La commission
No, that's not a sweatband on the man's head, that's his tonsure. Remember Friar Tuck from Robin Hood? Same haircut.To be more specific, the monk pictured is Saint Dominic. He's the focal point of this commissioned notebook I've almost finished. The client is going to give it to a good friend for Christmas, as a general memories book.
The gift recipient is from Managua, Nicaragua. From what I understand, she likes Catholic imagery for its aesthetics as well as its meaning. So I looked up some info on Managua and found its patron saint is Santo Domingo de Guzman (St. Dominic). Her family also has a vacation home in a tiny Texas border town that holds a prickly-pear cactus festival each year. And her husband raises reptiles. Three references to the recipient, all in that one bit of photo!
So I finally got to use this cool-as-hell white paper that has a lizard-skin pattern. (See, I'm not hoarding! I'm using the good stuff!) The gift recipient likes green, so I rubbed a bit of green acrylic into the grooves of the "lizard skin." I also chose a notebook with acid-free pages and reinforced the bottom edges of the front and back covers, since it's meant to last for a while.
I was just going to assemble straight photos of cactus around the saint. But then my eye fell on the cheap paper I had left over from LK Ludwig's class, the stuff we used for transfers. So I added cactus transfers to the regular photos for more depth.
These are the bits of plastic rosary I was talking about earlier, the ones I painted to look like copper. I think the one on the left turned out better than the one on the right. In real life, the one on the left looks more orangish-coppery, and it's easier to see the detail of the figure's face. (Sorry I couldn't zoom into it better.) I think, but I'm not sure, that the one I prefer was coated with an orange/black wash that tended more to the orange side. Guess I'll just have to keep noodling with it to find out.
I hope to be done with the whole commission tomorrow. And I have the day off, so maybe I can also catch a movie with The Husband, who's currently working from home.
The Grand Tour
It was oh-dark-thirty Saturday morning when we took off to see half of the grandparent contingent, which is why The Boy is wearing his footie pajamas. But he's adaptable, especially as long as he's got his Thomas the Tank Engine trains with him. (We got him excited for his first post-"lap infant" flight by telling him he was flying inside Jeremy the Jet Plane, one of Thomas' friends.)We landed and arrived at Nana's without incident. Then off to lunch with Nana, then a looooong nap for The Boy, The Husband and me. The grandparents almost never cook, so we went out to an Argentinian restaurant that's just down the way from the place where we usually eat. Now I understand what all the fuss is about Argentina's beef. Damn good stuff; I'll recommend it to Ricë the carnivore. Afterwards we just generally hung out with Nana and Peepaw.
On Sunday, we went to lunch with my brother and sister-in-law, and the niecey-nieces. The kids are five and one, but they both look older than they are because they're tall for their respective ages. (This is what happens when your mother is 6 feet tall and your father is 6'4".) Sister-in-law and I chatted a little bit after lunch, but she had to take Niece Number Two home to rest up and recover from an ear infection. So Knucklehead -- I mean, "Brother" -- and Niece Number One went to Travel Town with us.
Although NN1 can be a little distractible, she was great about sticking close to The Boy and encouraging him to run with her like a mad thing. "Cousin C! Cousin C! Come here! Cousin C! Look at this!"
They discovered that jumping on the metal plates between trains was almost as good as jumping on a trampoline. The shorter shadow on the left is The Boy; the taller one is NN1.It's moments like this that I get homesick for LaLaLand, even with the traffic and the state income tax and the obscenely high cost of living. I know, I probably wouldn't spend every free minute with my family. (How the hell would I get any art done?) But it makes me feel like our little three-person family unit lives in Alaska and everyone else lives (or is buried) in Key West.
Anyhoo, after Travel Town we went back to Nana's for a Hanukkah party with two of Peepaw's kids and their respective families. It was quite the crowd: the grandparents, us three, two of Peepaw's children, their respective spouses, and the four other grandkids (most of whom were under five years old). The Boy couldn't have any latkes, since they were the regular kind made with egg. But he was happy with the corned beef, goldfish crackers, and applesauce. Lots of yelling over the kids, but all of it friendly... only one incident where the kids had to be separated (the youngest kid nearly knocked over another to snatch away a drumstick and bang on a drum). It started about 5:30pm and was over by 7:45pm. And The Boy was bathed and in bed by 8:20pm.
