It is 7:07 am, and I need to get in the shower. But Widget wandered by my desk a few minutes ago and mewed and me, so I picked her up and put her on my lap for some pets. She was chilly - her little toes and ears were cold. I wrapped myself around her and rubbed that spot she likes on her shoulders. Usually she's into cuddles for just a minute, then she jumps down again. This morning, she has curled up in a warm ball on my lap, and I can feel the vibration of her purr motor on my wrist where she is resting her chin. How can I get up when I have a cat on my lap?
When I was a kid, that was the "get out of jail free" phrase. If someone needed you to do something, all you'd have to do to get out of it was to point out the cat sleeping on your lap. Can't disturb a sleeping cat.
We had a great time visiting Open Studios this weekend. Every year I'm amazed at how many talented and successful artists there are in this area. There are almost 300 studios on the tour, and the competition is pretty fierce to be accepted. This is high-quality work on display. Really inspiring. We visited four different artists who were combining painting and photography, something I've been doing in my own work. Lots of ideas from those studios. I'm also really intrigued by oil paint right now, having really only ever worked in water media. I took one oil painting class in college and I didn't like it. I think that has colored my whole view of the medium, and what if it was just a bad instructor, or he encouraged a style I didn't like? I'm reconsidering my position. Though those paints and mediums are far more toxic, and I don't exactly have good ventilation in my studio space. There are certain techniques I've been drawn to in the work of some artists who work in oil, and I've been trying to recreate the look in acrylic without too much luck. I did a little sample last night that is close, but not quite. I'm challenging myself to keep trying - push the medium I'm familiar with in new ways. I'm feeling frustrated, but I want to try to push through that. We'll see. Nothing I want to show yet, that's for sure! Even in the little sample I was working on, I kept falling back to comfortable techniques. Maybe I should go plant myself in a bookstore and read through a bunch of oil painting books to see what I can glean. I've been looking at painting classes, looking for a "beginning oil paint techniques" class, but all the beginning classes seem to be about learning to draw, learning to see. I've got that part already. I need a class for advanced artists learning a new media. I guess a class like that would be a lot harder to fill. I'll keep looking.
Widget has tired of my lap. Time to go.
You just logged off IM when I was going to send you a message; I hope you weren't doing work at home tonight.
Is one of the books listed above the November selection? I remember that one of the books was Zadie Smith's new one, and the other was a collection of stories . . . but I didn't get the title or author.
Did you read your sister's account of Venice? It was pretty cool.
Posted by: Mom | Monday, October 10, 2005 at 07:11 PM