It's a new experience, attending two events at once, located about twenty minutes from each other. It's not at all like time travel. However, today it was really, really good to see Harlan Ellison, and fun to see my painting on the bags and badges.

Tomorrow will be packed full with Art Show, Nebula events and the Awards Banquet tomorrow night. I hope to get photos of attendees then. Today was for being happy to see people I adore and see rarely. Now is for pizza and swimming and Orion jumping on hotel beds.

A look underneath the one-of-a-kind Harlan Ellison Rat that will be at the Nebula Awards Charity Auction this weekend. I had a bit of fun with this one. It's quite Harlanesque, I think.

View from above.

Roll With It

As I said, when things get weird, I can always make 'toys.'
Things got weird.
This one, and all the pieces currently in Gallery II of the site, will be traveling with me to Arizona this week for LepreCon.
I won't be doing any programming but will be in the art show. If you're there, I'd certainly enjoy meeting you in person.

Its little secret...

Why "THIS IS NOT A TOY" The knife was originally meant for cheese, but with a bit of polishing, is quite sharp enough to cleanly slice a sheet of paper, or my fingers...twice.

Dealing with the details. Because...details must be dealt with.

This is why I keep the camera handy in the studio, especially in the evenings. I opened the window to this. Maxfield Parish?

A Denial, Announcements and One Precious Pearl

Ok. Let's clear this one up before it gets any more out of hand---all those emails!

I DIDN'T EAT THE FISH'S HEAD!

.....but I did try a bite of the crunchy, crunchy tail.

sheesh

I have neglected you guys way too long.

******
In other, more wholesome news:

My deepest thanks goes to Laura Burns, who won the special Anansi Boys Neil Gaiman Rat. Thanks too, to each and every one of you who placed bids. It was a great show of support. Neil, the CBLDF and I thank you.

I read a comment stating that the next such fundraiser would be nice as a raffle. I'm willing to try that, but know just enough about raffles to know they're more complicated than auctions. If I can get someone who knows what's up to help with the raffle nuts, bolts and general whats-its, I'm all for it. Anyone interested in helping should say so here, and I'll be in touch.

*****

I'm preparing very soon to have another sale on the Luck's Dancer sculpture that most of you will remember from here: Neil Gaiman - Neil Gaiman's Journal: The Nook
I'll be releasing a numbered limited edition of Lucks Dancer finished exactly as the original on the kinetic sculpture. A portion of sales from these will go to CBLDF. $100 each Edition of 300, signed and numbered.

The rest will be open editions, each painted differently, as before. $50

There's your advance 'heads up' for the next sale (June 15)

(yet another example of how I listen to readers)

*****
As for words of wisdom, I got nothin' tonight. I'm too tired to be terribly wise at the moment. I'd like to leave you with one of those little pearls I pull from the recesses of my brain (or off the studio's refrigerator door) when I'm really tired, or down, or just sick of the sound of my own voice.
But wait--- Good old refrigerator door! Here's one:


The real Han Solo shot first.


g'night

Fish for lunch

I'm still working a lot in the studio--packing pieces for shipment, finishing new pieces for the gallery, preparing for LepreCon, the Nebula Awards, Balticon, several writing assignments and fending ideas that reveal themselves faster than I can denote them.

But, I did have fish for lunch. This fish, actually. It stared at me. I stared back and chewed contentedly.

I do like my place on the food chain.


* * * * * hey there, Ravyn here....

Speaking of Balticon, i wanted to let you know that i've put the preliminary Main Tent schedule on the Balticon Blog. This is not a final schedule, but, it should be good enough to plan around.

See you in a month! Yikes!

Puffs and sugar, for some reason and not related

It was windy today, and the air was full of dancing, swirling seed pods like this one, which is nearly four inches across. I was reminded of the opening scenes from Legends. Remember that Tom Cruise?

