We are all on a journey . . . and we should remember that. People can change. We can grow. And we are all in the middle of silent (or not-so-silent) struggles . . . in which we try to better ourselves, we beg God to make us better and/or we beat ourselves up for not being better. Hang in there. A cliché I love.
A Very Different World
Illustrating yesterday's Tweet . . . I think that if when people had sex, we didn't know whether the man or the woman would get pregnant, we would have a VERY DIFFERENT WORLD. So, here's my art journal page about that . . .
Revival Meeting?
I like juxtaposition. Here's a photo of an old-timey revival meeting (very UNlike the ones I attended growing up in Tennessee!) - and a photo ad from a 1960s mag - advertising what they thought air travel should be like. LOL!! If they made her pack her toiletries in a quart bag, take her hat, sweater, belt, and shoes off, and inspected her laptop and her Aveda foot cream it would be more accurate. But, that snifter of brandy looks quite pleasant. I know a pic is worth a thousand words - but I just had a lot more fun at church than these ladies are . . . and this pic seems to be the antithesis of anything being "revived!" People of faith, hello . . . what ARE we up to? Anyway . . . compare and contrast. peace, trl
Homebook
I've put together so many pages of stuff I love, that it's hard to fathom getting it all posted to share - but I'm starting here, and using my Pinterest page to get the word out as well! So, follow me on Pinterest (laughingredhead) and on Twitter @LaughingRedhead, to keep up with all the visual inspiration and cartoons I'll be posting. I LOVE decor and interior design, as well, and I'll be posting from my Homebook (as I call it) as well as my art journal pages . . . lots and lots of things. I'm very visually oriented, and love to put things together. So, here goes!
Wings &Things
I've always thought it would be great to be able to fly. I picture being able to fly in the way Superman does, just hoppin' to it - no wings, no jetpack, no accoutrement. I like travelin' light. But, being the practical girl that I am, I figure there needs to be some actual method to this madness, so naturally I wish for wings. In the Mutant fashion. See, the capital "M" means I'm referring to X-Men, k? Not those horror flix you watch late at night. OK, I watch them more than you do. But I digress. My point is, I want wings.
Now, being the Dracula-phile that I am, and loving angels like I do, I have two choices, the leathery batty kinda wings, or the great feathery, Gabriel-the-Archangel-inspired-wings. (Is Archangel like "arch enemy?" This has always bothered me.)
Also, see how great I am at quickly narrowing a field, as in TWO choices of wings? This is why you would like shopping with me. Because I HATE shopping. I scan a place from the outside, quickly decide if I want to enter, then, do another scan, and either turn heel or spend five minutes getting EXACTLY what I came for. The only exceptions to this are grocery shopping and Target-shopping. (Target is built like a casino, if you haven't noticed. No clocks, no windows. Calculated so you lose track of time. If they served drinks, they could put up Blackjack tables.) Back to wings.
I happen to love bats, I think they are way cute. One time in Stratford, Ontario (one of my fav places on the planet) we were staying in theatre housing 'cuz my hubby does voicey speechy things up there pretty regularly. If you haven't been, you should go - the shows are awesome. Anyway, we had just seen "Dracula: The Musical." Which was excellent, btw. And Gary was brushing his teeth, and I was in bed reading Dracula. (No kidding.) And my little boy calls out, "Mommy, there's a bird in my room." Only it wasn't a bird. I went in his room, heard leathery flapping, and knew we were dealing with a bat. Much hilarity ensued, and we all spent the night in the same bed, giggling about bats and how clumsy they seem. They do seem clumsy, and I relate to them for that - I'm the clumsiest person you will ever meet. That's a whole 'nother blog, though.
So, I have two choices (Thank God! She came back to her original point!), leathery or feathery. Because I don't want to weigh any more than I do now, I might choose feathers. But because I wear black all the time, I would choose bat wings. Also, then you get to wear a cape. There are rules, ya know. Hmmm, though I s'pose I could ask for those "Black Swan" kinda wings little Natalie Portman sported in, well, "Black Swan." Also, I'm a night person, so it just seems like that fits me better.
