We had such a nice weekend. I had to work Friday but it wasn’t too busy and I was able to get out a little early. Thanskgiving was great, leftovers are still great. We went to Amy Ruppel’s studio and I got one of the bee paintings for the state of Mississippi. Here it is:
We didn’t do much shopping, just wrapping paper and batteries from Walgreens. We picked up our tree though, from a nice non-profit lot on 82nd. Our house now has tree and lights in the front. Mississippi was afraid of the tree at first but has warmed up to it. I hope she leaves the ornaments alone. So far so good. We rewarded her with a new doggy bed for her early Christmas present. She loves it as long as we are on the couch but the minute we vacate, she’s back on the couch. She doesn’t like to share the couch with us all that much, she wants it all to herself.
Yesterday was yard work day. I finally took down the tomato plants and put some ferns in the strawberry baskets so we’ll have a little green throughout the season. We brought the money tree inside for the winter and Tom raked all the leaves in the backyard. We went through a bag of ancient computer cables and I did a little tidying in the garage. Dinner last night was an amazing roast turkey with green beans and leftover yams.
Saturday I had craft night with Tricia and her daughter Ella. Tricia made this very cute reindeer:
and I made this um… lovely lampshade which Ella promises to cherrish forever:
I’m a little sad to be back at work. I miss my husband. Lots to celebrate right now. It’s an exciting time and I’m so distracted. This week I’ve got to get back into the groove and get some more paintings done. Toodle loo.
Yesterday was a day full of firsts for Mississippi. It was her first full day with little kids, it was her first dinner party and it was her first time spending several hours in someone else’s house. She was amazing, I am flabbergasted. We were really nervous about bringing her to Thanksgiving. We thought there was no way she was going to be able to contain her lust for food. We were worried about the kids (3 years, 5 years, and 6 months) and that she’d play too rough with them. We were worried she would gobble up all the toys laying around in the house. We were afraid she’d relieve herself inside the house. Tom even brought Fabreeze just in case she had an accident.
None of these things happened. She was perfectly behaved all day. She took a pencil that Lauren (the five year old) threw for her to “fetch” but she gave it up easily. She tried to steal a wine cork but so what, they aren’t bad for her and there were plenty. Of all the things to steal, it was the least harmful to her or anyone else. I had to wrestle her for it but she gave up pretty easily. The entire dinner she sat quietly next to Tom, who was sneaking her green beans and turkey every once in a while. She even laid down next to him for a while. She was silent and patient through out the whole dinner.
Possible the most amazing thing about yesterday was how she behaved around the kids. They constantly had cookies or rolls in their hands. Mississippi followed them around but never once tried to take food out of their hands. She never once jumped on them and I heard no reports of toothy behavior all day. I think the cutest moments were when Lauren would run back and forth through the house and Mississippi would chase her. She just trotted behind her and followed her every move. So cute! She was great around the baby who spent a good part of the day on the floor in his little bouncy seat. When I held the baby, she’d just come up and give a gentle sniff. Liam, the three year old chased her around with a colander and was very affectionate with her, Mississippi was very gentle all day with him.
No accidents in the house either. I took her out for a little pee break before dinner but she waited until we got home to do her pooping in the backyard. Hallelujah!
All throughout cooking and dinner, I only saw her help herself once. There was some mashed potato smeared on the counter, right on the edge. She got up on her hind legs and tried to lick it. We caught her in the act, told her no, and then wiped it off and ‘officially’ presented it to her. I’m amazed at all the chances for food that this was the only instance. She was just very interested in any cooking going on. But she sat patiently and watched intently. I think all our practice of trying not to let her have stuff unless we offer it to her has really paid off. Not to say that she’s not an opportunist, anything that drops on the floor is free game to her, but she counter surfs less than when we first got her. She’s knows we’ll give her some anyway.
Did I mention there were 3 other dogs in the house? She was very nice with all the dogs, even Tonka, who’s a dirty old man and who spent a good couple hours panting heavily and trying to go to town on her lady parts. She gave him a few firm warnings but there were no fights. She played with the dogs but during dinner she was more interested in watching Tom eat. After dinner she was more interested in watching Ryan carve the rest of the turkey. We brought her a kong, hoping it would keep her occupied during dinner. She munched on it for a while but gave it up to the other dogs in favor of watching Tom eat. When we left last night, her kong was still half full and she got a nice treat in the car on the way home.
