HIP-notize Art Show at DeSoto Row Gallery
My friends and I arranged an art show at DeSoto Row called HIPnotize, about Bellydancers! There were 6 of us involved, most of us recent SCAD alumni. It went really well! And of course we had live bellydancers at the opening. Being a bellydancer, I was obligated 
The artists! Anna Cooper, Carrie Padgett, Mary Larsen, Me and Alexandra!
Here is Carrie hanging up some of the artwork. She did the swirly paintings, and Mary did the dancers.
These are Anna’s paintings. She does them in acrylic with a super small paintbrush. The piece on the left turns from a skirt to fossils in the ground. Awesome!
Here are Mary’s girls. There was a ton of other art and Anna has a great blog post with pictures of everything.
Here is my contribution to the show- two 16″x40″ acrylic paintings. I’m so glad to have them done. I finished them half an hour before we hung the show- hahaha. It took me two days longer than I expected to finish them, since I’m so used to working digitally I forgot how much patience it takes.
Here I am after we hung the paintings! You can’t tell but I was spastically happy. And I had a cute outfit.
Cairo on the Coast Dancing!
Unfortunately we had to dance inside the gallery because it rained all day- we’d been planning to have all the dancing outside so people could wander in and out of the gallery at will, but we just took breaks between songs instead.
Thanks to everyone who was involved and came to the show. It really was fun, and I love you all. Please excuse my copious use of exclamation points in this post.
Market Bazaar
Lately my friends and I have been going to some craft fairs to sell the things we make. This weekend was the Savannah Market Bazaar, which is the second saturday of every month.
My friends Nicole and Britt share a space. I sell my books, Nicole sells old fashioned cold process soap that she makes from scratch and Britt sells jewelry made out of tissue paper. Britt is my new roomie and she is totally awesome!
Me and Britt
I am working on a painting of a bellydancer in this picture- my friends and I arranged a belly dance art show called HIPnotize at DeSoto Row that will open Friday with live bellydancers! If you live in Savannah, you should be there.
New Handmade Books
I’ve been busting my butt to make a bunch of new books for the 3 craft shows coming up this month. Here they are- all 13 of them! They will be up on my Etsy store eventually.
Its finally fall, and I am so ready for cool weather and less mosquitos!
Gardening!
Well, I left most of the summer and my garden was horribly neglected. I’ve been poking and prodding it since I got back, weeding and reviving, and here are the re-beginnings of the growing. I planted a bunch of seeds with no expectation of them growing because it has been so hot, but within only a few days they were already sprouting!
- Carrot Seedlings
- Zucchini Seedlings
- Spinach Seedlings
My Pepper plants were really the only things that survived the summer without much effort needed to revive them. They’re producing tiny little peppers that are about 2 inches long right now.
- Baby Pepper
My basil died a horrible, tragic death while I was away and my Dad gave me a few of his little basil plants. They’re doing well, but I can’t wait for them to get huge! My last plant was about a foot and a half tall and had giant leaves. My strawberry plant, too, which was producing fruit, started shriveling up, but I saved it and now it has a few tiny new leaves. Hang on, little strawberry plant!
Basil
Strawberries
I got an aloe plant from the local wildlife center- they were selling them for $2. Hopefully I won’t ever burn myself because this plant is too cute to cut up.
Aloe
This is the part of my garden with the peppers, eggplant and new baby seeds.
Portion of my Garden
This is Bob, my boyfriend’s tomato plant. He dug it up when he was moving houses and showed up at my house in the middle of the night with it and scared the bejezus out of me. Bob isn’t doing so good, but I will try to save him.
Tomato
Sempervivum
Oregano
I had to put the catnip in a hanging basket because my outdoor kitty, Notch, and the other neighborhood cats liked it a little too much and ate most of it.
Catnip Plant
My Dad gave me this plant. It blooms pretty reddish flowers in December! We’ve had these plants around my house my whole life, and now I have my own house and my own Christmas Cactus.
Christmas Cactus from my Dad
Unknown Plant
This begonia also made it through the summer without looking neglected. I am impressed.
Begonia
Wind Chime
Bellydancing at Tantra, August 09
Cairo on the Coast, my dance troupe, did our usual gig with Mei’attah Raqs at Tantra Tapas & Sushi last night. The crowd was huge and enthusiastic, so thanks to everyone for making it a great evening! And I finally had my new green costume all put together!
I was super tired because I worked a morning shift that day and took a nap between work and bellydancing- when I woke up to my alarm, I was extremely disoriented and thought I was in highschool and had to get up, put on a uniform, and go to class. I was very upset until I remembered that I’m not a high schooler, I’m a bellydancer.
