cat party

Finnegan is the athletic fellow perched up in the sunlight and Larry is the huskier guy on the ground. If you think, "Oh man, that doesn't look like a cat at all, that looks like a WALRUS," I can assure you that that is indeed how he really looks. To prove it:

And here he is, trying to get in on the action:

Stuff

So, I ransacked the house.
Ten years, two dorm rooms, five apartments, one townhouse, four states, one District, eleven roommates, one domestic partner (now fiance). These are the things that made the journey, were packed and unpacked each time, hauled in boxes, shipped, opened, set up, put away, everytime, all the way to here:

20 things:
- a necklace made of Czech glass
- a picture of my dad and me at the Denver City Open
- four VHS tapes: (The Princess Bride, Dazed and Confused, White Christmas, Mixed Nuts)
- a picture of my mom and Hobie at the Clam Lake Lodge
- my heart-shaped locket of my friend Erik who passed away at the end of our freshman year of high school
- blue glass bulb earrings I wore for my high school graduation and engagement photos
- a terrible blue tank top
- a tea cup with my name on it, made by Mary Sharpe Davis in Albuquerque
- my senior yearbook
- a photo of my high school friends, taken the night we took over Butterfield's cabin
- my senior prom dress (which I wore around the house this morning)
- an inappropriately short dress I wore one time in high school
- my mom's old white satin pyjamas
- hemp adidas I ordered out of the back of Rolling Stone when I was 16
- my old passport (amazing bangs)
- my bear
- a nice hairbrush
- my softball mit, used regularly now for the first time in ten years (four nights a week!)
- the quilt my grandma made for my high school graduation
- Grunt, our underground newspaper from middle school, which got me in soooooo much trouble

28 Compact discs:
I won't name them all, mostly out of embarrassment, but highlights include:
- Tori Amos, Little Earthquakes, the first cd I ever purchased
- Arrested Development, one of my all time favorites to this day
- Garth Brooks Live, which I listened to today while painting and found surprisingly AWESOME
- Weezer, the blue album, probably the most listened to of that era
- like, four Aerosmith cds
- a complimentary cd called Zima Cuts from a case of Zima procured for a party
- Mazzy Star, So Tonight that We Might See, which I used to fall asleep to, and while awake I would light candles and feel deep

What have you carried along the way?

This one goes out to my more transient friends, those in their late twenties, currently finding themselves in their tenth apartment in ten years...
What objects have come along on your entire journey? I'm not talking the usual emotional baggage, but the physical kind. Since the day you left home for college or other adventures, what things have you carried along the way? What items have made it this far, carried in boxes from state to state and town to town and dorm to house, since 1998?
I'm looking - I'll be back later.

limited palette

One of Sara's suggestions:
"Limited palette - use only alizarine crimson, cadmium yellow, viridian green and white. Make a "full" spectrum painting using only these colors."

Then it seemed like it needed more weight...
and I'm sort of liking it, but hoping it doesn't remind everyone else of enchiladas - or a wookie village.
Thoughts?

argh.

So far, this has been my hardest day. Can't figure out what to paint. Everything seems so cliche. Aren't you grateful you've taken the time to read this post?

white on white is alright

I went wedding dress shopping in New York City, Denver, and Sacramento a few months ago, and with my army of consultants tried on at least fifty dresses. Today I drew every single one I could remember trying on and made this little painting using almost only Titanium White. My Dress, as well as the two runners up (those most inciting buyer's remorse) all make appearances.

Taking photos of this painting is difficult! My kindly neighbor Mike offered up his digital camera after I was struggling on the ground with my stupid cell phone, defending the painting from cats and bunnies. Thanks, Mike! Here are two other photos:

white, ivory, champagne

Sara suggested I work on a piece using mostly white paint, and different tints of white. Well, when I think white right now, I can't help but focus on the one million wedding dresses I tried on about two months ago. So I'm painting these one million wedding dresses, in every shape (mostly gawdawful, by the way) and every hue of white.

(Wow, this is a horrible photo! Will try for a better one later....)