the spring cleaning that never ends

After watching The Passionate Eye last night, I had a little trouble sleeping.

Hey! That means it's the perfect time for another hilarious movie to
improve morale! Witness the glory that is Ron Burgundy.

testing again

now with publishing deliciousness

testing the mail-to-blogger address

hope this works

i am no survivor

Spending time at my cottage has made it quite clear to me that I couldn't survive alone in the wilderness if my life, and the lives of others, depended on it.

Oh...and if I don't have a rock hard ass by the end of the summer, there is no god. It's a 10 minute hike downhill to get to the water and cabin, but a 20 minute hike back up to the road.

so...what's next?

Hey there folks,

Just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive, and yes, we had a VERY successful opening accross the board. Three separate media outlets shot footage at a couple of venues in The Junction. Though unfortunately none at our location. I did get lots of great feedback about my work and I even sold a painting!

I've had no more than 5 hours sleep a night for the last week, so I'm going to go lie down now and sleep for 3 days.

Peace.

I'm super STOKED, yo.

Tomorrow is my last day working for Beth!!! WOOOHOOO!!!

I'm showing Penny (my replacement) the ropes and she's going to be AWESOME for Beth. Way better than me considering how not effective I've been for the last couple of months, oh yeah...and her 40 years of experience. I feel kinda silly walking her through everything, but I guess at least she'll understand how I've been doing things and will have a better idea of where to find everything.

ALSO, I've put together a little page of my show info. Figured I'd make the most of my .mac account while I still have it.

Anyway, here's an update on where I'm at with the show:

EXHIBITION
I'll be installing 15 digital shots (13" x 19"), plus 5 paintings. The photos I used to paint them will be framed (5" x 7") and hanging alongside the paintings. Have the frames, haven't yet printed the shots. Seriously people, this was the hardest part. I have over 5000 photos sitting on my mac's backpack drive. Took me FOREVER to figure out which ones I wanted to use.

SELLING
All the photos are for sale, plus I'll be offering additional digital prints at a reduced price, in case people can't afford the pricy $175 a piece. The paintings are already spoken for, but I'm hoping to have another show in the summer of just paintings, this will basically be jsut a preview of my work - AND I'm going to make myself available for comissioned pet portraits if anyone checking my shit out is innerested.

PRINTING
I had considered having someone else print my photos for me (which really would have been faster and less of a pain in the ass) but I'm kinda on a tight budget so it's taking a little longer than I had expected. I'm stuck having to re-print almost ALL of my shots, since I was an ass and didn't bother to do any test prints OR bother to write down what print settings I used and went ahead and printed anyway on my $5.00/sheet premium quality glossy paper. 5 done. 10 left to go....sigh...oh yeah...plus the 5 smaller shots.

FRAMING
I've got all of my frames which were pretty cheap but look good. I'll need to put in my own hanging hardware since the shit that comes with SUCKS.

INSTALLATION
Still waiting to hear back from our venue to find out if they're hanging everything for us or if we have to do it ourselves. Everything will be displayed against brick walls that will probably just be screwed into. There's 4 of us exhibiting at the one location, so odds are he'll want to take care of it. Hopefully I can just stand there, looking pretty and direct them, which is MY FAVOURITE.

OPENING
Not sure what we're all going to do yet, but I'm sure it will be nice. There are 9 venues in our little area that are working together on promoting it to the public, all opening simultaneously, so hopefully we'll get a lot of traffic off the street, beyond our friends and family.

CLOSING
There will be a silent auction to close up our participation in Contact, which is yet another piece to print and frame.

EMOTIONAL STATE
Excited with a hint of panic...but way less stressed than I've been over the last few weeks. I'm learning a lot about how all this art-show-stuff works and am glad that next time I'll be able to just whip through everything.

2 more weeks

currently, i have both a) 2 weeks to go for Contact; and b) 2 weeks to go before my job ends.

ok guys, i think i'm kinda freaking out.

everyone keeps telling me i shouldn't be.

that i have nothing to worry about.

shouldn't that be reassuring?

why am i so worried?

It's official

HUZZAH!!!!! The CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival website is now up and I'm listed!!!!

HAVE A HEART FASHION GALA

If you're in Toronto on Wednesday, April 14th 2004, you should check out my friend Kate Jackson and her Dirty Skirty clothing line at the "Have A Heart" Fashion Gala in support of the Canadian Red Cross.

On a more somber note.

are you registered?

To all my American friends - Don't forget to register!

I didn't sell a damned thing at my show last Sunday. Most of the people that showed up were students of the studio...so I guess I don't feel so bad.

...GULP...

OK...I so want to so be able to post pictures to my blog. Too lazy to figure it out. Need help. Suggestions?

lovin' that daylight savings time

Don't get me wrong. As far as jobs go, it's not so bad. No dress code. I get to pick the days that I work. Take as many breaks as I need. Take as long as I need for lunch. There's two house kitties to keep me company. No office politics. I've learned a lot about managing the day to day operations of a business. And I've even become friends with the person who employs me. The pay is not the best but it's not exactly minimum wage. Despite all of that, two weeks ago today I gave my notice. It's becoming harder and harder to spend two days a week sorting through the constant disorder of someone elses personal and business affairs. I'd much rather be managing my own.

Spent all day yesterday with Natalie painting a massage therapy clinic space. It's a great room in a big old house that was converted to office space a couple of decades ago. We've got to go back on Friday for a last round of touchups and to paint the door. I can't remember when I last had so much fun working so hard.

We're only a few weeks away from Contact 2004 and I'm getting really excited slash nervous. I still have to finish getting my photos printed and framed. Everything's going to be for sale, but I think I'm going to offer unframed signed prints as well. Also still need to work out my pricing too.

My work. For sale.

...GULP...

my horoscope for this week - courtesy of the onion

Pisces: (Feb. 19—March 20)
An important warning sticker will be missing this week. The stars can't tell you where it should be, but it should say "Caution: Rotating Knives."

What's yours?

The gay rodeo is a chance for gay cowboys to feel comfortable doing something they love.

Suck it up right-wing, ultra-conservative America!

Open Studio This Sunday!

Things are really looking up with my artwork.

The studio where I paint is having an open studio this Sunday and our instructor, Katrina, asked me to being a few of my paintings in to display as well as to actually paint during that time!!! Then she told me that she had placed an ad in today's paper and my name is on it. NEAT! It's the 2nd publc exhibition of my work in her studio (last time was 2 years ago).

Then in May, I'll be exhibiting at some of my photos at Contact 2004. Oh yeah...I'm also working on pieces for a show of my pet portraits sometime later this year.

I'm so excited I could....I could....well...NOT STAB SOMEONE! YAY!

i feel better now

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

The knot that's been sitting between my shoulder blades since 3:30pm this afternoon has finally eased.

Now I can sleep


.....zzzzz.....

Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy.- G. Carlin

Dear middle-aged burnout,

Eat shit and die.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

Hunter Thompson found safe!!!!

I got lost in the time vortex. The TARDIS brought me home.

YAY!

Dr. Who is coming. Dr. Who is coming!!! HE was my favourite.

Oh my gawd, guys....I'm such a geek.