It was too cold and windy to swim. It was too cold and windy to swim yesterday too, but we did anyway. Today we didn't, because we remembered yesterday.

It's nearly impossible to feel truly sad while eating a popsicle. I'm fairly certain I've said this before. Occasionally though, I'm reminded of how true it is.

I'm debating throwing out the remainder of the shamefully ridiculous amount of candies the kids brought home from the grandparents. Jelly bellys are evil. And the Peeps won't be any good for at least two months. They'll only start to get chewy by then.
One cool thing emerged from the baskets though. There is this bright yellow plastic bitty in a brighter pink bonnet. You push down on her head and she lays candy from her butt while chirping cheerily away.

At last, the perfect container for Paxil. That one's a keeper.

Now I'm off to the studio again. Lots of work to be done, just to keep from getting behinder.

Chirp, chirp!

Is it Friday? Already?

Please forgive my very sketchy postings as of late. I have had more things to do than can be done in 24 hour days and am behind, mostly with the things I'd really like to do, like write about things and call friends.

I keep forgetting to mention that May 4 through 7 I'll be at LepreCon and attending the Nebula Awards Banquet in Tempe, AZ.


I have just heard that Malena has broken her arm. I send her warm wishes for a quick recovery.

Easter Night

Until tonight I'd never seen McDonald's as a refuge. But now I look from one tired-faced woman to another and something dawns. The kids, some still in Easter dress, zip down the massive play area slide on their food trays. I'm pretty sure they're not supposed to be doing that. The clatter is nearly deafening but garners no reaction on the women's faces. Possibly they know something I don't.
Maybe they're wearing earplugs. Possibly there is a bin of earplugs at the playroom entrance and I missed it.
Likely not.
But there should be.

I get this feeling occasionally that I'm operating outside some general rubric I failed to assimilate during childhood because of some minor misstep.

Maybe they're letting their kids jump and climb and scream out their jelly beans. Refugees from Easter.

Or maybe, like me, they're seeking someplace bright and normal to try to make sense of things that are not.

I wonder if my face looks as strained and pinched and disappointed as theirs do. I'd like to think not. But then, it's been a long Easter day.

I wonder if some of them are just avoiding going home.

Take the long way

The auction for the rat has ended. I sort of nervously await confirmation that the winner has made the donation so I can pack and ship him. Aubrey tends to want to tease me by saying things like, "Hey Mom, I guess you shipped the Neil rat. I see it's gone from the gallery." and "I didn't realize the Neil rat has only one ear." and such.

I have only myself to blame.

Yesterday I had to pry myself from the studio to run errands. Orion wanted to wear his Jedi cape and of course I let him and he got smiles everywhere we went.
We don't make a deal about Santa around here, or the Easter bunny, or the tooth fairy. We give presents at Christmas and tomorrow the grandparents will give chocolate bunnies and eggs filled with money. (there's no good answer to that one) We may spirit away little teeth left under pillows and put them away for someday. We may leave shiny coins but we won't talk about the Tooth Fairy because that's just plain scary. At least in these modern days we don't have to contend with those elves that fix our shoes...

But, One Day Orion will figure out that Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader, likely well before he can understand that wide stripe of gray between 'good' and 'evil'.


I was to pick Aubrey up tonight from her friend's party. I left a bit early, setting off in the opposite direction. I knew what I wanted. Driving at night with the windows down, listening to music I love with one of the biggest, most beautiful moons ever riding shotgun----that's a recharge. I highly recommend it.

g'night

No time for love, Dr. Jones

These days are interesting. No time for writing (later, for sure).

It's the zone.

I like the zone.

g'night

Neil 2.0

Neil says the CBLDF needs money. I said I'd make something for them. So I got out my carving tools.

There's a bit of a tour beard here, the blue glasses, a bit of gray (!) in the hair, a spider and an ipod. I told him perpaps the 3.0 Neil Ratbag might have a chip so he could say "brilliant" and "thingy." But, we can only guess what the title might be.

