Friday, February 29, 2008
Spring. ish.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
A Thousand Words - And Then Some #19
Sometimes even I find myself putting down the camera. Hard times call for sacrificing documentary photography in order to grab weapons of mass destruction.
In short:
One ant on our bedroom ceiling. Rest her soul. During this discovery, I was talkin' on the phone to LimaB, who had a field day on me getting freaked about it.
Apparently, my gut feeling was correct. It always is.
Went out to the garage to fetch something from the drier - - -
- - - and a small section of the floor was practically moving. Lo and behold: a trail of ants from underneath a shelf in the garage was trekking all the way to the other end, up the garage sink leg and upwards along the wall. Some of them were very big and different in shape, which means it was a popular venue to which the VIPs of the nest also came, black-tie, valet parking and all (not sure it was the queen, though). They all seemed to really like Miracle Grow, which made me ponder - but I did not stop to have a chat about their queer taste. I prefered to put them all in the RIP state of being.
Investigating where they may come from was in vain. Outside, the sky was blue and the birds were chirping and the world looked innocent and totally ant-less.
Only then I saw some of those critters rushing out of our cactus planter.
"It's been a while since I've last watered the cacti", I thought, and poured a glass of water into one of them - - -
<--------- - - - - - - and that was the immediate result.
WHOA!!!
Swarming is an understatement.
A MAJOR understatement.
Y'see, this plant is a light green cactus. See the delightful blossoms on top of its finger-like thingies?
These are about seven thousand sixty nine billion three hundred seventy two million four thousands five hundred and sixty three ants.
Could be sixty four. It was hard to tell - they were moving fast! What am I, Rain Man?
By all means, click on the photo to see it larger and up close while you're sitting at your safe ant-less house. (not a bad macro photo for someone in an acute shock, eh?)
Not sure if that is the source, but The JohnnyB is going on a quest for that Combat thingy that CherkyB recommended.
So . . . anyone knows a pet store that's carrying ant eaters?
.
previous 1000 Words... ...next 1000 words
Labels: Nature, Scary, This Old House, WTF?
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Sold - Again!
Sometimes, you paint just for the pure joy of it.
You allow yourself to not think too much, grant yourself the permission to not agonize over the end result, and refrain from over-analyzing design rules and profound compositions, complementing colors and balance of value and shape.
Sometimes, you just paint.
And you have a lot of fun.
And you come up with a painting you actually like quite a bit, because each time you look at it, you go back to that happy feeling.
And, apparently, when you just enjoy creating something, it comes through, hidden between the lines and colors.
Because 3 weeks ago, one of my blog readers browsed through all the artwork on my blog and picked exactly that one painting, which I did at WackieM's class last April. As she put it, "The one that I like the best is Self Portrait #2 . . . I want the feeling I get when I look at it. Fun, light, colorful."
So yesterday I did not paint.
Instead, I befriended my recently-neglected mat cutter and cut a double mat for that painting. I admit I dreaded it (as you may recall, cutting mats is not exactly on my top 5 list of favorite things to do), but in some bizarre and crooked way, it was almost fun. Plus, it always pays when you finally insert the sandwich of mat-painting-backing into the clear plastic bag and allow yourself to breathe, as everything went just fine. No fingerprint on the mat, no crooked cuts - and once you're done, it's looking good!
So today I deposited the package in the skilled hands of the FedEx dude, and entrusted him to ship it to my very new patron: Jeani. Thank you, Jeani! It's hard to describe how encouraging it is to know that something I created has touched you to the extent that you want to own it. It feels great.
And now that I have sold my second painting (the first one went to Blogauthor), I wonder: am I a professional artist yet?
Labels: Art
Monday, February 18, 2008
ArtPact#49
Forgive me loyal readers for I have, well - it's been a while since the last time I painted. In fact, I haven't painted since I took John Salminen's workshop.
Thing is, each and every time I take workshop, I get the post-workshop creative block that freezes me and disables me from painting. Not quite sure why. Perhaps it's my mind being overwhelmed by all the new information, needing some time to take it all in, process it, keep the things that will be added to my work and forget the rest. Perhaps it's because each instructor has his or her own style, which throws me off track.
It's frustrating - but I know that's how it is, so I am learning to accept it as yet another learning stage of the tortured soul of the artist (that would be moi). A bit like a larva hibernating in its cocoon in order to burst out as a much better-looking butterfly. Or somethin'.
So - last Monday I went to a demo in the other art club I belong to. It was given by an incredible artists named Jaya King, whose work I truly admire. While her paintings are mostly bleak and sometimes profoundly disturbing (which I absolutely love, as they are so emotional and full of content, rather than being pretty art), she is a very fun, funny and cool gal. I liked the painting she did, but what really got me was the amount of fun she was having while painting. She was enjoying herself soooooooo bloody much, that she caused me to miss this simple fun that comes from paining along without really caring about the result.
