It's Not You, It's Your Books

“Most of my friends and men in my life are nonreaders,” she said, but “now that you mention it, if I went over to a man’s house and there were those books about life’s lessons learned from dogs, I would probably keep my clothes on.” ' Ooh, am I ever guilty of this. It's not so much that I can't stand to be around people whose personal canon consists of Mercedes Lackey and Dan Brown -- it's that one's taste in reading tends to be a great shorthand for compatibility in backgrounds, education, intellectual curiosity, and sense of humor. Not that a man would have to be well-read, just open to reading new things; one of my favorite things to do is to read books, then talk about the books with people close to me.

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morning in the Art Cave

…has so far consisted of quality time with my blowdryer, trying to get the underpainting for the caravaggio study to dry. you would think that after 10 hours of being left alone, it'd have dried by itself. but you'd be wrong. while perhaps i should not have used quite so much medium, i also probably should not have used quite so much white paint, either. the cloudy, cold days haven't exactly helped.

i've been blow drying this painting since 5 a.m., with breaks to keep my arms from cramping up. luckily, i can drink coffee while blow drying a canvas, so i've found a new skill i can do when Not Awake.

oh, and i'm now out of ivory black, ultramarine blue, and am worryingly low on walnut alkyd and paper towels. once the art store opens up, i'll be heading there. though at the rate this thing is drying, i might not get to use any of those until… oh, early december or so.

i don't want to have to send an email saying, 'er, about that deadline...' to the man with two silver earrings, though if the painting isn't dry enough to start painting on by 3 this afternoon, i'll have to. at that point, even if i do nothing else all day but paint, that's the last point i could start and still get this study anywhere close to done.

not a banner day in the Art Cave, really.

i did, however, walk outside to enjoy my now mostly weed-free yard, which looks shorn, a great improvement over the previous overgrown look. did you know that the best way to get your landlord to not show up is to spend hundreds of dollars and quite a few hours cleaning up your house and yard? well, as it happens -- it is a surefire way to keep your house a landlord-free zone. also, my oven has mysteriously stopped working, though its burners work just fine. i suspect a call to the gas company is in order to get them to come light the pilot, which must've gone out during all the scouring. or, of course, it's time to buy a new one. or, just start barbequeing.

now, more coffee. then more blow drying.

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