Home, Briefly

I’m home, and filled with gratitude towards the people of Oklahoma City (last week’s booth, above). Thank you for such a great show! Tomorrow I leave for Virginia on a red-eye (we’ll see Thursday if that was a good decision – ha).

Here are Steve and Wes last night… Wes got an award for Student of the Month from the Academic Booster Club. I got home from OKC just in time to attend the ceremony. My handsome guys!

I hope you all are well and I will be back to a normal schedule next week. My best!!

Hump Day Haiku – LATE!

So sorry, I couldn’t get my (pirated) internet connection to work yesterday!

This week’s theme: What you had for breakfast this morning.

For last week’s fabulous “Bad Hair” haiku offerings, go here. Remember, all comments must be haiku!!!

Oklahoma City!

I’m in OKC, at the Arts Festival, and had a great first day today! The “volunteer machine” for this event is so amazing… really, so many wonderful people donating their time to make this week run smoothly. (I’m in booth #27D for any of you OKCers!). P.S. The ant was Wes’s idea.

Introducing…

Hello! I had so much fun writing Monday’s haiku, that I thought I’d start a “day.”

Join the fun! Each week I’ll pick a theme (either a word, a phrase, a photo or an illustration) for you to write a haiku about and leave in the comment section of Wednesday posts. Even if you “can’t” write, please join in!

Today’s prompt: Bad hair.

The sillier the better!!! All comments must be haiku!

Note: Multiple entries encouraged; all haiku copyright of originator.

Do You Remember This Flying Girl Piece?

Well, I’ve written a haiku about it!!

My brilliant idea –
“Soar — a girl with paper wings!”
Oh crap, it’s been done.

————————————————

OMG!! I copied Judy Wise’s painting—could they be more alike?—but I swear it was unintentional. Imagine this scenario in my head when I started working on my painting:

Carla: “This is such a cute idea!
Carla: “I know!
Carla: “Where do you get such great ideas?!!”
Carla: “I don’t know! They just pop into my head!”

Ahem.

What happened is that I must have seen Judy’s piece at an earlier time. I neatly filed it away in my (apparently) amazing little brain. Efficient. Like a computer.

Except I forgot one little thing…. it wasn’t my original idea!

Of course I e-mailed Judy the minute I realized my mistake and apologized. Here is what she wrote back:

*smile* Don’t you know yet that all the artists are tuned into the same mental frequency? Your piece is nothing like mine; we are all flying more like on bubblegum than anything.

Dont be so hard on yourself. I probably got that idea from someone else myself. It’s all good.

Judy is the embodiment of grace.

We’ve always known that she is an amazing, generous human being and artist. This of course confirms it further.

(Thank you, Judy!)

Can you do me a favor? Can you run right over to her blog and leave a comment, somewhere along these lines?

Judy, you ROCK!!!!!!

Living Inside

I started a book last night, “The Abnormal Personality Through Literature” (edited by Alan A. Stone and Sue Smart Stone). I sort of have a affinity for the subject matter… you would understand if you could live in my head at any given moment… from giddy child-like joy to paranoia and all in-between, hourly sometimes, gee whiz.

(I wish I were a better writer so that I could better express myself here… please bear with me.)

Anyway, last night I read this passage from Jean Stafford’s “Beatrice Trueblood’s Story,” where Beatrice is discussing with a friend (through written notes) the fact that she “elected” to suddenly become deaf:

I wanted terribly to marry him—I don’t suppose I loved him much but he seemed good, seemed safe. But all of a sudden I thought, I cannot and I will not listen to another word. And now I’m sorry because I’m so lonely here, inside my skull. Not hearing makes one helplessly egocentric.

(I’m feeling a bit exposed right now, but I’ll soldier on…)

Right now my life is, like Beatrice’s, too much inside my head. I live in a very small town and have no close friends here. I work from home and, except for a daily walk and a visit to the grocery store or bank, I pretty much only see these four walls day in and day out. I rarely even see anyone on the walks!

I am isolated (and I have isolated myself, as well).

The internet helps. Phone calls to friends help. (And traveling to shows and conferences helps IMMENSELY!)

But..

I can’t explain clearly why this passage spoke to me so strongly, but I know it is true for me right now. People need other people to help keep them grounded in reality, I think. If one is healthy emotionally, other people can act as sandpaper on wood, smoothing out the rough spots and helping shape one into the shape they were meant to be

I would like to put more sandpaper into my daily life.

(Am I making ANY sense?)

Still Painting

Shows are a blessing. They provide the necessary DATE/DEADLINE that I seem to need to really produce. Only 10 days until I leave for Oklahoma City… usually I’m panicking right now but today I felt calm and positive… all will get done in time!

I’m enjoying the many Artfest posts from various friends…

Camilla has some really good links in this post…

Bye for now!!

Yard Sale! Salida, Colorado

We had a yard sale on Saturday.

Have you ever had a yard sale in Salida, Colorado? It’s a unique experience.

Conversation between my husband and middle-aged woman:

• Woman: “You told me to come back at 8:00, and now the chairs I wanted are gone.”
• Steve: “I’m sorry.”
• Woman: “You don’t seem sorry!”

• (Note: The lady knocked on our door at 7:30 am, having crossed flag barriors and a VERY LARGE SIGN saying the sale started at 8:00am… Steve told her to please come back…she came back at 9:00!)

But hey, we made a bunch of cash, and that’s always a good thing!

Red Riding Hood

See the full image here…