The Vortex of Strange

How's that for a name.
That's how I feel. I haven't posted here much lately but alot of that is because I've been very very very busy. First, the house, still coming along. As I've said all along, there are two groups of "us" working on this project. There's the "builders" <-- us in serious build mode, getting tons done - and we still drop in and work like mad little dogs on things like staining, and sealing and wiring and blah blah blah... That's us all in badboy mode and there's no tom foolery whatsoever. (That's the part that's done most of the work).
    Then there is us in "artist" mode and we get distracted by things like sycamore branches and how they would look... say... up here ..... or like.... "Hey, those train lenses? wouldn't they look really cool like this?" (holding them up in the wall of what will be our shower). you know, stuff like that. Amazing amounts of time can be eaten up by running up the stairs and saying "No, I mean here..... look..... what if. we take that antique apothecary cabinet, you know, the one your paper is in behind the front door at home and we put it in HERE.... right like this.... " "Why, holy shit, that's a great idea! Splended in fact!.... oh but wait..... looky over here..... we should...." you get the idea. Maddening amounts of time.  The builders are here less and less. The artists are starting to take over the project and things are slowing down and THAT IS SO NOT GOOD RIGHT NOW.  Mother of effing god,  enough already, but alas, we cannot seem to stop. We have this huge old house stuffed with the most bizarre shit. What DO you do with a 4' x 3' framed print of the signing of the original treaties of the four railroads taken back in the 1800's? Or the framed wedding photo in an origianl antique frame from somewhere back there too, or the really awesome 60's stained glass lamp that is currently sitting on the floor along with an Italian crystal chandelier that is perfectly intact and waiting to be hung up? (I don't know either). But we won't have room for alot of it here. Oh yes, we have every playboy issue from 1969 on, most still in their package that we acquired from god know's where - I need to sell this stuff, or do something with it. ... but... alas, I digress. Enough about the house. It's coming along slowly and it is going to be really cool if we dont' fuck it up somewhere between here and there.

Etsy sends me a notice today, "Jason" to be speciifc, to tell me that some beyotch owns the rights to the words "Vintage Vixen" and one of my 3 etsy shops (VintageVixens2) is going to be renamed or closed. After careful consideration I've decided to have it changed to a new name and call it "IronDogCreations" (a companion to TheIronDogMercantile). I will migrate all the artsy stuff over there off the Merc and migrate the non-artsty over to the Merc. Not to be confused with Angieclementine, (which will forever be my "dark" side and my alter as a painter. Talk about strange though.... what the hell? I've had that shope for almost 3 years and NOW ti's a prob? Whatever.
Speaking of which.....

This was actually my lesson in using stayzon ink but I turned it into a painting. Just a little one, but it was nice to go back to the dead tree again. I've been getting a "hankering" to move back to the trees for a bit and get some of that darker work out, must be the season for it... :-)

Sometimes you just gotta get that stuff outta your head, dontcha?









Dance, Laugh, Enjoy

Too bad you can't use your own fonts on this blog. I have amazing fonts, just amazing, amazing fonts.
Oh well. I have been incredibly busy and incredibly happy although there's a ton of stress at this part of our house build (I stained a 400 sf deck last weekend and will seal it prob tomorrow. I also block-tighted the entire basement myself and that stuff is ridiculously fumey and hard to breathe. What I do in the name of progress, eh?

But it is all coming along and it looks simply marvy if I do say so myself. We are still looking at studs though, as we have to pass electrical before we do drywall and we have to finish the last few iron-outs on electrical before we get that far. I've already resigned myself to the fact we'll be lucky if we're in here full time by xmas but what the hell, when it's just the two of us... I mean come on... I sometimes wonder what we'll think of all this later on. We are definitely supressing the incredible idiocy of doing this whole thing ourselves, it's like we don't mention it because it's just quietly understood that we're both terrified sort of under the surface... and yet... another part of us is enjoying the thrill and the risk of it all :-) I had no idea I would find something this huge so terrifying AND exhilarating at the same time. Of course we keep expecting the other shoe to drop at any moment and something to go terribly, terribly wrong, but that's the risk part again. :-) I think I will look back on this and say "what the hell?"

I have stripped myself back to the bare essentials with art, I'm sketching again, this time faces and chicken bodies and sometimes just faces. What started out as a simple exercise has turned into a sort of drive to do something and I'm not quite sure what.

Ah, to be continued.....