Melissa’s blog

This is an commission image I did for an upcoming show "The Baseball Reliquary", info on my website
It's a bit hard to see (I like "where's Waldo?" type things, subtle things) but to the right of "Minnesota Twins" is two baseballs side-by-side (get it?)

Twins

Wow what a weekend I had. Wrote a lot about it then my computer crashed. Oh well....

First I went to a bday party at David Coon's house. He's the guy that scans my art, and he turned me onto Nash Editions. He is the basis for the book/movie "Nudist on the late shift" - a true story about how Disney let him work nude after 10 p.m. He's that brilliant (programmer for their secret animation process and color engineer)...

I had a blast at this party. I arrived a bit early, and David's girlfriend (I didn't realize he had one so soon after his breakup with his wife) Sue was obviously very comfortable with setting things up, like she lived there. Well, I found out later she does, for a month or so at a time, in between data warehousing gigs!

I've decided to trash that last piece of art. I might try to revive it from an earlier stage...it's refreshing, actually, to do a bupkee.I DID however, do an awesome compilation tihs morning, with some of my favorite artists and a few new people like the Delgados. I had an file that was corrupted, so I just ordered a new one from Amazon for 99 cents. So glad I don't have to go to Itunes. Decided never to order an album again after getting a Rufus Wainright and not being thrilled with every song (so far there's only two that I like from the whole album). This new model for music distribution is cool. I never thought I'd say that.

Anyway I think I need a little break from art for a while. And I need to sell it for $$$$ - so sick of getting accolades but no sales. My neighbor wants one "free", even though I've already given her a limited framed edition for free. I guess it's time I stop being a chump.

The weather today is coolish. Had some cool dreams this morning that I don't remember. Been doing that a lot lately. Made my juice this morning, as well as a salad, first time I've done that in WAY too long. Sent an email to Rex Bruce last night explaining that it's cool if I don't get juried in, of course what I really want is a solo show.

The weekend was fun, I met a guy that I "forgot" I knew, Larry, for tea and a bite of food. I think I already spoke in a previous blog about how I thought I was calling the mold guy and got a lawyer instead. An environmental lawyer who fights big corporations that do toxic waste dumps, which is cool. That went ok (I'm don't have chemistry with him in *that way*, but I do really enjoy his company, we had a relaxed, fun time and joked a lot). I then went to an opening of Cindy & Keith's over at SOPA gallery, coinciding with the Pasadena artwalk. I bumped into Diane - she and her pals wanted to go listen to live jazz. I bumped into Joseph De Mario there, which was a bit awkward. I said "hey lets let bygones be bygones, ok?" He replied "I don't hold grudges." When I told Cindy that she couldn't stop laughing. Yeah. After telling me the only reason he doesn't get attention for his art and I do is "he doesn't have a pussy." The fact that he, after all this time, still thinks I'm in the wrong, is very revealing. Can't even own up to his part in that (and yes, I gave him plenty of opportunity to apologize, and instead I got vituperous, nasty emails and voicemails). I guess you can't always win, although burning people in the art world is not my desire or intention. The more you're in the art world, the smaller it gets.

Anyhoo Sunday was fun, although I was dead tired when the day was done. Didn't get home til' late. This Sunday is a party over at Diana's for Michael Arata. Have a few more pieces for Diana too. She's going to have quite a few by the time we're done. Now I just need by neighbor to buy one!

It was, it was. I lost a very important memento, the cabinet card of my great-grandfather's sculpture that was in the agricultural building of the 1893 world's fair (see below). I was walking on a windy day to my therapists office and it must have flipped in the wind and fell out of the bag I was carrying it in. I know what happened...I saw a young man stop, put his hands in his pockets while smiling at me. When he first caught my eye I saw his eyes look up, then follow something down to the ground. He knew he wanted it and saw the opportunity. He got it.

It's too bad a lot of people steal. He'll never know how important this is to me. At least I have a scanned copy of it.
It could be worse. But the loss is tremendous, but I'm his great-granddaughter, and I'm also an artist, like he was. It meant a lot for that reason.

Great_grandpa

I've been suffering with a heat wave that hit SoCal very hard, putting the temp in the valley over 107 for two days in a row. Been hard to sleep.

I'm in Diana Zlotnick's newsletter three times in a row! She wrote the following:

I went to see the "two berlins" exhibition at LACMA yesterday the 29th. It was a great day.

I picked up Diane Y, my new friend, at her house in Play Del Ray. I love that area, it's so different than most areas in SoCal. She's great with directions, so I didn't need to resort to the GPS. We went to the museum using side streets, down Fairfax to Wilshire. I wore my new shoes to help with fatigue, which didn't work as good as I hoped.

Anyways we went to see the exhibit. It was uneven, I thought, in terms of quality, but it was nevertheless fascinating, and very, very dark. Until...

We turned a corner and smelled a sickly sweet chocolate smell. Turns out it was a work by Dieter Roth "Chocolate Lion Tower" - a "work that gradually transforms from something pleasant into something spoiled." Done in Hamburg from 1969 to 1993. Wood lions held chocolate centers.

Near the work was a painting by "Blinky Palermo" aka Peter Schwarze (later became Peter Heisterkamp after being adopted). This painting was on cotton backed with muslin from the Froehlich Collection in Stuttgart. The painting "Untitled" from 1967 consisted of two colors, a dark blue on top and a light blue on bottom.

Well, I guess the chocolate smell intrigued the little beasties (insects). Diane noticed it first! About two feet up from the bottom of the painting, toward the left in the dark blue part of the painting - about two dozen insect eggs!!!

Hmmm...DON'T THINK THE ARTIST WOULD BE TOO HAPPY ABOUT THAT!!!

We reported it to the guard, who said she already notified management. Guess that's what you get for putting food too close to fabric!!!

It would have been funner had the painting been about eggs...

We met a man from Germany there and talked about how the treaty of  Versailles created the conditions that led to the possibility of a Hitler happening. We told him about the exhibition, he didn't realize it was going on when he actually had an opportunity to see it (thought it started in April). So I'm glad he'll have the opportunity to share this with his kids.

We then ate in an Ethopian restaurant that featured vegan food! It was incredible. Such a nice day!

We So Cal people LOVE LOVE LOVE the rain. It just doesn't happen often enough! And when it stops, the weather has that "Paris" feel this time of year (I've never been, sigh).

I've grown to accept all the synchronicity, which keeps happening. It's magic, and I love it. I started watching the Matrix last night, again. Wow. I remember working on the 7th floor (or something around there) and seeing them "flying around" on the lattices while making the film. The lattices were quite high and extensive. What an inventive film, so well thought through.

To be continued, I need to exercise and drink tea!