Paint and Pixels

Iphone photo apps

2012-02-12T17:13:00.014-07:00

My friend, Nikki Kelly, just wrote a blog post about iphone photo apps, which has inspired me to do the same thing. Read mine first, then read hers.

It's sortof come to the point where I prefer my iphone camera to my SLR camera. I like the convenience of it, and I like being able to immediately edit and play with the pictures (instead of waiting until I get home to use photoshop). These are some of my favorite apps to play with my pictures:

1. Camera+ ($1.99)

I downloaded this app a long time ago, but just recently started realizing how wonderful it is. I particularly like it's "clarify" function. Below I'll show some "before and after" shots of original pictures, and then the same picture put through the "clarify" filter:

Before:
After (really brought out detail in the sky)

Before (Matt sleeping this morning)After (Matt still sleeping)
Before (Roxanne happy about the snow day last Friday)

After (now you can see better how happy she is)

2. HDR Pro ($1.99)
This app is fun, and is especially useful outdoors. While a lot of picture apps have an "HDR" filter, this app truly takes an HDR photo, by taking two pictures (about a second apart from each other) at a low and high exposure and then combines the two images. That way, the darker sections of the photo become more highlighted, and the lighter sections don't get washed out. However, since it takes two pictures, the camera and subject must remain still (although it does its best to "align" the two images). Here are some examples:

This picture demonstrates how well the app works with a sky background. Normally, this image would have had a pure white sky and the silhouette of the chairs. The app under exposes the sky and over exposes the chairs, bringing out the color and detail in both.
This picture shows the downfall of the app. Between the taking of the two images, I moved, and that's why you see the double image of me bending down taking the picture of Leonard, and then also standing up looking at my picture. (An iphone picture of me using my SLR).

3. PhotoStudio (.99)
This app has tons and tons of filters and options. Almost too many. But if you have a lot of time to play around and edit, and can be fun. In the following picture, I used a firey overlay to make the fire in the photo seem even more firey. It's not really cool to admit that I do things like this to my pictures, because it's kind of deceiving people into thinking that my life is more awesome (and more firey) than it really is.

4. LensFlare (.99)

I love lens flares. They make it seem like something magical or spiritual is happening. This app lets you add a variety of lens flares so that your pictures seem magical even when they weren't. I know you've already seen most of these pictures before. I'm just reshowing them to illustrate the function of the apps.

This picture was taken with the HDR pro app (thus the blue sky). Then the lens flare was added.

This is a hexagon lens flare (there is all kinds, even hearts).
This lens flare is supposed to look like the sun... or God.

5. Lenslight (.99)
Lenslight is Lensflare's counterpart app. It has things that are like lens flares, but are different.
Added a spectrum ring around the cross of salvation mountain:
I added little magical light orbs to this picture of Roxanne in church this morning:
This picture of Roxanne's eye has rainbow light radiating from it:

6. Percalator ($2.99)
I know... the price is steep for this one. BUT, if you are passionate about circles, it's worth it. It works best with pictures that are high in vibrancy and low in detail.

This is my painting of Roxanne put through the percolator:

A photo of a lion fish that I took at the aquarium:

A photo of a body painting a did last year. If you squint your eyes you will be able to see the virgin Mary I painted on the front of a woman.
And this is a close up picture of my paint palette:
7. WordFoto($1.99)

Rocket made me this portrait of himself. Awwwwwe....

Roxanne made this one....
I made this one...

Penny Room

2012-02-05T13:34:00.003-07:00

The penny bathroom is done... PHEW! I would never ever do it again, but I'm happy I did it (that's a weird concept)... it made me a stronger person; it built my character; it refined me.... but it sucked.

I used a dark brown grout- grouting was fun! After the grout dried, I applied 2 coats of polyurethane (did you remember that's one of my favorite things? If so, you are a loyal blog reader).

But it's not REALLY done. Because I've passed out 20 toilet seats to 20 different female artists in the church. Each one has been artistically transformed in different styles and mediums, and will soon be hung at equal heights around the room (there are 20 hooks equally spaced around the top rim of the room for toilet seat hanging). An art opening for the seats will be held on the first Friday in March, since the church is perfectly located along the Denver art district. So stay tuned for that.

The gigantic wall:

The toilet in the handicap stall (I also mosaiced the lid of the upper tanks).

Apparently one of the stalls is already out of order due to a toilet leak. I don't think I had anything to do with that.

This is the mirror portion. I actually experimented with mosaicing a 3D surface by sculpting a 3 dimensional frame around the mirror that flows seamlessly into the wall. I was nervous about this because if it failed I would feel pretty stupid trying to explain what I was trying to do. I'm still nervous that one day the mirror will break. Because replacing it would be a difficult task.

This is me taking a picture of myself and the mirror. The other person is in the bathroom for legitimate purposes.

Same picture really... just another angle.

This is a close up of the sculpting around the mirror.

There are quite a few "special" coins placed sporadically throughout the room. A "fan" of the church from Australia mailed me some Australian coins to use (one of them seen below- depicting a native Australian). There is also some carwash tokens, a Chuck E Cheese token, and many other foreign coins.

Interspecies Cuddling Contest

2012-02-04T16:38:00.014-07:00

NOTE: I dont know why this blog post overlaps the next blog post. Blogspot is being a jerk. I've tried deleting pictures, thinking maybe blogspot thought I had too many, but it doesnt fix it.

Last Wednesday I posted this as my facebook status:

Before school this morning my kids and I had a conversation about how one of the best things in the world is when animals that are different species cuddle with each other. So we're going to have a contest. Find a picture of interspecie cuddling and post it on my page. We will vote on the best one on Saturday and the winner will get a surprise.

If you look at my facebook page you'll see that it got flooded with the most ridiculously cute pictures, providing hours of entertainment for me and the kids. We got exactly 30 submissions.

As promised, today we voted on the winners using a voting technique that Rocket designed. We each got to rank our top 5 favorite photos- with our top vote receiving 5 points and our 5th vote receiving 1 point. Rocket explained to me that that method helps to prevent ties from occurring. Here are the winners:

In third place, submitted by John Swanger:

Second place, also submitted by John Swanger:

And first place, submitted by both Daphne White and Traci Lotter, but Traci Lotter submitted it first.

What did the winners get?! Only the first and second place winners got a prize. They got an original drawing of their winning entry by Rocket or Roxanne!!!
This one by Rocket:

This one by Roxanne:

Here are some other notably cute.... or notable not cute entries:

This one was submitted by Matt:

The following one illustrates a Bible verse, which proves that God also likes interspecies cuddling and there will probably be a lot of it in heaven.

This one was submitted by my pastor:

I dont know why this post is screwed up at the bottom....

A Salvation Mountain Coloring Page!

2012-01-22T11:00:00.007-07:00

....and a bunch of words and sentences by me.

Geeze, I'm a crappy blogger. I didn't even say anything about Christmas. I should have at least posted some pictures, or something. Well, I'll just say, we all got Tebow shirts. Actually no... everyone but Roxanne got Tebow shirts. She didn't seem disappointed though. The real reason I haven't been a reliable blogger is because of my dang poor decision to cover the church bathroom walls with pennies. If you were to replay a video of my life, during the scene where I say, "hey how about we cover the bathroom walls with pennies", there would be dark scary music playing that foreshadows the impending doom that is to come. I've actually finished gluing pennies, but tomorrow I will start the grouting process, and I don't know how long that will take. I will be posting mounds of pictures when it is done.

What I came to write about today is about Salvation Mountain again. When I visited the mountain in October, Leonard seemed frail and old, but healthy. I had coordinated my meeting with Leonard through a man in his forties named Kevin, who was taking care of Leonard at the time. Leonard had always lived at the mountain, but as he got older, Kevin noticed that he needed more assistance and decided to dedicate his life to helping Leonard live out his mission. Kevin helped Leonard by driving him to and from the mountain every day, and also connected him to the internet by reading him facebook posts and fan emails. Kevin was my connection to Leonard because he would read him anything I communicated online. Well. Just before Christmas, I became informed (through the internet), that Leonard had become confused and delusional and had to be hospitalized, which is worrisome. Then a couple days later, I read that Kevin suddenly and unexpectedly died. I can't say I was emotionally close to this man, Kevin. But I haven't dealt with much death in my lifetime (I've only been to one funeral ever), so it was shocking and disturbing to me. Then Leonard was transferred to an assisted living facility. It makes me glad that he will have good reliable care now that Kevin is not here, but it also means that he is a few hours drive away from his beautiful mountain.

In October, as you might recall, right when I started blogging again, I felt somewhat unsure and guilty about my trip to California. I was worried I was forcing something that I shouldn't. But looking back, I feel so glad that I did go when I did. I wouldn't have been able to meet Leonard at the mountain only a couple months later. October was one of his last times at the mountain. I am constantly looking for "signs" from God, or looking for ways that my life may have been altered because of God. I also pray a lot that I would hear God's voice, because a few people say that they've heard God's voice, and I wish that I had. Sometimes I wonder if that's a selfish prayer. I'm not sure. I'm not particular about what his voice would say when I hear it. A friend of mine heard him say "It's going to be OK" and that would be comforting. But I would also be content to hear him just say "peanut butter" or even something with only one syllable like "boom". But perhaps it was God that helped me get to see Leonard at Salvation Mountain because he knew I wanted that. Or because then I could paint it. Or for some other monumental reason. I don't know. Just maybe.

But since I can't communicate with Leonard via internet anymore, and I wonder if he is lonely and misses showing people his mountain, I decided to make some coloring pages. The painting is coming along, but a coloring page was quick and easy so I did it in the meantime. Then I printed up a stack of them and mailed them to him, so that if kids visit him at his home, he can give them a page to color and maybe it would be a good way for him to still be able to interact with people and tell them about his mountain. And I also posted the coloring page here. I think if you click on it, and have the larger version come up on another screen, and then right click to print, it should be the right size. But make sure your page setup for printing it is on "landscape". And if you print it up for your kids to color, be sure to tell them the story of the mountain. Tell them how a man wanted to tell the world about God's love, and his first attempt was a failure- a failure that God turned into something beautiful. And tell them that's what God can do with our lives, even when we don't know it. And be sure to use bright colors... like make sure your not using markers that are going dead.

2012

2012-01-01T20:45:00.005-07:00

Here are some pictures from New Years Eve last night. It was a fun night of painting myself and others as well as going out to an interesting masquerade party. Don't worry- I didn't kiss anyone at midnight. It would have been too messy... and Matt wasn't nearby.

Blob Monsters- fun craft for kids!

2011-12-22T20:19:00.005-07:00

I thought that if I posted some craft tutorials, people would like my blog better. They'd feel like they could get something out of it maybe. And I would feel better about myself if I thought people were copying me.
So this is about how to make blob monsters with kids.
Step one is to buy a can of spray insulation from the hardware store. It's about 4 or 5 dollars. It might be called "great stuff".

Squirt out a blob of it (keeping in mind that it will double in size, kind of like rising bread dough). You can't really control what your blob monster will turn out like. Whatever you do, don't touch the stuff before it dries, because it is almost impossible to get off your skin. Also, do it on something like an old magazine. I show it here on my kitchen table, but that's only because it's already dry in the picture. Whatever you spray it on, it won't come off of.

Then you let it sit for 24 hours. It will slowly continue to grow within those 24 hours.

Then you paint/color it. I painted mine (below). Then I added googly eyes. If you paint it all brown it will look like a real pile of poo.

This is Roxanne's. She just colored hers with sharpies. Her blob happened to have a shape that looked like a mouth and then she found indentations that looked like eyes- it's a little like finding images in the clouds.

This is Rockets. He did his with sharpies too.

Ok, there's my craft blog post. I made it up.

Testing

2011-12-22T12:22:00.001-07:00

I'm testing out a new blogging app. I am dissatisfied with how small the pictures post using blogpress.
This is rocket after coming in from the snow today:

Gingerbread Parties

2011-12-22T09:27:00.009-07:00

I mentioned our annual gingerbread house party in a previous blog, so I thought I'd update about it. My favorite part about throwing a gingerbread house party for the kids, is arranging all the candy and icing on the table. Usually I do the party on their last day of school and prepare for it before they come home. When the children walk in the door, knowing school is over for the year, and then they come upon the table full of colorful candy, their eyes light up and they smile and squeal and that makes me feel happy and christmassy. This year, though, because of a scheduling conflict, I had to do the party the day after the last day of school, so the kids were around while I was setting up. Rocket designed a genius smorgasbord lazy Suzanne by putting the patio table top on top of our spinning scrabble board. Then we put the candy on top of it.

Rocket's friend Dillon put a cute heart on top of his house.

Roxanne didn't want to show her face in this picture.

Later that night.....

Then that night, I had the first ever "adult" gingerbread party with all the leftovers. I had made extra icing, in 10 different beautiful colors, as well as fondant in 5 different colors and lots of amazing candy. Shoutout to Jodi who donated the gumballs. Thank you Jodi.

But after all the time I spent making beautiful colored icing, my friends mostly only used the white. I guess cause it looks like snow. But I was still a little offended. And they were all late. Except Nikki. Shoutout to Nikki. Thanks for not being late, Nikki.

Mustache house... I admit the mustache was clever.

And there were "adult" elements (look closely above). That wasn't MY gingerbread house though. I would never do that. Mine is below:

Another things that went wrong at the adult party was that most everyone (except Nikki), left their house behind. I don't know why they didn't want to bring it home. So the next night, the kids and I had a THIRD gingerbread house party where we redecorated the left behind houses with all the leftover beautiful colored icing. This party was the most fun of all the parties. I told the kids to make sure not one drop of icing was left.
Now we have a pretty colorful gingerbread village. I don't think I'll do the adult party next year. Probably just the kids' one.
The reason I shouldn't have a blog is because I'm a jerk and complain about my friends. I did the "shoutouts" to try to make up for the complaining. Hopefully no one's feelings were hurt. I deleted the really offensive complaining.

Brewery touring today

2011-12-21T14:29:00.001-07:00

We're taking the Coors brewery tour right now. Matt took the week before Christmas off from work so that we could have a fun time as a family, since after christmas we have to be with our extended family which obviously means we can't have fun. Yesterday we got counseling, fed the homeless and went bowling.

After this we're going to Casa Bonitas. Luke's family and our family decided that instead of giving gifts to each other on Christmas, we would just all go out together- that would be more appreciated by the kids. But they didn't want to do the Coors tour first because they think they are too high class for Coors... (but not for Casa Bonita's).
Tomorrow rocket and Matt are touring the Broncos stadium while Roxanne and I go to the Denver puppet theatre, and then we're all going to tour Hammonds candy factory. We better have lots of fun to make up for next week!!
We're in the post-tour lounge now. I'm going for beer number 2 of 3. The kids are on rootbeer number 2.
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Christmas Time

2011-12-11T17:10:00.006-07:00

There's lots of fun Christmas stuff going on around here. We set up the tree a couple weeks ago. After our wedding, my mom made ornaments out of two of our bride-and-groom-gumball favors (I thought they were really ugly- it was a bride and a groom made out of gumballs). We've been hanging the gumballs on our tree for ten years now, but this year we decided to change it up and let the kids eat the gumballs. They did.

We did cookie decorating (one of my favorite Christmas traditions) on Friday with Milo and Lucy. Cookie decorating is just a prelude to the annual gingerbread decorating party that I let the kids both invite one friend to- that will be on Friday. I'm mostly prepared except that I cannot find gumballs anywhere. Ideas? Also, this will be the first year that I am having an adult gingerbread house party (think, naked gingerbread men), which I've wanted to have for many years.

I did a Christmas gift craft with Roxanne's class with shrinky dinks. These are their necklace charms pre-shrinkage. I love how the kids draw themselves:

Friday is feelin pretty Christmassy too. He's been wearing extra layers.
This morning was exceptionally celebratory, because it was the first Sunday that our church was allowed to meet in their own building (in over a year). Rocket and Roxanne adorned the new front pillars with an appropriate pose: Our pastor Mike, took this picture while I was inside and texted it to me later. Speaking of Tebow, the boys are going absolutely ridiculously nuts downstairs. Completely out of control. I'm guessing God is giving Tebow his usual blessing right as we speak... or type, I mean.
This is what I want for Christmas:

Long days...

2011-12-06T15:28:00.001-07:00

This process is much more grueling than I ever imagined it would be. I really thought gluing individual pennies to the wall wouldn't take as long as it is taking. I'm committed, though, and I'm not quitting.

Finished the decoupaging last week. I can't get a good view of it with my camera though because I can't back up enough to get it all in the frame. This is the handicap stall.

I'm constantly underestimating projects. But I've decided that this is a good thing. If I accurately estimated the time/work involved with projects, I'd never do any of them!! Somebody pointed out today that God designed it that way- especially with marriage. If we knew what we were getting into, we'd back out before it started, and then we wouldn't have the opportunity to do great things.
Matt consistently underestimates how long it will take to drive somewhere. He still thinks it takes 30 minutes to drive to Colorado springs from Denver. I wonder if God designed him that way... And why?

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Cutting my paint palette in half....

2011-12-03T17:45:00.001-07:00

Penny Party

2011-11-30T22:22:00.001-07:00

The penny placing has begun! I tried to find a synonym for "begun" that began with a "P" for better alliteration, but nothing sounded right. The only possibility was "pioneered"... The penny placing has pioneered? That doesn't make sense.

