Century Blvd. @ Twighlight

Here's Century Blvd. at twighlight.
I used my cell phone and achieved this very spontaneous image.
The mood it captured seems very "LA city", so I felt it was worthy of
a blog post.

Six Surprising Things About Myself.

TAGGED!
I have been tagged by Green Kitchen. This is how the Tag Game works:
(The word "weird" has been replaced by the word "surprising". See Green Kitchen for futher explanation and link to the orginal "weird" version if you are interested.)

Each player of this game starts with "6 surprising things about you". Each person who gets tagged needs to write a blog post of their own with 6 surprising things as well as clearly stating this rule. After you state your 6 surprising things, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you're tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog for information as to what it means.

So, if you're interested in knowing 6 Surprising things about me, read on.



1. Boba Milk Tea. I love and I am addicted to Boba Milk Tea. This surprises me, so this is why I put it at #1. It has only been about 2 years that I tried Boba Milk Tea. Previous to ever trying it, I could not understand the whole boba tapioca black ball concept. They looked like giant rabbit pellets or some other caged animal droppings. I swore I would never taste it or try it or like it. Then, one day a good friend at work said how much she liked Boba. The day finally came when I was with her and I tried it. I have been addicted ever since.


2. Love Is... I love Love Is... I don't know why. There is a certain je ne sais quoi
about these late 60's styled nude cartoon characters with big heads. I was addicted to Love Is... starting in 1997, when I was dating my husband. I collected Love Is... from the newspaper and saved them. I had about 2 years worth of them in a stack, then I finally threw them out because the newsprint was getting all yellow. One day in the LA Times they made an announcement that Love Is...would no longer be published everyday in their paper. I started to panic. I e-mailed the LA Times that a lot of days Love Is...is the only reason I buy the LA Times. Love Is...continues to be published daily which makes me happy. The other reason I was able to finally throw out my yellow copies of Love Is...is that I found a whole book of it during Valentine's Day one year. This photo shows the clippings I currently have on my fridge. OK, I'm still hanging onto a couple clippings, one from 2005 and one from 2006.



3. Color Diet. This is a chart that shows a diet which I invented and I tried during highschool. I wanted to immerse myself in color...live, breathe and eat color. I could only eat one color per day. I only lasted
about 5 days = 5 colors. Brown was the easiest to stick to. I had to be a little more creative with the other colors.Green Kitchen reminded me that I did this once.
It's one of those things I did.



4. The OC. Yes, I have to admit I am hooked on the TV series, The OC. I'm never hooked on a TV series. This surprises me. Each Thurs. night I am glued to the TV.
My husband can vouch for me. There are only 4 more episodes of The OC and I am not sure what I am going to do. I'll have a temporary void to fill. TV just won't be the same for me once it's off the air.

5. No Tattoos. Same as Green Kitchen. Ditto on that one. Another reason is I'm a whimp when it comes to pain. Tattoos seem so permanent. I could never get permanent make-up either. Styles change...then what if one day that permanent mascara is "so last year".



6. Vampires. It suprises me that I like vampire movies, but can't watch scary movies. I get nightmares from most scary movies so I avoid them. For some reason, I am fascinated by the whole vampire thing and immortality. Then, there is this thing with the cross to keep vampires away. Vampires can only come out at night or in complete darkness. My favorite vampire movie is the one
based on Anne Rice's novel, Interview with a Vampire. It's very creative how she thinks these characters through. Plus, I like that the movie setting is in SF. When, I was young around 8 or 9 years old, I stayed up past my bed time to watch Salem's Lot, a vampire movie based on Stephen King's novel. My cousin and I brought out her crosses to keep us safe at night while we watched. We hid under our sleeping bags for the scary parts. I think it had a huge effect on my tolerance for this type of scary/horror movie.


Since I am new to the whole blogger world and only know one other blogger to tag at the moment, I'm tagging: pink dot black out.

Bernard Quilt

Bernard Quilt for Baby!

In October 2006, my friend Dawn at work organized a quilt square project for our friend Lauri, who was getting ready to have her baby. She had her baby shower in December, so we needed to have our quilt squares done by the Thanksgiving Holiday to give to Andrea, the person who sewed it all together, enough time to complete it. Lauri had her baby boy, Eli on January 11th, 2007. The square I worked on is shown above.

