Heaven or Hell, from the End is Near, Q. Cassetti, 2011, pen and ink, adjusted in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CS%There are grackles on the roof looking at me with all sorts of nesting material to make their nest…probably in the carriage house to our displeasure. Rob looked at the bird leavings and proclaimed that we were going to bird proof our back porch as those critters just decide what they want to do and poop etc. everywhere.

There was a cacaphony of birdcalls, crow caws and morning doves this morning while Shady and I did the consititutional. The Garlic Mustard is just about ready to bloom (maybe I can get some help ripping it out…I ripped out buttercups this morning). What with all the rain, the air is tropical and humid. The grass is growing like crazy with all the rain and cool humidity.

So here is another lesson for me. TAG your online work. Tag your images…and dont be skimpy. Talk about technique, tag subject down to detail, tag your name, your town, and the design elements of the compostion. I got another job yesterday from someone I have never spoken to, never marketed to, never met who, when searching the internet for bees found little old me. Quick sketch process for Friday and more finished work for next week as they are going into a test marketing process. This job has a mythological creature, limes and bees. And, they are interested in the handdrawn Q. Not the vector Princess.

So, since January, I have worked for 4 new Art Directors I have an email relationship with! Wow.

I am meeting this pm with my lovely new friends….maybe about a new enterprise they are interested in.

p.s. Harold Camping has claimed that this recent Rapture alert was just the warmup for October. Bless him, he is in bounceback mode…which gives me more time to work on my Rapture work after the new quickly job:

From The Times and Democrat:

Camping, who predicted that 200 million Christians would be taken to heaven Saturday before the Earth was destroyed, said he felt so terrible when his doomsday prediction did not come true that he left home and took refuge in a motel with his wife. His independent ministry, Family Radio International, spent millions - some of it from donations made by followers - on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the Judgment Day message.

But Camping said that he’s now realized the apocalypse will come five months after May 21, the original date he predicted. He had earlier said Oct. 21 was when the globe would be consumed by a fireball.

Saturday was “an invisible judgment day” in which a spiritual judgment took place, he said. But the timing and the structure is the same as it has always been, he said.

“We’ve always said May 21 was the day, but we didn’t understand altogether the spiritual meaning,” he said. “May 21 is the day that Christ came and put the world under judgment.”

Make plans for October. Sounds like a good day to throw a party. Right?

Lacy Angel v.1, Q. Cassetti, 2010, sharpie from the second advent projectThe Studio sale was great. I picked up a bunch of drinking glasses and goblets on the dollar table and then went to the high priced, cooler stuff. I got a few lattecino patterned vases, a bracelet, and a few cool little bowls (for me). So, there is cool stuff to give to local friends, and a few great things for us. It was nice to see a bunch of old Corning friends and to see the Museum bursting with their holiday open house.

Then, it was off to Sams Club (I thought they might have swags and wreaths which they did). It has been years since I have been in a warehouse club, and it was great…particularly as Rob didn’t let me go full bore into the thises and thats. We got the swags and wreaths (making the wonderbus particularly fabulously deliciously scented), some new sharpie brand pens (ultra thin), some printable postcards and some cheese for pasta. I also got a huge box of oatmeal for granola making. Thinking of granola, I think that might be my version of the Christmas cookie this year. It looks good in the container; I have the wintery stickers; and folks tend to love it…and its a tad bit healthier than cookies. I think I will be doing some dog biscuits though. Really fun and the poochitas love them.

Collection of Holiday headwear from the web.A note: Going to Corning is a bit like going to another universe. People just do things a bit differently than we do here on our plateau. The general populace’s sense of public humor, their favorite restaurants and stores, what they do in their spare time, what they value is a bit different and to me, interesting. Where is she going with this one? Well, I was horrified and at the same time amused by the passigiata of people at the Studio sale (particularly) casually strolling about with their holiday Santa Hats. First it was a middle aged mom type with fuzzy boots on and a big, pink, fluffy santa hat with a big embroidered patch in the front saying “Princess”. After her was a little girl wearing the same pink hat with a crown sewn into the fluffy white band. It was also branded as “Princess”. Then a rather sloppy man, calmly sported a Vikings Santa hat (purple and white and big graphics just like the Eagles one above). Another nonchalant man had the traditional Santa hat with Mickey Mouse ears (a holiday classic). While we were prepping to exit Sams, I looked across to the car facing us in the lot, and there was a skinny, runty guy with his gold and black Steelers hat!. I think there is a market there. How about some really deviant ones? Like Masonic Santa Hats with an all seeing eye on the top? Krampus Santa hats? Or Santa hats with cool words like “Stupid” or the novel word, “Dank”? Need to work on that. Big money potential. Very funny to me.

There were holiday sweaters galore. Everyone had something with holly or candycanes printed on them from belts to shirts. It all was very “festive” and it frightened me to death. Need to do some more scary illustrations.

Onward to more Advent calendar images. I am vascillating between all sorts of things..and am getting charged up for a new body of work inspired by my friend Peter suggesting I work on a green man image. I am loving what I am learning. Could be the bees for the winter for me. I knew something would pop up if I just kept at it…yay.