"Can you let Mommy back in now?"

Well, that's the last time Mommy runs out the front door to take out the garbage.

Whoa, where's the fire?

No major flames in this episode, but it did get a little smoky in the village Hiro was expecting the samurai hero to save. Poor guy... he is just so unprepared for reality, in this time or in the past. But I love watching his face as he copes.

Speaking of faces, what's up with Claire's new "friend," in her face and then later floating outside her window... yeeeugghhhh. Well, he got the self-important "Robots vs. Aliens" metaphor for his fellow students right. And the first thing most teen boys who could fly would do is spy on the nearest potentially-naked girl. But he's. Still. Creepy. This is the guy I would've once mistaken for being Intense and Intriguing. Oh no no no -- there's a felony stalking conviction in this boy's future.

And now, Dead Black People. Hey, someone has to be the second banana who tells the important characters to "go on without me:"
Poor D.L. They actually made him say, "Go on without me" to Niki and Micah. Micah's gonna have to pick up the slack. 'Course, he'll have to work four times as hard, since he's half black and there are two Dead Black People's shoes to fill. (And why is NBC keeping their pictures up on the website? They're DEAD.)

I think Adrian Pasdar is hot, but geez, he's got a big freakin' head, and that beard only makes it more obvious. (Sorry, Natalie Maines.) Well, big-head peoples look better on TV. Can't wait to find out how he and Peter got back to Earth in their respective places.

I love, love, LOVE Mama Petrelli -- people should be scared of middle-aged women. They know things. How else does your mom know how to piss you off without saying a word? (As the comedian said, parents know how to push your buttons because they installed them.)

... And now on to Artfest...

I set off a firestorm, I set off a firestorm, neener neener neener...

It's just fine to swap classes as long as you update the changes with Teesha-may-she-live-forever. She said so herself, on the Yahoo! group and in response to an email I sent to her. (Not gonna show you.)

But Lord... the people who rose to Teesha's defense after all her hard work assigning the classes to everyone. "You should go with the flow and take what the Universe gives you." And then the people who retorted that it was okay to swap. "Hello, taking a trade offered is also 'going with the flow.' " Oy. Finally one of my future instructors, Bee Shay, suggested a trading database so that this madness could continue (or not) without annoying the hell out of everyone else who couldn't give a rat's ass about it.

I guess this is what happens when you have a virtual room full of opinionated women who have six whole months to obsess over something.

Okayreallyreallyquick...

Why do I always wait to post 15 minutes after I should've been getting ready to go somewhere?

"Heroes" started slow, but it also started slow in the first season. The Husband didn't really like it much then, but he watched the first episode with me a second time, and it grew on him. Prediction: same thing this year. Liked: Hiro's bewilderment at the samurai hero being a greedy drunk, the development of Molly into an actual character, Peter the buff amnesiac. Didn't like: the samurai hero as a random English guy (what a "Shogun" ripoff of Blackthorne!)

More on "Heroes," and Artfest too, later.

Gotta fly.

Ticktickticktick....

Can you hear it?

When last we saw our hero, Hiro was running his ass off trying to get away from the 18th-century samurai! At least, that's what I remember from the end of the last episode. Can't wait to see what happens now that we've saved the cheerleader. I like Hayden; she gives her character some depth in the midst of the teen angst. But I hope saving the cheerleader, saving the world includes getting rid of those damn hair extensions. And did you recognize Noah Gray-Cabey as brain-on-two-legs Franklin from "My Wife and Kids?" I can see what he's going to look like as an adult now. If he's not careful, those glossy curls are going to turn into a pimp 'do faster than you can say "Bitch better have my money."

Wow, there is just WAY too much going on on each webpage for "Heroes." But I guess that's what the kids these days.

See you after The Big Shew...

Moulin Rouge with penguins

Just finished watching the above on cable... The Husband had it down. "It's 'Moulin Rouge' with penguins."

But that's a compliment, actually. Besides the fact that there's the obvious dancing and Nicole Kidman (voicing the main character's mother), it's really a well-done mash-up musical. You'll remember the lush visuals in Moulin Rouge, the breaking-into-song that somehow didn't seem completely ridiculous within the plot, the luuuuv story... Now subtract Kidman's long legs and add fuzzy people with beaks and stumpy legs. See?

If you can resist a small, round, fuzzy bird wiggling his rump while another is rapping, "Don't push me/ 'Cause I'm close to the -- Edge," you ain't right.

Preach on, "sister"

She's probably getting more traffic than she can handle, but God bless Bethany Keeley at http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/. My husband forwarded the Yahoo! News article to me. Finally, an answer to my oft-repeated question: "Was I the only one who was paying attention in school?" Of course you were, honey, that's why you're running a multimedia empire from this corner of the blogosphere.

Really, though, what's so hard about remembering this:

• -- Quotations are for quoting someone's words, spoken, printed, or thought out. (That last one's for the novel writers and English lit grads in the crowd. Don't try that unless you're a trained professional.)
• -- Underlining is for emphasizing something you want people to pay attention to. (Excuse me -- "something to which you want people to pay attention." Oh look -- there's a grammatically correct quote!) If you're really confused, put the emphasized word in bold typeface or in italics.

Unfortunately, Ms. Keeley's blog brings out my peevish side, and you probably don't know me well enough yet to find that charming. So I'm gonna have to end my praise-a-thon right here. "...And we're walking... and we're walking... and we're stopping." (Name the movie that quote came from, and I'll send you your very own artist trading card!)