This is a picture of me with some of the pennies I placed today on the wall behind me. Remember the grout will be a dark color so that will make a big difference.

This is my basket of pennies:

It's more than it looked like. I can't even lift it anymore.
My mom is jealous. She wants to make something out of pennies too. She told me she would pay certain amounts for certain penny dates. So a made a chart to help me keep track of the coins I've found. This is it:

There is a box for every date between 1920 and now and the boxes are color coded according to how much she'd pay for each coin. The red boxes are $10, the green $5, the purple $2 and the yellow $1. The ones with a slash aren't worth anything unless I am able to fill in every single box. Some dates are worth more than others based on those dates being special to my mom because of a birthday or anniversary or something.

Gluing the pennies to the wall takes quite a long time. I am hoping to finish before the kids get out of school for Christmas break, so of you're in the downtownish Denver area during the day and want to help, I would love you!!!

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HI

2011-11-28T22:34:00.001-07:00

This is a little project I've been thinking about for a while.

Blogger wont let me type where I want to.... I'm thinking about not even doing this post at all anymore.

What the... come on.

Anyways. I got the idea from pinterest. I thought it would be really magical to have lit up plastic bottles in our yard for Christmas. The final product wasn't as magical as I had imagined, but it was fun. I can remember each moment that I finished the last drop of whatever was in each bottle and was so excited to add it to my collection of empty bottles. Roxanne enthusiastically helped me assemble them all onto a string of lights last night.

They are a little interesting during the day too:

I am still decoupaging the Bible onto the bathroom stalls at church. I finished the regular sized stall and have moved on to the handicapped stall now. It's taking longer than I expected. Next I will start on the pennies. But for now, I've been trying to figure out an easy way to cut many pennies in half. I tried using the circular saw on a roll of pennies today, and it didn't work. And I'm lucky I didn't get injured.
The reason I was called to decorate the church bathroom in the first place was because a lack of bathrooms is one of the code violations that has gotten the church kicked out of their building for the last year. The city has a lot of rules about what a building has to be like, and our building broke the rules in many ways. So the church was required to make many costly adjustments to its building- one being the installation of a new women's bathroom.
A friend of mine set up an Etsy site that all the artistic people at the church are supposed to post to in order to help raise money to pay for the building alterations. Most of the stuff on it is mine at this point. But if you're shopping online for Christmas presents, you should check it out. Cause our church needs money- there are a lot of people that sleep in closets or tents and eat out of dumpsters and whatnot. You know-just not stinkin rich like Matt and me.
Here is the site: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ScumoftheEarthShop

I just posted this vintage velvet clutch that I painted an owl on today:

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T12:54:00.001-07:00

(picture by Roxanne)

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At the eye doctor

2011-11-22T17:18:00.001-07:00

I'm at the eye doctor. This isn't an important blog post. I should blog about better things. Can blog be a verb? Ofcourse it can, I think.... I am blogging. I feel blogged.

I took these pictures so I could send them to Matt to get his opinion about what frames I should select. I want him to think I'm pretty when I wear my glasses.

Matt texted back: "are you trying to look hipster?" and I said "I'm trying to look like I'm not trying to look like anything". That's a hard look to get. Try it. It backfires, doesn't it? IF I were trying to look like I was trying to look hipster, I would have chosen frames similar to the ones in picture one, except they would have been darker. You see?
I chose the first ones cause Matt said they made me look younger.
Speaking of looking younger, I never posted a blog about turning 30. I turned 30. I was going to post the "I turned 30" blog after I figured out how to post this slide show my mom made me. It was a slideshow of my entire life and she posted it on my Facebook page the morning of my birthday. Then I went to Village Inn with my friend Cathy, and got a free slice of pie. Then I went to work in Roxanne's class at school and when I walked in the door, all the second graders sang happy birthday to me. I guess roxanne told them it was my birthday. Then that night we went to cicis pizza buffet. That's my favorite restaurant. But they took a long time to get the flip pizza out, which is my favorite flavor. They felt bad that it took so long to get my favorite flavor out so they gave me an extra free buffet coupon and a full flip pizza to take home with me!!

Then on Friday (the day after my birthday) I had friends over to celebrate. Luke and Sarah gave me 20 dollars worth of pennies. Remember, that's what I wanted? Because I'm covering the bathroom walls at church with them- well, I WILL be. But today I worked on covering the inside of the stalls with Bible pages. It took quite a long time. See:

This is the view if you're sitting on the toilet:

I totally underestimated the surface area of the New Testament. By the time I was half way done with one stall, I had used up the entire new testament and had to start using the old. I still have one more stall to go and it's a handicap one so it's bigger. I might have to go steal a Bible from a homeless person again.

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Another Show

2011-11-14T13:46:00.001-07:00

In light of the overwhelming success of her puppet show last weekend, Roxanne decided to go bigger and better this weekend by producing a comedy show that is sure to blow your socks off. Although I do admit that the script is lacking. She required my involvement too.

It's a good thing I'm a mom, or else doing stuff like this would make me a freak right? I left my face painted while I made dinner, but then I started to feel self conscious.

Thumbs Up

2011-11-11T15:20:00.001-07:00

Been busy painting lately. My favorite days are when I have a lot of time alone at home to paint and listen to "This American Life". My favorite T.A.Ls are the ones that make me cry. I don't like to cry, so I dont know why that's true. Here's one that will make you cry no matter what- episode "209: didnt ask to be born". I promise you it will make you cry!!

Here is a preview of what is to come:

This is my painting from my visit to salvation mountain. The thumbs up is Leonard's signature move to symbolize "God is love". Anyone who has been planning on coming to the mountain knows that when you have your picture taken with Leonard, you have to have thumbs up.
You can't see his face because I don't want you to be able to see it yet. I've been obsessively adjusting it for days. His real smile is just so intense and I want to be able to capture it perfectly! I'm not there yet.
I thank God for letting me paint!

ARC Galla

2011-11-11T10:12:00.003-07:00

The big Arc Galla was last night. It was a fancy dinner and auction with really really rich people. We ate dinner and talked with rich people. I'm actually not very good at "mingling" at all. I seem to have developed a lot of social anxiety over the past 2 or 3 years- I don't know why! It's awful. And I discovered about an hour before we were supposed to leave, that at some point over the past couple years, I must have thrown away all of my fancy clothes. Oh well.

This is a video of the moments before they began the mural auction and they talked about how wonderful the mural was. I know it's super cheesy, but it did touch my heart. The story about, Robbie, the man on the far left in the mural, was very true.

OK, so here's the kicker. The mural sold for $25,000. That's right. Twenty five thousand dollars. THEN, the shocking twist. They brought out a life size canvas print of the mural to auction as well. I honestly don't know how they managed to get that huge thing printed within this last week. They had four prints that sold for $2,500 each. That's a grand total of $35,000. I was pretty freakin shocked about that. In terms of money, this is probably the most valuable volunteering I've ever done. And as I was leaving, I walked over to Robbie's table to say goodbye and he was crying because he was so happy about the mural- now that's probably even more valuable than the money.

Puppet Show

2011-11-05T19:23:00.003-06:00

Roxanne spent the majority of today producing a puppet show. It entailed making the puppet stage (which was what inspired all this- it is a piece of cardboard that came off the back of a shelf and I was going to throw it away until she got her hands on it), making the puppets, drawing the background for the puppet stage, writing the script, and directing the play (which was mostly ordering Rocket around).

Watch the blooper first because it's better than he real play.

Coming soon: 30

2011-11-04T10:43:00.004-06:00

As you might know, my 30th birthday is coming up. I think Matt might be planning some sort of surprise, because he changed his Facebook password- which means he is hiding something from me.
I don't like surprises. At all.
Since I'm sure you want to know what to get me, I'm going to post a birthday list here. I already posted it on Facebook, but I guess I should cover my bases.

My birthday list:
1. Caps

Colorful ones. Like the ones pictures above. We do lots of fun things with them. I'm not so interested in beer caps, but my friend Jodi is, so you can give them to her. Did I mention Jodi moved back to town? And had a baby.

2. Box tops for education

Like the one pictured above (except not ones that say "void"). I'm sure you have some in your pantry (unless you collect them yourself). On Mondays I sometimes go through neighbors recycling bins to find these. Oh, and contrary to what they're called, they're not always on boxes, and not always on top. Sometimes there on cans, or the side of boxes. I'm going to make a collage out of them. Just kidding.

3. Pennies

They aren't worth very much, so why don't you just give them to me? I am going to use these in our church's new women's bathroom. (Not a bathroom for new women- a new bathroom, for women). I would like to completely cover the walls with pennies. Shiny ones. Not shiny ones. I think it will be beautiful.

4. Opaque colored plastic bottles

So that I can make something like this picture. I prefer pretty colors- cause white ones are easy to find. They need to be opaque too- like a mustard bottle. But I've found that I usually find good ones in cleaning supplies, laundry and dish detergent and toiletry bottles. And give me the caps too. Please.

5. Used magazines

Or unused ones. Just ones you don't want anymore. This is a picture of a stack of magazines Nikki Kelly gave me. And there is her cat "tubs" next to the magazines- she didn't give me the cat. I like to cut things out of magazines and keep a file of things I've cut out of magazines. My file comes in handy all the time. Kids love to make collages with it. I also brought it to the arc employees and they enjoyed creating pictures out of them. It's good because almost no one is as good at cutting things out as I am. It's my gift. But this way anyone can enjoy creating funny collages with the stuff I've cut out- and it won't look crappy like it would have if they'd cut the stuff out.
Something else I got from Nikki Kelly: the idea to ask questions at the end of each of my blogs. I don't necessarily care if you answer though. So here's the questions:

-What the best or worst thing about turning 30?
-Is there any kind of trash you'd like me to save for you? I like giving people trash, because it's cheap.
What's the coolest thing you've ever made out of trash?
What's in your trash can right now?
Do you know any secret information about what Matt might be hiding from me?
If so, what is it?

I think I've forgotten some things on my wishlist. Come back later to see if I've added something ok?

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Art with the ARC

2011-11-03T19:53:00.011-06:00

For the past 4 weeks, I have been creating art with developmentally disabled employees of ARC thrift stores on Wednesdays. Yesterday was our last meeting, and we finished the mural you see above (I think you can click on it to see it bigger)- it is about 10 feet across, and we traced each person's silhouette onto the board we painted. In addition to this big collaborative piece, each of them created a few individual pieces and they will all be part of an annual auction and dinner gala that the company has each year.

I have to say that even though I was "volunteering" my time, I might have ended up with the better end of the deal. Each week, they provided me with a delicious lunch- probably the best meal I would have all week. Plus I get to go to the fancy gala next week with one guest (which will probably be Matt). And tickets to the gala normally cost $150!! And as if that wasn't enough, this group of people was so much fun to hang out with. They were all super hilarious and entertaining. At first, I expected it to be like working with kids, but it really wasn't like that at all. Their skill level, as far as making art, was similar to maybe elementary age kids, but their attitude was unbelievable. No one ever complained, or was unsatisfied about anything ever. This was the happiest and most positive group of people ever. They were so encouraging to me, and to each other, and even to themselves, and I really felt on top of the world after being with them each week.

This was Marlene. She probably did more work on the big mural than anyone else. But she also made this angel piece. The eyeball on the face of the angel is from a bag of ARC store trinkets and nicknacks. I would like to paint a picture of Marlene soon.
This is Robbie and this painting was a dream of his from the beginning. It is a picture of (left to right) Marlene, himself, and Barb (his store manager) and his teddybear in the middle. He even brought his teddy bear in to model for this picture, and he said it was embarrassing bringing his teddy bear onto the public bus.
This is Juan and he loved Denver Bronco cheerleaders. That's just about the only thing he talked about. When I suggested that he paint one for his individual project, he really lit up. He was like "are you serious?! I could really do that?!" I brought in my projector so he could project his favorite picture onto the canvas. He worked super hard on this picture.
This is Ryan and I just loved this picture he did. For some reason, it reminds me of Magritte's "This is not a Pipe" painting.
And this is Lorraine. She had very limited use of her arms, but she gave orders very well, and took pride in her design. For her silhouette on the big mural, she dictate a poem for me to fill it in with.

I loved these guys so much. They've certainly won me over so much that I will probably never again donate my junk to goodwill or savers- I'll be driving the extra distance to dump my stuff at the ARC.

New Tab

2011-11-03T19:40:00.002-06:00

Notice the new "My Paintings" tab at the top of the page. Now you can view my blog under "Home" and my paintings under "My Paintings". When I make new paintings, I will add them to that tab. I might blog about them too.

Annual Halloween Post

2011-11-01T16:05:00.012-06:00

Rocket was Justin Bieber:

Which meant Roxanne was required to be Selena Gomez: So that they could the "it" couple:

Friday was a bat. A barking bat. He was a naughty barking bat and he got sent home early.

Matt and I weren't anything because we didn't have anywhere good to go. But I sold our costumes from last year on Craig's List for $15. The costumer who bought them texted me this picture Saturday night of her and her boyfriend enjoying the costume. I just noticed the similarities between the word "costume" and "costumer".

But I did carve a pumpkin.

The kids carved pumpkins too, but I didn't get a picture of them before squirrels ate them. I feel bad about that.

This is dinner tonight:

Obsession

2011-10-27T15:04:00.009-06:00

I'm back home now. Missed my family. I missed Matt when I was at a hotel, because we enjoy hotels together very well. I missed Roxanne when I was looking at the art, because she enjoys art with me very well. And I missed Rocket at the Venice Beach Freakshow, because he enjoys weird things with me very well.

Notice me on top of the "V"

But that trip, to California, it's left me just way too inspired. I'm overwhelmed with this feeling of inspiration now. I wish I could have rationed out the experiences to have occurred over the course of a year. That way they would have a chance of being utilized more efficiently. But, now, it's like if you shot a big ole moose somewhere out in the wilderness, and you can't possibly eat all of the meat before most of it rots. That's what too much inspiration is like- I can't possibly materialize all of it before some of it rots. And you can't put inspiration in a deep freezer.

I get obsessed with things sometimes. I don't know why. But usually just it's short term obsession. Like a month or so ago, I read that book by OJ Simpson "If I did it", and then I became totally obsessed with the OJ Simpson case- constantly googling it so I could educate myself about every tiny detail of the case. I probably wasted a lot of time. But typically after a couple days, I'm totally over it (thankfully). I often get obsessed with murder cases I see on "48 Hours Mystery", and google them to death (haha... I didn't notice this pun until I was rereading it, so the pun really was unintended). And I end up trying to find the murderers and victims and reporters on facebook, and other useless stuff. But, there's other things I get obsessed about, not just murder cases- mainly things that have to do with art. So... basically things that have to do with art or murder. I think getting obsessed with things is one of the traits of a great artist. But it also has to be accompanied by sticktoitiveness, so that you have to ability to stick to it after the obsession has worn off. Leonard must have had a whole lot of sticktoitiveness (commitment) in order to keep going when he wasn't so obsessed with building a mountain anymore.

At this point, I've got way too many things to be obsessed about. I just don't have enough time to google all the things I want to. I sat in McDonalds today for about an hour, reading every account of Salvation Mountain that anyone's ever posted on the internet. Then I remembered the first time I ever heard about Salvation Mountain- when I watched the movie "Into the Wild" many many years ago. But I don't remember it very well, because I was drunk when I watched it. So I decided to pick it up from the library so I could watch it again. But I didn't want my obsession to keep me from being productive (that happens a lot), so I stretched and primed my canvas while I watched. This is the Youtube link to the scene from the movie when they visit Salvation Mountain. The two kids are actors, but Leonard is just playing himself... perfectly. (you got to watch it- it's less than two and a half minutes)

I really like his quote: "Everybody in the whole world is just loving me, and I want to have the wisdom to love them back". That quote amazes me even so much more now that I've been to the mountain, because I can see that he really is using his big piece of art to love people back. As soon as people arrive he says "Hello, just make yourself at home." (I heard him say this about 5 times). And he wants to make sure you get a chance to climb to the top and explore inside. He doesn't just want you to read the words "God is love", he wants you to walk all over them. He wants you to experience it- in a tangible, colorful, beautiful way. And that's a great way to love people. And it is inspiring me to figure out a way that my art can actually love people too- not just be something nice to look at. I want to transform my obsession into commitment, and my commitment into love. Starting with this canvas right here. The one I stretched today.

Salvation Mountain

2011-10-24T21:11:00.004-06:00

This is the real reason I came to California. Everything else that we've seen up to this point was just because "well since we're in the area, we'd might as well...". But this, Salvation Mountain, was the thing I'd been stalking for a while, via the Internet. I do stalk people online too, but this was the first mountain I'd ever stalked.

After today, I do believe that over the course if my trip, if anything was disappointing, or boring, or perplexing, this made up for it all.

Leonard Knight, who turns 80 years old next weekend, is the artist of the mountain. He began creating it about 39 years ago as a quest to spread the message that "God is love". In my opinion he has succeeded and couldn't have done a better job at spreading that message with the mountain. Not only does the piece of art literally say "God is love", but the experience that each and every visitor to the mountain has, is a message of God's love. Leonard himself, too, is so full of love and joy. I told him that if my art ever has an impact on people the way that his has, I would consider myself special.

This is the view from the top of the mountain.

