Jana Bouc, Artist

A week into my birthday month, at a time when I'm normally revelling in being a happy birthday brat, I'm still fighting a month-long evil cough and cold. Therefore, as Queen of the Month of June I hereby declare that being sick is entirely and completely unacceptable any longer and proclaim that upon awakening tomorrow, all signs of illness shall be gone. Also banished shall be all medicine bottles (even that yummy codeine cough syrup), pills, nose sprays, cough drops, kleenex, jars of vap-o-rub, trips to the doctor, antibiotics, herbal remedies, folk remedies, thermometers, and flannel jammies.

I painted this little medicine bottle sitting on the cigar box (the bottle was sitting, not me) I use to hold erasers and prop up my drawing board. The technique for painting the patterns (circles at top and designs on cigar box) is something I learned from Judy Morris–they're first painted with latex house paint matched to the color of my Arches watercolor paper and then painted over with watercolor.

I woke up looking forward to folding laundry this morning. I like waking up with a simple task to start the day…laundry, washing dishes, scooping the cat litter. It gives me a chance to enter the day slowly with purpose rather than jumping up and rushing around. I have this cool gadget (I love gadgets) called a "Flip Folder" that folds shirts into a nice smooth square. I love the way the pile of t-shirts looks afterwards, like a vertical rainbow. Enjoying the aesthetics of a pile of colored shirts reminds me of an art teacher who told me that when she was had a baby and couldn't paint, she made art from her colored dryer lint. I wonder if she washed separate loads for each color so she'd have a nice palette.

Here's a picture of my "FlipFold".