He tells me I'm a sick woman.

That means, he likes it.

The CBLDF is cool. The Neil 2.0 prototype is cool. The auction is here:


eBay: Gaiman Anansi Boys Collectible Rat (item 9307721668 end time Apr-14-06 1

Back to the studio for me. Later to take Orion to see Ice Age II: The Meltdown. We have begun teaching him how to tell time on an analog clock. He likes it. He's getting it. Hmm. Maybe he can teach Aubrey... then she can teach her friends. sheesh

EAT AT JOES

Aliens Travel to Earth for Chinese Takeout

Ok, right. So Aubrey is sitting with me, reading aloud from her favorite, Weekly World News. I think she's working on a new collage. Holy Grail found.


I post the photo above. Unless this is your first visit, further explanation is not necessary. If it is your first visit, welcome!


Today I worked on dark angel types, a unique Neil Rat for the CBLDF and other pieces. It becomes a sort of juggling act for adjusting this while that's drying, sanding this while that cures, writing ideas as they come in between all, trying not to get resin in my hair or brushes in my paint.

If you haven't, please visit the new gallery at www.lisasnellingsgallery.com and if you like it, say nice things about it to Ravyn.

Hitler was a woman?

Sleep? or Studio? I could go either way......

Goggles and Galleries

It’s Ben’s turn for a bit of burnout. He’s taking a couple of days off. While he’s gone, I decided to spend a few hours helping him clean up some of his castings. He’s making a kinetic wedding sculpture for his cousin. I’ll post photos when it’s painted. The bride and groom are a fairy and knight, respectively, of course. I’m thinking that when he gets back tomorrow, it might be a nice surprise that I spent time working on his art for a change. I’ll let you know how it goes over. He (like me) SO needed to take a ‘time out.’ SHEESH (I begin to appreciate how it must be to work with me every day.)

Orion announces he wants to ‘hang out’ in the studio with me. I explain that goggles are required anytime Mommy uses power tools. He doesn’t mind so much that he walks around in them long after I’m done.
It occurs to me that I started this blog when he was two and that Neil blogged about him when he was born. So technically, his life has been blogged from the beginning. I assume he belongs to a generation of such children.


The new SlaughterHouse Galleries is a space for the original art to stand on its own. There are two ‘rooms’ up now, mostly with food and puppet pieces. Later we will add the Bronzes, the Paper Dolls and the Kinetics. The Gallery site won't replace the current studio site, which will focus on ‘behind the scenes’ studio and project work.

Here is a first look at the new gallery AND a preview of the new chapbook with the venerable Gene Wolfe:SLAUGHTERHOUSE GALLERIES

Giant moustaches?

Pete’s latest gaming advice:

Never turn your back on a four-year-old when playing Lego Star Wars. In moments, many hours worth of hard-gamed-for weapons funds could be spent on giant moustaches and purple light sabers for everyone.

I haven’t played it yet, but it looks like a really fun, cool, clever game.

It's Sunday night. Daylight savings. Easter approaches, heralded by ever evil Peeps.
Orion and I stick our feet in the pool. Winter is over, for us. Summer looms.

Now I've stuck my nose out, looked around. Saw my shadow. Time to get back to the studio. There are six more weeks of winter in there.

God's Own Whoppers

I've decided it's probably not a good idea to get into the habit of snacking while reading. A couple of weeks ago it was a packet of Gummi Bears here, a mouse-sized box of raisins there. Last week I hit the trail mix and tonight I hit rock bottom: Whoppers.
It stops here.

This is worse than television snacking. At least then we wait for programs to end before getting more...don't we?

Still, I'm reading A History of God (Karen Armstrong) and The End of Faith (Sam Harris). Now, maybe it's just me, but this kind of study seems to beg for a carton of Whoppers. Something sweet while gnawing the Deity.
Dry, chewy deity... Perhaps ice chips would go better.