GJ Willis' Art Notes

Yesterday, I went to the optometrists office at Walmart and over to my father’s house to drop off school money for my nephew.

Thinking back to the optometrists I can barely remember the style of frames I picked out. The only thing I can remember about the optometrists office is that the male receptionist/assistant/whatever kind of reminded me of forgotten Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic with a beard. He also sounded a lot like Joe Artinger from the Don and Mike Show. If you haven't heard the Don and Mike Show before you can say he sounds like Shaggy from Scooby Doo.

He seemed like such a hippy far out kind of a guy to be working for an optometrist. It was fascinating listening to him talk. I almost expected him to say at any minute, “Hey, man want a Scooby snack?” or “They’re after us Scoob!”

As far as my nephew goes, yesterday I finally gave him his school money. I’m thinking about giving him a little more money when I get my next paycheck. It all depends on how my finances shake out.

Today, I primarily worked on my play. I edited it and ran a spell check. I hope it’s good enough to be selected.

Also, I pray that I will not have jury duty on Monday. I have #648 which is a high number. Hopefully, it’s a high enough number that I will not be called. My fingers are crossed!

Today, I’m wearing a beige brandless polo shirt and jean shorts with red flip flops.

Today, the bus was a little late. The light rail came on time. If the train makes it to my job on time I would have been on time all this week!

Yesterday, after work I went to the Gallery to continue working on my play for Harford Community College. When I got there at around 7:05 I was surprised to find someone sitting in my favorite spot. He had a notebook out and was writing down things. Maybe, he was a college student or worked at the mall and was going over the inventory. I don’t know. All I know is that he was sitting in my favorite spot. I sat a few tables behind hoping that he would soon vacate. I sat patiently nursing an orange soda and pizza nervously looking up every now and then from my Alphasmart to see if he had vacated the area. He didn’t leave until around 7:40PM! The gall of some people! He was there so long you would have thought he owned the spot. I know it sounds a silly but I’ve become attached to that spot.

The play I’m writing is due on September 1, 2004. So yes, I know I’m working down to the wire. I plan on mailing it out on Sunday or Monday depending on whether or not I have jury duty on Monday.

Today, I’m wearing a white shirt, blue jeans, and scary beat up Payless tennis shoes. Yes, business casual day is over with at my workplace!

Again, the bus was late. However, the light rail was on time.

Yesterday, I had quiet a harrowing day on the ride home on the light rail. While on the train at the Timonium stop which is right across from the state fair grounds the train stood at the stop for a very, very, very, very, long time without moving. I began to feel a little worried because the train rarely halts at that stop. Since I always have a walkman with me I decided to see if I could find anything on the radio about the traffic situation.

The main reason I had to find the information is because it’s a known fact that light rail drivers never tell you anything even though there’s an intercom aboard the train. I don’t know if this part of MTA policy to never tell you what’s going on or if it’s up to the discretion of the driver.

As I was tuning around the radio I caught the tail end of a traffic report on WTMD all I heard was Northern Parkway, car, and light rail. I had no idea how they interconnected so I dialed around more stations until I heard the news that a car flipped over from the Northern Parkway bridge on to the light rail tracks. I was stunned. This would probably mean that we would be sitting on the light rail train for a very long time.

I knew I had to tell the other passengers aboard the train about the accident because it was unlikely that the driver would ever say anything. He would just sit there and never tell the passengers what was going on. They all do that. I wonder what they are afraid of? It wasn’t the driver’s fault that a car flipped over on to the tracks. He should have told everyone the situation then let them decide if they were going to wait on the train or take the bus or wait for shuttle buses to come out.

I couldn’t take it anymore as I waited for the distant possibility that the driver might speak up. My voice quivered as I told the passengers on the car I was on what was going on. I stuttered a lot but eventually I got it out. I think I tend to stutter when I’m nervous. Anyway, I couldn’t believe it they actually understood me and did not dismiss me as some kind of a kook!

A man on the train tried to contact the driver about what happened. The driver refused to confirm or deny anything, it was weird. A few minutes later some of the passengers left the train as did I. I decided to walk up to #8 bus stop and take it all the way downtown.

On the bus stop I was surprised to see Cassandra and this guy named Ricky who works in the mail room. While at the bus stop I said “Hi!”, to Cassandra. I wasn’t quiet sure if it was ok to say “Hi!”, to Ricky as we’ve never been formally introduced and he probably doesn’t know me. I think he’s into Star Wars and movies based on comic books. He may even collect comic books too. Those are the only things I can think of that I may have in common with Ricky. However, I don’t really know him well enough to say anything about it.

Anyway, as you can imagine it was a very crowded and long ride downtown. I didn’t make it home until a little after eight at night. I usually make it home around six. So far this year this has been the longest day I’ve spent captive on the MTA.

Today, I’m wearing a black skirt, black Payless shoes and a print blouse. The blouse I’m wearing reflects my favorite painting palette; purple, pink, olive green, and blue. The reason for the skirt is because it’s the second day in a row of business casual day.

Today, the bus was late again. On both days that the bus was late it was driven by the middle aged female driver. Despite this the light rail train was on time. I hope that it gets me to my job 15 minutes earlier than usual like it did yesterday.