A quick stop off for lunch the next day, near Pinkberry. It's supposed to be the thing. I tried a little of it... just tasted like overly sweet soft-serve. I guess it's the 21st century Penguin's. (Remember that place? I think they're still in business.)The Husband had a great idea for the flight home: go get a DVD suitable for The Boy and watch it on the plane. The Boy has yet to see a movie in a theater, but he's seen most of "Cars" at home. So we watched about 3/4 of the film, unpacked our sandwiches and ate dinner (I hate that airlines don't feed you anymore!) , then watched the rest. Poor Small Person was wiped out by the time we got home, but he slept well and was up and at 'em the next day.
And here's a last bit of LaLaLand to keep you sort of warm... birds of Paradise. We used to have those growing in our backyard.
It was years before I found out they're considered exotic almost everywhere in the US except LaLaLand.
We have returned. You may now recommence pilgrimages to the Queen's court.
I got a couple nice pictures from our visit to Nana and Peepaw's, where they have sunshine. We have to import ours at this time of the year. I'll put them in a new post late tonight.
I'm also almost finished with the current commission (that I should've done ages ago). It's a custom notebook, this one with spiral rings and acid-free paper. (Go to my Flickr account to see the first commission, on which I used the same kind of notebook.) That's what I was working on this morning.
I'm finally getting a chance to use this plastic rosary, and I've painted it to look like it's copper. Part of it turned out almost exactly the way I wanted it to; it's the color of an old penny. (Thanks, Michael.) But another part was darker, like a pretty grimy penny. And the rosary beads look more like black pearls than copper beads. It still works, but I wish I could remember how much of each color I layered onto the plastic, so I can get the same color every time. I'd repaint it, but I'm afraid to layer on more paint and then quick-dry it with my heat gun. The rosary bits are small, and I'm sure I've already melted some of the detail work. So I'm officially Quitting While I'm Ahead on that portion of the project.
In other news, I made a few calls to distant relatives to try to find out more information about my family tree. I started these conversations early this year, because I was feeling like my brother and I were the Last Mohicans. Both my parents are dead, and nearly all my direct relations are back East. So I'm filling a little of the void this way.
My brother's mother-in-law has done most of the heavy lifting. She's quite the expert. She's extracted individual information from the US Census and other public records into several reference books for genealogical societies. When my first niece was born, she decided to research our side of the family so Number One Niece would know as much as possible about both her mother and father's families.
But I think I'll wait until after the new year to make any more calls. I called one cousin on my mom's side, and his mother is in hospice (might have passed away by now). Then I emailed one of my father's cousins, to ask if her 93-year-old father could remember something -- and it turns out he died on Thanksgiving. I recklessly made a third call to another paternal cousin, and broke my streak. She and her father, who's had a few strokes but is okay, are trying to jog his memory by talking to a third cousin.
More on the art later.
I'm also almost finished with the current commission (that I should've done ages ago). It's a custom notebook, this one with spiral rings and acid-free paper. (Go to my Flickr account to see the first commission, on which I used the same kind of notebook.) That's what I was working on this morning.
I'm finally getting a chance to use this plastic rosary, and I've painted it to look like it's copper. Part of it turned out almost exactly the way I wanted it to; it's the color of an old penny. (Thanks, Michael.) But another part was darker, like a pretty grimy penny. And the rosary beads look more like black pearls than copper beads. It still works, but I wish I could remember how much of each color I layered onto the plastic, so I can get the same color every time. I'd repaint it, but I'm afraid to layer on more paint and then quick-dry it with my heat gun. The rosary bits are small, and I'm sure I've already melted some of the detail work. So I'm officially Quitting While I'm Ahead on that portion of the project.
In other news, I made a few calls to distant relatives to try to find out more information about my family tree. I started these conversations early this year, because I was feeling like my brother and I were the Last Mohicans. Both my parents are dead, and nearly all my direct relations are back East. So I'm filling a little of the void this way.
My brother's mother-in-law has done most of the heavy lifting. She's quite the expert. She's extracted individual information from the US Census and other public records into several reference books for genealogical societies. When my first niece was born, she decided to research our side of the family so Number One Niece would know as much as possible about both her mother and father's families.
But I think I'll wait until after the new year to make any more calls. I called one cousin on my mom's side, and his mother is in hospice (might have passed away by now). Then I emailed one of my father's cousins, to ask if her 93-year-old father could remember something -- and it turns out he died on Thanksgiving. I recklessly made a third call to another paternal cousin, and broke my streak. She and her father, who's had a few strokes but is okay, are trying to jog his memory by talking to a third cousin.
More on the art later.