harmonious, typedraw, photofx

Duplex! played the first of three shows at the cultch tonight, and I love a show that starts at 7 and ends at 8 – much more civilized! It just goes to show you, I love rock’n'roll, but the hours don’t really suit me.

It’s odd to say that I’m finally feeling more comfortable with the songs even though we’ve been together for something like 6 years, but we seem to do an annual show and that’s it, and then I end up having to clear out chord changes to make room for other mundane things like, don’t forget to pack the kids’ lunch! It seems for every show I’m having to relearn them. Not to mention I’m not playing much bass guitar these days, and for most of the practices the dominant feeling is “ow! ow!” because my fingers are hurting from all that walking around after no exercise. It makes such a difference to feel confident though, you end up having a much better time. I don’t think Justin was feeling quite as happy as me, I had to elbow him in the ribs to shake him out of it. By Sunday we’ll be rockin’.

I took advantage of the poor lighting to play around with my new toy, the Vistaquest 1015 keychain camera in all its one megapixel glory (hey, they’re cheaper on ebay! and don’t you love the pack of smokes size reference?). Of course it was gorgeous out the day I bought it, which was followed by days of unending sunshine, and then it clouded over the minute I pulled it out of its package. I haven’t had great results with those looming clouds sucking up the light, and even less still in a darkly lit theatre. But it was my first day out with it, and I absolutely love it – I’m hereby dedicating my whole life to toy camera photography.

Today was one of those fall days when the sky is dark and heavy; there was such a strong wind that I was overcome with that feeling that the whole world was wild, and no amount of will or wishing on my part would impose any other order on it. I love days like this. I haven’t been out of the house much in the past two days, looking after my flu stricken family – a four year old with a fever has a stronger grip on you than you could ever imagine.

We’re not entirely out of the woods – her flu started sometime in the middle of Tuesday night, but 2 and half days later she suddenly got up from the couch and started bossing me around again, demanding I read her books and putting her feet in my face as I was doing so. Her return to herself seemed almost overly dramatic. Of course I’m going to keep an eye on her, or rather, an ear out for any rattling breaths or difficulty breathing, but part of me can’t help feeling a little pissed off at all the hoopla that had me awake at 4 a.m. terrified that my daughter was going to die. She was inseparable from a friend at Halloween who was just diagnosed with H1N1, and if that was it, well, it certainly wasn’t pleasant for her, but it wasn’t the worst flu she’s had.

I did manage to get out of the house long enough to play another game where our forwards were heavily under attack, this time from the first place team who had not lost a game yet – I guess they didn’t take too kindly to the idea of losing. Our “A line” in particular (a trio hot both on and off the ice – there, Jacinthe, you can’t complain that I never mention you in my blog) was subjected to all kinds of hits and slashes and crosschecks, and I can’t help but wonder why we’re leading in penalty minutes (40 minutes’ worth in 9 games, 12 of them mine) when it feels like we’re getting bullied every game, seriously. Pretty much all of my penalties have been in retaliation for dirty plays like punches or crosschecks from behind the second the puck goes in and the whistle has gone. But probably the real reason is this (because I’ve noticed it too) – we are averaging about four goals a game, we’re outshooting them nearly three to one, they can’t get past our forwards in the neutral zone, (knock on wood!), and yes, it sounds like I’m bragging a bit, but the truth is I am in awe of how good our team has suddenly become, and its more fun than you can imagine to be a part of it.

my pretty guitar - photo by Christine

Last weekend Onward Voyageur was in the studio, and I tried blogging and recording at the same time:

Today is our last day in the studio, where we are trying hard to record 8 songs in 3 days. We are going to finish up all the backups (we have 4 people singing on all the songs, so after getting good beds this is probably the biggest part) plus overdub some keyboards, banjo and trumpet.

