Uncomfortable situations

Then we stayed in Venice beach for the Venice beach freakshow. I was super excited about this. My mom.... not so much.





This is me.





This is too.





This little doggy had an extra paw. He didn't like people stepping behind the counter. I wish Friday had an extra paw.





This is conjoined bearded dragons!





This is conjoined turtles!





There was a mirror behind that curtain.





Look! Wolf boy and antler girl! His real name was Larry Gomez and he has a condition that causes his face to be covered in hair. He was a nice man and normally lives in Riverside, which is where we're headed tomorrow.





My mom said that this place made her uncomfortable and she got very grumpy. She says she didn't but she did. So we left. But later on, she took me to someplace that made me uncomfortable and grumpy- so we're even now.
This is how it happened- I wanted to find the Hollywood sign, because when I talked to Roxanne this morning and told her I was in Hollywood she said "do you see the sign?!", so I thought it would be cool to find the sign and take a picture. I also had heard of a place called The Garden of Oz that was supposed to be near there that would be cool to see.
We drove to the area and could see the sign from a distance, but wanted to get closer. We started driving up the mountain and found the Garden of Oz, but it was locked. I took a picture through the gate:





But as we drove further up there was lots of signs saying "NO TOURISTS!" and "STOP TRYING TO FIND THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN!" and "GO AWAY" and whatnot. And there were lots of houses that i think belong to rich movie stars. But then we saw an "open house" sign for a newly built house. My mom wanted to go in but I felt scared and uncomfortable about it- probably how she felt at Venice beach. But I went in with her anyways. I thought maybe the realtor would say "you're not interested in buying this house are you?! You're just a tourist! Get out!" He didn't say that but I could tell he was thinking it. This is a picture taken from behind the pool:





Then we went in the backyard- and from there you can see the Hollywood sign. My mom took my picture:






I look scared because I was scared the realtor was going to come out back, and then we would have been totally caught red handed... taking a picture with the Hollywood sign- only tourists do that.
The house was 2.8 million dollars. I'll think about it...

Mosaic Tile House

Our first stop today was the mosaic tile house in Venice beach. I found this house online and emailed the owners to ask if they would kindly let stop by to see it. And they said yes. It was truly amazing and pictures can't really show how beautiful it was. But I took pictures anyways. Here they are.


This is Cheri- the wife, artist, and tile maker.


This is Gonzalo- the husband, artist, and tile breaker.


















This is Lori (again, along for the ride today) standing behind one of the gates in the front courtyard.



The art studio in the back of their house actually had white walls. All of their artwork depicts a love story between the two of them. The wall above is dedicated to portraits of Gonzalo painted by Cheri. His artwork, too, is all about his obsession with her. Two artists totally obsessed with each other- beautiful.

Stinking Rose and figueroa

We had dinner at "The Stinking Rose", a restaurant where you wear giant garlic on your head...





and pick a giant nose....





This is at our hotel:





I like our big blue closet:





Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:W Olympic Blvd,Los Angeles,United States

Watts Towers

Most lists of the best outsider art environments include Watts Towers. That's why it was one of our first stops after arriving in LAX. By the way, I am in LA with my mom. She is here for business next week (and to be dragged around by me before then). We also picked up Lori, a friend from Denver who happens to be in LA too, and then we all headed for Watts district. Notorious for being a "bad" area of town, Watts didn't seem to bad to me.


This is me next to a little guy- Simon Rodia, who was the artist of the towers. Supposedly the cardboard cutout of him is an actual life size depiction. He makes me look big.


He created the towers out of rebar, coat hangers, concrete and broken discarded glass. No nails, no bolts, no soldering. The tallest tower is 99.5 feet tall because the city at the time required that no structure be more than 100ft.


This is considered an "outsider art environment" because Rodia had no art training and made no money off of his work. A theme I am beginning to notice among the outsider artists is their use of trash as an art medium. They don't shop at the typical art store. I think this is why I am drawn to the outsider's art- become it takes something discarded, unwanted and broken and combines it with other items of it's kind to create something beautiful. That has a powerful symbolic message pertaining to God and people.





This is the view from down the street- a regular residential area. Many of the neighbors' homes included murals and mosaics leading me to wander if Rodia's visionary art inspired those around him.

I don't feel like this blog post was very good.


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

HELLO??

Hello, hello.
Testing testing. Is this thing on? Can you hear me?

