…the who cares girl…

“Neon Scarf”, acrylic paint on a 9 x 12″ canvas. Inspired by one of my self-portraits. For sale in my Etsy shop. I’m quite satisfied with how this one turned out. The Boy thinks it’s one of my best, ever.

Tomorrow we are driving over to Spokane to visit the Boy’s parents, most likely returning Monday evening. Today I have lots of boring cleaning to do. And I woke up after…noon today, which I’m a little embarrassed about. Couldn’t be helped–I stayed up until 3 last night working on the current puzzle…

…my very first 1500 piece, which I ordered online. Yes, I finally ordered a puzzle online…you know this development can only lead to more trouble. Oh well.

Orally fixated.

These are the acrylic paint blobs that the Boy scraped out of our palettes the other day. Why scrape? Soak the palette for 15 minutes and they come right off. Still, it made for an interesting composition in the bowl.

It also made taking this photo irresistible.

I sold a painting today! I am super duper pooper happy about it! It’s one of my favorite paintings, and also the second most expensive painting I have for sale (not that my paintings are all that expensive compared to other work I’ve seen on Etsy), but YES! Man, if I could just sell one moderately priced painting per week, I wouldn’t feel guilty about not working. Not that I feel all that guilty. It’s sort of faded…with time.

Every time I sell a painting I get all jazzed and get a little pick-me-up, a little push to paint more. Generally I raise my prices on all the other paintings too, but I’m not going to this time. They’re appropriate. FOR NOW!!!

Here’s the beginning of the current painting. I’ve been taking photos of the work-in-progress, and I have actually been working on it. Well, the puzzles are in storage. Okay they’re not but they’re GOING to be, as soon as I can convince the Boy to take them out to the Scary Place. I attempted to go in there yesterday to retrieve my bike and it was way in the back on a bike rack and I saw a couple of webs so I got out of there, fast.

One of the great things about acrylic paint is that it peels when it’s dry, so you can clean your palette super fast. Unfortunately, it does not peel off the couch. Or clothing.

Look at Bear Cub! Doesn’t she look happy? She appears to be smiling! And yet, mere seconds later…

…she’s having no more of it. Her aversion to the camera is like the Boy’s aversion to being videotaped. And I cannot seem to change them, however hard I try (and I TRY, believe me).

I think I may have already cheated on Fast Weekend by having milk in my morning coffee, but I’m not sure. The weather is hot, so I may just spend the majority of the day outside in a bikini, jiggling my fat around as a reminder of why I’m on this bloody fast. Maybe I’ll wear that extra-tiny rainbow bikini, just to be perverse. Yeah.

Current painting in progress, a commission requested by the Boy, from a photo he took of me during our honeymoon. I’m at that point where I know it’s not finished, but I’m not sure what else to do. Something’s just…a little…off.

I woke up insanely late today, and I have all sorts of boring errands to run in preparation for our leaving tomorrow. We’re leaving tomorrow for the camping trip, but then coming back to pack for our week at the beach, which ends up being a longer drive but less to worry about packing for tomorrow.

I promised myself highlights once I reached Goal Weight #1 (not to be confused with Primary Goal Weight) (I know, my brain is fucked), and this morning when I stepped on the scale there it was. But I didn’t believe it. Lately the digital scale has been fucking with me. I stepped on it two more times, and it changed. Uh huh. So instead I’m getting a spray tan tonight for “fun” to pretend as if I’ve actually received enough sun to tan this summer, which isn’t the case at all. It photographs well, what can I say?

Completed painting of my sister-in-law’s baby. It’s hard to photograph using flash after the painting has been sealed, and not using the flash makes the colors dull, and of course there hasn’t been any SUNSHINE lately which makes for the best light for photographing paintings. Whiney whine whine. Anyway, it’s my first baby painting.

Here’s the redhead painting in progress. I decided to paint a girl instead of a woman, for fun, but then I got stuck on the flowers and I’m stuck on the background as well. The Boy tells me I need to start incorporating more landscape into the background of my paintings to make them look richer, a’la Maxfield Parrish. He claims he’s trying to help me “grow” as an artist. Or something. Sigh.

These purple flowers we have growing out front are huge! I’m not sure if they’re pansies or violets.

“Grumpy” shows his first little bud.

