josie

Think I'll play a drinking game (with water, hydration not death!) with the games this year. Every time a Super Wealthy White Person New Age Name that denotes a crunchy granola gluten free upbringing comes up- drink! Examples include: Sage. Bryce. Bryson. Basil. Jaden. Aiden. Cayden. Tucker. Mikaela. McKenzie. Mc-anything feminine. Ainsley. Jasper. Ashley (on a guy). Quinn. Preston. Reston. Restaline. Botox. Boulder. Meadow. Forrest. Douglas Fir. Rock. Brock. Tripp. Tanner. Chip. Blayke. Tad. Logan. Hunter. Fisher. Spearer. Royce. Sterling. We were watching last night and they did a piece on luger Tucker something-or-other and the fact that his parents built a luge track in their backyard in CT. Then they talked about their full tennis court, and swimming pools with waterfalls and caves. Definitely a different profile than the "hardscrabble poor heartwarming" storylines you often get in the Summer Olympics! Made me think- to do winter sports, you def. need money. Are there any winter sports where that isn't true? Curling, maybe? Hockey's pricey, skiing's expensive, figure skating gets up there (trust me), I can't imagine luge/bobsledding being cheap- but maybe those are better because you split costs with teammates?

There's an art director for the Browns in Cleveland who started following me on social media and he thinks I'm right up the road. Well, as the crow flies... Be like a 15 minute flight, but it's a good 3.5 hour drive. 1 hr to PA border, 45 minutes across through Erie, 1 hour and some change into Cleveland from OH border. Damn you Ashtabula, you always seem so much closer... ugh

Reminds me of Adidas and Puma- brothers who split company. Adolf "Adi" Dassler and Rudolf "Ruda" Dassler (fun fact- both were part of the Nazi party- Rudolf being more into it than Adi). Puma was first called Ruda... Adi Das... Ruda Das...but Puma worked better. My father worked for Adidas for a few years- he now insists on saying it "correctly" (AHdeeDAHS instead of aDEEdahs) which is pretty cringy in public. But all the free stuff we got from Adidas and Salomon was pretty neat... Them Germans.

I was just fiddling around with tax stuff and have about 4k in potential write offs. If they take it. I barely understand this stuff. We've been overpaying taxes this year- weren't sure what was right, hopefully get a bigger refund- better than getting fees. Luckily, d4rk's mom is a CPA and can figure out my crap. Ah, the costs of starting a business... All I can say is that refund better be nice this year, the job I'm still waiting on better happen, or I'm going underwater. Good thing bleach is tasty.

I was on doxy for acne for about 2 years. During that time my GI issues were just getting worse and more dramatic. Moved to Buffalo, was probably having one of the worst GI flare ups of my life, saw a new dermatologist. They took one look at my prescription and freaked out. Quit the doxy, have a topical gel thing now (however- THAT'S a whole story about big Pharma being greedy fu*ks-docs definitely want me to use it more than I do because they get fancy $$$ kickbacks from the overpriced gel... pharmacist at Target is a no-nonsense woman who had a good gripe about it with me since insurance won't cover most of it)- skin's the clearest it's ever been in my entire life, GI problems are much more manageable. So listen to your body on that one. Might not affect you much. Not sure how much I was taking- they were huge pills though- twice a day (though I only took once a day so I could get through the day without an "event"). Since I quit doxy, I've even been able to add a half cup of my beloved coffee back into my diet on occasion!

haha oh man, I would never tell a client that (but family's different, eh). But that is why I never, no matter how many times people suggest it to me/it shows up on job opening searches, will ever take a job doing caricatures at an amusement park. I've had friends do it at Cedar Point & Darien Lake, and I've done caricatures myself enough times to tell you.. just make all the women pretty. Make the men handsome. ESPECIALLY the ones who say "really let me have it" "Make sure you get my *insert unattractive/large/noticeable feature here*". Because warning- those are the ones who will pitch a fit, call you names, not tip. Plus I just personally find that style really ugly.

I just noticed your signature. My work on this board is done. I'll be working during this game... probably for the better...

