Poison Poison Tasty Fish!

My studio has been set up to accommodate painting of the dolls so it’s been pretty hard to transition to flat paintings. I need a sloping desk top and some bits and pieces to hold my paints in while I’m working. It’s a bit of a nightmare, really, trying to paint on paper, but I’m making a go of it. I’m painting on top of a dinner tray that I can tilt up or down and since I don’t use palettes I’ve been taping pieces of cardboard on top of the actual painting I’m working on to mix the colors. I’ll figure it out soon. In the meanwhile, I am having some fun practicing new techniques and working on projects that I never got around to doing.

This is the latest, inspired by my Dad’s penchant for fine and sometimes dubious cuisine and an episode of The Simpsons. My Dad had an insane zest for life. He loved trying new things. When Colorado legalised a certain green thing, he happily drove me to the nearest dispensary and went in with me and paid for my “goods.” And when he drove me to my first gynecology appointment, he repaired to the nearest sushi bar while I was getting checked out and ordered himself a plate of fugu to calm his nerves, as my appointment, he had claimed, was more traumatic for him than it was for me. Fugu, if you are not aware, is deemed both a celebrated and notorious cuisine in Japan and selected countries. The difference between eating this dish and the garbage they serve in the “wet markets” of Asia is that fugu is only legal if it is prepared by a highly trained and licensed chef. As ambitious as my Dad was in his epicurean endeavours, he wasn’t about to make his own fugu in the kitchen.

Later on in his life, he more or less stopped eating fish. He hated seeing fish struggling to breathe when captured and then slowly asphyxiate, and that man LOVED his seafood! After he passed away I went through his files and found that he had been making substantial contributions to the WWF and other animal charity groups. And so this painting is not so much a study of an obscure Asian cuisine but more of a celebration of the life of a man who truly lived his own to the fullest.

The earthenware pot and the sake set are replicas of the ones my Dad owned! The pot is a representation of all the fun family dinners we’ve had to mark a special occasion. Shabu shabu is one of our favourite meals, even for me, who would not voluntarily eat 5/8 of the stuff I painted here, but I always sat around with everyone for hours on end as the pot bubbled and boiled with a seemingly never-ending array of food. At the moment, when visiting families is now either forbidden or a huge ordeal, I’m glad I have plenty of memories to hold onto.

A Fishy Exercise

I am taking a break from painting dolls during this down time. It’s true I still have stacks of unfinished dolls to paint, and it will happen, just not now. As much as I appreciate the amount of work that came my way in the past, the days were very long and sometimes grueling. I was painting seven days a week, but that’s only because my work and hobby is one in the same so my schedule leaves very little time for me to do anything else.

On my first full day off, I went to see my doctor and wisely requested a cortisone shot for my shoulder. This time I was determined to rest for a few days before doing anything to let it settle, which I had not done previously and the shots were herefore ineffective. Now that I’m back in a fairly good shape again, I decided to go back to basic and do some painting exercises on paper.

Like everyone else in this world right now, the Hubs is upset about the state of the world we’re in. We’re one of the lucky ones, but who knows what will happen from one day to the next? The Hubs is now deemed an “essential worker” and on top of everything else, he was responsible for the welfare of up to 150 employees at his job and he moved heaven and earth to make sure everyone still had their jobs and would be able to come back if they fell ill. He was forced to make some personal sacrifices and I am so proud of him for doing so. In the meanwhile, I decided to cheer him up by painting his absolute favorite thing in the world: Swedish Fish. Whenever I go back to the States, I would be tasked to bring back a 5 pound bag of this stuff just for him.

It took me two days to work up the courage to get this guy down on paper. Once I got going I stopped second guessing myself. It amuses me to no end that I’m always convinced that I’ve forgotten how to paint whenever I start a new project! But here we are, and it made the Hubs smile. My work is done!

Please stay safe, stay healthy, stay inside. If this is as tough as it gets, being indoors, then I consider us all very very lucky indeed.