art fair, art experiments...

So, this week was the Ann Arbor Art Fair. Technically, there are like 3 or 4 separate art fairs going on at the same time — and different organizations jockeying for who is the original art fair... but really, I don't care about that.  I drive to the mall, park, and ride the bus into downtown, wander around in the blistering heat for 2-3 hours or until I can wander no more, and then get back on the bus and wander back to my car and wish there was someone there to drive me home, because I'm hot and exhausted, and home is like 30 miles away...

Oh, and somewhere in there — I buy stuff.

I actually started off the week having to go to the post office...

This is my Art Fair plunder. Yes, jewelry. And yes, those are all opals set in silver. I like what I like. And I buy a ring from the same guy every year (Alan Fisk)... and I buy something from Middle Earth every year as well...

 Last year - Art Fair was pretty miserable, largely because it was ninety degrees and there was utterly no wind, no breeze, no nothing. It was just hot and the sun was beating down like a relentless ball of fire... it was also pretty deserted.  This year, it was also hot, but on Thursday morning it managed to rain.  So, it was cooler (like mid-seventies / eighties) plus there was a breeze. It was nothing gusty, but it was flowy enough to be pleasant.  And yes, I pointlessly carried an umbrella in my bag the entire time. I was prepared for a downpour (as that has happened before).

I go to art fair for the jewelry.  I already have an art degree, and really, I'm not one of those people who goes there to get inspired. Nope, I go there for the jewelry... and I have never left there without making a purchase.  If I'm gonna drive 30 miles to walk the expanse of downtown Ann Arbor in the noonday sun, then I'm leaving with something silver and sparkly, preferably in a size 8. At the very least I will buy shoes...

Anyway, after Art Fair, I'm pretty fried. So, I spent a lot of time sleeping and staring at the television.  In the mean time, I apparently felt like painting something, so I decided to experiment with the watercolors and the gouache and some masking fluid... and some colors that maybe don't come that naturally.  I'm apparently not done playing yet.

Besides, the middle of the floor was all empty from where I put everything away last week, so, you know, I had to get out a bunch of stuff.

Oh, did you know that Mounds makes ice cream bars? Why, yes, they do. The only drawback is that there is no stick. Anyway, they're delicious even if my hands are a mess by the time I have consumed one.

Also, Homemade Coconut Almond Chip Ice Cream — that stuff is fabulous.

And have you heard that new song by Dawes — "If I wanted someone"? Yeah, I like that song.

Have a good weekend, and stay hydrated!

it's too hot to do anything

So, I just typed in "weather for Te" in google, and well, it completed my thought for me — "Tecumseh, MI." Apparently as I type this it is a mere 91˚F. I was just upstairs, sitting on the bed and pondering the fact that my bed was not as warm as a person, and thinking so maybe it was only in the eighties or something... Yeah, I just had to check.

Yesterday, this was the temperature:

The high was actually 103˚F. Global warming? Oh, it's real, it's damned real. There were a few scattered days of triple digit temps when I was a kid, and I remember the drought of 1988. But this oppressive heat? No, it wasn't this damned hot 5 years ago, let alone 10 or 20 years ago. I grew up in a house with no AC and I don't recall ever thinking as a child that my house (or the carpeting or the couches or the bed or chairs) was warmer than a person. 

Besides, this is Michigan, where's my freak snowstorm? At this point I would settle for rain.

It did rain yesterday. And when I ran outside to roll the windows up on my car — I was thinking about how fun it would be to just stand there in the rain in my granny jammies...

It's too damned hot to do anything. So, I have done nothing really this week. I mean, I did some stuff and I ate and I showered and cooked some food... but above a basic level of functioning, there is nothing happening here except a lot of sitting down in the basement with the fan on and pondering how much it would cost to have central air installed in this place.

Oh, did I neglect to mention that 2 weeks into consistent 90˚F temps — there is no AC in this house?  

