Driving to work this a.m., I was listening to Grace Potter and the Nocturnals' self-titled CD from 2010. As I was turning into the parking lot "Goodbye Kiss" started to play, and when I listened to that first line, I thought, Hmm, that would be a good painting for October 31st!
Here you have it. I hope you're having a great Halloween you little ghosts and goblins! (-;
I Lost A Piece of My Mind, and You Saw It on My Face
OH! SERIOUSLY, peeps! I just went to YouTube to get you a clip of the tune, of which there are many, but here's one with this song set to them dressed up in Halloween costumes. How serendipitous is that?!
P.S. Twelve thousand years ago when I started this blog--o.k., last November, I posted a clip of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals singing Gillian Welch's, "Elvis Presley Blues." It's so phenomenal that I'm just going to post it here again. I love it!
"Goodbye Kiss" is off this album if you don't have it, you should. (-:
Here's the Cliff Notes version:
I found that
squished metal SKOAL cap in the alley not this past August, but in
August of 2012. I walked past it (with Ebert in tow) for a week, looking at it day after day. And I would think, I should pick
that up--I could probably use it in a painting somehow. Finally, as
my mind wandered during these doggie walks, I came up with, "My girlfriend
said I should give up chewing..." I picked up the lid, and kept it for
over a year in a drawer in my studio. Every once in awhile I'd run
across it, but I never wanted to paint three faces of the same dude. I
finally did one half of it earlier this month and finally completed it
today. A lot of hours went into this one, but I do really love how it turned
out.
Here's the flushed-out novel:
Ohhhh, people. I was up until the wee hours of the morning finishing up this one. I had started it two weeks ago, and then abandoned it. After I finished my watercolor painting yesterday fairly early, I was all proud of myself and was ready to relax. Then at around 9:30 p.m. I sat and stared at this painting. I've got to get it to a gallery on Saturday, and I thought, "Jill, do you think this is magically going to get done? You can't wait any longer, finish it." OMG. An hour and a half later, my husband comes in and tells me he's going to bed. Nice. Here's our conversation:
Me: "I'm overwhelmed. I'm never going to get this done."
The Man: "It's already done. You don't need to do another thing to it."
Me: "What?! There's a ton I need to do! And there's about 7 more paintings I had ideas for and wanted to do and now I'm not going to be able to do them."
The Man: "Well, at least you're not running out of ideas."
Me: "Well, that's definitely not the problem. Ugh. If I get this painting done it will be a miracle."
The Man: "O.K., nighty-night."
This scene ends with me staring at my closed door in disbelief. Ah, the sleep of babes--or men who are not painting. Meanwhile, I return to YouTube cuing up/cueing up (both are correct) Bowie, Led Zeppelin, and replaying The Who's "Eminence Front" over and over again. Lenny Kravitz's, "Sister" kicks in later. You need a slower jam at 2 a.m.
Hours later into today (Wednesday), I am done. I did it! I finished it. But when I go to bed, I can't sleep, because I'm still on the high of finishing it. Did I say I finished it? Ha! So, I get up, eat something, watch an episode of the Kardashians, think to myself that I have to be up for my work day in 4 hours, and also think, I hope I don't have a heart attack.
Here it is. And then off to the World Series I go--Boston may clinch it tonight--David Ortiz is on fire! (-:
"Eminence Front" - The Who (3:36--"Drinks Flow"...love it!)
Friends had begged her to reveal the secret to her captivating hair color, and finally Gida gave it up: "Eggplant," she said with a glint in her eye. All bad girls knew it was the most daring of colors, even rivaling jet black. It said to the world, "That's right, I'm beautiful, and I'm not afraid to be noticed."
But how did she get those variances in shade, some violet, some lavender, some almost red? At that question, Gida shook her glossy strands. She wasn't about to give away all her secrets!
Watercolor
That purply-red hair color (I call it black bing cherry, too) is my all-time favorite. My friend, Shelley, always colored her hair that color in college and throughout her twenties and early thirties. Here's a gorgeous picture of her with her first child, Lucas. I'm including a pic. of her (with a bit darker shade) and her second baby, Quincey, just because Q-girl is so darn cute!
Currently, my co-worker Lisa has colored her hair the same color, and it looks fabu on her, too. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of Lisa, but I do know that about a week ago some man followed her around the store and stopped her to tell her how awesome her shade was.
Sadly, being the super-pale-faced chiquita that I am, I can't pull it off. They've got the right skin-tone, you see...and an endless supply of eggplant. (-;
About a month ago, wait, I can tell you the exact date: Sunday, September 22nd. On that particular Sunday, I had such a hankering for some apple cider. It was strange, because in the morning I woke up, opened my eyes, and in my first state of consciousness, two words popped into my mind--apple cider. That's weird, I thought.
