Dispatch From LA

butterflies drink flower juice

i got up just as the moon was setting.  

goodbye moon.  see you tonight.

i need paper like a hole in my head.

but i couldn't resist these.  so i didn't!

i think katie is so talented.  i knew her paper packs would be lovely.

i wasn't wrong.

this is the first day of my 4 day mini-vacation.

vacation vacation vay kay shun

i like the way that sounds.

it sounds like rainbows and butterscotch sundaes and picnics and cows with bells around their necks.

tinkling bells and orchestral movie scores.

because i said so.  that's why.

in the classroom one of the red hot chili peppers furiously draws all day long.  

he takes breaks to make loud honking exploding whistling noises, jog around the room, crawl under the desks, cry, and blow spit bubbles.

 all of my usual tricks to prod him into doing class work have so far been met with snorts.

he did ask me to please make him a book out of construction paper.  i did.

so far he wrote "sharks and fish" on the cover.  

maybe next week he can be persuaded into letting me help him write a story.

if you're thinking, "well just MAKE him do his work!!!"

the short answer is:

i'm trying!

he has some gnashing teeth and claws and piercing stares to get out of his system first.

he informed me this week that:

 

butterflies drink flower juice and it's their job to deliver honey to bees

where do they get the honey?

they make it inside the flowers!

take a listen

 

soothing & hypnotic

hello!

i have an idea stuck in the cog of one of my wheels.  by that i mean stuck fast.  

not budging.

i am going to draw giant letters in my sketchbook and i'm not going to stop until they're all done.  one a day.

 in my visual journal i continue doing whatever i feel like whether it makes sense or not because i am the boss of me. 

~

and tomorrow some big cheese is coming to our school to walk through our classrooms and take notes and make sure we are on track and not fooling around.  teachers need entire teams of babysitters to stay on track.  oh you didn't know that?  yeah.  it's true.  hopefully the wheels of the big classroom cart we're riding in won't go rolling off in all different directions at the exact moment when the B.C. pulls into our station.

but i'm not holding my breath.

~

when i get home i'll continue my art brain exercises, draw another letter in my sketchbook, and make a cocktail.  think about the upcoming 4 day weekend.

all new

how i was feeling:

playful

hopeful

hungry

excited

disgusted

elated

discouraged

cheerful

sleepy

happy

confused

curious

all that within the first 4-5 pages of my new visual journal.  displeased with my initial efforts i plodded on ignoring the mentally ill relatives of my mind who like to sit around and discuss my pages sometimes.  'these are warm-ups!'  i told myself.  'exercises.'  

knowing that made me feel better looser.  it's been awhile since i sat with my visual journal.  and this is a new one.  it's kind of good to mess up all the first pages.  you know...to get it over with and move on.  and when i looked back they weren't so bad after all.  i like it when that happens.  the beautiful ugly and crazy all rolled up into one.  that's the journal.  that's the one i love.

in my sketchbook i am drawing GIANT letters.

~

i was listening to israel kamakawiwo'ole.  daaaang i dig that guy.

i stopped in the middle of horsing around in my journal to make a dance video for my sister.  

i do that sometimes.

~

p.s.  will whoever emailed me about the typography book email me back because i can't find your email and i just remembered i didn't answer you.  sorry!  i try and respond to all of my emails that require an answer and can't be found by reading DFLA (or common sense), but the cracks.  they are large.  sometimes stuff falls in between.

norway travel journal

~

~

it's friday night and i am sitting in my art command post.  i can hear the ice cream truck turning around in the little lane below my house.  cool night air drifts in the open windows.  good summer air on a summer night.  wyatt is lapping water out of my paintbrush jar which i just filled up.  the scent of bbq reaches me from down the hill.  maybe i will take an empty plate and sniff out the exact house.  walk in their patio hold out my plate and say,  "fill-er-up please!"

i am deliriously happy to be home alone.   2 of my red-hot squirmers were absent today. the other fireballs were easily managed with the main antagonists gone.  oh it was complete and utter peace.  the first so far this year.  i don't think i mentioned it but i ALSO have in my class a big group of sweet & delightful children.  and a lot of shy girlies.  one of them whispered in my ear that she has a diary {!} and is getting a pair of boots {!} this weekend.  after she finished i stood up and she motioned me back down to her level, "it's a secret!!!!"

what a luxury to be able to give my attention more fully to the other boys & girls.

