Maxine's BD: P.'s Misery (ca. 09-02)

...Where P. (aka Maxine) mulls over her looks. (ca. 09-02)

About the comics... (09-30-08)

[. . .] As for the comics, since they tend to be the way I tell personal issues, I realize that I am taking the risk that people will think, "Well, she's so darn shallow, with her obsession about her appearance," etc. But this is ME, take it or leave it. Meet me halfway, and you'll see that we have a lot in common.
I am not looking for advice; I am not looking for solace. I think that inner peace is something that is gained from life experience, and obviously, I still have a lot to learn.

No Objectivity Necessary or Required (09-30-08)

I was going through some of my old sketchbooks, and revisited some old situations and feelings, as I had interpreted them at the time. My sketchbooks are so precious to me that, -and this is something I have thought about many, many times, if my house were on fire, they are what I would want to pull out (assuming everyone is safe, etc.), along with my thumb drives, since they hold my written journal texts.
When I write, it tends to be in the "I-Hate-My-Life" style, while the sketchbooks hold so many moments of sheer wonder, happiness and pleasure (such as the drawing of my husband's hand with a paper heart next to it, a sketch of someone's toddler asleep on a plane, or an architectural detail on a building...), that words could not convey appropriately. Of course, I could write, "The child was asleep now, her soft, gentle face was peaceful..." and how BORING that would be. There is nothing like drawing it.
I decided to post some old entries from my sketchbooks. There is no specific order or reason that will dictate my postings, just whatever catches my attention and makes me smile at the memory.
I may at some point also post my pages on politics, -some are funny, while most express how helpless I feel in a world that is out of control.
[. . .]
I am not looking for advice; I am not looking for solace. I think that inner peace is something that is gained from life experience, and obviously, I still have a lot to learn.

Maxine's BD: Shopping for clothes (ca. 09-08?)

...Where Maxine faces an existential crisis.

A sketch of Paris (ca. 07-08)

Here is one of my favorite recent sketches: in July, I was lucky enough to draw one of the rooftops of the Paris Courthouse.

Why I draw (09-25-08)

My sketchbooks are a source of comfort and pleasure. Whenever I feel bored or unsure about a situation, or when I plain don't feel like being sociable, I know that, in my purse, a world of escape awaits. They are my memory of events I enjoyed, my record of places visited, my outlet for what can't always quite be said in words.

Maxine's BD: Willamette Writers Conference (ca. 08-08)

...Where Maxine explores her altruistic side as a conference volunteer...

Tree cutters at work (09-16-08)

G. and I went for a walk tonight and, on our way, we walked down two blocks over eastward and were stupefied to see that the very tall and beautiful cedar tree on the edge of the second house from the corner was in the process of being cut down.
Now, this is a house that had been for sale for close to $700,000 in the past year, by far the nicest house in the neighborhood and, of course, part of what made the property attractive was the tree on the left side of the property.
There was a contractor's van on the street and scaffolding in front of the house. In my opinion, whomever has the money to buy such an expensive house, then remodel and cut trees down that were perfectly fine... (I won't finish my sentence).
Of course, the excuse will be invoked that 1) the tree was "sick," 2) it could be "dangerous" (so could Mt Hood blowing up), 3) it was "old" (see excuse #2), 4) it was "messy" (it shed needles/pinecones/horse chestnuts/leaves, or whatever else).
It makes one cynical.

Maxine's BD: Paris, Part 4 (ca. 07-08)

...Where Maxine gets frustrated...

Maxine's BD: Paris, Part 5 (ca. 07-08)

...Where Maxine reflects on sight-seeing and on her trip...

Maxine's BD: Paris, Part 3 (ca. 07-08)

...Where Maxine eats on the cheap and goes on the Champs-Élysées...

Maxine's BD: Paris, Part 2 (ca. 07-08)

...Where Maxine stays in a luxury hotel and has no money to spend...

Maxine's BDs: Paris, Part 1 (ca. 07-08)

...Where Maxine arrives in Paris on Bastille Day...

Photos of Kitchen (ca. 09-08)

Photos of my kitchen, designed by Yours Truly.

Since the house is for sale, I figured I might as well post a couple of photos of my favorite space: the kitchen I designed. I think the project turned out fabulous, especially with the color tiles on the wall.

I really enjoy watching house redo shows; it makes me laugh when I see "experts" walk in a house, criticize everything and turn it into a "staged" space that makes it look bland and banal. Unlike some of the houses I see on these programs, I like houses with personality.

