busy bird

Tonight I'm too busy to write a real blog post, so here, have a look at my latest painting:

Fierce Flora #3:

"Desire"

Unwavering Water Lily

This here's numero dos in the fierce flora series:

Water Lily

Standing strong and straight amidst the constant movement of the water.

side note: I dream about being underwater a lot

Another side note: After many years of painting, I finally feel like I'm coming into my true artistic self. Even though each piece is different, there's definitely more cohesiveness to it. or something.

Yet another side note- this painting, and many others can be bought here: www.loveaboveall.etsy.com

Bah!

Will we be going to SXM for graduation? nah.

Will we be renewing our lease here? nope

Do I know where I'll be living next month (in 6 months? next year?) negetory

Will we be taking a vacay this Summer? nu-uh

Have any of the plans I've ever made worked out? absolutely not

Am I finding it easy to stay optimistic? not really

but I don't think it's by accident that when "researching" for my sheep painting I stumbled across this quote:

"David wasn't thinking of being king when he was tending sheep; he was just doing what God sat before him." -John Fisher

I think right now I'm being taught about patience and frustration.

Oh well.

_________________________ALSO________________________

Look at this video! I just saw it on Dr Nick's Blog and was all like omg that's my hood! (Actually, it's about a mile away from my hood- I hang my hat in the heart of Russian Jew country, which is awesome, cause they're awesome. All my neighbors have like five adorable super respectful yamica adorned kids each.

Also, I feel pretty safe here- no one is going to mug me and steal all my cash while I walk to my building... but if they did I'd bet they'd invest it wisely. Only downside: They make me look like the biggest wuss in cold weather- nothing like waiting for the bus in two sweaters, a parka, and snow boots with women in stilettos and knee length dresses talking about how it feels like springtime in Belarus. )

feeling a little sheepish

Dear Art School Slackers,

I do not feel even a little bad about "dumpster diving" your terrible landscapes (on exquisite canvas!).

I don't feel bad about sandpapering them down.

and I don't feel bad about painting them black.

I'm glad you don't take the time to create something anybody would appreciate, but moreso, I'm just glad you're too much of a slacker to claim your artwork before it (and it's exquisite canvas) gets thrown out.

Keep on underachievin'!

Thanks!

-Mrs A

Below: Underachiever's landscape post sanding and blackcoating. Thars gonna be some sheepies here soon!

Cherry blossom girl

Old light bulbs make lovely vases.

I'm in love with the cherry blossoms floating around my back yard right now.

Unfortunately, Gen Beauregard decided that these were so delicious, I didn't get to enjoy them inside very long before he devoured them.

Cherry blossoms aren't poisonous to cats, right?

Fierce Flora

I hadn't been living in NYC that long, and I'd never seen the beautiful Brooklyn promenade, so my friend Juliet gave me the grand tour one night after Etsy Labs.

Gorgeous!

Making our way back to the sketchiness that is the NYC subway system where we'd part ways she gave me some of the best advice for a new New Yorker.

"Listen to your instincts.

If it feels like something isn't right, it isn't."

I don't know how many times I've heard her words echo in my head seconds before I dart away from where my instincts say somethings about to go down.

Like when I crossed the street only to look back and see a mugging and other times, too...

I think living in a city with so many people requires you to turn your instincts up a higher level than other places. Not that you're completely safe anywhere, but in NYC anything can happen any time.

After spending a nice chunk of my life here, I try not to get into situations where self defense might be required, but I've found that tuning into your instincts will serve you well as a first line.

-------------------------------ALSO-------------------------------

Thistles are awesome.

They're beautiful, but are clearly quite capable of tending to their own defense.

Here, have yo self a juicy little history nugget:

In 1540, King James V established the Order of the Thistle. He and his 12 knights wore a badge depicting a star, a thistle and the words "no one harms me without punishment."

Love is a temple

Dr and Mrs A

-married 6 years

-moved 7 (soon to be 8) times

-survived high school

-survived undergrad

-survived medical school

- said "adios!" to 99% of our earthly possessions twice

-survived fast food jobs, night shift jobs, ultra-demanding overtime-all-the-time jobs and life without jobs

-survived living in a foreign country

-survived trying to restore an old as dirt cottage

-Survived living in a teeeeny tiny Caribbean apartment, and an even tinier one in NYC

- survived 1000 pointless fights

- and 100000 odious puns

- has taken hundreds of walks with our pup

Even though....

-He's science... ...and I'm art

-He's digitally generated compositions and I'm folk

- he's video games and I'm crosswords

-because after almost a decade of hanging out together we still both think the other is cool and fun and interesting

-because we have a strong mutually shared belief system

-because when one of us is all "this sucks and I can't stand it" the other is always "it's going to be ok! We'll be fine without any of our stuff/living a million miles from home/ after we bury the dead cat/ completely broke/ with no privacy. We'll get through it."

-Because we know God won't give us more than we can handle.

- Because at this point we're fairly used to living by the skin of our teeth

Because we're awesome

Threepeat

subject: Radar the labrasaurus

breed: labrador and golden retriever, but looks 100% labrador

job: dragging humans around on the end of a leash & cuddling General Beauregard,

hobbies: fetch, fetch, fetch, and FETCH!!!!

habitat: wherever Dr and Mrs A are!

goals: finally getting that thing that's under the fridge & catching that waggily thing just behind him

Lately, I've been having a little luck with prints. It's inspired a whole streak of experimentation with digital alteration.

With an original, what's on the canvas or paper is all she wrote, but when creating prints, you can enhance certain features, alter color tones, or even change hues completely.

drawn again

There are few things in life that make me as happy as my dog does.

There are few things in life that make me as happy as art does.

Lately I'm finding myself dragging in dog tired and sitting down with the sketch book and reworking the same thing over and over again.

There's a freedom in doing something for the tenth time you'll never get the first time. The first version of this piece was a ghosty shell of a dog. One of my biggest artistic hang-ups is the fear of messing things up by doing too much too it. It's a mistake I've made time and time again. Take the same sketch and draw it and redraw again and again and more and more comes out of it. The ghosty version was followed by more intensely colored versions, inked versions, and swirly skies. I don't know about anyone else, but for me it takes a lot of comfort with a piece to be brave enough to start drawing swirls with a pen.