Passion

Passion
6x8 pastel on Uart 600

******
I have been extremely stressed but still doing ok.
Stores are open and people are calm and polite to each other.

Hopefully I have everything we need.

Schools are closed until April 20 (tentative) and Daya is devastated about that.
But she has to learn to pull herself together and make the best of hard times.
Everyone is heartbroken over this.

They start online learning next week.

Unshaken

Art Students League is running daily prompts, so I'm doing a series of Topiary Cats.

Unshaken
6x8 pastel on Uart 600

(I need to use my 600 paper, it's not my favorite, I much prefer the 400 grit.)

Sedated Pebbles

On Saturday Pebbles went to the vet, I kept having this nagging feeling we really need to get a urine test.  The non-absorb litter the vet gave us didn't work, she peed on Daya's coat instead.

So we sedated her and brought her back.
Pee collection successful.

As it turns out, she has some kind of infection. There are a lot of white blood cells in her urine.
I'm not paying $230 to do a culture so we're just putting her on antibiotics 2x a day for three weeks, then we'll do another urine test and hope everything is cleared up.

Friday

I'm officially working from home for the next two weeks at least.
So I'll probably go batshit crazy..... I like going into the office.
I will have to take long walks.

I'm not worried about getting sick- for me or Daya. We'll be fine.
But I do want to lay low and take a step back from everything, stay out of the craziness.

Everything is cancelled and shutting down.
Except school-  but LaGuardia started running a shortened school day until further notice.
All Broadway shows are cancelled until April 12!
People are very scared.

I haven't seen this much ongoing society disruption since 9/11 and it sucks.
Maybe that's why it's bothering me so much.

We've had disruptive blackouts but they were temporary.
Storm-Sandy was terrible too but it was over and done, then there was a lot of cleanup.

I'm feeling surprisingly stressed and scrambled, I wasn't worried about this at all until Wednesday.
Maybe if I can get my inner zen back I'll use this extra time to do some studio work.

Just Wednesday

Coronavirus SUCKS.

I can't wait til this whole thing blows over.

*******
Daya got into Manhattan Youth Ballet but isn't going unless she herself can figure out how to fund it because I'm not paying for it.

*******
My shower got re-grouted and I love it so much.
It was in awful shape now it looks great.

******
I haven't been painting, have not been emotionally up to it.
Just stress.

******
My friend and co-worker I have known for 14 years was let go today and I'm really upset about it.
He's ok though.
But I'm really upset.

I have been told specifically my job is ok and they aren't making a lot of cuts.

******
I took Pebbles to the vet due to peeing on my bed almost every day for over a week.
What happened?
Daya went on a sleepover at her friend's for two nights and the cat couldn't handle it.

I got-- the idea thanks to one of my gaming friends-- a room divider that sits on the floor.
WHY didn't I think of this years ago. I'm so slow and dumb sometimes.

I got a large six-panel one and it covers my entryway and KEEPS CATS OUT and I feel just so much better overall.

I have to take pebbles back to the vet to get some pee because instead of peeing in the sample box I tried at home she peed on Daya's coat.

I did ask Daya why her coat was on the floor and she said that's where she normally puts it...
so idk what to do about cats or teenagers.

******
Fuck you coronavirus.

Pebble Portrait

Pebbles admires herself.

2020 on 30

Some views from the 30th floor, which I had occasion to visit a couple of times this week.

Gouache and MYB Audition

Daya had an audition at Manhattan Youth Ballet.
I painted while waiting, and had to do some finishing at home, about 15 mins or so, because it was such a short audition.

It was also an experiment to use pastel over gouache instead of inktense pencils.

Central Park Horses

There is still no snow this winter so I painted Central Park horses instead.
It was really cold and this was a complex and difficult painting.

I made my life even more difficult by painting very small.
Temp was ok for about the first hour and a half, then I started freezing.
Total time was over 3 hours, maybe 3 1/2, 32 degrees (that's 0c).

Not very long ago I would never have attempted a scene like this.
Daya recognized the location immediately.

6x8 oil

Hua's Balcony

Tonight I went to see my friend Hua, who I met at the Garin Baker workshop.
I think we have been friends for many lifetimes; it's one of those situations where you meet a person and everything just flows and you are immediately just good friends.

Hua lives in China but is an American citizen.  She has two daughters here in college.
She owns an apartment in Lincoln Center and does come to NYC a lot.
She's a wonderful artist and takes a lot of classes at the League.

Anyhow, she's here in the US and I went to see her.  I brought paint.
It is mid-February and was 28 degrees outside, so like any normal people woulddo, we went outside on her balcony to freeze and paint.

She's on the 22nd floor and has a great view.

Here is Hua painting.

Here we are together.

And here I am.

This is my painting, 8x10 oil.
I actually could have spent a lot of time on this but it's only about 45 minutes of actual painting time.
It was SO COLD and we ended up taking some long breaks inside to get warm again.

Weirdly though I learned a lot doing it.

I would not call this a finished painting but I'm not doing anything else to it.

I like this part.

Ailey Acceptance

She got in. :)
Registration already done.

And Level D! I thought she might get C.
Levels D/E are the highest levels.

NYBG Orchid Show

Today was a good day to go see the Orchid Show at NYBG!
It.
Was.
AMAZING OMG.

Some pics from the library building... I like botanical drawings.

This is sideways oh well!

I also liked seeing what happens when a wall goes in the middle of a pillar!

This stupid sign in their stupid unimportant nothing-gallery.
No sketching????

The Orchid Show!

My favorite plant was there!! This made me very happy.

I brought Rebel with me and took a lot of pics.
These prob need to be processed in photoshop for best color etc but I don't have time for that.

Lisa I wish you could teleport here and see the show, it is glorious!

There are a lot of pics but this is MY blog so I can! :p
Click for larger image. :)