Alaskan Artist - Elise Tomlinson
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10/22/2005: "Ah Crap! Not again..."


I don't know about the rest of you, but when I'm painting I get tunnel vision. This afternoon I've been putting the finishing touches on that big painting I've been working on and listening to songs from my Napster subscription (really loudly) while dancing around like an idiot (which is normal)...but I finally came to a stopping point and I noticed I had this giant blob of phalo blue all up my arm...how did that happen? Oh well, went into the bathroom to scrub it off and when I came back into the living room, I saw *huge* streaks of phalo blue on the carpeting shooting in every direction, it reminds me of those dancing diagrams, the bottoms of both my feet are dark blue and my carpet is F*&$ed!

WomansFTBasic_small (4k image)


I don't know if I should attempt to clean it, I think not...there's so much, and it's oil, so it tends to just create even bigger patches of color when you try to clean it. This has happened *twice* before, both times when my cat Osiris jumped up into my pallet and then freaked out on a little crime spree around the house getting paint on everything. Both times it took most of an entire day to clean. This time I think I'll try to be more zen and just accept it...though I should probably scrub off the bottom of my feet, this shit is poisionous.


Replies: 18 Comments

on Saturday, October 22nd, Joan said

Is it alright to accept it? I know what you mean, but in terms of the "poison?" Don't want your feet - or those of the felines to absorb the crap! BTW, did you receive the NLPD Dash T-shirt in the mail? I sent you an e-mail on this but might not have gotten to you(?). Take care of your environmentally unfriendly but very zenlike self.

on Saturday, October 22nd, Elise said

Hi Joan, I didn't get the email but I did get the t-shirt, I really love it! Thanks so much for that, and I'm sorry again that the t-shirt shop wasn't able to just open the design I sent. Still, it's very cool...thanks again!

oh, and as soon as the oil paint dries it won't be dangerous to anyone, it's mostly the pigment that you want to avoid getting on your skin.

on Sunday, October 23rd, RR said

Oh dear! How about adding to the design on the carpet and pretend it's meant to be there? Or depending on the carpet, is it possible to cut or shave it out? You could start a new range of floor design :blush:

on Sunday, October 23rd, Elise said

Ultimately I did try to scrub all the streaks out but it didn't work like last time for some reason, maybe the soap I'm using isn't as good or I waited too long...

I think I need to get a big area rug now...the streaks and stuff are all random and every which way, I can't see how I could change it into a painting...nice suggestion though RR.

on Sunday, October 23rd, Howard said

Maybe you could rip it up and frame it and sell it as a companion piece to the painting you are working on. You call it the documentation of the artistic process :D

on Sunday, October 23rd, Elise said

Yah, I'm not sure the guy who commissioned me to do the painting would appreciate the gesture! It does a better job documenting my spastic dance moves...
:laugh:
Anyway, I should have just left it alone because now it's an even bigger nighmare.

on Sunday, October 23rd, mick said

I am absolutely positive that the Tate Gallery in London would accept your carpet as a work of art.

Just imagine the headlines in the papers and the subsequent media frenzy

Believe it or not I have appeared on BBC news airing my views on the "pile of bricks" which they considered ART. I am probably Barred for eternity from their premises now LMAO.
BTW is it really safe to paint in the Nude ???

on Sunday, October 23rd, Elise said

Hey Mick, do you have a mailing address for the Tate?
:P
Also, who said anything about painting in the nude?!!!??
:O

on Monday, October 24th, pyromike650@aol.com">mick said

I reckon Tate Gallery London UK should find them - but I dont suggest you mail the whole carpet yet LOL. As for nude painting it was just an inspired guess after you said bottoms of feet and not trainers were blue LOL

on Monday, October 24th, elderberrystudio2000@yahoo.com" target="_new">Jackie said

E: Sounds like you should rip the carpet up and just have plywood floors! Actually, nice plywood, with several coats of hard varnish, are pretty cool. And easy to wipe the paint off of! Tho - I suppose it's nicer to have a warm floor covering in the wintry months.
Why bother with an area rug? You'll just have that all gummed up soon enough! Maybe you could lay canvas down, and sell the resulting 'paintings', or just gesso over it and re-use?
Mick - you really are into the 'nude' thing, aren't you?

on Monday, October 24th, Elise said

Ripping up the carpet seems like a nifty idea except that the area where my studio is, is connected to my living/dining room, the whole upstairs is essentially one big room, so it would be a huge task, and I'm afraid the flooring underneath is somthing cheap and ugly and not easily prepped for painting...and I'd rather be painting. But yah, I might as well just forget about having nice carpet while I live here, if people come over they'll just have to realize that I'm an artist and my floors (like my computer key board, door nobs, the phone etc.) are going to have paint on it.

And Mick, I *never* wear shoes and socks while I'm at home...I like the word "trainers" we just say tennis shoes here, which is strange come to think of it because no one really uses them for playing tennis...or...sneakers, which sounds even more weird.

Aren't words great?

on Monday, October 24th, Jackie said

E: It's funny- like most Alaskans, we still take our shoes off when we enter our house. Likewise, when we visit friends, we take our shoes off at the door. Here in Washington, people look at us as if we're strange.
'Trainers' - isn't that another name for training pants (like when you're potty-training a kid) here in the US? (heh)

on Monday, October 24th, Elise said

I know, my roommate from California used to think I was nuts for having people take their shoes off but that is the custom everywhere in Alaska that I'm familiar with, even Anchorage.

In Hawaii, you take your shoes off as well although it's ok to wear indoor "slippers" which are what I grew up calling thongs...which these days has a totally different meaning.

Can you imagine asking guests to take their thongs off at the door?!!!
:O

on Monday, October 24th, mick said

Arent words great - even when confusing !!. Trainers or tennis shoes go by all sorts of names in different parts of the UK.
At school we wore plimsoles or pumps - Pumps has a different meaning in the North (flatulence to put it politely). In the West our kids wore Daps (Dunlop Athletic Plimsoles). Of course girls played Rounders (which you might call baseball) or Hockey which is a sort of licence to cause physical injury.

on Monday, October 24th, mick said

Hi Jackie - Yes I am into the nude thing but in a very innocent way - Innocent Nudity and Art have always been very closely linked - BTW dont forget that if God had meant us to walk around with no clothes on we would have been born nude LOL.

on Tuesday, October 25th, Elise said

I know what you mean about innocent nudity Mick, it always frustrates me when people read a lot of sexuality into my paintings just because the figures are nude...the two are so connected in some people's minds, especially American's, you wouldn't expect it of a nation with so much skin on TV but American's themselves tend to be so modest about nudity and that's probably because all that skin on TV is about sex.

It still pisses me off that a man can take his shirt off in public no problem, and a woman can be arrested for it! Not that I would *ever* want to, but the unfairness of it kills me. BTW, I'm probably one of the most modest people ever so this is an academic thing to me.
:doze:

on Tuesday, October 25th, elderberrystudio2000@yahoo.com">Jackie said

E: Yeah - guys can take their shirts off in public - but alot of them should keep 'em on! Our prudishness is just another reminder that America was founded by a bunch of religious radicals.
I'm very modest myself - but I sure had a blast in life drawing!

on Tuesday, October 25th, Elise said

So true Jackie!
:cry: