silly band fans

I know...
we r silly

wierd little things that stick with you

Getting braces is kind of awful.

Especially if you're already an extraordinarily awkward self conscious young teen girl.

I got my braces on a Monday.

I'm sure it was a Monday, because we had dinner at my Grandpa Frank's house, just like EVERY Monday.

Sometimes we ordered pizza, sometimes roast beef sandwiches, but when the vegetable garden was in full swing you could bet your bottom dollar we'd be having what papa Frank clearly considered to be the only correct formula for a meal:

1 meat + 2 vegetables + biscuits + dessert

The favored meat was chicken in gravy- a recipe he'd gotten from a Campbell's soup can and taped to the back of a cabinet, the biscuits were from a can, but always hot out of the oven, dessert: strawberries or Pecan Sandies.

The vegetables were out of the garden- thin sliced fried okra, or cantaloupe, but on this particular night like many others, it was fresh corn on the cob.

I, the posterchild of all moody unhappy teenage girls, declared my teeth hurt and that I wasn't going to eat anything. My mom tried to bend me to her evil evil will of sitting inside and enjoying a delicious dinner with the family, but in the end I escaped to the deck with a book where I read a paperback and sulked about the misery of life and dentistry.

A couple minutes later my Brad brought me out a plate. He could've just brought me a fork and knife, but instead he took the time to cut the corn off the cob so I could eat it without hurting my teeth.

He did that every single time we had corn at a family dinner all 5 years I had braces.

I never had to ask.

Like a thousand other times, he just did what a good dad would do.

Happy Father's Day.

I need a fresh set of drawers.

I wandered the back streets of Queens regularly when I was working as a delivery girl (years ago). One day, after schlepping 5 dozen roses to an elderly Jewish lady in a building where the doorman wouldn't let me use the main elevator, I skulked slowly back to work down some intentionally crooked streets avoiding the boulevard, until I came to the turnpike.

That was when I saw it.

A perfect beautiful antique sewing desk sitting next to crippled Ikea end tables and the other cast offs sitting on the sidewalk waiting for the garbage man.

After work I enlisted Peter's help and we tried our best to load it into the Sunfire.

It was gorgeous, ancient, in perfect condition and there was no possible way to get it home.

Finally, we abandoned the treasure and went home. Only, some of the drawers were still in the trunk.

Beautiful solid wood, tongue-in-groove construction, most likely hand constructed little drawers.

So... I banged them apart.

and painted on them.

and now I need more.

Only, you can't go to Michaels and pick up turn of the century wooden bits.

So, if you see me eyeing the junk on the sidewalk extra hard, it's just cause I'm looking for a fresh set of drawers.

a sartorial post of my very own

I was walking down a busy street in Philadelphia with the Ackerman Medical Squad (Dr Peter and nurse Jamie) when something happened to me that had never happened before:

A gorgeous fashionista walked up to me and said "I LOVE your outfit!"

The thing that makes this story awesome is that everything I was wearing had been dug out of clearance sale racks and altered by yours truly. (Except for the denim jacket. It needed no alterations- it was awesome as is.)

This dress came out in the middle of Winter (cause that's when everyone wants to buy a light as air strappy dress, of course). I tried it on, but beautiful as it was on the hanger, it just did not hang well on a human figure. at all. so I passed.

A few months later when I was digging through the aforementioned clearance pile I decided to make peace with it's awkward draping and pay it's $10 ransom from sale hell.

It hung around for a few days until I woke up and decided that it was finally the day to wear it, so I put it on, and in what is probably the worst idea ever, started cutting first, and measuring none. I cut off the goofy gathered high collar, but kept the fluff of tulle and kind of rolled it down, till it was the same level as the underdress. Next, I put a couple of stitches in the side to make it fit a little better, and sewed the shoulder bows onto the straps. Snip snip snip and done.

add awesome denim jacket

mend the small rip in the super clearance tights

slip on some old cowboy boots

and you have the awesomest outfit ever

(Except maybe my gallery opening outfit, but believe me honey, I payed the piper for that piece of beauty.)

A few weeks later I wore it to a concert and when I was getting a record signed by the band Dawn Flippin Landes asked me where I found my dress!

Jiminy cricket, I never spent $12 on clothes better!

The whole experience has encouraged me to make the alterations I've been thinking about on my other clothes.

Now my motto for all my ill fitting/ old/ paint smeared clothes =

cut it till you love it!

__________________________post edit___________

new link alert in the Blogs I Actually Read list: rugged/refined -a style blog that's actually well written

Treasured

Tonight I opened my e-mail to find my little lambs have been featured in not one, but two treasuries.

Have a look:

Number 1

Number 2

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.

animal magnetism

Immanual Kant said

"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."

I'm pretty sure Dr A passes the test.

If you want a friend for life get a dog.

For me a house or an apartment becomes a home when you add one set of four legs, a happy tail, and that indescribable measure of love we call a dog. - Roger Caras

Art Hound Hooray

Goodness gracious!

One of my paintings was featured as a pick of the week on Art Hound!

(A couple weeks ago.)

Art Hound is awesome, and henceforth will be found in the List Of Blogs I Actually Read.

A Muir Inspired Doubletake

John Muir quote and the mountains take #1

Keep close to nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

John Muir and the mountains take #2

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!

Let's get digital... digital. I wanna get digitaaaal.

Geez, la sha, paint birds much?

Photoshop artwork while Dr. A plays Smash Bros much?

Sell them on your Etsy page much?

Nope. not much... yet.

Blog weirdly in third person perspective much?

nerd.

Dawn at 8:00 pm

Tomorrow night I'm going to see this lady and also, this guy (Elvis Perkins in Dearland) at The Bell House in BK.

For well over two years I'd shake my paint and turn on some Bright Eyes (AKA any band Conor Oberst is in) or maybe some Iron and Wine, then get down to business. After a year Peter, who never really liked it much in the first place was sick of it.

Near the end of the second year, I pretty much was too, but I couldn't find anything else that was the perfect background music for creative contemplation... until we were out driving on a sunny day and Dawn Landes came over the radio doing an interview in her sweetness-drenched voice explaining how the song Little Miss Holiday is about an imagined meeting between a 12 year old Jane Fonda and the 15 year old prostitute she played in Taxi Cab. After we got home I bought her album "Fire Proof" then every other album she's made.

Happily, it wasn't long until I got to see her live at The Mercury Lounge, where she was so genuine and magical (and maybe just a little goofy) that cemented her spot a spot on the short short list of music I love so much, that I could listen to it all the time any time. You know what I mean... songs so precious, you keep actual physical c.d.s of it, just in case your computer crashes and your ipod drowns on the same day. My Bon Iver I could survive without, but not Sweetheart Rodeo.

Now, when the paint starts shaking, Peter knows who's about to start playing.

Post Edit: If you're in NYC, and you need an awesome way to spend this Friday night, why don't you come along? Buy yourself some tickets here, and get thee to The Bell House in Brooklyn.