These are the days that necessitate the daily consumption of ice cream... this was some sort of cherry vanilla that is long gone. The last time I was shopping in the frozen food aisle — Hudsonville was on sale. I was hoping they would have some of that orange sherbet/vanilla concoction that they came up with last year, but it was sold out. I ended up with something with caramel and apples instead... I'd really rather have the orange sherbet/vanilla... 

Of course, I'd also really like to just go crawl into my freezer and sit there for a couple of hours.

 This completely jinxes my etsy sales, but to occupy some time I sat down at the computer and configured some new designs for business cards, and then printed out a couple sheets... and then was bored enough yesterday that I actually sat there at my desk and cut them apart while watching some movie about Larry Hillblom that kept popping up on hulu — Shadow Billionaire. I had to leave for work before I made it to the end of the movie, but well, I now have a neat new stack of business cards.

 Other than groceries or lotto tickets, having to ship something is probably the only thing that is going to compel me to leave the house. Yeah, that's what the boxes might look like, depending on what I pull out of the cardboard pile.

I guess I should stop staring at the computer screen and trying to think of a conclusion to this entry now... I do, after all, have an episode of "The Glades," "Franklin & Bash," and "Episodes" to watch, plus I need to muster the strength to fill that part of the dishwasher with powder cleaning solution and turn it on. We're out of clean plates. I know, it's a high tragedy.

Stay cool and hydrated, and stay out of the sun!

ice cream, birds, and watercolors...

It was another hot week here in Michigan. Yes, I'm ready for fall. I'm ready for 60—70˚F weather. I'm ready for cool crisp mornings and cold dew on my car... but it isn't fall yet, it's just August.

So, in the mean time, I recommend sitting down and having a nice big bowl of ice cream every now and then. The greatest ice cream I have discovered this summer is Hudsonville's Orange Cream Swirl. If you remember or have recently had an orange creamsicle — it's like that translated into a tub of ice cream. It's delicious. Oh, and so is orange sherbet. Yes, I love that stuff.

Since I was drawing birds a few weekends ago, I decided to format some new pictures for sarahkdesigns:

say's phoebe | cedar waxwing
male northern cardinal | female northern cardinal

And then I worked on watercolors this week... which means I got out the salt, and the watercolors, and the gouache, and the brushes, and the paper, and conveniently used the empty tub from my orange sherbet to hold the water...

And after I use the salt I scrape it off the painting and reuse it... which is interesting, because sometimes it's covered in pigment and that transfers to the next painting.

details of some of the paintings of this week

And yes, I finally bought gouache. And decided to use it with my watercolors (although I did keep it on its own shiny new separate paint palette). I'm heavy handed with the pigment anyway - but it was interesting to see the white actually stay white when it dried.
(And for anyone uninitiated with my watercolor paintings - you can see the actual paintings here)

It's hard to explain making something abstract when you're not the stereotypical character archetype artist. I don't see the world through some narrow prism, and I don't think there's only one path to some ideal visual. When I sit down on the floor in front of the paper cutter with my paint and water and salt and brushes and paper - I have a vague idea of what I think maybe I'm going to do. But really, to a certain extent - whatever happens happens. And when I'm finally done putting paint on the paper or sprinkling it with salt - when I pick that wet painting up and set it down on the carpet to dry — I know it that when it dries it will look different from how it appears wet. Some of the salt will melt, some of the colors will run, pigment will be absorbed or overpowered by other pigment... and while some of it is knowable, there's a certain mystery and randomness to it.

So, the wet paintings sit there on the floor and I go to bed. And usually they're dry when I get up. And when I come home from work the next morning I scrape the salt off them and get to actually see the final result, which is the cool part. Because there's painting it and playing with color and juxtaposition and all that, and then there's finally seeing what it really looks like.

And then I have to sit there and name them all. Because, let's face it, I don't just ever paint one painting. Don't get me wrong, I like the paintings, but I can't imagine setting all that stuff up and having to vacuum salt off the carpeting for one painting.

Of course, I still have to do that vacuuming part.

So, stay cool and have some of your favorite ice cream : )