Thursday, February 26, 2009

I mean, it's not impossible that I'm knitting a ranch house.

Lately I've been basking in the idea of future apartments-
Finding flea market furniture and painting it beautiful colors, the seemingly unending supply of  girls with clipper ships prints on etsy to hang on walls, and every young 20 something's dream: buying a big bed at IKEA (right?).
I confess I  buy small things now in preparation of this apartment. I like buying dishes and glasses (usually plastic from the children's dining area of target and involving animals and/or lunch tray-style compartments...they're cute!). I recently acquired two rubber ducks for the tub - one in navy blue and one in hunter green.
Pictured above:
Green bird lamp - Christmas Tree Shop, $9
Hardy Boys: Mystery of the Whale Tattoo book - Viviana's Vintage, $5
Little boy with dog print - yardsale, 99 cents
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Sweet dreams, everyone. :)
love,
me

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

happy wednesday

Hi, everyone!
It feels like spring is coming, I think.
I'm today's interview on the AIB Illustration blog. There's a whole string of interviews of other people you might know, too! Just click the interview side-link.
I finally saw Coraline last night! It met all my expectations. It was beautiful. And it will remind you of why you love cats, if you are a cat lover.
That's all for now.
Love,
Amanda

Monday, February 23, 2009

I used to dwell in bookstore basements.

A few days ago I wrote a little bit about what my routine used to be like when I lived fifteen minutes from Harvard Square. Bookstores were also a large part of my routine back then, most especially the Harvard Bookstore, and most especially the basement.
There was a time when I visited that store twice a day. 
Books just make me feel better. I love them. I feel like they help me understand myself better, and I always seem to find the right book at the right time.
(This may sound overly romantic. Lately I've been called sensitive and hopelessly romantic more times than I can count, but I have never minded being called these things. I know I'm sensitive, and I like it, and as I get older I learn to accept it more than fight it.)
A week or two ago I was at Common Wealth Books and picked up a book by an author named Marguerite Duras, pictured above. I had never heard of her before, but when I opened it up I was excited to find that her chosen form and style of writing were very similar to mine (something I don't come across very often), and therefore proof that a writer with my style can definitely be published. I didn't buy the book. I kept her name in my head.
Today at the Harvard Bookstore, I came across "The Lover" by Marguerite Duras. This is not short stories, like the last book of hers I stumbled across, but a short novel. I was more moved by the introduction by Maxine Hong Kingston than by the first few pages of the novel itself, but if someone wrote such a loving forward for a book I have faith that it will be amazing.
This book also caught my attention...and this might seem crazy, but I thought it was all real until I read the quotes on the back, and then I wondered if this entire auction catalogue is fictional, if the couple in all the photographs was played by two actors or models, the items dreamt up by someone who dared to dream what mundane objects might become things of great importance when shared by two lovers.
After looking through the book, I felt like I knew the alleged couple, and when I discovered that they'd broken up it made it hard for me not to cry in the middle of the bookstore.
The catalogue includes books inscribed, shirts given, postcards sent, and photographs of the two posing as every literary couple, as set up by Lenore herself, who was a photographer.
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"One of the pleasures of loving the man is to write him down. She may be loving him to have something to write. She has a story to tell because of having loved him."
-Maxine Hong Kingston on Duras's heroine in The Lover.
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I think I'm very sensitive to love. I wouldn't have it any other way. I'd rather be sensitive than not feel at all.

Friday, February 20, 2009

For the canines

Non-Profit Print at Wall Blank!!!
Hi everyone!! I've been honored with the chance to sell a limited edition print of "I was too young to know how to love her (Conifer stay with me)" through Wall Blank, of which all proceeds will go to one of my favorite organizations, The Sanctuary for Senior Dogs.
The prints are 9x12" archival pigment prints.
(watermark will not appear on print)
These prints are a limited edition of 150 (and I will not be making my own prints of this painting again for at least one year). They are priced at $20 and available for one week or until sold out.
To buy one, visit here.
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Some dogs from The Sanctuary:
Monroe when he arrived at The Sanctuary for Senior Dogs.
Monroe after spending some time at The Sanctuary!
Annie Brown, one of Sanctuary's therapy dogs.
Katie, a 14 year old pug mix, currently up for adoption!!
The Sanctuary for Senior Dogs provides a loving environment for aging dogs surrendered by shelters, animal control, and individuals until "forever homes" are found for them. They strive to house the dogs in foster homes and to create a safe place much warmer than any shelter.
Thank you so much!!
Love,
Amanda

