Monday, February 28th

Glass


Went to buy some glass today for my latest piece. It's a gorgeous shade of green with a slight texture of lines through it. On Friday I started cutting out pieces for the first panel and worked out how to get the fired copper under the glass. The green should help set it off.

One of my latest inspirations on the painting front is nabis artist Edouard Vuillard. I saw one of his paintings at the gallery on Saturday and it reminded me that I liked the way he painted. I did a bit of research and printed off lots of prints. Then I sat down to read a new book last night and on the second page it described how one of the characters had a book of Vuillard prints sitting on her desk. I like it when quirky things like that happen.


Red Writer on 02.28.05 @ 04:50 PM gmt [link]


Mrs Angry


You'd think you should be able to rely on the fact that when you come to work in the morning, there may be some heat in the building..........but oh no!!!! I have to generate my own heating this morning and it has manifested itself in deep seated anger which at this present moment is the only thing keeping me warm.
Red Writer on 02.28.05 @ 08:48 AM gmt [link]


Sunday, February 27th

Busy



It's a hard life blush
Monday - work/class at night
Tuesday - work/class at night
Wednesday - work/bed early
Thursday - work/night out (quite late)
Friday - classes/night out (late)
Saturday - classes/night out (quite late)
Sunday - walk/shop/research/fix blog to delete all spam comments/housework/chill/zzzzzzz

It's just been one of those weeks where snatched sleep is never long enough and sessions with glass in hand seem to be more than normal, so does that sound like the life of a .....

Red Writer on 02.27.05 @ 02:06 PM gmt [more..]


Wednesday, February 23rd

Snow


It's very very pretty here. Lots of snow. Only skidded a little when trying to get to the car park at work (up a steepish hill). It just wasn't going to happen because I was in before the little snow plough had cleared the road. So after trying the foot on the floor technique, stalling and sliding backwards I gave up rolls eyes Women drivers!
Red Writer on 02.23.05 @ 09:06 AM gmt [link]


Tuesday, February 22nd

Congestion Charges


Well there you go then. It has been decided for now. Until the next time.
Red Writer on 02.22.05 @ 02:34 PM gmt [link]


Monday, February 21st

Squirrel News


Look! My first scan of a neg from the scanner. I really like this. Got the ftp working and now will have lots of things to play with razz
Red Writer on 02.21.05 @ 06:16 PM gmt [link]


Meme thingy



I've never understood how to pronounce these things.....is it meme as in the french for same or is it more of a me me because of the focus? Anyway, I saw this on a friends journal and couldn't resist. So although I found it really hard to answer the questions......being married for nearly twenty years and all that, my memory for my seduction style was a bit hazy but here's what the opposite sex are missing out on rolls eyes
Red Writer on 02.21.05 @ 12:21 PM gmt [more..]


Broad Law



I knew it was a good walk on Saturday but I hadn't realised that the start of training was not the gentle stroll I had anticipated and was infact 2730ft which is only approx 270ft short of a munro.

I realise this now of course, as my legs begin to seize up. By Monday stairs are going to be very painful!
Red Writer on 02.21.05 @ 08:50 AM gmt [more..]


Saturday, February 19th

Glass and Paint



Got my three woven glass pieces back from the kiln. They look ok and will make a reasonable submission for assessment if I can work out how to suspend them in a frame. I've even started on the template for the next piece - a three panel abstract interpretation of a photo I love of a broken tree stump.
Red Writer on 02.19.05 @ 10:22 AM gmt [more..]


Friday, February 18th

Food Scare


As if we didn't have enough to worry about!

This is no little scare when 350 products have been instantly taken off the supermarket shelves. People are concerned. The FSA website listing the affected foods had crashed when I tried it, I presume through the volume of traffic - people like me trying to see how many of the foods they eat might be affected.

I'm not so worried for myself, I don't eat chilli powder much and I don't eat Worcester sauce, unless in tomato juice, which I don't drink much either, but I do use pasta sauces, we do eat tinned soup a lot, the kids eat Pot Noodles (yeuch!) occassionally and I hate to think how many other things we might have eaten since July 2003 which have the hidden Sudan I in them. What worries me more is that I don't like the thought that I have inadvertantly been feeding my family or allowing them to eat foods containing something so potentially harmful.