~

tomorrow is saturday.  it hardly seems possible.

but it's true!

thursday

have you ever had a spicy mexican margarita?  ay yi yi!!!

you can get a really good one at senor fish in little tokyo.

i know because i went there after school with a teacher buddy of mine.

hot & delicious.  here are the ingredients:

Real De Mexico Reposado,Fresh Pineapple,Cilantro, and Serrano Pepper with a Splash of Fresh Lime, Pineapple Juice, and Agave Nectar

we sampled several different types of margaritas.  their classic on the rocks version was good too.

i had a wild day on several fronts and an ice cold spicy hot drink was just what i needed to soothe my savage inner beast.  ahhhhhh.

 a nice cantina full of boisterous laughing people.  so refreshing!

relief is on the way.  it may take a month, but mr. ODD{oppositional defiant disorder} will be leaving for a special school soon that is better suited for his particular set of issues.

i'm trying something called The Nurtured Heart Approach.  susan w., a teacher i met right here on DFLA, recommended it.  i've enrolled in a free online class to learn more and got a book too.  i'm a total novice, but one of the tenents of the approach is not to excite negativity.  if you walked in my room you would not know i was losing my mind.  i appear calm.  i am devising my unfathomable plans.  and in the meantime am doing my best to  CALM my hot writhing cadre of special needs children.  

the life of a monkey whisperer is never boring.  never.  ever.

i drove home through a maze of traffic.  

i should have swung by and picked this fellow up on my way to the cantina.  

we could've sat on the patio and painted cardboard signs.  discussed sun tzu or the mars rover - curiosity.  

~

another quiet but large thank you for the well wishes.  there are so many.  i am so touched.  and as betsy wrote below, the ideas are germinating.

yes, they are!

Mary Ann, there are a lot of good ideas in these comments. Ideas like seeds planted in your mind. Surely something is taking root and starting to push it's way up. I await what you come up with.

also thanks to dear gwen delmore for telling me about this book:

i just started it and can't read it fast enough.  thrilling!

the art of tea. and war.

this is becoming my favorite way to bind a book.  simple, handsome.

i'm drinking a jar of white coconut creme tea (from Art of Tea) every day.

iced in my biggest glass.

 because the aroma and flavor is exquisite.  subtle & light.

when i read through the comments on yesterday's post i felt like i had my very own verizon team.  full of support & wise words.

i feel lucky to have you.  sure do.

  the school district i work for is a giant lumbering dysfunctional demoralizing institution.  a big dirty broken-down machine with a lot of hostile broken-down people on power-trips at the controls.  flipping switches.  changing channels.  experts at being experts.

if i retire early in 5 years it won't because of the kids.  it will be because of the adults.

having said that i do have a real wild bunch on my hands this year.  a totally preventable situation had some care been taken not to move all the severe first grade behavior problems into one classroom.  mine.

at my school, teachers are not involved in classroom organization.  we're not smart enough apparently.

 have you heard of oppositional defiant disorder?  it's living in my classroom.

whatever.

i have sun tzu on my side.  the art of war to the rescue again!

Carefully study the well-being of your men, and do not overtax them.  Concentrate your energy and hoard your strength.  Keep your army continually on the move, and devise unfathomable plans.

also i am researching a 1 year leave of absence when this school year is over. unpaid.  but an entire year to experiment.  that's worth a lot.

