Day 12 - 365/2014

Day Twelve

Today/tonight have been spent on paperwork and organizing and also Benadryl snooze times.  Hours were wasted...stuff got done.  Tomorrow is my birthday!

365/2013 - Day 353

'dryl'd again

I have been cutting the last of my pulled images (bodies) and soon I will start pairing them up with animal heads for little collages for my series "Animal People" for Art-o-mat.

Sue came over and we ran some errands, then had a incredibly wonderful (as usual) lunch at Starting Gate, then ran a few more errands.  Then the outdoor air started my allergy reactions going like crazy and then the headache started to come on...which led to the Benadryl...which led to not getting anything else done.  I still have the pounding headache but at least I get the consolation prize of feeling pretty floaty for the rest of the night...then bed.

365/13 - Day 295 (posted a day late)

whoa -- I lost an evening

The day started out splendidly with Joan and Leann at Joan's house.  We all worked on our own projects while we talked and talked and talked.

I need to make a few more Tooklets for the NAH Store.  I don't make Tooklets as often as I make Tookies and it seem like I always forget how to get started.  I think it is because I don't usually just start with the intention to make a Tooklet, they just get made as I go along.  I can do this...it just may take me a few days to get it "right".

How it started out at Joan's house.

I came up with this top half (so far) but something is a little "off".

Later on in the evening I got back to work on the Tooklet.  I had a half-idea for the bottom part of him but it just wasn't coming together.  I still wasn't feeling it...but I kept attaching the piece.  

This guy is pretty forced and is waaaaay too overstuffed now.  You can see through the weave of the black/turquoise stripes.  I need to take that half back off.

Note:  And right around that time apparently the Benadryl started to kick in because the rest of the evening is a blur today, hence this late posting.

365/13 - Day 282

bad allergy day

My -- allergies are really kicking my ass today/tonight!  I had a second round of Benadryl after everyone from 2nd Thursday left.  I can't type very much because I am really blasted -- I nearly missed my deadline.

So, we finally had a meeting of the 2nd Thursday group -- we did a trade/giveaway thing.  There is a LOT of stuff leftover for me to haul to a reuse place.  

Wow...I am really having trouble making my hands do what I want them to do.  

We did not do an activity tonight...we talked and talked and talked and talked.  And Julia found the piece of Frank Zappa lyric that has driven me crazy for so long.  Thanks, Julia!  Now I can obsess on something new.

look -- my stapler is throwing a reflection that looks like an xray of a hand.

My house before everybody arrived (with more stuff).

No activity -- just meeting up and talking about stuff...tonight we had:  Terri, Jane, Leann, Julia, Juana, Joan, and me.  Anita was thinking about coming out tonight, but her foot hurt too much after she got out of work...I can surely sympathize.  Maybe next time!

Man -- I can't change the font on the photo captions...I need to go veg out in my chair.  I guess the more you need the Benadryl to kick out the allergic reactions, the more intensely it does it.

365/2013 - Day 251

gah!

Damn you, Benadryl -- you help with my allergies and make the day more tolerable but you also zonk me out and take all my time away.

I've got nuthin' for today.

365/2013 - Day 247

whoa -- a very floaty and loopy day

I do not like to take Benadryl in the morning.  I do everything I can to avoid it.  Today is/has been/continues to be a very very allergic reaction day.  I took Benadryl at 8:00 a.m.  Man.

I am very thankful that I had no where to be today and no plans.  All I have been able to accomplish is to pull images for collages.  I am so floaty and loopy...with bouts of nausea and dizziness...and this accompanies all of the icky other feelings of heat, cold, fuzziness, numbness, itchiness, you name it and it is happening today.  I can smell mildew and I can't find the source...but then again no one else has said they can smell it.  Sometimes I process odors oddly but it all comes back to my body doing the allergy alert thing.  And waaaaah, poor Took. 

So throughout the entire day and night I have been alternately pulling images and nodding off and startling awake and pulling images, etc.

I filled three paper grocery bags with magazines...that is a good dent in my stash.

