resin painting

Here's what I've learned so far:

 Castin Craft, which is $82/gallon and the cheapest and almost only thing they had at the best art supply within an hour of my house - is NOT what you want for coating a painting.  You want epoxy.  If you do use castin craft - the catalyst instructions are vague.  think 1% catalyst in the solution.  

Work smaller so you can afford the epoxy.  (I'm doing 18" square - next time I'll do 6".)

Wear gloves even if you were just looking at it for a second and didn't think it would get on you.

Disposable gloves.  Maybe doubled up.  Or just use and throw out the blue kitchen kind.  

If you do it in the basement, even if you close the vents upstairs and open all the windows, it will still stink up the house and make you worry that you're killing the kids.

Making a frame of tape around the edge of the painting so that resin doesn't pour off is a bad idea because it will fall toward the surface of the resin like a magnet.  I think I'll make a wood frame.  I bought cradled boards.  I should have just turned them upside down.  ...  I should have used them upside down.  ...ugh.  next time.  

My workspace is a sticky disaster.  (We can''t exercise because it's the same space.)  This is the messiest medium I've ever used because it's so toxic and takes so long to dry.  And because it poured off the sides of the paintings in puddles that spread on the shower curtain I laid down.  I don't think the floor is level in the basement.  Next time I would use a level for where I laid the substrate.  

I used more catalyst with the second pour so it should be OK to work on tomorrow morning.  I should have turned them upside down.  They're a wreck now.  The tape pulled up most of the edges like gelatin.  

nutrient dense little debbie brownies

in a mortar and pestle:

one medjool date

four walnuts

drizzle of flaxseed oil

1/8 tsp vanilla

1 T of cocoa powder

mash, then form into familiar looking rectangle.  

I try not to discuss diet beyond recipes because it's so very boring, BUT - feel free to skip ahead - a week ago I told myself I was ready to fast.  ( I even put vinegar on my nipples to help Gracie wean but it didn't dissuade her for a moment.)  I did the master cleanse for about 6 hours....  I decided, from the vantage point of eating nothing, that I would add in the diet of a raw foodist, fruits, vegetables, some seeds and nuts, and also eat some cooked meat and some cooked vegetables and beans (I researched the raw meat diet, but couldn't bring myself to do it.)  I feel great.  Watermelon is my new favorite food.  I also like to have a smoothie of 

1/2 cup plain fat free yogurt

drizzle of flaxseed oil

large handful of BABY spinach ( must be baby or tastes like ass)

one mango

for breakfast.

I am in the middle of some paintings.  I've finally put together an installation I can live with that uses the photo that's already in the exhibition catalogue (that I no longer want to show.)  I bought 18x18 cradled boards, a little paint and a gallon of resin.  The resin was 80 bucks.  I have been obsessed with the idea of visible layers for years and wax was not expressing that the way I'd hoped.  I spent four times as much at the art supply store as I could afford; my dad was generous enough to pre-purchase a painting to help me out with this.  While I was at the store, I was wearing my painting overalls, it was hot and I smelled bad, Charlotte kept hounding me to buy her crap, and I blabbed to the clerk that I had a new series to paint for a faculty show in ten days.  I wished I'd kept my mouth shut.  I feel so much pressure to do a good job because I'm supposed to be a professional, but I'm out of practice.  I had a bit of a panic attack this weekend about this.  Feeling better now.  Hope the resin works out.

I took the girls to the Art Institute Friday on the train.  This is an ambitious undertaking and I felt very angry when, after taking three children on a long train ride, walking them a mile to the museum, and waiting in line for nearly an hour to get in first, the staff demon told me she could not check my backpack, filled with a carefully planned raw picnic.  Only hermetically sealed foods, like granola bars, could be checked.  Fresh, whole food in tupperware, in a backpack, in the bag check room, compromises the integrity of the conservation of the art.  I stabbed her with my eyeballs as she spoke down to me, as though I knew nothing of art and didn't care to.  

Free day is never worth it.

We had our picnic early in Millenium Park, where the girls love the Crown Fountain, along with every other wet kid.  They loved the bridge from the park to the third floor of the new modern wing, where, by this time, the museum was a complete madhouse.  The saving grace was the kids' area on the first floor.  They loved the kids' library, where we met our friends and played for at least an hour, and I stumbled across a teacher's resource library, where I got free annual membership to the museum because I could prove I'm an art teacher.  That's $80!  I'll be back.  

Sometime I would like to stay as a family at the hostel downtown and visit the sights, go to the beach, and pretend like we're backpackers.  I pretended that a little bit on Friday.

The girls walked in the Memorial Day parade, today.   It was cold and started raining toward the end, but still fun.  Charlotte tied a laundry basket to the porch steps, with a rope and her shirt sleeves, and played basketball.  I was delighted with her ingenuity.  