 

dear elisabeth gjessing this used to be your book

all weekend my brain was on overdrive.  thinking thinking thinking

and while i thought i punched holes, sewed in signatures, rounded corners.

kissed pink cat paw pads.

i am NOT a follow-your-bliss kind of person {when it comes to employment.}  i turn away from cliche slogans that include the word soul/dream/manifest/universe.  yadda yadda yadda all that stuff leaves a sacharrine taste in my mouth and a tinny sound in my ears.  too canned.  too trite.  too disneylandesque.  too simplistic.  too everything.  for me.  the world according to mary ann doesn't operate like a wish factory.  there's chaos, and coincidence, mess, and beauty, and wonder, coolness & heat, unpredictability, richness, things that don't happen for a reason.  

except it's my own story starring me and i'm writing the script.  

so while i was rounding corners i was also contemplating the possible route my bliss might take me if i were to follow it.  

 imagining what would happen if i were to paddle my little boat way out in the middle of deep water.  lay on my back in that dark sea and stare at a sky embroidered with possibility.

then take my compass and head off in a totally new direction. an enormous ship's log under my arm of course...  to record everything.

change my mind.  change my course.

so that's what i thought about this weekend.  it's what i'm still thinking about.

close closer closest

sunday's luxuries.  they are g o o d.

mental horse blinders on.  not thinking of tomorrow.  

only of this one wild & precious day.

and then it was friday.

psst...come here.

look deeply into my eyes.  i have something to tell you. 

when i come home everyday from school i am not feeling fulfilled & sparkly.  i feel the opposite of fulfilled and sparkly.

so in the evening i sit down with my second-hand sketchbook i picked up at SCRAP in SF.

with the windows open and summer air being fanned inside.

which sort of feels like water straight out of the tap.  not cool.  not warm.  but so so pleasant.

and with all of that summer air swirling around my bare arms and my knotted brow i start to feel like...

i can breathe.  and i can.  and i do.

norway travel journal

the midnight skies of norway smudged with dark clouds.  i want to go to there.

back

to hilly lanes dappled with sunlight...

i need to bring horseblinders to school.

because my eyes keep straying to the windows.

my ears are ringing with all the noises of inner city life i forgot existed.

ambulances roaring by right outside the room.  so many emergencies!

endless chatter.

runny noses.

untied shoes.

fingers in need of bandaids.

panic attacks over missing lunch boxes.

someone accidently hit someone who  accidently threw someone's milk on someone else's new pants.

vacation withdrawal.  

norway travel journal + conehead

tomorrow after school i'll be racing home to take someone to the vet.  after a week of at home remedies and elizabethan collars the problem isn't resolving itself so it's off for a consult.  as of last week wyatt earp moss will no longer have free reign of the cat door.  nope.  he's just going to have to learn to stay inside while mama's at work.  too many strays in the neighborhood who like to fight.  

the cat door is getting sealed up!

meanwhile at school i'm getting reaquainted with classroom life.  establishing routines, putting out fires, telling stories,  leading war tribunals, counseling the downtrodden, tripping over backpacks, and trying to keep the bees out of my bonnet.

you know...just the usual.

blah blah blah

sunday.

i'm so glad that my sketchbook and I are getting reacquainted.  and even though it sort of looks like a tin can is upside down in my coffee cup i don't care.

 

tell the wolves i'm home. because i am.

a date with my sketchbook.  i am not above painting bright aqua around everything i do from now on.  i think it's called for.

exhibit no.1  my yet to be bound, visual journal no. 13.  waiting for me to plug in 3 episodes of true blood and punch holes and get stitchy.

this was supposed to be my travel journal bag for the norway journal. even though i had not been drinking when i stitched this together, i made it 4 sizes too big.  perfect for the budapest journal.  don't make fun of my flowery trim tie.  just don't.  

i was too lazy to dig for something more suitable.  besides it has a certain folksy hungarian chutzpah right?  

i finished The Chaperone and have not a single good thing to say about it.  I'm shocked that it received so many rave reviews.  I found it to be poorly written in a crazy 3rd person POV that i didn't like one bit.  3/4 of the way through the book sort of ends and then the 3rd person narration speeds up and in the space of a few pages 10, 15, 20, 30 years pass.  huh?  i will admit i liked the IDEA of the story and the main character Cora, but the writing just annoyed me.

so i started Tell The Wolves I'm Home {one of your recommendations!} and within a page of beginning...

i settled deeply into an extremely satisfying story.  with no awkward writing style to ruin things for me.  whew.

plus doesn't the front cover just thrill you?  love. it.  thank you elizabeth!

my sister dottie is moving to san diego and i couldn't be happier!    she is looking to rent a cute little place in the HILLCREST neighborhood for under $1000 buckeroos.  if you have a lead on a place, do let me know!  she is open to hearing about other neighborhoods so if you're from san diego do tell all. 

