So yesterday I picked up my painting, Kitten in Winter, from the image capture studio.  I've been pimpin' it out as much as I can stand all over the internets, after going through the day job wringer over and over...  This SEO (search engine optimization) thing is still so new to me, and overwhelming.  I just learned what it is a few months ago.  But that's not real the problem.  The problem is, of course, that the kitten is coming true.

Coming true?  What does this mean, you may ask...  Well, I still prefer our soggy rainforest winter to the icy blast of my Vermont childhood, but there are consequences.  The clouds get to you.  Light deprivation is sadly not a joke, and I have been exhausted this week for no reason.  Again.  I've been taking my Vitamin D, but haven't been using the Happy Lamp I was so ready to be my salvation.  And it is taking its toll.  I guess I needed to get back in touch with my sense of S.A.D. since I am hoping to make a big breakout exploiting our communal feeling of hopelessness.  I laughed at Portland's #1 ranking as the most depressed city in the U.S., before I got here.  Ladies and gentlemen, the kitten does not lie!

The funny thing is that I knew when I painted it that I could not have created Kitten in Winter actually during wintertime.  That would have been unbearable.  And truthfully, it is too colorful for an accurate depiction of winter.  The color of a northeastern winter is white.  The colors of a northwestern winter are gray and green, depending on if you look up or down.  Blue is a mood, but it's a happier version of gray.  In the winter, I pull out the neon pigments.  In fact, I am so itchy to do so right now!!!  And yet, many hours of my day job, assisting administratively, stretch before me.  There is very little neon in my office, although I have more toys than the average office drone.

And yet, I am still excited for Portlandia's episode 5 (in a week!) - and am desperately hoping to be mocked brutally on national TV, in the hopes that indeed no press is bad press.  But there is no guarantee this will happen.  I feel confident the painting will at least appear on a wall as "production value," but beyond that, it's like playing the lottery.  And we all know that you can't win the lottery every week.  So I'm busting my arse on spec, which is hard to do... in winter.

So I'll dose up on the happy lamp like crazy over the next few days and report back.  I'm not going to let my inner sad kitten in a basket get the better of me.


Add Comment
 
 
It's raining colors I am realizing we have a second bloom here in the rainforest.  It almost makes up for the clouds.  The gray coupled with all the flowers has really amped up my palette since I moved here.  My paintings almost vomit color now.  I bought every neon I could find in my new media, acrylic gouache.  There are a bunch.  I can't wait to do a picture book with these new paints- maybe Ponyhunter, a tragic love story between a young man and a pegacorn named Sparkleana. 

I tried the HappyLight today- even got up early to do it, and I am SOOOO not an early morning person.  And I haven't had this much energy (at my day job, no less!) in, well, memory.

I'm slaving away prepping paper for an entire picture book's worth of paintings.  I buy ink soon so I can mix enough purple/black to do the entire book...  I'm about to be a painting fiend.

The colors in Death's Daughter are sedate, mixed with intense hot pink.  I think the pink will carry me through.  I do love working in ink. Ink comes in an entire palette of colors, too.  Including lemon yellow and hot pink.  Just sayin'.

I'm not sure if those are crocus or tiny lavendar tulips I see all around town...  and the roses are coming back for one last hurrah.  At some point there is a lull and then the Camelia, a bit like roses on giant, leafy bush-trees, starts blooming in late January or early February.  Portland Freakin' Oregon, ladies and gentlemen.  The land where anything will grow.

If I prep my papers fast enough, I may start drawing unicorns tonight.  I think they'll be hard at first, but I'm also pretty sure they are going to be fun.  Unicorns are not generally a downer.  Off to the studio!

Drive fast, take chances!
Add Comment