Today's Sketch: The Lady with the Camelias (09-07-08)

With a nod to Alexandre Dumas, here is "La Dame aux Camélias."

It is rather unusual for me to draw from imagination, but the opportunity presented itself today. I used a (leaky) Pilot Vball 0.5 pen.

A sketch I did last Thursday (09-04-08)

Drawing from imagination is very different from when I look at something. Lines are generally more defined, features are a bit out of proportion, shadows are less defined. A different style altogether.

My Recipe for Coffee-free Frappuccino (09-04-08)

And here it is, dear audience, my super-extra-addictive-no-coffee-much-chocolate recipe for Frappuccino. No need to rely run to your local (unnamed) coffee shop anymore, because you can make it at home.
And, oh, it IS so difficult to resist making it...over and over. Just like right now.
It sure looks like I'm going to make me one of these delicious chocolate-flavored drinks, since I won't have to share with a bunch of people (J. is asleep, V. is upstairs, M. and K. at work, G. is at a meeting; only C. is downstairs)...hehehe.

Sad day: the Rosa Mulliganii came down (08-30-08)

This is totally hearsay, but this is as I understand it: the people who seemed (semi-)interested in the house apparently came to see it with their parents, and the parents may have preferred another house that had just come on the market, etc. Result: no offer.

In the meantime, since we had apparently nothing better to do today, we spent the afternoon cleaning the yard, and filling the trailer with year debris.

G. cut down the climbing rose (rosa mulliganii) from the cedar tree, a sad thing, since it took me 14 years to get that thing to climb up and stay in the upper branches rather than snagging me as I walked by. (Picture me standing up on a chair and trying to get the long thorny shoots to loop over the cedar branches with a rake held up high over my head, and them cascading down on head). Anyway, we did this after an arborist had assured G. that the rose would eventually block the sunlight from reaching the branches, and thus impede needle production, etc. So, it's been all cut down. G. was very happy, I guess, as happy as anyone can be after quasi-nagging me for 14 years about how the rose-this and the rose-that, and he finally got to take it down.

Looking up this rose on the web tonight, I just found out that it is the "perfect" rose to grow on cedar trees. Whatever. I have, like, so much moved on mentally that I don't care. All that's left is the base and the roots, and that, I am going to dig up and take with me wherever I go. No point leaving anything that people won't appreciate. Call me cynical; I just take comments that my yard is a "jungle" rather personally.

In the end, and surprisingly enough, the yard looks bigger. Let's see if that gets us some traffic, haha, and maybe people will notice that there IS a yard, all 60 x 100 of it.

Procrastinating...again (08-27-08)

Well, today, we had another one of those speed-clean-the-house moments, because the house had to be shown. It's pretty difficult to keep everything clean all the time. What is even more annoying is to hear lame "feedback" comments and complaints, such as "But there's no yard..." (said in an annoying nasal voice). Yes, there IS a yard: right in front of the house and on the side of it. No, it's not a private yard where you can romp around in the nude, but it IS larger than the standard city lot.

Consequently, I still haven't posted any drawings.

Phil Spector: An Interesting Face and Name (ca. 08-08)

This is an old drawing I did in 2007 from a newspaper photo of 60s record producer Phil Spector during his first trial for murder.
I'm not trying to be funny here, but the name kinda matches the face...

Coming soon... (08-10-08)

...to this blog: Maxine's posts in comics format.

Yessiree, it'll be FUN, it'll be THOUGHT-PROVOKING, it'll be AMAZING!!!

(I can hardly wait.)

Family Tensions (08-10-08)

Gotta post this, it's too funny...

I just love these quick comic sketches I drew thinking of Gary when he got upset one day, as an idea for a possible comics story.

I tried to work on the expressions and the movement

First impressions (08-09-08)

All right. It's time to get this stuff posted and stop berating myself for not doing anything creative. In fact, I got more creativity than I know what to do with, but what I don't have is MOTIVATION. So, in an effort to remedy the problem,

HELLO WORLD,

MAXINE HAS HEREBY STARTED HER SUPRA-EXCITING BLOG IN WHICH SHE WILL TELL IT ALL TO ALL, AND LIFE IN THE BLOGOSPHERE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME, etc.

(PS: the above text was not yelling; it was just an official announcement)

Maxine's BD: The Gums-Gone-Bad, Part 2 (05-29-08)

Where teeth-related problems continue...

