For christmas this year, I signed Matt and myself up for an evening art class. It’s something corny called “Adventures in Art”, but that suits us fine because it covers our basic needs: a.) an open-ended reason to play and be creative and try some new stuff, and b.) an excuse to get out on Tuesday nights and then go out for a beer afterwards and talk about larger things, like life and art.

Beer is crucial to the artistic process, you know.

Anyways, even though I’m a little advanced for the class, it’s been a really good excercise for me. I mean, i used to be an elementary art teacher so I’m used to slummin’ it with only cheap construction paper and crayola. We do a little better in “Adventures With Art”, but the point is that we’re having a good time and I’m pushing myself a bit more. Here’s some of the results.

Untitled; 14×17″, colored pencil on newsprint.
This was our first assignment, we had to basically draw a freeform scribble on the paper and then change it into something. I don’t usually like to draw on newspaper (at least anything i might want to keep) because it gets brittle and yellow over time, but whatever. 

Studio On A Hill, 11×14″, Pastel and Marker on paper.
Next we had some goofy assignment called “Inside / Outside”, where we had to reveal something about the contrast between our outward personas and our inner self. Yeah, i know. I have complicated feelings about this, to say the least.
Sense of place is a big element for me, so I decided to draw a surreal version of the hill we live on. In reality, we live in a really lovely neighborhood which is surrounded by a sort of blighted ghetto-type area. In my drawing, the nether regions represent my darker more intuitive creative self, and the topmost surface is our house and the cemetary and the jeep and our giant poplar tree. I’d like to redo this as a full-scale painting at some point, but so far all the elements are intentional, including the smudgy bits and the fact that i outlined the tangible things in my life but didn’t color them in. I really like the concept.

Jellyfish, 11×14″, collage on canvas.
Most of the artwork I’ve done since we got back to florida has referred back to the architecture of miami beach or the ocean itself. This one is no exception.

On our first night there, we had dinner and then went for a walk at night along the beach. I was asking Matt about the kinds of things that might live in the water, since I’m used to the north atlantic ocean which is teeming with sea critters. I like ecology, you know? So I specifically asked whether there were jellyfish, and Matt said he’s never seen any so it was doubtful. Then we reached the tideline and i kicked off my heels and waded into the dark, warm water. It was endless and mysterious and beautiful. I imagined monsters swimming in the depths.

The next day I went for a swim- the water was clear and bright turquoise in the daylight- while Matt watched me from the beach. Sure enough i turned around and spotted a a pair of translucent jellyfish gliding a few feet away from me. I’m pretty sure they were specifically after me. They weren’t large, but i yelped and then carefully made my way around them, being sure to avoid any drifting tentacles. Matt has not yet heard the end of this. So now I’ve put them in a painting. ; )

It’s been a long time since i’ve written about Tristen. For a while, when my life was in this huge upheaval, he was at the forefront of my thoughts & of my writing. Those of you who have been reading for a long time will probably remember some weird posts which seemed to come from outer space. In short, I was desperately in love. It was a total disaster.

And then for all intents and purposes, the topic abruptly dropped off the face of the blog. I didn’t write for a long while after that. Maybe I couldn’t think of an eloquent way of putting it, to find a way to reflect my life experience into this format. Maybe I felt it belonged to me, and that’s all it needed to be, so i didn’t share it with you. One morning Tristen was home, we were waking up making pancakes and goofing around, and then a matter of hours later he was in big trouble and I didn’t see him for a long time.

I waited for a year for him. It was the stupidest, but also the most devoted and most beautiful thing I’ve ever done. I defied the judgements my friends, family and convention put on the situation. What would a young, clever, talented, educated woman like myself want with a convicted felon? All I can say is that he was my friend, and he needed me- my visits, letters, precious phone conversations- to get him through. And i was there for him. It is the best thing I have ever done. And in time, the waiting became not about Tristen, but about myself. It was my time of solitude.

But back on topic.

I probably know better than most Xangans what you get and what you don’t in prison. I used to keep a copy of the canteen list on my fridge, and regular reports of what had been for dinner. These kinds of things fascinate me, I guess. Tris would generally avoid the food served in the chow hall, since it is pretty much what you’d expect. Most everything was processed or came from a can, like bad cafeteria food. In the mornings there would be rubbery scrambled eggs and maybe toast or cereal. Lunch would be a sandwich. Dinner was some poor excuse for fish sticks or sloppy joe’s or soggy pizza. Of course, no fresh meats or produce, no homecooked meals or ordering in, no fast food, nothing exotic or fresh or interesting, not even a real cheeseburger, for god’s sake, and certainly no dessert.

I guess you don’t get dessert if you’ve been naughty.

What you could get was various items off the canteen list, if you had funds in your account. Tristen liked to draw, so he would trade his art skills for food or money. I have an empty packet of Cactus Annie’s Squeezy Cheez that was smuggled to me in the mail as a joke, hehe. The list itself was extensive- not just non-perishable food items, but clothing and radios were available too. Also on the list was summer sausage, ramen, soda, juice, powdered donuts, candy bars, tortillas, tunafish, peanut butter, cereal, coffee, tea, powdered milk, etc etc. In short, if you are an ingenious inmate and you happen to have a crockpot in your cell, there are tons of things you can cook for yourself. Tristen came up with quite a few recipes, and would pool his stash with other inmates to make food far better than what was offered in chow. He also sent me some of his “recipes”, and there’s a couple i actually like, including macaroni and cheese with sausage, and thai peanut wraps, and this ass-fattening monstrosity made from pastries and melted snickers bars. Yum.

