Such a long time such a long time such a long lonely lonely lonely lonely lonely time...

Well, it hasn't really been a lonely time, I just like that song.

But it HAS been a long time since I posted my last blog. EEK! I blame it all on Facebook.

Okay, so here's what I've been doing for the past 5 months:

1. Drawing!! I switched figure drawing classes a couple months ago, and am now studying with Michael Markowitz, an artist at the 23rd Street Art Gallery in Noe Valley. Here's my link to the Flickr page with some favorite pieces from both his class, and my previous class with Linda Corbett at Palo Alto's Pacific Art League: My Figure Drawing Set on Flickr

And here are my big faves:



9/23/08, 23rd St. Gallery, 1-hr pose; conté crayon, pastel, charcoal



10/06/08, 23rd St. Gallery, 2-min gesture; charcoal



10/06/08, 23rd St. Gallery, 7-min pose; charcoal



10/06/08, 23rd St. Gallery, 1-hr pose; pastel, conté crayon, charcoal


2. Reading: Mostly thanks to Caltrain, I've had my nose stuck in some pretty great books lately. My most recent amazing read is The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood. This book was my introduction to Atwood, and I am completely hooked. As soon as I was finished with Assassin, I went out and bought another Atwood novel, Alias Grace. After a somewhat slower start than Assassin, this one is proving to be just as engaging. Also on the "Recently Read" shelf: Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides. Absolutely LOVED it. On the nonfiction side: Don't Get Too Comfortable, by David Rakoff and When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris. Both were very funny books from reliably hysterical writers.

3. Biking! Recently my boss at WPI set up a ride from Mill Valley to Mount Tam with the Obama-centric theme of "YES WE TAM!" This is the JPG of the email invitation he sent out to announce the ride:



Here's the album with pics from the ride on my Facebook Page: Yes we TAM! Bike Ride

By the way, while we're on the subject of Obama, let's all vote on Tuesday, mmkay?


4. Visiting my Family: James and I went to visit my sister this past weekend in Colorado Springs, and then took them all down for a roadtrip to celebrate my Grandpa Tom's 80th birthday in Albuquerque. Charity has the most adorable kids I've ever seen, and deserves a medal for raising them so well while her husband's been away for most of the last 5 years in Iraq. Here are Gibson, almost 9; Jonathan, 7; Conner, 4; and baby girl Sydney, 8 mo:

My Sister's Great Kids

That's about it. Also on this list would be: moving with James to a cute place in Belmont, listening to and watching the debates, becoming addicted to This American Life podcasts, getting deeply involved in the political goings-on of Getting More Bike Capacity on Caltrain, and, most recently, pumpkin carving:



I hope everyone else has been just swell. I promise I'll be back soon!

Where the Hell is Matt?

My Mom sent me this link, and she NEVER sends me forwards or links (or very rarely sends them, anyway), so I figured it had to be good. I was correct:


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Because I'm not made of wood, I was sitting there with tears rolling down my face by the end of it. Wasn't that good??

My blog has been taken over by "FakeDomain.com"

Has this ever happened to anyone else? This is what my blog address re-directs to.

Life on a bike

So, on tax day last month, I was given the unexpected and delightful gift of a fabulous new bike! (to be exact, a 2007 Fuji Absolute LX silver hybrid.)

I was slightly intimidated at first, because I had almost never ridden a bike in my adult life (I think a total of 5 rides, from the time I was 16 until now). But I've gotten the hang of it: riding in traffic, going up hills, wearing clipless pedals (after falling over in front of traffic at red lights only about 7 times), and all; and I absolutely love riding on a bike.

This bike has really changed the way I think about exercising, the concept of fun, driving, getting around, and freedom. It is awesome. And, at the end of the year, it will make me a bit richer: My boss, who is an avid rider, has an employee "health incentives plan" of forking over $0.10/mile to a biking employee at the end of each year. Well, 28 days later, I've earned $19.45! (and that includes one week that she was busted in the shop (we won't talk about why.))

I've decided that it's worth my while, time-wise, stress-wise, health-wise and air-wise (and just about breaking even cost-wise, comparing a long and somewhat expensive train ride with the outrageous cost of Bay Area fuel), to ride my bike to Caltrain and take the train into work. It's a short bike ride to and from the station from my house to work, but at the end of the day, I can get off a few stops early and go for a nice, long twilight ride before coming home (and burn like 500 calories(!) at the same time, which makes for a much more satisfying workout than sweating on the elliptical machine for 30 minutes at the gym).

So here are some pics of me and my new baby:


On one of my first rides, to Peet's.



Taking a break on one of many trails in the hills around my house.



Looking ahead on the bike path. I absolutely ADORE these trails!



If you ever needed a reason to start biking, this would be it.

Figure Drawing Class: First day at school

YAAY! Just got back from very first drawing class since 2002. Hoorah! I heard about this 10-week class from a woman I talked to a couple of weeks ago about art classes. She suggested this school in Palo Alto because they offer classes with models, which was always my favorite part of art school. Am lucky enough to have WPI foot the bill for my "continuing education." Have never been so giddy about going back to school!

I took some pics of the best work from tonight. Class started with warmup of ten 10-second and ten 30-second poses, then on to some minute-longs, and then some longer poses. Class was small, about 4 or 5 total, and had really great easels. (UGA never was blessed with good easels in its painting department: they had precarious metal frames, with oil-paint-coated hinges, and on several occasions they collapsed onto some poor student during my classes. My painting teachers were always very bitter about the huge percentage of the art school budget that was typically given over to the tech-heavy design school. Anyway, these easels were great.)

I discovered that I couldn't quite remember how to use white conte crayons: more than once, I destroyed a couple of drawings by smearing in some white too soon. But these were the best:


10-second pose



10-second pose



30-second pose



30-second pose



first part of a longer pose: about 30 minutes



long pose: about an hour total. This one was very tough, but I stuck with it. It looks strangely proportioned, but there's still a kind of tense, uncomfortable energy I like about it.

More to come next week!!

James naps

Ever since we got new comfy couches in the living room, I find my boyfriend dozing off about 20 minutes into any television show we may be watching, especially in the evenings. Here he was on Sunday night, and then tonight during Conan. Sleep makes for a good model.

Open Studios?

So I'm thinking about going out there and starting to create and sell some work. James and I stopped by a gallery on Market Street today: we were attracted to the big colorful paintings on the wall (sorry I can't be more descriptive: they were bright and blocky and geometric, and on one wall there were some pseudo-Thiebaud-y-type Sonoma landscapes I didn't really care for, and there were also some images of crayons). Anyway, I made a beeline for the chocolate lab on the ground and started chit-chatting with the gallery owner: "Oh hello, is this a chocolate lab? So, how do artists usually get work in here?" I was very suave.

Anyway, the woman told me about two things: she holds artists' critiques on Tuesday nights, and that there are lots of Studios that I could join and work in. Woo-hoo!

So now I'm all antsy about creating again. I drew three pictures tonight while listening to a few podcasted episodes of RadioLab (a fabulously entertaining and engaging show on NPR that is quickly topping Fresh Air in my list of radio favorites).

Just because they're usually easiest for me, I did self portraits. Here's one, and the source image (by the way, I got another HAIR CUT today!!! Can't write a blog without mentioning a HAIR CUT!!):





So I'm officially inspired and energized, and I'm going to check out this whole Studio thing. I think it involves renting space in a studio. I know there are lots in the City. Will check it out.

Homework for Emily: One drawing (or, as Simon in the hotel bathtub would say), "Draorwring" a week.