I was actually on time for once, but couldn’t remember how to get where I was going so I plugged my GPS into one of the outlets in my car. When I pulled it back out to move it to another outlet, the charger thingee seemed to explode, flying to pieces.
Using my key chain flashlight I found something that looked like a fuse, and a spidery silvery thing that seemed to fit atop the cylinder but everything else was missing. I searched the floor and the seats but it was dark, getting late and I had to go.
I quickly checked the GPS to see the route from Highway 80 to 580 to 24 to the Claremont Exit. Then I turned it off, saving the last bit of battery for it to guide me on the final confusing steps around the one-way streets that would take me to my destination, where I arrived, late as usual.
Buying a new charger unit would be expensive because it has a built-in traffic receiver. So the next day I searched my car again and found two missing pieces in one of the many storage compartments, and another two pieces hiding on the floor (easier to see in the daylight).
Amazingly, for spatially-challenged me, I figured out how to put it all back together. And even more amazing: it still works!
Berkeley, California is known as a nutty town, and this morning even the wildlife seemed wacky. I don’t usually post photos, but just couldn’t resist sharing these pictures from this morning’s after-breakfast walk in the hilly neighborhood above Berkeley’s “Gourmet Ghetto.” This deer couple above were camped out in a secluded front yard. One had a strange floppy tongue, retracted only when she chewed an itch.
OCD Bird
This bird was stuck in a loop of peering into the mirror of a parked car, attacking his image, jumping atop the mirror, and then coming back to see if the bird was still there, and attacking it again. I tried to shoo him away, but he started the loop again when I walked away. Do birds get OCD?
Chickens on a log
These chickens had a huge yard to themselves but gathered together in one tiny corner, all trying to all perch on the same chunk of log. Makes you wonder about how important “free range” really is to chickens.
Catwalk (see below)
And then there are the people. These neighbors built a second story bridge between their two houses for their cats. (above and below)
Cat crossing between two houses
And these humble homeowners hung this on their modest bungalow in a neighborhood where even a 3-room shack is worth half a million dollars.
Happy Hovel
And then there were the bird lovers…
For Birds
…and goose lovers…
Window Goose (I hope it's plastic!)
and Monkey madness and…
Surprised Monkey garage ornament
and just plain madness…
Australia: One hour time limit
That’s a dismantled parking meter below the Australia sign. Their whole front yard was filled with similar flotsam and jetsam.
Welcome to Berkeley
Of course I would have preferred to sketch these sights, but I was walking with a non-sketching friend whose patience was already tried by my taking photos, let alone stopping to sketch. And now I’m even further behind posting all the sketches and paintings I’ve been working on.
Just a few recent sketches on our subway system, BART, that I ride twice a week, in a 13 minute ride to the office. (I work from home 2 days a week and in the office 2 days a week).
Late for Work Again
It seems so decadent to be sketching while really late for work. Fortunately I make my own schedule and can stay later to make up the time and get everything done. I usually work from 10-6 so at 10:40 on BART I was really late!
Late for Work Again!
What can I say? Being late seems to be a common theme. I like to take my time in the morning and not rush and given my slim grasp on time to begin with, it’s easy to get late. I’ve vowed to mend my ways and start getting up earlier which seems to be the only solution. But then I need to go to bed earlier too. That’s harder.
Jerusalem Lemonade and Lentil Soup, ink & watercolor
Last Tuesday night we met at Zaki’s Kabob House in Albany for some delicious Mediterranean food and sketching. It was a cold rainy night but the restaurant was busy. Sonia had called ahead to confirm it would be OK for us to spend the evening there sketching. We were further encouraged by the bumper sticker on the door that said “Make Art Not War.”
Condiments & Empty Bread Basket
If you wonder why this sketch has a note saying “Paste Menu Here,” it’s because when I said I’d ruined the composition (pre-watercolor) by adding that glass on the right, Cathy said, “Just paste a piece of the menu over that spot.” I solved the problem by just not painting the glass and leaving the note instead.
Sonia and I painted at the table but Cathy didn’t like the dim restaurant lighting for painting so made many more sketches instead. I was happy that my colors turned out well despite not quite being able to see them while working.
Diners at Zakis
Usually when we’re sketching in cafes we are unable to avoid eavesdropping on nearby conversations, always a source of amusement or amazement at what people say in public. But shortly after we sat down, Ellen, a member of our plein air painting group, arrived to join her realtor for dinner at the next table. After some introductions, and passing around of sketchbooks (including an invitation by the realtor to show them in their office “gallery” which we declined), we returned to sketching while they dined and chatted.
It was odd eavesdropping on someone we knew. Cathy appreciated it though, since they were talking about sofabed shopping, and Cathy is in the market for one too.
In 1998 when the movie The Big Lebowski first came out, my father, who considered himself an intellectual, raved about this movie. So I went to see it on his recommendation but couldn’t figure out what he saw in it.
