Inn of the Wandering Dragon

The other half finally got on board with the whole spring cleaning concept this weekend. With his help we tackled other areas of the house. I feel pretty good about what we accomplished. We are finally down to one last room, and here is where everything gets muddy, - the studio.

I grudgingly came to the conclusion we would have to set up some sort of computer desk for him. As he sprawls out on the floor playing his computer games he is literally underfoot regardless of whether I am working on the computer (tripping over his feet) or at the easel (trying not to kick him in the head). In addition a third of my books and resorce materials have been completely blocked off for months with the rest being simply difficult to get at unless you are a contortion artist. To sum up the experience in one word - aggravation.

Of course my tiny home is already filled to the max. Do you remember my drowning in clutter comment? So in order for anything to come in, something else has to be taken out and a whole lot of stuff has to be moved. This is a touchy subject for me because I do not appreciate someone else telling me how to set up my studio. Besides that, the only 'storage' space I am allowed is basically full so even if I packed up a bunch of stuff (as he is fond of suggesting) where would said boxes go? They would sit piled on the floor in the room. What is the point of that?

In this case three bookshelves and a table had to move and an old desk had to leave. A smaller bookshelf has been moved to the new desk as an impromtu hutch so the materials previously in that shelf need a new home. Plus the boxes under the old desk are now in the middle of the floor. The worktable is covered and unreachable. Art supplies are buried beyond reach. Numerous breakable fragile items are in full reach of a less than delicate cat (and boyfriend).

I wanted to be able to go through everything first and purge the worn out / unwanted. This way I would then know what space I have to rearrange everything in. This way the clutter could have been taken care of. But in order to get his stuff taken care of I now have a giant mess of stuff stacked and piled through one half of the room. I am very much frustrated because this just feels like a giant step backwards. There is a large amount of work to be done to sort through and put everything away. And with the next two weekends already spoken for (family commitments) it means I will be slowly chipping away at it in the evenings for the next month at least.

Some stuff will be culled, some will be packed away. Somewhere in all of this I need to make the art cards I mentioned before. In the meantime the other half gets to be a happy video game zombie. Right now I have a hard time feeling that all this aggravation is worthwhile.

Well my friends are getting everything ready for the release of their first album. They have launched a page on mypace which includes a few tracks from the upcomming CD. Have a listen, there is some beautiful layering of instrumental, vocals and some sampling.
Today they aired an interview with a local radio station in Toulouse to promote their hard work. I have yet to hear how that went. Prior to the interview the proverbial butterflies were fluttering fast and furious! They were debating whether or not to perform live on air. I am excited for them and I really hope everything went well.

To check out the music, go to http://www.myspace.com/lesondelarose

Last month I signed up for a couple of themed ATC swaps, then other stuff happened and I basically forgot about them until this weekend. What had seemed like such an intriging idea at the time is definately less than stellar now. Trying to create something that I am satisfied with when I am not in any way interested in doing it is a big challenge to say the least! But I made the commitment and therefore I must follow through.

The first swap is due next week, the second is still 3 weeks away so I burned the midnight oil to complete the required cards for the first. I did not take any pictures of the new cards bacause in truth I'm just not crazy about how they turned out. Compositionaly, they are good. Design and excecution are sound. Visually they are pretty, and fit well with the theme. Technically they are good overall and I know the people on the receiving end of the swap are going to enjoy them. But they do not have my heart invested in them and so I do not think they are good enough for me.

They are in the mail on the way to the swap host who will in turn send them on to new homes. Personally, I am ready to forget them and move on. Hopefully the cards for the next swap will turn out better.

I spent most of yesterday in the kitchen preparing for my detox.
I created a vegetable & fish soup - not too heavy, tasty although the other half claims it needs more salt. (that is what soup crackers are for!)
Next on the list was a baked spicy chicken and vegetables. I am a big fan of one pot kind of cooking so the idea of throwing everything in the roasting pan and letting it bake together suits me fine. Unfortunately I should have added two steps: raise the rack in the oven and add a bit of water in the bottom. There is a large mass of charred blackness lining the pan. (ouch!) It is currently soaking in soapy water and I hope to get it clean in the morning. I did salvage most of the food and no, it does not smell or taste burned, go figure.
Finally a chicken curry with saffron rice. I have been informed I should make this by the boatload - I guess the boyfriend likes it. I like it but I am thinking I would like to change something for next time, I just haven't figured out what.

