Monday, Dec. 1st

I went into a field just to paint some ground and stones. turned out rather well, though i had to finish half of it indoors because it got too damn cold. Fields are windier than pavement.
no one came to see me, I was hidden behind some tall grass.
on the way to the field, though, when i was leaving Nick's apartment I accidentally pressed the 'panic' button on the car key. I didn't even know the car key had one. There was an embarrassing moment infront of nick's landlord. It took me a while to figure out why the siren started and how to stop it. I don't think the landlord was very happy, his kids were probably in bed or something and i disturbed the peace and appeared foolish.
what a tangent... I must apologize, nothing exciting art-wise has happened, so I guess I'm just filling up space.

I'm finished painting outside for the winter. I'll probably draw, because it's possible to draw with mittens (might be clumsy, but would make it all the better), but painting is a bit of a pain. too cold... I'll wait until spring.

Tues. Nov. 25, 9:10-9:30 pm

I found a squirrel today off a sidewalk on Campbell. I think it fell out of a tree. It looked quite comfortable, actually, almost like it was having a nap out on the grass.
No confrontations. I was afraid the person whose house I was infront of would question what I'm doing, but there was a dark comforting TV glow illuminating the whole house, which calmed my concerns. Some cyclists had to go around me because I was right on the sidewalk. This made me nervous and I decided I should hurry up and leave. The cars didn't bother me at all today.

monday, nov. 24, 7 p.m.

I found a fantastic fresh dead pigeon (or dove). It's missing a head and has both claws unharmed, and fresh red intenstines. It was an interesting experience painting it, because it's located right on the corner of an all-way-stop intersection. No one talked to me, but almost every car stayed at the stop sign longer than usual, perhaps they were trying to figure out what I was doing. My parents and dog came out too for a few minutes (the find is only a 3 minute walk from my house), I asked them to take some photos of me painting outside. It was good moral support, I was feeling very nervous with all those cars stopping. One child stared at me for a long time, it really creeped me out.
I'll try to post the pictures soon.

Maybe I'll find the missing head tomorrow? probably not though...

nov. 22, 7:20-8 pm

nov. 22, 7:20-8 pm

by sashaenpleinaire @ 2008-11-23 – 11:16:29

I painted that weird skeleton in a ditch last night. It was nice, i don't think paid attention to me.

I really have to get some safety cones.

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saturday night, and today

by sashaenpleinaire @ 2008-11-18 – 21:01:05

The weather has been dreadful lately, for my purposes.
On saturday night it stopped raining for a bit, so I ventured just outside of my house to paint dead earthworms. It turned out pretty well. it was a pleasant deserted evening, but it started raining again later.

Tonight the weather is bearable, though it is rather chilly. I went searching for more animals earlier in the day. I didn't find anything usable. I found a very peculiar skeleton in a ditch, however. It's large, so I will go to paint it when my larger canvas is prepped. I can't seem to figure out what it is. My guess would be that it's either a large dog, a small deer, or a goat. It was partially covered by a large green plastic bag. Part of my process is not to disturb the natural process of decomposition, but I had to see the rest of the skeleton, because outside of the bag there is only a hip visible. Under the bag there were lots of maggots. I was not expecting it, considering the freezing temperature. Maggots are always shocking and disturbing. I always feel shaken and grossed out... maggots are the only things about death that make me pause and wonder if death perhaps isn't such a beautiful thing after all. But it is.

It seems there is no more social confrontations so far, which is why I am writing about the technicalities of the whole process in general...

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nov. 11, tuesday (today)

by sashaenpleinaire @ 2008-11-11 – 23:02:07

I managed to gather my social strength and went to paint the squirrel, but it was gone. Someone must have removed it, very peculiar...
I did find a rat(???) across the street not far away though. Nothing interesting happened.

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Monday, nov. 10

by sashaenpleinaire @ 2008-11-11 – 19:27:25

nothing happened while I was painting. Something odd happened when I was on my way to paint, though. I was getting out of the car when two well-dressed young Chinese men, who were kicking a little soccer ball back and forth, asked me if I knew any Chinese families on the street. I replied that I don't know them personally, but there are a few (this was near by boyfriend's place).
Nick, my boyfriend, came to visit me briefly.

The painting looked much better in the dark.

I saw a dead squirrel by Home Depot, it's a fresh kill (probably last night) and I will go to paint it shortly. I feel rather nervous, however... having palpitations just thinking about it. it's in a very open place with lots of traffic.

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Tuesday Nov. 4, around 9:45 pm

by sashaenpleinaire @ 2008-11-05 – 17:25:11

A guy in a red van honked at me. It was very unnerving. it was probably to signal that there's a car coming up behind me, but I was obviously stationary and I could obviously hear the car without the honk. It made me angry and I decided to finish up and go home.

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Sunday, between 8:30 and 9:30

by sashaenpleinaire @ 2008-11-05 – 17:22:20

I was painting on the side of the road outside of Devonwood, crouched down infront of my canvas and being close to the (smelly) dead animal I was painting. Many cars went by, some slowed down. At one point a green car drove by and then backed up in my direction. The lady unrolled the passenger window and said "Are you ok?" "yeah" "oh are you just painting? I thought you took a fall!" "No, I'm ok, thank you." She apologized and drove off. I wasn't expecting the apology.

older entries

I started at a different blog site but it turned out to be kinda crappy... so I've moved here. I hope this works better for me. Here's the link to the other one: http://sashaenpleinaire.blog.ca/ , but I think I will post the older posts here as well.