The Super Foamerator!!

This is a super foamerator. If you were to graph the slope of a line (rise over run) that represents this project, with the x axis representing the work involved in doing it, and the y axis representing the fun involved , it would be a pretty steep slope, which is a great thing. It would look like this: Not much work; whole lot of fun! Ideally, all experiences would be graphed with a completely vertical line, meaning there is NO work involved and an INFINATE amount of fun.... but as you might recall from your geometry lessons, this is impossible because in that case, x would equal zero, and no number on the y axis can be divided by zero, deeming the slope of the line "undefined". But what I am trying to say is that, this project is worth doing.


First you take an empty plastic bottle. Then you cut of the bottom half. Then you rubber band a washcloth to the bottom of the bottle. Ta da! You've made a super foamerator and are ready to have some fun!! Dip the cloth end of the bottle into soapy water and then blow. If it's not a very windy day, you can make some really long foam snakes. But yesterday, it was really windy and so all of our foam was flying off into the sky, which was kind of fun too!

SO, How Did It Go?

So, the Art Curator, audition-like thing... it went good, I think... maybe... I'm not sure... but I think OK.

I wasn't so nervous until I got there, and realized that not all the art curators were as light hearted and casual as I had expected them to be. They were wearing sweater vest, and glasses low on their noses that they would peer over as they looked at me. They reminded me of my art history professors, and even though it's only been about 10 years since I've been in college, I thought that those sorts of pretentious artsy people had stopped existing... or at least moved to New York by now.

I hadn't mentally prepared myself to put on my serious face. I hadn't practiced any big words. I hadn't worn high heels. And, I had made them all buttons. Yeah... buttons- like the kind you pin on your shirt. Cause I thought that would be cool... and awesome... until I got there.

I might have given a few wrong answers. Like when they asked about the price range of my paintings, I said "well, I guess it depends on the amount of commission that the curator is taking"... which was obviously a very wrong answer to give as I saw the disgust on all their faces. Then they explained that that sort of price changing is not allowed... stupid me... I should have known.

But one of them seemed to like me alright, and may be willing to work with me and all my foolishness. I was supposed to hear from her yesterday, but I did not... and I am hoping that's not a bad sign. I'll be checking my email frequently today... like every 3 minutes.

Oh, and the painting at the top. I squeezed it in... getting up at 6 am the day of the critique to finish it. I always have this mentality about my art that says "the next painting is going to be the good one". So I was determined to get that "next painting" in before it counted. But now I've got a new "next painting" in my head.

Three More Paintings...

These are two of the four paintings of Sea Creatures that are hanging at "Strings" restaurant for the next couple month. Sales of the Octopus will benefit the Cunningham Foundation. Sales of the Lionfish will benefit me.

And, this, is the first product of my trip to Baltimore. It is entitled "Off Limits". It's actually pretty large (3'X4') and that's why it took so long.

Also, I just got word that I will be able to be seen, on Saturday, by four Denver art curators. They will review my work, and decide whether they like me or not. If they DO like me, then they will decide to further my art career by hanging my stuff up somewhere.
Not sure if this is a big deal.
Not sure if I should be super nervous.
Not sure what I should wear.

It's a Beautiful Life...

Right now, Roxanne has kindergarten three days a week. On the other two days, she is home with me while Rocket is at school. I think she really likes that time. Yesterday, I bought her a bucket of sidewalk chalk at the grocery store, and thought that maybe it would entertain her while I got some things done. Ofcourse, she talked me into doing it with her, as she commonly does, because it's not too hard. So I drew butterfly wings and she drew lots of other butterflies and hearts and what not. Then I took a pic of her acting like a butterfly and I posted it on Facebook. People really really really liked it. I got 24 comments on it!! I've never got that many comments on a picture before, and Roxanne and I really liked reading them all. Roxanne immediately started thinking of what new thing we could do next time and then post on the internet.
Next year, when she is in school full time, I will probably be more productive. My Etsy site will probably be more profitable, and I will probably be able to get my paintings more in order. Maybe I will be in better shape too, cause I'll have more time to exercise. But there will be a little less magic around... I will probably miss the unexpected playful projects and adventures that we often encounter. I will probably laugh a lot less during the day too- right now Roxanne loves to do silly things to try to make me laugh. When she's not around, I'll probably realize what a blessing she has been to me- such a joyful, artistic little bundle of color, smiles, and love. What did I do to deserve that?!
However, spending just a little bit of time doing chalk art reminded me how fun it really is- such an easy medium to work with. This motivated me to go ahead and submit an application to the Denver Chalk Art Festival, which I did later in the afternoon. SO, on the flip side of things, playing around with Roxanne can actually have potentially productive side effects.
Also, here is a picture from Rocket's birthday on Tuesday. I don't have many pictures because I wasn't there for most of it- Matt took Rocket and his best friend, Shane, to a Rockies game. But we met before hand at Cici's pizza to give him his gifts and everything. This is a picture I took there:Haha!!! I love my dorky kids!! And Matt took this picture of Rocket at the game with his phone:
Geeze, I can't believe I have an EIGHT year old! That's half way to being able to drive a car!
Oh yeah, and I also can't believe I even care about this but.... The Rockies won! YES!