My favorite painter is Hung Liu.   I am leaning on her style from several years ago a bit to get through this series fast.  ... mine will be a lot different ...also not as good.

This is one of her "bastard paintings," which is a print from her collection, covered in resin, then painted on.   

I got my hair done while Chris took the girls to a play last week (High School Musical.)  (Scheduling woops, thanks Chris.)  But I found my hair lady!  She does a great job and we have things in common.  She has a nice arm tattoo and I told her about wanting a half sleeve for years but my husband won't let me.   I hated the way that sounded so I came home and got into an argument with Chris.  He'll "let" me, he just won't like it.  Doesn't matter anyway.  We don't have any money.

I went out with Wendy Saturday night and had a good time with a group of people I didn't know.  I always feel better when I leave the house.  (I think moving to an isolated farm would be a mistake.)  

A Wind in the Door

"Yes. Charles Wallace's drive of dragons was a single creature... She had the feeling that she never saw all of it at once, and which of all the eyes could she meet? merry eyes, wise eyes, ferocious eyes, kitten eyes, dragon eyes, opening and closing... And wings in constant motion, covering and uncovering the eyes. When the wings were spread out they had a span of at least ten feet, and when they were all folded in, the creature resembled a misty, feathery sphere. Little spurts of flame and smoke spouted up between the wings..."  Madeleine L"Engle

Today was Earth Day.  We went to our history club; I was the volunteer parent today and Gracie was an angel.  She is speaking in almost sentences and it tickles me.  I talked to her on the phone the other day and I couldn't believe it was her.  

I began reading the girls An Inconvenient Truth - the kids' version.  

I rode my bike to work for the first time this year.  It felt good and takes the same amount of time as driving and parking.  Nothing says, "I'm cool" like pulling into a gaggle of waiting teenagers, on a cheap bike with a baby seat.

made a really good salad today:

one large bunch of kale, massaged with 1/2 tsp sea salt

mush in one ripe avocado

squeeze on half a fresh lemon

toss in a handful of kalamata olives cut in halves

and one jarred roasted red pepper, diced

artichoke hearts would have been good in there, too

Yesterday - also good:

rinse and boil 1 cup quinoa (2 cups water)

cool and fluff

drizzle flax and extra virgin olive oils

squeezed half a lime (lemon would be good)

handful of craisins

handful of pine nuts

(diced cucumber would have been good too if it was going to be eaten right away)

water slide bliss

Friday night we went out for Sarah's birthday.

After Eleanor's first soccer game, we had lunch at mom's.



Saturday the girls had a pool party with girl scouts. Chris watched Gracie and I had a great time swimming with the girls. I felt such bliss going through the dark water slide tube that runs outside and then back into the building. black and silent and slipping.

Afterwards we went to Melissa's party. She hired a DJ and Tania's son, who is Eleanor's age, danced with social oblivion and the passion of a native ...and rhythm of a white boy, like he always does- and you just can't teach that. I love his spirit. Eleanor said he was making a fool of himself and I felt sorry that she didn't posses the joy that he does. I thought about enrolling them in hip hop to build their self confidence. Fear of dancing is such a loss.

On Sunday, Chris' friend Nick came over. I haven't seen him in several years because he's been living in Asia. He and Chris took the girls to Chuck E Cheese while I went to Anna's wedding shower.

Sunday night I was short of breath in a panic - not preconceived, just a sudden sense of being overwhelmed - that another week was about to begin and that I was not prepared and would fail again. So I ate a box of M&M ice-cream sandwiches.

This morning I did dishes. Margaret came over and watched the kids while I was at work. The girls are all lined up on two mattresses now, sleeping.

today was lovely

I went out back to dump some kitchen scraps behind the garage at 9, bent down to grab a weed, and didn't stop weeding till almost noon. That's one way to get out of dishes. I finished the whole bed, which had dense roots of some kind of groundcover from when I totally ignored the area last year. This also included a small tree that I am proud of removing with only a spade. I might even take a picture of it tomorrow, I am so pleased with myself for getting it out after 30 minutes. Tomorrow: we plant corn! Three mounds of three sisters for my three daughters.

We met friends at the park for a few hours and had a wonderful, sunny time. On the way to work, we swung by Farm and Fleet and Menard's, AND the bank and we are all set for some mad gardening tomorrow.

Also in queue for tomorrow, cleaning out the car. Empty pizza box, 240 lbs of manure, 30 lbs of bird seed, 60 ft of chicken wire, 6 cu ft of peat moss, the detritus of at least 3 fast food meals for four, used tupperware, half eaten apples, 2 dozen my little ponies and their hairbrushes, several naked cabbage patch dolls, a few jackets, a trash bag of clothes and toys put into the trunk before Christmas for the thrift store but now without the bag, and hopefully 2 lost library books.