An Experimental Phase

I wish I didn't have art ADD.  I'm having all kinds of half baked ideas and I've got all kinds of half finished projects, which means I've got nothing to show for the last couple of weeks.  Except a bunch of new paint in yummy colors, a secondary studio set up in my other bathroom, a new digital kitchen scale, and not a damn single level surface in this house.  Which is truly a shame.  All of this shall remain one of life's great mysteries until I have a finished piece and much to my dismay, these projects require loads of drying time.  As an instant gratification person, I like to see my finished pieces NOW OR SOONER so waiting is hard.  In the meantime, I whipped up Moon Flower - Midnight.

There's a bright red one coming next.  I am mildly obsessed.

One of my experimental projects is at the I-could-wreck-it-at-any-moment phase so I'm afraid to take the next step.  I keep standing in front of my table looking at it, and that's all I can do.  Note to self: do not get attached to a piece in the early stages.

In other news, Roxie has developed a lump on her tail.  I think it's new - every day when I get home from work she meets me in the kitchen with her tail going a thousand miles a minute.  I hold on to it so she doesn't whack Rabbit in the face, and I just felt this bump on Thursday.  We are putting out positive vibes to the universe that it's nothing special but there's a doctor visit in her near future just in case.  I think Rabbit also has a weird bump on her leg.  Or maybe it's a strangely shaped muscle. She goes back in for her lyme shot booster in a week so I will ask about it then.  I have bumpy dogs. Right now Roxie is sitting on the couch next to me whining.  She's looking at me like I should know what she's saying.  My guess:  please give me that extra treat I know you have in your pocket.

...

Nope, that wasn't it.

Bite More, Bite Less

I painted something to represent the beginning of the new year:

Yep, it's a big fat mess.  That's how last year ended and this year began.  The short story is I spent a little quality time at the ER on New Year's Eve with a mysterious ailment I had self-diagnosed on December 26th as a pinched nerve.  It got bad, then it got better, then it got BAD.  Thank goodness my mom was visiting when it got BAD because she drove me to the hospital.  On my own I would have been screwed - I might have been able to coast out of my driveway in neutral but there's no way I could have gotten from 2nd to 3rd gear.  So, an arm sling and a short course of prednisone later and all is well but it was dicey for a few days.  These things only happen to me when there is a puppy around.  A couple of months after Roxie adopted me over six years ago I had a similar ailment, only that time it was my back.  This time it was my right arm.  I have been informed by the chiro that the obvious solution is no more puppies.  Doh.

Moving on to other things, once I had use of my arm again I wanted to test a couple new paint colors and we ended up with this wee 5" x 7" Mountain Moon:

Now, here's the weird thing.  This was fresh on the the table, it wasn't finished yet, I still had palette knife in hand, and the phone rang.  I answered because it was someone I wanted to talk to, and in that conversation I found out about another friend who is (hopefully) starting a new job that involves lots of night driving.  And then the next day on my way home from work, the moon looked HUGE AND MAJESTIC, just like it is trying to be in this little painting.  Mountain Moon.  I saw the future and foretold it in paint.  Heh heh.  I wish I had a better picture - all the paint is pearl or interference except the white snow.

In conclusion:

Rabbit goes to work with me most days and behaves herself to the best of her ability.  I have discovered she likes to eat cardboard.  At home we have finally turned a corner and Roxie has been spending time in the same room with the little freak.

Here are my girls with their grandmother.  They play pretty hard (the dogs, not my mom) and Roxie lets Rabbit get away with murder so I'm trying to teach them both important lessons:  Roxie needs to bite Rabbit's head off when she gets pissed, and Rabbit needs to stop biting Roxie's ankles and arm pits and ears and throat.  One needs to bite more and one needs to bite less.  Easy....