Trip recap, part I of many.

OK. So. The trip to California? Awesome. Great. Super. I can confirm that San Francisco – perhaps any city, really – looks much better with some distance, and once you are not getting caught up in the day-to-day struggle of being there and making a living. Of course, being a tourist – on vacation and worry-free – is pretty much the best way to see any place. Ah, but the pastel Victorians! All decorated like wedding cakes! Ah! So lovely!And the weather! The cold! The blissful, blissful cold! Especially down at the ocean! I love wearing a sweater and corduroys in the summertime. It decidedly beats sweating 24/7:I could go on, and on. And I probably will, in a future post. But for now here's one last shot of our new nephew getting a back massage, courtesy of Uncle John:

Rant.

Two things that suck:

TTA (or "Triangle Transit Authority"). Bus 23 minutes late. Not unusual. Come on, guys. When you're that late, why bother having a schedule? Jesus Frickin' Christ. And nice of you to charge $2 for the pleasure of waiting in 95 degree weather for your chronically late buses. Nice job. Keep up the good work.

Bank of America. Big, honking megaloconglomorate of a bank can't even get its sh*t together to have a database big enough for all of its customers; apparently accounts opened in California are on a different database and thus said Bank tends to treat its CA-account-owning customers in a ridiculous fashion, as if both arms of the same bank can't communicate with one another. If you call yourself Bank of AMERICA, my guess is that you should configure yourselves to serve residents of the WHOLE ENTIRE COUNTRY in the same way, not to mention since people in AMERICA tend to move frequently and hence might have the need to easily and without 18 kinds of idiocy access their own accounts, which they opened in California, which last time I checked is still part of AMERICA.

Ridiculous.

Rant over. Good night.

Kah Lee FAAHHWWN Ya.

Just back from California... there's my excuse for the lack of posts this past week. I plan to post some photos and such, but right now I'm needing some recovery time - and some sleep. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek at the latest member of the Feissel family:

Woof.

JH encore.

Here's another little sketch I did last summer of fellow painter Janette Hayhoe:

By Diane Feissel, oil on panel, 6"x6"

Delay.

Ahem. Okay, I've been a bit busy this past week - painting and preparing for a trip Back West. To California, that is.

In the meantime, I have another Art Recommendation, for a show here in Raleigh. We have a new artist - Julie Niskanen, recently relocated to Raleigh, NC from South Dakota - working out of the studios at 311 West Martin. She's a printmaker, and she'll be showing work at M Street Gallery down at 311 in August; come to the opening reception the evening of Friday, August 1st from 6-9pm down at 311 West Martin Street in downtown Raleigh.

Here's one of her pieces, from her website:

Artist: Julie Niskanen

Title: Entangled in the Moment

Medium: Etching, mezzotint, aquatint, spit-bite

Dimensions: 8" x 6"

Nature.

Hey. Here's yet another entry in the "unfinished series" series. Yep. I began a couple of paintings on wood, retaining the grain and natural color of the wood by using clear gesso to prepare the surface. Et voila:

as in nature...(1) oil on wood Diane Feissel

Productivity.

I have discovered an unfortunate equation:

Diane + humidity + heat = significantly reduced productivity.

Uggggggggghhhhhhh.

Birthday.

Just found out that I share a birthday with Mel Brooks, Gilda Radner and John Cusack. Now that's a good group.

More from that unfinished series I mentioned.

Ok, here's another installment in that series that I still haven't finished:

work in progress, oil on panel, 12"x12", 2007-2008...

The usual, but smaller and even more awesome.

I have a fully enthusiastic Art Recommendation for July... over the weekend I went to Morning Times in downtown Raleigh, and had the pleasure – nay, the extreme pleasure – of seeing their latest exhibit of artwork by Raleigh artist and designer Andy Heymann. He stopped by the studio at 311 back a couple of months ago and introduced himself, and after that I went over to check out his work at Riviera. I loved that work, but I really really love the work he has up currently at MT… I DEFINITELY recommend checking it out. Of course he has already sold some of my favorites, so act fast. Here's his website link, which includes most of the pieces on display now at MT, including this one:

Happy 4th!

Whoo! Happy Independence Day!

You can see more photos from last weekend, the wedding mentioned in my previous post, by going to this link. I'm far too lazy to upload them again here, except for this one:

Block.

Perhaps the most annoying thing about being sick last week was that I wasn't able to get it together to apply to the city arts commission for a show at the Block Gallery in downtown Raleigh as I had intended. I tried to get as much info together as I could last weekend, but I lacked the energy to pull the last of the required materials together before we left for Massachusetts this past weekend. Alas. Sigh. Well, maybe I will have the opportunity again in two years.

Sigh.

In better news, I'm feeling waaaay better, and had a great weekend up in Massachusetts at our cousin’s wedding. Voila, some photos:

Here's little Miss J. – I may have eventually won her over (temporarily) with some good ole peek-a-boo, but for the bulk of the weekend she eyed us with extreme suspicion, like so:

Cutest! Couple! Ever! And the bestest man of the weekend's festivities:And this one is for Gary: BLOGGED!More soon.