P r e t t y S k e t c h y

I read this today and laughed so hard that I cried.

I expect a lot of marriage proposals after I reveal the following information: I have just purchased and begun to read the April 2009 New Yorker magazine. I was seduced by the cover illustrations and the promise of more economic fear mongering and the panicky feeling it will conjure up inside my chest. If you've got some time to kill check out their archived covers, they're pretty awesome.

I couldn't find the cover of the current issue on the Internet so you get a few (okay a lot) of the old ones from the gallery that I liked. I never realized how fabulous their covers are. Kim informs me that the New Yorker is pretty famous for having amazing covers. Shows what I know. I have never read or even really noticed the New Yorker before today.

It seemed kinda terrible to round the corners of The New Yorker so I laid off.

Always Judge Books By Their Covers

I was off from work again today so I biked for a few hours in the morning and then went to Starbucks to sketchbook and read. It was a lovely afternoon. I spent some time drawing people in the coffee shop which is one of my favorite things to do. It kind of kills me when someone catches me drawing them. I vary between looking away quickly and meeting someone's eyes and continuing to draw them. It depends how gutsy I am feeling at the time. One of my favorite drawing people when they don't know it stories is from when I was still in University. I was sitting in the hallway waiting for my History of Design class to begin and there was a guy lying in a window ledge across the hallway sleeping. I took out my sketchbook and drew a picture of him. He woke up just after I finished. The whole thing killed me and I actually really love how the drawing turned out.

After I finished sketch-booking at Starbucks today I had a bit of a look around Chapters and stumbled upon the most beautiful copy of Jane Eyre that I've ever seen. There were a whole bunch of republished classics with ridiculously beautiful covers and I really had to hold myself back from buying them all. I did allow myself to buy one though...

Isn't it lovely? I really liked the Great Expectations edition as well; it was black with chandeliers on it and so beautiful. I try not to buy books that I am not going to read more than once though and as good as it was I don't think I'll ever re-read Great Expectations. Anyhow if you need to buy some classics soon go to Chapters, seriously, they're amazing. I want them all.

So as promised here is my top 10 list of books I love to re-read in no particular order...

1. Blue like Jazz by Donald Miller. He articulates things about faith that I think and feel but am unable to say myself. Reading this book is like having a conversation with a friend who likes to tell stories. I've read it at least five times.

2. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. The perfect romance. I own more than one copy of this book because I have a hard time leaving them behind in thrift stores. It's just so poetic and romantic, sigh. Also I am prejudiced like Elizabeth and I like to think that if she can find love maybe I can too.

3. Calvin & Hobbes books by Bill Watterson. Hilarious, no matter how many times I read them I laugh out loud really hard. I've been reading these since grade school and I love the killer snowmen comics so much.

4. Anne of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery. I love all the Anne books but this is my favorite because she's just starting teaching and it's lovely and inspiring.

5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (I may own three copies of this, 'cough'). So good, so weird.

6. Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott. She is like the female Donald Miller, slightly irreverent and strongly sarcastic, she is so insightful and honest about faith and her journey.

7. The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd. Nathan introduced me to Chip Kidd years ago and there are so few good books about art school; I loved it right away. It's super weird but sooo fabulous. The sequel is great too.

8. The Creative License by Danny Gregory. I'm not a big fan of instructional art books but this is the best one I've ever found.

9. The Ramona books by Beverly Cleary. I have all of them and they're just so full of mischief and fun. They remind me of grade school and they're so timeless.

10. Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood. I like books about screwed up kids growing up and there's a touch of art school in it too. Margaret Atwood is usually too depressing for me but I love this book.

Okay I need to keep at the painting...

I Don't Have To Convene

Thursday and Friday of this week are teacher's convention and because I am not a real teacher I don't have to convene. That means I have a four day weekend, yesssss. So far I have spent it watching this (I know, I'm uncool), eating these (of course) and working on my current commission piece.

The last time you saw the piece the trees had no leaves and I have been waiting all week to remedy that. Caylie and I took our scissors to get sharpened last week and due to my severely neurotic attachment to those particular scissors I was unable to cut out leaves until I had them back.

