The above is a picture I did using oil pastels. Last year on a whim I emailed noted oil pastelist John Elliot not expecting a reply and much to my surprise he emailed me back **several months** later I should add.... and encouraged me to further pursue my work in oil pastel. As you can imagine it was a major psychological boost for me to receive encouragement from an artist who’s work I admire and who is still alive. I was on cloud 109 for several weeks. I even went out and bought his book on oil pastels, Oil Pastel For the Serious Beginner

It’s Labor Day and I’m proud to announce that I did abso-freakin-letely nothing all weekend. I just sat back and chilled. I started reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I should say right now that I’ve read all the books in the series up the GOF. The book is moving along quiet well. This will be the longest book I’ve ever read in my entire life. It clocks in at 734 pages. So far I’m at page 433. I’m reading the paperback version that I bought last summer.

I guess you’re wondering why a grown 33 year old woman who has no children is reading Harry Potter. It’s for purely professional reasons. Remember, I’m a struggling artist and children’s book illustrator. Yea, right! Truth is it started innocently enough when I went to the bookstore one day intent on buying the three book set for my nephew as a Christmas present. Then I got curious about the allure of the books and began reading them and became hooked. Needless to say my nephew has never seen those books instead I gave him a $100 as his Christmas present.

Shockingly enough my favorite character in the series is not that bespeckled little moppet Harry Potter or his insipid little friends. My favorite is the deliciously cruel, Professor Severus Snape. There’s something about Professor Snape that makes me want to beg for detention. Yes, I know this sounds absolutely 100% weird and borderline sick! He’s a fictional character in a children’s book! But for goodness sake Alan Rickman plays him in the movies! That man simply oozes sex in nearly every role he’s in. Recently, I was shocked to learn that Rickman is pushing 60 (he’s 56) and Professor Snape according to Potter series writer JK Rowling is, supposed to be 35-36 years old! I had no idea that the Rickman was THAT OLD!!! But damn he still looks good!

Right now I’m trying to decide on what to do to obtain the next Harry Potter book that recently came out this year. I could either buy The Order of the Phoenix on eBay or wait till it comes out on paperback. The problem with waiting for the paperback edition is that on average it takes three years for them to come out. Can I possibly wait that long???

In case you’re curious my favorite Harry Potter book by far is the second one, The Chamber of Secrets. Great book, crappy movie. The book was everything I wanted Episode One of Star Wars to be like. I was reading it and saying out loud, “Damn this shit is better than Star Wars!” In my tiny world that’s a major complement. I liked how when someone pissed off Harry Potter something bad happened to them,....always. Rowling even carried this over into the next book,The Prisoner of Azkaban with the incident of Harry’s much loathed Aunt Marge.

With COS, you learn that the mark on his forehead is the mark of THE (yes, I meant to capitalize it) POWERFUL DARK WIZARD and that was why the evil Lord Voldemort was trying to do away with him as an infant. Voldemort didn't want any competition taking over the world. So he said in a since he was saying, “Kid, I’m taking you out before you take me out!” So in a since Voldemort was doing a preemptive strike. I found that whole concept intriguing...the concept that Harry Potter has the potential to be a thousand times more evil and more powerful than the dreaded Lord Voldemort. Yet, he makes a personal decision not to give in to the dark side. The book in a since is all about personal choices. I like the concept that Harry Potter despite all the damning facts that are revealed throughout the books about his possible true inner nature (lightening bolt on forehead=mark of powerful dark wizard, has the natural ability to speak snake Parsel tongue=powerful dark wizard, originally selected to live in Slytherin house=evil wizard) decides to fight against it. This of course was never explored in the movie... It’s a kiddie movie after all, but the book was deep, very deep.

Here’s what today’s writing assignment says, make a list of terms associated with a job your character has. After you’ve made your list, choose several terms and expand them into descriptive phrases to make a complete sensory description.

Hmmm.... this assignment appears to be very involved. Ok, right now I’m working on a short story about a 60 year old retired psycist who’s now working as a male stripper. I got the idea from a story I heard on NPR about you guessed it a real life retired psycist who works as a male stripper.

Terms:
G-string
stripper
bar
bump and grind
drinks
cheers
women
money
dancing
clothes
music


The women were cheering the music was loud, lights were flashing. I could hear drinks being poured and glasses clinking under the haze of the smoke filled room. Then the rhythmic clapping began it was my cue to go onstage.