Ideas.

So, PainfullyHIP makes me happy. They especially made me happy this morning when there was a new article posted about the new term “recessionista” and how everyone is jumping on the “let’s sell cheap, mass-produced, poorly made clothes that looook like you spent 3 hours on your bedroom floor sewing buttons zippers on so you don’t feel bad about continuing to consume in these tight-wad times”. BLEUUUURGH.

Anyway, I made a comment on the article, it’s the first one.

I covered my house with scoured and still-wet sheep’s fleece the other day.. I love the weird farmy smell of wet wool. I also scoured some llama fibre with about a million guard hairs in it that I don’t know how to remove. ADVENTURES IN LEARNING, GUYS!

Here’s the mountain of Merino/Romney cross after I washed it.

It had been in my closet almost a year, unwashed, so the lanolin was pretty stubborn but after a few baths it let go. I want to somehow learn how to collect the lanolin from fleeces I’ve washed so that I can use it for handmade cosmetics that I eventually want to make.

A few days ago, Alex secretly picked me up in his garguantumongous work truck and we drove 2 hours to Saskatchewan to make a delivery at a pulp mill. It was a great excuse to take some knitting along that had nothing to do with my course (it’s been far too long since I’ve done any of that) and he liked to have my company. We saw about a million deer on the way there but I didn’t get any photos of them

My friend Chris James (poet-brainiac-bowielover extraordinaire) just emailed me! Just this second! I do believe he has poetry books of some sort in the works to send me. He makes me want to create a giant through-post arts collective of people who mail eachother pieces (writing, little paintings, doo-dads, etc) for collaborative works.

I love having ideas, even just baby ideas. I have a few people in mind for this already . If this thought progresses past the larva stage, I’ll let you all know <3

-Kate

365.003

365.003, originally uploaded by Gaminelle.

Painting in progress that I feel incredibly discouraged about.

Boo.

Peacock Oil Painting (very very unfinished)

Peacock, originally uploaded by GoetheGamine.

Peacock painting in progress.

This is a work in progress (my first foray into oil painting), personally I think it looks totally hideous and in no way was what I pictured when I began.. but it’s coming along, and I’ve got about three more sessions left to screw with it. We’ll see how it goes.

Great Success!

I sold the first nude I’ve ever drawn the other day. There isn’t a feeling I know of like someone wanting to pay you for a thought-process of yours on paper. I had it framed not long ago with a black mat and a shiny metal frame to make it look extra sharp, to hang it in the house, not expecting to be selling it a few weeks later.

That felt good. Damn good.

I started my oil painting class last week. I’ve found my newest favorite medium to work with. Paint thinner is my new best friend, for sure. Later this afternoon, my sweetie and I are going to the poorly stocked office supply/art supply shop to price out paint and brushes. I can’t wait. I want to build a paint box that holds a canvas board for plein air like this one. It would be so handy to have something to paint on in the living room on my lap that is relatively self-contained instead of spreading paint and destruction everywhere.

My art instructor might be putting on a figure-drawing class later on, I’ll be sure to take it. I find that my biggest challenge with charcoal and pencil is getting the mid-range tonal values right when it comes to drawing skin. I don’t know, maybe my brain thinks – this is a white person I am drawing, this is white paper I’m drawing on.. 1+1= WHITE SPACE IS THE ANSWER TO SKIN.

No, Kaitlin. No. It’s the age-old left vs. right brain fight rearing its ugly draw-what-is-there vs. draw-what-you-think-you-see head again. That sentence made no sense to anyone but me.

Anyways, my Tree Jacket is at a stand-still, but I’m still really interested in finishing it so all is not lost. I’ve got maybe 2 inches left of the body pattern before I move on to the garter sleeves which will just fly if only I could lengthen the hours in the day to accomadate all the things I want to do.

Good News!

So my replacement plying head for my Lendrum Traveler wheel I`ve been waiting oh.. I don`t know.. almost 6 months for has finally arrived in the mail, thank goodness. Now I have the regular head, the plying head and the giant monster country spinner for my wheel. I want for nothing! I`ve never used the country spinner before, but ohhh man. What huge, ropey, insanely gorgeous woolen I could make though!

GIANT YARRRRRN.

I heard about the Art Society this week for the first time, and that they were having a little show at the new Energy Centre (where they had a Theory of a Deadman concert the opening night – eughhh) this Sunday. Seeing as how we didn`t have much to do this weekend, we went and I spoke with a woman about it. For thirty dollars per year I can be part of the rotation that gets space in the galleryslashcoffeeshoppe and sell, YES, actually SELL FOR MONEY my yarn, paintings and drawings. She also is teaching an oil painting course this coming month – 6 weekly sessions for $150 supplies included. Stoked. I`m going to request not to be put into the rotation for the gallery for the next couple of months so I can get my stuff together, do a bunch of pieces, make a bunch of prints, stock my etsy shop and get a bunch of things framed.

It feels good to be working towards something. I painted a small piece on canvas board on Saturday that I`ll be getting framed this month. I took a picture but I need to track down a cord for the camera before I can post it. I really like it.. I started a second one – I`ll post it when I`m finished.

Realizations.

I figure if I want exposure in this town for art and fibre pursuits… I’ve got to start it myself. There is not anything to my knowledge already established – no infrastructure of artists and kindred kinds that I know of. This makes things a little bit more difficult for me. Part of me wishes I was content to drink my weekends away (more than I do) and be completely unproductive like so many people my age seem to be – maybe I’d meet some people.

WOW! Nothing like starting off an entry on a “high note”!

I heard about Alberta Arts Day, September 6th and my heart skipped a beat. Alas, it wasn’t nearly as exciting as I had expected. I read on the internet that the only event for the occasion was a “Call of the Wild Horn Music Festival” .. whatever that means. It might be worth checking out, but hardly worth associating it with a province-wide celebration I don’t think. The bigger cities have much more going on (even YARN STUFF!) but we’re too far away, unfortunately.

It’s our first wedding anniversary this Saturday, and though we’re especially financially challenged this month what with the move and all, I’m really happy and excited. I really want to make it special.

That picture makes me happy just looking at it.

I think I’ll tidy the house really nicely, hang some pictures I haven’t had the chance to put up and try my hand at making Pho. Pho is a Vietnamese stew made from beef and I’ve been dying to try my hand at making it. Finding the Asian ingredients, I worry, will be difficult, and many substitutions might be made. I hope it’s yummy and not gross.

This new laptop we have now works fantastically, I can’t wait until mine comes. I’ve been getting my hands on some more music lately and I am absolutely loving Conor Oberst’s new self-titled release, Devendra Banhart’s “Rejoicing in the Hands” (I resisted listening for so long for reasons unknown to myself), The Fiery Furnaces “Gallowsbird’s Bark”, Two Gallants and The Twilight Sad. My 20G iPod photo that I acquired from a homeless dude a year and half ago for forty bucks just bricked so my music is pretty stationary for now, but probably next month I’ll be able to pick up a new one. I can’t wait!

For now, I’m going to update my stash in Ravelry, though, and assign projects to all the yarns so none of them feel purposeless and left out. Good idea, Kaitlin.