A Glimpse Into A Danish Home & Studio

I've always been a curious cat.  I can't help it.   When I mentioned I was going to Norway I began to receive comments from Tina in Denmark.  One thing led to another and I asked her if she would consider sending me some photos of her house, which is in a tiny town about 30 minutes outside of Copenhagen. 

She was kind enough to oblige.  I hadn't intended at that time to make them into a blog post, but I was so charmed by her home & studio!  I requested her permission to share the photos with YOU thinking you might find them as interesting as I did.  See how I am?  Always thinking of you.  

In addition to painting, Tina also makes these sweet little bears, gorgeous fabric collages, and unique artist books.  Her talented husband moonlights as a painter.

Don't you just love seeing the workbench where all the creativity unfurls?

These photos remind me of the apartments we rented in Norway.  I will never get tired of seeing Scandinavian homes!    If you live outside of the U.S. and you want to submit photos for possible inclusion in a future blog post on artist homes/studios email me.  

You don't have to have a blog.  You don't have to make your living as an artist.  Even if you're scribbling away in a sketchbook by the light of a rickety lamp I wanna see!   I was sort of thinking it would be fun to do one of these every month or so.   Please type: MY HOME/STUDIO IN________ - in the subject line of your email.  That way I can reroute you out of my overflowing inbox to a tidier folder where you won't get lost!

234

if i didn't have to report to duty on monday morning i would just stay home and draw 234 pairs of scissors.  one after another.  or until my brain reset itself.

i would.  i really would.

 me and my exacto at it again.

i def def def do not want to have a race with the presto zappo super sonic cutting machine silhouette something or other. no way!

it can cut circles around me!

but it can't draw neon pink patterns and then staple them on top of other patterns.

it def def def cannot do that!

for your information

this calendar is 12 x 18.  to make it into a journal i kept the spiral in the middle and folded the long pages towards the center.  this made my journal 12 x 9.  with me so far?

some of the pages had already been cut up and repurposed - i'm constantly reusing this paper, in fact there are some of these calendar paper pages in my norwegian travel journal...i'll point some of those out when i get back to posting pics of that.  

i stitched extra scraps on those shortened pages.  hope this makes sense.  it's the best explanation i can give due to summer brain.  scuse!

i went to town painting up pam's stamps and sticking them everywhere {see the arrows in the top pic too!}.

i tried watercolor and runny paint.  yum.  they also look good if you use a regular stamp pad.  but since i like to do things in an irregular way i just used paint.

temporary journal 1 on top of temporary journal 2.  temporarily.

i have a lot of completed visual journals, but for some reason i've only ever numbered the hardback ones. in my mind the rest are called temporary.  don't ask me why.  i don't have the answer.  the categorizing department of my brain does, but it's not talking to me today.  sorry!

pam made the word "journal" on her presto zappo super sonic cutting machine called...a silhouette something or other.  she drew the word then the computer cutting machine thingy cut it out.

for your information i have a machine like that too!  it's called my hands and exacto.  i don't quite get that nice smooth finish, but whaddayagonnado?

i am happily absorbed in The Chaperone.  the part about the orphan trains made me have to get a kleenex and dab at my eyes.  poor little kiddos.  stuck on trains and sent west. 

my sister dottie is moving to san diego and i couldn't be happier!  for the first time in over 20 years i'll have another moss within a couple of hours.  she is looking to rent a cute little place in the HILLCREST neighborhood for under $1000 buckeroos.  if you have a lead on a place, do let me know!

what i'm doing

i should have been in my classroom today setting things up.  but i wasn't.  i was here.  making a new "temporary" visual journal.  my paper order isn't here yet {fabriano hotpress 140 lb. from dick blick}.  so i put off classroom duties by a day.   but let's face it manual labor, clean-up, and reassembling a classroom is just not as fun as sitting at my art table and listening to music and painting and cutting and pasting and stapling.  and all that.  but since school DOES start on tuesday i guess i'll haul my reluctant arse to school, roll up my sleeves and begin.  

