The Promised "Fateful Drawing"

Okay everyone. Here is the drawing I was talking about in my post about 9/11. I haven't looked at it in a long time and so wasn't clear about the details in it. But remember that I did this 2 days before 9/11. It kind of gives you the creeps, doesn't it? I had no idea what was going to happen. Also this is NOT my style. I don't know where it came from. I really think when I paint there's something inside that comes from somewhere else. I know there are plenty of artists that feel that way. By the way-a friend of mine said to look up Joel 2:4 in the Bible. Look that up and you'll see what she means about that too. Twilight Zone time...doo doo doo doo.

Well, I might as well dig up a few more drawings, right?

I can't believe how cool Photoshop is! I have Photoshop Elements also. Do I sound like a commercial? But it is fun. As I was adjusting the Laguna Beach drawing I slid one of the levers to the right and voile!......color that is so fitting for this piece. I actually did a painting of this and sold it but I thought it never fully reached the mood of the drawing at all. I guess it's because the drawing was so fresh. Plus I kind of like the descriptions I used to remind me of certain things for a future painting. Once in a while I will have a painting that I finish and say, "Oh, it's okay but not my best." I even (dare I say it?) have thrown paintings away. There's a few garbage men somewhere that have a few of these. One is a portrait of my husband and his old beat up "Rocket" car. Drat. I wish I had that one back. Luckily I'm a real stickler for taking pictures of everything before it goes out the door (unless it's so awful I can't stand it...there's a few of those). Anyway, I like these drawings-especially the one of Cliff in his Halloween greaser outfit. It's so Cliff. The other drawing of the dancers I just did one Sunday when I was bored. This struck me as very fluid. I did another one and maybe I'll post that one some time. If anyone would like to see my 9/11 prediction painting just let me know and I'll dig it up out of my files.

REPEAT AFTER ME....Too much of a good thing.......

Alright. So, you can't throw rice at a wedding any more because of rodents. What do I have growing outside in copious quantities? Lavender. So I practically cleaned off all the blossoms from our 4 plants in front of our house. Then I put the bag in the laundry room next to the ceiling heat vent to let it all dry. Doing this was pretty good but not all of the flowers fell off the stems. So I had to remove them all. You just wouldn't believe what this did to me! My left nostril has run and run. Plus I've been sneezing constantly. It was so potent that I had to double bag it. And Gracie was afraid that it wouldn't be fragrant enough to throw at the wedding. I don't care if I ever smell that again. In fact I kept thinking of the Wicked Witch of the East saying, "Poppies will make you sleep. Nice poppies. Sllllleeeeep." Well, these were just as bad in another way. Oh what a mother won't do for her darling daughter soon to be married.

Gepettos-Have you been there? If not you should...YUM!

Charlie will be 25 on Monday......a quarter of a century! We had to go out and celebrate at our favorite pizza place in SLC. It's a blast to the past in the 60's-complete with the woodsie feeling and old posters. They even have live music on Friday and Saturday nights. Just thinking about the pizza makes me want to go eat another piece but good sense will prevent me since it's bedtime and I do have some willpower.

How's this for a scary picture?

I bet a lot of you don't know where this is. It's the entrance we went through to get to the World Trade Center Mall. It's kind of a lousy picture and I even tried to lighten it but it just wouldn't work out. I think the picture wants to be eery looking. Anyway, we stayed there 3 weeks before 9/11 in the Embassy Suites Hotel across the street. It was a gorgeous contemporary style hotel. We loved it. For a week we were in and out of this area to go on the subway, up in the World Trade Center, eating, etc. I remember thinking how beautiful this area was and what a shame it would be if something happened to it (I understand that it's still there, thank goodness). How lucky we were to not be there on that fateful day. Even now I get the chills just thinking about it. When we went on top of the World Trade Center at night Gracie kept saying to me, "Mom, what if you had to jump off this building? What if you had to take a zip line from this building to the next?" I finally said, "If you don't stop saying that I will throw you off this building!" I had the creeps. The ironic twist to the whole thing is that when we got home and I went back to work I told people that I worked with, "If you want a really safe place to stay in NYC you should stay in the financial district!" Wow, so weird.

