Draw Things....

This months theme was "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" which I shamelessly confess I never watched or read when I was little, and have no interest in even now. But I drew something anyway...

Giveaway!

April 3rd, 2010 was the premier of season 5 of Doctor Who, and our official introduction to the Eleventh Doctor as portrayed by Matt Smith (possibly the best character introduction ever in the history of anything).
And so on April 3rd of this year I will be giving away three sets of my scents: Eleven and Pond. (To clarify - three winners, each will receive a bottle of Eleven and a bottle of Pond.)

How do you enter?
Simple.
Just comment on this blog post with your favorite Eleven or Amelia one liner (i.e. "Bowties are cool." or "I love your stupid face.") Also include your email address (or some way to contact you) so I can contact the winners! Or check back here on the 3rd.....

 Rules?
Yes.
You can enter once! Also - US residents only. Sorry about that one, but international shipping and customs for perfume is a giant headache I'm not prepared to deal with this month.
Also - you've got to enter by midnight on April 2nd.
Three winners will be randomly chosen and announced here (meaning on this blog in a new entry) on the 3rd. After an email, winners have 10 days to let me know where to send their smells! Non-responses will result in new winners getting picked.

WINNERS AND OTHER 

AWESOME COOL STUFF

POSTED HERE!!!

.beginning beekeeping pt.2.

Last Sunday (yes a week ago - what do you want I'm very very busy and sleepy) I had my second segment of Beginning Beekeeping with the Northeastern Kansas Beekeeping Association.  Like the first segment, it was terribly interesting, very well put together and I learned a lot.
Like how I learned that there is absolutely no way I have enough time to take care of bees.
And even if I did, I still have nowhere to put them.

Most of the class was focused on bee diseases and pests and Pest Management - not eradication, management. Though sometimes pest management with bees means eradicating your bees - otherwise known as burning your hives, bees and all.
Though sometimes it just means covering your bees with powdered sugar, which sounds hilarious.

I also came to the conclusion that if anyone was ever thinking about keeping bees that it's really imperative that they take a class first. I've read a lot about bees in the last two months, subscribed to blogs and podcasts - and I learned way more in these classes than I ever would have managed to take in on my own. And I made beekeeper contacts to pester when I come up with more silly questions.

Now if I can just find a beekeeper who will sell me their winter die-off bees, I'd really be on a roll.

May the 4th be with you!

Troupe Duende hosts an annual workshop weekend entitled Warrior Weekend - choke full of classes to whip you into shape and make you delightfully sore and achey the next day. Once again I've been invited to teach, and this year the class is Ring Around the Rosies - technique for spins and floorwork.
You can register for classes here!

Come and see me!!!

.I prefer grape flavor.

My husband took the liberty of dragging me out of the house last night and took me to a movie - in this way he is much smarter and wiser than I will ever be in that he so much better than I recognizes when I'm about to step off the cliff and need a break so much more than I need to finish whatever it is I'm doing.
We saw The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, which I'd somehow missed every single preview for; and it was wonderful. And afterwards it sparked a little conversation about Koolaide -specifically performers who dip into drinking there own.

As a Self-Authoring-Artist (creating your own material rather than performing someone else's material), there's a certain amount of KoolAide involved - you have to believe in what your selling enough to sell it; you have to create enough hype to get peoples attention, and you have to make them want more. Hence the (very bad and morbid) KoolAide theme. Unfortunately there's a very fine line between selling people your Koolaide, and going too far and drinking it yourself - and this is where so many performers fall off the deep end into Really Weird in the Bad way BS.

This happens, I think, more than we like to admit to. A good friend of mine was dealing with this kind of situation not long ago - a director/producer/performer who'd drank so much of their own Koolaide (after feeding copious amounts to their students) that I was prompted to make a little infographic comparing dance troupes to cults. There's a level of self awareness that's crucial to an artist in order to keep creating and to keep improving - and once that awareness fades into the haze of "How Awesome I Am!" the quality of the work suffers dramatically; and it's something that can be doubly hard to self-recognize when you've surrounded yourself with a mass of delusional sycophants. Teaching students in a way that they gain the skills to surpass their teacher is a good thing; including critical thinking, critique, self awareness, visual observation and communication skills. And a performer who is convinced that they are the be-all-end-all of their own or any other art form is a dangerous person to be drawn to.

In art there is no one road. There is no correct answer. Everything is subjective, and everything can be improved upon. Perfection is a myth; and what does not evolve will eventually die.

Illustration Friday: yesterday

.and then there was better video.

From ms. Jen LaRose, whose camera was much closer to the stage then mine was...

.adventures in bee keeping. pt.1

In 2010 I was working in my garden when I saw what I thought was a Silver Bee. The following summer I saw it again, several times and wanting to know What It Was, spent two weeks trying to take a picture of it. This is the only really clear shot I got.
Come two years later, and I've finally figured out that it's probably a Mason Bee, and the entire reason I couldn't find any information on "silver bees" is because it's color it referred to as blue.

One of the things I'm going to start focusing in on in my paintings (hopefully to expand to sculpture once I figure out what I'm doing) is bees - particularly honey bees and their importance to Life As We Know It.  In an effort to thoroughly educate myself on the subject, i signed up for a Beginner Beekeeping class - guessing that if anyone I had access to would know everything about bees, local beekeepers would be high on that list.
The class is two days - about four hours each day and this past Sunday was my first taste of Things I Found Out I Didn't Really Know Anything About At All - most glaringly Bee Swarms, and how to assemble a Bee Hive which looks like way more work and trouble than I ever though possible for what is essentially a bug house.
Also, buying bees is really expensive - way out of my price range, so unless someone gifts me with a hive and bee package, the likelyhood of me learning about beekeeping first hand is....small.
A few gems from my class notes:

Bees will very seldom chew through ducktape.

The only thing you can't control is the weather.

Don't put your beehive in a pasture with a bad bull in it.

They have wings for a reason.

Once they make up their mind where they're going, they're gone.

.images from the weekend.

 All the little seed containers I finally started on Thursday.

 Post performance Saturday - Ms, Saideh and Ms. Amoré being adorable

(and waiting for foodz)

 Sunday evening.

They grow up so fast!

.with the Ghosts Project.

.sketchbook wednesday.

.elmhurst.

The Elmhurst Artist's Guild in Elmhurst Illinois is having their National Art Premier opening on Friday. There's a piece of mine there!
If you're in the area - stop by and have some wine for me!

.Ferris Wheel of Terror.

My entry for Draw Things this month:

.spirit of the muse.

I have an opening tonight in St. Louis!
Truthfully it's Ami Amoré's opening that I have a piece in, but still...
If you're in the area - or can be, or just want to be - pop over to the Mad Art Gallery. The opening reception is from 7 to 9pm and knowing Ami as I do, it will be spectacular - art and dancing and live music.

In conjunction with the show is Angels and Absinthe next weekend - a full day of wonderful workshops with a really spectacular show in the evening - Ami, Tempest, Celeste and more.

I'm personally going to miss the opening tonight (I have to work tomorrow) and the classes but I will be at the show next Saturday night - dancing and vending, a perfect opportunity to come and smell my smells if you haven't already.