surrounded by wild furry creatures who have parties under my window at night.  so charmed!  i think they come onto the back patio and drink from the fountain at night.  maybe they paused last night to sit and stare up at the flowers.  maybe they reached up and licked a petal or two.  

it's a nice thought.

watermelon jellybeans with a sherbet chaser

you know how when you were a kid and your ma made meatloaf with bread or crackers to stretch it out?  well this post is kind of like a meatloaf.  it started the other day with the close-ups of these pages.  and now i'm stretching that right out into today.

i'm clever like that.  post stretching.  i'm a post stretcher.  

as i mentioned in the previous post, pam started the page on right above and i finished it.  that was fun and i want to do it again.

these are the very last pages in this visual journal.  i decided they would all be buttered with creamy layers of pink, orange, pink, pink, and some yellow.  i wanted to take advantage of all the leftover paint in the lasagna pan.

see those chalky grey circles up above?  they make me ecstatic.  when i was painting them i think i was thinking of donuts.  raspberry filled yeasty donuts with a thick layer of lavender icing on top.  or.

maybe i just thought of that a second ago.

i sort of wish everything didn't remind me of food.

in my next life i'm going to come back as a naturally thin vegan person who does not think of orange marmalade bisquits while she smears orange paint on her pages.

the thought of watermelon jelly beans with an orange sherbert chaser will never cross my mind.

ever. not even once.

guess what?  i found a super cool corner-rounding action and it's FREE.  FREE!!!

you want it?  okay.

go HERE to the coffeeshop and get it.  

isn't it nice to have such insanely helpful people floating around in the blogosphere?  not me.  i mean the corner rounding action maker.

dewy sparks

for 48 years i had a love affair with the moon.  but now i like starshine best.  it's hard to choose.  i certainly don't have to. not really.  but when i was in chiapas this past winter, i saw such brilliant stars in that inky black sky and looked at them for so long with such deep wonder and love...  that i knew after that i'd have to break up with the moon.  and marry the stars.

this video has nothing to do with stars but i thought it was exquisite with a capital E.

you will too.  i just KNOW it.

 

and this poem has everything to do with stars. ~

Looking at the Sky

by Anne Porter

I never will have time
I never will have time enough
To say
How beautiful it is
The way the moon
Floats in the air
As easily
And lightly as a bird
Although she is a world
Made all of stone.

I never will have time enough
To praise
The way the stars
Hang glittering in the dark
Of steepest heaven
Their dewy sparks
Their brimming drops of light
So fresh so clear
That when you look at them
It quenches thirst.

 

playing checkers & knitting sweaters

this morning i reported for duty at yesterday's journal center for a playdate with myself.  i like my new outdoor studio a lot.  a larger than normal troop of birds kept me company.  hummingbirds, red-headed finches, sparrows, crows, and hawks.  everyone was doing fly-bys.  chortling, twittering, cackling, beeping.  a duck might've flown over and quacked.  i can't be sure.

i was smack dab in the center of my pink & orange happy place.

here are a few snippets.

pam started the background of the one below and i finished it today.

i haven't sat for long stretches in my big visual journal in quite awhile.

gwen (a blog reader) sent me an email about the big red farmhouse she and her posse of art girlfriends used to gather at up in the pacific northwest.  doesn't that sound nice?  they still meet 3-4 times a year.

i'm pretty sure if kim jong-un,  bashar al-assad,  mahmoud ahmadinejad, barak obama, gathered at a big red farmhouse and played checkers or knit sweaters, crocheted rocks, or drew portraits of each other our world would be way less tense.  i'm gonna suggest it.    

i found the stars poem!

tomorrow!

she brought lasagne!

cute pam showed up with her paint in a giant lasagne pan.  i thought she brought snacks.  but no!  it was fun lollipop colored paints.  muffin tins with big creamy smooshes of lovely & amazing color.  i didn't know whether to grab a spoon or a paint brush.

sigh.  shiver. smile.

i was dumbstruck.

and terribly excited.

how good it is to partake in art communion with a friend!  i don't do it often enough.  of course if we could keep our traps shut for longer than 30 seconds at a time we might've gotten a lot more pages done.  yack yack yack.    yadda yadda blah blah.  i enjoyed every minute.  it was dark when she climbed back into her chariot and headed home.

i didn't take NEARLY enough photos.   too busy laughing and painting kooky portraits of each other.  DO NOT underestimate the amount of rip roaring fun you can have (without smoking any dope) doing this.

a day of enchantment.

through & through.

i can't wait to get back into my big visual journal tomorrow and move more of that creamy bright paint around the pages.

you would have liked it

i've been swamped this week with school responsibilities - no time to blog.   so sad!  did you miss me?

i finished my very last 2 pages in my chiapas travel journal some time ago (this is one) and never got around to posting.

i've also been whipping up some digital labels & tabs.  playing.

in the planning stages for my very first ebook.  ideas ideas ideas!!!

also thinking about norway and deciding if i'll just take my sketchbook or make something special...

hmmmm.

looking at past travel journals.

thinking.

tomorrow an artist friend i adore is coming for a visit and i'm getting up early and setting up a table out on the back patio.  YAH! we'll be diving head first into our visual journals.  making painty inky messes everywhere.  

oh and i read a poem.  it was nice.  but i can't find where i put it.  it was about stars.  you would have liked it!

torn between 2 lovers

okay.  back to sketchbook subject no. 10.  yeah, him.  

after trying to draw him from the teeny tiny cabinet card...i scanned and then drew while looking at the screen.  much easier!

i decided to do this in my visual journal.  i've been neglecting it since i began my love affair with my sketchbook.

torn between 2 lovers.  feeling like a fool.  loving both of you is breaking all the rules....

you can sing along if you want!

of course my cabinet card man looks nothing like his photo.  but isn't that silly after all?  trying to get your portrait to LOOK like who you are drawing.

HELLO.  that's what cameras are for.

my life is made richer by all my crazy magical thinking and faulty logic. 

whaddayagonnado?

the moral of this story:  when the voices talk...you better listen up!

existential sunday sketchbook flowers

by golly, it's sunday!

and the sun is beaming down all around moss cottage.  and i drank too much coffee.

my sister dottie is on her way for a visit!

we're going to see a new french film.  i hope there is a lot of existential angst in it a la henri.

also i'm listening to tom waits right this second:  pasties & a g-string.

do you think it's wrong that i know all the lyrics and sing along?

don't answer.

and tomorrow i'll show you my cabinet card portrait i did in my big visual journal.

of course if you instagram or facebook you already got the sneaky peeky.

didn't you?

ha ha ha

today in the classroom there was an earth shattering thunderclap and all the kiddos shrieked and  dove under their desks.  they thought it was an earthquake!  i hope that my booming laughter did not convey a devil-may-care attitude towards natural disasters.  but actually.  it WAS.  really.  funny.

wyatt earp was filled with melancholy.  i told him not to keep watching the video of henri.  but he didn't listen.  now he's gone and locked himself in the bathroom.

oh dear.

i ignored him and went outside to bow to the magnificent smoke tree in the garden.  this is the first year she has produced this many "puffs of smoke".

as much as i enjoy a good LA thunderstorm, i hope you aren't one of the 5 million people who are under tornado warnings tonight.  looks like a series of superstorms is brewing in the midwest.

take good care.

henri

My sister sent this to me!  We both agree it is Buck's French brother.  I used to trim his hair.  And cheeseburgers looks like Wyatt!  Brilliant I'm sure you'll agree...

 

 

juicy

sketching.  

and remembering a day last spring at a flea market in Paris.

when i found these serving spoons.

and all that juicy succulent ham.

i saw the easter bunny looking in my window!

This morning as dawn was breaking over the hills i happened to turn towards the window and saw... the outline of the EASTER BUNNY silhouetted in the glass!

2 long ears sticking up, whiskers, and a quivering nose.  Velvety pink & white fur.  Walking upright.  Outside my window of course.  With an easter basket of course.  For me of course.

I definitely think I saw that.  I'm almost positive I did.  I might have.

And while I was thinking.  I was drawing.

And staring at pink things.  They all seem to be opening at once and waving to me.  I am certainly not imagining that!

Wyatt Earp was manning his guard station.  He figured out a few weeks back that he can beat other cats up, like his brother Buck used to do.  So instead of running inside like a cry baby..he's gone all gangster!  He purposefully tries to pick fights.  He can't help it..being the new sheriff in town is exciting.

I've only had to spray him once with the garden hose.

Also he hates it when I draw birds.  Hmmmm...

I finished ROOM (in the sidebar).  I have a 2 word review:  Loved it!  

Now I've started this:

An apocalyptic vampire thriller.  There I said it.  Don't judge.  

It's EXTREMELY long.  So it will get a 4 word review.  

Possibly in August.