Who did the Quilt Squares from top, left to right:
Dawn, Lisa , Colleen,
Allison, Sidsie, Leslie,
Christina, Andrea, Valerie
April Walker, Jean Keurten, Paige

Note on how we are connected to each other:
Dawn, Lisa, Jean and I all currently work at the same company.

Lauri works with us too, but is currently on maternity leave.
Leslie and April used to work at the same company we do.

Colleen is Lauri's husband's sister.
Allison, Sidsie, Christina and Andrea are friends of Paige and Lauri, A.K.A. "Pokergirls".
Another connection some of us share is Art Center College of Design, which includes: Lauri, Dawn, Lisa, April, Leslie, Paige and myself. Dawn, April and Leslie were roomates during their Art Center days. Kevin, Paige's husband, attended Art Center also. Kevin was a roomate with Dawn, April and Leslie while dating Paige...then they all become friends. Lauri met her husband Toby at Art Center.

It was a fun project to be part of.
Oh yeah, the Bernard Quilt is named after Lauri's dog, Bernard. Dawn gave us each a
packet of Bernard photos for inspiration, a mini stack of fabrics for the color pallette, quilt square dimensions and a deadline.

The quilt is currently hanging over baby Eli's crib.



Dawn did baby Bernard in space.

Lisa used felt for her square.

Colleen did Bernard as the Moon's face.

Alison's Bernard.


Sidsie's Bernard in a boat by moonlight.




Leslie's Bernard in striped collared shirt.


Christina's Yin and Yang Bernard


Andrea's Bernard(the quilt sewer).

Valerie's Bernard with Pink tutu in a flower garden.


April's Bernard.

Jean's Bernard with squishy ears that squeak when you pinch them.


Paige's Bernard in a bathtub shower with rubber duckie.

Hi Bernard!

Trains and Boys

Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz. Photo on left from Santa Cruz MAH website. Photo on right taken the day we saw the trains by one of the ladies helping with the train show. It was Saturday, December 29th, 2006.
There's me and Zach. Then, Max with his parents, my good long-time friends, Shanna and Mark in the background.

Max loves trains! Now that Zach has seen this, he will forever be in love with trains too.

What is it with boys and trains? Also, boys and trucks? It was fun to see how excited they were to see these toy trains set up.
It was such a great show to see. Lots of history in those toy trains! This show is already over, but they said they will do another one next year. Can the boys wait that long?

Life: Day at Marella's with Zach

This is my Life segment...which is the counterpart to Art in my title "Blog on Art and Life".

Today I went to Marella's for breakfast with Zach. Mmmm...


Here's Marella after we took the stroller out of the car. She found my rainbow fairy wings which I have in my trunk for just such an occasion. You never know when you will need a good pair of fairy wings.

Once we got the stroller out we went to the park. Zach spotted a little fire engine that was perfectly his size. Luckily, the other mom at the park let Zach play with it. Her son was playing with something else. The hard part was leaving the park. Screams, squirms and struggle!


Our other mission today was to get Marella's blog started on-line. To do this we took extra loops around the block with the stroller to get Zach to sleep. Thankfully Zach fell asleep long enough for us to complete her first blog post. Go to her blog for her version of today's events.






http://pinkdotblackout.blogspot.com




Here's Marella at the park. We both felt like we needed naps.

It was a good day!


Later, at night on my way back from the grocery store I did another drive-by of Randy's Donuts with my cell phone camera.
Lately, the lights on the giant donut have been turned off.
I'm not sure why. The giant donut is barely visible in this photo.
I remember it looking so cool when it is illuminated at night with spotlights giving the donut extreme underlighting. I think I might have a photo of it when the lights are on at night. It's somewhere.


I'll be happy when daylight savings kicks in again.
It gets dark so early right now. It's good for night photos
though.

Happy Martin Luther King day. It was nice to have an extra day off.

Randy's Donuts

Randy's Donuts
Originally uploaded by V G.

Another drive by...getting off the 405 Frwy.
Each time I see Randy's I am reminded that I want to do another painting of this marvelous Ode to donuts. They don't make 'em like they used to.
We'll see... I just love this crazy-wonderful architecture to death.
I have better photos of Randy's...but this is from today...driving by from the view I most often see it.

I (heart) Randy's Donuts.

Salted Pretzel

Salted Pretzel
Originally uploaded by V G.

This is one of my favorite paintings from the Circus Food paintings
that I did in this series in 2003 at Limbo Gallery in San Diego.
It is 12 x12" Acrylic on Mahogany panel. This one was sold.