This is the view of "God" from nearly the top of the mountain:

Another view:

One of the many rooms within the mountain:

A pile of art supplies at the base:

A magical forest inside the mountain:

Leonard will tell you right away that he wasn't always successful. At first he wanted to spread his message with a hot air balloon that he spent 14 years trying to make. Like the mountAin, it said on the side of it "God is Love". But he was never able to get it off the ground and the materials deteriorated. Then he started working on the mountain instead.

During this trip, I've given some of my art prints to different artists as a way to connect with them. When Leonard looked through my prints, he pulled out the painting of Roxanne with the hot air balloons and said he wanted to especially hold onto that picture. Then he told me that it reminded him of a song he wrote one time about a little girl, and he sung it to me. My mom recorded it for me on her phone:

Next weekend will be Leonard's 80th birthday celebration, and as a surprise to him, some people have arranged for a replica of his hot hot air balloon to fly up over the mountain, hopefully fulfilling his original dream.
I took quite a few pictures of Leonard and plan on painting a colorful portrait of him and his mountain. I wish I could start on it today! He seemed genuinely excited that a "famous painter" was going to make him go down in history "just like Mona Lisa".... I don't know who told him I was famous, or maybe he is mistaking me for someone else! Either way, I'm on a mission now, and feel more inspired than ever!

Our view as we drove away:

Dolls, potties, and beer bottles

2011-10-23T21:25:00.001-06:00

My mom says I should title this entry "keeping a positive attitude in a negative situation"... which gives you a clear picture of what she thought of the day. But at least she wasn't frightened like she was when we went to Venice Beach.

First we went to the "sky village swap meet" which was supposed to be part art installation and part flea market. It was an interesting experience.

In the middle of the swap meet was a "magical cave". It was a cave made out of spray insulation painted brown. There were several windows that you could put your face up to and peer inside to view the inner magical land. This is what it looked like from the outside:

This is what you saw if you looked in the peep hole:

We didn't buy anything from the vendors, but I did meet a cute puppy that licked my face and it smelled like baby puppy scent and I liked that.

Then we continued on into the dessert until we found Noah Purifoy's dessert art museum. This was a couple acres of... strangely organized trash. I thought it was interesting to explore. There were several shelters with oddly arranged items that appeared to have a purpose or function, but did not. If a garbage dump started to evolve into a higher form of life, this is what it would probably look like.

I began to notice a common use of materials among outsider artists. I've been seeing over and over, doll parts, old toilets, and glass bottles. Im not sure why this is.

As we left the dessert museum and back through the small town, we came upon the "Art Queen"- a place for the art of Shari Elf. I loved the "world famous crochet museum":

This is what it looked like on the inside:

I think it might have been the worlds tiniest museum! I also enjoyed her garage gallery of artwork and this is a picture of me enjoying it:

This was my favorite piece of artwork by Shari:

I also bought a shirt that she made. She screen prints images onto used clothing which I thought was a great way to make affordable wearable art. This is me wearing the shirt I bought. It says "What Would Cher do?".

And this is Shari, the super cool artist herself (such a cute artsy girl, I think we'd be friends if I lived in the California dessert):

Next we continued on to Riverside to seek out the beer bottle chapel. I'd been looking forward to this place because I'd been hearing about this outsider art environment- part church, part taco shop, part art exhibit (another trend i've noticed about outsider art environments is that they are unsure of their purpose) That sounded great to me.

It indeed was a wacky crazy art land, with a taco shop and church amongst it all (as well as dolls, potties and many many many beer bottles). I'd read many reviews saying that eating there was not a good idea, but I didn't believe the reviews. I insisted that we eat there in order to fully experience the place. That was a bad idea. This is my mom, upset about the food:

Here is some of the wacky art around the place:

And now here is the beautiful chapel- like a serene, catholic, colorful oasis in the midst of crazy land:

Notice Jesus and the eagle on top. And notice the walls, made completely of beer bottles. The inside alter:

Paintings on the ceiling (for those who prefer a less-heard-of Sistine chapel):

We left with hungry bellies, but not hungry eyes.
Right now I am inside this wigwam (our hotel for the night):

We're staying in the wigwam hotel in San Bernadino.

Tomorrow we will get up early and drive further into the dessert to find Salvation Mountain- the Mecca!!

Road Church

2011-10-23T12:21:00.001-06:00

We're on the road this Sunday morning driving out to the dessert. We're missing church, but my mom is making us listen to a sermon through her iPod. I didn't want to listen to a sermon but she said that I have to since she went to the Venice beach freakshow with me. I thought I went into the Hollywood open house to make up for that. I guess I might be making up for that for a while. The sermons over now and she just started some praise music. She's driving, so I hope she doesn't start raising her hands.

Uncomfortable situations

2011-10-22T23:00:00.001-06:00

Then we stayed in Venice beach for the Venice beach freakshow. I was super excited about this. My mom.... not so much.

This is me.

This is too.

This little doggy had an extra paw. He didn't like people stepping behind the counter. I wish Friday had an extra paw.

This is conjoined bearded dragons!

This is conjoined turtles!

There was a mirror behind that curtain.

Look! Wolf boy and antler girl! His real name was Larry Gomez and he has a condition that causes his face to be covered in hair. He was a nice man and normally lives in Riverside, which is where we're headed tomorrow.

My mom said that this place made her uncomfortable and she got very grumpy. She says she didn't but she did. So we left. But later on, she took me to someplace that made me uncomfortable and grumpy- so we're even now.
This is how it happened- I wanted to find the Hollywood sign, because when I talked to Roxanne this morning and told her I was in Hollywood she said "do you see the sign?!", so I thought it would be cool to find the sign and take a picture. I also had heard of a place called The Garden of Oz that was supposed to be near there that would be cool to see.
We drove to the area and could see the sign from a distance, but wanted to get closer. We started driving up the mountain and found the Garden of Oz, but it was locked. I took a picture through the gate:

But as we drove further up there was lots of signs saying "NO TOURISTS!" and "STOP TRYING TO FIND THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN!" and "GO AWAY" and whatnot. And there were lots of houses that i think belong to rich movie stars. But then we saw an "open house" sign for a newly built house. My mom wanted to go in but I felt scared and uncomfortable about it- probably how she felt at Venice beach. But I went in with her anyways. I thought maybe the realtor would say "you're not interested in buying this house are you?! You're just a tourist! Get out!" He didn't say that but I could tell he was thinking it. This is a picture taken from behind the pool:

Then we went in the backyard- and from there you can see the Hollywood sign. My mom took my picture:

I look scared because I was scared the realtor was going to come out back, and then we would have been totally caught red handed... taking a picture with the Hollywood sign- only tourists do that.
The house was 2.8 million dollars. I'll think about it...

Mosaic Tile House

2011-10-22T22:34:00.001-06:00

Our first stop today was the mosaic tile house in Venice beach. I found this house online and emailed the owners to ask if they would kindly let stop by to see it. And they said yes. It was truly amazing and pictures can't really show how beautiful it was. But I took pictures anyways. Here they are.

This is Cheri- the wife, artist, and tile maker.

This is Gonzalo- the husband, artist, and tile breaker.

This is Lori (again, along for the ride today) standing behind one of the gates in the front courtyard.

The art studio in the back of their house actually had white walls. All of their artwork depicts a love story between the two of them. The wall above is dedicated to portraits of Gonzalo painted by Cheri. His artwork, too, is all about his obsession with her. Two artists totally obsessed with each other- beautiful.

Stinking Rose and figueroa

2011-10-21T20:30:00.001-06:00

We had dinner at "The Stinking Rose", a restaurant where you wear giant garlic on your head...

and pick a giant nose....

This is at our hotel:

I like our big blue closet:

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Location:W Olympic Blvd,Los Angeles,United States

Watts Towers

2011-10-21T20:22:00.001-06:00

Most lists of the best outsider art environments include Watts Towers. That's why it was one of our first stops after arriving in LAX. By the way, I am in LA with my mom. She is here for business next week (and to be dragged around by me before then). We also picked up Lori, a friend from Denver who happens to be in LA too, and then we all headed for Watts district. Notorious for being a "bad" area of town, Watts didn't seem to bad to me.

This is me next to a little guy- Simon Rodia, who was the artist of the towers. Supposedly the cardboard cutout of him is an actual life size depiction. He makes me look big.

He created the towers out of rebar, coat hangers, concrete and broken discarded glass. No nails, no bolts, no soldering. The tallest tower is 99.5 feet tall because the city at the time required that no structure be more than 100ft.

This is considered an "outsider art environment" because Rodia had no art training and made no money off of his work. A theme I am beginning to notice among the outsider artists is their use of trash as an art medium. They don't shop at the typical art store. I think this is why I am drawn to the outsider's art- become it takes something discarded, unwanted and broken and combines it with other items of it's kind to create something beautiful. That has a powerful symbolic message pertaining to God and people.

This is the view from down the street- a regular residential area. Many of the neighbors' homes included murals and mosaics leading me to wander if Rodia's visionary art inspired those around him.

I don't feel like this blog post was very good.

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HELLO??

2011-10-20T11:43:00.006-06:00

Hello, hello.
Testing testing. Is this thing on? Can you hear me?

So, I've had the thought of coming back to my blog for a while now. I was going to say I've been thinking about coming back for about a year now, but then I saw that it's actually been less than a year since I left. The main thing that has kept me from coming back is THIS post- the "oh I'm back" post. Like maybe I should apologize for leaving in the first place... but I'm not sorry. And I didn't want to have to post an update on everything that happened in the past however months I've been gone. Because there's been a lot of cool stuff that happened. There's been many a times in the past year when I was like "man, I wish I could post about this on my blog". But I didn't want to have to do the "i'm back" post first, so I just didn't do it at all.

So why did I decide to finally do it now? Well, I'm going to California tomorrow. SO excited for this trip!! When I went to Europe with Jodi, I created a blog just for the trip- "googly eyes on french fries". And I don't want to go to California without being able to blog about it. I feel that in order to get the most out of all the effort and money that's been put into making this trip happen, I'd better blog about it. And creating a new blog, just so I don't have to do an "i'm back" post on this blog is taking the easy way out... I don't want to do that. And besides, life really did seem more fulfilling when I had a blog to show for it- even if I couldn't exactly blog about everything in my life.

I'm excited and nervous for this trip. Excited because I'm going to see a bunch of outsider art environments that I've been researching and dreaming of seeing for a long time now. Nervous because I feel like I'm taking fate into my own hands... which is dangerous... I think. I was trying to explain this feeling to a friend yesterday, and I said that if I had won a trip to California, I would feel like God had destined it to happen and that would make me feel secure about going- like it was meant to happen. Then that friend responded by saying that the only time she had ever been to California was when her daughter won a coloring contest and was awarded a trip to California. That had to be God. I must subconsciously think that God only works through contest prizes. When I was in Scotland with Jodi, I won a couple hundred dollars in tattoo work. Never would have I normally thought that getting a tattoo while on vacation was a good idea. But since I WON the tattoo, I felt like it was a sign. So I got a heart tattooed on my ring finger. I'm not sure if I'm happy about that decision... I also had been drinking when I made the decision. But why would have God let me win tattoo gift certificates if he didn't want me to get a tattoo? And if I was REALLY supposed to be going to California, why wouldn't he arrange for me to win a trip there? But the tickets been bought, and unless God intervenes, I'll be on the planE tomorrow.
(This is me in Edinborough, about to get a tattoo)

Although I'm back to blogging, I feel it's important to say that I'm not going to put any pressure on myself. There will be absolutely no standard of quality for my posts. None. They don't have to make any sense. Or be entertaining. Or look nice. Don't let me know when theres a missing apostrophe. Especially because I plan on doing a lot of it from my phone- I'll have to when I'm out of town.

The End

2011-01-06T16:19:00.000-07:00

This blog has been suspended until further notice.

The Boy with a Fancy Bowtie

2010-11-22T11:56:00.004-07:00

This is the latest painting I finished. I pushed it get it done earlier so that I could submit it along with the painting of Roxanne's with her face painted to the candle art show- I participated in the candle art show last year too, and it was really fun because all of the artwork that is displayed is also reprinted onto glass religious candles. I didn't intend for him to look sad in the picture. I just didn't want another obnoxious show off face- I thought a candid, vulnerable expression was more endearing and contrasted the personality the paint on his face seems to imply.
I've been hooked on listening to "This American Life" episodes while I paint. It's a free podcast and through my iphone, I can select to listen to any episode ever by browsing through the topics list. My favorite episodes so far are "20 acts in 60 minutes", "Fear of Sleep", "Pray", and particularly "Testosterone" which I, coincidentally listened to while painting this picture. The show revealed how testosterone effects the core of who people are by interviewing someone who suddenly lost all testosterone and a separate someone who suddenly tripled their testosterone. They were super interesting stories, and I couldn't help but nod my head as I painted and thought of how accurately they described the symptoms of boyness and how precisely Rocket embodies those traits. He's competitive, arrogant, obnoxious, ambitious, and loud. But every now and then I am able to see into the crevice of a tiny crack in the facade of testosterone, and within that tiny gap, I see a glimmer of vulnerability and tenderness that I really don't think anyone but me, as his mother, is able to see. I wanted to capture that part of him. As the radio program continued, I learned that as time goes on and he gets older, even I will probably lose the privilege of seeing that. That sort of makes me sad, but I think I will always know that even if he doesn't let me see it anymore, it's still there.
As far as the face painting goes, everything on his face was his own idea. He said he wanted to make himself into a "half woman half man". So the mustache, beard and bowtie are the man aspects. The lipstick, eyelashes and eyeshadow are the woman aspects. He thought this idea was extremely hilarious. Then he posed proudly for me to take his picture, making all sorts of goofy, obnoxious faces. Then I said "hold on a sec" while I reviewed the pics I'd taken on my LCD screen. That's when he stopped posing momentarily and looked down into his lap as he waited for me- which is when I quickly snapped the picture that I used as a reference for this painting.

Halloween's Past

2010-11-02T09:30:00.007-06:00

Halloween is one of the many excuses during the year for us to dress up- but we do it during other season's as well, because dressing up is fun. Especially when it means you get to wear make-up (and usually don't get to) or get to wear girls tights (and usually don't get t0).
This year, Roxanne chose to be a bat princess. She at first wanted to be a bat but then realized that wouldn't call for lipstick and mascara, so she changed it to a bat princess.

Rocket completed his Mexican wrestler costume with turquoise girl's tights and blue woman's panties.

And I made him a matching cape, which he really really appreciated.

Matt and I don't typically dress up, but we have been letting loose the passed couple of years and joining in on the fun. This year, we went all out and dressed up as our favorite cleaning products (I did all the work):

I just went on a nostalgic mission to dig up pictures from every Halloween past since our kids have been born (there's not much before that because I wasn't allowed to dress up for Halloween as a child). For the last couple years, that just meant going into the archives of my blog for an October post, which was pretty easy. But farther back than that, was the pre-blog era, which means my kids are really really old. I had to go back into photo albums to find those olden-day pictures. This was a lot of fun, because their costumes each year really say something about who they were at that time in their life. I'll start with last year and then go back in time:

2009: A Princess and a Rockie's player (and they weren't happy about having picture time before trick-or-treating time)

2008: Batman and Batwoman- apparently Rocket still had control over what Roxanne's costume would be this year

2007: Sharkboy and Lavagirl- they sure did watch that movie a ton that year.

2006: Princess and Ninja Turtle- woah, so apparently Rocket grew up a LOT between 2006 and 2007- look at the difference in the pictures.

2005: Peterpan and Tinkerbell- I think this was the year I didn't have a camera.

2004: Fireman and princess puppy (the puppy was a recycled costume)

2003: Puppydog- he loved puppy dogs. I remember his first words were "arf arf", if that counts as words. And Roxanne was about a month old, so I think she didn't dress up.

2002: An itsy bitsy spider! This was in Iowa

1997: A few years before the kids. This is Matt and I our junior year as "Palmer Honor Students".... I guess we thought kids that went to Palmer High school were rebellious thugs... I don't know.
Who would have thought we'd end up being so "squeaky clean" (and still in love).

And one that is rectangular

2010-10-28T09:28:00.005-06:00

This is my second painting of Rocket. My first one I accidentally gave to my mom and she refuses to let me correct my mistake. While I was painting this one, Rocket instructed me to not make the same mistake again. My goal with this one was to capture the obnoxious enthusiasm that makes Rocket so lovable and so unlovable at times. I think it is what will eventually make him really great at something. Yesterday, a friend on Facebook posted a link to this article which claims that there is a link between overexcitability and the gifted. It says:

A small amount of definitive research and a great deal of naturalistic observation have led to the belief that intensity, sensitivity and overexcitability are primary characteristics of the highly gifted....
One who manifests several forms of overexcitability, sees reality in a different, stronger and more multisided manner.

I can relate to that too. I take comfort in that fact that when no one else thinks my really awesome ideas (like being Windex for halloween) are as awesome as I think they are, it's really just because they are not as smart as me. I'll definitely be pulling that card in the near future.

Yesterday, Rocket came home from school in an overexcited mood. He said that he and his two friends had a really great idea, and he needed my help. He said at recess he and his friends wrote some really hilarious poems, and he just needed me to type them up, because tomorrow they are going to try to sell them and make lots and lots of money!!! He said that this was a really exciting opportunity for me because if I did the typing for them, he would give me one fourth of all the money they made. YEEHAW!!! (the identifying sound of an overexcited person). Here is a few examples of the poems they had written. Please enjoy (but try not to get too overly excited).

