summer

i like this because it's rather in your face. yes, the nose is horrible, but the eyes! the chaotic shapes of color behind her! i felt like i took a big step with this one.

it's summer. 90+. i hate being hot. but i shouldn't complain 'cause it was -60 this past winter. so i should soak this heat in like an elixer for january. what makes it worse is the smoke. there's a huge 100,000 acres fire like 50 miles away from where i sit. my sister can't breathe and we've been keeping the girls inside. of course the windows are thrown open with fans in front of them, pulling in this poisoned air. because this is alaska and houses don't have ac. over half the shops don't, either. especially the ones i go to, the little ones snugged into historic downtown houses and buildings.

as a matter of fact, i spent two hours in one of those shops this morning with deborah, my 6 year old niece, making fairies. oh the joy! there is nothing like a small room full of young girls bent over their work, crafting perfectly enchanting fairies. i was the only adult taking the class, but the teacher, jennifer, couldn't have been more gracious. and i just happen to have some of my jewelry for sale in this little adorable shop. so she recognized me and my name as a fellow artist, so that was actually kind of cool. what a lovely morning! it couldn't have gone better, unless i'd taken my sister's digital and documented the whole thing. deborah was ready to go before i was, but my sister had thoughtfully packeged up some snacks and she found some delightful dragonflies for sale to play with--i bought one for each of my nieces (at three dollars a piece it would have been a crime not to). abigail, at three, was too young to take the class, but at deborah's insistence i made one for her, as well. such a little thing, but so thoughtful, on her part. i adore these girls, even though, at times, they try my patience. as all children do.

summer

this is the memory of summer i cherish; windows wide open at night, fans going in all of the rooms, light in the sky all night long... yes, i live in alaska, land of the midnight sun. little song birds chirping at three in the morning, cause it's light, and that's a perfect reason to sing. the *memory* of summer is almost as intoxicating as the actual moments... love, love, love those blissful, easy days of liquid summer.

cartoons, anyone?

there is something strangely cartooney about this one. the eyes? the colors? not sure. the stupid blog is making my picture appear under the words, and it's very annoying. it started doing it like three or four posts ago and i don't like it. arrrrrr. the first thing i talk about is the picture and now that the picture is at the bottom of the post, it doesn't make sense. maybe i should save the comments till the last part of the post. rrrrrrr... not happy.

i love this piece. blue freshwater pearls and my all time favorite swarovski crystals; fire opals. but it hasn't sold yet. hmm. too edgy? my color combination is a little in your face.

looking back

i love her eyes looking back. nose is bad. colors; yes! blue and orange. one of my favorite combos.

yesterday at farmer's market i reached a milestone.

i sold a $100 necklace!!!!! it was turquoise and coral, just beautiful. i kept the matching bracelet and wear it all the time. now it will remind me of this awesome occasion.

woot, woot!

tilted

i like this purple and sagey green combo. love how it turned out. necks a little weird, but it's okay.

supposed to be two people in bed--their legs and one of their feet. didn't turn out so hot. oh, well. i guess i can't win them all.

i got sucked in by a mystery shopper scam last may; they sent me $4,ooo check. i was supposed to spend some of the money at a local store, report the experience and send the rest by money order to investigate that service. everybody in the house checked out the letter and said it sounded legit. cough, cough. i spent the money at the local store and went to send the money order, but when i got to the store, i realized i'd left the 3,500 at home. so i went home to get it and there was a message from my bank saying the check had bounced. thank you, god, i didn't have that money with me! so i contacted the mystery shopper company and they said they'd mail a cashier's check that day. waited two weeks. no check. called again. no answer. i called all that day, and by the end of that day, there was a message stating that number was no longer in service. ah, ha. so i called the fbi. i know. the fbi! my sister's husband told me to do it. and the guy was so nice! and understanding. yes, this was a scam. thank goodness you didn't send the money. it was a brand new scam, so it hadn't been reported yet. yay! i'm the first! uh, yeah. not so cool. anyway. i took the money and gave it to the bank. but the other five hundred was just gone. so.

now i owe the bank something like seven hundred from interest. and i can't get a checking account anywhere else without paying for this deficit. i feel so stupid! yes, it can happen to you.

little doodle

this is a little doodle i did. what a clavicle she has!

yesterday i registered for my classes and got in all but one. the one i didn't get in was advanced painting. it starts at two and my metalsmithing class ends at two, so the computer won't let me sign up for both of them without an official time conflict override. only problem is, the professor for one of the classes has to send this override in to the registrar's office. and all the professors are out for the summer. hmmm.... todd sherman, the art department head, is in for a few hours some days and the registrar's office said he might be willing to do this for me... how complicated! but i do understand them wanting the professors to okay this. if a professor is going to have a hissy fit every time i clean up my stuff a little early or arrive a little late, it's definately not going to be worth it. i would sign up for the intermediate painting class, but it's in the same room and time slot as the advanced painting. argh! i hope every thing will work out. it's the art department, right? everybody is supposed to be laid back, right? "it's all good, folks. it's not rocket science."