Tonight is First Thursday, thank God, I’ve been needing art really badly lately. And art books and internet just don’t cut it sometimes. Sometimes, you need real life art. Yeah. I need…a life. And sun! C’mon sun! Just for tonight! JUST FOR ONE NIGHT!

Found this on Gwen‘s tumblr yesterday. I am guilty sometimes of #2, but I don’t really expect to be “cheered” by my mother on every project (I told her about the baby painting, I didn’t mention the “Drag is the Drug” painting). I never expect anything encouraging by my father, although he did love the painting of his dog. And money never dictates what I do–mwa ha ha. I purposely never chose an art-based career because I don’t want art to be tedious for me. Ever!

Here’s another one I liked from Gwen’s tumblr. Thanks, Gwen! Someone on Flickr asked me if they could paint one of my self-portraits, and I said yes, of course! How flattering! Maybe I should make some of my self-portraits “stock” photos on Deviant art–I keep thinking about doing that, and then I forget.

Yesterday I started a Theda Bara painting, only in cuhluh, instead of black and white. That’s one of the nice things about working from a black and white photograph–your brain figures out all the colors. Right now my brain is focusing on teal, lavender, and soft yellows, although I considered doing a psychedelic Theda Bara painting too. Of course, I want to do everything psychedelic. With glitter. That’s just the way my brain works.

* Quote by Theda Bara.

One day I was watching the special features to “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” and the director said when he created posters to promote the film he used the tagline “Drag is the Drug”. I immediately thought, God, that would make a great painting! So I made it. I used a stock image of a drag queen that I found on the internets.

Acrylic paint/Prismacolor pencil/ink/glitter on wood. I haven’t listed it on Etsy yet, but I will.

I rarely buy new shoes, but I had one pair of Gee Wawa shoes already and I adore them. These gave me vibes of the brown platform-y sandals Luna chewed up another lifetime ago that I’ve been searching for all these years (what is it with me and shoe obsessions?).

As soon as I read that there were only 2 pairs left in my size, BAM, couldn’t resist. Last year I hesitated with a red velvet pair and they sold out. I still regret that shit. If you take good care of your shoes, they can last you years and years and years. That’s how I always justify a shoe purchase, anyway, and it works!

The glitter fabric that I made my muumuu with. Lovely to look at, horrible with the shedding, like this should come as a surprise to me? I have a PhD in glitter, I know how it works.

Yesterday we painted side-by-side on the coffee table, it was so sweeeet. I never imagined I’d be married to an artist. Wait a minute, I take that back, I always wanted to date an artist, probably ever since I fell in lust with a stoner in my art class freshman year of high school. Oh man, I drew pictures of him and everything, it was ridiculous. He was also in my drama class–another class to lust over him. I turned him into a character and wrote a book featuring him as the romantic lead. Memorieeeeees…

When Corinne and I went thrifting recently I found a crappy, beat-up old wooden frame, painted it with a dash of brown paint and some clear medium, coated it with glossy sealant, and BOOM! Now “The Bather” painting looks a billion times better. It’s not for sale. Mostly because 1. I randomly found the image from a magazine and I have no idea who took the photo, 2. I pretty much copied the photo and 3. I like it so much.

I bought this little eyebrow trimmer, like a mini electric razor. Perfect for getting those awful little hairs above your eyebrows without the awkwardness of using a full-size razor. “You’re going to shave your eyebrows off,” warned the Boy, but it hasn’t happened yet!

Last night he went to a free show downtown to see Mix Master Mike perform. I stayed home reading Janice Dickinson’s “No Lifeguard on Duty” for the 5th or so time and eating Oreo ice cream. He woke me up around 3 a.m. (accidentally) and was still reeling from the goodness.

“How was it?” I asked him groggily (damn Trazadone).

“Wonderful.” he whispered fervently.

I like dub step and drum and bass and mixing and scratching too, I just don’t like crowds of drunk people (anymore). Especially a free show–that’s just asking for it. He said several drunk Asians “leaned on him” during the show. Aw, how sweeeet. Not really.

Well Kissy, a burst of caffeine-inspired energy coasted me through the construction of your entire Muumuu yesterday, now I just have to add the finishing touches. After spying that photo of Beth Ditto working a caftan fabulously, I may be rethinking feathers. That is, leaning towards feathers. That’s right.