And, just for hygiene, I think you could just hose down the bat wings, or use a nice cranberry body wash on them. Not so easy with feathers. Seems that could be tough. Like cleaning a pug's face. (eeuwwww)
Now, before you go getting all judgmentally-butt on me, because I like "scary" stuff so much, you should know that I also think angels seem way scary. I mean, really. In the Bible, they are always popping up somewhere, doing God-knows-what (literally), stuff like wrestling with Jacob or visiting Sodom and Gomorrah (highly inconveniencing Lot), or showing up with daunting news to virgins.
Now, don't get ahead of me, I'm not talking big picture, just in-the-moment stuff. Like, a bright shiny stranger shows up and starts talking to you. You'd be like, omigosh, I was just in the shower, did he see that? Does he know my iTunes password now? Is nothing sacred?!
BTW, you know angels are not the dearly departed, right? They are a whole other race of beings. Like those little guys that crashed in Area 51, or whatever Christopher Walken is. (Luv him.)
Anyway, I think a bigass angel showing up is one of those, excuse-me-but-I-need-to-change-my-underwear moments. Not that I've ever had one of those.
If I had that job (because angels are NEVER unemployed), of showing up and laying news on people, or showing up to wrestle them, or whatever, I think I would want to announce me first. Or have someone do it. Like an angel butler with a little tray (saver? savver? How DO you spell that little tray word?) with your card on it, who would announce you. That'd be cool. And much more polite. Though, I would be more like a bat-angel, what with my leathery wings and all. And I probably wouldn't need an announcer-butler, because I woulda probably Tweeted that I was coming, anyway.
Another good reason to follow me on Twitter. So you can have the Diet Coke iced down in anticipation of my arrival.
Anyway, I need to get going. I have a job on my art table, and a deadline early next week. Which involves me drawing a cute little bat, dontcha know! Yep, it's Halloween-finish time in greeting-card-land!
Yep, my super-power would be flying. With big leathery bat wings.
But, I gotta come up with a better superhero name than . . . "Bigass Bat-Angel."
peace, luv, and other things hippies say,
;-)
trl
You Gotta Fly First and i mean it . . .
Listening to the radio right now like I do. A lot. And there are a lot of shows and interviews about (but not enough, they are too busy trying to figure out WTF is up with the latest candidate-we-never-heard-of-but-he's-got-an-ego-and-a-kabillion-dollars-so-why-shouldn't-he-run??!!!) job-hunting, how to survive being unemployed, and I feel the pain. But, unlike the viewpoint of a lot of those shows, it's something I'm used to. So, maybe I should say I'm empathetic, but not really in pain. Anymore. You see, I'm a freelancer. I've been a freelancer for many years. Also, my hubby has been a professional in theatre for decades. And, in theatre, most of your work is year-to-year, month-to-month, or show-to-show contracts. So, we know what it's like to put ourselves out there, work our butts off, and hope people don't stop seeing shows and buying art/cartoons/handbags-I-make-while-watching Rocco's Dinner Party.
My several years of attempts to get back into the "corporate" world just proved to me that even though MAYBE I could get in, staying in was another matter altogether. I mean, they TELL YOU TO DO STUFF. Like, all the time!! And, after you've been a stand-up comic (IS THAT WORD HYPHENATED?! I dunno), and a freelance cartoonist . . . well, let's just say that being a professional smartass doesn't exactly prepare you to EXCEL in a cubicle. (Read: they don't LIKE it when you say what you really think. They just asked you that because HR told them they are supposed to look like they give a flying f--- . . .) gaaaahhhh. See what I mean? Anyway, I gotta stick to jobs where brutal honesty and political incorrectness pay off. So, being a comic/writer/cartoonist/artist, or however you prefer to describe me, is PERFECT for me. I can blog in my PJs. I can sleep in my clothes and then work all day in the same thing. Saves time. I can wear no makeup. Like EVER. I can pontificate on my blog and Tweet and Facebook and other nouns-turned-verbs. Is that a gerund? I dunno THAT, either. SEE HOW HONEST I GET TO BE? See how I get to yell in type whenever I feel like it!! THAT is freedom.
