another little painting i made on the plane on the way to the family ski trip in Colorado. the more i look at this thing the more i hate it. i need to paint over it.
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February 26th, 2010
sunglasses and stripes
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February 26th, 2010
yellow flowers
a little painting i made on the plane on the way to the family ski trip in Colorado- No Comments »
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February 23rd, 2010
Joanna Newsom | Have One On Me
Joanna Newsom
Have One On Me
February 23, 2010A friend once said to me, “You and I share the same taste in music, but I will never understand your love of Joanna Newsom.”
To be sure, Joanna Newsom is an acquired taste. The folkster-harpist sings (and many times, yelps) epic tales about tarantulas and executions, gingerly tossing around obscurities like, “etiolated fish-belly face,” and “dully-abrading black hair,” along the way.
Listening to Newsom requires patience, and a willingness to unhinge from the footholds of pop music. Newsom doesn’t pacify us with easily penetrable lyrics, nor does she hold our hands through the meanders of her rhythms and melodies. She made this clear with her first full release, The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004), and in case anyone wasn’t paying attention the first time, almost obstinately so on her sophomore release, Ys (2006). On the more sophisticated, but no less unfettered, Have One On Me (2010), we hear an artist who’s found her way to an album which simultaneously stretches her vivid imagination and successfully snake-charms listeners into the strange little world she inhabits.
Bookended by love songs, the 18-track Have One On Me, opens with “Easy,” a charming plea to the object of her affection (“How long’s it gonna take? Let me love you/How about it? How about what I have to say?”), and sweeps to a close with “Does Not Suffice,” a sparse and tender farewell (“The tap of hangers/Swaying in the closet/ Unburdened hooks/And empty drawers/And everywhere I tried to love you/Is yours again/And only yours”).
Love – and the letting go that often accompanies it – bolsters much of the album. “Baby Birch” is a heart-breaking lullaby sung for a child lost; the hymn-like, “On a Good Day,” is an olive branch extended to a love that didn’t last; “Esme” is a letter sung to a newborn baby; and there’s even a song about a bond ending in tragedy between horse and rider (“You and Me, Bess”).
Newsom’s quirky sense of humor isn’t lost amidst the bittersweet. It’s obvious she loves language, and relishes opportunities to put her writing background to good use. On “‘81,” while singing about the Garden of Eden, she notes that it was, “hotter than hell, so I laid me by a spring/For a spell as naked as a trout.” On the rollicking, “Good Intentions Paving Company,” in which she trades harp for piano, she sings, “And I regret, I regret/ How I said to you, honey, just open your heart/ When I’ve got trouble even opening a honey jar.”
It’s not just clever wordplay that gives the words weight; their songstress delivers them in her unmistakably Newsom way, pushing them out from her lungs with seeming urgency. The allusions to child-like singing which plagued Newsom earlier in her career, can’t be drawn here on Have One On Me. Time, and perhaps her bout with vocal chord nodules, has bestowed a new boldness – and serendipitously, an elegance to her squeaks and sighs.
Throughout the album, Newsom cajoles her vocal chords, finger plucks, claps, piano keys, drums and horns from deep slumbers, spinning lavish stories with slow momentum and purpose. And this is how Have One On Me should be consumed, too – slowly, over time.
Joanna Newsom might not be for everyone. For the rest of us, she’s created the kind of album that gives back what you give, revealing itself to you more deeply the more time you spend with it.
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February 21st, 2010
llama be cute
do you ever see silly little trinkets, and wish someone would read your mind and buy them for you? well, this little llama is one such trinket.* after months and months of pining, i could no longer resist the cuteness! i had to make him mine! i hope he enjoys his new home.
*one of my nicknames is “Llama”
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February 14th, 2010
a little more heart day stuffs
i’ve never been a chocolate girl. my cotton candy Valentine’s card, watercolor & pencil on paper.
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February 14th, 2010
happy heart day!
Dan’s favorite band of all time is Radiohead. i was surprised when he first told me a couple years ago, and i’m still a little surprised – not because they play outside our Venn diagram of music tastes; the guys are musical geniuses who not only rock out on records, they know how to command the live stage. the puzzler is that i’ve always heard melancholy in their music – Dan, not so much.
maybe it’s because he doesn’t have an ounce of melancholy about him? he’s the most upbeat person i know – when we face tough stuff, he speaks soundly, optimistically, and with compassion. he embodies, “joie de vivre,” and that’s just one of his many swoon-worthy charms.
i love making presents for him. this Valentine’s Day, i made a triptych based on select lyrics from Thom Yorke’s, “Atoms For Peace.” the song is so beautiful and complicated and loaded with rich imagery.
first panel: “so feel the love come off of them”
second panel: “and take me in your arms. peel all of your layers off.”
smudging on the second panel
drawing on the second panel
third panel: “i want to eat your artichoke heart”
painting on the third panel
triptych
Dan with Mr. Deuce, next to his Valentine’s Day presentthe wood panels are pre-gessoed (i hate prepping materials). i free-handed my lettering in pencil. for texture, i smudged the letters with an eraser as i went along. “heart” is painted lightly with alizarin crimson acrylic.
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February 7th, 2010
her dark materials
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February 7th, 2010
these hydrangeas were made for walkin’
ah, the Super Bowl: men in tights, balls, (speaking of balls) commercials about men not wearing pants, old men singing on stage, betty white, more commercials with men in panties, (speaking of panties) simon “the mentalist pantywaist” baker, blah blah blah, tackles, boring, balls, ed begley jr., blah blah blah, touchdowns…
oh, something about it all makes me want to go shoe shopping.
it’s only february, so i should temper my excitement for spring – and spring fashion, but it’s going to be tough, what with all the strappy sandals sneaking their way past winter and back into my magazines.
i mean, look at these little cork-soled beauties from Born! i’m a sucker for mustard-anything, but plunk cute flowers on it, and wrap it up in straps and i’m pudding.*
*the strap is key, cuz if it ain’t got a strap, my robo-feet can’t walk in them!
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February 4th, 2010
there, by your lungs
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February 4th, 2010
no one
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a few things that make my heart go pitter-patter: drawing, Sakura Micron pens (size 005), pretty things, writing, smart design, science, boots, soup, Gilmore Girls, a knockout playlist, crispy bacon, 
