A night off for forgetting.

I took the night off, and we went to see "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." If you like juvenile humor in the vein of "Knocked Up" and "Superbad" and so forth - as I do - you will probably enjoy it as well. I especially enjoyed seeing it at the local theater that charges $1.50 per ticket. Heh.

Sketchy.

As mentioned, I have some commissioned pieces to finish, but I did manage recently to sneak in a little sketch right after I got back from France – a tiny little portrait sketch of Canadian artist Janette Hayhoe; we were in the same portrait painting class last year with Studio Escalier:

jh2

oil on panel

2008

4"x4"

Diane Feissel

Wildlife.

I think I’ve found the ideal model for some of my next paintings, if I ever finish the commissions I’m working on:

Convalescent.

I haven’t yet mentioned the horrific unfolding of the Libby Mystery Wound saga, most of which transpired while I was away in Europe. Basically, our dear roommate and fiercest feline compadre Libby acquired some manner of odd skin lesion/wound/crater which festered and blossomed to heinous, pus-filled proportions. Our vet hypothesized that this may be the result of a brown recluse spider bite, but I tend to disbelieve this theory; that spider must have been the size of my head to be able to leave a wound that enormous; even after the worst was over, after my return to the States when her wound was “healing”, she still had a seeping hole in her side that you could drive a truck through. It was, hands down, the most disgusting putrefaction of flesh I have ever to witness, surely along the lines of Civil War injuries. Gangrenous hideousness. Given the level of horror, I will refrain from posting a photo here; and please, don’t worry, she’s definitely healing up nicely (though not prettily). Though she does look cute in her little collar, designed to keep her from that perennial evil of picking (or, in her case, licking) her scab. Behold, Her Fanciness:

Marché aux Puces, Raleigh version.

John and I wandered up to the NC Flea Market yesterday, for a walk and a peek at the wares.

As always, there was some cool stuff, some gross stuff, and some funny stuff. So, in no particular order, some stuff...

I believe chocolate is always worth fighting for.

Crosstown traffic! Circa 1950something.Can someone tell me why, oh why, that children’s toys are sometimes so creepy looking? I find these specimens terrifying:Let’s hop on the nostalgia wagon: lunchboxes from the ‘70s. Yessss!! Considering that I had both the Bionic Woman doll and Charlie’s Angels dolls, it’s rather surprising that I had neither of these series’ lunchboxes. Apparently it’s never too late, though...

Looouvre.

By the way, here are a couple of the sketches I did while in the Louvre. I wish I could say I was good about capturing the info about whose sculpture, exactly, I was drawing from. But sometimes I’d forget to do that before settling into a sketch, and then at the end of the evening I was being shooed out by the security guards before having an opportunity to write down the info. These are both busts, obviously, and they’re French, 18th century I think, the first one is by Caffieri but the second remains a mystery. Which only means that I have to go back to Paris to find out. Heh heh heh yesssssss.

Back at the 311.

It was good to be back in the studio today. I’ve got to change out some of the work in there, though: