Alaskan Artist Blog - Elise Tomlinson

Replies: 11 Comments

on Saturday, June 11th, subi said

Wow! perty! I was thinking about you last night lisey :D well, all in the house was quiet, Stella was sleeping and I had a brewsky all by my lonesome! it was great as i really cherish the time alone i do have now, anyhoo I thought of our backpacking travels in Ireland and how you had a heavy ass pack with tent and all and your knees were hurting and I was apparrently walking way too fast and when I offered to walk to the hostel drop off my pack and return and help you with yours you got all emotional and upset with me because I was long-legged and not sensitive to that fact....or something like that...I'm sure you might tell the story different :laugh: those were such fun travels! anyway, the mention of your little arms acted as a segue for that former tale...

In way if your paintings...are you still going with the same theme? will you be painting more? painting 3, what is uo with the umbrella? perhaps it is just too problematic? perhaps she should just have a straw hat on? I think that might be pretty...you could put a variation of fireweed& or pushky like flowers in the distant background...even stick a couple in her hat... she is so courtney love! :2 the player in the middle seems to have a stiff expression, perhaps it's the severity of her head tilt? the hands of some seem unneccessarily odd...I think the hand in 4 is really great and perhaps should be the way to go in way for handjobs, if that's the direction you're going in :P I love 1, but wonder if more definition (this could be simply a darker green) should be added to the hill in the background ...I love the faceless ambiguous quality of the woman though so perhaps that strong faceless /surreal quality is something your going for in the whole piece/composition? I LOVE the background for 6 but think the woman needs the most work of all...maybe just redo her? Idk, she just seems unfinished and I think she is a candidate for the earlier mentioned handjob...I think 4 is totally perfect! and i think most comments here are pretty subtle... and what about the landscapes? do you have any others? Juneau ones? like the pumphouse or of some of those fantastic recent pics? how is you revision timeframe? how much time per day will you be painting? I really think these will come together beautifully! you're almost there! good luck!

on Saturday, June 11th, dave from Nebraska said

Nice axe!

on Saturday, June 11th, greg said

You a picker or strummer? Nice compact looking steel string. How does it sound? I just got new strings for mine, and it sound so much better!

I hope you're excited about the painting? I thought really everyone else did a very good job ranking those works, so I didn't contribute.

You know, your blog seems truly remarkable for the amount of quality comments you get. I see many worthy blogs languishing out there. You rock!

I think I did suggest once, perhaps keep working on ones that "are working" for you, and for others, just get new canvas out and repaint them afresh! That might overcome any hesitation or second-guessing! Have fun!!!!

on Saturday, June 11th, Elise said

Yes, I remember that incident, we were in Belfast, you were walking so fast that I was having to practically run to keep up...and yes, heavy heavy pack...ah, but it was such a fun adventure.

Thanks for more feedback, actually, some of those pieces aren't 100% up to date. I'm going to paint all day today and I'll post some new photos of the pictures tomorrow.

It will be hard to concentrate because forces are working against me.

1. It's gorgeous and windy outside. DAMN! I want to sail!!!

2. My kickboxing bag came in, as well as the "Kickboxing for Dummies" book. I want to call my neighbor to come over and help me hang it...I'm so excited to get started.

3. The new guitar sounds wonderful with the Elixer strings. I could play it all day but...I'm going to make up a pallet and clean some brushes right now. With painting, getting started is the hardest part but once I'm in the zone, it will be eazier.

on Saturday, June 11th, Elise said

Thanks Dave, do you play?

And Greg, I pick and strum, it depends on the song. It varries because I enjoy playing a lot of different styles. I'd really like to get better at fingerstyle, that's what this guitar is ideal for...and, with the new strings it sounds AMAZING! I couldn't put it down last night.

I assume you play as well?

on Saturday, June 11th, greg said

I really relate to that about getting started with painting ... why is initializing the will so difficult? It's so different, seemingly harder, than writing or music where you just pick up your "instrument" and GO! ... hmmmmm!

