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It’s October!

Well then. The “Adobe Bullshit/Update All the Websites/Rinse and Repeat and then Rage Blog About It!” appears to have run its course. In fact the pendulum seems to have swung to the other side and I have gone back to ignoring my website completely. Hot and cold baby. Hot and cold. I blame my failed t-shirt empire. Thanks a lot TeePublic. I was happily learning the “beyond the basics” of Illustrator and Photoshop by watching a bunch of tutorials – ask the neighbors how loudly I screamed when I discovered the “Remove Background” button in the Quick Actions of Photoshop! This ain’t your grandfather’s CS4! Somewhere in the midst of all of that I made a logo for Ink & Bone Alchemy and thought “Hey, this would be a cool t-shirt!” And since some of my current favorite tees are from TeePublic, I took that little lightbulb and ran with it. I created a shop, uploaded the graphic and ordered a tshirt and a sticker. Sweet. Then I took the new abbreviated shop name, inknbone, and grabbed the domain name and made a new email address to use (my name is sooo many letters, ugh so much typing). Then I…

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Obviously

oh my god what is wrong with me?? It hasn’t even been a full month since I built that new website on Adobe Portfolio and I’ve already scrapped it! There was nothing wrong with it, I just had all my stuff spread over too many separate sites. So I just spent the last 3 days reconfiguring my WordPress Elfini blog site to do it all – portfolio, blog and online store. I even relocated the whole installation from a sub-domain to the root directory. Holy hell why do I do these things to myself?! And then this morning when I thought all was well except a few more design tweaks, I found that I couldn’t upload images to WordPress! Oh that is not okay! So, I hit the google. And I tried all the things. Nothing worked. And I tried some more things. And then I totally broke the site. ::very external screaming:: So, knowing my poor blood pressure was going to hit unhealthier levels than normal (I’ll tell you about my blood pressure woes later), I reminded myself that I have backups. Lots and lots of backups (this ain’t my first website rodeo). So, I hopped back into the…

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If I’m not angry am I even alive?

So, the Adobe Bullshit TM really is all its cracked up to be – how annoying! Everything I have been struggling to do for years with outdated programs, apps, and work arounds is now so stupidly simple to accomplish. If I wasn’t so giddy I might be really pissed off. Surrender and be happy? That doesn’t sound right at all. But here we are 3 weeks later, and a new website has been built in Adobe Portfolio*, Squarespace cancelled, and I spend my days working happily in Photoshop and Illustrator learning all the ins and outs and shortcuts that get shit done. Stupid programs that work. So, I have nothing to bitch about. Why am I even here?! I’m just listening to some Bauhaus and waiting for Erin to let me rat up her hair. *the biggest stumbling block in creating the new website was the eternal problem of how to organize the galleries. UGH! Still not happy with it.

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Madness I Say!

Well, it has been 1 year and 2 days since my last confession. I am finally creating art again and that has led me back to the blog. The path from there to here was not peaceful or intended – it was more off a twisted ankle leads to rolling down a steep and rock-strewn hill and then crash landing in WordPress with multiple contusions and a bad attitude. I started watching some Skillshare classes again last month, and that has reignited my creative mojo – thank the Maker! It feels so good to be creating again after almost a full year of making no art at all. Covid and all that goes with it has definitely done a number on me. So I’ve been making illustrations on my computer in Affinity Designer and Photo because fuck you Adobe and your damn subscriptions! and that has been fun. But then I hit some Affinity snags while making this piece- Affinity Designer has no Offset Path. Why??! And then yesterday I wanted to create a half tone and all hell broke loose! You can’t seem to make a gradient half tone without unwanted artifacts on the edges! The solutions offered in…

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2020 Bang Bang

or Life in the time of Quarantine and Riots.My last post was a little over a year ago. The end of May with lots of fun things to look forward to in June 2019. I have fuzzy memories of a big down time after my solo show, but then what? I’m sure there were lots of things that happened during the 2nd half of 2019, but damn if I can remember any of them. I can’t recall much of anything from before the complete clusterfuck that has been the last 3 months. Maybe clusterfuck is the wrong word. Maybe not. The beginning of 2020 started out fine – joined a gym and was doing yoga again. We went to San Diego for a long weekend in February. We had plans for a few more trips this year already booked. Then March hit and things started to go sideways. Coronavirus hit the news. March 16th the schools were closed. Then everything was closed. Months of sheltering in place. Then George Floyd was murdered. holy fuck. Throw some rioting and looting into the protests and a lot of bad decision making from the top and here we are. The world is on…

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Kick out the jams!

Ladies and gentlemen… Tomorrow, May 24th, the Rock Show opens at Blue Line Arts and I have two of my drawings included in the exhibit – punk legends Patti Smith and Henry RollinsThis is going to be a really fun show! The Opening Reception in June 15th, the week after my solo show reception. Unfortunately, I have the 2nd part of my periodontics surgery scheduled on the Wednesday between the 2 receptions. But I’ll be there – with rings on my fingers and a mouth full of stitches! #motrinismycopilot So, June is going to be something! But I’ll worry about all of that tomorrow because tonight is Big Names Small Art at the Crocker Art Museum!!

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