₊˚༺Superheroes & Fallen Feathers༻*
Happy Friday, all! How is everyone doing today? I have my mug of lemon ginger tea, I have my comfort show on in the background, I’ve been painting and reading and trying to keep my kids from going stir crazy all week. Yesterday, we went to the Muskegon Museum of Art for their Free Thursdays event where locals are invited to walk around the museum for no cost! They also had a ton of family focused activities, including a craft and a movie with free snacks, and are open late! We love going to the museum anyway, but this exhibition was superhero/comic themed and there were so many people walking around in fun costumes (and jammies)- it was really neat to see a more casual side of a stereotypically sterile environment. (You know the image: stuffy galleries with their white walls and their glass boxes and their fancy gloves.) Art is for EVERYONE and Muskegon’s art museum preaches that!
This morning, I made a heart-breaking discovery. Our daughter’s parakeet, Sarah, had passed away in the night. She had not been doing well for a while. We had even taken her to the vet a couple months back to see if there was anything that could be done. Of course they were like… well… it’s a bird… there’s lots of things that could be wrong with her and not a lot of ways to know for sure. So they gave her some pain medication to take orally but if you can imagine… getting a tiny bird to take medicine is a big ordeal. We ended up deciding to quit giving it to her and just keep caring for her. She began falling from her perch and seeming to have epileptic episodes. Once these started happening, we moved her to a smaller, soft flooring cage away from her roommate, Leo, and kept close eyes on her. This was about a week ago. I kept checking on her and turning our heat pad on for her. However, I checked on her this morning and she was gone. </3 Poor little birdie. And poor Nova. We have had wayyyyy too much loss happening in our family lately. It just feels like YET another weight has been added to our shoulders. I know YOU know that feeling when things KEEP going wrong and you just sit there and think… could I catch a damn break!? The bird wasn’t my favorite. I, honestly, believe birds belong outside. But she was my daughter’s baby and I feel so bad that my 10-year-old has to keep getting handed grief like this.
On a different note, I have slowly chipped away at my painting this week and have finished all the wee little fishies AND added in iridescent bubbles throughout which means NOW I get to begin on the MAIN ACT, sharky!! I drew in the outline and am so excited to get in there… which might have to wait until next week when the kids go back to school! This piece is 11×14” and will be applied to an exhibition in Rhode Island. Fingers crossed. .☘︎ ܁˖
FRIDAY QUERY CORNER:
I wanted to answer a question about art, about life, about me, or about anything anyone wants to throw at me (email me here). This week’s question is: What artwork are you most proud of?
Well THAT is a tough question…. I am able to see improvements in every piece that I make so in that instance, I am proudest of every NEWEST piece I make. BUT if we were to think on terms of my art “career”, the piece that I’m most proud of is “Sunny Side”, the pen drawing of a skull with painted sunflowers for eyes. This piece was created in 2019 and was incredibly successful after I posted it on Instagram. It was that type of validation (sadly, but that is how society has raised us… we have to unlearn that shit) that made me realize I could actually “make it” as an artist. That I DID have the talent, I could get the support, and I COULD be a full-time artist. The next year, I opened my online shop & I’ve since sold out & had to do another edition of “Sunny Side”. I had almost SOLD the original once and decided to back out (sorry, boo) because I wanted to keep it as a reminder that I can do hard things. AND FOR FUCK’S SAKES- SO CAN YOU!
xxx- Kanda 𓋼𓆏𓍊𓋼𓍊
