bassline

Graphic Alignment

To say the least, we're learning a lot about apartment-hunting. This is the first time in more than ten years that I've had to look for a place to live and the sticker-shock is never-ending. The thing that has pissed me off the most are some of the shady advertising practices we've encountered.

For example, we've been relying on Craig's List for a lot of our referrals. It didn't take me long to take some of the ads with a huge chunk of salt. I understand apartment ad lingo, 'cozy'= 'just enough room to turn around in' and 'luxury condo' (in what used to be just a plain apartment) means 'really expensive old apartment...that you own and there's no super to call and fix things'. I've lived in Philly my whole life and am familiar enough with most places in the city to be able to decipher the codes.

We know that we will miss more than hit, it's just the reality of numbers: the more you try, the more your chances of success rise. We've seen a few places that have been close to what we can work with money-wise, but for whatever reason, they just wouldn't work due to distance, neighborhood, or were just plain bad fits.

( this doesn't look like... )

206/366: a day's work

I had one of those days in the studio that reminded me of why I love what I do. There are plenty of days when I go in and do nothing but gnash my teeth because something isn't working out how I want it to. Then, I go back the next day or week for more. If it weren't for those days, I wouldn't have the ones like today where some new ideas began to take shape that may well sustain me for the coming months of painting.

......

I wasn't the only one to have a great day with creative efforts. E called me several times this afternoon while I was in transit to an art supply store and then the studio. I was on my bike with the phone in my bag, so it wasn't until I actually reached the studio that I caught one of her calls.

With excitement in her voice, she told me that she'd just spoken with John. John owns a jewelry store in center city that handles high-end original jewelry. E was introduced to him by my gallerist, Bridgette, a few months ago. Since then, E has stopped in a few times and has been building a rapport with him ever since. Yesterday, she gave him seven necklaces for consignment. As of today, three of the seven had sold to two different people! Those were the first sales E has had in a commercial setting and quite an accomplishment after having been here for over a year.

Congratulations, babe!!

Sydney is our empty box indicator. If there's an empty box around, you can bet that he'll be in it. We went out this afternoon to make a second visit to the pet adoption center we got Sydney from. This time, we were in search of a playmate/companion for him. There are a lot of candidates but the main issue that has come up is which one he'll be compatible with. The only way to get a sense is to take him in with us tomorrow, pair him up with other cats, and hopefully one will click. We have our favorites, but the final decision will be up to Sydney.

......

Before we got to the adoption center, we stopped to pick up a couple of pieces of jewelry E had cast in sterling silver. They are her version of Maori fish hooks which were originally made of whale bone. As whale bone became scarce, the Maori fishermen moved onto cattle bone. The fish hooks are called Hei Matau in Maori language and are the basis for E's designs.

Her hooks are made of sterling silver, cast from wax, hand polished and finished.

I might be a *tiny* bit partial, but I really love these pieces and think they are gorgeous. There's one below and two more are under the cut. To see more of E's work, go to Kityikana.net


( Fish hooks from Kityikana )

Palmed

Another from last night's 'bald' session.

E is having a difficult time adjusting to my newly shorn appearance. She woke up, looked at me, and muttered, "Hmm...still no hair".

I, on the other hand, am enjoying the feel of air going across my scalp. I'm also enjoying the feel of my hands going across my head. It's almost sexual in a way. The immediate thing I noticed looking in the bathroom mirror last night was the difference in skin shades between my face my scalp. Obviously, it's been hidden under my winter pelt of hair for months not exposed to direct sunlight. The lightness of my head made it look like I had some kind of special effect appliance on to simulate baldness. I'm sure it won't take long for it to even out with the rest of my exposed skin.

So, hey, my jewelry-making wife has opened an Etsy shop (psst...that's the name of her shop above-it means 'be happy' in the Pitta Pitta language of one of the aboriginal peoples of Queensland, Australia). She makes a variety of unique necklaces, pendants,  and bracelets with silver, copper, brass, various beads, and gemstones like ocean jasper, mookaite and jade.. Perfect pieces for birthdays, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, or just because...