Mississippi, you are so amazing. Thank you for being the best dog in the whole wide world. Happy Thanksgiving beautiful girl.
I’ve been taking way too long to finish these 4 paintings. This week I haven’t even wanted to look at them. So today I’m making myself look at them. I finally took photos and uploaded them to Flickr. It’s helping. I’m thinking about directions and it’s helping. I started these four not having any idea about where they would take me. Now that they are each going along in slightly different paths, I can see what’s important, what’s not, what I like, and what I don’t like. Strangely the one I liked the most in the beginning is the one I like the least now. And the one I thought would never go anywhere is the one I feel is closest to being done. I think the next step is to start one or two more, and to try different things, not worry about destroying them, and try to have some fun.
Recently our friends Azure and Jason moved up to Seattle from the LA area. There are just a 3 hour train or car ride away now. We are so excited that we share the same storms now. We drove up Saturday morning to spend a short weekend with them and their two kids. We went to the lake, tootled around the international district, and went out for some food. Sunday we made pizza. Emelyn made her very own tiny pizza and was a very fine pizza helper with the other pizzas.
It was so nice taking a little trip, and they have the best guest bed ever. I don’t want to be back at work today, I’m struggling. I want to go back up sometime soon and go to first thursday in Seattle. So nice to have them closer.
Apple 319
Drinking icky herbs from my acupuncturist. The apple is a welcome palette cleanser.
Apple 318
Slow progress on my four paintings on paper. This is at PNCA in the painting studios.
Apple 317
My computer broke and I’m backing everything up so I can wipe my drive and start fresh. It’s the beginning of the holiday shopping season and I work on a website for a retailer. I’m screwed.
Apple 316
From my notebook:
Blissful evening hanging out in my chair in the basement, listening to Tom write music. I’m surrounded by books and I’m drawing. Textiles, Fairfield Porter, quilts, Charles Burchfield, writings about Agnes Martin by Rosalind Krauss.
Agnes Martin quote:
"This poem, like the paintings, is not really about nature. It is not what is seen. It is what is known forever in the mind."
My computer died. It’s totally dead. The hard drive is still there but it won’t boot, not even in unix mode. It’s dead. I am backing up the hard drive and am going to just wipe the drive clean and o a fresh install of everything. It’s going to take a long time. It involves a lot of waiting. I hate waiting.
I’m doing all sorts of waiting these days. Some moments I’m so good at it. I’m at peace and I can just go about my day, trying to enjoy my life right now. Other moments I feel like I’m crawling out of my skin. My emotions run the gamet of giddy excitement to utter doom and gloom.
I had a dream that a tooth fell out. It was stained and full of metal from cavities. It looked like it belonged to an old, road-weary person who had a hard, long life and didn’t take care of themselves very well. I have tooth dreams every few years but they always involve me running around trying to find someone who will put my tooth back in before it’s too late. Looking down at this tooth, I had no desire to put it back in my mouth. I almost looked at it in relief that I could go and get a shiny new white one to replace it. But I didn’t really want to loose my tooth, I thought we could still fix it. We went out looking for a dentist anyway, but I couldn’t find my insurance card. I kept digging and digging through my bag, which was full of all kinds of crap. Time was ticking away. I lost my place in line and had to start my wait all over again. I was right there at the door of the dentist’s office, but couldn’t get in, all because I had to wait. The lines kept getting longer and longer.
And so today I think about waiting. waiting for things to happen, wondering if I’ve waited too long, and wanting very badly the thing I’m waiting for. It’s like watching a kettle boil, a very, very large kettle. The longer you stare, the larger it gets.
Adam Sorensen visited our advanced painting class last weekend to show his work. He paints wild, imaginary landscapes in a mix of dark and bright, sometimes neon colors. At times his work reminded me of a painter’s version of Ralph Bakshi. The mood of the paintings share a mix of eeriness, doomy-gloomy, cartoonishness and hopefulness. He’s a local Portlander and you can see the effect the local landscape has had on his work. It was so great seeing his presentation of his work and it was very inspiring. Just wanted to introduce his work to you if you aren’t familiar.
