Gadjo and Rumi would like to wish you a happy new year...together

{J:} Hey, Gadjo and Rumi, what if you sit in a box and I take a photo of you wishing everyone a happy new year?

{J:} No, I mean in the same box.

{J:} But you have to look this way.

{J:} Really.
{J:} Oh come on, you guys.

[mumble] [grumble]

{Rumi:} Hey, did I see something over there?

{Rumi:} What wazzat?

{Gadjo:} How much longer do I have to sit here?

{Gadjo:} For god's sake, Rumi, pay attention!

{Rumi and Gadjo:} [mumble] like to wish you a happy [mumble]...whatever she said.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

India photos

No paintings to show...still feeling under the weather and haven't gotten back into the studio yet.

In the meantime, here are some random India photos.

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More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Last-minute recession-proof holiday gift guide

1. Consider the gift of a scarf! It's warm, comes in many coordinating colors*, can be worn in many different positions**, and best of all, not only is it free, you already have one!***

*Earth tones only. No fluorescents.

**Applies to cats only.

***Does not apply to Manx.

2. Food!* It's free**.

*Must like dry dog kibble.

**If you know where to steal it.

3. A cozy place* to nap!

*Must be able to reach The Husband's top closet shelf. Ability appears to be limited to young slim adults of feline species.

4. A cardboard box* and some brown packing paper. They'll provide hours of entertainment and they're free!**

*The guy in the brown clothes with dog cookies in his pocket delivers them from time to time.

**Previous purchase of art supplies required.

5. Dried catnip. It's free!*

*Must know where it grows in the summer and have a human put some in a jar for winter use.

6. A friend.* It's free!**

*Use caution when piling up more than one.

**Moderate risk of asphyxiation.

Have a warm, furry, purry holiday.*

*May apply to any holiday. Alternatively, you may experience a warm, furry, purry Solstice kind of time.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Photos from the weaving center...and Animolecules To Go

See, I knew I shouldn't have said anything about how mild and dry the winter was so far...because as soon as I did, it got cold and snowy. And you know how fun it is to walk dogs in the cold when you have the flu? Really fun.

I am actually just starting to feel better. Today was the best day so far in terms of symptoms.

A few pics from the weaving center in Hyderabad, India:

The Husband has gone back to India to try to get things happening for the biz over there. Before he left, I gave him a little box full of "animolecules to go." It was for his birthday (in November), but it turned out to be quite a project and took until last week to finish.

First I made six of them, each in his or her characteristic pose (we have seven animolecules total) out of Sculpey because I had some around. Then I realized I didn't want to have toxic fumes in the toaster oven, so I went back to the art store and got some kind of clay with god-knows-what-toxic-crap added that would self-harden in the air without any kiln/baking required but that wouldn't get crumbly when dry, the way pure clay would.

I have to say, the stuff lived up to its claim. However, what the package didn't tell you was that you have about ten minutes to make your piece before it starts to irrevocably harden. Only ten minutes per animolecule! So can I use that as my excuse as to why they're not perfect?

After they dried completely (within hours!) they became really strangely heavy, like lead weights. I wasn't expecting that either. And since they were for The Husband to carry on his travels, I just added a couple of pounds to his luggage. Oh well.

Then after drying, I had to use PVA size on them to seal them, since as there was at least some real clay, they would be porous. Waited a few days for that to dry, then did a layer of oil primer. Waited about a week for that to dry, then finally got to the painting part. (The sealing and priming was so that I could use oil paint on them.) That was quite fun, though it was hard to paint the whole figure without holding on to, say, little ears, and then how to paint the ears without touching any other part of the body?

They were painted in all earth colors except for Mojito's tennis ball, since that's not a natural object anyway. I have to say, doing the Gadjo figure was the most fun. So small! I actually had wanted all the figures to be even tinier, to make traveling with them easier, but Gadjo was definitely as small as I could make one. They're all correct relative sizes.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

All the White paintings together

Here's all eight White paintings together, in their final configuration. I actually wanted to display them on a white wall, for the ultimate minimalism...but I needed to be able to use pushpins to arrange them quickly and temporarily, so I used the outside of the studio wall.

You can get a feel here, I hope, for how nice and solid the panels themselves are, with their 2" museum profile of natural (sealed) wood. Each is 6" x 6", oil and cold wax.

They look great as the eight together, and they also look really great in pairs: 7 and 8, 5 and 6, etc. They could be displayed as pairs, or as all eight together. (In the group photos, look at the top two as a diptych, then the next two as a diptych, etc.) The reason they look good as small diptychs is that in each pair, one panel is more "busy" and the other more sedate. When all eight are shown together, they alternate perfectly throughout the arrangement.

There is purposely some degree of variation in the actual white "color" (brightness, warmth, coolness, etc.) from panel to panel, though not as much as it seems in the individual photos below; they were all taken at different times and in different places.

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Waah, I have the flu.

Which really makes me mad, since this year I decided to get a flu shot to prevent it. It's amazing how miserable a tiny little virus can make you feel. Everything hurts. Last night I had a fever so high that it was completely obvious my body was trying to cook it out.

They fit so well together, two happy, furry interlocking pieces.

The other day (before I got the flu), we went on a hike. Knock wood, and yeah, I know it's bad in terms of fire danger, but this so far is the most beautiful winter--warm and dry--in my 20 years here.

And now I know Mother Nature's gonna make me pay for having said that.

This photo, taken near the end of the hike, is for my blogging buddy Sonya Johnson, who takes the world's best sky photos.

These paintings are sold.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com