Go check out her stuff and tell her I sent you...
Kityikana

I was attempting to find a shot for my '365' project tonight when E decided that it would be funny to try and get a reaction out of me. Well, as you can see, there was no try about it.

I can't take credit for the gif montage, though. I went to take a shower and within the short span of time it took for that, she'd made this up.

32/366: dry inside

Perfect day to stay inside and do next to nothing. It rained and rained most of the day thus making me all the more reticent about stepping outdoors when I didn't need to. After the business of January, I really needed a day like this.

E's official residency card came in the mail today, so Monday we're off to the our local Social Security office to apply for a new Social Security card for her and a replacement for me.

River View I
A view of the Schyulkill River from behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art. That's Boathouse Row in the distance on the right.

It's been quite a week. Mainly getting used to saying that I have a 'wife' now. Both E and I have been joking about how odd it seems that we're now 'husband and wife'. It's been good, though. Our ceremony was small, short and sweet. It was so casual that I forgot to put on my suit jacket before the actual ceremony began.

We decided to get married in a hotel room we had at the Park Hyatt-Philadelphia instead of City Hall. A few weeks before the date, I found a celebrant who happened to be a former co-worker. I found out that she'd become a minister some years back. She was more than happy to marry us and was a tremendous help. It was also nice to be married by someone that at least one of us knew.

As I mentioned above, the affair was small but very meaningful. I had two of my closest friends in attendance and we had another doing video for us. That was it. Everything went off without a hitch. Our celebrant, Sheryl, arrived and led us through a little relaxing exercise of deep breathing to introduce some calm into the moment and things proceeded from there. As the ceremony began, E and I were standing face-to-face holding hands when I realized the lack of my suit jacket. I mouthed to her "I forgot my jacket". We shared a silent laugh as things continued.

Sheryl did a reading from The Bridges of Madison County, E and I exchanged our self-written vows and placed our rings. E read an Eskimo love poem to me and I recited a short passage to her. As a symbol of our merging into marriage, we lit two candles which we used to light a third. That was it. The whole thing worked out pretty much as we envisioned it. We had a toast before heading out to dinner. A little later, we returned to the hotel room and had cake for dessert-a white chocolate, raspberry mousse cake. Very good...

There are some photos and I hope to post some as soon as the main ones come in. We have the video, but haven't watched it yet. We've just been spending the week relaxing and hanging out with each other. We didn't go anywhere, but I took the week off from work just so we could spend time together before getting back to some kind of life routine. Though there's nothing even remotely routine about our lives together, lol :D

We went on a few walks, went out to dinner with co-workers of mine who showered us with well-wishes and gifts. Really very nice of them.

There's a lot going on right now and I have a ton of stuff to get out of my head, so I'll be posting more soon and more often now that the big event is past.

Window Gazing

I was taking a short break from painting on Wednesday when I thought it would be a good time to take some new self-portraits. I took about 5 or so and this is my favorite of the bunch. I didn't have my tripod with me, so I improvised and propped the camera up against the window sill at my feet, set the timer, and just stared out at the gathering rain clouds.

( art + life )

Daisies

After a couple of weeks of trying, I was finally able to get to the flower shop near work before they closed. Most of the time, I get out from work a little too late to catch them open. I like surprising E with some flowers and I like having the splash of live color in the apartment.

Tonight, I picked out some daisies, lilies and a couple of other blooms I don't know the names of. I left the shop, turned left and walked west on South Street. Not a few feet outside the shop, I saw a thin, grizzled looking, white-haired guy in a blue shirt and jeans who said to me with a grin and nod towards the bouquet in my hand, "Good luck with that!". I smiled and laughed a little after acknowledging his encouragement.

