27 posts tagged “painting”

I just turned 45. It doesn't seem like it has been a year since I was complaining about turning 44...

2007 - where did the time go and what exactly did I do with it?

2007 - HOW CAN I TELL YOU ARE MOURNING IF YOU ARE ALWAYS BUMMED OUT?
2007 started out with much mourning. My father died a few days before Christmas in 2006.
The new year is always a boo hooey time for me as it is. Each year that passes and I am conscience - I know I skated through and somehow didn't end up in a box...but the box is inevitable. My birthday is January 2 - which only adds to my lamentation. Not only am I kissing goodbye another year, but I am saying hello to another candle on a cake. Getting old is a drag. Mourning the past, future and the present...must be my gift.

On the first anniversary of my father's death I did what every good daughter should do and called home. My mother talked for a very long time about her dogs and the renovations to the house and what she had for dinner the last few nights - but never brought up my father or that he had died exactly 365 days ago. Neither did I.
She called me back the next day only to tell me that the packages from Amazon had been delivered. She also wanted to know if I had gotten the Christmas card she sent. I had not.

My dad never really said much but every year there was a check stuck in the Christmas card. Some years it was for 50.00 bucks, other years as much as 500.00.
The yearly parental Christmas card has been a small source of anxiety for me for years because I felt that after a certain age a child really shouldn't expect or accept funds from their parents. I sometimes refused the checks. When this got tiresome I would simply get a gift card for one my parent's favorite store equaling the estimated check amount. This way I was giving them back some of the money - one way or the other.

Late in 2006 I got the Christmas card the day or so after my father passed. In it was a check for 1,000.00 dollars. I could not believe it. There was also a note explaining that the check was so big so the "tax man" wouldn't get more than he deserved. I didn't cash that check for almost 6 months. If I would have waited 7 or 8 more days, it would have been automatically voided. So, why did I cash it? Because I bet my sisters cashed theirs...within the first week.

2007 - THE HUNT FOR HOUSING!
We bought a condo! That took up a lot of time and effort. I really love where I live although living in a small space is a challenge I am not exactly taking too. I have a lot of stuff - the husband has a lot of stuff - together we have a lot of stuff and we don't even have a fraction of the stuff we had before we moved! I don't want to throw/give away any more of my things! Which leads to...

2007 - POWER TOOLS TO THE PEOPLE!
I bought a power drill. I'm gonna make some holes in stuff.
Actually, I am going to try and put up some shelves.
If I don't hurt myself with the drill my next purchase may very well be a saw of some kind!

2007 -  THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS ME
I applied and was accepted (YAY) into a local art group called Artists in Our Midst - first meeting is this coming Monday. The group is limited to people who live in a certain area of town, and luckily we bought in the area.
I tried starting a painters group when I first moved to Vancouver but found that it was very hard to get people to commit to meeting in real life. I also found that even though the name I tagged the group: VANCOUVER PAINTERS MEET - was not descriptive enough to make people understand that the group was for PAINTERS in the VANCOUVER are to MEET. I got people from as far away as Malaysia joining the group! So after two years of really trying to get it off the ground, I gave up on the idea of hosting a real life local group. I will say that I met some very neat people and two Vancouver artists in particular who are really really good.

After having a ZAZZLE account for who knows how long, I finally threw some paintings and graphics on it as t-shirts and postcards and such. I have no delusion that this will rocket me into pop culture or MTV type stardom, but it has motivated me to get out the art supplies and learn what all those things in GiMP can do.

I painted a little this last year, not as much as I should have, but I was reunited with all of my old work that had been setting in the storage unit. They took the wait just fine and are now setting in storage in my closet.

I also donated 4 small works on paper to Skeleton Key Auctions and hope to see them on the virtual block very soon. The auction benefits the defense fund of the West Memphis Three. More of that when it happens.

2007 - THE YEAR OF LIVING JOURNAL-LESS-LY
2007 was the first year in nearly 20 that I did not keep some sort of a paper journal. I started one on January 1st and never picked the freaking thing up again. Maybe I figured VOX was enough. Come to think of it, I didn't even buy one for this year either...

I'm sure there was more going on in 2007...but damned if I feel like talking about it.

Between December 21st 2007 and January 1st 2008 my mother asked me about 6 or 8 times if the Christmas card had been delivered. With each day that passed and that card wasn't delivered - she grew more and more worried that it had gotten lost in the mail. I countered that she would probably get it returned to her in a few days - not to worry too much about a Christmas card. She kept saying that she really hoped I liked the card. She really hoped I liked the card? At one point I thought I was going to have to send her a Wild Oats gift certificate for a million dollars the way she fretted over this card. Good Lord! Had she slipped a gold ingot in the envelope with this thing?

My mother's Christmas card arrived on my birthday. She had neglected to put a postal code on the envelope.
When I got the card I did like I always do with my parental Christmas card - I look at the envelope for a few seconds. I take in the hand writing, the stamps, the stickers. This year my mother forgot the 's' at the end of our last name. Which is ok because she has been calling my husband 'Jim' off and on for years so it is sort of expected.
One of the stamps had a dreidel on it - the other a knit teddy bear. The envelope was embellished with stickers of Christmas presents and angels. It didn't feel heavy enough to hold a gold bar.

Inside were 3 photos. Two of the photos were of grand nieces and nephews that I had only met once. The third photo was this one:

on the back was written:

No check, just gold.

I finally finished her...
She doesn't even look like the same gal

I was painting her too pretty...

Small work on paper.