So, I've had the thought of coming back to my blog for a while now. I was going to say I've been thinking about coming back for about a year now, but then I saw that it's actually been less than a year since I left. The main thing that has kept me from coming back is THIS post- the "oh I'm back" post. Like maybe I should apologize for leaving in the first place... but I'm not sorry. And I didn't want to have to post an update on everything that happened in the past however months I've been gone. Because there's been a lot of cool stuff that happened. There's been many a times in the past year when I was like "man, I wish I could post about this on my blog". But I didn't want to have to do the "i'm back" post first, so I just didn't do it at all.

So why did I decide to finally do it now? Well, I'm going to California tomorrow. SO excited for this trip!! When I went to Europe with Jodi, I created a blog just for the trip- "googly eyes on french fries". And I don't want to go to California without being able to blog about it. I feel that in order to get the most out of all the effort and money that's been put into making this trip happen, I'd better blog about it. And creating a new blog, just so I don't have to do an "i'm back" post on this blog is taking the easy way out... I don't want to do that. And besides, life really did seem more fulfilling when I had a blog to show for it- even if I couldn't exactly blog about everything in my life.

I'm excited and nervous for this trip. Excited because I'm going to see a bunch of outsider art environments that I've been researching and dreaming of seeing for a long time now. Nervous because I feel like I'm taking fate into my own hands... which is dangerous... I think. I was trying to explain this feeling to a friend yesterday, and I said that if I had won a trip to California, I would feel like God had destined it to happen and that would make me feel secure about going- like it was meant to happen. Then that friend responded by saying that the only time she had ever been to California was when her daughter won a coloring contest and was awarded a trip to California. That had to be God. I must subconsciously think that God only works through contest prizes. When I was in Scotland with Jodi, I won a couple hundred dollars in tattoo work. Never would have I normally thought that getting a tattoo while on vacation was a good idea. But since I WON the tattoo, I felt like it was a sign. So I got a heart tattooed on my ring finger. I'm not sure if I'm happy about that decision... I also had been drinking when I made the decision. But why would have God let me win tattoo gift certificates if he didn't want me to get a tattoo? And if I was REALLY supposed to be going to California, why wouldn't he arrange for me to win a trip there? But the tickets been bought, and unless God intervenes, I'll be on the planE tomorrow.
(This is me in Edinborough, about to get a tattoo)

Although I'm back to blogging, I feel it's important to say that I'm not going to put any pressure on myself. There will be absolutely no standard of quality for my posts. None. They don't have to make any sense. Or be entertaining. Or look nice. Don't let me know when theres a missing apostrophe. Especially because I plan on doing a lot of it from my phone- I'll have to when I'm out of town.

The End

This blog has been suspended until further notice.

The Boy with a Fancy Bowtie

This is the latest painting I finished. I pushed it get it done earlier so that I could submit it along with the painting of Roxanne's with her face painted to the candle art show- I participated in the candle art show last year too, and it was really fun because all of the artwork that is displayed is also reprinted onto glass religious candles. I didn't intend for him to look sad in the picture. I just didn't want another obnoxious show off face- I thought a candid, vulnerable expression was more endearing and contrasted the personality the paint on his face seems to imply.
I've been hooked on listening to "This American Life" episodes while I paint. It's a free podcast and through my iphone, I can select to listen to any episode ever by browsing through the topics list. My favorite episodes so far are "20 acts in 60 minutes", "Fear of Sleep", "Pray", and particularly "Testosterone" which I, coincidentally listened to while painting this picture. The show revealed how testosterone effects the core of who people are by interviewing someone who suddenly lost all testosterone and a separate someone who suddenly tripled their testosterone. They were super interesting stories, and I couldn't help but nod my head as I painted and thought of how accurately they described the symptoms of boyness and how precisely Rocket embodies those traits. He's competitive, arrogant, obnoxious, ambitious, and loud. But every now and then I am able to see into the crevice of a tiny crack in the facade of testosterone, and within that tiny gap, I see a glimmer of vulnerability and tenderness that I really don't think anyone but me, as his mother, is able to see. I wanted to capture that part of him. As the radio program continued, I learned that as time goes on and he gets older, even I will probably lose the privilege of seeing that. That sort of makes me sad, but I think I will always know that even if he doesn't let me see it anymore, it's still there.
As far as the face painting goes, everything on his face was his own idea. He said he wanted to make himself into a "half woman half man". So the mustache, beard and bowtie are the man aspects. The lipstick, eyelashes and eyeshadow are the woman aspects. He thought this idea was extremely hilarious. Then he posed proudly for me to take his picture, making all sorts of goofy, obnoxious faces. Then I said "hold on a sec" while I reviewed the pics I'd taken on my LCD screen. That's when he stopped posing momentarily and looked down into his lap as he waited for me- which is when I quickly snapped the picture that I used as a reference for this painting.