Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Pictures of today

A chair makes the greenhouse a fresh retreat.
An untouchable Tortie tucked away under the bench makes me smile.

A freckled face makes me smile more.


Balls in weird evening light.


The cloud responsible (in part) for the strange light.


Surreal fun with flash.


An image that works for me.

This was today.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Poppet Goes Adventuring and Finds a Pipp

It happened that on a cloudy Saturday, Poppet went adventuring.
Eventually, Poppet noticed a something following behind. It was a smallish something, very quiet, and very, very persistent.
Wherever Poppet went, there it was, and gaining distance too. It followed and followed and followed.

The following thing was called 'Pipp.'
Poppet and Pipp liked the giraffes.

Poppet and Pipp will adventure together. Who knows where they might go?

Friday, April 23, 2010

Girl Signals







I am a stick of Chapstick,
rolling around in the dryer,
leaving little marks
that won't be discovered until later,
after I am gone.

I could be a ruby lipstick,
tumbling against the whites,
branding each with bright streaks
defining my destruction in red
as I go.

But no.

I'm the Chapstick, hiding stories in plain sight.




***

New art and an observation.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

November


It's cold in the desert, oddly unfitting with the light.

And windy and wet. And when the clouds rolled in over

the mountains, everything went shades of gray.

And in the gray, it could be November.

It is a trick of the mind, and can be made as made real as real.


The Queen conferred with the King, who agreed that today would be better spent just at

winter's edge. So that is what we did.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Not today.

Today Orion and I swam. The water is still cold and I feel sluggish and pale, not at all the creature who glides and slices and spins through shafts of cold light.

This is today, at the end of the year that left me pale and tired.

This is today, at the beginning of the year that will lead me somewhere else.

Just like everyone's today, it's a start and a finish.

Yesterday was a truly hard day, physically and emotionally, the kind of day we talk about later, after time. I spent the first part of today trying to plow through, working extra hard to 'catch up.' Silly human. After a few hours I remembered to let myself recover.
Hopefully, next time I'll remember sooner.

Brandi Auset sent me a copy of her The Goddess Guide, and I ate two little tomatoes from the plants in the greenhouse. They were warm and fragrant and more like tomatoes than any I've had recently.

Tonight I'll play some games with Orion, and read and sleep. Because, there's no substitute for playing, and reading and sleep.

Hope your Monday was good.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Left on Saturday

Today is for left-brain sorts of activities. Things that require precision and other left-sided attributes. Don't know why my little worry brain looks so, well, worried. I've done this at least a hundred times.




But, just in case, I called on the Doctors for backup. Hope your Saturday is good, however you use your wonderful, two-sided, amazing brain.

Friday, April 16, 2010

You can communicate directly with Poppet Who Lives on Lisa's Desk on Twitter. No kidding.
(Er...with the help of four other Poppets, who very happily jump on keyboards)

There's a link on the sidebar, but for those who read this blog via feed, now you know.

Have a great Friday evening.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Long Live the Queen

And now it is morning. Perhaps I will seek the wisdom of the Queen.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Miles to go

Tonight is when I wish for once, to be the child tucked in. Not the parent who, in a game like chess, considers moves ahead, choices that affect money, health, happiness, could cause heartache, pain, loss.

Finishing one day while preparing for another. Remembering and planning stirred up with whatever it is my hands are doing. Keeping this strange machine running, evaluating its evolution.

I could be the child, for a moment. I have that ability, to 'go' to another season, another time, another place and, for a moment, to believe I'm there.

It serves me well for making up things. But I can imagine that, though the mind is limitless in scope, it's very possible that certain particulars are finite. Like this sort of stretch. It could be like a rubber band, with a certain number of stretches of varying lengths, affected by conditions before it breaks.

Like a number of heartbeats, or the number of times lighter will light. Is this true? I don't know. Could it be measured? Proven? Likely not ever, but it feels so.

This sort of thing then, might be best not used just because I want a warm fuzzy, because I'm a little afraid of the day ahead.

Instead I'll take comfort in good company-- the words of Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

I can accept that 'having promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep' is part of the human curriculum.

One day the sleeping child will have his turn. Let him sleep. Tonight it's mine.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Driving, Skies, Poppet. Humans. Stories.


Today was lots of driving, mostly in and around the eucalyptus-scented hills of Hollywood.

I seem to be learning about writing as I write.

It makes sense, when writing, not to try to write the stories we're in. Stories seem better written with the perspective that time brings to them. I don't know this yet, I am only guessing.

It also makes sense to note bits of detail that will very likely get lost or forgotten.

It seems to me that quite a lot of my life is sketched in the margins of notebooks.

g'night

Sunday, April 11, 2010

work in progress


I'm grateful for monsters. They stand between us and what is truly frightening.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Mostly night time and quiet

My untouchable tortie captured in the darkness, moments ago.
I am 'cat lonely.'

There was an ad for four Siamese kittens. It was sort of a heart-fluttering impulse. As I dialed I told myself in two voices that I was not ready, and that I could be ready. I phoned as early as courtesy allowed (8:30am) on the day the ad was activated. They were already gone.

All that was left was the flutter. Then I put on my apron and went to work.

I took a photo of this branch on the ground. I see it as a tree.


I played with it enough so that now it can model for me.
And tonight I'm too tired to write much. I'm tired from working, which is better than being tired from not working, or worrying, or being angry or any of the other things that tire us.
Working is good. It persists, through good days and bad ones.

I'm okay with that.