One of our biggest wishes would be to have free time to experiment (or affordable time? or our own studio?) but there are always budget, time and babysitting constraints. So, I’ve been mucking around a bit because I want to learn to record us, and the great thing about digital is I can actually take these studio tracks and play around with them on my own computer. After this stint we’re going to try and record one song on our own in the jam space.

11:45 We’ve just finished all the vocals for Myth of Broken Wrist, and Leslie is singing backups for Fall in the Spring. This is the first time in the studio for Leslie, and we’re all getting turns holding Baby Iris, the amazing studio baby.

11:54 Finished Fall in the Spring – pretty quick,eh? We’d actually only had Leslie’s parts to finish up from yesterday. Next up, Landmine. We’ve appointed Joyita supreme dictator of backups, she has final say on all parts, if they’re up to scratch or not. This is what you get for being such a great backup vocalist. Christine always nails her too although she would probably argue that with me.

12:47 Finished Landmine and we’re almost done Eye to the Ground. Joyita always goes last as her voice is “the blender”. This is the song I’d really like to make a video for so we have to get this one right!

12:51 Joyita the one take wonder.

12:54 Christine’s up for Dead & Buried. Sometimes when we really examine our harmonies closely we realize someone is singing the same part as someone else, so its always up to Joyita to come up with the new harmony on the spot.

1:22 Good thing I only have to sing one line (although quite a number of times) cause I got Leisurely Collapse in one take!

1:28 Joyita is jumping up and down.

2:19 What’s up with Starbucks? Their coffee sucks.

2:25 A lot of bands say they will fix it in the mix, with us it’s, we just won’t have it in the mix at all.

3:15 Eve on the clave, Carrie on banjo and JP on trumpet!

Ok, I got a little tired of trying to do two things at the same time so that last line pretty much sums up the rest of the day. Last night we had a listening party and I am SO SO happy with the rough mixes! Can’t wait to mix it.

I’m still soon-to-be-homeless, but it was really great how a few people quickly jumped to my defense (hi Scott), and maybe it illustrates that the city does have some feelings about homelessness or, at the very least, dislikes being accused of causing it. But I was in error thinking it was their fault, and so I’m sorry for shaking my fist at you, Gregor (but I’ll still face off with you on the ice).

It would have been nice if someone could have at least told us what was happening, since we’re the ones to be the most affected by it.

I did find these things interesting:
a) that wordpress seo plugin really works, and
b) when the City Caucus blog wrote about this they mentioned me as being a single mother, and while not expressly saying it, gave me the impression “someone give this poor woman a job”. This info was quickly corrected, but it made me wonder – does it make it more interesting, more of a plight this way? Because the truth of the matter is, I mostly can’t afford Vancouver rents because I’ve chosen the lower-paying job that I absolutely love (illustration) over the higher paying design work. (Actually, I currently have a tiny part-time design & computer job which I rarely mention because, even though the work is mostly interesting and I couldn’t possibly praise my co-workers and bosses enough, it’s not really me.) So I can whine about the price of rent but I’m sure there are a lot of you out there that would say, its your own damn fault – we work 40 hours a week at jobs that don’t really mean anything to pay for our rent, so quit your bitching. Does a mother of two with a great husband (who does his share of house-cleaning) and a million resources to fall back on make less of a story, or a better one?

July 21st

Finished “The Little Prince” for Yeowon, and now working on “Let’s Be Friends!”

April 16

Doing some illustration for Hasbro/Sesame Street, and upcoming is another book for Yeowon Media in Korea.

The Onward Voyageur debut cd is being pressed as we speak!

and that Valentine’s book for Simon & Schuster? Its coming out Valentine’s 2011…..

Nov 10th

I’m working on a board book for Simon & Schuster, hopefully out around Valentine’s!

Aug 2

I’m being represented by Juna at the upcoming Printsource exhibition in New York, and I’ve added a textiles page.

July 11

The kokeshi show of which I am a part is now on at the Japanese American National Museum in LA.

February 24

I’m very pleased to be represented by Juna Studio, New York.

