India Trip!

Hello World!

Just wanted to let you know that I am off to India today! I cannot wait to see my family!

I fly out today from Houston and go to New Delhi. I'll spend about a month in India. Planning on spending time with my family, eating and taking photos. I will be going to Bombay and Penang in Malaysia. So excited!

This afternoon, I go from Austin>Houston. Houston>Doha. Not looking forward to the Houston>Doha flight since that will be about 15 hours. Then a break and Doha>New Delhi. Yeah!

I'll keep you guys posted so watch this space!

Frost!

Frost in Austin!

Towering

Happy Friday everyone!

I am looking forward to the weekend. And to Thanksgiving right around the corner. 

I so love thanksgiving and cooking fabulous food for thanksgiving. I haven't decided what the menu is going to be but I have some standard dishes that I have to make every year. But I like to add a new dish every year.

 Any suggestions?

Almost Sold...

So I heard that this piece generated some interest. Rumors are that it almost sold. When I was at the EAST show, I saw at least 2 peeps taking a photo of it on their phone cameras.

But... almost sold is a cold distant road from sold. As an artist, it gives me validation. I can sell my artwork to family friends etc. But that does not count. We shall see what happens this weekend.

This piece is called Apex. Hope you like it.

Conversations

These pieces are titled:

TCP Conversation

Handshake

UDP Conversation

Don't ask. There is a nerd in me.

So... last weekend, at he EAST show, my BFF showed up. She recently sprained her ankle and had to use crutches to walk. But I was so glad that she came to support me.

Anyways... after spending some time at the galleries, we decided to head out. She wanted a beer and I wanted a glass of wine. We had a lot of catching up to do. Her hair has pink highlights now. Last time it was purple. I realize I've missed out on a lot.

We ended up at a restaurant where we ordered the most strange combination of food with our drinks. Lobster mashed potatoes, chopped salad and apple pie. Bliss! Cannot describe how peaceful it was. There is something to be said about being accepted and loved unconditionally.

While we were eating and drinking, we heard a really loud clatter. A man sitting near our table dropped his.... FLASK! He had a flask in his pocket. Who would bring a flask to a restaurant? Not sure. Surely someone who likes to keep his liquor handy. And he was so embarrassed.

I always thought flasks were for college students attending a football game in the stadium during a snow storm. Oh well. What do I know?

So my question to you is, have you taken a flask with you somewhere? And what was your choice of drink?

Puttering

Part 3 of 3.

My favorite thing to do. Puttering.

Part of the East show.

Pittering

Part 2 of the series.

Encaustics, alchohol inks and fire.

Part of the East Show.

Fragmented

I call this piece fragmented. Also part of the EAST show. I am probably going to retitle this to He promised me a picket fence. This is made of computer parts.

I just love working with different objects and encaustics. This one reminds me of a woman, white picket fence and jail.

LOL.

Wrapped

My joyous heart wrapped in the darkness of world.

A traditional piece without embeded objects.

Happy 11/11/11!

Beach Dreams

Another encaustic piece in the EAST show.I used sand dollars, wood cement and beach sand to create this piece.

So where did I get the beach sand from? Everytime I go to the beach, I grab a spoonful of sand and put it in a ziplock bag. This sand is from Hawaii.

This encaustic piece always reminds me of my beach vacations and brightens up my day.

Showtime

For the very first time, I am participating in a huge Austin wide show called EAST. I am excited yet very nervous.  Why? Because I am showing my work with a lot of bigwigs. May they be kind to me.

The piece that you see here is titled Rustic. It is an encaustics piece with rusted cardboard and some string. It is one of the 7 pieces that will be displayed at a gallery. I may end up dropping off some more pieces if they ask for it.

This weekend, the entire east Austin will turn into a chain of galleries. I will be volunteering talking to artists, patrons and even doing a demo of encaustics with found objects. I am a little nervous about that but super excited about seeing artwork by various artists.

This event is really BIG. If you don't believe me, check out the website.

http://www.eastaustinstudiotour.com/

And wish me luck!

