Shows @ MindSay

I know it has been ages since I blogged. So much time has gone into preparing for the Celebration of Art at Portland's Mittelman Jewish Community Center that I haven;t even  been cooking. Thank heavens for frozen pizza, take out thai and an amazing husband who hauled and frames and kept me company through the entire process.

The exhibit itself was a fantastic success and I made connections with people in the community including the Oregon Jewish Museum and The Pomegranate Guild that will be fantastic. It was also heartening to get such affirmation that people found my work whimsical, intense fascinating or just plain amazing.

Because so many people are unfamiliar with the process I brought raw wool and silk cocoons with me so people could  begin to understand how the materials look int heir raw form and how far I take them to get the finished product. But I will confess I am exhausted with the process , need a few days to come down from the high and then I can attack the studio again, this time without 50 pieces of famed art in piles in every corner. Mazels to myself!!! Is that kosher?

Anecdotes Lifedotes:

I need to get my ass to Wal-Mart but I figured I'd just type this first. Things that have been happening recently or whatever.

When I originally got my foot tattoo done, Brian told me to come back in three weeks to check up on it. So I did, and he told me it was going to be another two weeks for it to heal. SIDE OF THE FOOT TATTOOS NEVER HEAL. I mean, I know he warned me, but seriously, I thought three weeks was a long amount of time. lmfao so five weeks is for-fucking-ever.

And while my tattoo is in dire need of touch up, I think I'm going to hold off on it until the first week of September. If I get it done in a week and half, then I will be stuck in flip flops for Warped Tour. I can't wait until right after that, because then I have Green Day . . .and then Slayer/Manson . . .and then Crue Fest. All in August. I cannot be wearing flip flops in a pit. If I get the touch up the first week of September, there will have been roughly 4 weeks of healing before Blink-182, and (assuming it takes the same amount of time to heal) I think I can manage sneakers for one night.

Magen and I are going to see RENT on Tuesday at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center :] :] :] :] :] :] Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp are reprising their roles as Roger and Mark :] Sooooooooo excited. While I have seen countless bootlegs of the performance (and the movie, of course), I have yet to actually see it live. And I get to see it live with Adam and Anthony <3 Soooooooooo amazing :]

I am off tomorrow. I always get what I want,and I didn't want to work on the 4th. Usually we close, but last year we stayed open because it was a Friday and Anthony was worried on missing out on lots of money. I was entirely determined to be off this year. Brent, however, assumed we were staying open and told Anthony he would open only if we closed early, and Anthony agreed. Mad at Brent, I asked him why the fuck he wanted the store open, and when he realized that we weren't going to be open until he had something, texted Ant to say "I DON'T WANT TO OPEN ON THE 4TH"

The very next day, while Anthony and Brent are working together, Anthony says, "Did Justine talk you out of it?"

lol so now Anthony keeps complaining that we are closed on the 4th and it is all my fault. IDGAF, Anthony. I am not fucking working.

(lol @ when he originally told me Brent was going to open, I made SUCH a huge deal: "UGH! I FUCKING HATE WHEN BRENT DOES THIS BECAUSE THEN I HAVE TO FUCKING WORK," all said loud and fast and WHINY AS FUCK.)

I may touch on this in more detail later, but I keep debating on whether or not I should go back to school in the fall. I could just forgo classes and apply for graduation. In the past, I have always taken a full 12 credit schedule (which is 4 classes in regular semesters and 2 classes in summer semesters). However, I only signed up for 3 classes this time around. While all 3 are classes I really want to take, I think that if I go back I am going to drop it down to 2. Today, that is the plan. We will see how long this lasts for.

Also, just because I want to mention this . . . when I was with Jen the other day, I mentioned how her "boyfriend" (they have been together since our sophomore year, but they have not technically been together for awhile now, even though they are still together. I think Jen calls herself the "pseudo girlfriend"? Or maybe it's they're technically still together even though they're not. Whatever.) had been hitting on me through MySpace . . . and I keep trying to ignore it, but it's annoying. Everytime the three of us are together he blatantly hits on me in front of her and I fucking hate it. Jen told me she tells him that he needs to stop because I don't like being hit on, but "He doesn't believe me! I keep telling him, I have known this girl since she was 11. I know she does not like being hit on!"

lol @ how I haven't changed since I was 11.


