Last week went kinda sorta good. The boss man gave us overtime this week. We have'nt had overtime since July 2001. I think the main reason that he allowed for overtime was that our office was going to be audited and he and the big boss man wanted to make sure that everything was up to date.

Even though it looks like my paintings will not sell this week. I'm not upset. I find myself almost having this perverse feeling of joy. Fairy on the Beach has gotten about 40 hits on eBay, while Kat and Cat has gotten about 30 hits. I like knowing that people have looked at my work. Since there were no buyers I feel happy and elated that I have ticked off buyers that somehow my work is very scary and revolutionary thus non-biddable. They just don't know what to make of it! :)

Also this week I learned that my father had not been out of bed for two weeks. It seems his arthritis is acting up again. Today I bought him Cosamin D-S which are supplements that aid in the rebuilding of joint cartilidge. He won't expect to feel any results until 2-4 weeks after he begins treatment. He is also still taking his pain pills. The brand I choose to buy for him was the exact same brand that has been used in government research. I have my fingers crossed that it will work. I hate to see him in so much pain. This time the arthritis is in his left shoulder and in his arms. he finds it difficult to grip objects. But luckily he can still feed himself. He says that he will be staying over my sister's house until he feels better. Previously he was living with my aunt but he says she was driving him crazy and he had to get out.

I'm giving serious consideration to calling in sick tomorrow. I really am sick! Ok, I'm not as sick as I was on Friday but I'm still sick, nevertheless. It's just a minor sickness. I have a runny nose. I think that counts as sickness. Anyway, the weathermen who said this weekend would be warm and sunny with highs into the upper 70's (actually it was cold, wet, and damp this weekend with highs in the mid 50's to 60's) are claiming that tomorrow it will be in the 80's. I don't know what if this time there right and it really will be the 80's. I'd hate to be chained to my cubicle with a runny nose knowing that I had a legitimate excuse for staying away from work and having my own little Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I guess I'll have to see how I feel about it tomorrow....

Today to liven up things I had a backwards meal day. I baked chocolate chip cookies for breakfast and ate sausage and eggs for dinner. I really have to work on this becoming a vegetarian thing.

On the art front I am currently working on a painting for the esbq art show. It''s a watercolor of a woman and her cat. To me it looks almost as though I've unwittingly channeled Patrick Nagel. So far I've gotten two positive reviews on the City Paper Bulletin Board about a painting I'm not entirely sure is finished yet called, Fairy on the Beach. Based on the reviews by regular folks I think I'll be putting it up for sale this week. Afterall, my goal is not to please some hoity tooty art critics, but instead to give the public what they want. By the way another one of my paintings sold this weekend! It was called Lovely Leaping Mermaids. Sadly, the othering painting I had up for sale did not sell. It was called Fairy Offerings. I think I'll do a repaint on it maybe eliminate the two kids and give over to my urge to add a guitar. Afterall, the fairy to me does look a little like one of the members of The Bangles.

It's cold wet and rainy outside. I have not been outside since Friday. Right now I'm battling a cold. I hate this time of year. I never know if I should dress warmly like it's winter or dress like it's spring. Last Fall I caught a major cold. It was the earliest I had ever got sick since childhood. It was mid October and I was sick as a dog. In a since it's kind of ironic because I've always liked the Fall and Spring but lately they've turned into hotbeds of illness for me. Oh well, I feel a sneeze coming on.....

In case anyone is wondering, I did have Orange Chicken for dinner on Friday, it was wonderful. :) Also in case no one has noticed I updated my website which is called, The Art of GJ Willis. Basically, I added three new links to my front page and changed the photo of me to a painting I rendered using Classic Painter. I changed the photo because it's no longer reflective of how I currently look. I have'nt worn my hair in a ponytail in years. I currently wear my hair natural in either twists or untwisted twists. The look on my homepage is the untwisted twist look. Anyway, the photo came from my MVA ID card and I never really did like it much except that I was wearing a black t-shirt. I like to wear black a lot. I wasn't wearing makeup in the photo... which is a major misnomer because I like to wear makeup. I was in a rush that day to get to the MVA early to avoid the lines, by any mean neccesary, make-up be damned!! Oddy, enough that picture is my father's favorite picture of me. And, it's also the most recent picture of me that I had around the house. I hate being photographed. I always end up hating the picture. Even if I were by chance photographed with John Cusack, I'd end up hating the photo, but never John Cusack.

I hope to be able to purchase Painter 6.0 or at the very least Painter 5.5 someday . I'm still kind of mad at Meta Creations for abandoning there art software. I also have there Ray's Dream Studio for 3-d Animation software. Now, if only I can somehow figure how to add images I created with that software to my web pages....

I got the last of the three artbooks I ordered from Amazon. I now have an artbook that features the work of my favorite artist, Maxfield Parrish. The book I got is called Maxfield Parrish by Laurence and Judy Cutler. I mainly got this book because it was inexpensive. I really wanted the Maxfield Parrish book written by Coy Ludwig that was originally published in 1973, but can not afford to buy it just yet. Oh, one of these days that big beautiful book will be mine!

From what I read in the book thus far Parrish greatly admired the works of the Pre-Raphaelites. It turns out that Parrish admired the works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti(one of my favorite Pre-Raphealites!) and Lord Leighton. So I guess I was not too far off base in my assumptions. I suppose I'll be doing a search on Amazon to see if I can find art books that feature their work. I still want to find a book that features JW Waterhouse's work as well.

I guess I'm one of those oddball artists who doesn't like much of the art produced by my generation. The only recently living artist whose work I admire is Patrick Nagel. Unfortunately Nagel passed away during the 80's at around age 40 due to a massive heart attack. Nagel was an artist after my own heart he did not believe in diets or exercise. He lived off of cheeseburgers and milk shakes. He also would schedule his work around what was on tv. If his favorite soaps, game shows, or comedies were on Nagel would halt everything to watch them. Nagel to me is the patron saint of slacker artists. I want to be successful enough to quit my day job, slack off and watch tv all day and paint in between my favorite shows. Of course unlike Nagel I would hire a professional exercise trainer and keep the cheesburgers and milkshakes to a minimum. Besides, the more I hear about the cattle problems over in Europe, the more I want to become a vegetarian...