The Artistic Chicken

2011-07-07T01:31:00.000-07:00

The photographer Alexander Zabara kindly allowed me permission to use one of his images for this painting, if you like dancing and photography you will love his site

2011-07-07T01:25:00.000-07:00

move on up towards your destination

2011-02-14T22:53:00.000-08:00

I've realized that over that past 6-8 months, I'm less inclined to take Dimitri out by myself. We do still go out, but at the same time, I've also been taking the "easier" option of staying in more.

And we find things to do at home, but it can get a bit monotonous... There are not that many people in our lives, socially, it's a very small world. This is not all to do with Dimitri or Angelman Syndrome, I do ~~most~~ a lot of my socializing on-line (I've seen studies about the danger of the internet for adolescents - they don't mention 40something women?). To be quite frank, I did plenty of socializing when younger and now prefer my home comforts, and good book, dubious TV series' involving obnoxious doctors or anthropologists and the occasional sci-fi extravaganza. Plus some music to dance around the house to (Curtis Mayfield maybe?)

But it can also be difficult getting out and about with Dimitri. After 3yrs of trekking back and forth by metro and bus at Dimitri's previous day centre, I was left feeling a little burnt out. At the time I approached the travelling with calm and patience a generally took the attitude of, "no rush, be flexible,we'll get where we are going to eventually". But I think it did take it's toll in the end.

it takes sometime and persuasion to get past this window

Yeah yeah, I need to learn to drive and then find the funds for a second car and all the stuff required to keep it on the road.

still at the window

Anyway, back to my hesitancy towards leaving the house. Plus, I'm out of practice at socializing, this means when I do socialize I find it exhausting, which puts me of going out in the first place (I am not a social butterfly obviously) . These things take practice! Dimitri also needs the practice, and, the opportunity for himself to decide whether he wants to be social or not....bad parent.

As luck would have it, I seem to be moving into "a new phase" in the "accepting disability" thing (personally don't believe these phases have a "beginning" and "end", it's much more complex than that, none of us live in a vacuum). I feel my attachment to the computer waining, the need to keep up with research, therapies and to a lesser extent my big Angelman Syndrome family, is less. The idea of doing something normal , whatever that is, is what is on my mind. It's kind of late in the game to start building up a real-live social network though?

keeping an eye on the road

Now, I'm wondering what are the practical steps I can take to re-enter the ~~real~~ rest of the world? (of course by next week I may have changed my mind and be back on the computer)

move on up towards your destination!

bits and bobs

2011-02-10T10:02:00.000-08:00

cat pictures

2011-02-10T09:58:00.000-08:00

2010-06-17T01:54:00.000-07:00

I found a bunch of old photos the other day. After burning all the ones from the teenage years with bad haircuts and less than co-ordinated outfits, I thought it might be fun to preserve these ones on the computer before Dimitri eats them.

2010-06-08T05:47:00.000-07:00

I just like this so much..........

2010-05-30T02:46:00.000-07:00

Cat

2010-05-26T03:26:00.000-07:00

The cat, who is imaginatively named .... "cat".

Blue Eyes

2010-05-26T03:19:00.000-07:00

Dimitri inherited those eyelashes from his Dad, I'm jealous.

Staring Back

2010-04-20T01:22:00.000-07:00

If you happen to be up in Scotland (a little far a way from me to be sure) you might like to check out the Kim Ayres exhibition. If I ever get up to Scotland I hope Kim will make a portrait of me, although I may not put it up on the wall so as not to seem too self obsessed.

Finding the Illustrator in Me

2010-02-03T00:33:00.000-08:00

Pen and ink sketch A4 (humpback?) whale

The Spider Man Kid

Pencil A3

the model of course is Dimitri

I can still draw! This is something of a revelation, although I prefer drawing on a bigger scale. I'm trying to find some fabriano paper on a big roll, no luck yet. A friend suggested I try more children's portraits - maybe, need some more practice.

Thinking Persephone

2010-01-29T02:18:00.000-08:00

I like pomegranates, they are good to eat, good to paint and good to photograph. They also have a history in myth and art.

Yesterday I was a attempting to draw one again, then this morning I was reading Kristina's post about Greek Myths and Legal Rulings, and in the end What Is

And here is the pomegranate that has been photographed, painted and duly eaten.

More Shells

2010-01-29T01:52:00.000-08:00

Acrylic on canvas,

101 Things to do with Beans

2010-01-21T22:51:00.000-08:00

Dimitri likes to play with the beans (a sort of self help sensory integration therapy - he gets a baking tray from a cupboard and waves it about until I hand over the pulses). I occasionally cook them (the husbands new diet regime means I'm obliged to cook them more frequently than I appreciate). And I, for want of something better to do, thought they were quite funny as animals..........

Time for an Unmusical Interlude

2009-12-16T08:45:00.000-08:00

As this blog doesn't seem to be moving along very fast due to my sporadic, erractic, unreliable artistic activity/brain(or brain activity), I thought I'd provide something of an interlude to keep things going until I actually finish any of "the started but nowhere near finished" new work.

I only have a few things left from when I was studying, and yes, they do seem to fall under the category of art student trying slightly to hard to be a "suffering artist". I think I had probably been watching "A Zed and Two Naughts" at the time too which probably didn't help.

The pigs heads from the butchers also served the purpose of keeping unwelcome fellow art students and tutors out of my workspace and thus preventing them from asking me any questions about "meaning" in art, because to be quite honest, I haven't got a clue as to what they are on about.

Top 2 prints are monotypes, pigs heads, oil paint and graphite on fabriano paper.

Slow Going

2009-11-09T03:20:00.000-08:00

A3 charcoal sketch of who else but Dimitri (above close up)

A4 pen and ink on watercolour paper

Well, the fruits of my artistic labours seem to be few and far between, lets assume that's because I'm hard at work being creative (ahem)

Photos

2009-11-03T03:31:00.000-08:00

Here I am with the instruction manual for the camera and a book about Photoshop, it's all Greek to me. At the same time I'm obsessing about fruit.

Drawings

2009-11-03T03:19:00.000-08:00

Charcoal and graphite drawings
21x14.8cm

More Sketches

2009-10-14T02:24:00.001-07:00

and scanning mishaps:

Sketches

2009-10-14T01:35:00.000-07:00

Attempting to scan some sketches:

This is what happened when I first attempted to scan them when they were all on the wrong setting:

2009-10-11T23:09:00.000-07:00

Shells

2009-10-07T23:46:00.001-07:00

2009-10-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

2009-10-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

2009-10-07T08:02:00.000-07:00