The exchange made me wonder, though. What's the first thing people think of when they see a guy with flowers? Just the first question. Is it, "That's romantic" or is it, "I wonder what kind of trouble he's in?", or something else...

With that in mind, I thought I'd post a poll to find out what you think:

Poll #1026802 Flowers, baby?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

You see a man with flowers, what's your first thought:

If other, what and why?

Lost in Thought

So, apprently, I'm a fianceé basher in my sleep. E mentioned that during the night, I moved several times in my sleep and each time I managed to hit her with my arm or legs. It's been an adjustment, but I've been pretty good about maintaining 'my space' in the bed and leaving room for her...sometimes...when I remember *heh*

I did have a pretty active dream state last night, which probably accounts for all the movement on my part. There was this really fantastic part near the time I woke up where I was in some kind of book store that had all sorts of personalized journals and books on the shelves; they looked very craft-like with things glued to the covers and extravagent pages inside. It seemed like a children's book store or section within one.

The really exciting part of this place was the 'interactive' map of the world on the ceiling. It was a screen of some sort. I'm not sure about how it worked, but I thought of a place I wanted to see and the map would reconfigure the land masses and an image of the place I wanted would appear. In this case, it was Antarctica. The moment I looked at the image and thought 'Antarctica', the forms on the screen changed slowly. First, there was nothing but water, then a land mass formed that had roughly the shape of Antarctica, and finally, a time-lapsed covering of bluish-white of snow and ice settled over the greens and browns of the earth.

That was an amazing dream. I could see something like that screen being a reality some day. Perhaps classrooms will have 'interactcive' screens of that sort instead of or in addition to, old-fashioned blackboards. Computers are already being integrated into education more as the years tick by, at least for those districts fortunate enough to be able to afford newer technology.

There were more dream images that I remember, but that was the most complete. The others involved seeing the facade of an old brownstone church fall apart while sitting in a car at a notoriously hard to navigate intersection and visiting someone in a run-down house where a bunch of people lived. Don't know why I was there, but it felt quite different from the one above.

The New York week continued on Friday the 8th of June. This time, it was to see the Richard Serra retrospective at MoMA, check out some jewelry supply shops for E and to meet up with another friend of E's later that evening.

The jewelry supply stores we found were pretty amazing with the selection of gemstones and tools. One place in particular, Metalliferous, impressed me with the sheer volume of tools and materials they carry in a seemingly endless maze of aisles packed into it's narrow second-floor space on W. 46th St. E was in jeweler heaven, of course, and is threatening to keep me with her there for most of the day when we go up again. I'm plotting my escape as I type this...

*just kidding, babe! ;P*

( Richard Serra @ MoMA )

Still Life

A little corner of my studio-mate's space. I managed to catch the evening sun at just the right time. The setup looks like a painting waiting to happen.

Bridgette called and let me know that the show is now hung and that it looks good. I'll stop by the gallery tomorrow to take a look and confirm the present arrangement or to make whatever changes I feel are needed before the show opens on Friday.

......

E's here, safe and sound. It was quite an adventure for her to get here with what happened on Sunday. She made it into JFK around 10pm and we got out of the airport a 1/2 hour later. Because of the delays, we wound up missing the last bus out of Port Authority back to Philly at 11pm. We wound up being able to catch one at 3am and arrived back at the apartment close to 5:30am. Her trip was supposed to be only about 26 hours but got stretched to 35.

E was shattered, as she likes to say, as was I. I slept for maybe 4 hours and not well at that. I kept waking up because I had to go to work and kept checking the time. I had the alarm on, but was still afraid of not hearing it because I was so tired. I went in to work, looked at the schedule and realized that I didn't have to be there until 1pm instead of my usual start time of 12noon. I got through the day somehow and afterwards, managed to get a second wind so we could go to my best friend's new house for a Memorial Day get-together.