Yes, when an item is scanned in black and white the program used automatically desaturates any and all colour. Both paintings were made form the same palette as I had mixed up a large amount of tinted greys at the start. To look at the scanned images you would never think they were painted with the same paints. Since they are going together on the same CD pakaging they need that continuity.

The second major issue is that the back cover painting is washed out - too much light has effectively wiped out a large portion of my light and middle tone greys. This flattens the image and robs any sense of depth and form.

Granted, I have very little 'schooling' in image manipulation. I can clean up my photographs to a point and I know the basics about layers. I tried playing with the tools that I know - graphs to adjust levels of tone and colour. I tried layering these with commands that adjust contrast / brightness. I was trying to make the black and white image look like the colour image and it just didn't work.

Having no other choice, I started to play. I worked through different commands in the menus to see how these options would affect the image. Thank heaven for the command! Eventually I found a combination of layered comands / effects that I could live with. I regained my midtones and lighttones. I recovered my texture. Of course the colour is still off.

Next step, convert the colour image to black and white (except for the rose) and apply the same steps to bring it in line with the black and white image. If I can't pull it one way, I have to push the other way.

Looking back on it now there are probably a few commands and steps I could do differently to make things easier. Looking back on it now, I think over-explaining things to the person who does the scanning would be the way to go. This way we are both on the same page!

And finally, if I undergo another procedure that requires pain meds or anything like it - I should just take the day off!

Play is a wonderful thing, and in terms of programs like Photoshop that is the best way for me to learn. Of course, the crunch of an impending deadline combined with some initial errors in judgement can do wonders for inspiration. Yes I have manuals but that is only really usefull when a) you have the time to go through them and b) you know what to do, just not how to do it. When faced with "how the ____! do I fix this?!", play begins in earnest.

I am conveniently choosing to blame the errors of judgement on the pain medication. Last Monday I had a procedure to break up a large kidney stone. To say it is uncomfortable and painful is an understatement. As such the doctor gave me some sort of pain medication via the IV. I felt fine after I was released: I was not fuzzy or sleepy or confused. But I did have some difficulty using my cell phone, clue # 1, and I was under strict orders not to drive for 24 hours, clue #2. It was in this state of being that I took my paintings to a digital art company to get scanned.

All of the paintings are essentially black and white, with the exception of the rose on the front cover. As such the gentleman doing the scans said he would scan the one image in colour and the other two in black and white. I agreed to this plan, with no twinge or thought that this might not be the way to go. So there is error #1.

When I received the call a few hours later to pick up the paintings and the disc I was shown the digital images on his monitor. Despite having stared at these paintings for the better part of a month, I did not pick up on what was wrong with the back cover image. At the time everything looked fine and I did not compare the on-screen image with the original. There is error in judgement #2.

It was not until several hours later (at which time the scanning shop is closed) that the problems were reconized.

Can you spot them?

Ok, even though the weather sucks and it feels like January instead of March I am still determined to get some good cleaning done in preperation for the warmer weather. I find the closed in space and the clutter are grinding on my nerves.

The idea is not just to clean but to pull out the stuff that I no longer use or need and get rid of it. Some will be donated, some could be put in yard sale (if I have enough to warrant one). I know, it is not warm enough for a yard sale yet so I need a spot to put all of this stuff in the interim. Right now the stff is sitting on my couch until I find a better option.

And while I'm at it, it is a good time to have a dietary detox as well. Unlike previous detoxes I am going to skip on the herbal supplements and just work with the meal plan. Basically I'm going to cut out processed / refined foods and dairy for 12 days. I will start this once certain groceries have run out. I hate wasting food!

In typical Calgary fashion the weather has been jumping through hoops again. Yesterday was clear, sunny and warm - to the tune that people were shucking their heavy jackets on the patios. This morning we woke up to heavy wet snow rendering the streets and sidewalks a slushy mess and we are back to aforementioned jackets. Galoshes would not be a bad idea either! It is days like this where I am reminded that I really do need new tires on the car. Do you ever get that urge to find a huge expanse of completely empty parking lot and play slip & slide with your wheels?