Furry Children
I live divided
I live in downtown Vallejo, California, but I spend my non-workdays with Matt at his place outside of Lodi. CA. The two houses are over an hour apart so I do a fair bit of driving every week.
I drive up from sea level, over the hills through Suisun City, across multiple bridges over branches of the Sacramento river delta, and over to the central valley, where my heart waits for me in Woodbridge.
I am completely comfortable there. I just miss my stuff, and Emily. Matt’s cat, Katita, doesn’t like Emily at all (which is strange, because Emily is perfect) but we cut her some slack as she is partly blind and extremely set in her ways. It’s her house, ya know…
So, as I split my time, I’ve realized that I paint on the weekends, but all my paints/supplies (except what I carry on my Art Bag) are at my place, where I stay during the work week.
Thus, I am packing 2 storage bins of supplies to take to Woodbridge tomorrow night.
I’ve made a list so I can have what I need without bringing extraneous items I don’t need to use right away.
Ex: Bringing paint/canvas/stencils but not all the stuff to make candles…
This feels a bit odd to me, moving in with him in increments, but we do what we can until I get to move in for good and all.
I have been drawing, but I’ve done little art lately otherwise, but I plan to get back into it on this upcoming 3day weekend.
Other than all of the above, I am well and healing from my bicycle wreck 2.5 weeks ago. I have a scar to talk about…
Emily is doing well…she is the queen of my bedroom, where she stays for the most part. She’s not particularly interested in my roommates, so only comes out when they are gone or sleeping.
I have dear friends dealing with a myriad of issues and complexities in this crazy world right now and I’m doing my best to be there, available, for them. Meanwhile, I have been digging into some heavier traumas in my life and working through even part of them is exhausting but important to me.
I want to live my life free of the weight of these things in my past. I refuse to bury the past, as the feelings can jump out at me, appearing without warning, scaring everyone.
My mental health issues are mine, but I am able to be pretty open about it all because I generally do a superb job of keeping it all to myself. The ability to share my feelings with folks I trust is paramount to my progress.
I have a Therapist, Psychiatrist, medical team, loving friends and stellar family to talk to about all of this, and when I feel the downs, I avail myself upon them.
I am blessed and lucky.
I’ll post more art as I make it, and I’ll post my video tutorial from work as soon as it is edited.
PLEASE VOTE!!!
It’s 7:30pm…
…and it’s basically my “Friday” night. I did the just work of the library, went to the gym (why is it always arm day?) and am now sat on my queen chair with Emily on my lap, and she is insisting that I do not move from here.
My coworker/gym partner/friend and podcaster, Sabrina (of Sabrina Monet.com) and me!
I want to paint…I took out the trash because it smelled like hair color remover (worse than a perm) and I have a renowned capacity to ignore dirty dishes, so I will sit here for a while longer (for Emily, you know…) then paint in my journals, like this:
or in my Book Of Days, like this:
Or on my new canvas, like this:
OR on one of the illustrations for my friend’s book of songs:
…so the options are open…hmm….
Welp…since I’m meeting with the author tomorrow, that decides it…
I’ll eat my leftover pizza salad (you don’t know pizza salad?! Get thee to MOD Pizza) and listen to my girl’s podcast while I make the art…have a great weekend!
Goodbye my Hobbitses
Although this bloggy is named for the other 2 cats, my hobbitses, my Merry & Pippin were the first I committed my care to, and this morning has just been awful.
After a quick decline in health last month, where they dropped to half their fighting weight, I decided to have my boys put down as I cannot, in good conscience, let them suffer more.
I have had my hobbitses since they were 6 weeks old…for more than 12 years now. They’ve been with me though grad school and 5 different jobs. 6 apartments.
I would be absolutely bereft were it not for my Emily, and for the knowledge that my furry family may be smaller but the love is bigger than anything.
Love never dies.
What HAVE you done?!
I’ve been stuck in a self-depricating spot lately, thinking that I just ‘piddle around’, never actually creating any art…so I decided to take stock of some things.
I have said that I’ve kept a written journal, since I was 15. Yeah, 33+ years is some time…
This stack of paper actually looks small to me, but that’s probably because I know how much time and life and mojo has been applied to the pages…
Then I thought about the Art Journals & Travel Journals that I’ve finished…
THEN I collected all the journals together that I’m currently working in, and realized, I need to cut myself a serious break….
Yeah…there are 9 (nine) journals here. Most pages have SOMETHING on them, so…
…I’ll just keep putting stuff & things inside these books, and I’m also looking into starting from scratch…making my own books, from paper I choose, then doing my thing, as well as incorporating some new ideas I want to try…
Not nearly as much lace as the junk journal junkies are into, but adding more to my books…
Putting paint down…
I’ve been artsing my pants off around the way, but haven’t posted a damn thing here.
I finished my mini journal last Tuesday and I finished my Journal 52 from 2015…17 months after 2015…TA-DA! Heh.
Whatever…
I have actually filled 4 complete journals…
And am nearing the finish line on 2 others (they are larger, though). I’ve committed to 6 (!) other large journals, a mini 8-pager for my trip (in 3 weeks, WOOT!!!), and I’m working out the logistics of filling the Fabriano paper pages of a leather covered, hand bound, mini journal a friend gave me in ’03. Now, this girl introduced me to MOTL*, so I’ll always thank her for that, but she’s really kind of a tool, and we haven’t spoken in years.
Example: She wrote on the first page of the journal she gave me. About herself. Who does that?!? Honestly!
In the end, I win…cuz I’m a lefty…so she wrote on the LAST page. HAH! First time I completed the last page of a journal first…
Oh! It’s spring postcard swap season…I sent my 10 away…have received 4 so far…but I’ll tell you about it when I get ’em all!
*MOTL = My Own True Love.