There was a wimp
That climbed a chimp
And turned into a shrimp

There was a skunk
That stunk
And climbed under a trunk

There was a ducky that was lucky
Because it lived in Kentucky
And drove a mucky trucky

There was a man
That invented ham

There was a boy named Tommy
Who ate a bucket of salami
To please his mommy

Two Paintings that are Round

2010-10-27T19:36:00.004-06:00

This painting I sculpted into the old frame of a thermometer and clock that had been damaged by moisture outside. I removed the middle and salvaged the frame. Then I used wood, paper mache, spackle and hot glue to build up the surface into a semi sculpture... then painted it. I don't think I'll do in again any time soon. It's called "Bottom Dwellers Examine an Unexpected Visitor".

This one I made out of a mirror frame that I got at an auction. I also picked up a second frame just like it, and I hope that when I get around to utilizing that one, I will do a better job. I had hoped the shark baby sacs would inspire a better painting than this one, but that's OK- it was more fascinating in person. I think this one is called "Mama Shark and her Babies."

This Calls for a Head Transplant

2010-10-13T20:43:00.002-06:00

When Jodi left for Scotland, she left me with lots of treasures. Unfortunately, most of the treasures were living things, and I am not good at keeping living things alive... I've been exceptionally lucky when it comes to my children and dog. The cat, I give the neighbor credit for because he feeds her more than I do. One of the things she gave me was a luscious flourishing vine, and I told her I would treasure it as a symbol of the life our friendship will have despite our distance. But when it started to die, I got nervous and changed my mind, saying that the cactus that she gave me would be the symbol instead, and I thought for sure I would be able to keep a cactus alive. Up until about a week ago, everything was just fine. But then one day I noticed that the stem had suddenly died. I am certain that it must have decided to die very very suddenly, because it didn't look sick or anything prior to dying. But it turned into mush. The head still looked healthy though, so I did some research and found that there was still HOPE for the cactus... and my friendship with Jodi.

After much internet research, I found that these common cacti, called "moon cacti" are actually transplant patients to start with. They are actually grafted in mass in Korea and then shipped over to the United States where consumers are always impressed. Most professional cactus enthusiasts snub their noses at these novelty cacti, though. How they are made is sort of interesting. They start with a round green cactus growing in the ground. Then they somehow zap the chlorophyll (the stuff that makes things green) out of it, which makes it turn red. But the cactus can't live without chlorophyll, because chlorophyll is what makes the food for the plant, SO they cut the top part off of that cactus and then graft it onto the top of another cactus (which gives it it's chlorophyll). And so I thought that if it can be done once, why can't it be done again?

So I went and got a cactus that looked like it would have a good body and then performed a head transplant. Actually, it is either a head transplant or a body transplant, depending on where you think the soul of the cactus resides. If it resides in the head, then it is a body transplant. If it resides in the body, then it is a head transplant. I realized this concept after reading "Stiff" which talked about the possibility of performing head transplants on people. If I were to have a head transplant I would choose the head of Hillary Duff, Taylor Swift, or Lara Flynn Boyl (but only before she had the lip transplant, not after).
Also, the original cactus had two very large buds growing on it that were getting very large and looked as if they might soon be too heavy and fall off. So, I also purchased two other smaller cacti body donors, and grafted those two bulbs onto the tops of the smaller stems. In this case, I think we could say that I have multiplied the cactus Jodi gave me, symbolizing our compounding love over time. Of course, all this is depending on all of my transplant patients surviving the operation in the long term, and I am praying that they do, but not keeping my hopes up in light of how I did with the vine and all of our tadpoles.
Clyde commented to me that since my children and dog are about the only things I have had luck keeping alive, perhaps I should have transplanted the cacti heads onto them. Now that's a great idea, except that then it would probably hurt to hug them.

Happiness from my Inbox

2010-10-09T21:15:00.008-06:00

I got an email from Rocket's teacher yesterday. When I saw a message from him in our inbox with the subject line "Rocket", I have to admit I thought "uh oh". But when I opened it and read it, I felt sort of teary eyed, and not for a sad reason. This is significant because all the emails I've gotten from Rocket's teachers were not so positive (Rocket loves attention, especially when he's the center of it, even if it is negative attention). And when I came down stairs and said "I just got an email from your teacher", he immediately hung his head, probably because conversations starting like that usually don't go well. But this time was different and it made me so so so so SO happy. Here's the email:

Now I feel as though maybe I should have had Mr. Kollar sign a media release for before posting this to my blog. :/ Oh well.
And I was worried at the beginning of this year that teachers would discriminate against him because of his mullet- especially since it makes it hard for me, his own mother, to be nice to him sometimes- but I'm getting used to it and it's kindof growing on me.
This is him after coming home sick from school on Thursday. He's better now.

9 Years

2010-10-06T13:30:00.006-06:00

It is the 9th anniversary of Matt and I's marriage today, and I think this says a lot:

When I woke up this morning, Matt had left me a card, pretzel M&Ms (which Rocket took credit for) and a cactus- to replace a certain OTHER cactus that I have been mourning over. But I haven't told Jodi about that cactus' death yet. Just so you know, DON'T ever plant a cactus too deep in the soil as an attempt to stabilize it. It won't stabilize the cactus- it will cause the bottom of the cactus to rot and then the whole cactus will die. Maybe if I keep this new cactus until Jodi moves back from Scotland, it will be about the same size as the one that didn't make it.

I stopped by Matt's work to deliver him some quickies... I mean cookies. And I got it right this time- Kroger brand, not Safeway brand. Then I left a message on his car window:

(That's me taking a picture with my phone in the window's reflection). And then I also left a random somebody else a message too:
I might do that more often.

But, lastly, I'd like to treat you to this delightful song, and dedicate it to my love, Matt, on this day. We've lived in three different states, and many different houses over the last 9 years, but home- home is wherever I'm with you.

A Mention of Rocket

2010-10-04T15:58:00.002-06:00

Here is a news article written about Scum of the Earth Church- I was in Utah on the specific Sunday it is written about. But Matt was at church with the kids. It also explains the mask Rocket is wearing in the above picture- he intends to complete the Mexican wrestler outfit in time for Halloween.
The article:

"Denver church named 'Scum of Earth' tends to Christian outsiders"

School Pictures

2010-09-28T16:28:00.006-06:00

This is a third grader........................................................................... This is a first grader

Hello, My Name Is AWSUM!!!

2010-09-27T09:46:00.007-06:00

This is my latest painting. I used this painting as a reference (the photo that is in the "X" of the word "pixels" in my header at the top of this blog). It was a risky subject matter to attempt, because, if not execute correctly, it could have looked like a very abstract painting of a face- instead of looking like a realistic painting of a face that had been painted on. Do you get what I mean?

My kids love to paint their face, and they do it a lot- especially Roxanne. They use watercolor crayons to do it. They are just like regular crayons, except when you dip them in water, they glide onto your face real easily. Here is some examples of the many faces they have created. I couldn't locate all the photos I know I have somewhere on this computer of their painted faces.

On a subject unrelated to face painting, I just got back last night from Utah- a beautiful yet strange place. I was there for a friends wedding since Wednesday. It's really a weird feeling going back to a place in your life that you haven't been in a while. It's interesting to notice which tidbits of information remain familiar to you, which ones you completely forget, and which ones make you feel totally nostalgic. It makes me wonder what parts of the life I am living now will be remembered, forgotten, and longed for again. That's why I think it's important to keep up my blog and try to capture the truly precious parts of my life. I should really try to describe them better so that years from now, when they are long gone and I miss them, I will be able to go back and relive them through my memories.... like years from now when life is sad because Rocket and Roxanne don't paint their faces anymore- then I will have to come back to this and relive these happier, more colorful times. But maybe that day will never come- they might be face painters forever.

The kids instructed me to bring something back for them from Utah. So, yesterday, after being absent from their lives for 5 days, I quickly regained their love by presenting toilet bowl candy. It's a little plastic toilet bowl filled with powdered candy and it comes with a lollipop plunger to dip in it. When I saw it, I knew this was the exactly what my potty-mouthed little children would just love. And they sure did. When they are done eating all the potty candy, I think I will wash out the toilet and keep all their baby teeth in it forever.

Dream Machines and Other Pretty Pictures

2010-09-14T10:24:00.005-06:00

Our heads have been higher on weekends lately. We've been enjoying our time together, which I'm so thankful for, as we emerge from not so likable times together.
I mentioned that we loved reading "Ticket's to Ride" this summer by Mark Rogalski. After returning that book to the library, we requested that the library purchase one of his other books, "Dream Machines". And the library did, so we've been enjoying that book before we have to return it.

The illustrations are so intricate that you can explore them with your eyes for hours. They've also been making the wheels of our imaginations turn, giving us lots of ideas of our own.

On Saturday, the kids decided to dream up some dream machines of their own, while scouring the book for gadgets to copy into their own paintings. Here is what they came up with.
Rocket's dream machine:

Roxanne's dream machine:

Speaking of great illustrations, Saturday night, I went to an art opening for an illustrator I've been admiring a lot lately, Lea Wells. This was also the perfect opportunity to take Roxanne along with me to an art show, in order to emphasize that I do take her seriously as a fellow artist. The images were perfect for her tastes- whimsical and playful images, many of little girls. This is probably because Lea also has a little girl of her own, and I think we "get" eachother's art because of that. Roxanne thoroughly enjoyed mingling around with the other art admirers.

She was sure to bring along her camera that she got for her birthday so she could take pictures of art she wanted to remember.

She loved the top painting in this picture.

Meanwhile, Matt and Rocket enjoyed the Rockies game at home.
After the show, Roxanne and I went to "Sweet Action" ice cream with Clyde and Susie. "Sweet Action" is supposed to be icecream for hipsters... but I think anyone could like it. Roxanne was by-far the youngest ice cream eater there. I guess she's mature for her age. Ha!

Things are going good. Hoping it stays that way!

Birthday School Treats

2010-09-09T20:50:00.003-06:00

These are the birthday "treats" Roxanne made to hand out to her classmates for her 7th birthday tomorrow. The edible kinds of treats have been banned. While making them, Roxanne said, "I really hope these make all my kids laugh and laugh and laugh a lot!!"

Labor Day

2010-09-07T09:53:00.003-06:00

As you know, yesterday was Labor Day, and we forgot that it was a holiday until just the day before. We hadn't planned anything ahead of time, but when I woke up Monday morning, I thought, "nothing says 'labor' like crafting with the kids!" So that's what I did. I am pretty sure I am storing up a lot of treasures in heaven by crafting with my kids. Because, you know, Jesus said "if you have crafted with the least of these, you have crafted unto me." And when he said "least of these" I'm pretty sure he meant the least cooperative of these, and the least agreeable of these... certainly not the least picky of these though. And that is why I choose MY kids to craft with.... Actually, I typically craft with my kids because I am spontaneous and never anticipate how particular and impossible the kids will be about it.

Rocket and I made a rocket out of caps and nozzles and stuff... and a lot of hot glue. The main part of it is a container that held bubble solution.

Roxanne and I made a robot out of caps and stuff too. I have a big container full of colorful plastic caps and containers and stuff that I keep for days like this.

Luckily, Matt made us lots of delicious appetizers to eat while we crafted- little bagels with different toppings like spinach and artichokes and different cheeses and stuff. Yummy. Oh and hot wings too! Made from scratch! And then the boys watched the Rockies game. It was a good labor day- just the right amount of labor and the right amount of not labor- and with the people I love a whole lot.

The DAM

2010-09-06T20:35:00.005-06:00

The Denver Art Museum (the DAM) is a really wonderful place- a super inspirational space. I have been there FIVE times this summer. Now this is the really great part- I have managed to not pay to get in all five times!!! Of course, I have to say that if I HAD payed to get in, it would have been totally worth the $25 ticket, but as luck would have it, I never had to.

Correction: The tickets are actually $10 for Colorado residents. Thanks for pointing that out DAM!

1. The first time I went was with my wonderful cousin Kristen. I didn't have to pay this time because she actually payed for me, as a way of thanking me for hosting her during her time in Denver. Very unnecessary- I loved "hosting" her- which consisted of Matt babysitting the kids while me and her explored the funnest places in Denver. We went to the DAM for an event which is titled (oddly enough) "Untitled". It happens every last Friday of the month- the museum stayed open late, has a rockin DJ, cash bar, and lots of awesome games and activities. My favorite monthly "Untitled" feature is the appearance of "Joan and Charlie"- two characters adapted from a painting in the museum. This is me in front of the painting:

The painting is by artist Joan Brown and is entitled "Portrait with Swimming Coach Charlie Sava". "Unititled" brings this otherwise unnoticeable painting to life by acting out the dramatic occurrences happening during Joan's swimming lessons. The funny thing is, everything takes place in the "the pool" which is really just the museum's elevator.

You see how those two people in front of the elevator are the same people from the painting? Perhaps you'll just have to take my word for this, but it's really hilarious and if you're going to go to the Denver Art Museum, you should really do it on the last Friday of the month so that you can see Joan and Charlie. I think they might be falling in love.
I also like to imagine that someday (maybe after I die) an art museum will reenact one of my paintings... but that's just a dream.

2. The second time I went this summer was with my bestest friend from Utah, Stephanie. We didn't even realize it was the first Saturday of the month when we arrived there, but as we entered a lady with a stack of tickets asked us "Are you here for the free first Saturday?" and we were like "Umm YEAH!". So that's why I didn't have to pay that time.
This picture shows off some of the awesome interior architecture of the museum... sort of... actually you just have to be there in person to experience it fully. That's Stephanie in the picture.

Some man walking by laughed a WHOLE LOT while I was posing for this picture. I am glad I could make his day.

3. My third time at the museum was for the very next "first Saturday of the month". So it was free again! I went with the art group from "scum" (the church we have been attending). This is a serious art group with serious artists. I also brought along Roxanne, for her very first time at the DAM.

This is Roxanne observing the same piece I posed with the month earlier. I couldn't talk her into posing the same way. It would have made MY day. Oh well.

She was equally as impressed with the museum as I was, although different artwork inspired her than would have inspired me. But, what-the-heck, she was inspired, and I just love it when people are inspired!!!! The only problem is that she really really really wanted to use my camera so she could remember the paintings that were the most inspiring, but I didn't want to let her use my camera because my camera is so expensive!! I let her use my iphone, which is slightly less super duper expensive, to take pictures. Later, I printed some of her pictures for her so she could copy them on sketch paper, or draw on top of them.

Yes, I agree, that is a horrible painting she is taking a picture of. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, correct?

4. The fourth time I went to the DAM was for the sake of Dr. Sketchys. You know how "Untitled" always has fun activities? Well, last month one of their fun activities was Dr. Sketchys. As a faithful Dr. Sketchy's sketcher, I was selected to be a "planted" sketcher at the event. So I didn't have to pay... again. YESSSSsss.

Oh crap.... I just noticed now that I can't find any of the pictures I took from Dr. Sketchies at the DAM. This is bad because I was supposed to email them to someone. I didn't save them under the "DAM" folder or the "Dr. Sketchies" folder or the "August" folder... so I don't know where they are. Wiiiiierd.

5. The FIFTH time I went to the DAM was just the day before yesterday. This was also a free "first Saturday" and we went for Roxanne's birthday. Yes, I am raising my daughter with fine tastes, and she chose to go to the DAM for her birthday. We let her open her presents that morning and she got a camera from Matt and I. She was absolutely thrilled and couldn't wait to be able to take pictures of her favorite paintings at the museum. She also got to pick one friend to go with her, and she chose her best friend from school, Cody. Oddly enough, she has similar taste in boys as I do, because she chose a boy who got pretty ticked off at her for taking too many pictures.

A PINK camera. Even better.

I might hear from Cody's mom later....
But THEN... this is the coolest part... THEN, after we left the museum... OK maybe it's not cool, it's sad... THEN, after we left the museum, and we were out front, Roxanne was looking inbetween these two sculptures on the lawn and was like "there is a really huge bug in there!" and I was curious so I looked inside, and there was a little itty bitty bat on the ground. I didn't know if it was alive so I poked it with some posters I had, and it started HISSING really loud at us and looked really really scary:

Ok, this isn't the best way to wrap things up but, I have to go now.

