A while back, I made a little painting for a friend that says “You’re doing a great job.” I kind of wanted one for myself, so last night I made this painting (it’s small, only 2-1/2″ x 3-1/2″).
I feel like that little robot really believes in me. I’m going to keep it over my desk so I can look at it while I’m working.
This little robot likes to drive out to the desert near Joshua Tree with his old-timey camper, and spend the weekend out there, all alone.
The book he’s reading is First Day on Earth by Cecil Castellucci. I have a feeling that if you went inside his trailer (with permission, of course), you would find that he has a whole bunch of great books on a to-be-read shelf over the kitchen table.
This week is my friend Jessica’s birthday. We both love the movie Newsies (we’re working on forming an all-girl Newsies cover band called The Floozies), so I made her a painting of a robot that likes Newsies as much as we do:
p.s. This robot’s outfit was inspired by what Christian Bale’s character, Jack Kelly, wears in the movie. If I were a Newsie, I’d wear a red neckerchief, too.
I made this for my friend Emily, because not only is she a great cook, she laughs at all my thyme jokes.
I love thyme jokes, especially when I have too much thyme on my hands. :)
A little sign I painted for a friend:
If we’re real-world friends or online friends, or if you’re a random stranger who clicked on a random link and ended up on my blog, I’m glad you exist, too.
A few years ago, I read this book — The Talent Code — about how our brains work and what it takes for us to get really-eally good at certain things.
One of the chapters talked about a charter school that based almost everything they taught around the words “Work hard. Be nice.” For some reason that really stuck in my head. I think it’s pretty much the best advice ever. Last night I painted a little cardboard sign with those words to keep by my desk.
I made my sister a painting of her dog for her birthday. This isn’t a great picture of the painting (I know it’s kind of blurry), because I forgot to take a good photo or scan it before I mailed it to her. This is a photo I took with my phone to show someone else, but for now, it’s all I’ve got.
I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, considering that I don’t usually paint actual living things. I had a bunch of photos to look at for reference, and that helped a LOT.
A few years ago, I was going through a pretty big depression. Sometimes when there’s too much going on in my head, I paint, and it helps. Robots are sort of my default subject when I’m not sure what to paint, so I painted a lot of robots back then — but all of those robots turned out SO sad-looking that I can’t even bear to look at them.
I gave some of the sad robot paintings to my friend Meredith just to get them out of my apartment (she does props and thought she might have a use for them someday). They’re now being used on the set of the TV show Suburgatory, which I think is hilarious.
But anyway, one of those old robot paintings was so depressing that Meredith couldn’t bear to look at it either. It showed a hopeless-looking robot who was chained to the ground. I decided I would paint over that one, and today, I finally did.
I don’t have a before picture, but here’s a “during” shot that gives you a peek at what I was covering up.
And here’s the after:
I ended up deciding at the very end that the new version had too much pink space, so I gave it a blue border.
I’m so happy that I turned this painting (which is on a piece of cradled clayboard, and super-easy to hang) into something I can put on the wall of my apartment without making visitors cry!
p.s. The new version still looks a bit hesitant and cautious, but I think this robot at least believes things can get better.
Sometimes, when I’m really stressed out, or way too busy, a little voice in my head starts saying “You’re doing a great job, Lisa. You’re doing the best you can.” Maybe that sounds crazy, but whatevs. Stop judgin’!
This weekend, I spent some time with a friend, and she was more stressed out than I’d ever seen her (she’s in the middle of a move and a major job change). So I made this little postcard for her and put it in the mail. She knows about my encouraging inner voice, so I think she’ll appreciate it.
p.s. I mailed the actual painting to my friend, but I want to dedicate this post to EVERYONE who’s working hard and feeling unappreciated. You’re doing a great job. I am glad you exist.
A while back, I met YA author Cecil Castellucci (whose books I love, btw — her latest is First Day on Earth) at a book festival, and we talked about her Literary Diaspora project, “an experiment in sending words and images out into the wild.” I used to mail little postcard-sized paintings to people I thought were cool on a regular basis, so I thought her project sounded fun.
Cecil gave me a postcard-sized piece of art paper, and asked me to make a painting based on the words “Mountain View.” This is what I submitted:
After Cecil receives the art, she prints up postcards, mails them out to authors, and asks them to write something (on the postcard) inspired by the art and mail it back to her. I can’t wait to see what people write about this one.
p.s. I love macrame plant hangers. Maybe that’s because I’m a child of the ’70s? I have an orange one hanging in my window right now.
