Random things

Apologies, I've been too busy doing nothing at all of importance and feeling like a normal human being this weekend to update. But these are the things that I've done since Friday that make me happy.

• Being alone. There's a difference between being alone and lonely.
• Meeting all my nerd friends at a lousy pizza buffet for lunch.
• Shopping with friends.
• Blank journals with smooth leather covers.
• Doing the things I love with people, not alone. I introduced Grace to the wonderful world of antique shopping. It's more fun when you're not alone.
• Old magazines and advertisements.
• Funny dated books about sex, beauty, manners, history, science, politics, geography, etc.
• Old sheet music
• Old books
• Old jewelery
• Mary Ruth's annual party. Movie projector on her patio, film we largely ignore, talking till all hours, friends I've not seen in six months, but we pick up where we left off, and I laugh more and harder than I do any other night of the year. We talk and laugh through the night. Friday it was especially poignant. Mary Ruth lives in an area totally destroyed by the April 27th tornado. Her house was okay, but still damaged. Friday was one month exactly from the tornado. It killed over 40 people, my hometown destroyed. We drank a toast amidst the destruction for the day we all grew up. Even the grown ups grew up. For our city. For each other. For hope. For the fact that people are inherently good. For the fact that it is entirely possible to depend upon the kindness of strangers.

These images are all scrambled. But still happy.

"Hope"- My illustrations of one of my favorite poems

Art supplies

• Crayons are better than sliced bread, as far as I'm concerned. I invest in a new 64 count box every few months.
• Colored pencils are also swell. When I draw, I color it in with colored pencils first, then crayons to make it brighter, then pencils again to smooth and add texture.
• Copy paper is nice to draw on. It's a perfect size, a nice smooth texture, clean, white color, and it's very low pressure. I mean, when you're working on canvas or vellum you feel like you have to not make any mistakes. If you're drawing on copy paper and you mess up, you can just get a new piece without feeling too wasteful. Fancy paper is pricey.
• Who doesn't love glitter?
• Colorful Sharpies are amazing, but I'm a Sharpie miser. I made the mistake of letting the kids at work use mine to outline their letters. (I was teaching them how to do illumination.) After about 10 minutes I took them back up, for three reasons: they were using nothing BUT Sharpie and wasting the ink, they didn't comprehend why I had them drawing on top of books and folders, so they ruined a couple of tables, and the fumes were reaching dangerous levels. Still, I love me some Sharpies.
• I can't do origami, but I love origami paper.
• Charcoal is messy but oh so much fun.
• Pastels are also messy, but I do my best work with them.
• I love drawing in ebony, but it's so hard to sharpen.
• Rubber cement was always fun, but not for any good reason. My fondest memories of it involve spreading it on my hands and making little balls out of it. Good times.
• However, I'm not a fan of Elmer's glue (too messy) or glue sticks (utterly useless.) 
• Also not a fan of scissors, markers, soft pencils, and poster board. I'm a lefty. Poster board was always the bane of my existence. I can't guess how many I ruined over the years because my hand drags across the still wet ink. In 10th grade, I had to do a project on WWII. I spent all night writing a letter or two, then drying it with my hair dryer, so as not to smudge it.

New favorite animal

• The Octopus. Of course, I'd be terrified if it brushed against my leg out in the ocean, but they're smarter than a lot of the college students I know. And watching them squeeze in and out of boxes is so cool. Plus, they look like aliens. Aliens are cool.

More things

• Tacos
• Mythbusters
• Being left alone
• Google books

Artists that make me happy

• Jan van Eyck. I like that painting of the Renaissance couple; I don't remember what it's called.
• Mary Cassatt. Her mother and child paintings are so sweet.
• Dali. Melting clocks are cool. When I found out that painting was called The Persistence of Memory, and not "Melting Clocks," my mind was blown.
• M.C. Escher. Born on my birthday and his optical illusions give me a headache, in a good way.
• Vincent van Gogh. He is a huge inspiration to me. To have so much emotional pain but produce artwork that shows ecstatic beauty of the world shows an amazing talent. It makes me want to turn my pain into something beautiful too.
• Edward Hopper. His work fascinates me. You could write a novel about most of them.
• Degas. Ballerinas, remember?
• Monet. How can you not love waterlilies?
• Renoir. I just love the impressionists.
• Klimt. I just really like all the gold and geometry.
• Warhol. Who doesn't love soup and Marilyn Monroe?
• Lichtenstein. Comic book art is cool.
• Peter Max. Freaking awesome.
• George Barbier. French fashion illustrator of the 1920s. Love his flapper portraits.
• Toulouse-Latrec. Can can dancers are cool.
• Norman Rockwell. The ultimate happy artist.

Happy things

• Ballet. I took ballet for almost a decade, and now I paint ballerinas. I still go to the ballet twice a year, and my Christmas tree is decorated with my collection of ballerina ornaments. 
• History. History is my passion in life. It always has been, and now I'm majoring in it. 
• Museums. I want to do museum studies in grad school and take care of our history. My family had to literally drag me out of each Smithsonian museum last summer. I was in heaven!

Hmmm... I have some more things right now, but I need to get dressed and stuff.