Jesus Saves on The Penny Horse at King Soopers

2010-09-06T19:18:00.004-06:00

Ta Da!! One painting down... 6 to go. Working towards an art show at Dazzle Jazz Lounge (which is a place people actually seem to know about!!) in November. It is confirmed now!!
I love posting my artwork on this blog- mostly because it means the artwork is done. FINISHED! I like it when it's done. However, I also always feel the need to explain the art's meaning. That part is hard. Part of my artwork is always literal. In this case, that part is pretty straight forward- Roxanne really loves the penny horse at King Soopers. If she's good while I am shopping, she gets to ride on it while I go through the checkout. And when she gets to ride on it, especially if Rocket is around, she acts ridiculously enthusiastic, usually screaming "YEE HAW!!", giggling and squealing very loud. Keep in mind, she is an extremely shy little girl. I sometimes continue checking out and act like I don't know those unruly kids over by the penny horse- their mom should be controlling them better!
The other part is sometimes symbolic. I don't always know how to explain that part of the artwork. It requires much introspection and subconscious examination. That's where the "Jesus Saves" button comes in. The religious themes that I am always compelled to include in my artwork, I think, reflect the fact that I am constantly simmering spiritual thoughts in my head. The silliness reflects my cynicism for religion, and the free spiritedness reflect my love for it. And, incase you haven't already picked up on it, I tend to live vicariously through my depictions of Roxanne. I do this because I often see metaphors of my own experiences her life. It's like a parallel spiritual existence happening in her on a totally different scale- a scale that's more fun to paint- a more visual scale. This maybe doesn't make any sense.
Oh gosh. I will try to make it simpler and more specific now. It seems the religious and anti-religious people see me in the same way- silly and immature. I feel judged by both of them. But both of them are blindly unaware of what connections I may be having with God, that they are missing out on- and it's because of their own arrogance. I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to translate all that from the painting. But I suppose they could observe an eccentric child enjoying life while at the same time unabashedly owning the claim to salvation. Ok, maybe they wouldn't even get that. But maybe they would just understand that the penny horse at King Soopers is a really great deal. I mean, the time of your life for the cost of ONE CENT!!! You can't get a better deal than that!

Palettes and Inspiration

2010-08-27T13:39:00.006-06:00

With about 6 or so hours free every day now, I feel like I am finally able to live out my dream life. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to stay on track towards achieving that, but I have everything that is necessary to do so- I just have to be disciplined about it. I've been imagining this time in my life ever since I discovered that I was pregnant for the first time about 9 and a half years ago... of course, since then, I've been able to live a life I didn't even know I wanted, but now is the time to live the life I DID know I wanted.
I don't have any new art work to show, so I thought I would display some of my ever evolving paint palettes (above). Sometimes they end up looking better than the art itself. Sometimes I think the palette is like the life I didn't even know I wanted- random, unplanned, messy...but colorful and beautiful anyways- in its own way.
Ahhhh... I sure do love metaphors... :)

Even though I don't have any new art to post, I have been working hard, and have multiple pieces of art in progress. So they will probably come together all at about the same time. But here is a preview of some of the things that have been inspiring me and will definitely be creeping into some paintings soon:

We went to the aquarium earlier this month, and I discovered "mermaid's purses", which I had never heard of before- very very cool little things! Basically it is just a shark egg sac for a baby shark to grow in. But "mermaid's purse" sounds more magical, and this is definitely a magical, yet completely authentic, concept. At the aquarium, they had the egg sacs pinned to a translucent white light-up board, so that the inner part of the sac was illuminated and you could see the baby shark inside swimming around. The whitish colored ball is the yolk of the egg. The picture to the right is even more incredible. It is a man-made sac, out of transparent material, so you can see the little sharkie in detail- actually swimming around in there!! Cool, huh?? Will be on canvas soon (hence the mostly blue palette in the upper right corner of my palette picture)!!
My new friend, Heather, came over on Wednesday to paint with me. We discussed how maybe some day in the future, scientists will be able to make man made wombs and transfer babies into them, and we will be able to pin them up on the wall and observe them. Funny idea.

The other painting I am working on will combine elements of these two pictures of Roxanne. The expression on her face in the second picture reflects the fact that I had my camera out more than her actual feelings about the penny horse- that's the reason for the first picture. There will also be elements of the King Soopers logo (which I love!) and religious/spiritual connections (how can you possibly ponder the joy of the penny horse without bringing God into the equation?)... AND this will be a part of a dip-tic. I already have both of the canvases purchased (yay for selling jewelry!) The counterpart features a pretty crazy boy with a mullet named "Rocket".

Mustache Night at Coors

2010-08-14T20:56:00.004-06:00

Typically, only Matt and Rocket attend the baseball games at Coor's field. However, last night we were lucky enough to have 4 tickets (thanks to a really awesome friend with connections), so the whole family went. It was mustache night, and we all joined in on the mustache fun.
My mustache:

Rocket's mustache:

Roxanne's mustache:

Matt's mustache:

Matt spend quite a bit more time on his mustache than the kids and I did. I drew the kids mustache on them after they had finished dinner at Wahoo's Fish Tacos. Some ladies came along and were so impressed by my mustache drawing skills that they asked if I would draw a mustache on them too. So I did.

Then the kids got free cotton candy. You can't beat that!

Rocket told me that the best way to get on the jumbotron is to dance like crazy during the 7th inning stretch.... so, I did what any good mom would do- I danced like crazy with Rocket during the 7th inning stretch song. Sure enough, we made it onto the jumbotron for all of the thousands of fans to see our awesome dance moves! That made Rocket really love me a lot.

Rocket took this pic of Matt and I... I must have misplaced my stache by then.

And this is a tired little girl with a sticky face who can't wait for the 9th inning:
I tried my best to get her to be able to enjoy the game, but it was useless. This is a conversation we had at one point in the game:
Me: "The Rockie's are winning, so we should be happy!"
Roxanne: "But I don't know what that means, I can't be happy if I don't understand what that means!!"
Me: "It means that they are playing a game, and we want the Rockies to win the game and right now they have a higher score, so they are winning!"
Roxanne: "But you keeps saying rockie rockie rockie- I don't even have a clue what it means!!!"
Me: "The Rockies are the team we are rooting for"
Roxanne: "But which Rocky? You keep saying rockie, rockie, rockie!!! Rocky what? Which Rockie? What's the Rockie's name that you want to win?"
Me: "Rockies IS the name of the team"
Roxanne: "I know!! I know!! But all I hear is rockie, rockie, rockie and I don't know which rockie you are talking about. I don't know anybody here that is winning!!"
Me: "Ummm.... Ok.... wanna go get a funnel cake?"
Roxanne: "Yeah, now that's something I like!!!"
So then we walked around the vendor's deck and looked at all the little shops and views of the city. Then she said:
"I really like this place. All these lights and colors are so beautiful"
And I said I agreed. And she said "I especially like that big sign there with the bright lights"- it was the score board. Even if she can't get baseball, atleast she understands what's beautiful.

And as if the night couldn't get any better, the ball fell into and out of the right hands on the playing field, which meant Matt and Rocket were really really really happy- along with thousands of other "wooting" people piling out of Coor's stadium. I think and hope the kids will remember nights like these fondly.

Back In Business

2010-08-14T20:27:00.003-06:00

This is proof that I am in the process of bringing my Etsy shop back to life. Cause I know you are all just dying to shop there... right? That's part of being a mom with kids in school. I've also had a list of store owners that want to restock their stores with my stuff and have been calling me, and I've been not answering. Hopefully all this will help fund the purchase of another canvas or two!!

Springtime in Baltimore

2010-08-10T16:22:00.005-06:00

My morning of full of successes, and I'm please to announce that I have a third success to add to my day, this afternoon. The success here isn't so much in the painting itself, but in the fact that it actually got completed, finally. This painting (my second one of Jason) sat on my easel ALL summer. When I came back to finish it, I forgot what I was doing. That's why you don't let paintings sit for that long. The background and sky tripped me up, so when I got it back out, I just painted over the background and started over. Ofcourse, I can't compare it to what it looked like before, but it might look exactly the same.
Having stopped this painting in the middle of not being able to get the sky quite right, I was stuck thinking about the sky all summer long. That's not really a bad thing, because I've noticed a lot of things in the sky lately... a lot of clouds. When I was in college and taking a meteorology course, my roommate and I would sit on our front porch and talk endlessly about the clouds- putting our meteorology terminology to good use (what? Isn't that what you did in college?). There really is this whole other world up there in the sky- with gigantic otherworldly creatures called clouds. All summer, each time I would step outside, I would imagine that the sky was actually a 2 dimensional backdrop, like the kind they use at a photography place (or like the one in the movie The Truman Show). And then I would imagine that the clouds were alive- some are monstrous and some are cute. The closer the cloud is to the horizon, the smaller it is... that's an important thing to know when you want to paint them. And while just looking up at them is pretty fascinating, I think it would be even cooler to go on a hot air balloon ride through them. I don't have a bucket list, but if I DID, I would have going on a hot air balloon ride on my bucket list.
And when I look at the sky, this song always comes to my head. So, as you can imagine, this song has been coming to my head a lot- just about any time I'm outside during the day, this song is in my head:

Anyways... none of this talk has anything really to do with the painting... I mean except for the sky. But the painting is supposed to be about springtime in Baltimore- where Jason lives. You can tell it is springtime because of the color that comes alive in the spring. I may be remembering my time in Baltimore a little more colorfully than it actually was... that's what memories (and paintings of memories) are for.

Successful Morning...

2010-08-10T10:30:00.011-06:00

You know why this "universal health care" plan could never work? Because there would be no way of telling who really has mental health problems and who doesn't. Anyone can SAY they have anxiety. But how can a doctors office know for certain that someone is about to go over the edge? Easy- with a 25 page printable questionnaire, due the morning of the appointment, that requires them to answer confusing questions about their history, their primary care something or another, and then requires them to perform detailed tasks involving calling their insurance company- who knows WHICH number on the card they are really supposed to call... it's all part of the trick though. And the insurance companies are in on the trick. Because when you call the "mental health services" number on the back of your card like I THINK you are supposed to, they give you a maze of options and numbers to press... "if you are a provider press one"... well, am I a provider? Yes, I think I am... wrong. Ofcourse it never says, "if all of these options are giving you a panic attack, please press 3"... After 25 pages of these sorts of confusing questions or tasks, the true mental health patients will be clearly separated from the fakers and drama queens. If I had calmly marched into the doctors office this morning on time with my 25 page packet completely filled out, and set it down in front of the receptionist, she would have smiled and said "thank you" and then proceeded to put a check inside the "faker" box that she would hand to the doctor. Then the doctor would prescribe me placebo and collect their money for their services. But, of course, I am legit, and I passed the test! Yaaaaay! I passed! I didn't have it all filled out! I got confused... I didn't call the right number and when the recording gave me the run around, I didn't remain calm! SO the receptionist knew I was for real, so she proceeded to RESCHEDULE my appointment for tomorrow. So then I left. This means things are going well.

BUT since I was in the area, I decided that I should try to be a nice loving wife- I had absolutely no time to be a good wife this summer with the kids out of school, but now with them in school, I am expected to do nice things for my husband. So I stopped by the grocery store and picked up a package of Matt's favorite cookies, and then drove over to his office. I called him from my cell phone in the parking lot and said "hey I was in the area, wanna come out for a quickie?"
And he said "UMM... NO!!"
And so then I was like "I said a COOKIE!!"
And then he was like "Oh, ok I'll be right out". So I waited by my van until I saw him come out the door, and then we started walking across the parking lot towards each other. But then suddenly he stopped and yelled "NO!"
And I was like "what?!"
And he calls out "NO! I don't want those cookies! They are disgusting!"
... and I was confused and said "but these are your favorite kind!"
And he called back, "no those are Safeway brand! I only like King Soopers brand!"
Well fine. Luckily, I had left my van door open, so I chucked them across the parking lot back into the van. And then I said "well this is the last time I bring you a treat at work."
And he said, "what?! You're so mean!!"
And I said, "Oh really? I'M so mean? Do you really think that's what people think of wives that bring their husbands cookies at work?"
So he said "I don't know... why don't you go BLOG about it!".
So I did.

This is how successful days begin. When your kids are in school, you have time for things like this. I successfully passed the mental health fakers test at the doctors office. And I successfully passed the "do you love your husband enough to bring him cookies at work even if they're the wrong kind, because it's the thought that counts" test. Onward to even more successes now!!

Disclaimer I am sure Matt will want me to make: I may have left some minor details out of the cookie story.

Maria

2010-08-09T12:29:00.002-06:00

Recently, Maria asked me to take her senior pictures for her. We ventured out to "La Favorita Tortilla" Ranch, where we found a hot boy and a horse to pose as eye candy. I had so much fun because Maria is so cute and beautiful, so every picture of her turns out perfect. Here are some of my favorites:

I accidently didn't see Roxann'e creeping around behind the truck there. Maria pointed it out after I mailed them to her, so I still have to photoshop her out.

In reality, this guy could only have Maria in his dreams.

I hope Maria doesn't move too far away when she graduates, because she's our favorite babysitter!

Liturgy

2010-08-09T12:08:00.007-06:00

This was the liturgy reading at church yesterday. If I prayed this everyday, I might have no unsatisfied desires, and no fears. Somebody took the picture above- I stole it from facebook.

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, O Jesus.

www.RocketsPlaygroundBlog.com

2010-08-04T12:04:00.003-06:00

Before the summer started, I read "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell- a book about success and what makes some people successful and some people not. One major factor in the success of adults, apparently and according to this book, is whether or not their parents were mean enough to make them do educational work during summer break of elementary school. The kids who have super mean parents grow up to be more successful than the ones who have nice parents who let them watch iCarly and Spongebob all summer. I tried to be a mean parent this summer by making my kids do tons of work. I can't say I was totally successful, because I think my kids might have memorized every single episode EVER of iCarly and Spongebob- not just memorized the plot lines, I mean, actually memorized them word for word.
But I had some small successes, including a lot of reading fun books from the library. I tried to require book reports of all the books Rocket read, which was like pulling teeth. However, he did enjoy writing a playground blog. I think he was motivated by the thought that his writing would actually be in public view and possibly useful to someone. I can understand that. He was very proud of his blog and was always very excited to hear feedback from people who read it. Here is a link to it for your play ground hunting needs:

http://rocketsplaygroundblog.blogspot.com/

His last entry was pretty funny and creative, although a little bit confusing. He would write out his playground review on paper and then I would type it into the blog format. I tried making him type it himself at the beginning of the summer, but that proved to be too difficult. School starts tomorrow, and I am hoping a little bit of my meanness will have payed off, making them more successful students. If not, hopefully they will be able to spout off Nickelodeon trivia better than any other kid at recess- which might be considered successful too.

Play Dough

2010-08-03T15:44:00.013-06:00

We've done a lot of the same things over and over again this summer. One of those is making castles and villages out of play dough. Each time we use play dough, the creation is a little bit more extravagant. This is our latest creation and I think they spent most of yesterday working on it. Oh, except for the time they were working on another creation, that I can't tell you about right now because it's a surprise for someone who is having a birthday this weekend (but it's pretty cool!). And except for the time that they spent watching the SAME ICarly episode that we seem to have already watched 10 times this summer- the one where some guy named Mr. Galeeny dies and they're sad because he made really good pies...
Anyways, there are some details I am noticing in this picture that I didn't even notice in person- like the one eyed monster with one tooth between the two first buildings.

Here is a look back at some of our other play dough creations...

I don't ever worry too much about mixing colors. When a color gets too mixed up and looks ugly, we add it to the ugly play dough bag. We use the ugly play dough for parts that don't show too much- like the mound in the middle.
Some people have asked for my play dough recipe, but it's nothing special. I just look it up online and do the regular salt and water boiling thing. The only special thing is I color it with icing coloring gel. I have a bunch of that from making cakes.
If you want to come over and make something with us, we'd like it a lot!!

ALSO: Thanks to Jodi for the caps- we love them a hundred capfuls! Thanks to Lindsey for the freaky clown heads- we love freaky things that are clowns! Thanks to lots of cousins and aunts for help on the second to the bottom one. Becca who claimed to not be a crafty person suddenly became extremely crafty when the play dough came out!

Like a Butterfly

2010-08-02T20:55:00.008-06:00

Recently I got back in touch with one of my most delightful high school classmates- Laura. There are so many wonderful people that I went to high school with that I lost touch with so quickly. Had I known at the time that these great people aren't that easy to come by out in the big world, I probably wouldn't have taken them for granted and would have made a greater effort to keep in touch. Of course, it wasn't so easy back then. Facebook and myspace were unheard of. Thankfully, I have reconnected with quite a few of them recently, and I was so happy to see that Laura hadn't lost her joyful, radiant spirit that I always loved about her. In fact, she is actually opening a whole store dedicated to that confidence and charm that makes her so much fun to be around. It's called "A Call to Life" and will be in Old Colorado City. So, if you're in the Colorado Springs area, be sure to visit it- it's grand opening is this next Friday- the 6th.
Also, if you go, you'll get to see my gigantic mural that she commissioned me to do. It's now hanging behind the checkout counter. It was so much fun to do, because I had been like a fish out of water all summer having not painted, and this was such a refreshing dip back into the waters that make me feel alive. Also, the subject matter was just the type of thing I needed to be focusing on right now- an unfettered spirit of embracing the blessings that are presented to us. Laura inhabits that spirit so well, and I want to too. Painting this was good for my soul.
This is Laura in her store as we were in the process of hanging the canvas:

As a side note, I purchased the canvas, at a highly reduced rate, from Jodi as she was moving. I still have quite a couple dozen YARDS left on the roll, and hope to put that to good use as well, as a way to commemorate the artistic and spiritual camaraderie that Jodi provided for me while she was here in Denver. I was also hoping that I could keep her vine and cactus alive, but the vine is fighting with all of its might to die. I have done absolutely everything I can, and it does not want to live. It misses Jodi, I suppose. Like, seriously, I've bought a ton of different colored products at Home Depot that promise to save plants, and it just keeps going down hill... I'm trying to not let my spirits follow.

