thine swine flu

I have the flu. I know bad timing. But really 5 days is long enough. Tomorrow I am calling the doctor again and making an appointment. I called today and left a message but did not get a call back. I think they probably did not understand me. I can only whisper and when I try to talk at a normal volume all that comes out are whistles and squeaks like a dog chewing on a toy. But really I hope I do not have it. Its not kosher

Making split ends meet

When can I call myself a full time artist? Right now I am a part time artist with a full time job in coffee. I love coffee, but my art is taking the sidelines to some extent. I am showing my work at my job which has been giving me some side income, but it ends up going back out again to pay for art supplies and shows. Speaking of which I am doing the Brooklyn Indie Market this coming Sunday, yay!
Otherwise, we have a great couch and book shelf courtesy of Ikea. I bet you can't wait to see all the pictures we are going to post, heh :)

Not so fun fact I have learned while taking my NY food handlers course on line:

You must remove all jewelry when handling food except a wedding ring.

Fuck you NY! Ps- these people are so dumb that I have to take a food handling course for an establishment that serves coffee....we do not have any raw meat or anything else of the sort on the premises. And even better: when a health inspector comes in we have to get rid of all rags for the machine...and use paper towel. You cannot wipe a hot steam wand with a paper towel. dooshbags.

You never call or write!

I just wrote a post about feeling stressed out about the new shop, but then mozilla quit. I like the shop I just feel uneasy and getting comfortable is going to take awhile again. I am also only working 3 times a week which is fine, but it means it is going to take a bit longer to get everything down. I am going to be coming up behind other people in terms of getting how things work up there which I hate. I am still not sure if I will stay at 13th. If I leave then I can work full time at upstate, but I like 13th and I like being able to check in on the art shows/I wont have to make a special trip to change out the art.
Its hard being so in demand....or something.

Adjusted version

On the fence

Version 1:

I am on the fence on this one. I did three versions of this illustration and I do not know if this is the last one. The first two did not have a light source and felt super flat. I always have this issue. I want to create a scene without a light source...other people do it all the time...but for some reason when i do it it looks really boring. So I added a light source...but i think its still not there. Its cute and all, but there is something happening in the areas with the four boys that is not happening in the rest of the piece. I like that little area a lot and the rest of the illustration seems to lack that "thing." I think its that it feels looser than the rest of the piece and maybe I need to revisit this illustration. It also might be that the shadow is super intense on the boys and it does not feel as real on everything else....either way I am not satisfied. I thought I would post it anyway so there will be a point of comparison later.
Version 2:

paint by numbers

New obsession:

Chun Un Sil

How do I live up to this? I do believe he uses water color and not gouache which just makes him more of a master because you cannot fix mistakes in watercolor as you can in gouache.

more stuff from the trenches

mwah hahahs!

Never blog angry

It was 1 am when I wrote the blog entry. I could not sleep. I was too upset. I am extra irrational when I am tired and upset. I have no filter. Today would have been fine, but our compost bin was stolen again and the compost unceremoniously dumped all over the sidewalk. Asian woman from the restaurant next door said we had to take care of it because they were going to be fined. Said we would our bin was stolen and the contents dumped. I went out and took care of it...amazing.
I say we pay a hobo the difference of the cost of a new bin to protect the damn thing. Or write our address on the bin and put a "if found anywhere other than 9east 13th st. please return for a free cup of Joe." I bet the hobo will return it.
I made the joke that it was probably being stolen by homeless former bank CEO's (bidum-bum-ching).