Art & Life of SwarDrawS

I bet you thought was forgetting about that teaser from yesterday.

First of all, don't worry, I am not suicidal but lately I have really been into great/famous artists who killed themselves.

I have been reading a book on the photographer Diane Arbus. I am not a big fan of her photos though some are growing on me, but I am facinated by her and her story. She battled horrible depressions. The anti-depressant she was on (back in the 60s) made her sick so she went off of them. There are some things that I could related to with Diane. She was shy and fearful but where we differed there was that conquoring her fear was what motivated her.

The other artist that ofted themself that I am facinated with is Elliott Smith, a singer. I have had one of this albums, the one that got finished after he died and I really liked it but lately I have been listening to it a lot. I have since bought another of his and there are another 2 that I want. Good stuff albeit mopey.

I am tired and this post isn't as indepth as I originally thinking. Maybe I will come back another time and elaborate more.

Posted by swardraws at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

my nails are now cut and I guess I am ready to write even though I am kind of tired.

Tonight we went to the drive in to see Barnyard, another animated kids movie that are starting to having the same story line. RAW mentioned the movie was playing at the drive-in when he went past earlier today. We have been wanting to take Hollace to one of these increasingly rare places. For some reason I wasn't thrilled to go originally. I am not sure why.

--I am the queen of wasting time. I just took a 30 minute break so I could add some lyrics to some songs in iTunes so I can sing along on my iPod.--

Back to my story....
We didn't really prepare to go, I grabbed a couple drinks and snack food and headed off. Would of been nice if we brough chairs. I had one in the car. I sat in that one, Hollace sat on the hood of the car and RAW sat in the car. A nice family outing, huh? Oh well, maybe next time now that I know what to expect. This last of a dying breed drive-in kept boasting about its new owners and that they plan to continue on. In Illinois, I was reading, there use to be 120 drive-ins in its hey day but now they are down to 12.

Last week found me out of my routine. On Wednesday, Hollace's first day of school, was our all employee fun day. I couldn't work at home like I wanted to to see Hollace off. I did get to come in late so I could help her get ready. At work we got on a bus and took off or tried to. The bus broke down in Gurnee so we sat in a McDonald's parking lot for an hour waiting for a new bus. Brian somehome noticed there was a $20 way down in the rain sewer. For the next 40 minutes that was everyones goal, get that nasty thing out. Princess was determined with the chewing gum on a broomstick. Then I got my tape out (doesn't everyone care tape with them?) and we taped a paperclip to try and sphere it. Eventually someone got it out. The new bus then came and we went about our journey.

We ended up in Milwaukee in the alley of this 20s theme restaurant. But first before lunch, it is time for a scavenger hunt. Even before that, each group had to do a human sculpture of an animal. My group unfortunately had to do an alligator. So there we all are (7 of us) layed down in an alley in Milwaukee to do this thing.

We all had an hour to find a page full of things and 2 pages of questions answered. Our team was recognized as the best at scavenging. We found all but 3 things. First we hit the Walgreens with the $20 they gave us then eventually ended up in a mall at a bank with bored tellers who helped us with the 4 leaf clover (St. Patrick decorations), the 1971 penny and the thing that comes back (couldn't find a yoyo at Walgreens) so we "bounced" a check. We asked, or rather they asked everyone on the street what the state tree is. Then we ran back to the restaurant before we got docked points. At the restaurant, if you didn't know the password to get in, you had to do something ridiculous. Everyone in my group had to hop like bunnies and every third jump, we had to shake our tail. This was being broadcasted to everyone in the restaurant. It was a lot of fun. In the end, our group took 3rd place over all which means $25. Deb's team came in 2nd and they got $50. We didn't realize there were two pages of questions, that was our downfall. But we sure kicked ass in scavengering the objects.

On Friday was the division bowling thing. I am on the committee so I couldn't get out of it. Normally I skip this event. I got there early to help set up. The theme was Oktober Fest. We bowled 2 games and I got exactly 71 points in both games. I guess I am consistent. I cut out early so I didn't help clean up, hope they don't mind since half the people in the committe arrived after we set up.

Posted by swardraws at 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

and my fingernails are too long. I guess that is tomorrows project. Look for the story on the scavenger hunt, bowling and my facination of suicidal artists

Posted by swardraws at 12:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So far I have spent the whole weekend working on Christina and Corey's wedding package. I put 5 slide shows to DVD. I had fun trying to find appropriate music. I am printing out 5x7 b&ws into a photo album. I haven't done that yet but have the other elements to burn to DVD for the package.

