a look at my house!

so, i have a little article detailing my studio space in the new issue [issue 6] of the online magazine Art Trader. :) There are photos and everything!

http://www.arttradermag.com

Something Different.

so i don't usually draw realistic stuff, especially nudes. but, a friend is hosting an ATC swap for hand-drawn nudes, and i thought i'd give it a try. out of my four cards, this is my favorite. i think it came out pretty good--it's just graphite pencil and some gray prismacolor pencils on bristol board. the border is permapaque marker.

a journal page.

I'm in a group of 10 artists who are trading 8x10 journal pages once a month . . . two sided. I'm actually a month ahead [this is May's journal page], as I'm trying to finish up my commitment before leaving in mid-June for a month away from home.



This page is for danny, the artist who is fidoART Studio in Georgia. He draws amazing little colorful, grumpy people, so i tried to incorporate some hand-drawn element into his pages. This has hand-written journalling, hand-drawn and colored person (PITT pen and prismacolor pencils), plus mixed-media collage elements including machine stitching, vintage seam binding and painted paper towelling. The "Custom Made by Marie Blanchard" label is vintage, too. I found a whole envelope of them, probably 50 of them, at a thrift shop years ago for a dollar or two. So Marie Blanchard is always getting props for my work . . . she's probably dead, too.

I had a long weekend--my husband had oral surgery yesterday--so I was allotted a little more art time than usual this weekend.

I should have been writing . . . I do know this.

The Spring Term

Again, on Tuesday & Thursday, I go to campus for a single class. UGH!

Regardless, this class is fabulous . . . it's WR121, so some first-time writing students & some who went through WR115 first, a developmental course. I really like teaching it, and this section is full at 26 students. I believe I have at least 10 or so nontraditional students in the class, too, and the mix seems like a great one. Everyone already talks, already seems really friendly, even across the room from one another. Not in a circus-style mess, but in a community kind of way that should really help them all to become more comfortable sharing their work more quickly.

So, I'm already feeling better about going to campus for a single class . . . the enthusiasm of many of them has made me a little excited to teach the class.

I stumbled across this web site yesterday . . .

www.vintagraph.com

it has fabulous reproductions of some truly fantastic vintage posters, including a variety of syphilis/STD health posters.

April 2 Poem--NaPoWriMo

Eugene, 1993

I lived with a woman who loved ice cream,
shared a single bare mattress with her every night.

I owned a candy-pink Royal typewriter that cost eight dollars;
I sat on the floor & typed, sticky keys on brown paper.

In late summer, I picked warm blackberries in the alley
and walked the aisles of Safeway with stained fingers & mouth.

We never had money, but we always had wine. I scalded
and peeled fresh tomatoes to make her homemade marinara.

She moved out in September.


------------
that should make up for my procrastination on April 1. LOL. it's not very good, but i have wanted to put that typewriter in a poem for a while--i loved it. i can't believe i left it behind when i moved away. i wish i had it now. note, i'm not as concerned about my friend Holly.

April 1 Poem--NaPoWriMo

Skeletons in Philadelphia

propped upright in chrome stands, like dolls—
regardless of age
or height
or disease.

Bone puzzles, solved
and stored
in a standardized fashion,
display manufacturer's defects
under safety glass.

The once strangled, curled
bodies of infants—like dolls—
hang long and straight, but delicate,
and somehow more human
than when clothed.


____________
okay, so i'm already late with my first day's poem. regardless, i think it may have potential.

why i'm itchy.

i finally figured it out! i'm allergic to something called imidazolidinyl urea.

i bought a pricey lotion at the podiatrist's office, supposed to help with dry skin much more than what can be bought over the counter. it contains 10% urea, and supposedly, people who are allergic to urea will show contact dermatitis symptoms when they use a product with just 2% urea.

omg . . . i am going to DIE before this lotion wears off.

ends up, urea is a preservative that produces formaldehyde. nice to know that's what i'm rubbing onto my skin, turning myself into some sort of living mummy.

National Poetry Month

So, I'm going to try NaPoWriMo this year . . . writing a poem a day, posting it to my blog. Every day for the whole of the month of April.

Several sites are offering prompts . . . at first I'm going to try without. As it is already 5:30 on April 1, I have to get bizzy!