.... a website which asks the world 20 questions, and then pairs the resulting brief stories with original artwork. The best results are posted every friday. I was particularly moved by this one:

I'ma going to have me a little rant, because today has been an up and downer. Not going to bother you with the details, but there was a some phone-drama with the ex-convict-ex-boyfriend which made me sad, and then I spent all day waiting for some furniture to get delivered. Impatient, bored. I ate some chocolate to make me feel better. Felt better. Put on some new music. Felt even betterer. The furniture finally came, and i got out my tools and started to flex my assembly-mojo. Woo! Had some beer while doing this. Feeling MUCH much betterer at that point.

And then I log on to Xanga and notice some people are now being labeled "true" xangans, while I am not.

WTF, xanga. I've been with you for five frickin' years, far longer than any boyfriend, and even came to you first when said boyfriends were being buttheads (see above). I thought we were tight. I even said I'd stick with you for life. And you go and snub me like this??

Fine, be that way. Just for that, I'm not posting pictures of the coffee table i just built. Jerk!

This cheered up my fairly drab morning.

In an effort to convince my dear friend Ryan that I sincerely worship her artwork and she really ought to lend me something for our new gallery / studio space, i am poaching some photos from her Flickr site and posting them here.

She was pals with all of us in art school, but went to a non-art college across town. She ended up studying graphic design, but she has always been modest about her prowess as painter. Her aesthetic is amazing. I think she's pretty much blown the rest of us out of the water at this point. Le sigh.

Want. Now.

Do This.

My new aspiration: bringing this camera on my next trip (oh, yes, there shall be another) to Miami Beach. Can anybody say "lo-fi photo hunt"?

I can just picture it: super-surreal art deco dreamy mid-century modern images galore...yes yes.

So.... I just bought one. It will be here in five days. Photo bliss will be mine!

Class last night went really well. I was sorta unenthusiastic about going at first, because we were supposed to be doing contour drawings; the whole idea invoked  terrible repressed art school memories of standing for hours, exhausted,  in a drawing studio making endless boring charcoal drawings and getting criticized for making bad scribbles.

But as you can see, it all turned out okay. After we did a few drawings on newsprint, the instructor gave us some materials to add color and "art" it up a little. I haven't actually done a fo'real self portrait in ages, and although this isn't really like the optimal thing i would do as self-expression (I usually am a lot more precise), I think I like it this way. It's kind of wonky. Sometimes when I draw I get really hung-up and precious about a pre-conceived idea, so it's good to do something more spontaneous like this. You know, just let the happy accidents happen.

My eyes do look a little weird though, heh.

Black gel pen, straight up, all scrawly, done quick & dirty on a random piece of paper last night. Took an hour, tops.
Drawn  from..... I guess you might call it something like "memory".