Yesterday, I got a call from nephew. He wanted to know when I would be by to drop off his school money. It’s hard to get in touch with him. I tried his cell phone number but when I tried it over the weekend it said to check the number. I checked the number carefully dialed the number and still could not get through. What I really want to know is who is paying for his cell phone? He’s 14 years old and does not have a job neither do his parents. I’m afraid to ask him what he’s doing to pay for the phone. Then again maybe it doesn’t matter anymore it’s possible the reason I can’t get through is because his phone has been cut off.

I’m not quiet sure what happened but I’m wondering when a co-worker will return to work. It seems like something dramatic happened on Friday and she might be afraid to come to work or she is really ill. All I know is that she has not been in the last few days and the lady she drives to work has been taking the light rail and bus. I wonder if they got in a fight or something? They’ve been car pooling to work for a very long time. Oh, well I guess I’ll never know for sure the answer to the Arvada/Cassandra mystery.

In honor of business casual day at work I’m wearing a denim plaid skirt and a brown Henley shirt with kind of scuffed up black shoes. No one knows this but I own lots of skirts. In fact I own more skirts than pants. I don’t wear them much because pantyhose have a short shelf life. You have to constantly go back to replace them. It seemed more economical to stick to jeans and cotton socks or knee highs.

The above is one of the paintings I completed this August. It's almost the mirror image of the painting below. I experimented a little with this one. I was trying to get the effect of a watercolour-like rainbow wash in the curtains. You know the kind like PBS watercolour artist Tom Lynch does with his paintings. Only I wanted the effect isolated to the curtains. It was very difficult to do. So the end result is half watercolour(acrylic) wash and half drawn in colors for emphasis.

Today, the bus was late. However, the light rail was on time. Oddly, enough the train arrived at my end destination 15 minutes early.

Yesterday, at work the computers were down for about an hour. This didn’t worry me much because I leave out early every Monday and Friday.

In art news: I’m still wheeling from the news that someone was blazon enough to go into an art gallery in broad daylight and steal Edvard Munch’s, The Scream. I also heard this morning on NPR that someone stole the bust of the Virgin Mary out of a museum. According to NPR the culprits used the cover of a rainstorm to escape. All in all it’s been quiet a busy week for art theft stories. I wonder if this will be the week that the Mona Lisa comes up missing?

Today, I’m wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a cream coloured blouse that has alternating stripes of olive green, ecru, and pink. I’m starting to get the feeling that the blouse is too fancy for the jeans and I should have worn my black pants.

Also I have to admit that my hair is kind of weird looking today. You see I bought these barrettes yesterday and this morning I was kind of playing around with them in my hair because I had extra time to kill. Before I knew it I looked up at the clock and rushed out because it was getting late. So instead of fixing the weird semi two pony tail look, I decided to keep it. Heck, every one has the right to have a bad hair day every now and them.

The picture above is one of the paintings I completed this month. It’s acrylic on Bristol board. It first started off as a study I did in oil pastel for wetcanvas. I later did two acrylic versions of the oil pastel drawing, one featuring a black subject the other a white. The above is one of the two paintings. With this one I had fun making her shadow blue instead of a more realistic colour.

Today, the bus was late by a couple of minutes. It wasn’t too bad for me. However, the people that have to take the light rail heading towards Linthicum had to run to catch the train which was just pulling up as the bus stopped.

Yesterday, I finally filled out the City Paper’s Best of Baltimore, ballot. I was surprised to find that they have a category for best visual artist. The only category I was aware of prior to filling out my ballot was best Baltimore related web site.

Also on the art front I finished another painting today. This time the subject was male. I did it because the vast majority of the paintings I do are of females. I thought I’d challenge myself by painting a different gender. So for a week I’ll focus on male subjects. Hopefully, the series of paintings I’m working on will be completed some time next week or the week after. It all depends on whether or not I can keep up the pace I’m currently working at.

Today, I’m wearing a bright pink t-shirt that has a pink ribbon in front. Across the neckline is a flower design. With the shirt I’m wearing blue jeans and old decrepit Payless tennis shoes.

The above is an oil pastel I did for the Wetcanvas oil pastel forum. Hey, I just realized that this is my third Sunday in a row of completing an oil pastel! I recall reading somewhere that if you keep something up for six weeks it becomes a habit.

I feel sad to write this but it looks like I won’t be submitting any work for the School 33 (In)Visible Silence Show curated by African American artist Sanford Biggers. My main reason for not submitting anything is because Biggers will be making studio visits to the artists whose work is selected for the show. I live in an apartment the size of a postage stamp and cannot afford to own or rent separate studio space. My paintings for the most part are completed while sitting on the kitchen floor. I’m sure a big time artist like Biggers would prefer to work with artists who have actual real studio space like I’m sure he does. Also the exhibition seems to be geared towards installation work. I don’t know much about installation work, I’m a painter....

On an up note. I’m nearly finished writing my zine!

This evening I’m wearing a blue striped t-shirt with blue shorts. The shoes I’m wearing are bright blue plastic flip flops.