Sunday Morning is Every Day For All I Care, and I'm Not Scared

April 24th 2011:

Easter is a holiday for children and religious folks... as I am neither (and have no children, unless you count the wolves), I celebrated the holiday with an "Iron Range" breakfast - eggs, toast, tater tots and a can of Hamm's - at Zayda Buddies, then the old gang reunited for a trip to EMP for the Nirvana exhibit.

It is an odd feeling, seeing a large part of your teen years on display in glass cases, relics from a time that is no more. It felt kind of like having my childhood slaughtered, and its bloody pieces spread out for everyone's viewing pleasure.

Okay, maybe that is a little over-dramatic, but you get the point. It was a painful sort of nostalgia, seeing all those Nirvana relics behind their plexi-glass windows. Not that Nirvana, as much as I loved them, was the end-all-be-all of 90's rock bands, but more remembering that there was a time when "alternative" music thrived, and local scenes thrived, and people went to shows because it was fun and they were friends (actual friends, I mean, not the awkward hipster "do you have anything I need or want right now? No? I gotta jet" sort of friends), and the majority of indie/underground bands weren't trying to write music that would play well to a car or cell phone ad (I mean, come on, the thought of selling a song for a commercial was sacrilegious back in the day).

But, sigh, things change... I do hope that there is a future generation of kids out there buying guitars and playing rock music because it is rebellious and meaningful and beautiful, not because it could get them an energy drink sponsorship, a slot on Warped Tour and 15 minutes of fame.

That's not too much to hope for, is it?

Thanks to All Who Came Out!

Wanted to say thanks to everyone who came out to the Sunset on March 13th, and a huge thank you to People Eating People for playing an excellent show (and for the mid-set sales plug)!

**Nouela Johnston/People Eating People

Music, Art, Drinks and Friends - Saturday!

This Saturday I will be at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard, drinking my heart out, enjoying the music of the ever amazing People Eating People... oh yeah, and awkwardly showing off the exceptionally creepy art installation I have going on.

The place has some incredible, old, fuzzy red, Victorian wallpaper, which I have to say, is the perfect backdrop for my work...

Anyhoo, if you're in the neighborhood, stop on by!

Starts at 10pm, 21+, $8.00 cover
Bands playing: Spanish for 100, People Eating People and We Wrote the Book on Connectors

5433 Ballard Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107

A review from the Fremont exhibit!

While at the opening for my exhibit at Fremont coffee I met Anthony, a local art blogger, and his daughter, Natalie. He wrote up an excellent review of the show. I am reposting a snippet below.

"Do you remember horror movies before the in-your-face death and destruction and bloodletting that began with Alien, perhaps, or maybe Halloween? The horror then was psychological, and always perceived, than shoved in your face.

That is the type of art Christen brings us. There is no way to label her work other than dark. Dark, is a given. But the questions that her work poses - what is going on here? - are much more potent and thought provoking than what lies on the surface...."

You can visit his blog by clicking the title of this post to read the whole review. If you are a fan of local art, enjoy Seattle's frequent artwalks and/or just want to know what's happening in the art world, I recommend his blog. It's both informative and all encompassing.

Goodbye Capitol Hill... Hello Fremont

It's about time to take the paintings down from Bauhaus Coffee... they will be up through July 30th, so if you want to get a look before they go, best high-tail it over there. I will be taking everything down around 5pm on the 31st if anyone wants to stop by to heckle me.

So, goodbye Capitol Hill... hello Fremont!!

New Paintings will be up!
August 6th through September 2nd
@
Fremont Coffee
459 N 36th St
Seattle, WA 98103

Reception on Friday, August 7th from 6-9pm
Meet the artist and enjoy booze, coffee and snacks!

Tonight is Capitol Hill Artwalk, aka Blitz!

Okay, so tonight its the Capitol Hill Blitz (of course the Hill couldn't be satisfied with just calling it artwalk... oh Capitol Hill).
I am planning to check out the other artworks and to hang at Bauhaus Coffee, where my paintings are currently up for critique and for the buying... as if I haven't mentioned that enough times in the last few weeks.
I hope to be there from around 6:30-9 tonight and encourage all you Seattle folk to come on out! Click this blog's title for a map to all the venues.

Art is Officially up at Bauhaus

Paintings are officially hung and available for viewing (and purchasing if the mood strikes) at Bauhaus Books & Coffee. This is the first time I have ever hung on a bookcase... very odd, but kind of cool... the Fear, Phobia paintings are hanging upstairs... sorry, no pic, you'll just have to go see for yourself!!

They will be up through July 31st, and Bauhaus will be participating in Capitol Hill Art Blitz (2nd Thursday of the month).

