Janeys Journey

The Rich Lady in America

My friend dbd has a heart of gold.  She takes in cats that no one else wants, sick and old or just abandoned.  It breaks her heart when one dies.  She takes in people too, not physically, not into her home but into her heart.  She has many friends, all with stories to tell.  Jean is one of them.  He’s from Haiti.  His is the story of a real American immigrant.  He came here with nothing, he took English classes at night where he met dbd and became part of her extended family.  He’s had the same job for over 10yrs and he has a family here and his son will be going to college soon. He has a family in Haiti too and goes back often to a small town far enough away from Port Au Prince to be considered safe.

When he comes back he tells dbd stories about the children who live in his town, about their poverty, their hopelessness.  He was building a home in Haiti when one day a little 6yr boy showed up dressed in a raggedy t shirt and nothing else.  He’d be there everyday.  So Jean started to feed him and one day followed him home.  Home was a one room shack with a dirt floor and several equally raggedy dressed hungry children.  School is beyond a luxury for most children in Haiti.  It only cost $55 to send a child to school.  $55 to feed him or her, buy books, buy their only pair of shoes, their only uniform.  So Jean sent these kids to school and when he told dbd she said of course she wanted to send them to school too.  Dbd told me and now I send 4 kids to school and my mom does and our friends do and now there are almost 30 children eating everyday and going to school everyday. 

Their families call my friend dbd the rich lady in America.  Dbd is a very rich lady, if you measure wealth in effecting a life, in giving hope where there wasn’t any.   Yep, dbd is very rich indeed.  She’s a better friend to me then I can ever be to her and I’m very lucky to know her and say she is my friend.

Well that’s my Reader’s Digest story for today and these are drawings from of the photos of the children we send to school all proudly dressed in their not so new clothes and only shoes all provided for by the rich lady in America.

Alice at the Window

Inspired by a photo by Loretta Lux.

Brown paper bags

Are you alright said the guy from Home Depot.  Sure I said, I'm just hyperventilating.  That's the cost of my appliances after the rebate and discount?  Yes.  Can I have a brown paper bag please.  Monday will be the panic attack when I give the contractor a depost.  When I bought the appliances I thought I just might have to start cooking and then I relaized that when I pay the contractor I won't have anything left to buy food with.

These 3 are crayons on paper.

These 2 I used speedball ink on an acrylic plate and pressed the already drawn image on the plate.

Oh My

It's after 11pm.  I'm such an early riser - 430am that by 9 I'm pretty tired and 11 I'm pretty much a zombie.  But, I have been remiss and sort of challenged.  West coast Jane had photos of her Buddy posted for over 8 hours and I didn't draw him.  So here are some drawings by a zombie.  If you go to her blog you'll see what a handsome devil he is.

Mono

Print, that is.  10pm and I got the urge to print something.  The plate is cut from a presentation board.  I scraped out the area outside the figure.  Colored it with markers, then printed with speedball ink.  The board doesn't last long.  I washed the ink off and it's started to fall apart.  Scraping really gave the background some texture.  I think I can get one more print from this before it really falls apart.  I'll try different colored ink on the background.  Tomorrow.

New Favorites

I like Casey's paintings.  See her Still Life with Bottles.  Pastels over watercolor and those bottles are just jumping.  Reminds of one of these animated shorts with everythng is bouncing around the screen.  And take a look at Emma's rubber chicken flying off the page.

Just one more

 

Handful of advils

And bed and dreams of triple chunk chocolate chip cookies.

The Joys of Dentistry

The only satisfaction I get from going to the dentist is that I make him as miserable as he makes me.  I'm allergic among other things to needles.  My body goes rigid before the needle even approaches my mouth.  "Open your mouth, NO, you have to open your mouth, NO, open it, make me".  Such are our conversations.  Poor man, he was alot younger before I became his patient.  So here I sit as the novocaine wears off, not much wanting to do anything really.  But I could go for a triple chunk chocolate chip cookie from Barnes and Noble.  Only that would mean getting dressed, going down, driving the car allllll the way over to Glades Road, hunting for a parking spot since it a real popular mall (it's opposite the university, all those college kids munching on triple chunk chocolate chip cookies), waiting on line, getting back in the car, driving home, going upstairs, getting undressed etc, etc.  I think I'll just sit here and be miserable and watch Law and Order reruns.

Oh, here's Gertie unashamedly showing her girth.

Fluff Muffin

Or Bebop to westcoast Jane.