But, there are tradeoffs.
The freedom it does not necessarily allow you is financial freedom.
This doesn't mean you don't make money. It means you never know WHEN you're gonna make money. It is feast or famine. With a lotta famine in between. It works for me to wear my PJs as clothes and my clothes as PJs, first of all because I wear black all the time, so it works as a fashion statement, but also because I haven't bought new clothes in a long time. But, I don't care. I use gift money to buy art supplies. And then I make art and then I sell it. Circle of Life. Like in The Lion King! (Though, as our very little boy pointed out to us when that movie came out, "It's actually a Circle of Death. Because the lions eat the other animals.") Which brings me back to the corporate world.
The thing about not having a job and being in this scary scary market? Well, first of all you need to know that every artist, writer, singer, musician, actor, performer, event planner, filmmaker, freelancer of ANY sort which you know is USED TO SCARY. We live it, we breathe it, we ride the knife edge of when will another licensing check come, and will it, and do I have the money to go after fill-in-the-blank who definitely did not pay up, and thanking God that there are still AWESOME companies and people who value artists and writers, and then back to pleez-let-them-return-my-original-artwork-intact - WAIT!! This knife has too many edges. Bad metaphor. Roller coaster better? More of an analogy than a metaphor? I'm blogging, I don't have time to look these things up, and I have to get back to my 1920's-Paris-Bistro-Table-turned-art-table and make some draw-rings. Man, don't I love the dash? Or hyphen? You can look that up, too, if you feel compelled. I have a Harbrace College Handbook, but it's gathering dust at the moment. I'm too busy downloading vampire novels on my Kindle to bother that thang at the moment.
Anyway, all this yammering is meant to ENCOURAGE you. For reelz. Because, I have put myself out there. As have many others. Many of us are hurting in this economy (and if techies and nurses are having trouble being un- or under-employed, how do you think this economy is treating comics and writers and artists? The non-famous ones, I mean), but you need to put yourself out there. And keep doing it. It ain't easy. Matter of fact, mostly it sucks the biggest wind.
You might be surprised at this, but I'm actually an introvert. I'd rather sit and have a glass of wine with one or two friends than work a room or attend any party. I avoid crowds. (With the notable, which is why I'm noting it, exception of being on stage performing stand-up, and don't get me started on the psychology of that one! I just enjoy. Then I go backstage and beat myself up for all my mistakes, make notes on my set list and wish I'd been skinnier because then EVERYONE woulda liked me, really liked me!) Anyway, I do love performing comedy. I hate the business of comedy.
Trouble is, the business of freelancing ANYTHING is how you get the work. I have a couple of clients right now (and I feel really really BLESSED in this way) who really like my stuff. So, it's a volume game for the most part. If I do ENOUGH work, usually I make sales. It's a LOTTA work, I mean. You'd be surprised how many ideas get generated, drawn, and submitted to get ONE accepted. And I've been in this a while, so I'm not sending in stuff they've seen a kabillion times. But I love it. That's why I'm in it.
I had a whiny little text session with a friend in LA t'other day about how much I HATE the comedy business. Not the comedy, not performing it or writing it, or having tons of awesome hilarious people as friends, but the actual GETTING OF THE WORK. It sucks.
It's gonna suck.
This reminds me of a little thingy I read in (I think, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) Syd Field's book on screenwriting. Someone asked him in a seminar if Hollywood was really sexist and misogynist and racist and religionist and ageist . . . 'cuz that's what they had heard. His answer was . . .
YES. Are you IN or are you OUT?
So, that's the attitude we have to have. Even when we owe people money. Even when we don't know how to look nice for an interview, even when we are sick of getting new photos and spending hours resizing files and posting videos. Even when we really don't want to hear a critique of what we do, even when it seems everyone else is getting the breaks. (They're NOT.)
Are you in or are you out? Your decision.
I'm in.
I am a professional smartass.