Along the same lines (or maybe not... I don't know)... I decided to permanently imprint what symbolizes the same spirit as the mural does (but in not as much of a literal way) onto my arm. My forearm- which is my favorite part of my body. There really isn't anything I don't like about my forearm, and I don't think there is any other part of my body that I can say that about. And now, I think I will enjoy my forearm even more.

I really like monarch butterflies. When I was young, I used to have this thing called the "Animal Wildlife Fact File" and it was a notebook and each month or so I would get pamphlets in the mail about different animals to add to it- and they were all coded in certain orders. I read through every pamphlet very often. I remember noticing that the monarch butterfly existed on every single continent of the world, and I thought that was pretty cool- that God would choose to let every single kind of person have this same experience (kind of like the moon). BUT... I just looked them up on wikipedia which says something to the contrary. But I thought that I really really remembered that. SO I just went and got out my Animal Wildlife Face File (of course I still have it), and wiki was right... they're really only in the western hemisphere... but my false memory must have come from the fact that the facing page shows the lady bug's map- and THEY are the animal on every continent. Not the monarch. I must have gotten confused. Oh well.... I guess I still like monarchs.
I've had quite a few (3 to be exact) people in public places say "I like the sticker on your arm". So I guess it looks like a sticker.

Sooooo anyways. With this whole losing friends situation that I have vaguely brushed on... it's been difficult to stick with the whole church thing. The church culture... the christiany culture... it's just gotten so annoying to me and I've got a bitter and cynical attitude towards it. I feel bad saying that, I really do, but it's true. However, God, on the other hand, has still touched me over and over again and I can't blame anything on him. He remains so real to me. I'd give up on the whole church routine all together, except for the fact that I just don't think I can give up on church without giving up on God.... and Jesus- he specifically said that he intended a church.... right? Whether I can prove it to you or not, something inside of me was meant for that. Meant for a huge creator and controller and something heavenly. It's not scientific or logical, but it's just something inside me that I can't explain.
So, we've been going to Scum Of The Earth Church... I know that sounds so cheesey. But it's been so specifically blessing me at a deep place and specific place in my soul that I don't feel could be random or coincidental, and I feel as though God has provided it for me just at this necessary time. I am scared and hesitant to commit to it, or to let it define any part of my identity. But it is what it is for now. There's so many different little blessings that have come from it that seemed to be highly directed personally towards me, but why I brought this up, is because of last night's blessing. It specifically seemed to be related to everything else I STARTED out this blog saying (just wait... it's all coming together, I promise). As we sang "I come to your gates once more, my heart and my spirit soar, and I wish I could love you more".... I had such clear visions of the mural I had painted for the store, and how this girl, like me, is approaching God and feeling his warmth and blessing and how it just makes my heart and spirit soar- I was that girl in the mural. And, I was so aware of those blessings, which stood all around me there- my beautiful little girl in her glasses, and my pensive son with a furrowed brow trying to figure out all this spiritual stuff, and the people with messy hair, and the ones that are wearing really weird things. In light of all that, I wish I could love him more- without bitterness, and without the crappy feelings I have towards a lot of his children that have hurt me. And then I look down at my lovely forearm, and it reminds me that He was the inventor of the excellent thing known as a metaphor, and at the point, I am a butterfly, soaring despite everything else that makes me so unworthy of that experience. And that's where I am now... realizing that when I open up my arms and accept the blessings that He is giving me, I am a butterfly- beautiful and soaring and without worry or anxiety, just living the life that He intended for me to live. That's how all these things are connected- the mural, the tattoo, the church... do you get it? I hope so. If not, oh well, I am crazy and that's OK... OK with me at least.

Goodbyes...

2010-07-30T15:30:00.007-06:00

Another thing that has made this last year particularly sad has been all the good byes. There has been a lot of them. Besides losing some friends that were probably worth losing, there were also some friends I didn't want to say goodbye to. Like Colleen. She was wonderful and I loved sitting around listening to her witty jokes. But she had moved here from the East coast and I think her soul never left Maine, and so last month she moved back there.

Also Jodi. She left a couple weeks ago and is going to Scotland for Steve to go to school there. I don't think I had ever had a friend like her. She understood my spiritual side and my artistic side and how they go together. I gave her this little list of things that we did together that were good memories. I blurred out the ones that were inappropriate or personal, so you can't see those.

I was going to write something hopeful, like "now I'm ready to make new friends". But I'm kind of not. I don't really have time for people. Perhaps I should change that. I'll decide later though.

The good thing is, there is one friend that has stuck around for a long time, my best friend- Matt. It's a good thing I've had him, because he gives me a whole lot of hugs, even when I don't want them, but especially when I am sad. And I would hate saying goodbye to him- that's why I don't wake up every morning at 7am when he's leaving for work.

Goodbye. For now.

2010-07-29T21:09:00.002-06:00

ANXIETY

There is a lot of things I could post about... but anxiety seems to have taken over my life, possessing me into a person I never thought I was or could be. I'm writing this, not only so that you will understand my erratic posts, but also so that maybe you will forgive me for any way I have let you down in the last week... or month... or year. Just please give me some grace by thinking that that was not the "real" me. And if it WAS, in fact, the "real" me, please pray that I can somehow return back into the fake me- because the other me was way more functional, happy, stress free, better wife and mother. There is a chain of gears that have come off of its track on my bike, but I'm still trying to peddle.

I just reread this post and realized its one of those blogs posts that I HATE. I hate general posts that give no real information. Example of a terribly vague post:

"Hi peoples! As you might already know, there is a lot of stuff going on in my life right now. It's pretty important stuff that really has to be dealt with, and it involves a lot of important people- you guys know who you are. I'd just like a lot of prayer and support during this difficult period that could last for quite some time. Pray that the doctors will have wisdom and the this friend would make the right decision as it will be effecting both her and I as well as many other people for probably the rest of our lives. I can't really tell you the details, but I think you get the gist of it."

OK.... so my interpretation of this...

"A lot of stuff going on"? You're getting a divorce.
"It's pretty important stuff"? This must involve the cops or FBI then, at the very least, lawyers.
"It involves a lot of people"? Mafia.
"Prayer and support for difficult period"? Yeah, all women deal with that "period" once a month...
"could last for quite some time"? 5-7 days may SEEM like forever, but really it isn't, so buck up and deal.
"Pray that the doctors have wisdom"? Fatal disease, cancer, heart attack.
"Friend making the right decision"? Abortion.
"I really can't tell you the gist of it but you get the gist...." yeah I get the gist! You're an overly dramatic attention hungry blogger who wants me to feel left out of your super juicy secrets!!! That's what I get! If the information is too sensitive to blog about... then DON'T blog about it!!!

PHew... anyways... I don't really have any specific juicy information about why I am dealing with a lot of intense anxiety... it could be a combination of things: a hurtful (and backstabbing) separation from our former church family, Matt and I interacting differently than we used to, having the kids home for the summer, a sudden concentration of demands from our family, not being able to paint for virtually the entire summer while the kids are out of school.... that's all I can think of right now... oh wait... I forgot about dishes and laundry and mopping- which I've decided I will cross off the list because it really isn't necessary- especially if you where shoes inside the house.

OK, now Matt is having anxiety about what I might be publicly saying about my anxiety. Now I am having anxiety about his anxiety about my anxiety. But I just got a new tattoo which I think will bring about an improvement in this anxious situation. Tattoos have been know to do that. I'll show you a pic later. Actually, just typing this out was therapeutic and soothing to my soul... perhaps I should do it more often.

2010-07-27T16:46:00.002-06:00

This video is really poor quality and doesn't have any sound, but it's only 11 seconds long so watch it anyways...

2010-07-27T15:48:00.002-06:00

We've Painted Today.....

Now I think we'll go slip and slide or something....

2010-07-27T15:07:00.002-06:00

I'm Painting Today

No, the kids haven't gone back to school yet... but I have started painting preemptively. The kids aren't helping much... well, not that I want them to help with my painting- I would just like them to stop NOT helping me. You know what I mean.

The painting isn't done. It's for a store in Old Colorado City. I will show and tell you more about it after Friday when it is done.... well, lets hope it gets done.

2010-07-26T09:16:00.004-06:00

Stickers for Miss. Firefly

This is kindof old news. Oh well. These are the stickers that I designed for Miss. Firefly that she will sell at shows as she travels and performs. They will be printed on 2 inch by 3 inch rectangle stickers. Of course, any art involving the delightful Miss Firefly is always great fun for me to do, but this was especially fun because I was experimenting with digital painting. After reading "Tickets to Ride" and reading about how all of those illustrations were digital paintings about carnival themed stuff, I had a great idea. Wouldn't it be cool to create a whole book of these kindof of carnival poster-like pictures? I could feature a different exciting side-show character with interesting deformities or physical features on each page. Conjoined twins, lobster girls, limb deficient people, and of course penguin boy.... super colorful, playful and joyful. It would be fun I think. I think kids would like it. Dreeeeeeam dream dream dream (that song... I'm singing that song... you know).
I wish I had more to say because right now my kids are fixing my hair and it feels SOOOO good. Rocket just said, "We're the company that works for you, mom!" Oh yeah... this is good work. Keep going. Keep going.

2010-07-23T13:52:00.003-06:00

Today...

Today I actually exercised for the first time in a couple weeks. It felt so good. And it's giving me a little taste of what life's gonna be like in less than two weeks... 13 days to be exact- not that I am counting them down or anything. When I finished my workout, I found Roxanne sporting this fabulous look that she created for herself.

Roxanne likes to paint her face often. I liked to do that too, when I was a kid. Picture: I think I was probably twice Roxanne's age in this picture though. I used to also write poems to go along with my different face paintings... I don't think I have the poem that went with this one anymore though. It probably wasn't that good anyways.
I'm actually just forcing myself to post a blog today. That's why I am posting this... because I am keeping a commitment to blog for the purpose of self betterment. I'm trying to figure out how to post from my phone, so if you see any strange posts, that's why... it only works if I don't attach a picture.

2010-07-22T14:39:00.004-06:00

Sorry we've been gone... we've been reading

My absence from my blog this summer has many reasons. The biggest one is that my kids are out of school, making it nearly impossible to do much other than spend time with them. Even painting has had to take a back burner this summer. Well... except for painting with bubbles and painting murals on the fence and painting faces and legs and feet... and whatnot... but not real painting.
I've been spending quite a lot of time admiring someone I used to know who was able to spend the summer crafting everyday, exercising, making delicious meals, all while maintaining a blog. She was me two summers ago, and I'm quite jealous of her. Not sure how she did it.
We've done a LOT of reading this summer, so I thought, what better way to break back into the blog than by sharing some of our favorite and most unfavorite kids' books that we've discovered at our local library.

First, our favorites:

1. Here Comes The Garbage Barge!

Typically, we choose our books from the library by looking for those with good illustrations. Luckily, this one had an interesting, and thought provoking true story to go along with it. It's all about trash.

2. The Man Who Walked Between The Towers

The illustrations in this one weren't anything too special, but the story was. Rocket found the book and recognized the story from a true documentary that we watch about it a couple years ago, called "Man on Wire". The book was a good childrens' version of the documentary. We read the book quite a few times before it was due back at the library!

3. Ticket to Ride

I chose this book JUST for it's illustrations- and it was worth it just for them. The words are cute too, but the illustrations are what made the book. It took us a good half hour to finish the book because we spent a lot of time looking at each picture. Whenever I read a really really good book, I make a point of emailing the author- because authors aren't really celebrities, so I've found that they don't tend to get irritated by fan mail. They seem to appreciate hearing from someone whose read their book. He emailed us back and gave us some more insights into the illustrations, and told us some fun things to look for! We also requested that the library buy his other two books, and they said that they would. We can't wait for them to come in!

4. Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life

We picked up this book one day when I was running by the library to pick up a book for myself that was on hold. Roxanne asked if she could get a book too, but we already had a lot of books out so I told her she could get ONE book. So she chose THE BIGGEST book in the library- which was this one. It is 20 inches long and almost 15 pounds! The art of Charley Harper has a beautiful simplicity to it, and we found that it was very inspiring for the kids own artwork! We accidentally returned this book VERY VERY late because it was so large and it wouldn't fit on my library book bookshelf, so I put it somewhere different and forgot about it for a while. Oops.

5. Charley Harper Coloring Book

We didn't actually get this one at the library. I got it at the Denver Art Museum gift shop. When I saw it, I remembered how much Roxanne loved the illustration in the huge book, so I got her this coloring book, which has colorless versions of some of the best pictures in the larger book. Roxanne has been making some beautiful watercolor paintings with it!

Now, our Unfavorite Books

I feel a bit foolish admitting to checking these books out, because their titles should have been dead give aways that these were bad books. But somehow I doubted the titles and suspected that they would have happy endings. They didn't... proving that you SHOULD, in fact, judge a book by its cover- or at least by the title on its cover.

1. Michael Rosen's Sad Book

As it says, this book is sad. Really sad. Too sad for kids. I felt like crying. The kids said it was just boring, not really sad, but maybe they are insensitive.

2. How to Cook Children

After only one page of this book, I had read just about every word that I have forbidden my own kids from saying. It also touched on many gruesome and crude subjects I didn't want to have to explain the meaning of. That's when I shut it and refused to keep reading, and the kids were very upset. They said that so far, it had been the best book they'd ever read. They have bad taste in books sometimes.

Only two more weeks left before the kids go back to school! We finished our library reading charts today and plan on going to the library this afternoon to redeem them for Elitches tickets. Happy Summer reading to you too!

2010-06-16T11:39:00.012-06:00

This Marks the Beginning of Summer Break...

At the beginning of each summer since we've lived in Colorado, the kids and I have made a trip to the pond near our house to collect tadpoles that we intend to raise into frogs. As tradition has it, we end of killing the tadpoles a couple days later (not intentionally). This year, we kept the first part of the tradition but would like to break the second part (the killing part).
So yesterday, we made our way to the pond and this time we brought along our dear cousins Milo and Lucy, and their beautiful momma, Sarah, who took pictures for us (except for this first one, obviously).

The kid in the helmet is not ours. But he kept getting into our pictures and warned us repeatedly that there were rattle snakes around here. Friggin know-it-all, safety-conscious, suburban helmet-wearing kids... that's why we're planning on moving inward when the opportunity arises.

Rocket always starts out at the edge of the pond, and ends up somewhere near the middle of the pond in an attempt to catch a frog.

To his dismay, the frogs were a little too quick for him this year (as opposed to last year). But he DID catch this friggin colossal tadpole!! We think it was dead, although Milo claims he saw it swim away, so maybe it was just playing dead, who knows. I didn't know that tadpoles even got this big before turning into frogs, but if they do, maybe we DON'T want all of our tadpoles to survive!

In this picture I appear to be taking my tadpole catching job very seriously... and I certainly do.

Milo and Roxy on the way home... ain't that precious?!

These are the new strategies we are implementing this year to try to get our tadpoles to survive:

Put them in a glass bowl instead of a plastic one because plastic releases poisonous things (like BPA I think).
Include some pond gunk and plants so that they feel more at home and the transition from pond to glass bowl is less shocking.
Don't leave them outside on a windy day.
Don't change their water.
Don't pet them too much.
Don't feed them stuff from our fridge or pantry.
Pray over them nightly.
Any other suggestions? We're desperate.

2010-05-28T11:50:00.003-06:00

Two more stop-motions... and that's it

This one Roxanne and I did while Rocket was at school because she really really really really wanted to make a movie WITHOUT any boys around... it's called "Monsters and Tsunamis".

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And this one Rocket made for his Australian animal project for school. He came home and said, "My animal is the stringray and for my project I'm going to make a stop-action movie!" and I was like "umm... I'm kindof sick of doing that." and he said "well I can do it on my own"... which meant that I gave in and helped him. He presents it to his class today. I hope he gets a good grade.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This is how you make a stop action film: Take a whole lot of pictures of something happening. Then upload them all to onetruemedia.com and add music. If you want to make it look like something is magically moving on it's own, you have to move it very gradually, and get out of the picture when you snap it. It's best to have two people- a mover and a snapper. The mover moves the object and the snapper takes the picture once the mover's hand is out of the picture. You have to sortof get into a rhythm like this: move, snap, move, snap, move, snap. There is a lot of youtube how-to videos about it. But once you do it with your kids once, they will want to do it all the time. Every toy they have will give them a new stop-action movie idea. Like "oh I could make a stop-action with this barbie" or "oh wouldn't this car be cool in a stop-action?" The possibilities are endless... but I'm sure your time is not.... mine's not.

2010-05-21T09:04:00.004-06:00

Playdough, Caps, Lids, Screws, and a Destructive Shoe

We love making stop action videos around here. Sometimes I forget to post them. But we talk about making them more than we actually do. But yesterday, we broke out all the caps and lids that Jodi and I have been collecting for the last couple months, as well as the playdough... and some screws... and I think a few other odds and ends maybe. Anyways, here's our video:

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I can't figure out how to make it not end so abruptly... I wish the music would fade off. But that's OK, because OneTrueMedia makes the rest of it so easy to do.

2010-05-18T10:27:00.007-06:00

My Solo Art Show

My art show on Saturday was exciting. I can't really say that anything particularly exciting actually happened.... it was just the people. The fact that these people actually came out JUST for my art show, was mind boggling. It makes me wonder if I bugged them so much that they thought that I wouldn't be their friend anymore if they didn't come... or if they really did want to be there. And there was a good mix of people that I knew and people that I didn't know and got to meet. And the food was delicious too!

