From the Desk of Debbie

well, friends, the end of another school semester…out for three weeks before the start of the spring session…this morning we arrived on campus to find it covered in a white blanket of snow…the snow had mostly melted by the time we left for our return trip home…but it was pretty while it lasted…on the way home we ran into a pretty big ice/hail/snow pocket just out of red bluff…it didn’t last very long…just long enough to drive everyone crazy while trying to stay on the road….tonight there are rumours of more snow, even at our level (300 ft)…

just the kind of day for staying in and hot coffee/cocoa…susan gave me a couple of books to read over break…i’m reading possible side effects right now, and she gave me candy which is about a gal who works as a stripper…

went over my portfolio with susan, got an A…

so now i’m free for three weeks…how to fill my time up…tv as i know it is going off the air dec 22 (8 days from now…yikes!)  i was going to get cable, but i’m going to try to do without it for awhile…i watch way too much tv as it is, and i need to do more (much more) painting and drawing…wish me luck…

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well, here we are close to the end of the semester…i managed to put out quite a lot of work…a slew of watercolors, and 3 oil paintings…wow!

next semester i am taking figure and watercolor…susan said i could work on the dick and jane paintings during figure…i’ll go in on the first tuesday and rose is giving me a ride to home depot to pick up wood…

i got home yesterday after spending the night at alan’s house in chico…he has a pretty nice place he lives in…we had dinner out and then went to this really crazy “art show”…they showed a bizarre movie called Christmas on Mars…loud music played and everyone was drinking beer and wine…nobody seemed to get out of control, which is always a good thing…i was ready to be home though…and george went bonkers when i came in the door…it’s his first time being alone overnight…he did pretty good…

now we are officially in the christmas season…i’m not doing anything special for the holidays, mostly just stay home and practise drawing…i think we might have cream cheese wontons and sweet and sour pork for xmas dinner…who says it has to be traditional?  it’s just mike and me and there’s always so much leftovers…oh, and mike has asked for apple crisp…yumm

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tomorrow is turkey day and i am off from school for 4 days…mike and i are celebrating not with a turkey but with a ham…

the shasta college faculty art show went up this week…it’s the 59th so far…i must say, with exception of Susan Schimke’s beautiful paintings, i was to say the least disappointed in this years show…it didn’t carry the same weight of when richard wilson, bob magill, and susan had their work up in years past…large beautiful paintings, again with exception to susan’s works, were for the most part missing…oh well…what can you do?

i am posting my jetsons family watercolor…technique-wise this one gave me the least amount of trouble…i just banged it out in one day…next up i think will be the Lost in Space family…

susan reminded me about cattle markers today, and i’m going to order some for next semester’s figure drawing class…cattle markers are essentially big oil crayons that they use to mark cattle, hence the name…

i did a lot of work in the past in cattle markers and they are still holding up today…i think i gave my stash away thinking i’d never use them again so i have to order a whole bunch…

debbie and the jetsons

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i got my new glasses this afternoon!  I can’t believe how much clearer everything is…it had gotten to the point where it was clearer to read without my glasses on…yay!  i can see again!

i am posting a work in progress…i have to work on Lilly, and Debbie and the tree in the background…overall i am pretty happy with it…

my car is giving me fits…i don’t know what’s wrong with it…it was acting up for a bit and now it’s back to normal…i was really (underlined) low on oil, but i’m not sure if that did anything…i put some new oil in it…it’s a toyota after all…supposed to last forever…i have made peace with the possibility of it going out for good…i could save 100$ month between gas and insurance if it does go out…and we live really close to the stores…when we first moved to red bluff i didn’t have a car and i walked everywhere…i need to get back into better shape again…

also, i decided today that i am not getting cable put in…instead i am going to up our blockbuster by mail account so that we can have unlimited in store checkouts…i just realized that i waste a lot of time in front of the tv…and i could get so much more done if i wasn’t planted on the couch constantly.

debbie and the munsters 2

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as a well earned gift to myself i am ordering the complete set of 132 prismacolor pencils in december…it started out as the 72 set, and then i thought why not get the 120 set as it’s only 84$…and then i said oh heckeroo go for it…so i will order 132 prismacolor pencils and a sporty smallish sketchbook…now i will have to begin drawing again! can’t wait…

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we had another watercolor critique the other day…it went pretty good…the instructor (susan) said she felt like a dentist because she had to pull stuff out of everyone!  people gave some good constructive comments about what i could do to pull the partridge family even more together…john h., the other watercolor instructor, really likes this series of paintings i’m doing…i think my next watercolor is the flintstones and me…

in oils i’m doing the munsters and it is coming along pretty good…i can’t wait however, to start on a Dick and Jane painting!  I could conceive how i could manipulate them into many pieces…something i could do for quite awhile…i don’t know if i will or not…but it is something to think about…sort of like Jasper Johns’ targets or susan rothenberg’s horses…

and the best news of all…i went to college library and finally Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich was in…it’s her latest Stephanie Plum novel…i had to put a hold on it to get it…everyone wants to read it!  it is pretty funny so far…you really can’t go wrong with a stephanie plum novel…

watercolor pallette

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we have been off school for a three day weekend because of veteran’s day, which is really tomorrow…we, however, go to school tomorrow…i don’t get it either…

i am working on an oil painting of debbie and the munsters…after that i will begin the dick and jane series…haven’t worked everything out, but susan says when i get the pictures gathered all will be clear…i’m thinking they will be in the same vein as the tv show paintings…black and white except for me….

watercolor is coming along pretty good…we have a critique wednesday when we get back to class…

debbie and the addam’s family

oh, and great news for my tummy and me…i bought some mild coffee today and was able to easily drink 2 cups…i think i was just using coffee that was too acidy for my sensitive tummers…i love coffee and am so glad to have it back, especially since it’s winter now…nothing like a mug of coffee and milk…

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today i talked to susan, my painting instructor, about a possible future project that deals with growing up mormon…we talked about what i remembered about being in the mormon church (I haven’t gone to church in 20 years) and i began a list of things that are related to mormonism…she suggested i get my mitts on some dick and jane books (amazon has a great set of these) and approach it in the same manner as my tv families…she said to make a list of possible scenarios and then use dick and jane (and spot) to illustrate the idea…i really like that idea…so now i have a new journey to begin…

but, i am not yet finished with the tv families…we were thinking up new families and she said i could be in homer simpsons family, but that i might fit in too well…this is true…homer’s house epitomizes my family growing up…loudmouth alcoholic dad and ditzy not there mother…

my pearl of widom for the day…it’s not the destination, but the journey that counts…

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on that note, let us begin…today was watercolor and i worked on tightening up the partridge family…we decided that we like this one (we being susan and i) floating in the middle rather than being anchored to the edges…so that’s what i’ll do with future ones…

i stretched another piece of watercolor paper…so i’ll be ready to go as soon as i finish this one…you have to soak the paper for 20 minutes, staple wet paper to the board, and then let it dry overnight before taping edges…

and a word about my darling daughter kimmy’s goauche paintings….mahvelous, simply mahvelous!  she has such a good eye and has technique down…bravo…

today there was an artist’s reception and glass blowing demonstration for Clif Sowder, retired ceramics instructor at shasta college…i didn’t stay for it though…by the time it came around i was freezing and ready to go home…i was so cold all day long…susan said i’m going to be one of those little old ladies who has the heater turned up to 80 in the summer…ha!

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