Crows, Crackheads and Cigarettes

It's been a while since I've added to the blog... I've been busy, busy, busy, but yesterday was just so strange I feel like sharing.

It stared at 6:30 AM when I decided to flat iron my hair before having the obligatory cup of coffee. Needless to say, I burned the shit out of myself in a sleep addled haze. By 7:10 I was out the door and walking to work. All was going well, I had "In Utero" cranked in my headphones, the weather was great, things were looking up.

I decided to take a shortcut through the parking lot of a church when a giant, black beast of a crow dive-bombed my head. Then there were three crows, all flying at me. I ran two blocks Tippi Hedron style to the safety of a friend's house (P.S. Hitchcock's "The Birds" terrified me as a child, so this was especially horrifying for me). Though I kind of wished I could have watched from a distance, I bet it looked hilarious!

Anyway, after calming down a bit and making sure those bastard crows were gone, I was off to work where I kept my head down and hoped for the best. I made it through work disaster free and left early for a haircut appointment downtown. To get there from my job, I had to take either the 3 or the 4 bus - for non-Seattlelites, these are the buses that run between First Hill and Downtown, past the county hospital, the jail and courthouse, the homeless shelter and a rehab clinic. The 3 got there first so I hopped on; it was filled to capacity, so I stayed in the front.

We made it three blocks when the people in the back started screaming and yelling for the driver to stop the bus. Apparently, a cracked out dude had decided to projectile vomit all over the back of the crowded bus then crawl into the stairwell to continue puking in relative privacy. We all had to evacuate. The plus of this story, I was in front and did not get barfed on, the negative side, I was late for my haircut.

I hauled ass downtown by foot, got my haircut, which was fabulous... there's nothing like changing your hair to make you feel new again... then scrambled to find and catch a bus to Queen Anne to meet up with friends and have a much needed drink or two. While waiting on the street for said bus, a homeless man (missing teeth, open sores on his face, smelled like rotten death) who had clearly just pissed himself walked up and, in complete sincerity, gave me shit for smoking in his general vicinity because of the "secondhand smoke"... what is the world coming to?

Alas... so far today has been much less painful. I finished a coffee table I was painting, it is now a fully functional black cat Ouija Board (I will post pics when I get home), and I have several canvases prepped and ready to go, which means time to paint, and that makes me one happy girl.

For now, back to work!

Oh, life

So, before launching into current events or a rant about yesterday or my feelings about being trapped in an office when it is sunny and beautiful out, I feel obligated to provide a little information about myself, back story, if you will.

I was raised in the metro Phoenix area of Arizona, a vapid suburban wasteland where strip malls and planned communities spread across the desert like the plague and beige is the only color paint ever invented. I moved as soon as I possibly could - up to Seattle, down to Los Angeles, back up to Seattle. I joined a band, spent three years touring this land we call America, the band broke up, started another band, went back out on tour, ended up at an ER in Kansas City after a sweltering show and an all night afterparty, found out I wasn't just hot and drunk, but seriously ill, was told I needed surgery, left Missouri for the east coast with an arsenal of pain killers in my suitcase, got lost in Central Park, finished the tour, had afore mentioned surgery at a county hospital in Phoenix, found out I needed a second surgery, had said second surgery, adopted a starved, neglected, emotionally damaged wolfdog puppy, agreed to marry Christiaan, the love of my life (still working on setting a date), moved back to Seattle.

That is pretty much my twenty-somethings in a nutshell. Currently, I am working on a new band and trying to become more ambitious about getting my art out into the world. I recently started working with oil paints (I was always an acrylics kind of lady, but I seem to be getting more patient with age) and am entirely stoked about the results. I will be posting these paintings as the mood strikes me and/or as the new ones are completed. Roland, my damaged desert puppy, has grown into a 125lb neurotic hairball - we can't take him anywhere, he is afraid of bicycles, backpacks, sliding doors, telephone poles, people; you name it, he fears it - and for his birthday last December we adopted Billie, quite possibly the cutest puppy on this here planet. She is all love and kisses, and is slowly teaching Roland to be more comfortable with himself and the world.

I just moved into a house with my fiance and the two dogs, the first place I've lived with no roommates since I was 18. Finally having some space and privacy is fabulous and I am amped to use all my new-found alone time to paint and write and focus on making a future for myself that I can be happy with, because, I have to face it, I have never been a good drone, the daily 9 to 5 routine makes me crazy, and I am only truly at peace with myself when doing something creative. The new house is full of quirks, including a secret room that was sealed off from the rest of the house, but I will save that for the next post... for now, back to life as a drone... break time is over, there are customers to serve, reports to write and spreadsheets to create... sigh.