Road Trip!

Yeah!

So I am going on a road trip tomorrow. Nothing very exotic but a simple business trip from Austin to Plano. To attend some meetings. And I will be driving.

Yep. May the powers that be have mercy! I am not too fond of driving and am direction impaired. So let's see how this goes.

This morning, I started packing. Which means I started making a list of things I need to take with me. So I can throw it all into a bag as soon as I come home from work. 

At first my list seemed OK. But then it dawned on me.... how many gadgets am I taking for this trip? Shocking! Here is the list. You tell me if this is normal. Just so you know, I leave early on Wednesday and come back Thursday night.

List of Gadgets:

1. Work Blackberry and charger.
2. iPhone and charger.
3. Bluetooth device for car. So I can talk on phone hands free. It is a 4 hour drive at least.
4. iPod. Haven't really transferred all my music yet.
5. GPS. Haven't used it before but I hope it helps with directions. And I do not get lost. Dallas is a maze!
6. Work PC in case I need to access the work network.
7. Personal Mac to use all day and check my emails.
8. DSLR Nikon camera with 2 lenses in case I want to take photos.
9. Point and shoot camera for taking photos of the Plano office.
10. External hard drive in case I need to share some large files.
11. A very cute USB drive. Just so I look cool.

Question: Am I normal?

3 moons and an alien ship

Last night I went out to take photos of the moon.

Here is my favorite one. Not really sure what the green stuff is. But I can say for sure that I was not abducted last night:)

Anyone have any theories about the green object? There were no planes flying when I took this shot. And I could see no green stuff in the sky. Do you think it is my lens over-correcting the blackness?

I am curious!

Chilli Contest

Sometimes you take control of your life, plan things and do them. Other times, things just happen and you find yourself doing things you never really envisioned doing.

Today I find myself committed to making chilli for a competition. With at least 9 other contestants. At a very popular restaurant in Austin.

How did I get myself into this? Why did I get myself into this?

Le sigh!

As far as recipe goes, I don't have any. Usually I just start dumping  stuff in a pan. And add tons of spices. I prefer to go from the left of my shelf rack to the right. Everything goes. And then I just smell the chilli to see if it is right or not.

Needless to say, I am in huge trouble today. There are some serious chilli makers and then there is me.

I'll keep you posted.

So what are your plans this weekend?

Artalicious Weekend

This weekend I had oodles of fun! On Saturday, I attended an encaustics workshop to learn new techniques. My instructor Mazarine is simply fabulous and I highly recommend her! Am planning on attending another session with her next week if I can work out some car issues. You can read more about the fabulous class here.

Some more pieces I made...

This one with a real blow torch! Yeah!



And coming to terms with simplicity! This was my favorite piece!

On Sunday, I met with my fabulous 12X12 women! Bublacious Nikki hosted the get together. I wish I could say that I actually painted during the get together but I really didn't. I watched with fascination as Niki drew and then water colored a fabulous piece! You can view her artwork here. I have to say that having no talent to draw, she was fascinating! I could simply watch her paint forever!

I also met for the first time Kathleen McElwaine. She is a well known local artist who takes local transportation to go to work and paints! On the bus! Or the train! Shame on me for complaining that I don't have time to paint! When you love to draw and paint, you can find the time and the place. During our session,  Kathleen painted a small orange blob. At least that is what it looked like to me. And within moments, transformed into a longhorn! I promise to post a photo soon. I was so very fascinated and green with envy! What in the world am I doing hanging out with these talented artists?

Oh well. I had so much fun!

So what did you do this weekend?

Encaustics Workshop

Today I am going to take an encaustics workshop. I'd been planning on doing this for a while but yesterday everything fell through and I did not have a car. So I canceled it. I was disappointed of course. Haven't done much encaustics due to the heat.

 But late last night, things magically changed and I had my car back. So off I will go. The class is about drawing encaustics paintings with an Indonesian tool called Tjanting. Never heard of it before which is why it sounds even more exciting!

I'll post the results good or bad tomorrow.

