My Birthday

Late yesterday I dropped off the commission at the shippers. They are "Craters and Freighters" and I learned about them at the artist's business workshop last year. They make big shipping crates and their shop was full of them, but I just needed a cardboard one. I sandwiched the painting between foam core and the shippers were to make it a cardboard box, line it with foam, and send it Fed-X today. Today I got nervous about not seeing it ready to go in it's box, so I went by to see it. They made a mistake. Instead of cardboard, they made it a plywood box! I guess the guy started making the plywood box before he realized it was supposed to be cardboard and so he just made it plywood. So, the painting went out today in a 4 inch thick plywood box surrounded by foam. Not only does it look indestructible, it looks precious, like it's worth 10 times as much. I was impressed.

There was room left for another study on the watercolor paper I stretched for the commission, so I did one of Fairfield,


This was worth a study, since the vegetation colors are tough. It looks colorful when you are there, but in the pictures I took it just looks grey. I tried shades of blue grey, maroon grey, ochre grey, but too much work and it just comes out plain grey.

Christelle took me to dinner at 13th Street,


This is the only restaurant that I know, besides the Mongolian Bar-B-Que, and it is in Hyde Park.

Then we went to Goodies down the street,


I had chocolate, Christelle had caramel corn, which is supposed to be great there. Goodies has an ice cream fountain, which was surprisingly busy, and just about any kind of candy or chocolate that you could want. Both Goodies and the 13th Street Grill are super busy in the Summer. The grill opens up all of their front windows so dining is outside and the patio along the side of Goodies is full of people drinking coffee and reading.

Christelle bought me the chocolate and I confessed that I had ice cream for lunch. Mom says that when she used to pick me up from kindergarten I would ask her something like, can I have cookies for lunch? Mom would say no and I would have a tantrum all the way home. Now I'm old and I can have cookies for lunch every day if I want, but I don't, except today for my birthday I had ice cream for lunch and no tantrums.

In between stopping at the shippers and dinner, I went by Twig's Cellar. Someone recommended it as a good art space for a First Thursday event. Turns out the owner is actually named Twig. It's a nice wine bar/restaurant downtown that steps down below the street. I spoke to Twig and she gave me her email so I can send her a link to my site. I told her I wanted to do a Fall series, maybe for September or October. Sometimes it feels weird to be looking that far ahead, but I figure if I keep acting as if I will be here and financially solvent, I will be.

It was a really nice day.