Came home, and announced to The JohnnyB that I am going to paint.
"It's 10pm", he informed his crazy-yet-lovely wife.
"So?", I said. "I'm gonna paint you! On Tyvek!".
Only I did not paint him. That day, I received a photo from Dinush, who's a great friend of my sister. We are now having this crazy multiple email correspondence that started when my sister finally got a computer in her house (yup, the 20th century has finally arrived!), and Dinush sent us a photo of herself acting in a play called 'Monologues', in which several actors did famous monologues from plays. I loved the photo, loved the light pattern - and it kept lurking in my mind. WackieM once told me "Paint what excites you right now - even if you have other photos in the queue, don't wait until its turn arrives, as the enthusiasm will fade". Smart gal, WackieM - so I followed her advice and went for it. I just did it for fun, just for myself - I knew it's not going to a show (a matter of art ethics: I did take the photo, thus it's not mine). I simply had fun with it, worked and reworked it (Tyvek is soooooooooooooooooo great!!) - - -
- - - when I proudly showed the end result to The JohnnyB the morning after, he exclaimed "That's not me!". Yup He's a very perceptive guy.
I like it, Dinush liked it - and most important: I'm back in my studio, cheerfully painting along, trying to not over-analyze what I'm doing and what will be the outcome.
One thing that definitely stuck from the Salminen workshop: the white shape is starting to show up in my work. Not necessarily white, but light, And I do try to let the mouse run free...
previous ArtPact ... ...next ArtPact
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Travel Much?
This is quite addictive, I have to say. Humbling, too.
Thanks, JimmyB, for sharing!
Labels: Damn Technology, Holidays, Meta Bloggin', Vacation
Thursday, February 14, 2008
The Definition of Distress
I believe y'all remember Tal, the cool dude who captured The JohnnyB in a heartbeat. We now call him Taltul, as he is so incredibly adorable. Oh yes, he's still cool. Very. He is now 15 months old, chasing his older brother (Nitz) all around the house and acting like a real dude.
Until... last week Nitz got his revenge, once and for all.
First, bear with me while I present a short cross-culture lesson.
Here we go: in Israel we do not clean the floor with those fancy spongy mops that pop up here in Target every day. Y'see, we simply do not believe in smearing the dirt all around... Instead, we pour water with detergent from a bucket (most floors in Israel are tile) and then collect them with a big squeegee (called magav in Hebrew). Once this is done, we dry the floor with a clean floor cloth. When I just arrived here and gave this TLC to our kitchen floor (it also works on vinyl), The JohnnyB was stunned to see how clean and bright it actually was underneath all the layers of, well, mopping. Sadly, you can't get a magav in the US, so it's a good thing I listened to the movers and brought one with me when I shipped my stuff here.
End of lesson.
Last week Nitz decided to act as if he is cleaning the floor, grabbed one Magav and started dancing around with it very happily.
Being the sweetheart that he is, he thought he should share the joy with his younger bro, Taltul, grabbed a second Magav and gave it to him - - -
- - - and perhaps for the first time in his life, Taltul the mini-Lionheart got scared out of his mind.
My sister who was lucky to witness this, reports that he just stood there forever, looking at the thing all the way up and back down, not daring to move his feet even an eighth of an inch, and wearing the most distressful expression on his face.
He had no clue what to do with this baton - and yet felt obliged to hold on to it as if that is the last straw; as if once he lets go, global warming will instantly commence and all species would become extinct in a second. (except for ants and idiots, that is. Those will thrive forever). Alas, so much responsibility on the shoulders of such a little guy.
And so he stood like that totally freaked out and scared shitless for a minute or two, and soon came to the inevitable brilliant conclusion he'll have to spend his whole life holding on to that strange thing that was bestowed upon his custody for guardianship until someone else steps up to take it from him - and what are the odds of that happening? (hmm... that's exactly how I feel sometimes since I became the president of our art organization. I fully and absolutely relate to his agony!!!).
Eventually, realizing he is doomed to a fate more tragic than Sisyphus' and heavier than Atlas', Taltul burst into (very manly) tears.
Of course, being related to me, my sister (the loving grandma) and my niece (the loving mom) did not rush to help him. No way. My sister hollered for my niece to come out of the shower and grab a camera, and thus it was documented. Knowing them, I am sure they were also laughing their heads off (hence the blurry photos).
Apparently, the one who came to his rescue was Nitz, who took the magav and set his little brother free. Only then could he breathe again. And I am told that later, when Nitz tried to deposit the magav in his hands, Taltul shook his head and his body in the most expressive 'NO WAY' ever recorded in the history of mankind.
After days of begging, my niece agreed to share the photos, and I just had to create this slide show to commemorate it.
Taltul is too young to be embarrassed by this, but one day, when he grows up...