The piece I've posted here was done a while ago. It is titled broken dreams.

So what are your artistic plans this weekend? Anything exciting?

Phew!

Where did September go? It just flew by for me.

Between well checkups and my new diet, the month simply flew by. Plus I am currently sharing my laptop with my son who is studying for a test so have not had much access to my laptop. Weekends included.

I continue to dabble with art. It is hard to do encaustics in summer but I've been painting and sketching. Yep sketching. More like doodling but oh well.

I've signed up for a project called the Sketchbook project. Here is some more info about it in case you are interested in participating. They will exhibit the sketchbooks in 4 US cities and one of them is Austin. Yeah!

Also, I am planning on taking some more encaustic classes in October. So I look forward to that. Here is information about that.

So what have you been up to?

Rain Event!

Rain, rain rain! Hermine is unleashing its power over Austin. Over the last 30 hours, we've had over 12 inches of rain. Flash flood warnings, overflowing creeks and road closures. Schools are starting late or closed. The weather men are hyperventilating. My backyard is submerged in water and there is a little creek flowing through my kitchen garden. But that is small potatoes to what is really happening here. Roads are turning into creeks. And stupid people are trying to drive through them.

The rain has been relentless. Pouring and never stopping. Yesterday, I saw this trailer home that was being transported slip and fall on the road. Commute was not good at all.

Well.... Off too work I go. Commute is going to be bad. But I'll make it. Stay dry wherever you are!

Work TImeout!

So that's how I spent yesterday afternoon. Work Party! We had yummy food from Chuy's and then went on a boat. It was simply awesome.

I considered taking my real camera but did not want to lug it around. Plus this month, I want to play around with my iPhone Camera. Took the previous shot using an app called Camera Plus. Love how blue the sky looks!

And here is another one...

We are trying to jump start the long weekend! Tomorrow, I get off at 1:00 pm! How awesome is that!

What are your plans this weekend? Anything exciting?

Da Flat - II

So yesterday during lunch, I went out to do some errands. I had very little time and a long list of things to do. But I knew these stores inside out and I was confident that I could easily drive, hit 3 stores, shop and get back to work within an hour. Been there done that.

But when I reached my first destination - Walgreens, I noticed that my car had a flat tire. Yuck. And my hubby is out of town. Double yuck!

 Why do these things happen when he is out of town? Le Sigh!

So I went into the store, called AAA for help, shopped and sat in my car. I wanted to cry but considering how things are going on in the world, I could have been in a worse situation. I replied to a text message from my girlfriend  Alex and told her what was going on. Then I fantasized that Brad Pitt was going to come in a big red truck and rescue me from all this.

The AAA guy finally came. It wasn't Brad Pitt. 

But guess what his name was? Romeo. Yep. Romeo. He was handsome and charming. He changed the tire and commanded that I go and get the tire fixed right away. He must have thought I was a bimbo because at that point, I could barely speak a coherent sentence. I kept telling him, "I am driving my hubby's car and he is going to kill me!!!! This is the second time I have done this to his car!"

He assured me that my hubby would not kill me. Flat tires is not the end of the world and it could happen to anyone. Before leaving, he gave me a survey card and said that if I gave him a good rating, he would get free movie tickets and he would love to take his grand kids to the movies. Boy that guy was a charmer!

But wait! The story gets even better. 

Did I do as Romeo suggested and drive straight to get the tire fixed? Of course not! I went to work since it was on way anyways.

My girlfriend Alex called me up and asked me to get an appointment with Discount Tires. They fix flat tires. For free. Yep. I got an appointment and numerous people told me that they would only fix a tire if it was purchased from them. So I kept my credit card handy and showed up. 

Alex was waiting for me there. With a gift for me. It took all my control to not burst into tears.

Everything went great after that. Discount Tires fixed and changed my tire for free. Yep.

What I realized by the end of the day was that the most important thing is life is kindness. Being there for someone when they are overwhelmed. And helping others when they are down.

Romeo and Alex, when I was completely deflated, the two of you, in your own way made my day.

Thank you!