Hoo Lord! -- Ivy Myers, blues aficionado

Original image of children & doll carriage: Library of Congress

Behold the wonders of colorization and image resizing, in service of a commissioned artwork!

The client wanted an altered notebook in which she and her children could record Christmas memories every year. So I bought a wired notebook with acid-free paper, and created this piece. Her kids are big into soccer, surprise surprise. And she loves angels, an element which was easy to incorporate in this theme. The back was a little tougher to conceptualize, but I figured something out. Then the client and I discussed a mock-up with the elements, and the rest is now waiting to be scribbled in on December 25th.

You know, you could have something this charming and personalized, too. Email me in the comments section.

I don't even think of myself as having made a lot of art to show yet, but man... even with the batch uploader from Flickr, it took a long time. Especially when I went back and blurred faces on some pictures. And I haven't even scanned the card samples I've kept for my portfolio-such-as-it-is. Still need to make some sort of blog banner too. Don't laugh when I post it -- it'll be my first. Yes, I could hire someone, but right now the cash flow doesn't run that deep.

Go look at the pretty pictures, why dontcha.

Motoring along

That's G The Husband and C The Boy (ha ha... "See" the boy...) in the window of an altered book. I made it for Father's Day last year, as a late entry in a tradition The Husband and I started soon after we got married. The rest of the pictures are at Flickr.

Usually, I give G handmade art on our anniversary, but that year he was sick as a dog. No, his dog has never been that sick, and not in that way. Suffice it to say that it was a recurring illness that started out as a cyst and ended up requiring intravenous antibiotics. I'd show you pictures, but there are laws against that sort of thing.

All I did at this time was take C to day care, go to work, pick C up from day care, feed them both, and crash. I mention this to say that I was terrified I was going to end up as a widow with a small child, a thousand miles away from my nearest relatives, in a house I couldn't afford on my own.

The illness eventually cleared up, but I still have G's big frickin' medicine bottles as proof that it happened. And they will become art, oh yes they will... yessss. And there was no way I'd be able to make any art for the anniversary, but The Husband said, "well, Father's Day is coming up. You could make me something for that." Voila -- my first completed altered book. Later, G's brother-in-law, who is the creative director for a poker website and knows design, paged through the book. And he really liked it, even though he's a "civilian" who'd never seen altered art before.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to add that cool moving-collage-linky-bit that I've seen other people do with their Flickr links.
After work.
I said, after work.
Really, I'm going now. Geez, you don't have to push.

Cleared for take-off

What should be my first-ever post? Should I post about something silly? Something thought-provoking, maybe even momentous?

Ask and ye shall receive. My Artfest 2008 registration booklet arrived! I got in!

On the first day of art-mas my true love gave to me... Lisa Bebi's Family Paintover. I secretly wanted this one more than any of the others, even though I will be awed just to be in the presence of the artists teaching the other classes I was hoping to take. I figure it'll be useful for my personal art as well as anything I might sell or do on commission. I have a toddler, and I want to do make his scrapbook(s) kinda like the ones Corey Moortgat does, only in my style. Whatever that is.

On Friday, I'll be learning from LK Ludwig in This is Me. I'll get a double-dose of her between now and Artfest, because I'm also taking one of her classes in a few weeks during Art & Soul Portland. I guess Teesha-may-she-live-forever thought it would be good for a newcomer to concentrate on larnin' them basics of self-expression.

Wrapping up with Bee Shay's Handful of Curiosity. I figured this would be a good way to get something done with the Altoids tins that are laying around. I didn't realize Lynne Perrella was going to do Shivering Fragments all three days... I just put her down as an option in the first two days. Because when the hell else am I going to get a chance to take one of her classes? I live out on the Weird Coast. And she lives in Ancram, NY. I'd never see her even if I visited my relatives in the Tri-State area. (Especially if I visited the relatives. You know what that's like.)

Of course, I will be mildly ungrateful for certain things, because that is what queens do. They bitch and moan, while their courtiers cluck understandingly.
I really, rilly, rully wanted to take Anahata Katkin's Symbolic Icons class. Then I could identify my "thing"... I could bring my edgier side into my art without pulling it kicking and screaming out into the sunlight over the course of another ten years of my life.

Is it the "done" thing to ask if you can swap a class with someone else at Artfest? I know people are posting furiously at the Art & Soul Yahoo! group, trying to trade/sell/buy classes they didn't get into.

Guess I'll find out when my app for the Yahoo! group is accepted.

UPDATE: Apparently it's okay to ask if you can switch classes. The moderator was very helpful and pointed me to the post archives, which showed other people in previous Artfests asking to switch. Cross your fingers for me. ~bq

UPDATE 2: Apparently it is bad form... I checked the Yahoo! group, and Teesha said:

Hey gang....there were a few teachers who were out of this world crazy

popular this year. So...hundreds wanted them and only so many can make it into
a class. Anyway, all that to say that if there is anyone who wants to be put
on a waiting list for any particular workshop (or accommodations), let me
know.

But on the upside, I don't think I'll burn in hell for this one. My pal Kecia is very reassuring:

no worries lisa! emails are so hard to tell the inbetweens anyway! it's all
good.


UPDATE 3: No, it really isn't bad form. Teesha said so herself.

Re: [ArtFest2008] Switching Friday classes

hey lisa...you are the one asking to trade classes with someone right? that
is totally A-OK with me! it's a win-win. All I ask is that you both let me
know so I can switch the names on the teachers class lists. I just posted a
message because you reminded me that you can also request to be put on a
waiting list. no worries. if you want to trade around it's ok.

teesha moore

I feel molto better now.