Before the show, I made buttons of all my paintings and pinned them on a canvas that was labeled "buttons" (I didn't get a very up close picture of it). Everyone that came to the show got to pick their favorite painting on a button that they could wear. It was a good way of making people think they were getting a free gift, but really they are just endorsing my artwork!

And I wore buttons with portraits of myself on them created by my two favorite artists, Rocket and Roxanne. Buttons are the coolest.

Even Matt wore a button! What a good husband...

One of the biggest surprises (ok, I guess THE biggest surprise) was when Jody and Cassie showed up. They are my blogger friends, and in the 21st century, blogger friends are just as valuable as real life friends, even if you have never met them.... but it's always exciting to meet them too! I had never met Cassie before, and I had met Jody before, but I was too young to remember it (like 16 or something). But I was pretty shocked and speechless when I saw that they were there, and I wish I had known they were coming, cause then I could have acted chill and planned cool things to talk about. Oh well... maybe next time.

This is me talking with people about my art... or whatnot. See Dianne? She put a lot of work into finding a babysitter so she could come. Things like that just say a lot.

OK, these pictures are out of order.... this is before anyone got there.

Yeah this one too.
I always like it when Luke comes to my art things. If I have too many though, he might stop coming.

Kyle never misses an art show! And, it's always good he's there cause then Matt has someone to talk about baseball with.

This is the lady who actually wants the art to sell!

Good ole Clyde and Susie! Did you know they're married now?!

Some other people.

And the folks. Thanks Dad- without you, I wouldn't have any of these pictures (the camera card). Thanks Mom- without you, I wouldn't have those cool boots.

And thanks everyone else who came, or wanted to come, or reposted my link on facebook, or said "I like your art", or said "you look good tonight, no you dont look like a school teacher", or asked how the show went afterwards, or posed for me so I could do these paintings, or whatever else I cant remember now, but thanks pretty much everyone in the whole world ever... yeah, thanks. I'm so so so lucky.

2010-05-17T10:27:00.004-06:00

Grandmama Goes Grocery Shopping

My big art show was this last weekend. Saturday. I prepared for it all day... by trying to figure out what to wear and by sleeping and by charging my camera battery. I thought "boy it would be awful if I got to the show and my camera battery went dead and I couldn't take pictures", because that HAS happened to me before at really important picture taking times. And Matt is just never as sympathetic as he should be when that happens and I start crying.
So when I got there, you can imagine the feeling of panic I had when I realized that even though I had charged my camera battery, I had forgotten my camera card. Luckily my dad was there and had his camera that used the same memory card as his. But he didn't want to loan it to me. He was like "well, when would I be able to get it back?" and I had to talk him into letting me use it, which he eventually did. Pffff..... Dad.
His reluctance to letting me use his card made me think there must be something secret on it... hehehehe. He didn't need to worry about me not returning his card, but he did need to worry about me stealing pics off of it. So ofcourse I took it home and checked it out after the show. No big secrets I dont think... nothing too incriminating... well, except for the pics of him playing beer pong while wearing a Heidi Ho costume in a German pub with his coworkers for Oktoberfest. Just Kidding. But I did find these awesome pictures of my grandma, his mom, at the grocery store. It seems every time I see her, she is a little bit shorter... and if this pattern continues, soon I'm afraid she won't be able to see over the basket when she goes grocery shopping.

Coming up next.... pic from my art show (not sure if that's as good as pics of Grandmama grocery shopping though)

Sneak preview: unexpected guests, looking like a school teacher, and buttons, buttons, buttons....

2010-05-09T15:29:00.002-06:00

Happy Mother's Day to Me.

For mother's day, I was given a very nice piece of original fine art- and its even supposed to be me! And Friday. I also got to go to Cici's pizza buffet last night, and we discussed how my children could make being a mother easier for me.
I don't believe there has ever been a mother's day where I have been less confident in my mothering skills.

2010-05-06T16:21:00.003-06:00

So this is what I've been waiting for, folks... I think.

On Tuesday I took every original painting on of the walls of my house and transported them all the Tastes Wine Bar, where I am booked for the next two months to have a solo art show. It's exciting. It's what I've always dreamed of. This is what the facebook event invitation says:

Please join us for Naomi's first solo art show!

-Enjoy free delicious tapas!
-Enjoy Naomi's paintings of people with deformities, Little Miss Religianity, exotic ocean creatures, and more!
-Pick out your favorite painting on a free button!
-Try out a bottle of wine!
-Chat with the artist!

If you can't make it on the 15th, don't worry. The paintings will be displayed throughout May and June, so stop in any time (although you won't get a free button or tapas).

Event presented by Tastes Wine Bar and Bistro and Jennifer Mosquera

I keep trying to figure out if this is that moment I've been waiting for all my life... if this is what I envisioned it to be or not. My brain sometimes tricks me. It tends to separate every event in my life into two categories; either "this is EXACTLY what I've always wanted!" or "this is NOT AT ALL what I wanted!!", instead of just taking it in for what it is. So it seems that no measure of success would satisfy me, because I would always be wondering if I actually was hoping for something better, and then envisioning what "better" actually would be. "Better" would probably be if it were written about in People magazine maybe. Maybe People mag is the pinnacle of success... no wait... Oprah. I think I could be satisfied with the Westword though...

Nevertheless, I am trying to enjoy the ride. I bought a new shirt to wear to the opening reception. It says "Life is cool and fun"... and it really is... cool and fun. I mean maybe it could be cooler and funner, but who cares. But I bought the shirt on the internet, so I hope it fits good when it gets here, cause if it didn't, that wouldn't be very cool or fun.

Anyways, speaking of success, I've been reading "Outliers: the story of success" by Malcolm Gladwell and in it, he argues that success is not merely talent, but rather talent coupled with many unlikely events and people lining up in order to give someone an opportunity for success. Without the right doors opening, the right stars lining up, etc etc, no one would have the success they do. They owe it to so many different variables besides their own determination or talent.

If my art is considered successful, I was thinking, it really is the result of all these different opportunities from different people and circumstances that just happen to fall into my path.
OK, so I just started to try to write out all of those unlikely happenings, and it become an overwhelming task so I stopped and deleted what I had already wrote. But what it all has taught me is that every person and every situation I encounter, as insignificant as they may seem at the moment, may become something extremely important to m life if I keep my mind open to that. You just never know what potential little encounters may have. Oh gosh, I'm being all vague now, but there's just too many examples to start getting specific!

Anyways, if you're in the Denver area on the 15th, I'd love to see you at the reception! Even if you don't know it, you've probably inspired me or encouraged me in some way or another over the past years... yes, even YOU!

2010-04-29T09:32:00.003-06:00

The Super Foamerator!!

This is a super foamerator. If you were to graph the slope of a line (rise over run) that represents this project, with the x axis representing the work involved in doing it, and the y axis representing the fun involved , it would be a pretty steep slope, which is a great thing. It would look like this: Not much work; whole lot of fun! Ideally, all experiences would be graphed with a completely vertical line, meaning there is NO work involved and an INFINATE amount of fun.... but as you might recall from your geometry lessons, this is impossible because in that case, x would equal zero, and no number on the y axis can be divided by zero, deeming the slope of the line "undefined". But what I am trying to say is that, this project is worth doing.

First you take an empty plastic bottle. Then you cut of the bottom half. Then you rubber band a washcloth to the bottom of the bottle. Ta da! You've made a super foamerator and are ready to have some fun!! Dip the cloth end of the bottle into soapy water and then blow. If it's not a very windy day, you can make some really long foam snakes. But yesterday, it was really windy and so all of our foam was flying off into the sky, which was kind of fun too!

2010-04-27T09:33:00.002-06:00

SO, How Did It Go?

So, the Art Curator, audition-like thing... it went good, I think... maybe... I'm not sure... but I think OK.

I wasn't so nervous until I got there, and realized that not all the art curators were as light hearted and casual as I had expected them to be. They were wearing sweater vest, and glasses low on their noses that they would peer over as they looked at me. They reminded me of my art history professors, and even though it's only been about 10 years since I've been in college, I thought that those sorts of pretentious artsy people had stopped existing... or at least moved to New York by now.

I hadn't mentally prepared myself to put on my serious face. I hadn't practiced any big words. I hadn't worn high heels. And, I had made them all buttons. Yeah... buttons- like the kind you pin on your shirt. Cause I thought that would be cool... and awesome... until I got there.

I might have given a few wrong answers. Like when they asked about the price range of my paintings, I said "well, I guess it depends on the amount of commission that the curator is taking"... which was obviously a very wrong answer to give as I saw the disgust on all their faces. Then they explained that that sort of price changing is not allowed... stupid me... I should have known.

But one of them seemed to like me alright, and may be willing to work with me and all my foolishness. I was supposed to hear from her yesterday, but I did not... and I am hoping that's not a bad sign. I'll be checking my email frequently today... like every 3 minutes.

Oh, and the painting at the top. I squeezed it in... getting up at 6 am the day of the critique to finish it. I always have this mentality about my art that says "the next painting is going to be the good one". So I was determined to get that "next painting" in before it counted. But now I've got a new "next painting" in my head.

2010-04-22T09:15:00.002-06:00

Three More Paintings...

These are two of the four paintings of Sea Creatures that are hanging at "Strings" restaurant for the next couple month. Sales of the Octopus will benefit the Cunningham Foundation. Sales of the Lionfish will benefit me.

And, this, is the first product of my trip to Baltimore. It is entitled "Off Limits". It's actually pretty large (3'X4') and that's why it took so long.

Also, I just got word that I will be able to be seen, on Saturday, by four Denver art curators. They will review my work, and decide whether they like me or not. If they DO like me, then they will decide to further my art career by hanging my stuff up somewhere.
Not sure if this is a big deal.
Not sure if I should be super nervous.
Not sure what I should wear.

2010-04-15T09:46:00.008-06:00

It's a Beautiful Life...

Right now, Roxanne has kindergarten three days a week. On the other two days, she is home with me while Rocket is at school. I think she really likes that time. Yesterday, I bought her a bucket of sidewalk chalk at the grocery store, and thought that maybe it would entertain her while I got some things done. Ofcourse, she talked me into doing it with her, as she commonly does, because it's not too hard. So I drew butterfly wings and she drew lots of other butterflies and hearts and what not. Then I took a pic of her acting like a butterfly and I posted it on Facebook. People really really really liked it. I got 24 comments on it!! I've never got that many comments on a picture before, and Roxanne and I really liked reading them all. Roxanne immediately started thinking of what new thing we could do next time and then post on the internet.
Next year, when she is in school full time, I will probably be more productive. My Etsy site will probably be more profitable, and I will probably be able to get my paintings more in order. Maybe I will be in better shape too, cause I'll have more time to exercise. But there will be a little less magic around... I will probably miss the unexpected playful projects and adventures that we often encounter. I will probably laugh a lot less during the day too- right now Roxanne loves to do silly things to try to make me laugh. When she's not around, I'll probably realize what a blessing she has been to me- such a joyful, artistic little bundle of color, smiles, and love. What did I do to deserve that?!
However, spending just a little bit of time doing chalk art reminded me how fun it really is- such an easy medium to work with. This motivated me to go ahead and submit an application to the Denver Chalk Art Festival, which I did later in the afternoon. SO, on the flip side of things, playing around with Roxanne can actually have potentially productive side effects.
Also, here is a picture from Rocket's birthday on Tuesday. I don't have many pictures because I wasn't there for most of it- Matt took Rocket and his best friend, Shane, to a Rockies game. But we met before hand at Cici's pizza to give him his gifts and everything. This is a picture I took there:Haha!!! I love my dorky kids!! And Matt took this picture of Rocket at the game with his phone:
Geeze, I can't believe I have an EIGHT year old! That's half way to being able to drive a car!
Oh yeah, and I also can't believe I even care about this but.... The Rockies won! YES!

2010-04-12T15:16:00.004-06:00

SHhhhh! Don't Tell!!

This is what we're giving Rocket for his 8th birthday tomorrow:

Baseballs, baseball books, baseball cards, baseball games, and baseball tickets....

Can you tell what's on Rocket's mind lately? It may seem that things haven't changed a lot since last year. But, maybe it's just that Rocket's birthday and the opening day of the baseball season happen to land in the same month- so we may be giving him the same genre of birthday gifts for the rest of his life.

2010-04-04T21:51:00.008-06:00

Spring Break

When I got back from Baltimore, I joined the kids in their two week spring break off of school. I can’t say I look forward to having the kids home with me all day, because the lack of productivity that it causes gives me some anxiety. But, I sure do love to spend time with them finding ways to enrich their minds and finding adventures to go on. This is a list of the things we did on their spring break. They go back to school on Monday (phew).

We babysat Teddy (my mom’s dog). Friday enjoyed Teddy more than anyone else did. But the kids enjoyed the $10 each that they got from my mom for taking good care of her dog (and his poo).
Roxanne spent her $10 on a guitar to replace the one she destroyed one day when she was angry and smashed it against the wall.
We discovered Washington Park, which had the best climbing tree I’ve seen in a long time. Well, Rocket thought it was a good climbing tree… Roxanne thought it was a good guitar playing tree, but I told her to stop playing and singing after a while, because I was embarrassed.
We discovered Lollicup, where we ordered three “snow bubbles with boba”. If you live in Denver, you should go there once. It’s a really fun place with lots of Hello Kitty and other brightly colored Chinese looking creatures and fun games to play too. The kids found out that they REALLY like to play Connect Four.
We went to target and Rocket spent his $10 to buy Connect Four so that they can play ALL the time now. Out of 100 games played, Rocket has won 100, and Roxanne has won 0.
We got to see Corinna officially/legally join the Bennett family, by going to court to witness her adoption process. I was so happy that the kids were lucky enough to witness a family be joined in this way.

We went to see Alice in Wonderland.
We made a playdough wonderland… inspired by Alice in Wonderland.
Rocket and I went to Body Worlds. Ever since I went to Body Worlds in Florida, I knew Rocket would love to see it. Since it finally came to Colorado, I decided to take him. We went on Good Friday. I pondered the wonder it is to experience the intricate workings of life through the death of another person (and through plastination) and how that parallels the meaning behind Good Friday. We have been discussing it ever since, primarily talking about how we hope to never have a brain hemorrhage.
We played with cousins, a lot.

We dyed eggs for Easter, which is tomorrow. Last year, when I saw on Cassie’s blog that she had dyed Easter eggs using silk ties, I decided I wanted to remember to do it the next year. Oddly, it seems I was reading about it only a few months ago, but I guess that just means this year really flew by. Here are the instructions on how to do it. I decided to use stretchy bandage wrap (the kind they wrap on your arm after they draw blood) and that really helped to keep the silk laying flat against the egg. Otherwise, it comes out with a lot of white spots.
And we celebrated Easter by attending a church, spending time with family, and trying to look sharp.

2010-04-03T13:41:00.009-06:00

A Trip To Baltimore

I can't believe two weeks have past since I went to Baltimore! It was a fantastic trip- a true adventure. I don't think I'd ever been to the east coast before except for Florida, if that counts. Meeting with Jason went better than I could have expected, and I am so inspired to start painting him from the photos that I took. The only problem is that I have an unfinished project that is due in a couple of weeks, and needs time to dry since I did it in oils (oil paint doesn't allow for procrastination).

The week before the trip I worked on this banner:
I gave it to Jason as a way to thank him for helping me with my artwork. He is going to use it at tattoo and body modification conventions that he participates in. It's about 7 feet long.

Jason showed Luke and I around downtown Baltimore and the harbor area, which was fantastic because I was able to take pictures and get a tour of the city at the same time. We also got to talk a lot as we walked, which I really enjoyed because before going down there, he knew I wanted to take pictures of him, but there was no guarantee that he would want to share anything with me, or even be friendly for that matter. But getting to hear his take on unique bodies and deformation was really fascinating for me, even if it didn't really play into the art I would create from it. It was encouraging to hear from someone who sees things the same way I do. At one time he said something like, "I don't really need to paint, because I am a walking piece of artwork". Uh, yeah- like a really freakin awesome piece of artwork!!

This is just kindof funny. We walked by a store that had a group of model penguins in the window. He yelled out "My family!!!", because his stage name when he performs is "penguin boy". I do believe he enjoys making a scene.

Other highlights of our trip: I made sure to try out some Baltimore crab cakes (which I wasn't impressed with). I found a Goodwill (I try to do that when I go out of town), and got a new pair of shoes. Luke found an Asian market and bought us some "Hello Panda" cookies, which brought back childhood memories from living in Hong Kong. Oh man, they're so good.

Also, during a layover in the airport, we saw a lady with a custom made suitcase with what appeared to be a picture of her grandchild on it. Luke and I brainstormed about random images we could have made into a custom suitcase that would make people scratch their heads when they saw us walking through an airport with it. I think our best idea was a picture of penguin boy.

Stay tuned for paintings of Jason! But first, I have to finish a painting of a shrimp.... which seems torturously boring in comparison.

2010-03-11T14:34:00.004-07:00

Some Videos of Roxanne

Dancing to her theme song:

We haven't actually explained the lyrics of the song to her yet... but she hasn't asked yet either.

And, the most lovely singer in the whole world:

Also a pic. She lost one of her front teeth the other night (with a little trick she called "string tied to the tooth and to the doggy). And, she also got glasses a while back.