Labels: Family, Movies, People, Profoundness
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
(Im)mortal Creativity...
Creativity has many faces - here's one I find quite intriguing.
Now, that's what I call a series!!
Labels: Art, Major Achievements, Meta Bloggin', People, Wow
Monday, February 11, 2008
A Thousand Words - And Then Some #18
I am sure it's been a while since you last visited The JohnnyB's blog.
Yup, he hasn't blogged for quite a long time now.
But, if you do go there today, look around you at the empty, lonely desertscape. Listen to the whistling wind - can you hear that faint gloomy western tune coming from afar, played by a runaway convict on his harmonica? As one of those wheel-like plants (what are they called???) is rolling towards you, you'll spot popping heads of little animals with startled eyes gazing at you, ready to escape at the very sign of movement.
But do not get distracted by all that desolation. Do not let your spirit fall.
Look up and you shall find the green banner, exclaiming that today, February 11th, is exactly ONE YEAR since The JohnnyB has stopped smoking.
And since then, not a cigarette has touched his lips.
very, VERY cool, The JohnnyB!
previous 1000 Words... ...next 1000 words
Labels: Damn Technology, Major Achievements, Ode to other blogs, Wonders of The JohnnyB, Wow
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Sun-Day
Breaking news: sun came out this weekend! 
I know y'all are thinking why would anyone from California even bother to mention the weather - but we did have our share of cold gray wet windy bleak wet rainy and rainier spell in the past couple of weeks. Did i mention it was wet?
So, after several weekends of staying at home like grumpy hermits, socializing with our many many pet ants, we finally went out, blinking against the sun.
Yesterday we went to an exhibit where WackieM, StampieJ and some other artists were showing their artwork. As many others, I have seen a lot of WackieM's creations on her blog. Which is why it was so very cool to see them face to face, in real life! Much, MUCH more impressive and inspiring. Da woman rocks! Add to that her bubbly cheery unassuming personality, and you'd undertstand why is was such pure fun. The JohnnyB, as usual, was painfully honest in expressing his opinion about her work. Don't get me wrong - he likes her work quite a bit, but he did have his share of comments which he did not hesitate to share with her. I wonder if he was getting back at her for the famous sentence of the month. I am starting to suspect The JohnnyB is much more into what we call happy safe art, and not so much into art loaded with emotion which I tend to adore (and sometimes manage to create).
We enjoyed the other artists' work as well, only eventually The JohnnyB has reached the limit of the amount of the artistic patience that was bestowed upon him, and so we had to leave very early (from my point of view!), had an alfresco lunch at the only restaurant that bothered to put tables outside in the midst of February (best hamburger in a long, long time!) , and went back home.
And yet, I wanted more sun, more fresh air, less walls.
So today, we went to a nearby county park, located 15 minutes drive from our house. In the (soon-to-be-6-years!) time that I am here, we've never ever went to that park. Outrageous, right? Well, The JohnnyB lives in this area 15 years and has never been there either.
Took us forever to find a parking spot. I think everyone was celebrating what felt like the first day of spring. It was soooooooooooo beautiful, so warm, so sunny, so blueskyish - would have been a shame to spend such a gorgeous day indoors.
We found out this is one great park, full of majestic oak trees and trails galore that combine uphill sections with a blessed majority of flat strolling. We are painfully aware of how much we suck when it comes to being in shape - and today we kept getting constant reminders of that each and every time we passed many a joggers whose breath was not nearly as heavy as ours after a 30-second slight-slope... Shame on us!
It ended up being one of those nothing-to-write-home-about days. Just a hike in the park, looking at the animals at the "model farm" they have there with chicken and napping pigs and curly sheep and a nice little vegetable garden and lots of happy people walking around with hats, providing me with some cool reference photos. Oh yes, and some very cool shadows.
See, I am learning to highly appreciate and cherish the dull moments.
What is that you're asking? Ants?
Oh, they kept popping for visits, and we think we've finally found their entry way into the shower. But why ruin a perfect day discussing them creatures?
Labels: Nature, Photohgraphy, Time Out
Monday, February 04, 2008
Got Ants?
It's this time of year again.
The season opened a couple of weeks ago, when I noticed I was not alone in the shower, but rather exposed to the scrutinizing gazes of those creepy crawlers. A line of them, walking along the shower wall and onto the tiles, looking for - well, not quite sure what. It's a shower, for heaven's sake! No food here, little idiots! So I washed them down and cleaned around with some orange oil cleaner to wipe away their tracks.
