New dress!!!

I went to the mall last night and popped into the Gap just for fun. I was just about knocked over by how much lust I felt for this dress. It's SO, so me. Denim, 3/4 length sleves, dropped waist...I knew I had to get it.

I tried it on in Medium, but it wasn't as cute as I'd hoped. I mean, it was cute, but my thick waist made it look sort of lame.

I grabbed a Large and bought it anyway.

I love it too much. I am going to have to force myself NOT to wear it everyday. I'm sure its not flattering, but, I love it's slouchy cuteness anyway.

Heres my typical super grainy shot of it:


When I wear it again, I'll take a proper shot of it. Today I wore it to the feed store to get new chicks to replace my murdered flock. (wow...that was dramatic)

Homework done....two lame paintings improved.

I got a nice chunk of time to work on stuff today. We woke up ridiculously late- about 10. This is something I haven't done in years. It was so nice. Breakfast was pancakes and bacon- served around noon.

I got out my painting gear right after and took out my awful paintings from class the last week. Wednesdays had to be finished, and Mondays had to be fixed.

He's Mondays painting before:


And after:


I could not get a handle on the greys when I did this painting originally. I had the forms down, but the greys were atrocious. I Adding a backgroud helped me define the spaces better and toning down some of the values brought more life to the painting. Still...not my best work in any way, but an improvement that will show in my portfolio (that gets turned in soon!!)

The next thing I did was finish wednesdays value study of boxes. It was a little confusing to have to finish a piece without the subject matter for reference, but, I took my knowledge of perspctive, and fixed some errant angles. I am struggling with my backgrounds- I can't seem to make them recede enough to look like...well...BACKgrounds. I hope Heike (my professor)will approve.


Now I have to prime a few sheets of Bristol and I'll be ready for the week!!

Homework: Finish this boring painting

We are still working on Chromatic greys and perspective in class this week. Our homework is to finish the paintings we started in class on Wednesday.

So, yeah...it looks like a pile of lame. It's mostly an exercise, but, I hope once I finish it, I can give it some life and create some interest. I was thrilled to have actually mixed some good greys this time.

I was all proud of my lemon paintings, and I have a tendency to want my stuff to be the best in class (which is totally, totally awful of me). I was thinking how good I was at this. I'm really doing it...I CAN paint!! Then, my friend Brian who sits next to me pulls his out and my heart sank. His were absolutely awesome. So dimensional, so alive.

I guess I've got so much to learn. I'm actually really glad he sits next to me. He's such a good painter and it's good for me to see how he does it.

I've got SO far to go...

Sad.

A dog friggin' got into our yard and killed ALL seven of my chickens.

I guess I couldn't be a farmer because I hate this. I am so sad. They were just birds, and they crap all over the place and they don't really love me back or anything, but I loved them. I loved when I 'd pick them up and feel their soft feathers under my fingers. I loved the noise they made when I came outside and the way they'd all roost on the roof of their coop.

I wouldn't feel so bad if they weren't simply ripped apart for sport by my piece-of-shit-neighbors dog. I found one of them- buried completely in the dirt except for one foot. The other was strewn in said neighbors yard. I never found the 5 others except for a bunch of white feathers from my white Silkie, Luna. My yard is covered in feathers and dog prints. I still kinda hope the rest are out there, but, they can't make it outside in the mountains like this for very long, if the dog didn't get them, a fox or bobcat would have.

Goodbye Luna, Ginny, Hermione, Myrtle, Molly, Brietta, and Henrietta.

Loving the NaNoWrimo forums, still

Yes, though it is no long National Novel Writing month, the nerds over at www.nanowrimo.org are still going strong.

I'm so glad, too. I've been having this week of weirdness, dreams about fake people, new music adding a spin to my imagination and a whole slew of new dialogue that could potentially sew together the plot holes. I've needed a place where I could see other people besides myself are obsessed. Now, a lot of them live at home, or live alone with their collection of reptiles. Some are just kids, and some are...well..I'm not sure what some of them really do all day, but, they all seem to get me and my need to sacrifice my brain for the sake of creative endeavor.

And every once and a while, you run across someone totally normal who you relate with, and that makes all the difference.

I have a few copies of Blood Freckles floating around out there, now. I'm hoping for some real solid criticism. I know the story is not strong enough yet to be widely read, and I hope that a kick in the pants and the realization of some harsh realities will put me on the path of writing something I'll be proud to put my name on. Again, I'm not even talking publishing as much as the fleshing out of something my mind has produced, as well as the justification of hours and HOURS of staring and talking to myself.

Does any of that make sense?

If you are one of the 4 people who has the book in their hands, I hope you won't be afraid to give it to me straight. Tell me Johns actions are unlikely. Tell me Nina is a dolt who you don't care about. Remind me it'd all be better if John was dead. Say that there's too much extra-sensory talent in this story. I can take it. I know...I know...and tell me I need to stop using ellipses. I know... :)

Death by laundry.

It's possible. I know this because I think my own clothing situation is making me ill...it's just the beginning.

My house is two-story, with the living area upstairs and the laundry room and bedrooms downstairs. This is awesome when someone drops by- we shove everything downstairs.

The only problem is, we've been doing that a lot lately, and theres a bit of a...ahem...pile up down there.

Someone should go through it all and sort it. Someone should get the clean stuff put away and the dirty into the hamper (thats currently buried). Someone should purge some stuff.

I wish that someone wasn't me. I'm not sure how normal people live, but for me, stuff like laundry and dishes are certainly an afterthought, only taken care in the case of guilt or obvious need.

I do like order. I like a clean house. I don't like maintaining one, though.

Ok. I'm off. I am going to attempt to be productive. It might kill me. It's been nice knowing you.

You win some, you lose some, or class #8

In response to this painting at class yesterday, my professor actually said, "Ok...what happened?"

Classic case of over-thinking. Wonderful example of struggling through a piece. This looks like crap. I'll bet you can't even tell what I was intending. This is an all-white still life in which we weren't allowed to use any black to make up the grays. Seemed to be something I'd be fine at, but, as it turns out, I couldn't get grey if it killed me.

If you mix blue/red/yellow in the right doses, you get a neutral that can be mixed with white. All grey tends to lean toward warm or cool, and one should be able to get there with proper mixing. Assuming you know how to do this. Which, obviously, I don't...YET!!

I'm supposed to finish this by tomorrow, on top of priming some sheets of Bristol paper with my very small amount of Gesso...I REALLY need to get to Utrecht and get some supplies. (too bad its and hour and a half from here...totally worth it, though.)