Poncho? What, did you think I was going to say poncho? Erm, no. You see, I am trying to be all creative and come up with funds for this, which is not only a worthy cause but !hello! dinner with Callum (and can this be substituted for nine holes of golf with Callum is what I really want to know?!). 

Also, and I've meant to post about this probably a gazillion times and I've started to and then something came up, but I finished a painting a little while back and I'm very happy with it, even if it isn't close to what I started out on. 

Here's a snapshot:



Here's a gallery. 

First off...and sort of a disclaimer:

Apparently my LJ is rated PG-13, per this handy little tool malnpudl posted about (and no, today the LJuser function doesn't appear to be working for me...or the embed function, for that matter). I get a PG-13 for twice usage of "suck" and once "shit". I think this is off, frankly, or else I swear like a truck driver in my head and it somehow magically doesn't convey to my typing fingers? Either way, there will henceforth be more profanity on my LJ. Just a warning...or a vow. Hee. At least until I can get that rating changed.

The other night I posted a wine and exhaustion fueled whine-fest about how much the painting I was working on SUXXORED and wouldn't fucking behave and just BE the thing in my head and WOE IS ME and so forth. When the whippet dragged me out of bed the next morning I decided to lock the post because it wasn't really constructive or pro-active in any way. After all, what's wrong with the painting is always the painter? Instead I went and stared (malevolently) at the canvas.

Then I did some fiddling...

I'm 99% finished with the prep work for my new painting (stretched, completely sketched in, primed and ground tint laid) but I've been putting off actually starting because while I have a very clear idea in my mind of where I want this piece to end up, I find I'm having trouble deciding where to begin exactly. I think this might have something to do with the fact that while I've got such definite ideas about the concept I also traditionally like to leave room for happy accidents when I'm working and so the difficulty is in reconciling THE PLAN with CHANCE.

So I usually work around psychological blocks like this by a. going on a wild de-clutter spree and 14. immersing myself in things that inspire me, visually or otherwise. 

So here are some things that I've been finding visually or conceptually intriguing lately and at the very end, some bonus drawings I did a very very long time ago that I stumbled upon while de-cluttering...

I should note I'm not going to cite individual work titles, but I will provide links to sources for these images. Also, many of them can be clicked through to see larger versions.

First we've got Ernesto Caivano, an artist I noticed through an article in one my absolute favourite magazines in the world, Elle Decor. I love his compositional use of positive and negative space, his highly developed personal visual language and well here you go...

  

Curse you, FNL for making me bawl in my beer not once but twice tonight...and that's with entirely missing everything between minute :15 to minute :45. You broke my heart with wet-hangdog Woobie QB1 and also with Smash at the end there. Show, if it's your intention to make sure your record of total domination on the weekly crying front continues, you're now so far ahead that the mere thought of you makes me weepy. *team huddle, clear eyes and all that...* 

The reason I missed the above mentioned half hour is that my BFF called and because our game of phone tag has now reached ASTRONOMIC proportions, I didn't need to think twice about hitting the mute button and picking up the call. And I'm glad I did because there was a crisis. 

In other phone call news, I finally ended another epic phone tag I had going with my friend T...

I am thouroughly enjoying my re-viewing of Oz, so much so that I can't stop thinking about all the boys (and girls) throughout the day. I love this show (and I love Terry Kinney, whom I've seen on-stage a bunch of times). It's a testosterone soap-opera on a Shakespearean scale and it's so completely fitting that it went out with an ill-fated staging of The Scottish Play. Plus there is a lot of nudity, in case you were looking for something else to recommend it?. And Kareem Said, who is Teh Awesome. And the Beecher/Keller love mess (which is HOT). And, most importantly, Ryan O'Reily. Who is like The Lord of The Fucking Dance (He's Got Moves). Hee. My attempts to find some good Ryan O'Reily/ Dr. Gloria Nathan fic have thus far failed.

ETA: It should be noted that, as a fan of Le Bourne, I've watched this video an embarrassing number of times today. Nevermind teh Sarah. Dude, Matt is just all kinds of awesome here. This wins over my other guilty favourite (hyep, that's Jason Street, our new Rex Racer. Which...I think they should create a part for Kev Rankin...wot, I kinda have a geek crush on him). 

It is becoming increasingly clear to me that my personal trainer and my swing coach are in cahoots and that they have decided to kill me with squats for their personal amusement. 

I'm trying to redecorate my LJ for the first time in maybe a year and...I'd forgotten how complicated and annoying the process is. I've got a new header but it's so this-step-that-step-rich that I'm frankly giving up for tonight.