Catch-up

Here's a painting I finished a while ago but didn't post. Mr. Flufferkins/Henri has inspired a series, watch for the hilarious results!

In a blue jay way

This is a re-used canvas from a piece I started in 2002, while I was taking a class on the Pre-Raphaelites. The original idea was to have the gold border frame a transcription of one of D.G. Rossetti's sonnets from The House of Life, which is, of course, the best piece of literature ever to have been exhumed from a Victorian woman's grave. I painted the background over the old text with my leftover paint from a cock-fight piece I am hating right now, and then decided I needed a blue subject for the foreground. His fat little body and earnest expression inspired me. Please suggest names, he longs for an identity. But not Jay.

Before and After

So we are trying to buy a house. It's been a tedious process the last few months--we are on our second realtor and this is the third house on which we have made an offer. Its a beautiful 1924 bungalow one mile from Mt. Tabor. I know what you are thinking--we can't afford it...and you're right, except for:
-It's close to the freeway (As Evan E. says, close to easy directions to our house)
-It's close to the Juvenile Detention Center ("kids, if you don't shut up you're goin' over the wall!")
-It has no heat
-The electrical panel is defective
-The Sewer line is trash (and runs through the neighbor's yard)
-The foundation needs help
That's just the big stuff. Picture mauve carpeting, windows that haven't been open in decades, enough wood panel to sink a battleship and...wait for it...the bedrooms have brown shag carpet over linoleum over linoleum over fir. You heard me. Two layers of linoleum under shag. The point of my story is that we love it--its like finding Tomatillo at the humane society, sniffling, skinny and matted. They were going to put him down. With a little time (and a few weeks of antibiotics and syringe feeding) he became the most fluffy, handsome, orange love-muffin around. And if they fix the big stuff, nothing will hold us back. Get ready for the before and after shots as I put painting on the small burner (not the back, that one has plastic melted to it) and attempt to turn our new house into a big, fluffy orange tabby.

Chicken Mit Nuggets

I have been flurrying to prepare for my Earth Day booth tomorrow. As well as framing my very first prints (of winged victory), I completed a couple paintings today, including this portrait of Comandante Esther.

Lily #7

The seventh lily in the series. Any thoughts?