And I'm glad my meds finally kicked in.
peace, love, and other things hippies say,
trl
ADDED AFTER ORIGINAL POSTING: BTW, I'm not trying to give advice here. I'm just trying to encourage you. You are not alone. A lot of people feel your pain. And, really, actually know how you feel, deep down. Ignore the politics of this - the politicians who tell you they care usually don't, or used to, but are so far away from our day-to-day, they are clueless. (When your job is trying to be popular, well, I guess it does something to you . . .) So, hang in there, in spite of them. (Okay, maybe that IS advice.)
New Year's Resolution . . . sorta
Put Your Game Face On
"Any idiot can survive a crisis. It's this day-to-day living that wears you out." - Anton Chekhov
I'm so worn out by the day-to-day living lately (a hard fall on concrete, some freak virus (or maybe food poisoning?), and total car breakdown, all within a day and a half), that I don't really have the wherewithal (a word I use whenever I can, sorta kin to "lemon zest!") to write much more than this. BUT! As you know, I always seem to have energy for art . . . so, here's a little of what I've been doing lately . . .
Me on a Good Day
Self-portrait: Me, on a good day . . . 'nuff said.
The Butterflies are Free
I love this Dickens quote . . . and I did this piece in my art journal using my palette page pieces - the turquoise pattern is where I blotted my bubble wrap I was dipping into paint. I actually like the way the blotter turned out better than the pattern I put down on the original piece! Happy accidents. I'm catching up on a busy couple of weeks, where I've been cranking on work, doing a couple of outdoor art fairs (the next one is in front of the Blue Talon, Williamsburg, October 9th!), and helping my son recoup, as much as I can, from having his wisdom teeth yanked out!! Today's remedy is a mango-pineapple smoothie from Mickey D's. Have a great Monday, y'all! peace, t
Mini-Journaling
These are from the mini-journal I keep with me at all times - I do backgrounds randomly, in addition to whole pieces, so that I'm at the ready with just a pen . . . I keep black and white pens with me all the time. Nerd alert! Get over it, I love this time of year! New pens everywhere in the stores! Here are a few spreads I just finished. These are in my Moleskine mini-journal - the ones with fewer page counts are the ones which have thicker pages :-)
Earthy
Two things today: Autumn, and Fear of Birds.
Fall is in the air, and I love it!! Not just because I'm an October baby. While we are waiting to see where this next hurricane lands (what a dang long hurricane season!), it's so great to feel that cool chill edge in the air! I keep a file I call "Earthy," and in that file I keep nature colors and cutouts of trees, leaves, etc. I keep a sketchbook where I press leaves from my walks in Colorado and Virginia - so some of these go back years. I incorporated a lot of my aspen leaves from Denver into two large pieces I did for my church here in Toano.
Okay, now to birds. They creep me out. Much in the same way clowns do. Man, if there was a clown with bird wings, that would be - brrrrrrr. Anyway, I'll have to make art about that, just to purge that visual from my punkin' haid.
The bird piece here is from those little cardboard coffee cup thingies you get from Starbucks, which I taped together with clear mailing tape; I added grommets and used jewelry wires to secure it in the wirebound sketchbook I use as my current (large) art journal. Raphael's famous angel, and a REAL warning sign about birds help out the idea . . . yes, Hitchcock has had a big influence on my psyche . . . doh!! The mottled background here was from painting on bubble wrap, and using a brayer to rub down the pattern. I did this one layer at a time.
Happy Sunday, Y'all!
peace, trl
What makes you happy?
Our power finally came on last evening - just in time for me to watch a new episode of Ghosthunters! You know you're addicted to a show, when you've spent five days without power, without a/c or cold food - and the only thing you can think of is dangit, I'm gonna miss Ghosthunters tonight! But, the power stepped up to the plate about 18 minutes before the ghostie show aired. Yaaaay!! So glad to have power back on, though I know a lot of people are without it still, after Irene. I realized I was getting into the groove of candlelight and Coleman lantern each night, reading, or drawing with a book light on my lap. It works for me, actually! The main thing I missed was easy internet access, so I would drive 25 minutes to Starbucks, take a power strip, make some friends, and charge up. I don't talk on the phone much, but I missed texting, too. (Kept my power usage to a minimum because of the "trouble" it took to power up!) Plus, more than one person advised me to switch from white to red wine . . . but I'm not exclusive to either, thank you very much. I misspoke! The MAIN thing I missed was my icemaker. Sad but true! I was tired of daily trips to buy bags of ice. So, I made some art about it!