Twink quickly slips in to investigate the front hall closet where the recyclable paper is kept -- the cats are not allowed in this closet.

365/2013 - Day 173

wow -- that is cutting it close

Man -- that was way too close!  One minute I was putting a button eye on a finger puppet, the next minute I was sewing the same button eye onto the same finger puppet for the third time...I kept nodding off to sleep and messing up.  Geez --- Bendaryl...can't live with you, can't live without you.  But I made it before my midnight deadline.

I am very grateful to not have to be anywhere in particular most of the time!

I FINALLY finished up the horns/ears on this batch of 10 Tookies -- these are 41-50 (out of 100),

And NOW they all have eyes!

365/2013 - Day 113

new camera...same ol' Benadryl

I got a new point-and-shoot camera yesterday to replace the one I killed.  This is the first photo I took.

Today I thought I was going to make up for the time I lost last night to Benadryl.  Not quite -- but at least I am posting.  Same problem, different day...only this time I managed to get a little work done before the 'dryl started taking over.  This is the first part of the first layer of tissue paper going on to this plaster cloth guy to smooth his surface a bit before painting.  I am going to have to do a little bit of construction on one of his fingers as well...it is not as strong at the others.  As I was making him in the wet plaster cloth stage I figured that finger would need repair...and it does.

Wooooo -- I am really getting all floaty and having a little trouble typing.  This is why I try to save the dose of Benadryl until nighttime.

365/2013 - Day 112

curse you, Benadryl!

Imagine my shaking fist as I say "Curse you, Benadryl!"  I must have fallen asleep while watching tv because it is suddenly 11:22 p.m. and I have no blog post for tonight.

I will make up for it tomorrow.

2012/365 - Day 89

working on canvas #6

Llama-like creatures have been trying to surface all over the place on canvases #6, #7, and #8 pretty much from the first reading. My sister was never that fond of the spotted cat in this one and pointed out yet another llama-like character. I spent a long time thinking about it and looking at the collage and I finally had to agree. Now I hope I don't mess it up.



Here is the canvas at the beginning of today's session...horse guy and spotted cat girl.


















Say goodbye, spotted cat girl!



















Here is the llama-like creature. Now I need to cover up the spotted cat and try to define the llama-like creature.















I moved to the dining room table and put more pieces of the papers I used so far. I am not very good at deliberately adding paper to create negative spaces. This collage has the most deliberately added torn pieces of paper than I have ever done.

Covering up the spotted cat wasn't that difficult...keeping the lines I was seeing as the outline of the new creature while trying to add something other than what is in the horse was pretty hard for me.



I'm not sure I care for the light pink and light blue but they are sort of close to the colors of the flowers in the canvas's original painting. I added creamy colored unryu paper to tone the pink and blue down a bit.




I stood the canvas up and decided to take a break for dinner. This is where I left off -- I also toned down that really dark tall ear on the horse.














Coming back after dinner I decided that the horse did not want a pink mane like I had originally planned...although it might've made me feel a bit better about the pink (and blue) in the llama.








I worked on it for a long time...and this is how I decided to leave it for the night.

I added the dark brown mane and toned down the dark green on the horse's muzzle area (easier to see in person)...it is not so stark of a contrast now. I lightened areas of both ears on the horse.

I tried to add more of the greens and creams to either side of the llama (now giraffe/llama creature) and also on the left of the horse's ear.

I had been fighting a horrible allergy/sinus headache and accompanying annoyances all day and I finally had to give in and take Benadryl just before dinner. It took a longer time to kick in than it usually does, but man -- it kicked in! I barely had enough time to cover the canvas overall with a good coat of matte medium and get the photos up on the blog before I really started going under. I was cracking myself up trying to add the photos -- I kept reloading the same ones and nodding off for a second or two in between...geez.





This is the canvas drying in the drying spot.



















This is the llama/giraffe's neck -- no more spotted cat.












Another view of the piece in the drying area.

