Wednesday, February 7, 2007

It's a Bad Day So Far

In Progress.

Well, the last post obviously went over like a lead balloon. Okay, I'll move on.

Except I am in a really bad mood so far today. Our furnace stopped working last night and Doug realized it when he got up at 4am to go down to the city. So I had to get up unbearably early to wait for the repairman. Luckily he was able to fix it and now I am waiting for the house to warm up (it's up to 57, woo-hoo!) and for there to be enough hot water for a shower. The kids were incredibly dense this morning, and I am still irritated, PLUS I feel guilty about sending them off to school after having yelled at each of them for one reason or another. And for the third day in a row I fell into the snowbank while trying to get over it to get to the hen house. That wouldn't be so bad except that I was carrying a bucket of water, which of course spilled and I had to go back to the house and fill it again. My hands were painfully cold after try to loosen up the frozen wood shavings on the floor of the hen house, with a shovel (in case you wondered, fleece lined gloves do not matter when a metal shovel has been outside all night).

But I have a lot of work to do today so I will hibernate and hopefully my mood will improve. Though chances are good that a loaded paint brush will hit the floor, or a freshly painted panel will fall off the easel. It feels like it might be that kind of day.

11 comments:

Chris Rywalt said...

I have no embarrassing art stories to tell, unless not having any art stories is embarrassing in and of itself. So I couldn't really comment yesterday.

However, I can commiserate with your mood today. Yesterday I had a breakthrough: I finally mixed a color I've been looking for for years. But that was after messing up my current painting, then wiping it down and repainting the screwed up part, and while waiting for that to dry. So I quickly put up some canvas paper to use my great new color and created a very nice little painting. Then, still having the color, I put up another sheet of canvas paper to do some more with it.

The second painting totally sucked. Partway through working on it the canvas paper fell off the board I'd stuck it to and I tried to continue it as it stuck to my brush, flapped, shifted, and otherwise danced. The end result is possibly the worst thing I've painted since I was six.

Tracy Helgeson said...

Chris, I expected to at least get your "my piece was hanging next to a mentally disabled kid's art in a juried show" story again:)

Today's story makes up for that lapse. Anytime there is flapping in the studio there should be embarrassment.

Are you going to put the first painting up on your blog?

Chris Rywalt said...

Ho ho ho. Your wit has overwhelmed me once again.

I'll probably put the good painting up after it's completely done. I have to wait for the paint to dry to add some small details. I might even put up the bad painting, but I'm thinking my blog might have seen enough bad art for a while.

Tracy Helgeson said...

Ho ho ho. Your wit has overwhelmed me once again.

My day is looking up!

Stacey Peterson said...

I hate days like that - I always end up having some sort of tantrum before I start to feel better (very mature).

Tracy Helgeson said...

Stacy, I am with you on that. I usually throw something. Not there yet today, but the day is young.

Anonymous said...

Yes I didn't have any embarassing art stories either, I don't think I have been doing art long enough yet. When I get one you will be the first to know!

Tracy Helgeson said...

Ok Lauren, it's a deal. Although I hope you never have any.

Peter Yesis said...

Hang in there Tracy! These are the days that balance out the gift days. You remember...days when you can do no wrong, days when the kids say something you treasure for a life time, days when a gallery asks for more work because all of your paintings have sold, days when the chickens lay eggs with double yolks. We need to balance those days out. So hang in there and paint something sunny!

Ed Maskevich said...

Embarassing art story: I had an abstract painting in a group exhibit in the San Jose (CA) Museum of Art. Across the bacl, in large letters, was the phrase, "This Side UP!" They still managed to hang it upside down. Winter, don't you love it. My snowblower finally died so now I get to shovel the drive (all 175 feet of it) by hand.

Tracy Helgeson said...

Thanks Peter, You are right. The good days must be balanced out by the crappy, stupid ones in order to have full appreciation.

Ed, wow, you'd think that the organizers of a show of abstracts would be a bit more diligent when hanging the work. Hope you got them to change it around.

We have taken a hands off approach to shoveling thus far. Our son has to do the sidewalk once in awhile, but normally our 4 wheel drive vehicles get through the driveway pretty well:)