Art Opening Tonight...

And I'm part of the show!  Yep, I've been meaning to mention it, but I entered some work into a show.

The opening reception is tonight from 5:30-7:30 at the Eastbank Art Gallery at 8th and Railroad here in Sioux Falls.
http://eastbankartgallery.com/

It's a postcard-sized art show.  Apparently there's like a hundred artists in the show, but who cares?  I'm part of an art opening!  Whoop whoop!!!  I submitted 5 4"x6" gouache works on paper.  The colors seem to be a bit off on these scans but I'm going to post them anyways.  I can probably color correct them but that's a long and boring process for me...whatever, here goes:

 

Baby-Filled Friday

I've been watching my beautiful niece Ella and my handsome nephew Zidane all day today.  I've snapped some pretty awesome pics of their shenanigans.  Now, Ella's daddy doesn't want any pictures of her up on facebook but I figure since no one really reads this much anyways, I can sneak a few up on here...

Aren't they awesome?

Color Themed Betta

In the Spring of 2009, I got three Betta fish named Purple Haze (like the song), Red Dawn (like the movie), and Midnight.  I had one older Betta named Craig that I'd had for a year already when I got the new three.

Purple Haze

 Red Dawn

Midnight

 

All four on my desk.  Left to Right: Red Dawn, Craig, Midnight, Purple Haze.

What's missing?

So someone asked me yesterday if I'm glad to be back in Sioux Falls.  That is a really tough question to answer.

First off, if things hadn't gone awry for me financially in the fall of last year, I would not even be here.  But if I'm going to think about what might have been, I might mention that I should have a 2-3 month old baby right now.  Things obviously don't always end up like they're supposed to.


Secondly, of course I'm glad to be back.  The worst part about living in Chicago was being away from my family.  We're super tight, my fam and I.  However, there are many things I've come to miss about life in Chicago.
Off the top of my head, five specific things:
1. Living with Holly:  I miss my best friend all the time.  Chicago was great with Holly around but we could live together anywhere and it'd be awesome.  She's my hetero-lifemate, to borrow a phrase.  I dream distant dreams of moving out to California with her and Kelly and us being the 3 Musketeers again.
2. Commuting:  as long as I was on time, I usually liked traveling via the CTA.  I would rock my iPod the whole trek and either read a book or draw.  I can't multitask when in transit here, though I can sing along to the iPod as loudly as I want.
3.  John's Pizzeria:  it was so close to my apartment and so much more delicious than most any other pizza in Chi.  Of course everyone craves different pizza places and I will admit I ordered Dominos more than the average person the last year or so I lived there.  But John's will always be in my top five favorite pizzas of all time.
---Just an aside, I have not watched it as of late but I think it's pretty apparent the affinity I have with John Cusack's character and his 'top 5 lists' in High Fidelity.
4.  The architecture:  Chicago has amazing architecture.   The birthplace of the skyscraper.  I'm proud to say that I've lived in a place so rich with interesting history, despite all the conflicts and trials.  It just shows how resourceful humankind is when faced with extreme obstacles.  I could go on and on...
5.  My artist community:  I miss being surrounded by artists of all sorts at all times.  While I do have a few people here sort of creating a smaller version, it's difficult to force myself into the art world without the people I grew to rely on in Chicago.  I feel like I might have taken a few people for granted in not keeping up with them after I moved back home.  I do think of them often even though I don't communicate it.  I've never been good at keeping up.

I guess what's prompted this nostalgic post is that when I went out this morning for groceries I decided that I rather like what my life has become here in Sioux Falls, despite the constant stress of money.  It made me actually stop and remember that towards the end of my time in Chicago that I had become somewhat of a hermit, never going anywhere.  I feel like that's changed here and that while I am quite ready for someone special to come into my life, it doesn't have to happen right now.
So I guess the answer to the tough question is yes.  yes, but...

Papasan

I want one.  I want one right now.

Something like this one:
http://www.pier1.com/Catalog/Furniture/Furniture/tabid/519/CategoryID/158/List/0/catpageindex/2/Level/a/ProductID/567/ProductName/Papasan-Chair-Stool-Frames--Brown/Default.aspx

More Paint

This is an entirely different palette; one completely calculated and planned before even one stroke hits the page.  I use this method primarily with gouache (and occasionally egg tempera).  I basically create an entire color family and then use various combinations to make a series.

