Carbauchery

And here is an update on my carbauchery but first, a little history.  Back in the day (and by this I mean November, or January, or February) I could easily consume half a package of Oreos and a five foot tall stack of Pringles before dinner.  Then I would feel disgusting.  Gross.  Blick.  But miraculously, by the next morning the feeling was totally gone, to the point where I knew I had felt gross but couldn't actually remember what that gross feeling felt like.  Got it?  So, of course, rinse and repeat.

After work yesterday I went to Kalispell, dropped off a piece at the hospital for ALERT, then went to Costco for the all-important dark chocolate-covered pomegranates.  I had a sugar headache before I even left the Costco parking lot.  I stopped at Alley Connection for my dinner and ate sweet and sour chicken in the car on the way home.  Should have called it quits right there, but that bottle of bubbly was calling my name....

End result -- you guessed it.  I felt gross.  I would not have been surprised if my fortune read, "You are a disgusting pig."  My stomach hurt, I was way over-full, and I think my head exploded and my brains were leaking out my ears.  I practically passed out in a food coma on the couch, but when I actually dragged my sorry self into bed I didn't sleep well at all.

So this morning, guess what?  I STILL FELT GROSS!  Food hangover!  Thank you paleo; no more of this carbauchery nonsense.  I still have choc poms left (which I will eat not because I want to but because they are there) and have leftovers for lunch and dinner today.  Plus over half a bottle of bubbly.  Whatever is still in my fridge Friday morning will be going in the garbage.

So there you have it.  Lesson finally learned = carbauchery is SOOO not worth it.

For today, I leave you with this:

Yeah, don't ask.  I don't know either.

30 Days

If y'all have been following along (and I know you have been), you know that yesterday was Day 30.  Woo hoo!  I have a day and a half of culinary debauchery on my agenda now (or, as I like to call it, carbauchery) and then it's right back to it.  My new favorite food is a big fat bowl of fresh strawberries with walnuts.  Mmmm.  Did I really used to think Oreos were this good?

Anyway, guess what I am having for dinner tonight?  Go ahead, guess.  Take a few minutes, I will wait.

....

If you guessed this:

you are oh so wrong.  If you guessed Chinese food, chocolate-covered pomegranates and bubbly, SWEET!  YES!  Is it dinner time yet?

My Aunt

And now for something completely different.  This is the back side of a birthday card my niece Abby sent me a few years ago.  It makes me smile.  I love it, and so do you.



Not everybody is lucky enough to have eyes like a boat.

Signs of Spring

Ok, I think this is the piece for the miniature show at the Hockaday Museum.  The artwork isn't due until late April so I have time to change my mind.  The frame is going to be a lime green lacquer - yummy - a picture of which I will post at a later date.  It is called, as you recall, "Signs of Spring."

And here, another sure sign of spring.  I don't know how she avoids all the deer poop.

Crazy poodle.

Happy Spring!

Spring.  Sweet, sweet spring.  Roxie is sitting outside, basking in the sunshine.  This, of course, means we leave the back door open and it is only about 42 degrees out so here I sit at my desk wearing my jacket.  But it is SPRING!  WOO HOO!

Now for something new.  Two things new.  They would be wickedly awesome if they were huge, but are still nifty at only 5x7.

Moon Flowers

Blue Moon

The Pond

Confidence

"Confidence is going after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking the tartar sauce with you."  -Zig Ziglar

I am taking a risk here by posting this image.  I was messing around the other day, painting over a canvas panel that I ruined previously.  The end result is quite curious, but since I brought the tartar sauce with me today, I will put it out here for the world to see.  Confidence, baby.  I am quite confident I will be the only person on the planet who likes this one.  But that's ok with me.  It is called Fossil (although Derek thinks it looks like the tail of a kite).