With the list of affected products not available, the advice "There is no risk of immediate illness. If you have eaten these products the risk is likely to be very small, and not eating them any more is a sensible thing to do." seems a bit ridiculous.

"Could restaurant meals or takeaways be affected?
Some restaurants and takeaways have been using products containing Sudan I. These products are being withdrawn." - bang goes my plan for a curry tonight!

It's all just so worrying. I am hungry after a busy day at college but I have no idea what I can safely eat tonight because most things I think about seem to have been, or are, involved in a health scare.

Is this more divine retribution for man's intervention?
Red Writer on 02.18.05 @ 06:07 PM gmt [link]


Sunday, February 13th

Death of a playwright


Again my post is a couple of days after the event but I haven't stopped thinking about the death of Arthur Miller. There is a wonderful tribute in today's Sunday Herald which reminded me that "attention must finally be paid to such a fine person". (See also the video clips on the BBC site.)

I thought back to last year when SO and I went to see Death of a Salesman. I remember crying in the theatre ( see Sunday 22nd February), such was the intensity of the play. It is one of thee most powerful things I have seen on stage.

SYD is studying A View from the Bridge at the moment so AM is never far away from our thoughts as the book is usually left lying in various locations through the house - kitchen tabel, living room floor, beside the pc, on the stairs. I haven't read the whole thing but have dipped into it whilst trying to help SYD with her textual analysis homework. Now I must read it.... lest attention is not paid to such a fine writer.
Red Writer on 02.13.05 @ 10:36 AM gmt [link]


Friday, February 11th

Jack not the artists' artist


This is not news, everyone know the 'art' world doesn't rate Vettriano but new freedom of information legislation has meant someone has been digging up old dirt. Where does foi stop and data protection begin? Perhaps Jack could take this further......although he might find there aren't any laws on collective subjectivism.
Red Writer on 02.11.05 @ 07:53 AM gmt [link]


Tuesday, February 8th

Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday


You can always count on the Scotsman to make sure we don't enjoy ourselves too much. But for the rest of us enjoy your pancakes.

I'll be having a savoury bolognaise one then some lemon and sugar ones and if I have room I'll squeeze in some more filled with ice-cream and chocolate sauce. I will be fat and I will be jolly because at this moment I have just realised that there are people out there already enjoying baking pancakes for their children and being the perfect parents. I am not. I am a bad mother who is not at home baking for her children. My children are at home, fending for themselves. Probably making up their own batter, burning their arms and the kitchen and feeling cheated because their mother is still at work. Today has not been a good day.
Red Writer on 02.08.05 @ 05:04 PM gmt [link]


Ellen MacArthur


I cannot imagine how much of an achievement this must feel like. Congratulations Ellen, I wish I had a fraction of your determination and stamina.
Red Writer on 02.08.05 @ 09:56 AM gmt [link]


Monday, February 7th

Congestion Charges


So the voting has started? Meaning the ballot papers are out. Edinburgh is about to decide on whether to introduce congestion charges.

Strictly speaking this is not an official ballot and those who ticked the box on their electoral registration papers will not have been sent one unless they phoned to request a paper. Rumour has it the lines were permanently busy so many people did not get through! The logic of this not being an official ballot escapes me when so much is at stake. So are they saying that this is unsolicited advertising? Despite ticking all boxes on everything I ever fill in I could not remember having even seen such a box on the last registration document so I was a bit in the dark about whether I would get one or not (yes I know I should have phoned to check!!). Anyway, I did get a vote.

I haven't made up my mind what I will vote for yet, because I need to read over all the information. thoroughly. And I know they are trying to introduce this for the 'right' reasons, I just think that it is going to cause so many more problems and perhaps a better way would be to look into alternative means of transport.

