Painting Fish

I have just decided, I must be ADD for only one reason... coffee makes me sleepy. Other people drink coffee to wake up, but not me... oh no, 5 min after a nice perfectly made 2 creams and 1 sugar coffee, I feel like taking a nice cat nap, or maybe go into hibernation. (Though that`s seems a bit ludicrous given the extreme temperatures outside today... I wish I`d left my AC on in my apato..)

Last night I went to the last workshop of the Continue Art Project and did the second oil painting of my life. The first one I did was back a coupla years ago at my grandma`s one summer, and I`ve even bought some great paints since then too... but was kinda nervous to waste those expensive paints unless I had something great to do... of course I know that`s the wrong way to think... you can`t create anything unless you risk. I really enjoyed painting as well, it`s more reversible than watercolor and can be worked for longer than acrylic. The only bad part is the dry time. I`m glad it`s not at my apato right now or I probly would have fallen all over it and ruined it, and also I rather doubt that oil paint mixes well with Tatami mats! Anyhow, I`m really pretty happy with the way it turned out, and I can`t wait to add it to my wall. Maybe I can build one of those shadow box frames Jim Brinson puts on many of his big paintings.

I was invited there during work hours by the lovely Chizuru from Osaka (though an art student at college in Kyoto) and we had lunch together and learned how to say things in English and Japanese, and I learned some more fun Osakan dialect phrases... such as "aho chauka!" which is "Baka" in Tokyo Japanese and is about the same as "stupid" or "idgit" in English. I also taught her the differences in dialect of North and South USA, such as greetings "Hey you guys" and "Hey ya`ll!" I was so excited by the fact that she said they were going to get together and bake bread on Saturday that I`ve decided to go to Sado for only one night. I`ll leave in the morning and come back on Saturday morning, then go to the baking party "pan wo yaku" and the Closing Ceremony Party for the Continue Art Project that night.

Sunday, I think I`ll recover from the weekend and update this blog maybe. So I`ll see you all then. Get out there and support your local arts! If you live in SC or near get over to the Artist`s Coop now in it`s new home on the square.. I hear it`s coming along very nicely.. very upscale. If your near Charlotte get over to my Alma Matter in Rock Hill, SC and check out the work there... often some really great painting and sculptures, and photography and jewelry and Jim Connell`s wonderful ceramics. And something very accessible in Charlotte is the Gallery Crawl, which is held on different Friday`s while the weather is warm (or cooling off) and you can walk from gallery to gallery with free food and drinks and plenty of interesting art and people, and sometimes street performances. So don`t go a day without art, even if you are online, you can check out a museum, an artist`s fan site, or my site!