Good/Bad

Not Happy:
-Maybe coming down with another sinus infection.  
-Coming home to find toaster oven's door broken off.  
-Call from coffee shop telling me I'm not hired.  -Someone trying to hire me to do 20-25 colour illustrations for her children's book in under 6 weeks, and only offering $250 as pay (and making passive-aggressive comments about how reasonable she thinks this is.)
-Still not living in Portland.

Happy:
-Working again, for good-paying contract.
-Working also on illustration commissions for two books, both of which are future-pays.
-Working on t-shirt designs that will get made, and I get commision on! Yay!

The tide is rising...

Evan and I just got back from downtown. We went to see the high tide, which is 1 to 1.5 feet above average. Accompanied by heavy rain, it's the cause of the 'coastal flood warning' that's been in effect from Tuesday morning, and will remain in effect through Thursday morn.

After crossing the drawbridge into the city, we were immediately confronted by a massive puddle, at least 100 feet long, more than a foot and a half deep, and spanning the entire breadth of the road. The storm drains in Annapolis are a little counter-productive. Whenever the tide is high, or there has been a tad more rain that usual, they back up and flood into the street.
The dinghy docking area, normally consisting of a small brick park with trees and benches about three feet above the waterline, was entirely immersed. Water lapped against the stairs on the far side, dampening the bronze children of the Kunta-Kinte memorial. Waterborne debris littered the plaza, and we spent some time fishing out and disposing of the inorganic matter.
The closer to the docks we got, the higher the water level. An Camaro and an SUV sat side-by-side in the lowest point of the dockside parking lot. Both were submerged up to their headlights.
The waterline sat less than a foot below the dock, sometimes coming into corners so violently that we were hit by the spray. Not that this mattered much, the constant chill rain--illuminated occasionally by distant flickers of lightening--kept us damp enough.
We took the side of Dock street opposite the docks on the way back (which proved to be a mistake). The Navy yard was surrounded by a veritable moat, and we joked that the single grey boat sitting in the parking lot was there for such occasions. A car passed us, and the shock of its passage sent a wave of brackish water over our shoes.
There was no saving our feet, really. An ankle-deep pool in the sidewalk pretty effectively drenched Evan, and swamped over the ankle of even my waterproof hiking boots. We arrived home soaked but elated.

It's easy enough to enjoy, because it's mostly spectacle. Despite the high water, there's no possibility of damage to businesses, homes, or people. In 2003, long before I moved here, hurricane Isabel did major damage, flooding all of Dock Street and up to the Hard Bean Café and Riordan's. 2009 is predicted to be a relatively average to light hurricane year. Considering the state of the storm drains, however, and the unusally rainy six months we've been having, it might not take a hurricane to cause real trouble here.


Illustration:
"Cthulhu before R'Lyeh"
India ink on bristol board.
6 x 11"
Copyright Lisa Grabenstetter, 06/2009

Thematic redux (Plumed equine)

A re-examination of a subject I drew back in highschool. There used to be a long, elaborate story it went with, but now all that I remember is its environment. Long, domed flint shores that ran into a translucent sea. Enormous mosses and lichens towering overhead. Plumed equines running about beneath. That sort of thing.

Colored pencil and walnut ink on hemp paper.
8 x 8"

Tried out a new technique with the penciling this time. Not sure if I'm going to stick with it.
Feedback would be immensely helpful.

The Magnetic Crow

Just because, it has been neglected.
This was actually drawn for this site, before it ended up on my thesis card.
Expect it to show up somewhere soon.

On literary magazines.

Something I neglected to mention here. Two of my pieces were selected to be published in the newest edition of GUD (Greatest Uncommon Denominator) magazine. I just received my contributor copy in the mail, and it is really quite sweet.

Now, publishing your stuff in magazines really does not pay much. It's really about the exposure, and being involved in something as beautiful and independent as a lit mag like GUD. And so, I am extremely thrilled about this. Really, go check it out. Even if you don't have the extra income to spend on a copy right now, get a peek at the free content. 'Time cat' is an awesome game.

Some considerations.

I have been thinking a lot about this blog lately, and what I want to do with it. See, I have many venues for putting my artwork up online. There's deviantart, and carbonmade, and my future website-which-I-haven't-finished-yet. Yet I am a very opinionated person. I read a great number of science and political blogs, and would like to express my thoughts.

So here is what is going to happen.

I am still going to post my art here, and also bits of my writing. I like having a space that's entirely my own to do that in. Also, I'm going to stop being afraid of letting my opinions come out in a space where they will be connected with my art, person, and career. Mostly, I am no longer going to be afraid of vociferously expressing myself as a feminist.
I know! What could possibly make me afraid of letting possible future employers know that I am in fact an advocate of my own gender? Or, more importantly: I know that this will be a possible put-off to future employers, but I've made the decision to not care. Because I really do not think I would be happy or comfortable working for someone who would penalize me for voicing the opinion that I deserve equal rights to my male coworkers.
Also, I know that my views are going to remain visible in my art and writing anyway.
So there.

I have been posting on feminist blogs for a time, most under the pseudonyms 'L.G.' or 'Algae'. Now I'm using 'Magnetic Crow' as my one and only. We'll see how this goes.

Raining, raining, and cold.  I plan on updating her more regularly again, but today seems like a day for reading 'The Diary of Anaîs Nin' and drinking tea.

Indeed.

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
  - Steven Weinberg

Right right, Google.

A crust of ice.

We finally got a little snow here in Maryland, and though it doesn't even approach Cleveland standards I'm willing to feel it's better than nothing. A few inches, total, and shelled by that evening in a crisp layer of ice. This is what I remember best from growing up around here, the days when you awoke to a two-hour-delay because the trees, road, and everything else had been encased in clear ice overnight. The brilliance of sunlight refracting through the ice-covered twigs. The occasional, heartrending gunshot from the forest as a tree broke in half under the ice's added weight.

I took the opportunity of being somewhat stuck inside for the past two days to finish this image. I started work on it in July, lost it among my possessions for a long time and then rediscovered it a few weeks ago. It's probably the most ambitious watercolour I've attempted since entering college five years ago, and I'm still ambivalent regarding the outcome. Any comments are critique would be much appreciated.

9 x 12" on Strathmore. Ballpoint and Watercolour.

Submitting

The deadline on submissions for Spectrum 16 are on the 23rd, and I just mailed off my entry. This feels very big to me. For years I have leafed through Spectrum, ogling the artwork, peering in at an industry I only dreamed of being a part of. Submitting is very, very intimidating to me. But I did it, and now I wait for April and hope for the best.

I submitted a series, including my two prints 'Making Peace' and 'Returning Home', and this image here, 'Diplomacy'. A scratchboard I finished today, but felt belonged to that much earlier sequence.