As usual, there was a token drunk lady running around. She danced by herself between our sets of dances. She was pretty into it. Unfortunately she didn’t do anything hilarious like the last drunk lady who poured a drink on her head and then went and barfed on the huge glass windows of the super expensive restaurant next door, but drunk dancing is pretty good anyway. She tried to dance with Nicole during one song and was promptly escorted off the stage by a waitress. I must say, though- apart from whoever the drunk lady is on any particular night, Tantra is a pretty classy place.
My friends and I have a tentative plan to have an art show this fall featuring belly dance art and the local troupes. It will mainly be a collection of our own work- but we will probably also have a call for entries as well. So if anyone has any belly dance art or ideas, start getting them together
Back Home
Well, it certainly has been an ordeal to come back home and find the AC is completely broken. Thank God for window AC units! I couldn’t get anything done for several days due to the unbearable Savannah summer heat, but I gave in and bought one, because its going to take a long time for the central air to be repaired. Its expensive.
- Radiating Glory and Emitting Cool Air
On a happier, more adorable note, I have brought this fuzzy thing home with me:
- Meet Figwit
Figwit is my cat from Atlanta. She is very small and adorable and has the sharpest little claws that she never seems to retract. We rescued her out of a tree in 2002 on Christmas day- She was so high up, poor thing, that she couldn’t get down and we couldn’t get her either so we tied a rope to a tennis ball, threw it over a branch, and hoisted a basket up to her filled with catnip and tuna. After much hesitation she jumped in and was lowered down to safety, and she has been my favorite ever since. My parents have been begging me to take her home with me for years and I finally did!
My roomie’s cat, Lucius, escaped one day and after a long rescue mission he was covered in mud, tuna, and possibly fleas so she gave him a bath. I took pictures because I’m a jerk. Wet cats make me giggle too much- I feel a little bad about it.
- Rinse and Repeat!
- Its over!
We dried him with a sham wow. They’re not as exciting as the informercials make them seem. Wet cats, however, are very exciting.
I put the books I make up on Etsy! Check out my store! The book below is one I made for a friend.
- Double Button Hole Binding
I’ve been slack about doing art all summer, but I painted a mailbox recently for my summer camp. Here it is:
Now I’m working on some sketches for murals for the camp, fixing my portfolio up a bit and getting it printed nicely, and starting to paint with acrylics again. Soon I will have a lot more artwork to post!
Photos from the Ranch this Summer
I spent too long not blogging and taking awesome pictures, so I’m going to post the pictures and let them speak for themselves. Enjoy!
Valley View Banquet Invocation
I wrote this for my camp’s Banquet, which happens at the end of each session. Its kind of the last hurrah for the campers, and the last night of fun before saying goodbye. A counselor or staff member is always asked to do the invocation, and this was my first chance to do it- after being on the ranch for 13 years. It may not mean much to anyone who has never been to the ranch, but I hope this speaks to anyone who reads it- I think most people have been to a place that they feel similarly about. <3
I remember the first time I was alone here at camp on a session break years ago- I think I was fourteen. As I wandered around the empty camp, I was profoundly unnerved by how quiet it was without the laughter and noise of the campers and counselors. There was something there, in the quiet, that I couldn’t quite put my finger on- but it intrigued me. It took me a while to realize what was there- what was left when the company of friends and the riding lessons were all gone, and I was left only with myself and the land. There is a profound peace that lies quietly beneath everything on this ranch.
Stop and look around every now and then, and listen when the ranch is quiet. Believe in the peace and you will find it, and it will become a part of you. The peace has followed me home for many years now and I often hear it echoing in the hoofbeats of my carriage horses as they walk through loud, busy city streets. When we head back to the barn at night and the streets are dark, empty and quiet, I find myself singing camp songs to my horses and the gripes of city life leave me. And there is peace because I am, in my mind, back in these vast green fields once again.
Where there is peace, there is no room for hate or fear- only for love and trust. As we leave this place, we step back out into a world where conflict and wars have made themselves far too well known and peace is a quiet voice that many people choose not to hear. Take the peace home with you, and let it grow. It will take root and spread to everyone around you. If peace can prevail here, there is no reason why it can’t in the rest of the world.
As you leave, take everything good that you’ve learned with you. And though we will miss this place, smile- because that means that a part of Valley View exists within you and wherever the roads may lead you from here, know that someday… The mountain will call you back again.
SCAD Illustration Senior Show
I graduated. I guess that means I’m a real person now.
I’m also now a permanent artist in the A.T. Hun Gallery in Savannah. I guess that means I’m a real artist now.
However, I’m spending the summer at the ranch to clear my head and not do art.
And its good… For now.
I do miss home.