Now the star, Jeff Bridges, is in a new movie and people are again talking with great reverence about his role as “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski, which some critics rate in their top comedies of the past 25 years. My son even had this movie in his collection, so I borrowed it, thinking if its popularity spans that many generations, I should give it another chance.
I watched it. I still don’t get it. At the end, when “the stranger” (Sam Elliot) who begins the movie with his narration returns to the bowling alley for another sarsaparilla and concludes the narration, I decided to sketch him so at least I had something to show from spending two hours with these morons.
Is it a guy thing? Is this a movie that makes guys feel good because they’re not as bad of losers? Do people really think the Dude’s pothead approach to life known as “The Dude abides,” was worthy of worship (there is actually a church based on his character, called Dudeism)?
I loved the Coen Brothers’ movie Fargo (mostly because of Francis McDormand) but even she couldn’t save their most recent movie, Burn After Reading, which, after renting it accidentally, I thought had to be the most pointless movie I’ve ever seen.
If only the millions of dollars spent on making stupid movies (much of which goes to already obscenely wealthy movie stars) could be spent on feeding people, funding education, the arts, or making the world a better place.
Most of their decorative squash buddies had grown unsightly fuzz and gone off to the compost bin. But these three were still pretty and when I looked around for something to sketch last week, they cried out “Choose Me! Choose Me!” So I did.
I wanted to paint today. And I didn’t. I had a headache that wouldn’t go away and a bunch of boring, annoying chores to do. I had to return a jacket to Costco that was so wonderfully, fuzzy green but unfortunately, also oddly misshapen). The gas tank “empty” light in my car had been on for days (my least favorite chore, second only to dragging the trash cans out to the street, which I pay a neighbor boy to do).
I needed to go to Target for cat litter (and since Fiona only recently decided to start using the litter box again for ALL of her needs and not just some, I didn’t want to discourage her with a dirty box.) And I wanted to take a walk before the predicted week-long deluge of rain started.
So I sacrified a day in the studio that probably would have been a struggle anyway, feeling crummy as I did, and took off on a long walk to Radio Shack in Albany to buy new ear bud covers for my iPhone since one had disappeared.
Hints of tobacco and toilet?
On the way home, I stopped at Peet’s Coffee to sip and sketch. I saw this sign from across the room and thought “that can’t be right!” It was advertising their new coffee, Sumatra Blue Batak, claiming in fancy script that it was “Smooth and full-bodied” and had (what I thought I read) “…hints of tobacco and toilet…” . Huh!? I squinted and looked more closely and saw it said “hints of sweet tobacco and toffee” Even with the toffee though, I’m not sure I’d want to drink coffee that tasted like tobacco. Ick.
I completed all my errands, the headache is almost gone, and with Monday and Tuesday off, I still have two days to paint and enjoy being cozy in the studio while it rains.
Sorry to bore you with my stupid day and list of chores. Maybe I should have just posted the picture and then shut up?
My across-the-street neighbor Matthew is a building contractor who specializes in house shingling jobs (he shingled my house and did a beautiful job with many artistic flourishes). But right now he is working on his roof. I’m amazed at his strength and stamina. He was up there all day today, ripping off the old roof and putting up a new layer of wood, then tar paper. I could hear him up there hammering after it was dark.
He is so strong that a few months ago when I stupidly sped backwards out of my driveway right into his massive pickup truck that was parked where it usually isn’t, he fixed the big dent in the back of my car for me by pulling it out with his hands. (I hit his bumper which didn’t even get scratched.)
My sketch doesn’t do him justice–he was just cleaning up on Saturday evening when I sketched him. Today he worked from about 8:00 a.m. until after 8:00 p.m. , with nothing securing him to the roof or protecting him from the sun, wind, cold.
I find it astonishing to see how hard some people work and it makes me grateful for my comfortable desk job (although it’s not without discomfort either, as all that sitting is quite hard on the back). I’m sure Matthew would have trouble sympathizing though.
Home-made book press, ink, watercolor, gouache, stencil, hardware store ticket
I made a book press as part of the process of learning to bind my own sketchbook. This of course required a trip to the wonderful Pastime Hardware store. I was so excited that the ticket I pulled from the little red take-a-number thingee for the helpful hardware guy (or in this case gal) had both my initial and my birth month/”lucky” number on it so I saved it for posterity in my sketchbook. (I put quotes around “lucky” since the number has never actually been lucky for anything but I call it my lucky number anyway.)
Just like any project that requires tools, measuring, fractions, or spatial relations, building this simple press was not easy for me. First I had to saw the wood. I didn’t want to have to go to Home Depot (ick) to get someone to do it for me I had a piece of fake oak shelving I’d bought but hadn’t used.