Happy Easter!!!

hello there

saturday is a beautiful word.  don't you think?  i enjoyed my morning coming in and out of the sunshine.  seeing what's bloomed.

no matter how many show-offs bloom in the garden, my pink geraniums make me happiest.

in the rental flat in san francisco i discovered a new way to brew coffee.  i ordered a drip cup that fits over the mug.  fantastic!  fresh!  delicious!

i put mr. coffee in the garage.

i sat at the kitchen table and stared at my new ranunculus.

my sister & i got on the phone and booked our tickets to alesund norway (from bergen)

we got a hotel room where we can fish out the window.  fishing poles provided.  this is not a lie.

the high summertime temperature is 58 crisp degrees.

yesterday evening i pored over my new crochet book!

i'm going to become a crochet motif maker full time.  that will be my new job.

i hope the company that hires me understands that i can only put out 1 per day.

i think they will.

saturday you are good.  

you are so good.

oolong tea

chinatown

I'm home now.

But yesterday I was here.  Right here.

Surrounded by my favorite confectionary color palette.

I zipped here and there soaking in the storied atmosphere.   Brilliant.  My heart turned a deeper shade of red.

Intoxicating.

It's good to be back at Moss Cottage.  I missed the smallness of her walls.  And the comfort of my bed.  And a big pile of paws to smoosh my face into.

There is at least 1 more Chinatown post coming tomorrow.

Thanks for coming along.  I love reading your comments when I travel.  Knowing that the pictures in my head are being seen by more than my two eyes.  It's a nice feeling.

dog tricks

my last day of adventure brought me to alamo square and the lovely painted ladies.

they're sweet, but i like these girls even better on the other side of the park.  who doesn't want to live in a candy colored house?!

delicious. 

and such deep pine & eucalyptus trees.  small pockets of wildness to get lost inside in the middle of the city.

i sat and watched this canine version of buck moss for awhile.

different park.  different doggies.  

i sat on a bench and laughed out loud at their clown-like chasing games.

lafayette park in pacific heights has views that leave you breathless.

you can see alcatraz from here!

i sat on a bench under a stand of fragrant trees and stared out at all that BLUE.

read a book.  did more staring &  thinking - deep & shallow thoughts.

i decided that in 10 years i'm going to move to san francisco.

become a dog walker.  open a pink launderette.

move into a corner apartment with sweeping views of the bay.  across the street from a park of course.

my heart's kind of set on this one.

but this one has it's own set of charms.

maybe i'll get a bike.  san francisco has a surprising number of bike riders!

or at least get really good at motoring up hills.  my arse will become like a couple of steel love buns from noe valley bakery.

i'll join a crochet circle that meets in a different park every week.

take chinese lessons.

get a dog.

find a friend with a sailboat.

stuff like that.

last wash 10 pm

this morning i headed off for a walk around land's end

mmmmm...

i am head over heels in love with all the launderettes!  they're everywhere.  this one has a bench out front which is nice after you walk up the hill.  i've collapsed onto it several times already.

discovered this place while wandering 

more zines than you can shake a stick at!

THIS little bakery has v.v. good love buns.

i went to FLAX today also.  holy mother of art stores!  thanks rhonda for telling me about it.  can i send you my bill?

please?

round 3

i'm high on PRETTY.

san francisco is buzzing with candy colored possibility.  maybe i have stars in my eyes, i don't know, but everything has a soft glimmer.

yesterday i tramped around  here and there & everywhere.

my calves are sore.

by the time you read this i'll be out for round 3.

the weather has been glorious!  not a wisp of fog to be found.  the air has a chill to it that is so refreshing.

perfect exploring or rock crocheting weather.  {don't inspect my stitches too closely!}

that's the buck paperdoll.  he comes with me on all of my travels.  

 i spotted him yesterday.  giant buck i mean. his face in profile... peeking at me from behind coit tower.  he likes to follow me around.  and spy.  silly rabbit.

good morning world. it's sunday!

i'd heard of SCRAP before, but when Paula - a reader {of this here blog}... emailed yesterday and told me to hightail it over here, I listened.

It's in a warehouse/industrial part of SF.

And it is FILLED to bursting with aisles of every sort of scrap imaginable!

There are really cool assemblage pieces scattered on top of shelves that were put together with all manner of found loot.

I skipped up and down the aisles with reckless abandon.  Just me and my trader joe's bag.

But in the end I only walked away with this little stash.  Oh.  And an old 60's or 70's  sign:  MORRISON for mayor.  I liked the letters!

I already crocheted a rock with my new cotton string.  Now I'm going to try one with the thin white thread...

but first I think I'll finish my coffeecake muffin and giant cup of coffee.