Yesterday was a fabulous day.  I had a comment on my blog (which warmed my little heart), I cleaned the crap out of the back room at work to take pictures of it for an interested party, it was beautiful and sunny so poodle and I went for a 4 mile run, and I think I started the piece I am submitting to another miniature show.  I had to fax the paperwork for it today, and I named it "Signs of Spring."  Hope it comes out looking that way - hard to name a piece you haven't painted yet.

Pears

Speaking of companion pieces, my pear has some friends.  They are called, in order, Orange (the original), Lemon and Lime (the new friends).  There will be a Plum shortly.

Companion Piece

So.  Remember this one?

It has a new friend.

And an acquaintance.  Not quite a friend, because the first two are definitely flowers (see all the pollen flying out?) and this one is ... uh ... something.

Anyway, I have a new painting soundtrack.  I am listening to Livingston Taylor in honor of his upcoming appearance HERE IN BIGFORK on April 30th.  I think I will be taking myself to a concert.  I saw him in concert about a hundred years ago, outside in a massive tent in the parking lot at Killington.  Anybody else remember that?  It will be fun to see him again; although he is more folksy than his brother, I still like his music.  Woo hoo.

Nothing else new, except this little one, which I am keeping because I really love it.



Oh, and P.S.  I just found out my clock sold!

Miniature Art Show

The Glacier Symphony & Chorale held a chamber music concert last night at the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts.  The galleries in town hosted a day-long miniature art show in the lobby of the theater in conjunction with the concert.  Each gallery had a panel on which to showcase works of art less than 144 square inches.  Derek decided Frame of Reference was going to show my work, and only my work.  Cool.  We certainly didn't expect to sell any of it; we considered the event a marketing opportunity.  I had a lot of people exclaim that they didn't know I was an artist.  It was a little awkward for me, but I'm happy to have had the exposure.

Here are some pictures.  The first two are of prep work and laying out the design on our work table.  Poodle-face helped.

The rest are over at the theater.  The first is a picture of seven panels representing seven of the galleries in town.  Then our panel, next to another artist.  Then the top half and bottom half of our panel.  Bad lighting for photographs.



It was a long day; I had to come in an hour early (god forbid) because I had the key to the theater and set-up for some people started at 9:00.  This was a terrifically busy week at work, and Friday was no exception.  Plus we had Alisha from Flathead Living Magazine coming in sometime in the afternoon to talk about a small feature in the magazine.  Derek was making the price tags for all 11 participating galleries before the show opened at 1:00, between the two of us we had three hour long shifts over at the theater during the day, and then the real crowds started showing up for the 7:30 concert.  During the evening we were finishing four pieces that needed to be done by early Saturday morning.  Tear-down of the show was right after the concert ended.  I got home a little after 10:00.  This morning I felt like I had been run over by a truck.  Glad that is over!

Roast Beast

I changed my profile picture on Facebook in honor of my Paleo Challenge.  Today is day 12!

March Madness update

So today is day six of my Whole30.  Surprisingly, I find I have more energy all through the morning.  This is something I did not experience last fall when I did 30 days of Paleo.  I still think about the chocolate-covered pomegranates at Costco, but I haven't had any really wicked cravings.  So, all is good on the food front.  As far as exercise, I have only been on the treadmill once, but I am going again today.  I have high hopes for myself!  I am also thinking I will do some stuff at home, like a 5x5 shoulder press to overhead squat.  And when that gets too easy, I will up the weight and make it a push press.  This will be good, as long as Roxie stays out of the way.  Thirdly, I painted something I love.  Here it is:

Two more are in the works at home; I think one will have a lime green canvas and the other will be yellow.  Plus, I need to get crackin' on the pieces for the miniature show - it is next Friday.  So all in all, I have maintained at an acceptably high level the Big Three - diet, exercise, and art - for the first five days of the month of March.  This is a first for me.  We are breaking new ground here, people.  Woo hoo!

It's About Time

This show is opening today at the Art & History Museum down the street:

Here is my piece.  It is called, obviously, Time Flies.

