kung fu

I had a canvas with a bunch of not good painting on it, like that crappy jizo, then I tried some techniques I have never done. ANYWAY, I have this old book by Bruce Lee called Bruce Lee's Fighting Style, or something equally forgettable. It was a 29th printing, the binding was broken and it was written on by some kid, so I took some pages out, since I love that style of book with the guys in kung-fu outfits posing mid-fight. It looks so peaceful, even though it teaches you how to kick the crap out of someone. I glued the pages down, then drew my little girl over it. It says, Learning to fight taught me not to fight. Which is very true. I studied martial arts in my late teens/early twenties. Wing Chun. I miss fighting, particularly sparring with my friend Fisher. He taught me a lot.

10.21.10

I had a really scary night last night. After dinner, my one eye went all strange and distorted. My vision twisted, and I had a massive headache on the other side of my head. It was pulsating and I was afraid. I held my babies and told them I loved them, because I am apparently THAT dramatic. I was convinced I was having some kind of stroke-like situation. My nurse husband calmed me as best he could, took my vitals, and checked me for all the symptoms of stroke/aneurysm. When we determined that I was not having a stroke, after the eye thing cleared up, and was replaced by a massive, debilitating headache, I went to bed. I was in bed by 6:30p with all the lights out listening to meditation CDs, since I could do nothing else. I did paint, sadly. I mean, my painting was very sad. Not that it was sad that I got to paint before the crazy migraine thing. I did the next spread, which was envisioned as a four elements and a radioactive symbols to the words, "Your half life was your full life. And you never seem to break down in me." To go along the theme of the periodic table of elements. Yeah, the painting sucks, and I am blaming my massive pre-migraine addled brain for its horridness. I am going to gesso the whole damn thing and start over. I have no idea what I am doing. If you have any superduper ideas of how you illustrate "Your half life is your full life, and you never seem to breakdown in me," please feel free to leave a detailed comment (I am actually on my knees begging the internetz for inspiration on that one).

So, I skipped to showing you that one. The spread I worked on today was mostly blank, except for the words, "I did it again. I made your death about me." I had no idea how to illustrate that. So, I decided to really make it about me. Lots of different markers of the word "Me" and variations on uses of the word "me". This was a fun one, and a hard illustration. Me in a hospital gown staring at my stillborn daughter. Hopefully, the juxtaposition works.

Sketchbook Project X:

I did it again. I made your death about me.

9.14.10

As I have grown in confidence with my illustrating and painting, I have grown in my confidence to share them. So, this year, I started painting my nieces and nephews (I have nine of them!) cards for their birthday. I always send them the cash of their age, which is all my husband will allow in terms of gifts. I have no idea why he is like that, just a bit, uh, tight with that. So, I had some fun with my niece A.'s card, and my nephew W.'s card. W's birthday was the day after Thor was born, so I missed it this year, and kept meaning to catch up and now it is six month later, so originally I thought of sending him a half-birthday card, but in the end, I decided on my old ninja fall  back.

6.18.10

But I want to be the Queen. Marker and pencil. 8"x10"







Bee-girl. Watercolor. 2"x3.5"









Painting my children makes me happy. Beezus always wants me to paint her, so here are some Bee pictures. I am not crazy about the last one, but playing with some techniques. Pulled out my markers for the large Bee-girl one. I did paint one, which was stunning, and went to ink it. It was wet and the ink blurred the entire face. It was so disappointing and stupid. I really should consider a second cup of coffee in the afternoon. The top one I drew and left on white marker paper, then when I went to sharpen the picture in my photoediting program, there was an antique film setting. I clicked it and thought it looked pretty cool. I also liked it sepia, ut kind of defeats the purpose of the color markers, though it does make me want to do some sepia drawings.

Wednesday and Thursday. 01.13.10-01.14.10

Wednesday 01.13.10. Sadly, all I did yesterday was assemble a Spinach Lasagna from scratch for my dear babylost friend who just had a babe. I woke at 5am and began making fresh pasta. I really thought we would go back and do some more crafting, so I didn't actually photograph the lasagna, but that is about as creative as I got yesterday. Sam worked a 24 hour shift. I grew desperately tired at 2p and Beatrice took a nap strike. *sigh*

Fat Mama. Marker. Thursday 01.14.10

I have been painting and drawing myself this morning, trying to explore my body, exaggerating the curves, unexaggerating the unimportant ones. I tried watercolor, acrylic, and then marker. I am in a funk. Back to the needle felting. I feel much more comfortable in the tactile arts.