night terrors

every once in awhile rowan has these wierd episodes in the night that i can only describe as night terrors.

it really creeps me out to stumble in to his room half asleep and feel around in his crib to pick up his screaming and thrashing body. sometimes i think it is teething related, sometimes i think he is sleeping through the experience totally. parenthood is such a guessing game.

not to give anyone else the heebie jeebies but i will even admit that, in my over-active imagination (fueled by the experience of waking to screams) i have been sure that there is an old lady ghost leaning over him and freaking him out. maybe it's the hag.

i think i probably just need more sleep.

this was me sunday february 27. i altered the original drawing by going back over it with an eraser and taking away parts of my head to elongate everything and make it look even more haunting.

tiny me

this was me yesterday, saturday february 26.

i went for breakfast at stellas with curtis and rowan. then in the afternoon, i attended an amazing artist talk by an inspiring and incredible woman named Barb Hunt.
...then i polished off the day with a very enjoyable evening book club to discuss our recent reading of "Room" by Emma Donaghue (not sure on the spelling of that one).

It was nice to feel like a tiny, somewhat insignificant person, while in a busy restaurant, a packed audience and a group of people i don't often see.

it made me realize that for some reason, spending my days with one small person often makes me feel like i am gigantic and entirely too important most of the time.

laundry machine

i am referring to me of course.
thursday february 24.

sure, it's a boring representation of the day but when you boil 24 reusable diaper inserts on the stove-top, wash and fold three loads of laundry, do a bunch of dishes and then complete a big sort of your mismatched socks in the underwear drawer, there isn't time for much else.

except for watching Perry Mason while you are waiting to put the next load in.
(and that would just be a drawing of me with hearts in my eyes anyways)

pause.

a brief interlude here: to post a new(ish) comic for my series on old folks. this one will be on the Diversions page of the Manitoban next issue.

ever get that feeling?

had a super fun + fast morning looking after my 17 month old boy while babysitting another lovable toddler who is very near and dear to my heart.

let me tell you: those little people are on the move!

we had a dance party to kate bush, pushed every button and turned every nob on the record player, played every instrument, worked on three puzzles, ate some scrambled eggs, some kiwi, some apple, drank some water, chased the pig, played with the beachball, did some stairs, dumped the toy box, played sort the shapes back in to the musical turtle, did a rubber boots fashion show, read the very hungry caterpillar,
sat in the blue chair,
got out of the blue chair,
sat in the blue chair,
got out of the blue chair.

among a few other things.

yakkity yak

thank you to my loving husband and best buddy curtis for posting a pretty version of me last time...here is me, drawn by me. today.

man, what a great day of reconnecting. had a lovely and inspiring chat with one of my dear friends, kerri to start the day. (we were talking fun life plans)

next an epic chat with one of my favorite people, kaija. it was a long one and a good one. we were talking new york, masters degrees and owning farms so we can hang out with other loved friends in the country.

a great facebook type-fest with my dear francophone pal, julien who is in love. always nice to hear about new love.

to top it all off, my mom just got home from Golden BC (kicking horse) where she was visiting my little brother so we had a good long conversation about EVERYTHING. (which we are good at!)

i am wired. can you tell by my drawing?!

A flattering portrait

Hi, Curtis here with my bi-annual post. I decided that I should intervene here because Devon likes drawing unflattering portraits of herself and posting them on the internet...but let's face it, in real life she's easy on the eyes. As part of my Valentine's Day gift to her this year I doctored up a portrait of her to grace the cover of the mix CD I was putting together.

