Merch

Here's the shot I was trying for the other day... an update on my attempt at a "WTF Emporium". I'm thrilled to be offering these sculptures... which, as stated, can be used as pillows.

You will find they are:
                     1.) Great for cushioning the blows of outrageous fortune.

                               2.) Terrific for crying into after your health care has been taken away.

                               3.) Perfect for punching when a right-wing co-worker starts denies
                        climate change.

                  4.) Amazing at muffling your screams when The Orange Menace lies yet
                        again.

                  5.) The best for smothering obnoxious rethuglicans.
          
       And they make great gifts! Also available will be:

     Handsome all cotton tee shirts with our copyrighted (not really) WTF logo sown on by me, my one and only, underpaid and exploited sweat shop worker. (I barely let me take bathroom breaks and I've yet to be paid! I'm thinking of unionizing me.) Also available will be WTF patches so you can sew them on almost anything to show support for the appropriate amount of outrage.

So I'm hoping to "break even" at least! I already have a pre-order on a patch and a tee shirt so maybe I'll at long last break the Curse of the Childhood Entrepreneur!

The Three Pillows of Wisdom

You may well remember my "Small Golden Pillow of the Resistance". It languished at Open Studios, despite my pricing it attractively. Several months after Open Studios, an astute collector (and friend- Hello Antony!) inquired as to whether it was still available. He was smart enough to snatch it up.
Then he approached me with the tantalizing question as to whether I ever do commissions. Of course I do! So he requested that I do two more pillows... one that reads "Bite Me".

And one that reads "Eat Me". As you see in the photos, "Bite Me" is complete and really a lovely thing to behold. "Eat Me" is still in process... I worked really carefully and consciously to make all the colors harmonize and to make the "fonts" that the words are written in different, yet complimentary. I think I was successful.

I actually wanted to photograph this and post it here to see if "Eat Me" read as clearly, or whether it requires tweaking and clarification. It looks pretty good although it's harder to see that the back ground fabric (under the gold) is really a very pale pink and it will be cut jaggedly to echo the star burst pattern. And then it's being mounted on a medium brown (kind of (milk) chocolate-y) pillow. But Bob just looked at it- unprovoked- and exclaimed that it was perfectly easy to read. That made me feel more confident, although I am still debating a narrow border of dark brown (bitter-sweet chocolate) beads around the interior of "Eat Me". Maybe not; maybe it's just gilding the lily!
I am very happy with how they're turning out. Sometimes someone else's idea is a good jumping off point. I have just completed 12 large scale pieces for my show in NYC and these pillows are a cosy way to sidle back into new studio preoccupations.

Just Plain Gross and And a Waste of Time

Okay, so here's one gross thing but not THE gross thing about my walk. I submit the above picture of a very dead little mouse which may be gross but listen to this: I set off on my morning walk with Jules and as I didn't need to go to work or any where particular, we took a rather longer walk than usual. Now I've railing about the slobs and assholes who dump their old building materials and ugly chairs along the dirt road where I walk, but today's offering took the cake. I spied a white thing in the road, and as I approached closer, I pulled Jules in tighter to me as it appeared that the white thing was a rather large pair of men's Fruit of the Loom underpants. But not only did some idiot see fit to leave dirty laundry laying around in the road, but they were copiously soiled with evil looking diarrhea. (I guess I have to ask if there's any other kind). All I can think of is "Ebola!" Boy, did that ruin the atmosphere of a lovely pre-storm walk! (You're all just lucky that didn't have my camera.)
That was the gross; here's the waste of time. (Haven't I recently been haranguing that i have many things to accomplish and and I'm very short of time? I sound like a broken record.) I am having my book, Better Guns and Gardens produced, and for many reasons ( and people can have their opinions...) I am printing the first batch at Staples. I actually went out of my way to the next town over as the do the production of the book binding there, and the poor over worked young man at our local Staples seemed less than informed about how they do them and said they sent them out anyway. The young man at the New Milford Staples had examples, seemed involved and even listened to my tale of woe as to how their competitor (OfficeMax) made a mess out of one of my previous books (printed and collated upside down backwards etc). He assured me that this wouldn't happen; they'd be extra careful. What could possibly go wrong?