AND OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG MIKEY CUT OFF ALL HIS HAIR, I AM FUCKING HEARTBROKEN OMG OMG OMG OMG
He looks like he did when we first met 3 years ago, except much taller.

Speaking of 3 years, nearing the end of July will be my 3 year anniversary at the pizzeria! That's a big commitment for me!

Employed or not, I went to the 2 nearest shows to me to see Star Fucking Hipsters, fuckin' tight!

1st Pic was the show at this shitty makeshift venue(that took 2 hours to find!)  in El Paso. That show sucked, but I met an awesome group of local punks who gave me some possibly life-changing advice. I was almost too sore to go to that show, at first.

Latter 2 pics were at the better of the two shows in Albuquerque. This show was much better, at a relatively new venue called "The Bleeding Eardrum." I met a very pretty, very down-to-earth punk girl there. It nearly killed me to hear her say she was a LESBIAN, though. LOL. At least I got a kiss at the end of the night.

They ran out of shirts, so I gotta Myspace them after the tour for one, but I got a "Until We're Dead" Vinyl LP, and four patches.

Austin like other cities has what is known as a First Thursday of each month where unknown artists can show and sell their pieces, musicians can play, actors (and those nasty things known as mimes and clowns) can do their stuff, etc.

 

So the first Thursday of Feb, The Man and I packed up the skulls and went off to try our luck with the wife of a co-worker who makes and sells gourd dolls which resemble something out of a Tim Burton flick (you know the one...the bad animated Halloween one).  Nevertheless, Mizz as she is known, graciously allowed us to tag a long and to share her space, which turned out to be a strip in a parking lot.  We brought 2 tables, the skulls (and as The Man and I both travel prepared) 2 chairs, coats and gloves, and a cooler full of beer.  We didn't bring any food as we were assured there was an 'awesome pizza place' close by (more on that later).

 

SO we set up and lay out the skulls and yours truely goes off to take some quicky photos of the other venders (and Mizz) as well as sneaking a few in of The Man himself with the skulls (much to his dismay).  So the crowds come (Goddess save me from the Austin Yuppies) who promptly go..."ICK!  Skulls!" and The Man replies..."No ART assholes".  *Sigh...talk about how to smoosh with the customers.

 

Well sooner we get some who really do appreciate art and yes they oooh and ahhhh but do they buy?  Noppers.  Didn't sell a one but Mizz next to us with her gourd dolls who will give you nightmares sells almost all of hers and the girl next to us (painted flowers and stuff on boards - yes boards) sells most of hers too.

 

So we return home with all skulls, sadder and poorer but wiser.  Yes we are going back next First Thursday of March.  We are going to make smaller pieces (jawbones and windchimes) and also drop our prices to be more competitive.  I've also got to print out business cards instead of the handlettered ones I did.  We did get some serious interest from some people and possibly 2 commissions so hopefully that will materialize.

 

All in all we did learn a lot, what to bring, what not to bring among other things.  And yes, the beer didn't make it home.  We also learned that the 'awesome pizza' for which The Man stood in line for 20 minutes and cost $3.00 a slice, was downright NASTY (thin crust, no sauce or cheeze to speak of and the pepperoni was saltier than hell).  My stomach still hasn't recovered nor has The Man's so food is deffinately on the list for next time, as is a rack to display hanging skulls on.

 

So we learned a lot and are determined next time to do better.  I've posted a quickie video of what Mizz and her dolls, The Man and the skulls and some of the other vendors close by looked like.  Enjoy!

 

 

This is a follow-up from a previous entry when my sister's boyfriend let me borrow a bunch of anime.

As a trade, I let him borrow the following anime DVDs that I have:



I thought it was a fair trade, since I decided I'm only gonna copy his Initial: D, Mobile Suit Gundam: SEED, Trigun and Kiddy Grade.

When you get THREE firsties, in ONE DAY, like ones from Torridgirl, it feels like my birthday!!!