Life

I went to a street fair at Venice Beach today. I think I love the southern California beach culture. Everyone is so relaxed and friendly. I thought this girl was just stunning and had to get her photograph.

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The Art Faire

I think it was a success. :-) I sold an even dozen greeting cards and one canvas. I think I would have considered it a success if I had sold only one card so I was pretty excited.

I also saw my absolute favorite high school teacher at the fair. He walked in and I knew it was him right away. He has not changed at all. B took the photo...

Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, "This is the real me," and when you have found that attitude, follow it.
~ William James

Chocolate Solves Everything

My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished 2 bags of M&M's and a chocolate cake. I feel better already.
~ Dave Barry

Shoes and Color

I was looking at these today thinking the colors would look good in a picture. It's not the best shot but I was desperate for a photo for the day.

What becomes of the broken-hearted? They buy shoes.
~ Mimi Pond

SPC

I have not done many of these Self Portrait Challenges. Actually I think I've done only 2 or 3 all year. I decided to try it out today though. The challenge for the month is bathrooms.

Sometimes the beauty is easy. Sometimes you don't have to try at all. Sometimes you can hear the wind blow in a handshake. Sometimes there's poetry written right on the bathroom wall.
~ Ani Difranco

Facebook

I am wasting so much time on this, but it is really fun!

I'm surprised at how much Facebook.com has burrowed itself into real life along with instant messaging, text messaging and e-mail, ... It's another reason to be on the Net. So many people come back because it's fun and useful. They use it to find people, they meet people, organize a party and so many other things.
~ Chris Hughes

First Attempt

I am going to be trying to sell some of my canvases at an art fair on Saturday and these are some of the pieces. I have no idea what I'm doing but it should be fun!

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.
~ Oscar Wilde

Cookies

Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.
~ Robert Fulghum

After the Rain

I wish I could post the smell as well as the photo today. There is nothing better than the air after it rains.

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.
~ Henry David Thoreau

Raining Sunshine

Arise, and soar with the sun’s new-born rays,
To breathe new life into dying nights and days.
~ Allama Iqbal

Life Drawing

This photo may not look like much but it is pretty big for me. After a very long day of subbing for 7th graders, tutoring, and other errands it took a lot to convince me to go on my own to a figure drawing class. I knew I wouldn't know anyone and I have never drawn "in public" before. It was worth it though. Three hours of drawing for only eight dollars - quite the bargain. I will definitely go back.

It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine day you discover to your surprise that you have rendered something in its true character.
~ Camille Pissarro.

The Heavens

The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be? —it is the same the angels breathe.
~ Mark Twain

Healing

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
~ Helen Keller

Close Up

Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.
~ Charlie Chaplin

White

There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.
~ Robert Lynd

Birthday Party

Life is filled with so many exciting twists and turns. Hop off the straight and narrow whenever you can and take the winding paths. Experience the exhilaration of the view from the edge. Because the moments spent there, that take your breath away, are what make you feel truly alive.
~ Stacey Charter

Birthday Number Eleven

If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of potential -- for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints; possibility never.
~ Soren Kierkegaard

Back to School Night

My first Back to School Night in 10 years. It's a little hard to get used to.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
~ Albert Einstein

T-shirt Art

Before I start painting I have a slightly ambiguous feeling: happiness is a special excitement because unhappiness is always possible a moment later.
~ Francis Bacon

Hope

I went out this morning and got some shots of a few flowers. I had a hard time picking which one to post. You can check out the rest on flickr.

Not only is another world possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
~ Arundhati Roy

Monochromatic

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
~ Scott Adams

The Flea Market

At a flea market I always head for the junk jewelry table first.
~ Ethel Merman

Seeking Solace

From barren sands to verdant fields, from city streets to lonely worlds, cries the tortured human heart, seeking solace, wisdom, a chart by which to understand its plight.
~ Dean R. Koontz

The Owl

He respects Owl, because you can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right.
~ A.A. Milne

Exhaustion

I'm hoping this works tonight but I'm thinking a couple of Tylenol PM may be in order as well. It's been a long sleepless week.

Last night I dreamed I had insomnia. I woke up exhausted, yet too well rested to go back to sleep.
~ Bob Ingman

A New Piece

I have been trying to find new ways to frame my prints. I like not using an actual frame. It feels more personal.

The desire for self-expression afflicts people when they feel there is something of themselves which is not getting through to the outside world.
~ Fay Weldon

Morning Light

Early morning hath gold in its mouth.
~ Benjamin Franklin

Moon with Wires

There is something haunting in the light of the moon; it has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul, and something of its inconceivable mystery.
~ Joseph Conrad

Have We Melted Yet?

Heat, ma'am!" I said; "it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones."
~ Sydney Smith

Birthday Party

We had the annual cousins' birthday party today. There are five girls in the family that have birthdays all within a month and every year we have a group party at my mom's. This year the oldest turned 19 and the youngest (mine) turned 11.


Most of us can remember a time when a birthday - especially if it was one's own - brightened the world as if a second sun has risen.
~ Robert Lynd