the core class i've signed up for is asthetic appreciation: art/drama/music. i wish i could petition out of this class. i was a theatre major for four years and have taken four music classes. and am an art major. you would think i can asthetically appreciate the arts without a whole class on the subject. but i get why it's required. think of all those science majors (this is a federally funded science university) who never spent a minute of their lives appreciating art in any of it's forms. so. there we are.

i'm thinking about minoring in eduaction or double majoring in it so that i can become an art teacher when i graduate. i've been teaching knitting, crochet, and floral design at the local craft store. and enjoying it. maybe after i get my bachelor's i could get a master's and become a professor. wow. lots to think about.

my aunt

my dear aunt died this last week. aunt corine. i'm profoundly sad. the world feels a little lonelier without her loving me. but i know she's in a better place without pain. with two of her daughters. that has got to be wonderful. beyond words wonderful.

in lighter news, i'm going back to school in the fall. i got accepted back to my old university. my financial aid came through. yay! i'll be majoring in art, hopefully accepted into the bfa program. i have 141 credits and still about five classes left to go in my core curriculum. when i went to school before, i couldn't seem to make myself take those last few hated core classes. it's stuff like economy and anthropology and math. yucky. but i have to do them if i want a degree, and i think i want i bad enough now, nine years later, that i can do them. not sure what i want to do with the degree once i've got it, but degreed people get better jobs. so. maybe i'll try to teach art. art therapy. i don't know. right now it's just enough to be striving for it.

as far as the drawing is concerned, i'm not sure i like it. pink and turquoise are a classic combo but the drawing is just a little off. hmmm....

asian girl

i like this one for the color combination (mustard and turquoise--who would have thought?) and the way she looks both young and old. her eyes are deliberitely different again, but i'm afraid there're too similar for it to work quite right.

15 books

i'm supposed to come up with fifteen books that made a difference to me.

hmmm....

1)Beauty by Robin McKinley; this was my first fantasy. up to this point i'd been reading the horrible sweet valley high series--okay, they probably weren't horrible, but after reading beauty i couldn't pick another one up without criinging

2)Teen Titans, Cloak and Dagger, X-men; comic books rocked my world in high school and junior high. 'nuff said.

3) Anne of Green Gables; i got my hot little mits on this one in sixth grade. i then commenced to mooning around, imagining i had consumption, and writing really bad prose

4)Sharon Oldes; poetry as meaningful, mind-blowing shit

5)The Key of Hed trilogy by Patricia McKillip

6)The Great Gatsby

7)Hemingway; i had, up to this point, emilated L.M. Montgomery in my own writing. just a bit too much for this day and age. but Hemingway taught me to be sparing. brilliant author, horrible man.

8)Beth Moore's bible studies--whoa. good stuff.

9)White Oleander

10)Sharon Shinn--oh, my gawd, i absolutely adore her

11) Laurel K. Hamilton; vampires and werewolves and witches, oh my!

12)Wen Spencer; love, love, love her work

13)SARK; utterly brilliant--i'd follow her anywhere

14)the harry potter series--can't wait to read what Rowling has up her sleeve for a next go at it

15)Nora Roberts' trilogies, i'm embaressed to report. it's just that her characters are so real. there are a couple series to skip, but she really is an exellent story-teller

i did two sketches of this woman. her nose came out way too long. oh, the horror. i still like that sagey green with the red, though. nice contrasty colorage. ah, here she is with a crazy turned-up nose. hmmm. just couldn't get her quite right. and this woman is so striking. i'm disappointed i couldn't do her. at least her lips are right.

yesterday i did really well at farmer's market. yay! it's so gratifying to have people appreciate your work.

becca had a miscarriage two weeks ago. thankfully, she hadn't known she was pregnant. she was only a month along. but she really wants another baby. and i just don't know what it feels like to lose one. after the hysterectomy, thankfully, i'll never have to go through that. sometimes i wonder if i did the right thing. i just don't know. but, boy, do i like not having my period! yay for freedom!

mornings

i woke up this morning at four. it's a farmer's market day and i know i'm gonna fade around noon, but i don't want to go back to bed, 'cause i'll not want to get up when my alarm goes off, so here i am, checking out my list of blogs that i keep up with. artists and jewelers. i just love blogs.

since it's self-portrait day, i'm a little sad i posted my self-portrait yesterday. ah, well.

this is another self-portrait, done in pencil. kinda faint.

the thing about my drawing that i hate the most is that i make everybody prettier than they are. it's most noticable to me in my self-portraits 'cause i know i'm just not this pretty. grumble.