As Angela mentioned the other day, there are just 6 weeks left in the year. I’ve loved my apple project so I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the next resolution. I loved the photographic aspect of the project and I think I’ll continue doing the sky Photos, but I have two other projects in mind that don’t really involve photography, although… I bet I could work it in. Yes, for documentation purposes, and for the shear joy of it, I’ll document things in photographs.
So, this year’s resolutions are to make 365 “visual” sketches, AND to make 52 “audio” sketches. The visual sketches will be very easy for me. I’m keeping the parameters loose so that there is no room for failure. I don’t have to do one a day, I just need to make sure I’ve done 365 by the end of 2010. I can make any sort of gesture and call it a sketch. it doesn’t have to be on paper, it doesn’t have to involve traditional drawing materials, it just has to be “visual.” I’ve been doing some tests, just to make sure this whole idea will work, and I feel very confident I can do this.
The audio sketches are going to be a challenge. I’m going to make sure I make it easy on myself, but I do want to make some multitrack recordings so that’s why I’ve decided to stick with 52 instead of 365. I did a little test yesterday with my Glockenspiel and tambourine. It was really fun but I have bad rhythm so it took several takes and it’s still pretty sloppy. But it’s a sketch right? I would like them to be interesting enough to feel proud to share them, but the first priority to is make them. I’ll share them anyway but don’t expect too much. They don’t have to me made by musical instruments, I can record environmental sounds. I don’t need to do one a week, I just need to have 52 done by the end of 2010. I’m hoping at the end of the year I have a library of little snippets of textural sounds, short little sounds, fragments of songs, vocal play, and chunks of repetitive musical arrangements. “Arrangements” is probably a strong word here. I’d like them to be 30 seconds long but I think I’ll be lenient on that rule.
I have to give credit where credit is due. My friend Earl sent me a smarmy email regarding my apple project and said he was thinking of playing a single power chord every day for a year. He was just poking fun at me but his idea stuck in my head. I thought, “why can’t I make audio sketches?” And so I will. Thanks Earl, I totally ripped off your idea.
My heart aches over the fact that Tom and I don’t make much music together. I know exactly why that is. I lack confidence, I feel awkward when I try to play around him. I used to play bass, I was never Bootsy Collins, but I was confident there for a while, I’d like that feeling back. I think spending a few minutes every day, making some sort of noise is going to help me. I’m hoping it drives and inspires me to spend more time in Tom’s studio. I’m hoping by the end of the year I can feel like I could write a song.
I’m getting serious about these daily projects. They’ve gotten under my skin. I love them.
So Santa, here are a few things you can get me this year. I’ve been very good. Some will help me with my resolutions, some will help me… um… bake fresh cherry pies which will give me energy to continue with my projects.
Portable Midi Interface
Charles Burchfield book
Dremel 1550 T2 Versa Tip Multipurpose Tool Kit
More Art 21 DVDs
Some sort of final solution office/sewing chair with no arms.
Just down the road from us is a cute little graveyard with lots of old headstones and great mushrooms. Too bad so many of the headstones are worn down. Maybe of the dates were from the late 1800s.
Saturday November 14th was the big Glass Ball Gala Fundraiser event for the Portland Youth Development Coalition. It was an absolute blast.
Highlights for me and Tom were the two musical acts, Dutch Masters (Dandy Warhols) and The Robinsons (Viva Voce). So good! So good! We got to stand just feet from them. The Robinsons were making my eyes tear up with all sorts of emotions. Their music is kinds of wonderful, plus they are a husband/wife team, which always makes me feel sad and frustrated that I’m not making music with Tom. And I wanted to steal Anita’s Rickenbacker even though I never play my own guitar. I’m just kidding though. I won’t steal their guitars because they make good sounds with them. Man, they were so good. I’ve been listening to Viva Voce all day today.
This was the first time I’ve had my work in a live auction. It was so nerve wracking. No one bid on it. It definitely stung but I just took a deep breath and moved on. I’m just sad I couldn’t raise more money for the amazing folks at PYDC and AMP. They are some of the nicest, most generous people I’ve met here in Portland. I feel so blessed they invited me to participate and had faith enough in my work to include it in the auction. And I hear my globe going to be available for silent auction on the website so maybe I can raise them some more money yet.
There’s a great show at Disjecta from November 14th through December 20th at Disjecta of works from Anna Fidler and David Stein.