So I used my funky little hand saw (that I bought when I became a home owner and thought I should have a basic set of tools in a toolbox “just in case”) to cut the shelf in half into two one0-foot square pieces. It took forever and my cut was wobbly, uneven and made a mess of the veneer.
Then I measured in from each corner one inch and drilled holes, guessing how big they should be. Unfortunately, since my cut wasn’t even, the holes didn’t line up right and they were too small. So when I assembled all the pieces the boards were all tilty and got stuck. I finally got it all apart again and redrilled the holes larger. This solved the problem and the press worked fine.
Like every step in the bookbinding process, I learned something valuable along the way. In this case I learned I should have clamped the two boards together and just drilled right through both of them to make the holes line up.
In my next post I’ll offer some resources for do-it-yourself bookbinding including the tips I learned from my mistakes.
Yesterday I was taking a walk from the art supply store (where I bought some bookbinding supplies for my first attempt to bind my own journal) to a tea shop on College Avenue in Oakland, when I saw this window display at a store called Bella Vita, whose tagline begins “Unexpected Inspiration…”
The display carried me away, especially the amazing yellow chiffon dress that inspired thoughts of everything from lemon meringue pie to Marilyn Monroe. I pictured myself in the dress, and wondered what kind of party I might be attending and who I would be if I were wearing that happy frock.
It was New Years eve day but my evening would not include flirting at parties in a heavenly yellow dress. I planned to spend the evening in the studio, reflecting on years coming and going while tearing and folding paper to begin my bookbinding project.
So as I gazed into the window I knew I had to sketch it. When I finished drawing I noticed their other window: equally imagination-inspiring outfits for little girls: a tutu, ruffly-necked tee-shirts, tiny cowboy boots and an embroidered Indian Kurta paired with ruffled leggings. Had to draw that window too.
Oh to be a little girl again! Ruffles and Cowboy Boots!
I looked up Bella Vita to make sure of the translation and landed on this page about the dangers of getting tattoos written in foreign languages:
Exercise caution when it comes to the popular Italian phrase “life is beautiful” which many people, including Lindsay Lohan, have been getting recently. “La vita e bella” is the correct translation, and even though it uses the same words, some people have been getting “la bella vita” which actually translates to “the beautiful life“, and is used in Italy to describe someone who is living a life of wealth, throwing parties and spending extravagant amounts of money. [oops!]
New Years Reflections
I was inspired by my friend Barbara who, in early retirement, has nearly mastered the Zen art of goal-lessness and learned to enjoy each day doing what pleases her, whether it’s making art, reading, gardening, cooking, hiking, or putting together a jigsaw puzzle. So instead of a list of my accomplishments (artistic or otherwise) in 2009 or a list of goals for 2010, here are my New Year’s Reflections from my journal, written at the end of my rather bumpy, grumpy, slumpy holiday vacation (so it’s a bit of a pep talk to myself).
When the time is your own, don’t ask “What should I do…” Ask: “What will make me happy?” It might be art making, playing, watching clouds float by, learning and challenging myself or doing things that aren’t fun but that will make me happy when I can enjoy the results. It’s my life and I get to pick.
I’ve moped over not getting done most of what I wanted to do in the studio over this two-week vacation. But the truth is, there will NEVER BE ENOUGH TIME to do it all. So instead of regretting what didn’t get done or worrying about not having enough time tomorrow, enjoy THIS precious moment.
Time is just an arbitrary construct. It’s useful. Without time, everything would happen all at once. This moment is fleeting. Live it and love it.
Buddhists say that attachment (wanting what you don’t or can’t have) is a cause of suffering. So don’t suffer: look around now at all the abundance and be grateful.
Winter is dark, but the days are getting longer. Soon it will be Spring and…. Oops, don’t long for spring, enjoy this precious, wintery day.
Are you enjoying NOW? Ask yourself what you need to enjoy it and then go after what you need: Acceptance? Gratitude? Courage? Action? Inaction? Knowledge? Rest? Help? Hugs?
Turn off the panel of critics and quit judging and comparing your work to others. The best work you can do is YOURS to do. It’s too late to ever be as good as so-and-so at this and that. Just be as good as YOU at what YOU do and keep getting better…and have fun getting there.
Pears on a Blue Plate, Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and gouache, 7x5"
In the week and half since I gave up sugar and Splenda, pears have become my new treat. Not only are they crispy, sweet and delicious but they come in such pretty colors too. This sketch is a celebration of their gifts.
But meanwhile, giving up coffee didn’t go as well….
Busby and the Coffee Buzz
After five days of feeling wiped out, depressed, listless and witless I couldn’t take it anymore and finally had half a cup of coffee. That’s all it took: within a few minutes I was back to my old inspired self again and the blues were gone. Yay!
Maybe I’ll try to quit caffeine when I’m retired in a few years, but for now, each day is too precious to spend feeling like a zombie.
Jana Bouc, Artist 