At last!

I got out, so I have something to write about.

I've been working on a mixed media collage for the Hygienic Art Show (there's a story behind the name--it used to be a restaurant where my mother worked, and after it closed, the city tried to tear it down, and the people rose up, and created a populist art gallery ;-) ). I woke up yesterday thinking, I'm not going, my work's not good enough, why do I bother trying, etc. Then I let my ego go and just thought, this is supposed to be a fun thing for people of all levels who want to express themselves. It is what it is.

Anyway, I did go. What a bunch of fun stuff!...including a five-foot-tall red penis with a print of Che Guevara on the back (?); a beautiful carving of driftwood; a large abstract rusty metal assemblage; a wonderful acrylic of Bast, the ancient Egyptian goddess of music and joy, with a woman in front of her holding a black cat; a piece that was astonishingly similar to Jackson Pollock's work, titled something like 'Homage to Pollock; and a papier mache head of the wildly white-haired and bearded Jim Stidfole, an artist who is on the Hygienic's board. John took a picture of the latter; I'll get it from him and post it here later.

We got to look before the main show started, a good thing because at the official show it's impossible to move or see anything. Then we went to Bangkok City for Thai food. They brought us the wrong food, but we had no idea, since neither of us is very familiar with Thai cuisine, so we ate it. It was delicious. Then they showed up with the two dishes we had ordered, so we paid for them and took them home to eat tonight.

Anyway, here's me looking incredibly goofy, holding my piece, which is titled 'Woman Rising'.




I know it's hard to see what's on it, so... In the lower left and upper right corners are matches. The upper right corner also has a quartz crystal glued to the canvas. The writing is the word 'nativitas', Latin for 'birth', on the lower left, and in the upper right corner is 'flamma', which means 'flame'. Most of the images are genuine vintage (not scanned), including the young teen on the left, who was taken from a medical text published in 1895. You can't see it, but she's looking up as if to say, "Why me?" The elderly woman is a studio photo, also from the late 19th century.

Anyway, I'm getting out of my usual January funk. I just bought a container of half-and-half that's dated March 3rd, so that reassures me that spring will come. I can't wait!

May