so tonite i met dara at utrecht and we wandered around and looked at art supplies and she made all sorts of suggestions as to different stuff i might want to try out- and she told me about things she likes to use and we talked about textures and tone and ease of framing. it was awesome. i mean how much fun is it to go into an art supply store with an art teacher. and not just any teacher. your teacher. i mean that is fun. well, it is my idea of fun anyway.

mostly we talked about drawing supplies. we started with the pastels and rubbed colors on paper and discussed pigment quality, hardness, agility. we moved on to the charcoal pencils- there were skinny willow ones and big fat thick ones, compressed charcoal and kneaded erasers. we looked at paper in a rainbow of colors. we talked glue, we talked tape. we looked at matt board, presentation board, clay board, and ink. ummm. paint and medium.      

we made a few choice purchases.

i got a really big sketch pad- a really big one. dara gave me a gift of some charcoals and a kneaded eraser. (thanks dara). we went out for pizza and talked about the history of the civil rights movement in milwaukee and the nohl show at inova. dara liked the photographs.

when i got home with amaru i broke out my new sketch pad and asked amaru if he wanted to draw. he drew in his notebook. finally he could not resist the sketch pad any longer and he took up the willow stick and we drew on the big paper together. it was so fun. i like the way he draws better than how i draw. his lines and directions are so fresh. so unexpected. i love that. my lines and shapes are so cliche. predictable. but then i wonder if they are really just predictable to me, because i am me and i just know myself. i doubt it. but okay, so i'll work on it. and i will learn from amaru. he's a genius.

well, i've been making all sorts of things lately. one fun thing i did was make some zines with my kid and contributed to the zine kid table at the polish falcon this weekend. it was a great experience for both of us. there were such great zines there! i always wish i had more time and more money at zinefest. it was inspirational. i discovered that where i used to be more comforatble expressing myself in words, it all comes our much more visually now. someone said making zines is kinda like "cross-training." i agree. my zines kinda suked but i try not let to self jusgement stop me. because then i probably would not make anything ever.

i have been looking at the pottery of oaxaca mexico and it has been blowing my mind and i really want to go there. so i have been helping with the day of the dead altar at redline and making clay skeleton puppets and dotting out skulls. a part of me is nicaraguan. if my name was jessica espinoza it might be easier to see. and that is a pretty name anyway. beats jessica laub. but nicaraguan women don't really change their names when they get married as a rule. so it did not make sense for me to change my name either.

also did a super-cool "fabric burial" down in bayview with another artist/friend from redline. we wrapped up an bunch of silk with berries and brussel sprouts and cranberries and buried it in chelsea's garden. we're gonna dig it up come spring and see what it looks like.

went on a mad canning spurt. something in me just loves tomatoes. and is so sad to see the farmer's markets close for the season. its my way of holding onto it i guess.

also making some animals, and magnets, and dishware, and mosaics. drawing. trying to learn to see. to pay attention.