Well I have been out of commission for the last week and I never thought I’d disdain lounging around as much as I do now.  Being stuck (and dizzy and nauseous) indoors is no fun.  Even in the company of Dances With Wolves, Happy Feet and Mr. Mom.  (As you can see by the spitting resemblance, I think watching Mr. Mom as a child has had an extremely lasting effect).

Alas, I finally had my wisdom teeth removed.  I still have a knot in my jaw, but I’m on my last day of antibiotics, and my oral surgeon said things look good!  I feel a million times better.  I’m not sure what was worse: the oh-my-gosh it’s going to pop swollen cheek, not being able to open my mouth more than a few centimeters, or the extreme nausea the pain killer stirred up (I couldn’t even look at the Netflix menu and definitely couldn’t watch any hand-held camera sitcoms), but I’m glad to say I’ll never have to experience that again.  And I really did feel like David after Dentist: I asked many times in horror, is this feeling forever now??  Thankfully not.  First day of coffee.  First day of normal cereal and fruit.  First day of Good Old ME!  OK.  So on to other horizons, I have a lot of classes that start next week.  So here’s the run down…

Bosatsu Factory Art Studio in Upland, I have three art classes that start Monday!  Ages 4-6, 3-4 p.m.; Ages 7-9, 4-5 p.m.; Ages 10-12, 5-6 p.m.

Huntington Beach Art Center in HB, I have my Drawing for Little Tots that starts Wednesday, September 15, three time slots, Ages 4-6, PLUS I have a Water-Mixable Oil Painting class for teens/adults that starts that same day 6:30-8 p.m.  Also at the HBAC starting Saturday, September 25 I am taking over another teacher’s Mommy and Me Art Class for the Fall and there are two time slots to choose from.

In the meantime, I am ordering supplies, and getting ready for the classes.  I’m also still house hunting, and now that G-puffy is back to just G-puppy, I am beginning to make the rounds.  Gotta say, it’s hard when your loving, sweet boyfriend offers a rent-free place to live, cooks and cleans, even does my laundry! (I’m seriously spoiled here) but it’s my calling to get my own place/workspace and reunite with my 15-year-old feline companion/child Lily who has been cooling her paws at Grandma’s.  Boyfriend is allergic, what can you do?  Did I say, this was my first day of coffee?

I just found out about this in the last ten minutes and totally just ordered my sketchbook!  I love projects like these.  I even spent the extra 20 to have my sketchbook digitized because that is too cool…I loathe scanning.  Zzzzz.  Mmmmm.  Check it out and participate.  Spread the word.  Sammi you deserve better than Ronnie.

Here are some of the paintings that went off to the Czech Republic and some that I just haven’t gotten around to adding them to my site yet.

I have soooo many more to add.  And my photoshop is ancient and slow and my mac mini is soooo tiny and microscopic.  Too many pots on the stove as usual.  Really thinking I just need a new oven.

In other news, I am house hunting, obsessing, thinking, sunbathing, swimming, spraying black widow egg sacs, going to the post office, hanging out with friends, seeing my lovely cat and taking her on long, lazy walks that more or less resemble long pauses and long sniffs at the inner crevices of unsuspecting plants.

My friend Tomoko has just opened up her own art studio, Bosatsu Factory, in Upland and has assembled a group of artists to teach various adult and children’s classes that begin in September!  I am one such lucky artist and will be teaching art to three age groups of students.  I will teach painting and drawing mostly, but maybe throw in some 3D stuff too.  Can’t wait!  I’ve always wanted to start my own studio gallery kind of thing, like a community art center with gallery and shop and classes et al, (could it possibly be because I worked at the Huntington Beach Art Center since I was 18?) but it is so cool to see someone just like me (with no heaps of money) just totally start something from scratch and go for it.  There have been a lot of people jumping in eager to help because Art is always something a community needs more of.

The disaster that is moving:

Well I never thought I could get that place empty, and I had to enlist a LOT of help because a 1444 square foot house is not easy.  In 100 degree weather.  Without a fun, new place to bring things.  (For the time being, I’m staying at the BF’s)  But really, everything went swimmingly and it did seem like the stars had been aligning for little old me.  I just need to keep positive and figure out how to be grounded in an utterly ungrounded situation.  That is where kid’s classes come in.  Kids, with all their mini melodramas and the funny things that they say, and their undeniable creativity, seem to bring a lightness and a quirkiness to the situation, especially when you only have them on loan for a few hours, and get to return to a quiet place afterwards.

These are some glimpses of the “Exquisite Corpse” project with the Huntington Beach Art Center’s Art Camp kids, which turned out amazingly awesome and I just had to take pictures.  I sure can’t wait til the day I can actually make art again!  Only the universe knows that answer.

Today, me and the BF are going to hit the OC Fair to see our friend’s band play, Hell and Half of Georgia, and also mosey on over to the Children’s Art Exhibition section where many of my students will have work on display from my “Drawing for Little Tots” drawing class.  Can’t wait to see and take pictures!!