Say Yes

I was reading an article by Tina Fey the other day about her career and how she came to be where she is now. One thing she mentioned that was part of her climb to success was saying yes at times, well, when she was underconfident and for a split second though maybe she wasn't ready for whatever opportunity was offered her. I'm trying that and hopefully not packing in too much. With this new studio option on the horizon, I'm needing to come up with rent and rental insurance, + utilities, so you can see that any income generating opportunities that get thrown at me are much desired. The skill lies in knowing what is an opportunity and what will end up being a drag. Oddly enough, now that I'm not working a traditional 9-5 job, I seem to need an extraordinary amount of free time (kids will do that to you) so all this extra stuff could be a hurdle. My day of watching soaps and eating bon bons are way over! OK, just kidding about that. Nothing gets in the way of Downton Abbey, no matter what!

Here's what's going on with my collage on Io, moon of Jupiter. 

Look at this cool texture! It'll be covered with an over painting of black, but I am loving these lines and dried bubbles.

Here I've added a wash of yellow over the moon. I went super bright because I plan on dulling it with a buff color later, plus I'm going to try a faux encaustic technique mentioned in the book Surface Treatment Workshop: Explore 45 Mixed Media Techniques by Darlene Olivia McElroy and Sandra Duran Wilson, which will add some opaqueness. 

Here's the gel I'm using to get this faux encaustic look. I'm going to smear it on the moon as evenly as possible. We shall see!

I bought a sheet of Masonite at the hardware store on Monday for mounting this and another piece instead of framing. I need to get myself to a table saw pronto and cut the pieces down to size. OH! I just realized they have a table saw at Griffin School where I'm teaching printmaking today! Cool! I can kill two birds with one stone. (Caw, caw)

Speaking of Griffin School, would you like to see the absolute worst picture of me ever? Click here and you will find it. Nasty! I've lost 10 lbs since this picture was taken. I had inspiration for finally getting fit from many sources, and this pic was one of them, so I'm actually kinda proud of it.