Jill

03:05 am: working on 'em.

new 4x6 inch collage on watercolor paper.

01:39 am: it's been a busy last few weeks.

jackson graduated from 6th grade (and is officially now taller than me - I expected it - just not by age 12).




My cousins visited from Kansas for a few days. They're such great people. I wish we lived closer.




Lily's been doing nothing but swimming and fighting an ear infection (sadly they've gotta be related).




Vox Sacramento had its grand reopening (2nd time this year) in downtown Sacramento. The show was a huge success.







I'm back to working on art, and cycling, and booking photographers for a group show in September. Oh! And got an e-mail today letting me know that Vox Sacramento was in the top 100 fundraisers for the Komen Foundation (breast cancer walk). I was so...touched? Happy? that I was able to help honor my friend Jen in that matter.

So yeah. Now I'm sleepy. : )

02:07 pm: praying to false gods




i've had a hard time doing collage work lately. i think there's a battle raging in my head and i'm waiting for one side to put up the little white flag. i'm moving away from using images as they are, and moving towards using images as texture. i don't know if that's the natural progression, but it seems to be mine, so i'm going with it.

i do know that i'm using more and more of my own images in my work. which i like a lot. it's pretty freeing being able to do that.

life is good. busy. started cycling again. it's been so long, and my body needed it in the worst way.




i was totally bummed out to discover that all the work i did on the Bayou title sheets did not make it to print with the rest of the book. i guess that'll show me for getting my hopes up. oh well. some other time, yeah?

this was my last title sheet.

06:22 pm: so much has been going on, I don't even know where to begin.

I guess just jump in.

So, a while ago I formed a team to walk in the Komen Sacramento Race for the Cure (breast cancer). I have a friend in Phoenix who was diagnosed with Stage IV about a year and a half ago, and she inspired me to form the team.

I formed it this year as I did last year, and worked on art, and at my real job, and was pretty much just content to stay busy all the time. My friend was doing well for so long, that it was easy to forget that Stage IV is really pretty bad, but we kept in touch, and I'd send her art sometimes.

About three weeks ago she had a PET scan, laid down for a nap, and when she woke up she couldn't talk anymore. The cancer cells in her brain had gone into overdrive and they gave her a couple of weeks to live. She only got one and half. Words can't describe how sad I am at her loss. She was only 37. She'd just gotten married. Her life was so great except for the cancer.

Now I'm still heading the team, and we're slated to walk this Saturday. And it's going to be hard, no question, seeing all those women who are fighting breast cancer, or seeing all those people who lost loved ones to it.

so hard.

But if you want to donate, the site is: https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=301523&supId=205672380

11:11 am: day 6. monkey from a barrel still missing.

meanwhile, good deeds still need doin'.

03:49 pm:

12:44 am: Life has been crazy lately. So in order to cope with it, I've had to simplify it. Stop posting all over the internet and deal with it.

but crazy doesn't mean all bad. One thing I'm working on is a set of questions from someone doing an article in the Sacramento News and Review. It's on green artists. The writer found my cigarette boxes somewhere and wants to include me in the article. I'm kind of excited about it.



I've been creating a good bit of art lately. All small, but it's something. Kind of a dark phase. Noir.



sometimes it's kind of freeing to be limited. Easier to work with grey and black and white because then you can change your focus from color to shape and line.

But yeah, life is crazy, but it's been fun too

02:24 pm:

08:13 am: thanks all.
I really appreciate all your kind words.

We're all doing ok. My dad is convinced that my stepmother passed away before her body went under water. she looked peaceful. her arms were crossed around her stomach so it didn't appear that she struggled to get out of the bathtub. the autopsy results come back in 10-15 weeks though, so it'll be a while before we know for sure.

Luckily Dad and Lou were heavily involved in the community, specifically with the Boy Scouts, so there's a tremendous amount of support for my dad and the rest of the family. We were really concerned about how we could afford a funeral, even a direct cremation is expensive, but people have been really generous and I think it's going to be ok.

here's a link to her obituary notice: http://www.legacy.com/mercurynews/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=121280637

11:04 pm: I got the call this morning that everyone dreads getting. Checked the display on my cell phone and it was Dad. Answered the phone. Couldn't understand what he said. Finally did. "Jill, it's Lou. She died last night." and then some more words "...in the bathtub."

And he was crying so hard, and there were people in the background. EMTs I think. I told him how sorry I was. I cried too. I told him to go deal with what was happening and I would call him back.

Lou was my stepmother. For over 33 years.

Lou had MS. It attacked her brain and her body. She was still able to walk most of the time. But her logic and her thinking and her ability to filter anything that came out of her mouth was gone.

It's still unclear what exactly happened. Everyone is so upset that the facts aren't really clear. What I can piece together though is that she'd had an accident at some point early this a.m. Dad and Gracie (Lou's elderly mother) cleaned her up, and put her into the bathtub to soak. They checked up on her frequently, but Dad laid back down. He'd hear her turn on the faucet with her feet, and he'd get up and turn it back off. He tried to get her to come out of the bathtub but she didn't want to. So he let her soak some more.

Not sure exactly what happened next, but it sounds like Dad fell asleep. He woke up when he heard the bath water running again, so he got up and turned it off. And found her there.

The police came and took statements. The coroner came and took her body. My poor 22 year old brother is devastated. They all are. It's so surreal.

I'm heading down there tomorrow to help out best I can.

Man, what a day.

01:10 am: jen.
and she is why I walk (and hit you up every year).

http://www.08azbreastcancer3dy.blip.tv/#1525644

11:59 am: Been busy lately. With family, with Vox, with art. Clearly not with working out (my Wii Fit let me know that I've been slacking way too much lately).

Thanksgiving will be full of a lot of driving. One day at Dad's, one day at Mom's. Should be interesting.

Here are a few of my newer pieces:

10:31 am: I've been sorta quiet lately. Not that I don't have a lot to talk about, it's just sometimes there's not that extra need for words.

I went to a Cystic Fibrosis fundraiser last night. Met a man in his late 20's who'd had CF, but went on to have a double lung transplant and seems to be recovered. Or as much as you can recover. That's...incredible.

More art. Photographed from the dashboard of my van as I drove to work this a.m. Great light there.

09:14 am: reminders from the dashboard November 11, 2008

09:35 pm: !!!

09:52 am: and done!

11:25 pm: i just got back from my friend Laurenn's wedding. In Vegas. It was beyond beautiful.

if you get a chance, look at the photos. so amazing.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/932415@N21/



(photo by Lauren Martin)

and, for good measure, the day before the wedding (I was a bridesmaid), I fell and sprained my ankle. hahahaha. it's what I do.

02:40 pm: sad day. so art instead.

09:10 am: memories.
me in 1968 or 1969.

carrying me was my beloved grandfather Doss. he went camping all the time. this was in Yosemite. God I miss him so much.

and in his hand the generations before him


holding the photo is Jackson

12:41 pm: i don't feel like sharing a lot of words lately, just images. so here are some new pieces of mine.