What should I be doing? Playing with Hollace. it is just me and her this weekend. She is busy playing school with her stuffed animals. I have been photographing that as a photo essay. I did get some other photos shot that I wanted to do such as the blue toe nail black skirt thing. The thing is I have a bunch of photos on the card that I am dying to pull off and play with but I just don't dare today since I need to do a few other things like finish up the CN marketing piece me and Bob L are presenting to the committee tomorrow. Also I have been wanting to design and laminate a card that I will keep with me and read every day to remind me to eat appropriately.

I feel like I am wasting the summer away. Next week is Hollace's last full week of summer then it is off to school (she would say, boo hiss). Last week I took a day off and we went school clothes and supply shopping. This weekend the weather was lovely and we pretty much spent it all in the house. Why? How pitiful.

Last week I met with a GI doc about scheduling an upper GI endoscopy thing. I am freaked out but am trying to get over myself. I haven't even told RAW to keep September 13th open yet.

Work has been busy enough that I don't get time to play with the new softwares like my co-workers are. I am jealous

Posted by swardraws at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Friday after work was Christina and Corey's wedding. My darn ebay auction for the lightsphere showed up that day finally (I was really sure I wasn't going to get it at all) but it was too late. Thankfully I bought another one that I did use. I was disappointed in how it handled vertical pictures, the one reason that it appealled to me.

It was a nice short ceremony. I think I was only suppose to stay in one place to shoot according to the pastor but I was all over the place. How the heck am I suppose to get the good shots?

I filled up one card and put in the other as everyone headed for the receiving line. I forgot to format the other card and it was filled with county fair pictures! Between that and the fact I wore a skirt with no pockets, those were my only two glaring mistakes.

After the ceremony, there was a dinner that only family was invited to. I sat next to Corey's nephew and Christina's sister and some cousins. The food was wonderful but I couldn't figure out how the skinny people could finish their plates and I could not. I took more pictures until I was close to running out of card again. Corey must of noticed how tired I was and said I could leave if I wanted to. It was 10:30.

Saturday at 4 was the real reception. We all went. It was at their house and it had a Hawaiian theme. Lots and lots of people there and lots and lots of good and unique food. Some of it unidentifiable. The weather was perfect. Some people were playing beanbag toss or bochie ball. Up at the deck was the Jamba juice guys mixing up smoothies. Inside were some of my co-workers (or former ones) with their babies. Not a whole lot of friends/co-workers were there, mostly family and there was a lot of them. I took about 250 photos that day.

At around 9pm, after the karokee, Corey noticed that I was winding down again and asked if I needed to get Hollace to bed. Things were winding down in general and I think I covered their event pretty well.

Corey and Christina said hold on for a moment and they came back, Corey with a check for $300 and Christina with a new 60gig video iPod for me.

See back when I met with Christina for the details of the day a few weeks ago, I got a feeling she might get me an iPod for shooting the wedding. I wouldn't tell her how much I would charge. I told her whatever she felt was fair was ok for me as I was just honored I could take part in their special day. I was pretty sure an iPod was in it for me. Then I starting thinking that really they would give me maybe $300 and since that iPod was $400, they would just give me cash for $300. So imagine my surprise when they gave me $300 and the $400 iPod! Yikes.

It was a great time and I think when all is said and done, I will have 400 good pictures for them.

a side note on the ipod. Everyone wants my old one. I haven't told Sherry yet or Jeff. RAW is not assuming possession of the old iPod and he wasn't even in the running ;-) Hollace doesn't want it anymore because she is holding out for Christmas for her own new one. Today in the mail I finally get word about replacing the battery for free that I filled out back in January. Talk about interesting timing!

Posted by swardraws at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I need to find ways to drown out all the distractions and focus on all the cool stuff I should be doing.

What cool stuff you ask? Learn lots of new software, work on creativity. There are a couple things at work in that department I need to concentrate on. I am on the marketing committee and our mini team need to come up with concepts for "The Clear Choice" I need to focus to do a design on focus. At home I need to get up to speed with Motion, Shake, Swift 3d (or any 3d) and now Poser. If I could quell my online Flickr time and concentrate of those I would have it made.

I am teetering on the feeling I can do it all and the one where I feel like I am going to lose it all. How conflicted. Maybe I should call one of those therapists. I finally found that list I have been looking for forever.

I am also in mourning on what I use to be proud of being super healthy. I keep having feelings of dread that something in that department is wrong. I need to get over myself. Get things fixed, move on.

I got an email that that ebay auction I won that I am suspicious of if finally now getting shipped. I will believe it when I see it. I won't get it until after the wedding which is what prompted me to buy it. At least I went out and bought another one by normal methods.

On Friday is the wedding I am shooting. I am sure I will do fine and all will be good but as I mentioned above, I teether on feelings of success and failure. My personality (or lack of it) is my biggest concern.

Posted by swardraws at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)