It's a melange of collage and tablet tracing. The skin and hair textures are taken from multiple photos of Jennifer Connelly - the first brunette celebrity that came to mind...because she's pretty.
The premise of the mix CD was bands Devon likes doing covers of songs Devon likes. Here's the track listing, in case you're curious:
01] Wilco - Ingrid Bergman
02] Elliot Smith - These Days
03] Jose Gonzalez - Love Will Tear Us Apart
04] Kakai King - Close to Me
05] CC Walker - Never My Love
06] Wild Nothing - Cloudbusting
07] Schneider TM - The Light 3000
08] Of Montreal - She's My Best Friend
09] Billy Bragg - Jeane
10] James Blake - A Case of You
11] Karen O & The Kids - Worried Shoes
12] Bright Eyes - The Biggest Lie
13] Elliot Smith - Harvest Moon
14] Mates of State - These Days
15] The Killers - Romeo and Juliet

friday night movie

this was me last night, friday february 18 watching a movie with curtis.

we rented one of our favorite movies: House/Hausu which is a film from 1977 from Japan. It's a psychedelic combination of art film meets horror movie. it has been re-released by criterion so it was a good time to re-watch.

man, that movie is crazy. i love it.

i have nothing against eating obscene amounts of popcorn tossed in brewers yeast and pepper either.

yesterday's new do

i rather serious looking drawing of my new do. some dark colour, some copper pieces and some bangs.
a break from bobby pins...for now.

a string of days

ok, the first one starting from the top: that is february 8th.
i somehow forgot to get this one published earlier where it should have gone. anyways, that was a stinky never-ending diaper day. but on the positive side: rowan has added the word: POOP to the list of words he can say.

the next drawing down is february 11th
(you can see, or have already seen, the in-between days, feb 9 + 10, as i have already posted them previously to the blog).
this drawing was the stand-out feeling of that day. the wonderful warm cup of coffee in my hand first thing in the morning and a belly full of cheerios.

next, saturday february 12th.
the manic happiness of skating down the river with cold wind in my face. and to top it off, i got beautiful flowers that day from curtis.

february 13, i drive over to my med-student-friends house (you are the best catherine!) to play: "let's diagnose the odd rash on devons face" which looks even more terrible this week than previous weeks. this drawing is a loosely documented map of where all the bumps were. yuck. go away "perioral dermatitis."

february 14 + 15 are missing (the official gap is closing on the lag though,) ...i promise they are coming soon.

the last drawing, the one at the bottom is wednesday february 16th. this was the day before i got my new haircut. the anticipation of changing my hair for the first time since april. those dotted lines at the bottom are a representation of where things were going if i didn't get in there soon.

my lag in posting

there was such a flurry of catching-up drawing to do once i was a week late in starting my: one-piece-of-art-a-day-for-february project.
now i find my actual posts to be lagging behind and this is kind of throwing me off.

so here is a few at once: these first two were some scribbles that i did to get me going on trying to effectively draw "a mood."
i find it interesting how your image of yourself, your ACTUAL FACE, can be altered by how you feel when you draw it!

i think these two gals say it all.

sleeping-in with a toddler

i slept in. it was blissful.

we have been going through this thing where rowan wakes up in the night and we are both too tired to do anything except cuddle him in to bed with us and go back to sleep. this one night was an epic hour or so of rowan in bed with us crawling on our heads before he finally settled back down.

on the plus side, he slept a bit longer than usual and i (sorry curtis) got to reap the rewards of a rare extra 30 minutes of sleep the next morning.

i tried to make this illustration look as soft and calm as my sleep.

curtis said when he left for work that morning, rowan had his legs up on my chest and we were contorted in to the most comfortable tangle of limbs. he is not drawn in, but you get the idea.

similarly to the last sleeping/in bed drawings, i oriented everything to keep my face straight for the viewer.

loud music and art-making

the relief. the cathartic magic of drawing like crazy while listening to music.

the day after

back in to the world. cold day.

i like how this one worked out.

i know, it looks pretty gruesome and i aged myself about 30 years but i like it as a representation of that particular monday.

eggs and back to bed

my next installment of the daily self portrait.
no matter what, i try and draw one specific image/mood that sums up the day.