Maxine's BD: The Tell-Tale Teeth, Part 1 (05-23-08)

...Where P. shares her dental woes.

Performance Art in Brussels (11-23-07)

On my last evening in Brussels, I witnessed one of the most chilling art performances ever: women of all ages wearing wedding dresses, dancing on the Grand' Place in front of the Brussels City Hall.

It was eery; ghostlike figures moving about, some quickly, some dragging their feet, in turn grotesque or gracious...

The Interpretation of Marriage

I approached to get a better view of what they were doing. They were miming various tasks and the impact marriage had on the condition of women, ranging from exaggerated bliss to extreme suffering.

Then the doors to the City Hall were open, and the group went upstairs, followed by the crowd that had been watching their performance.

The interesting thing about the Brussels City Hall is that the room where weddings take place is never open to the public outside of an actual such event, and so this was an exceptional opportunity to see it. Good grief! Gorgeous! And as spectacular as the outside...

The women put on another performance, this time, to beautiful, sad music. It was enchanting.

Inside the Brussels City Hal

Women Faces

With only a few hours before my flight back to the United States, I already felt very homesick for Belgium, even though I was still there.

I reluctantly left after 10 PM, looked once again at the market place, now dark, deserted, and went my way, full of regrets unexpressed.

Older Post: Trip to Europe (09-18-07)

Our trip to Europe in a nutshell: it was super-expensive (but fun). We were limited by time and very strapped for money; it was stressful at times (I ran out of cash after one week, and had to use my credit card for the rest of the trip). I did much window shopping, since I couldn't afford to buy anything, but I still bought a few good books and some food treats (which have all been eaten...) We enjoyed the best summer, sunny weather. We went to see the Grand-Place in Bruxelles. It's still as gloriously luminous as ever. We went up to the top of the cathedral in Köln (Cologne). I wrote my name in tiny letters over someone else's graffito way up at the top of the tower. We saw a comic play by Molière in a medieval castle. We ate well, but got bored at my godmother's. We had fun at my brother's and sister-in-law's. We drove to a lot of places at breakneck speeds. We had a family reunion at my aunt's and uncle's. We forgot to take a photo with everyone. We went to my grand-parents' village, and Valérie saw her great-great-great-grand-parents' tombstone. Once again, I saw the little staircase my grand-father and I climbed on when we went for a walk to the forest when I was five years old. I looked in through the windows of the big, gloomy house where I lived when I was eight. It still had the same wallpaper in the entryway as it did back then. We ate the best french fries in the world, and Valérie rappelled down a cable from the top of the cathedral in Malmédy, Belgium. We went four days/three nights to Paris, and it wasn't long enough. I love Paris. Every time I go, there is something new about it. We walked all over Paris, looking for lavender ice cream, but didn't find any. But we found some pretty good places for gelato. We went up the towers of Notre-Dame and touched the gargoyles. Valérie wanted to see the catacombs and the sewers, so we did. It was sad and smelly, in that order. We went to see Monet's garden in Giverny. Much adventures ensued, including an arduous 45 minute-long walk along a busy highway, in the Normandy countryside under a hot blazing sun... We almost missed our train out of Paris, because we went to the wrong train station (Gare du Nord), and had to run with our bags all the way to the right station (Gare de l'Est), and barely made it. We went on the TGV from Paris to Luxembourg. On the way back, we experienced long, unexplained delays at airports, poor service from rude Continental airlines employees, etc. We waited in endless lines for hours, got stranded in Newark for one night, and had to drag our luggage from airport to hotel and back again. (What a drag to get home under these circumstances...)

Older Posts: I love shoes (ca. 2005. 2004, 2003)

ca. 01-05

These sketches came from different sketchbooks. I have a shoe obsession; there is something about the shape and the color, and how legs look so much prettier with certain styles of shoes...

Done on 04-23-04

My beloved Killer Shoes...

Fremont Bridge (07-04)

Here is a view of the Fremont Bridge from the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, while I was waiting for news about Christopher's possible appendicitis.

Older Post: Hawthorne Bridge (2004)

I did this drawing of the Hawthorne and Marquam bridges from inside an office building in downtown Portland.

This sketch was over my desk area for a very long period of time. I liked to look at it, then look out the window to compare my work with the view outside...

The Akwarius (ca. 01-04)

This is some of my older work, originally done in my 2004 sketchbook. I decided to post it here because I like it and I still find it pertinent and meaningful.

Sketchbook layout

Gaping Into the Abyss (09-11-01)

Words cannot describe the horror.