But no painting.

Nope! No painting. I haven’t painted in months! It’s been all about the books Baby. Not baby books! Who said that? I didn’t. I don’t make baby books. But I might someday. I’d love to make some children’s books. You know, when I have some time? Who has time though? I don’t.

I have more time now than I used to, but I still don’t have any. I say “No” more now. No more now. No more yes-yes-yes. Yes, I will do that for you. Yes, I will show in that show and this show and that show. Yes, I will help you re-write your resume. Yes, I will meet you for a four hour lunch. Yes, I will build you a new website. Yes, I will come to your opening and stand on a cement floor for two hours. Yes, I know it doesn’t look like I have MS, but your cement floor is killing my fucking legs! Yes, I will keep smiling.

It’s just that I forget. I forget how to take care of myself. I forget TO take care of myself. I am genuinely interested in you and art and whatever I want to help with. I wish I could help more. When I was a kid I wanted to be a nun, and I wasn’t even Catholic.

In any case, I had a nice Saturday. I took Alicia to Watts Towers where there was a big drum festival, plus the gallery was open, and we got an official tour of the towers.

Then, when I got home, all my Today’s Quandary. chapbooks arrived from Bill in the mail! Woo hoo!!! They go on sale tomorrow for 25 bucks! You can email me and reserve one before that if you’d like to get yourself a low number.  The first 10 are almost all reserved already. Almost. I have #9 sitting here that I’m about to make an original drawing in.

I’m also trying to get over a cold. Or is it a flu? I don’t know what it is, but mjp gave it to me and he still has it too. He got it on a plane coming back from Atlanta on business. Then, when he came home, it got really windy that one day. Remember that day? It was right after it was super hot the day before. So a huge branch of the tree in our backyard broke off. It was about a quarter of the tree! I found out that when trees get very, very hot, they get weak. Well, we have a Brazilian Pepper tree, and right now it’s bee season, so getting it hauled away proved to be  tricky. In the fall, the bees from all over the world come to our pepper tree and eat the blossoms that this tree creates from the second week of September to the third week in November.

So if you want a very busy pet bee, YES! I can help you get one.

…5:17 p.m.

So, I’ve been out in the studio for the last couple of hours making drawings in these new chapbooks and I thought I would take a break. These are going to take quite a while, and I thought to myself, self, take your time. I kinda like the idea of knowing who I am drawing for. Since the first eight have been reserved, and they are reserved in a specific order, I know who is getting which number. The few people that I happen to know personally are getting custom drawings – because they are on my mind while I am drawing them. I can’t help it. So, while they are signed, I just might keep the drawing part open until they are ordered – at least some of them. I think that might be a pretty good idear there.

Anyway, I can’t get over how nice these things look. They sure are gorgeous. You should buy one! Such a deal! Especially because they have original art in them.

Oh yeah, I wanted to talk about how I did all this research the the perfect colored pencils and I finally got them today (perfect timing, right!?). So I was just trying them out. I wanted something softer than my Prismacolors, and after much research and speaking to experts, I decided to invest in a small set of Caran d’Ache Pablo Colored Pencils. Okay, NOT cheap, right?

I’m trying them out just now, and if you ask me, they are harder than the Prismacolors AND not quite as brilliant. I mean, that’s just my opinion. I know many people will disagree, but this is what I am seeing.

I work under a daylight white florescent light, but I also have the left side of me open to the outdoors. I mean the entire wall, so I’m seeing this mostly in real daylight. That is, until 5:15. I think I had a good assessment of seeing and comparing. I think the Prismacolor pigments are brighter.

Good thing I only got a set of 18 of the Pablos. I’ll still use them. They are still beautiful. But they made me appreciate what I had more.

I’m going to put these up for sale now. Have a good one!