I continued with my day, but throughout it, the taste of apple cider would swirl in my brain and invade my begging taste buds. We have a local farm stand--well, it's more than a farm stand--but anyway, we have one several towns over from where I live. It's about a 15 minute drive through the country. I knew they would be closing soon, but some long finger of autumn kept tapping me on my shoulder, apple cider, apple cider. I finally relented, drove out to the farm stand 20 minutes before they closed, and purchased this fruity liquor (just a term, it's non-alcoholic (-:). Once I got it home, it was gone within two days, and I haven't had a craving for it since. What a bizarre occurrence, but I don't question these things. I am a slave to the dictates of the season.
Finally, here is the painting I have held in my mind for some time.
Here are some other sightings from that day.
I see a thumbs up in this picture and a platypus!
Doesn't that gourd look like a swan or a goose looking behind itself?
I thought this pumpkin was hilarious--as if it were driving the cart itself. I snapped a picture and a little girl said to her parents, "She took a picture of my pumpkin!" She wasn't happy. ha!
I love the warty pumpkins, fabulous in their irregularities.
How can Lou Reed be dead? Sometimes the passage of time is felt most deeply in the deaths of my rock 'n' roll idols. I can remember being a little, little kid and hearing "Walk on the Wild Side" on the radio. Somehow we knew there was something "dirty" about it from the way the grown-ups around us would never explain our questions about certain words. We decided we liked it just because it was a great song even if we didn't know what it was about. Adulthood brought more astute understanding of this rock 'n' roll punk innovator. So sorry to see you go...
Lou Reed from above article: “I have never thought of music as a challenge — you always figure the audience is at least as smart as you are,” he wrote. “You do this because you like it, you think what you’re making is beautiful. And if you think it’s beautiful, maybe they think it’s beautiful.”
I didn't set out to make a terrifying picture, and really, if you look, the eyes aren't malevolent. Here's how this one came about.
About a month ago, I was walking along checking out the neighborhood and ended up on a street section that I don't usually frequent. Someone had a basket of petunias sitting outside. You know how petunias start to look as their season comes to an end, spindly vines and sparse, small flowers? That's how this plant looked. I thought, "Boy, those petunias are getting long in the tooth."
Well, that did it. Another part of my brain was triggered. At a gathering about 4 or 5 years ago (I have a pretty good memory, people), a girl named Cera, who works at a vet's office, relayed how a woman came in and said, "Mah dawg needs a rabies (shot)." She said her teeth were as long as fingers. Well, who could ever forget a descriptive phrase like that? Not I! I planted it in the back of my mind, and thought, someday I will use that...
So there you have it. In any event, it goes along with the Halloween season. (-;
Petunias Long In The Tooth and Teeth As Long As Fingers
Here's a few more views--the viny flowers go all around--or in more beautiful Spanish--
"alrededor de"
(Ahl-ray-day-door Day)
P.S. As I was painting the petunia portion of this, I was watching one of my favorite movies of all time, "After Hours" directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Teri Garr, Linda Fiorentino and on and on. I love those weird, whacked out movies. It just seemed like the perfect background flick while creating this baby.
I was going to put the movie trailer here, but there is this upbeat Monkey's song ("Take the Last Train to Clarksville") playing which skews the movie towards seeming like a comedy. )-: Let's just say, it's definitely a black comedy. The clip below is better indication of its bizarre, surreal fantasticness!
As soon as George let his bangs grow out, it became quite apparent that he was going bald. His center part no longer a gentle division of hair follicles, but rather a parting of the Red--or in his case--Orange Sea. He tried growing a mustache to compensate, but as has been true for eternity in this particular situation, he fooled no one.
Sitting in a cafe, Margaret was thinking she looked cute in her hand-knit cap and fingerless gloves. She actually even caught the eye of a guy in the corner with a plaid shirt and black Buddy Holly glasses. That was until, she felt a sneeze come over her faster than she could act. Hands full of knitting needles and a ball of yarn, she just had to let the innards of her nose fly! She felt simultaneously humiliated and resigned as she watched her Brooklyn hipster lower his head over his magazine. Well, what could she do? Back to knit-one, pearl-two.
Here's another one I started awhile back and abandoned. I spent 4 hours completing it today (well, the middle of the night--I couldn't sleep). I was going to call it "Farewell, Ice Cream Man," but after it SNOWED big fat, wet flakes in Illinois yesterday--October 22nd--before Halloween, I thought, "Even Indian summer is over."
Just two Fridays ago it was 80°F (26.6°C), and my friend and I were eating at an outside cafe. Two days later, Oct. 13th, I took this pictures around our neighborhood. I like the juxtaposition of the still green trees flush with autumn leaves of brilliant orange and gold. The sky was so blue, and I even caught catches of summer flowers, still holding on. Alas, by the end of the week it was turning cold, the furnace was on, and yesterday, I actually wore my winter coat. Sadly, I'm already reminiscing the last gift of summer weather seen below.
