No More Empty Fortune Cookies!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

And Justice for Some

I finished this one today. I'm liking this new medium and technique. I think I'll keep experimenting.


detail of top left corner

detail of finished studio sides


notice Lady Liberty is blindfolded, while standing on the married women's hands

Detail of holding hands



The words peeking through the paint, down the center of the canvas reads
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

...So I be written in the book of love...

Thursday, November 6, 2008

One Step Forward, One Step Back

I watched the results trickle in with enough anticipation to fill the all the oceans, many times over.
I thought I might vomit a few times, but I held it down and buckled in for the roller coaster ride.
I've known for some time now that we were on the cusp of a historic event, and that the tides were changing in the climate of our country's politics, but I didn't expect to be overwhelmed with joy, relief and excitement as I was on Tuesday night when I heard those words come across the television, "And with 270 electoral votes, we can call it now, our new President elect is Barack Obama!"
I had goosebumps on my skin from head to toe, and tears welled up in my eyes. I always thought that we'd see, in my lifetime, a black president, but I always thought for some reason that it would be later, much, much later.
Honestly, I thought that we'd see a woman as president first, but I suppose we haven't come quite that far yet.
Wifester had succumbed to the sleep fairies over an hour prior to the announcement, but I had to wake her up to tell her the good news.
"Honey!" I yelled, "Honey! Wake up!"
"What'sthematter!?" she stammered from a sound slumber.
"Obama won! You're missing history in the making!"
"Oh, really? Cool!" she ebbed out, just before covering her face with a pillow and promptly returning to her previous state of consciousness. Then she briefly awoke again to ask why Obama didn't play the Jefferson's theme song, just scare the bejeezus out of all those redneck, "a BLACK man in the WHITEhouse?!" people.
I have to concede, she makes a good point, it would have been funny. But as quickly as she made me chuckle, she was snoring again, so I gave up on celebrating with the Wifester and turned my attentions to the Sunny-dog to tell her how wonderful the news was. Her tail wagged, as though she truly understood, but I think it had more to do with the puppy crack that is formally called Happy Hips Chicken Strips which I treated her to in celebration of the monumental occasion.
I stayed up to watch McCain's concession speach, which I applaud him for. It was appropriate, sincere, and touching. And he actually seemed to get it. We want something different than what we've had. Obama stands for exactly that.
Eventually, I headed to bed feeling like the weight of the world had been lifted from my shoulders. I slept the best night's sleep that I've had in eight years, if not longer.
The next morning I awoke to a bright and sunny world. The sky was clear. It was a beautiful day. I could feel the shift in the Force. I felt the lightness to my step.

And then I hunkered down to read the reports of how California's Prop.8 panned out.
Ouch.
Gay marriage, newly approved there, was stricken from the rights of thousands of people who recently wed. Florida and Arizona both passed bans on same sex marriage as well.
How about that absurd bill in Arkansas to ban gays and lesbians from adopting?
Ouch.
It appears that Arkansas would rather children stay in group homes, or foster homes, being neglected and unattended to, than to place them with a same sex couple who would love and cherish that child forever.
That is truly a lose-lose situation.

So although I am proud of the progress my country has made in race relations, I am deeply saddened by the overwhelming bigotry and hate that has shifted to a new target, my sexuality.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

How Sweet It Is!



I feel so honored to have witnessed such a historic event in my lifetime.
Now, let the healing begin.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Hands and Feet

Ok, so I've been caught up in the moment with creating new art with Real Live Lesbian, working on this huge research paper for school, and of course being obsessed with the elections, so I've yet again been a bit negligent in my performance for this week's WWC. I see that Tink, our talented and almost married hostess, was able to produce a WWC, and she's just days away from getting married! What's that mean to me? Easy, I have no excuse. Here's my interpretation of Hands & Feet:

Mine and Wifester's HANDS
From . . . No More Empty Fortune Cookies


in every other country, you would say I played FOOTball
From . . . No More Empty Fortune Cookies



From . . . No More Empty Fortune Cookies


the Sunny-dog lays with her FEET hanging off the bed
From . . . No More Empty Fortune Cookies


my FEET left this mark
From . . . No More Empty Fortune
Cookies


when I use my HANDS, I make a mess!
From . . . No More Empty Fortune Cookies


From . . . No More Empty Fortune Cookies


There you have it. Yeah, I know the photos are recycled, again, and you've seen them before, but hey, they work.
If you want in on the WWC fun, go see Tink! Oh, but next week, it'll be my favorite cynic, Jay, over at Cynical Bastard hosting it. So stop by there for the WWC-411.

The words for next week are:
Diversity
and
Desire

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Blogosphere meets Real Life

Wifester was a bit concerned that Real Live Lesbian may just be a serial kidnapper and that she may never see me alive again if I were to leave the house with her to go on our Saturday morning adventure to the art workshop that we'd scheduled ourselves to attend.
Much to Wifester's relief, Real Live Lesbian was not a serial kidnapper, nor a psycho killer, and was, in fact, quite delightful and entertaining. She's much prettier in real life than her profile photo, and that's a rare occurrence. But far beyond physical appearance, she was also genuine, sweet, and fun to hang out with for the day! Although I was looking forward to being a kidnape'.
She showed up here around 10:15 am or so, and I poured us each a cup of coffee to go. French Vanilla, with french vanilla creamer. MMMMM coffee. Nothing starts a day right like a good cup of Joe. And I've found it to be just the stimulant my right brain needs to get those neurons popping after a long week of pouring over past due, mismatched, and unreceived invoices with merchants and reporting my findings to the banks. Real Live Lesbian and I commisserated on the necessity and difficulty in leaving work behind, especially work involving numbers, and tapping into the free flowing, non-linear world of art.
It was great to meet Real Live, talk and share our ideas, our stories, and our happiness about our respective lives. Often, when I meet a new person, it just feels awkward, and remains that way until I've spent quite a bit of time around them. Not so with Real Live. She was easy to get along with and easy to relax around right away.
We went to the workshop, and met an array of people, from different walks of life, all there in the same spirit as us, to create art, release some negativity, and draw in some positive energy.
We were working on a mixed media piece, to represent letting go of something negative, or releasing.
This was a first for me, both in painting around other people, and in working with mixed mediums.
I began by building my canvas up with articles I clipped from my The Nation magazine. Clips of G.W. Bush and his failures, articles that discussed topics such as the attempts to ban gay marriage, the stock market decline, gas prices, the negativity in political ads, etc. to create a textured surface. I really wanted to bury my angst with my government and learn to rise above it.
In the end, after laying that down as my framework, and painting, then applying some special pieces, such as my great aunt's beads from a necklace that has broken, a lovely sand dollar, and even a twig, I ended up with this,



I'm calling her, "Learning to Swim". If you are standing in just the right light, at just the right angle, you can see the title of one article, "Bye-bye Bush" peeking through the paint. I think that's just perfect!

Real Live created some beautiful birds in flight over a field of poppies.

Her technique and approach are pure genius! I thoroughly enjoyed the class and my time with my fellow local blogger.
My final evaluation? Real Live Lesbian can kidnap me anytime she wants to hit an art workshop. Next time, I'm bringing some Belinis, or Mimosas, or a nice Sangria. Yum!

I forgot my camera, and only had my phone again, but RLL had hers, and we even had the instructor take our photo, together, holding our paintings. Stop by her place, I'm sure she'll post it there.

Saturday, November 1, 2008