Inner and outer cordons are proposed and I can't help thinking that between Monday to Friday I am going to feel imprisoned within the cordon I live and work in. I can't imagine how those who will have to cross cordons to get to work will feel. Even the terminology sounds horrendous, "crossing cordons". To know that my number plate is going to be recorded all over the city does not please me. I have nothing to hide but if I travel anywhere, if charges are introduced, I will be even more sure that big brother is watching me because he will be.

I believe in a cleaner planet and I believe that we should be fighting congestion. I'm just not sure 'they' are going about it the right way. There is something intrinsically wrong with all this that makes me feel extremely uneasy and unhappy with the city in which I live.
Red Writer on 02.07.05 @ 05:50 PM gmt [link]


Sunday, February 6th

Watching paint dry...


Sounds a very boring title for what has been a really good three days. It's the first time I've been in the studios for three full days in a row. To say I am tired is an understatement. To say I have made progress is a bit of wishful thinking but I have hopefully learned a lot.

Yesterday, I was happy with one of the paintings I did. This morning I was happy with a really quick painting I did but it all seemed to go wrong when I started a final, larger piece. I don't know if it was the change of scale, the change of model or the advice I got whilst beginning my composition (I was going to zoom in on the model but was persuaded to include more of the surrounding detail). It didn't hold together, was far too 'bitty' and I should have started again but kept working on it. The tutor came along and made a few major changes and I got lost a bit after that. I didn't mind his advice but I really wish I'd been more assertive and stuck to the first large scale portrait I was going to do.

Despite all that it was a really good weekend and I am looking forward to the next one. Just being in the studios for three days in a row is such a novelty. It was great.
Red Writer on 02.06.05 @ 05:27 PM gmt [link]


Wednesday, February 2nd

Worrysome webs we weave



I often read the Laughing Knees blog and so I was a little worried and upset by the most recent post and the comments that were posted to it. It made me think differently about the web and the online communities we create.

Are they a good thing?
Do they put more pressure on peoples lives than is necessary?
How can we tell if we offend our readers if they do not always respond?
Does it matter that some people (ostensibly strangers) may be offended by our writing and our opinions?
Do they really become addictive or more 'real' to some than engaging in face to face communication?
Or are they a god send to those who are, either unable (for whatever reason) to get out, or able to communicate with others freely?
Should those who write really feel pressurised to continue for people they do not know?
Red Writer on 02.02.05 @ 03:25 PM gmt [more..]


I saw the sun


The sun was shining this morning.........

"Today is the pagan festival of Imbolc as well as being the Christian festival of Candlemas. It is the first Quarter day - half way between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. Traditionally, if the sun shines today, winter is over, but if the sun is behind cloud, winter is still to come - a legend that has given rise to Groundhog Day."

Definitely still a touch of groundhogs in my day though - how about yours?
Red Writer on 02.02.05 @ 08:45 AM gmt [link]


Tuesday, February 1st

Stressed



Stress levels peaking. Awake early - SO had early flight. Up, and dressed and preparing a board by 07:30 for oil class tonight. Coffee. Lots of Coffee. Have big deadline to make today at work. It's unlikely that I will meet it because of meetings and have to dash to college at lunchtime to buy beeswax or oil paste, then go home sand board, apply second primer coat, dash back to work. Also have about ten separate things to do for the deadline and the previous ten have taken me a week. Then home, feed SYD and SED then get to class and do enormous still life which I'm really nervous about. I'm a nervous wreck this morning (can you tell yet?). Coffee made mouth very active. Talked (well, ran through all things I have to do today and reminded them of all the things they have to do out loud to try to get it straight in my head) to SYD and SED all the way to school in the car (normally I'm quiet). I feel sick. Shouldn't have had the coffee. Can't get my head round this data to make any sense of it. Then there are the phone calls I have to make. Oh God, not a nice week. Last night a bulb smashed. No, it exploded and then SO dropped the glass shade and it smashed into about 1000 pieces on the floor. It really isn't a good week. Coffee is a bad thing first thing in the morning. Staff just phoned in sick. Really not a good day. Have to phone school to sort out a problem. Breathe. Breathe in, breathe out. Deep breaths. No hyperventilating. Breathe slowly.................
Red Writer on 02.01.05 @ 08:44 AM gmt [more..]