On Being Back

Sigh. We're back from Papua where we did finally discover the mysterious beetle mentioned in the previous post. The beetle itself is rather plain and easily overlooked, but it, um, excretes a substance that is the most brilliant, fascinating, mesmerizing, wonderful, exciting, unique color. A color that is found NO WHERE else in the world.

We photographed it. We smeared bits of the substance on white paper and scanned it. We video taped it. We did everything we could to try and show you this color, but it simply does not reproduce. It photographs as a dull-ish purple black. It scans as a brownish-blue. In other words, unless you can look at it in person, it just looks like beetle poop.

Well. Beetle-poop.

Excuse Us

But we heard that deep in the rainforests of Papua there lives a mysterious beetle that is of a color found nowhere else in the known world. Imagine. An entirely new COLOR.

We've been away on the search, with no luck so far. We've just buzzed back into town to pick up our tax rebate checks, which we will be using to stimulate a foreign economy, as we read all about the presidential primaries and watched one episode of American Idol and, therefore, immediately made plans to go adventuring again. As soon as possible.

See you soon!
Hugo, please remember to feed the cat.
Love,
Lila and Dari

Taktshang

Remembering the time when we had to go find Penelope, that ditzy friend of ours who ran off to Asia in search of giant bonsai trees.

I need to run off to somewhere to escape from the pain of writing a totally made-up-and-in-no-way-relating-to-anyone-or-anything-that-is-or-ever-has-been-alive-or-that-I-have-ever-met-or-even-happened-to-live-with novel.

Tangiers

At the core of our hearts are those things we have left behind...

"What was the most beautiful thing you left behind?"

"Finest of all the things I have left is the light of the sun,
Next to that the brilliant stars and the face of the moon,
Cucumbers in their season, too, and apples and pears."


Praxilla of Sicyon
Hymn to Adonis
5th century B.C.
translated by Bernard Knox

Oh No

OhNo!Wri Mo.

That's what they should call it. What's she talking about down there with Unexpected Packages? She won't even tell me what it's going to be about.

We're very excited. We are a bit unsettled. We are, perhaps, somewhat alarmed. We won't have time for Christmas shopping ....

(Don't tell Dari, but she's getting a new book for Christmas. I don't know what it's about yet....)

Not quite a year ago...

...I posted my last post on this nefarious blog. I have just been released from the institution. What institution, you ask? Ha! I'll never tell. But, there were very nice young men in clean white coats who gave me a little paper cup with a treat in in every day. I'm better now. Okay - it's no laughing matter, mental illness, I agree. Please forgive me. I'm really doing fine with the IV meds.

To further illustrate our lack of mental stability, Lila and I signed up for the NaNoWriMo and will be tackling the work of novel-writing rapidamente-style. If by the end of November I'm still a free, non-medicated, thinking woman...it will be a miracle.

In the meantime, I'll be posting over at my own blog http://patoispoppycock.blogspot.com so Lila and I can weave our own individual, but perhaps intertwined tales of true love, unexpected packages and, apparently, dwarfs on bicycles.

Dari's Got a Brand New Toy

Anyone have any spare scrap metal lying around?????

The Great Pearamids

24"x12" acrylic

Oh - this just may never end...

Cheers

Ola! Cheers to Chicken Itza!
(I may be brilliant, but sometimes am a bit slow on the uptake.)

Adios!
Lilalolita

Chicken Itza

I really don't have a name for it yet. Any thoughts? And the color on them isn't great - I mean the reproduction of them, rather. Especially on the center chicken - looks a bit dull, but isn't in real life.

***updated with better photos - taken in nice, soft, cloudy daylight!

I took all the aluminum off - it was tacky. I like it better now. Just the chickens are tacky.

16"x48" acrylic and aluminum on canvas

MY Zentangles, 2 and 3

Lila started it.

Zentangle Number 3

Zentangle #3
"Summer Self Portrait with Celtic Harp"

Go figure.

Love,

LeLila

The Malapert Sisters...the early years

Lila thought I should post this, so you masses of readers would know a little about us. Here's all you really need to know...we were, and are, absolutely GORGEOUS. And well-coiffed.

That's me on the right...I'm the taller sister. We're exactly the same age, which is none of your flippin' business. Man - I'm feeling a bit cranky tonight. Must be all the talk about my OCD in one of those posts down there. Thank you, Janey - for not mentioning it in your comments :-).

Now - I must go straighten my closet - I'm pretty sure I saw a blue shirt hanging next to a yellow. Yikes!

Zentangle Number 2

Zentangle #2*, done with 005 Pigmaliner in the old handy-dandy Moleskine.

*I don't know what happened to Zentangle Number 1. It was on a loose piece of paper and may have been mailed off to with a check to the credit card company, or something exciting like that. Then again, it may turn up between the pages of the last book I read, and is languishing at the library, waiting for an unsuspecting reader to find it. Will that reader be you?

Don't Label Me, Please

24"x24" mixed media, acrylic, marker, ink, metal and paper on stretched canvas
Don't Label Me, Please
mother
musician
writer
slob
daughter
heretical
narcissitic
immature
compassionate
self-involved
aloof
wife
compulsive
detached
cynical
artist
delusional
arrogant
obsessive
friend
obsessive
obsessive
obsessive
liberal
conservative
spiritual
worldly
lover
passionate
chaotic
naive
sister
I am none of these things.
I am all of these things.

UH-OH

Lila suddenly realizes what day it is and wonders if she forgot someone's birthday. While she ponders this, her pen begins to run out of ink, and she loses 20 pounds.

Someone should know that Lila wishes them a happy birthday.

so..........
Happy Birthday, Mrs. Calabash, where ever you are!

A Worthy Heart

I can't say I'm ecstatic about this one. It started out okay - maybe it just isn't done yet. The fiddly bits need some more fiddling. I'm trying to stop killing my paintings with overwork, but this may be a case of too little, too soon. I'm sure some feedback would help.

24x24 canvas - mixed media - acrylic, charcoal, glass, paper and watercolor.

it seems the more

my heart

desires something, the

more my mind tries to convince me it

is foolish or un

worthy of

my

attention

Saint Martha

In Search Of Saint Martha
mixed media on canvas(acrylic, colored pencil, pastel, ink, book pages, cigar band, cigar box labels, patterned paper scraps, plastic fork, wire, and yes, I even sunk to using a torn up BINGO card and marker. Sue me. )


An artist's job is to
(1) seek to further understand and interpret something he/she sees, or,
(2) to creatively explain something in an effort to convey great meaning, or,
(3) to blatently rip off someone else's ideas.

I don't know. I had cookies for breakfast and I'm going to have them again for supper, which feels like a happier thing to think about, so I really don't care.

Peace,

Lila

Dari's Up and Running

mixed media, acrylic paint, ink and paper on 24"x25" stretched canvas

And hi to you.