It has been wild the last three days. I must admit, last night I was a total bore with fatigue and my brain just having "had it". It was instachango, half an hour turnarounds for ten hours a day. Nary a moment to breathe. But, today is a day of quiet, I hope, so I can prep a nice dinner for the fam tomorrow, take a stroll on the property to see if the damned deer have nipped off more lovely pink buds from my tree peonies, and have some time to draw. I do like to do that.
Robbing the Bees, by Holley Bishop has me captivated from her descriptions of the hierarchy of the bees, the understanding of the Queens and Virgin Queens through to the development of the hive as we know it today has me in raptures. The stories she so skillfully weaves of history and present tense, of science and biology, art and magic, alchemy and mythology is spellbinding...and I count the hours until I can dive back into her amber colored story and submerge myself in her thought. Lets just put it mildly, I am captivated, enchanted and inspired. More pictures perhaps with Queens, and beekeepers, Langenroth hives, Egyptians. I love it that the Romans believed that the bees created wax and went out to gather the honey which was deposited into the flowers by the gods. I am taken with the concept that the bee is a messenger who carries messages and honey from the heavens to people and vice versa. The divine bee.
I got postcards back from Printograph. I ordered these cards to try out their printing (online, but ink on paper...versus on demand printing which fades with age and is very unstable from the beginning). The color is perfect and dense (I must admit, I did change all the blacks to rich blacks) and the three cards, from the Home Sweet Home series is really nice. I am thrilled. Another thing in the world of illustration promotion is that I have just gotten the 3x3 Directory, which is wonderful and I am thrilled to be there. One page is Kitty's portrait, and the other is the "Sweetheart" valentine. I also took a page in the Directory of Illustration to see if this is a worthwhile thing. I have until May 1 to create the art--and have to think about what it is that I want to put out there. The most compelling is the Chicken Choker art, or Kitty, or the woman artist, or Juri H. from the Museum. Then there is the decorative work? Can I smoosh them together successfully? The Directory also gives you space to post your work, access to lists etc. We will see what we can do...and wheither its worth the money.
Must go and embrace the day.