I keep forgetting to mention that the illustrations for Strange Light were created using some of the puzzles you sent me, whenever it was that I asked for puzzles and you so kindly sent them.
So, thank you again. I re-read the stories. Different reading them in the chapbook than in the emails Larry sent them. And the last story made me cry, again. I should definitely tell him so.

g'night.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Monday, April 05, 2010

Poppet's Windy Adventure


Here we go again, with the wind. And the sand. I like my Element quite a lot, but in wind, it makes me feel as light as Dorothy, and there were moments when I was a bit nervous.
Poppet rode as always, in a snug travel pouch.

I wanted to be Poppet then, and not me, at the wheel, responsible.


We took the Spencer to the spine center, for a follow up after surgery. The X-rays were totally cool. Spencer is becoming quite bionic. While waiting, Poppet met a new friend.



Then there was rain, and more wind. And a traffic accident in the hills that stranded us for over 2 hours. Not much at all to do. Nothing to eat and no bathrooms too.

A motorcyclist gave up trying to get his bike through. All the cars and trucks crammed onto the shoulders to let the ambulance and fire truck through. Humans began have conversations with other humans, curious and concerned for whomever was involved in whatever was holding us up.
So we waited and waited. People got out and walked their dogs and kids jumped around and threw whatever they could substitute for balls. Some climbed the hills to try to get a look at what was happening.

It felt a lot like the beginning of a scary story. Yes, I read way too many scary stories.

Kids climbed down the hills with something about two buses crashing into each other. No one believed them. Good try, nasty little guttersnipes. Work on that delivery.

Poppet got out for a stretch too.

Finally we started moving. Yay! People smiled and waved goodbye to others whose names they didn't know. They climbed back into their cars and as the cars picked up speed, the people returned to being strangers.
Then back to Palm Springs and more wind and lots of sand. The news said the wind got up to 64 mph, which is really a lot of wind.

And that was Poppet's day today.

I suspect that Poppet's tomorrow will be contentedly spent here on my desk.

g'night.

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Help Support Lollipop Theater!


LOLLIPOP makes it possible for hospitalized children around the nation to see the season's biggest blockbuster movies* at the same time as their friends and siblings.


Poppets at Poppetropolis go all out on twitter to help raise funds for

Lollipop Theater.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Moms and Monsters

Today was for painting in the studio for a book project I've owed someone for ages.

It feels good to be catching up.

It was a day for working in the moment, enjoying the work I was doing and not worrying about anything else.
Oh how I do love making scary, scary creatures.

One down, twenty-five to go. Yay! Yikes!

(I'm going to be working nights for awhile.)


A new collaboration with Alison for Mother's Day,

Daisies for Mother

Friday, April 02, 2010

Friday, with a little pretending.


I made this Poppet.
I call it Fairy Goodreader.

I always liked the idea of a creature that visits and reads to those who have no humans to visit and read to them.

Yes, it is pretend. Pretending matters.

Having said that,

Earlier I made "Commander Crow Runs an Airtight Ship."
Which is also pretend. And was both fun and difficult to make. Things must be done in a certain order. Tiny bits must be manipulated. I have a new appreciation for people who make such things. The bubbles in the window are from another project, where I tested
sponging before applying to the canvas. Sometimes the paper around my palette is a painting too. And, I'd like to go on adventures with Commander Crow.

Addendum: Please see RRNN's verse about Commander Crow in comments.


This evening I moved a box behind the storage building and discovered a rat.
He looked at me and I looked at him.
I wished, for a moment, that I was the sort of person who carries cheese in her pocket.
But I'm not. So after another moment or two of looking at each other, the rat scurried away.

I don't think I'll ever be the type of person who carries cheese in her pockets, but
if I'd had some, I would've been happy to share.

But I'm pretty sure he didn't know that. And I don't think rats pretend.

I hope he stays outside, and not in and I hope he stays clear of the Tortie, who continues to stay mostly clear of me.

g'night

Thursday, April 01, 2010

Our stories




There's a new article by Ann Vandermeer with art that you've likely not seen at all. If you want to visit a little of my darker work.


I'm thinking that maybe I should treat this blog a little more like Face Book, in that I don't wait until I have everything wrapped up neat and tidy, so to speak. At least for now.

I truly miss writing here. Possibly you miss me a little too. Mostly my absence is purely lack of time. Poppets, Rats, Crows and Humans are working lots more hours than we used to. We've made many adjustments, mostly involving how we spend our time.

Possibly though, I don't write as often here because my inner perfectionist wants to save this space for helpful articles and real insights, with photos and links and such. To entertain, it says to enlighten, to encourage. In the wee hours of this morning I thought about why I started writing this blog. I looked back at my earliest posts. I called it a window. It is my story of how and why the art gets created. Why would anyone want to read this? These years later I've figured it out.


People, reduced to the fundamentals, are very much alike. You read my stories because my stories are your stories. We all move through the same basic curriculum. Basic human experience is universal.

and

People experience this curriculum vastly different ways, in vastly different arenas.
We, as individuals can't do everything, have every experience. There aren't enough hours in the day, or years in our lives. But we can deeply experience some things, and share what we learned with others. It takes all kinds.


So. I may succeed brilliantly in my new effort to put something here every day. I may fail spectacularly by blowing it tomorrow. We shall see.

Either way I thought this a good time to remind you (and me) that I'm writing here because together, we might figure a few things out.

And one thing we can always count on is that humans need to figure a few things out.

Thanks for being here.