Mama's Adventures

Hmmm. . . Just found this post in the Drafts.

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Well, I already have so many requests for what to post on - but I have to begin somewhere.

I will post someday about the process of unschooling I've been going through since college.

But for now I'm going to describe what's been going on around the house lately - as far as me.

Last fall we moved into an artists' co-op. Partly, I must admit, we did this because the apartments are huge and gorgeous and you can ride bikes in them and hang swings and ladders from the ceiling. But mostly we did it because I felt like I needed to pull myself together as an artist, and the time was *ripe* - now or never, it seemed. And it has turned out to be an excellent decision - one we almost didn't make on account of our children "needing" a yard and a neighborhood, but now I can definitely see how this place, and the people in it, and the experiences they are having living downtown, are just as beneficial. Not to mention that I am *not* going insane, which I definitely would have otherwise.

Anyway, next month is the Spring St. Paul Art Crawl. We moved in just before the fall one, so I did not participate, though I easily could have, I now see! I decided to set some goals for myself for participating in the art crawl as a cartoonist and zinester. I have not participated in any art shows or sales (save one extremely depressing zine show) since before Ezra was born, and my medium was always clay - and now it's paper.

So, I've been sort of frantically trying to figure out what to make, how I'm going to get it done, and how I can possibly pull it off with a 7-year-old Mac, a semi-broken printer that was not meant for artwork reproduction, and a broken scanner (now replaced, thank God!)

The process of zine-making (especially my zine) is extremely time-consuming and crazymaking. And I'm trying out a lot of new "products" as well - t-shirts, matchbook notebooks, greeting cards, little cartoon books, blank books, and whatever else I can crank out before April 24. Fortunately I'm sharing my display space (a.k.a. our home) with my friend Brie from Viroqua - she is going to make "eco-friendly wearables" which will help fill the vast amount of space we have in here.

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I feel so wistful. I am going crazy now. What happened? Well, the art crawl was not all that I had dreamed. Somehow the disappointment over not being able to get done what I wanted to get done (only ended up getting done an "almost-double issue" of my zine, and a little book about cats that was ill-received by everyone but ONE enlightened shopper. *Sigh*.

But we have just found out we are moving to Wisconsin. . . so, time to regroup and reassess! I am excited to decide what the next segment of my life will be about. The singleness of purpose (relatively speaking) since moving into this downtown co-op has been extremely invigorating. I can't wait to see what I'll move on to next!

Going Nuts

Okay, I have one very urgent request for discussing what I, the Mama, am doing these days. I haven't been posting because it is too luxurious. What I've been doing is getting ready for the St. Paul Art Crawl. I committed to the art crawl in January, and this was a bit crazy of me, as I had not even one thing to put on display in my studio. The art crawl is in less than two weeks now, and I have been frantically trying to finish a zine (issue 7, the last one I ever do, I hope!) and a little book about cats, and lots of random cartoons, illustrations, reprints, and whatever else I can crank out.

On top of this, I have to get the entire apartment clean, move out a lot of boxes and furniture (we have no functional bedrooms and we currently all sleep out in a pile in the corner of the apartment - not so great with 1500 people walking through) and I have to get child care for all the weeks leading up to the Crawl, as well as during it, as Ottar, a.k.a. Monkey Man, is going to need to be heavily supervised. He loves to run off on his own, toss things out our fourth story window, and draw on the floorboards with Sharpies (just for some quick examples). . .

Right now we have a 7-year old computer which I have affectionate feelings for, but which is causing us some problems. We also had a broken scanner until 2 weeks ago, a broken printer until 1 month ago, and now we are going to have to get a new scanner/printer anyway, within 3 days if I am going to participate in the crawl!

It's a little nutty around here, to say the least. Fortunately, Kenny has been willing to take the kids out every day so I can get something done here (my studio is in the hall by the bathroom, so I can't even hide when the kids are home) and some relatives have also been helpful in picking up the slack.

Wish me luck!