This particular palette is from Fall 2008.  The series was a group of 'paintings' that were gouache on layers of vinyl.  I have yet to decide the best way to document the actual paintings but I thought it necessary to take photos of the palette all laid out.  This is the biggest premixed palette I've made to date at a whopping 120 shades, tints, and tones.

This kinda thing drives normal people nuts but is just one of my many productive compulsions.

Paint

Paint is interesting even when it's not busy composing a painting.

This is one from the archives.  The date on this picture is 2/17/2007.

It is a partially cleaned palette, one from before I began using paper palettes for the convenience and the ease of keeping them for future reference.

Denver

Aside from a layover or two, I've only really been to Denver, CO once.  It was on my roadtrip with Holly from LA to Chicago in May 2009.  We had left Los Angeles around 9 pm and had been driving for about 21 hours straight upon our arrival to Denver.  Holly's friend Dennis lived there and was going to put us up for the night.  Though totally exhausted beyond just sleep deprivation, we ended up going out to a nice little bar downtown for a few drinks after dinner.  We walked down the road to a bridge across the river.  I took these few pictures from the bridge.

We could see the big sign for Union Station. 

I love the lines and geometry of this bridge.


But the really great part of this stop on the trip was the company:

yeeeaaa, yeeeaaa...

Two of a Kind

These dogs belong my sister Jessica and her husband Matt.  Blue is the Australian Shepherd and PeeWee is the Pomeranian.  I only post this because they refuse to let anyone post pictures of their 7 month old daughter, my little niece Ella anywhere on the net.  These two are quite the pair of pooches.  If you could see only in black and white, PeeWee looks like a miniature of Blue.  And as if that weren't enough, they're both pretty old and therefore Blue is mostly blind and PeeWee recently became toothless.  Like I said, quite the pair.

Baha'i Temple

In the Summer 2005, I was living with some family friends in the southwest suburbs of Chicago (between my 2nd and 3rd semesters at SAIC).  One random day, Jim took Mere and me on a day trip around the Chicago area.  I've long since forgotten where exactly we went for most of the day since I was still a relatively new resident of the Windy City.  We stopped for Italian Ice in Little Italy and at a church and a little shop in the Ukrainian Village (where I purchased a CD of the Ukrainian Divine Liturgy, which I still have and still love).   The one place I'm sure we visited was the Baha'i Temple in Chicago.  Now I won't claim to know much of anything about the Baha'i religion, but I find its peaceful and accepting nature comforting in an extremely judgmental society.  We were able to go inside the temple though the pics didn't turn out.  The exterior ones did though...and here they are:

If anyone (of my hundreds of readers, hah), wants more info about the temple or the religion, check out this site...http://www.bahaichicago.org/

Buttons

I probably should have been posting stuff like this as I acquired it but since I am ever the procrastinator here goes the first of many random posts about stuff.   Haha, I have to laugh about how I just phrased that but that's exactly what it is...random stuff.

I took these pics of Holly's button collection last November when we were still living together.  I forget why I decided I wanted to even see them...I think it was that I was looking for buttons for headwraps for my HatsonLamps Etsy shop (www.hatsonlamps.etsy.com).  She allowed me to look at her buttons and I was able to keep a few of the ones I liked.  I love the way they look on the back of my 'grandma quilt'.

I really love the giant buttons, but of course those were the ones I was allowed to look at but not keep.  I do love a good button collection.  I went out for lunch with (Zidane) Mom, Jess (and Ella), and Jen last Friday and Jen said she's got trillions of buttons.  That's right, Trillions.  Therefore she and I are going to have a sit-down sometime soon where we just goss and look at buttons, maybe watch a movie.  I will have to blog about it when it happens.   :-P

The Chronicalling Continues...

So did anyone else start blogging more after watching the movie Julie and Julia?  Hah, nobody's really reading anyways...but maybe someday if I'm more diligent about it or someone takes an interest...

Well, I watched that today.  I was going to try to start my post during the movie, but it's a Z day today.  My nephew Zidane is a totally awesome little guy but at nearly 7 months he's demanding more of my attention on the days I watch him.  I like that he's not crawling yet, or, bad as it sounds, rolling really.  It's not that he can't roll, it's just that he's not interested.  That makes him immobile yet, which is great.  However, he's finally started sleeping through the night which means his day naps are fewer and farther between.  I'm betting this post will take ages to finish simply because he's been refusing to go down for a nap for hours.  No matter...