Anna’s very large works on paper are all scenes from Portland Trailblazers basketball games. The surface of the drawings are absolutely covered with topographic map-type lines, dots, and stains.
David Stein’s small works on paper are woodsy/fantasy scenes inspired by his own Rorschach inspired randomly created stain smudges. They remind me a bit of Tim Burton’s drawings. Photo prints of the stains were displayed next to the drawings.
My photo of a guy taking a photo of a lady.
My favorite gallery attendant with a monkey on her back.
The Game
An Exhibition by Anna Fidler
David Stein Monarch
New Paintings
November 14 – December 20th 2009
Opening Saturday November 14 6-10 pm
Hours: Fri-Sun 12-5 pm and by appointment
Disjecta
8371 N Interstate Portland Oregon 97217 – 6716
We took Mississippi to the Sellwood Off Leash Dog Park this morning. It is fenceless. It’s our very first attempt at taking her off leash without the security of fences. She did great! She went down to the beach a couple times, which is not an off leash area, but we got her to come back up to the grassy area pretty easily. I was so nervous at first but she was very good. She didn’t jump on anyone and she played nice with the other dogs.
Mississippi has also started fetching all of a sudden. Today was day three of her playing fetch like a pro. She loves it. She brings the ball right back to us and drops it in exchange for a treat. Once today she even started veering off course on her return because some other dogs were chasing each other. But I whistled for her and she corrected her course and came right back to us. This is such an exciting new development. It means we’ll be able to take her to open areas and let her play off leash. She never runs from us and almost always comes back on the first call.
Go Mississippi! You are so amazing. I wish I’d taken footage of her fetching, she runs like the wind. Next time.
So I just got my very first exposure to Lady Gaga in the form of the Bad Romance video. Wow. Wacky… is really all I can say. My friend was Lady Gaga for Halloween, at first I just though she’d dressed up as a hooker, a “classy”*, futuristic hooker. I realized I’m missing out on a huge chunk of the tvs and the interwebs, I better do some pop surfing. Anyway, I digress.
My husband told me there was a Christopher Walken reading of one of her songs, which I thought was too cute not to share.
*The term “classy” was used here in an ironic sort of way.
Mississippi is an excellent slug and grub hunter. She is doing a great job of clearing our garden of pests. I appreciate this about her. I bet she’d make a great truffle sniffer too. I do not like the fact that she brings them inside the house to toss around and play with. They are so icky. She usually ends of eating them, but I’m sure our living room is getting stocked up on shriveled grubs right now.
I’ve just been through a very rough day. I thought I’d post about it in the hopes of saving someone from a similar fate. I’ve been postponing updating my machine to Snow Leopard because I was worried it would break my work environment which would be very, very bad. But yesterday I had some time and I’d heard people at my work weren’t having problems.
So I dove in, I jumped off that snow leopard cliff. The installation was smooth. When I went to launch my VPN client, it wouldn’t work. I tried reinstalling it, I tried a different client, but each time CCA Agent would come up and say it didn’t support my operating system. I called my company’s help line and they told me they didn’t support snow leopard and that I was up shit creek without a paddle. So after some digging, I found this out: CCA Agent hasn’t been updated for snow leopard and probably won’t until at least December. There is a workaround, but you need to be pretty Mac/geek/unix savvy and you need to be careful to not screw it up like I did.
Important, if you do this hack and manage to restart your computer before undoing it, your computer will not start up, it will just cycle through blue screens and get stuck in a loop. There is a way out! Do not fear. You just need to start up in “Single User Mode” by holding down the “Command (Apple)” and “S” key on start up. Then you can go back into the file and change it back.
Without further adieu, the link to this hack is here on the Apple Support Site.
The easiest version of the hack involves pasting this into your Terminal app: sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist
then editing the SystemVersion.plist file in Text Edit to change 10.6.1 to 10.5.8 (in both places)
then you start up your VPN and most importantly, change back your SystemVersion.plist file to say 10.6.1. The link above goes into greater detail.
One more thing. If this hack doesn’t work, you probably have a CCA Agent in your start up items. To get rid of it, open your System Prefs, Click on Login Items, click the lock to make changes, delete the CCA Agent, restart your machine and try the hack again.
Hope I’ve saved someone out there from the headache I endured yesterday.
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