Yep, that's a hand-tied fly, on a cork.  Eric Bjorge made them probably ten years ago.  We bought four intending to put them in tiny individual shadowboxes.  Never happened.  And the moulding I used here is leftover from a big corporate job we did at least six years ago.  It has long since been discontinued but I found some upstairs.  Waste not, want not, eh?

And ... an explanation

I wrote that poem a couple years ago based on a very vivid dream I had.  I remember driving somewhere (to work the next morning?) and pulling over twice to write it down.  Boom, there it was.  No revisions.

Behind Closed Eyes

I had been asleep for some time before realizing
Ubu, my cat, was astonishingly pregnant and in need of help.
My local EMT was there, wielding both a small knife and
a disconcerting air of nonchalance.
In my hands the cat's body had miraculously transformed into a white plastic squeeze bottle and,
"Cut here," I said,
"on the seam of the label where it won't hurt as much."
But no.
Slash.  Slash.  Like a V.
Out they came, not moving,
looking like nothing more than Petit Fours composed of layers of raw meat and white bread.
I nudged one with a finger and it moved, as if pulled by a string,
toward my once more black and furry cat who cleverly cleaned them all
down to the size and shape of ladybugs.

Why does my subconscious mind not find this strange?

And why do I remember it with unbelievable clarity when
other dreams merely play in the background, like a radio left on in another room?

What lesson is here I need to know?
Is it that things are not how they appear,
or merely an acknowledgment of the absurdity lurking just below the surface.
Behind closed eyes.

March Madness

No, this post is not about basketball.

There are three parts to my life that are critical for my emotional well-being and it seems, based on many past experiences, that I am not able to maintain at a high standard more than one of those parts at a time.  Case in point:  a few months ago I finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up, and I started painting things of which I am very proud, and I started a blog to yap about it all.  This is good.  However, at about the same time, my commitment to exercise became fairly nonexistent, and I started eating my weight in bad carbs every day.  This is bad.  Very bad.  I have many times attempted a multi-faceted "fix" but it has never worked.  In March I am going to try again.  This is madness.

First is food.  Here is my nutrition philosophy, cleverly summed up by Uffe Ravinskov, MD, PhD:

"Everyone must gain the truth in an active way.  If you want to know something you must look at all the premises yourself, listen to all the arguments yourself, and then decide for yourself what seems to be the most likely answer.  You may easily be led astray if you ask the authorities to do this work for you."

So I did all my research, and I know what I want to be eating and why, yet I can't get myself to do it.  I have been packing away cookies like there is no tomorrow, knowing all the while that SUGAR IS EVIL.  This I am fixing in March by following the Whole 30 plan.  I actually started yesterday so today, March 1st, is day two.  Check this link for more info.: http://whole9life.com/2010/12/whole30-2011/.

Next up in the Big Three is exercise.  Here is my exercise philosophy, cleverly summed up by me:  I am happiest when I feel good about myself, and I feel the best about myself when I work out a lot.  So -- no brainer, right?  I even set what, at the time, was a very attainable goal:  run 1,000 miles this year.  Then I quit working out altogether.  I had all kinds of excuses, good ones, bad ones, stupid ones, you name it.  March is going to be the month I get my shit together again.  Crossfit is still on hold because it is costing me a FORTUNE driving to Kalispell four times a week, but I am becoming reacquainted with the treadmill starting today.

Last, but certainly not least, is my creative outlet.  I've already got this one figured out - the trick will be to keep it going.  And I am working on something new that so far appears to be halfway decent.  This is good.  I am also finishing a project for a show at the Art Center this week, getting some pieces ready for a one-day group miniature show on the 11th (more on that later) and I need to paint a piece before the 19th to submit to another miniature show.  If this blog suddenly turns into strictly an exercise log, or a food diary, you will know I am struggling with my juggling (heh heh - that was funny).

March Madness.  Bring it.