Illustration Friday: The Blues

I don't usually stray too far from graphite, but this time I did. I suppose "the blues" is a good description of my life just now.

The Effects of Garlic on the Perimenopausal Woman

I go to a little coffee shop on Saturday evenings before church. There I can actually chat with my husband without constant interruption from the kids, and occasionally, that's pretty cool. I notice these women about my age, and every week they are there ordering the same thing - garlic bread.

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What's with that?

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I crave garlic all the time. I put powdered garlic on just about everything on my plate. My husband and children think I am psychotic. And smelly. They are probably not far from right, although I am still stable enough to remember not to put it in my coffee.

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An old dictionary gave its life for this drawing. I feel kind of sad for it, because the person who put the Ex Libris sticker in it never bothered to fill in a name. Hopefully the dictionary is uplifted by having this drawing inside its cover, even if the guy looks a bit psychotic. Kind of like me, only with less hair.

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Maybe he needs some garlic on his toast. You can purchase the real piece by following one of the eBay links, such as the one in the title. He's also in my Cafepress shop.

Blood Oranges

I think I've posted this drawing before, but I can't remember, and I am disinclined to sort through months of posts to find it. It has been a week since Otto passed, and I would like to say the grief is more managable, but I don't really think I've progressed significantly, so I am posting old work.

Because the economy is so lousy, I have started selling off some of my old kimono collection on eBay. There is little emotion attached to it, so that makes it easier to handle. It's really just stuff.

This piece reminds me of a teacher or two I had growing up. Grumpy, and haloed by a slice of blood orange. I suspect sainthood was a whole different thing for her. It's graphite and colored pencil. It is titled Dirge. I don't know the place in me from which it came, but it is close by.

In Memoriam

This is my dear Otto, as he was 17 years ago when I got him. He passed away over the weekend. I cannot possibly express how much it hurts.

Abstract Eyes

I did some more abstracts. I enjoyed doing them. This is one of them. It's not what I usually do, but I am doing more of this sort of thing. I'm not sure if it is the result of maturity or menopause. My son's birthday is in a few days. He will be 9. His great aunt bought him the giant Harry Potter Lego set from hell. It has castles and characters and all kinds of stuff. We bought him the Mars Mission Lego set, and he also has one on its way from Grandma, so we will soon begin constructing outbuildings of legos. Our planning skills obviously need some fine tuning.

Illustration Friday: Momentum

Momentum. I am trying to regain some momentum. Sales have been pretty slow, but I think that's got a lot to do with the national economy going down the drain. That spiraling downward momentum seems to be building, and recovery seems in doubt until after all the stuff with the sub-prime mortgages is flushed away. Just what I needed.

I decided to work on an abstract piece, taking a departure from the usual figurative work, although there are still eyes in it, so all is not lost. If you'd really love to have it on a tshirt or a greeting card or something like that, then visit my Cafepress store, and if you'd like to see the original, visit my listing on eBay.

Thanks for enduring that shameless moment of self promotion. What can I say? The kids need new shoes...

The Life of a Domestic Goddess

Today. Cook, clean, laundry, stand in front of grocery store for 2 hours selling Scout-a-Rama tix, decorate birthday cake, bake cinnamon buns, make lunch, eat dinner out, attend church service, prepare Sunday School lesson for tomorrow on Job, sing happy birthday and take pictures of son opening gifts, feed dog, two birds, and one tortoise.

Swim.

Would like a nap, but that seems unlikely.

Goddess accoutrements at Cafepress.

Domestic Goddess Part Two

More fun with Domestic Goddesses. Obviously, I have no real life.

Domestic Goddesses and others

I am not a domestic goddess. Ask anyone in my family. I have a very hard time motivating myself to clean house. So while we manage to have clean dishes and clothes, we also accumulate dust bunnies and piles of bird seed in corners and under chairs. It is fortunate that cleanliness is not a prescribed prerequisite for admission into heaven.

I did some collages on a domestic goddess theme a couple of years ago. They were fun, but not entirely special, so I decided they could use a digital revamp. I feel this one has all the essentials; a fork, a spoon two coffee pots and a pair of Maytags. What else could she possibly need?

A maid. *

You can find my growing line of domestic goddesses at my Cafepress store. Just follow any of the links.