Working on my second book for Rubicon this year,

and thank you to BLOG’ARTE for the mention!

January 31 2009

A few more blogs that were nice enough to include me :

Funky Finds
The Seasonal Cottage

Thanks so much for the mentions!

January 21

Working on another book for Rubicon Publishing.

January 8 2009

The new site is finally online! Its taken me most of my holidays to get it done. In the meantime, I’ve been working on a collection for Image Zoo, and I just finished another picture book!

June 07

Thanks to Cool mom picks for the write up!

I’m working on a series of greeting cards for Camden Graphics (American Greetings).

May 14th

Some websites I’ve cropped up on lately:
lostate minor
space.chinavisual.com
illustare
jieni
thing of beauty

Jan 25

We finally have some songs up on our myspace page , check ‘em out!

Dec 22nd

Currently working on a picturebook for Yeowon Media in Korea. You can visit their website here.

October 24th

I’m taking part in this show at Subtext, in celebration of Bunka-no-hi (a Japanese national
holiday promoting culture, the arts, and academic
endeavor), curated by Christina Conway

August 31st

A small blurb on Juxtapoz

August 30th

Some new oil pastel work up in my portfolio

August 22nd

Thanks so much to the folks at Unbound for the love! : )

August 1st

Just finished working on the spring 2008 designs for Robeez shoes and now I’m doing some christmas lights for Neon King.

June 19 2007

I’ve been working on a little flash book of illustration which you can see here. Its still a work in progress, which means it will stop working once you reach the end.

Apr 26 2007

I played bass on one song (“Sustain”) on the new Waterboys album which is out now. He talks about the recording if you feel like reading it.

Mar 17 2007

I’ve been working like a dog and that’s why there’s been no news. Another nice little mention in the Alpha Mom blog (thank you!). I’m still into baby blue and brown too.

Sep 22 2006

A very nice mention in the decor8 blog, thank you!

Sep 16 2006

I’m drawing some Christmas lights for Neon King.

Aug 27 2006

I get to be a part of Crumble Crackle Burn,a book released by HOW Design and curated by Von Glitschka, where various illustrators are assigned a texture to incorporate into their work.

Set Sail in a giant balloon.

In my ultimate geekdom, I have to write about my new set of Caran D’ache neopastels because I’m an happy, happy camper. Aren’t they beautiful? Its kind of odd that I was getting some illustration work without fully understanding my medium (lucky for me, but makes me think that for the few projects I’ve already done, I now could do better- won’t it always be like that, to a certain degree?) but I finally think, now I’m getting somewhere! and it all has to do with having the right pastels. From using the neopastels I’ve discovered that the Senneliers and Holbeins I was using were just too soft for me to manage. These have great colours, and are soft enough to blend well and yet not so soft that I can’t get any detail. I love the tin box too because I can tote them to and from my studio when my kids demand that I do some work from home. The only downside is I can’t find them in Canada, so I’m going to have to convince my local art store to carry them for me. Ok, that’s the end of the advertising, I swear.

Here is my first little picture:

ooo, my new moleskine cahier from paperfarrago on etsy came in the mail. Its good timing too because I’m in a crazed drawing mood these days and my sketchbook is almost full. Its not as though I have nothing else to draw in, having a sketchbook as well as an art supply addiction, but one down means I get to add another.

My son is a bit of a Calvin & Hobbes fanatic, and at the tender age of nearly 7 has gone through the 3 anthologies we had in the house. We went to the two bookstores within walking distance only to find they were sold out. All the copies at the library were checked out. They did fortunately have Fantagraphics’ excellent Peanuts collection, which I checked out for him in spite of his unwavering belief that he wouldn’t enjoy it as much as Calvin & Hobbes. Telling a 7 year old that the Bill Watterston has everything to owe to Charles Schulz didn’t mean anything to him, but of course he absolutely loves it. He also has a fondness for sharing every second strip with me which started coming out in my drawings. I can’t help it, but I’ll share it.