With some help from Jason, I was able to figure out how to up load photos from phone to computer..... so here are some pics of the u.box in progress. I'll get some "finished" ones up soon! I swear!!

my new love of art

Honestly there's nothing like awakening your own senses with art. I was "awarded" a utility box to paint for the Boston Shines event here in town. ( I mentioned it in an ealier post). Anyway, it was this past weekend that I had to paint it and paint it I did! This seriously got me out my mental box of art, pets and watercolors. I was extremely nervous about it because a.) I had never painted outside before. b.) I hadn't painted with acrylics since '94 (?) and c.) Hadn't painted anything even in a vertical position!! The photo I included is the box before I painted it. I will be posting the painting as soon as I finish this roll of film. ... yes I still use film.

Wednesday afternoon I went to Pearl paint in Cambridge (I still had a gift card from Christmas) and even though I used the gc, I still spent about $130 in supplies! Acrylic paint and brushes. The guy there was friendly, seemed to know what he was talking about and they let me use their bathroom :).... But I went home that night and started playing and painting so I could get re-aquainted with acrylics. The brush I bought was crap. It puffed up when I used it so I couldn't get a nice crisp edge with it and when rinsing and cleaning I noticed that some of the hairs were splaying out. Pet peeve alert!!!.

That Thursday I went across the street from Pearl to the Artist Craftsman supply. The guys that work there - oh they are just so awesome. I explained to one of them about my issue of the splayed brush and that I was looking for a brush that was going to stay stiff. (Enter lewd comment here.) He told me that the natural haired brushes, which is what I had, tend to act like your own hair. That when they get wet they puff up and it's hard to settle down. But synthetic brushes are lot less likely to do that. I got a couple of them and he's right: they are 10 times better. Then I had to go to Home Depot to get my primer, drop cloths and varnish. I tried to ask the guy at the paint counter what kind of varnish he recommends for outdoor use on metal. Well, he gets all smiley and starts flirting with me and I really was not in the mood. Ugh. So I kind of told him so that I really just wanted the varnish for my mural and not his comments he just would NOT help me after that. In fact just pointed with his fat finger which direction the varnishes were at. Ass.hole.

Friday left work at around 4ish and went to go prime the box. Thank dog I brought my paint scraper and x-acto blade because there were stickers and gum that were stuck to this thing and then just painted over with the standard gray paint. Ewww. Really made me disgusted with my fellow man and that how some people don't care about litter or how gross we really can be. Worked til the sun went down.

Saturday was out there at 10:30 and got to work right away. I had a woman from the Boston Globe come by and take pictures of me working, although she did say that there was no guarentee that this story was going to be published.... but asked her to mention my name if it was!! Some of the organizers had come by and fed me lunch as well! I had a lot of people drive by honking their horns and giving me the thumbs up. One really Irish guy came by (So Irish could hardly understand what he was saying, accent was so thick) and ended up talking to me for a few minutes. Then he asked, "So what are we doing tonight?" Good Lord. I managed to paint the whole thing on Saturday from 10:30am to 7:30pm and I did have a blast doing it. Now I have a TON of paint left over and I'm ready to paint the tables on my porch, as well as my next mural! This could be the start of a whole new adventure.

Luna the Rescue Kitty

Here are pictures of our new kitty, Luna.

A while ago, I was reading an article about grieving after a pet dies. It said something to the fact that if you do plan to get another pet, it's best to wait about 6 months and then get a pet that is not so similar to the one that had just passed away. So, when D died ( Still very sad) I marked my calender on July 2nd, that would be the time to start looking for another kitty. Of couse the back of my head said, "unless of course theres a kitty who's in dire need of a home - you should save it). Luna was that kitty. While going through posts in the pet forum on Craigslist, there was this one that had 3 kitties that were scheduled to be euthanized as they were in a high kill shelter. Luna was the youngest of the 3. Within a week of me responding to that post, Luna was dropped of at my apartment on Valentine's Day. She's 3 years old, still acts like a crazy kitten and is really becoming the apple of our eyes. They tell me that she was an abandoned kitty found in an empty apartment. Who does this?????

Which brings me to my rant of the week:

Recently a "friend" on Facebook (and I put it in quotations because this woman and I have not spoken since high school and she hounded me for weeks on FB to be her friend ... but anyway) updated her status in saying that she was moving and couldn't take her cats with her so is there anyone looking for 2 kitties? I replied to her status something that it's so sad, and had she done everything in her power to not let this happen. I see it so often. She replied that it was the landlord that didnt want pets and that she had to put her family first and she couldn't miss on this opportunity. And that the only reason why she put it up there is to see if anyone would take her cats and "that's all I need to hear, thanks". This is the part I don't get - Aren't your cats a part of your family? I agree people should put their families first but I know my cat is a part of my family and if I had to move I wouldn't even look at a place that didnt' accept pets. I think I could have been real nasty in response but all I said was "Alrighty then! Good luck!" Well, maybe Kharma will bite her in the ass.

Boston Shines!!

I'm am happy to say that my design was accepted for the Boston Shines event!!! Yay! What does this mean? Well, in Boston on every other block or so there is a utility box. They're green, about 3 ft in height and control street lights (I believe). Some tend to get covered in flyers and graffiti so Boston had come up with a contest for local artist to submit up to 3 designs for these boxes. I had done one with Striped Bass (known here as Stripe-ahs) and that's the one that got in!! My location request was down by the waterfront, which is pretty big in the Boston area running all the way from Charlestown to Quincy. If your not familiar with Boston, here's a map: http://maps.google.com/maps?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4ADBF_enUS259US260&q=maps+of+boston+waterfront&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=9kHjSbvgAqrslQfpupTgDg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1

But the Stripers run up the Charles river every spring chasing herring and they are a lot of fun to catch and tasty to eat. But I'm just very excited about the winning and having my artwork in public view!!!

Boston Shines event will happen April 24th & 25th 2009

So there's really not a whole lot to post about my art career this week. Nothing's happening....at ....all. I did work on some painting over the weekend as i was feeling guilty that I wasn't doing enough to even call myself an artist. I am currently working on a landscape of Sagamore Beach cliffs which makes me long for that time when I was a kid and we went to the Sagamore house for a week every year. The house is now up for sale by my mom's cousins and from what I understand the asking price is well over a million. *sigh*.

Here in New England spring is here. I can tell because my sinuses are killing me. Exhausting me. I sat at home on Saturday thinking that I could have the whole afternoon to work on stuff and it took all my power just to stay awake. I finally took a nap between 5-6pm and still wanted to be in bed when 11pm rolled around. I was at Great Scotts checking out a show (Black Helicopter)and it was apparent it was time to go home when a guy literally woke me up to ask if the stool next to me was taken. I left after that.

I also rcvd an email from the Topsfield Historical Society asking me if I was participating in the Strawberry Festival this year, which I am! But like the Andover one, I just think that they are desperate for vendors and are reaching out to past vendors to make sure they have a full show.

I'm traveling to South Carolina for Easter on Thursday. I can't wait. But I doubt I get anything done this week.