In the late Spring 2009 I acquired a few fish for my 55 gallon tank.  Two of them were small bottom feeders called plecostomous.  I guess one of them was a special kind that wasn't as hearty as the other but neither of them lasted long.  At that time I had 4 goldfish and a koi in the tank and was looking for a little help with cleaning but these two suckers randomly disappeared both within a week of me getting them.  I therefore do not have any pictures of either.  I did name them though, both after the same character from Metalocalypse:  Milminiman Lanylin Swimwamley.  And I will be getting tats of them as well.  (Just little ones as part of a larger whole.)

The other two fish I came to own at that time were a pair of butterfly koi.  I named them also after Metalocalypse characters only these were after Dethklok band members Pickles and Skwisgaar Skwigelf.  The pictures I have of these two are from October 2009.  They were only about 3 inches long when I got them, but by the time these were taken they'd grown at least another inch.

Skwisgaar is the yellow koi.

 

Pickles is the orange koi.

The other fish will be formally introduced in a later post but are named as follows:

Scott Tenorman- chocolate oranda goldfish

Kyle- red ryukin goldfish (white in these pics)

Damien- black moor telescope-eye goldfish

Bradley- calico ryukin goldfish (upside-down in the corner)

Nathan Explosion- standard koi (white/black spots)

Here's a few more shots of the crew from that time.

 

Here's some of the old video footage of the scaly buggers swimming along to a tune from one of of my top 5 favorite movies of all time Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain.  It's called "La Valse d'Amélie".  It's funny because all these fish are either named after Metalocalypse and Southpark characters.

My Little Pony Fish

A backwards Chronology of my pet fish starts now:


These three handsome male bettas are my most recent single dwelling fish.  I got them here in Soo Foo earlier this Spring.  My three and a half year old niece Chloe helped me name them after things from a My Little Pony videotape that she loves just as much as I did when I was her age.  It actually came out the year I was born.

Floom:

Smooze:

Ogg:

Produce Pic of the Day

 Picture Number 155 and the last picture of TomFoolery.



The remainder of my produce pics were compressed improperly on my ipod and the originals didn't survive a reformatting last year.

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And they've been toppled!

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Pic Number 150!

Sauce bottles...not produce, I know, but same time and local.

Mmmm, gummies!

Here's another bit of writing from the old college vault:

2/14/2005

Stream of Consciousness Writing...

Prompt: Jar of Gummy Candies

1. I used to eat these kind of gummy candies at Grandma and Grandpa Wingert's when there were no other grandkids around.  The orange ones were always my favorite...

2.  Orange is Megan's favorite color...

3.  Megan never answers her phone or returns my calls...

4. Lizz's mom, on the other hand, has called me twice during this class already...

5.  Lizz is becoming a a vegetarian, starting today...

6.  I couldn't ever be a vegetarian; I love poultry too much...

7.  Like the chicken Chris made the other night [for dinner]...

8.  That night, I talked to my parents on the phone for almost two hours...

9.  I miss being home and dream of it often...

10.  My dreams are pretty crazy---like ferrets and chess.

Narrow topics to 3, then 1.  Just write a story, a narrative, a shitty first draft.

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The last good quality produce pic...but it's not the last altogether.

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This reminds me of...

While I was unpacking some of my belongings the other night, I came across and old notebook from a writing class I took the second semester of my freshman year at SAIC.  I decided I'm going to post some of my old writings based on prompts from that class starting with one that I find highly amusing.

Prompt: 

Write about the memory triggered by the feel of what is in the bag.

8. This object reminds me of all the weddings we had to go to in Parker.  There must have been like ten of them throughout my childhood.

7. This reminds me of the gum I used to chew to stay awake in my boring high school classes.

6. This reminds me of those stupid mood bead bracelets that everyone had in eighth grade.  I wanted them so badly, but for no good reason.

5. This kind of reminds me of a Fourth of July firework which makes me think of when I was five and my cousin Joel started the ditch on fire with one.

4. This reminds me of the first real watch I ever owned; it was a Tigger face without numbers.  I got it because I was going to be a crossing guard in the fifth grade.

3. This reminds me of nights when we had muffins for dinner.  They were always a treat.

2. This reminds me of Mere when I babysat her last semester and she and Alicia fought over who had collected more rocks.

February 28, 2005

We never actually knew what was in the bags (or if we did, I certainly don't remember).

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