My grandmother’s necklace.

What happened to you, summery weather? Here I go and get all orange in anticipation and what is this? More days of rain and gloom? Heigh ho. Well, as a chubby Goth chick told me in the library bathroom recently, “If you don’t like the weather in Seattle just wait five minutes.” I’m waitinnnnnng!

I realize it’s just another phase, but I have to say: I really like Pilates. So far I’ve sampled different workouts on Netflix, and next week I’m going to actually try a class at my gym. I love the little motivational keywords: “long and lean“! “elegant arms!” and the exercises themselves: “The Mermaid“! “The Cancan!” and the fact that I can do said exercises without shoes and wearing any number of tights/leotard combinations. Love that. It doesn’t do a damn thing for weight loss, but it makes me feel very feminine and graceful. And that’s good.

* Quote by Janice Dickinson. Here’s another great quote from “No Lifeguard on Duty”: A “large” woman sitting next to Janice on a plane looks at Janice’s latest photographs, chokes on a peanut and has to have an emergency tracheotomy right there on the spot. Janice thinks: “The next time somebody chokes on my beauty, I’ll know how to save their life“. That’s some good shit right there.

“This is one of those pictures where you look at it and say, what the hell?” said the Boy this morning. It’s Maggie draped in my new acid green sarong with her tongue hanging out! I wish Maggie tolerated wigs, but you can’t have everything.

Maggie is a bit of a lush. She will try to drink your booze, but that’s okay, she’s not working a program.

The Boy’s poi breasts. We know how to entertain houseguests! We ply them with liquor and then display our “talents”!

They say driving and texting is more dangerous than drinking and driving. What about photography while driving? Self-portraits behind the wheel? Seems like a recipe for distastah.

Flowers behind Corinne’s house.

I just listed “Brigitte Bardot” as a print, here. One of my own goals for therapy was to list more paintings as prints, so blammo!

This week’s goal: diet journaling. Bor-ing, but sometimes necessary. Also my appointments will be further apart since I’m doing well. I’d prefer to see my therapist when I’m feeling cray-cray…makes more sense. Although showing her my Etsy shop and hearing her compliments was really nice too. Should I show her my blog, like I did with one of my therapists years ago? Ah hahahaaaa. Answer: why bother?

Today’s goals are boring. I plan to torture myself with the redhead painting for a little while. Perhaps I should consider finishing up that drag queen painting. Oh yeah, and I have a baby painting to finish for my sister-in-law. I’m assuming she would like a painting of her baby, I hope I’m right. It’s nice to have painting projects. Makes me feel all warm inside.

Corinne in her room, “readying” herself before her roommate’s 7-year-old’s birthday party.

Her roommate came in all stressed out pre-party, noticed Corinne and asked us if we thought it was a good idea if she took a shot, too.

“Well,” I told her, “The booze will do whatever you want it to. If you want it to relax you, it’ll do that. If you want it to rev you up for a night of dancing, it’ll do that. If you want it to make an ugly guy more fuckable, it’ll do that too!”

So says the recovered alcoholic as she sips her water. Her roommate indulged in a few shots that day. I am the devil.

She wound up in a tree. But look at how happy she was!

Corinne’s room, with my painting of us kissing on the wall. I love that painting. I am a big fan of…my own, um, work. I think I sort of have to be.

I mean, if I wasn’t a fan of my own work, I would have given up on this damn redhead painting weeks ago. Grrrr, redhead painting. Grrrrr.

While Corinne and I were thrifting for a bike for her roommate’s son, I found…

Birk knockoffs for 4 bucks, but the best part is…

…platform, platform, yeah yeah yeah! I am all over platforms this summer. ALL OVER. I want, I need, I…can’t wait until my pinky toe heals. At least it’s just the pinky toe. Could be worse.

The Boy’s finished Van Gogh. It turned out so gooood.

Today’s goals are to remove my husband from the living room so I can accomplish some painting without that horrid “Battlestar Galactica” blaring, ugh. Speaking of ugh, I am semi-ashamed to admit I watched the finale of “Lost” last night with the Boy, Corinne, and Cassy, and…I cried. Yes, cried. I  don’t know what’s happened to me.