what would you do if you knew you were going to die tomorrow?

i think of this lately.

i’ve always tried to live my life telling the people around me how I feel about them. How much i appreciate and love them and the things they do for me. to point out that i value their strong suits.

but lately it seems more important.


so in that light i want to say….


to my friend that never forgets the days i am to have some sort of ‘procedure’ and then never fails to call me before AND after to make sure i’m okay.


who listens to me in gory detail even though she is afraid of needles and doesn’t want to hear the details.


who lets me vent when i need to.


who listens to my diatribes even though we are at politically opposite ends of the spectrum.


who patiently listens to all my unsolicited advice and never says a discouraging word.


thank you. thank you for being there. your wings are definitely showing!

not bad if I do say so myself, lol

I find that I’m ‘seeing’ things differently since doing

'the art of silliness’ online class by Carla Sonheim.

(my interpretation of Carla Sonheim’s book cover)

“lol”

this arrived today!

and we haven’t stopped laughing since!

 i guess it accomplished its mission!

thanks Deanna! only you would think of this!

hahahahahahahahahahaha!

haven’t been making much lately…..

haven’t been feeling up to snuff, so haven’t been making much lately. how about a pic of something old…….

I was honored to have a whole shelf of my own for my 'stuff' at the
 Alliance for the Arts gift shop in Ft. Myers in March.

grandma’s blue beads

these are my great grandmother’s blue glass beads. it’s one of the things she brought with her when she emigrated from England in 1910. they’ve taken on a magical quality for me over the years. sort of become my talisman. i find myself holding them a lot lately.

Anybody out there……..?

Anyone….anyone….…Bueller?

ODE TO THE FAN

The fan
The fan
What can one say about the fan…?

It’s perfection in motion
So breezy
So cool
So perfectly aimed
The unqualified tool


The speeds are not random
They are flawlessly paced
One for ‘plain’ flashes
The others for ‘baked’


By day
It sits
Alone on the floor
So solitary, serene
So plain
Unadorned


But at night
In the dark
It dons
Its superman cape
And becomes the hero
The ‘Vanquisher of Nape’


What can one say?
About this domestic device
Without it
I’d resort
To sleeping on ice!

look ma, I’m drawing!

  

(and you can even tell what it is!)

it’s the end of the ‘art of silliness’ online class by Carla Sonheim. 

i had a blast! i highly recommend her classes to anyone who thinks they can’t draw, or even skilled artists who just want to put a little ‘silly’ back into their art. http://carlasonheim.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/fall-2010-online-class-registration-open-2/

untitled

When faced with a possible serious medical diagnosis there is one looming question on my mind……………



WHY AM I STILL VACUUMING?


As I await my biopsy in a few days, I am vacuuming the house and it occurs to me, WTF am I doing? Does this really matter in the BIG scheme of things? Of course I continue because, well, it’s there, needing to be done. And then I think of all the things I need to get done so as to leave everything as neat and tidy for my husband and kids, ya’ know, just in case.


I’ve often wondered what people do in these situations. Knowing that the END (lol) might be near. I’ve often wondered what I would do in this situation. Would I take that exotic trip I’ve always dreamed of? Would I go on a shopping spree? Would I rack up all sorts of credit card debt buying things for my family? (Oh wait, I’ve already done that!)


Nooooooo………


I vacuum!


So I guess the answer to the question is you go on as if nothing is out of the ordinary. You just go on, as long as you can.


My father wanted to go on a picnic. My mother took his ashes on a picnic.


Maybe I should pack the picnic basket, (Just sayin’.)


(Please do not take offense at this post. It’s just the way I handle stress. And the slightly skewed way I look at things. If I can’t laugh and make fun of it, then in my mind ‘it’ wins. And as Hawkeye Pierce so eloquently said ‘don’t let the bastard win’.)

I’m trying my damnedest.

mom always said there'd be days like this

(my interpretation of a Carla Sonheim drawing)

i wonder if anyone out there is reading this?

i doubt that anyone (except family, when i ask them to) reads this. but I’m having a blast! there’s something so satisfying about sending your words and thoughts and pictures ‘out there’ into cyber land. it’s very freeing. sort of like ‘guerilla art’. you don’t get to see the result of what you did; you just get to imagine the effect.

in the beginning i was feeling very shy about the whole thing. now i find that i don’t really care if it’s reaching anyone, it’s reaching me. (all very psychological, ya’ know.  lol)

that’s not to say i wouldn’t appreciate it if people were reading it. i’d love to make new friends, or to find that i touched someone in some small way. it’s just that i’m finding, over time, i’m doing it for a totally different reason than i originally thought. and it’s very gratifying. i’m learning more about myself (which could go either way :/)  

still, it’s a fun and basically harmless hobby, so i think i’m going to keep it up.

so there! (she said stamping her foot like a petulant four year old.)

more silliness……

one of the lessons in ‘the art of silliness’ online workshop was to draw ‘one liner’ drawings. (‘one liner’ meaning not to lift the pen.)

‘one liner’ human face, ‘one liner’ tree, ‘one liner’ fish….you get the idea.

what surprised me was how totally different the finished drawings were from what i started out to make.

i started out to draw a tree. a nice simple oak, elm, or some sort of deciduous tree. but all of a sudden the pen took on a life of its own and out came a palm tree!

the face was the same way! it just kind of drew itself.  i really had no idea of what i was going to draw. i started out with the shape and then it just ‘appeared’.

I’m pleased with my progress so far. i mean, I know i’m never going to be another Rembrandt or Monet, but i'm now able to make recognizable images. for me that’s a huge improvement!  and i like it!

blind contours

blind contour drawing means drawing the outline of the subject without looking at the paper. The end result doesn't matter - what is important is carefully observing the subject.

okay, i peeked. (but just a little!)

my favorite artist

another piece from my favorite artist Brooke!

i love the bold, saturated colors! every time i look at it i see something different. a blue sky over a serene beach, a pink sunset over an azure ocean......do you see the purple flower in the upper right corner?

i have it on my bulletin board over my desk so i get to see it every day. such an inspiration!

thank you Brooke!

hot flash self portrait

here’s another ‘art of the silliness’ exercise

I call this ‘hot flash self portrait’

‘nuff said



industrial strength hot flashes

it’s not that I really miss my ovaries;
it’s just that I wasn’t prepared for the industrial strength hot flashes that losing them would incur. I mean, I had hot flashes before the surgery, I just didn’t realize how much it would ramp them up!

Still, it’s better than the alternative by far, but sheesh……….

and now for something completely different

i don’t know about you, but i am soooo sick and tired of these character bashing political commercials! so i have a scathingly brilliant idea for one. as the candidate looks directly into the camera they say “my mother always told me ‘If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all’”. then for the rest of the commercial they just stare into the camera and not say a word.

Lets’ see if anyone takes the idea and runs with it! lol