I'm just happy the posters are illustration. :ph34r: You can't have a past of gorgeous posters painted by the untouchable Drew Struzan and ignore your artistic roots.

haha just make a fun tradition out of it or something... d4rk and I used to put sunglasses on our giant life sized Bruce Smith poster. Stick a mustache on ol' jacky boy for wins or something Eh, they'll never want me. Crappy filters on photos with boring gradients/textures is what they want. sorry, I'm in a bad mood today

Lots of videos this afternoon (from last night) of everything from tearing down light poles to flipping cars/SUVs, there was a destruction/looting of a Wawa, too. Saw all these videos plus one of Eagles fans daring another Eagle fan to eat horse sh*t off the street. Yeah, didn't watch all of that one. Buuut I also saw several of the cops celebrating and people being just happy/law abiding. Heard everything's calm today. I'm honestly surprised it's not more. That was a genuinely enjoyable game, though. Glad I got a chance to watch. Got my David Harbour fix from the ads, made fun of the meh halftime show, will never get over that trick play by the Eagles.

nawwww Carter's much more reliable, especially if you coax him with beer and cheese.

haha alrighty. Here's my site, that one's up now! My only cauveat is that my printer can take a while... sometimes he's fast, sometimes I have to practically hit him over the head to get prints- he's a busy guy (wedding photographer) so it can vary on time.

I can pop it on my Etsy if you like- I'd offer the same sizes I do for some other: 10"x12", image size is 8"x10". 14"x16", image size is 12"x14" 22"x24", image size is 20"x22" But of course I can always customize! Go for it! I don't mind! Also, thanks guys :)

Jack? Is that you??? haha thanks guys.

A couple thoughts on that- 1- how would I want to be portrayed- I'd want to be accurately shown but if I had a bad breakout going (and god knows i've struggled my entire life with it), I'd be hoping it was downplayed. He's young and obviously has bad cystic acne that his helmet makes worse- he used to have it all over his face & it's more his forehead now- age and I'm assuming dermatologists are working on it. It's active and changing, rather than acne scars, which I'd definitely include were they there. One of my professors painted me once, and to get "me" he really focused on the lines next to my nose/down to my mouth. I hate them, but they're me. He really emphasized them, and the final picture looked more like my mother than me- everyone said "oh it's you in 20 years!". I wish he'd kinda softened it a bit- a case where editing would've helped the likeness. 2- If he sees it, see above. "Hi Jack, look, it's you, and all your pimply glory!" 3- artistic license. Especially with this style- I'm not going for pore perfect like my PK Subban or Mogilny paintings. If I were, I might include a bit of acne, but the reference it was very ... painful looking. I stayed true to his other features- patchy facial hair, a touch of roseacea on the cheeks, on Eric Wood I didn't thin him out- if you try to make someone "better looking" than they are, you lose the likeness. Much easier with men than women. Men are craggier overall anyways, no makeup, more texture, "allowed" to have oddly sized features (big nose, "unnattractive" overall). I actually just finished a realistic painting of a rather unattractive (but absolutely amazing) woman this week- I kept catching myself shrinking her nose, erasing the weak chin/double chin lines, downplaying her bigger teeth/gummy smile and bowl haircut. Kept losing her. Says more about me than her for sure. Now, I have had cases where the subject is just plug ugly and the person commissioning it clearly doesn't appreciate it being painted as it is. In those cases I've been known to edit a bit. Every person, no matter how "ugly", has a good feature or two- play those up, dont' detail the rougher parts. Eyes- you can usually never go wrong with eyes. Soften/cover goofy ears, don't hi-def the nose, soften some lines here or there... but that can be suuuuper frustrating. Especially for caricatures. Some are never happy until you pretty much draw them as a supermodel or hollywood guy, just with their hair color and favorite shirt. :/ I think I want to do Hilary Knight next, actually. Winter Olympics are coming and dammit, she's amazing.

Painted Eichel in my latest style- Dave Davis reached out and asked if I had any more art for the Buffalo Star. Said I'd been meaning to do an Eichel for awhile, so yup- if you still follow the Star, should be showing up soon! One of the rare times I'll do work for no money- I was going to do it anyways for no money, might as well get some exposure. Also. GOD he is SO DIFFICULT TO DRAW square jaw, super round head, high top ramen noodle hair, crooked nostrils, large sort of pointy ears, droopy eyes, small mouth and thin lips, and looks different at every damn angle. Parts of his features are very nice looking, but together it's just all very difficult to get right. I've been trying to draw him for a couple years now- it's never easy. Someone on here said it best before we drafted him- "That boy sure has a face for radio"

Truth! A bit of warning would've been fine- we've done news spots before and this was new to us!

