"So what do you do for fun?"

You go about thinking, “Yeah, I’m pretty normal, as people go,” until someone asks you what you do for fun…

“Er, well, I shoot a longbow, because I’m training to be a Combat Archer… er, in this Medieval Reenactment Society… Er, and I sculpt articulated art dolls… Um, and I sew things- I’m working on an art quilt for this Native American project I want to do for my tribe….   Why are you looking at me like that?”

Then they’re figuring, Oh, she has weird hobbies, but surely her JOB is normal rite?

“Well, a couple summers ago I was mostly making baskets, we needed like a hundred baskets for a market scene and they found out I could make them so I just sat and tied baskets for like two months, and after that I’ve been mostly either sewing or carving styrene foam.”
..”Styrene…?”
“Yeah, you know, Styrofoam ™. We carve it. Then the other department sculptors put cement over it and paint it and we have faux stone- we’ve been doing this city set with a lot of stone, and I cannot get the foam out of my hair or my set clothes…. You’re giving me that look again.”

In Which I Don't Care if No One Buys, I have a Storage Unit.

I have a weird problem.
I would go into the studio and make random series of art night and day, churn out mad rows of paintings… except what the heck would I do with all of those when I was done?
I realized one of the big things stopping me from doing art is that finished,

it has to go somewhere.

And unless I paint nothing but kittens or weeaboo-stuff, no one is going to want my paintings. The paintings I have in mind are NOT going to be my usual fare.
But you know what? If no one is going to want them, then these paintings are not for those people. These paintings are going to be painted for me. What happens to them after that is just the epilogue.

So this year,
I am going to do it anyway and sell em all via etsy. I'll link here once a piece is done and up for sale. If you want exceedingly unique art for your home or apartment, actual art, not prints, get ready.

Part of my subconscious issue with painting for art's sake is that people always ask you to explain it. They almost never ask for this with a photograph. They accept a photo as An Image, but they want a PowerPoint slideshow with interpretive dance to help them "get" a painting. It's like if you spent a whole ten minutes telling someone something, and right at the end they say, "So, yeah, I heard all that 'blah blah', but what do you actually mean?"

I am very inspired by Ursula Vernon's approach. She just paints whatever she feels like painting sometimes, and other than a few words, doesn't bother trying to get people to understand any of it. The art's the point. No explanations this time. Art for art's sake. So far my best answer to narrative seekers is, "It's a painting".


...Now I just need a clean studio.
Crap.

In Which I Mention the Dolls

So, feetofclaydolls.blogspot.com is my other blog, and it is all about my dolls. I collect and customize special art dolls called Ball Jointed Dolls. Unlike typical collector's dolls, these are not mean to only sit on a shelf. They are made to be customized and personalized, and are extremely posable.




They are not limited to baby dolls and toddler dolls as is normally popular, and my own collection has every age from toddlers to a fifty two year old man.




They can be photographed beautifully and are capable of looking very human.



Check out my doll blog for more info!

In which I Try to Get Life Back in Line: Labor Day.

I feel like I'm always playing catch-up, juggling every day to try to get to birthdays, events, dinners, bills, taxes, vacations, obligations, all around my work hours, and somehow in between find time for the art that keeps me sane. I want family time and friend time, but I also have obligations and money-things like taxes and not-fun stuff like bills and rent and managing worky stuff.

I have a new job of sorts and I am in love with it even though it's demanding- I work at a local Motion Picture Studio now, and they are doing a series of episodes from the New Testament.
I am an Art Dept. Go-to, which is like a go-fer but more productive. It means that my boss decorates the set and he needs stuff for it, and if he doesn't have time to have someone else make the stuff, he comes to me and says, "Can you make me this?" and I say, "Yep, I can do that!", which is my arting motto. So far he has liked my work *squee* which is for me a huge thing because if he likes my stuff I've done, they will likely call me in for other projects too, and I will get to keep working there. Every day is a new challenge, and it's something I've inadvertently trained for since High School- limited time, limited materials, and a need for a certain outcome and historical look, Go! I am an expert at this! Making do and getting results from faked or limited material is what I do best! I am so ridiculously happy to have everything I've been doing with my art and reenactment for these last few years suddenly have work application! I have realized I want to do this the rest of my life.

...Which leaves me in a quandary as to my education. I want a degree, but in what? My nascent career in the Entertainment industry hardly requires a degree- in fact they could care less. They require results, talent, speed, reliability and ability, not a certificate saying I'm really good at writing educated papers. I know a degree is more than that, but if you can't write educated papers to specific formats, you No Can Haz, no matter how frickin brilliant you are. I am wondering if a traditional degree is even possible for me. Between my autistic tendencies in learning and communication and my anxiety and depression that totally screwed me academically, I don't know. I feel this driving idiotic lifelong need to Get A Degree so that society will see me as educated and worth employing, but the only people I want to employ me don't give a flying fart whether I have one or not. Argh.

In Which I Have My Own Space Again, and All I Wanna Do Is Art

Phoo.
I'm supposed to be making phone calls of great import, and scheduling more family vacation arrangements, (Yes, I just got back from one, but this year we seem to have several. I like them, I just don't know what I'm going to do with so many of them- They're like pies. Awesome and fun, but more than one of them and you start wondering if you have room left in the metaphorical fridge of mental capacity.) but all I want to do is art, now that I finally have space to do it again.

I can't think very well lately. I can't seem to keep ideas in my head unless they are art ideas. I need to go shopping for food but I don't quite want to because I haven't showered yet because I was going to do that after walking the dog which I slept in too late to do this morning so I have to do that this afternoon and then run laundry while I walk the dog and see if Mom has the phone number to that one doctor I was supposed to call...

and all I want to do is put up sets and take pictures here in my apartment.

I feel like the world is moving too fast for me. If only I could stop time, so the people leaving me would not leave, the people wanting me to go places would not need to be in a hurry to go, and I could sit for a day or two and just Do Art. If only life were so simple.

The Latest Craze: In Which I Explain My Little Fads, and Discuss the Newest One

I go through crazes, stages or fads, artwise. I think I'd have to make a chart to show how it works precisely, but suffice it to say that every month or two I develop some new and strange artistic interest and throw myself with much alacrity after said interest.
Some of these interests become new hobbies and never really go away, while some fade out after a day or two to be replaced by more exciting things.
My Roomie has said that one of the things she finds interesting about living with me is that she never knows what she'll come home and find me elbows-deep in. On one such occasion she arrived to find the entire kitchen strewn with fabric scraps in varying stages of drying, and me cackling gleefully over multiple pots simmering on the stove. That was the infamous beginning of my foray into fabric dyeing, which has yet to end.

Current fads include natural fabrics, and fabric embellishing, which includes fabric dyeing, natural dyestuffs, embroidery, applique and quilting, all with various fibers. So, fiber art in general. This is being expressed as I make clothes for my doll collection and for my reenacting, and I am also trying to make a big art quilt coat.

I've wanted to make such a coat for a long time. I'll use it for reenacting and special occasions like caroling or performing, and it will be covered every inch in applique and embellishments, all handworked and all medieval inspired. I'm not sure whether I should plan a color palette for it or just let be what will be. I do have a few rules in mind for the making of the coat:
1. Use no Plastic. This means buttons, beads, trims, or any fabric containing too much artificial fiber. I want this to have a more honest texture.
2. Use no prints. This one's kinda flexible, but also kinda not. Printed fabrics look fake, and I want this coat to look more... Real.
3. Take your time. Anything I rush just to see it Done never comes out as nice as I want it.