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

who's the warbler

"Counting Cadence"
moleskin pages 5 & 6
from The Sketchbook Project Volume 3

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

sky-lit like a darling

When it comes to the blog, I've been kind of quiet lately.
Sometimes I feel like I need to retreat into myself to kind of re-assess what I'm doing creatively.
I am missing the city something terrible. Winter in the city always made me very happy.
I would get up really early and get tea and go for a walk on the charles. It reminded me of Love Story. Then I would go back to my room and do work and then later take a nap when the early-setting sun was beating in. I like napping in sun like a cat. And then the winter nights. I miss movies alone at the Brattle and wandering neighborhoods and walking to the houses of poets and moon reflecting off of the snow. Nighttime watercolor skies that looked impossibly blue.
Someday, someday.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

saints and anatomical hearts

Hello, everyone! Happy Valentine's Day. 
"the impossible task"
moleskin pages 23 & 24
"written in the trees"
moleskin pages 33 & 34
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Last night I began painting my pieces for the Spin show. I'm really excited for it! Lots of the people I went to school with are in the show, and I miss them. It will kind of be like a little reunion. I'm also excited for the location. A vintage clothing store! That is where I like to be.
If you haven't noticed, lately I have been getting into barn stars (as proven on page 33 of the moleskin). What can I say, I was raised by a folk artist. :) I recently acquired barn star earrings. The things I obsess over in my art during a certain period of time usually effect the way that I dress during that same period.
I suppose that is all. I hope you all have a lovely valentine's day!
Love,
Amanda

Thursday, February 12, 2009

you, soft and only.

Finished product for The Sketchbook Project Volume 3. She's being shipped off tomorrow!
I made Tiger pose with my sketchbook. It looks like she has a tattoo!
Today was special because I found this little rascal roaming down town by himself. I brought him home with me to keep him safe until we contacted his owners.
He has a very loving family and is back safe and sound with them now. He had escaped by accident.
Here you can tell how muddy he'd gotten from all the dirty melting snow!
He was so sweet and he definitely brightened my day. I miss him already.
I feel like I should get a tattoo, but I kind of like my skin in its natural state. I think I will just always paint my ladies with the tattoos I would get, were I the type to get one.
Yay for 30 Rock and The Office tonight!
Alright, time to do some things!
Love,
me

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

they're just dulled light.

moleskin pages 47 & 48
"the apartment"
Sometimes I can't sleep, or won't sleep (sometimes it's hard to tell). I'm definitely a night owl by nature.
Lately with subbing and working at AIB on monday mornings, I've been mastering the art of "early to bed early to rise" - but it's so easy for me to break that pattern.
Last week there was an online interview with Buddy Holly's wife. She talked about how they were both night owls, and they'd stay up all night in their pajamas and he'd play guitar. To me, that is wonderful. But sometimes I wonder if what I want is practical.
I guess I'm wondering if I am going to have the kind of job where I must make myself go to bed early. And if I obtain that sort of job, will I be happy? Or will I be giving up a big part of myself by giving up my right to stay up until 4 in the morning?
What's so wrong with staying up late, anyway? The night time is beautiful. There are stars and the moon. I've always preferred the moon to the sun.
I guess it depends on how much money you can make living off of your art. 
And if you have someone who wants to stay up late with you? Well then it doesn't seem like such a bad thing.
Tonight I gessoed a new batch of masonite. There is something calming about prepping your grounds, a mindless repetitive action that gets your hands dirty. I love the way it smells and the way it feels on my fingers.
I am thinking a lot lately. And translating that thinking into paintings. I think I will try and sleep now.
Love,
Amanda

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

on love and koalas

Moleskin pages 3 & 4.
This picture from the fires in Australia is so touching. This is a firefighter named David Tree, and he's sharing his water with an injured koala. I love when firefighters take care of animals just as much as they would people.
My thoughts are with everyone there.
edit: Kate sent me a link. You can read more about David and the koala here.