My iphone actually takes some pretty great pics I think.

2010-03-11T14:13:00.004-07:00

Roxy Snickers During Prayer Time

I am making minimal efforts to keep this blog alive. I apologize. One reason I am so unmotivated is because I think I let it die so much that no one is really expecting much from it anymore. But I would like to be able to publish it one day for my own records, and at that time I intend to fill in all the blanks I have been leaving out... probably just with pictures though.

This is my latest painting. It is Roxanne. I absolutely love this little michevious smile I see from her so often. Although I painted it from a photo of her, I added the church scene myself. This is her take on the painting:

"everyone is supposed to be praying, but I am thinking about brownies or something."

Ofcourse, the painting is also very much a self-portrait... but I like to represent myself with her cute little face instead of my not-as-cute face. I feel like I am often times not taking things seriously the way everyone else thinks I should be (especially in a religious setting), and yet, I am still the one getting the blessing (represented with the light rays coming from the stained glass window). And that's why I love grace. Although sometimes I think I am pushing my luck with it.

I started this painting after the painting of Caddy, thinking that I might as well keep busy painting the ones I love while I wait for what I REALLY love to paint to come along. And well, it has come along! On the 19th, I am going to be going to Baltimore with my brother, Luke, to meet and photograph someone that I can not WAIT to paint!!! I am so excited about this, and feel like my life has reached such a perfect place where I am finally getting to do what I love, but haven't been recognized or finished the journey so that there is still so much exciting unknowns ahead. I am so excited to see where this road takes me.

Mostly I am so thankful for people in my life, like Matt, my brother, my kids, my parents, Jodi, and others who have been atleast SLIGHTLY open minded to my ideas, even though they might sound really really strange. I know they're skeptical, but they're giving me a chance and I hope I'm not insane!

2010-01-28T17:08:00.007-07:00

Caddy At the Club

Perhaps I ended my last post with a deceivingly promising cliff hanger. The truth is (and unfortunately so) that I am probably one of the only ones who will be super excited about this. As you can see, Caddy, the man who graciously modeled for the above painting, has two deformed arms. In case you don’t already know (and anyone who knows me very well at all, already does know), there’s not much that I am more passionate about than deformities. I think deformities are a rare and beautiful thing. However, the fact that they are rare seems to work against me, since it is uncommon to meet someone with deformities, and even rarer that they would be willing to let me paint them. That is why Caddy is a dream come true for me.

As I have said before, reading “One of Us” by Alice Dreger sent me on an artistic journey and inspired a train of thought that motivates a lot of what I do today. Also contributing to my fascination, about a year ago, I read “My Life in My Hands” by Alison Lapper, an incredible woman who has no arms and no legs but does have an artist heart that seems to be almost identical to my own. In the next paragraph, I am going to paste an excerpt from her autobiography that expresses my ideas concerning art. However, I want to preface it by saying that when she says “disabled people” or “impaired forms”. I, personally would replace these words with “deformities” or, as my dad has suggested, “six sigma humanity”. I say this because while deformities often are, in fact, disabling, there is also many cases in which they are not (Caddy in particular seemed considerably “able-bodied”to me). Also, referring to the people as “disabled” seems to focus more on the functionality and limitations of the conditions, as apposed to the aesthetic beauty of it. However, I wouldn’t want to ignore or deny the limiting aspect of the conditions, it’s just that that is not where my interest lies, as an artist. The question posed by the book “One of Us” is, “Can something be beautiful and painful at the same time?”. And I would answer that with “absolutely yes”. In fact, some of the most beautiful things and experiences in life are accompanied with pain (ie childbirth, a difficult piece of artwork, etc). I enjoy seeing the beauty- the silver lining- in these cases that may have endured a lot of pain as well. Another reason I am not inclined to say “disabled” is because it is a very relative term, that really depends on a person’s circumstances (someone might be disabled in one environment or with some challenges, but not in another). Anyways, I just wanted to explain my qualms with the terminology that is used in the book, but, essentially, the idea of this quote really reflects my feelings about the deformed person in art:

“Once again, it made me question the whole concept of the debate in society about disability. I have the impression that the able-bodied majority just can’t be bothered with it. They aren’t interested in exploring the issues or seeing the aesthetic beauty that may lie in the depictions of impaired forms. If we walk along the beach and find a stone with a hole in it, we don’t look at it with revulsion simply because most other stones don’t have holes in them. In fact, we may be entranced by the variety of shape that the stone with the hole has brought to our attention. However we don’t respond in that way to the human form when it varies too much from the accepted norm.”

For that reason, I see deformed people as extraordinary gems. I got to paint “Little Miss Firefly” about a year ago. Then I painted the conjoined twins, but I didn’t actually have a model for that painting. Caddy is my second deformed model, but I am praying for many more to come my way. It might take me a lifetime, but I’d like to complete this series with quite an array of different deformities. If you’ve got the kind of connections I need, please pass them along to me. I’ll be eternal grateful!

2010-01-15T12:06:00.007-07:00

(Little Miss Religianity)

Ponders in her Room

In December my first "Little Miss Religianity painting sold at a fabulous art show, that I was so excited to be a part of. Since then, I've really missed Miss. Religianity. She was hanging in my living room, and I had grown attatched to her- more so than I realized until she was gone. So, I decided to try to recreate her, in my newest painting of her pondering in her bedroom. To tell you the truth, I don't like her as much as the first one. I won't point out why.

The painting contains a lot of inspiration from Roxanne, who is herself somewhat of a Little Miss Religianity. She helped me out by creating the drawings that are in the background, and I duplicated them into the painting. She also has a vase on her desk, in which I often find random combinations of items- sortof like the meaningless combo of a naked barbie, a straw and pencil. Contrary to how it might appear, the painting doesn't really make a statement about religion. It's just an image of a child, too young to understand doctrine, but still engaging in spirituality. Honestly, it might be more of a metaphoric self portrait of myself more than anyone else.

On another note, my art experience since moving to Denver has been made up of chain connections. I like to trace each connection I've made back to it's original source and then imagine how different everything would be had I not said "hi" to one person, and thus not set off a long chain of other connections. For example, I met Kyle Banister at Dr. Sketchies. Kyle had me in the baseball art show, where I met Eric Matelski, who had me in the 13 Lumens show, where I sold my artwork to Laurie Maves, who later introduced me to Caddy Cadwell, who is about to make my life's biggest dream come true! To be continued.....

2010-01-07T10:41:00.003-07:00

My Eyeball

I went to the eye doctor this morning, and this is a picture of my the back of my eye ball (looking through my pupil). I can't wait to show the kids. They're gonna be so jealous.

2010-01-04T20:06:00.005-07:00

A Better Decade

This post is three to fours days late, because it is about celebrating new years. Bringing in 2010 was pretty uneventful. At first I felt pretty sad about it, because I had been thinking about how we had brought in 2009- with a group of friends, playing board games, eating haystacks (yum!), laughing, and just having fun. This year wasn't like that... none of those people are our friends anymore, for various unfortunate reasons, that I won't go into here- I don't want to break down and cry in front of you guys. It's not a pretty sight. Man, how things can change within the course of a year!

But, we DID have our time capsule to look forward to opening this year. On New Years Eve 1999, I was really determined to put together a time capsule. I think I had to coerce Matt into participating with me. So, we were both 18, freshmen in college, had been redating for a couple months ("re", since we had broken up the summer between highschool and college). We assembled the capsule at my parents house, before spending the evening with his parents to see in Y2K. We put everything inside a pretty blue bottle, that we have toted around with us through 6 moves, over the past ten years. As we broke it open the other night we discovered that besides a whole bunch of pictures that we took with my webcam, we also wrote notes to each other, or rather, the eachothers of the future, that we didn't know very well yet.

Here are some highlights from Matt's letter to me:
"Ten years from now, I hope that me and Nomi are married" CHECK!
"I should graduate from CSM" CHECK!
"In ten years I plan to be living anywhere but Colorado" unCHECK!

Here are some highlights from my letter to Matt:
"I hope Y2K doesn't destroy the world"
"I wonder if we will be together in ten years?"
"I can't wait to kiss you at midnight!"

Those were just the excerpts that neither Matt or I were too embarressed to post. Other things were almost painful to read, as we realized how stupid we were, or how naive we were, or how needy and dependant we were. Since then, we've moved 10 times, created two people, transformed who we are, changed our mind about our core values, and accumulated a lot of stuff. In light of the traumatic transformations we've endured over the past ten years, it makes the changes that have occured over the past one year seem insignicant. Even so, damaged and failed friendships still seem to hit me like a gigantic blow to the stomach. But atleast now I know I am strong enough to recover, move on, and work towards positively impacting my future, and other people's future. Ten years ago, I couldn't have said that. Ten years ago, what was important was getting a kiss at midnight from the boy I was obsessed with- which I think I got. This year, we were in bed an hour before midnight- which is really really late! But I think I still got a kiss.

May this decade be better than the last!

2009-12-30T22:09:00.004-07:00

Brotherly Love- Julius and Jordan

Monoamniotic Twins

The first time Nikki came over to my house, she glanced around at my unsold paintings which hang on the walls of my own house, like most people do when they come over for the first time. But then when she saw the painting of conjoined twins, she stopped and stared longer than most people do.... and not in a confused, head cocked, scrunched up nose way that says, "why would she want to paint conjoined twins??". I could tell that it intrigued her more than it does most people. But I didn't discuss it with her for a while. Then, about a month later, she emailed me inquiring about doing a "family portrait"... which left a bitter taste in my mouth- until she explained that it would be a different kind of family portrait. The painting of the conjoined twins had struck a chord with her because she had once carried two boys, named Julius and Jordan, that had a lot in common with conjoined twins- they were monoamniotic twins- twins that start out the same way as conjoined twins do, and reside in the same amniotic sack throughout the pregnancy (normally twins are in separate sacks), so they are literally as close as any two people can possibly be, without being conjoined. Sadly, the boys died very shortly before they were due to be born, because they're umbilical cords became tangled and constricted. Nikki wanted a painting that could memorialize their special and unique life that didn't make it past the womb.

I enjoyed putting the painting together, because I did the majority of it in the weeks before Christmas while the kids were out of school, and it was very educational for them. I had checked out a stack of books from the library about fetal developement so I could use them as visual referrences. The kids also loved looking through the amazing pictures of babies prebirth, and they asked tons of questions, and learned a lot about reproduction and how people start. Telling them about it in simple terms, and seeing the look on their faces, made me realize again how awesome and amazing the process really is. Then they wanted to go look at their own baby pictures again and think and talk about how they had just come out of my "tummy" and how wierd but cool that is, and how they wished they could remember it all.

They also learned about Julius and Jordan and their story, about how their mother loved them so much even though they weren't even born yet, and how devestated she was when they died- which I could tell disturbed them some. I told them I wanted to create something beautiful for her to remember them by. When it was done, Rocket told me he thought it was beautiful and thought Nikki would like it. Roxanne said she was just angry because she wished she could paint like that, which I took as a compliment too. I hope Nikki liked it- she said she did, but most people dont say when they dont. And I hope that I never stop being thankful the beauty of my own kids, and the amazing fact that they actually came into existance. And I really hope that they can never stop being thankful and amazed by awesome and beautiful things like that too.

2009-12-21T18:51:00.008-07:00

Final Advent Painting

This is the last video of the advent paintings. I feel that if I were a better painter I wouldn't need to preface it by saying this: Be sure to look carefully when all four of the paintings come together (that's why I intentionally set the slide length to be annoyingly long) and remember that "the whole is more than the sum of its parts".

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Originally, I tried to place the symbols of captivity and sorrow in the dark sections of the painting and the symbols of freedom, liberation and peace in the light sections. At the end, this division of light and dark values is how I formed the Jesus face. However, on about the third painting, I started to get confused about all my symbols, which I think lead to somewhat of a revelation. The symbols that I thought represented freeing things, like butterflies, airplanes, etc., began to seem like negative things in light of the fact that we are separated from them. I started thinking about how the very things that represent freedom to us, are usually what we are held captive by.

For example, I used the Rockstar Energy drink logo as a positive symbol in the second painting (the yellow star with two Rs in it), because of the feeling of freedom to accomplish more that I get when drinking a Rockstar. But the more I thought of it, the more I realized that it's really something I am held captive by since I am so dependant on it, and probably am never fully satisfied with the high it gives me. I am sure this is true of many different kinds of addictions.

Initially, all the flying things seemed like symbols of hope, but as I started looking at the characters in my painting (like the girl longing to fly on a bike like ET and the girl with homemade wings), I realized that this longing for something we can't have is actually something that will eventually destroy our souls, if we don't learn to be satisfied otherwise, which leads me to moral of the story.... And that is that humans are very near sighted things, often only seeing the many pictures within the larger picture. And the larger picture is Jesus- the only true Messiah who can rescue us from ourselves, from our longings, from our captivity, from our sorrow. Or atleast that's what I believe.

2009-12-20T19:45:00.004-07:00

Advent Painting Week 3

OK, my apologies, I forgot to post last weeks video on my blog. I posted it on Facebook, but not on my blog. So here it is.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The concept of week three is very similar to the concept of week two. It is supposed to be of a little girl who has made wings for herself out of paper, and then has gotten a bunch of helium balloons and is looking to the sky, as if she is attempting to fly- trying to transcend the limitations of this world. I took pictures of Roxanne posing for me in her art apron, and she obviously inspired a lot of this picture. Roxanne's art always seems to represent an escape to me. She is still so imaginative, free spirited and whimsical- feelings that I think can lead to cynicism as we discover the reality of the captivity this world holds the human soul.

I just got done with painting #4- the grande finale. Now I am going to go work on putting it in a video format.

2009-12-07T09:07:00.004-07:00

Advent Painting Part 2 of 4

OK, here is week two. Again, I am incredibly irritated by how much I am in the way- watching the painting evolve isn't nearly as cool when I am standing right it front of it. But I still want to show the video, because just showing the finished product doesn't really communicate the same metaphor- the process, the struggle, the production, is what the painting is about- not so much the outcome.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Lots of people seem to think the painting needs an explanation. If you weren't there to see it be done live, the sermon being preached simultaneously is about the hymn "Oh Come Emmanuel". Each of the four weeks concentrates on a different verse of the hymn, which basically is about the captivity of Isreal and their longing for a liberator. As is much of the historical events recorded in the Bible, this is such a powerful metaphor for the human condition in any time period. My paintings so far have been about human limitations/struggles/pains (represented in the darker sections) and contrasts them with the freedom we long for (represented in the lighter sections).
For this week in particular, the girl stares into a snow globe which separates her from a world where freedom is achieved (yes, it is the iconic scene from E.T. where Elliots bike suddenly takes flight).

On black Friday, Jodi and I went thrift store shopping, and at one Goodwill, I found a snow globe just like this. I kept looking at it thinking it was so cool and wished I had someone that it would make a good Christmas gift for. I couldn't think of anybody so I didn't buy it. But the image stuck with me, so that's why I put it in the painting.

Both of the paintings, so far, are filled with all kinds of symbols. Some of them are pretty self-explanatory, and others are things that are just personal to me, so maybe only friends and Matt would know what they mean. Its amazing how each year the subject matter of the advent series always seems to resonate with me so deeply in light of recent feelings and events in my life... it's almost, like, magical. But, ultimately, I would hope that other people would be able to relate to the concept of the painting. If I can touch and connect with someone else, that is what I would most long for... but connecting with others freely, is the freedom I long for, that I am painting about... and that I am tragically separated from.

2009-12-02T10:25:00.002-07:00

Advent Painting Part 1/4

It's the advent season again, which means I will be painting live at church each week until Christmas. This year, there will be four paintings that will culminate in one gigantic heavy painting that I am not sure how to hang yet, but am hoping that Matt will come up with something. I am not so thrilled about compiling a video this year, since I am not painting on plexiglass, like last year- so you see a whole lot of the back of me (not my favorite part of me) blocking the painting. But here is part 1 anyways.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

2009-12-02T09:56:00.003-07:00

Africa Panels

Yes, I am playing catch-up on my blog today... don't think I am commiting to any long term upkeep though!

I didn't actually get to attend the event these pieces were displayed at, because it was in Iowa, but it was something I was so excited to be a part of! Jody and all the people that do all that water4christmas stuff sent me three wooden Africa cutouts to paint any way I wanted. I pawned one of them onto Jodi (the Colorado Jodi, not the Iowa Jody- notice the spelling difference), and these are the other two that I did: Then, once back in Iowa, they were displayed and auctioned off at a water4christmas banquet. I wish I could have been there to see all of the Africa's all together. A special informant, who was actually at the event, told me that both of my pieces ended up going for over $300 each! That's really exciting, because last year, I threw a big present wrapping party, in efforts to raise money for water4christmas, and after a whole lot of party throwing work (and that's hard work) I raised roughly the same amount of money. I think I am meant to paint much more than I am meant to throw parties.
That same special informant also told me that they subscribed to my blog yesterday. Unlike the previously mentioned information, this information sortof burdened me, as I remembered how pathetic my blog had become.... its gotten all skinny, its ribs are starting to show, its hair is falling out and its been staring at me with this really insane psychotic gaze that's kindof freakin me out! So, you understand, why I am trying to revive it... we were once so in love. I don't know what happened.