Warm-up Exercises

I start a pastel class again tomorrow, and decided that I should make sure that I'm not too rusty to draw...since having been in writing mode now for months in the contracting world. Yup, it looks like I still have a few neurons firing in the tips of the old arthritic fingers...in this 11x14 inch piece with a working title of Raven Haired Beauty. Granted it's a composition based on someone else's photograph--and wouldn't qualify as a totally accurate portrait, but it works for me all the same.

This is a 3-day class spread over three Sundays, one each in March, April, and May, and I took it last year as a "beginner". I'm coming in this year as an "intermediate" student, I guess. Last time I wrote about the surfaces that I most like for working with pastel, I was becoming a big fan of working directly on canvas. The piece shown in this post is on PastelBord, which could also fast become a favorite surface, and I've got some of the Colourfix paper from Art Spectrum to try too. Both have really toothy surfaces...akin to sandpaper. I have to admit that I love the way the pastels just crawl into the crevices. On the other hand, my blending fingers feel like I've been rubbing them on sandpaper--smooth and a little sore!

I look forward to learning something new...and to getting out of the house this weekend to meet a few new people. Now that volleyball season is all over, and the snow frequency has finally dropped to maybe once a week...with maybe just a flurry or two this week...there's more time to do things other than move snow around!

Snow again...every other day!

Add 4-6 inches here and 4-6 inches there...jump the drifts in the back yard...keep those shovels close at hand! Fortunately there are some good Samaritans around driving little Bobcats...if only I could get my neighbors to park somewhere on the street other than just about directly in front of my mailbox. The sun just came out a little while ago, so the snow is still glistening, and with temps well enough below freezing, it's not going anywhere soon, and is likely to be added on sometime on Saturday or Sunday of this week.

I landed a new technical writing contract that begins Monday of next week...this is exciting...and represents excellent timing! I had been going out on some lower-paying temp jobs just to help cover the costs of living. This gig will run out until April-ish of 2008 at one of the companies here in Madison's version of Research Park (not to be confused with Research Triangle Park in NC, but definitely a technology incubator wannabe). Of course, I'm NOT from Madison...or a UW-Madison graduate...so that means the world revolves around its own axis, not south-central Wisconsin. It's an interesting alumni-rich community around here. I can't imaging hanging out at Skibo (the closest Carnegie-Mellon had to a Student Union at the time) 25 years after graduating, but for UW-Madison, graduation seems to NOT be much of a rite of passage, but rather just another strong tie to being a Badger for life...