By the way, he got out a few months ago. Of course I’d long since moved on, but one of the first things we did together [as friends] was go out for dinner. We had a really nice, long converstion about everything, and the food was excellent. : )

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

She thought nobody was watching her steal the rabbit’s breakfast, and then she got totally busted.

In other housebeastie news, Ugmoe has become fixated on the kitchen pantry. It’s basically a closet with shelves behind a folding door, and that is where the box of stale Nilla Wafers resides. The rabbit knows this, and the rabbit loves him some cookies. At 1 pm sharp everyday we have cookie time (and sometimes a song to go with it), and he comes and finds me and circles my feet, and then stares at the door, and then gets half a cookie. it’s like, the most exciting part of the day.

Yesterday ugmoe figured out how to nudge open the pantry door all by himself. It’s a bit tricky to get on video, since he prefers to do these naughty things when nobody’s looking. But i will prevail, and you will all get to see how clever my rabbit is.

Reading craigslist job postings, that is. More often than not, I get pissed off. And then I am amused.

Here’s one from today:

Create the 2008 Oscar Ballot – Biggest Movie Website

• Location: Boston
• Compensation: $100 Flat fee. (And your name and/or company on the 2008 Oscar Ballot) [ hahahaha hahahaha...ahaha hahahaha....yeah, right!]
• This is a part-time job.

not to beat a dead horse or anything, but I thought this one
was also stupid/funny. Someone should tell them that Excel can make all
kinds of pretty graphs and charts for you, so you don’t have to waste a
designer’s time with your boring data. But hey, maybe the job actually
pays something, so i’ll shut up now.

Well, I’ve been a blog slacker. This goat pretty much sums up how i feel about that:

So there.

A brief summary of what I’ve been up to:

- I have not made any new year’s resolutions, and have boycotted the idea entirely. I know lots of people go through this, but this year, if I resolve anything at all, it’s to not set myself up for self-disappointment. I have a seriously toxic issue with thwarting myself before i even get started, and then being all half-assed as a result, because I get all hung up on the process, blah, blah, blah, and hoo boy, I’m bored of talking about it already.

So yeah. I’m freaking brilliant. i just have to let it manifest on its own terms.

- I cut my own hair, which is probably one step crazier than the last haircut I got, at that place where nobody spoke english. This time i just went in the bathroom and whacked it all off. And you know what? It’s totally awesome.

Whenever you get your hair cut the rule is you have to make loads of stupid faces at the camera to show it off.

And then take a nice one to send to your mother.

- Spent a weekend in miami beach, which was amazing not only because of the warm sun and beautiful water (the jellyfish tried to get me!) and oh, loads of incredible cuisine options, but it also made a serious dent in my aesthetic perspective. Like, everything i’ve created since we got back has been… brighter. I am now obsessed with art-deco and mid century modernism.

Plus, it’s a really groovy neighborhood, which was a hella surprise to me since I’d pretty much chalked all of miami up to being yet another vapid resort wasteland fringed with crime and poverty. But Miami Beach is actually kinda artsy & funky, like my neighborhood here in chilly new england, but of course with the benefit of the ocean and more fashion. We even took teh bus like the locals do, and contemplated the possibility of someday living there ourselves. Awesomesauce. I will be elaborating later.

-Damn, I love airplane rides. I don’t understand how people can just sit there and not be fascinated by the fact that this ginormous winged hunk of metal has flung itself in the sky and is soaring through the clouds at breakneck speed while the landscape glides by far below like an infinite patchwork ribboned with silver. I must have been a pterodactyl in a prior life. I love having wings. I was pretty much glued to the window the whole time. I mean, Damn.

Of course, waiting in the airport is yet another excellent excuse to make stupid faces.

-Sooo. Been knitting and shit. I have made loads of stupid hats. Not while in miami, though… i dunno if you can even get yarn in miami, it’s too warm to even think about wool. But I bought lots of colorful yarn and I’ve been making quickie bucket-hat type things, and attaching retro vintage plastic flowers to them. They’re sorta like oilily-whimsical-30′s-ish. Maybe I have a picture to give you an idea. Oh, yes, yes I do.

-Been plotting to move our crammed studio space, which resides in our second bedroom, out into the much larger & brighter livingroom. And vice versa. Since i pretty much have to drag my larger projects out there anyways,
and i find myself knitting out on the couch, because the sunshine in the
window is nicer. There is this coffeetable we are in love with, which the whole
interior-design concept is centered around. It has a glass top with
little divided compartments underneath, which is perfect for displaying
the kinds of things we tend to hoard on our travels. Like beads and
rocks and shells, because we are magpie-squirrels.

now…..

later…..

This also means i can set up a gallery/ classroom/ lounge/ workspace for any future ventures. Ikea will be helping us achieve this. Oh, yes.

-Speaking of future ventures, Matty and I have been taking an art class together, just a silly free-for-all painting & collage type of thing. It’s been a great chance to get out and DO SOMETHING at least once a week, and talk to some other people. Afterwards we go out for a beer and get all excited about new projects to work on, and then we’re all pumped and uber-creative for the next couple days.

Some recent art I made, and a painting matt did of mountains at night:

One of the other things we are working on is a collaborative blog (because the internets are just desperate for another stupid blog, right? Yeah. Shut up.) where we can post the funny drawings and cartoons and artwork and videos we’re always coming up with. I’m telling you, we are silly silly snarky people. And we are going to inflict ourselves upon the world!

-On a side note, I would just like to say that I love Matt. He’s the greatest thing ever. He makes me feel like a summer day.

-And last but by no means least, last week we gave Ugmoe a bath, because he’s a dirty little varmint. Here’s a picture of him being wet and angry about it.