SHhhhh! Don't Tell!!

This is what we're giving Rocket for his 8th birthday tomorrow:

Baseballs, baseball books, baseball cards, baseball games, and baseball tickets....

Can you tell what's on Rocket's mind lately? It may seem that things haven't changed a lot since last year. But, maybe it's just that Rocket's birthday and the opening day of the baseball season happen to land in the same month- so we may be giving him the same genre of birthday gifts for the rest of his life.

Spring Break

When I got back from Baltimore, I joined the kids in their two week spring break off of school. I can’t say I look forward to having the kids home with me all day, because the lack of productivity that it causes gives me some anxiety. But, I sure do love to spend time with them finding ways to enrich their minds and finding adventures to go on. This is a list of the things we did on their spring break. They go back to school on Monday (phew).

• We babysat Teddy (my mom’s dog). Friday enjoyed Teddy more than anyone else did. But the kids enjoyed the $10 each that they got from my mom for taking good care of her dog (and his poo).
• Roxanne spent her $10 on a guitar to replace the one she destroyed one day when she was angry and smashed it against the wall.
• We discovered Washington Park, which had the best climbing tree I’ve seen in a long time. Well, Rocket thought it was a good climbing tree… Roxanne thought it was a good guitar playing tree, but I told her to stop playing and singing after a while, because I was embarrassed.
• We discovered Lollicup, where we ordered three “snow bubbles with boba”. If you live in Denver, you should go there once. It’s a really fun place with lots of Hello Kitty and other brightly colored Chinese looking creatures and fun games to play too. The kids found out that they REALLY like to play Connect Four.
• We went to target and Rocket spent his $10 to buy Connect Four so that they can play ALL the time now. Out of 100 games played, Rocket has won 100, and Roxanne has won 0.
• We got to see Corinna officially/legally join the Bennett family, by going to court to witness her adoption process. I was so happy that the kids were lucky enough to witness a family be joined in this way.

• We went to see Alice in Wonderland.
• We made a playdough wonderland… inspired by Alice in Wonderland.
• Rocket and I went to Body Worlds. Ever since I went to Body Worlds in Florida, I knew Rocket would love to see it. Since it finally came to Colorado, I decided to take him. We went on Good Friday. I pondered the wonder it is to experience the intricate workings of life through the death of another person (and through plastination) and how that parallels the meaning behind Good Friday. We have been discussing it ever since, primarily talking about how we hope to never have a brain hemorrhage.
• We played with cousins, a lot.

• We dyed eggs for Easter, which is tomorrow. Last year, when I saw on Cassie’s blog that she had dyed Easter eggs using silk ties, I decided I wanted to remember to do it the next year. Oddly, it seems I was reading about it only a few months ago, but I guess that just means this year really flew by. Here are the instructions on how to do it. I decided to use stretchy bandage wrap (the kind they wrap on your arm after they draw blood) and that really helped to keep the silk laying flat against the egg. Otherwise, it comes out with a lot of white spots.
• And we celebrated Easter by attending a church, spending time with family, and trying to look sharp.

A Trip To Baltimore

I can't believe two weeks have past since I went to Baltimore! It was a fantastic trip- a true adventure. I don't think I'd ever been to the east coast before except for Florida, if that counts. Meeting with Jason went better than I could have expected, and I am so inspired to start painting him from the photos that I took. The only problem is that I have an unfinished project that is due in a couple of weeks, and needs time to dry since I did it in oils (oil paint doesn't allow for procrastination).

The week before the trip I worked on this banner:
I gave it to Jason as a way to thank him for helping me with my artwork. He is going to use it at tattoo and body modification conventions that he participates in. It's about 7 feet long.

Jason showed Luke and I around downtown Baltimore and the harbor area, which was fantastic because I was able to take pictures and get a tour of the city at the same time. We also got to talk a lot as we walked, which I really enjoyed because before going down there, he knew I wanted to take pictures of him, but there was no guarantee that he would want to share anything with me, or even be friendly for that matter. But getting to hear his take on unique bodies and deformation was really fascinating for me, even if it didn't really play into the art I would create from it. It was encouraging to hear from someone who sees things the same way I do. At one time he said something like, "I don't really need to paint, because I am a walking piece of artwork". Uh, yeah- like a really freakin awesome piece of artwork!!


This is just kindof funny. We walked by a store that had a group of model penguins in the window. He yelled out "My family!!!", because his stage name when he performs is "penguin boy". I do believe he enjoys making a scene.


Other highlights of our trip: I made sure to try out some Baltimore crab cakes (which I wasn't impressed with). I found a Goodwill (I try to do that when I go out of town), and got a new pair of shoes. Luke found an Asian market and bought us some "Hello Panda" cookies, which brought back childhood memories from living in Hong Kong. Oh man, they're so good.

Also, during a layover in the airport, we saw a lady with a custom made suitcase with what appeared to be a picture of her grandchild on it. Luke and I brainstormed about random images we could have made into a custom suitcase that would make people scratch their heads when they saw us walking through an airport with it. I think our best idea was a picture of penguin boy.

Stay tuned for paintings of Jason! But first, I have to finish a painting of a shrimp.... which seems torturously boring in comparison.