03/01/2004: "Added a new page to this site"

Tonight I started a new page called Top 100 Things I Love About Living in Alaska. I'm not really sure why I felt compelled to write it. Maybe because the other day I had to give a tour of the library to a psychology professor who was visiting from Arizona interviewing for a position at the university of Alaska Southeast where I work. The two of us sat down to have a cup of coffee until it was time for her to run off to her next appointment and she started asking me about what I liked about the area, and the university etc. And the more I told her, the more excited I got. I can't believe how lucky I am to live here and have the incredible job that I do. Everyday I feel like pinching myself.

On another note, I was looking through my site statistics tonight and found that there was a link to me from this site by a fellow blogger and cat fanatic named Chew who said some incredibly nice things about my art. I have to say, it isn't often that anyone links to my site without having some kind of ulterior motive, like wanting me to link back to them to increase their web traffic or whatever. It really made my day, especially the fact that based on her web site she seems cool and not like I'm biased or anything, but has great taste! Check out her guestbook, it has a little map of the world and you get to click on the map from where you are visiting from and pick your own little animal spirit guide. It's adorable.

I found out a couple days ago that my guestbook was broken. It appeared as though you were leaving a comment, it would even tell you that your comment had been posted, but none of the comments were actually getting posted. When a kind soul emailed me about it, I fixed it, still, I missed about a week's worth of comments and I'm a real comments whore!

Oh yah, I'm still waiting to hear from people about their favorite inspirational or reference type items related to art or painting. Whether it is a book, video, web site, what ever...please share resources that you know about that you think should be indespensible to any artist or aspiring artist. (by the way, now that I think about it I don't think there is any such thing as an aspiring artist. If you aspire to be one, than you already are one.)

By the way, if my spelling is worse than normal tonight it's probably due to the fact I still haven't found an exhaust fan for my studio/living room and I have enought Liquin fumes in here to knock out a small land mammal. Speaking of which, Sunday night I finished the painting I was commissioned to do! (wait, that's not really related to small land mammals but again, I'm intoxicated.

oh, and speaking of being intoxicated, I went to a fun party last night at my friend Seon's house to watch the Oscars. I got to wear my black velvet dress, fake plastic hair and feather boa. If you ask me, there just ain't enough opportunities in Alaska for a girl to have a bit glamour! (oh yah, and drink a bunch of saki).

Also, it's fun to see my friend Thomas who gave me the biggest compliment of all time by calling me "Subversive" YEAH!

Replies: 3 Comments

on Tuesday, March 2nd, Chewie said

You're very welcome for the link. I think your art is beautiful. My mother is an artist who mostly draws and makes pottery, so I've grown up with an appreciation for art.

As for linking to get a link back, I think most people who blog have experienced that, unfortunately. I'm glad that it made your day...I meant everything I said, as well :)

on Tuesday, March 2nd, Chris said

I smiled when I read your post. Got you there!
I meant aspiring as in aiming for success, not aspiring as in wannabe. Bear with me.
Everything can be an inspiration to me, EVERYTHING. It's all in the head.
If required to trigger that certain creative mood - now this is really private - I look for repetitive patterns, like mandalas. You can find them everywhere - in nature, architecture, in space or under the microscope. And in music: I recommend the works of Michael Nyman (or Henry Purcell, obviously one of Michael's sources of inspiration).

And then of course, there's intoxication.

on Wednesday, March 3rd, Elise said

I own one of Michael Nyman's CDs from the soundtrack to the movie the Piano. It has sort of an obsessive compulsive quality to its repetition that I really like.

As for aspiring, I didn't mean "wannabe" either, I just meant the only thing that distinguishes artist from non-artist is desire. Don't you agree?

And thanks again to you Chewie! I also grew up with an artistic mother, she was an amazing singer; I myself sing only while alone in the dead of night but I do think that being exposed to creativity at an early age makes you have a deeper appreciation of it as an adult.