I'm slowly digitally archiving my paintings. It's a process, but an interesting one. I'm hoping that by going backwards I will be able to go forwards again.

I just uploaded some paintings that I did a while ago (1997-2003) to http://www.coroflot.com/valeriegresham
Right now there are only 6 paintings up, but I'll continue to try to upload more as I go along.
Oh, and another webpage with Sandwich paintings.
http://www.valeriegresham.50megs.com/
This one has lots of pop-ups that are annoying, but is a free webpage.

I was thinking of starting another sandwich series for old times, which I might still do...but now I just remembered my latest fascination before I was sidetracked by having a baby. This
is Randy's Donuts, a local icon. Randy's is a donut shop with a qiant
donut on top of the building. It's vintage LA architecture. They don't make them like this anymore. I did a little 8 x 10" oil painting of it but it was just a teaser. I might have to revisit this idea. I think this is another reason why I was so fasincated over the Holidays by "Santa's Gingerbread Northpole House" with huge candycanes and gumdrops accenting the overall house. There's something about Giant Food Architecture. Hmmm?...

Right now my blog is about thinking outloud. Eventually I'm hoping
I will just have to produce something new that I will be equally as excited about as my last projects. We'll see.
It's like a New Year's resolution for 2007 in way.

Happy blogging!

Deery Lou by Sanrio

Deery Lou by Sanrio
Originally uploaded by V G.

Here is one of my all-time favorite characters:
Deery Lou, the Cheerful Fawn. I came across Deery Lou at Hello Kitty by Sanrio.
Deery Lou is dear to me.

Mushroom Button by Sanrio

Mushroom Button by Sanrio
Originally uploaded by V G.

This is for Michelle.
I know she loves mushrooms.
I'm a huge Deery-Lou, the Cheerful Fawn fan. Deery Lou is a Sanrio character.
This mushroom is from Deery lou's forest.
This button is classic. It makes me smile.

Tuscan Chicken Sandwich

Tuscan Chicken Sandwich
Originally uploaded by V G.

Tuscan Chicken Sandwich with a Fandango salad from Panera Bread in Westchester, CA.

You can see that I am psyching myself up for at least a couple more
sandwich paintings in the near future.

Painting or no painting...I enjoyed eating it.

Mmmm...

Bay Cities Sandwich

Bay Cities Sandwich
Originally uploaded by V G.

Here is my second post!
Wow, I'm really making headway on this blogging thing.
It's very cool. I must be in the pink cloud phase of blogging because it seems so exciting. I haven't had the day in and day out routine of blogging yet. I'll enjoy it while lasts.

Anyway, this was my lunch today and one of my all-time favorite still life painting subjects. I'm hoping that by posting this it will re-inspire me to do another series of sandwich paintings or begin a new series of some sort. For those of you who don't know I had a couple of sandwich shows which seemed to do very well in 2002-2003. One show was called "Out to Lunch" and another was called "Classic and Star Sandwiches". Most of my sandwich paintings were sold. I have a couple left, but the best ones are gone. I just might have to do a sandwich painting for old times. The paintings were done in oil and some in acrylic. This past 2 years has been about doing watercolors since being pregnant, and now about being a lactating mom to avoid using turpentine and paint thinners. Now I have reconnected with watercolor again and it seems only natural that I will inevitably have to do a sandwich painting in watercolor. Keep posted.

Also, this morning my friend Marella might start a blog...keep posted for that too.

Happy blogging!

"B is for Ball."

BisforBall
Originally uploaded by V G.

"B is for Ball". This is a woodcut looking synthetic rubber "cuts like butter" square, which is treated like a woodcut. The ink is rolled on with a roller then pressed onto the paper.
It is an annual Holiday tradition of my friend Meredith and myself.
See her link in Cool Links below. Each year we do a woodcut (or linoleum or synthetic rubber cut) with the exception of last year when my son was only about 3 months old. This year he is 15 months old.
"B is for Ball" is a momento of my son's first word after momma and dada. He influences my art just by being. This year Meredith did a gold "peace symbol" snowflake.

This is my first official blog post! I want to thank my friend Michelle for encouraging me to start a blog! Today, Jan. 6th is her first Blogiversary. Happy Blogiversary Michelle. See her link in Cool Links below. I hope to have a Blogiversary next year.

This being my first post I have no idea where my blogging will take me. Isn't that part of the beauty?

Check back to my blog Project Pink Suitcase for future posts.