Cleaning Up Other People's Mess

Do you ever feel like you have difficulty being creative when your life feels cluttered? How about when your home is messy? I definitely have this 'syndrome' that says if there are tasks to be done, they start to build a barrier between me and my art. I am most happy when everything is clean and taken care of, and my unusual work hours and resulting insomnia don't exactly enable efficiency towards that end. Sometimes other people make a mess for me to clean, whether because they are mean, angry, or just thoughtless, there's no one else to take the task. This type of situation has been slowing me down a lot, lately, but I intend to tackle it to the ground.

The photos above are of local graffiti (I sell a print of one of the pairs of legs in my shop, taken months before these) which was subsequently defaced over and over. Someone finally painted the wall around the girls, but eventually the desecration became overwhelming. The wall is plain, now.

Giveaway: 3 Octpuplets

It's time to giveaway! Three winners will take home their favorite Octpuplet. You can see Dog 5 through Dog 8 here, and Dogs 1-4 in my previous post. All you have to do to enter is comment here and tell me which one is your favorite. To be clear. This includes your top choice out of all 8 dogs.... (1-4 in my previous post as well as dogs 5-8 in this post!) I'll draw three names on my birthday, February 12th.
(note: click on the photos to get a better view, sorry for the size, the photo does not do them justice.)

YAY! We have 3 winners. All were informed, and they are chickscratch, Karo Design, and demmi. Congratulations to all, and to the rest I am sure I will do more giveaways so stick around and visit often.

Octpuplets

I have eight new dog illustrations which can be bought together or separately soon in my shop. Here are the first 4, and a detail shop of #1 and #2. The rest will be coming soon!

Uhh....Bibulousness???

I live near Chinatown and occasionally venture into its depths, (where no visual evidence of the USA exists) to shop in the stores I find there. Items normally in the pharmacy sell for far less money....basic things like simple office supplies, or kitchen things, or cleaning aids. While I was not particularly in the market for the New Generation Washcloth, I could not resist, basically because the 2-pack (pink and yellow) only cost a dollar, but mostly because the description had my eyebrows knit as I giggled like a silly girl. Check out the features!

[Photos are a little blurred. Please click on them for easy (and fun) reading]

Today

In the morning I overslept...well, sort of. I actually set the alarm for three hours later than I was supposed to. Jeesh.

I had a doctor's appointment. My first time seeing this particular doctor, and hopefully my last. Did not like his manner, his rushing me, his suggestion upon looking at my leg for less than a minute that I should get surgery, his absolute defensiveness to my questions, nor the fact that I caught him saying in a voice recorder (in another room) after I got dressed that "this patient is very competent" (which I translated to mean that it was not going to be as easy to pull the wool over my eyes and dupe me into getting the expensive procedure that I really don't need. His own sort of note to self, if you will.)

Back home, before noon I put a couple of new items in my Etsy shop:

This first one, entitled "Do You Mind??!" combines my love of antique toys with humor through it's image and description which reads:

Shame on you for barging in on Lady Pricilla's bath time, I mean, really! It is very difficult to bathe oneself when one's hands are needed to hide the goodies. You really should turn your back...avert your eyes....something! Huh? Say what? You want to hang her portrait on your wall!? Well...this is highly unusual, we don't normally entertain requests such as these in the bathroom, although, yes, yes, this makes sense now. Be her guest!

The second one is a symbol to inspire personal achievement, one I thought would be nice for anyone to hang on their office or studio wall. It's called "Aspire" :)


In the afternoon I was invited (and accepted) into an exclusive Market (I won't bore people with the details of what "Markets" are, etc., just suffice it to say I was excited!) on 1000 Markets, a new juried online selling venue where I have recently opened another shop.

In the evening, I went food shopping. At this point the temperatures had dropped significantly since the morning, and reinforcements were necessary; NYC is a walking city, it wasn't like I was gonna hop in a car and drive to the store. I walk everywhere, no matter the weather, so I wrapped my face up in my favorite scarf, one my mother knit me (the best kind of reinforcement, don't you agree?) and forged ahead through the streets, my fingers quickly turning numb despite being gloved.

Then walking back I passed by Heath Ledger's last home, where he was found dead exactly one year ago. There were several bouquets and collages left outside of the door, in memorial, and it reminded me of that horrible day last year, also as cold. How ironic the announcement of his nomination for his role in The Dark Knight came out this morning.

And finally, tonight I will be catching up on some cleaning, starting new artwork, watching a little TV, adding another upload to my Flickr account, and having a nice bowl of something hot to warm me up inside.

Tomorrow is back to work. But tomorrow is not today, so it doesn't belong in this post. So with that I bid you all a good night!

Donald Sultan

I have only recently discovered his work. It was by accident, while killing time recently in a bookstore, a big coffee table book's bright cover caught my eye. When I opened it, immediately my lips parted, and with each turn of the page, I am sure you could have fed me, oh I don't know, say donut holes (if you're so inclined) through the gaping hole I left open. My jaw agape, my eyes feasted. The charcoal and tar....tar? He uses tar? And spackle! Rich, rich blacks, full of deep sooty lushness. Creamy whites. The lemons. The black eggs. Vinyl floor tiles, rather than traditional canvas. Simple shapes, organically rendered. I sink in this beauty and disappear into an inspiration-vortex. The book goes on my wishlist.

Let’s See, Etsy!

(She Ain't No Junkyard Gal)


Junker Jane is the 'handle' used by a wonderfully talented lady named Catherine who makes some beautiful, whimsical, and definitely unusual dolls. To some the term creepy might be more fitting, but you will never hear me characterize them in such a way, I think they are adorable times a hundred. I discovered her shop when she was featured on the front page of Etsy, where I also sell, and I sit here now and announce my endorsement of these soft little wonders made with an eclectic variety of fabrics, patchworked together.

Here are two I own which I've named Winky and Bunny-Cat. Every day when I come home from work I am met by their innocent faces. They make any black clouds disappear, and have absolutely won my heart!