restoration..okay i can do that..

so the apartment hunting is still going on..seems there may be a contender. and yes..there is a STOVE. hurray. but the art continues. this painting was randomly brought to me thru my aunt in jersey. her friend loves it and kept it outdoors where, unfortunately it became a slave to the elements. the floral motif was slightly visible, dirtied and worn. my aunt has much faith in me and volunteered me to restore the painting. i thought it to be way easy at first..."oh yea, i can restore it..no problem" well not as eay as i thought. this woman loved this painting and wanted it to appear as it did originally. originally....hard to see the details that were original. so came the improvising. turns out the painting was freehand which is awesome, but the inner circular band was never centered. and me...in all my perfectionist glory, was completely thrown off by the unbalanced motif. anyway i let myself unwind and slowly move away from the ancient mathmatical circle drawing tool that was my fathers in his art director days, and i allowed myself to go with it. i think it turned out ok. i tried to keep some of the antique-yness to it which wasnt easy. and there was alot of prep to this piece being that the surface was so dirty and bumpy. but in the end im adding restoration to my list of know-hows. maybe not metropolitan museum of art restoration..but def ericas basement apartment restoration.

The Importance of....A Stove???

so its been quite a while since i last blogged. life sometimes takes over. i am currently under a crunch to find a new apartment..a cheap apartment..a clean apartment..bigger than the size of my childhood bedroom apartment...and an apartment with, dum duh dum....a STOVE. could it honestly be possible that people are seriously renting apartments without any stove or means for cooking???? i have come to terms with the fact that i will be paying substantially more than what i pay now for half the size. i can live with a small space, im more concerned that my cat cannot and will go crazy with no space to run around and therefore hang from the ceiling ten times what she does now. but come on..not even a range top!? for the last 2 years ive lived with no oven to bake but i do have a stove top, a range to cook atop. i am well aware that i am no gourmet cook, much unlike my mother and two sisters. i can live with that and honestly i dont care much for cooking. im looking forward to one day finding a man who will whip up my dinners. but i cant come to grips with having to plug in a hot plate in order to make my chick peas and rice. what am i back in college warming ramon noddles??? no. and i seriously dont want to regress back to that time in my life thru a hot plate. so. i have decided to protest all prospective apartment that do not include at least what i have now, a range. no matter how cheap or cute the place may be. i spend enough money on dunkin daily that im not gna waste my money even more on breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day. so yes i am celebrating the stove today in all my undomesticness because i never realized how dear to my heart they now are and how passionate i have become about them.

ah the perils of being an artist...

u know, i always thought that knowing that i was and would always be an artist was a relief. no worries about what i should or might do with my life. well. i was wrong, very wrong. theres no, "well u have a degree now..go get your job!" not that simple. its actually quite the opposite. what a gift to be creative, what a gift to be talented..but yes, what a pain that there is no guarantees. its hard to find your way and most of the time success is due to luck. yes i said it. even if i was the most talented artist out there i may not have the luck or connections to be seen or make a decent living. so yes artists have a certain burden of talent. but there is always that inborn yearning to produce, to give some of yourself and create something with meaning. and shit i cant seem to get rid of that so here i am, chasing the dream. and most of the time im completely doubting myself and my talent. and more than most of the time im discouraged and intimidated by the mere thought of being a successful artist. to support myself soley on my art?? are my hands even capable?? well yes its a pipedream but its my pipedream and today i see a glimmer.