Monday, February 9, 2009

& your heart felt good. It was dripping pitch and made of wood.

I finally scanned every page of my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project. :) pages 7 and 8.
I had so much fun doing this project! I didn't want it to be over. It will be so exciting to see it among a sea of other sketchbooks at the shows though. And I am lucky I get to go to both the Boston show and the NYC show!
In the class I T.A., the kids are currently creating five-frame "story boards" based on song lyrics. I chose "Tightly" by Neko Case to do as an example for them. I thought I'd put it up just because I love the song so much. You can click to see it larger. I want to see Coraline. So much. I need to arrange that.
Love, me

Sunday, February 8, 2009

I see a red wall and I want to paint it teal

Friday night was the opening of the Teeny Tiny Art Show IV at the Three Graces Gallery! Kate (who had an opening at Nahcotta the same night), Shauna, and I played in Portsmouth, ate at The Portsmouth Brewery, and had tea, coffee, and hot chocolate in a cafe for two hours. It was a very lovely evening.
And it might be hard to tell, but on Saturday I cut my hair! Seven inches off and I'm back together with my bangs. Plus a new feather fascinator from LoveMely.
Right now I am eating pizza with rosemary on it. 
I think I'm ready for winter to be over. It's putting me in a lull creativity-wise. Time doesn't seem to move at this time of the year. Days kind of just blend into each other. I'm anxious for a new feeling. 
I have one painting to finish and three ideas in my head. I've been doing so much work for shows that I haven't had time to focus on my personal work. I look forward to finishing them all up.
I'm still reading Foxfire. I've finished two other books while trying to make it through this one! It's like so many other old books in that seemingly mundane characters are introduced and described for five straight pages. I like Seton's writing because it reminds me of Sarah Orne Jewett (just a little) - the feeling that you've shown up in a place that certainly existed before you got there. But other than that, I'm actually finding the book pretty old-fashioned in its views of women (even though it was written by a woman) and very slow moving.
Soon I'll be on a biography of Zelda Fitzgerald. And that will be very nice.
Love, 
Amanda

Friday, February 6, 2009

baby love

Teeny Tiny Art Show IV
 5 pm
Three Graces Gallery
Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Thursday, February 5, 2009

If I could find a real-life place that made me feel like Tiffany's, well then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name!

(Sadie's "Bush Baby")
Things Learned While Subbing Elementary School Art:
-hot pink glitter paint is rather decadent
-finding lost "Bush Babies" is rewarded with lots of hugs
-necessity is the mother of invention
-always have a hair elastic on your wrist
-parrots have refrigerators 
-Children notice details beautifully
-Trees are purple
-Picasso was right: all children are artists.
-I maybe want to teach art to kids now?
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I want to live in a world that is a cross between Breakfast at Tiffany's and Lady and the Tramp.
That is all.
Love,
Amanda

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

hi, sammy.

One of our very sweet squirrels sneakily eating food from the bird feeder. I love his one leg up on the edge of the feeder in the first picture! Like he's claiming land or something.
I loooove the animals in our backyard. 

Monday, February 2, 2009

shows galore!

Hi everyone! Just a note about all the upcoming shows:
The Sketchbook Project comes to Boston on March 6 at the Laconia Gallery, 5:30 pm. It's also hitting Brooklyn, Chicago, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Atlanta, and St. Louis. For tour dates, check here.
Our next Glovebox show is at a new location: Rescue, a vintage consignment shop in Allston! All work will be on and/or related to cassette tapes and vinyl records. Opening night will be March 1st.
And coming VERY soon, the Teeny Tiny Art Show IV at Three Graces Gallery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Opening this Friday, February 6th, at 5 pm!
Thank you all for your kind words, encouragement, and support about my upcoming shows and my work in general. It means more than you know.
I'll probably update again later tonight...maybe tomorrow. I have a green bottle I want to show you.
Love,
me.