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06/13/2004: "The Barbarian Invasion"
My family is here and we're having a blast...my sister Traci is into the geo cache thing where people hide stuff all over the world and where ever you travel you can go and find something and then leave something behing like a little treasure hunt. So there is something hidden at the Glory Hole, the site of a big gold mine cave in from back in 1917 when Douglas was a bigger city than juneau. It's a really cool trail with lots of old buildings and mining equipment in the forest, all decrepit and overgrown. The trail head is only a couple blocks from my house and we're going to take off in a bit to go see if we can find the cache out there. Right now we're grilling hot dogs and I'm online for the first time in a couple days (longest I can remember going without a computer in a long long long time). My sister brought her lap top as my computer is still dead in the water. That means the high res digital images and invitations are not readily accessible. I'm going to reshoot the photo for the invitation this afternoon and then go out to work where I have PhotoShop to redesign the postcard so I can get it to the printer first thing tomorrow morning.
I was a little bummed when my family came because the majority of them don't like my art work that much. OR, they love the colors and stuff but not the nudes. A couple sisters hate the fact that some of the women have pointy nipples. I guess I never really thought of it before, I was just trying to make them really stylized. Now I'm wondering if I should tone them down a bit on the forget me nots painting as well as the grounded painting...I don't know, it might look better or it might be caving into popular demand.
I did this new painting I haven't posted yet. The woman is whearing a dress and she's curled up taking a nap as well as a cat and an open book in a field. My sisters like that one a lot. I asked if I should use that one for the invitations and Kelly said no, because it would be false advertisement...that people might come not knowing that it was going to be a bunch of nudes...hmmm...then, everyone said, oh, this one is my favorite, and it was one that I didn't do...first a painting that an artist in Hawaii did, and then a sculpture that my friend lisa did. I felt like saying FUCK isn't there anything of mine that you like?
My sister Jenny knew how let down I feel since it's bascially all the paintings for my show and they're nearly finished and I was excited about them and got a very luck warm or non-exsistent reaction from them...so Jenny said a bunch of nice things but I feel they may have been pity induced.
Anyway, I guess I need to hold onto that really good feeling I had the other day and just remember that I can't pease everyone.
Oh yah, my sister made this amazing wedding quilt for another sister and then it got smudged with oil paint from one of my still wet paintings...it was awful, I tried to clean it out but it didn't all come out and I felt terrible. I'm used to getting oil on everything but they aren't used to being around it.
OK, they are all getting bummed at me because I'm being anti-social...I do love them very much even though they are *all* staunch republicans and I'm the loan liberal in the entire extended family. My sister Traci started cheering GO BUSH! in my kitchen and I almost had a heart attack. Anyway, I'll sign off but I'm back in action. Jenny even told me she may be able to leave her laptop for me until I get my computer fixed or replaced. That would be very very extremely awesome!