My Grandma gave me these scissors a few years ago and I love them because they are beautiful and old and entirely made of metal and because they were hers and I like having things that she's used before me. I sewed the veins with my sewing machine just before it decided to die on me and now I am going to have to get it serviced again. I suppose that's what I get for buying a sewing machine at Value Village just because it was beautiful. Anyhow, the trees now have a few leaves and I will have to wait to fully outfit them until I can find another sewing machine to use, or get mine fixed, agh. This is commission has been such a struggle to get through what with my self-inflicted stress about expectations and colors and time. I am too much in my head sometimes.

I made a completely ridiculous purchase during this long weekend of mine that I have to share; a new art magazine. In the past I have shared my love of art magazines and this one is in my top five favorites of all magazines which is why it was so devastating when I found out that this will be the last issue. The first issue I ever bought lives beside my bed and I fall asleep every night beside it's glow-in-the-dark cover. I suppose the only positive is that I will no longer be tempted to shell out inordinate amounts of money for it's foreign loveliness...

Yes, the letters are yellow sparkle.

Amelia's Magazine, sigh, I will miss you.

Well I am up too late and tomorrow is another wedding planning Saturday with my sister, more to come, happy weekend all.

10 Things I Did This Long Weekend...

1. Sang 'Colors of The Wind' with my friend Laura more times than I care to mention. I also exchanged Facebook passwords with her which led to a war of Pocahontas related status updates. ie. "Laura Cuell is running the hidden pine trails of the forest."

2. Ate really good Japanese food. If you live in Edmonton you need to try this place.

3. Went wedding dress shopping with my sister, Mom and Laura. My two favorite photos:

This dress was a no, which is why I'm allowed to show it. Still pretty cute though.

Laura and Lis in the last store of the day (it was a very long day).

4. Played M.A.S.H with Laura in my sketchbook on the floor of a wedding dress store.

5. Watched waaay too much of this. I am uncool, I know.

6. Got my kitty screen print in the mail. It is currently in the basement studio being weighed down by acrylic gel and water bottles in an attempt to get it to flatten out after mailing.

It came in a cardboard mailer with this wonderful packing tape on it which of course I peeled off and kept (below).

7.Went on a Starbucks date with Beth. It went somewhat unsuccessfully though due to Remembrance Day hours so we had a hanging-out-on-my-bed-blogging date instead.

 

Proof of our good times. You can't fake excitement like this.

8. Drooled over this. I want one sooo bad, hopefully at the end of the month... BUY MY ART! Subtle hey?

9. Continued to read these books both of which I love so far.

How to be an Explorer of The World by Keri Smith

The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland 

10. Watched Meg eat a lot of Pringles.

 

Just to clarify, Meg is lovely and beautiful and this is in no way a regular occurrence (her stuffing her face with Pringles crumbs and laughing them all over the table and the book she's reading). I am so going to be in trouble for this. Ha, it is so worth it though, I didn't photograph the entire sequence of events for nothing.

Painting & Mental Health

At work on Wednesday I started listening to an audio recording of Jack Kerouac's 'On The Road' which turned out to be the worst idea ever. I thought I was stir crazy before but after 2 hours of hearing about his adventures hitch-hiking across America I was going out of my mind. I turned it off after 3 hours, listened to music for the rest of the day and left an hour early because I couldn't sit at my desk any longer. Thursday I took a 'mental health' day. I drew and read at Starbucks, went to the library and painted all afternoon and evening. It was exactly what I needed and it was such a good reminder for me that I really do love painting. I sometimes let it become a job or something I have to do instead of something that I want to do. I think work sucks those good feelings from me sometimes. Anyway, here are the latest results from the studio...

'I Can't Handle Your Admiration' 2008.

'What Am I Looking For?'

And a peek at a new one I started last night called 'Anatomy of A Paper Forest'.

I also picked up a new book when I was at Chapters. This is the second book put out by Mike Perry and celebrates hand rendered patterns. His first was a collection hand drawn fonts which is really fantastic as well. A look at some of the pages...

Okay, maybe a look at a lot of the pages...

 

It is a seriously beautiful book.

Well that's all the news I have for now, happy long weekend all!