this is sunday february 6. waking up feeling better...groggy, sore and still tired...but things are looking up! we actually went out for breakfast that day and i ate my first real food since thursday.

i will admit that i cried a little bit in the car when i thought i would throw up again but then, we got home and i rested for the remainder of the day.
goodbye flu!

sweet gravol sleep

rounding the bend on the flu in this drawing: this is a portrait of me on saturday feb 5, sick and sleeping in bed.

as i drew this one, i left the orientation of my face and shoulders the same as the other drawings in the series and adjusted my sleeping position and bed perspective accordingly.

sick in the car

this is my third installment of the make-one-piece-of-art-a-day-for-a-month challenge: i am giving myself no excuses to miss even one.

so, full disclosure:

this is me, trying to hold it together while clutching empty grocery bags in the passenger side of the car on the way to see a healthcare professional.

it was friday february 4 after an epic night of sickness.

two separate illustrations

these are my recent contributions to the manitoban newspaper.

calm before the storm

here is my second installment of the "make a piece of art every day for a month" pact i made with a group of fellow artists/mothers. as i said before, i have limited myself medium-wise to ink brush on my new tablet in photoshop and subject-wise to daily self portraiture that attempts to portray one succinct emotion/event that stands out from the day.

man, that was a beautiful day. i got outside with rowan, it wasn't -40 with windchill it was more like -10...bliss! i had a super walk and spent more time breathing outside air that day than the rest of the winter combined.

it's a good thing too, because i got slammed by stomach flu about 6 hours later.

so that was me, bundled up, pushing rowan around the neighborhood on Thursday February 3rd. stopped at the park theatre for a cappuccino on the way home while feeling pretty wonderful all around.

ps: can you see rowans tiny happy little hat peeking up in the foreground?

an art challenge

so, i have been attending a nice group with some other artists (who are also mothers) every month for the past 3 months.

we discuss recent work, share ideas and discuss the challenges of finding a balance between staying creative and meeting the demands of motherhood. it's a relaxing evening and it luckily falls on a wednesday...which is "my special day" to leave the house while curtis puts rowan to bed.

this last wednesday night we all agreed to make ONE piece of art EVERY day for a MONTH. quite the commitment eh? i left the meeting feeling very optimistic and focussed.

i promptly got the flu and was stuck in bed (then recovering from being stuck in bed) so i found myself way way behind by the following wednesday.

and then it was wierd. the universe wouldn't let me have my wednesday night out. nothing was happening. no movies were playing. no friends were around. no live music. seriously. i was not intending on actually working on art during my special night, i will admit it.

but i relented.
i locked myself in the upstairs studio with headphones blaring and drew my heart out. literally. i drew every portrait of each day going backwards until i had 7 drawings.

it felt so good.

i decided to use this project as an excuse to experiment with my new tablet and reunite my brain with photoshop. i had to keep the work within the same dimension and medium and then subject-wise, i decided to draw emotionally expressive, diary-style portraits of myself for each day that focussed in on one single moment that stood out over all others.

so here is my first one.

i am at mawa painting a still-life while getting painted by brenna and feeling the fuzzy nausea that is morning sickness at 9:00 pm Wednesday February 2nd. I am wearing a giant hand-printed scarf that I made and my warmest hoodie.

tijit tee's

hey hey
just a quick note to say: i am going to be going over to mozy rue to do some tijit inventory refreshing. There are lots of tee shirts and other hand-printed accessories (hankies, ties, slips and tanks) that have been taking up space for a bit and I know how they like to keep things fresh over there...that's why it always looks so beautiful and inviting.

so yeah, those pieces are going "back in to the vault" hopefully by the end of this week...maybe go have a look around to see if you want to buy your sweetie a love present.

Semester Two Forever

Today marks the first day of semester two for Curtis so I felt like this comic was an appropriate one.
I hope you get the underlying positive message at least.

AND,
It's February folks...the final stretch of our cold season...things are only getting warmer and better from here on in!!