Jill

12:07 am: dress-up!
in preparation for my friend charliechucoming up to take some photos tomorrow (he's just started really getting into photography - check his stuff out here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/charliechu/), Lily helped me figure out what to wear.  This included makeup too!  So, because she was so kind, I did hers as well.

We had a blast.  : )

 




and this one that Lily took ... me as a ... grownup (GASP)
 

01:45 am: July art shows!
If you have a chance, I have art showing in a few places this month.

In Santa Clara I'm in a group showing  with The Scary Art Collective* at the Barefoot Coffee Roasters (5237 Stevens Creek Blvd, Santa Clara).  These pieces are up:



And at The Brickhouse Gallery in Sacramento (2837 36th St, Sacramento) I'm in another group show - A Curious Band of Artists** - for all of July with these pieces:




 *thanks to Nik and Temple for all your help in getting me over there and organizing it all

**thanks to Mark and Nicole Fox for the awesome.

10:57 pm: i take funny pictures sometimes.




sometimes i don't.





and a lot of times i laugh at myself.

12:19 am: no words.

09:54 am: beautiful walk by myself this a.m. 4 miles total I think. Along the beach in the packed sand. Listening to Kings of Leon on my iPod. Foggy, overcast, cool. (I'll be there) Dogs and volleyball and surfers and a Scottish wedding and people practicing their yoga stances and hills and flowers and homes so beautiful they make me want to cry. (I'm on call, I'll be there waiting.)

later today picnic on the beach with Mom. deli food in a picnic basket. other than that there is no agenda.

The Inn we're at - The Candlelight Inn - serves amazing breakfasts at your door in the mornings. Small coolers filled with cartons of milk and oj and bagels and raisin bread and yogurt and fresh fruit and peanut butter and jelly and cream cheese and and and and. so very nice.

I love it here. I wish I was a gazillionaire because this is where I would be.

11:47 pm: doing?
me? sitting in a hotel room in Carmel, CA. my mom in the extra room, me on one of the full sized beds in the living room portion of the suite. uploading flickr pics and watching b-movie trailers.

today was all smoke. the valley has been thick with it for days. it's never ending - the sky is a yellow haze. mom picked me around 10 a.m., and we drove three hours yellow skies. arrived in Carmel just in time to check into our hotel and walk down to the day spa to get our massages and pedicures.

nice.

then back to the hotel to change and then to an amazing restaurant for dinner. The Flying Fish. Had a steamed artichoke served with a wasabit mayo, a glass (or two) of Qupe 2006 Pino Noir, a glazed chicken dish, and then a green tea sundae topped with mandarin oranges, fudge sauce, and a sliced almond topped whipped cream.

after we rolled out of the restaurant, we walked around a bit, looked in shops, then she came back to the hotel while I decided to explore.

ended up at the ocean take pics.


more later; can't keep my eyes open.

08:28 am: my own personal jerry lewis movie
Got ready and all dressed for work this a.m., then came downstairs to let the dogs out and give them their meds. Reached the bottom of the steps when i noticed that both dogs had already peed in front of the sliding glass door.

sigh.

Sooooooooooooooooo....

I walked through the dining room to go get a mop and towels, when suddenly I slipped and fell in what turns out was another sea o' dog pee.

some day when my knee isn't hurting anymore, I'm pretty sure I'll find this funny.

11:59 pm: snapshots from the diamond sea
time takes its crazy toll
and how does your mirror grow
you better watch yourself when you jump into it
'cause the mirror's gonna steal your soul






look into her eyes and you can see
why all the little kids are dressed in dreams
I wonder how he's gonna make it back
when he sees that you just know it's make-believe

02:41 pm: it's not all black and white
but I've had fun experimenting with it.

at Invesco Field in Denver


near Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado


Dinosaur tracks


It was a great trip. Beyond great. I'm so glad I got to get away, see country I haven't before. I'm glad to be home, but I miss being on the road. I don't think I'll ever get that bug out of my system.

05:34 pm: for the July Second Saturday, and showing for the entire month of July at the Brickhouse Gallery:



these are the pieces of mine that will be in the show:

09:53 pm: yes, I am only an 8th grader. and yes, I giggled like crazy over this.

09:51 pm: parenting championships (Red Rocks ampitheater edition)
see that speck? Jackson.


Lily and Jackson half way up


after reaching the top

11:29 pm:

10:43 pm: quick post. hard time being away from home. My mom's house is in danger of the Humboldt Fire in Northern California. they've been told to evacuate, but haven't. fucking scary time for me to be in kansas.

our first night here had a fatal tornado just miles away. staying in the potawatomi reservation casino hotel. they evacuated the top two floors, and we just stayed in our room on the first floor, trying to go back to sleep.

next day we went to KC and visited Worlds of Fun. Great day, but the ride home had another tornado warning; this time us driving right through it on the highway. very, very scared children.

that night ended up with me and the kids in a hot tub at midnight. out in the country watching fireflies. maybe one of the most beautiful nights of my life.

anyways, if you believe in prayer or even positive thinking, send all that to my mom and her community. hope nobody else dies because of that fire.

06:37 am:

what a great weekend for art! i got so much done. not the stuff i expected to though. oops, that's the way it goes...

01:02 am: the sacred (4x6 collage on cardstock. girdle/blue image is a vintage piece from a 1950's Life magazine)



modern heartbreak (ATC, Miss Van inspired)

10:44 am: awesometastic night where i did extra triple Lily bonding, especially important to her because we did art together. (i hate to admit that generally i'm very much a self isolator when i work, and i tend to get um, snappish when interrupted, argh, bad mom, gotta work on that)

so yeah, i'd had an awful day of trying to make pieces come together and they just wouldn't, so when lily asked for mommy/lily time, i asked her if she wanted to work on art with me and she excitedly said yes. (ok, actually she said, "Wait, are you serious?").

Anyway, two hours later and this is the culmination of our efforts (and later we both fell asleep on the couch watching Flight of the Concords - my arm wrapped around her, we're so snoozy):



and my fave of hers:


i did little fun stuff (crazy that seriously these took 2 hours huh? i need to get over that and learn to put things together more quickly):

08:23 pm: fractured, or, you were my friend



just one of those days where i couldn't make it work. so i ripped the layer off and pieced it back together like Frankenstein. it's not pretty. i don't care. sometimes broken is more interesting than pretty.

01:09 pm:  Taurus (4/20-5/20)

A friendship may be starting to feel one sided. Get it all out in the open, today.


Ok LJ, listen up, it's time we had a little talk.  My horoscope clearly said I should get this out in the open today, so I'm going to.  I think I like you way more than you like me and it's getting old.

Hurry and catch up, would you?

Thanks.

Jill

09:03 am: Bayou, chap 4 screen title (drafts)
two options so far:





Aesthetically I like number 1 better, but number 2 is way more foreboding, and scary. And if you haven't taken the time to read Bayou yet, seriously, it's so amazing and beautiful, you HAVE to read it.

www.zudacomics.com/bayou


walk away now and you're gonna start a war
we expected something
something better than before