Yeh, moosica was my ambition for years. Today I only own the old acoustic my dad bought when I was 14. Sold all electric stuff before I got married eons ago, but just recently borrowed from friends: an amp, and what turns out to be a very collectible '65 Hagstrom Viking
looks like: http://jelvis.cool.ne.jp/guitar_collection/2/IMG_4978.JPG

It's not the Strat I used to have, but it's cool, even without distortion pedals! :)

on Saturday, June 11th, holly said

That's a lurvely guitar! But I'm honestly more covetous of your kickboxing bag. Why is it the older I get, the more I just want to kick someone's ass?

Don't you love it when stuff you've ordered all comes in at once? It's like Christmas when all the prezzies are good! :D

on Saturday, June 11th, Elise said

That's a cool looking guitar Greg though I don't know much about electrics I'm afraid. I'd like to get into it someday but first things first. There's a really good fingerstylist here in Juneau who teaches lessons at the university and I'm considering taking some in the fall (along with Russian lessons, I've already found someone to go to Moscow with me!)...

And Holly, I agree about how cool it is to come home and find all these packages on the door step! I got some hypnosis CDs, the kickboxing bag, one book on "the science of the take-down" and another on kickboxing, PLUS the guitar.

I'm *seriously* finished with shopping for the summer, but as I told my sister, at this point I'm not worried about the debt I'm racking up because I just want to get into seriously bad ass shape (like your Linda Hamilton in Terminator II reference...the highest bar!)...

You know, I got a nice 40 pound Everlast heavy bag with gloves, wrist wraps, a jump rope, and ceiling and floor mounts for only $60.00 and that was with shipping to Alaska...so if you are envious of the bag, I suggest getting one.

I agree, I can't wait to start pounding the crap out of it. The class I'm taking is only a "cardio" kickboxing class, and though a great workout, there's not enough actual pounding and kicking involved.
:P

on Saturday, June 11th, holly said

You're going to end up with a whole gym! At least you're spending money on stuff that will be good for you. I assume that your outdoor activities season is a bit shorter than most, so if you're really wanting to get in shape, it seems like getting stuff for home is the way to go if you can't get motivated to get to a gym.

Where'd you get the bag, Elise? I know you posted a link a couple days ago- did you actually order from that place? What
kind of requirements does it need for hanging? No room at all in the house, but maybe from a beam in the basement...

on Saturday, June 11th, Elise said

Oh god, I was afraid you'd ask me where I ended up getting it from!

I'm ashamed to tell you I bought it from the Evil Empire. I am honest when I tell you that I tried to buy a heavy bag (*any* heavy bag) from at least 20 different stores and online auctions and NONE of them would ship to Alaska because of the weight and because it's pretty much "Next Day Air" to here, as there's no ground shipping (no roads) etc.

So, yah, I bought from the one place I despise most of all but I rationalized it in the fact they only charged 9 dollars for shipping so I know they ended up taking a loss on this sale.

As for requirements to hang, it's more than I thought. I went to the local hardware store today and they gave me some rather scary looking screws etc. and said in order to be able to *really* wale on the thing, I'd need to attach a 2x4 to the ceiling across at least 3 cross beams, and then attach the actual ceiling mount to the 2x4. The guy who helped me was super buff and said he and his girlfriend were both kickboxers for over 10 years and they learned the hard way that screwing those mounts directly into ceiling joists caused the wood to split and after a few month of heavy pounding, the bag would start to come down.

So, I have some work in front of me. I've bought the tools, 2x4, mounting hardware, etc. but am having problems locating the joists in the ceiling and floor. I think I need to get some help on this.

And I don't have a basement so I'm going to hang it right in the living room. fuck it right?

Oh, and I do get into the gym, I just don't like using their punching bags. They're too big for me and I feel stupid hitting them, they won't budge.

Oh, here is a link to the one that I bought but I'm sure where you live you could easily get one from a better source (plus, since I'm small I only got a 40 pound one, you might need a 70 pound one, they sell those too, and one's that don't need wall mounts as well. For the wall mounted one, well, for mine, I need 4' of clearance all around it.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3556751&cat=163920&type=21&dept=4125&path=0%3A4125%3A4134%3A163920 It's not on sale anymore but this is still a pretty good price, if you Froogle it, you could probably find a better deal.

on Saturday, June 11th, Elise said

Oh yah, I bought mine after reading this page about "how to select a bag":

http://www.karatedepot.com/howtopunchingbag.html

06/10/2005: "Seagull Grand Artist - Love at first sight!"