Seeing as I spend a lot of time on my front porch sitting with Asha and brushing her fur in a futile effort to avoid having to vacuum so much of it inside the house, I try to make the porch a comfy place to be and sit. There are the planters full of flowers and herbs, the bird fountain from my dad's house that I have filled with shells, stones, marbles and water, and there is an ugly green plastic lawn chair that can withstand any abuse. Because the front door is four feet wide, it is hard to find a door mat that is big enough. I came across something a little different here and ordered a throw rug that is made entirely from recycled plastic bottles and chairs. This was my first introduction to woven plastic and I must say that I am pretty impressed. I think it adds a nice homey feel to the porch area and since it is all plastic, all I have to do is spray it with a hose to clean it. I am in plastic love.






 

Minor curve balls seem to be flying at me this week. My car is in the shop until Monday, so my feet will have to carry me anywhere I want to go. Asha will be stuck with me in the "hood" and there will be no wild, off-leash romps for us this weekend. The car has refused to start three times this week and I have burdened one of my friends to come and jump start it each time. Plus, it is chugging when it does run and the engine warning light has been on for a week or two. The shop guy says I need a new battery plus something called an "intake boot." It needs the regular tune up, oil change sort of work too. On Monday I will be around $450 poorer. It didn't help that I had to be at the hospital today for an MRI of my noggin. Luckily, I live only a few blocks from the hospital so my feet did their job and brought me home afterwards. I've been having some odd ball symptoms lately, so my doctor suggested a series of tests. It is probably nothing; but, to deflect my tendency to start contemplating the negative possibilities, I decided to take a moment and appreciate some of the good things going on around me.

One of the good things is that I have a nice little haven, which although it seems to be a mecca for ants and is way too full of "stuff," is pretty comfortable. It is my refuge and the place where I putter and "art" and nest with my furry companion Asha Zoe. I am very glad that no tornados blew it away this week, as we've been having plenty of storms here recently and others towns nearby have been hit. Knock on wood.


I always enjoy Spring because that is when I buy herbs and flowers and fill the planters on my porch. I keep dog brushes sitting there so that when Asha and I return from our walks, she can sit and watch the world go by and I can give her a good brushing. It is a pleasant place to hang out with the Zoe girl.


This year, instead of planting decorative sweet potato vines in my tiered beds in front of the porch, I experimented and sent off for some of those roll out flower carpets from Walter Drake. I did not know if they would actually grow but low and behold I have flowers!  It seems to be mostly one kind of flower, but they do look nice I think.


 So, there are many things to be cheerful about and I am bound and determined not to be deflated by the minor frustrations that sometimes occur.  I hope my online friends are all well and safe in their respective bergs. 

EDIT: Yay, my noggin is okay...well...*smirk*...as okay as it is going to get anyway.  The MRI technician said to expect results next week but that if something was amiss, I would hear right away. Needless to say, when my caller ID showed the clinic number I thought "oh crap!"  Luckily, it turned out to be my *great* primary care physician who just wanted to give me the good news right away so I did not fret over the weekend.  I really like him. He has always been really good to me, showing concern and going the extra mile to let me know that he is there, willing to help. I haven't met many doctors who are willing to take the time and make the effort that he does. Another good thing to appreciate and I do.

Yesterday, I met my friend Mary at the Moon Marble store in Bonner Springs, Kansas, to view a demonstration of marble making. We had a great time and it was really interesting to see a marble being made. We also spent time looking at all of the cool marbles for sale, including special artist-made marbles that were priced as high as $600 per marble. Some of them were incredibly beautiful. I bought some of their cheap marbles to add to the stones and shells that I have in my bird bath on my front porch.  I like the way the marbles look against the natural stones and shells in the water.  I have some more photos I took here. Marbles are very cool.



 

Here is another pencil sketch of Asha. The eyes are not quite right. They are a little stark looking,

 

I decided to do some sketches of Asha using some of the pictures I took last weekend. I haven't picked up a drawing pencil in a while, so if nothing else, it felt good to do some sketching. I want to get my hand and eye warmed up for two weeks of vacation that will arrive in a couple of weeks. Aside from puttering around the house and yard, I really want to spend some time in my studio. I wish pencil work scanned better.


 

It has been a while since I took pictures during one of my jaunts with Asha, so last Sunday morning I grabbed my camera when Asha and I headed out. We went to roam the paths next to the governor's mansion, which is a short drive from our house. At 6:30 in the morning, there was no one else around, so I didn't worry about letting Asha off leash.  It really is a lovely area, with paths, ponds, open fields, rolling hills and trees. When we arrived, there was a lot of mist coming off of the ponds, but it doesn't show up well in the photos. Asha does not like having her picture taken, so she is pretty serious looking in all of the photos, but I think she had a good time even though I was being very annoying. If you want to see some of the photos I took, click here.


 

I grabbed an ATC background card which I had stamped with a weave stamp long ago and I drew with gel pens this woman, based on some reference photo I downloaded from some long forgotten site. She had a look that said to me "the party is over" and so I have entitled it "Night Life."  I never was much of a party girl myself. I was always ready to go to bed when everyone else was just getting started.

 

For the past week I've been ill and haven't gotten any artwork done, but yesterday before work I finally spent a half hour in the studio and did this clayboard ATC. It is based on a portrait of a goth looking girl taken by the Rhino Studio. My rendition is not very faithful to the photo but I console myself with the thought that I was only doing it as an exercise. I have a lot of difficulty in controlling my marks and so compensate by making everything sort of loosely scratched. The more I work with clayboard the more I admire those artists who have really mastered this medium and do such incredible work. This sort of work really feeds into my love of working with light and dark.



 

I had used an image of a roman statue for a mixed media piece and so I had a few copies of it sitting on my work table. I also had an old book sitting there that I had torn apart for another project. My ink pens were also strewn around the table. The result of these random elements being there was that I sat down and very roughly sketched the statue on a page of text from the disassembled book. Then I cut it down to ATC size.  Sometimes, that is the way it happens. I feel in the mood to do something creative, but I don't want to wait to clean up from my last project. So, I just look around at what is already there and find some way to use it.  Nothing special, but it is good to loosen up my hand and use it every day.

It is too bad there aren't any life drawing classes around where I live that are open to artists in general. It would really be nice to be able to draw the human form from life again like I did in my college days. 


 

I liked the photo of my grandmother lounging in the sun with my grandfather's hat perched on her head so I decided to sketch it this morning using some of my ink pens. I regret my initial use of an orange pen to lay in my overall shapes. The scan is less than optimal, but I find that is often the case when I try to scan work that has a lot of line work in it.  I am not too keen on the results here, but I do like getting in a little drawing before having to get ready and head off to my totally non-creative job. Asha's been at daycare for a few days to enjoy the burgeoning spring weather with her canine friends while I toil away filing reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. I miss her, so I think I will go and get her after work tonight. I am really ready for some time off and days of early morning dog romps, but I don't know how soon I will be able to work out some time off. Too many things going on. I just might be able to finagle next week off, but the dilmemma is whether I should take a week off now when the forecast is for a week of rain, or wait until the end of May and take two weeks off. Decisions, decisions.