The funny thing about it is that a few days before 9/11 I was doing some free style paintings (very unusual for me) and I did one of strange looking people outside of some buildings and big birds flying around in the sky (I haven't looked at it for quite a while and should to get this straight). There was fire around everything and the figures had very tragic looks on their faces (some even had horse heads...a la Picasso). I was bothered by all the fighting in Ireland. It was at the time when the children were being harassed as they walked to school. I remember thinking how terrible it was. I was so upset over this and felt like the feelings in this painting really reflected that. So.....a few days after that...boom! It really appears that I had a premonition to what was going to happen.


I am a journal writer. I think journals serve so many purposes. One of these is that I think some day my grandchildren, etc. will find it interesting to see what my actual viewpoint is on the happenings in the world. So, of course, I wrote all about 9/11 and then continued to report regularly what was happening-things like, "It's now the 7th day and the fires are still burning. They haven't found anyone alive." That's just an example and probably not my exact words. One night I had a dream that I was standing on an island with a lot of people where the World Trade Center was situated. People were crying and hysterical. I looked out at the ocean and all of a sudden 1950 style Cadillacs in all different pastel colors started popping up in the water. The people that had died in the Trade Center were in them drinking lemon aides with smiles on their faces-as if to say that everything was all right after all and they weren't suffering any more. I think it was a spiritual way of setting my mind at peace.

Okay, well, I've avoided doing my homework for as long as possible. I really have to get back in there and start reading about arrowheads and such.

Just a little scary story.........

Happy Birthday to me and all that jazzzzzzzz

Okay. As you can see I celebrated my bday. As usual Chris got me my favorite cake: marzipan. If you haven't tasted it-well you've got to! It's so delicious. Charlie and I pigged out on it all week.

I transplanted a mother in law tongue plant and, whoa, what a surprise I found. It was in one of those self watering pots. I kept thinking it was drinking up so much water all the time. When I pulled the plant out of the pot I discovered why.....there was a monster living at the bottom! Actually it was a huge fat root that looked like a snake curled up in the bottom of the pot. On the end of it was a little plant starting at the BOTTOM! It was kind of creepy in a Star Wars kind of icky way. Remember the garbage room on the space ship where Luke, Princess Leia and Chewbacca are hiding in and a snake/monster is in the water? Then the walls start closing in? That's what it looked like to me...the monster in the water. There was only about a tablespoon of dirt in the whole thing. Bizarre.

I had to also include some of my experimental photos from today. I just love the way the sun shines through glass on our counter behind the sink. In fact I thought one of the photos would be a good subject for a kind of abstract painting. Cool, right?

A lighter side to my art

So, I thought I'd show a little of what I do when I'm not being a strict disciplinarian with my methods. I love to sketch-especially in church. Just thought I'd put a few of these up. Remember that they are just free sketches and not perfect by any means. I think doodling really shows a person's personality and can reveal a good deal of their mental outlook. When I taught art classes, adults and kids, for 11 years I always had them bring doodles. I bribed the kids with a treat if they would bring anything that they had fooled around with. Then in the back of their sketch book I had them paste an envelope to keep those doodles in. You never know when you will need a fresh idea and this is one way to get it. How many of you have doodled on your notebooks in jr. high in years past? Any of you wish you still had that notebook to look at? I wish I had mine. Back then the big thing was a denim one that we would cover with doodles. But I digress. I am a big believer in keeping the flow of art coming through to the paper constantly. It's also a good way to keep yourself warmed up for doing bigger projects.

Another note I took my first archaeology midterm yesterday. I have never studied so hard for a test in my life. I'm glad I did. It was very tricky and we'll see how I did. I don't care if I am older and this is not going to be a big career boost in my life now-I'm going to try my hardest to get good grades.

We also got our tickets to fly back to see Cliff and Lorien get married November 1st. We are so excited to have Lorien be a part of our family. She's such a cutie! Cliff is so happy and this makes us very happy. We will also go through the Washington D. C. temple with Gracie and Dave for Gracie's first time. That's another highlight in my life. Well life is way busy but never a dull moment and that makes for good times.