I picked up the single test copy that i had ordered and was pleased; it really looked great. I therefore ordered up four more, and left work early to go over to pick them up. The cover looked fine and a part of me thought, Better be safe and check them out." It's a good thing I opened them up and systematically paged through because the insides were a disaster. And as I pointed out to the young woman at the copy center, not only were the files in order (like pages 1, 2, 3 and on) but the pages were numbered in the book. It was like they collated them with their eyes closed. I was so distraught that I spoke with a manager, who was properly horrified and apologized by saying they'd redo them and give me a fifth one free.
I returned, not getting my hopes up as I've learned that once something gets messed up, there's a good chance the correction will be botched, too. The books looked fine and I checked every last one but when i went to pay, they charged me for the fifth "free" one. After much cash register rewriting attempts, a manager was called over and he tried to right it. Eventually, with a line forming behind me and me feeling teh evil eye of every other customer, they rang it up. And it turned out to be thirty dollars LESS than it should have been. I think they were trying to get rid of me! I need to get a few more printed next week. We'll see what happens!

The First Days of Our Fourth Year

Today is the fourth anniversary of our closing on the house. The hideous weather certainly reminds me of that day! Very cold and loads of snow. Ugh! But we are happy in our home...
It is 9 degrees outside, but there is that ever-lovin' windchill factor to make things merry and bright. Tonight is supposed to be even colder. No wonder my brain shuts down.
Some people shut down in extreme heat. I dunno; I kind of like the flip side of the thermometer. I get off on looking at the mercury rise and saying, "Wow! It's a 100 degrees!" But the cold? I'm a wimp and want to crawl back into bed.
This is the first day in at least a year that Jules and I didn't even go on a walk. We began up the driveway, but it was so cold that Jules started lifting his feet in the air and limping; possibly hypothermia, probably melodrama so we turned around and played in the backyard as best we could.
And don't tell Maggie that she looks a bit like a sofa from yesteryear in her hand-me-down Rhino horse rug. Poor little Mexican Pony had icicles on her eyelashes and looked miserable. I still had the old (and significantly tattered from the teeth of malevolent ponies) blanket that Crispin (remember him?) used to wear at the horse farm. I trussed Maggie all up in it; she has obviously been blanketed before as she didn't miss a beat. It maybe be a bit large, as Crispin was leggier than her, but I tightened up all the straps and she looked quite snug and quite a lot warmer. Of course, then she tried to roll in it as it felt unfamiliar, but I think come nightfall, she'll appreciate the extra layer. (Two hours later, she's still wearing it as evidenced in the photo above, so I think she'll be fine overnight).
And just to prove that I don't waste time when I have the accidental day off: No sirree!! I put me unexpected time to good studio use and got a jump on that new project that's been a little slow in the start up side. I also played several hundred rounds of Zuma and achieved "Sun God 5" status... something to be proud of in the New Year!

Wait a minute! That's from "Adventure" level... let me find "Gauntlet".

There it is! See? believe me now?

Blockheads Everlasting

The second stage of my foundation wall is complete! This morning, I filled in the cinder block holes with a smaller batch of concrete that I mixed up (all by myself!) as Bob is gone to NorthWest CT to help out at an estate sale. I'm pleased that Bob trusted me to shake and bake and mix and match that concrete mix!
So you learn all kinds of useful stuff. F'rinstance: concrete is a 1-2-3 mix. That is, three units (a small bucket in this case) of gravel, two units of sand and one unit of Portland cement. You mix these dry ingredients together in a wheel barrow (or trough) add water, and hey presto! you've got concrete. (Bob also made a sticky mix of Portland cement and hydrated lime and sand. This he used to fill in around the bolts that will hold the sill in place. I guess there's a concrete/mortar mix for every application).
What's scary is that you do have to work somewhat quickly as it sets up and gets hard- mostly to clean off tools. Bob and I went in the house the other day, thinking that we were taking a brief break but then it rained and we ate lunch and the next thing we discovered was concrete enclosed trowel and hoe and wheel barrow... nice. I'm not as precise about clean up as I should be. It's one (of the many reasons) I don't paint with those blasted oil paints. Just plain hated the clean up. Don't get me started about print making...
I remarked to Bob that we're at the stage with the foundation that I think it's all we have ever done, or all we ever will do. I realize that two days from now, we'll be done and onto the sill and framing and whatever. But right now? Seems like my entire life has been concrete and blocks.
Anyway, in between a million things, the studio is progressing. I also took time to shoot the below beautiful and disgusting photo:

I was out cleaning up Maggie's pasture and there are three(!!) butterflies chewing and flapping and engaging in some sort of butterfly menage-a-trois on a fresh, steaming pile of horse manure. (I've seen this before. A fresh pile of our previous dog's shit with a truly marvelous huge swallowtail butterfly astride it.) While I crouched down to take my picture, there was suddenly a powerful, warm and mysterious breeze on my shoulder. Maggie had snuck up and me and was wondering about my sudden interest in her poop.
Enough fun and games!  I have to get back to the homemade version of labor camp.