So, she's here, safe and sound. Our next challenge is rearranging things in the apartment so that we can have storage for her clothes as well as jewelry-making supplies. We have the beginnings of a plan. We only need to buy a few things, put some time in and we'll get it done...

Delivered the final four paintings to the gallery this morning. I'm incredibly happy that I've reached this point. I'm taking a couple of breaths this weekend before jumping into starting some new work for another show in the fall.

It's been an intense few months of getting all the paintings done and done to my satisfaction. I'm pretty happy with what I've done and I think I have some good ideas to pursue in the next body of work.

( speaking of the weekend... )

Blanks

It's true, a blank canvas is a little scary. The truth is I love having a bunch of blanks around to work on, especially with a deadline looming. Things are moving along for my upcoming show in June. I'm cutting it close with the amount of work I have completed, but that's how it goes sometimes. I still have April and most of May to fill things out a bit. Then, it's right on to new work for the fall show.


( juggling )

Drama II

Well, E's back in Australia, safe and sound. We spent the day in New York yesterday and most of it at JFK International Airport. I was a walking zombie because I barely slept the night before, as is the case every time there's something big happening the next day. I was mainly worried about us making our connections and so forth. We took Greyhound to midtown Manhattan and an airport shuttle from there. It all worked out just as planned, of course, but since it was a new travel route it was foremost in my mind. Well, that and E's leaving sat on my mind all night. I slept for all of three hours all night. I slept on the bus ride up, but that was short-lived.

The mood between us was pretty heavy. We didn't talk a lot as we both were not happy about having to separate for four months. I was unhappy about it, but E seemed to have a much harder time with leaving. For my part, it was anticipating her absence here at home. Hell, I was contemplating how her absence would feel once I was leaving the airport. We had lunch and wandered through the airport shops before settling in near the security entrance to her gate. We sat together, hugged, kissed, shed a few tears and finally had to let each other go so she could board her flight on time. Once she went through security, we waved a few times to each other before she disappeared up the escalator to catch her flight which left at 6:45pm.

Walking out of the airport, I was already missing having her next to me...

( wandering the city )

New self-portrait taken today just after I finished work. I had to take advantage of the great light streaming into the employee break room. I didn't even stop to take my earbuds out. By the time I had a couple of nice shots, I decided to leave them in.

We got another teaser of a snowfall sometime in the wee hours of the morning. I clocked in for work at nine and was done by twelve-thirty; the snow was just about done by then, too. While it was still pretty cold out, the sun was out in full force and that dusting was nothing more than a faint memory and mini puddles of water in the streets.

I've decided to do nothing of importance today. I'm just going to enjoy having a few hours during the day here in the apartment, hanging out with E and surfing the web a bit. I cooked lunch for us a little while ago and now, she's resting in bed. Early yesterday morning, she was on her way to the bathroom and unfortunately took a spill on the steps (my bathroom is down a flight of steps from my actual living space). She's ok, except for a very sore left arm and hip. Thankfully, that's all that happened...

E has made herself at home and has been keeping herself quite happily busy with making jewelry. By the time I'm home from work at night, she has usually made quite a few new pieces. Of course she has the whole day to do what she wants, but I'm still always amazed at her productivity, as well as her wonderful designs. Also, she's accompanied me to the studio where she has transformed several cigar boxes while I've painted.

I like having this extra creative activity in my life. I'm going to miss that energy around here when she has to return to Oz...

First breakfast of 2007: scrambled eggs with cheddar and parmesan (with a touch of garlic granules on mine), buttered toast, pineapple juice, and tea.

Yum!!

E and I brought in 2007 with the (un)usual suspects at a house party in West Philly where a certain red shoe was the mascot of the year. There was the bottle-poacher who was flagged by E near the end of the night. He went in and out a couple of times and E noticed that he'd been putting bottles of left-over booze down the back of his pants and taking them to his car. He was summarily dismissed by one of the hosts...

Pics soon...