Also, I was going through magazines from 1962, and 1965, and I saw the view of women was that we LOVE our cleaning products so much, that we find it downright fulfilling when paired up with a fine one!! I guess that attitude hasn't changed much, else we would see mostly MEN cleaning toilets on TV . . . anyway! If that's what melts your butter, you go, grrrrrl!!! Or come, rather, to MY house, and enjoy MY cleaning supplies for a few hours. I would LUH-UH-UHV that!
Have a great day, y'all! peace, trl (enjoying the cool air in my house . . . aaaaaaahhhhhhh)
what i missed most when the power was gone . . .
Art in the Dark!
Still art journaling during Irene and in the aftermath - using daylight and a tiny little book light to work with at night :-) I cannot scan right now, no power since last Saturday mid-day, so forgive the quality of some of the pics, which are taken with my iPhone and might not show the detail I usually like to! I'll upload scans when I can :-) Happy journaling, all, and I want to remind you who live in the Hampton Roads area (provided you can read this, since 100s of 1000s are still w/o power!), to take care, the trees are still falling!! AND, that I will be teaching MULTI-MEDIA ART JOURNALING at the Williamsburg Art Education Center in September, starting the 15th. Just click on the link to the right, to sign up!
peace, y'all!
trl
Art Journaling during Irene
I'm at a Starbucks right now, with a power strip, charging up everything! I've been doing a lot of art with the daylight hours, as our power's been down since mid-day Saturday, and they say they expect it to be down for 10 more days. We are hoping they are wrong! Anyway! I'm posting a couple of images while I can, I took these with my iPhone, and will scan images when I get power back, so you can get a better look at the artwork. Two things I'm working on, are making a journal from Kleenex boxes, (the designs are so fun, and the chipboard is easy to gesso and decorate), and doing some more of my detailed "paisley flower" pages. Working with daylight and a tiny book light and an iPhone, so forgive the pix quality here!
Focusing on the repurposed tissue boxes here - just cut them apart into like-size panels (I used the smaller square-ish) ones here, and then bound them together with white duct tape. I'm in the process of painting the pages with gesso, and then I'll get to journaling in it! Keeping this short, as we are about to vacate our Sbux space so others can use it!
Jacob's Ladder
I love this song - cannot get it out of my head - the version by Jane Siberry, aka Nissa. I know I used to know what this means . . . but for now I cannot recall. I did the majority of this page on 8-23, but went in this morning with a white pen and added some words. I think it's done now. peace, y'all - trl
Egyptian + Eye Candy
My first eye candy/breathing space pages are here. These pages are just women in art - lots and lots of women in art and design. I'm going to do more of these. It's a happy place in my journal. So far, I'm not gonna write on them. As much as I know you LUH-UH-UHVE my yammerin', I'm not writing on these . . . yet. That could change, but I like this spread just the way it is! As for the IMHO-tep page, I have always loved Egyptian stuff - but then, who doesn't? It's so odd and weird and strange. Not to be redundant er nuthin'. I think that's what we love about it - it's FOREVER interesting. The design, the culture, the art, the architecture, the politics . . . on and on!! I'm thinking Liz Taylor and Richard Burton (*sigh*) as we speak!! I worked with the kids this year doing hieroglyphics and Egyptian columns - and one permanent resident in my home, for going on 15 years now (?) is a tall-as-me inflatable mummy :-) sarcophagus. luv luv luv my mummy . . .
Anyway, here is my Egyptian page. I bought the papyrus roll at Plaza Art Supply in Richmond at VCU (btw,they have some awesome papers). The earrings are some of my favs. I taped them in here so I can wear them again, and then put them back. Anything for my art!!