From this angle you can sort of see where I lightened the end of the horse's nose and also defined its sleeves.

I am quite fond of this one now. I sort of miss the spotted cat creature, but I am pretty happy with the llama/giraffe (for now).

I think the rest will have to be tweaked with paint...enough of the paper manipulation.

2012/365 - Day 87

it's another Benadryl night

Blast it all -- the Benadryl beat me. Tonight I was planning on painting edges of little MDF blocks (smaller and thinner that the official blocks from Art-o-mat) for the new DIY version of Penciled In.

I usually do this step in the back of my studio but I am making a series of 100 this time and now that I have so many other projects going at once, I no longer have the room in here. I've moved this part of the operation to the basement...where to set up, though?



I found an out of the way work area where I can leave everything set up and spread out for drying. And I found an even better drying rack...a dog crate wall.

Take one of the smaller of these wire grid walls...













...lay it across two inexpensive taborets (that hold semi-sorted collage images)...and voila!...it's the perfect solution for drying little blocks.











These are the 100 mini MDF blocks I will be working with.

Unfortunately, the Benadryl is kicking in and I am really starting to nod out a lot...oh well, there's always tomorrow.

365 Day 265

not much to look at today

I have had a nasty sinus headache and I've been under the influence of Benadryl for most of the day...which means mostly either conked out or really foggy.

I did, however, manage to get quite a number of paper tubes covered in masking tape for use with plaster cloth for my Studio Snake.































The rest of the evening has turned into a clean-out-all-of-my-photos-from-Facebook project and it really did take ALL evening up until just now. So I think tomorrow will probably be more productive than today, but at least I got some prep work completed.

365 Day 181

printmaking progress

Today I am plagued with lots of allergy-related symptoms that are driving me nuts...Juana and I ran a bunch of errands this afternoon (a very needed diversion for me) and so I couldn't take any Benadryl because I couldn't count on whether it was going to knock me out or not. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't -- but it is pretty much the only thing that helps my allergies.

ANYway...I got home and still needed to blog so I decided to try and print the block that I spoke about in the entry for Day 178. I tweaked it a few nights ago and had to keep re-carving the marks around the dots -- the dots are lightning bugs. The thin lines kept wanting to close up so I needed to use a black Sharpie marker to see where I was carving...LOL.

Lightning bugs have been escorting me home from printmaking class for the last two weeks. There still aren't any in my yard yet, though. They generally show up by the 4th of July. And that reminds me of my dad. I miss my dad.

This is the best print I could manage this evening...I am really really cranky and irritated by all this itching. I am okay with this print. In person you can see where I had to re-ink it and it just doesn't want to dry. Perhaps Shaqe will have suggestions in our next class (June 11) (that seems so far away!)



the tweaked block...I (tried to) clean up some lines, added the broken lines to the guy's coat and added the lightning bugs
















the best print I could pull this evening

















I really like this picture a lot, but I really don't like the material it is carved in. I think I may try to re-do it on the harder material.

365 Day 168 (a day late...sheesh)

arrrrrrrgh -- allergies and Benadryl

I am not thrilled about losing a day (and night) yesterday to allergies and Benadryl...it feels like such a waste of time. But you know what -- I pretty much had no other choice. Blinding, pounding headache with major congestion. When Benadryl works for me, it completely knocks me out...other times it does absolutely nothing. Yesterday was a day it was working.

So today I am fighting taking another does of Benadryl. It is already 1:28 in the afternoon and I still haven't gotten anything done...my head is killing me...but I am DETERMINED to do SOMEthing creatively useful today before I have to give in.

Just now it dawned on me that I don't need to stress so much over trying to paint black circles on the glass eyes for my plaster cloth guys. Duh! I can use the unused eraser on a pencil as if it were a rubber stamp. And wouldn't you know it -- the first pencil I grabbed was from The Boca Raton Museum of Art. I guess I needed an arty pencil from an art-filled place to be able to do this.














Okay, so this blog entry is to make up for yesterday's no-post.

I will post the real entry for today later on.