Sure enough, they came back. Only this time, onto the bathroom countertop. At least they had a solid reason this time, as The JohnnyB, in a brilliant move, had left the NyQuil bottle open... What a wonderful sight for sore eyes, to wake up in the morning and freeze in front of a crawling surface, eh? Some of them were checking out my face cream, a couple others decided to adopt my contact lenses case as their very own Olympic swimming pool, and a bunch of teenage ants dipped their antennas in my leave-in conditioner. I didn't care about that as much as I was furious at the ones that used my Chanel perfume. What a %#@# liberty! The majority of that delegation went for the NyQuil, and already had this dosed look in their eyes, heavy eyelids and all. Well, one thing's for sure: they will never cough again. Not only due to the efficiency of the syrup, but mostly because they have met their sudden demise right there and then. I'm not a morning person.A couple of evenings later, we were having dinner. Sitting in front of the TV, listening to the falling rain, eating the very nice chicken in tarragon-mustard cream sauce (yup, made by yours truly), the furnace humming its cozy song - I reached out for my bottle of juice, took a sip, and - - - hey, an ant on my plate? Ah well, I nonchalantly kicked it out, trying to keep my cool (as The JohnnyB was watching), and took another sip from the bottle - - - um, I mean, I was just about to, when I saw it was, like, kinda, moving?? Well, so much for being nonchalant. Jumped off the chair, and ran to the sink to wash the ants off the bottle. The JohnnyB was quick to follow, his bottle also adorned with a lively crown of ants. Interesting coincidence? A quick look in the garage revealed that the top shelf, where we keep the juice bottles, was swarming with those little guys. Have you seen Indiana Jones? You get the picture. I know, I know - ants are small, they have an admirable colony life with community centers and low-rate classes for their elderly, and true, they are not revolting as other creatures (see under cockroaches). BUT - they do give me the creeps and drive me nuts with their persistency. And it's not only me - they almost drove The JohnnyB to becoming a Republican! This time, they had a drum & bugle corps that was marching ahead, triumphantly leading the troops up, up, up towards the roof.
Yet another massacre, followed by the orange cleaner.
So the morning after, The JohnnyB bravely went outside to look for the source. 'round the house he walked, using his bionic eyes (well, he had Lasik) to find trails or at least scouts. The little dirty bustards, on mobilization orders, were busy attacking the house, building Trojan horses, trying to get in through every nook and crevice, with helmets and bayoneted guns, climbing their way to the roof!
5 bottles of Terro Outdoor spray. The guys at OSH are really starting to like us!We had two quiet days, each side rearranging its forces. Then, they came through the garage sink, practically from nowhere, made their way to the shelf above the washing machine and allured me into playing hide and seek with them amongst the many garage towels... quite a deadly game, as they quickly discovered.
"I swear they come through the pipes", I told The JohnnyB when he came home from work, "EmeritiL also has ants in her shower, and she said they keep coming through the pipes!".
But a man like The JohnnyB will not listen to frivolous women. Nope. He needs proof. And the proof is in the pudding. And so are the ants.
He followed them as if he were Guy Noir, Private Eye. Tracing their little footprints, shining a flashlight into their deceiving eyes, questioning their relatives and friends to see where they might be coming from. He even went as far as torturing some, who - I've got to hand it to them - preferred to commit suicide rather than tell on their colony.
Reverting to technology, he used some foam-spray thingy to seal around the pipes, just in case.
Sure enough, they popped up for a visit in the shower. Again. Just to say hi, and see if perhaps we wouldn't catch them. Y'know, what annoys me the most is the smug expression on their little faces when they look me in the eye, signaling to me you-might-be-bigger-but-we-are-more-stubborn. Oh yeah? well, I have the spray bottle, you little freaks!
The last report is from today. The rain kept falling, and we decided to start clearing the garage from the boxes that remained from our flooring adventure (yup, we haven't unpacked everything yet. We're busy. Fighting ants).
I sat on the doorstep to put my shoes on, when I noticed the floor is moving - - - well, hello again! A line of ants, walking from nowhere towards where-the-hell! The JohnnyB knelt on his knees (the way he never did when he proposed to me), and started to follow them. They couldn't care less, and kept their Sunday stroll underneath the shelves, towards the furnace and into an alleged crevice in the wall that led out of the house. Or maybe back into the house. One of them tipped his hat towards us. You could tell it came from a good nest.
The JohnnyB went on a spraying spree inside the furnace, where they were heading. As a result, we had to freeze for hours until it was safe again to turn the heat on (while the combination of fumes and fire would have made a great blog post, we chose to skip the adventure). So now we get the odor of the spray from the heating vents. Joy!Where are they heading next?
I don't know.
It's starting to feel like a movie from the mystery-horror genre. They are leading us in circles, you see. Trying to drive us crazy before they carry out their vicious plan. Oh yes, they have a plan! Today I saw, with my own eyes, a suspicious-looking ant with a long tan coat and bad breath, passing a piece of paper to another ant. The latter managed to swallow the note just before I could tear it out of its tiny jaws.
Any day now, they'll be moving Fred.
Labels: Scary, This Old House, WTF?
