Mogs and I didn’t have a good morning. No sir. I have a curved bruise on my index finger from her teeth. She bit down and wouldn’t let go. Books litter the living room–hers and ours. Milk was spilt and tears were shed–hers and mine. The day has been saved by two things. First, Tony agreed to meet me during his lunch to give me a tiny break. This helped, but I did drink (well took two sips) of the world’s worst cup of coffee. We live in a very coffee town in a very coffee state and this stuff tasted exactly like an ash tray.
After I got her down to her nap (with a city truck outside cleaning out the sewer–thanks guys…), I got to play with two of my favorite things: tracing paper (vellum) and a clear oil pastel. I have rediscovered the joy of tracing paper and will surely make all my holiday cards with it. I’m sure everyone played with tracing paper as a child–copying favorite comics, etc. At some point in art class this becomes a frowned-upon medium. It’s a shame, since you can do so much with it. Paint and draw on paper behind it; paint and draw on it with pretty paper behind; cut it up; crinkle it up; there’s so much to do! And oil pastels, either white or colorless, are fun to work with in combination with watercolor paints. I have used white crayon, but oil pastel is much smoother leaving less “snot” on the paper. You should try it. It’s like using masking fluid with watercolor paints, but I never had much luck removing the mask without tearing the paper or smearing moist paint.
Also, my friend Lia sent me this link to this papercut artist named Rob Ryan. I love his “This bell will ring…” series. His work is a nice balance between romantic sentiment and existential “we’re all alone” angst–all delicately carved out of paper.