So, we have red-zone air quality here today due to the fires in the Great Dismal Swamp. We had a 5.8 earthquake a couple of days ago, and we are bracing for Hurricane Irene here on the Virginia peninsula. Mother Nature, that big Earth Woman, she do make herself known!
peace, y'all, t
Random Silly Thoughts . . .
Another way of art journaling. I like to do backgrounds and have them at the ready - sometimes I do collages, sometimes collages with paint, sometimes just very basic backgrounds. That way, I can travel with my art journal and just carry a few pens with me to complete a page, if I wanna go sit somewhere and satisfy that jones I'm havin' for a grande-sugar-free-hazelnut-soy-latté. I'm also fine with just throwing down a silly thought on a background - this rose background triggered this silly thought. I didn't edit my silly thought - I just threw it down. Art journaling can be way fun - and there's a freedom you get in the process . . . especially when you don't try and judge everything you are putting down on paper!
Jonesin' for a Latté
I confess - I like prissy coffee. By that I mean, enhanced coffee. Where you add a lotta milk, or some multi-syllabic syrup flavor. I think this started when I was a kid, at my grandma's house, having fried chicken for breakfast, and she would make us coffee-milk. Which was basically, coffee for the kids, mostly milk (this could have been to camouflage that fresh, very rich cow-milk, which wasn't my fav - I wanted "real milk!" My grandmama had no idea she was training me for Sbux!! Yep, I love me some grande sugar-free hazelnut soy lattés. *sigh* Salivating as I write this.
Speaking of which, one day I was at Sbux, and this guy ordered a (and I quote! because I WROTE IT DOWN!) - he ordered an "iced-grande-breve-four-cups-of-ice-white-mocha." And I remember thinking, I don't wanna know THAT guy. He R high maintenance incarnate.
By now you know I save all kinds of trash - such as chopstick wrappers, train ticket stubs, and those little cardboard hand-protector-thingies you get when you buy coffee to go (when I don't have my huge travel "mug" with me!)
I'm working on creating pages from trash - so here's the first one I think I've published. You can tell how this page was made - with discarded cardboard-thingies (what ARE those things called?) which I taped together with clear packing tape. I added paper flowers and sewed them on with beads. I added grommets to the ends and used jewelry wire/hooks to add them to my spiral sketchbook. I still have not mastered the little grommet thingy, though.
The shape of this page is as you see it, just defined by the shape of the handholder-cardboard-thingies; the page you see peeking from behind it is part of a sheet of papyrus - working on an Egyptian page for later.
Today we are getting air quality warnings due to the Great Dismal Swamp fires in North Carolina. We are getting ready for Hurricane Irene and recouping from the shock of a 5.8 earthquake yesterday. Who knew Virginia had all THAT goin' on? And you thought it was all tricorn hats, peanuts, and ham.
peace, y'all
trl
I heart the ocean . . . and other non-surprises :-)
If I could be any being, I would be a mermaid. With wings. You notice I don't say "mythical" being . . . One of my favorite things in life is swimming, and swimming in the ocean is a huge joy!!! My brother and my son had to keep me from jumping in with the dolphins when we were on the Gulf of Mexico last Sunday - we were out on a boat and I could barely resist - until they pointed out one of the humongous jellyfish also in the water. There were kabillions of little ones, too. And though we had my mom's jellyfish-sting treatment kit on board (rubbing alcohol and a razor to get the tentacle), I waited 'til we got to Shell Island to get in the water. Yep, being a mermaid would be totally fun.
I spent last week in Panama City Beach with my family, who live down there. I love it, and have since I was kid - when we would get down there once or twice a year, to visit other family, and when my church's youth group would always go there, each summer. Beautiful water, beautiful beaches, and, if you can avoid the sharks and jellyfish, awesome swimming!
Last week in Florida, I art-journaled almost non-stop (when I wasn't in or on the water)! So, I'm posting a few pages from last week, as well as this week's pages. :-) peace, trl
Click on the image to view a larger version :-)