He was very kind just very invasive. It was really upsetting to a couple of the women and we had to apologize after he'd left- we had thought there would be a few people, a camera set up, not one guy super involved. Eh, I'm not aging that well. I had it going on in college alright but I hide most of my face in most photos that I'm not in control of now. They want me to perform solo in April a couple of places and the head of our sister studio already said he doesn't think I'm pretty enough to do it. He means mostly my lack of grace/presence, but most of the other troupe members are either super attractive (like the girl who's a literal fu*king bikini model and worked the last 6 months in the Bahamas performing) or incredibly good. Body builder, couple former models, two former ballerinas, super in shape or skinny. I'm very strong but I look pretty average, build wise. Found out yesterday his wife (who owns both studios) was a former Hooters girl/model so... yeah... I don't really fit. Fine as the strong horse-built doubles partner holding the pretty tiny flexy girl, not fine to solo. Kinda harsh reality but that's performing. I've heard it my whole life- from dancing/gymnastics as a little girl to being on a show team for martial arts- "you're so talented but you don't have the look" Then again, maybe seeing someone who isn't that kind of look would be really inspiring to some people. I've had a lot of beginners tell me they almost didn't sign up because they're not the tiny, flexible performer type. My message is "anyone can do this and find their role" so it sucks to be up against "you don't fit the role".

I thought WNY only included Buffalo and down to the PA border. I'm not from here but every time I slipped up and said I live in Upstate NY a horde of angry bleu cheese loving locals would chew me out and inform me that this is Western NY and Rochester is Upstate and How Dare I Mix Them Up and yes, to my NYC pals, everything not on Manhattan is "upstate" or "the mountains" (and you have to clarify which- usually means the Catskills as a day escape from Brooklyn) and Buffalo might as well be another country. But it really doesn't matter, does it? I had a friend go to Nyack and yes, he always said he lived in upstate NY. So when I said I was going to college in upstate, he said "come visit me! We can't be far away!" uhhhh nope. But we're both from NW Ohio and clueless so

News came in earlier this week to do a spot on us, which is awesome. But the camera guy was really invasive. In your face. Underneath me when I was trying to teach. In the way. All up angles which are extremely unflattering. I'm maybe a 5/10 to begin with but now there's some nice lengthy clips of me shot from a close up worm's eye view out there and ... woof. We had a couple people who'd missed our emails about the news being there- one woman was there for her first time- and he was just in her face even after she made it abundantly clear she didn't want to be on camera. I was tightening her harness in the crotch area and there he was, zoomed in on what I was doing and cracking jokes... don't think that made the cut thank god. Really threw me off my game. Hate seeing pictures or videos of myself/hearing my voice.

haha I've got a bank account that has a more immediate downer effect! No because he'd reply with 15 for each one I sent

Got up super early and joined the November Project's 6am skate at Canalside today. First time skating there! Anyone else do November Project stuff? It's a year round thing and free- you show up at the event (usually the stairs at the Albright Knox) and some sort of fitness dealio goes down. You don't have to be fit at all- I had thought it was all like super marathoner types- nope. All ages and sizes and levels of fitness. Today we skated for 30 minutes straight- 22 laps of the rink is a 5k I think. I definitely did more than that and was totally gassed. Went with a couple of friends (one of whom had never skated before), skated in 6 degree weather, and now I'm all chipper and it's weird. I hate mornings...

At least when I was in an office I could huddle up in my corner and avoid the illness- I'd wash my hands endlessly and barely touch anything. My pet peeve is now that I'm a fitness instructor, we get plague ridden people shuffling in, hacking everywhere, "I have to take it easy tonight, I think I'm getting the flu". "I heard that a bit of exercise is good for the flu/cold/ebola" Yeah well, why don't you just go for a walk or something Stop spreading your pestilence, Janet. Now i have to lysol every fu*king surface in this place because WE ALL TOUCH THE SAME DAMN STUFF and it smells like hot sweaty sick people in here now. And if one of us instructors catches it, there aren't enough of us to cover it and we can't really afford to cancel more than a class or two. I realize the irony, but I've definitely taught through being pretty damn sick. All because some idiot didn't want to miss out on her $15 drop in class that she only paid half for through Groupon, or some mom brought her patient zero drooly mouthed grubby handed snot nosed brat to the birthday party because "oh he's so sick but he didn't want to miss out on this". Kid proceeds to cough directly in my face. I then look up manslaughter laws in NY State.

My main client just came after me this evening with this. He's very culturally right wing. He was like "DID YOU SEE THIS? WHAT'S WRONG WITH THESE OVER SENSITIVE IDIOTS THESE DAYS? IT'S SUCH A GREAT LOGO! PEOPLE SUCK" and I'm like... yeah... I'm on the other side of that argument... I explained why, some good examples (FSU Seminoles), what native americans I know think of it, etc. he hasn't spoken to me since. But he should know by now that I'm an upstate new york liberal bleeding heart snowflake bi art girl so... I'm waiting for him to come back with the Fighting Irish "slippery slope" argument actually!