since i finished the other temporary journal i rummaged around and got out one of my old Snow & Graham calendars and started folding.  it's pretty easy to imagine how a great big calendar with super thick pages and cool graphics can be turned into a journal.

 i started reading THE CHAPERONE.   i found it over on cornflower, thanks to loretta for mentioning them on her blog a few posts back.  i started GONE GIRL and something about it disagreed with me.  so i unstarted it.  while i was briefly in between books i satisfied my reading thirst over at loretta's.  she is a dazzling story teller.  

thanks for the book recs!  you always come through.  they look really good and i'm anxious to dive into a big fat stack of them.  i have half a dozen samples on my kindle ready for my reading taste buds to assess.

 before i forget!!!

my sister, dottie, is moving to san diego and i couldn't be happier!  for the first time in over 20 years i'll have another moss within a couple of hours.  she is looking to rent a cute little place in the HILLCREST neighborhood for under $1000 buckeroos.  if you have a lead on a place, do let me know and i'll pass the info along.  

futuristic dystopian themes

apparently, i'm having a really good time in my waiting-for-my-paper-order-to-arrive book.

i finished  11/22/63.  sniff sniff.  cried at the end.  of course i did!  

now i'm looking for my next book.  and if you loved 11/22/63 we prob have the same taste in reading material.  but it can't be science fiction, romance, tween novels, vampires, werewolves, have futuristic dystopian themes, historical fiction, be about amnesia or alzheimers, or be about food.  

any suggestions?

i'm leaning towards GONE GIRL.

 

hello there

i brought back some aqua paper napkins from norway...with a spray of flowers.  that combination of colors = magical splendor.  i sketched then painted it in my book.

then i painted stripes and triangles.  because this pleases me very much.  

 my love story with neon continues.  and no one is happier about it then me.  no one. 

the idea of sitting at my art table and painting a million neon pink patterened scraps is NOT out of the question.  it just isn't.

norway travel journal

i like this boat sketch.  not because it's good, but because i drew it while sitting by the window in aalesund, norway watching the man on board puttering around.  and when i look at it i remember that sunny night on the coast of western norway.  carol was writing in her journal and i was watching boat man.

yep.  next travel journal will be bigger, but i sure am fond of this one.

pam's labels!

oh the glorious patina of summer.  golden days stretching on and on and on.  i'm trying to pretend i don't know that in a few days i have to start setting up my classroom for the new year.

drat.

i'm strongly disliking this "early start" calendar right now...but early start means early end.  in the meantime i find denial a very effective coping strategy.  that and pink & red & orange paint.

feast your eyes on these beautiful new label stickers pam has been working on.  i found them in the box of treats she brought me - a BIG box.  stuffed full of paper, notebooks, stamps, and these lovely labels.  

i decided they would look good as TAPE - white labels on a thick stripe of turquoise.  my personal favorite.  makes my ticker start pounding when i look at them.  i think she'll be listing them soon in her etsy shop.

she's little she fits anywhere

i finished my last visual journal, but while i waited for my paper order to arrive i decided to use these random scraps to stitch up a kooky temporary journal.

i haven't slapped paint around for awhile.  i was dying to dip my brushes in the pink & red & orange pots of paint and start making shapes. 

but i needed an accomplice.

fortunately my accomplice has a lead foot and a fast car and she didn't run into any traffic on the way up.

she brought lots of fun things to try out.  she always does. 

we did some minor furniture rearranging in my art room so she could have her own space.  fortunately she's little and will fit anywhere.

pam has a teaching gig at the end of the month which you can read about HERE.  i don't think it's possible to attend one of her classes and NOT have a rollicking good time.   she has a bazillion good ideas packed into that noggin of hers and she loves to share.

for some reason my photos look pixelated and i WOULD fix, but i have to go play in my koo koo paper scrap journal.  i think if you click on them they will unpixelate.  but i could be wrong about that.  scuse!

norway travel journal

i'm going to start including sketches in all of my future travel journals.  in fact i want to start sketching more and more and more!  you wanna know why?  IT'S FUN!

you wanna know why else?  because even though i almost always hate my sketches when i'm finished i almost always LOVE them when i look back at them.